Ruanna Levi - Freedom & Glory - Repentance as a lifestyle - Sunday, August 30, 2026

I want to speak today about a lifestyle of repentance, and I realized when I was writing it, it'll need to be a two-part thing because otherwise I'll have you here till one o'clock.

So this is part one.

And I think it's repentance is something that I so dearly love.

I feel like it is the essence of the kindness and the glory of God for us.

And so we want to pursue lifestyles of repentance.

And I'm not talking about a lifestyle that is focused on sin because our sin has been dealt with by the cross.

Our sin, we don't need to keep going over all the things we've done wrong.

That is unedifying.

What I'm talking about with a lifestyle of repentance is a lifestyle of having our thinking shifted towards God.

Having that humility that allows ourselves to be turned again and again unto the way the Lord is seeing on every matter.

And so repentance really is my definition of repentance, is turning from our own ways into God's.

Turning from our own take on things into God's.

And so, because of Romans 8, verse 1 and 2, this is actually the foundation of repentance.

Romans 8:1

There is, therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

There is now no condemnation.

It's not brackets except for me.

There is no condemnation for anyone in Christ who walks with the Spirit, not according to the flesh.

In fact, John in the book of 1 John is so bold, he says, if your heart doesn't condemn you, you're fine.

Imagine that.

So aware of grace, so aware of the power of the Spirit within us that if your own heart doesn't condemn you, nothing's wrong.

God's not there with a list of you didn't this, you didn't that, you did this, you did that.

He's not, it is done.

Repentance is about walking into the fullness of life, the fullness of possibility.

And that is why lordship and yielding to his ways is so critical to our own peace and joy and our own transformation.

The point of yielding to his lordship, of learning to say yes, of learning to obey, of learning to change the way we're thinking and seeing is not so we get a tick.

You've got a tick.

You've got a tick in Christ.

It's so that we enter into the fullness of what's been made available to us.

Repentance clears that sense of condemnation.

It gets rid of lugging around the weight of sin, the drag of shame, the exhaustion of everything that we've fallen short in.

We are not meant to be a tired people.

We should have more energy than everyone else on the planet as believers.

Because we're not lugging along our past.

We're not carrying this burden of sin.

We're not constantly dealing with this sense of what we've done or haven't done, or what we could be, or should be, or any of that.

Repentance is freedom from that.

Repentance is life and strength to the believer.

And it's also a repentance from unbelief into belief.

You know, when we journey with God, it's not like the second we receive Christ as Lord and Savior that we can believe for all things.

That is not our story, it's not anyone's experience.

He leads us on this journey of increasing believing in what's possible.

And so he's constantly challenging us about what we don't really believe him for.

We believe for this much, and he'll say, What about this?

What about this now?

What about this now?

And that's repentance, changing our thinking on what's possible.

What we can be involved with in partnership with the Holy Spirit.

And so there's obviously the first level of repentance, which is when you stop living your own life and you go, I want to make Jesus my Lord and Savior.

And I believe that I need what he did on the cross.

And we all understand that as the first repentance for anyone that didn't grow up in a household believing Christ from as young as they can remember.

That is actually the most beautiful testimony there is.

Joel was talking about at prayer meeting on Wednesday, and then it came up again at the intercession meeting on Thursday, Zechariah 2, and this promise of when prayer and grace has been poured out on us, they, the people that don't know yet, will look upon him who was pissed.

That's revival, isn't it?

This turning of attention to Jesus, seeing what he did on the cross, understanding the love of God that compelled him to give his only son to make way for reconciliation of every human heart.

That Christ absorbed sin of the whole world within himself.

That's why the Father is not going over your sins.

They were absorbed into the body of Christ.

They cannot be brought out of the body of Christ.

Jesus became sin for us that we might walk and live in his glory and righteousness.

So this first repentance is turning from unbelief to belief, from our own sufficiency to the recognition of the need of the cross.

And so that is what the Bible talks about in some verses when Jesus is talking about the lost getting saved.

So if you just turn to Luke 15, verse 7, this is the parable of the lost sheep.

