Misinterpretation/Misrepresentation: It's All About Truth Part 1 Series

Last week I shared with you my personal goal of becoming more and more controlled by the Holy Spirit. I told you that currently I am probably 75% Rodney and 25% Holy Spirit and my desire is to get to 20% Rodney and 80% Holy Spirit. I also shared with you that when I attained that level of release to the Holy Spirit many of you would cease to recognize me, spiritually. In the Scripture we read last week from John 16:13 Jesus said “But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” The main focus of the Holy Spirit is not only to empower us; to make us stronger, but also to lead us into truth. This is truth about ourselves, God’s Word and what is happening around us. So many times we get so caught up in our emotions and our five senses that we fail to recognize the real truth. In this message, I want you to think internally about how we as individuals misinterpret and misrepresent ourselves and our need to come to the truth and ultimately freedom. When we misinterpret something, we are seeing something other than the truth. When we misrepresent something, we are representing something other than the truth. In both cases, what is being distorted is the truth. I want you to think about what it means to walk in the truth.

I. Our Senses

As you begin thinking about the truth, the first step is to recognize that our five senses do not always lead us to the truth. Our ability to use our “senses” is one of the keys to our ability to make it in this life. When one of our senses is compromised (or lost) the other senses make adjustments to compensate for the lost one so that we may continue to function. For example, it has been proven that a blind person’s sense of smell and hearing sharpens in compensation for the lost of sight. All of these senses enable us to understand and operate in this physical world which surrounds us. They help us perceive the world around us as it relates to the physical. Although these “senses” are crucial to us managing through this natural world, they do little in helping us manage what is happening around us spiritually. This is why we need the Holy Spirit, again because we are spiritual beings living in a natural world.

Although we utilize our five senses to navigate in our natural world, those same senses without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will lead us into trouble. From the same senses come help and trouble and that my friend is a true conflict. Consider this example of how our natural five senses will fail us and get us into trouble. Keep in mind, with my personal experiments people who saw me used two of their senses (sight and hearing) to make a judgment about me. They saw me, they spoke to me and I returned the gesture. They did not touch, smell or taste me so their assessment of me was primarily made with their eyes – what they saw. In this example, our subject did not have his eyes so he relied on his sense of smell and touch and ignored his sense of hearing. Turn to Genesis chapter 27.