Speaker 1: 0:02

Hi and welcome to our podcast Revelation Within On the Go. I'm Heidi Bilesma-Epperson, one of your hosts and the owner and lead coach of the RevelationWithinorg ministry.

Speaker 2: 0:14

And I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within, and we are so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Within on the show. Hey we are so glad you're here.

Speaker 1: 0:41

We are glad you're here and we've got quite an episode planned today. You know we've really been taking to heart. Where does God want us to go with these podcasts, with our community themes?

Speaker 2: 0:53

and so on.

Speaker 1: 0:54

And gosh, you know, he's really showing us and he's blessing the choice to go into repentance a little bit more in our community, and we released one previously, an episode on repentance, and we're going to go there again because, gosh, I don't know, christina, what do you think I'm actually? I can't believe I'm saying this after all the many years of going. I'm enjoying this focus on repentance, on biblical repentance. Yeah, me too, and it's really being a.

Speaker 2: 1:29

It's a delight to my heart these days, yay, it is for me too, and I think so many of us, including me, have had misconceptions for so long about what repentance is, kind of from our culture, from the world, from all these other sources. But what does God say about it? And what he says in his word is absolutely beautiful and refreshing and life-giving and it's really drawing me in. I am loving it loving it.

Speaker 1: 2:02

Me too, for sure. It has been and continues to be life-giving for me, and that's kind of a surprise. Well, yeah, it's a surprise In my brain I knew that repentance, since it's from God, it's a gift from God, is what the word says. I knew it had to be life-giving, but I guess I was more impacted by my history than I realized. So, yeah, good, good.

Speaker 2: 2:30

So today's episode is one we've been praying into. It's a sacred invitation. Isn't that beautiful Just to think about? Think about when you get an invitation in your mailbox and it's just beautiful, the envelope. You're excited and then you open it up and you have been invited. This is like that times a thousand a million, because it's a sacred invitation into the heart of repentance. Not shame, not guilt-driven striving, but the kind of deep, holy turning that draws us back into the arms of God. I love that yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Today we're going to kind of dive in to some scripture, and so you might want to have your Bible out if you're in a place where you can do that.

Speaker 1: 3:21

And we're going to look at David's story and the example of his repentance in the word of God and see what we can pull from that. So I'm just going to pray for our time together real quick. Great Lord, god, would you create in each one of us clean hearts? We want to see with your eyes what repentance is where it's needed, even in our own lives. As we look into David's story, may we hear kind of a gentle echo of our own story and the invitation you issued to David. May we sense that invitation to our own hearts, our own minds, our own souls. May we not resist you one bit but run toward you because of your great mercy. Thank you, lord, and it's in your name, jesus, I pray. Amen.

Speaker 2: 4:14

Amen. Okay. So before we get into David's prayer in Psalm 51, we are going to go to Psalm 51. And if you have your Bible, you can put a little bookmark there or your finger there. But we need a little bit of context. So we're going to start with the backstory in 2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12. Okay so David was king, powerful, beloved. At the height of his reign he stayed back from war, which is a detail that matters going forward.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Yeah, I think this one is important.

Speaker 2: 4:53

I mean and we'll go ahead and read that verse Second, Samuel 11, one in the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle. David remained at Jerusalem.

Speaker 1: 5:06

So I mean that right, there is an indication that he I mean, this is when kings would all go out to battle. What's he doing staying home? It just makes you wonder where was his heart then? You know, it's kind of interesting.

Speaker 2: 5:22

We're going to find out right now where his heart was. He wasn't even supposed to be home. Right exactly exactly one evening, he saw a beautiful woman, bathsheba, bathing, and he summoned her and he slept with her and she became pregnant. Wow, so there was well. There's actually several problems with all of this, but one of the biggest problems was that Bathsheba was actually married. She was married to Uriah, one of David's most loyal soldiers.

Speaker 1: 6:06

Yeah, you got to check out the story, maybe refresh your understanding of it by looking at 2 Samuel, 11 and 12. I mean, uriah was quite the soldier, quite the man. He was so loyal. And here's the thing David tried to cover up his sin. He had grabbed somebody else's wife, had done what he had done with her and she'd gotten pregnant. And so he had this plot unfolding in his head, which he executed. He had Uriah brought home from the battlefield and kind of hoped that Uriah would do what any red-blooded man would do who'd been away from his wife sleep with her, and stuff, of course. But Uriah, oh my word, he refused.

