©October 4, 2013 Revive Israel Ministries

Fruits of Repentance

Asher Intrater

The message of the prophets of Israel could be summarized in one word, "Repent" (Isaiah 55:7, Jeremiah 25:5, Ezekiel 18:21, Hosea 14:2, Joel 2:13). Real repentance produces real results; those results are called "fruits."

Matthew 3:8, Luke 3:8
Bear fruits worthy of repentance.

Real repentance is rare; it's hard to find.  There are many kinds of false repentance.  Humanistic repentance says, "I'm sorry," but involves no real moral change.  Judaism tends to replace repentance with tradition.  Christianity tends to replace repentance with theology.

There is a difference between "gifts of the Spirit" (I Corinthians 12) and the "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5). The gifts of the Spirit are prophetic revelations and power.  The fruit of the Spirit is the Christ-like character and love.  The "fruit of repentance" is a third list or category altogether.

II Corinthians 7:10-12
Sorrow which is according to the will of God causes repentance which leads to salvation…
This sorrow has aroused in you diligence, a clearing of yourselves, indignation, fear, desire, zeal, eagerness to seek justice
… and your devotion to us.

These fruits of repentance are the reaction of a person's soul when he realizes he has sinned before a holy and all-powerful God. The human soul is filled with energy to seek to be "right" before God. This produces intense moral change in both attitudes and actions.

This fruit of repentance provides the basis for receiving grace and salvation from Yeshua (Mark 1:15, Acts 17:30) and the filling of the Holy Spirit (Proverbs 1:23, Acts 2:38).  Without the basis of real repentance, our spiritual life is hollow and hypocritical (Matthew 3:7-11).

Ariel Blumenthal

Luke 21:24 states “Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”   In 1967 Jerusalem came back under Jewish control for the first time in 2000 years.  
 
Today, a full generation has passed, and there are two significant new realities — both of which were expressed in our recent “Israeli-China Kingdom Destiny Sukkot Conference.”  First, the Messianic Jewish remnant in Israel has reached a certain size and stability, that we are now capable of being a legitimate “address” or “landing point” for the international Christian visitors.   

Secondly, in the last 40 years, the Holy Spirit has been at work in a special way in Asia.  In one generation, we have witnessed the largest revival in church history: today there are between 80-110 million believers in China, many with a keen understanding of Israel and of the end times.  
 
These two together represent an expression of the “fullness” of both Israel (Romans 11:12) and the Church (Romans 11:25).  We experienced this at our Sukkot conference: 130 Mainland Chinese together with 50 local Messianic (and Arab) leaders.  We had amazing times of worship, prayer, teaching, and fellowship—as the two bodies got to know each other.

There are varied responses from Israeli commentators as to whether Netanyahu's UN speech was effective politically-speaking.  On a spiritual level, it is worth noting that he quoted (directly or indirectly) the Bible 5 times.  That is probably more times that the Bible has been referred to from the main podium of the UN this year than all the other speeches put together.

1. "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" – Netanyahu claimed that the right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel goes back 4,000 years to the time of the patriarchs, not merely to the 20th century Zionism. Thus he used the Bible as a valid and authoritative document, relevant to today's conflict.
2. "Cyrus" – The Iranian (Persian) people have a long and positive relationship with the Jewish people; one notable example being King Cyrus (500 BC – II Chronicles 36:22); which precedes the first Islamic invasion into Persia (700 AD); and certainly the current regime, which took over Iran in 1979.
3. "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" – Whether intended or not, Netanyahu quoted the New Covenant scriptures (Matthew 7:15) from Yeshua's rebuke of false prophets. By inference, this labels Rouhani as a false prophet, and describes the current political crisis as a clash between true and false prophecy.
4. "Alone" – Numbers 23:9, Deuteronomy 32:8 & 33:28 state that Israel will dwell alone. It is astonishing that these scriptures find present-day application in Israel's standing "alone" before the UN in opposition to worldwide Islamic Jihad and terror.
5. "Never be uprooted" - Amos 9:14-15 speaks of Israel's resettlement of the land in the end times; and includes the divine promise that the people would not be uprooted again.  Netanyahu quoted this as to say that even if Iran has a nuclear weapon and all the nations of the world attack us, God will protect us.  

While it may be debated whether Netanyahu's speech was wise from a diplomatic point of view, it cannot be denied that the use of scriptures by the Prime Minister of the modern State of Israel to rebuke the United Nations for moral cowardice and delusion represents a paradigm shift of historic proportions.