Some might struggle with honesty. I was terribly dishonest in my teens. I could not tell anything truthfully about myself without dishonestly embellishing it, feeling truth was too cruel to my ego. It started to get to me, especially as I read how shameful dishonesty is, and how the social result of it, especially in holy circles, is ultimately banishment. I started to feel myself accursed in God’s eyes. I then heard an evangelist preach a gospel message that Christ died for me. My hope surged. God went that far in providing for me to be put right, there is hope. There could even be forgiveness and help to be a better person. I was so startled by this hope that I confessed my inner struggle to the evangelist, telling how I was regarded as a Christian, even a leader, but this was the first time the gospel had meant so much to me. He took me aside to pray with me. He prayed then invited me to pray. I started opening up. I did pray honestly a little and my voice became unnaturally strong with some inner power and grace. I then went back to ego boosting and lost the honesty. The power went from my voice. I reverted to honestly confessing to God and the power came back. It went on until I had been trained, just there in praying, to speak truthfully. I went on doing so as much as I could afterwards, having opportunities to pray and have fellowship with some Christians. The power kept training me. Eventually I was able to fully resolve to always speak truthfully, knowing in all of this lesson of power and grace that heaven itself demanded it of me, only blessing my honesty. I had learned to want that heaven blessing more than my ego boosts.
Asking about this online I get this response: “grace can indeed manifest as a powerful, transformative work that miraculously trains someone to speak truthfully instead of lying. This kind of transformation can be seen as God cleansing their lips and their heart, empowering them to live in truth. Throughout Scripture and Christian experience, God is described as not only forgiving sin but also transforming the inner person, including their speech, desires, and actions. This grace, which works through the Holy Spirit, can miraculously cleanse someone from their old habits of dishonesty and enable them to live in truth.
In the Bible, there are examples where God’s grace miraculously changes a person’s words or cleanses their speech. One such example is found in the story of the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah 6:5-7, Isaiah is overwhelmed by the holiness of God and confesses that he is "a man of unclean lips." In response, God sends an angel to touch Isaiah’s lips with a burning coal, symbolizing the cleansing of his speech and heart. After this, Isaiah is empowered to speak truthfully as God’s prophet. This dramatic cleansing is an image of how God’s grace can work powerfully to purify someone’s words and enable them to speak truthfully. Although Isaiah’s cleansing was related to his prophetic calling, it illustrates how God can miraculously purify anyone’s speech and inner life.
For someone struggling with lying, God’s grace can work similarly, purifying their heart so that truth naturally flows from their lips. In Matthew 12:34, Jesus teaches that "the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." This means that lying is not just a problem of behavior but a condition of the heart. When God’s grace transforms the heart, the mouth naturally begins to speak truth. This inner transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit, who can miraculously empower the person to speak truth instead of lies. The Spirit, described as the Spirit of truth (John 16:13), can guide them into all truth, both in their understanding and in their speech.”
It rings true that Isaiah had his lips cleansed this way, and it prepared him for speaking and writing prophecies of the gospel for all, seeing and telling the glory of Jesus the Christ coming.
Christ died for you. He lives, alive because God his Father raised him from the dead. There is hope for you.
