If You Can’t Hear God’s Voice, This is For You

Some of you have seen the voice of God cut off in your life because you despised repentance. There are so many teachers in the body of Christ that are trying to say, don't repent, you don't need to repent. Oh, you do it once. Oh, you really don't need to do it. All you need is— and they're trying to cut off repentance.

Oh my gosh, this is so good.

Wow. And then these people wonder why I pray to God, I ask God things, he's not talking to me. Have you listened to somebody that's caused you to cut off the head of repentance. This is why you're not seeing heaven manifest in your life. If you got somebody that tells you as Christians we don't need to repent, run as fast and as furious as you can the other way, because that person is literally gonna take away the ability from you to hear the voice of God. And I'm gonna tell you why. Hey everybody, welcome to the Jon Bevere Podcast. I'm here joined by my son Arden. Arden, we're in 2 Peter, and I think we've been in 2 Peter for a year now.

Yeah, coming up on that probably.

I know, it's been amazing.

Ever since last May.

You know, it's so funny. I just remember a year ago, May, you and I were on a break and we were talking about what this podcast would look like. And I said, I just wanna walk through a book in the New Testament. And the one that's in my heart is 2 Peter. Little did I know that 3 little short chapters would take us almost a year to get through. But going back there, let's read it again. 2 Peter 3:3-4, Peter writes, most importantly, I want to remind you. So obviously this is something that was said again and again, that in the last days scoffers will come mocking the truth. What is the specific truth they are going to mock? They will say, what happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? So the truth of his second coming would be mocked. I believe not just the truth, but aspects of the truth. And by the way, these mockers, these scoffers, these are people that are following their own desires. And if we remember Remember, Jesus said that the people that were not ready for the Lord's coming would be people that would start turning towards their lusts, their desires, their worldly pleasures. So it all goes together. These people would say, for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning. They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his commandments. So verse 5, says, "They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command." In other words, it was a long, long time ago, thousands of years ago, millions of years ago, whatever it is, whatever you— to me, I know man's been on earth for 6,000 years, but as far as when God created the earth, I—

Yeah, the old earth versus new earth.

We're just gonna leave that one totally alone, and one day we're all gonna find out, okay? Yeah, so anyway, but I love that they deliberately forget, but then he says, "But you must not forget." What is the aspect? We are not to forget that a day with the Lord is 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is a day. In other words, one of God's days is 1,000 of our years. So one of God's hours is 42.6 years for us. So 15 minutes to God is 7 or 8 years, okay? So God's timetable, our timetable, two different things. Now I wanna get into the new material. He says the Lord isn't really being slow. About his promise, as some people think. Of course, that would be the mockers. No, he is being patient for our sake. Yeah. Okay, what— why is he being patient? Here's the reason. He does not want anyone to be destroyed. Destroyed in what? The judgment, the coming wrath. He doesn't want anyone to be destroyed, but wants every— now listen to this. But he wants everyone to repent. Okay, there's where we're gonna focus in on today. He wants everyone to repent. Doesn't say he wants everyone to pray a sinner's prayer. He says he wants everyone to repent.

[Speaker] Which some people are already thinking, oh man, like repentance, don't put that bondage on me, or they have a negative connotation to repentance, but I think I love that that's kind of what he's framing out right here, and I'm excited to jump into it.

Okay, so you and I, just right off the bat, we're gonna talk about this word, we're gonna hit it head on. Repentance is a very negative word in people's minds, and I personally believe it's because mean-spirited preachers in the past used this word to beat people up and control the behavior the way they wanted people to behave., or even like the street preachers, the turn and burn, like repent now because you're gonna be cast away into hell.

Like it's gotten that negative, negative, I don't know, negative example to it that's behind it that a lot of people associate with it.

So before we go any further, I'm gonna say something that may surprise a lot of people. Repentance is one of the most beautiful words in the New Testament other than the name of Jesus. Okay, let's hit it straight on. Repentance, okay. It's found, it's the Greek word metanoia, metanoia. Yeah, I think I am saying it right.

Logos can help you with that.

Logos, Logos helps me say it. I just go to the little thing and the guy says it and I can hear it with my own ears. It's found over 50 times in the New Testament. And it is not a mean word, it's not a harsh word, it's actually a beautiful word. It simply is defined as this, that word metanoia is defined as a change of mind. Simply put, it's when we have been thinking a certain way and the truth of God's word enlightens us. And all of a sudden we go, I'm letting go of the way I was thinking and I'm gonna embrace the way God thinks. That's repentance.

