Renewed and Restored. Finding Your Flavor Through the Journey of RepentanceAir Date: Apr. 22, 2025

eth Barlet (00:00)
Have you allowed the pressures of society to diminish your saltiness? Today, I share about how the power of repentance can bring refreshment to your soul and restore your influence for God. Let’s get to it. Salty begins right now.

Beth Barlet (00:40)
Welcome to Salted, where I help you uncover the transformative power to know and love Jesus in His fullness and stir up revival within your heart. Join me, Beth Barlett, as I come alongside you every week on the narrow path that draws us into a deeper relationship with Jesus. Get ready to be encouraged, empowered, ignited and equipped as we pursue authentic discipleship to influence the world for the Kingdom of God.

Beth Barlet (01:11)
Hey everyone, welcome to the newest episode in our Salted Podcast. I hope that everyone has had an awesome week and that this week has become together that the Lord would just move in a powerful way in your heart to not only draw you deeper and closer to him, but that you would be once again set on fire to be a vessel ambassador and advocate for the kingdom of God.

Alright, so let’s get to it.

Welcome if this is your first time with us. If you haven’t been following us, this is the episode 3 of our Influencer series where we dive into Matthew 5 13 when Jesus declares to his disciples their identity as the salt of the earth.

In our first episode, we discussed what it means to be a godly influencer for the kingdom of God. And in our most recent episode, we went into the importance of guarding our influence and potency as agents of catalytic change for the gospel and how not to lose our saltiness. Today, I’m excited because I want to speak into the fact that Jesus is such a awesome restorer.

and redeemer and a God who is so full of mercy, compassion and grace. And that if you have been listening to the series and if you have felt that through conviction that you’ve been falling away from your faith or have slowly compromised into the ways of this world, that there is hope and a way that we as Christians can regain our saltiness. All right. So how?

I want to go into the book of Revelation where Jesus sends seven letters to the churches and he loves them so much that after he rebukes them for their sin, their compromise, their lukewarm hearts and immorality, he gives them a solution to be restored. He offers them a way of redemption. What is it? The powerful gift of repentance.

And I really, really want to dive into the topic of repentance today because there was so much misconception about repentance in the Western Church and a lot of negative connotations surrounding its name.

There are so many in the body of Christ that do not understand the true biblical meaning of genuine repentance, nor possess the comprehension of its priceless value or power that it holds for us as God’s children. Satan has associated it with guilt, condemnation, and shame, when in reality it is such a source of life, joy, freedom, and peace.

If we allow our eyes to be opened by the Holy Spirit, we can see its priceless value as not only a weapon of warfare against the King of Darkness, but also a beautiful and powerful gift of God. It is so easy to get caught up and blinded to our sin. The enemy veils our eyes, deceives us, rationalizes our sin, and over time, our hearts can become hardened to conviction and sometimes we even glorify our sin.

So it’s so important that we need repentance to renew our hearts, to revive our soul, and to once again bring us into the life-giving fullness that is available to us through Jesus Christ. So what really is repentance? Without a true understanding of its meaning within the church today, we will never understand the importance that it plays in maintaining our intimacy with the Lord

It is the complete changing of one’s heart and mind about one’s sin and then choosing to fully turn and abandon it in order to restore one’s intimate relationship with God. When we confess our sins before God, we agree with what God says about our sin and understand the weight and displeasure of our sin and rebellion before our Savior.

Repentance stands as an outward reflection of the genuine mourning and the revelation of the wicked state of our hearts before Him.

A heart that keeps up with repentance is the foundation of the doorway that leads us into the Kingdom of Heaven. Repentance has the power to prepare the way in our hearts for the return of our Savior. It not only prepares us for the Judgment Seat of Christ, but it renders fertile soil in our hearts to produce abundant sweet and juicy fruit for God’s Kingdom and for His end time harvest. Repentance is the gift that isn’t treasured.

and its wealth not fully seen until we have realized our poverty in spirit, mourned in godly sorrow over the true state of our brokenness, and taken hold of the gift of grace given to us by the power of the cross. It is no coincidence that the very first words out of Jesus’ mouth in the gospels is, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is here. And his message was this, At last the fulfillment of the age has come.

