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THE GLORY OF GOD SERIES
THE FORCE OF TRUTH
We have covered four areas of the glory of
God. We are now going to cover the last and final area. Please turn to Exodus
34. In God’s appearance to Moses, we see the five components of the glory of
God. Let us read God’s statement again when He appeared to Moses. Incidentally,
it’s because of this incident that Moses’ face shone with the glory of God.
Verse 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord
God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and
truth.” There are five ingredients
to the glory of God - mercy, gracious, longsuffering, goodness and truth. We
have spoken on mercy, graciousness, longsuffering and goodness. So, this
morning we will cover the last component of God’s glory, which is truth.
The Hebrew word for truth, emunah,
conveys a slightly different meaning from the Greek word for truth, which is alethes.
Emunah does not convey the same meaning as truth in our English
language. When we mention the word truth, people think about something
mental. We think about facts, knowledge, principles, and wisdom. Truth is
associated with mental activity like comprehension, understanding, logic etc.
That’s what the English word truth conveys. But the Hebrew word for truth
has another shade of meaning called steadfastness. It is the ability to
remain in the one place in season and out of season. It is the ability to
remain the same yesterday, today and forever more. God says about Him being the
Truth. He is talking about the ability to remain immoveable in whatever
circumstances and in whatever situation.
So, truth in the bible implies more than
knowledge. If your knowledge is shaken it is not truth. If your principles are
easily removed by every wind of doctrine that comes along, it is not truth. Or
rather, the truth may not have sunk into you. The Bible does not speak about
truth that applies only to mental comprehension. The word truth talks
about a quality of a substance to remain eternal, unchangeable, and immortal.
The fifth component of God’s glory is this eternal, unchangeable, and immortal
substance of truth. God is the giver of truth, the very personification of
truth, and the essence of truth Himself. For God is the same yesterday, today
and forever more. He was, He is and He is to come. He is the One who never
changes from Alpha to the Omega.
We need to understand that the truth of
God is linked to the Word in order to see how truth affects the glory of God in
our life. When we speak about truth, we are talking about the very force of
truth. Truth is a force. It is a substance and a force. Truth is a life force
of being. It is not just a fact. In the English language, truth and lies speak
about true and untrue facts. But the Hebrew word, emunah, or truth
conveys the meaning of a life force that issue forth from God Himself. Truth is
a living and flowing substance that can be imparted and given in measures.
Jesus conveys the same meaning from John
chapter 14 to 16. He speaks about the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of truth. He is
not just trying to convey to us the meaning that the Holy Spirit is just able
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is not just
that. See our English usage of the word truth limits what the bible is
trying to bring forth. The bible is seeking to bring forth that truth is a
living force and substance that has its beginning from God Himself. It is a
part and parcel of the life being of God.
Now the Word of God is the instrument by
which the truth is conveyed. The Word of God is a vehicle; it is an instrument
of transport to put truth in and to give truth out. When God speaks His Word,
His Word contains His life; His substance and quality. His Word conveys a life
force that could bring eternal being, immortality and a immovable, unshakeable
and unchangeable life force to any person on this earth who chooses to receive
that life force. That is why we were born again through receiving the Word of
the gospel, which conveys truth into our life. Jesus conveys truth as a force
and not just as a fact.
Truth is a fact but it is more than that.
Truth is a force, which reveals many facts of the existence of things. So, the
Word of God is a vehicle for truth to be transmitted to us. The Word of God
contains truth from God; it is the revelation of God Himself. Let us take a box
that serves as a container for a bible. The box is a not the bible; it is
merely a container for the bible. It may or may not contain a substance. So,
the Word of God is a vehicle. This box represents the Word. It is only a
vehicle to contain the truth. See sometimes words can contain wrong forces.
Sometimes words can be empty. Words are only containers. When a person speaks a
word, you could pick up whether that person is angry, sad, happy, cheerful, or
peaceful. Children are very sensitive. Children are sensitive not so much as to
just what you say but also to the life force behind what you say. How you say
your words is determined by what you put into your words. Children react more
to what you put into your word than just the words themselves. People are the
same way too.
