Acts 2:38-39 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.”
Repentance is daily, it is a lifestyle of waiting on the Lord to reveal, waiting on the Lord to work in the soul.
We offer up ourselves for His disinfecting, He runs His hand across the counter-top of our soul to see if there is anything on it.
This is why in our fellowship times with the Lord, we should be asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit, giving Him complete access to our soul so He can do the work He wants to do. He has intentions to bless you and raise you up out of fear and depression. He has a deep desire to fill you with power and authority – through Jesus He has already done this, but so often we cannot see it, because of our blinding bondage.
The Holy Spirit is called holy for a reason. The Holy Spirit is the holiness of God to be seen and known. He is the burning purity of God. He is the scouring, relentless, perfect, disinfectant of God.
He is the guardian of God’s honor alive in you. He demands alignment and agreement with the Father’s heart. The Holy Spirit moves into a person when the born again experience occurs.
That person is made holy by the blood of Jesus, legally. The presence of the Holiness of God begins a work in the convert to move legally pure, to practically and functionally pure. This is what the Holy Spirit does, how important is it to be in agreement with Him? He can only work in a heart that freely accepts the work He does.
Go to your kitchen sink right now. Yep, get up and under the kitchen sink is some household cleaner – open it. Smell it.
What did you find? Maybe a bottle of Clorox or Pine-sol. Some of you have Mr. Clean, right?
If the Holy Spirit had a smell, it would surely be Clorox. The Clorox of God works to disinfect anything and everything it comes into contact with. Now we are talking about the work that the Holy Spirit loves to do.
To repent is to come into agreement with the Holy Spirit regarding large and small things in life that need cleansing. This is precisely why repentance is a daily activity, a constant activity as the Holy Spirit identifies and cleanses infected areas of our soul. Our daily work is to yield to the Holy Spirit, because our counter-top gets used every day and some unsavory things find their way onto the surface of our soul. Sometimes it is sticky and smelly too.
To be washed with the blood of Jesus is to be in full agreement with the working disinfectant of the Holy Spirit.
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
The first picture in scripture of the first church, the first service, in the first sermon, by the first preacher, at the pivotal first invitation, the first word spoken, and the first word heard as to how to respond to the gospel message…
This is significant…
Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, Repent…
How important is the attitude of repentance, to remain in it at all times? Not once at the beginning of our faith journey and then living whatever way we wish from that day forward. Or, even worse, to be surprised when someone tells us we need to repent because we were caught in a sin somehow. Live in the gracious work of the Holy Spirit as He leads us toward true and holy worship.
To be saved is the agreement with God of your need to be saved. One accepts God’s forgiveness and repents of the things known in life that are contrary to the Bible. Great or small, colossal or insignificant, repentance means to let go of the sin and embrace the truth of the Bible as our source for life.
At salvation, the Holy Spirit begins His work, He doesn’t conclude it. So why do we believe that when we are saved the major work of the Holy Spirit is completed? He begins at the moment of salvation to bring the whole person into alignment with scripture. This is a life-long process. He starts before salvation to draw us into fellowship with God so He can have access to our soul.
The Holy Spirit scrubs the walls of our soul with nine soaps. These are His tools and we smell like His soap when He is done. The evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit is the scent He leaves behind as He works.
Are you open to the working of the Holy Spirit in your soul? Ask Him to do more.
Father, release more into me. More of the fresh scent of the Holy Spirit’s work and presence. Jesus, You made all of this possible through Your blood. I am washed clean through Your blood. Thank You so much.
Blessings,
Pastor D