"If My Church will repent, I will heal this land and make it better than it's ever been."
There are plans and desires hidden in the heart of God that will only be realized in the earth through the rending of the hearts of His people. Doctrinally speaking, repentance is a fundamental pillar of the Christian faith. However, in all too many of our hearts and lives, it has manifested as merely an occasional religious activity that cowers in the shadows of our vain attempts to stand righteous before God on our own. Scripture confirms itself over and over proclaiming the testimonies of the repentant heart. Because the blood of Jesus has paid the full price of our redemption, the fulfillment of God’s promises to His people hinge only on our willingness to be zealous in our repentance.
The Lord will make his home with the repentant heart and to him He will show His glory. The Lord desires that this not only transpire for individuals but for entire cities and regions. The Lord declares these intentions to Jeremiah when he says:
“Behold, I will bring this city health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth... I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me…Then this city shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them; they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it.” (Jeremiah 33:6,8-9)
Repentance is the key that unlocks the supernatural power of God. Through the Bride, the earth will be redeemed and transformed in preparation for the arrival of its King. When Jesus comes, He will make all the wrong things right, but it is the redeemed church who will usher in His coming by revealing His character and likeness and by performing and displaying the works of His kingdom.
God is giving His people rulership over literal cities in the earth. He is commanding us to dwell in the land, to establish a habitation, and to sow in the ground fields to yield grain and wine that we may yield a fruitful harvest (Psalm107:36-37). He promises this will bring continual and multiplied blessing with which we can offer back to God sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise. God wants to deliver His church out of distress and into repentance. Repentance then becomes the soil bed for the increase and the release of His power and glory in the earth.
We have all fallen short of the glory of God in every area in our lives that we are not like God. In order to be a part of the greater works, we must look more and more like Jesus as the days of his coming draw near. The Church is being challenged with the reality and the hope that repentance is the way to the greater works, as God beckons her to enter into his ways with joy.
In each city of the Freedom Tour, through Spirit-led repentance, we will plow the dry ground of our hearts and make a way for the Lord to turn the wilderness into pools of water and the dry land into water springs (Psalm 107:35). In this way, we will stand as intercession for each city, confessing corporate sin and crying out to the Lord to bring us out of our distresses and establish a city for a dwelling place for His people, His name and His glory (Psalm 107:19, 36).