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Grow in Christ by Repentance that

Helps You Experience God's Presence

An Overview of this Site!

This web site is for helping people to take steps to train their heart to trade earthly dependencies for the presence of God. More than anything else it is about a repentance that helps Christians to abide in Christ. 

Repentance isn't about being perfect! It is a lifestyle of making continual improvements because you never stop directing your heart to feed on God and not by earthly means.

This page is long because it is a reasonably complete overview of this entire website. (If this web page were single spaced it would be about 7 pages of paper. You will find it takes 18 sheets of paper if you print it out as it appears here.)

Many are longing to experience God’s presence more fully in our day. Even though Christians already have God’s presence, much more is possible.

How do we experience the outpouring of God that so many believe is possible? The Bible tells us, "...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). Christians need to repent. 

The problem is that we need to repent of things that are well hidden and deep things of the heart. As a result, I don’t expect you to understand what I am saying right at the start so please bear with me while I explain.

The church today is not experiencing what is readily available to each one of us. The promise to God’s people is that when we draw near to Him He will draw near to us. Jesus also told us to come to Him and drink, repeatedly. He said that a river of the Holy Spirit’s presence could flow out from inside of us as a result. The Bible also tells us to come to Him and to delight ourselves in an abundance! We are not taking God at His word. 

We began by receiving Christ by faith in God’s grace for salvation. We have not continued in the same way. We need to repent in ways that make it possible for us to deeply trust the abundance of His grace to draw near.

We have to come to God believing His grace to lavish His presence on us. The Bible says, "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 does not waver—it believes that when we come near to the Lord, God will reward us with His presence in accordance with the abundance of His grace.

Many are longing for God to come us intensely. God is longing for us to come to Him. Many are getting desperate and doing everything they can deserving of His coming. God is waiting for us to stop living by faith in our "works" and start trusting the lavish nature of His grace. We are the ones holding back. The problem is with us. Not God.

The outpouring of God is available now. We need to repent in ways that give us freedom to obey God’s command to "come and drink." God is waiting for us!

All people everywhere have a driving desire for the presence of God. Mostly, this desire is unmet.

It is our "thirsty" desire for God's presence that drives our behavior, attitudes, our way of relating to people, even our reactions to undesirable circumstances. This topic is considered at length in the section called "Understand Yourself."  

The evidence of our unmet desire for God is clearly seen in our pursuit to acquire more possessions, our longings for beauty and perfection, our lust for power, our need for something that soothes us when we hurt, the ways we try to find refuge in a cave of depression, addictions, and unwanted behaviors of all kinds. Even the lure of sin is practical evidence of our unmet need for God’s presence.

You don't have to feed yourself with the power you feel from rebellious sin or damaging behaviors. You can turn to God and thrill your heart with His presence! 

Jesus told us to "abide in Him." We have His command and that is what we need. The practical evidence strongly suggests that we need God’s presence poured out upon us 24 hours-a-day. Anything less won’t be enough to give us real and steady freedom from earthly dependencies!

Why do we want God? Why are we thirsty for His presence? God is seeking worshipers so He designed all of us with a deep spiritual sense about the glory of what He is like. Deep inside all know something of the loftiness of His power, His wisdom, His majesty, and love. God also placed a "law" in our outer "flesh" that constantly reminds us that the glory of our humanity falls short and isn’t even close to the glory of what we know deep inside about God.

The result of our "spiritual awareness" about God—together with the "law," is a spiritual tension in us that is commonly understood as psychological, emotional, or self-esteem needs. The Bible calls it a thirsty need for God.

It makes us feel insecure and it hurts to have a deep sense about what God is like and to constantly be reminded that the glory of our humanity isn’t even close. The reason why we need to depend on something that makes us feel secure and confident is because of our deep and underlying need for the presence of God. Dependence is worship.

The reason we do what we don't want to do is because we are trying to ease the pain of our unquenched thirst for God. When we don't feed ourselves with the closeness of God's love and power, even rebellious sin can taste like glory to us. 

Repentance can help you change any behavior. It has to helps you turn and replace what you are getting out the unwanted behavior by enjoying God's presence lavished upon you by His grace.

The Bible says, "...Thus says the Lord God, ‘Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations" (Ezek. 14:6). Repentance is about riding ourselves of the idolatrous substitutions we make for God. To do that you need to understand that God is talking about much more than idols made of wood, gold, or stone.