Luke 15:7

And Jesus says, I say to you likewise, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance.

And Jesus is trying to get us to understand the joy of that moment when the human heart goes, I need Jesus.

All of heaven erupts in that moment.

Then Jesus tells the parable of the lost coin, and in Luke 15, verse 10 says, Likewise I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

Luke 15:10

That joy of reconciliation of the human heart back to the Father, that joy of receiving forgiveness for the first time.

There's so much joy.

And if you need more joy, you need to engage in these four things.

Because there's four things.

One is in his presence is fullness of joy.

We need to invest in that time in his presence.

Give yourself in worship at home, here, wherever you like.

Just engage in the presence of God because in there is the fullness of joy.

The second place that there's joy that Jesus talks about is when you pray and it's answered, your joy will be complete.

If you need more joy, find some more stuff to pray about, is my suggestion.

Because you pray, God answers, and that is meant to fuel and energize your life with joy.

The third thing is abiding, that constant nourishment out of who Christ is.

And the fourth is when a sinner turns to repentance.

I can tell you, it gives me so much joy when I get to talk to someone about Jesus.

Isn't it?

You would all know.

When you actually get to share the gospel, it is like better than the best meal, better than the best gift.

It's like the joy of it.

And it's like we have responsibility to fuel our own joy.

God has given us four mechanisms to fill our lives with joy: abiding, his presence, sharing the gospel and prayer.

And my encouragement to you is you want some more joy, go do all of those things.

Because that's what it says.

The disciples came back full of joy.

Full of joy.

We can't just be like, oh God, I need I don't know why life is hard.

I'm really overwhelmed with this and that.

We have instructions for joy.

We have mechanisms, we have doorways to joy.

And I want us to encourage one another to step into those doorways.

And one of them is sharing the gospel, one of them is actually talking to people, breaking that fear barrier, and talking to people about Jesus.

It was the first sermon of the church, it was the first response to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2, verse 38 and 39.

Acts 2:38

Then Peter said to them, So the Holy Spirit has fallen upon them.

They were praying, they were worshiping, they were waiting in God's presence, and the Holy Spirit came upon them.

They started speaking in tongues.

The people heard a sound, they spilled out onto the street.

Some people are like, Wow, they're talking about God.

Other people are like, these people are drunk.

Peter gets up, and this is what he says: repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

And I would suggest that if there is not a burning desire, a looking to reach out and share the gospel every day with people, then we need to press in in prayer.

We need to press in and ask for a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Me included, because it is the natural response, it is the longing of the Spirit, it's the delight and role of the Holy Spirit to pull people to the Father, to open hearts to the Father, to convict people of their need for Jesus.

And I don't, it's not that every day I'm like, who can I who can I talk to?

Who can I talk to?

And when it's not, I need more of the Holy Spirit.

If that's not the way I'm thinking, if it's not my approach to the day, then I need more Holy Spirit.

And we can have more.

That's the good news.

Peter talks about it in 2 Peter 3, verse 8 and 9.

2 Peter 3:8

Beloved, do not forget this one thing: that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but is long-suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

No one will ever convince me that God created some people not to be saved.

God wants every single human heart.

He longs for every person you know, every single one.

And he is holding off the return of Christ to gather in his sons and daughters, and sometimes we can just be in our little world.

He's longing, he's waiting.

And the believers there were struggling with difficulties of persecution and were like, when's Jesus coming back?

Because this is hard.

And Peter's like, God's not just like forgetting about the promise.

He's waiting for his sons and daughters.

He's waiting for them to hear.

He's not coming back till everyone has heard.

Every tribe, every nation.

And Peter's reminding them that every delay of his return is only because the Father wants more to come.

He's looking for the prodigal sons and daughters.

He's patient because he's not willing that anyone perishes, but that all should come to repentance.

And you want to commune with the heart of God deeper.

This is a very good place to start.

Understand the Father's heart for the lost.

Let your heart be broken with it.

Let your heart be aching with it.

Let your attention be, Lord, who?

