Truth

I think there are alot of people who sense there is something wrong with this world.  Many are receiving such urgency in their prayers, an urgency from God.  What is the urgency?  To be rooted in absolute truth, now.

Everything appears to be upside down, yet we are being told by the world that it is the way it should have been all along.  They are simply making things right.  Hmmmm.....So what is right?  Do you know without a doubt what is right and wrong in the eyes of God?  Or are you questioning yourself and your beliefs.  Their arguments about abortion, gay marriage, embryonic stem cell research, removing God from public life,  they all sound convincing.  You may have been taught that these things were wrong, but maybe they are right, times have changed and we have to change with them.  Our beliefs may be too strict and outdated. Some of these things like embryonic research even appear to be good if it will bring healing to others.  Doesn't everyone deserve happiness no matter the cost?  Who are we to say?  Who are we to judge? 

The reason we should be judging these lies is because souls are at stake.  Souls are being lost in the midst of the greatest deception this world has ever seen.  Truth is being erased daily and replaced with lies.  This is why God is purifying some now, bringing some right to their knees....suffering and purification bring about truth.
If you are living a lie with false identities, false relationships, false wealth, cowardice, shame and sin you are at risk of being lost.  God cares more about your soul than he does your home, your checkbook, your job,  your retirement or really even your health.  If the loss of these things will bring about conversion of your heart, truth, and the salvation of your soul and others,  He will allow it.  He cares more about your being with Him for eternity rather than your comfort and enjoyment here on earth. I think the days of seeing God as a jolly Santa Clause who just wants everyone to be happy are over.

John 18:37-38
So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice"  Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"

Have you noticed how much the truth aggravates people?  Some of us have just given up saying anything because it arouses such anger.  Given we are Christians who are supposed to be "nice" and "tolerant" of everyone and everything wicked, we avoid the truth to keep the false peace. False peace appears to be better than no peace at all.   It's a miserable situation.  It's creating lukewarmness and apathy.  I've noticed that shame is being used alot by the media, certain groups that are demanding their "equal rights", even the Church.  Shame is such a powerful weapon to get people to shut up and get in line.  That's why it's important to be healed of it.  If we are predisposed to crumbling and caving in when shamed we will not be able to defend the truth. We will simply be lost in the tides of deception. 

I admit that in the worst of our trial, there was a day when I thought I would sell my soul to the devil to get out of it.  Just to have it stop and have things go back to "normal".  Yikes!  That's what can happen when desperate suffering hits!  Anything to make it stop.  I believe God allowed me to sink to that very point to show me just how weak my "faith" really was. I could hear Him saying "if you think this trial is bad and you are willing to sell your soul to fix it, you haven't seen anything yet."  It woke me up.  It was like being slapped in the face in the midst of a fit.  It was necessary.  I knew then that this purification was for good, not out of some cruelty of God's.  It was out of His love that He was allowing it because He can see far, I can't.

It doesn't appear that anyone thinks a very strong faith is necessary anymore.   I can't stress the difference I was shown between what people consider "faith" today and the faith that God is calling us to.  There is no comparison really.  A simple belief in God will not suffice. An intellectual faith and theology will not suffice.  The faith He is calling us to is deep, very deep. From the heart. He is calling for complete dependence and trust in Him.  Not just a glance and a nod.  Not going about our business and presuming He's ok with it.  Not putting faith at the bottom of the list and survival at the top.  I get the sense that our faith, rooted in truth,  is of the utmost importance right now. 

It's time to get our houses in order.  By "houses" I believe God means our spiritual lives.  Our priorities.  If you are living according to worldly standards with just a name tag of "faith" on your shirt,  then your life probably will be turned upside down in order to get it in line with spiritual standards.  We never put our houses in order on our own.  I don't even think in this day and age we know how.  God has to intervene.  I can look back now and see that God was trying to get my attention years ago, but I ignored it.  It took that "awakening" and the "first darkness" to truly turn my attention completely to Him.  Up to that point, I was living in both worlds.  There was alot of falsehood in my life.  I had no idea how to live in the world but not be of the world. 

We have become so content with falsehood in every aspect of our lives.  We are content with compromise, with sin, with lukewarmness.  It's almost as if we don't even expect truth anymore..."what is truth?"  We have so lowered our standards that we don't even remember what they were to begin with.  We need God to shake things up.  I have come to the point of being very grateful to God for this shaking that has occurred in my life.  For showing me in no uncertain terms where I was weak, where I was sinning, where I was living in falsehood, where I was compromising.  Out of His love, he desired more from me and allowed suffering and loss to bring me to that point.
  
James 1: 2-7
 Consider it all joy my brothers ,when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it.  But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.  For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.  


Maybe the confusion lies in the fact that faith is not just a label, it is not meant to glorify us because we chose to believe in God.  Faith is a gift given to us by God that we should accept in humility to glorify HIM.  We do not initiate it.  We do not choose to have faith.  It is a gift given by God.  It is not just for us, to save us and boost our self esteem.  When God gives a gift out of His love, He expects it to be used to it's utmost for our salvation and the salvation of others.  It is to be used to establish His kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven, to build up the body of Christ in truth, not just to build each other up for it's own sake, to make people feel good about themselves.  He expects it to remain pure and unstained by self interest and manipulation. He won't allow it.  He will, in His justice, put things in order. That is what justice means....putting things in order.   This is why our "faith" has to be tested.....a weak, self centered, doubting faith that only pleases us will bring no glory to God.  In fact, it can lead souls away from God.

So, if God is shaking you right now, thank Him.  If He is allowing everything in your life that is false to come crashing down, thank Him.  If He is allowing you to be tested and stretched, thank Him.  You won't regret it.