Pursue truth
Things are beginning to shift in my life and If I continue on this course I feel a major breakthrough will be soon on its way. Specifically, what is God doing? For starters I am seeing the power of truth. Over and over again Jesus began statements to his disciples with the words " I tell you the truth". I tell you the truth unless you are born again you can not enter the kingdom of God. Jesus gives these truth statements over and over again throughout the gospels. It took me 24 years to figure out that he says these statements because he is simply always telling his followers the truth, and nothing but the truth. Ha. And we can't handle it( to continue on with my few good men quote). Because of God's great love for us he continually tells us the truth. " No, eating those cookies is not good for you, its actually going to make it harder for you as you struggle to overcome gluttony. " I know you like that particular guy and think he's the one but he's actually not interested in you at all and is not the person I've destined for you to be with". OUCH! I've actually heard that truth a few times before. Most of the time God tells me things and even though I know he's speaking I still try and hide from him and cover my ears to his voice. Somehow I think that if I just pretend I don't hear him than it will make what he's says untrue. I can just pretend all is well and go on living like I was before. The sad thing is that I convince myself living in deception is easier than facing the truth, and it really isn't. Truth brings freedom. It may hurt but its a good hurt because it leads you into liberty. Deception just grows and grows and it can keep a person in bondage for years if they allow it. I recently heard a story of a poor Christian guy who prayed for like 2 years about this girl that he liked and thought was the one. After that extended time period he came to her and shared his heart. She thought he was a wonderful guy but didnt have any feelings for him so she had to nicely let him down. I feel bad for the guy but the question I have to ask is " What was he hearing"? I'm not judging him cause I have totally been there and I understand how confusing matters of the heart are. But what was God saying to him during this point and what was Satan? And whos voice did he listen to more often? God wants us to live in the truth and he wants us to walk in freedom. In his mercy God reveals truth to us because he adores us and wants us to know his will for our lives. He doesnt tell us everything but when we are being decieved and lead into confusion he often does share some knowledge and revelation with us. Its just that we often don't want to hear it or we convince ourselves that he is wrong and we are right. That frankly is never the case. The bottom line is that to recieve truth we need to cling to the word of God. Our heart is deceptive, our emotions lie to us, we can't trust our feelings or even our wonderful friends. We must CLING to the word of God as if our live depends on it. Because in reality it does. The word of God is sobering, it brings the cold, hard truth like nothing else. You think your in love and God tells you to flee youthful lusts. You think your about the hottest thing in the world and God speaks vanities of vanity to you. Satans telling you the worlds going to end and God says " I will hide you under the shadow of my wings and no evil will befall you". News flash! Satan lies all the time and he will never stop. He will always tell us this person hates us, our boss wants to fire us, we will never get married and we look fat or ugly. He will always tell us it doesnt matter if we witness, or read our Bible or even pray as much as we used to cause its okay to be in a relaxed restful season. He will always lie to us because that is his nature. He is a liar and will always be. Look at the world. There are millions following false religions, in abusive realtionships, addicted to drugs and so on. The sad thing is that they may live their whole life caught up in these destructive lies only to die one day, stand before God and realize the cost of their errors. We need to praise God that he tells us the truth, no matter how much it stinks to hear it. I would rather hear it now than hear it on judgement day. If I truly don't love people and I'm full of pride I want to know now so I can repent and ask God to change my heart. I dont want to live in denial and find out when I'm standing before blameless ,spotless Jesus. Justin Kendrick once said when its comes to deception its never a matter of if were decieved, but where were deceived. So were are you decieved? What lies are you believing right this very moment? That God is frustrated with you and is tired of seeing you fall? That he's run out of grace towards you? That you'll never fulfill the dreams he's put in your heart? Whatever the lies are you need to ask Jesus to be the truth that sets you free. We can continue in deception for as long as we want but the more we are in it the more damage it does. Today you can be free if you seek him for truth.