Lord, Process Me To Hear Truth!
“Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.” (NKJV Psalm 51:6)
I once read somewhere that the most powerful thing in the world is truth because it is the only thing in the world that cannot be changed or altered. For the most part I believed that. Until I grew a little older and I found that truth is something that can be altered in the mind and hearts of people—especially God's people. And because of this, I found myself taking this word Jesus spoke lightly: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32 KJV). The blessed thing is that I had to take it lightly, so I could really come to know how true that word is. Knowing and applying truth has the power and ability to make you free! The problem that I am experiencing within me and I see within the people of God is that truth is readily available for us to hear, know, and apply, but very few of us are truly free.
When I look at my life and I see that some thing is off or something is totally wrong, I have to ask myself, “Where in my life am I living or believing a lie?” As it says in Psalm 51:6, God desires truth in the inward parts. That is it! Truth within me. If there is no truth in me, then wisdom cannot be known to the hidden parts of me. If I don't know truth or if I deny truth, then sin that is hidden in me cannot really be dealt with by God or me. For the last three years of my life, it has been a constant prayer of mine that the Lord process me or better yet prepares me to hear truth. What is truth? What have we constructed as truth? Is truth the things that we can accept hearing from across a pulpit? Is truth only limited in the form of rebuke and correction? Is truth strictly God's word? Is truth the things that we avoid to hear or receive? Is truth the thing that we hear in our spirit and respond by calling Satan a liar? I mean really. . . .What is the truth?
Dictionary.com defines truth as: conformity to fact or actuality, a statement proven to be or accepted as true, sincerity and integrity, fidelity to an original or standard, reality; actuality, and often that which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence.
That is pretty deep! Before I read this definition, I thought I had great insight into what truth was; but reading, understanding, and applying this definition in accordance with God's Word has become very important to me when allowing truth to make me free. I have found that there are many, many layers of truth, but I want to only address these three briefly: there is God's word where He proclaims what is and what is supposed to be, then there is the truth of who we really are within and without, and lastly the truth of who we want to be.
The truth that cannot be altered or changed is God's Word. Even though people, especially the people of God and those who know the Word, try to change the Word to fit their lifestyle. God's Word is the basis of every aspect of life. It should be the guiding factor and final answer for everything within the lives of every believer. If you ever had a problem discerning the truth from a lie, God's Word would help to dissolve whatever the issue may be. God's Word is absolutely true; His whole Word. From Genesis to Revelation, I can find truth that has the ability to express its relevance to all of my life circumstances, situations, and issues. And most importantly, I have learned that whatever it is that I think I hear God saying to me, it had better line up with the Word of God! And not just the part of the Word that I like to hear either!
The hardest truth that I ever had to face within myself was that - I was not delivered from things that I thought I was delivered from. I thought my deliverance or keeping my deliverance rested more in works and less in faith. I would fast, pray, commune with God, and just simply invented interesting ways to seek or get in His presence. But then something happened. Some where something happened. I found myself in a place that I swore and vowed to never be in again. Truth knocked on the door of my heart just recently to let me know what was really going on. We (I say that because I know that I am not the only one) as Christians internalize and suppress entirely too many of our issues. I truly believe this occurs because we know the Word of God and we know that we are supposed to be what the Word says we are. A constant battle goes on in our minds about who we are, who we were, and are becoming. But it is hard for some to believe that just reading the Word is only step one in the process of becoming the Word. Just because we know what it says does not automatically and authentically make us like the Word. It truly has to become a way of life. The word has to be meditated upon daily. That is why Psalm 1 portrayal of staying blessed shows someone who meditates day and night on God's Word. It is through internalization and suppression that we convince ourselves that we are delivered, mature saints of God who are made new, and not through meditation of God's Word—the truth.
I propose a new method or a new deliverance: Confrontational truth! Yes, dig out your spirit and separate the truth from the lies. Allow yourself to be challenged in your mentality of who you are. Dare yourself to allow God to get into the deepest parts of your existence, the deepest and dark parts of your spirit and let Him tell you about it. Confront who you truly are. If you need help in knowing who you are then take a look at the person you are when no one is around. Take inventory of your thought pattern. What truly makes you happy and what makes you sad? Even though this may or may not be a good indication all of the time but, what do people that work and live with you say about you? When I allowed God to do these things, I found out that there were some issues that I had not dealt with. I thought the issues had gone away. But when I saw the signs of these things being resident in me, I did the super spiritual thing we have all done: rebuke the devil. The truth is this: the flesh needs to be destroyed before we can rebuke the devil. The devil receives too much credit from the mouths of the saints of God. By God, he has been declared a defeated foe, but some where along the lines we make him out to be a powerful victor. If we blame Satan and demons for everything and make them out to seem so powerful then what room is there for the Bride of Christ to use truth to change in preparation for her wonderful BrideGroom?
Another thing we do which can be good in certain situations is to take an inventory of what is going on around us and on the outside of us. Doing this will sometimes reap good benefits but what happens when you find that you don't have any outside influences around you to make you fall back into sin that God has delivered you out of? Making sure that there is not a thing around you or in your life that can hinder you from worshiping God is great, but just as importantly you have to look within. I say this because I am convinced of Matthew 15:11. It is not what goes in but what comes out that makes a person defiled. The truth of God's Word will make you face issues that you try to suppress and internalized. It will make you allow the Holy Spirit to show you the defilement from within that the scripture talks about. Refusing to hear or receive that there is such a thing as defilement from within could have some negative consequences. You could live your life for Christ in delusion thinking that something is wrong with everyone else except you. No one is above that type of delusion. I have seen even in myself how I think I can worship, read God's word, and commune with Him with a lie housed in my spirit. Sometimes we don't even know it but the sovereign Lord has His ways of sending His messages to us. We just like to act as if we did not hear or He was not talking to us. I want to be ever so careful in living my life to be able to hear the good and bad truth. I don't want to cut my ear off with the sword of pride and arrogance; neither with the sword of rebellion. Rebellion is as bad as witchcraft. ( See 1Samuel 15:23 ) And it will be as if a witch put the hex on you when you enter rebellion. I say that because it is a place of delusion. You will think that you are praying and communing with the Lord God of Abraham but in all actuality you are talking to the father of witchcraft and rebellion, Satan.
All in all, the truth has the power to hew us and carve us in to the image and likeness of Christ. It's a sad day when we, the Church, only want to do greater works than He did but refuse to live our lives like He lived. The key thing with that is that in order to do greater works than Him we would have to first live our lives like He did. Too many of us want to do what He did without having to be submitted like He was and to have the same character and testimony that He had. To do all the greater works and not have a holy, accountable, and just lifestyle is impossible. Very impossible! I am pretty sure that it pleases the Lord when He sees His people wanting to be like Him in every way. But even in my wanting to be like Him I have come to the realization that who I want to be and who I am are totally opposite. There has to be Someone or Something that will get me from the mess of who I am to who God says that I am. Sometimes we even want to be a person that God has not even called us to be.
Truth is realizing what reality is and what that reality is supposed to be and is going to be according to the whole counsel of God (His holy Word). Coming to grips with all of this really is a heart-wrenching process that is rarely talked about. I am learning that truth helps us sort out who we are really and who we want to be and directs us to who God says we are. It is not enough to start naming and claiming that we are this and we are that. We have to do and be according to His Word—truth; more or less, it has to be a life style. Not just a short-lived passion or a dream that dies in the face of our sins and short comings.
If you want to share your truth or tell me your comments, please email me at shola@wheretoworship.com