[Speaker] That's it. I've always heard it said, it's just, I'm going this direction, I'm turning around. Like, I'm going back this direction. I was going the wrong direction. Now I'm going the correct direction. I mean, if you're looking at that from a trip standard and you have someone that's going the wrong direction, wouldn't you want to be headed in the right direction? And that's the beauty of repentance, that when you see it from the correct lens, and also when you're seeing people who are helping you in that right way, it's gonna get you right on back on the right path.

It's gonna get you to the destination you want to find yourself at. We did a video, and it can be found on MessengerX, where Alec, your brother, was acting it out. He was going to the beaches of San Diego to surf, and he leaves from Colorado, and the GPS kept saying, "Make a U-turn, make a U-turn." He was like, "No, I know where I'm going." And he ends up in Saskatchewan, Canada, with a blizzard instead of at the beach of San Diego and able to surf. And that's absolutely how foolish people become when you think you know more than God. I asked God, I actually said to him, I said, "Lord, How do I make this word simple for people to understand? And God showed me. And so I'm gonna say this, the unrepented person, what they in essence say in their heart, because repentance just isn't a change of mind, it's actually a change of mind that affects our entire being. The Baker Encyclopedia of New Testament Words says that it's a change in the whole personality. And if you look at that, what Jesus says, it shows to be accurate. So many people ask us, how does John and Arden go so deep in their study?

It's easy.

We have this program called Logos. I have been using it for years. I use it to write books, Arden. I use it for my podcast. I have my notes on one page of the computer and the Logos is right next to it. I can go into the root word studies, I can go back to the original, I can see what was happening in the time period. It's absolutely amazing. It's a game changer.

And not only that, but Logos is offering we're offering everyone who signs up right now for this limited time offer 60 days free.

Okay, that's amazing.

So it is completely free for you. So please, please do not miss this chance. Go to Logos, so logos.com/bavere, and you can sign up right there. Not only that though, there is a video that's a Zoom call that we did that shows you how to better use it. Because if you have a tool and you don't know how to use it, you probably won't use it. And we want people, using this every single day, because it will help them go deeper in their studying of the word.

So everybody, just click the link below, and we can jump right back into our study. Jesus says in Matthew 15:19, "From the heart." So if repentance is just from the head, he wouldn't have said, "From the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, and lying." So we can have a change of mind, but not yet be fully persuaded. A true change in the way we think, in the spirit of our mind, is something that penetrates all the way down to the heart. So I asked the Lord, I said, "How do I make repentance simple? How do I say it where everyone can understand it?" And this is what God showed me. This is so cool. The unrepentant person says basically, in their heart, in their mind, "I choose what is good, best, and right for me." for my life. I choose. That's the unrepented person. The repented person says, I choose. So there's still a strong will here. I choose what God says is good, best, and right for my life. Now why does that person choose that? Because he knows there is absolutely nothing good for me outside of the will of God.

[Speaker] I remember, and I think a lot of people even see it this way, and I think it's a wrong way of seeing it, But I remember when I was in school, Bible school, I had the professor said, he said, "Hey, repentance is only, you need to repent only one time. The rest of your life is just confession." And it's just confessing, acknowledging what you've done. And I remember I felt like that seemed off because that was more of like, oh, I look at my toddler, I'm like, he could acknowledge what he had done that was wrong, but then yet 5 minutes later, go back and do it because he didn't understand the change of heart that actually needed to come of, No, I'm not supposed to draw on the wall. I'm not supposed to do that. And I think we can almost water down like what it means to repent and seeing it in this play where it's no, God, like if I read something in your word, it's going to completely change my way of thinking. If I might just be like, yeah, I've been doing this wrong and I've confessed it with my brothers, I've confessed it to you. But if I'm just going to keep going down this path again and again, I'm going to keep finding myself in this bondage. And repentance is saying, Okay, I took a step down this wrong path, and I've realized that's not where I wanna go. And rather than just confession and be like, no, that's not where I wanna go, but I'm still gonna keep going that way, it's saying, no, that's not where I'm gonna go. I'm changing direction, and I'm gonna come back, and I'm gonna go right direction. And continue to keep going.