So words are a vehicle. The word itself if it does not contain truth is empty. The devil’s words contain fear and doubt. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Fear comes by hearing and hearing by the word of the devil. The devil chooses to put fear into his word and by repeatedly giving it to you, he is trying to transmit the spirit of fear to grip your life, to strangle life out of you and put you into bondage. I could just wrap an empty box nicely and give it to you on your birthday. You shake it and there is no sound. When you open it, there is nothing inside but air. Sometimes words contain no life. You may utter beautiful words, wonderful words, but unless life is inside these words, they are worthless.
What is that life? The life is the word truth.
Jesus says in Jn. 14:6 I am the way, the truth and the life. Notice He
ties them altogether. How can Jesus call Himself the truth? He is the very
personification of the life force of truth. After all, it was Jesus that says
the truth shall set you free and you will be free indeed. God placed His
substance and life force of truth into the container called the Word. The Word
can come in many forms. It can come in written form as logos or it can
come in spoken form as rhema. When you receive the Word, the life force
of truth is released to you. You have to open up the container and take what is
inside.
Truth is a life force that God places in
His container of the Word. We need to understand how the Word operates in our
life in order for the life force of truth to be released in us. We need the
truth to be released into our spirit man before it can be of any value to our
life. Slow release vitamin tablets have its pros and cons. This vitamin is
enclosed in a capsule. When you swallow a capsule, it does not release all its
vitamins into your body. As it passes through your digestive system, it slowly
releases itself. Drug manufacturers
created such timed-release capsules because they reckoned that the body could
not absorb everything at once. However,
if the capsule takes too long to release, it may pass out of your digestive
system without completing the release.
Likewise, the life force of truth is
enclosed in a capsule called the Word, whether it is the written Word or the
spoken Word. What we need to do as our privilege and duty on earth is to learn
to open the Word and release that substance of life into us, which is called
truth. Proverbs 25: 2 says, It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but
the glory of kings is to search out a matter. The Lord hides the life force
of truth in the Word. As we make it a habit of uncovering truth upon gems of
truth from the Word while digesting and ingesting the precious life force of
truth, our spirit man slowly grow in glory.
In heaven, there is a Hall of Truth.
Everyone will have to enter that hall and experience the life force of truth.
That truth will expose every falsehood, false ways, false ideas and teachings,
false behavior and every thing that is even remotely false. It is a time of
great breaking down and you will experience brokenness according to the measure
of falsehood lodging in your spirit, soul and body. After that, the person will
have to enroll in a school of orientation where he or she will have to learn
the correct ways of God. For those who have leant correct truth while on earth,
their time in this school will be shorter. But those who have absorbed many
erroneous teachings, their time in this school will be longer. Hence, while we
are still living on earth, we should cry out to the Holy Spirit daily to teach
us the truth and unlearn remove and repent of every false teachings we have
learnt. This school of orientation takes from one year to twelve years,
depending on the amount of untruths that the Christian has absorbed during his
or her time on earth. A Christian who went there on a study trip to heaven
reported that many who had to be in that school of orientation for longer
periods were pastors and ministers. They were the ones who had more knowledge
than the average Christian in the pew but unfortunately, most of their
knowledge were dark knowledge and inaccurate knowledge about the ways of God.
Therefore, they had to spend more time in this school of orientation to unlearn
what they had studied, absorbed, lived, and taught to others.
I am reminded of Jim Baker, the
tele-evangelist who served time in prison for his financial mishandling in his
PTL ministry. His time in prison gave him much time to re-look at Scriptures
and examine many of his teachings in the light of the Word of God. He came out
with a book called, “I Was Wrong.” He had a closer look at such topics like
prosperity and saw that the Word of God gave a different perspective. When he
was preaching on divine prosperity and giving, he said, “I sincerely thought I
was preaching the right thing.” After his time in prison, he saw the truth and
changed his life accordingly. At least, he was able to revise his teachings and
see the truth while on earth. If we do not seek the truth here on earth, we
will have to undergo the breaking down process in the Hall of Truth and longer
time in the school of orientation in heaven.
Now that truth operates differently for our spirit, soul, and body although the same substance of truth is released. But it has an effect on our spirit, soul, and body. Truth gives life to our spirit. Truth gives life to our soul and truth gives life to our body. The operation of truth being released to our three parts of our being is unique and wonderful. We need to see how this truth must transform our life before the glory of God shines forth. The measure of the glory of God in our lives is directly proportional to the measure that the truth has transformed our spirit, soul, and body.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and
the life.” He was perfectly yielded to truth. He was the personification of
truth. That is why the glory of God in His life was full. And so, the truth as
a life force will work gradually in our life from glory to glory. See truth is
connected to the glory of God.