Jesus went out of his way.

He went geographically out of his way to find the person the Father was leading him to.

Again and again and again.

And if he can, we can.

I just want us to be a people.

I want to be a person that lives like that.

But even as a believer, we still get that joy of repentance.

It's not a, okay, well, we gave our heart to the Lord 30 years ago, so we've done that.

We actually get that privilege every day.

Because repentance biblically is an ongoing process.

It's actually our inheritance, it's our right, I would say.

As a child of God, it's our joy, it's our glory, it's actually the mark of being human.

It's as knitted into being human as being made in the image of God.

Because we are the only entity in heaven and on earth that can repent.

Do you know that?

All of creation can't repent.

The angels can't repent.

The demons can't repent.

The only thing in all of heaven and earth that repents is humans.

We get the possibility to change.

We get the possibility to turn our thinking.

We get the possibility of transformation.

It's part of your glory.

And I want you to love repentance, desire repentance, plan for repentance, make space for repentance, look for repentance.

It was the first message of Jesus.

Of all the things he could have said, the first words to people were repentance.

Mark four, verse seventeen.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

You know, Jesus released that call two thousand years ago, and he said that his words were spirit and life.

And I reckon that sound of his voice going, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, is still echoing around the globe again and again and again in the spirit.

That God came and called out, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

God himself came and said, Change your thinking.

Mark 1, verse 14 to 15.

Mark 1:14–15

It's recorded again.

Now, after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the good news of the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

And I just want to look at those few things because it's the same repentance that we engage in.

Jesus was actually speaking this to people who were already believers in God.

So it wasn't to the Gentiles that he was saying this.

He was saying to people who already believed.

Repent.

The kingdom of God is at hand and believe in the gospel.

And let's look at those through three things.

Repent means, as I've said, change your thinking.

Change your thinking.

Every morning, I reckon God just like, let's change your thinking a little bit more today.

Let's change your thinking.

I feel like, you know, I know some people, you know, wake up and intentionally say, Good morning, Father.

Good morning, Jesus.

Good morning, Holy Spirit.

And I reckon they're like, Good morning, beloved.

Let's change your thinking.

Because it's so crucial to how we live and our choices that we make.

And that willingness to change thinking requires humility.

It requires a suppleness.

That what we thought we wanted, what we insisted on for ourselves, what we thought was the best thing, what our opinion is, our desire, all of these things in repentance, in that transformation, we have to be willing for those things to get changed.

We have to be willing for God to show us a different way on different things.

It doesn't mean everything you think is wrong.

It doesn't mean that everything you want is wrong.

It just means there's more.

There's ways of seeing, there's greater truths that God is asking, are you willing to be changed as I unfold truth to you?

That's the question.

Are you willing to change as I unfold more truth to you?

And the good thing is that the Father knows exactly what truth to unfold to us to change us.

He doesn't just say, don't do this, don't do this, don't.

No.

He shows us truth that brings freedom.

He shows us truth that unlimits our thinking into a greater measure of possibility.

Because the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

That's why we're changing our thinking.

We're not changing our thinking because you were wrong about everything.

You're changing your thinking because you weren't aware in some area of how close God was and his rule.

Does that make sense?

Our thinking is getting changed because we're kind of like, I don't know why God isn't fixing this.

Or we're just accepting some pattern in our own life.

And he's like, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The domain of the king, the rule of the king is at hand.

It means it's within your reach.

Every possibility is actually within your reach.

That's the kingdom.

You don't have to live battered around by life.

You don't have to live battered around by the enemy.

You don't have to live battered around by your past.

You don't have to live battered around by other people's opinions or even your own opinion of yourself.

The rule of the king is possible.

And Jesus' invitation is reach out, it's now available in me.

And it's meant to be demonstrated.

Do you understand that if the kingdom is not being seen in your life, if it's not changing the situation for you, something's really wrong?

Because our kingdom is real, our kingdom is power, our kingdom is overcoming the kingdoms of this world.

The kingdom of God is meant to be taking over and having an effect in a way that you can see.

