As we sit in the pews of our churches today, are we more like those who accepted Jesus and saw what was truly in their hearts? Or are we like the Pharisees who clung to their own traditions, opinions, and half-truths rather than changing ingrained, self-righteous concepts? Are we just as wrapped up in our own beliefs, culture, and desires as they were? Do we justify ourselves by learning all of the correct responses, but miss the real answer? Are we satisfied with how we look to others while Jesus stands nearby grieving at our ignorance of Him? It is time we come to really know the Truth and let that Truth set us free.
God’s presence changes things, so if His truth is in us, then His life-changing power should shine through us. Yet, instead, we are often indistinguishable from the rest of the world. Some might call themselves undercover Christians, but the truth is we’re not under cover; we’re unchanged! I weep when I consider all the energy I’ve wasted over the years seeking the approval of others, becoming intoxicated by someone else’s power, working as an unofficial arbitrator in big-name church cases, engaging in media fist-fights all over the nation. I thought I had arrived and was finally really doing something to help Jesus. But Jesus doesn’t need such help—He needs my humble obedience. I wasn’t carrying out His ministry on the earth—I was blindly exalting Self! I was seeking validation and justification for my flesh. I was allowing it to fight other flesh—and all under the Christian banner!
Like those drunk with wine, those of us drunk with flesh are unreasonable and bleary-eyed. We do not see things clearly or truth fully; we see things as we want to see them, through the haze of self-centeredness. We can go on like this our entire lives, unless we are arrested for a DUI—being Deceived under the Influence of Self. As Christians, we have a choice: We can surrender to God and permit Him to sober us up, or we can choose to cling to the deception that has so entranced us. If we cling to such pretext, then we become a poster child for the Devil—Christians trying to live out Christianity by the power of the flesh rather than the power of the Spirit. The truth changes that.
The best definition of truth is that Jesus is Truth personified. (See John 14:6, 1:14, 17; Romans 15:8; and Ephesians 4:21.) Only by truly knowing Him can we really know the truth. Through Him are all things revealed: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). The nature of light is that in it we clearly see every nuance and detail. Jewelers use a magnifying glass and a bright light to examine diamonds for even the tiniest flaw or imperfection. So will the light of Jesus work in our lives to reveal things that are unseen in the darkness or half-light. If we have His Light, it will reveal the truth of what is in our hearts so that we can prune the dead branches and fruitless activities and grow to become more and more like Jesus every day. 
When Self is on the throne, our vision is dimmed by half-truths we accept to justify our ambiguous lives. Even a half-truth is a whole lie. We live in the darkness and shadow of Self not seeing things clearly. It is like walking into a room to find your car keys, seeing them on the counter in the shadows, and upon picking them up only to discover that you have instead picked up a tarantula! We can be so mistaken in the way we see things that we are deceived into accepting untrue doctrines and beliefs. However, since in the half-light they justify our desires and appear to be the very thing we desire, we embrace them wholeheartedly. Thus instead of the truth of God, we build our self-image on the foundation of culture, habit, and environment. We have little time or inclination to examine a thing too closely to determine its true nature. Thus, finding ourselves comfortable, we complacently settle for just a little knowledge of God rather than being hungry for much more of Him.
We want a religion that justifies us and makes us feel better about ourselves, rather than religion that transforms us into the image of Christ. We—the entire Body of Christ (especially in the United States)—have become too easily lulled into fleshly complacency—the cause of our spiritual poverty. We are caught up in our accomplishments rather than Christ’s ministry. We no longer love truth, only what the truth can do for us. Thus when truth is inconvenient, we ignore it. Or, as has become the norm today in business, politics, and the Church, we spin the facts the way we want them. Sometimes there is not much difference between putting things in their best light and lying. Those who spin the facts are more interested in appearance than substance.
Another level of truth is what is actual and factual, plain and simple. We know how difficult being truly objective is in a situation, but those who have been with Jesus should be the most objective people on earth. They should be able to be completely honest with themselves, knowing their own faults and shortcomings, and speaking to their own hurt if necessary, for the sake of the truth. (See Psalm 15:4.) Perhaps education has been a good example of this. In the past, teachers have been instructed to be very critical of students as if the harder they were on them, the better. Yet we found this to be damaging to the self-confidence of students. It follows suit that poor self-confidence leads to poor marks. More recently, teachers are trained to be very positive, no matter what the student does, to build their confidence, hoping that eventually this will lead to overall improvement. What in fact has happened is that we have a generation of students who now confidently make mistakes, and when confronted often scoff at the rebuke.
