I can honestly say that I have rarely witnessed true "repentance" among believers! Oh sure, we have all been very sorry about what we did and even had the audacity to ask God to forgive us without first giving up ourselves as a sacrifice. I call this the "Ishmael -Isaac" syndrome. What this syndrome says is that we must first give up the natural man (Ishmael) before we can experience the spiritual man (Isaac).
What we, as Believers, most often experience when we get caught in sin is "remorse." We believe (and trust me, I am definitely including myself in this unilateral indictment) if we hang our heads, cry out a little and retreat from our sinful behavior for a few days or weeks, we think that we have somehow done God a favor!
When we finally "get it", the spirit of conviction moves us quickly into the presence of the Holy Spirit. Then the Holy Spirit, after rattling our proverbial cages for a while and smashing against all of our pretentious holiness, drags our battered and broken bodies into the presence of God! The Spirit of God says to us, "...it is only the forgiven man that is the holy man."
You can ONLY be truly forgiven if you are OPPOSITE of what you were; in other words, REPENTANT. What the voice of repentance says to a man is simply this, "You have sinned. What are you going to do next?" The believer must execute himself immediately. He must have a funeral and burial. He cannot attempt to raise that body from the grave! Anything less than this is "REMORSE" for having been exposed. This is the result of having an undisciplined spiritual life. Deep and painful regret is not repentance...it is remorse.
Don't get it twisted, it is NOT the devil who produces these agonies and turmoil in your life; it is the handiwork of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is ruthless in His pursuit of righteousness in the heart, mind and soul of the believer. Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift from God!
Examine yourself and learn how to "forget to be sorry!"
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