Speaker 1: 6:59

Talk about a man of integrity. Uriah refused to sleep with his wife out of loyalty to his fellow soldiers who were still at war, who didn't get to come home and enjoy their wives. So David's plan was foiled at the very beginning, and so, when that didn't work, to have you know Uriah sleep with Bathsheba, and then, supposedly, the baby in her womb would be attributed to Uriah fathering the baby, anyway. So, david, it's hard for me to wrap my brain around this. It's quite a story, isn't it? I know, talk about drama. I mean all those stories on TV and whatever. I don't even know what they are because I don't watch them, but I mean this takes the cake. Really it does.

Speaker 1: 7:47

Yeah, david arranged for Uriah to be placed on the front lines of battle and for other troops to pull back and leave Uriah fighting alone. It really was a death sentence, but I mean it was a scheming, conniving, deceptive death sentence. I mean he was killing an innocent, loyal man and Uriah was killed. Yep, it happened. And then, of course, david la la la, he took Bathsheba as another wife. I was like what?

Speaker 1: 8:22

Another wife, not just one, but another, yeah, yeah, so he had a bazillion wives and concubines and it's like hello. What is that about? And, of course, for a while life went on.

Speaker 2: 9:03

Okay, so now God sends Nathan. So we're now in 2 Samuel 12, verses 1 through 13. Enter Nathan, the prophet sent by God. Okay, so, nathan is sent by God. He told David a parable.

Speaker 1: 9:21

I love this. This was so I mean, I gosh. You know, when somebody is difficult to communicate with in direct word, you can try drawing a visual image in their mind, and it's like Nathan knew David had been acting clueless about what he had done, and so I love that he used a parable. Go for it. Read it to us.

Speaker 2: 9:46

So from 2 Samuel 12, 1 through 4, and this is paraphrased. There were two men in a certain town, one rich, one poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb. And the rich man took the poor man's lamb to feed a traveler.

Speaker 1: 10:09

David was outraged with this story. Could you just imagine it? I mean, he's hearing this story from Nathan. He's going as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die. That's what he said over a little ewe lamb that didn't belong with somebody, it's like. And Nathan said oh, this has such wisdom. You, david, are the man. And that's 2 Samuel 12, 7. Wow.

Speaker 2: 10:38

Wow, whoa. Talk about conviction. Oh my gosh. And this again. This man was sent from God.

Speaker 1: 10:47

God had clearly been working on David's heart at some level because of his response, because you know he could have cut off Nathan's head. He could have had Nathan killed on the spot. He certainly had no scruples about killing innocent people. We know that at this point.

Speaker 2: 11:01

Right, exactly, yeah, okay. So basically, david was cut to the heart and the veil was lifted. And the veil was lifted, he saw the horror of what he had done his adultery, his coverup, his murder, all of it. He didn't deflect and he didn't come up with excuses. He said this is second Samuel 12, 13. He said I have sinned against the Lord.

Speaker 1: 11:33

Wow. Now, chances are those of you who are listening to this have not, you know, had somebody killed and done all of those things that David did in this example. But I mean, and that's just in a way, that's the point Look at how God related to David sending somebody to confront him about his sin and somehow he had gotten to David's heart because he was repentant. I mean, he had the right words, that's for sure.

Speaker 2: 12:05

Yeah, he did. Okay. So now we can go to Psalm 51, because this is what David wrote in response. So it helps so much to have that background, because we can see how extreme the situation was. We're not just talking about a little of this or a little of that, we're talking about really extreme stuff. That gives a different meaning to this Psalm. As you read it, you can think about oh my gosh, this is the response to all that happened. And then God sending Nathan and the conviction and all of that. So here comes Psalm 51. It begins with have mercy on me, oh God, according to your unfailing love.

