John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
W.E. Vines Bible Dictionary says this "truth," is used (a) objectively, signifying "the reality lying at the basis of an appearance; the manifested, veritable essence of a matter" the truth of God" is indicative of His faithfulness in the fulfillment of His promises as exhibited in Christ; the word has an absolute force in John 14:6; 17:17; 18:37, 38; in Eph. 4:21, "truth," not merely verbal, but sincerity and integrity of character.
Have you ever stopped to consider that without absolute truth we could have not have absolute confidence? You might be saying what do you mean. I mean that if we could not have absolute assurance in something, then we could have not have confident expectation of that which we are wanting to see come to pass. That is what assurance is, isn't it, confidence that what we believe is the truth, and the truth is absolute and unchangeable. It is something that you can put your full and complete trust in. Knowing something to be truth gives you the ability to put your complete trust and reliance in it.
Have you ever known somebody that was not truthful, who would say what ever was convenient? They say they will do something at a certain time, but very rarely would show up to do what they said they would do. I'm not talking about circumstances prevented them from doing what they said they would do, I'm talking about this is a habit with them. You know you can have no confidence that they will do what they said they would do. As a matter of fact, you might have more confidence that they will not do what they said they will do.
We live in a world that is very much like this. You see and hear this kind of thing all the time, and many have lost their ability to believe or have confidence in any thing because they have been lied to so many times. I want to tell you, God is not like that. What He said is true 100 percent of the time, not just occasionally or when it is convenient but always.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, which comes from God the Father.
John 15:26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
We can have complete trust and complete confidence in Him. I heard a story about this Christian who lied to another Christian because they felt like they could not handle the truth. God is never like that. He will never lie. Lying never helps us or protects us. Just the opposite is true. It is the truth, and knowing the truth is what will make us free. You will never catch the Lord telling you a little white lie trying to spare your feeling. He will only speak the truth. Aren't you glad? We can have absolute confidence that what He said will come to pass. This is the basis of our faith, this is how we know, and have full assurance. This is the beginning of being free. You first have to know the truth, and in knowing the truth, you shall be made free. Glory. If we have no confidence in what truth really is, how are we ever going to know and have assurance and have a basis for our faith. The answer to that is, we cannot. God is faithful to always honor His Word, and He wants us to be able to have complete trust in Him. The writer of Hebrews said He who comes to God must believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Heb:11:6.)
John 8:32 "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.??
God is truth. Nothing that is outside of the truth can make us free, ever!! Truth is truth, and there is no in between. There is no such thing as a little white lie. It is either the truth or not. Coming to an understanding of this will greatly help us to receive guidance and correction. Truth is what puts us on the right path and leads us away from destruction, if we will not receive it, how can God help us?
We live in a society that doesn't want to receive any kind of correction at all. We are often more afraid of hurting someone's feelings, than we are in seeing them set free. We don't have to be blunt and deliberately go out of our way to say things unflattering or derogatory, I'm certainly not talking about that, but we don't have to lie either.
Because of this attitude, many people can never come an understanding of the truth. It is contradictory to what they have chosen to believe. They won't accept that God's Word is true, they choose to believe the circumstances instead. Many will believe their circumstances as the truth when it is contradictory to God's Word and will say, see there, God's Word doesn't work. The truth is it didn't work for them because they chose to believe a lie instead of the truth. I realize this sounds hard, but if we truly want to grow up then we have to understand this is the way God is. He is truth and can not lie.
Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
Jesus is the manifested Word of God, full of grace and truth. We can always trust Him. We ourselves have to walk this way if we want to be able to have confidence and assurance in, and believe that what God says is true, and will come to pass. You might say well what does that have to do with it, I thought we only had to have confidence in God and His Word. We do, but let me ask you this. If you are prone to speaking little white lies, then you know your words are not going to come to pass, how then are you ever going to have confidence that God's words will come to pass? It erodes your faith and confidence in God and His word, when you won't speak the truth. You can't have confidence or assurance in God or His Word when you are constantly speaking lies. People who are like this are double minded and are in a constant state of confusion and never really come to an understanding of the truth. Our society wants to say there are no absolutes, do what you want, say what you want, but this is totally opposite of what God's Word has to say.
Jesus taught His disciples about believing their own words. He gave them and all who will listen, a lesson in believing and seeing the promises of God fulfilled. Lets read?
Mark 11:12 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. 13. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. And when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14. In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.?? And His disciples heard it. 20. Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.?? 22. So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. 23. "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be removed and be cast into the sea,? and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says. 24. "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. 25. "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
Jesus response to Peter's statement in vs. 21 was to make another statement. Have faith in God. Let's pay attention to this. We are about to get a lesson from the Master on how to do that very thing. Christians are always saying I wish I had greater faith, but Jesus is showing us right here how we must obtain it. We have a tendency to ignore His instructions and just keep on praying God give me greater faith. If we won't believe what He said, and act on it, how will we ever get the kind of faith we are praying for? The truth is we can't. We can only get this kind of faith by doing what He said. We know that what He said is true, and therefor we can act on it with assurance.
