The purpose of a probe is to dig down deep into our spirits to find the things that need to be uncovered and let the Spirit of the Lord deal with them. The difficulty with most of us is that we are too superficial in our understanding of ourselves or of the will of God. Consequently, we never really come to grips with ourselves until some type of probe comes to us. Then we begin to face the things deep in our hearts with the desire to have the Lord make changes in areas where we have almost been conditioned to be filled with unbelief, causing us to wonder, “Will I ever change?”
Most of you are products of the grace of God and you have changed a great deal; but you may still find things in your nature that have not yielded to the Spirit of the Lord to be changed. Do situations and problems seem to reoccur almost as if there is a conspiracy against you and no way out of an oppressive circumstance? All of us have experienced that, and most people are resigned to say, “Nothing can really change.” It can. It can.
Most of the problems that people acknowledge are but symptoms; the real disease they have not determined. After a time, you can become so conditioned that you almost accept certain situations and because you are not deeply analytical, you tend to overlook all the possibilities of finding an answer. The Holy Spirit would like you to search deeply and find, not the symptoms, but the real causes of your problem. If some individual in the church keeps going back to old habits, we wonder why he is not delivered from them as others are. It may be that he is conditioned in his spirit by some underlying cause that is not apparent.
In this message we will speak about lying and about the truth. A man may be very sincere in his opinions, thinking that everyone else is wrong, because he does not know the truth or have the capacity to know the truth. Where does deception begin? Why is it that an individual who has been in the church for years can suddenly find himself on the outside, critical and bitter? Only a few months before he would have given his life to defend the very thing he is now tearing down. How do lies and deception take hold of a person’s heart? What is it that gets down in a person’s spirit? Psalm 51:6 tells us that God desires truth in the inward parts (deep within us), and in the hidden part He will make us to know wisdom.
What disturbs me most is the fact that this strange little quirk, the lie or deception in our spirits, has such a close kinship to Satan. Jesus said of the devil, he is a liar (literally: “the lie”), and the father of it. John 8:44b. Satan cannot know the truth. It would be impossible for him to give an honest picture of what is happening because he does not know it himself. In his nature there is no capacity to know the truth. How frightening it is to see that Jesus turned to the Jews and said, “You are of your father the devil. If you were of God you would know the truth” (John 8:44b,47). “You reject Me because My word has no place in you” (John 8:37). They could not know the truth. It is an alarming fact that even though you love God, in many of you there exists a root of that same thing. It is so deceptive that you could be in a situation where you know you are absolutely to blame, yet walk away from it and never think about it again, that you could cover up the situation and shift the blame to someone else. Not that you do it often, but that little capacity and that little root is present. And it is just serious enough that some place along the line—given the right circumstances and the right pressures—it could spring up and be your defeat.
The fourth chapter of Ephesians is one of the most amazing chapters in the entire Bible. It tells how Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father and He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Why? That they would minister for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry. They are to help them grow up in God into a state of maturity, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Maturity has never actually been defined in the Scriptures, but many of the evidences of maturity are clearly outlined. In Ephesians 4 Paul tells how the Body, speaking the truth in love, is going to edify itself and grow up in all things into Him, who is the Head. The foundational ministries are given to bring the Body into maturity, as they edify, teach, minister, and impart to you; yet Paul emphasizes also the responsibility of the individual member in that Body. There are some things you must do too. You cannot just say, “Apostle, minister to me. Prophet, prophesy to me. Teacher, teach me.”
Paul exhorts us in verses 17 and 18: This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk (notice this next phrase), in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart. The hardening of the heart is the thing that darkens the understanding and alienates you from the life of God. The hardening of the heart is the basis of ignorance down deep inside.
Wisdom is a positive entity in a person’s life. Although it is intangible and cannot be defined, it is a reality, almost like a mystical substance. Wisdom is an amazing thing—so is ignorance. A person could have the I.Q. of a genius and yet be alienated from the life of God because of a deep ignorance. All the intelligence in the world would not overcome that ignorance in him. And how did it come about? Because of the hardening of his heart. It is a dangerous thing.
Proverbs 29:1 warns us: He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. It is when we keep hearing the truth but we never react with an open heart that our heart becomes hardened; and then in an amazing way the dark substance of ignorance begins to prevail. When someone reaches in and taps wisdom, it flows out like a substance. Ignorance, the counterpart of that wisdom, results from hardening the heart, just as wisdom is received by asking in faith, believing God who gives to all men liberally (James 1:5,6). Keep your heart open. Do not harden your heart on any issue.
