The Way of Truth

In Hebrew, the word commonly translated “truth” comes from the word “amen” or faith, meaning to establish something like a pillar that actively supports the weight that it holds. Within ancient Hebrew culture, words were things both said and done by the breath of one’s life. Words are a form of communication and an action. When God wants to do something, He says it. He speaks His word by the almighty breath or Holy Spirit that dwells within Him and that proceeds from Him as he Fathers the words that He speaks. If nothing happens, it is not God who is speaking. When God speaks, the presence of his words of living breath, filled with the breath or Holy Spirit of God’s eternal life, is called light or “day”. It says in Isaiah 60:19-20 (KJV) “The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended”. In the natural world, people live in the natural light of the sun, moon and stars. In John 1:4-5 (KJV) it says regarding Jesus “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not”. The promise of Isaiah was that the days of mourning of the natural life would end when the light and indwelling presence of the absolute truth of the living word of God would enter and bring the unmerited grace and blessing of the supernatural light and love of God into people’s hearts. It says in Psalm 119:130 (KJV) “The entrance of thy words gives light”. King David said in Psalm 51:6 “Behold, thou desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom” and in verse 10 “A clean heart prepare for me, O God, And a right spirit [righteous life’s breath] renew within me”. Ultimately it is God who decides what is true or what is false, what is right or what is wrong. The living inbreathed word of God is the ultimate source and definition of what truth is. That is why Jesus prayed for his disciples and said in John 17:16-17 (KJV) “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them [set them apart from the world] through thy truth: thy word is truth”. This is the truth that sets people free from sinning and sin in all its forms. That is why Jesus said in John 15:3-4 (KJV) “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me”. The absence of the living words of God is called darkness, or “night”. God spoke the word “Son” and breathed himself completely and totally into the body of Jesus, the incarnation of God, fully man and fully God. That is why Jesus is called the light of the world. The devil, or father of lies, offers a lying alternative to the absolute truth of the living word of God. The devil has established a kingdom in darkness based upon the natural light of the sun, moon and stars but with an absolute absence of the light of the living and loving words of God. Regarding the devil, Jesus said in John 8:44 (KJV) “…He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” The devil speaks lying words by his evil breaths or spirits. In Hebrew, the word translated “soul” means literally a personality or “breathing being”. The devil’s words of lying breath and false promises attempt to establish a kingdom within the hearts and the breathings of the personalities (or souls) of those who believe them. These living lies or lying breaths become incorporated into the foundation or woven into the fabric of people’s hearts or personalities as truth if they are believed and established as if they were true. They are ultimately not true, but they are very real, so real in fact that they can create such a living hell within people’s hearts that the recipient can be driven to commit murder and suicide. In John 18:38 (KJV) Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” The father of lies would answer “the truth is whatever you accept, agree with, or believe in your heart is true”. That is, of course, a lie. The devil’s so-called truth, or deep secrets, do not set people free. When Adam and Eve were deceived into sinning in the garden of Eden by believing the serpent’s lie of the freedom to become “as gods” by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they grasped equality with God and rejected the ultimate and absolute truth of the living words that God had spoken. Instead they partnered with the father of lies to decide for themselves what was good or evil, true or false, right or wrong. They said in their hearts “I will decide what is right for me, I will decide how I will live, I am the ultimate authority in my life, no one is greater than me”. Ever since the darkness of the Fall, in the pride of their fallen hearts, people have decided for themselves what they consider as “truth”. Their own personal truth comes from the culture that they are born into, their upbringing, whatever religious traditions or beliefs they may hold and their own personal past. Hebraically, truth is of the heart, not the head because as a man thinks within his heart, so he is. It has nothing to do with any form of philosophical or conceptual religious or traditional beliefs. People live what they really believe, people display or reflect their inner understanding of what they think is true in the way that they behave and experience life.

