於2012-06-17發佈

瞭解聖靈

在我們追尋主,認得祂聲音時,必須將哥林多前書二章12-16節的基要真理謹記在心:

我們所領受的,並不是世上的靈,乃是從神來的靈,叫我們能知道神開恩賜給我們的事。 
並且我們講說這些事,不是用人智慧所指教的言語,乃是用聖靈所指教的言語,將屬靈的話解釋屬靈的事(或作:將屬靈的事講與屬靈的人)。 
然而,屬血氣的人不領會神聖靈的事,反倒以為愚拙,並且不能知道,因為這些事惟有屬靈的人才能看透。 
屬靈的人能看透萬事,卻沒有一人能看透了他。 
誰曾知道主的心去教導他呢?但我們是有基督的心了。

沒有聖靈,我們就無法瞭解聖靈的方式,聖靈的著作,或是聖靈的聲音。我們的理性無法將我們引至屬靈真理中;在我們可以瞭解真理前,我們需要心意更新變化,從自然界、世界的觀點轉變到可以用基督的眼睛觀看,用祂的耳朵聆聽,用祂的心瞭解。這即是在每一件事上擁有祂的觀點;對真正的門徒來說,這是我們的終極追求。   

幾個月前我在福斯新聞台觀看總統大選辯論,新聞評論員威廉斯(Juan Williams)與共和黨參選人金瑞契(Newt Gingrich)有很激烈的辯論。雖然威廉斯是民主黨的,但福斯新聞台的觀眾非常敬重他的真實性與精準度。當他與金瑞契進行小型辯論時,雖然他們使用同樣的用語和措辭,顯然這些用語和措辭卻對他們有著截然不同的意思,他們完全無法瞭解彼此。此常發生在我們當中,我們可能說同樣的語言,卻來自不同的背景。

之後,我去到朋友的教會,他是我們世代相當重要的教會領袖,他可能是我所認識與我在異象上和瞭解上最契合的人。好幾次他與會眾和同工提到我在其他特會所說的話,令我詫異的是,他從我這裡所接收的東西與我的原意有著極大的不同,並不是負面的不同。有時他所分享的甚至比我原本說的更好,只是不同罷了。我知道那是因為他是由黑人教會帶出來的,一些用語對他而言意義全然不同。

我知道身為白人,或許我說話常冒犯到我的黑人朋友,當我這樣做時,我請求他們告訴我,因為我不是故意的。當他們告訴我時,我常驚訝於他們完全誤會了,一些用語對他們有著截然不同的意思。同樣有時他們說話也讓白人會錯意,都是出於無心,卻因為不瞭解彼此所造成的。

上述的一些經歷是由於黑人與白人文化上的不同,儘管我們都是美國人、南方人、基督徒並委身在以十字架為主的福音。你知道嗎?當我到美南白人浸信會、五旬節教會或靈恩教會,我也遇到同樣的問題。偶爾我在當地的信息會出現在報章雜誌上,他們所聽到的與我實際所說的有很大出入,我簡直不敢相信他們有在聽我說。他們並非想要攻擊我,或扭曲我所說的,但他們所聽到的是經由個人看法與瞭解過濾而來的。

有幾次我在電視上看到,歐巴馬總統似乎想說一些話,來鼓勵公司行號雇人和投資,而且聽起來很真誠,沒想到說出來的話反而讓雇主不安。我不認為總統是故意的,但顯然他並不瞭解商業文化。我的重點是這樣的情況豈不更多發生在我們與主之間?

我們的溝通都有問題;綜合上述所有的例子,最糟的溝通問題莫過於男女之間。這是巴別塔的果子,目前仍在混淆我們彼此的溝通─這與我們所說的語言無關。我們都經由過濾器來看世界,大大扭曲了我們的所見所聞,這即是何以在哥林多後書三章18節告訴我們說:

我們眾人既然敞著臉得以看見主的榮光/榮耀,好像從鏡子裡返照,就變成主的形狀,榮上加榮,如同從主的靈變成的。

帶來轉變的關鍵在於看見主的榮耀,除非我們『敞著臉』來看,否則不太可能有改變。倘若我們透過各式各樣的帕子來看主的榮耀,我們只會扭曲祂的榮耀,試圖讓神變成我們的形狀。 我們可能會有的一個最大假想,就是認為神看每件事或想每件事,剛好與我們所看所想的一樣。要長大成熟,我們必須先看到扭曲我們眼界的帕子,然後再使心意更新變化,除去帕子,好讓我們可以清楚看見與聽見。 

要如此做我們必須先來瞭解;瞭解(Understanding)來自兩個英文字『站在…之下』(stand under),或是設身處地以他人的立場,而非自己的觀點來看來聽。我並沒有宣稱自己在這方面很好,可能反而是最糟的,這即是何以我認為我常被誤解。我認識許多各行各業的高階領袖,包括教會,真正有能力瞭解他人的少之又少。能夠瞭解他人的多半是一位聆聽者,而不是講話者。這是一個基本謙卑:更傾向學習而不是單單表達意見或個人洞見。

試著瞭解他人非常重要,但我更有興趣瞭解主正在說什麼。溝通不良是基督肢體與世界中帶來混淆、分裂與不和的主要原因之一;然而,我們若與主沒有好的溝通,永遠不可能與人有好的溝通。

 (摘自喬納 word for the week, Week 22, 2012)


Understanding the Spirit - The Path of Life, Part 15
Week 22, 2012 
Rick Joyner 

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.