Continuing in Ephesians 4, we read in verses 19–25: who being past feeling gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye did not so learn Christ; if so be that ye heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus (notice: truth is in Jesus): that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit (Here we are dealing with deep deception, with the big lie. Satan can fool you until you are so self-deceived that you will be subject to spiritual danger in the days to come.); and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. You put away deceit and you put on this new man that has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. Wherefore, putting away falsehood (the lie), speak ye truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. The falsehood, the deceit, the lie down in their own heart is what causes people to lose out. They are darkened in their understanding.
In almost every instance when people get in trouble in their walk it is because of that deceit, that lie within them. It cannot be covered over. Young people get into trouble because they turn away from the truth and start covering over, exaggerating and deceitfully putting up a facade, putting on a front. If they do not deal with the problem, before long the lie takes over. It is called the lusts of deceit. Everything about it is lust. The young people out in the world are deceived and they are trying to deceive. Watch the way they set about to deceive and seduce one another, how they feign feelings for each other that are not genuine. They are just out to take one another. They do not know how to relate to another person in the truth. The glamour of the world—in people’s clothes, in their manners—is set to create something that just does not exist. A girl uses all kinds of gimmicks and gadgets in cosmetics trying to present herself in a picture completely different from what she is. And she does not stop with the outward veneer; even in her personality she can be so deceitful. A young man may appear to be one of the finest a girl could meet. The basic undercurrent of selfishness or even ruthlessness in his own spirit may not reveal itself until after he marries her or takes advantage of her. The deceit goes deep. It is a lie down deep within.
The early Church had their own ways of building up glamour and a facade. Imagine being a part of the Corinthian church and receiving a letter from your apostle that rebuked you as thoroughly as the book of Corinthians does. How would you like to have something so glorious jab you and point out all your failings in every chapter? We have had the truth come to us and I have been praying that this probe would be a true purging word. I know what it has done for me. I minister to people, telling them exactly what is wrong, hitting the problem head-on, but with love—speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).
I wonder how many of you would not be offended if you were told, frankly, what is wrong with you. In many of you there is a desire for the truth, but are you sure you want that deep failing revealed that you hide even from yourself? With the help of the Holy Spirit you have to probe deep within to find it. We expect the pastor, the elders, and everyone else to be diplomatic, yet it is surprising how much love there is in the churches and how little diplomacy. That is the way it will have to be.
Do we really understand the depth of our own feelings in many situations? Wherever there is division or an issue in the house of God and it seems that some are on one side and some on the other, the root of it involves some deep deception. When someone identifies his own situation with that of an individual who is having a problem, he cannot honestly come into an understanding of that problem because he refuses to see what is wrong in himself. You will find yourself sympathetic or at least excusing someone who has the same kind of problem you have, because you could not honestly go to him and say, “Dear brother, you have a problem; let me tell you what is wrong and pray with you and help you.” You cannot do that if you are not willing to have that same problem dealt with that honestly in your own heart. This leads you to be sympathetic. How dangerous is the response of sympathy!
Instead of judging a person in some kind of problem, you may justify him—and that is judgment in reverse. When a judge sits on the bench, it is his responsibility to make a decision. We usually think of his decision only in terms of condemning an individual and sentencing him to prison, but we forget that he can also justify that man and release him. Judgment has two sides. You may say, “I do not judge my brother,” meaning that you could look at his faults and not condemn him. Then what are you doing? justifying him? You are still his judge and you have judged just as unrighteously—maybe more so—because he may stand condemned in his fault which you have seen, but you justified him nevertheless. That is of the devil because that is the way he operates. He is the one who comes as an angel of light to cover up. If you are justifying someone else, without a doubt you are doing the same thing for yourself. Sympathy may lead you to exonerate, to defend, and justify another individual. At other times, sympathy may lead you to condemn another person because you have been in a similar situation in which you feel you were wronged; consequently, it is a way of vengeance for you.
I do not want to get tripped up by anything of that lying nature within me. I want to put away falsehood and speak the truth to my neighbor. I hate a lie and I do not want to live a lie. Probably the most difficult days of David’s life were those which he spent among the Philistines feigning madness, with spittle running down his beard. Acting like an insane man was the only way he could save his life, but he must have hated it. He must have detested the sneakiness of hiding and living a life of a fugitive. When he finally came out in the open to be king, he was a good king and an honest one. Whether or not that deceit was in his nature, we do not know; but we find later he again acted deceitfully, even though he was a man after God’s own heart. Is there something in you that is deceitful? Do you lie to yourself? Have you deceived yourself? Let us get rid of these things.
