Experience
God’s Presence
by Repentance with Joy!
Receive
and “abide” in the presence of God by understanding with your
mind, AND by teaching your heart to think differently
about earthly things and about your being able to freely receive the
presence of God by believing He is drawing near, because of His grace!
You Can
Grow Even in Difficult Areas
because You
Can Taste Heaven Now!
Of Definitions
and a Deeper Christian Life
This site shows HOW
TO repent by training your heart to joyfully trade earthly dependencies
for receiving God’s presence
intensely by His grace. The principles you find here are effective
for idolatry of the heart and unwanted behaviors! It
is intended as a practical way for you to experience the deeper Christian
life.
Repentance is more than just
what you do after you do something wrong. Repentance is a biblical
practicean activity that describes something you can do for great
personal growth and change.
In biblical terms,
repentance means to change your mind about sin and about God. More simply
stated “repentance with joy” means to change how you
think and to feel joy because of it. The word
repentance is used most of the time where we are to change our mind
after sin. But in my search I saw this verse: “…If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods…from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord…He will deliver you…”
(1 Sam. 7:3). To me, “directing our heart toward God,” sounds like
a repentance where we “change our mind”
about sin and about God, BEFORE we do something wrong.
So on this website and in my
books, I use the word
“repentance” in a broad sense rather than the strict definition. I
do that because repentance is the word that most accurately describes what
you get when you try to fit everything together that the Bible says about
growth toward God. It is in that sense that I am saying we should repent.
The way I see it, we are to
repent so as to remove the obstacles that keep us from
abiding in Christ. Doing this, involves getting our heart to hear the truth of the
scriptures so that God can use His word to change us from the inside out. Much
with us has to change but thinking about repentance this way makes
actually doing it realistic.
Deep level change isn’t going to
happen just because you know something in your head. Being effective at
“changing your mind” requires taking steps to train your heart
that it is right, good, and safe to turn and draw near to God. You
have to take steps to calm your fears and build your faith. You have
to become a teacher and your own heart has to become your student. By
this, you can change from the inside out.
Mostly, this site is for
Christians who want to experience God’s presence more fully and
intensely. It is for Christians who want to “abide in Christ” in
a deeper way. But it is not just for Christians because the
information here is practical for those who want freedom from unwanted
behaviors. These principles are effective and work well.
Repentance
should be as important a practice to your Christian life as prayer or
reading the Bible. It can help you just as much.
The Benefits
of Repentance
The benefits of repentance are
many. The Bible says, “…repent and return, so that your sins may
be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing
may come from the presence of the
Lord” (Acts 3:19).
The benefits of repentance are
that you find freedom from unwanted and sinful behaviors, damaging
pursuits, harmful reactions, long term addictions, co-dependence. You
even find freedom from subtle sins of the heart. But that isn’t
all.
You also experience a
“refreshing” from the “presence of the Lord.” By
repenting so as to experience God’s presence, your single-hearted love and
devotion toward God will increase greatly. Abiding in Christ becomes
realistic. The deeper Christian life becomes practical. This site shows you how.
Abiding in
Christ
When I talk about repentance it
is always a repentance that is toward abiding in Christ. By
“abiding” I believe the Bible means we are to stay inside the
presence of God. Christians have Christ inside them but we are also
told to “abide in Him.” I think this means we are to stay inside
the radiant presence of Christ — 24 hours-a-day. By this we “…walk
in the Light as He Himself is in the Light…” (1John 1:7).
To me, abiding in the presence
of God is the same thing as abiding in the presence of the kingdom of
God.
We abide in Christ by repentance
that removes obstacles so we can draw near to
God, learn to stay there, and learn to let Him draw near and
stay near to us. Understanding your thirsty desires for God and how to
repent makes abiding in Christ realistic for anyone. Everything that I
write is toward this end.
Drinking From
God
On this website and in the
ebooks I use the words “drinking from God” to also mean
“feeding” on Him. To me drinking from God is the same thing as
receiving His presence or letting God draw near to us.
Learning to drink from God is
important because without learning to actually receive His presence we
can’t abide in Christ. It is by learning to keep on drinking like a branch
on a tree that we abide inside the presence of God all the time. Doing
this is realistic for you.
