“Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8)

When we are building a foundation, we want to have the most secure foundation. The only foundation that we can have is repentance. If we want to build the truths of Christ in our lives, the foundation must be deep because unless it can support the truths that we will build upon this foundation, it will eventually topple down. Truths in our lives are like a woven cloth. I tell you a story.

In the northern mountains Luzon, particularly in Sagada and in Kalinga, the tribal people still continue with their practice of hand-woven clothing. They sell these clothings in colorful arrays and assorted garments. For a finished product, a skilled technician has to sit down for many hours and then use a wooden loom to help her weave the colorful threads into a single piece of clothing. After the garment is finished, this is then cut to pieces and used to make bags, purses and pen holders of various sizes and colors. I wondered why it was not so cheap to buy those things until one day I saw an old woman, hands carefully but expertly guiding threads in the loom. Instantly, I understood why, it was the product of skillful hands knitted with a labor of love. It was not made through an engine and a bunker oil.

The woman moreover, knew which color comes next to the other and at what point she must sew in the shells or the other beads. It was a piece of art, more distinct and properly, it was not cheap.  In the same way, truth must be woven in our soul like a piece of art, one on top of the other, knitted in harmony, avoding any confusion. Like the old woman in the story, the Holy Spirit weaves these truths in us so that we may understand them and hid them in our hearts. It is these treasury of truth which guards us from lies lurking in darkness. When we find confusion, this is not the work of the Lord but from the devil.

“for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” (1 Corinthians 14:33)

“For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (James 3:16-18)

Our basket of truth is our heart. The deeper the work of repentance in us, the bigger the capacity this basket becomes because it spews out the evil contents of the self, the world and the devil. This will then make a big room for the truth of the Lord to grow in our hearts. But when our hearts are filled with the cares of this world, or by our vain conceit or by lies of the devil, then it will choke even the truth that is found in it, producing a fruit of deceit in our heart and in our lips.

“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs never grow on thornbushes, nor grapes on bramble bushes.

A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” (Luke 6:43-45 )

Thus, our growth in the Lord is dictated by this capacity in us to receive truth. If we want to keep on building a skyscraper of truth within us that never stops reaching to God, we must learn to keep repentance a way of life. It does not only come once after we were convicted, when we were born again but we bewail sins and even the things we do unrighteously from the way we conduct our everyday lives. There are stories relating to great men of God who gave occasion for the name of the Lord to be blasphemed by running away with their secretaries, falling prey to homosexuality because of evil desires to experiment with sex, and running away with a whore sent to destroy their ministries.

Some justified their acts, others received their penalties of sickness or trials of various sorts while others continued to the path of hell. When a huge building collapses, architects and engineers look at the way the materials were used, how they were interposed with each other, how deep the foundation was and the number of strong pillars used to support the whole building. When the twin tower collapsed in New York because of the blow up of the airplane that caused too much heat on the building, it was found out that it was due to faulty application of fire retardants on the steel frames. Even so, with the magnitude of the blow up, the building collapsed on itself. In our lives, if we do not apply the simple truth that reproofs and corrections are the way of life, it won’t be long to see ourselves in the path of destruction. Those who won’t overcome their lust will become reprobates and those who do overcome them will become saints of God.

“And you neglected all my counsel, and did not want my reproof;
I will even laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes,
When your dread comes like a storm, and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come on you.” (Proverbs 1:25-27)

“Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, and he who hates correction will die.” (Proverbs. 15:10)

“The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.” (Proverbs 15:31-32)

John the Baptist was a humble worker whom the Lord God used mightily to proclaim repentance and truth in their days. The Scriptures say,

“Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.  Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him  and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.” (Matthew 3:4-6)

He was a lone voice proclaiming the way of the Lord to the people. He prepared the way for Jesus so that the people would recognize and come to Him. God greatly anointed His servant so that even without signs and wonders, his preaching stirred the people to seek repentance and be connected to God. It is said that apart from Jerusalem, all Judea and the entire region around the Jordan came to hear him preach. They came to hear the anointed words of the Lord from his mouth. He holds no doctor of laws or even theology from their seminary yet God’s power in his life was evident by the fruitful ministry that he had. He did his mission right, to point to Jesus and to let Him increase as he decreased. Even the Pharisees whom he condemned as vipers went to see and to hear him.

True repentance bears fruit

“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

When the Pharisees recognized that John the Baptist is causing such stir among the people, they could not ignore him any longer. They sent workers who would then spy out what he was saying. They wanted to catch words that they can use against him. They met the man from the wilderness but did not get anything to incriminate him with. They got the beating however, and he simply called them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Matt 3:7). Then he exhorted them to repent and behave as repentant sinners do. John did not mince his words. He spoke what he heard from the Lord. Many today have set themselves up like Pharisees and Sadducees unknowingly-they set themselves as if they know God. They try to persecute other ministries which are just sprouting and growing up for God’s glory out of jealousy.

