Key scriptures: Romans 8:31-32, Psalm 51:6, John 14:21,23

Joshua said to the Israelites

“Deep in your hearts you know that every promise of the LORD your God has come true. Not a single one has failed!”(Joshua 23:14 NLT).

Joshua’s words affirm what is true, we serve a God who does not lie period!

“he who is the Glory of Israel will not lie, nor will he change his mind, for he is not human that he should change his mind!”(Isa.15:29 NLT).

He is a God of Truth, this is why His Spirit is also named by Christ as the Spirit of Truth.

“He is the Spirit of Truth who leads into all truth…” (John 14:17 NLT).

The fact that He is a God of Truth is a delight to the ears of the believer in Christ as myself and a spring in our step when we focus on scriptures that speak of His blessed promises to us. These includes His faithfulness to provide for and protect us.

“Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.” (James 1:17 NLT).

Caution! His truth is not only demonstrated when He fulfils His blessed promises as Joshua articulated so well when he said to the Israelites:

“But as surely as the LORD your God has given you the good things he promised, he will also bring disaster on you if you disobey him. He will completely destroy you from this good land he has given you. (Joshua 23:15 NLT).

There are those among believers in Christ who subconsciously as well as consciously do not serve the God of Truth wholeheartedly.

Consciously, some profess to be God’s children but pick and choose which of His scriptures to obey or disobey. In addition, they would interpret certain scriptures to suit their carnal longings and desires deceiving themselves and others but certainly not God.

Despite the aforementioned, such people require God to serve them wholeheartedly and in fact demand it! They pray and quote scriptures back at Him expecting Him to fulfil their every wish and command! If they do not receive answers to their prayers and in their timing, they become angry with God and often times people around them become victims of their wrath.

As a believer in Christ, I confess to haven been among the subconscious category of people who did not serve God wholeheartedly. I use the past tense because I hope I have overcome that tendency, if not, may God continue to help me do so.

I recall I would be recurrently engaging in sinful acts whether large or small based on my mindset and decisions (I later realised that some were rooted in not only personal sins but generational iniquities) I would take unaware that despite a consciously fervent life in Christ, such acts were contrary to God’s will and were therefore the reasons why blockages to sustained peace and answers to prayers were taking place.

In fact I blamed the devil, but while evil was certainly involved, evil can only have its way in the life of a Christian if they become self reliant and collude with Satan by disobeying God. Satan and his demonic army cannot have a foothold or an “entry pass” in our lives without our assistance.

“Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim.” (Prov. 26:2 NLT).

Yes, some sins are glaringly obvious to us but from experience I know that there are some that we commit on a recurring basis that if but for living a life in fellowship with the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin and reveals hidden sins and iniquities, exposes God’s truth contrasting it with our self deception and Satan’s lies, they would remain hidden. I thank God for His powerful Holy Spirit in my life.

Satan and the flesh nature under satanic control majors in hiddenness, meaning they scheme to ensure people, including Christians stay in darkness and are never enlightened to Elohim’s truth.

This is how the kingdom of darkness (Satan’s) founded and built on lies about humanity and the world advances.

“God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.” (John 3:19 NLT).

David, the son of Jesse who become king of Israel knew about his own personal fragility and valued his relationship with God to the point that he did not want his sinful ways, pretensions and presumptions that would be exposed as lies to serve as obstacles to his intimate relationship with God. Therefore He prayed in this manner which certainly appeals to me:

“How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.

Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me.

Then I will be free of guilt

and innocent of great sin.

May the words of my mouth

and the meditation of my heart

be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

(Ps. 19:12-14 NLT)

And also

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” (Ps. 139:23-24 NLT).

I state that this manner of praying appeals to me because I feel led to pray in the same way as it gets the job done! In other words as long as it is from a sincere heart, the Holy Spirit who abides in the heart of every believer in Christ is activated to answer by convicting the one who prayed if need be and enlightening them to the sinful acts, thoughts or decisions they are making.

I can testify that as one who is eager to make peace and so sustain intimacy with God by refusing to bow to my flesh and Satan through denial, pretence and presumption, I have noticed many times that the Holy Spirit has unveil to me my erroneous thought patterns, decisions and actions which I would not have otherwise been enlightened to.

