What to Bear in Mind When Truth and Facts Vary (spiritual statements)

August 27th, 2009 admin Posted in spiritual |

By Paul Graden

Living the spiritual life presents loads of exciting moments. It also provides us with faith crisies, as the facts we grasp don’t always line up with the truth we live through. To affectively maneuver through these hard crisies, we must comprehend the difference between truth and facts, as well as how they have an affect on each other.

Definitions:

Facts

Facts are what we discern in the physical dominion.

At the nuptials at Cana, Jesus watched the servants pour water into half a dozen stone water jars (John 2). The fact in the natural was that water was what existed at that time.

Another day, Jesus visited Bethany to call on friends. He was confronted with a very grave fact, his friend Lazarus was deceased (John 11)!

Moses was faced with the fact that he had led the People out into the wasteland and they had no water to drink (Exodus 15). After 3 days, they located some water, but it was bitter and could not be used. The people were complaining. The facts were very real and precarious!

Isaac was going through one of the most terrible famines of his lifetime (Genesis 26). Yet, the fact was that his family needed food. He geared up to transport his family to Egypt, where he could resettle and sow crops.

One day, Peter and John were travelling to the Temple. As they went through the gate named “Beautiful”, they were faced by a man who had been unable to walk since birth - about forty years (Acts 3)!

In 1 Kings 17, Elijah is led by God to take a trip. He had no food or water. As he obeyed God’s command he encountered a brook, where he was able to drink. Still, he had no food, a fact he could not dispense with…

Truth:

Truth is best defined by the Bible itself:

John 17:17: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth”.

Psalm 119:160: “The sum of Your word is truth”

Truth is found in God’s Word, the Bible. Whatever God proclaims is truth, even when it disagrees with well-known facts. In God’s order, truth is superior to facts.

Let’s look back at the experiences listed above and how the truth affected the facts:

The marriage at Cana was captivated as the water in the stone jugs was changed to wine. The fact was that water was placed in the jugs. Nevertheless, as the servants followed Jesus’ command and dipped into the water, they poured out wine! The facts had to fall into line with the truth of Jesus’ directions!

At Bethany, Jesus called Lazarus from his grave. The fact, Lazarus was deceased, surrendered to the truth of God’s command and Lazarus lived!

As Moses inquired about no water after three days, God showed him a tree and told Moses to throw it into the poisonous water. As that tree landed in the water, the water became purified and the Israelites were able to consume it. Once more, the facts were transformed by the truth!

God instructed Isaac not to go to Egypt, in the face of the famine. Isaac followed God’s Word and planted crops during a famine! As the truth overrode the facts, Isaac received a one hundred fold return from those seeds.

Peter and John knew some truth. They were intimate with that by the stripes of Jesus we are healed (1 Peter 2:24). With that statement from God in mind, they told the paralysed man to get up and walk. As the truth overcame the facts, the man walked away, carrying his bed, for the first time in his life.

Elijah was dealing with the fact that he had no food. Still, he had acted upon God’s Word. Soon, ravens started feeding him! This continued day by day until the brook he was drinking from dried up. Subsequently God led him to a widow for food. The fact was that she and her son had no food, save for a tiny amount of flour for bread and they reconciled themselves to the fact that they would shortly expire from hunger. Elijah told her God’s command - give him some of the bread! She and her son were to consume some as well. Elijah went on to inform her that God’s Word was that the flour would not come to an end until the drought was completed. As a consequence that’s precisely what happened as the truth transformed the facts.

The truth always overrides the facts. Nevertheless, there is a connection between the two that is important to comprehend: faith.

While presented with a serious fact, we must decide to trust God’s Word instead. Find God’s promises and opt to have faith in them over the facts. That is the instigation of the conduit of faith. The subsequently part is to act upon the truth!

The servants at the marriage at Cana chose to act upon Jesus’ words. Their very lives might have been at risk had they given water to their master. In spite of that, they still chose to obey…

Lazarus may have been completely contented in Paradise. Yet, he chose to follow Jesus and start out of that burial place. By the way, the men who pushed away the stone from the burial place also chose to trust the truth and obey Jesus’ command.

Moses acted by slinging the tree into the poisonous water and instructing the people to drink. Did he look foolish hurling a tree into the water? What would have happened if somebody drank afterward and became sick or died? Nonetheless, regardless of the risk, he chose to listen to the truth.

Isaac believed the truth to the point that he placed his own life, and his family’s, at risk by staying in Israel for the duration of a famine. He also acted upon the truth by planting a crop during a famine.

The lame man, who had never walked beforehand, had to get up and walk. He could have looked at his limp legs and made excuses not to, however he chose to listen to God’s Word.

Elijah accepted God’s Word and headed to the stream. He also acted upon God’s Word by taking a major serving of the bread that the widow had prepared to feed himself.

I’m reminded of God’s command to Joshua in Joshua, chapter 1. He tells Joshua to be brave in obeying the truth of God’s Word. This bravery marked Joshua’s life and brought him accomplishment, as the truth of God’s Word changed the facts he was confronted with.

Sadly, the Church is packed of non-acting believers. They declare that they believe God’s Word, but are too scared to act. Thus, the facts linger unaffected. The staggering thing is that they blame God for this! Still, the mistake is not with God. It is with the lack of action.

As James declared, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). The Greek word translated “works” here is more fittingly translated “corresponding action”.

In other words, if you will not perform what you exclaim you trust, the entire process that God established (truth overcoming facts) is derailed and the facts remain.

My question then is, what will you do when confronted with your next terrible fact? If you desire to believe God and act upon His Word, a miracle awaits you.

The creator, Dr. Paul Graden, is the initiator of The Joseph Gate. The Joseph Gate is a free web site with intensive guidance in Biblical insights to find out the meanings of dreams.

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