The Bible says, "They will be held guilty, they whose strength is their god" (Hab. 1:11). God wants to be close enough to you to actually be your strength. The Bible also tells us, "...glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. 3:3). What makes you feel confident and strong? In every instance it is something close to us, something that is ours. We need to repent of the earthly ways we find confidence and feel strong. We need to repent so that we find freedom to receive God’s presence and trust His closeness as our strength and reason to feel confident.

God also wants to be close enough to you to be your refuge. The Bible says, "And He will say, 'Where are their gods, The rock in which they sought refuge...Let them rise up and help you, Let them be your hiding place! See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me'" (Deut. 32:37-39). In today’s terms, our repentance has to change us from earthly ways of finding security to where we are receiving from God and hiding ourselves in His presence.

God defines idolatry in terms of anything we depend on as a way to find refuge or feel strong.

What makes you feel confident and secure? Anything you depend on is close to you; your friends, what you control, the money in your pocket, what you do, how hard you work, your athletic abilities, your personality, your appearance, the approval you feel from others, how much you know. The earthly sources we depend on aren’t always bad. It is just that we can feed on these things as our strength or our refuge.

These kinds of earthly dependencies are idolatry of the heart. We have to repent so as to find freedom to trust grace and receive God’s presence. Depending on anything else is idolatry.

It is Not Selfish to Depend on God!

It is by God's intentional design that our thirst is so demanding. It is not selfish to depend on God as the one who quenches your thirst. 

God is seeking worshipers so He made our thirsty desires strong enough to force us all into worshiping something. 

We have to depend on God or a god. Dependence on anything for quenching our thirst is worship. We only have two choices! We have to turn and receive God's presence, or we have to turn to earthly sources and try to "receive glory" from them. 

It is not selfish to "die" to earthly sources and be utterly dependent on the grace of God to feed you with His presence.  

Life is a test about who and what we will worship—who and what we will depend on to quench our thirst. Evil exists because God is seeking "true worshipers." He wanted to give us a choice to try and quench our thirst another way.  

You can trust that God will meet you where you need it because God defines His being your God as His being close to you! 

It is not selfish for you to to be utterly dependent on receiving from the radiance that shines from God's face. 

Repent From "Works" to Grace 

Why don’t God’s people take advantage of our access to God and drink? Why don’t we believe God’s grace to lavish His presence upon us? We are in deep and hidden bondage to something the Bible calls "works." 

Jesus explained when He said, "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God" (John 5:44)? We are in disbelief and are not receiving from God because we are working to "receive glory" from earthly sources. 

Our God has great glory. But to a much lesser degree than God, the Bible says that earthly sources have a glory of their own. A woman's hair. Wining in battle. Being king. Wealth.   

We know about the loftiness of God. We also know that the glory of our humanity doesn’t compare. But rather than thrilling our hearts with glory of God by His grace, we live by faith in the glory we "receive" from what we achieve and how well we perform.

The substitutions we make are that we live by faith in the glory we think we achieve—in every aspect about what God is like. Rather than God’s power, we feed ourselves with the evidence we find that we have power apart from God.

Rather than "drink" like a branch and abide in the love of God, we live by faith in the acceptance and approval we think we sense from other people.

We could thrill our hearts with the closeness of God’s sovereign presence but instead of that, we find our security and strength by faith in the control we think we have apart from God.

Paul said that our adequacy is from God. Instead of that, we live by faith in the adequacy we feel from what we do and how much we accomplish.

It is realistic for all of us to quench our thirst with the closeness of God’s goodness. King David said, "But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge..." (Psa. 73:28). Instead of that, we do something good and then we feed ourselves from the glory of the goodness we think we have achieved.

Rather that thrill our hearts with the closeness of God’s beauty, we work at how we appear until we achieve a sense of having glory of ourselves.

King David also said, "I love You, O Lord, my strength" (Psa. 18:1). But rather than depend on the closeness of God’s strength, we work at finding evidence of our being strong and then we feed ourselves with that. Earthly sources are incapable of supplying what we need. Damaging misuse of human power is rampant as a result.

Repent of "Works" to Experience God's Grace!

We need to repent of our "works" approach to drinking by earthly means. But that isn't all. 