Turn to Jn. 1:14 And the Word became
flesh and dwell among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The truth is a life. John
says he could see the glory of God in Jesus. He could see the fullness of grace
and the fullness of truth upon the Lord Jesus. If truth is just a fact, how can
you see a fact on somebody? Truth is a life force. It is a substance, which
comes from God that we receive in different measures. And in Jesus’ life, it
was full.
When the bible describes the Word of God
as sharper than a two-edged sword, and the power inherent in the Word, it means
that the Word that contains the life force of the truth of God. That is His
operation.
Lets look at Heb. 4:12 For the word of
God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It tells us that it is
not just a two-edged sword. It is sharper than a two-edged sword. I believe
that the Word of God contains truth. The life force is more than a sword. By
today’s technology, we have a comparison that Paul did not have. If Paul had
our kind of technology, he might say that the word of God is living and
powerful, and sharper than a laser beam. See truth is like a laser beam. Paul
didn’t have that technology in his days that he could compare it with otherwise
Paul would have used it. But truth is sharper than a two-edged sword. It does
not just cut both ways. It cuts every way. A laser beam cuts every direction.
I believe that there are natural things
that can be compared to the spiritual realm. See the laser beam illustrate
truth. The difference between a fluorescent light and a laser beam is a
difference of purity and intensity. Fluorescent light has a mixture of
different wavelengths of light. Light as we know comes in different colors. The
different colors of light are due to the different wavelengths. Each wavelength
is the energy level that each photon moves in. Fluorescent light cannot cut
materials because it is composed of photons traveling in too many wavelengths.
It does not have the power to cut because light is a mixture. It can only give
the brightness for us to see, to read and get around with. But it cannot be
used to cut because of two problems – there is a mixture of too many
wavelengths and there is a lack of intensity. If a light is very intense, it
will also carry heat. In order to produce a laser beam, the machine must remove
unwanted wavelengths and produce only one wavelength of photons. When the
machine produces only one wavelength of photons, it can then increase the
intensity of the beam until it has enough power to slice through materials.
With the aid of computers, laser beams can be produced with pinpoint accuracy
and different intensities to slice through different types of materials – from
corneas of the eyes to steel bars. It can be so mild that it can be used to cut
through sensitive eyes to correct one’s vision but it can be so powerful that
anything that gets in its way is melted down. Nothing can stand before that
laser beam.
That is what Paul wanted to illustrate but
he did not have the technology to illustrate it. Today we realize God’s Word is
like a laser beam. It cuts in all directions. The life force of God is like a
laser beam in intensity and what I call purity. See the truth is pure. The
purity of the truth gives power to the Word. The greater the purity of the
truth you are preaching, the greater the power of the Word is reaching your
hearers. Some preachers preach the Word powerfully because they preach
undiluted and pure truth. They may be soft spoken and mild in their manner of
speaking, but the uncontaminated and distilled truth they are delivering will
make their hearers squirm and turn in their seats. The hearers cannot help
turning their legs to the left then to the right, because the darts of the
truth are hitting them. Power is tied up to the purity of the truth. You want
power get truth and get truth intensely. It will produce the laser beam of God
in your life. The truth that is manifested of God is life and a life force.
Truth has many effects. It is said that Jonathan Edwards merely read his
homily, “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God” in a dry, monotonous drone, as
would any learned theologian do. Yet, his hearers were greatly convicted of
their sins and many had to hold on to their pews because they felt they were
slipping into hell if they do not repent.
Let me illustrate with Jesus’ life first.
In the book of II Thes. 1 we see Jesus at His second coming. Verse 9 These
shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power. Chapter 2:8 And then the lawless one will
be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and
destroy with the brightness of His coming. Turn to Revelation 1: 16 He
had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged
sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. Notice again out of His mouth went a sharp
two-edged sword. Revelation 19:15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword,
that with it He should strike the nations. Remember that the bible writers
were trying to convey the meaning as much as possible.
