Living in the Knowledge of the Truth

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As my mind became quiet these words came to mind.

“To come to the knowledge of the truth.”

So I looked up this verse:

“who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4

God doesn’t just want us to be saved but come to the knowledge of the truth- to live in it, understand it, and hence- be empowered by it!  God’s truth is not just some words on a page but guided empowered by the Holy Spirit liberate soul from all that is in the world, others, and ourselves. 

They usher us into a new way of seeing day to day.

In paraphrasing what Pastor Antonio recently shared with me from Mexico, “God is manifesting goodness in our life, not by the limitations and strings of our conscious mind, but beyond.”

For me I was presented with a picture.  Our understanding is a hallway of doors.  Doors we have opened, experienced and lived by.  But when we come to the end ourselves we are presented with a DOOR that surpasses all the others doors of our understanding.  And when this DOOR opens and by the grace of God- this magnificent light floods our soul. It takes the blinders off, cleans, clarifies, unshackles, and makes new what has been exposed to the elements of this corrupted world.  We desire not the old doors but the ONE in which the light is pouring forth, the DOOR that gave us something much more satisfying and liberating then all the other doors that are were futile and ineffective.  This is the DOOR in which we desire.

“I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can shut.  You have little strength, yet you have obeyed my word and did not deny me.” Revelation 3:8

I am reminded of this verse.

“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.  Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Ephesians 3:19

Just as the miracle of our salvation cannot be fully understood when we surrendered our life to Jesus Christ so it is when we continue to surrender to God daily (sanctification).  After all it is not we, (our strength, our might, or our intelligence that was so easily enticed by the flawed and fallen understanding) but the knowledge of truth working in our lives that comes only by surrendering to Christ.  It is God and in God alone.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 says “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”

C. S. Lewis wrote:

Let us picture a woman thrown into a dungeon. There she bears and rears a son. He grows

up seeing nothing but the dungeon walls, the straw on the floor, and a little patch of the

sky seen through the grating, which is too high up to show anything except sky. This

unfortunate woman was an artist, and when they imprisoned her she managed to bring

with her a drawing pad and a box of pencils. As she never loses the hope of deliverance she

is constantly teaching her son about that outer world which he has never seen. She does

it very largely by drawing him pictures. With her pencil she attempts to show him what

fields, rivers, mountains, cities and waves on a beach are like. He is a dutiful boy and he

does his best to believe her when she tells him that that outer world is far more interesting

and glorious than anything in the dungeon. At times he succeeds. On the whole he gets on

tolerably well until, one day, he says something that gives his mother pause. For a minute

or two they are at cross-purposes. Finally it dawns on her that he has, all these years, lived

under a misconception. ‘But,’ she gasps, ‘you didn’t think that the real world was full of

lines drawn in lead pencil?’ ‘What?’ says the boy. ‘No pencil marks there?’ And instantly,

his whole notion of the outer world becomes a blank. For the lines, by which alone he was

imagining it, have now been denied of it. He has no idea of that which will exclude and

dispense with the lines, that of which the lines were merely a transposition—the waving

treetops, the light dancing on the weir, the colored three-dimensional realities which are

not enclosed in lines but define their own shapes at every moment with a delicacy and

multiplicity which no drawing could ever achieve. The child will get the idea that the real

world is somehow less visible than his mother’s pictures. In reality it lacks lines because it is

incomparably more visible….  Our natural experiences (sensory, emotional, imaginative) are

only like the drawing, like penciled lines on flat paper. If they vanish in the risen life, they

will vanish only as pencil lines vanish from the real landscape; not as a candle flame that is

put out but as a candle flame which becomes invisible because someone has pulled up the

blind, thrown open the shutters, and let in the blaze of the risen sun.

Living in the knowledge of the truth is living beyond the dungeon walls of what we know or understand.  What made sense in the dungeon walls no longer makes sense when we are exposed to the living knowledge of the truth.  Though we live in the walls of this world, our reality is no longer curtailed to the understanding of the world.

