Discerning Between Truth and Fact

TRUTH OR FACT?
 
In my book, ‘HOLY DETOX’, there is a chapter called, Building Upon Truth or Facts?  The Lord taught me a valuable lesson about the importance of distinguishing truth and facts from one another. The way He brought it to my attention was through a series of facts being strewn out before me in such a unique way it was much like being in the lead role of one of those movies which reveals a strange and unexpected twist at the end. I’m not going to share that story with you today, but I am going to share what the Lord taught me about truth and facts.
 
I felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to present the definitions of truth and fact, for the purpose of differentiating the two from one another. As it turned out, that seemed to be a problem with doing that. When I looked up their definitions, they were so closely related to one another, it didn’t prove the point I felt I was supposed to be making. Considering this seemed like the Lord’s idea to do this, I asked Him – what’s up with this?  How am I supposed to prove the case if their definitions aren’t making a point?
 
This is what He told me; “According to the world’s perception, the meanings of truth and fact are so closely the same, their definitions do not carry much weight of difference whatsoever.”
 
On the other hand, God perceives everything from a much higher perspective. He desires to reveal His perspective to us, so we too can see from the higher view.
 
The Lord said, “Facts are surface evidence. In other words, facts are what can be seen from an onlooker’s perspective. It’s what can be seen or proven in the natural realm.
Truth may not be visible from the natural perspective. It’s the unseen reality that reaches farther and deeper than what can be contained merely on the surface. Truth and facts are likened to the body and spirit. The body is a natural entity that can be seen and certain facts are told by observing it. There’s a reality within the body that is of much greater depth of truth in which cannot be seen with the natural eyesight. (that the spirit within the person).”
 
A few days prior to preparing this, I heard the Lord say, “We are at the brink of a greater awakening than what this generation has ever known. Because of this awakening – manifestations of the spiritual realm will begin to happen more frequently in the days to come and at a greater depth than what many may have ever experienced to this present time.”  He then, after a couple of days, continued to speak to me about this saying, “The enemy always counterfeits what My Spirit is doing. This is a time to be keen, sharpened, and intimately in-tune to what is truth. You will need to look beyond the facts displayed before you to rightly discern between what is fake and what is genuine.”
 
Fake – one that is not what it purports to be: A worthless imitation passed off as genuine.
Genuine – possessing the claimed or attributed character, quality, or origin; not counterfeit; authentic; real.
If we are to be sharp to what is truth as opposed to what is a clever imposter of truth, we need to know the Lord well.  We can only achieve that by spending time with Him, listening to His voice, and studying His word. We also need to know without a shadow of a doubt, who we are in Him and what authority we’ve been given through His name.
 
Let’s not be ignorant in knowing, we do have a spiritual enemy. We need not fear the enemy but we do need to be aware of the game he plays. The enemy is all about deception. If we can fall into his game of deception then it’s highly likely we’ll be maneuvered off track from God’s truth. When we’ve stepped off track, we then tend to lay down our authority. It’s not taken, for it cannot be taken from us, rather, we hand it over. Just as Jesus said in regard to His crucifixion, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” John 10:18
When the Spirit of God is within us, nothing we have been given from Him can be stolen by the enemy, it can only be handed over of our own accord.  That doesn’t mean we cannot be tricked into handing it over, because that’s exactly what his game of deception is all about.
When we move off track through deceptive tactics, oftentimes it brings discourse and division among the members of the Body. Sometimes we even begin to place our focus on idols that come to us disguised as light. (too much focus on our careers, hobbies, another person that sways us away from a strong walk with the Lord, etc.)
 
It’s easy to assume we’re above the deception. How many times have we thought to ourselves? Not me, I’d never fall for that!? In my own life, I know there have been many times, I’ve wondered how someone else could have gotten themselves into the predicament they did when to me it seemed so obvious at the forefront of it. I’m pretty positive other people have thought the same thing about circumstances in my life.  Especially in times of chaos and confusion, which life does occasionally bring to us, without holding onto truth with the tightest grip possible, it can be easier to be deceived than one might think.
 
