The first great pillar in the Lord’s recovery is truth. While quite a profound word in the New Testament, truth can be defined as the divine light shining on the facts of the Bible and televising a heavenly, spiritual vision of these facts into our being. Here are three primary reasons that we should be constituted with the truth.
First, as we apprehend the reality of the Triune God in His word and allow this truth to be imparted into us, we are both sanctified and set free from that which binds us. Whether anxieties about outward events beyond our control (Psa. 73) or intrinsic elements that trouble us (Rom. 7), the truth sets us free (John 8:32, 36). And this is real freedom, unlike the outward freedom claimed by many who still live under the bondage of sin. The truth not only addresses the negative things but also sanctifies us. “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (17:17). Both positionally and dispositionally, our being constituted with the truth brings the very element of the Triune God into us through His word. This interaction happens in a marvelous way when the Spirit of reality shines on the word of God in our reading and prayer, bringing the reality of the words into our being and with this reality, the holy essence of God Himself.
Second, sanctification through the word of the truth results in oneness by dealing with the factors of division. While the truth sets us free, there is a deeper problem contained in our being—the factors of division that make us unfit for God’s building. There are four such factors: worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinions and concepts. As long as such things exist in us, even though we may actively participate in the church life, we will be unable to be one with the other saints. But praise the Lord for the sanctifying truth, which brings us out of the self, where these factors of division exist, and into the Triune God, where there is nothing but oneness! When we are sanctified in this way, we will spontaneously be one with God and the other saints because we will be in the oneness of the Father and the Son, expressed by the Lord’s prayer in John 17.
Third, we know the truth by being in the true One, and thus know the genuine and real God as our reality. First John 5:20 is a profound verse: “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” Not only is the truth constituted into us, but we are also in the truth, in the true One, subjectively. This true One whom we experience is the true God and eternal life to us. Therefore, in order to have life (the second great pillar in the Lord’s recovery), we must be filled with and immersed in the truth.
How can we be constituted with the truth in such a way? It is simply by getting into the Word of God every day. Each time we come to the Word, we should simply open to the Spirit of reality in a simple, genuine, and humble way, and ask for Him to shine upon the words of the Bible as we read. We can read the ministry regularly in a similar way and allow the Spirit of reality to use it to open the Word to us further and to impart to us more light and revelation. And we can solidify the contents of the truth in our being by speaking the truth to others in every situation. Praise the Lord for truth as the first great pillar in the Lord’s recovery!
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