Jesus said, “When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth…”
If ever a tenet of the faith has been assaulted by the deceptions of the demonic and neglected by the “faithful” flocks who routinely descend upon their “church” buildings every week, this statement from Jesus would be it! Even “pastors,” ravaged by the shifting sands of relativism (where everyone sets their own standards for “truth,” life and conduct), are asking, “How do we know what is true?” In light of Jesus’ statement here, this question clearly and only reveals that either the Holy Spirit of God has not yet come into their lives or else these have not yet learned to sit at the Master’s feet and hear His voice for themselves.
Given the “church’s” propensity for imprisoning and enslaving the crowds at the feet of some man – a man whose eloquence and charisma and aura of infallibility (or at least of “spiritual expertise”) keeps the crowds coming back to have their ears simultaneously soothed and scratched (a process which occurs even in those few instances where the “pastor” is determined to <>not scratch ears – what his position over the people subliminally says completely drowns out whatever the man says in his preaching – it is not surprising that the people know little to nothing of hearing the Shepherd’s voice and following Him. Hearing the man we have chosen as our “man of God” for the hour is much more important to us than hearing the voice of the Lord in our own hearts.
Given the “church’s” propensity for providing a comfortable place in which to practice lawlessness (that which is right in one’s own eyes) by enabling the attendee to do as much or as little as one likes in the “church” of one’s preference, it is not surprising that most purported “Christians” know nothing of practical value about the primary and basic need for obeying the will of God for one’s life nor much about the consequences of negligent disobedience and lawlessness. Being comfortable in our sin and self-centeredness is much more important than seeing the truth about ourselves and our need for still deeper repentance and submission to God.
By diverting the people from the words that proceed from the mouth of God to the words that proceed from the deceitful lips of men, the demonic slowly strangles the life from all those who submit to this deception. By comforting men in their sinful state and causing other men to tolerate what they know God does not condone, the demonic quietly tightens the noose.
When we learn that only the Holy Spirit of God can rightly answer the question, “How do we know what is true?” – then we will know that God has already written His laws and ways on our hearts and that we do not need to be constantly, regularly and routinely told and taught what God is saying to His people – we will have already heard Him for ourselves! When our heart is truly broken and contrite, trembling to hear what the holy and transcendent God says to finite and weak man and when we are dedicated and committed to truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth however much that might cost us, though that be all our possessions or even our life, then the Holy Spirit of God can progressively lead us into all truth.
When the Spirit of truth progressively leads us into all truth, we will, of necessity, be forced to confront all the evils that have become a part of our carnal personality and we will have to forsake them so as to be able to follow the Spirit of truth on the narrowing path that leads to life eternal. We will be led to forsake the babblings of men, learning instead to routinely and regularly sit quietly at the Master’s feet while He writes and illuminates His laws and ways in our hearts. We will learn to allow His Spirit to flow through us and supernaturally touch and bless others with His touch and presence. And we will simply be in harmony with all others who regularly and routinely set the will of God as their highest priority in life, even as we will always be in conflict with those who obey some hidden agenda of self.
But if we will not follow where the Spirit of truth leads us – a path that includes self-denial and a cross to carry as we walk along the Savior’s road of persecution and rejection – let us not kid ourselves. If we do not hear the Shepherd’s voice for ourselves and we do not have His Spirit of truth directing us from within onto paths we would not likely choose for ourselves, we simply are not His. We belong to some other.
Let he who has ears hear.
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