Receiving Truth

You, Lord, are near to all who call upon you,

to all who call upon you in truth (Ps. 145:18).

The time is coming, and is now here, when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem...but true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth;

and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. 

God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:21-24).

for John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5).

"It will come to pass in the last days," God says, " that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh...and it shall be that everyone shall be saved who calls on the name of the Lord" (Acts. 2: 17-21).

Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord in truth will receive the Spirit of truth and of revelation. 

From the beginning of time, it was said that "men began to invoke the Lord [in Hebrew, Yahweh] by name" (Gen. 4:26).  Later, in the Book of Exodus, we find that God revealed His Name to Moses, and Moses passed on the Name of the Lord to the Israelites, in a formal and permanent way.  That event evidently does not preclude the fact that generations before Moses also knew the Name of the Lord and were able to call upon Him, but now the nation as a whole knows and calls upon the Name Yahweh.

When Job's friends accused him of blasheming God for his cries, he answered them: How can that be when I feel the Spirit of God in my nostrils? (Job 27:3).  Job may not have understood the theology of what was happening to him, but he did know and recognize the Spirit of the Lord in his life, and he knew in his heart that God had not abandoned him.

Here is my point>  those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and holiness will receive the Spirit of truth; God still breathes His Spirit and His truth into the nostrils of those who seek Him.  When we are not attentive to God, we will not recognize the truth, but those who seek him, whether Christian or pagan, will receive revelation.  We know that those who heard the Apostles' testimony on the day of Pentecost were from all nations and tongues, all customs and practices---but they were "cut to the heart" and asked what they needed to do, and they all received the same answer:  Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will receive the promised Holy Spirit.  In other words, revelation came to those who sought the truth.

In the same way, the Roman Centurian Cornelius, not a member of the Jewish community, but a true seeker of God, received a vision from God telling him to send for Peter---and through Peter, whom God was preparing to go to Joppa, Cornelius would receive the revelation of truth about Jesus Christ. 

If we truly seek God, we will never be disappointed.  We will receive that which we seek.  People sometimes bristle at the Scriptures which say there is no other name by which men will be saved---but what about those who have not heard the Name?  God sends the Spirit of Truth to those who seek Him. 

It is good to have heard the Gospel, as Paul says about the Jews:  theirs are the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises (Romans (9:4).  But God's revelation is not limited to those who have inherited all these things, for Paul goes on to point out the words of the prophet Hosea:

those who were not my people I will call 'my people,'

and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'

and in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,'

there they shall be called children of the living God (Rom. 9: 25).

If we / anyone will but make time and space in our lives to seek God, God will do everything else.  He is no respecter of persons, but gives equally to all who seek Him. The Book of Hebrews tells us that God rewards those who seek Him (11:6).   In some ways, it's so simple: the reason the poor, the meek, and the lame will enter first into the kingdom is that they are the first to seek God--He is their only resource.  James says, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you" (4:8).  And I John says this:  But his annointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false (2:27).

Those who seek God will find Him, and He in turn will pour out His Spirit of truth into their hearts.