Speaker 1: 12:54

I love his approach to the Lord in this here he had, he doesn't beat himself up, not his first initial approach to the Lord. He's like Lord, I need your mercy, I need your unfailing love, and basically it's a little mini praise fest. God, you are merciful God, you are unfailing in your love for me, and I need both of those right now. So David doesn't plead with God based on what he thinks he deserves, because what I mean he might go into the whole. I'm your king, your anointed one, and you've got to no, no, no. He doesn't do that. He appeals to God's chesed and that's the Hebrew word is covenant, loyal love. That Hebrew word, chesed, is used over 240 times in the Old Testament to describe God's mercy and it means steadfast, never failing love. Oh, what a beautiful picture. In verse two, david knowing full well there's a big job to do here, he says wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Wow.

Speaker 2: 14:07

Yeah, wow, you would think that he would first go to God and say well, let me tell you what happened. You know like let me start from the beginning and maybe throw in some blame in there.

Speaker 1: 14:20

Yeah, yeah, what was she doing out there on the?

Speaker 2: 14:22

roof. Yeah, I mean having a bath there, you know. I mean I couldn't not look at her, you know? Things like that. There could have been such a different response. Oh yeah, but his response just cut right to the chase. What do I need? I need cleansing.

Speaker 1: 14:38

I need help.

Speaker 2: 14:39

I need your unfailing love. Okay, so wash away. He says wash away all my iniquity. Wash here is kabak. Is the word kabak a vigorous scrubbing used to clean garments? David knows that his soul needs more than just a rinse. I love that. I mean it's true. He knew that it needed to be a vigorous scrubbing that would lead to being really washed clean. And then verse three, for I know my transgressions, so he's owning it. He's totally owning this. I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me Wow, wow.

Speaker 1: 15:27

He's not hiding, he's full on. Owning it Always before me means I can't escape it. It haunts me it's following me everywhere I go. And verse four says against you. He's saying this to the Lord, of course, against you. You only have I sin.

Speaker 2: 15:48

Okay, but wait, didn't he sin against Bathsheba Uriah? And how about the nation? Yeah, yes, yes, he did, but ultimately, all sin is rebellion against God and he recognized that, he owned it and he knows. In order for this to be made right, he needs to totally own it and own the fact that all sin is rebellion against God.

Speaker 1: 16:17

You know what this makes me think of situations over the years when I have known that I didn't behave the way I wish I had and didn't want to own it, had and didn't want to own it. You know, it's like I didn't want to embrace the gravity of my choices. It was, it was so hard, but God gives us the ability to look at it square in the face and acknowledge that, yeah, I wronged so-and-so and so-and-so, but ultimately I wronged you, lord, and he wants us to be able to approach him with that. You know, I think of different aspects of my life that might need to come under the scrutiny right now, today. Right now, today, this minute, and I want to own it in the face of the Lord. His has said his never ending, everlasting love is there for me.

Speaker 1: 17:17

Wow, I appreciate this statement because he is not doing what many of us fall into, that self-loathing and self-deprecation. No, no, no. This is humility, and it's not like he's saying, well, you chose me, you knew I was going to be home and you knew, yeah, no, he didn't do that, and so he doesn't do the self-loathing thing, he doesn't do the denial thing. Instead, this is humility, it's true humility. David is not saying boy, I'm just worthless, I have a real lust problem. Yeah right, you know. What are you going to do about it, god? He's saying Lord, I have always needed you and I need you now too. That's beautiful, verse six. David goes on to say yet you, lord, desired faithfulness even in the womb.

Speaker 2: 18:29

Oh yeah, so he's going back to a place where he couldn't make choices. He was a babe, you know, so he could. He's going all the way back to the beginning here. Truth in the inward being.

Speaker 1: 18:44

God isn't.

Speaker 2: 18:45

after behavior modification, what is God after? He wants our hearts, he wants us to be real with him. He is looking for, he wants the bottom line. You know he's not messing around.

Speaker 1: 19:02

You know I just want to interject here that over the course of the years that I've been involved before Revelation Within was Revelation Within, it was Thin Within, and I was first involved in 2001. So that goes back a long time it does.

Speaker 1: 19:20

And I know a lot of people would come to the program Thin Within and even now Revelation Within, and their thought is give me a program, give me a fix, and they're looking at their behavior and they're looking at the results of their behavior, which many of us have worn on our bodies over the years as extra weight and some of us are very burdened by that.

