Everything related to us has to be turned: our study, schooling, marriage, family life, relationships with friends, relationships with relatives, spending of money, clothing, thinking, decisions, motives, intents, and every other thing. Everything related to us within and without must be turned to God. This is the real meaning of repentance. We must have a thorough change in our life, a U-turn in our whole life. In the preaching of the gospel, we all have to learn the lesson to help people take this kind of U-turn.

How much we repent depends on how much we have turned. Some Christians indeed have a certain kind of repentance, but they turn only a little; they have only a little change. A brother may have some change, but to what degree? Has he turned 45 degrees, 90 degrees, or 180 degrees? Some turn a full 360 degrees, turning around to be the same as before. We need a 180 degree turn, a real U-turn back to God. How much we are able to help others depends on how much we have turned, that is, how much we have repented. We should not complain if the new converts are not strong in the spiritual life. We have to criticize ourselves. It is hard for weak parents to bring forth strong children. The health of the children depends very much on the parents. In the matter of gospel preaching, we all have to learn and be dealt with.

I worship the Lord in these days because I realize that not only are the brothers and sisters doing the work of preaching, but they are being dealt with by the Lord and learning the lessons. If a brother quarrels with someone, can he go out after that to preach the gospel? If a brother lies to someone during the day, can he preach the gospel in the evening? His power will be gone, and his mouth will be shut up by his lie. His conscience knows, and the evil spirit knows. When he goes to open his mouth to testify for Jesus, the enemy will say, “You are a liar,” and his mouth will be shut. In order to preach, you have to confess your sins. You have to deal with your lies, and you have to be dealt with by the Lord in this very specific matter. Then your conscience will be clean. You will have the freedom, and you will have the boldness to say something for Christ.

To preach the gospel requires us to be dealt with. It is easy to be used by the Lord to speak a word of edification, but it is not easy to speak a word of preaching. If you are going to preach the gospel, you have to be dealt with by the Lord. How can you help someone to repent with a 180 degree turn if you do not turn in this way? It is impossible to have only a 45 degree turn and ask people to have a 180 degree turn. If we ourselves have not turned to such a degree, how can we help people to repent? However, if we cannot help people to turn 180 degrees back to God, we have done a poor job of preaching. We have to help people to have a full, thorough repentance toward God.

Many people when they repented have said, “Lord, from this day my thoughts turn to You. My family life turns to You. My business, my job, my schooling, my friendships, even my driving, and everything turn to You. Whatever I have, whatever I do, whatever I can do, and whatever I am, I turn all these to You.” As a person believing in Christ, you have to do this. Otherwise, something dirty or sinful in the eyes of God still remains in you. That poisons the Christian life. You have to clear up what you have been, what you have been doing, and how you have been living. This is a real and thorough repentance.

This kind of repentance is an uprooting. It uproots you from this sinful world. Our life and living have been too rooted in this sinful world. Now we have to uproot our living out of this world. Real repentance is an uprooting out of this earth, out of this sinful world. We need such a repentance toward God, and we need to help others to realize such a repentance.
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