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Can you handle the truth? Are you prepared for the new reality? | The Legal Watercooler

What we know: It is hard for us to deal with the truth. Yeshua [Jesus] told the truth through stories (parables). The disciples of Yeshua [Jesus] could understand, directly from Jesus, how God’s reign (Kingdom) works. Others needed to hear it via a story. For most, even stories didn’t work. I want to be in the group who can hear God’s truth directly from Yeshua [Jesus].

God’s goal: Jesus wants for us to understand what God has in mind for us. Jesus doesn’t keep secrets for His followers. Jesus wants us to listen. His goal for us is to have wisdom, insight and knowledge. Will we listen and do what Jesus asks?

Yeshua [Jesus] said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the reign [kingdom] of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

English Standard Version. (2016). (Luke 8:10). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The truth: This parable shows that Jesus was not impressed by the great crowds that followed Him. He knew that most of the people did not really “hear” the Word and receive it in their hearts. He gave this story to encourage the disciples in their future ministry, and to encourage us today. Most couldn’t handle the truth. Can we?

The master plan: When you consider how much teaching, preaching, and witnessing goes on in the course of a month or a year, you wonder why there is such a small harvest. The fault does not lie with the sower or the seed. The problem is with the soil. The human heart will not submit to God, repent and receive the Word, and be saved.

Worth noting:  “Faith comes first to the hearing ear, not to the cogitating mind,” said A.W. Tozer, the much-quoted pastor and author. Faith is not a matter of IQ or education; it is a matter of humbly preparing the heart to receive God’s truth. The wise and prudent are blind to truths that are easy for the babes to understand.

The main thing: It is a serious thing to hear and understand the Word of God, because this puts on us the obligation to share that Word with others. Everyone who receives the seed then becomes a sower, a light-bearer, and a transmitter of God’s truth. If we keep it to ourselves, we will lose it; but if we share it, we will receive more.