You see at first when I read the bible I
could never imagine our Lord Jesus appearing to John and out of His mouth comes
out a little sword. It looks quite bizarre when you have a sword coming out of
your mouth. I was trying to figure out what John was trying to convey. Then God
gave me the picture and the vision of the Lord and it was not just a sword. It
looks like a sword but it is not a sword. A light came from His mouth like a
shining blade of a sword. It looks like two-edged because it’s from His mouth
and in whatever direction it turn destruction came. See the bible authors could
not use the illustration of a laser beam because it was not invented then. If
the book of Revelation were clothed in today’s language, Rev. 1: 16 would read,
“Out of His mouth came a laser beam.” The power of Jesus’ consecrated life and
His living the Word enabled Him to speak the truth out like a laser beam.
See the truth is powerful. Truth destroys
things that block the true way. Now truth has a two-fold effect. It either
imparts or it destroys. Truth will knock down the lies of the devil. Truth will
knock down all the fears of the enemy. Truth builds up life. It imparts
tremendous substance. In Gen. 1 when God said, “Let there be light,” I believe
that the eternal life force of truth was released over this part of the
universe. It was seen as a spiritual light. But the life force was released all
over the universe. And it was that same life force that God said, “Let there be
a firmament above the heaven and a firmament below.” It was only possible when
the life force of truth was released. And truth is always illustrated as a
light. A light is a force. Truth is a light force. The Word is a container of
truth. Thy Word is a lamp onto my path and a light onto my feet. The
life force of the Word will illuminate our understanding, our wisdom, our
conduct, our decisions, and our life choices. It is important to understand
that truth will not tolerate lies. Truth will not tolerate anything that stands
against it. It will destroy. You see on one hand the light that comes from God
in Gen. 1 is creative and creating. But on the other hand, in the book of Rev.
19 the light, a laser beam that comes from the mouth of Jesus will strike and
destroy the nations. Why? The nations have come under the power of the devil,
the father of lies. All that the devil does is deceptive and temporal. So there
is a battle between immortality and mortality, eternal things and temporal
things. We need to learn how to give place to the light of God.
The light of God will destroy things that
are temporal and establish things that are eternal in our life.
Let us see the operation of this life force called truth operating in our life
and bringing the glory of God. In the book of II Cor. 4:6 For it is God who
commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It
tells us when we were born again a ray of God’s light came through the
preaching of the gospel and entered into the depths of our heart. It stayed
there and it produced the seed of God. This born again experience is the seed
of life and the beginning of life taking place within us. That was in our
spirit man. And continually from that time forward we are to take the
Word and truth and let it fill our spirit being. For our spirit being can only
grow with spiritual substance. Understand that truth is a substance.
Let me illustrate with a little baby in
the mother’s womb. The baby needs to grow physically. In order to grow usually
doctors will give vitamins pills and a small little pill called vitamin B. The
reason is this vitamin helps in the multiplication of cells. At that stage in
the mother’s pregnancy, the doctors give that physical substance. In order to
grow physically we need to take in food physically. You could be for example
trying to put on weight. You run ten miles a day. And you exercise six hours a
day. But you eat only white rice with soya sauce. To build muscles you need
protein. You could exhaust yourself all you can but without those natural
substances, your body will not have sufficient material to build muscles.
Instead of putting on more muscles, you may lose more muscles. Why, because of
lack of material.
For example if you want to build a house
you would make sure the amount of bricks you bought will be sufficient to build
a house. You need the materials to build the house.
Now the spirit man needs to grow. Do not
think that the spirit man will grow automatically. If there is not enough
substance, our spirit man remains in its infantile stage, as do many
Christians. They only read the bible once - Jn. 3:16. You know what happen -
there is no spiritual material to build the spirit man. For physical body to
grow physically we need physical materials. If we want to grow spiritually, we
need spiritual materials to be given. You could have the ability to do
something but if you do not have any materials, you would still build nothing.
You could be the best contractor in town but if there is a world shortage of
materials, you know what happen. Your ability is useless without the materials.
You need the materials in order to build houses.
Our spirit man has the quality of growing,
has the capacity to grow to be God like. Our spirit man has the inherent
substance and essence to be like Jesus. But if there are no materials given,
the spirit man cannot grow. That is why Jesus said Matt. 4:4 Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
We need to give our spirit man materials. If all you do is to pray and worship
and you do not spend much time in the Word of God, you are not giving your
spirit man sufficient truth to feed on. If you do not feed your spirit man with
the materials of the Word of God, you are like a little fetus kicking about,
that’s all. We need a mixture of the Word, prayer, and faith. One without the
other is insufficient.
