COLORING “TRUTH” WITH OUR MISCONCEPTIONS

We must approach God’s word tabula rasa style, with no preconceived notions about God. We are an opinionated people, and it is all too easy to superimpose our opinions and desires about the nature of God on our interpretation of His word, coloring “truth” with our misconceptions. By “nature” I mean the fundamental qualities of God, His essential character, His relational identity, what is knowable about God by man. This is why we miss God’s will so much and get our life into a mess.

It is essential to lay aside our opinions about the nature of God when we approach His word, letting the word interpret itself through the Holy Spirit. For Example: The Bible speaks in many places about the “goodness” of God. When we approach these passages with the world’s mindset as to what is “good”, we create a mental filter through which we interpret these passages, and, most importantly, all other passages – compounding the error. The current popularity of the Health and Wealth message is a prime example of superposing our desires on God’s word and skewing its meaning, equating the goodness of God with our physical and material well-being. God’s goodness was forever demonstrated at Calvary, and is defined by His will -- His purposefulness in redeeming and transforming a people to inhabit His Kingdom.  Jesus didn’t die just to save us from hell, and He certainly didn’t die so we could have a life full of physical and material blessings – our “best life” can never be now. He died to transform us for Kingdom life, to change us into vessels of honor fit to inhibit His Kingdom. The Apostle Paul called this being “conformed to the image of His (God’s) Son”, to be molded and shaped into the image of Jesus sharing inwardly His likeness... His nature.  To do the works Jesus did, we must become like Him. Make no mistake; this is the number one passion of God’s heart, the number one “good” He has graced us with. In redemption we say yes to the call of the Father. In transformation God puts us on His potting wheel and begins to mold and shape us, using the pressures of life applied at just the right time and just the right place to orchestrate our metamorphosis. These “pressures” are the adverse circumstances of our life, the things we normally call bad, the things God allowed that He might take the enemy’s bad and turn it into good according to His purpose... our transformation. Everything that moves us closer to God -- makes us more Christlike -- is God’s goodness in action. God is too good to leave us the way we are. We should expect The Way into the Kingdom to be difficult, for Jesus said it would be. We must learn to rejoice and give thanks in adversity, knowing God is at work on our behalf, transforming our nature while purifying our faith. And we desperately need transformation for we are sin stained spiritual cripples who need to  become beacons of radiant light reflecting the holy nature of Christ to a world drowning in sin’s darkness.

Coloring truth has led to thousands of denominational flavors, and the spiritual deception of many into fringe factions. The natural mind, unaided by the Spirit of God, cannot know... comprehend, the things of God, “for they are spiritually discerned.” The job description of the Holy Spirit... “The Spirit of truth”, has two entries: 1) Manifest the life and nature of Christ in willing submitted saints. 2) Lead, guide, direct, comfort, and teach willing saints about God through the revelation of His word. We must allow the Holy Spirit to be the mental filter through which we interpret God’s word, for the Holy Spirit is, operationally, the mind of Christ in us: We must allow the Holy Spirit to do His job in us. We must learn to color truth by the Spirit of Truth.

COLORING TRUTH 
BY THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH