THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY THREE.

JOHN 8:31-32.     Vs. 31. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in my word, you are My disciples indeed, Vs.32. and you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free."
Over the years I have noticed that many Christians can quote John 8:32 quite easily, but if you ask them what verse 31 says, they don't know. It is imperative that we understand verse 31, if we want to walk in the freedom that verse 32 offers, we must walk in obedience to verse 31. Note what Jesus said; "IF you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed." The first thing that we must do is to abide in the word of Jesus. So what does it mean to abide?, the word abide means stay, endure, stand. This must be our attitude, that when we see or hear something through the word of God, as we hear Jesus speaking to us through His word that we continue to stand in it and walk in obedience to it. Jesus said that as we do this then we are truly His disciples, so what is a disciple?, the word disciple means a student or a pupil. Jesus is our teacher, it is His Spirit who guides us into all truth. We will never stop learning while we are on this earth, we will simply never know it all. As a disciple of Jesus it is our responsibility to continue to learn and apply the word of God to our lives. God will only hold us responsible to walk in the revelation that we have, but it is our responsibility to keep digging deeper into the word of God to get greater revelation. The truth is though, unless we are walking in obedience to the revelation that God has given us, He won't give us more. It is so important to us that we continue to stand in the word, in John 10;10 Jesus said that the thief comes only to rob, kill and destroy, we all know who the thief is. Satan's plan is to steal the word from us and to stop us from walking in the truth that Jesus is showing us. In Matthew chapter 13 and Luke 8 we see the parable of sower. In both of these accounts we see Jesus talks about the seed that is sown on stony ground, the hearer receives the word and is able to endure for a short while, but because they are deeply established in the word when Satan comes along they stumble and fall and the word is lost. It is interesting that in Matthew 13:21 it says that when tribulation and persecution comes for the words sake they stumble, this shows that Satan is after the word, in Luke 8:13 it is called temptation, tribulation and persecution will cause us to lose faith, and not walk in what God is calling us to do, and we know that unless we outwork our faith it is dead. Temptation can obviously come in many forms, but the result is the same. So why is this so important, because Jesus said that it is only as we do this that we can know the truth, and it is the truth that will make us free. The other thing that we must realize here is that truth is only truth to us when it is applied truth, when we walk in it. Romans 12;2 says that we are not to be conformed to the worlds way of thinking, but we must allow ourselves to be changed through the renewing of our minds, that we must now think the way God wants us to think and that through that we can prove what the will of God is for our lives. We prove what the will of God is by walking in it. Jesus said that we will know the truth and the truth will make us free, so what is that freedom? In Galatians 5 Paul shows us the difference between walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit. In verse 16 he says that if we walk in the spirit we will give in to the desires of our flesh, he goes on to say that the flesh continually contends with the spirit, and our spirit wants to bring the flesh into submission, but that if we give into the flesh we will do the thing that we don't really want to do. Of course this is inline with what we saying earlier how Satan wants to get us to fall into temptation so that he can steal the word from us. But note what he says in verse 18, But if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law. He then goes onto compare the work of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, obviously we are meant to walk in the fruit of the Spirit. If we don't walk in the fruit of the Spirit but walk in the flesh we come back under the law and into bondage, Romans 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit has set me free from the law of sin and death. See what Paul says here, if we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh Satan can't condemn us, because he is the only one who does, and the life of the Spirit will set us free from the law of sin and death. Remember how if we fall into temptation the enemy can steal the word from us, well that is death, that word cannot bear fruit and it dies. Note what Paul says in Galatians 5:23, in the second part of the verse he says, "Against such there is no law." Is this exactly what Romans 8:1-2 are talking about. Note what Paul said in Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made you free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. The word free in John 8:32 means exempt from moral, ceremonial or moral liability. In other words we are no longer under condemnation, no longer under the law of sin and death but set free through the life of the Spirit. This is the freedom that Jesus wants to walk in. So let me encourage you to abide in His word, to walk as a true disciple of Jesus, desiring to go deeper into the word, to walk in greater revelation of who Christ is and what His will for our lives, walking in the fruit of the Spirit and and the love of God and as we do this we will truly know the Spiritual freedom that Jesus has come to give us, the abundant life that only He can give.