Even if you have all the materials,
spiritual growth is not automatic. You need to practice the truth, do the
truth, and exercise the truth before the truth can develop your spirit man. It
does not mean that if you put your children through music education and give
them all the training necessary, they will turn out to be excellent musicians.
It is necessary that they spend many hours practicing in order to develop into
excellent musicians. However, they will never develop into a musician if they
do not have the opportunity to go through a proper training. If there is no
music in the home there is even a lesser chance of developing.
The wonderful thing is that the spirit man
will automatically take a hold of the Word and absorb into its substance and
materiality. Spend time on the Word. Even though your mind says, “I don’t
understand everything,” it is not for your mind. It is for your spirit to feed.
As you discipline yourself everyday fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit and
allowing Him to teach you and open the light of the Word to you, you will find
your spirit man growing day by day. The spirit man needs the substance of light
to grow stronger. We do that by getting the Word into our spirit man. It starts
with that laser beam of God coming into our heart and it continues on growing
on from there.
Now the soul area has a different impact.
The soul area needs that light of God to drive away the unrenewed areas of
thinking so that our soul can think in line with the truth and function in a
way it should be. In the book of Eph. 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the
riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding
greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His
mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.
See the Spirit of God will flood our minds
with understanding so that our soul will flow into the fullness of God. Jesus
made this statement here in Matt. 6:22 The lamp of the body is the eye. If
therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your
eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light
that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. Now Jesus is
talking in the context of His commandments, His sayings and His teaching.
That’s why in the Sermon on the Mount He gave the conclusion as whoever hears
and heed it and do it will be the like the wise man building his house on the
rock. When a man hears the words of Jesus and practices them, he is building
his spirit man and life on the rock or substance of truth. But if he merely
hears the Word and do not practice them, he is just building his house on sand.
The truth is not in him. There is no solid substance of truth in him. He has no
substance, no weight, and no foundation. Darkness has no substance. It is just
the absence of light.
Jesus is comparing the difference of building our spirit man on right teaching and wrong teaching, right word and wrong word. As we grow and pass through this life, we sometimes receive and accept wrong teachings unknowingly. Some things that are taught to us are not the truth. They contradict the Word. See the world of education keeps changing and improving as more discoveries are made. Some theories proposed forty years ago based on the available data have been revised when more discoveries are made to cause a more accurate understanding. Teachings and principles contradictory to the Word can produce darkness in our lives. If you believe in something that is wrong and contradictory to the Word, it will produce darkness in your life. It is important that we believe right, we believe the truth, and we believe the Word. And before we accept a principle, make sure it is in line with the written Word of the living God. Anything contradictory to the Word will produce darkness and dark knowledge cripples the soul.
Once a local pastor was led by the Holy
Spirit to summon and judge the spirit of deception. After a few moments of
silence, he called out the name of the demon. Somebody in his congregation
started manifesting violently. He commanded the demon to come to the mike, and
the person having the demon was led forcibly to the mike by an unseen force.
Some parts of the conversation went like this.
Pastor: Who sent you here?
Demon: Satan.
What for?
To destroy the work of God here.
Why do you come to this church to disturb
the service here?
Because you speak the truth. I hate the
truth. It is setting many of God’s people free.
How do you disturb God’s people?
When a pastor is preparing his teachings,
I help him to prepare. When he teaches his congregation what I tell him to
teach, I lodge in the minds of those who accept that wrong teaching. I hide
behind that teaching and later destroy that person’s life through that dark
knowledge. I make him suffer poverty, sickness, and hardships. I make that
person think that he is suffering for Jesus.
How come you can teach a pastor how to
prepare his sermons?
Most pastors do not consult the Holy
Spirit when they prepare their sermons. They rely on their analytical minds to
understand the Word. That is where we come in. First we give them some deep
teachings and then we add in the poison. These pastors do not inquire of the
Holy Spirit. They think they are guided by the Holy Spirit but they deceive
themselves because they hardly fellowship with the Holy Spirit. How can the
Holy Spirit teach you anything if you don’t fellowship with the Holy Spirit? So
we give them some deep teachings and then we add in the poison that they cannot
detect. They think the first teaching is good, so they automatically think that
the poison we are giving is also true. If they have the Holy Spirit, they would
be able to detect the poison. That is how we have spread much confusion among
the people of God.
