Let us consider one important aspect of our ministry which also applies to our everyday life. We all know that we should speak truth and not lies. Yet, we may speak truth in various unacceptable ways and spirits and we either speak it that way purposely or unaware. To edify or build up any believer spiritually, we must speak truth in love (Eph. 4:15) which is the fruit of the Spirit; it is not our human selfish love (this was already discussed earlier). The simplest reason is that “in Christ Jesus neither (physical) circumcision nor uncircumcision has any meaning, but FAITH THAT WORKS BY LOVE!” (Gal. 5:6) True faith spoken in true love has the only power and potential to educate and nourish and build believers into Christ Jesus. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.
This fact is another deep spiritual issue so we will devote to it the necessary time and also ponder what our lusts and weights can do to it, if we do not “lay them aside”.
Love and faith are the most important fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) which grow in our New Man and are also most desired by Our Lord. These two are represented by the two breasts of the Maiden of Shulamite which are like two young roes that are twins which feed among the lilies. (S.Sol. 4:5) Young roes are quick in response and in movement, but shy and easily frightened so we have to safeguard our faith and love from public exposure and keep them for the Lord and the brethren, whom the Lord appoints. Being twins means that they are equal in size, hence, we should not have great love and little faith or great faith and little love. Feeding on lilies means feeding on pure things; lilies here represent purity and holiness without which we shall not see the Lord. (Heb. 12:14)
The purity and holiness also applies to our conscience since true faith can only be held in a pure conscience. (1Tim. 3:9) When our conscience is defiled, then there is a loss of our faith and love. Our true faith and true love are the only things between which we can keep the Lord all night. (S.Sol. 1:13) The night here means spiritual darkness which will last until the Lord comes again. Also, faith and love are considered as equally important in the New Testament. (ex. 1Tim. 1:5,14// Philemon 5) While her little sister had “no breasts”, the Maiden of Shulamite had “breasts like towers” and that’s how she found favour in the eyes of Her Beloved. (S.Sol. 8:8,10)
TO SPEAK TRUTH IS TO SPEAK TRUE FAITH SINCE TRUE FAITH IS LIGHT FROM THE LORD AND SHOWS TRUTH IN REALITY. THEREFORE, “SPEAKING TRUTH IN LOVE” MAY ALSO BE PARAPHRASED AS “SPEAKING TRUE FAITH IN LOVE”.
The meaning of the above is: If we have no true love, but have true faith, we may speak truth, but in various unacceptable spirits as shown below. If we have true love, but not true faith, we may speak in love, but not truth, rather, we speak what we understand or imagine to be truth. In neither case can we be successful and build up believers. Often we may have neither true love nor true faith.
The Lord desires that we would see and comprehend the effect of our weights-lusts on this very important spiritual issue. We may easily speak truth, or rather partial truth, in various unacceptable spirits, for example:
a… in pride – showing off what we know, impressing people with what we understand or what people must learn and acquire in order to go on in their Christian life; to glean admiration or even worship from our followers, etc., but proud persons are never aware of this fact.
b… in fear – fearing the consequences of our speaking, fearing that people will not understand or that our image will suffer or we may lose our friends or we are not up to the task or in the right spirit, etc.
c… in doubt – doubting whether our speech would be received or would benefit, doubting our ability, etc.
d… in selfishness – we may not teach or preach because we love people, but we may want them to come back and support our ministry or bring to us some (vain) glory or enlarge our congregation; we may follow our own purposes, planning, desires or intentions which may be initially good or desirable in our beliefs and convictions, yet, they may be contrary to the desires and plans of Our Lord, etc.
e… in anger – we may have been hurt or accused and we feel strongly that we must defend ourselves or counter attack some one, who stubbornly stands on his convictions or motives, or we may try to correct where we failed the last time or revenge someone’s opposition, etc.
f… in own beliefs – we may speak truth honestly and sincerely to give guidelines to believers to avoid pitfalls in their life, get rid of their obstacles, or may counsel them how to live a “victorious Christian life” or how to achieve prosperity, how to evangelize, how to help in religious activities, all that and more without necessarily loving them, etc.
g… we may also speak truth in jealousy, greediness, covetousness, (1Tim. 3:3) frustrations or arrogance or in combinations of any of the above spirits. When we speak truth in unacceptable spirits, it is always a partial truth or partial faith since such spirits cannot handle pure faith. Only pure love is able to speak pure faith, if we have that faith. So, we may have true faith, but true love is lacking or vice versa; then our “breasts” are not equal in size, they are not twins. (S.Sol. 4:5) Now, a breast is a seat of nourishment and emotions. Faith and Love provide the right nourishment and also the right emotions to the true believers.
The result of our speaking truth in unacceptable spirits is that no one is spiritually growing up, spiritually educated or built up. People may be redeemed and may receive basic education, but maturing process is not possible. Such believers do not have the spiritual knowledge and capacity to progress, to know themselves, discern their own walk, own deeds and needs or battle the powers of darkness and evil. They may never become Overcomers during their earthly life as they lack the necessary faith-light, strength of their inner man and, not being rooted and grounded in love, they cannot comprehend the Full Truth. (Eph. 3:16-19; 4:1-3, etc.)
Gifts (of the Spirit) do not yield fruit whose seed is in itself, trees (people, the Spirit of God in people) yield fruit whose seed is in itself and after his kind! (Gen. 1:12) I cannot sow gifts and reap fruits, but I can sow my fruit and it shall yield seed after his kind. When I sow love I shall reap love and not hatred; when I sow faith I shall reap faith and not darkness; when I sow meekness I shall reap meekness and not pride. When I sow to the flesh (lusts, weights) I will of the flesh reap corruption, and when I sow to the Spirit I shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting. (Gal. 6:7,8) Truth spoken (sown) in love yields seed after his own kind in the life where it was sown (heart of believer). No other seed from any other spirit will ever produce the same fruit.
