The Spirit of Truth part 1
I'm stuck on a truth kick. Because, as we just saw in the last Rant series, knowing the truth is what sets us free. But let's really look at this; set us free from what? Sin, of course. Because sin is unbelief. Believing that you have to do in order to be. Believing that you have to earn something from your heavenly Father. That's the lie that the serpent hissed in Eve's ear way back in Genesis 3:4-5, "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." IF you eat the fruit THEN you will be like God. The serpent made it all about performance. Not about who you are, but about what you do. And here's the thing--Jesus came that we might have LIFE and that more abundantly. He wasn't concerned with good and evil, He cursed the fig tree (the tree of knowledge of good and evil) because it didn't bear fruit. He wanted us to stop jumping from one branch to the other, picking flower petals and saying, "I'm good, He loves me... I'm evil, He loves me not" and He wanted us to get onto the other Tree entirely. The Tree of Life. That's why, although there are two trees in the garden of Eden, by the time we get to Revelation only the Tree of Life remains. Jesus IS the Tree of Life. Jesus IS the vine that we are branches of. Jesus IS the love that makes His abundant life... abundant. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Way to God, the Truth about God, and the Life of God. The Way to LOVE, the Truth about LOVE, and the Life of LOVE! So now that I said all that, let me quote my key memory verse for this Rant series: "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come" (John 16:13). This is the verse that I'm always referencing when I say, "The Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth." This is where I get that phrase from. And its so interesting to me that the Spirit leads us into that ultimate truth of the universe (that God is love and He loves you) NOT by speaking of Himself--and that means speaking BY Himself--but simply by repeating what He hears His Father say. He hears the Word, which is Jesus, which is love, and He speaks that Word. That Word of God--Jesus, love--is the truth. That's ALL the Spirit of Truth says because that's all it (HE) needs to say. When we know the truth we can ignore the lie. When we know God loves us we can stop trying to be someone we're not, by doing what we think will earn us something that can't be earned, in order to get something we (think we) haven't got. The truth is, the thing we want most--the desire of our hearts--is to be loved. And that's what we have. That's what we are. God is love and He loves you. And because He loves you, you can love Him back by loving others. And we don't do it by speaking of (or by) ourselves. Simply by being a witness--repeating what we've heard from our heavenly Father--and receiving and releasing that love!