Hi Mark,
I believe repentance is a process. If God wants to rid us of a particular sin, the Holy Spirit indwelling will make us aware of the power that a sin has over us. We will recognize how our weakness succumbs to it and we will look on it with disgust. But that is just the beginning.
As we live our life and this sin continues to show itself to us, we begin to hate it and loathe our weakness to it. I believe this is what it takes to overcome. The more we hate it, the more we are determined to get away from it and it will start to decrease in our life. It is that revoltion to the sin that slowly drive it away. Because if we hate it so much, it will not have a hold on us anymore and we (only with the help of the Holy Spirit) will drive it out of our lives eventually.
It is a process that takes time, but God gives us the determination and through the power of Jesus' Spirit in us we can overcome these things that do ensalved us to the flesh.
1John 5:3 for this is the love of God, that His commands we may keep, and His commands are not burdensome;
v. 4 because every one who is begotten of God doth overcome the world, and this is the victory that did overcome the world--our faith;
v. 5 who is he who is overcoming the world, if not he who is believing that Jesus is the Son of God?
John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
http://bible-truths.com/lake15-B.html -------------------
"Or despise you the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Rom. 2:4).
What leads us to repentance? The goodness of our illusionary God-given "free will?" NO, "…the GOODNESS OF GOD…" But can the carnal, natural, unconverted mind of man appreciate God’s goodness and then repent by his own will? No, absolutely not. Let’s read it again: "the goodness of God LEADS you to repentance?"
This is the one and only time in the whole Bible that the Greek word
ago is translated as "leadeth." If you check Wigram’s Englishman’s Greek Concordance of the New Testament, you will find that this Greek word
ago is translated into much stronger words than "leadeth." Dozens and dozens of times ago is translated as
bring or
brought. The word, in fact, also means
to drive. (Remember that in John 6:44 the Father "draws" [Gk: ‘drags’] us to Christ?)
Yes, repentance is a process, but it is the goodness of God that does the actual bringing us to and bringing about of our repentance.
-------------------
mercy, peace and love
Kat