Repentance is the complete conscious and deliberate turning away from sin and its pleasures towards God and His holy pleasure. No one can manifest true faith without genuine repentance.
Repentance happens this way:
1. a man hears the good news about Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit convicts him of sin
2. he becomes unhappy about doing bad things and offending God
3. he goes to God to acknowledge the fact that he is in rebellion against God
4. he confesses all the wrongdoings and every shortcoming to God
5. he asks Him for forgive him for every one of them
6. he, then, invites the Lord, Jesus Christ into his heart and life to become his Lord and personal Saviour
7. in response to the great mercy shown him at salvation, he intentionally turns away from sin, disobedience, idolatry, and evil by considering every part of his body dead to sin and no longer able to do anything that he cannot give glory to God for
8. he turns to God for his grace, assistance, fellowship, and pleasures
This is what it means to repent. If you haven’t done these, you cannot wholeheartedly confess Jesus as Lord because He wouldn’t be the Lord of your life. You will be committing sin periodically.
This is what many Christians and some Churches lack today. This is the reason why we have not been able to dominate the earth. Let us return to true repentance. Let us return to faith. Let us return to biblical Christianity.