Speaker 1: 19:45

But we have focused people on okay, let's go deeper than just modifying our behavior, modifying our eating and changing the way we look. Let's go deep and I really think that this is a great example of true repentance Isn't going to just be a shift in how much I eat or how much I move my body in that realm. It's going to involve changing the way I think, because I've got to think God's thoughts about all those things that have caused me to eat more food than I need. I've got to think God's thoughts about my emotions. I've got to think his thoughts about even what foods can best nourish me. I need to think God's thoughts and so I want to be able to be in a place of truth in the inward being. God wants me to be real and he wants to show me how.

Speaker 2: 20:41

He does and what we have found, as we have focused on this in our community and with the coaching that we do, is that things come up and are healed, that need to be healed, and then we can get to some of the logistical things about. Well, maybe this would be best for me today and, oh, I think I'm going to wait for hunger, all those things. Those things come later. First, we have to begin with the heart, and this is such a beautiful example. David was confronted with his sin and he began with his heart. That's what he's doing here, and the words that he's saying are echoing God's heart.

Speaker 2: 21:25

And that is exactly where we need to go with any stronghold that is tearing us down, that has torn us down for any amount of time. We need to go to the heart and be real with God and own it, like David did, and move from there, asking him for his provision and his help and his wisdom. Amen Again, it's an invitation. Think about that beautiful invitation coming in the mail. Imagine in your mind the most beautiful envelope that you go oh, what is this? What is this? Imagine opening it. And it's God's invitation for you to come close and be real with him and be, you know, loved by him with an everlasting love. Yeah, okay. So verses seven through nine we read cleanse me with hyssop. Let me hear joy and gladness.

Speaker 1: 22:25

I love this imagery. Hyssop was used, of course, in temple rituals to kind of spatter and sprinkle blood for purification, and so David is really essentially praying from his perspective. This is kind of what it means Restore my intimacy with you, god, let my joy return.

Speaker 2: 22:45

Ah, I love that, and then he goes on in verse 10 to say create in me God a pure heart. Yes, yes, okay, so create. The word create is bara the same verb used in Genesis 1.1.

Speaker 1: 23:03

Wow, wow.

Speaker 2: 23:04

Yeah, this is not self-improvement, not even close. This is divine recreation. Yeah, really, going back to the beginning here, yeah, yeah. And then verse 11,. Do not cast me from your presence.

Speaker 1: 23:25

So I've always kind of stumbled a little bit over this verse because I don't believe that God does that when we're in Christ and in the Old Testament anybody who was as faithful as David was and loved God the way he did wouldn't be cast from his presence. And so this particular phraseology do not cast me from your presence can kind of come home a little more truer when you think of Saul. King Saul, god removed his Holy Spirit from Saul, completely removed his spirit. So David's cry is one of oh, don't let that happen to me. He is deeply dependent on God and he knows that. He wants to preserve that. He wants that intimacy back again and he doesn't want God to do anything that would keep him from experiencing that intimacy with God, that would keep him from experiencing that intimacy with God. So in verse 12, he goes on and says restore to me the joy of your salvation. Ah, what a precious prayer that is.

Speaker 2: 24:24

It is. That is a precious prayer. It's not the joy of his performance.

Speaker 1: 24:29

Right right.

Speaker 2: 24:31

Salvation of God's rescue.

Speaker 1: 24:32

That's where joy flows from Salvation, of God's rescue. That's where joy flows from Right. It's not like he's just saying, oh, let me get back to being a champion at whatever it is.

Speaker 1: 24:43

Right, right. He is totally aware that God's salvation and God saves us again and again and again. Now, obviously, one and done is true as far as salvation from hell and the punishment of being estranged from God for eternity, but every day we need God to save us from our own choices, maybe from things that we aren't even aware of, and so asking God to restore to us the joy of our salvation is a precious prayer. I love that.

Speaker 2: 25:16

I love it too. And then in verse 13, then I will teach transgressors your ways. So he's ready to pass it on? Yeah, I love that. He's ready to share. He's ready to share this, which is kind of amazing in itself. You know that that he would be ready for something like that instead of don't tell anybody, right.