Jesus said in John 10, 37 to 38, if I do not do the works of my Father, don't believe me.

Jesus said, if you can't see what I'm talking about, you have full permission not to believe me.

Full permission.

Because he's so confident that his reign is meant to look like something.

It's meant to look like sickness being pushed back.

It's meant to look like you equipped to do things you couldn't do in your own strength.

It looks like you loving people you couldn't love before.

It looks like praying prayers that shift history.

It's accompanied by works.

That's why it says we will be judged on our works, not as a you know, heavy, like oppressive thing.

It's because God is so confident that his kingdom flowing through you will do something, and that's called works.

And we need to go, God, I want more of that.

I want more of your work flowing out of my life.

I want the kingdom to be visible flowing through me.

Change my thinking.

We should be dreaming of things that weren't possible without God.

We should be coming up with ideas to speak into people's lives that only God can breathe.

Insight.

That's called prophecy, or words of encouragement, words of knowledge, compassion that is not normal, just human kindness.

Willingness to serve people with energy that is from above.

These are works of the kingdom.

If I do not do the works of my father, don't believe me.

But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and believe the Father is in me and I in him.

And I love that Jesus was humble enough to demonstrate the kingdom when people were struggling to believe.

And I want us to be like that.

Not sure if God loves you.

What can I pray for you?

Feeling like God's abandoned you in this problem, let's see it overcome.

Jesus said, if you don't believe just what I'm saying, let's show you something.

Let's demonstrate it.

It's why healing is so critical for us to contend for to walk in.

It is a sign that God knows you, loves you, and is more powerful than the problem you are currently dealing with.

It's why the power of prayer for people, offering to pray for people that don't know God, it demonstrates the kingdom to them in a profound way.

It's why care and compassion and true friendship is so critical.

It demonstrates the kingdom.

And the third thing that Jesus said: repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Believe the gospel.

Believe the good news.

And this is his invitation to us today, tomorrow, the next day, next week, next year, to grow in believing the good news.

What is that?

Yes, it's that Jesus died on the cross.

But it's also believing that Jesus is really enough.

He is enough for you.

Everything you need is in him.

Believe the good news.

Every answer you need for what you're facing at home or work or study or friendships or money or whatever, every answer you need is in him.

Believe the good news.

Believe that your sin and old nature really has been absorbed into Christ.

Believe the good news.

Believe that the love of the Father is the strongest reality in heaven and on earth.

Believe it.

Believe the good news.

Believe that God likes you and enjoys you and delights in you.

That is good news.

You're not here and he's peering down.

Okay, let's see how he goes today.

That is not the approach of the Father.

The approach of the Father is I'm with you and I love you, and I'm excited about what we're going through together today and what I'm gonna teach you and show you and unfold to you.

This is what we this is believing the good news.

Excited for what he's gonna change within us today, believing that the resurrection of Christ actually gives you access to power and wisdom and the move of the Holy Spirit.

You today.

This is the good news, and the Father is calling for us to receive it, to change our thinking around it, and every process of repentance that we go through as believers is still tied to those three facets that Jesus launched.

Change your thinking, the kingdoms available, belief.

And we need the Holy Spirit to show us where we need to change our thinking because it's limited, it's off target, it's restricted, it's the wrong focus, it's self-centered, or we're still believing lies.

We all have this stuff that it needs to change.

That's why we're going from glory to glory to glory to glory as this stuff is shifted out of our thinking.

Let me say it again.

We need to change our thinking because it's been limited or at a tangent to truth, or restricted, or the wrong focus, or self-centered, or we're believing life.

Where we don't really believe God is able, or we haven't really believed the incredible, wondrous news of who we are in Christ, who we actually are, and just how dearly that we're loved and fully we are known.

Rick Joyner's written a few different um visions and prophecies that he's had over the years, but one of them's called the Final Quest.

I'm sure many of you would have read it.

But it's a beautiful, there's this moment in it where the person in the vision is walking along, and suddenly they see like angels kind of like as a guard standing back in honor as as they were just walking along.

