So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32 ESV

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” John 18:38 ESV

Truth apparently comes in many forms these days. At least that is what many in the world and even professing believers would declare. There is a great temptation and a yielding to seek after words, experiences and encounters that feel far bigger than us. Much emphasis is placed on personal feeling and pressure is placed on some, whether of their own doing or by others around them, to have the next great revelation or word and to claim credit for it. Many voices are clamoring to be heard and to be relevant, particularly in the Charismatic church. There is much talk and has been for decades about revival, but I would propose that the much needed “revival” as far as the Charismatic church is concerned is to the unadulterated Word of God.

Let’s be clear here. The Word of God does not need reviving. It does not need awakening. It is not dead, though there are those who have attempted to bury it and lay it to rest while insisting that the masses cling to every extrabiblical word uttered from fallible men. Rather, it is us who are in desperate need of coming back to the truth. We are wandering off into the weeds of mysticism, the metaphysical, myths and other things contradicting His holy Word. By denying what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ and by remaining in His Word, meditating on it and really preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are setting ourselves up to be deceived and to spiritually eat anything set before us. Where is our love for the Word of God? It seems that we are committing spiritual infidelity and we do not even recognize it when we hang on every word of a man or woman, but yet we recoil from the Holy Scriptures because it lacks that thrill we so desperately seek. We deem the touch from it as cold and legalistic because we do not understand or recognize that the precious Word of God testifies of our Redeemer through and through and by abiding in His Word, we are liberated by the truth.

Here are some questions. Is anyone else tired of hearing supposed prophetic words that are not vetted or tested? Is anyone tired of the arrogance coming from professed leaders in the Charismatic church who believe that they are above correction or testing? I am tired of hearing people defend erroneous words and encounters that blatantly contradict Scripture while calling Scripture into question when stated in the proper context and demonizing those who present the questions. It is disheartening and grieving when ministers tell more stories about themselves and their great exploits from the platform while the actual gospel of Jesus Christ is rarely if ever preached. It is sad when the current state is to use the Word to validate personal revelation rather than truly knowing the Word in order to really know Christ and to rightly judge our fruit.

John 8:31-32 is an eye opening passage. It is simple yet profound. Jesus makes it very clear to those who claimed to believe in Him that abiding in His Word and being His disciples were crucial in order to know the truth and to be free. That freedom is not found in adding more bondage to people by giving them hoops to jump through or to perform. It is not works based. Freedom is not found in breaking bondages and curses which have already been redeemed by Jesus Christ and thus are already broken. What Jesus did on the cross was a finished work, setting us free from the bondages of sin and death. To say otherwise is to deem His sacrifice as insufficient and in need of our assistance.

The key to knowing the truth is found prior to verse 32, abiding in His Word and in doing so, being His disciple. What is truth? Pilate seemed to not really desire the truth, but I pray you and I do. The truth is who Jesus Christ is and the promise of eternal life found only through Him when we repent of our sins and confess Him as Lord and Savior. The truth is found in His infallible Word, which testifies of Christ and destroys the bondages that transform us from slaves to sin to children of God by being found in faith, faith in God that He is Who He says and that He alone saves. The truth is in what it means to be fruitful and to really have intimacy and fellowship with God and to know what He loves and what He hates.

As believers, we must abide in the Word of God. We cannot recognize a falsehood trying to penetrate the church without it. There was much I had believed to be true over the years that was not tested against the Scriptures. But I testify to you that the freedom I have now in knowing the truth by meditating on this one passage and many others, broke off bondages of Charismatic legalism that were masquerading as freedom. All it takes is deciding to be a student of the Word and desiring to really know the truth, no matter the cost. We must come back to the truth of His Word. We must purpose in our hearts to be disciples abiding in His Word. Only then will we know the truth. I urge you, before you listen to anything else or to anyone else, make sure that you’re abiding in His Word first and foremost.