Do you specialize in this work?
Yes. I even attended
What? You study the Bible in hell too?
Yes. Everyday we have to study the Bible
in order to learn how to twist and turn the Scriptures and spread the wrong
teachings. Many people just assume that as long as you can give Bible chapter
and verse, you are doctrinally sound. They do not inquire of the Holy Spirit
and they are no match for our subtle and twisted logic. Everyday we prepare the
sermon outlines for pastors and bible teachers. Many people read the Bible
without the Holy Spirit and that is where they go wrong.
Do you know that your time on earth is up?
Yes, I know.
Did an angel serve you the document from
the Lord Jesus Christ?
Yes, he did. (The document is a notice from Jesus that
the demon has been judged and his time is up and must now be consigned to his
place in hell.)
By the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ,
all your legal rights are stripped and you are consigned to the place assigned
to you. Go, in Jesus’ Name.
The demon let loose a mournful cry and departs from the person, who later collapsed to the floor.
Now some Christians hold that you should
not conduct any conversation with the demons in a deliverance case. This is
generally sound wisdom, for Satan is the father of lies. When he speak lies, he
speak naturally. It is easy for an untrained and inexperienced minister of
deliverance to be deceived by demons in a deliverance case if he is not in tune
with the Spirit of truth. However, this is not an absolute rule for we see
Jesus conducting a conversation with demons as well. The general rule is that
you must be under the control of the Holy Spirit. If you are under instructions
from the Holy Spirit not to hold a conversation with the demons, follow that.
However, if the Holy Spirit directs you to hold such a conversation, it is to
expose the strategies of the devil.
The bible uses a very strange word. In
James chapter 1:5-8 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who
gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But
let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the
sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will
receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in
all his ways.
The word double minded is the word dipsuchos,
which actually means double souled from dis, “twice,” psuche, “a
soul.” It means that a lie from the enemy is absorbed into your substance and it
began to look like it has a life of its own. So that the things that you want
to do, you do not do. And the things you do not want to do you do. Why, because the enemy has planted the seed
of darkness in our life and only the truth will wipe that out.
In the physical world, it is just like
cancer. See cancer is caused by microscopic viruses that creep into the cells
of your body like a guest. They kill the original occupants and occupy the cell.
And it has become a cancer cell. It is not your original but it is accepted as
your original cell because it is a counterfeit cell. It has crept in, killed
the owner, and now lives in the cell. What it does is it sucks the nutrition
from your body and multiplies itself. So, people have what we call cancerous
growth. A cancerous growth comes forth and it looks like another life of
itself. It is not your life; it is a separate life that is growing n your body
but it draws nutrition from your body like it is your life.
Likewise, this happens to the soul. If the
soul has not the truth of God and the light of God to shine the soul cannot
differentiate right and wrong. If we believe a lie, we will enter darkness
straight away. Many areas of our lives need renewal. It is a progressive thing.
That is why we need to keep an open attitude. Absorbing a lie makes you like
being two souls. You want to do the righteous thing but you have no strength to
do it. The cancerous soul has absorbed the strength from the good soul and your
good soul is rendered helpless. You notice something is right and yet you doubt
it. You have two souls, one good righteous and believing and the other bad,
unrighteous and doubting. A lot of people are struggling in that way. Get the
laser beam of Christ; cut out that darkness and throw it out. You have to make
that decision and a choice. The moment you make a choice to fellowship with the
Holy Spirit and let Him teach you the Word, He will slice the dark knowledge of
your mind with the laser beam of the truth. Do not be surprised that many of
the teachings you have received from your bible teachers, bible colleges and
even renowned preachers contain much dark knowledge. Instead of seeking after
this famous teacher and that famous teacher, seek after the Holy Spirit all the
time and He will teach you the truth. Many bible teachers have sidelined the
Holy Spirit when they study the Word and have come up with erroneous teachings
that have caused much damage to the body of Christ.
