Admit, Repent, Accept

Our featured writer today is Ryan Burchett

"Remember, the fire must be kept burning on the altar at all times. It must never go out." Leviticus 6:13

Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV) says, 21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
Those are some very powerful words spoken by our Savior, but they are far too often overlooked, I’m afraid. This passage is speaking of false converts, which upon further thought, makes the ‘80% of church-goers’ statistic not as outrageous as it seemed from first glance. This explains why the ‘holy fire’ seems absent in our churches these days.
Our churches have settled for a false teaching of the gospel, which teaches that ‘Jesus is ONLY your Savior and that Jesus’ sole purpose of dying on the cross for your sin was to bring you PEACE, JOY, and COMFORT in a stressful and chaotic world.’ This is not to say that having Jesus as your Savior will not bring you these things, but they are brought about on a spiritual scale, not a physical one.

In the TRUE gospel message, there are 3 things that must happen for true conversion: 1. Admittance of sin,
2. REPENTANCE from sin, and 3. Accepting Jesus as your LORD and Savior. Why are the words REPENTANCE and LORD emphasized there? Because to have the one, true holy fire within you, you must truly be saved. And, to truly be saved, you must admit your sin, TURN AWAY FROM that sin, and then accept Jesus as LORD and Savior. The gospel message today has left out these 2 main ingredients, which explains the high number of false converts and the lack of ‘holy fire’ within our churches. There is an admittance of being a sinner and there is an admittance for needing a Savior but there is no repentance…there is NO TURNING AWAY FROM the old sinful life and if there is no turning away from the old sinful life, then Jesus CANNOT be the LORD of your life.

To obtain the true ‘holy fire’…..to truly be saved…..you must admit that you’re a sinner, REPENT from that sin (turn away from that old life), and ask Jesus to be the LORD of your life (everything in your life is His from this day forward). This is the true gospel message and this is how the true ‘holy fire’ is obtained