On this website and in the ebooks
I explain how we drink from earthly things and how you can reapply those
same principles to God. I explain these things in practical ways so that
you can do them.
Why You Can
Change
We
keep doing what we don’t want to do because of the “benefits” we
gain from the behavior. Even though the behavior may hurt us
greatly, it reassures us, makes us feel strong, or secure in some way.
Repentance
lets you trade earthly dependencies for God’s presence! The reason you can
change is because of God’s abundant grace to draw near to you!
When
God’s presence pours through you, your longings are filled more deeply and
more pleasurably than anything this life has to offer.
Do
you have a behavior you want to change? Repenting
by turning to God as what reassures you and soothes you when you hurt.
Doing so can help you grow even in areas that have been difficult for you
to change!
Are
you a Christian who doesn’t have any major or obvious sins? This site can
help you experience God’s presence more fully. It will help you understand
and repent of the hidden idolatry of your heart. It is just that
the benefits of deep level repentance are so great, that it corrects more
obvious sins too.
The Whole
Thing in Three Sentences
The repentance that I will help
you with is the path to the deeper Christian life. It is a repentance that
changes your behavior because it changes how you think in your heart.
I will be teaching you how to
joyously repent from seeking to receive earthly glory for yourself to a
place of seeking and receiving the presence of God. I will be teach you practical ways
of how you can actually receive the kingdom of God and abide in Christ
here.
Everything that I write about is
“to the end that we…would be to the praise of His glory” (Eph
1:12). Doing that means that we first have to repent from living to the
praise of OUR glory.
Why You Need this
Information
You
need the information on this site because it isn’t obvious how to
direct your heart away from earthly sources and toward Godour fears,
hurts, and
disbelief are too great.
Most
Christians today are not even conscious of when they are working to fill
their longing for God apart from Him. If you were aware, it is also likely
that you would try to repent in ways that would be ineffective and
damaging. I will show how you can be effective at removing
the obstacles preventing you from turning and drawing near to God.
It is time for radical change! You
need instruction and you need the Heart-training the areas in your heart that need to be
addressed are deep and well hidden. This site will show you how
to turn to God in ways that are more complete than what you may have ever
thought was even possible. You can enjoy a deeper Christian life!
Not Everything is Free
I give a lot of instruction here but I don’t
give away the material that I call Heart-training. You will have to buy
that.
Are
you in a country where online purchases are difficult or impossible?
Then email me and I can give you the Heart-training for free. For the rest
of you please support this ministry by purchasing the
materials.
Regardless of how you get the Heart-training please
don’t dismiss the importance of the Heart-training in your pilgrimage with
God.
Why You Can
Repent With Joy!
Jesus endured the cross for the
joy set before Him (Heb. 12:2). We should follow His example.
Repent with joy because of God’s
grace to draw near to you without His holding back! Rejoice your heart to
believing that when you draw near to God, He will draw near to you
(James 4:8)!
More is realistic and possible!
The practical reasons you can repent and turn more fully to God are
because of His grace. The earthly substitutions we make for God are
always close to us. You can repent because God wants to be God to you. He
wants to be close to you, intensely!
The Bible tells us, “And
without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must
believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him”
(Heb. 11:6). The faith that pleases God believes that when you come near
to God, He rewards you with His presence by also drawing near to you!
Earthly substitutions for
God’s presence are totally unnecessary. You
just need to learn how to work with your heart until you find freedom to
act because of greater faith trust toward God.
By
applying the principles and using the tools given here, you can experience
God’s presence flowing around and through you 24 hours-a-day!
Don’t be alarmed by the amount
of material you find on this site. Large portions of 3 eBooks are on these
pages. If you get frustrated by not remembering what you have read and
what you haven’t, you may find it easier to go to the books and materials
page and down load this information in book form.
It will take effort on your part
to direct your heart toward God, but you can do it! I will show you how.
You Can
experience a deeper Christian life!
Would you like me to teach at
your church or gathering? Contact me by email. I
would like to speak to your group about “How to Love God More.”
barry@tasteheavennow.net
