In Mark, the first chapter, Jesus arrives on the scene and begins his ministry. He begins with a declaration — “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”.
Repent here cannot mean:
• “Feel bad about your sins”
• “Adopt better personal morals”
• “Accept doctr
• “Ask Jesus into your heart”
The Greek word means:
Change your mind… but deeper — change your perception, your framework, your allegiance, your orientation. To re-pent, get back to the top in your thinking.
But to this audience, the repentance isn’t generic.
They are being told to abandon their current survival strategies and re-align with a new reality.
Repent from what?
- From Rome’s inevitability
Stop believing empire is the final word.
- From Herod’s shadow
Stop believing corrupt power is normal.
- From Temple brokerage
Stop believing God only moves through institutions and professionals.
- From scarcity obedience
Stop bowing to systems that starve you, shame you, and call it holy.
- From outsourced righteousness
Stop thinking holiness is something applied to you by authorities instead of awakened in you by God.
- From hopelessness
Stop believing God is distant, absent, neutral, or siding with the powerful.
- From the mental map that kept you surviving instead of free
Lift your eyes. Lift your head. Lift your expectations.
This “repentance” is defection, not sorrow.
It is political, spiritual, psychological treason against the world as organized.
The Good News was simple — The system that dominates you is not ultimate, God’s rule is breaking in, and you can step into it now.
His good news wasn’t about sin, or how you can be forgiven and escape hell.
But:
“God is reclaiming the world from the powers that oppress you — and you’re invited out of survival mode and into citizenship in a new order starting now.”
It’s time to take it back.
The People’s Revival 
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