MOURNING (from Christian Insights

MOURNING—(from CHRISTIAN INSIGHTS)


Several years ago, I asked the Lord to show me the real meaning of Repentance, because of the apparent lack of understanding about its true nature. It seemed that most everyone had a different idea about what it consisted of.

To some folks, it meant a changing of the mind about God and His Son Jesus Christ. Some others didn’t believe it was genuine without tears, and a show of remorse.

I have learned that when we ask God to show us something, we should pay heed to what He shows us in our spirit after that time. He is more anxious for us to know the truth of the matter than we could ever be.

I have almost never heard an audible voice, but almost always received an answer in various ways. Many times He will give me an illumination of ANOTHER scripture, and in it will be a portion of the answer to a prior question.

Such was the case when I questioned about why the Mourners would be blessed.

Mat 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

It seemed that the Spirit spoke to me and said, “There is the true meaning of Repentance.”

Was Jesus telling His disciples that they should walk around with a long face if they expected to be blessed? Should they cry most of the time? You know, there are folks who actually believe that way, though it is not necessarily true.

I asked, “But, Lord, what is the true meaning of this “mourning” you spoke to your first disciples about?” “Why should they mourn?”

The answers did not come until I had, long afterward, made a word study about Iniquity and the Workers of Iniquity. Seemed like I had all the back burners loaded while I worked with Iniquity on the front burner. It was a labor-intensive study, and I had to drop it at times and return to it with a fresh vigor after a while. This was before the time of computer programs, and my chief tool was the Robert Young’s Analytical Concordance

But, in the end, I believed that I could safely say that the biblical definition of “Iniquity” is a reference to the indwelling nature of sin that we all inherited from Adam.

Workers of Iniquity are those folks who freely indulge that fallen nature, and follow where it would lead them.

Immediately, a “light turned on”, and I could clearly see the answers to both of the other questions—mourning, and repentance. And I also had the answer to a question I had not even asked yet-- Overcoming.

If I had had the benefit of a computer and a Bible program, I could have arrived at a satisfactory answer much sooner than I did while using the Analytical Concordance

I began to ask the Lord to let me really enter into Repentance. (Don’t do that unless you really mean it) It is a “wild ride”, but it is probably the ONLY method to achieve the status of Overcoming.

I couldn’t believe what the Lord would bring to the surface of my life, for me to “own” and then denounce and ask to be forgiven for. There were far more “motives” than “acts” that He brought to my attention, for I had first given my heart to the Lord at age 11, and had tried to “live by the book” since that time. And, although I KNEW there was “something dragging”, I didn’t know what it was.

Here are some scriptures that “popped up” before me while I was searching, and help to solidify my conclusion about the situation.

Eze 7:16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.

Eze 36:31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

Jer 31:18 I have surely heard Ephraim (the Nation of Israel) bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.

After a while, the Lord seemed to impress me with the prayer of David in
Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psa 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Psa 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

It seemed to be all I could think about, or pray for. I had not known it was possible to be so hungry for God’s Spirit.

I had already learned that it does no good to try to EDUCATE bad traits out of myself.

Neither could Emily Post help me.

If there was no help for me in seeking the Face of God, I was a “gonner” for sure.

THANKS BE TO GOD, it DOES work! I did not call on God in vain! My life began to take on a different dimension as I continued to call on Him for Mercy and Grace.

God is doing for me what I could not do for myself.