Without the presence of truth, facts do not necessarily create a valid foundation. A conclusion based on mere facts alone can be nothing more than assumption placed between each fact, bonding them together to from a completion. Think of it like this; we have a fact, then we take a hunk of assumption and place it on top of that fact using it like glue, then we place another fact on top of that, bonding the two facts together with the assumption we’ve placed in between for the purpose of creating a conclusion. This method is used frequently in the courtroom by prosecutors when they are trying to convince a jury someone is guilty of a crime. It’s called circumstantial evidence. The problem with this method is, without knowledge of actual truth, although it has the appearance of reality, this can be way off base.
 
 
2 Kings 6:15-17 “When the servant of the man of God got up in the morning and went outside, he saw troops, horses, and chariots surrounding the city. Elisha’s servant asked, “Master, what should we do?” Elisha answered, “Don’t be afraid. We have more forces on our side than they have on theirs. “Then Elisha prayed, “Lord, please open his eyes so that he may see.” The Lord opened the servant’s eyes and let him see. The mountain around Elisha was full of fiery horses and chariots.”
 
When the servant judged the situation by what he could visibly see before him, his conclusion was that of failure in the battle they were about to face. The facts were, they were visibly surrounded by their enemy.  Then, when the Lord opened the servant’s vision to see the truth beyond the natural facts, he then saw a totally opposite perspective. The truth was, there was a greater army fighting for them than what there was against them. Therefore, he no longer saw defeat, he saw the victory at hand!
 
If you listen to the radio or watch television at all, most likely you’ve been hearing much ado regarding ‘fake news’. The so-called fake news would like to sway us into falling prey to a false belief system. The fact is, it really is ‘news’. We tune into the news channel to hear it, or we hear it being broadcast over the radio during the news break. The truth is, the stories being reported aren’t entirely filled with truth. There’s a dab of truth mixed in with a few facts along with assumption and accusation. All those things are then being labeled as the whole picture. Truth is not genuinely truth unless everything within its contents are entirely true.
 
The Holy Spirit revealed to me, “there will be a coming of counterfeit signs and wonders that we need to be spiritually sharp to the deceptions they will carry within”. Will the signs, miracles and wonder be facts. Yes, they will be actual documented events. Although documented as factual, the origination of those events will not be from a core and foundation of truth and that’s what makes them counterfeit.  Think of it in comparison to counterfeit money. The money is made to appear nearly identical to the genuine money. The difference being, as highly skilled as the counterfeiters are, they still cannot replicate the money exactly. The professional who has spent time studying and has been trained to detect the fraud can discern the difference between the original and the reproduction. To the layman who is unskilled in detecting the counterfeit, it may sneak past us as the genuine thing. If you have a slight amount of knowledge in what to look for, there is one way to expose a counterfeit bill from one that is genuine and that is to hold it up to the light. When held to the light, there are a couple of features that reveals itself as being counterfeit or genuine.  The Light always exposes the lie from the truth.
 
The fact is, Jesus was beaten and crucified on a cross. By all appearances, He was defeated. He died. The truth is, He conquered death on that day, and rose from the grave in the greatest VICTORY that ever was or ever will be! He’s alive!
 
The fact may be, you’ve been diagnosed with cancer. The truth is, Jesus has given us victory over sickness and disease.
 
The fact may be, you’ve fallen into a mess of sin. The truth is, Jesus has given the grace to you that your sins may be forgiven and you can be set free of the bondage of sin.
 
The facts may be present, but let’s not stop there with receiving the facts as the entire truth. Deep calls unto deep and the depth of the Spirit of God within us may be asking you to believe to a greater extent than you’ve ever done before, it may be requiring your faith to go above and beyond what you think you are capable of doing, or it may be asking you to issue mercy to someone that goes against all facts your hearing and seeing about them in the natural. There may very well be a greater revelation of truth awaiting our perception.
 
Let’s be wise in what we’re judging according to the facts presented before us. Let’s not judge one another wrongly by placing too much faith on a set of facts. Let’s also be wise and discerning in testing the spirits as to not jump into wrongful alliances per facts displayed. Let’s be seekers of the truth.
 
Remembering always; The Truth has the power to transform your so-called present reality into Kingdom reality.
 
Many Blessings,
 
Taffie Beisecker