So I'm gonna affirm you scripturally. For that professor to say, all you need to do is repent once, and you're done the rest of your life, why would Jesus say to 5 of the 7 churches, repent? Okay, now, Jesus didn't say you are so-called churches. He said you are churches. So here are churches, and the only way to become a part of the Church of Jesus Christ is to repent and to give your life fully to his lordship. But yet he comes to these established churches in the Book of Revelation and says to 5 of the 7, 5 out of 7, repent. Or else. So repentance is something that actually I find myself doing a lot when I'm reading the scripture. God will deal with me about something, about the way I think, the way I treat my family, the way I treat my friends, the way I've led. And all of a sudden I go, oh Lord, forgive me, I'm changing that. I see what you want me to do. You want me to be kind, you want me to be tenderhearted. Forgive me for not being kind and tenderhearted. Yes, I said this to a staff member yesterday. It was the right thing to say, but I wasn't kind about it. I wasn't tenderhearted, and I need to write them an email right now and apologize. Apologize or call them. Always the emails. Yeah, my 2 o'clock in the morning emails. But so, Arden, we said, what are the things that are going to happen prior to the new heavens and earths being established? Number 1, we said 2 podcasts ago, there would be an apostasy. Yeah. A great falling away from the faith.

Number 2, latter rain.

The last podcast, the latter rain, the outpouring of God's Spirit's going to be so much greater in the end than it was in the Book of Acts.

Yeah.

Love that, right? What's number 3? Number 3 is gonna be the restoration. Restoration. In order to understand this, we've gotta go to Peter's famous sermon in Acts chapter 3. Listen to what he says. He says, "Now repent of your sins." So now let me just stop, let's think about this. He's talking to a bunch of people who want to be saved. They are like, "What do we do to be saved?" Peter said, "Now repent of your sins and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped away." Now listen to this. 'Then times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord, and he,' here we go, 'will send again Jesus to you.' So we're talking about the return of Jesus. Now look at the next statement. 'For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things.' So we're seeing something here. The word restoration there means to change back back to a previous good state. In other words, things are going to go awry and there's going to be restoration that's going to change it back to the way God wants it. Now, there's a progression we see in these verses of scripture in Acts chapter 3. Number 1, repentance brings forth what? God's presence. Yeah. Wow. In almost every move of God we've seen.

Yeah, that's true.