It is time for God’s kingdom to be experienced in its fullness. Turn your lives back to God and put your trust in the hope-filled gospel. Mark 1.15. Additionally, scripture tells us in 2 Timothy 2.25 that repentance leads us once again to a knowledge of truth and brings us back to our senses after we have been ensnared by the devil through deception to do his will.

It’s so important too that repentance must not just be understood but highly valued because of the high price that was paid through the cross. Those who value repentance value their intimacy with God and understand that the wages of sin is death. It’s highly valued by those who love and fear God and seek to understand God’s full character and his never changing moral standards. When we deceptively choose to create God in our own image according to our own moral standards,

A need for repentance of our sin becomes obsolete and holds little to no value in our lives. However, when we live a life that understands God’s hatred for sin, His perfect holiness, His desire for us to pursue holiness and righteousness, and the truth that we will all one day sit on the judgment seat of Christ, we see it’s high price. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.

and we are brought to our knees in repentance when we remember the forgiveness that was bought for us by the blood of Jesus Christ and the truth that God did not send his Son to condemn the world but to save the world through him.

One of my dearest mentors once said that a heart that keeps up with repentance is a heart that is postured in victory against Satan and his schemes. We hold a weapon of warfare, a shield against the enemy when our hearts are postured in humility and our knees are touching the ground. It was at one of our church prayer nights that focused on confessing our sin before the Lord where my mentor actually had a prophetic vision of incoming enemy fire against our church body.

as they flooded the altar to bear their hearts before Jesus. However, because of their position on their knees and their hearts postured in humility and contriteness before God, the spiritual warfare formed against them missed their targets and actually went right over their heads. She felt as if the Lord was metaphorically saying that there are so many in the church who fail to understand the power and need for repentance and its need to maintain our intimacy with God and walk in his will all the days of our lives.

It also reveals to us how it protects us from pride, deception, and self-condemnation that seeks to bring havoc on circumstances and families. And it helps us resist Satan’s plan to steal, kill, and destroy while allowing us to take hold of the life in Jesus we have been given abundantly. Repentance halts and extracts the power Satan tries to have over and in our lives. It is a weapon of choice against the attacks of the enemy.

one every salted woman must use in order to maintain freedom, intimacy, and life with the Holy Spirit and press forward into the destiny God has for their lives. You know, through the power of repentance, I have seen God during times of ministry unlock the darkest prisons and break up the most hardened hearts. Generous repentance has the power to set the captives free, close doors to demonic oppression, faithfully restore our relationships with God.

and once again reveal the power of redemption through God’s Word after we have sinned. I’ve seen it break down strongholds, restore intimacy, and realign destinies with the will of heaven. Hearts of disobedience are turned into hearts of righteousness through the power of repentance as a power is released when people willingly surrender their lives under the leading conviction of the Holy Spirit and surrender to the heart and love of our Heavenly Father that draws them near.

The gift of repentance given to us is about healing, wholeness, and redemption. It is a symbol and representation of God’s goodness, faithfulness, and grace that was poured out for us on the cross of Calvary. The power of repentance and its importance to God…

reveals the desire he has for us to be deeply intimate with him for all eternity.

I remember the very first time that I had received and embraced a gift of repentance. It had just been about a few weeks after that I was saved and I gave my whole life to Jesus. And I felt the Holy Spirit really just pulling on my heart to just press in and just dive deep more and more into the afterlife and heaven. And I had found this book where there were multiple accounts of people

that did not know each other and were interviewed but they had the same exact story about their encounter with Jesus after they had died before they had come back to life. And one of the accounts had struck me so powerfully and one of them was, as we know, multiple accounts had shown that people when they had met Jesus, Jesus had asked them the very first question, how did you love?

