This Sunday I will begin a new series called “Summer Baggage: Weighed Down by the Baggage We Carry.” For our devotional thought this week, allow me to give you an advance preview of one of the concepts we will consider as we learn how to get rid of the excess baggage we carry. It has to do with the primary tool the Holy Spirit uses in our lives: truth.
If there is one verse you will hear politicians quote, even though they often take it out of context, it’s John 8:32 where Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
We hear that a lot, but do you know what that verse really means? It means that, if you’re going to be free from bondage (emotionally, morally, ethically, relationally), it’s truth that is the trigger that’s going to set us free.
Whatever the Holy Spirit is going to do in your life or in my life, it will be constantly reminding us of the truth. The Spirit will be bringing truth to bear on our situation, and you know what happens? It will begin to expose the lies that we’ve been believing about life. It will expose the lies that we have believed about ourselves, about our parents, about our friends, about God, about the Bible, whatever it might be.
The Holy Spirit is in the truth business. In John 17:17, Jesus was praying for his disciples, and he said to his heavenly Father, “Sanctify them in truth; your word is truth.” This is the lifestyle in which the Holy Spirit will lead you. It’s not going to be some weird feeling you have; you don’t have to look at cloud formations or billboards, or listen to words on the radio to hear God’s voice; you just have to spend some time with the Bible if you want to hear the prompting of the Spirit — because God’s word is truth.
This is where the Holy Spirit will lead you as you seek to get rid of the baggage you’ve been lugging around. Because the main tool the Holy Spirit will use in your life is truth.
In the name of the One who can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
Bruce Jones, Pastor and Co-Creator,
Imagine Church of the Carolinas