What is it preceded by? Yeah. Repentance. I mean, we saw that with Asbury last year. There was a kid got up and just started repenting for the way he was living, believing, and all of a sudden an outpouring of God's Spirit came, and people are now coming from all over the world just to go to this little town in Kentucky. Yeah, I mean, we say same thing with Brownsville, we see the same thing with Azusa, same thing with the Welsh Revival. Repentance brings forth an outpouring, a fresh outpouring of God's Spirit. Yeah, which is the presence of God. Now He said that that refreshing from God's presence would bring the restoration of all things. So now, what is the restoration needed for? It is needed for the great apostasy that we said would be happening. Remember we talked about a couple podcasts ago, over 66 million people have walked away from the faith in the last 24 years. 66 million Americans have walked away. Paul said that that day, speaking of the last days, would not come until there would be a great falling away. What he didn't write, and this is what I love, is that he said they would— he never wrote they wouldn't come back. And this is what we're talking about today, is the massive harvest that's about to come in, and that's part of the restoration. So in order to really talk about this, We're gonna go back to Jesus's first coming so that we can glean from his first coming as to what the pattern's gonna be before his second coming. Peter has this revelation in Matthew 16, "You're the Christ, the Son of the living God." It's starting to sink in. He's really the only one that has it. But in Matthew 17, Jesus does something. He takes these guys up to the Mount of Transfiguration. And all of a sudden he's transfigured. He goes into his glorious state, right? And with him is Moses and Elijah, right? And they're in their glorious state. And this wonderful, magnificent voice from heaven comes in this bright cloud that says, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." Peter, James, and John are the only three that are up there. They're walking down their mountain and Peter's going, "Oh my goodness. I know that you said that I was blessed because the Father revealed to me that you were the Christ." But now I've seen it with my own eyes. I've heard the voice of God with my own ears. You are the Christ. But that creates a big question in them because the teachers, the accurate teachers of the Word of God said before the Messiah comes, Elijah was gonna come. And this is a big conflict with them. And so Matthew 17:10, and his disciples asked Jesus saying, '"Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? We know you're the Christ. We know you're the Messiah. Who was the Elijah?" Yeah. "That Malachi talked about that would come prior to you?" And let me make sure everybody's on the same page. Where did these teachers get this? Malachi chapter 4, 5, and 6. This is the last 2 verses of scripture in the entire Old Testament, Arden. Malachi says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." Now, isn't this interesting? Great and dreadful. Great means it's gonna be really great for those who love him. Dreadful is gonna be really dreadful for those who don't believe in him. It's gonna be really terrible. The great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts, So repentance, yeah. Okay. Of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. Now, Elijah, who Malachi is talking about here, is not the Elijah of 1 and 2 Kings, okay? He's not gonna come back from the dead. So this Elijah is really not, the person of 1 and 2 Kings, and I'm gonna prove it to you. Although it might be. And you say, John, you sound like you're contradicting yourself. Well, there's two prophets that are gonna be prophesying in the time of the tribulation. A lot of Bible scholars believe one of those prophets are gonna be actually Elijah, 'cause he never saw death. He was taken away in the chariots. However, I'm gonna prove to you this is not speaking directly of him in the context we're talking about. Because the word Elijah is from two Hebrew words, El and Yah. El means strength, might, or power. Yah is the short form of the word Yahweh. So if you put those words together, God's saying, I'm gonna send you a prophetic anointing in my strength and in my might. In regard to this, this is what the apostles are asking. Okay, you're the Messiah. Where's Elijah? And listen to what Jesus says. Jesus says in verse 11, he said, indeed Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. So there's our restoration. Yeah. He said Elijah is coming. Is that future? Mm-hmm. Okay? But look at verse 12. "But I say to you that Elijah has come already." That's past tense. Yep. So he's talking about Elijah who is coming, and Elijah who has come. "And they did not know him, but they did to him whatever they wished. Likewise, the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist." Now, here's where I'm getting. He's talking about two different Elijahs. Yeah. Okay? And he identifies John the Baptist to be Elijah before his first coming. All right, I'm gonna prove that. We see that in scripture, Luke chapter 1, verse 16 and 17, when the angel comes to Zacharias. The angel says to Zacharias' father about John the Baptist, "He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God." He will go before Jesus. Well, he didn't say Jesus. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah. "To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." So he kind of alters that a little bit. He doesn't say the hearts of the children back to the fathers. He says the disobedient back to the wisdom of the just, which what is that? What did we just define it as? Repentance. Okay. "To make ready a people prepared for the Lord's coming." So if we go to Matthew chapter 3, we read, "In those days, John the Baptist came," to the Judean wilderness and he began preaching. His message was, here we go, repent of your sins and turn to God for the kingdom of heaven is near. Okay, the prophet Isaiah was speaking about John when he said, he is the voice shouting in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Now, this is so interesting. I'll never forget the time, Arden, I went on a fast. It was a 3-day fast. And I always, when I go on a fast, I say, God, where do you want me to read? What book of the Bible you want me to really focus in on? And I heard so clearly, read the Gospel of Mark. So I remember on this particular fast, I opened up Mark chapter 1, I read the entire chapter, and when I got done with the chapter, the Holy Spirit said, you didn't get what I wanna say to you, go back and read it again. This happened like 7 times. Finally, I'm like, okay, Lord, please forgive me, what's going on? And I go back to verse 1 about the 7th time. And it says, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ." And then it says, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness," talking about John the Baptist. And I remember I dropped my Bible and I said, "I now get it." John the Baptist is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'd always seen him as an Old Testament prophet. But all of a sudden I realized he's at the beginning of all things. Four gospels. Hey everybody, we'll get back to the episode in just a moment, but first I want to thank the patrons who make this podcast possible. Your support behind the scenes is critical to sharing these messages, so thank you. To become a patron, just click the link in the show description or go to johnbevere.com/patron. Now let's get back to the show. And Jesus made a statement in Matthew 11:13 about John the Baptist. He said, "For all the law and the prophets prophesied until John." He didn't say the law and the prophets prophesied until me. He said the law and prophets prophesied until John. Why? Because John is the beginning of the gospel. Now what is John's message? It is a baptism of repentance. Not a partial repentance, a full repentance, a fully turning back to God. Not just making God a little bit a part of my life or a big part of my life. I mean, we would never get married to somebody and say, "Hey, you'll be a big part of my life. You and I will sleep together for 360 nights a year, but 5 nights a year, I wanna be with my other boyfriends." We would never marry somebody like that. So John comes in preaching a baptism, a full-on turning back to God. That's his message. I mean, we see it. Repent of your sins and turn to God. Now, I'm gonna ask you a question, and this is interesting. I'm gonna see if you know the answer to this question. Who is the only person in all the Gospels that asked Jesus a question that Jesus refused to answer him? I don't know. There's only one human being in all four Gospels—

Refused to answer him.

Jesus would not answer.

Wouldn't give him a, answer that was not what he was asking for, but just refused to answer him, period.