And something about me reading this question that he had asked these people, just the Holy Spirit just had such a powerful effect on my heart. I underwent this deep conviction of godly mourning and sorrow where I started crying uncontrollably. And in the beginning I did not understand why, but I started to realize that the Holy Spirit was showing me for the first how many years of my life, not living for the Lord.

that I had been so focused on living for myself, my selfishness, my self-centeredness, my self-absorption, my self-love, that I had failed to love those around me the way Jesus had been calling me to love and as he loved

and teaches us to love as children of God. And I, for the first time, had experienced true Holy Spirit conviction that had led me to my knees and caused me to just pour out my heart for over, I would say, an hour of just bawling in genuine repentance. And it’s hard to explain, but it was for the first time it was a key

that unlocked the door for me to literally enter the kingdom of heaven in all its fullness. Although I had given my heart to the Lord a few weeks earlier, it was as if in that moment I for the first time encountered the supernatural presence of God. was as if in that very moment my eyes were opened to the depth of my sinfulness and wickedness while all at once the love of Jesus crashed into me.

And not only did I fall deeply in love with him in that moment and did he captivate my heart, but I was simultaneously able to appreciate the mercy and grace of my Savior. And I know so strongly that in that moment my heart was changed forever and I gave my everything once again, all my life to loving and serving Jesus as my Lord and Savior. In that moment, I truly believe is when he saved my soul

In that instant, his love gave me all that I needed. I left my living room experiencing the power, righteousness, love, holiness, mercy, and compassion of God all at once. I was filled with not only a deep love for the Lord, but also a newfound zeal and joy. And for the first time, I felt as if I was truly living for the first time after 30 years of my life. And I knew I could never turn back and live the selfish, godless life I had lived before.

However, I must say that although this was a one-time profound experience, that repentance is not just a one-time gift, it’s one that we must continually keep up with through God’s grace. And each day we must co-labor with the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and bring to mind anything that we have thought, said or done that is unpleasing to God and to fully turn from our rebellious ways. God is the one who searches and knows the secrets of our hearts.

He is the one and only creator of life. He loves us so much that he not only wants to remove the blatant sin in the forefront of our hearts, but also to be aware and discerning of the little foxes hindering the growth of our gardens. Sometimes it is imperative that we intentionally search alongside the Holy Spirit to uncover the sins that tend to lie dormant or we have intentionally covered up or hidden. In Psalm 139, the psalmist cries out, search me, God, know my heart.

I would say that every day, I at least one time or another must turn to the Lord in repentance because of my failures and my sinful fleshy tendencies. And although I love the Lord with all my heart because I am still being sanctified, there are so many things that the Lord still needs to do in my heart.

to make me more into the image of his son. And although my heart desires to love my children unconditionally and perfectly like Jesus with perfect gentleness, kindness, and love, I’m always convicted by the Holy Spirit on a lot of when I have to wholeheartedly repent when I lose my patience with my three-year-old and my six-month-old daughter, or I have to let go because I’m constantly walking in control or pride.

or self-righteousness or unforgiveness or there’s so many things that we all walk through in life that we that we must fight through every day and when we do walk in sin when we do realize our shortcomings the best thing we can do is to turn to God and not only ask for his forgiveness but ask him to change our heart and ask the Holy Spirit to help us

to be more like Him and to 100 % make a conscious, intentional decision to turn from our sin, not just ask for the feelings that I’m forgiven to make myself feel better, but to intentionally run from our sin in order that we can walk in the fullness of life in which God intends for us in a life of holiness, righteousness, obedience, and purity.

And I’ll tell you that many times when I’m having a bad day or I’m caught up in my sin for whatever whatever reason, it’s always repentance that resets my mind and my intentions and softens my heart toward either my husband or my children or those around me. It’s repentance that gives me refound clarity and perspective and checks me to check myself to prevent my frustration from turning into bitterness or anger.

and gives me a fresh new desire to be more like Jesus and prevent my heart from heartening. Crying out to God for his help through his grace on which he died for that I have access to each and every day. But the power to overcome sin first starts with the power to recognize it, submitting our lives fully to the conviction and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Ladies listen, I get it. No one likes to talk about sin. It’s uncomfortable. No one likes it. And that’s why many people silence conviction in order to validate their sin. I said this before, but it’s no wonder that John the Baptist was beheaded over conviction. But if we don’t acknowledge it or repent over it and confront it, we can’t be free and overcome it.