Telling a lie and living a lie does not bother the man whose understanding is darkened, because his heart has become hardened. Problems often come up that could have been avoided if the individual had been open and receptive when I exhorted him, “There is something wrong; I can help you,” instead of insisting that nothing was wrong when there was. Could you get up in front of a congregation and say, “I hate to be humiliated, but I must confess this sin that is in my spirit”? Can you honestly confess your faults one to another, speaking the truth in love?
If someone criticizes your child, do you rise up in indignation with that “blood is thicker than water” concept, refusing to be helped, covering over, and withdrawing? Do not say, “Nobody is going to touch me.” We are! We are going to touch you and we are going to touch your children—to the depths of your hearts. We will reach down to the bottom of your spirit until we have truth in the inward parts and we speak the truth in love, until everyone puts away falsehood and speaks truth to his neighbor, with no evasiveness or attempt to cover up, until each one confronts his brother with faith and with love, without putting on a false front. Will you let your faults be brought out plainly in the open?
Some of you are so oversensitive that instead of accepting constructive criticism, you defeat yourself and go into the depths of sheer agony because you do not like yourself and are always ready to condemn yourself. I am not saying that you must be madly in love with yourself, but you should understand that you are the handiwork of God. Look at yourself almost objectively, as if you were a disinterested bystander looking at a stranger, seeing his need. Then give yourself honest advice with no drawing back. One young man recently remarked glibly that he was somewhat lax in certain areas. I told him, “You have to face the fact that you are actually lazy,” and he admitted honestly that I was right. When you face your problem, you will see it solved. As long as you refuse to look at it, it will remain. Change comes when there is truth in the inward parts.
One man in the New Testament who probably had a better concept of himself in relationship to God than anyone else, said, For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Romans 7:18a. The apostle Paul would say that? Shouldn’t he have presented a better image of an apostle? Should an apostle go around calling himself the chiefest of sinners, saying he is not sufficient of himself to think anything of himself? Shouldn’t he have more self-esteem? Should a man look back to everything that he was and say he counts it all dung? Do you understand what Paul was doing? He had a very realistic view of himself, and yet it is in his writings that we come forth with the glorious understanding that every man chosen by God has been foreknown and predestinated to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. What a glorious future he saw for every man in Christ. However, he was always very blunt to point out that there is nothing good in the flesh. For the benefit of those who boasted that being a Jew was of any advantage, he wrote, “We are the circumcision that worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3).
I am glad we are seeing different racial and cultural backgrounds represented in the churches. I honestly love them, and I hate to see people pretending outwardly that they love them when they do not. I want it to be honest, unfeigned love from the heart, so they all feel that we are their brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. When people come in who are dirty, who have been on dope, or have deep needs, do not draw back from them. Love them, even though their way of life is different than yours. Open your hearts to be a church full of love, a church full of the truth, and that comes by having the truth and walking in it. Do not profess to believe and stand for one thing, while putting on a front and living something else.
You are living a lie if you try to worship God when you are filled with bitterness and an unforgiving or critical spirit. You cannot do it. How can you love God and hate your brother? I John 1:7 tells us, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, then we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all unrighteousness.” Real love does not have to exonerate anyone; it does not have to condemn anyone. It reaches out, as the Word says, and speaks the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). Can it be done? To a great extent we have done it, but a probe is needed to find the little leaven in the corners.
“What about relationships among yourselves and in your family? There are people who are not walking with God to whom you are related. How do you respond to them? somewhat smug and proud of yourself? Or do you humble yourself, knowing what you know and the responsibility you have for walking in that word? Once you are exposed to yourself, the Holy Spirit will dig things up to show you and you cannot live with it. You will have to do something, and only you know what to do. We want to expose ourselves, not only to one another, but to the Lord; and then He deals with it—not to cover it up, but to see it taken care of.”
“As the word comes in love telling us the truth, we begin to slow down in the pace of serving the Lord and we examine ourselves. If our hearts are set to walk with God, we cannot help but hate the flaws which crop up in our own spirits and behavior patterns. They are a stench before God. It takes a deep probe of the Spirit with the word of authority to make us back up from all the wonderful truths and start dealing with the basic sins and deceits that are self-imposed and are bringing restraints upon that which God would have us to be.”
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Proverbs 28:13. We are not going to deceive ourselves and cover up. In every way we will be honest and open before the Lord. Ask the Lord to show you the depths of yourself, but only in the light of His righteousness, His goodness, and His mercy, so that you really can change.
We are not dealing with your little problems in the flesh, but with the basic deceit of the old nature. As long as you continue in that, the devil has you in a corner and sooner or later you will be completely deceived, convinced that your brothers and sisters do not love you and no one wants to help you.
