STAND IN TRUTH

“Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6:14‬ ‭NLT‬‬

In the introduction to the series, we talked about the necessity of standing firm in the armor of God.

Today, we want to talk about STANDING IN TRUTH!

Hello everyone and welcome to part 1 of The Armor of God: A Mini Series. My name is WB

It is important to understand that without truth, we are lost, and the schemes of the devil, the fiery darts of the evil one will surely overpower us.

Truth is of the utmost importance in the life of the believer. Without it, the rest of the armor would be essentially of no use to us.

Failing to anchor oneself in truth, to walk in truth, makes one vulnerable – susceptible to the lies of the enemy – “carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14).

Truth – the belt of truth protects us and prepares us for battle.

What is truth?

Truth is the way things really are in respect to who God is. I contend that God is the God of truth. Truth is the expression of God – revealed in His character, purpose and will. God is the source, the arbiter and standard of what is straight, untainted – pure.

According to Marriam Dictionary:

Truth is\: ACTUAL /FACTUAL /RELIABLE

D. L. Moody once said, the best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.”

Truth is that straight stick… you can bend it all you want – it can not break – it has stood the test of time. You don’t want to do the foolish thing to ignore, because you can’t – see, you will keep stumbling over it until you acknowledge it.

Speaking of Himself – Jesus said, “I am the truth.” The Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth. And, the Word of God is truth.

We’ve answered the question – What is truth – but an equally important question is – WHY TRUTH?

And that’s because – The nature of our adversary calls for us to stand in truth. The bible calls him the father of all lies. He’s very cunning, very tricky, crafty, deceitful and scheming

His number 1 goal is to deceive you, to con you, to scam you into believing a lie.

He knows – that if he can get you locked into a certain pattern of thinking – he can produce in you the kind of life he wants you to live. Proverbs 23:7 – For as a man thinks in his heart so is he.

Victory over this enemy can only come if we are standing steadfast in truth.

We must allow truth to confront the false identities, falsehoods, false comforts and false narratives that are Pushed by the Father of Lies.

I want to confront six areas lies today that I believe have left many in both the pulpit and pew vulnerable:

Prophecy: If you prophesy what God never told you to – you are not standing or walking in truth. You are deceiving others and at the same time being deceived. Consequently, if your are not testing prophetic words – but gullibly receiving them and spreading them – you are equally not walking in truth – you’ve believed a lie.
Bearing False Witness: If you sharing social media post that are false – you are bearing false witness. If you are spreading lies and gossip about others. You’re bearing false witness
Exaggeration: If you are concealing, or manipulating Or even exaggerating – you have aligned yourself with the father of lies
False Doctrine: If you are receiving, believing, following or teaching anything extra biblical – the doctrine of demons – that you have not taken the time to study, and scrutinized within a community of solid believers – like the Bereans in Acts 17 – you most likely are being deceived.
Worldly Identity: If you are allowing the culture to shape your identity, thoughts that exalt themselves above the knowledge of Christ – the enemy and your past to define who you are, – than the enemy has locked you into a pattern of thinking detrimental to you wellbeing.
Excusing sinful behavior: If you are living a sinful lifestyle and have convinced yourself that it’s alright – you are definitely deceived.
You can not wage an effective warfare standing in a lie.
Truth must scrutinize our perceptions, persuasions, principles and our politics and yes everything that you practice.

So what is truth? It is that which is holy, set apart, straight, void of compromise, cut above, untainted, perfect, – it the Word and the Spirit – personified in the person of Jesus – He is the Standard. He is the straight stick by which everything must be measured. If you have that – you will be able to withstand all the fiery darts of the evil one and wage an effective and powerful warfare.

Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free!

CONCLUSION

2 Corinthians 10:3, 4, 5For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