Edition 148 January 16th 2013

The Fruits of Truth:

News events and commentary:

My comment begins with ***

●Syrian leader Assad orders his military to attack Israel with ballistic missiles if rebel forces kill him! (Israel Today 14^th January 2013) ***If you go back and read the numerous news items and comments I’ve made in recent editions, and the editions themselves dealing with Syria, this is exactly what I’m expecting. Prophetically, Israel will become involved in Syria. This may be the catalyst for the total destruction of Damascus in Isaiah 17.

●Israeli deputy PM warns against a Palestinian state.  (Jerusalem Post 14^th January 2013)

●Obama says Netanyahu doesn’t understand Israel’s needs! Ha ha ha ha...youuu hooo... hah hahhh!

●Iran has developed a new ballistic missile with a payload capacity of 330 kilograms, capable of delivering a nuclear warhead anywhere in the world. It will be tested in February with a payload of live monkeys! (Debka file)

Some key important revelations from the last few editions:

●Edition 147 - Flying megillahs (worldwide nuclear conflict) ●Edition 145 -The cross separates the world and the kingdom (an important image / picture) ●Edition  143 - The dangerous doomed Inter-Faith Movement. ●Edition  142 - Jordan soon to erupt in chaos. Egypt to become a nightmare and the doom of the Aswan dam. ●Edition 141 - The demise of the peace treaties. The evil that shall befall you in the last days.

The Fruits of Truth

Introduction:

John 16:13 “When He the Spirit of truth has come He will lead you into all truth...and He will show you things to come.”

John 14:6 “...I am the truth.”

John 17:17 “Your word is truth”

1 John 4:6 “We are of God. He who knows God hears us: he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

What is truth?

Truth is not a thing. It is essentially a person and His name is Yeshua / Jesus, the King of the universe and everything in it.

According to our introductory verses above:

 ●Truth is the person of Yeshua.

●Truth is the full word of God written, and the word spoken into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

●Truth is the Holy Spirit.

This is amazing isn’t it? Truth then must have all three aspects to it, which are Yeshua, the Holy Spirit and the Word.

Now you can see why unbelievers can never encounter truth. O yes they can speak about true things, but without the Messiah, the Spirit and Word alive in their hearts, their words are “dead letter”. Their nice words will not save them. They are far from real truth...hell bound.

Truth is not truth because some individual says it is, me included.

Because truth must contain all three aspects mentioned above, that makes it revolutionary. It makes it separate and apart from the world and the spirit of error.

There is only one way to come anywhere near our Lord of glory and that is through the cross of Calvary. As we go through the cross it saves us, strips out the power of sin and evil and delivers us into a new world of resurrection life.

Life on the far side of the cross is the most wonderful thing ever, and it is distant from the world and its sin. It is only as we go through the purifying work of the cross that our truth also becomes purified and full of life.

You can tell how deeply a person knows and loves our Lord by the fruit they produce. You can also tell what sort of Lord they have. Is He a god created in their image or not?

I know my God is Almighty. He lives forevermore; He has the keys of heaven and hell. He is the Lamb and the Lion. His eyes are like a flaming fire. He is the beginning and end and the creator of all things. He is Lord of Lord and King of Kings. He is the supreme judge of all. He is the light. He is the terror of demons. He is absolute purity and holiness personified.

Truth and holiness:

Proverbs 3:32 “The Lord’s secret counsel is with the upright.”

Psalm 25:14 “The secret counsel of the Lord is with those who fear Him and He will show them His covenant.”

Pr 21:8 “As for the pure, his work is right.”

Psalm 24:3-5 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol."

Truth reveals what real holiness is and it draws you in. Holiness is purity of the first degree! The work of truth will also shed light on all that is unholy, the counterfeit, and warn you.

Holiness is perhaps the most wonderful fruit of living truth. When you see it, it consumes you with a passion and desire to be right in the middle of it.

But before you get too excited, the Biblical definition of holiness is “to be separate and apart”. Holiness in fact does just that. It lifts you up out of this world and its unclean sin and evil. True holiness and worldliness are worlds apart!

Too many want holiness and the world as well. They have a nasty surprise coming!