Working hard at finding earthly substitutions for God has blinded us to believing the grace of God to draw near to us intensely. We also have to repent of our "works" approach to experiencing God's presence.

Believing we should have to "deserve" what we receive from God—whether forgiveness, love, or His presence with us—results in combinations of pride and fear that keep us distracted from God, pursuing earthly things, and also makes us afraid to be intimately close to the Lord. The resulting pride and fear keeps us living by faith in our own efforts to deserve what we receive from God and not by faith in His grace. Without realizing, we have transferred the ways we live in the natural realm to the ways we relate to God.

What happens when you think about your being able to experience God's presence? Do you feel fear? Hopelessness? Shame? Discouragement? A greater desire to commitment yourself to working harder? Do you look at other spiritual Christians and think, "I'll never make it?" All of these things are evidence that your faith is firmly planted in yours "works" and not in God's grace. 

The pressure isn't on you to perform better in order to deserve God's presence! These are the kinds of thoughts you have to take captive and repent from! 

Repentance is the best word to describe what you get when you try to fit together all of what the Bible says about Christian growth. It is in that broad sense that I speak about "How to Repent."

Two things can increase our purity before God. Our part to direct our heart toward God, and God's part to cleanse us whenever we draw near to Him. 

Jesus endured His cross "for the joy set before Him" (Heb. 12:1,2). We need to follow His example. 

Our part of repentance is that we need to "change our mind." But changing our mind isn't where repentance ends. Repentance isn't effective unless it also improves our behavior. 

Since behavior flows from our heart it is our heart that has to change. Ultimately, it is only God who can change our heart. Even so, we need to do our part to cooperate with Him more fully. 

You can greatly effect your growth toward God because you can plant the truth as seed in your heart and water it (1 Cor. 3:6)! We need to change our mind about how we quench our thirst. The Psalmist didn't say he hid God's word in his mind. It was hiding God's word in his heart that helped him avoid sin. 

Let me say again that our thirst for God is the single most driving factor behind our behavior and pursuits. The problem is that we are "drinking" from earthly substitutions that relate to every aspect about what God is like. We are working to achieve a sense of having glory apart from God and we need to work with our heart until we can turn to God because of believing His grace to draw near to us freely. 

Repentance that works has to change what our heart believes and loves about how to best quench our thirsty desires. We have to honestly address the pride and the fear in us by getting our heart to "hear" the truth. We have to get our heart to hear that it is safe, good for us, and right to turn to God and let Him draw near to us.

When the way you quench your thirst changes, unwanted behaviors change. Damaging reactions improve—even reactions that happen before your mind has time to think. 

Our hearts have learned to "drink" from earthly glory we have achieved. That our interests earthly pursuits change is evidence that our hearts are still learning new ways to try and "drink." Because your heart is still learning, your heart can be re-trained to turn to God and drink. 

Thanks and praise for the truth are powerful for helping you to change what your heart hears and believes. 

Our problem is that our heart is hard and doesn't "hear" well. What we have learned has become so deeply ingrained that we need to take very specific steps in order to re-direct our heart toward God.

You have to learn to observe your "works" approach to receiving God's presence. Then you have to react to these things with thanks and praise that you don't have to live like this!

Get your heart to hear by great delight that it is because of grace that you don't have to worry about whether you have what it takes to receive God's presence intensely!

If there is any pressure on us it is that we need to learn to observe any hint of evidence in us that we are trying to receive God's presence by works. Then we need to get our heart to hear that we don't have to receive God's presence that way! 

We are holding back from God because of fear. We are distracted because of pride. We fear because we don’t believe we can achieve a sense of having glory apart from God. We pride ourselves because we think we can.

Grace is grace. Find rest for your soul by thrilling your heart that you don't have to earn or achieve God's presence. Work at resting into faith and an ever increasing trust in God's provision for you to draw near and receive His presence by His abundant grace.  

The Heart-training! Tool

Included on this site is a tool for repentance called Heart-training! The Heart-training! tool gives you specific steps for turning and directing your heart toward God—kindly, wisely, assertively, and with joy.

The basic pattern is that we will aim at earthly substitutions—related to what God is like, and we will use thanks and praise to get our heart to hear that we don't have to feed ourselves that way. Immediately following that we will be strongly reassuring our heart with truth about why we can turn to God, draw near, and receive His abundant presence by grace. 