Speaker 1: 25:38

Like don't tell anybody I messed up, let's just keep this under your hat.

Speaker 1: 25:42

Yeah, don't tell anybody. To me it also shows that it was genuine repentance. I don't think it's genuine repentance when we sit and beat ourselves up and and just stay there down on the ground, beating ourselves up, saying I have been a rotten person or whatever Well, and isolating too. Right, right, no, repentance isn't going to end in shame. It's not going to start in shame. It's not going to be fueled by shame. It's not going to end in shame. It's going to spill into testimony. It's not going to end in shame. It's going to spill into testimony.

Speaker 1: 26:16

And I love this that broken people become teachers of mercy. We become sounding what is the word I'm thinking of Almost like megaphones for God's mercy. When we've been broken and we've been restored by God, we then want to speak of it to others. And we've been restored by God, we then want to speak of it to others. So verses 16 and 17 of Psalm 51 have these phrases in them you do not delight in sacrifice, and of course he's speaking of the blood of bulls and goats and so on. But the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart. I love that. That's so awesome. Look where we've gone from, where you know I, I am a mess. I am coming to you, I need your restoration. And now he's like oh, I get it. You want my heart to be broken for you.

Speaker 2: 27:15

David knew God wanted more than rituals. He knew that he knew what God was after. He knew that God was after surrender, brokenness, not performance.

Speaker 1: 27:28

Exactly. So. We're going to dive in a little bit into repentance and what it is, and some of this might be by way of review. We're going to bring in the New Testament here into Romans 2.4. And etanoia is the word that is translated repentance. So in Romans 2.4, paul writes do you not realize that, god's kindness? Is meant to lead you to repentance.

Speaker 2: 27:59

One of my favorite verses.

Speaker 1: 28:00

I love this connected with Psalm 51, because God's kindness caused Nathan to confront David in a way David could receive, and God's kindness had moved in David's heart so that he wouldn't chop Nathan's head off because he chose to confront the king. His kindness led David to repentance and it does for us too. I just think that's it's huge. It's huge. It's not shame that leads me to repentance. It's not fear of punishment, it's not fear of letting God down that leads me to repentance. No, so the Greek word for repentance is metanoia, and it's several words put together Meta, which means change, and noia, which means mind. It basically means a full turning, a new way of thinking. Gosh, that's so perfect for our ministry. We want to put God's thoughts after him. It's not just stopping a behavior Right, but it's thinking differently and starting something completely new.

Speaker 2: 29:11

Wow, that's amazing, and all of that is in that invitation. Wow, that's amazing, and all of that is in that invitation. Repentance is not spiritual self punishment. Who out there needs to hear it? I mean, certainly we all need to hear that, because I think there is a message out there that this is what it is and it's not what the word of God says I grew up in a generation that had BC comics.

Speaker 1: 29:38

I don't even know if they still exist, I have no idea. I've not opened a newspaper in a decade at least, and that's just true confession. But back when I was a kid and a young adult, certainly you could see every now and then in the BC comics that there was this like profit type guy drawn in of course in the comic strip who had a robe and a beard and a sign that said repent, and that is kind of the image that we have of it. I don't know if others do, but did you see the BC comics when you absolutely Yep For years, for years.

Speaker 1: 30:16

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:16

My dad loved the comics. He never missed the comics in the paper. My dad too. Yeah, we would share them often.

Speaker 1: 30:23

Yeah, and so I think what has happened over the years and years and years is this word repentance has brought with it this sign of fire and brimstone, and you're going to be punished and you're an awful person and God's really mad at you.

Speaker 2: 30:41

Yeah, in contrast to the beautiful invitation that we've been talking about, right, right. So I mean, what really is repentance according to God's point of view, his words, what we read, what he has chosen for us to read in the Bible, it's realignment, it's relational, it's realignment with the one who knows you, who loves you and restores you. Like you said, the end of the process of repentance is something new. That's beautiful something new.

Speaker 1: 31:22

That's beautiful, beautiful, and I just have to insert here that we, at Revelation Within, and prior to that, thin Within, use a tool called Look and Learn. And really it's confession and repentance Learning from my mistakes by going to God and saying what could I do differently in the future, so that, if all things are equal in a similar situation, I make a choice that honors and glorifies you and is life-giving for me. That is what repentance is. So look and learn. When we talk about the look and learn mind renewal tool, that's really what we're talking about. It's taking God's thoughts and thinking them, about my failure, about my sin, about my slips, stumbles, falls, all of it, and then asking him what can I learn from this, what can I do differently?

