"And she shall bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." Matt 1:21 (NASB)
Hope of heaven is wonderful. The concept of forgiveness mind boggling. Yet, we knew that without repentance, without life changing results the Gospel was not worth much. Jesus did not come to save His people from the consequences of their sin. He did not come to forgive them just to see them continue to ruin their own lives and the lives of others with their sin. He did not lay down His life just to give us permission to do whatever we liked to whomever we liked. No! He came to save us from our sin. The sin has got to go! God moved heaven and earth and did everything He has done so that we could be free - free from the sin itself.
The radical message of Agape Force was built on the cornerstone of faith in Jesus Christ and believing, not just that He exists, but that He IS GOD and that He has the right to be the Lord and ruler of every life. Faith was the cornerstone, but the key that opened the doors of the Kingdom was repentance. Jesus taught it over and over and over - "A gospel of repentance for the forgiveness of sin."
Yet, everywhere we went we found that people hardly knew what repentance is. It is not feeling sorry for your sin. It is not trying to do a little better. It is not reforming yourself. We explained repentance like this. "Repentance is when you have been walking in one direction, you see that this direction is wrong and you turn and walk completely in the opposite direction." It is the total giving of yourself to God.
Before someone could really come to know the Lord they had to understand what was required of them. When they did understand we found that freedom was often instant.
Not only did we teach repentance, we taught restitution. We saw in our own lives and in the lives of others that restitution brought release from guilt and provided such freedom and joy that it was more than worth any effort that was put into it. It was not enough just to tell God we were sorry. As far as was humanly possible we had to attempt to make amends for the wrongs we had done to others.
We didn't come up with these concepts out of the blue. We learned them from the Revivalists of years gone by and from the teachings of Jesus Himself. We saw these principles start chain reactions. Whole families, whole neighborhoods, whole cities felt the tremors when people started coming to repentance and making restitution. I believe it is the most powerfully healing thing that we, as humans, can do. Asking forgiveness.
The fruit of our ministry was change. Changed behavior. Changed futures. Changed dreams. Changed lives. The transformation of the human heart. When this took place it not only resulted in the power to stop doing wrong, but the courage to do right.
Dee Patton