Genuine repentance is within the heart, spirit, and soul not outward appearances.

Joel 2:13

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

 “So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.” Joel 2:13

The Holy Spirit, through Joel, teaches that the true expression of repentance is not in the external signs of grief, such as tearing clothes, wearing sackcloth, or covering oneself in ashes. Rather, it is in the inner sorrow and contrition of the spirit and soul. “So rend your heart, and not your garments…”

To rend our heart and not our clothes means that our service to God should come from our innermost being, not from superficial outward displays.. “For God does not see what man sees, for a man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 By forgiving our sins, Jesus Christ opened the way for anyone to connect with God through the Spirit. He loves us and wants us to have life, so He sent His Son Jesus to give us life. “For in this way God loved the world, so that He gave His one and only Son, in order that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life.” John 3:16 God shows grace, mercy, patience, and kindness through Jesus Christ, and holds back from judging.

Jesus Christ emphasized the importance of serving God in the Spirit rather than by outward appearances in Matthew 23:1-36. Many people in this world claim to know how to live for God, but they lack a genuine spiritual connection with Jesus Christ. They focus on the carnal rather than the spiritual, and they burden their followers with heavy rules. They value what people see and hear more than what God sees and hears through Jesus Christ. They neglect humility and meekness, and they seek worldly praise, and recognition. They exalt their own will above God’s authority. We who live in the Spirit recognize God as our supreme authority and surrender to Jesus Christ as our Lord.

Those who rely only on what they see and hear, and ignore the Spirit, heart, and soul, shut themselves off from reaching God through Jesus Christ. We need to be born again by God’s Spirit through Jesus Christ. God does not listen to the words of the flesh, but He listens to the prayers in the hidden places of the spirit and soul. The Spirit is above words. Teaching people to live by worldly standards based on the thing giving them what to feel, think, say, and do makes them children of hell. They do not recognize God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit and are blind leaders of the blind.

People who follow worldly standards instead of the Spirit teach others to despise the human body as the home of the Holy Spirit. They view the human body as the home of the thing giving them their feelings, thoughts, actions, and words. It animates the image of the beast to live and speak through them. They are groomed to the mark of the beast by their deeds and words. As a result, the global culture becomes egocentric and self-centered in their defiance of God. They do not feel any regret, guilt, remorse, nor any need for the remission of sin through Jesus Christ. They treat the Holy Spirit as an enemy, one to be manipulated, domineered, and extorted.

The mercy, grace, salvation, and eternal life of God are given through Jesus Christ. Those who care only about outward looks and ignore the Spirit miss these gifts. This is what Jesus clearly teaches, “For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence…first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.” They resemble washed and cleaned gravestones adorned with flowers, but despite their outward appearance, they hide the bones and dirt of the dead. As our Lord Jesus says, “Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

“So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.” Joel 2:13

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11