Even though He really was God, as a man, Jesus did not consider in his heart that he was “as god” and therefore did not determine his own personal understanding of truth from his culture, upbringing or personal history, or anything else about his own natural life. Jesus’ heartfelt understanding of truth came from the absolute truth of the living words of Almighty God that were continually breathed into and indwelt his heart. In Luke 3:22 (KJV) God spoke the truth to Jesus directly and said, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” Jesus came as a man with a perfect knowledge of the love and presence of God’s fatherhood and the Holy Spirit continually infilling his personality and heart. That is why He is called the “Son of God”, a perfect reflection or mirror of the image of God’s amazing fatherhood that dwelt within Him. As a man, everything that Jesus thought, said or did, every aspect of his personality and life, reflected the goodness and faithfulness of God’s fatherhood. Every aspect of Jesus’ personality and life was perfectly submitted to God. When Jesus was wronged, he did not hate or retaliate, instead he entrusted himself to Him who judges justly. Everything that Jesus did was an expression of the love of God. That is why Jesus said that those who had been given the grace to truly see Him had seen the Father. The lying prince of darkness had nothing within Jesus, never once did Jesus ever believe or receive any of Satan’s lying breaths as truth within his personality. Because Jesus did not establish his own personal understanding of truth based upon circumstances or experience, Jesus never doubted for a second the truth that as a man, God loved him. Even on the cross Jesus believed implicitly in the faithfulness of God. Jesus’ heart was broken by the sorrow of others, not his own, Jesus never believed in the nails of the cross. Although Jesus’ outward appearance was disfigured beyond that of any man, his heartfelt faith in the absolute truth of the love and faithfulness of God’s incredible fatherhood never failed him. It was God’s love for him as a man that was part of the joy that was set before him that enabled him to endure the cross, scorn its shame and after three days rise from the dead. It says in John 8:31-36 (KJV) “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, we be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how says thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abides not in the house for ever: but the Son abides ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed’”. The truth that sets people free is not circumstantial, it is not head knowledge, it does not come by education or the religion of tradition, or the teachings of natural man. It comes by the unmerited blessing of revelation, the heart continually hearing Jesus’ voice spoken by the breath or Holy Spirit of God, establishing that it is the living words of God, not experience or the circumstances of life, that determine what is true. Those whose grace-humbled hearts have established the living words spoken by the Spirit of Truth or the breath of God’s fatherhood continually into their hearts “You are indeed my Son; with you I am well pleased” will live by the amazing grace of God free from the lying breaths of the devil and the sins that inevitably follow.

In Mark 3, Jesus’ mother and brothers came for him. In verse 21 Jesus’ friends had already tried to take him away, feeling that he had become an embarrassment and thinking that he had somehow gone berserk. In Mark 3:34-35 (KJV) it says “And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, ‘Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother’”. Being inspired by the sovereign grace of God to share in Jesus’ identity as the Son of God sets people free. It is the truth that comes by revelation from the inside out and brings people face to face with God. Almighty God becomes to them, as He is to Jesus, their true and everlasting Father who dwells eternally within their hearts by His Almighty Breath or Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus said in Mark 11:23-24 (KJV) “Have faith in God. For verily [truthfully] I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore, I say unto you, What things whatsoever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”. It is God who sovereignly chooses to work within their hearts or personalities to will and to act according to His good purpose. It was this purpose that was lost at the Fall. The heartfelt knowledge of the indwelling presence of God within the hearts of the Sons of God brings them to the place of limitless faith, a place where every promise that God has ever made is “yes” and “amen” to them. In Hebrew, the word “amen” means faith or truth, something established and real like a pillar of support. God’s eternal purpose was redeemed or brought back around full circle by Jesus when he in effect died on the cross as the last Adam and rose from the dead as the Son of God, the firstborn of many brothers.