When I first became a Christian, my first
struggle or spiritual battle was about the Word. I asked all my bible teachers,
“How can I accept this as the Word? How do I know that this bible is telling me
the truth?” In the end, I came to this point that you either accept it or you
reject it. You accept it by faith that this is God’s revelation or you can
question it the rest of your life. I made up my mind never to question
the Bible. I made up my mind never to reject the bible. I made up my mind that
the Bible is the sole authority and truth by which all other measurements are
measured. The moment I made that decision things became easy. Now if I have a
question I ask, “What does the bible say?” If I have a problem, I will look at
this bible and ask, “What does the bible say?” It becomes a different problem.
My problem now is the lack of the knowledge of the bible and not so much a
problem with questioning the bible. That was when things began changing.
When I went into the ministry, I found
people had the same type of questioning regarding the bible as the Word of God.
The eternal battle is the battle around the Word. From Genesis chapter 3 Satan
has never stopped questioning the Word. One of the first things that I was
impacted with in theological education is the Word. When I was young and eager
to serve God, I was asking whether the bible is the Word of God. I settled that
question by believing by faith that the bible is the Word of God. Now that I am
in the ministry, I am faced with other types of questions. I was faced with the
Charismatic question. Is tongues of God? Is healing of God? And I find that
people takes different stands. Some of my bible teachers and colleagues, whom I
loved, take the opposing stand.
These two questions have provoked endless
debates, with good people on both sides. Who is right?
I take the view that tongues are of God,
but there is still the possibility of false tongues. The enemy has crept in the
night and planted tares of deception and giving even sincere Christians the
ability to speak in false tongues. Similarly, healing is of God, but again,
there is the possibility of healing worked by the enemy. We take this premise
based on the words of Jesus Christ. Matthew 7: 21, Not everyone who says to
Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will
of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many
wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you;
depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
You see, there are many ministers who do
have a genuine calling from God. As long as they are faithful to God, and are
under control by the Holy Spirit, God will recognize their work as righteous
and lawful. However, there are also ministers who do not have a calling from
God. Three types of ministers practice lawlessness.
The first are those who had a calling from God, but
later on were rejected by God for committing lawlessness in their ministry. God
chose Saul to be the first king of
The second type of lawless ministers is composed of
those who do not have a genuine calling from God but who served God because they
have a “burden” to do so. Here is another deception and false teaching in the
church. We do not urge men and women to enter the ministry by providing facts
and figures on the number of the unsaved, the unchurched peoples, the need for
missionaries, etc.
In one of our earlier messages, we spoke about a man who died and went to heaven, expecting Jesus to welcome him at the gates of heaven. He waited there three days before an angel told him that it is pointless for him to wait there since Jesus won’t see him. He was puzzled because he had done a great work for Jesus. He had initiated a Christian businessmen fellowship that encircled around the globe. There are chapters in every city and town in almost every country. There are meetings, magazines for Christian testimonies, souls were saved – surely he had done a great work for God. But the angel asked him one question. When he started the work, did he really get the idea from God or was it from himself? He pondered for a long time before he admitted that it was his own idea. The angel showed him his book of records and he was shocked at seeing the consequences of his actions. “You mean, I did that?” was all he could utter repeatedly. His work was actually drawing many Christians from their true callings when they jumped on the bandwagon he started.
The third type of lawless ministers consists of
Satan’s agents, whether they know it or do not know it. Jesus said, Beware
of false prophets; who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are
ravenous wolves (Matthew 7: 15). There are many Satanists masquerading as
godly ministers but they will release dark and corrupting influences and spells
on the congregations. They destroy many lives. In
Nita Johnson once described her attendance in a service conducted by a healing evangelist. Although many miracles and healings were wrought that night, she felt in her spirit that something was wrong. She went home and wept the whole night before the Lord, bringing up the subject of this healing evangelist. The Lord told her that he was an adulterer and fornicator. She later on told this man what she heard from the Lord, and warned him of serious retribution if he did not repent. He was humble enough to repent and later on left the ministry. If we do not seek the Holy Spirit, we may also fall into the deception of the enemy. We run after the signs and wonders, after the healings, after the “transferable anointing”, after every river of glory that is flowing around in the country but we do not run after the Holy Spirit. No wonder many are deceived since they do not have the Holy Spirit to reveal the true ministers from the false ministers.