We must constantly challenge our own spiritual pride, self-righteousness, rebellion, and hypocrisy within our hearts, always staying in deep intimacy with God, always protecting and guarding our hearts from a self-righteous spirit that is always deceiving us into believing that we are not in need of constant repentance, we do not sin, or that we are not in need of a savior. I love the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the Gospel of Luke 18 10.

with a Pharisee comes before God praising himself for not being as bad of a sinner as the likes of the other, telling God he fasts twice a week and tides in self-righteousness, and the tax collector who comes in utter humility before God in need of forgiveness and grace, begging for his mercy as a sinner. This parable shows us that God doesn’t want our performance, but he wants 100 % of our hearts.

Perhaps friend, you are in a season where you feel dry, barren, and distant from God. In scripture, a life characterized by unrepentant sin can actually be described as dry and a barren wasteland, or sometimes what is known as a heart of fallow ground. We as Christians must continually break up the fallow ground in our hearts if we want to continually bear fruit for God’s kingdom. But what does fallow ground mean?

During the time scripture was written, Jews were a nation of farmers, and it was therefore a common thing for God to refer in the scriptures to scenes from their daily lives as illustrations. One of these illustrations is the breaking up of fallow ground, a term used by the prophet Hosea to describe God’s people as a nation of backsliders using the analogy of fallow ground for the rebuking of their idolatry and sharply warning them of their impending judgment. Hosea 10-12

The term Fallow Ground was used to describe a piece of land that was once fruitful for the farmer, but due to lack of cultivation over time, had become desolate and hardened due to the accumulation of weeds and thorns.

It is a piece of land that needs to be softened, broken up, once again to receive seed to produce life. Similarly, many of us when we first give our lives to Jesus have newly fertilized and rich soul in our hearts that easily allow the word of God and the gospel to radically change and redeem our lives. However, many times because of our sinful nature and the pressures and temptations of this world, we unknowingly or sometimes knowingly in rebellion

allow unrepentant sin to harden the soul of our hearts and the pleasures of this world to snuff out the growth of the seed of heaven within our lives. It is a hindrance in our intimacy, fellowship, and spiritual advancement with God. It halts our growth, clouds our judgment, and interferes with our Christ-like maturity. However, it is through repentance that we must and can break up the fallow ground not once, but twice, but thrice.

but a hundred times over to restore our soil and bear fruit once again for God’s kingdom. The late preacher Charles Finney exhorts us when he once quoted, in breaking up your fallow ground, you must remove every obstacle. Things may be left that you may think are little things. And you may wonder why you don’t have your peace with God when the reason is your proud, incarnal mind has covered up something

which God has required you to confess and remove. You know, self-examination consists of looking at our lives, considering our motives and our actions, calling up our past and seeing its true character. It’s so important that we look back over our past history, take up our individual sins one by one and look at them. It doesn’t mean that we just take a casual glance at our entire past life.

and see the husband full of sin and then go to God and make a sort of general confession asking forgiveness. General confessions of sin aren’t enough. Our sins were committed one by one and as much as we were able, they ought to be reviewed and repented of one by one to be fully restored to the Lord. And you know, thankfully scripture teaches us that when we turn away from evil through repentance, we are brought healing to our flesh.

and refreshment to our bones. Proverbs 3, 7-8. It is a place of protection, refuge, security, and a sanctuary of peace. It is an invitation to leave the dry desert places of sin and drink from the fountain of life giving water that can only be found in Jesus.

It’s the key that reopens the door and refocuses our minds from centering on things of the flesh to things of the spirit and restores and tenderizes our hearts to once again to be able to fully love what God calls us to love and feel what God calls us to feel.

It refocuses our eyes on what is eternally important. I love the quote by the late author, Joy Dawson, who says, believe, undelt with sin hinders our intimate friendship with God, which hinders our goal to be conformed into Christ’s image, which hinders the fulfillment of our destinies.

