Jesus’ First Word to Us

Taken from a FB post from Joy on Aug. 4th:

*there’s some messages I wish God would choose someone else to share… but He’s given me this word & so I’ll share ♥️ — this message is for ME, most xo

—————-

Jesus’ first words to us were “Repent & believe.”

In that order.

Because believing in a God who makes streams of living water in the wasteland —

&

Believing in a God who resurrects the very dead things —

&

Believing in a God who takes crispy bones & transforms them into a vast army —

…requires a heart posture of old-school, feel-to-heal, broken-open kind of repentance.

There is no EVEN-IF belief without a BEING-IN repentance, first.

Repentance draws hearts to His throne room….

👉where my pride is eradicated & His glory is elevated!

👉Where my defects are exposed & His perfection is disclosed.

👉where I no longer tell God how big these here mountains are— but I now tell these mountains just how BIG my God is🙌

And in that slight sight of His unspeakable glory— found ONLY through the doorway of repentance — establishes an unshakeable, foundational, rooted, anchored BELIEF that

My God is the Alpha & Omega.

My God is The Beginning & The End.

My God is The Name above all names.

My God is The King of Kings.

My God is The Wonderful Counselor.

My God is The Everlasting Father.

My God is The Prince of Peace.

My God is The O N L Y Redeemer.

But here’s the deal…

The accuser knows this, too.

Yep, he knows the power of that praying mama with those sweetly worn-out knees, clinging to that Holy worn-out Bible, with an anything but worn-out anchored belief!

And so he does what he does best

—> L I E.

He knows that if he could simply convince the world that what IS sin, just isn’t sin anymore— there’d be no need for repentance; leaving behind a generational defective line full of Luke-warm, worn-out, frustrated, divided, unbelieving Christians.

Oh, he knows full well it’s in repentance we experience a kind of raw powerful refreshing intimacy with Jesus that shatters prison doors of generational strongholds; that demolishes iron walls of paralyzing insecurities; that tears through steel bars of debilitating circumstances; that breaks down infrastructures of stinkin thinkin! & that crushes greasy chains of bondage to domineering temptations.

Yep, repentance sets.us.free.

But— if what is sin, is now called good, there’s no need to repent.

And if there’s no need to repent, there’s no need to believe that my Jesus died for the very sins I don’t believe He needed to die for!

And we’re left not with crucifying our fleshly desires to the cross, but instead filling them with a faulty & fractured remedy that only leaves the soul more thirsty, more hungry, more unsatisfied, more self-destructive & more confused than where it began in the first place.

And satan? Well he’s in the corner with his crossed arms & smirky grin watching as Gods children fall for his crafty, deadly, chaotic, dividing, tactic; yet again.

“What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil; that dark is light and light is dark; that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.” ~Isaiah 5:20

The answer? Well, Thomas Watson says it best👇

“Till sin be bitter; Christ will not be sweet.”