This has caused me to exclaim in horror and feel the conviction and sorrow necessary to bring me to repentance and a resolve to change my ways with God’s help.

As God desires His truth in the inward parts of humanity, anyone who desires the same opens their hearts to receive revelation of His wisdom or the knowledge of his ways required to live a victorious Christian life (Ps. 51:6).

The Apostle Paul writes about God’s Spirit as follows:

“For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit..” (1 Corinth. 2:10-11 NLT).

Indeed we serve a God who reveals His thoughts or will by His Spirit so as to redeem us. His love is everlasting and He is dedicated to rebuilding our lives. As He said to the ancient Israelites so He says to us;

“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. I will rebuild you, my virgin Israel. You will again be happy and dance merrily with your tambourines.” (Jeremiah 31: 3-4 NLT).

It pleases God that we His children would want to sustain our relationship with Him by desiring to know whether we are in sin and if so to confess our sins and ask God to cleans us from all unrighteousness; This is indeed what we are commanded to do according to His Word of truth (1 John 1:9).

God’s promises are true, however their manifestation is only possible within an intimate relationship with Him where we revere Him to the point of receiving His Word of truth as well as demonstrating it in every area of our lives.

“All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.” (John 14:23 NLT).

When obedience to God’s Word of truth results in God’s glorious presence in one’s life, it also means that all that God has predestined for the person is available to them. God’s promises are therefore conditional to our obedience.

Satan is crafty and will never leave the children of God alone, if it is not one scheme to blindfold us so as to deceive us, it is another; Satan will use every opportunity in this materialistic world to attempt to make us self-reliant or self-sufficient and think that we do not need to rely or depend on God.

This is why as believers in Christ fellowship with the Holy Spirit is absolutely crucial to us living Victorious Christian lives. By the enabling of the Holy Spirit, the disciples of Christ, who is the light (John 8:12) in a dark world, are able to have the “light of life” or know the truth of Elohim God and be set free by it (John 8:31-32).

Those who truly abide in God are therefore unable to live in denial or pretence because the Spirit of Truth has the liberty to teach them and remind them of the teachings of Jesus (John 14:26/15:26).

They have a choice either to obey or disobey the Word of Truth. If they decide to disobey, then the status of their relationship with God changes to their detriment. The Israelites knew this as they suffered punishment when they disobeyed God. Even an individual’s disobedience (Achan’s) resulted in the entire nation of Israel suffering defeat in the battle at Ai because of God’s anger (Joshua 7).

In Joshua’s final message (Joshua 24) to the Israelites before he died, he reminded them of their ancestral inheritance starting from Abraham and how God had delivered them from Egypt and given them victory over their enemies and the land of Canaan, then he implored them to throw away the gods of their forefathers and not to forsake the LORD their God. If they forsook Him, they would suffer the consequences:

“If you abandon the LORD and serve other gods, he will turn against you and destroy you, even though he has been so good to you.” (Joshua 24:20 NLT). Again we note that God is truthful in his plan to punish as He is in his plan to bless.

The Israelites then assured Joshua repetitively that they will not forsake the LORD, but would serve Him (Josh. 24:21-24). Joshua put a large stone under an oak tree near the holy place of the LORD and said that the stone “It will be a witness to testify against you if you go back on your word to God.”(Joshua 24:27 NLT)

As God will not tolerate compromise in worship because “…he is a holy and jealous God” (Josh. 24:19 NLT) so too He will not tolerate a lying people. This is because God desires: “truth in the inward parts” (Ps. 51:6 KJV).

In the New Living Translation version Psalm 51:6 a) is expressed as follows “But you desire honesty from the womb..”.

Honesty before God and men is synonymous with being a Christian and can be expressed as a cloak of honesty that is supposed to be a permanent attire of a believer in Christ because it is woven from God’s Word of truth and reflects the nature of God.

In human terms it does not mean one is perfect because no one but Elohim God is perfect, it means one has integrity of the highest order borne out of a heart that is constantly quick to confess and acknowledge Satan’s lies, self-deception and also quick to repent and embrace God’s truth according to His unadulterated Word.

©️7-Oct.2018 DENyamekye