 "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as it’s own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.” John 15:19

Wisdom

“Happy is a person who finds wisdom and gains understanding.  For the profit of wisdom is better than silver, and her wages are better than gold.  Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. She offers you life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left.  She will guide you down delightful paths; happy are those who hold her tightly.   By wisdom the LORD founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens.   By his knowledge the deep fountains of earth burst forth, and the clouds poured down rain.”  Proverbs 3:14-20

Wisdom, how opposite it is of what most of us think.  It is not some old hardened well- educated chap that has seen, heard, and experienced it all. 

For wisdom is a child, you come by her through the Gate (Jesus Christ), and she grabs your hand and pulls you in- to green hills and lush green forests to the left.  You discover as you step through the Gate, you are no longer your age but a child.  Energy and a gleeful delight fills your soul and bubbles up as you both run like the wind.  Oh the joy of those who find wisdom and take hold of her.  

Jesus said to his disciples,

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3

I would say as we mature as children of God our reality has no place to sleep and rest on the things of this world but in God alone.  And there the banquets of fruit are produced and fill the tables of heaven.

The foxes that spoil the vine, the things of the fallen world and fallen understanding, are caught and they are seen/exposed for what they are- they are things that ruin what God wants to grow and prosper in our lives.

Every single day of this life we stand at a door, knowingly or unknowingly, where God asks, “Are you going to come in? Are you going to allow me to show you a better way to live?”

Jesus said,” The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

The thief is the master of trickery…

Who would think by letting go of your life you would save it or even find it but the thief wants you to keep it -that you might save it but you know what Jesus says,

“If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” Matthew 10:39

As I thought about this I wondered how often does our understandings often collides with God’s will in our life because we haven’t surrendered it to Him fully. 

Later I was reminded of a one of the books in my bed stand.  It’s a book written by Thomas a Kempis, called “The imitation of Christ”.

I looked at the table contents where I saw the title, “Pure and Entire Resignation of Self to Obtain Freedom of Heart”.

I turned there (page 98)

The Voice of Christ

My Child, renounce self and you shall find Me.  Give up your own self-will, your possessions, and you shall always gain.  For once you resign yourself irrevocably, greater grace will be given you.

The Disciple

How often, Lord, shall I resign myself? And in what shall I forsake myself?

The Voice of Christ

Always, at every hour, in small matters as well as great- I except nothing.  In all things I wish you be stripped of self.  How otherwise can you be mine or I be yours unless you be despoiled of (deprived/ relieved) of your own will (disposition, bias, preference, partiality) both inwardly and outwardly? The sooner you do this the better it will be for you, and the more fully and sincerely you do it the more you will please Me and the greater gain you will merit. Some there are who resign themselves, but with certain reservation; they do not trust fully in God and therefore they will try to provide for themselves.  Others, again, at first offer all, but afterward are assailed by temptation and return to what they have renounced, thereby making no progress in virtue (morality, integrity, righteousness, purity, goodness).  These will not reach the true liberty of a pure heart nor the grace of happy friendship with Me unless they first make a full resignation and daily sacrifice of themselves.  Without this no fruitful notion lasts nor will last.  I have said to you very often, and now I say again: forsake yourself, renounce yourself, and you shall enjoy great inward peace.  Give all for all.  Ask nothing, demand nothing in return.  Trust purely and without hesitation in Me, and you shall possess Me.  You will be free of heart and the darkness will not overwhelm you. Strive for this, pray for this, desire this- to be stripped of all selfishness and naked to follow the naked Jesus, to die to self and live forever for Me.   Then all vain imaginations, all wicked disturbances and superfluous cares will vanish.  Then also immoderate (heavy, unrestrained, reckless, unwarranted, unbridled) fear will leave you and inordinate (excessive care for self which causes unrestrained feelings or behavior) love will die.

To come/live in the knowledge of the truth we must let go/resign/surrender ourselves completely to the LORD in all matters in life that we might exist/abide/live- liberated in CHRIST JESUS (who is the way, the truth and the life) – John 14:6.

Nothing exists without Him, no power, no peace, no life, no knowledge of the truth, no liberation, no resurrection, no fullness of life, nothing satisfying exists without Him.

No wonder why John wrote;

^“ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ” John 1:4-5