God helps those who help themselves. Do you believe that? We hope not because these words not true. In fact, Benjamin Franklin wrote that quote, and it has become a calling card for ‘self’. The truth is God does NOT help those who help themselves. Why should He? The pride and self-reliance of one who helps himself has everything under control. What does he/she need God for? This lie by Benjamin Franklin is just one example of the many lies that believers accept as truth today. Many believers have lost their ability to discern what is true in the swamp of moral relativism and ‘self’. Today we throw out a lifeline to help others understand God’s battle strategy for truth.
Truth is not relative but absolute and unchanging whether or not we accept it.
Jesus is truth
When Jesus stated, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me” in John 14:6 He was telling us about Himself. Whether we believe doesn’t affect its truthfulness. A problem arises when ‘self’ in its prideful arrogance thinks it is greater than God and can be an arbiter of what is true and what isn’t. This is ironic since the father of lies himself, satan gave us the ‘self’ nature.
‘Self’ will never accept truth and spirit will never accept lies. To receive and obey truth, one must let ‘self’ die and allow the spirit to be in control.
We begin by learning the lessons of special active obedience that Jesus learned. “Although He was a Son, He learned [active, special] obedience through what He suffered,” Hebrews 5:8. Jesus gave up everything to come to earth. Once here He continually surrendered His will to God the Father. He actively and sacrificially obeyed the will of the Father, even as it meant He suffered in doing so. If we follow in that same level of active, sacrificial obedience to the Father, regardless of the cost, it will kill ‘self’ and allow truth to reign in our spirits. Likewise, if there is no, or little, active obedience to the Father’s will in us, then there will be an abundance of ‘self’ and its lies.
Steps of sacrificial obedience
The path of truth is travelled with steps of sacrificial obedience.
How does one find the truth? The written word of God, the Bible, is truth. God Himself can only speak truth, so to read God’s word and listen to Jesus’ voice one is hearing truth. If we implement the battle strategy of truth, it will open us to more truth.
We will NOT progress if we do not obey the truth we already know.
If we choose not to obey Jesus, we dig deeper into lies. Keep in mind satan is craftier and smarter than we are. He can easily fool us and teach us lies as he has been doing to people for millennia. The only sure way to know truth is to draw close to Jesus in sacrificial obedience. Abandon all thoughts and hopes that we can discern truth without God and sacrificial obedience to Him. We can’t because we already have the ‘self’ nature. Everyone does. ‘Self’ in us is much stronger than our spirit because we have had it since birth.
The influence of the world and satan with his minions also work tirelessly to convince us of lies. Our only way out of this milieu is to follow Jesus. As the great judge and truth giver Jesus and His Holy Spirit will always lead us in truth. Our only job, and this is critical, is to obey completely the truth we receive from Him.
Simple truth and hard truth
Truth is like eating. Start with easy truth until you grow up and can handle more difficult truth. God will not serve tough truth until you obey your current truth.
Simple truth is easy to accept, as in “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.” John 3:16. Tough truth is hard to obey, like “So then, any of you who does not forsake (renounce, surrender claim to, give up, say goodbye to) all that he has cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:33. Both are true, but one is much easier to obey actively than the other. There are also layers to the same spiritual truth that are only unveiled to us as we mature enough to receive it. What we miss as spiritual children we will understand as spiritual adults.
When we first meet Jesus He gives us simple truth easy to accept because it does not cost us anything. Suitable to our spiritual age as children, the early truth we learn is sweet and delicious. This truth makes no claim against our ‘self’ nature right away. The design, instead, is to awaken our spirit to Him. Once awakened the spirit longs for more of the battle strategy of truth.
Painful truth
The truth Jesus leads us in then causes us to hurt a little. Not much at first, but enough to make us think, do we want to continue? The pain that we are feeling are the first pangs of death to ‘self’. If we stop here ‘self’ will win and put our spirit back into prison or to sleep. “Therefore He says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light.” Eph. 5:14.
If we face the pain of a dying ‘self’ Jesus will lead us into harder truth that will strengthen, mature and embolden our spirit. The ‘self’ nature will fight back ferociously. This is where the spirit learns the truth about the ‘self’ nature and how to fight against it. As our spirit gains strength through the power of the Holy Spirit and sacrificial obedience it will defeat ‘self’ handily. This process of obedience to truth will continue until God the Father declares us to be His adult sons.
Spiritual growth
The battle strategy of truth is critical to our spiritual growth. God has designed life this way for truth is the only way to counter the lies of satan and ‘self’. We know that ‘self’ loves lies and hates truth. ‘Self’ will fight against truth and growth of the spirit as it does not want to die. That is why ‘self’ must kill any threatening truth. Spirit, however, loves truth for spirit knows that truth is life. Spirit will repent of ‘self’ and lies when truth comes. As we grow Jesus will continually lead us into truth designed to mature us into adult sons. Our reaction to truth will tell us a lot about how strong or weak our ‘self’ nature is.
