BLESSINGS OF REPENTANCE

My Dear Precious Child,
     Before Peter and John were arrested in the temple for displaying the man who had been crippled from birth in his healed state, a vast amount of Israelites ran to view the man who who had been made whole.  Peter quizzed the crowd about why they were so amazed.  He told them that I, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who was the God of their ancestors and themselves, had glorified the same Jesus whom they had turned over to Pilate to be crucified and he told them that they even disowned Him, not allowing Him to be released but instead chose a murderer while they, themselves killed the Prince of Life.  He told them that I had raised Him from the dead, as the disciples were witnesses.  He gave the credit to the name of Jesus Christ, the One who had made the man whole who was well known to them.  Peter affirmed that it was faith in His name by which the man had been healed, as they could see. (Acts 3:11-16)
    Then Peter called them "Brothers", the people who were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  He, in essence, absolved them of all guilt and responsibility for the death of Jesus when he told them that neither they nor their leaders had any idea what they were doing, that they were ignorant of their part in the plan.  He told them that the entire scenario was what I had planned for the salvation of the world, what was spoken by their prophets for ages,  My plan was that Christ would suffer so that other people would not have to suffer the pangs of hell. (Acts 3:17-24)
    Peter then announced the way for them to become eligible for the blessing of My favor.  He said for them to repent and turn to Me and then their sins would be forgiven.  Repentance means to change your devotion and your actions from negative thoughts, attitudes, speech and actions into a positive, faith-filled motivation so that I can send to you My comfort instead of your having a life of discomfort, sin, oppression and death.  Peter announced the way for those people to exit from the commandment of death and emerge into My new commandment of Life.  Peter reminded the people that Moses, Himself, had prophesied, as well as the prophets all the way through Samuel had all prophesied, that it was for them, the Israelities, that I had raised up Jesus and made Him the Christ, the Anointed One, the Savior of the world, by causing them to turn from their wicked ways and turn to Me, which is called repentance.(Acts 3:25-26)
    There was no guilt, no shame, no accusations, and no "hell, fire and damnation" in Peter's appeal to the Jews who had followed him, John and the previously crippled man into the temple.  Instead, Peter explained that what they did in their sin of sending Jesus Christ to the cross, His being completely innocent of any wrong-doing, their actions were  merely ignorance and being uninformed.  However, He appealed to them to turn from their wicked motivations and turn to me so that they would have My positive, Holy Spirit empowered energy in order to have a loving relationship with Me and inherit My blessings.  Those people had been part of the voices that yelled to crucify Him, yet Peter told them that it was merely their ignorance that caused them to participate in the mob rule.   
    The wisdom behind Peter's loving words came from His being baptized in My Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost in the upper room a few days prior and His being born of My Holy Spirit when the risen Christ breathed on the disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit.  He told them that they had the authoritative power to forgive sins or to retain them.  Peter certainly did not use fear of "hell, fire and damnation" to entice the people to abandon their wicked ways.  He merely presented to them the Christ who had healed the crippled man and told them to turn to Me for forgiveness of sins and they would receive My Holy Spirit. 
    Peter's spiritual wisdom increased enormously when He became baptized in My Holy Spirit.  He no longer was the man who lied three times about knowing Jesus Christ.  He had become filled with wisdom and knowledge, two of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Even though the priests were responsible for subsequently arresting and jailing the two disciples, Peter and John, there were many converts to My family of God from the people in the temple, adding people until there was a numbering of over 5,000 at the time.
    My children must learn to adopt the wisdom of Peter in how he conversed with the people who had previously been so adamant about seeing that Jesus Christ was crucified.  He told them that they were uninformed and ignorant of what was happening at the time.  He didn't use the devil's characteristics of accusation, blame, shame or damnation in his appeal to them.  He used the kind and gentle wisdom of My Holy Spirit in enlightening the people of what had been My plan for the salvation of the world and invited them to enter into My kingdom of God.
   Fear of Me does not produce good disciples.  The disciples of Jesus Christ were distressed about His leaving them because of His kindness, not because of His having exerted any severe authoritative words or actions.   I am Love and My Love is what attracts people to Me.
     Your Father of Effective, Loving Words