BUY THE TRUTH, AND SELL IT NOT

By Gary Amirault

Awoke one morning with this sentence strong in my spirit, 'Buy the truth, and sell it not'. And being yet more asleep than awake, there seemed to be an internal conversation taking place. The question was asked: What is the truth? Immediately the answer was there, 'Thy word is truth.' (John 17:17) Then the question: What is the Word? The answer: The Word is the REVEALED WILL OF GOD, anointed, quickened and made internally yours. Question: And what do you do with this Word? Answer: Buy it, and sell not! Yes, I will buy it, (Hebrew word is 'ganah' meaning: acquire, obtain.) I will acquire it, I will receive it, I will accept it, pay whatever price is necessary to obtain it-to lay down the self life, that we might receive Him. But then, having received a Word from the Lord, what do I do with it? The answer-

"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." (Col. 3:16)

How precious, we are to be BUYERS, but not SELLERS: Methinks we have often sold a "word of truth"-sold it (exchanged it) for a fear, for a worry, to satisfy the flesh, to gain a little prestige, or whatever. Sometimes we do learn by our experience-and I recall once that in a corporate share time, people were sharing their "portions of revelation," and it almost seemed to be a "can you top that?" type of sharing. Yet I went ahead and shared a very special thought which God had quickened to me, and realized the moment I shared it that I had sold it. Not because I wanted it sold, but responding to the moment, I had given it away for a moment of pride- "that I have a revelation that surpasses yours." The sorrow was that in that moment of self-pride, the life had gone out of the Word that was shared. So we learn to keep God's secrets. You buy the truth, but you do not sell it. It is not given to us to sell, but to DWELL-to dwell within us, that it might work within us, that it might change us. As was said of Joseph, "Until the time that his word (of deliverance, release from prison) came: the Word of the Lord tried him." (Psalm 105:19) Thank God for this INWORKING WORD!

When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, in the river of Jordan, and then anointed for His ministry, with "the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him, (Matt. 3:16), then He was led by the spirit into the wilderness, "to be tempted of the devil." (Matt. 4:1). Not a word is written down of that testing time, until you come to the narrative where three times you read, "IT IS WRITTEN." Every onslaught of temptation was countered by "IT IS WRITTEN." Tremendous emphasis upon THE WORD OF GOD! It is also significant that coming to the close of His official ministry, we have that tremendous High Priestly prayer of John 17, and again there are three references to the Word. Verse 8, "I have given unto them the Words which Thou gavest Me." Verse 14, "I have given them Thy Word." And verse 17, "Thy Word is truth."

What does this say to us. That the beginning and end of all ministry IS THE WORD OF GOD. It's not the phenomena, it's not the miracles, or all the other things which the Word can produce, and faith can enjoy, but the beginning and end of all ministry as revealed through our Lord Jesus Christ places the emphasis upon the WORD OF GOD. And when we see Him in the latter part of the book of Revelation (19:13), we find that He is "clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called THE WORD OF GOD." Truly, in Him, in THIS WORD PERSONIFIED we find the answer for the needs of humanity.

There is a progression to be noted here that is vital to our understanding. In Habakkuk 2:2-3, we read, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables. . .at the end it shall speak and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." And then when we read this again in Hebrews 10:37 we see that the vision becomes personified in our Lord Jesus Christ, "For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." The vision-the truth-THE WORD is Christ.

It is THIS WORD PERSONIFIED that will accomplish the outworking of our redemption. "So shall MY WORD be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11).

Oh beloved friend, BUY THE TRUTH, receive it, let it DWELL IN YOU. Greek word here for "dwell" is "enoikeo" literally: IN HOUSE. It means that we become the permanent dwelling place for His TRUTH- it is AT HOME in us, to have access to every part of our being, working in us of His blessed will. THE WORD needs to be so IN HOUSED in us that He controls every part of our being. Written in our hearts and in our minds, He is the INTERNAL DWELLER.

NO wonder Paul wrote, "Not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." (2 Cor. 3:6).

HE IS THAT SPIRIT which giveth life. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63) His words are not only spiritual, but they are SPIRIT. They not only strengthen, but they truly MAINTAIN LIFE. So Jesus said to the Jews, "Ye have not His word abiding in you: for whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not." Aha, to really have HIS WORD DWELLING WITHIN, is to also believe into HIM-you cannot separate the Word from the Person. You cannot truly believe the Scriptures without also believing into Him-and for the WORD to BECOME in you, to dwell in you.

Then Jesus gave a very illuminating statement: "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." (John 5:39-40)

These words, written by Ray Prinzing, searched my heart very deeply as I began writing the first of hopefully more issues of Dew from Mount Hermon. I could write many pages commenting on the above few paragraphs. I will leave it to the Holy Spirit and your hunger to get all that can be gotten from those words. I just want all of you who are reading this issue to lift me up in prayer that I do not SELL THE TRUTH for financial gain, nor for vain glory.

Gary Amirault