And like the preaching of John the Baptist, we must lean lives that bear fruit of us keeping with repentance. For if we don’t trim the wicks of our oil lamps, aka cut off from our soul our latent sin through the act of repentance, it will keep our light for Jesus from burning brightly and become hindered and grow dim.

Not only do we feel the effects of our unrepentant sin and lose the joy and peace in our lives and hinders us becoming more like Jesus, but as discussed in our last episode, it affects the potency and ability to reflect Jesus to the world around us.

Much of the remnant in the church today is seeking revival and a move of God that will once again set his people on fire, head over heels and love again with his son Jesus. A revival that will turn people from their worldliness, compromise and spiritual apathy and bring once again the followers of Jesus back to life.

However, it must start with individual revival within our hearts, one that stirs from a place of humility and desperation and leads to deep repentance and an impenetrable desire to turn from sin.

Through our sometimes limited perspective, all may appear lost, but it is God’s utmost desire to seek, save, and restore His children who have been led astray. There is always hope for the prodigal and wayward to return to the arms of their heavenly Father and for dry bones to come back to life because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. It does not matter how much we have fallen away. God will always forgive us, heal us, and restore all things

If we just humble ourselves, pray, seek his face and turn from our evil ways. Our God is a merciful, compassionate God, slow to anger, full of steadfast love. He is beseeching his church to renounce the darkness and pleasures of this world, things that will ultimately be destroyed during his last judgment, and instead come to him for sanctuary, safety and salvation through faith and his gift of repentance. When shame, condemnation, guilt try to come in,

The gift reminds us that in Jesus we are fully loved, chosen and free by His blood and we can boldly come before our Heavenly Father covered in His mercy and grace. Repentance brings glory to God. It expresses His compassion, steadfast love and unchanging faithfulness. Because of the blood of Jesus, we stand faithfully on God’s word and assurance and relief knowing that if we confess our sins, God will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1,9.

I challenge you today to ask yourself, is my heart one that keeps up with repentance? And I challenge you to take some time to sit quietly with the Lord and ask him to search your heart this week for anything that is unpleasing to him that you’ve been blinded to. Asking Lord, what sins has my heart covered up that I need to not just ask forgiveness for, but actually turn from, run from, and abandon that is hindering my walk with you?

Daughter of the Most High God, no matter how far you have traveled off the narrow path, our Heavenly Father is standing with His arms wide open to receive you with grace, love, and celebration. He is waiting for you to return to Him with all that you are. Even when we are faithless, He will always remain faithful. Nothing is too broken, too shameful, or too hard for Him to redeem. There are no dry bones, nothing too dead or unfruitful that He cannot bring back to life.

Let His amazing, unchanging, unending mercy, grace and love wash over you as you bow your heart to Him in repentance. Let Him remove any hardened stone within your heart and revive, renew and restore it to one of the flesh. Allow His everlasting kingdom to have its way in your heart. I break off in Jesus’ name any spirit of condemnation and silence and break the voice of the enemy trying to define your life.

There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus because of what Jesus has done for you and the power of his blood by the cross. By coming before him in faith and with a repentant heart, you are fully forgiven and washed clean.

If you draw near to God, He will draw near to you. If you resist the devil, He will flee from you. When we confess our sins, our sin loses its grip on us and frees us, allowing us to receive Jesus’ forgiveness brought for us on the cross. It is your time for refreshing and fulfillment. The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. Allow God here and now to have His way

to ignite a fiery revival deep within your heart. I say to you, prepare your hearts for the coming of the Lord Yahweh and clear a straight path in your hearts for Him, for He is coming soon.

Repent, turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out and the times of refreshing may come. Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Beth Barlet (28:36)
I pray this episode has blessed you today. I appreciate our time together and I hope our conversation has deepened your faith. Don’t forget to check out today’s show notes for episode links and additional information. Be sure to share this podcast with a friend, review it, and hit subscribe so you don’t miss one episode. Go to my website www.thesaltedpodcast.com and subscribe to my newsletter to be part of our Salted community. Remember,

Being salted takes intentionality. See you here next time.