Kill it or repent
As Jesus led our family in the wilderness, He taught us that there are only two choices we have to the truth He puts on our plate. Those choices are to kill it or repent. When God presents new truth, He makes sure the truth is appropriate for the spiritual age of the individual. He does not give university level challenges to spiritual children. He knows how old you are in the spirit and will give you only the truth you are ready for. Jesus then waits for your response. The most common response is to kill truth. The truth is ignored, laughed at, minimized, or the message and messenger attacked. Regardless of the response, it is not acceptance.
We observed believers attacking the ones God used to bring forth truth and the truth itself. The ‘self’ in these believers rising to varying levels of anger and response to dismiss the offensive truth. It was sad to watch believers argue against what was written in God’s word in their attempts to not accept the truth God was giving them. When a previously unknown biblical truth is first presented to believers, we can assure you most of the responses will be to kill it. The reason for this is that these believers have given themselves over more to ‘self’ than to their spirit led by Jesus.
What calls itself the church today is in a sad state of moral disrepair.
The battle strategy of truth
On the odd occasion we would see the rare situation where people would accept truth and repentance would take place. It is humbling and sobering to experience as one faces the ugliness of their own ‘self’ and accepts God’s truth over the lies they formerly believed. It is also a beautiful process as one lets goes of the lies that bound them in fear and pain and Jesus releases them with truth. We forget the pain of ‘self’ and embrace the joy of new found freedom in spirit and truth.
Today you have a choice to repent of the lies your ‘self’ has believed and be set free by the truth Jesus brings. The small suffering caused by sacrificial obedience and death of ‘self’ is far, far less than the great freedom that comes from knowing the truth. Jesus is TRUTH. Let His truth set you free starting today.
Blessings,
Homer and Wanda
This is an excellent post Homer. I have experienced this first hand. Recently I decided to try to go on a so called “Christian” forum. BADDDDDDD idea….to say the least. The entire time I was there all I saw were people just tearing other people apart. It was so sad to watch. There were very few Christians there at all. Just people trying to be “one up” on someone else. Or, trying to prove why they were right and why someone else was wrong. There was very little adult discussion, if any, that did not turn into nothing but insults. If anyone even so much as tried to make a point or express a view, OM HY! Even if it was based on Scripture it was often even rejected if it did not agree with a widely held view. And don’t ever say you get anything from the HOLY SPIRIT! You will be slaughtered! Remind me or please slap me, shake me, if I ever mention going to one of these places again. I thought some of the Bible studies in the churches were bad! Wow these topped even that and I did not think that was possible! However, I did meet a few genuine people there and I will say they know Jesus’ heart! I will say that. I pray the LORD blesses them and their families! Hope you guys have a Blessed day!
Thank you so much for this comment! Yes it is very sad that what calls itself Christian is merely a facade of ‘self’. We have seen this online as well and do not engage. You are right that there are the odd believers there that are following Jesus but they swim in a pirahna filled tank. Very toxic and dangerous.
I am thinking that as the mainstream churches are gutted because of their toxicity and prevalent false gospels that the religious are flocking to the Internet to spew their filth. It gives ‘self’ a platform it cannot have in the local congregation and makes them feel powerful and controlling. Anyways it is just a thought. Thankfully those that follow our Beloved get joined together by His Spirit. By following Him we can avoid those pitfalls of ‘self’ and be rejuvenated by connecting with others that are following Him in truth!
Blessings to you two!
What God says is truth. We must make sure that our actions line up with what He says. The more we grow in Him the more we are willing to exchange our “truth” for His and be free. Thanks Homer and Wanda. Blessings!
You are so welcome Dawn! May His radiant smile bless you today!
Thank you! ?
Good stuff! Thanks for writing this.
You are very welcome. Bless you!
. “Although He was a Son, He learned [active, special] obedience through what He suffered,” Hebrews 5:8 And that is what happens to us. I found this line to hit home: We will NOT progress further in truth if we do not obey the truth we already know. Sometimes we want MORE but we haven’t done anything with what we have already been given.
Amen! Bless you Kate and thank you!
Well written! Spiritual growth is essential to our Christian faith.
Thank you so much Deborah Marie. May our Father bless you abundantly!
You are welcome ✝️
You’re welcome ? I am thankful for His abundant blessings! May He continue to bless you, too?
You’re welcome! I am thankful for His abundant blessings! May He continue to bless you, too?
We have accepted a lot of lies from the enemy because it suits our selfish agenda. Thank you for pointing us to the truth of God’s Word. I like the comment made by Stainbythespirit. These forums can be very toxic. That is why I like this little blogging community that we develop because we encourage each other. None of us is right in everything, only Jesus Christ is the way and the truth. We need to encourage each other and not tear each other apart. God bless you, my brother.
Amen and thank you! May our Father heap abundant blessings on you. Beverley!
Thank you. I hope you will have a happy thanksgiving.
Excellent post. Very deep clarification of God word, the living truth. Thank you Homer.
Thank you so much Suzette. May our Father bless you richly!
People often think that Ben Franklin quote comes from the Bible because they don’t know their Bibles very well. To those folks I’d offer: “Try it! You’ll like it!” Nowhere else can we find such wise instruction, understanding of human nature and God, encouragement during difficulty, and more. SO many positive benefits result from studying God’s Word!
Amen! Thank you so much for this.
Blessings to you!