We need to practice repentance, ready at a moment’s notice to turn direction to follow the Lord’s perfect will.
The will of God is first of all a state of spirit, a right spirit that is continually looking to the Lord for His leading. This involves humility, contriteness, thankfulness, in which we sense Gods love in us flowing towards him as we keep our mind and focus upon him, listening, waiting, becoming a bondservant of the Lord.
Repentance is the result of close association with God, where our spirit is open and the flowing of His Spirit through our spirit reaches through to our soul where we become conscious of the thoughts and leading of the lord.
As we learn the spiritual principles and practice them, we experience the seed in our spirit growing so that we can come into maturity and be led by the Spirit of the Lord, like Jesus was. What He saw the father do He did, what He heard the father speak, He spoke.
We want to possess the mind of Christ, to come into such a oneness of spirit with God, that we can discern His mind before He speaks. Where we don’t have to look for the leading of the Lord, we instantly know it, because we are one with Him.
The reason that we may not receive as much blessing as we could receive is that we are asking the Lord to fill us with His Spirit so we can continue in our present course. In too many areas we are following a course that God may not wholly be in, and so the blessing upon it is limited.
People in the old order of established denominations have some blessing upon them. They have a certain anointing and the Holy Spirit moves upon them to a certain extent.
But when we come into a walk with God and turn away from the old order (the Moses generation), immediately there is a greater anointing upon us. The closer we come to exactly what God wants, through repentance and turning away from what is not in His perfect will, the greater the anointing will be.
It is said of Jesus who only did the will of the Father that upon Him rested the Spirit without measure; there was no limit to the anointing upon Him.
We know there is a limit to the anointing upon us. The limitation is not in the promise or provision of God, for He has provided for it in an unlimited way. But we have limited ourselves by the course we have followed.
It is like someone standing halfway in the shade, wondering why they don’t tan faster. They should move out into the sunshine. Likewise, we must move out of the place of even the permissive will of God if we want His best, if we want unlimited blessing.
It may take awhile to understand what we have to change, but we know that all of us have little habits in our conduct and in our lives; there is a certain pattern to our behavior and personality. God blesses us to the fullest extent that He can, but we are always frustrated because we are believing and claiming more than we are walking in.
To the extent that we do what God wants, to that extent the blessing of the Lord constantly increases and the anointing becomes heavier.
Desiring the perfect will of the Lord opened the whole thing up on the day of Pentecost, as is explained in a few words in Acts 2:37, 38: Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Repentance was necessary. We don’t receive the Holy Spirit because we repent; we receive the Holy Spirit because God reveals himself to us and we encounter His presence in such a way that His faith is imparted to us so that we are enabled to receive the promise, leading us to repentance
But people who are faulty in their repentance, which have not really turned from the old ways and let God direct them in a whole new course, are limited in the expression and the power of the experience they receive.
Although many people have received the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues in the recent charismatic renewal that has reached the denominations, not very many of them find much power in their life; they are not really changing.
They are saying, “Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can be a good pastor”; or “Fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can go out and promote some meetings and succeed as a ministry.”
God blesses them to some extent, but they have restricted and limited the amount of blessing they receive. If they would go all out, not leaning upon any device of the flesh or any support but God, they would go through a transition period that would seem like a wilderness, and they would come out of it not only anointed with the Holy Spirit, but in the power of the Spirit.
That’s what Jesus did. After receiving the Holy Spirit, He went into the wilderness; He went through the temptations, utterly dedicated to do only the will of the Father. After forty days He came out of the wilderness to go forth and heal the sick and minister to the people. The Spirit of God was upon Him without measure.
We receive the Holy Spirit and refilling’s of the Holy Spirit, and almost immediately we are put in a wilderness. But it can be a very brief wilderness. A wilderness will last only as long as it takes for us to say to the devil, “It is written. This is the way it’s going to be.” When we say that, we can come out of our wilderness in the power of the Spirit because there is an identity with Christ in what He went through.
When we identify ourselves with His dedication to do the will of the Father, the anointing upon us will be unlimited and we will move into greater power. This is the key.
In Acts 2:38, notice that Peter said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you and you shall receive the remission of your sins.” It’s not forgiveness; it’s remission.
The Latin word “mittere” means send away. We want the force, and the power of our sins sent away. Repentance includes that. If we in any way regard iniquity in our life with favor, or those things that fall short of the will of God with favor, we will continue in them.
What made the gift of the Holy Spirit so effective in the early Church? It was because their repentance was total. They were faced with something. In this sermon Peter told the Jews, “You were the ones who with wicked hands slew the Lord of glory. You did it!”
The first ones to come into the Church were those who had cried, “Crucify Him,” those who had murdered Him. When they saw what they had done, their repentance was so deep and so complete that they became the effective spiritual saints of the early Church.
We need a repentant spirit so that we can position ourselves to do God’s perfect will so that the anointing of God upon our life can increase.