Good morning,
Words are really tricky things. Sometimes when I am teaching a class that includes both men and women, I have been surprised when the women in the group look confused by what I just said. The problem seems to go away when my good wife speaks up and says what I thought I just said but now the women seem to understand. Marty had the right filter for her words that made the idea clear for the women in the class. The problem of words becomes even more complex when we are using words from the Bible that have been given to us by God. The words are the right words, but the filter that we have when we speak and the filter they have when they hear us can lead to a lot of confusion. Paul helps us to understand what is going on when he wrote to the church at Corinth. Paul tells us that words God has given us to speak are human words, but the meaning of those words are not based on human wisdom. When we rely on the Holy Spirit for what we say, the words we speak are guided by the Holy Spirit so that what we say will clearly explain the spiritual truths that God wants all of us to hear and understand.
When we as teachers just say what we think, we will not be saying the same thing God is saying. As teachers, we dare not forget this important truth. On the other hand, just because our hearers don’t seem to understand us doesn’t mean that we have failed to speak what God has given us to say. When our listeners don’t have the Holy Spirit’s filter in place, it is impossible for them to hear the truths that we are sharing with them. What we say won’t make sense to them and their natural response will be that we are the problem, not them. Our Enemy will make these holy words sound like foolishness or even worse will give them a completely wrong meaning to what we have just said. We must keep reminding ourselves that God’s kids are always involved in a war of words with the world around us. The only people who will be able to hear us accurately will be those folks who have God’s filter in their hearts and minds. Dear Lord, please help us to remember this truth when we are trying to understand why people won’t listen to us.
1 Corinthians 2:13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. 14 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
Roy Wisner