Wouldn't even speak to him. So let me— let's talk about this. Yeah. Pharisees would ask questions. Jesus responded to every single one of them.

And he oftentimes even answered the questions that they weren't even asking.

Mothers, other people asked Jesus questions. He responded to them all the time. Who's the only person— was it Pilate? No. He responded to Pilate. Who's the only one person—

I'm looking in your notes just to see.

That Jesus never answered one of their questions. It was Herod the king. Interesting. Now let's talk about this. Yeah. Herod arrests John because John is confronting Herod about sleeping with his brother's wife. Yep. All right? And Herod locks up John. However, what a lot of people don't understand is that Herod actually loved listening to John.

Interesting. Why do you say that?

I'm gonna read it. Mark chapter 6, verse 20. Herod respected John, and knowing that he was a good and holy man, he protected him. Even though he's in the dungeon, okay? Herod was greatly disturbed when he talked with John, but even so, he liked listening to him. So here's Herod, John's in the dungeon, Herod is sneaking down to the dungeon to listen to him. Okay, now what happens with Herod? He's flirting with Herodias. I believe Herodias is such a picture of Satan. She hates John the Baptist. He is the one that's causing conviction to come to the king who she's sleeping with. She wants him done away with. The birthday party comes, her daughter dances. Herod says, "I'll give you anything you want, up to half my kingdom." The daughter runs to mom, mom goes, "Now's my chance." "Yeah, take, kill the head of John the Baptist." "Go, give me the head of John." Okay, Herod is sorry, 'cause he likes listening to him, but because of his oath and because of the people who were there, He goes and does it. So he's flirting, flirting with the, I mean, a woman who was like Jezebel, completely demon possessed.

I mean, identifying too that spirit there, right there, where he's saying, "I'll give you half my kingdom," and she what? Takes out a man that's in prison, that's locked up, that's been preaching the gospel and teaching repentance, just because she understands what that would do to him. She didn't want him to repent. She didn't want him to go down that path.

That's scary. Okay, now, what does Herod do? He cuts off the head of what? Think of the message. Repent and turn back to God. He cuts off repentance. In other words, he shuts off repentance totally. Hmm.

Now. So that's why Jesus doesn't talk to him.

Now, Pilate is trying Jesus a couple years later. Pilate realizes Jesus is part of Herod's jurisdiction, sends Jesus to Pilate, and look what we read in Luke 23:8. Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus because he had heard about Jesus and had been— now look at this— and had been hoping for a long time to see Jesus perform a miracle. Now, you ready for this? Verse 9, he asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer. When we cut off repentance, there are so many teachers in the body of Christ, there are so many ministers in the body of Christ that are trying to say, don't repent, you don't need to repent. Oh, you do it once. Oh, you really don't need to do it. All you need is, and they're trying to cut off repentance.

Oh my gosh, this is so good.

Wow. And then these people wonder why I pray to God, I ask God things, he's not talking to me. Yeah. Have you cut off the head of John the Baptist? Have you cut off the head of repentance? Wow. Have you listened to somebody that's caused you— yeah— to cut off the head of repentance?

Yeah, the heart, the purity of perfection.

This is why you're not being restored. This is why you're not seeing heaven manifest in your life. Are you refusing to forgive somebody? Are you refusing because you've been given permission by these teachers that Peter talks about in 2 Peter, that come along and give you permission to sin because of the wonderful grace of God? So they distort the grace of God, they take away repentance, and now Jesus is silent.

But yet you still love the gospel. You think it's entertaining to you, you get excited about it.

You're delighted, you ask question after question, you like listening to it. Herod would go down to the dungeon and listen.

I've never seen that before. Before. That's powerful. Which, Dad, I mean, so, okay, someone— I want to write a whole book on this. Yeah, someone who's sitting here though and is like, oh my goodness, wait, I feel like that could be me. What would you say to that?

