Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I received a question about last week’s message which I will share with you since there may be others with the same, or similar, question:
Question: “I have a question about your last email. We always enjoy reading them! This one paragraph below says that words can only hurt us. I don’t understand since we can speak words over ourselves and be healed thru Jesus. Those words don’t hurt us. What am I missing here?”
Quote from last week’s message: “Otherwise, what we read in God’s Word is nothing more than words to us. It is not Truth. Words can ONLY harm you. However, The Truth is the only thing that can help you. It really is this simple.”
This is a great question, and it makes my heart feel so good to know many truly pay attention to the messages and seek to draw closer to and walk before their Father and King Jesus.
I’ll start my answer with this statement. There is The Word and there is The Truth. John 17:17 tells us:
John 17:17
Sanctify them through Thy Truth: Thy Word is Truth.
John 8:32
And ye shall know The Truth, and The Truth shall make you free.
John 16:13
Howbeit when He, The Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all Truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.
John 18:17
Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art Thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto The Truth. Every one that is of The Truth heareth My voice.
John 1:17
For the law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ.
II Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing The Word of Truth.
James 1:18
Of His Own will begat He us with The Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures [creation].
There are another hundred verses dealing with The Truth.
So, what is the difference between The Word and The Truth? Aren’t they the same? The Truth is The Word, believed. Look at John 17:17. The Word, Truth, is the Greek word, “alétheia,” which means, “truth, but not merely truth as spoken; truth of idea, reality, sincerity, divine truth revealed to man.” By the very definition, we can see The Truth is The Word revealed to our hearts, and then believed.
Churches are filled today with plenty of people and Believers, who “listen” to The Word, but they don’t “hear” The Truth. Take the tithe for instance. The Truth is clear about tithing before, during, and after the law. When The Word is preached and taught on this subject, Believers either “listen” to The Word, or they “hear” The Truth. I’m amazed at how hard some Believers work The Word to try and prove the tithe passed away with the law, so they can avoid The Truth. They are like the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Jesus spoke to him initially about the commandments having to do with how we treat others. The rich young ruler’s reply was, “All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus then spoke to him concerning how we are to reverence our Father and have no other gods before Him by telling him, “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”
We all know the ending to the story of the rich young ruler. He went away sorrowful because he couldn’t bring himself to part with his god – money, or in his case, mammon. Mammon is the ancient Chaldean god of wealth, a demonic spirit that rages today throughout many churches and Believers. If you don’t tithe, so God can bless the mammon and remove the demonic spirit, the devourer of Malachi 3 has free reign over your mammon and your life. We must understand The Word must become The Truth in our hearts or else we are as James 1:22 states:
James 1:22
But be ye doers of The Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
If we broke James 1:22 down in the Greek, it would read something closer to:
Be a hearer in your heart of The Truth, and not a listener only, deceiving yourself.
The rich young ruler deceived himself believing that he was a good man because he lived what he listened to rather than having heard and accepted The Truth. In other words, the rich young ruler listened to what he wanted to listen to rather than being open before The Lord and hearing The Truth. The Truth was he put money ahead of God. He was not willing to completely submit himself to God. Had he heard The Truth, he would have known that everything he gave to the poor would be returned to him in this lifetime with a one for one repayment.
Proverbs 19:17
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto The LORD; and that which he hath given will He pay him again.
Jesus said the same thing in Mark.
Mark 10:29-30
29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake, and the gospel’s,
30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
The point is Jesus rewards us in this earth as well as in Heaven. This eliminates the crowd that always wants to claim everything is Spiritual and not physical, that all the reward is in Heaven and not in this earth, as well. If this were true, why did God come into the earth in the physical form of Jesus? Why did Jesus physically reward people with healing, with wholeness, with prosperity, with the casting out of demons, the raising of the dead, etc. These were all physical acts manifested from the Spiritual realm – ON THIS EARTH. The last nail in the coffin of this same crowd is Jesus teaching the disciples how to pray……”Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Jesus makes it perfectly clear God’s will, which is seen throughout Heaven, is to also be manifested in this earth – BY BELIEVERS.
In closing, remember this: Jesus, The Word, came to teach us The Truth about God, The Father. This is the NEW COVENANT. The Word is always The Word whether it is accepted and believed, or not. The Truth is only The Truth when The Word is accepted and believed. This is why Jesus said, in John 17:17, “Sanctify [set them apart] them through Thy Truth. Thy Word [believed] is Truth.”
Blessings to all in Christ Jesus,
Larry