Walk

308. Truth - Zakah

The basic human need is for the presence of God so that we can feel loved, cared for and secure. Most Christians seldom or never realize God’s presence personally. Perhaps sometimes they do in a big meeting, but not on a personal daily basis. Some believers get ZAPPED with the Holy Spirit at youth camps, retreats or during special services, but then they experience dryness when they get back to everyday life.

What can we do to cooperate with God to cause His Presence to last?

We live in a world, which is under the influence of our enemy.

In Daniel chapter 6, Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den for disobeying the world ruler King Darius. I don’t think that Daniel was overly courageous; he must have experienced a certain amount of anxiety.

If we can find out why Daniel was delivered from his enemies without being destroyed, we can learn something.

Daniel 6:21-22 gives us the answer. The king came to the lion’s den the next morning and called out to see if Daniel had survived.

“Then Daniel said to the king, ‘O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you” (Daniel 6:21-22).

Daniel attributed his survival in the face of those hungry lions to a word called innocent.

Daniel was “innocent” which in Hebrew is ‘Zakah.’ The definition of Zakah is to be translucent, innocent, clean, clear, pure, and transparent. In other words, it means to be real, to be who you really are; no masks, no hidden motives, no desire to manipulate others.

Most people don’t see the value in being honest with themselves, others and even God. But total honesty will always deliver us from our enemies and into God’s loving hands and care.

Honesty and transparency kept him safe from the lions, and destroyed his enemies.

We need light, but men prefer darkness.

Darkness in the Bible always refers to dishonesty; light always means truth.

John 3:19-21 says, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

God is Light; God is Truth, so… Light = Truth.

John had a special revelation of Jesus and the fact that He was truth and life.

1 John 1:1-10 says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of live – the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us – that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us (the same that we have); and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full (in seeing you included in this fellowship). This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

The above passage was written about 50 years after Jesus was crucified, and John talks about having fellowship with Him in the same way as they used to have when they could touch with their hands.

Living in the light means opening up the depth of our souls, which includes our emotions. I believe that Daniel spent the night in the lion’s den telling God exactly how he felt. He brought to Him all his fears, sin and faith, and whatever else he was feeling.

Confession brings us into the light, but not ordinary confession. We need to confess our real feelings and emotions.

Confession brings the Cross.

1. We were damaged by sin; confession opens our hurts to God.

2. We have emptiness; confession fills us with God.

3. We try to control our lives; confession puts our trust in God (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Confession begins in trusting a God you cannot see. Colossians 1:25-27 says He is in you. John 14:25-26 says that He, the Holy Spirit is here to take Jesus’ place.

How can we trust anyone with our honest feelings?

Ephesians 2:4-5a (Amplified Bible) says, “But God – so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us, even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowhip and in union with Christ…” God loves us. He wants us to be real no matter how bad we are. He puts all the bad on the Cross when we tell Him.

The Word says that we are filled with many things that are not godly (Mark 7:20-23). Who would love us? We can’t believe that God will accept us with all our bad stuff.

God justifies the wicked. Romans 4:5 says “But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.”

In Isaiah 6;1-8 Isaiah was convicted of his sins and cleansed when he entered into God’s presence.

God does not bring guilt and shame, but conviction, love and healing. He washes us.

God is not a teacher testing our behavior and way of thinking; you cannot think your way to God.

God is the lover of our souls!!

Confession opens our eyes and brings the Cross and God’s presence on the scene.

Now go through this list of emotions on the next page and tell God how you are really feeling.

List of Emotions

Use these as a guide for telling the Lord how you feel.

abandoned	dependent	hysterical	put down
accepted	depressed	ignored	puzzled
adequate	deprived	immature	reasonable
affectionate	despair	impatient	rebellious
afraid	destroyed	incompetent	rejected
alienated	disappointed	incomplete	resentful
alone	discouraged	indifferent	responsible
angry	disgusted	inhibited	sad
annoyed	dissatisfied	insecure	secure
anxious	distrustful	insulted	skeptical
apathetic	dominated	intimate	small
aroused	drained	intimidated	smothered
ashamed	embarrassed	jealous	sorry
attacked	empty	judged	squelched
betrayed	envious	left out	strong
bitter	exasperated	lonely	stubborn
blamed	falling apart	mean	stupid
bottled up	fearful	mournful	submissive
caged	foolish	nervous	supportive
caring	forgiving	obnoxious	suspicious
challenged	forsaken	offended	sympathetic
cheated	frantic	on edge	threatened
cold	frustrated	open	timid
competent	furious	out of control	uncertain
complaining	giving	outraged	uneasy
confused	glad	overburdened	unhappy
controlled	gloomy	overwhelmed	unimportant
cooperative	grief	paralyzed	used
cornered	guilty	persecuted	valued
crazy	happy	pessimistic	violated
critical	hassled	pleased	vulnerable
deceived	hate	powerless	weak
defeated	helpless	prejudged	withdrawn
defensive	humiliated	pressured	worried
deflated	hurt	pulled apart	worthless
degraded

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