I would say if you got somebody that tells you as Christians we don't need to repent, run as fast and as furious as you can the other way, because that person is literally going to take away the ability from you to hear the voice of God. And I'm going to tell you why. If Jesus himself tells 7 churches, 5 of 7 churches to repent, don't ever listen to a preacher that tells you you don't need to repent. And that's how strong I feel about it. So isn't it interesting that that's the message that's been kind of creeping into the Western church? And now God says, I'm gonna send Elijah before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, because let's go to Isaiah 40, remember? Remember John the Baptist? This is the one Isaiah prophesied about. Do you remember we read that earlier? This is he who Isaiah said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." But I'm gonna show you Isaiah isn't just talking about John the Baptist. He's talking about the Elijah that's coming. Because remember Jesus said there's an Elijah coming and he's gonna restore all things? Are we on the same page? Are we saying, okay, so let's go to Isaiah 40. "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill brought low.'" I'm gonna show you that this is talking about the sin, the perversion, the pride is going to be removed, right? The crooked places are gonna be made straight and the rough places smooth. Now watch verse 5. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it, shall, excuse me, and all flesh shall see it together. Whoa, whoa, stop. Did all flesh see together? Did every human being on the planet see together the glory of the Lord on his first coming? No. So he can't be talking about the first coming there. Yeah. Now he's actually talking about John the Baptist, absolutely yes. But we see that this is actually a prophecy with two different fulfillments. The coming of Jesus, first coming of Jesus, and the second coming. And the second coming, he gets more specific in verse 5. He says all flesh are gonna see it together. What am I referencing? Revelation 1:7, "Look," this is speaking to all humanity, "look, He comes with the clouds of heaven, and every eye shall see Him." Even those who pierced Him, even those who drove the nails in His hands in the cross, every eye is going to see Him.

And that can be metaphorically, even right now for us.

Yes. And all the nations of the world will mourn. For him. Okay, so Isaiah, we see, is prophesying that Elijah is going to come before his second coming. Yeah, are you seeing that? Yeah.

Can I clear up something too? Because people are saying Elijah— please, are you just making sure, like, you're not saying that it's the manifest spirit or the soul of Elijah that's coming? It's a, it's a person who's coming in the spirit of Elijah.

When he says, I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet, I'm saying I'm going to send you a prophetic anointing in my might my power, my strength. Because remember, El means might, power, and strength. Yah is Yahweh. So this prophetic anointing's gonna come in the strength and might and power of Almighty God. Now, it was one man before his first coming. I'm gonna submit to everybody now, and you can argue this, and I'm fine with that, that it's not one man, it's a group. And you know who that group is? It's the group that Joel prophesied. 'And it shall come to pass in the last days,' says God, 'that I'll pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy.' There it is, that prophetic anointing. 'Your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. And on my menservants and my maidservants, I'll pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.' Okay, 'I will show one,' now look at this, I'm gonna show you it's the second coming, not the day of Pentecost. 'I will show one,' remember now Peter said this is what Joel talked about. Okay? [Speaker] Yep. [Speaker] But again, we're seeing two fulfillments of prophecy. See, this is what a lot of people don't understand is many times prophecies have two different fulfillments. They limit it to one and they miss the other. "And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood, fire, vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness, the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord." Again, he is specifically talking about the second coming. Yet Jesus speaks of John the Baptist in reference to his first coming. He says Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they want, and the apostles knew he was talking to them about John the Baptist. So yes, John was one man who— what was his mission? He went after the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And what was his message? To repent. I submit to everybody listening today that what we're going to see is a massive group of prophets. Now, a true prophet doesn't say, "I'm a prophet." I mean, the religious people came to John and said, "Are you the prophet?" In other words, they were saying, "Are you Elijah?" And he goes, "No, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." In other words, don't put me into that title thing. I'm here to fulfill a mission, and that's what's important, not what title I carry. So anybody that's running around going, "Oh, I'm prophetic, I've got the Elijah anointing on me," I'm gonna tell you, just stay away. These people will have one interest in mind, and that is glorifying Jesus. These people will have the interest of drawing the lost sheep of the church back to the heart of Jesus. So the millions that we've seen walk away, I believe God's raising up a whole army of prophets, young men, young women, older men, older women, right? Who are gonna go after the lost sheep in the church, and they're gonna call them back. Because it's not God's will that any should perish, but all should— Repent.

Oh, repent!

Oh my goodness, there it is. Because why? Repentance prepares us for his second coming. That's why Jesus is saying to those churches, he loves them in the book of Revelation, repent, repent, repent, repent, because I don't want you to miss the wonderful aspect of my coming. I don't want you ashamed at my appearing. I want you rejoicing when I appear. Yeah.

I love too what you just shared about John the Baptist and the titles too, because I, I think it's a beautiful image of John the Baptist of being someone who went out to the wilderness and people found him. I think sometimes we are like, well, we've got to, we've got to put on this title. We've got to say I'm this, and then people will understand. And it's like, John the Baptist went out in the middle of nowhere and he dressed up, you know, with his camel, camel hide, his 8 locusts. But looking at him, and most people would be like, man, this guy is strange, but yet they came. Out to the wilderness, came to find him.

