TRUTH...

As I travel this journey searching for truth, I rely on the Holy Spirit. I determine something is true when I've experienced it, until then...it's in limbo. I likely have an opinion, but its not solid. Even the truths I learn are somewhat flexible or open to modifications in the sense that I likely don't know all there is to know about the subject. As I grow, I am likely to learn more. No, it's not based on feelings. Yes, it is based on how I interpret the Holy Spirit. This is the key to my understanding truth: If God is who He says He is, then I have to believe that He will show me if I am going in the wrong direction. He must reveal His truths to me as he determines. The way I experience truths is through validation by the Holy Spirit and his work. There are no conincidences with God. I hear something, I wonder if it's true. I pray about it, I ask God to reveal His truth to me. I ask Him to help prepare my heart to be willing and open to hear His truths. I look to His word for understanding, and I wait. I wait for the experience. As Henry Blackaby says: "God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the church to reveal Himself, His purpose and His ways." Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting there is some sort of formula. It's not a checklist to follow, it's a life to be lived.

It's been suggested that I am creating God in my own image, or I am creating an idol. How can I trust it's the Holy Spirit and not me? I go back to my experiences and the belief that if I desire to know God and to follow him in my heart, in the core of who I am, then He will reveal himself as He chooses. I've been accused of being rebellious and faithless. I won't deny those sins exist in my heart. (I Corth. 4:4) I also desire to know God, to follow Him, to obey Him, to live as Christ would live. God says whoever trusts in Him will not be put to shame (Rom. 10:11). He says "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. This I will do for them declares the Lord." Isa. 42:16 The ironic thing is that our ways are not His ways (Isa. 55:8) and He tells us not to lean on our own understanding (Prov. 3:5-6). To try to understand God based on our understanding seems dangerous, it doesn't leave room for Him to guide us. If my goal is to trust myself to know what is God and what isn't then I am not leaving room for Him to be my God.