In Jeremiah, chapter eighteen, verse eight, “If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.” The word “repent” here means to relent, to change one’s mind and purpose, or to reconsider. God remains
free to change His pronounced decisions and to regulate His dealings with us according to our response to His offer of forgiveness or to His threat of judgment. Things are not predetermined and unalterable, not even in the mind of God; He takes into account spiritual changes in people. Although God does not change His mind within Himself, as in Numbers twenty-three, verse nineteen, and James one, verse seventeen, He retains the right to change His mind and alter His declared promises and threats. We should never accept a theology that denies God His sovereign freedom, as in Ezekiel eighteen, verses twenty-one through twenty-eight, and Ezekiel thirty-three, verses thirteen to sixteen.
First, “I will repent” is a choice someone makes to change their circumstances or condition in their lives. An open confession that God acknowledges, and the evil one also witnesses. Remember, God gives the freedom of choice on how each person desires to live their life. In the Garden of Eden, Eve had a choice whether to eat the forbidden fruit or not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Secondly, God “takes into account spiritual changes in people.” Think about that for a minute. Once a spirit is born, it never dies. And what we allow into our spirit through our senses can affect the course of our lives. God is a Spirit, and the holy angels are spirit beings, and the devil is also a spirit, and the fallen angels, the demons, are spirit beings.