Okay, I'm gonna prove that thought is amazing, okay? What did Jesus say to the multitudes? What did you go out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaken in the wind? Did you go out there to just watch a reed shaken? What did you go out in the wilderness to see? Somebody dressed up in beautiful clothing? He said, they're in kings' palaces. He said, you went out to see a prophet, and yes, I say more than a prophet, for John is the one, that has been prophesied that would come. He didn't say this, but I'm saying it because Jesus said it later to his disciples. He was the one that would come and prepare the way for Jesus Christ. Now, this brings us to the thought of, okay, repentance is what brings restoration. So here we want to see restoration. We want to see the kingdom of God manifest on the earth, but yet we're fighting against the very doorway that brings the kingdom of God, and that is repentance. I want to show people how important repentance is. If you look at Matthew 4:17, these are the first words Jesus spoke in public. First words. He said, I'm going to read Matthew 4:17, Jesus began to preach, repent of your sins and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near. Okay? That's the first words he spoke in public. Did he talk about it more? I'm gonna read Matthew 11:20. Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he'd done so many of his miracles because they hadn't, listen to this, repented of their sins and turned to God. How about Luke's Gospel? Jesus looks at the people and says, you will perish too unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. Okay?

I got John the Baptist right here. Matthew 3:2 is, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." That was his message.

He was— His first words. Baptism means immersion. It means a full repentance, not a partial repentance. Look at the disciples. Think about it. Jesus is pouring into the disciples, and now he finally releases them to go represent him. So the disciples went out telling everyone that they met, every single human being, to repent of their sins and turn to God. Okay, what about the rich man in hell? This one is astounding. The rich man looks at Father Abraham and says, no, Father Abraham, but if someone is sent to my 5 brothers from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God. This guy in hell knows more than a lot of ministers. He's telling Father Abraham, my brothers have to repent because you can't turn to God without repentance. In other words, God is saying, You can't be in bed with the world and be my bride. That's what Jesus is saying. If you want to— And if we're gonna listen to anyone, why would— I'm sorry, I'm so excited right now.

No, I love that. But like, if we're gonna listen to anyone, why would you not listen to someone who is in hell and is casting out this—

He's not gonna put on a facade.

We can't just write that off and be like, oh yeah, but that was just that random guy. Like, he doesn't know what he's talking about. No, he's in hell. He's crying out, please. Tell my brothers to repent of their sins.

How about Paul the Apostle? So this is where everybody, this is where everybody that tries to get rid of repentance, they'll use Paul's messages. But listen to what Paul said, Acts 26. I preached first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and throughout all of Judea, and also to the Gentiles. So this is a message to everybody, Jew and Gentile, that all must. He doesn't say it's a good idea. They must repent of their sins and turn to God and prove they have changed by the good things that they do. If you look at God the Father, Acts 17:30, God overlooked people's ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands. He doesn't recommend, he doesn't suggest, he commands everyone everywhere, that covers the United States, to repent of their sins and turn to him. What is the number one foundational doctrine teaching of the church, that the whole church is built upon? Repentance of dead works. Repentance from dead works. So what caused the church to lose? What caused us to— remember, restoration is when we bring back what we lost. Heaven must receive Jesus until the times of restoration of all things. What caused the church to lose the precious things of heaven, the heaven manifesting in us. Jesus said the kingdom of God's within us. What caused us to lose it is when we tried to take away repentance. When Herod cut off the head of John the Baptist, he lost, he lost the voice of God in his life.

That's still so wild to me.

The church in America, if we continue to attack repentance, if we continue to tell people you don't really need to repent, it's okay, the grace of God covers you, we are gonna cut off the voice of God to people. And that's why I'm so strong about this. That's why I'm so adamant about this, because I just see all kinds of people are crying out, "What is wrong? I'm doing what the preacher tells me to do. I prayed the sinner's prayer, but yet these people—" I literally— "I'm still keeping up my lifestyle." I mean, when I watch a man walk up to me and go, "You know, I sleep with women just because I have needs. I'm single. And you know, I realize I probably shouldn't do this, don't do it for a few months, but then I just sleep with women again." Then he looks at me and goes, No, that's really not why I'm here to talk to you. I'm here to talk to you about why isn't my business being blessed? And I'm just like, you really just didn't even blush. You didn't even blush. 47% of the men who go to church on a regular basis have no conviction over watching pornography. They don't even blush. They have no conviction at all because why? The voice, of this unscriptural grace, unbalanced grace, has taken the beautiful convicting voice of God away from us that would cause us to get the restoration of the fullness of the blessings that God has given to his people.

