TAKING THE SHEPHERDING WAY
TO PREACH THE GOSPEL AND REVIVE THE CHURCH

SERIES Two
The Outflow of the Vital and Revived Living—
Preaching the Gospel by Visitation Weekly

Message Two
The Prayer of Repentance and Confession

Scripture Reading:

Acts 8:2        Repent therefore from this wickedness of yours and beseech the Lord if perhaps the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

1 John 1:7    But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.

WHY WE HAVE TO KEEP OUR REPENTING PRAYER CONTINUOUSLY

A number of Christians think that as long as they believe in the Lord everything will be all right. They believe that Christ is their righteousness regardless of what sinful and worldly things they do. Such Christians, needless to say, are very loose and unhealthy. They have never seen, especially in the New Testament, that there will be a time of discipline for the loose Christians. The New Testament says that the unfaithful, loose Christians, at the Lord’s coming back, will be cast into outer darkness (Matt. 8:12; 25:30). Some may wonder how we believers who have been saved could be thrown into outer darkness. If we are walking, living, and behaving ourselves in darkness today, how could we hope that in the coming age the Lord will bring us directly into glory? The Bible is not a sugar-coated book. It is full of warnings. The book of Hebrews has five big warnings (2:1-4; 3:7-4:13; 5:11-6:20; 10:19-39; 12:1-29). We need to be vitalized so that we can be brought on to maturity to receive the Lord’s reward in the next age instead of His discipline. This is why we have to keep our repenting prayer continuously.

The Way to Be Vitalized Being to Be Stirred Up
in the First Love for the Lord through Repenting Prayers

We need to go to the Lord individually to be stirred up in the first love for the Lord through repenting prayers. We need to make a thorough confession to the Lord. In our time with the Lord, we may say with tears, “Lord, I repent. I’m so sinful and dirty.” I have been practicing this for close to seventy years. We all have to learn the lesson in our prayer not to teach the Lord. Mostly we should not ask the Lord to do something for us. Instead, we should cry out desperately from the depths of our being, “Lord, I’m sinful! I need You, Lord.” The Bible even says that some beat their breast when they made their confession to the Lord (Luke 18:13).

Every sinner who gets saved should repent. There are many degrees of people’s repentance: Some repent shallowly and superficially. Others repent more deeply. Still others repent to the uttermost in a desperate and thorough way from the depths of their being. They may even beat their breast or roll on the floor while they are repenting and confessing to the Lord.

In the preaching of the gospel, we need to get people convicted and subdued. The ones who get saved should have the sensation and realization that they are sinful and need the Lord’s forgiveness. When an unbeliever prays with sincerity, “Oh, Lord, I am sinful,” this means he is being touched by the Lord. The way to be vitalized is to be stirred up in the first love for the Lord through repenting prayers.

If There Is Any Prayer without Repenting,
The Prayer Being Nearly in Vain

Repenting prayer is a particular kind of prayer which we must keep continuously. If there is any prayer without repenting, that prayer is nearly in vain. Medical doctors tell us that we should always wash our hands before eating. In the same way, we should not pray without repenting. Praying without repenting is like eating without washing our hands. Even if we do not lose our temper or speak evil words, we are still sinful. So when we come to pray, to take the spiritual food, we have to wash our hands, and to wash our hands is to repent. We should say, “Lord, I still need Your forgiveness, and I still need Your cleansing with Your precious blood.” Then we can pray.

We all need some particular time to repent so that we can pray. The degree to which we can pray depends upon the degree to which we have repented.…So quite often when you repent for yourself, you have to repent for the church. Do not forget the church, because you are one with the church. If you are dirty, surely your church is dirty.

A GENUINE AND THOROUGH
REPENTANCE AND CONFESSION

A genuine repentance means that you are under a kind of constant condemnation to such an extent that you realize you are nothing but a constitution of sin, transgressions, trespasses, mistakes, wrongdoings, and offenses. When you make a thorough confession, you will realize that you are a constitution of the flesh, the old man, the natural man, the world, and Satan. You will find out that the more you confess, the more you have to confess. It will seem that the dirt can never be cleared away. A thorough confession may take two weeks.…Have you ever made a thorough confession before God? Just to go to the Lord for five minutes to tell Him, “Lord, I am sinful; I repent,” might be a kind of repentance, but that is not a thorough repentance.…The real confession, the real repentance, according to my experience, has no ending. We are a heap of sin. Our constitution is sin. How then could we finish our confession?

We should not think that we can finish our confession. The whole Christian life, on the negative side, is a life of confession. Every day and every moment we have to confess. Whenever we open up our mouth to pray, we should not say a word before confessing. After our confession, we are still sinful.…In the same way, we need to confess frequently day by day. We need to have such a thorough repentance and confession.

Our Needing to Repent and Confess
throughout the Day and Every Day

If you ask me how many times we should repent and confess, my answer is that the number of times is countless. We need to repent and confess throughout the day and every day. In a general way, we should first pray, “Lord, I still need Your forgiveness of grace. I still need Your cleansing with Your blood. Lord, particularly, I need Your forgiveness for my not walking strictly in the Spirit for the whole day.” This is a particular confession. Sometimes at the end of the day, I can recall that I was not in the Spirit in certain matters. Romans 8:4 says that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in those who walk according to spirit. Do you have the assurance that all day you do everything in the Spirit? I must tell you that no one can do this. But you can pray a prayer of repentance. No one can always keep his hands thoroughly clean, but he can wash his hands. We need a continuous washing in the precious blood of Christ (1 John 1:7). (The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups, msg. 4)

Going to the Lord Again and Again
until You Get the Enlightenment and Are Exposed in His Light

You must have a time to go to the Lord. You must go to the Lord again and again until you get the enlightenment and are exposed in His light. If you come to Him, He will expose you, and you will repent and confess. Then you will be brought into His intimate fellowship. This will make you vital. To be vital is not a matter of shouting some slogans or of carrying out some movement. To hear the fellowship concerning the vital groups and then to go to do it in ourselves is a movement. It means nothing. Only one thing counts for you to contact the Lord by yourself. To do it with anyone else will be a frustration to you.

You should not go to get a companion before going to the Lord. You must have a start by going to the Lord until He enlightens you, until He shines on you. Then you will fully realize where you are and what you are. Spontaneously, you will begin to repent by saying, “Lord, I am dead.” While you are saying you are dead, the Lord will say, “You are dead because you are sinful. You are dead because you are dirty and filthy.” The Lord will shine on you and show you that you are like a person buried under the earth with layer upon layer of dirt. You have to get out of that by making a thorough and detailed confession to the Lord so that you can be forgiven, washed, and released to emerge from the depths of your fall. This thorough repentance and thorough confession will bring you into an intimate fellowship with the Lord. (The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups, msg. 8)