Repentance is simply surrendering to the “otherness” of the resurrected Christ who lives in us. We have the mind of Christ, and Jesus loves when we look into Him, and allow Him to give us “a piece of His mind.” I know when the world uses that phrase, they are referencing someone angrily voicing their anger, but I’m using this term because Jesus loves joyfully giving us His perspective about things. The one who lives in us loves to speak in us His “otherness.” Let me give you an example. Say someone gives you a phone call, or sends you an email that really upsets you. Maybe you simply discover something you didn’t know that kind of upsets the “apple cart” in your life. The result can be a flurry of thoughts and feelings of anxiety, fear, rejection, anger, etc. When that happens, turn the eyes and ears of your heart inward to the indwelling Christ and hear what He has to say. It will be “other.” He will say things like, “I’m not afraid in this at all. I’m at peace about it, and I have faith for it, and by the way, I know everything that’s going on that you don’t know, and yet I still am at peace about it.” He then always adds, “Chuck, why don’t you join me and surrender to how I see it.” Of course, if I have any sense at all, I will come into agreement with Him, surrendering to and trusting in the One who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond anything I could ever ask or imagine. The result of surrendering to His “other” than my perspective is my oneness with Him begins to display itself in how I feel and how I think about what had previously been bothering me. The word “repent” comes from two Greek words – “think” and “with.” So every time I surrender to the mind of Christ in me, I’ve repented. Repenting is trading up because every time we come into agreement with the mind of Christ, we’ve turned from the mind of the flesh, and am once again resting in the rest of Christ seated in the heavenly places. The view is much better from there.
