MERRY FRIDAY BY PARRIS BAILEY
Acts 3:19 Amplified Bible – “So repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, regret past sins] and return [to God—seek His purpose for your life], so that your sins may be wiped away [blotted out, completely erased], so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord [restoring you like a cool wind on a hot day]”
THE PASSION BIBLE SAYS; “Peter uses the Greek word epistrepho (“turn back to God,” “be converted”). We need to not only repent but to return home to God’s grace and truth. This is a Hebraic thought of returning to the Lord God (the Hebrew word shuv). Every Jew would know what that means: “Come back to God!” Repentance and return is more than a passive changing of one’s mind.”
There were 400 silent years between the two testaments. When the pages open in the NT out bursts John the Baptist with the message of “turning back”! The Fire Bible says, “The first call of the kingdom is to repentance. The implications of biblical repentance are threefold: renunciation and reversal, submission and teachability and continual shape-ability.”
I believe biblical repentance is something that never goes away in our Christian walk. Evan Roberts in the Walsh Revival coined the words “bend us”! Forever bend us becomes our war-cry!
AFTER REPENTANCE COMES REFRESHING -This word refreshing is the word anapsuxis in the greek new testament means; a recovery of breath, that is, (figuratively) revival: – properly to cool off, relieve; refresh; breathing space …..restitution and the restoration of all things.”
As the book of Acts lays out, refreshing follows repentance, I love that. How precious is that! As we allow God to shape us he will bring restitution and restoration of all things. Who doesn’t want that? Repentance becomes the gateway to breakthrough!
BOLDNESS!
“And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” Acts 4:31
Strongs define boldness, parrhēsia; as outspokenness, unreserved utterance, freedom of speech, frankness, candor, cheerful courage, and the opposite of cowardice, timidity, or fear. Here it denotes a divine enablement that comes to ordinary and unprofessional people exhibiting spiritual power and authority. It also refers to a clear presentation of the gospel without being ambiguous or unintelligible. Parrhēsia is not a human quality but a result of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
From repentance to refreshing the Holy Spirit steps in and fills us with divine boldness. Boldness carries with it the idea of being open, up front, and in plain sight. A bold person is never in hiding. So let’s step into our Christian walk to its fullest. Forever walking in shape-ability, forever allowing his presence to refresh us, and then lastly allowing the Holy Spirit to bring boldness into our lives to lift up our voices, to change the world!