“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

To many Christians, repentance refers to having an altar call where people come forward and weep at the altar and get right with God. That is a legitimate expression of repentance, but it’s not what the word repentance means. “Re” means to go back. “Pent” is like the penthouse, the top floor of a building. Repent, then, means to go back to God’s perspective on reality.

And in that perspective there is a renewal, a reformation that affects our intellect, our emotions, and every part of our lives. Without repentance we remain locked into carnal ways of thinking. When the Bible speaks of carnality, it doesn’t necessarily mean obvious, disgusting sin. Most Christians have no appetite for sin; they don’t want to get drunk or sleep around, but because they live without the demonstrated power of the gospel, many have lost their sense of purpose and gone back to sin. Having a renewed mind is often not an issue of whether or not someone is going to heaven, but of how much of heaven he or she wants in his or her life right now.

Renewing the mind begins with repentance.
Click To Tweet - Powered By CoSchedule

Jesus urged us to do an about-face in our approach to reality because His Kingdom is at hand. He brought His world with Him, and it’s within our reach. He wants you to see reality from God’s perspective, to learn to live from His world toward the visible world. But if you don’t change the way you think, you’ll never be able to apprehend the Kingdom power that is available.

Repent, then, means to go back to God’s perspective on reality.
Click To Tweet - Powered By CoSchedule

Jesus said that “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). What does that mean? Well, Jesus was not saying that we would have visions of heaven, though I know that happens. He was speaking more practically.

He was saying that when our minds are renewed, we will see the Kingdom displayed and proven as He did in His earthly ministry. That’s what it means to “see” the Kingdom of heaven. Our souls long to see such things. We have inside of us an unrelenting hunger to watch the Kingdom break into this realm—and not just to watch but to participate, to become the connecting point and gateway for God’s power.

If you want to learn more about this topic you can read a free preview of my new book The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind here: Free Preview or you can get your own copy here: The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind on Amazon.

Have a question or comment about this article? Let me know on Twitter.

The mind is the essential tool in bringing Kingdom reality to the problems and crises people face.
Click To Tweet - Powered By CoSchedule

To be of any use to the Kingdom, our minds must be transformed. We find a clue to what that word means in the transfiguration of Jesus when He talked with Moses and Elijah. The reality of heaven radiated through Jesus, and He shone with incredible brilliance. His body revealed the reality of another world. The word transformed in that passage is the same word we find in Romans 12:2. The renewed mind, then, reflects the reality of another world in the same way Jesus shone with heaven’s brilliance.

It’s not just that our thoughts are different, but that our way of thinking is transformed because we think from a different reality—from heaven toward earth! That is the transformed perspective. The renewed mind enables His co-laborers to prove the will of God. We prove the will of God when put on display the reality of heaven.

Yet many of us live with unrenewed minds, which are of little use to God. An unrenewed mind is like a discordant key on a piano. Once you discover that key, you don’t use it anymore because it detracts from the music. You skip over it and work around it. In the same way, people who are out of sync with the mind of Christ seldom get used, no matter how available they are, because their thoughts conflict with the mind of Christ. They are self-appointed in their mission and are not in submission to the primary mission. As a result, they are working entirely outside God’s intended commission.

However, when we come into agreement with the primary mission, our minds become powerful tools in God’s hands. This explains why there is such an intense war being waged for your mind and your mental agreement. Every thought and action in your life speaks of allegiance to God or to satan. Both are empowered by your agreement. Renewing your mind means learning to recognize what comes from hell, and what comes from heaven, and agreeing with heaven. That is the only way you will complete your divine assignment. God designed your mind to be one of the most supernaturally powerful tools in the universe, but it needs to be sanctified and yielded to the Holy Spirit so you can carry out His designs, creative ideas, and plans in your everyday life.

Every thought and action in your life speaks of allegiance to God or to satan.
Click To Tweet - Powered By CoSchedule

If you want to learn more about this topic you can read a free preview of my new book The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind here: Free Preview or you can get your own copy here: The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind on Amazon.

Have a question or comment about this article? Let me know on Twitter.

“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).

They may claim He won’t heal them, though the Bible says He heals all your diseases and forgives all your iniquities (see Ps. 103:3).

Uncertainty causes some people to misunderstand who God is. They begin to deny God’s true nature and embrace sickness and disease, poverty and mental anguish as gifts from God. That is a devastating lie from hell. It’s actually blasphemous to attribute to God the work of the devil.

Uncertainty causes some people to misunderstand who God is.
Click To Tweet - Powered By CoSchedule

But many Christians want answers so badly during times of uncertainty that they invent theological answers to make themselves feel good about their present condition. In doing so, they sacrifice the truth about God on the altar of human reasoning.

That’s what causes people to say things like, “God gave my aunt leukemia to teach her perseverance.” No way. That has never happened. If somebody’s body is racked with pain or wasting away because of disease, it’s the devourer. It’s not the job description of the Messiah.

Again, the Bible says, “He forgives all your iniquities; He heals all your diseases.” It would never enter our minds that God would give someone a drug habit or a drinking problem to help them become better people. So why would He condemn people to disease? Or poverty? Or depression? Or any other miserable condition?

Let’s get this straight: God is good all of the time. The devil is bad all of the time. We do ourselves a tremendous service to remember the difference between the two. Healing, salvation, wholeness, provision, and joy have already been given to us. They can’t be recalled or returned. They are facts of Kingdom living. They were paid for by Jesus on the Cross.

Other Christians fall into the deception that when the Bible talks about sufferings, it means all of the above afflictions. Not at all! The suffering referred to in the Bible means living between two conflicting realities and trusting and praising God through it all.

Anybody can declare the greatness of God after they’ve won the Reader’s Digest sweepstakes. But when you live in the middle of a conflict—of having a promise that is not yet fulfilled, or having a problem that seems to never get resolved—you rise above circumstance and declare that He is good all the time, no matter what.

Don't sacrifice the truth about God on the altar of human reasoning.
Click To Tweet - Powered By CoSchedule

If you want to learn more about this topic you can read a free preview of my new book The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind here: Free Preview or you can get your own copy here: The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind on Amazon.

Have a question or comment about this article? Let me know on Twitter.