I will be the first to admit that the long form of Heart-training! is not for everybody. Some will find it exactly what they need. Others will use it only to target specific areas they are trying to deal with. Some people want to know how to write their own heart-training statements. Still others require a way to direct their heart to God that is a reaction to the everyday circumstances of life. This website provides for all of these different approaches to directing your heart toward God.

Our backgrounds and personalities make us different. But the substitutions we make for God are all related to the attributes of God in some way. The idolatrous substitutions we we make are flavored by our personalities and our varying backgrounds, but basically we all are trying to find refuge, glory, and strength—apart from God. These similarities between us make a systematic approach to repentance powerfully effective.

Note that the four part section about how to get your heart to hear better is some of the most important on this site. Without this, your heart-training won’t be nearly as effective.

Beware that you don't think that by applying these principles to one area of sin you will have repented. What God wants is an entire change in our orientation toward Him. To do that, you are going to have to address weaknesses that are specific to you. I will show you how, but even more important than that, is that you are going to have to change from drinking by what you achieve to drinking by what you receive. Your repentance has to change the overall approach to how you are quenching your thirst or your repentance won't really change you. 

You will need to address specific areas of sin with heart-training. But plan on correcting the problem by changing from faith in glory you achieve, to faith in glory you receive.    

Repentance Will Work for You!

You can change even in difficult areas because biblical repentance replaces the emotional benefits from the unwanted behavior with the greater benefits of having God’s presence close and flowing through you—intimately and intensely close—24 hours-a-day. 

Heart-training helps God become the God of your heart because He becomes your first love—your greatest delight! Biblical repentance helps you grow faster because it helps you change from the inside out.

You can repent with courage and zeal because of the joy that is waiting for you, here and now by God's grace. Heart-training will help get your heart to hear that you don't have to be afraid to address your shortcomings because what your are turning your heart toward is dependence on God. 

Heart-training will help your heart to rejoice that you don't have to depend on your humanity for the sense of adequacy that you need. When God is your righteousness and your adequacy it with joy that you uncover and turn from having to depend on your human weaknesses.   

The obstacles can be removed! You can find freedom to receive from God! The scripture below describes what is realistic when you take steps to joyously smash away at the obstacles between you and God.

"Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges; You will thresh the mountains and pulverize them, and will make the hills like chaff. You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the storm will scatter them; but you will rejoice in the Lord, you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

     "The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst; I, the Lord, will answer them Myself, as the God of Israel I will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land fountains of water" (Isa. 41:15-18).

Repentance as I describe isn't going to happen over-night. But rapid and great spiritual growth can happen! The growth that might have taken you an entire lifetime can now happen in a few months to a year. 

Our repentance isn't complete until we have trained our heart to rest into freedom that allows us to draw near to God and receive His presence. We have to do that in order to replace what we are trying to receive from earthly sources. 

The Bible says we are already seated with Christ in heavenly places. But it also tells us to draw near to the throne of God. We have to come to God this way so that we can "drink." Think of "drinking" as being the same as "receiving." 

We can "come" and "drink" for two reasons. We can draw near to God because He has given us access to enter and draw near by the blood of Christ. We can drink/receive God’s presence because of His abundant grace to draw near to us.

Many are longing for God to come us. God is longing for us to come to Him. Many are getting desperate and doing everything they can deserving of His coming. God is waiting for us to trust His provision and His abundant grace. We are the ones holding back. The problem is with us. Not God.

You can drink from God because you already know how! Consider what it feels like inside when you do something kind, you know the right answer, someone smiles at you, or when you finish a big project. Inside we open up and a sense of well being floods over us. We "drink" often by thinking about these kinds of things—over and over again. These same principles can be reapplied to receiving God's presence! 

Even though you already know how how to "drink," you may find it difficult to do so. It is likely that you will have to be in repentance for a time before you find freedom from fear and your spiritual sensitivities and faith are built up enough to draw near and drink. Faith isn't something you can achieve. You have to fight with your disbelief until you rest into faith.  

The Bible tells us, "Has a nation changed gods When they were not gods? But My people have changed their glory For that which does not profit. ‘Be appalled, O heavens, at this, And shudder, be very desolate,’ declares the Lord. ‘For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water’" (Jer. 2 :11-13). We need to repent because we have traded the glory of God for the earthly glories that do "not profit." We have "forsaken" drinking from the "fountain of living waters" for earthly sources "that can hold no water." It makes heaven hurt.

