Time to make a fresh start

FAITH

What true repentance is

By ANDREW NINGISERE
WHAT has happened to our time? We see and hear of revivals that don’t revive anymore. Ministries don’t minister anymore.
The church is so worldly and the world is so ‘churchy’ that it is hard to find any difference today.
Times have changed. The world is literally coming into the church.
Who bears the blame?
Tomorrow, National Repentance Day, is a very significant day on our national calendar where all citizens forgo/ sacrifice their normal activities and go to God through Repentance. Hopefully so.
What is repentance?
In a nutshell, repentance is a complete overhaul of our thinking and our attitude, however proper repentance will only take place in one’s heart after he/she hears the “full gospel” of Jesus Christ.
We the Christian churches/denominations in this country should shoulder the blame collectively whilst at the same time do a stocktake of the kind of gospel we have been preaching in this country ever since the arrival of the gospel. Have we, and are we preaching the full gospel of Jesus Christ or are we preaching fake, half-baked and counterfeit gospel?
Doesn’t it say in the scriptures that “you will know them by their fruits”? The Christian population of this country are the fruits of the kind of gospel we preach.
The bulk of our population are Christians, just nominal Christians only, with no Pentecostal experience.
How can we collectively as Christian churches/denominations convert our members in this country to be genuine (not just nominal Christians) born again, Spirit-filled, Bible-believing and God-fearing Christians?
Answer: By preaching the salvation message of repentance, Baptism and receiving of the Holy Spirit – Acts 2:38, John 3:3 and 5. The Pentecostal churches know this better than the others and should teach/promote it.
God ushers in the new covenant
The Spiritual experience, to be born again began at Pentecost. It was identified by Luke in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Luke had earlier said in Luke 1:3: It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order. Luke had the right! He continued in Acts 1:3: To whom (the apostles) also he (Jesus) shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proof, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God:
Then in the next verse we find Luke gives an account of how to get into the Kingdom of God, through water baptism (John truly baptised), and receiving the Holy Spirit, quoting Jesus Himself as follows…
Acts 1:4-5: And, being assembled together with them, (Jesus) commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptised with water; but ye shall be baptised with Holy Ghost not many days hence
This is the essence of what we should do; be baptised, and filled with the Spirit. Some have thought that Spirit baptism supersedes water baptism: this is not so. Both are necessary for salvation.
Repentance, water baptism and receiving of the Holy Spirit – this is the Bible way of getting saved. Anything less is fabrication of the Word of God.

• Ps Andrew Ningisere is a minister of the New Beginning Christian Fellowship