As you may already know about me…I've studied the Kingdom for over 15 years and spent thousands of hours listening to Kingdom teaching…

I talk a lot about Matthew 6:33… ”Seek ye first the Kingdom…” This is a basic, foundational and core principle in all of my mentorship communities.

But I just saw this recently…

Before Jesus said “Seek the Kingdom…” he said “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand…" (Matthew 4:17).

Considering I'm both a Kingdom guy and a frameworks guy, and I know that repentance is the very premise of our entire faith…

I can't believe I didn't see the order of this before.

Repent first. Then Seek.

Why does the order matter? Because, seeking without repenting bears no fruit.

The first step to accessing anything in the Kingdom is repentance and if we don't get this right, then we'll never be able to fully apprehend what the Kingdom has to offer…no matter how much we seek.

I want to fully access everything God has for me, so that's why, I'm personally going deeper on what true biblical repentance is, what it looks like, and how it impacts our relationship with God and with others.

As I've studied and unpacked this, I'm seeing a pattern that happens in relationships. Someone does something, they feel bad about it and they say, "I'm sorry." The expectation is that the apology should fix everything and close the matter.

But it doesn't, then it happens again, patterns repeat, and nothing changes...because an apology is not the same thing as repentance.

In fact, apology and remorse is only the entry point, not even the first step.

True biblical repentance is a process that requires us to do a much deeper work of self-reflection.

If we are going to be mature sons and daughters of God, then we have to be willing to actively identify and confront the root by asking ourselves hard questions like…

“How did I do this? How could I do this? What is inside of me that allows me to act in a way that is inconsistent with who I believe myself to be?”

The purpose of this is not to bring shame or blame, but to help us identify and get to the root of what causes us to do something in the first place…so we can get rid of it and be healed.

If we avoid dealing with the root, then it is most likely going to happen again, and again…and we end up falling into ditches that keep us stuck.

The Two Ditches We Fall Into

Put aside everything you've heard or believed about repentance for a minute and look at what the Bible actually says…

The Greek word used in the New Testament is “metanoia” and means “a transformative change of mind, to think differently.”

That's a start, but it doesn't fully capture repentance. It's more focused on logic and thought. This would have made sense for those in Greek culture because they were very philosophical and cerebral in their thinking.

The problem is, Jesus wasn't Greek, and he didn't speak Greek. He was Jewish and most likely spoke Hebrew and/or Aramaic. So, we can't look to “metanoia” alone to fully capture what Jesus was saying when he said “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand…”

The original Hebrew word he would have used is “shuv” and means to “return, turn back, go back to." This implies a complete change in direction.

The Aramaic word “tub” means the same thing, “to return, to come back or turn back.”

Both these words carry the meaning of a full 180 degree turn back to God, back to what is right, and back to the original design…not just a mindset shift or a 10% tweak to make a small correction.

So that's the first ditch... We've made repentance too mental. Just change your mind and keep living the same way.

The second ditch came later through the Latin Vulgate, when repentance got translated into "penance." Suddenly it became a ritual of performance.

In my home country of Portugal, there's a place called Fatima where people walk around a track on their knees until they bleed.

Religion took repentance and turned it into tradition.

Go to the box. Pay the fine. Say the prayers. But going through the motions of a ritual doesn't mean anything inside of you has actually changed.

When we walk out repentance the way Jesus described it there will be fruit and evidence of change... something that shows we've turned away from what is wrong and back to what is right.

So what I'm seeing as I study this more is that true repentance as Jesus described it, is all of these things...a change of heart, a change of mind, and a change of behavior that proves itself with fruit.

Are you seeing how and why we have been so far off on this and why so many people have been stuck and unable to see real fruit in their lives?

Jesus gave us the key… “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand…”

Then after he told us to repent, he told us to “Seek first the Kingdom…”

So, repentance is the first step into experiencing Kingdom life.

But how do we know when repentance has truly taken place?

The Test Of True Repentance

The fruit or the evidence that true repentance has happened is the proof of change.

Here's how you know if it's real…

If you were dropped right back into the exact same situation, same triggers, same pressure, you would not do the same thing you did before. It's the same scenario, but a completely different response from you.

That's repentance. Not the apology, not the feeling remorseful, but a change that holds up under the same temptation.

So here's the only question that matters now…

Where is this true for you?

Don't guess at it, let's find it together... Take 2 minutes right now and ask yourself:

Where in your life have you only made a partial turn? You changed your mind, you said you were sorry, you felt bad…but the fruit isn't there, and it keeps happening.

Then ask God:

Lord, show me the root of what is happening in my heart that makes me capable of this? Where are you inviting me to more fully turn back to you today?”

Don't rush it. Let him answer, and decide to commit to the full 180, not a soft correction, but the whole turn. Then watch for the fruit to come

This is the work of maturing in the Kingdom that we do every week inside of my Kingdom Seekers mentorship community.

If you want to go after and fully apprehend the Kingdom life God has available to you with us....