Repentance means we change our mind about earthly ways of quenching our thirst. It also means we change our mind so that we find freedom to draw near to God and receive from the "fountain" and the "river" of God. 

The Bible says, "How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light" Psa. 36:7-9). It will help to understand more about how it all works.

Drawing near to God by entering the throne room is something we must do by faith. Heart-training helps you to work with your fears and your faith so that you find freedom to believe that God has given you access and has provided a way for you to draw near. It also helps to understand what you are drawing near and why you can be confident that God will also draw near to you.

When you walk in the rain or swim in a river you are going to get wet. The same is true with God. Let me remind you again that the verse above says that God gives us to "drink of the river...For with You is the fountain." 

Our access to enter before the Lord, in all His glory, is a spiritual activity that is very real. When you draw near, He draws near to you simply because of who and what you are drawing near.

The Bible says to believers that we receive the promise of the Spirit by faith. We receive grace by the shine from His face (Num. 6:23). The more you find freedom to believe the glory of your God, the more you believe your access to be inside the throne room, the more you are able to receive. 

When you draw near to God you are drawing near to a great and awesome fountain of the Father’s glory. Our Lord Jesus never stops radiating the glory of the Father. The river of God that comes down from before the throne never stops flowing. The crystal sea before God’s throne is real. God has provided these things in order to wash us as we draw near.

Heart-training is designed to help you find freedom to turn to God and receive from Him. 

You can help your heart to believe by thanks and praise that delights your heart about the glory and grace of your God. By learning to stay in the throne room you can experience God’s presence flowing around and through you intensely, 24 hours-a-day.

You Can Drink from God!

Is it hard to believe you could receive God’s presence like that? Don't worry about that for now!  

Take it by faith that you won’t be able to believe you can receive from God until you have taken steps to turn your heart from receiving glory by earthly means. The more so the better. 

Remember the verse I quoted earlier? Jesus said, "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God" (John 5:44)? 

Fasting from food helps us be more spiritually sensitive to God. In the same way, training your heart to fast from "receiving glory" from earthly sources is powerfully effective for helping you be more spiritually sensitive and better able to feast on God. Your effectiveness at "drinking" from the Lord is largely dependent on the steps you take to turn from earthly ways of quenching your thirst—apart from God. It is by this, that you can find freedom to believe. 

On Dealing with Shame and Expecting Some Fear

If you are normal, you may feel quite afraid right now. You have to expect some disbelief and fear along the way. Don't let yourself be discouraged by it just learn how to address it with heart-training. 

Earthly sources have hurt you. But it is time to train your heart to stop applying that same kind of thinking to God. Think of your fear as evidence of how desperately thirsty you are for God's presence. 

Do thoughts of drawing near to God fill you with shame and hopelessness? Heart-training is powerful for helping you to address the hopelessness. The shame you feel needs to be understood. 

Christians have been washed on the inside. The shame you feel may be caused by your disbelief about what God has already done for you on the inside. For this you need to understand God's provision and then you will need to take assertive steps to get your heart to believe it. 

Even more likely, is that the shame you feel is because you are looking at the weakness of your humanity in relation to the greatness of God. You need to learn to take advantage of God's provision for the outside of you.  

God needs vessels for His use that are clean inside and out. Take time in the section about shame to understand how God washes your body when you draw near. His provision is powerful for dissolving any reason for shame about drawing near to God. The real issue will be for you to work patiently and assertively to get your heart to believe it. I will show you how! 

It was God who designed you thirsty! It is right to depend on His grace to draw near. You don't have to hold back! Unleash all your addictive tendencies on receiving God's presence and enjoying His closeness!

You can find freedom to draw near to God and enjoy His radiant presence upon you! You can learn to address your fears and re-direct your affections so that you love looking at God's face! You can repent and turn to God because He can and He will quench your thirst with an abundance of His presence! 

Learn to work with where you are at any given moment. You can get your heart to hear why you don't have to be afraid! You can direct your heart to turn to God and draw near! You can do it! This web site is for showing you how.

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I am praying for the Lord's abundant blessing on your efforts to direct your heart toward Him.

Barry.

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(C) Barry Hall 1999

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Scriptures are taken from the updated NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1987, 1988, The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. 

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