These three types of lawless ministers are instrumental to spreading false tongues and drawing many to their web of deception by their “signs and wonders” supplied by the network of demons accompanying them. That is why, if you do not have the Holy Spirit, you won’t be able to see the truth and expose the deception of the enemy. If you are a Charismatic but do not walk in close fellowship with the Holy Spirit, you would think that all tongues are from God. You won’t be able to discern that many are also praying in false tongues. If you are a non-Charismatic and do not walk in close fellowship with the Holy Spirit, you would write off speaking in tongues completely. You will not realize that the Holy Spirit does give genuine gifts of tongues. It is indeed a narrow path – avoiding the false tongues and false healings coming from false ministers on one hand and crying out to the Holy Spirit for the genuine tongues and genuine healings on the other hand.
In the end, I find that the battle lies
around our close fellowship with the Holy Spirit in order to reveal the truth
concealed in the Word. Many read the Word without the Holy Spirit, and in the
end, they come up with doctrines from hell. And in proportion to how much we
accept the truth that is inherit in the Word to that proportion can we progress
in our life. Our actions must be based on the truth as revealed by the Holy
Spirit in the Word. If you walk in any principles contradictory to the Word,
you are allowing a cancerous light to grow in you. It will eventually destroy
your life slowly but surely. Jesus calls it darkness.
Some former colleagues have come back to me
and said they now realized the truth of the Charismatic gifts of the Holy
Spirit. They said that they had rejected these gifts earlier but now they need
them in their ministry. You see we need the truth. If you don’t have the truth,
you are shortchanging yourself.
My friends today right now as we look into
the future of what God is doing in these last days, the battle is still around
the Word, the truth of God. How much of the truth do we allow to take hold of
our life? How much transformation do we allow in our life? Rom. 12:1 I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable
service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God.
The word transformed is the Greek
word metamorphoomai, which talks about a transformation that takes place
in our very being. Turn to Matt. 17:2 He was transfigured before them. His
face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. The word transfigured also in Lk. 9 is
from the word metamorphoomai. If I were to consistently translate the
bible, I will take Rom. 12:2 as and be transfigured by the renewing
of your mind. Do you know that even in the natural realm what you think
will be reflected on your face? You could tell when somebody is worried. See
right now, if I were to ask you to change your thought I can change your face.
If somebody is like plain Jane and if their mind is transformed they do not
look like plain Jane they look like pretty Jane. It is in the mind. If we could
transform our mind, we could transform our physical being.
Some people are very loveable; it is easy to love them. Some people are not - you got to really take up the cross to really love them. Why is that so? It is all in the mind. If your mind is not filled with what Paul says in Phil. 4 think on those things which are good, having virtue, lovely, of good report, you fill your mind with that it will show on your face. I am giving you the secret of how to be loveable. If you do not have the right thoughts, people will take one look at you and they do not like you. They do not know why they don’t like you - that’s the problem. It is only in the mind. Now that is in the natural.
It is even more powerful in the spiritual.
Those who walk with God have a beauty of holiness on their body. You could be
to the world’s ugliest but if you walk with the Lord, you will turn out to be
more beautiful than those who are naturally endowed with physical beauty. Some
people are not so well endowed and they spend all their time trying to look
beautiful. Such people do not have a physical problem but they do have a mind
problem. They accept they are ugly because they do not match the glossy images
of slim, beautiful models. Even before others have a chance to know them, they
already think that others do not like them. As a result, their countenance is
affected. We have to change our mind to change our life. Wrong thinking is the
killer in peoples’ life and it is a killer in one’s relationship.
That is why every time the devil tries to
put some wrong thoughts into my mind, I brush them off. I would not want to
think badly about anybody. The bible tells us to think good. So, it is
important for us to transform our mind and gather more powerful spiritual
transformation. The bible uses such a strong word. When Jesus was on the Mount
of Transfiguration, His face and body shone. That is the transformation of
God’s glory. I believe as our souls are transformed, we will reflect a greater
glory of God. So that when people look at you, they will see you as they saw
Stephen before he was stoned. His face was like an angel of God. What was he
doing? He beheld the glory of God.
The light of God is the truth of God.
People do not relate truth in their thinking to the light of God coming from
their life but it is related. Truth is tied up to glory. If you do not start
changing your thought life now, the glory of God will be hindered and blocked
in your own spirit, soul, and body. There is nothing lovelier to me than to see
the glory of God on a person. To see the glory of God shining forth from a
person’s life is the loveliest thing possible on the planet earth. The bible
tells us that one day the
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