The City of Truth

A few weeks ago, while preparing to write my previous blog, I came across the word “spell” in the Merriam-Webster’s Thesaurus and it stirred up a few thoughts in my mind I’d like to share with you briefly. 

Spell (n): a spoken word or set of words believed to have magic power. syn.: charm, conjuration, incantation

Spell (vb): 1. to cast a spell on - SEE BEWITCH, 2. to communicate or convey (as an idea) to the mind.

 

Sin is a spell that we are all born under as descendants of Adam (Acts 17:26, Romans 3:23, Rom. 5:12). The words that the serpent used in the Garden of Eden to deceive Adam and Eve was a lie that sounded “charming” to them (Genesis 3:4-6). He conveyed an idea– by way of speech– into Eve’s mind in order to influence her sight so that she “saw” that the tree was good for food, delightful to the eyes and was to be desired to make one wise (verse 6). At that moment, Adam and Eve believed more in what they saw, than what God had said– what He had commanded them not to do (Gen. 2:16-17). They disobeyed Him by picking and eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 

In English class, the verb form of “spell” is used to mean: writing or reciting the individual letters of a word correctly to form that specific word. We can think of the books of Scripture (both Old and New Testaments) as individual letters that, when put together correctly, form or “spell” the Word which has the living power to free us from the spell of sin (Jeremiah 1:9-10, Luke 4:18-19, Luke 22:17-20, John 1:1-5, John 8:32). 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us of his birth, life, miracles, death, resurrection and just some of his works on Earth. It is called Gospel (Old English: gōd, good + spel, news, a story) because it contains the story of  the shedding of his blood on the cross. His blood is the "antidote" that heals us from the poison of sin (Matt. 26:28, Acts 20:28, Heb. 9:11-14). 

A synonym for the noun form of “gospel” is “veracity”. 

Veracity (n): 1 the quality or state of keeping close to fact and avoiding distortion or misrepresentation

syn.: truth, truthfulness, veraciousness, verity 

 

When I look closely at the word veracity it brings to my mind the phrase City of Truth. Jesus Christ is the Way or path (John 14:6) that leads to finding His Truth. This, then, has the power to tear down strongholds in our lives (Luke 4:18, John 8:32) so that He can have access to His Kingdom within us (Luke 17:20-21). 

When we accept and believe wholeheartedly in Christ as our personal Savior and are baptized in His name, we become born-again Christians. As infants in Christ, we cannot grow spiritually on our own and need spiritual milk (1 Peter 2:2, Heb. 5:11-14) given to us, by the Holy Spirit, who is wisdom (Prov. 8:22-31, John 1:1-2). The spell of sin has destroyed the house of God in us (Haggai 1:2-10) and by wisdom, a house is built (Prov. 24:3). 

Building a house takes time, but when His house is established within us, it will be like the house that was built on rock (Matt. 7:24-27). When the waves of life come crashing against the house– the worries and lusts of this world (Matt. 13:22), the persecution we face as a result of His word (Matt. 13:21), and the fiery darts from the devil (Eph. 6:16) as he tries to lure us back into his spell or bondage of sin– we will remain steady in Him and not fall (Matt. 7:25).

 

I hope you find this compelling and I’d love to hear from you. Let’s get the conversation going by commenting your musings below, or on social media (FB or Instagram)! 

Thanks for reading. 

 

More to come, 

Michael