Are you adamant? Does that make you more likely to be correct?
I am sure, adamant. Does my stubborn certainty assist me in my quest to make you believe me? Should it? Hint: I know a ton of stubborn people that are inflexibly convinced of “truths” amazingly inconsistent with one another.
What if I can sound really reasonable… will you believe me then? Note hint above, substituting “reasonable” for “stubborn.”
So many people tie their concept of truth down to their best understanding of the Bible. But is that the real solution? Everyone else has another interpretation… that goes along with each person’s tendencies… and gets us nowhere.
If I can spew Bible verses to support my stance, does that make you believe me? Should it? Note hint above, substituting “Biblical.”
If you really believe me and I really know TRUTH, do you? Not really – not necessarily. You see, we so often confuse the nature of TRUTH with the nature of our understanding. We like truths that can be easily summarized in a few words or a concise truism, but truth is not an understanding but a Person, not a doctrine or a rule or a set of facts but the Living Word of God – Jesus Himself – Who is the Exact Representation of the Father. Which is inconvenient as a definition of TRUTH. It would be so nice if we could memorize the executive summary of God – just His abstract – and then really have the TRUTH. Instead we have to be dependent on a definition that is so large and complex and living and different that any attempt to summarize Him invariably puts one at odds with Him. To know TRUTH, we need to know God. Like in every situation… every minute… even if it seems to us to be the same situation as one we remember God’s perspective on.
Where can truth be found? In God alone… not even in me… except where I accurately represent Him and the Spirit works through me to facilitate insertion of TRUTH. What I mean is, if God inhabits man, and man sees God, man becomes like Him and if & when the Spirit of Truth directs said man to speak TRUTH, there is the possibility of TRUTH being received… but otherwise, we have potluck of opinion without much chance of getting a meaty bite of anything TRUTHful.
So then, living the TRUTH is impossible without a constant divine flow – a veritable intravenous drip of God Himself. Any attempt at TRUTH without the IV typically pollutes the whole scene. Sure, some people doubtless get closer than others, but why settle for less than the TRUTH? And fortunately, Father has sent His Spirit to live within us so that this IV drip is not only a possibility, but His clear purpose, an actual certainty, even a God-given guarantee!
So ask the Father to give you the Spirit, and get ready for a real change in your perception of TRUTH!! Because it is only in knowing the Father, in every facet of your life, that you can actually know the truth… inconvenient or not.