You are to become the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a perverse and crooked generation among whom ye shine forth as lights in the darkness. And that is what God is going to make you—every single one of you—by the anointing of the Lord. To speak the truth, you must love the truth and walk in the truth.
If you come to church and worship the Lord and then go home passively retreating back into a hole, you are letting the flesh take over. This is a walk in the Spirit, not only when you are in a church service, but all the time—in church, at home, sleeping, waking, and eating. We do not want to live a lie. We want to move every day in the Spirit. We will either do that or we will not make it. It is in this basic area where all deception comes in. Do you want to get rid of the passivity, the walls, the moods and attitudes—everything that is a lie and is born of some lying tendency in your old nature? It will have to go!
Many people are deceiving themselves concerning submission. They are submissive to that which they want to be submissive and make a big issue of it; but if it is something they do not want, they back off. We are going to learn how rebellious the flesh is, and that rebellion will be put away in a true submission to God.
Let there be no passion of lust dominating the life, no bitterness, or anger, or criticism, no whining and complaining in self-pity—all of which is based on some lie, trying to present the flesh as something worthy, when it is not! Let the flesh be crucified and the righteousness of God come forth in us. Some of the young folks get into a rut, living their lives too much in the natural and not enough as a walk in the Spirit. We have some saints who walk with the Lord twenty-four hours a day, and all are going to do it.
If we make excuses and glamorize or soft-pedal the flesh, we will never be delivered. Find a strong detestable name for your failing and weakness, then name it, and repent of it. You will get rid of it by just being honest and exposed to God.
Out of the entire Christian world, only those who have a walk in the Spirit have reality, and every day it becomes more real. God is bringing us the truth that tears us apart. The Word of the Lord is a sharp two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It is all open before Him with whom we have to do. God is exposing what is in us, laying it open.
These probe messages cannot just be an experience; they must become a way of life. You almost need to have a dual focus: a focus on the Lord and His fullness and a complete acceptance of that, and a focus on what God wants to do to the flesh. We must hate it as much as God does. Hate the wickedness of it. Hate the lying tendency in your spirit, but love what God is bringing forth. Do not make an unbeliever of yourself by despising what God is doing. Do not say, “I am nothing, I am nothing.” You are too something! You are a child of God. You are a manifestation of His righteousness and His creative power to bring forth a child of God. Always hold that in your mind, but also see the flesh and hate it with a perfect hatred.
There should be no despair in any of us. The very fact that we are being disturbed by this is proof that we are going to make it. Each time the incisions are opened, God cuts a little deeper to take out the things we must get rid of. We are not going to see that duality in us. That was the problem with the Corinthian church, where there coexisted so much of the flesh and so much of the gifts of the Spirit. Many people in the denominational world today criticize the moving of the Holy Spirit just as people criticized the New Testament church in Corinth, “They speak in tongues and prophesy, but look at the way they are living.” People may justify themselves in rejecting it, but that does not excuse them. God is moving again today.
We want to see the duality brought to an end, by the flesh being crucified and the spiritual side taking over more and more. Remember this: if we walk in the Spirit we are not going to fulfill the lusts of the flesh; if we walk in the Spirit we are not under the law.
We cannot even have a phony repentance which is only an emotional activity of the soul and easily done. When I repent I cannot even make an eloquent prayer about it. I pray for some of the people’s sins and I cannot pray fluently. It is hard to find words. All we can say is, “O God, take this out; just take it out.” Deep repentance does not even have words for itself.
These are days that the members of the Body will discover one another. “Look, there is a foot. I never knew I had that foot. How about that hand? I never knew I had that.” The Body of Christ will discover itself. God is purging the members, taking away all the faults, and that true Church is going to come forth like a bride adorned for her husband, clothed in linen clean and white, the righteousness of the saints (Revelation 19). Out of this is coming righteousness, in the name of the Lord.
The fourth chapter of Ephesians ends with a warning: And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love. Ephesians 4:30–5:2a.
O Lord Jesus, we do not want to grieve the Spirit any more; nor do we want to fall short of all that the Spirit speaks to us. We loose ourselves by deep repentance and we ask, O Lord, that there be no more cover up to ourselves. If we are bitter and critical, Lord, we are going to come before You and cry that there be a release in the name of the Lord. If these things rise in our spirit and we withdraw, there is something behind that withdrawal—a pride that desires to present something false. We are going to have the truth and not withdraw from it. It has never been the desire of our hearts to see how much we could get away with, but Lord, neither do we want to cover up anything in any way. Forgive us and cleanse us, blessed Lord Jesus.