Jesus said an incredible thing in vs. 23. He said if we say something, and have no doubt in our heart, but believe what we say will come to pass, then we will have whatever we say. My question is this, did Jesus really mean if we believed that what we said would come to pass then we would have what we said? Is it possible He misspoke? No, He never misspoke. He is truth, what He said is the unshakable Word of God. We can believe Him.
Jesus said if we believe what we say will come to pass, then we will have what we say. This is not mans teaching, Jesus said it. He is truth, what He said is truth, we have to get this settled if we ever want to gain a level of confidence and see our faith develop. If we want to walk in the miraculous then we have to do what the Word of God says. These are the instructions we have to follow.
We have to believe what we say, or what we say will not come to pass. Can we believe what we say, when half the time what we say is a lie. The answer is no. It won't happen. These are the instructions given by Jesus the master teacher in having faith in God. They will work if we will but apply them! We as Christians should always speak the truth, we can start to develop confidence that the words we speak are going to come to pass by speaking the truth always. We have to make the choice and choose to believe that God's Word is true and He is faithful to fulfill His promises. If we will dare to believe, and have confidence that what we say will come to pass we can see the miraculous. I have proven this to be true in my own life, and challenge all to do the same.
Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Do you want to be a joint heir with Christ? If so, I urge you to earnestly pray the following prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. Your word says, ??and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.? (Jn.6:37),
So I know You won't cast me out, but You take me in, And I thank you for it. You said in your Word, "whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.?? (Ro. 10:13).
I am calling on Your name, So I know You have saved me now, You also said, ??that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.? (Ro.10:9,10).
I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe He was raised from the dead for my justification. And I confess Him now as my Lord, Because Your Word says, ?? with the heart one believes to righteousness?? and I do believe with my heart, I have now become the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:21),
And I am saved! Thank You, Lord! I can now truthfully say, I see myself as a born again child of God! Glory to God!!!! Amen.
There is no such thing as failure. The Course in Miracles teaches that there is no such thing as failure; there are only learning lessons. Failure implies a fixed state of affairs that invites judgment and suffering. In reality, everything in the world is a work in progress. Even when it feels like the force of life might crush you, these trying moments form part of a broader spectrum that can help you discover your true strength.
You can always start over again. You can start over in any area of your life, at any time. You have been endowed with the power of free choice. When you choose to drive down one street and find it clogged with traffic, you can choose to go down another road. Life is no different! If one choice seems to lead you down a dead-end, you can choose again.
All judgments are self-judgments. When you see yourself as a failure, you are standing in judgment over yourself. Instead of judging whether your effort is successful or not, focus on what you have learned from the experience. Then, look for ways you can apply what you have learned to make your next step more meaningful.
Forgive yourself. The Greek philosopher Socrates taught that each individual chooses only the good, based on their understanding of that good. Ask yourself whether you did your best with what you knew at the time. If you can answer ?yes,' forgive yourself for any self-judgment. If you did not act in the most responsible manner, decide what changes you need to make to remedy the situation, and then forgive yourself, resolving to apply the changes needed to move forward.
Give up the label. The pain of thinking of yourself as a failure can exist only for as long as you cling to it. Instead of looking at the circumstance in simplistic terms as success or failure, look at the situation from a broader perspective. You will find that there was a silver lining to even the darkest cloud. Once you can observe the experience from a larger viewpoint, you can let go of the limiting label of failure.
Cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Even in the midst of an experience that feels like failure, you are learning, growing and expanding. If you look past the initial disappointment, you will find valuable ways in which you have grown. Perhaps the situation taught you the value of patience, or of surrendering to a Higher Power. Give thanks for what you have learned. When you can give thanks for the lessons learned or the qualities developed during the very times you struggled for survival, you will find the freedom to move forward.
Find the gift in the experience. The Universe is made up of energy, and energy can never be destroyed; it simply changes form. It means that when one door closes, another is bound to open! Perhaps the "failed" relationship is offering you the opportunity to attract a relationship that is more honoring to your being. If you have just been laid off work, the gift could be the opportunity to find work that is more appropriately aligned to your values.
Focus on what you want more of. It is your perception of failure that empowers it, because whatever you choose to focus on, you energize. Instead of focusing on failure, why not focus on the success you aspire to instead? By focusing on the desired outcome, you will find it easier to discover the action steps that lead to it.
Both Mark Baker & Ada Porat are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Mark Baker has sinced written about articles on various topics from Public Relations, Education Toys. Article by Mark Baker. Mark is the webmaster of The Olive Branch http://www.olivebranchministries.us a site dedicated to helping all that are seeking to come into a deeper understanding of what God has done for us through Christ Jesus. Please visit hi. Mark Baker's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.
Ada Porat has sinced written about articles on various topics from self improvement and motivation, Religion and History. Ada Porat is a holistic health practitioner and life balance coach with extensive international teaching and clinical experience. She uses body/mind/spirit techniques to help clients enjoy succesful living. For more information, visit. Ada Porat's top article generates over 22200 views. to your Favourites.