This is a sad fact that many of us can observe today, Christian ministries trying to outgrow and outcompete each other in a worldly way. They build ministries with a desire for self-glorification. What begun to be a godly foundation can end up in the wrong way when strange fire is lit up within ministries. Strange fire does not only mean burning up the wrong incense, it means we do not give a proper regard to the Holy One by doing things according to our carnal desires (see Lev. 10:1). Many today try to preserve their own territories and guard them off from other ministries and instead of walking in unity to conquer the same area, they run into conflict with each other and seldom even walk in fellowship. When we build things around vain conceit, we will find that we will lose even that which we try to preserve. It is an incontrovertible law in the spirit, what we try to save, we will lose.

Territorial preservation among Christian pastors and leaders does not help our cause to bring more people to God. Conflicts rather arise and when they do it can bring in rage and even irreconcilable differences. Repentance is not just simply praying a prayer; it is an attitude of the heart whereby we turn away completely from sin. We turn away from sin because we love God more than sin and we hate what He hates. If we love someone, we will hate what he hates and we will love what he loves. For many in the Body of Christ what we need is not healing but repentance lest we perish in the Christless grave.

There are many believers who think they are save but they have been doped into thinking that joining a cathedral or ministry means the same as salvation from our sin. Christianity is not merely a structure but an organism, it is the Body of Christ, it moves, it breaths and in it God dwells! How can the body of Christ rise up if it is filled with members who fight against each other? How can it save the world if it cannot save or deliver those inside it? But as weak as we may have been, this brings us into a position to be used mightily by God. It is written,

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God.” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)

No matter how foolish we have been or how weak we are, if we call on God, He will be our strength, our wisdom and our banner to overcome the strongholds of the enemy. Do you believe this? Look to God. Look up for He shall do a mighty work in your life and then all around you. They shall wonder and ask what is the hope that is in you? They shall arise and ask, let me come with you because you are saying the truth. Just as mentioned above, He has chosen us from among the foolish, the immature and the weak to be bearers of His glory and power. For what? It is for confounding, for shaming those who are worldly wise. He has chosen us to bear fruit that lasts and remains. This is part of the reason why God does not want us to harbor any resentments or bitterness in our hearts. For they just act to poison our relationships with Christ and with each other.

“I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” (Acts 26:20 NIV)

We only know we have truly repented when such prayers of repentance have been turned into a resolution coupled with God’s grace not to sin anymore, not to harbor bitterness anymore. If we do that, that is fruit in keeping with repentance.

Get rid of defilement

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32)

The power of a laser beam greatly depends not just on how much energy it has but also on how clean the beam of glass protecting the light coming off it. Likewise, the power of God’s light we radiate depends on how clean we are inside. Solomon writes, “Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23 NKJV).  He commands us to guard our hearts and keep it clean. Moreover James writes that the heart of man cannot both continue to issue a mixture of fresh and bitter waters together, “Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water?” (James 3:11). When we pursue a thing diligently, it means we will be careful to do it.

We don’t do it in passing. When a guard on duty sleeps, the thief can easily come and snatch up all his goods. Satan is a thief (John 10:10) and we have been called to guard the seed of life in our hearts diligently, and this is the whole life time. No husband or wife would like to have a spouse who would be faithful only for 364 days a year except on one occasion. God called us to get rid of unforgiveness not just because it is destructive but because it can defile many others. It can destroy you, your family, friends and even your country.

When a debt cannot be bankrolled and simply forgiven, the debtor becomes a slave to the one he owes. Apart from the bitterness of the conflicts which the Germans endured in World War I, the war reparations were too harsh for them and it made them think that the Allies are trying to enslave them for a War which they even did not started. This indelibly placed them in a precarious situation which any dictator will pounce upon to seize the opportunity. With hopeless economic situation, any strong leader will be their hope and every word that comes from the mouth of that leader became like a dosage for living. Hitler made the war reparations and the weakness of the Weimar republic his rallying cry. He made them look odious.

When we do not forgive the offenses of others, it grows more and more until it blows up. It steals not just the joy of living but even the joy that you have for the Lord. When we are offended, we will more than likely to cut off fellowship with the person or the ministry we are in. Offenses come when we do not know how to forgive others even if we think we are in the right position, taking offense will not be the solution to the problem.

Sometimes God does allow this to happen and it becomes a way for us to be more discerning for the need of others. For example when we fellowship in a church which is foreign to us, and the pastor may not always shake hands with us, this should not offend us. Or when other more senior members try to correct us for being late during the practice or not doing enough practice for the worship team, we should not be offended but take these things as reproofs for living. Many saints waste their time just trying to keep these offenses in their hearts until they become like a rock of offense, enough to overturn us.

“Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!  It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” (Luke 17:1-4)