It is the truth that will set us free in every situation, and not the truth as seen through rose-colored glasses, which often distorts the facts. I believe this is one of the reasons Jesus told us to judge not. (See Matthew 7:1.) When we add to the truth, we put ourselves in a position to be judged just as executives from big business are judged in our courts for accounting misrepresentations. We need to get back to the basic wisdom of Joe Friday on “Dragnet” so many years ago, “Just the facts, ma’am.” Let your statement be, “Yes, yes” or “No, no”; any thing beyond these is of evil, (Matthew 5:37) Let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation, (James 5:12)
It is time to reprogram our minds. Of the thousands of decisions we make daily, how many do we consciously consider before acting upon them? Chances are, very few. What is directing our lives then? Habit—patterns accepted over time—are repeated and justified. They become so ingrained that we don’t even think before we act. We are trained by what we accept as true, and that training becomes an instinctive reaction that directs our every step. Then if those things that we have accepted are half-truths, we stumble around in the dark rather than scrutinizing them through the light of God’s Word!
Such deception rarely goes from point A to point Z in an afternoon. Seldom does a person start in the ministry one day and the next is in bed with someone else’s spouse! Hardly ever does a hard-working employee begin a new job with the long-range goal of embezzling from the company. Who would even consider marrying someone who they knew would someday commit murder? Though we could never imagine such things in the beginning; these things happen daily in our society—and in the Church! Pastors run off with their secretaries; ushers pocket money from the collection plates; loving spouses murder their mates for one reason or another. “If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23).
The acceptance of a half-truth is like smoking a cigarette. Little by little as we inhale, the nicotine darkens our lungs. After years and years of this, they turn black and can’t be penetrated even by x-rays. Smoking saps our breath and ages us prematurely. Illness creeps in until we are no longer of use to our families and those who depend on us. Sin, like cancer, grows until it takes over our entire life. Acceptance of these lies sears our conscience to the point that the voice of God no longer can penetrate the heart—the black lump within. However, sin is not the real problem. Just as cancer is the result of taking in smoke from cigarettes, sin is the result of ingesting the half-truths that justify Self on the throne. It is flesh carried away by lusts that brings about sin. (See James 1:15.) Sin is the fruit, flesh is the root.
When we repent of sin, we’re dealing with the fruit, which is very important. But cutting out the root, which is Self on the throne, is even more important. Most evangelists, myself included, have preached against the fruit of the flesh—drinking, drugs, lying, and lust. Great numbers of people go to the altar, pull the fruit off their flesh, and two weeks later return to the same altar having committed the same sins. Repentance must deal with the root. If we deal only with pruning the branches, allowing the tree to live, we only guarantee a bumper crop of sinful fruit for the next revival! John the Baptist said One was coming to lay the ax to the root of the tree. (See Matthew 3:10.) We don’t just want to prune a little cruelty, unforgiveness, or lying. No matter what we do to the fruit of sin, if the ax is never laid to the root, we miss the reason Jesus came. We must sever the flesh root and become grafted into the True Vine—Christ. Truth is the ax which will separate the root from the rotten fruit!
It is the person of the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to see our flesh from an eternal standpoint—from the perspective of absolute Truth. Flesh-fed Christians have boasted, “There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,” but never realize that the rest of that Scripture is, “who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1). We must become absorbed in the truth of God’s Word—renewing our minds. As Paul wrote, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2) that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Habit can be reprogrammed to work in our favor.
“You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong” (Hebrews 5:12-14). In other words, if we feed on God’s Word and grow up in Him, there will come a time that even our physical senses will know the difference between good and evil and act accordingly without a second thought—this is flesh dominated by the Spirit! This is life with Jesus completely on the throne of our lives! It is time that we grow up enough to accept the meat of the Word and make a lasting difference for His Kingdom on the earth!
Do you love the Truth even more than your own reputation? Speaking of the end times and those that would follow false prophets, the Bible tells us: “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). “If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6). Do we truly love truth? Those who risk being one with Jesus will find that His light will reveal much in their life that is harmful and should be abandoned; yet the good fruit that comes from His Spirit will thrive in this light.
Jesus on the throne will shine this light into every nook and cranny and expose everything that needs to be changed or eradicated. This is exactly what needs to happen if we are to be sanctified—set apart—for His use. This is not something that will happen overnight, neither will we arrive at a place where one day we can sit down and say, “Now I am holy.” We must go through this pruning process of the truth every day, and that always hurts. But the opportunities to have Jesus truly work through us to touch other lives makes it all worthwhile.
I can imagine nothing greater than meeting Jesus on that day when I too have finished my race (see 2 Timothy 4:7-8) and hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21).