How can we “lay aside” our weights which “so easily beset us” (Heb. 12:1) and lead us into sins and make us spiritually barren, unfruitful and unsuccessful in spiritually educating, building up and maturing believers including ourselves? There is only one answer for it and if you have read previous parts of this book with sufficient attention, you should know the answer: We may lay them all aside only on our cross! Not only that, but on our cross we also grow our fruit of TRUE LOVE because the Cross is the true “ground” for this most rare, but most excellent fruit.
To conclude this matter of weights-lusts and their enticing or luring us into sins and stopping us on our way to our perfection and to our ministry of perfection to others, we should now turn our attention to another Word of God which says:
“Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord had promised to them that love Him.” (Jam. 1:12)
There are two spiritual facts to be considered with the above Word of God:
1… In order that we would endure temptation and be tried and receive the Crown of Life, we all have to be tempted! Hence, Apostle James also writes:
“My brethren, count it ALL JOY when you fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith works out patience. But let patience complete her work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (Jam. 1:2-4)
Thus far I have not met a believer who would have really rejoiced when he was tempted. Have you? Why? Because we naturally do not see that behind every temptation, there waits for us a blessing and the Crown of Life. When we endure the temptation – overcome our “self” – then we should see the fruit of it, perceive our blessing and also an increase of His Life in us. We may, perhaps, say that temptation is like unto an opportunity which we may not see coming, but we may see it clearly when we missed it.
2… But when we are tempted and then tried, it points to OUR CROSS as this process always produces sufferings in our soul. It points to our crucifixion process which we have already talked about earlier and explained what it really is. Talking about our weights, we may now enlarge the picture of our crucifixion by declaring that it is also LAYING OUR WEIGHTS ASIDE AND KEEPING THEM ASIDE. How?
Whenever we face anything that may start “boiling our blood” or “steaming our head” or may shock us or stop us in our way, challenge our beliefs even our deep convictions, contradict our traditions or it may seem dangerous to our future plans or intentions, pose threat to our ideals, hurt our emotions or senses or otherwise bring us to an unexpected halt… which means… whenever some of our lusts are challenged or aroused or threatened, we must PAUSE! (see Addendum D, page D2 of “Truth about Salvation[9 ]”).
IF WE CANNOT PAUSE AND GIVE THE SPIRIT OF GOD A CHANCE TO SHOW US IN THAT UNIQUE PRECARIOUS MOMENT THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER, WHICH WE ALWAYS ASSUME WE KNOW, BUT MAY NOT KNOW AT ALL, WE CANNOT TRULY BECOME OVERCOMERS AND OUR SOUL WILL NEVER CHANGE! OUR WEIGHTS -LUSTS SHALL REMAIN IN US UNTIL WE DIE.
Any particular lust in our being, whether physical or intellectual or emotional one, will not only remain in us, but will entice us and bring us to sin. Such sin does not have to be a lie or murder or adultery or such, it may be our foolishness or stubbornness due to our pride whereby we reject the Truth of God in our fleshly self-confidence where we “know it all” and are absolutely sure and nobody has anything to tell us. In all these cases, we shall assuredly commit the sin of unrighteous judgment due to foolish thoughts, if we fail to PAUSE and give the Spirit a chance.
Since you may not have our above quoted publication[9], the Lord desires that a brief part from its Addendum D be reproduced here. Pausing will give the Spirit a chance to show you His Truth and Light on the matter and enable you to also admit in your own soul and conscience the following:
a) Not everything you do is perfect and acceptable in the eyes of God, many changes may be necessary. If the Lord sends them through any one – don’t reject or resist them,
b) Not everything you hear from others is true or righteous or wise especially if it is against the written Word of God or His Spirit; the Lord warns us saying “Take heed what you hear…” (Mk. 4:24). Always judge and reject what His Word shows as untrue; every time you incline your ear to lies and accept them consciously or unconsciously, you will become a liar yourself and come under the power of the devil not even knowing that you became deceived. So, do take heed what you hear and what your heart and mind accept; all vital issues of life are in your heart (Pr. 4:23),
c) Not everything you believe is true and right. Many corrections or changes in your beliefs may be necessary. When the Lord gives you the light for a change, do not reject it just because it may be coming the way you do not expect, or because it “hurts” your flesh,
d) Not everything you desire in your heart or mind is right and profitable (1Cor. 10:23); many things prove hurtful, even suicidal at their end; this includes trying to serve the Lord your wayby offering Him a “strange fire” (Lev. 10:1,2). Ponder your desires before the Lord and before you decide to follow them because Our God is a consuming fire! (Deut. 4:24, Heb. 12:29),
e) Not every road you walk is right and will lead you where you desire to end up. Instead of life, joy, peace, happiness and success, you may (later) meet grief, turmoil, failure, misery and death (Pr. 14:12; 16:25). When the Lord desires to change your way and redirect your steps, do not resist Him with your stubbornness (Pr. 16:9),
f) Not every believer or friend whom you know is truthful, honest, trustworthy, sincere and well meaning, though outwardly he/she may appear so! There are many wolves in sheep’s clothing and if you cannot recognize them, they may get you. Test them on the basis of the faith and light that the Lord already granted you,
g) Not everything you think is really true, correct or wise! Thoughts of an unrenewed mind are the true cause of all misery, troubles, problems, divisions and death! If you are unwilling to overcome these thoughts, you will never get out of this evil merry-go-round-of-thinking. You are in danger of always remaining THAT what you think (Pr. 23:7) – an incarnation of untrue, incorrect, unrighteous and unwise thoughts – a fountain of death.
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To be continued next week in chapter 5 – part 17
brother Hanola
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