Perceive His Truth

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.

—Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)

Life is not always easy. It is especially not easy when I allow the enemy to distort what is true. His distortion might certainly appear to be truth, but it never is. I must look beneath his lies to see God’s truth in each matter. The appearances of people and circumstances do not always reveal what is true. Sometimes my mind can run rampant with wrong perceptions. My mind is where the enemy's lies take root. But it is also where God's truth and is realized. God wants me to trust what He tells me and not what my mind tells me. He advises not to hold my own understanding above His own.

The parables Jesus taught reveal life lessons to those who cannot grasp or believe truth without seeing examples and hearing explanations. There is always a greater spiritual meaning than what my mind may initially perceive. The Lord wishes me to understand His truth in a matter without having to hear or see in order to believe. No matter what the enemy might lie about―no matter what he might distort or my own mind might conjure up, there is always God's truth that reigns. There is always more beneath the surface that Jesus means for me to understand. “This is why I speak to them in parables,’” Jesus said. “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them” (Matthew 13:13-15, NIV).

I do not want to have a calloused heart and mind that listens to the enemy’s lies, and never perceives what the Holy Spirit imparts. I don't want to be ever hearing and never understanding or seeing and never perceiving. I want to perceive with an open heart, ears, eyes, and mind all the truth He wishes to reveal through His Word. The Holy Spirit speaks hope to me, and the enemy speaks defeat.  Jesus speaks life, and the enemy speaks death. The Lord wishes me to grow so much spiritually that the lies of the enemy cannot distort the truth He reveals. I long for Him to see in me the qualities He saw in His disciples! “But blessed are your eyes because they see,” Jesus said, “and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Matthew 13:16-17, NIV).

Lord, I yearn to be one of these who hear, see, and understand your truth with my heart, spirit, and mind. When I seek you and allow this intimacy with you, I will be healed in depths of mind, heart, and character that surpass anything I have ever known.

© 2017 Lynn Lacher

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