Message

Have you ever thought, â€œIf I could just find out what really went onâ€¦â€ Or, â€œIf I could only find out the facts, if I just knew the truth, then I could get closure on this thing?â€

Sometimes it does help to discover the facts. We see what really happened, and the lights go on! We understand. We repent or forgive and everything settles into place. We are free.

But what if revelation doesnâ€™t come? What if truth remains hidden? Are we stuck? Has it become impossible to get closure?

Weâ€™re all familiar with the quote, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). But truth is two-fold. Truth is sometimes true facts. Discovering the facts does help to set us free. But for Christians, truth has also become a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:6). We know that in the end it is only the grace of God in Jesus that sets us free, no matter how many facts we know or donâ€™t know. What was it that actually would have granted closure? Christians know it is truly not facts, or knowledge, but the grace of our Lord Jesus that sets people free. Simple forgiveness grants closure. We let go, and weâ€™re free.

What was required for those people who were crucifying Jesus to receive His forgiveness? Was it necessary that they understood who He was, and what they were doing to Him? Or did the Father answer Jesusâ€™ prayer that they be forgiven "for they know not what they are doing?" (emphasis mine). Of course, understanding was necessary for them to personally experience the benefits of his sacrifice. However, even before they did, the gift came for those desperately sinning people simply by grace. They had to understand the gift in order to appropriate it, but not in order to make it happen in the first place. It was all done in that moment, their sin was forgotten by the Father, solely because Jesus forgave.

Some, to whom we have ministered, have cried out, "Oh, if I could just remember what really happened in my childhood, then I could get free." Or, " I can't get closure until I find out the truth." They don't realize they have just elevated knowledge beyond its place and have in fact entered into the heresy of gnosticism, that we are saved by right knowledge, rather than by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The fact is, where there is a fruit, there is a root. It's always helpful to locate the childhood memories where a root originated. But if you can't, you can still pray by faith, and God will heal you.

This realization has acted as a counterbalance upon all we do and teach in Elijah House! We are known for revealing keys of knowledge that have set countless thousands free. Our prayer ministers daily sit like Nathanic prophets, lead by the Holy Spirit, ferreting out the truth of hidden sins in people's lives, so that our Lord can set them free. The consequent temptation upon us, moment by moment, is to revere knowledge, and the keys of knowledge God has given us, as though that were the saving grace that sets people free. That in turn elevates us as the primary possessors of the keys of knowledge that alone can set people free. That becomes elitist, and idolatrous. It's an easy step from true following into idolatry. This calls us at Elijah House, daily, momentarily, to death of self and to humility in Him.

But what about you? If you are a teacher or a preacher, do you come across like everyone ought to be grateful for you and revere you because you give gifts of knowledge everyone must have to be free? Is it possible that idolatry is involved?

It is anger that reveals idolatry. Remember how Nebuchadnezzar became angry when people refused to worship the image he had set up? Though the image was of the goddess Bel, it was in fact an image that called people to worship Nebuchadnezzar. Do you get angry when people reject what you say or react against you? That's a sure sign of idolatry. You are demanding that people worship your version of the truth, thus that they actually idolize you! True, there can be some righteous anger for the sake of the people. But the wise will refuse to congratulate themselves in their own supposed righteousness, and repent for demanding. Or manipulating. Or anything to get our version of reality accepted and "dirties on them" if people don't go along with our idolatry!

Closer to home, do your children get the message, sometimes not so subliminally, that they had better hear you, or else? We can hide our gnostic idolatry behind the truth that their lives and character are dependent on hearing and obeying us. That necessity to hear and obey remains true. But anger that becomes abusive is a sure sign of idolatry. Remember, truth is a Person. When we express teachings and discipline our children in ways that are not in His nature, although it may be truth biblically, the way we do it is not truth. Our abusive angers tell us that we are no longer serving Jesus in the raising of our children; we are demanding that they worship us, and angry when they refuse to do that.

To repeat, in sum, what grants us closure, an end to trouble and the beginning of peace, in any situation? Is it facts? Or is it simply grace? It's great to have knowledge, and to minister it, preach it and teach it. But is that what will most benefit people in the end? Or will it be to connect them with Jesus, so He can set them free? How easily our possession of true knowledge becomes idolatrous! We don't see the idolatry, or we'd quit it. It shows up in our inordinate insistence on our versions of the truth, and in our angers. May God set us free from idolatry, whether of gnosis or of ourselves, and grant us grace to walk unperturbed with the jagged and ragged edges of unanswered mystery. We don't have to know. We have only to rest in the grace of Jesus and let go.