Holiness is inspiring and thrilling. It brings our Lord near, and with Him comes all His beautiful fruits.

Truth and sight:

Psalm 36:9 “In Your light we see light.”

What an amazing little verse (above).This implies that if we are not in God’s light we will not see true light! Yes we may see and understand many things, but we will not see pure light. Only as we come exclusively into God’s presence in total surrender do we see things His way!

Luke 11:35 “See to it that the light that is in you is not really darkness.”

Nahum 1:8 “Darkness will pursue His enemies”.

The verse below is the tragedy of many. They think they can see, but real truth is a closed book to them. Because of their disobedience in not coming to God His way, He closes the book of truth.

Isaiah 29:11 “The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed.” This section is headed “The blindness of disobedience.”

John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see and understand...”

Matthew 13:13-16 “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand...But blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear.” What follows is the parable of the sower.

This verse above is very insightful. It contrasts those who can see and those who can’t. The parable of the sower follows. This is the story of sowing seed on different types of ground which is a type of the human heart. The seeds (word) fail in the wrong ground (hearts). The seed produces good fruit when sown in good ground. The bottom line is the condition of your heart!

To really see, we must meet God’s conditions. Come to Him with a hard, arrogant and proud heart and you will see nothing but what Satan wants you to see!

The world can’t see that they’re in love with what is doomed to eternal destruction.

Truth and the fruit of freedom:

John 8:36 “The truth will set you free indeed.”

Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not again be entangled with the yoke of bondage”.

I have a vivid imagination. Sometimes I can just see myself flying through space free from gravity visiting far away worlds! Gravity ends up laughing at me. But one day I will laugh at gravity!

The opposite of freedom is bondage and that’s unfortunately the position that many are in. Truth can and does set us free to do anything we like in God’s will, even while we are bound in things we can do nothing much about.

Are you free indeed? Are you free from the bondage of sin? Are you free from the domain of legalistic obedience to external laws rather than the leading of the Spirit in your heart? If you are not walking in truth, but error, you will not be free.

Are you walking in liberty? Truth is liberating indeed. It is God’s will for you and me.

Truth and prophecy:

According to our introductory verse, John 16:13, a big fruit of truth is being led into all truth and knowing things to come. Don’t tell me you are in the truth if you have no interest in Bible prophecy!

It is the Spirit of Truth who leads us, guides us, and reveals to us what lies ahead. How good it is to know about the glorious victory that lies ahead for us!

If this is a work of the Spirit of God, how come so many are blind to prophetic things to come? I think you know the answer!

You see God is really not into catching us out...that’s not His style! Yes there are many things in prophecy that required much study and are sometimes difficult to understand, but the overall big picture is clear and consistent to all except the deceived.

May I add that the “things to come” our Lord shows us are also things to come in our time now and not just in Bible times.

Truth and the fruits of the Spirit:

Galatians 5:22-23 “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such there is no law.”

If we are moving forward in the Lord by the Spirit of Truth, these are the fruits we will produce. These are the fruits that will be evident in our lives much of the time. Sometimes in dealing with certain types of situations we would not display these fruits. For example the book of Acts shows many severe dealings with those who tried to bring error into the church. They were dealt with in severity.

Generally we will be nice people, just like our Lord. We will be nice to be around. Imagine sitting down on a river bank with our Lord and just chatting about many things. That is such a picture of love, but also of safety and security.

In many situations the Spirit of God calls us to yield. This is a grace of God. Many times especially when self rises up and wants its own way, we are prompted to yield.

There is such wonderful power in yielding and reconciling. There are obviously limits though. We don’t yield to the devil!

The messenger of the cross will be a crucified person displaying the glorious fruits of this wonderful truth.

Truth and the spirit of error:

1 John 4:6 “By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

Matthew 7:15-16 “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”

Just as truth is the Person of Yeshua, the Spirit and the word, so error is of Satan, his spirit and his words. Truth and error are spirits and travel the same highway!

The spirit of truth is often attacked by the spirit of error. It manifests in the people of truth being attacked. Many times spiritual warfare is needed to put things right.

