The Truth You Know...

 So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples. And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.

John 8:31,32

The Truth will set you free.

This article started after a single tweet I stumbled on several days ago. It simply stated "Only the Truth you know can set you free". I like to dwell on things and let them settle in my Spirit. It's something several of the most profound teachers I've ever heard - well known and local - have drilled into me through their teaching, and something I encourage when I speak, and hopefully when I write.

This thought has been going round my head for some time now. The Truth we know sets us free.

There's a big difference between intellectual comprehension of the words and truly knowing them when it comes to the Word of God. These days many people have an intellectual faith based on reason and "common sense" rather than meditation and letting the Word seep into their heart and out through their lives. It makes for pew-sitting followers who fill churches but are hollow spiritually. 

They understand the literal words, but miss the point.

We are all guilty of that in most areas to some degree. I have an intellectual understanding that by Jesus's stripes I am healed, yet I wear spectacles and take medication for diabetes. I have loss of sensation in my feet because of the illness in my flesh. I am still trying to meditate on the verses that speak of physical healing and make them a part of myself to the point that these major issues can be taken care of and see healing in my body. It is working. Part of my testimony is that a "progressive" illness like diabetes is getting no worse in me after 15 years as I truly begin to "know" healing.

Most of us only truly know salvation from an intellectual perspective. It's apparent in the things we say and do. Our actions reek of death yet we claim life in our hearts. As we mature this changes - hopefully - and we find a peace that calms our fears and silences our worries, even just for short times. Many people do not truly understand until death comes knocking at the door what "peace" really is. My dad died of cancer 15 years ago - 1999 was a bad year for me - and spent much of the last few weeks of his life reflecting on how he'd lived. I held his hand as he passed from this life into the next and could feel him finally letting real peace flow through him just before he died. It was a privilege to be there with him.

 My Grandfather referred to "head knowledge" and "heart knowledge" to differentiate between the two. I like the terms because there is a critical difference between the two. A belief system that goes no further than the mind may as well be atheism. Certainly we need to understand with our minds, but it is our hearts where God seeks us and calls us to know Him.

Truth sets us free. It's the same in all areas of our life, we just don't see it for what it is. The truth is the chair will support us, which gives us the freedom to sit. The truth is when we're thirsty and we have a drink the thirst is slated. So when we find a spiritual Truth it has the same formula to it. A set of rules placed in time by a loving God who wants His children to succeed. The obvious ones, gravity, flight, electricity are in front of us so much we don't see the faith required to use them. Even something as simple as turning on a switch requires faith that power will flow. God is no different. 

His power is available to us all the time for far more than we can ask, but only in as much as the power is allowed to flow through us. We act as fuses to limit the power, and therefore how much Truth can release us. So we stay sick when health is promised. We stay poor when prosperity - not wealth - is promised.

We hold intellectual concepts of prosperity, health and even freedom. We must allow the fire of the Spirit of God to descend within us to fill every fibre of our being and live lives of Truth-giving Freedom.

Just the way He meant it to be when He made us, and when He chose to accept our punishment so we could recover what our ancestor had surrendered.

True Freedom. True Relationship.