A better question is: Who is Truth?
Jesus is
Sound simple?
It is not:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6
We are told to love the truth:
2 Thessalonians 2
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth,
that they might be saved. v 10
The scripture right before that talks about
people being deceived by deceit and lying wonders.
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders, v 9
And the one right after talks about what will happen
if we don’t receive a love of the truth:
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie. v 11
It says God will send upon them strong delusion
So, if we refuse to love the truth,
we are opening ourselves up to delusion.
Who wants that?
To love the truth of God’s word takes humility
That is, always remembering that Jesus, the Truth,
is higher and above our thoughts
If we don’t understand something,
we would do well to bring it to His throne:
Casting down imaginations,
and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ;
2 Corinthians 10:5
In other words,
keep in mind that our human thoughts are lofty
and we need to consider them humbly before the word of God
At times, there is a war in our minds going on,
a battle
His thoughts against our thoughts
He will let our thoughts win if we persist in them
Even though He could win, He will not force us
we must humble our thoughts before Him
“Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes,
and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way
with His drawn sword in His hand;
and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face.
And the Angel of the Lord said to him,
“Why have you struck your donkey these three times?
Behold, I have come out to stand against you,
because your way is perverse before Me.
The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times.
If she had not turned aside from Me,
surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.”
And Balaam said to the Angel of the Lord,
“I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against me.
Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back.”
Then the Angel of the Lord said to Balaam,
“Go with the men, but only the word that I speak to you,
that you shall speak.”
So Balaam went with the princes of Balak. Numbers 22:31-35
Balaam’s experience with his donkey
is a perfect example of us battling in our minds
We have our ways of looking at things
We don’t see the whole picture
We dismiss the Word of the Lord,
even sometimes the things the Lord has shown us
and a battle rages in our minds
In this instance with Balaam,
We can be distracted by worldly rewards,
and must consider the Word of the Lord above ourselves
Balaam was planning to do what He wanted to do
instead of submitting to the Lord
While the Lord doesn’t force us,
He has His ways of helping us see the truth
I suppose why God would compel Balaam to redirect
is because He knew Balaam’s heart
Balaam did honor and revere God
but was behaving worse than a donkey
Honing our skills to recognize the truth
will be essential for not getting deceived
We can do that by submitting to the Lord, His word,
studying, learning more about the things we know little of,
and listening and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit
As the days draw near to The End,
there will be compelling deceptions
Jesus said in Matthew 24:23-24:
Then if any man shall say unto you,
Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
For there shall arise false Christs,
and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders;
insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Trusting the Holy Spirit is good, most excellent
Knowing the word is key
Having an honest relationship with Jesus, that is,
remembering always who He is,
recognizing how He exposes lies to us,
being able to recognize His voice,
clearly distinguishing His voice from others,
and asking for clarification or understanding
Being very careful who we listen to for our teaching
find teachers/preachers who speak the truth in love
Above all, Love the Truth, that is, Jesus
and recognizing that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours