Being Sanctified by the Truth to Move Out of Ourselves for the Oneness
There are four great pillars in the Lord’s recovery today. These four pillars are the truth, life, the church, and the gospel.
In my last post, I focused on the progression of these four pillars. First we have the revelation of the divine truth. Then, according to this revelation, we have the genuine experience of the divine life. The revelation of the truth and the experience of life produces the church. Finally, the church has the awesome commission to proclaim the high gospel which is to announce the divine truth.
The progression of these four pillars should actually become a cycle that is subjectively repeated in millions of the Lord’s seekers for the spreading of the testimony of Jesus all over this earth. In this post we’ll focus on the first pillar—the truth.
An Experiential Definition of the Truth—“Heavenly Television”
The truth as revealed in the Bible does not merely refer to accurate doctrines or being without falsehood. Rather, truth is the divine light shining on the facts of the Bible and “televising” these facts into our being. Truth is a kind of “heavenly television.”
First, truth is the expression of the divine light. It is the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of reality as the “heavenly electricity” that “televises” these divine facts and makes them more than a mere factual report. There is a huge difference in reading a review of a certain sporting event and actually witnessing the event. The “televising” of the divine facts by the Spirit of reality is to make them a “you are there” television.
To experience such a subjective definition of the truth, we must contact the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of reality, by exercising our spirit to pray over the words of the Bible (Eph. 6:17-18). By pray-reading in such a way, the Spirit as the “heavenly electricity” makes all the divine facts a heavenly vision to us.
Two Functions of the Truth—Setting Free and Sanctifying
When we contact the Word in the way of “heavenly television,” two things happen in our being. First we are set free from all the negative things (John 8:32). Second, we are sanctified—made holy—both positionally and dispositionally (17:17). That is, we are outwardly set apart to God and His purpose and inwardly we are saturated with God’s holy nature.
The Experience of the Truth—the Triune God Realized by Us and Imparted into Us to Fulfill the Two Functions of the Truth
When we know the truth according to this subjective definition—the “televising” of the divine facts by the “heavenly electricity,” the Spirit of truth—we experience both the freeing and sanctifying functions of the truth. That is, the Triune God realized by us and imparted into us frees us and saturates us with Himself.
To experience the truth in such a subjective way, we need to contact the Word every morning and also at other times of the day. As we enjoy the Word by means of prayer there is a kind infusing and transfusing of God’s element into us that displaces all the negative things in our being including our temper, jealousy, pride, ambition and opinions.
Our crucial need today is to daily enjoy repeated contact with the word of God—first reading the written word of the Bible (Acts 17:11), then touching the Living Word—Christ (1 John 1:1), and finally receiving the instant, present applied Word, the Spirit (John 6:63). Such a contact with the Word will remove all the negative things in our being, sanctify and permeate us with God, and make us one with Him (Eph. 5:26-27).
The Issue of Sanctification in the Truth—Oneness
Since God is one in Himself—the Father, the Son and the Spirit all being one, the issue of our being dispositionally sanctified by Him is that we also become one (John 17:17, 21). Not only do we become one with God Himself, but also with all our fellow believers. Because the sanctifying Word, the sanctifying God and His sanctifying life are all one, when we experience the sanctifying of the word of the truth, we will surely be made one even as the Triune God is one. The oneness among the believers for which the Lord Jesus prayed in John 17 was such an “even as” oneness—one even as the Father and the Son are one (John 17:21-24).
Such a living contact with God’s living word removes four major factors of division from our being—worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinions or concepts. The Triune God imparted into us through the sanctifying word of truth kills these four causes of division so that we can reach God’s goal—the recovery of Christ as life for the building up of the church, His Body.
To be Sanctified in the Truth being to Move out of Ourselves and into the Triune God to be Perfected into One
Finally, such a sanctifying by the word of truth—the reality of the Triune God infused into our being—will cause us to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God for the keeping of the oneness. This will cause us to be perfected into one (John 17:23).
To reach God’s goal as seen in these four great pillars, we need to continually contact the Lord in His word in a real and living way by touching the Spirit of truth with our spirit. The more we touch the Word and the more the Spirit of truth touches us, the more we move out of ourselves. Then we are separated from all the factors of division, not only unto God but even into God such that God Himself becomes our dwelling place (John 14:23). In such a way we have the genuine oneness and even the perfected oneness for which the Lord Jesus prayed in John 17.
This post was inspired by a summary of the book Truth Messages by Witness Lee given in the second message of the Fall 2011, International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones (You can read the book online at www.ministrybooks.org.)
For more appreciation for the truth covered in this post, read more on the same topic via the A God-Man blog.
About Tom Smith
Hi. My name is Tom Smith. I'm the writer behind Holding to Truth in Love, and I love the Lord Jesus and His life-giving Word. Please feel free to send me an e-mail through the contact page if you have any questions. I hope you'd take a moment to subscribe to the Holding to Truth blog. Then you'll be sure not to miss a post. Thanks!
I love the experiential definition of the truth: truth is the divine light shining on the facts of the Bible. If we are studying the Word and not receiving the heavenly “television”, a “you are there” experience, then you are only studying facts and doctrine, not the truth. I know when this happens because I often say “Wow!” because of the light I see. Too often I just read the Bible without praying over it in order to get this light.
The last point above is overwhelming– move into the Triune God?!? Yes, that’s what the Lord prayed in John 17: . By being sanctified in the Word by praying over it until the light shines– that shining is the truth, remember– we are made one. This removes all division, making us a testimony to the world, but even more so, this sanctification makes us the with the divine Us!
That Us was the Son praying to the Father, which Son was in the Father, and the Father in the Son. What kind of oneness is this?!? It is beyond the human concept. It is not the oneness of believers agreeing not to dispute with one another, or even agreeing to put aside their divisive practices and traditions and worship together, it is a mutual indwelling. This is supported by the Word; in 1 Cor. 1:30 we are in Christ, and in Col. 1:27 Christ is in us. These verses in John 17 says Father and the Son are in each other. If we are in the Son, we are also in the Father, and the Father in us. It’s too much here to detail how the Son and the Spirit are one, but refer to 2 Cor 3:17 and combine John 6:63 (the Spirit gives life) with John 5:40 (come to Me that you may have life). So we are being made with with the divine Us, the entire Truine God plus humanity becoming one. We live, but it is God living. God lives on earth, in and through us. What a union, and what a blessing!
This is what is meant by “moving into the Triune God”. Hallelujah!
“…truth is the divine light shining on the facts of the Bible and “televising” these facts into our being.”
This is an amazing definition of the word “Truth.” I just keep going over and over it in my head. It’s more than facts. It’s more than knowledge. It’s more than a framework or a systematic theology.
It is facts plus the shining of the divine light. That’s why we can’t just read the Bible. We have to pray over the Bible too. The prayer helps provide the light. The reading helps provide the facts.
My background is chemistry. In chemistry, we call this reaction kinetics. It’s like bringing oxygen and gasoline together. When there’s a spark, there is a kinetic reaction. But in this case, it doesn’t propel me to work or to the store. It propels me out of my soul-life into the Triune God.
I want more divine light every day!
Truth (or reality) is the Triune God! Nothing less qualifies! We all know that Jesus said “I am the truth” (John 14:6). When He, the eternal Word, was incarnated, He was full of truth/reality (John 1:14). Then He promised that the Spirit of truth/reality would be given to all believers (John 14:17; 16:13) to guide us into all the truth/reality—that is, to guide us into all the rich experiences of Christ as our reality. In addition, the Father’s word is the truth/reality (John 17:17).
Sanctification by the Triune God and His word has two aspects: positional and dispositional. Positional sanctification is once for all as in Hebrews 10:10 (we “have been sanctified”) but dispositional sanctification is an on-going process as in Hebrews 10:14 (we “are being sanctified”). I say a little more about this regarding New Jerusalem being holy (http://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/the-new-jerusalem/).
Sanctification by the Father’s word is surely dispositional. We need to come to His word every day for its shining and nourishing. This word is living and operative (Hebrews 4:12). In Hebrews chapters 3—4 the believers with a Jewish background had been separated from the world (as their forefathers had been separated from Egypt) but they still needed the living word to operate in them to separate them from their wandering in their natural being to God’s rest. Lord, be merciful to us and save us from the hardness of heart and unbelief described in Hebrews 3—4.
After praying for our sanctification in John 17:17, 19, the Lord continued to pray for the issue of this sanctification: oneness in the Triune God, “that they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You.” The Lord’s desire is nothing less than all of us being in the Triune God and being one in Him, even being perfected into one (John 17:21-23). Therefore, we need the sanctifying truth in the word and in the Spirit to bring us out of all natural and divisive elements into the Triune God.
Don,
Thank you for your enriching comments on the matter of experiencing God’s dispositional sanctification to move out of ourselves for the oneness. What a light this is! Sanctification is not just so we can be personally holy but so that we all can have the divisive elements in our self–our culture, pride, ambition, opinions and concepts–metabolically displaced by the very essence of the Triune God of oneness. He is intrinsically one in Himself and when we enjoy His sanctifying word of truth, we are made one not only with Him but also with all our fellow believers who are also in this same wonderful process. By our continual experience of being sanctified in the truth to move out ourselves for the oneness we will be ushering in the reality of the New Jerusalem today. Praise Him!
Spot on with this write-up, I actually think this web site needs much more attention.
I’ll probably be returning to see more, thanks for the advice!
It is crucial to see that the “Truth” revealed in the Scripture is not mere doctrine, but the divine reality. When the Word in the Bible becomes reality to us by means of prayer, we get a divine infusion and the divine facts are televised into our being.
By such an infusion we get sanctified, that is, we get separated unto God and saturated with Him. By such a sanctifying with the reality in God’s Word, we move out of ourselves and become one not only with the Lord but with our fellow believers. This experience fulfills the Lord’s prayer in John 17 for the believers to be one.