Speaker 1: 32:09

And boy, when God is given a chance to author, here's what you want to do differently, here's what you should think differently. It's going to be good. It's going to be good. It's not going to be self-deprecating, it's not going to be.

Speaker 1: 32:23

No, god doesn't want us to feel condemned, he doesn't, no matter what teacher tells you otherwise or has told you otherwise. And really, when it comes to the issue that has brought a lot of people to our ministry food and eating and body size and all of that. It's like do I really think that my body size or shape or the way I eat is more important to God than my heart? He wants relationship with me, and it doesn't mean that I won't be transformed or changed physically, but what it means is the motivation is different. Rather than fear of punishment, perfect love casts out fear, and that perfect love causes me to oh Lord, here's my heart, here are my passions, here are my desires, and I want to make choices that align with you, lord, not with my own little petty way of numbing out or whatever it might be.

Speaker 2: 33:24

Right? Well, because when we feel that way, when we're going deep with him, we don't want the counterfeit comforts, we don't even want them, we don't even desire them, we know they will fall short. It's when we're in that other place where we're not talking with him, we're not being real with him, we're not feeling our feelings, we're not asking him for his thoughts, renewing our mind.

Speaker 2: 33:46

That's when we want to go for the counterfeits right, you know, because we're feeling such a void and it's like I need to feel better, and so I'm just going to go for the quick fix. Right and then it doesn't last but more than a few seconds and then we feel bad again and we're in that cycle of shame and guilt. That's not what this is Not at all Right. Think of David's example. He did this so well. I mean, he messed up really a lot, like it was. It was a big mess up. It was like a whole series of gigantic mistakes, right.

Speaker 1: 34:21

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:22

I mean, that's me, that's you, that's everybody. You know we are being invited into God's presence to be restored. Every time we look and learn, and that's beautiful. I mean, heidi, I know that you and me, the two of us we use look and learn pretty much every single day. And it's a life giving rhythm and it becomes a part of your relationship with the Lord. That is beautiful.

Speaker 1: 34:53

You don't want to miss it.

Speaker 2: 34:55

Because it's so good, yeah, it's so good.

Speaker 1: 34:58

Right. So over the years, as we've mentioned so far, we've heard people say I think I've let God down. My eating is off the rails and I just I'm sure I've disappointed him. Well, here we are in scripture that shows us David did unthinkable things. He didn't just overeat the Twinkies, or whatever it might be.

Speaker 2: 35:20

Do they still make Twinkies? I was just going to say, do they still exist? Well, they exist on people's shelves because of their long shelf life, right.

Speaker 1: 35:30

Anyway, we know David did unthinkable things and yet God restored him, and it wasn't just because he was King David. I mean, we don't want to say, well, that doesn't count for me because I'm not a king or something. God doesn't see that. He sees that you are his and he loves you and he loves me. So, even though David did unthinkable things, unspeakable things, really, god restored him, not because David earned it, but because he returned to the Lord, he confessed, and repentance is really and truly the door to joy.

Speaker 2: 36:10

It really is it's not scary, it's not scary. Is it's not scary? It's not scary, it's holy, it really is Okay. So we've got a beautiful breath prayer for you that might really help you to enter into this, to say yes to this invitation. We're going to inhale and say created me. And we're going to exhale and say a clean heart, oh God. So those are the words from the story, just absolutely beautiful. So take a take. Let's just take a deep breath right now and kind of get into that place of calming our bodies and let's go ahead and inhale and say create in me, inhale, create in me, exhale a clean heart, oh God.

Speaker 2: 37:10

Beautiful, let's do that again. Inhale. Beautiful, let's do that again. Inhale. Create in me, exhale A clean heart.

Speaker 1: 37:28

Oh God, beautiful, Beautiful, yay. Well, we've got some reflection questions for you, too, that you can ponder or journal about when you have a minute. Is there an area in your life where you might be resisting repentance? Okay, and what we're talking about is not feeling bad.