The fruit of the spirit of error is to draw you into bondage and fill you fruits of Satan’s own characteristics.

False teachers and false doctrine:

Acts 20:29-30 “For I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in amongst you, not sparing the flock. Also from among you, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves.”

2 Peter 2:1 “There were false prophets and false teachers among you, who secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord and bringing on themselves destruction, and many will follow their destructive ways...”

Ezekiel 34:8-13 “The Lord God says, My flock became a prey and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because My shepherds did not search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves. Therefore O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord! Behold I am against the shepherds and I will require My flock at their hand. I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep...For thus says the Lord, indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and search them out...and I will bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the countries and I will bring them back to their own land.”

Matthew 15:6-9 “You have made the commandments of God of no effect by your tradition...These people draw near to Me with their mouth, but their hearts are far from Me and in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

Galatians 3:1-25 “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you...having begun in the Spirit are you now made perfect by the flesh? As many as are under the works of the law are under a curse. No one is justified by the law...The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith, but after faith has come we are no longer under the tutor.”

Note that in the verse above, those under the law are under a curse! This is similar to Paul’s earlier statement “Who has bewitched you.”

Galatians 5:18 “If you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.”

Generally, people in error and in the bondage of false teaching are legalist, judgmental, and full of pride. They are without the fruits of the Spirit. Paul likens this to “bewitching”, which is simply the word for witchcraft. Error is a dangerous spirit aligned with witchcraft or Satan himself. It is not static, but advances.

The one who is going the right way, will be marked by lightness, liberty, mercy, grace and all the fruits. He will do the right thing, not because he has to but because the love of God in his heart leads him that way. And yes, he will also be severe on Satan invading his territory.

Be careful of those with an obsession to be absolutely right on everything. Of course this doesn’t mean we should not desire to be right or that we should be comfortable with error. What I’m talking about is the attitude of legalistic pride in many who don’t agree with you. There will always be people who don’t agree. The problem is when they try to prove themselves right and others wrong all the time, by putting them down.

Personally, I have a passion for truth. As such I often have to guard against rising up like a viper! (Yes, you know what I mean!)

Counterfeit fruit never lasts.

The counterfeit not only soon has rotten fruit, but he applies his truth with a baseball bat. He can’t believe that he could possibly be wrong!

Isaiah 5:21“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.”

His rotten fruit will be seen when he is under pressure. When the pressure is on, like the toothpaste tube law...when squeezed, what’s inside comes out.

Rightly dividing the truth:

2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God, a workman not ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth.”

2 Peter 1:12 “I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the present truth.”

We must be “established in the present truth” What is it? Obviously, it is the truth of the era in which Peter was writing. In other words it was the time period after the advent of Pentecost. It is the New Testament epistles.  This is where we must be established if we want to be balanced believers.

Please also see edition 133 Entitled “The importance of Pentecost.” (Click the hyperlink, it will take you right there.)

Only the Spirit of God knows all the truth and how to apply it all.

Shadow dancing:

The Spirit of truth will lead us into all truth rightly divided and applied. We will be centred in the New Testament Epistles and not the Old Testament, which is “the shadow of things to come.” Why centre on the shadow when you have the substance in front of you?

Unfortunately shadow dancing has become a big issue with many. Some within the Messianic community are obsessed with the shadow, ignoring the New Testament epistles and again bringing themselves and others under the domination of the law.

The problem is that they then take it further and downplay or reject the writing of Paul and the epistles.

Let me warn you, whenever you encounter people or ministries that say they believe in Yeshua, but reject and downplay the epistles...run away!

I’m in no way suggesting or implying ignoring the Old Testament, just the opposite in fact. Both the shadow and the substance go together.

The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. But do you know that those bound in under the law also produce fruit? Their fruit is legalism, intolerance, judgmentalism, pride, arrogance and the like. People bound under law can’t tolerate the fact that others don’t keep their laws just the way they do. Actually it’s a form of witchcraft. If you recall, Paul says to the Galatians “Who has bewitched you...bringing you under the law again?’”

May I warn you: When you encounter those who are bound under the law, understand that there is a spirit at work that really wants to draw you into a web of bondage.

