Communicating Hard Truths

 Jehovah Shalom, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Jireh; we know Him by many names, all of which express an intrinsic quality that He possesses.  However, one of the names is often glossed over is that of Jesus Christ, the great communicator.  In fact, He was the greatest communicator to ever have walked the face of the earth.  He came offering humanity a new reality, a new way of thinking; a new way of doing; a new way of being.  He was the ultimate agent of change.  And, as is the usual response to change, the new reality Jesus brought was met with resistance and therefore required impeccable communication.  

Jesus infiltrated a culture that could no longer recognize good from evil; a culture that could no longer decipher what was of God and what was not of God.  In order to wake His people from their confusion, He spoke hard truths often in the form of parables and often at the expense of the chief priest’s reputations.   He burst through old paradigms and mindsets, dogmatic systems and rituals revealing the new thing that God was doing in the earth.  This new way, the way of the Kingdom, put a new requisite on its citizenry; to not only demonstrate an outward adherence to God and His laws, but to be led by His Holy Spirit.  This proved impossible for the old guard.  An unwillingness to be in tune with the Spirit caused them to reject the things of God and it created a spiritual bareness in their lives and in their ministries.  This was and still is the ultimate disqualification.  Matt 23

God was moving on from the old way of doing things and He was inviting His people to come with Him.  He was dismantling the very systems and cultural norms that He had established long ago and in doing so, He had to speak directly to the problem.  That problem was found in those who were responsible for representing God to the people; mainly the chief priests and scribes.  Jesus had the job of identifying the problem and communicating its rectification all while being completely in step with the Holy Spirit.  John 5:19-20 

As God began to shake, all cultural sensibilities were laid by the waste side.  People were forced to think about life with God in a new way.  They were no longer permitted to harbor wrong thinking.  Jesus drew the line in the sand:  You can either remain the way you are and be disqualified from inheriting the kingdom or you can accept what I am presenting to you, grow, and be my sons and daughters.  You can’t do both.   Jesus was no respecter of persons.  He esteemed only belief in Him.  Anyone could be justified from belief, even the harlots and tax collectors, whom Jesus seemed to prefer.   Matt 21:31b-32 Likewise, anybody could be disqualified, even those held in high cultural esteem.  Matt 21:33-44

In these last days, God has promised to shake everything on earth that can be shaken, including the systems and doctrines that we hold sacred.  He is changing the earth.  He is establishing the reality and the glory of His kingdom within His servants who will in turn, change the physical makeup of the earth itself.  Haggai 2:6-9   As demonstrated by Jesus, this change will be facilitated by a people who are led by His Spirit and therefore can recognize when and how He is moving, act accordingly, and bear the fruit of His kingdom.  These facilitators will need to communicate the ways of the kingdom while bursting through the old paradigms and mindsets, beginning within themselves.  This will be a people who are not afraid to speak hard truths; to offend the things that are not in alignment with the Word of God in order to make straight the path of the Lord’s return.  Isaiah 40:3-5 As with Jesus, this can only be effectively done through the power and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

 As His people, let’s get started immediately.  Let’s ask Him today to correct all that is crooked in our lives.  Let us allow God to offend our own prejudices and mindsets in the pursuit of knowing Him more and thinking more like Him.  We can’t have it both ways; we have to decide.  We cannot hold on to wrong ways of thinking, doing, and being and inherit the kingdom.  We have to choose every day to allow God to offend us and challenge our way of thinking.  We have to accept the hard truths He will present that we can make the internal adjustments necessary to bear the fruits of His kingdom.   When we allow God to do His work inside of us, we will have the ability to see the world as He sees it.  We can then go out into the world, communicate the hard truths that God had previously spoken to us, and watch the culture change around us as people respond to the call of the Holy Spirit.  Don’t delay.  The world is eagerly waiting. Romans 8:18-21