{"id":9631,"date":"2016-10-26T21:35:20","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T04:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/?p=9631"},"modified":"2016-10-26T21:35:20","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T04:35:20","slug":"spiritual-breakthroughand-salvation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/26\/spiritual-breakthroughand-salvation\/","title":{"rendered":"No spiritual breakthrough\u2026and salvation without this!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Young<\/a><\/p>\n

Matthew 4:17, Repent\u2026at hand. <\/i><\/b>Mark\u2019s Gospel adds, \u201cand believe in the gospel\u201d (Mark 1:15). Yeshua continued preaching the repentance message of John, and this became the essence of the gospel message (see verse 23). When Yeshua sent out his disciples two-by-two, he instructed them to preach the same message (Matt 10:7; Luke 9:6), the same message of repentance became part of the great commission (Luke 24:47). On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached the same message of repentance (Luke 2:38).<\/p>\n

\u201cRepent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand\u201d is a message that is seldom heard in the Christian churches today, nor has it been consistently preached for a long time. In the late nineteenth century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great English preacher, complained in his day that \u201cRepentance is an old-fashioned word not much used by modern revivalists\u201d (The Soul Winner<\/i>, p. 27 published in 1895!). If this was true in Spurgeon\u2019s day, how much more so today?! Yet, this seldom used word in the lips of today\u2019s Christian preachers was the first word out of John and Yeshua\u2019s mouths when they began their preaching careers. Even so, if we are to be imitators of Yeshua, repent<\/i> must be the first word out of our mouths when sharing the gospel to a sinful world!<\/p>\n

Why should \u201crepentance from sin\u201d to be the first words out of the gospel preacher\u2019s mouth? Quite simply, Adam and Eve fell out of fellowship with Elohim because of sin, and the only way for man to restore relationship with his Creator is to go back to the place where our first parents got off of YHVH\u2019s spiritual path, to repent of that sin and to from that point on walk in obedience to his Word. Yeshua, as the Second Adam, leads man in that restoration process to undo the evil that the first Adam did. Repentance is the first step.<\/p>\n

Repentance \u2014 The Law of Return & Key to Spiritual Breakthrough<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Hebrew Word Definitions<\/b><\/p>\n

There are two biblical Hebrew words that together present the complete picture of what true repentence is. The first word is nacham<\/i> meaning \u201cto be sorry, console oneself, repent, regret, comfort, be comforted.\u201d According to The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament <\/i>(TWOT), The origin of the root of this word seems to reflect the idea of \u201cbreathing deeply,\u201d hence the physical display of one\u2019s feelings, usually sorrow, compassion, or comfort. The root occurs in the Ugaritic \u2026 and is found in OT proper names such as Nehemiah, Nahum and Menehem. The Greek lxx renders nacham<\/i> by both metanoeo<\/i> and metamelomai<\/i>. The Greek word metanoeo<\/i> means \u201cto change one\u2019s mind, i.e. to repent or to change one\u2019s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one\u2019s past sins.\u201d Wilson\u2019s Old Testament Word Studies<\/i> says this of nacham<\/i>:<\/p>\n

In regard to others, to pity,\u00a0 to have compassion \u2026 in regard to one\u2019s own doing, to lament, to grieve; hence to repent; in English, to rue; often of one who repents, grieves, for the evil he has\u00a0 brought upon another.\u201d The New Strong\u2019s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance<\/i> says of nacham<\/i>: to breathe strongly, by implication, to be sorry \u2026 to repent means to make a strong turning to a new course of action. The emphasis is on turning from<\/i> a less desirable course. Comfort is derived from \u2018com\u2019 (with) and \u2018fort\u2019 (strength). Hence, when one repents, he exerts strength to change, to re-grasp the situation, and exert effort for the situation to make a different course of purpose and action.\u00a0 The stress is not upon new information or new facts which cause the change as it is upon the visible action taken.<\/p>\n

The second Hebrew word is shuv<\/i> (from which the Hebrew word teshuvah <\/i>derives, which means \u201crepentance\u201d) meaning \u201cto return, turn back, refresh, repair, restore.\u201d The TWOT<\/i> in its discussion of the Hebrew verb shuv<\/i> states,<\/p>\n

The Bible is rich in idioms describing man\u2019s responsibility in the process of repentance. Such phrases would include the following: \u201cincline your heart unto [YHVH your Elohim]\u201d (Josh 24:23); \u201ccircumcise yourselves to YHVH\u201d (Jer 4:4); \u201cwash your heart from wickedness\u201d (Jer 4:14); \u201cbreak up your fallow ground\u201d (Hos 10:12); and so forth. All of these expressions of man\u2019s penitential activity, however, are subsumed and summarized by this one verb shub.<\/i> Far better than any other verb it combines in itself the two requisites of repentance: to turn from evil and to turn to the good.<\/p>\n

There is no better time to focus on repentence than during the biblical month of Elul<\/i>, which occurs just prior to the fall biblical festivals. During this month, our focus is to be on repentance, restoration and preparation for the coming of the Messiah, which the fall feasts prophetically picture.<\/p>\n

In order to repent accroding to biblical criteria, one must understand that Scripture defines sins as the violation of YHVH\u2019s Torah, or instructions or teachings in righteousness (1 John 3:4). Sin<\/i> or chet<\/i> in Hebrew, in a loose sense, means \u201ca failure in our relationship with Elohim.\u201d Our goal should be to continually move closer to Elohim, but \u201cchet\u201d <\/i>is behavior that causes us to move away from Elohim.<\/p>\n

If YHVH requires his people to turn away from sin and turn to righteousness (the act of which is called repentance<\/i>), then what is therefore involved in repentance? Repentance<\/i> as expressed in the Hebrew word teshuvah<\/i>, which comes from the Hebrew word shuv <\/i>meaning \u201cto return.\u201d In the biblical context, it means \u201cto return to Elohim\u201d and to the righteous behavior he requires of his people; in other words, return to obeying his word or his commandments, which is the opposite of sin. While we must deeply regret our movement away from Elohim, we must not despair, for YHVH has provided the way for our return to him and he tells us that when we repent, he forgives without delay.<\/p>\n

According to Scripture, there are, several basic steps to repentance. They are:<\/p>\n