Jesus had said to his disciples in John 14:2-4 (KJV) “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know”. The Father’s house is Jesus’ body. After Jesus had risen from the dead, Jesus “came again” to his disciples. He filled the mansions or rooms in His Father’s house with the breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood that he had expired on the cross. Jesus’ life’s breath had returned when he rose from the dead, and he then spoke the living God-inbreathed words of absolute truth into his disciples in John 20:21-22 (KJV) “Peace be unto you: as my Father has sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” The living truth that Jesus came to bring was the Sonship of Man, and the Fatherhood of God. Jesus established the truth of His identity in His humanity as the Son of God within His brothers or Bride. They heard the truth of his voice, He spoke the breath of God’s fatherhood or Holy Spirit, into their hearts. This inbreath of the established truth of the living God-inbreathed word of God “you are my Son” is the way to the Father, this is the way of truth, this is the way of life. That is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:17 “And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [freedom]”. This is the living faith of grace-filled truth that sets people free.

Jesus said to his disciples in John 14:15-18 (KJV) “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but ye know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you”. Jesus is Emmanuel, meaning “God dwelling with(in) us”, the breath or Holy Spirit of God incarnated or in the flesh, fully God and fully man. In John 3:5 (KJV) Jesus said “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”. On the cross, the world of fallen humanity was judged, through Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection, the prince of this world was cast out. The cross did not change the heart of God, rather is made it possible for God to change the heart of man. The father of lies was not cast out of the world; he is still the prince of the power of the air that fallen humanity naturally breathes. The father of lies is cast out of the hearts and personalities of those who are born of the waters of baptism, and are born of the Holy Spirit or life’s breath of God’s fatherhood. They are sovereignly inspired to repent from deciding for themselves what is right or wrong, good or evil, true or false That is why Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:25 “…in meekness instructing those opposing—if perhaps God may give to them repentance to an acknowledging of the truth, and they may awake out of the devil’s snare, having been caught by him at his will”. Repentance is a gift of God’s grace; it is not a work of “faith”, it cannot be earned. Repentance is faith’s response to the gift of grace not the cause of it. No one can repent from being “themselves” unless God sovereignly opens their eyes to someone and something far better.

Jesus said to his disciples in John 14:19-21 (KJV) “Yet a little while, and the world see me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him”. The world would see Jesus no more because He was to ascend and return to God (see Isaiah 55:11), but the disciples would see Him by His life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God filling their hearts. In John 16:12-14 Jesus said “I have yet many things to say to you, but ye are not able to bear them now; and when He may come—the Spirit of truth—He will guide you to all the truth, for He will not speak from Himself, but as many things as He will hear He will speak, and the coming things He will tell you; He will glorify me, because of mine He will take, and will tell to you”. The Spirit of Truth or the true life’s breath of God’s fatherhood will take that which belongs to Jesus as the Son of God and impart those things into Jesus’ disciples, those who have been chosen by the election of grace to share in His identity as the corporate Son of God. Jesus dwells within them by His life’s breath or Holy Spirit, and Jesus Himself dwells in the Father because Jesus’ life’s breath or Holy Spirit is the Father. In Matthew 10:20 Jesus described the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of your Father” and 1 Peter 1:11, Peter described the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of Christ”. In John 10:30 Jesus said, “I and Father are One”. God is One within ancient Hebrew culture. That is why Jesus said in John 15:26 “And when the Comforter may come, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of Truth, who from the Father does come forth, he will testify of me.” Jesus sends the truth of the life’s breath of God’s fatherhood, or the Holy Spirit that proceeds from God as a Father into the hearts of Jesus’ disciples. Behaviour in life will become inheritance in resurrection. The breath of God’s fatherhood within the hearts of the disciples testifies in the way that they are inspired to behave that they have become the Sons of God just like Jesus. Jesus is the firstborn of many brothers, all of whom share in the same life’s breath or Holy Spirit of the same Father. The devilishly dark lying forces of deception and diabolical destruction ever seek permission to disqualify people from being the Bride of Christ. They attempt to dethrone the crown of the anointing of the absolute truth of the divine breath, God’s living word from its place of pre-eminence within their hearts, and lives by the unbelief of deception and disobedience. However, God is a Father to both Jesus and His Bride. By His unmerited and amazing grace, God chooses to reveal and unfold the life or personality of Jesus within the hearts those who are part of his corporate identity as the Son of God. This leads them in truth in the race of life practically day by day in the humility of victorious triumphal procession. This qualifies them to receive a better resurrection. This is the way of truth.

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