The Judaisers and those under the law hate the following group of verses, but they are most important. Do not ignore or downplay these verses!

Galatians 5:18 “If you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.”

Galatians 6:2 “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.”

Galatians 5:13 “You brethren have been called to liberty; only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in this one word, you shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

Romans 13:8 “For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

Sometimes, however there is an ulterior motive for identifying with the law and Torah:

1 Corinthians 9:20 “To the Jews I became as a Jew that I might win Jews, and to those as under the law, though not myself being under the law, that I might win those under the law.”

Another law of another Christ:

There is of course another law out there extremely dangerous and captivating. This is the law of Babylon, which manifests in the practise of Christmas, Easter and the like. This “law” demands that you keep and practise its rituals and that you enslave your children to it early in life.

This law was founded in the heart and mind of Satan and his servants, Ishtar, Nimrod, Baal, Semiramis, Tammuz and a host of others. There is no truth here at all, only occult, paganism waiting to ensnare you, blind you and bring you into bondage.

Ripe fruit:

Deep peace, calmness, rest, no stress, being clean and holy are just some of the fruits of maturity.

Psalm 119:165 “Great peace have those who love Your word and nothing causes them to stumble.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but her leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.”

Isaiah 26:2 “Open the gates that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.”

Psalm 16:11 “You show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasure forevermore.”

Job 23:12 “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.”

Some fruits of truth in your life will result in you being loved and hated. You will be loved by many and be an instant enemy of others. Being in and of the truth makes you essentially fearless, strong and confident in God rather than self.

At the end of the day, it is far more important to have a soft humble and broken heart to our Lord than to be right with every little thing. But error is a dangerous spirit and nonetheless must be dealt with. You can’t sanctify error, you can’t sanctify idolatry, and you can’t cast the devil out of Satan. You can’t sanctify idols. These things are to be destroyed in our lives.

The fruits of truth are essentially the characteristics of our Messiah Himself.

Authority

Luke 10:19 “I have given you authority to tread on scorpions and serpents and over all the power of the enemy...”

Those who have encountered living truth will be fearless confronters of ungodliness, evil and the sinful opinions of man.

The picture of those carrying the living truth is far removed from the average believer today. He will have a lot more in character with the old-school fire and brimstone preachers! In fact he will have a lot in character with the Lamb of God and the Lion!

Psalm 97:10 “You who love the Lord hate evil.”

Psalm 119:53 “Indignation and horror has taken hold of me because of the wicked who forsake your word.”

Job 17:9 “The righteous will hold onto his ways, and he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.”

Those who have the living truth in their hearts will stand for God’s truth. They will stand against it being removed, watered down, and re-interpreted to make it relevant to today’s world of sin and evil.

Isaiah 59:14 “Justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street.”

Many times one encounters a person carrying the living truth in his heart. It’s not so much the words he says, but one can sense the Spirit of God in him and therefore the authority of God. This is true anointing.

Finally:

As we move along the road of glory with our great God, we have sight, insight, revelation of things to come, knowledge, understanding and wisdom. We become valuable in and for our Lord. We become messengers of His wonderful promises to a lost and dying world.

Revelation 2:17 “He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manner to eat.”

Do you know that there are still many wonderful things to come that we have not yet seen or are even aware of? The “hidden manna” of the verse above may just part of it!

God’s promise to you is supremely valuable, spectacular, filled with purpose and meaning, but it does have conditions.

The fruit of His truth working in our lives will produce eternal glory for us.

Today there are very deceptive thieves out there who want to rob you of your fruit. They are out there in the world and unfortunately in the Church as well.

In these days we must be vigilant in our pursuit of truth. We must also be vigilant taking care that the fruit we produce does not go rotten.

It’s a wonderfully exciting and fulfilling thing to be on the road with our great King and Messiah!

Proverbs 4:18-19 “But the path of the righteous is like the shining sun, that shines even brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.”

Proverbs 15:24 “The path of life winds upwards for the wise, that he may turn away from hell below.”

 I took this picture while travelling down the Chobe River at sunset. This is an area of sublime beauty and the abundance of God’s creation.

Shalom and grow in grace!