In our pursuit of the Lord and knowing His voice, we must always keep in mind the basic truth given to us in I Corinthians 2:12-16:

      Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God,

      which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

      But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

      But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man.

      For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

     We cannot understand the ways of the Spirit, the writings of the Spirit, or the voice of the Spirit, without having the Holy Spirit. Our natural reasoning will never lead us to spiritual truth. Before we can understand the truth, we need our minds transformed from their natural, earthly perspective, until we can see with the eyes of Christ, hear with His ears, and understand with His heart. This is to have His perspective on everything. For true disciples, this is the ultimate pursuit.       

     I was watching a Presidential debate a few months ago in which one of the moderators from Fox News, Juan Williams, and Newt Gingrich got into a pretty intense debate between themselves. Juan is a liberal, but one who is well-respected by Fox News viewers for what seems to be a genuine devotion to accuracy and truth. When he and Newt got into their mini-debate, they were using the same words and phrases, but it was obvious these words and phrases meant something entirely different to each of them, and they never really came to an understanding. This is very common for people who may speak the same language, but come from different backgrounds.

     Right after that, I was at a friend’s church who is a significant church leader in our time and one that I probably have as much in common with in our vision and understanding as anyone I know. Several times over the weekend he referenced things I had said in other meetings to his congregation, or his staff, and it struck me how different he took some things than I had actually intended them. It was not negative, and sometimes what he said was better than what I had said, but just different. I knew it was because he had been raised in a black church and some terms mean very different things to him.

     I know as a white person, I say things often that may be offensive to my black friends, and I ask them to tell me when I’m doing it because it is not intentional. When they tell me, I am often surprised at what could have been taken wrong and how terms mean something entirely different to them. The same is true with the way some things they say are taken wrong by whites. It’s not intentional, but just a failure to understand each other.

     Some of the experiences above were the differences in the black and white culture, even though we are both Americans and Southerners, and above all Christians, and devoted to a cross-centered message. Guess what? When I go to white Southern Baptist, Pentecostal, or Charismatic churches, I have the same problem. Occasionally, messages I’ve given at places covered in magazines or newspapers were so different from what they said I said and what I actually said, I could not believe they were actually listening to me. They were not trying to attack me, or distort what I said, but they were hearing through a filter of their own perceptions and understanding.

     A few times I’ve watched how President Obama seemed to want to say things that would encourage businesses to hire and invest, and seem to be sincere, while in the message say things that would be deeply alarming to business owners. I don’t think it was intentional at all, but he obviously does not know the business culture. My point is how much does this happen between us and the Lord?

      We all have a problem communicating. With all of the examples above, the worst of all can be between male and female. This is the fruit of the Tower of Babel, and it is still confusing our communications with each other—it does not matter that we may all be speaking English or any other language. We all have a filter that we see the world through, and it does distort what we see and what we hear. This is why we are told in II Corinthians 3:18:

       But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

      The key to being transformed is first to see the glory of the Lord, which won’t help much unless we do it with an “unveiled face.” If we behold the glory of the Lord through all of the veils that most wear, we will just distort His glory and try to make God into our image. One of the biggest presumptions we can have is to think that God sees everything just like we do or thinks about everything just like we do. A basic maturing that we must do is to first have the humility to see the veils we’re wearing, which are distorting what we see, and then to have our minds renewed and the veils removed so that we see and hear clearly.

      To do this we must understand. Understanding comes from the words to “stand under,” or to place yourself in the other person’s place to see and hear from their perspective, instead of just hearing from our perspective. I do not claim to be perfect in this myself, and may be one of the worst, which is why I think I’m misunderstood so much. I know many of the top leaders in just about every field, including the church, and I don’t know more than a handful who really seem to have this ability to understand others. All of those who do are prone to be listeners instead of talkers. This is a basic humility that is more inclined to learn than to just express opinions and their own insights.

      Trying to understand other people is crucial, but I am far more interested in understanding what the Lord is saying. One of the main reasons for the confusion, divisions, and discord in the body of Christ and the world is this failure to communicate. However, we will never get it right with each other until we get this right with the Lord.