Repentance.
Returning to the image of God.
"Repent, for the kingdom
of God is near."
— Jesus of Nazareth.
2023...
Marks the year that prayer reached the all-time recorded low in the Western World.
yet hunger
for prayer
is returning.
From Pew Research Center
Read More Here....
For a history of prayer and repentance in the Scriptures and the Church.
Prayer & Repentance
ARE AT THE CORE OF BEING HUMAN.
The entire Bible is a
narrative of people...
who fall away from God, and then cry out to Him again for help—and He graciously delivers.
But God’s people are only delivered when “Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help,” because that’s when “God heard their groaning.” (Ex 2:23-24).
Chains are only broken through prayer in the Scriptures (Matt 17:21).
Prayer is the pregnancy of revival (Acts 1:12-14).
We see this at every scene in the storyline of the Scriptures...
The Scriptures
Othniel,
Ehud,
Deborah,
Gideon,
Jephthah,
and Samuel
were God’s direct responses
to a people’s or a woman’s cries.
Moses
proves
that God
delivers whole
nations
based on
the prayers of
one person.
Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, Hosea,
Joel, Amos, Jonah,
Micah,
Zechariah,
Haggai,
Zephaniah, and Malachi...
Each invite, urge, and command their people to to God as the ONLY way to salvation.
CRY OUT
Genesis -
Deuteronomy
Judges -
Samuel
The
Prophets
The Scriptures...
David’s psalms save him again and again.
Elijah and Elishah’s pleadings raise the dead.
Daniel’s tears move heavenly forces.
The prayer and fasting led by Esther rescues her nation.
Nehemiah’s weeping redeems his people.
And the bleeding prayers of JESUS saved us.
The Church...
The Holy Spirit falls on the church for the very first time while they were "devoting themselves to prayer" (Acts 2:14).
Peter's response is to preach the first sermon in church history, finishing with these words, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 2:38)
Afterward, it is Paul's repentance (after Stephen's prayer) that leads to revival among the nations.
For the newborn church, and indeed, for all of church history, prayer and repentance has been at the core of any recovery of our image of God.
2nd C.
St. Irenaeus writes, "the glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God." Until humans see God rightly, they cannot see themselves.
4th C.
Augustine follows, teaching that we are born broken ("original sin"), and repentance is the way back to our humanity.
4th C.
Macrina and her brothers, Basil and Gregory mark Christian lives lived by stripping ourselves of anything that keeps us from Christ. Repentance is the Church's way of life.
6th C.
Benedict became the inspiration for founding schools around the idea of repentance which educated the church for centuries.
12th C.
Bernard of Clairvaux writes, “The tears of those repenting are the wine of angels.” Repentance is the joy of the Christian.
13th C.
Francis of Assisi confesses, “Even though I had committed but one little sin, I should have ample reason to repent of it all my life.” Which also means if I have just one sin forgiven, I should have ample reason to celebrate that my whole life.
16th C.
Martin Luther writes his first theses to start the Protestant Reformation: "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said 'Repent,' he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance."
18th C.
Jonathan Edwards
became known for his preaching on the wrath (and delight) of God during the First Great Awakening. Repentance was at the forefront of the greatest revival in Western history.
18th C.
William Carey , the father of Modern missions, writes, “the church has a responsibility to actively bring the gospel's message of repentance to all people.”
There are a variety of well-known church leaders from recent centuries we could mention: Frederick Douglas, D.L. Moody, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sojourner Truth, C.S. Lewis, Tim Keller...
All of these communicate repentance in their own way, whether via justice movements, revival gatherings, or intellectual warfare.
Yet what cannot be denied is that our generation fears repentance.
Or perhaps better put...
we fear fearing God.
But no awakening to God has taken place apart from repentance at the center of Christ's church.
In the economy of our God and Father,
through the blood of Jesus Christ,
by the Holy Spirit,
prayers of faith move mountains.
We long to be mountain-movers for the sake of Christ, and the church
has always believed this starts with repentant prayer.
Pentecost,
Peter, and Paul
The Beginning
Irenaeus, Augustine,
The Cappadocians
The Early Church
The Medieval Church
Benedict, Bernard, and Francis,
Luther, Edwards,
and Carey
The Reformation Church
....?
The Modern Church
Introducing AWAKE Teams
-
In an age where Christianity often leans toward consumerism more than crucifixion, we seek to invite young men and women into costly Christianity, starting with costly prayer.
-
An AWAKE Team is a consecrated coalition of believers who share a common rule of life for the sake of awakening to Jesus Christ in their radius.
-
This includes a one-semester commitment to spiritual practices, mentorship, and one pinnacle prayer event.
-
To learn more, choose one of the options below!
Join an
AWAKE Team
Host an
AWAKE Night
Get Connected
© 2026 by True Human Project.
