Can You See the Truth?
I’ve just started reading RePresent Jesus by Dharius Daniels and WOW. I mean, WOW. This book is challenging, NOT for the faint of heart. And it’s certainly got me thinking. The book deals with Christlikeness and each chapter deals with a different virtue. The second chapter, which I’m on, deals with “Jesus and Truth.” Pastor Dharius makes this profound statement:
So, what is truth? Jesus clearly answers this question in a prayer recorded in John 17. He says to the Father, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (v. 17). This is the barometer by which Christ measures truthfulness: the Word. All truth comes from the Word.
I am not saying truth is only found in Scripture. I am saying, however, that if anything contradicts Scripture, then it isn’t true. If our opinion lines up with the Word of God, then it’s true. It it doesn’t, then it’s a lie. It’s as simple as that. If our feelings line up with the Word of God, then they’re true. If they don’t, then they aren’t. Our feelings may be real but that doesn’t mean they’re true. God is the only one with perfect feelings. Therefore, God always feels what should be felt, and whatever He feels is always right. Our feelings are not perfect and they can’t be the source we use to determine what’s true or the compass we use to direct our lives. (pg. 19)
With all this “my truth,” “your truth,” “our truth,” business, this needs to be said:
THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUTH. TRUTH IS A PERSON. HIS NAME IS JESUS.
Take it or leave it, it’s the truth anyhow.
And the beautiful thing is, the Truth of God and His Word is not dependent on any mans’ opinion. As the old saints say, “He’s God all by Himself.” And might I add, He don’t need no help!
Yet I was doing some thinking last night about all this and here is what I came up with:
The Truth isn’t White and Gold
There is a danger that comes with judging what is and what is not truth based upon our experiences. As the world saw with the blue and black dress drama, father was turned against son, mother against daughter, brother against brother, and lover against lover.
“It’s blue and black!”
“No it’s not! It’s white and gold!”
“Fie on you fools! It’s BLUE and BLACK!!!”
Just as if a crazy gas was released in the earth like it was in Gotham city in Batman Begins, the world nearly tore itself apart over that darn dress! Yet when the dressmaker was finally consulted, she showed us all that the dress was, in fact, blue and black. The misconception was not in the dress itself, but in how the viewer’s brains saw the dress. In other words, what the brains of half the people in the world told them was not the truth. And yet, that was what they saw.
Neither is the Truth Colour Blind
In the same way the world was divided over “the dress,” so many couples have found themselves in similar disputes over the colour of flowers, houses, landmarks, and so forth. Why? Because the husband is colour blind. (Men are more likely than women to be colour blind.) A colour blind person can go their entire life believing something is one thing when it’s really another. Similarly, just because we go through life believing something is so, doesn’t mean that it is. We saw the internet almost break over a blasted dress, yet how many people have led broken lives over the ages in a quest to define “their truth”?
They need to consult their Maker.
So now I ask you, can you see truth? Or are your clouded perceptions preventing you from seeing it?
Who Is Truth?
Again, Truth is a Person. His name is Jesus. If we want Truth, we must go to Him.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32)
For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. (John 18:37)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
The Father of Truth
Following this statement in John 14, Jesus paves the way for the Father of Truth: God Almighty.
If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him. (v. 7)
The Scripture goes on to say,
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. (John 17:17-19)
For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. (John 12:49)
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. (John 14:10)
We also know from Scripture that neither God nor Christ ever change. In other words, One or Both did not become Truth or grow into Truth; They have always been Truth.
“For I am the Lord, I do not change… (Malachi 3:6)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)
And this truth has ALWAYS existed.
In the beginning God… (Genesis 1:1)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1-2)
And in case there was still any doubt, Scripture says:
Let God be true but every man a liar. (Romans 3:4)
The Spirit of Truth
So now that we’ve established the Person of Truth and the Father of Truth, let us look to the Spirit and Teacher of Truth.
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. (John 16:13)
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)
But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. (John 15:26)
The Children of Truth
Now allow me to clear up another non-truth. We are not all children of God. We are all creations of God. Adam was the “son of God” because he had no Father or mother but God (Luke 3:38), but humans in general are not God’s children. Besides Christ, the Son of God, the only children of God are those born of the Spirit of Truth.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8)
Worship in the Spirit of Truth
And since we are “Spirit Children” of God, then the way to commune with Him is through our lifeline: the Spirit of Truth. (Not a spirit, but the Spirit.)
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:23-24)
I had to share this with someone earlier today on Facebook.
The cool thing to say now is, “I’m not religious, I’m spiritual” or “I’m not a Christian, I’m spiritual” or “I don’t go to church; I’m spiritual.” Well let me tell you something: there is a WHOOOOOOLE lot of spirituality out there to dabble in and most of it is not of God. Any spirituality that you dabble in outside of the parameters laid down in Scripture is not of God. And as for being spiritual, well, Satan is spiritual. Demons and principalities are spiritual. Witches and pagans are spiritual. Hitler was spiritual. Muslims that behead and slaughter Christians and Jews in the name of Allah are spiritual. Our spirituality needs just a tad more definition than the fact that we commune with the spirit world.
The spirit realm is neutral. Both the godly (good) and demonic (bad) spiritual exist. The question is which one are you pulling on? Which one are you treating with? Which one are you channelling? You can’t channel the Holy Spirit and another spirit at the same time. Again, I’ve seen and chatted with witches who claim to operate in their demonic supernatural powers in praise of the Father, Son, and Spirit. They are deceived. Simon the Sorcerer was converted, yet in his ignorance, he begged to BUY the Holy Spirit of God’s power from the disciples, but Peter set him straight.
And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”
Then Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.” (Acts 8:18-224, see 9-25 for full context)
The Anti-Thesis of Truth
Bishop Tudor Bismark said,
For every demonic system, there is a Kingdom and apostolic model, driven by a prophetic process, to counter and replace the demonic system. ("Abraham vs. Sodom" at the Threshing Floor)
Therefore, if there is a Person of Truth, then there is a person of deception; if there is a Father of Truth, then there is a father of lies; and if there is a Spirit of Truth, then there is a spirit of deception. His name is Satan.
So drunk on his own deceptions, Satan, then called Lucifer, got himself kicked out of Heaven for thinking he could be like God (Isaiah 14:12-21). He was none the wiser for his Fall, but only grew in deception, and thus, earned his titles and descriptions.
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:44)
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. (II Corinthians 11:13-15)
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. (I Timothy 4:1-3)
Blinded to Truth
I recently blogged on the spirit of perversion, Jezebel’s “big brother.” Another way of identifying this spirit would be to call it the “spirit of deception” or the “spirit of lies.” It takes what is true and twists it; perverts it. And really, that is Satan’s only mission. He seeks to blind us and sway us away from the Truth of God.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:20-23, see 18-32)
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (II Corinthians 4:3-4 KJV)
The god of this world is doing his work well. He is blinding the hearts of believers and non-believers alike. But God did not leave us without instructions on how to sniff out this spirit of deception and error.
Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (I John 3:24-4:6)
You can be spiritual, but I need you to test (“try” KJV) the spirits that you are treating with and learning from. And please, don’t ever think you’re above spiritual deception because the moment you do is the moment you’ve become deceived. The Bible says that in the Last Days, even the “elect” would be deceived (Matthew 24:22-24, Mark 13:20-22). If the elect are falling into deception, how much more are the non-elect?
So now, again, I ask you, can you see the Truth? Or has your sight been veiled by the god of this world? If it has, fall down to your knees and repent like the Apostle Paul and ask God to remove the scales from your eyes so that you may see His Truth clearly!
