A couple of weeks ago, before I read your article Truth in a "Nutshell", I received an email that contained correspondence from several different people all with their own unique perspectives and definitions of truth.  It prompted me to consider what my own perspective on truth is and here is what was revealed to me:

To:

Subject: truth

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:32:55 -0800

Although I don't utilize this practice as much as I should, the spiritual perception of truth is the most beneficial; it is the purest and most absolute form in existence.  It is also the first and most essential step in defending oneself against the evil that is so prevalent in our society today.  This is due to the constant spiritual battle taking place within the human soul and the equally chaotic battle between good and evil taking place in our world every day.  There is an altered state of consciousness that may be referred to or reached in several different ways.  To avoid confusion and still validate the effectiveness of these diverse methods and terms, I will group meditation, mindfulness, a higher state of consciousness, complete awareness, hyper focusing, prayer and or worshiping into the term sanctuary.  When a person is in their sanctuary, there is simply no room for any fear or falsehoods.  These are completely canceled out by the occupying forces of love and truth.   

However, the minute we step out of sanctuary, we are back into the thick of battle between good and evil, love and fear, truth and deception and most of the time we don't even know we are being deceived.  Make no mistake, at some point today, you were unknowingly deceived.  First, we are fighting against the forces we cannot see that hold authority in the spiritual realms.  I like to refer to the comparison of Hitler attacking primitive countries with tanks, bombs and guns and the natives fighting back by throwing sticks, spears and stones.  We really don't have an accurate perception of the evil forces controlling our world.  And without knowing your enemy, how is it possible to not be overcome by them?  The first step in having a fighting chance in this battle is to know your enemy.  His primary weapon is deception by subtle design: 85% truth + 15% lie = 100% lie. 

This is only exacerbated by man's own conflicting nature between the flesh and the spirit.  However, we are not mindless vehicles of energy roaming around completely susceptible to attack.  We were born with a moral compass and a free will to exercise our actions as we choose: ethical or unethical.  The voice in our conscience will sometimes speak to us in the tones of loud alarm bells, other times in a near silent whisper and sometimes somewhere in between the two.  Whether or not we use our conscience, we were born with one.  How we choose to use it defines the type of person we are and has a direct influence on how we fare in the battle between the flesh and the spirit.  It is also very similar to weight training.  The amount of effort put into making unethical or ethical choices has a direct bearing on the size of the "muscle" of the conscience, making the soul either one that is growing on the journey of love and truth or shrinking as it becomes empty on the journey of desensitization, fear and lies.  As C.S. Lewis so eloquently put it, the two most common mistakes people make are either in assuming that the devil has too much power or in assuming that the devil does not have enough power. 

While it is true that the authoritative forces of our spiritual realm are evil, the higher truth to keep in mind here is that God is more powerful than these forces.  He does not do anything without a reason of divinity and love.  While we may not know why he lets demonic forces rule our world, it's necessary to keep in mind that while it may be a daily battle caused by a combination of evil forces and our inner evilness, God does give us several different ways to not only defend ourselves, but come out glorious in this epic battle. 

In Ephesians, God made it clear that while we do struggle some with our own flesh and spirit, the bigger and more significant battle is between us and the evil authorities of the powers of darkness and the evil spiritual forces of heaven (the devil & his legions of demons).  He then outlined the spiritual armor you wear to fight in this battle.

Not so ironically, truth is the first defense tactic mentioned.

Truth: Stand therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest.  To me, this goes back to being present in our sanctuary, and again for me, communion with God.  There are so many terribly negative outside influences I am bombarded with every second of every day, that the only time to have a break, to absorb that love and truth, is sometimes when I am in complete mindfulness or awareness of God's truth and love.  This state can be reached through prayer, meditation or mindfulness exercises.  This can also be found in simple ways, such as enjoying a beautiful sunrise, or being completely aware and in awe of the smell of a fresh rose.  Again, this brings a person closer to God and makes them more wise with discerning what is true and what is false.

Prayer: The power of faith is sadly underrated by most of the human population.  Jesus said that if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.  This is very true.  If you pray and believe in what you are praying about, whether it is to be less plagued by a flesh temptation, or to be more in tune with God and less with the world, it will happen.  God says that with the shield of faith, you will be able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one.  This is interesting because to me, it brings to mind something my friend once told me about how both the Roman and the Spartan soldiers fought in wars.  In their battle formations their shields and stances served to cover the soldiers as a unit as long as they kept to their stances and stayed close together.  When a flaming arrow was shot at the unit, it was not only done in an attempt to pierce someone, but also to distract or draw attention away from the stance.  If something caught on fire near the ground and started to get close to the soldiers and one of them had to stamp it out, they could make the whole entire unit vulnerable to attack.   But by staying FOCUSED with faith in God through prayer we are much less likely to be distracted.  He also wants us to be close to other people who stay close with him.  There is strength in numbers.  This does not mean that you need become a member of a church.  To me, this means it may not be wise to spend a lot of time with a bunch of people who don't regularly exercise their moral discretion.  To not be afraid of encountering these lost souls, but to be proactive and wise in choosing my companions as people who are also on a journey of truth and love.

Gospel: And your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace.....I am still wrestling with this one.  I really have reason to believe that parts of the bible are authentic and not corrupted and that parts of the bible indeed are corrupted and maybe not authentic.  It has power against evil when used with prayer to interpret it correctly and that prayer before delving into it will prevent a person from not only interpreting it incorrectly but also from being deceived by false doctrines and teachings of God's message.  He did warn that this would happen and that there would be many false prophets (teachers) & followings (cults, misguided religions & churches) prevalent in our world.   I'm torn about this because there is so much beauty in the scriptures.....it's almost like a love letter from God to us, yet there are some areas I completely don't understand and some areas that just seem wrong.  And I am struggling with application.  What do you take literally?  Some things for me are necessary to.  Some things it would be utterly stupid to.  Actually the only reason I bring this portion of defense in the battle of spiritual warfare is because it is mentioned in conjunction with the other two defenses and it has worked for me numerous times before.  Certain verses used against specific attacks have worked as effectively or even more so than prayer has before. 

When all is said and done, it's a journey & one must be very sober and aware of the fight.  I am not the authority on this matter in any way, shape or form, and can only speak from personal experience and the current stance I have.  Which is to be aware of deception and how to counter it.  Also to be open to many avenues of thought on spirituality so as to not be sucked into false teachings by staying close minded.  To be aware that in doing this, I could just as easily be deceived.  Ultimately, to stay close to God and his wisdom through prayer and to then trust the intuition that guides you in the purest form of truth there is: spirituality.

Anyways, during writing this and when I was finished, I was somewhat surprised at the speed with which my thoughts on this were coming from my mind through my fingers to the keyboard and onto my computer screen.  I think I had had this on my mind for a while.  I wanted to thank you for responding to the first email I sent to you that contained my queries regarding your article.  And again, if you have any feedback on my thoughts, please feel free to share them.

Sincerely,

JG

 1. We realize that God is WITHIN US, EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US.

 2. ALL RELIGION WILL CEASE TO EXIST.

 From the words of the Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah in chapter 31 verse 31:

 "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying , Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest  of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

 In order for mankind to stop teaching about God, religion must cease.  If we are all to know God, "from the least to the greatest", then of course we must come to the realization that God is within us.

 Everything is as it should be and the righteous are progressing as we should.  We should not take the destruction of religion and religious teaching as a offensive thing, but a GOOD AND RIGHTEOUS thing!

 Be at peace.

 CHS