Speaker 1: 37:50

We're talking about acknowledging that you've stepped outside of God's best, of where you might have embraced something that is life depleting, instead of his will, his way, which is life giving. So is there an area in your life where you've been resisting repentance, been resisting repentance? Excellent question, yeah, it is, and I'm. I'm hearing the Lord tell me that. Okay, heidi, how are you doing with your spending and saving?

Speaker 2: 38:24

You know and that's.

Speaker 1: 38:27

I tend to be rather flippant, and I think it's the flippancy that he wants me to be more aware of. I think it's the flippancy that he wants me to be more aware of. Yeah, do you have something that comes to mind?

Speaker 2: 38:36

I do, I do. I feel like God is asking me what voices are you listening to that are not mine.

Speaker 1: 38:46

Ooh, you see how life-giving this is. Yeah, I don't want to listen to voices other than the Lord's. They're accusing I had, right before we started recording this, I had a voice hit me, uh, in a text, in the form of a text from a really wonderful friend, and it just threw me. But I know and I was able to say this in a response I have a clean conscience about the thing that the person confronted me about. I know I have honored God and that's the voice that matters the most. It sure is.

Speaker 2: 39:24

Yes, okay. Second reflection what would it look like to return to God's kindness, not punishment? Can you even just kind of imagine it? Imagining opening that invitation, imagining Jesus right there with you, imagine the kindness in his eyes? What would it look like to return to that, to God's kindness, not punishment? Imagine what that would look like.

Speaker 1: 40:02

I love that.

Speaker 2: 40:03

Yeah, that feels really good. That feels like a place that I want to be yeah.

Speaker 1: 40:09

And then there's a third question Are there words from Psalm 51 that you want to pray today as your own? And we did that breath? Prayer created me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me might be part of that, or restore to me the joy of your salvation. That might be another one that we want to pray and, oh my goodness, the whole Psalm 51, open it up and have a look and pray through it. It can be a beautiful way to renew your mind and bring to the Lord things that he wants you to bring to him.

Speaker 2: 40:46

Yes.

Speaker 1: 40:48

Well, friend, repentance is not a detour in your faith. It's the way back to joy. Let's not run from it. Let's run to the one who already sees and still chooses to lavish us with his mercy and his love and his kindness. That leads us to repentance, woo.

Speaker 2: 41:11

So, whether your story is like David's or completely different, well, I mean it might be.

Speaker 1: 41:19

Yeah, yeah that's true.

Speaker 2: 41:20

It's probably a little bit different. Whatever your story is, god invites your whole heart, and he meets broken hearts with mercy that restores. He wants to restore you back to joy.

Speaker 1: 41:36

And if you want to hear more teaching like this, if you want to be supported by others who are experiencing growing closer to God and restoring intimacy with him through repentance. Our month of September is a focus on turning seasons, turning hearts, and we are. We are doing this very thing. We are spending time looking with the Lord and our hearts and at him and his desire for us. So join us, visit revelationwithinorg and it will tell you all about what's going on in the month of September.

Speaker 1: 42:15

If you're hearing this, after September of 2025, we probably still have the training audios and still have the videos recordings. It's a full month for us. We have audio recordings every day and we have a once a week video gathering in Zoom. And you get the first month free and, yes, if you know you can't afford to continue after that, you are welcome to enjoy the free month anyway. Absolutely and I'm not just saying that because I want to have you come you do have to give your credit card, because that's the way the system we're using is wired. It's not what we prefer, but it's what is required by them. So just just know, there's no shame. We want you to be our guests for a month and if September works for you I know we're already into the almost at the end of the first week of September when we're recording this and probably by the time you hear it it will be mid SeptemberSeptember. But come join us anyway, you can get in on October.

Speaker 2: 43:15

Come join us anyway. Yeah, definitely, we are just absolutely so glad that you've been here, absolutely, and we hope that you'll join us for our next podcast at Revelation Within on the go Go, we will see you next time. Bye for now. Hope to see you in the community the go.

Speaker 1: 43:37

We will see you next time. Hope to see you in the community. Revelationwithusorg Come join us.

Speaker 2: 43:41

Bye-bye.