Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

Speech that heals is like a life-giving tree, but a perverse speech breaks the spirit.
Proverbs 15:4 (emphasis added)

Perverse speech is speech that distorts the truth. Speech that seeks to hide or cover the truth. This isn’t blatant lying. This is those ‘white lies’. This is ‘spin doctoring’. This is knowing the truth and by choice reporting things slightly differently. Making yourself out to be in a better light, or at least not in the wrong. Instead of simply being wrong or different in a way that others feel is strange or offensive, this is taking pleasure/delight in making things as cloudy as possible. These are lies of omission, bending the truth, white lies, colouring outside the line, spin doctoring, giving ‘my point of view’, and anything else that isn’t giving the truth in cold, hard, concise, TRUTHFUL facts in a proper order of events. This is ANYTHING that is not the opposite of truth but also isn’t the truth.

Perverse speech is what the world has picked up and is training itself to accept. You get it from individuals and you get it from media conglomerates. It is portrayed in entertainment as being all right, maybe even the means that the ends justify. It is lauded in relationships and interactions with other people – so you don’t hurt their feelings and such. It’s an easy trap to fall into. Especially when we are simultaneously embracing a culture where feelings are more important than facts. Where people look to a physical aspect of their life and base their entire worth on it – spiralling into doubt and self-loathing when someone points out that they are in fact NOT what they are espousing (or even suggesting they are more than just that one thing). In a world where we are ignoring what grammar is and why it is used, perverse speech is embraced just to make it home in one piece.

The world is beginning to say that inclusivity means everyone needs to feel special and be rewarded on a public pedestal for being their own kind of special. Real inclusivity means everyone is equal and no one is special. No one gets special treatment and no one gets abused. We don’t naturally default to that because this is a fallen world. Jesus calls on us to treat everyone as special (Matthew 22:37–39). The world is neither. It appears to want to take the formerly oppressed groups who were oppressed for being abnormal and make them the new normal that oppresses the old normal. That’s like installing a dictator and then expecting them to be democratic. If you do it, it’s going to be a mess.

While that is pertinent in this social world that is forming, I don’t think this is what Adonai was getting at. I think it is clear He was looking at underlying foundations, not outward expressions. We are beings made in the image of Adonai. He operates by WORDS so we also operate by WORDS. The foundation of words is truth. If you do not speak words based in truth, you are going against your created nature. If you speak words that are not truth, how can you be believed when you speak? If you are willing to weaponise untruth to get ahead, what kind of morals have you been feeding into tour heart?

Jesus Himself IS Truth (John 14:6). We are called to be like Him. “You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had” (Philippians 2:5). This means that all our speaking should come from love. Adonai IS love, after all (1 John 4:16). If we are embodying HIS love, our actions, thoughts, and words will have the same character He does. “Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). If our speech is moulded on those principles, it won’t be perverse. It will always seek to build up. The truth is never a bad thing. It is always a benefit. It is never a negative.

I don’t think everyone agrees with me. It isn’t the truth that causes all our issues and uncomfortable circumstances. It is our behaviour and what WE have done in regards to the truth that is the cause of all the negative we encounter in regards to the truth. Liars deny the truth and try to re-write things to fit their desired reality. Perverse speech attempts to alter our perceptions so that we all agree that A is actually B, if not C. It is a rewriting of what confronts us so that the new idea is what gets remembered. While it can make us squidgy because of our own behaviour, there is value in seeking truth. Not the truth we believe based on the facts humans have discovered/understand. The actual, objective, and universal TRUTHS that are the foundation on which we stand.

“Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately” (2 Timothy 2:5). Adonai is NOT afraid of us seeking, searching, and testing things as we work on accuracy. “But examine all things; hold fast to what is good. Stay away from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22). When we find truth, we find something of true value. “Then Jesus said to those Judeans who had believed him, “If you continue to follow my teaching, you are really my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”” (John 8:31-32). Where do we find it? “Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). But we don’t bludgeon people with it. We operate from LOVE and we stand for TRUTH. “But practicing the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head” (Ephesians 4:15).

Where does this leave us? Truth has value. We will not truly learn to appreciate using it until we get our head out of the world and into the Word. Until we let Adonai work on our hearts and minds (Romans 12:2). It is impossible to continue to use a perverse tongue when you get closer to Adonai. He rubs off on us. He changes us. He lets us become more like Him. When we do, we reject falsehoods of every kind. We recognise them more and stay away from them. We don’t repeat them. We don’t cultivate them. We repent from using them.

In its place we start using His words. Words of life. Words of encouragement. Words that build up. Words that strengthen. Words that are based on truth and spoken in love. We aren’t to be confrontational. We aren’t to be rude. We aren’t to be judgmental. We’re to speak the truth kindly. With gentleness and compassion. Being empathetic, but not compromising the truth – just like Jesus did. You will not find a human with more compassion, love, gentleness, and kindness, but He NEVER spoke anything but truth. Those He spoke it to got offended. They got bent out of shape. Eventually, they got kill-y. But He did not hold back the truth. The truth was needed to set them free. We are too called to speak the truth to this world. To be the light that is in the darkness. To let them see the TRUTH. They aren’t required to accept it. But how can they hear it if WE don’t speak it? The only truth in town is Jesus and WE are supposed to be listening to Him. WE are supposed to be speaking only what the Father shows us to – just like Jesus did.

Help bring healing to the world. Start with your own household. Choose to hold to the truth. Choose not to speak with a perverse tongue. Choose to speak the truth. Choose to speak it from a place of love. Ruach HaKodesh will give you what to say and how to say it (Luke 12:11-12). He won’t fail you. This world is hurting and hurting BAD. It NEEDS the balm that truth brings. Speak it with love, but speak it every day.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 40:3-4

“A voice cries out, “In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord; build a level road through the rift valley for our God. Every valley must be elevated and every mountain and hill leveled. The rough terrain will become a level plain, the rugged landscape a wide valley.” Messiah would be proceeded by a forerunner. Often considered to be Elijah (one of the two men from the Old Covenant who did not see death – 2 Kings 2:11). He would proclaim from desert places the arrival of the Kingdom of God – come near once more to humanity (male and female) in the personage of the Messiah. “John said, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”” (John 1:23). Could John the Baptiser BE the forerunner? What about Elijah? Jesus said in Matthew 17:11-13 “He answered, “Elijah does indeed come first and will restore all things. And I tell you that Elijah has already come. Yet they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wanted. In the same way, the Son of Man will suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.” Jesus had a forerunner: John the Baptiser. He WAS a voice in the wilderness (Matthew 11:7-10). Jesus IS the Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b