How Does The Truth Himself, Speak About Me?

This morning I am reflecting on a single verse from John's third letter, which is quite unusual for me to be so focused.  However, when I read this verses I immediately wanted to dig into it.  Here is the verse - 3 John 1:12 NIV:

[12] "Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone---and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true."

Now, this might not grab you the same way it did me, but when I read this, I understood that Demetrius was well spoken of by the Truth Himself.  That is what I initially read, and in reading back through it I realized that wasn't quite what it said.  I decided I probably should dig into this, to see if I was just mis-reading, or if there was more significance.

I went to my standard biblical research site Studylight.org and dug into the verse, and the word that is translated truth is the Greek word aletheia and the word translated itself is Greek word autos.  A couple of comments, the word autos is most often translated "himself", more than ten times as often as it is translated "itself".  The word aletheia is the same word that John used when he was quoting Jesus in His famous statement, "I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6).  I am clearly not a Greek scholar, so I am not saying this is true, only that it appears possible that John could have actually meant, that Demetrius was well spoken of by the Truth Himself.

That is a long way to get to the thought that immediately followed my reading this verse, which was "how does the Truth Himself, speak about me?"  

I know this is one thing I probably won't ever know for certain (at least not this side of eternity), but oh to understand how the Lord speaks about me!  There is no more important reference, opinion or description of me, than the words the Lord might speak.  

I know the enemy spends plenty of time trying to convince me that the Lord doesn't think kindly of me, or doesn't think about me at all, or is angry, or is disappointed, etc.  He is always trying get me to believe wrongly, and this must be for a reason.

What would my self image be like if I had a clear idea of how the Lord spoke of me?

We understand from scripture that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for us! (Rom 8:34)

We understand that Jesus says that the Father Himself loves us (John 16: 27).

We know that Jesus calls us His friends (John 15:15)

We know that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19)

We know many other things, but what if we heard these very things from the Lord Himself?  

This is my prayer for myself, and for us all that the Word would become alive to us, and these words and so many others would be spoken into our hearts in such a way that we know them, understand them and most importantly that we BELIEVE them!  

Lord, You are after a group of believers who actually believe and live as if You loved them and spoke highly of them!  You are desirous of friends not servants!  You want us to walk in our heavenly identities here and now, for this is who we really are, in You!

Help us Lord to hear Your words for ourselves!  Help us to hear Your words for others that we might join ourselves to Your voice speaking the Truth, rather than speaking all the judgments that are from the enemy.

Oh, that we all might know and understand that the Truth Himself speaks well of us!

Amen!