And they're like, What are you doing?

and they're like, You get to live in the last days carrying the presence of God, we honor you, and it's this beautiful description of how heaven sees you.

You're just walking along, but you are clothed in Christ, you are carrying the King of Heaven within you.

You are carrying the Holy Spirit within you, and you were chosen to live in these last days, this generation.

And you are honored in heaven.

We need to change our thinking about who we are and what we're carrying, and what's possible in your life if we'll let God fully flow through.

Because I think it helps us see different examples.

And the first is Habakkuk 2, verse 1.

Habakkuk 2:1

And I love this because Habakkuk is complaining to God.

It's like it all looks wrong.

Where's the promises?

Why are you allowing this?

What's happened?

Why are you doing this to your people?

This is the general feel of Habakkuk 1.

And then what I love about this man is what he says.

Amidst the mess, amidst his complaining and outpouring his heart to God, then he sums it up with this.

I will sit here and set myself on a rampart and see how the Lord will correct me.

He's given his opinion of what's going on.

He's complained, he said it's not right, and then he says, I will sit here and see how the Lord will correct me.

I will stand by watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what he will say to me and what I will answer when I'm corrected.

And I just love that.

I love that heart that in the midst of going, God, where are you?

What are you doing?

How come you're allowing this?

How come this is going on?

Why isn't this working?

Why aren't we getting breakthrough on this or that?

Okay, I'm gonna sit here and I'm gonna wait to be corrected.

Because he knows that that's not the whole picture.

He knows that what he can see is not the end of the story.

And so he's done his complaint, and then he goes, Okay, I'm gonna wait here and be corrected.

And I'll wait and see what you say to me, and then I'll wait and see what I'm gonna say to you in response.

And I love it.

That is a repentant heart.

That is a repentant heart that doesn't stop at the complaint, it just goes, Okay, now correct me.

Now correct me.

Because if you're not seeing victory, you're not seeing the end of the story.

If you're not seeing the glory of God in a problem or an issue, he's got something to show you.

And I love it.

He isn't afraid to tell God what he really thinks, what seems misaligned with the character of God, but then he has the humility to wait and be corrected.

And sometimes we just have to get to that point where we tell him all the things that don't look right, all the things that seem unfair, all the things that he's not doing that we want him to do.

But do we get to the point where we wait to be corrected with the actual truth?

With what's actually going on?

It's kind of like that moment when Jesus hears Lazarus is sick, and they're all like, come on, you gotta move, you gotta go.

He's really sick.

I mean, he's really sick.

And Jesus is like, da dum, da dum, da dum, da dum.

And sometimes we're in that moment with God, and we have to wait until he says, There's glory coming.

And he shows us what actually is happening.

In Hosea 6, verse 1 to 3.

Hosea 6:1–3

Israel's been in a mess, they've done their own thing, and they're now walking out the consequences.

And then it's this call that says, Come, let us return to the Lord, for he has torn us, but he will heal us.

He is stricken, but he will bind us up.

After two days, he will revive us.

On the third day, he will raise us up that we may live in his sight.

Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.

His going forth is established as the morning.

He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth.

And sometimes there's consequences of our messy choices.

Sometimes there is.

And sometimes there's a tearing away to cleanse us from the old nature.

And sometimes God has to put pressure on an issue within our life that is actually restricting us or limiting us.

But in that process, he does heal.

He does bind up.

He does revive.

And the goal here is to live in his sight.

To live, not just walk in his sight, but to live, to be alive in his presence.

Because Jesus promised us abundant life.

He did not promise that you'll survive life.

Great.

He promised abundance.

He promised abundant life.

And he will war against everything that is limiting you in your thinking or your experience from entering into that abundance of life.

And every problem, every need, every situation in our life will be a springboard into the knowledge of God if you will allow it.

Not going to read it because of time, but David had such a beautiful heart of repentance.

It's why his worship wasn't compromised, even when his life was messy at many times.

And the Lord would correct him and he would be repentant.

He would change.