[Speaker] Yeah, and I think two things off of that is number one, I think what you're saying too is not that, hey, if you do, if you repent, then God's gonna bless your business or God's gonna bless this. No, it's gonna connect you back with God, which ultimately is going to cause you to succeed, be more flourishable in all areas of your life. And that looks in different ways. But then too, also, like what I love about the beauty of repentance, 'cause someone could be hearing that and like thinking, well, I've been trying to get set free from porn. And I love like your story with pornography and everything that you share. And they're like, I don't understand it. And I feel like this is the thorn in my side. And I just keep going through this.

I love that.

Of the fact that repentance is the turning away from those things, and that God says it is buried in a sea of forgetfulness, as far as the east is from the west. His forgiveness is so wonderful.

His forgiveness is beautiful.

But we have to make that turn. And if we're not preaching things that are telling people, make that turn, you're just continuing to keep going down that path that's taking you further and further away from God. And that is the beauty of repentance. It's not something that's legalistic, it's not something that's bounding, it is something that will set you free and get you closer to God.

Proverbs says, "Whoever confesses and forsakes shall obtain mercy." It's not just confessing, it's when we, in our heart, we go, "Lord, if I had the chance to do it again, I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have spoken like that to that person. I wouldn't have gossiped about that person. I'm so deeply sorry." One of the greatest blessings I believe that God gives us is a conscience that is tender to conviction. And this is why God says, I will pay really close attention, this is Isaiah 66:2, I will pay very close attention to the person who is humble, contrite, and who trembles at my word. Contrite means my heart is still tender and sensitive to his correction. Proverbs 12:1 says, "He who hates correction is stupid." Is stupid. What a statement, right? So God corrects not because he wants to shame us, it's because he wants us to partake of his character. And the Bible makes it so clear in Hebrews 12 that the correction of the Lord is painful. So Herod realized it was a painful thing that John was asking me to do. I love sleeping with my brother's wife. I don't want to stop sleeping with her. She's got a seducing spirit. She pleases me. I don't like what you're saying, but I really do like what you're saying because I realize you got the truth and I wanna listen to you and I like listening to you. But he cuts off that voice. And now the voice of God is cut off in his life. I wanna pray right now because I realize some of you have seen the voice of God cut off in your life because you despised repentance. You despised having a contrite heart. But here's the good news. The very fact that you've listened all the way to the end means that your heart still can hear. And even though you're not walking in that wonderful, beautiful fellowship that you once did, it's still available because God is so quick to forgive. If you sin 7 times 70 in a day, Jesus said, you're to forgive your brother. What Jesus is saying is that's the way God will forgive you. When there's genuine repentance, there's genuine forsaking of that stupid way. Remember, repentance is just simply my way of thinking is ridiculously stupid. I'm embracing what God says. When you do that, that is when the blood of Jesus cleanses and the voice of God becomes crystal clear in your life again. I want to pray for you right now, and I just want you to say this, because right now God's been working that work of repentance this entire podcast, and you're ready. All it takes is a simple acknowledging now. All it takes now is the confessing because you've been doing the forsaking the whole time. I can sense it. I can sense that in your heart you're going, oh my God, I've listened to the wrong thing, the wrong logic, the wrong reasoning. I've listened to the very logic that has separated me from what I desire the most, and that is the presence of God. Listen, God has seen your heart and now He's about to listen to your voice. As you confess. So say this with me, Lord God, I ask you to forgive me for not heeding your word and putting it first in my life. I repent of this from my heart, and this very day, with a greater understanding than I've ever had before, I receive you, Jesus, as my supreme master, my Lord. I'm asking that not my will would be done from this moment forward, but that your will would be done. That's what I desire more than I desire anything else, is your will to be done. Be glorified in me, in Jesus' name. I believe, I sense the presence of God on people right now. Some of you are driving your car and I see tears, I see tears. Some of you are in an office, some of you are in your bedroom, Some of you are in a gym, and you actually— I saw somebody just walk over in the corner because you didn't want people to see what was going on on the inside. That's fine. That's good. I see you. You just left that bench, and you walked over, and you got to a place where you could be alone. I love that. That's beautiful. Listen, that's the presence of God. Please understand repentance is not a negative, dirty, legalistic, harsh word, although it can be made that way by certain ministers. It is actually a beautiful word. It is actually a word that opens up the door to the presence of God. We love you so much, Arden and I, and we just wanna thank you so much for tuning in for the John Bevere Podcast. See you next time.