You know, one of the most beautiful moments to me is, you know, Saul's been relentlessly chasing him, hunting him down.

I mean, I don't I don't think any of us know what it is to be hunted.

Someone just, their whole goal is just to kill you for 15 years.

And to live with this promise of God, and you're still running around trying to stay alive in a cave.

And there's the moment when Saul's asleep, and David doesn't kill him, but he cuts off the edge of his garment to show that he could have killed him.

Just this little, just a little bit of like, look at me.

Just this tiny bit.

And the Lord goes, What have you done?

That wasn't respectful to the man who's been trying to kill you for 15 years.

And David's heart was like, What have I done?

What have I done doing that to God's anointed?

That's a repentant heart.

And I just encourage you to sit in Psalm 51 again and again.

It's this, many of the Psalms are repentant.

Why, where are you, O God?

Why haven't you done this?

And then he turns.

But Psalm 51 is just such a heart of repentance.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to your tender mercy.

And I'd really like you to sit in verses 10 to 13.

Because in it is David's cry for a clean heart.

Create in me a clean heart.

Renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Then he says, Restore to me the joy of your salvation, uphold me by your generous spirit, then I will teach sinners your ways, and they will be converted to you.

And you know, I think one of the fruits of repentance in our own lives, a lifestyle of being changed and transformed by the Lord, is the capacity to go tell the others.

That's what that was the message to Mary, who'd been filled with demons, and she encountered Christ resurrected.

Go tell the others.

It was what Jesus said to Peter when he is reinstated from his sin.

Go feed my sheep.

There is an overflow of repentance.

When we go, God changed me again.

Let's go tell the others.

Let's go tell the others.

In Acts 3, verses 19 to 21, Peter and John have healed the lame man at the gate, beautiful.

Acts 3:19–21

And everyone's talking about it.

And then he says this to the people that were in the temple, the people believing, the people worshiping, this is what he said to them.

So that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Change your thinking.

Realign.

That's what it means.

Missing the mark in our thinking, missing the mark in what's possible, missing the mark in what God wanted to do, anything.

And Peter's like, repent of that so that times of refreshing may come.

One of the most beautiful things about when we're just like, God changed this in me, that moment of repentance, is that it ushers in a refreshing of the presence of the Lord, the washing of his word.

It's exhausting to live with fear.

It's exhausting to live with our own sin.

It's exhausting to live with limited, restricted thinking.

Change it.

Change your thinking so that times of refreshing may come.

Five of them include an invitation to repentance.

I would say that that's a sign that a huge amount of the time the Lord is offering us an invitation into repentance.

These are the things that he calls those churches to repent of.

Losing their first love, mixing theology with the world's ways, sexual immorality, an image of being alive when the heart was dead to the spirit, where there's lukewarmness, where they're tolerating wrong doctrine, and where they've become cold or resistant to the Holy Spirit, and where they're not doing the first works of love that they did when they were first saved.

These are the things.

Sometimes it's just that we've just got into a rut, and we need to repent.

And this is Jesus' promise if they do repent.

Intimacy, purity, life, longevity, strength, perseverance, doing good works, seeing the promises of God, divine revelation, and insight into the word, feasting on the presence of Christ and glorying in the Father.

It's a pretty good reward list.

There's not much in your life that's going to lay hold of them in the same way as repentance.

And we're all growing.

We're all growing in lordship.

We're all growing in having our thinking changed to being big enough to see God in all his glory, to see our role on the earth in all its glory.

And so I encourage you to just take time, make it part of your lifestyle, to sit with the Lord and see what he's going to correct, see what he's going to open up, see what truth he's going to bring, what freedom he's going to bring.

That you also may walk into a greater measure of intimacy, feasting with him, loving him, and doing all that he asks you to do.

Father, I ask that you would let us glory in this thing you created called repentance, this turning of the human heart to you.

Lord, it's our joy, it's our glory, it's our privilege.

And I ask that we would be a people that are changing, that are being transformed as you change us.

To see like you see, to love like you love, to do the works you do, and to believe in you fully as we should, Father.

Amen.