The Holy Spirit Helps us Communicate ( 2 Cor. 3:1-18)
We all know how difficult life becomes when there is a breakdown in our communication abilities. Without good communication we not only feel isolated, but we sense a lack of belonging, acceptance and meaningfulness that good communication brings. The following are several ways that the Holy Spirit helps us communicate in ways that help us become more like Jesus.
Quote: Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness.
Margaret Millar.
Illustration: The power of a successfully communicated thought, from one human mind to another, is one of the greatest forces we know. But like the tango, it takes two to communicate. You can communicate a thought, but your thought may not be understood. In some cases, your thought may not even reach the proper target. That’s why it pays to ask questions to make certain that people understand what you are saying. The great movie maker, Cecil B. DeMille would agree.
DeMille was making one of his great epic movies. He had six cameras at various points to pick up the overall action and five other cameras set up to film plot developments involving the major characters. The large cast had begun rehearsing their scene at 6 a.m. They went through it four times and now it was late afternoon. The sun was setting and there was just enough light to get the shot done. DeMille looked over the panorama, saw that all was right, and gave the command for action.
One hundred extras charged up the hill; another hundred came storming down the same hill to do mock battle. In another location Roman centurions lashed and shouted at two hundred slaves who labored to move a huge stone monument toward its resting place. Meanwhile the principal characters acted out, in close-up, their reactions to the battle on the hill. Their words were drowned out by the noise around them, but the dialogue was to be dubbed in later.
It took fifteen minutes to complete the scene. When it was over, DeMille yelled, "Cut!" and turned to his assistant, all smiles. "That was great!" he said. "It was, C.B.," the assistant yelled back. "It was fantastic! Everything went off perfectly!"
Enormously pleased, DeMille turned to face the head of his camera crew to find out if all the cameras had picked up what they had been assigned to film. He waved to the camera crew supervisor. From the top of the hill, the camera supervisor waved back, raised his megaphone, and called out, "Ready when you are, C.B!"
Bits & Pieces, May 27, 1993, pp. 15-17.
1. CONFIDENCE - The Holy Spirit gives us the confidence that we can communicate with a sense of certainty, boldness and trustworthiness in His truthfulness. Too many people who are not filled with the Spirit lack this sense of confidence because they are speaking with fleshly supports instead of spiritual undergirding. People who speak from the empowering of the Spirit communicate with a greater certainty that what they say will come to pass. He gives us the courage to speak in ways that are authoritative, sure and complete. Confident communicators speak with a peace that passes understanding as they overcome all types of opposition, misunderstandings and feelings of doubt.
Application: Let the Spirit of God give you a fresh boldness in your communication so that you can speak with His sense of authority, power and prevailing purpose. (2 Cor. 3:12) "Therefore, since we have such a hope we are very bold."
2. CAPABILITY - The Holy Spirit gives us the capability to do things that we would otherwise not have in our human abilities. He tells the Corinthians that they are an epistle written on Paul’s heart. This writing was given with the Spirit of the living God on the tablets of human hearts. This supernatural capability allows one to not have to rely on superiority of speech but in demonstration of the Spirit and power so that people do not have rely on the wisdom of men but on the power of God.
3. COMPETENCE - Paul writes, "Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves for our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant - not of the letter but of the Spirit." (2 Cor. 3:5,6) We can praise God that He makes us proficient to preach, teach and share the eternal truth of God’s word in ways that are adequate to communicate supernatural truth to the minds of natural men and women. Praise God that it can be said of you as it was of Peter and John, "Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and knew that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marvelled at them because they had been with Jesus." (Acts 4:13)
4. COMPELLING - The Holy Spirit helps us communicate in ways that draws others to Christ like a magnet. Presenting ideas, truth and concepts without the empowering, enabling and enlightening of the Holy Spirit tends to produce communication that is boring. Ask the Lord to help you be filled with the Spirit in such a way that your communication takes on a higher level to arouse interest in Jesus, His truth and His will for the lives of your audience.
5. COUNSELING - The Holy Spirit counsels us in a way that He leads us into all truth. His counsel is wise, relevant and need meeting. He counsels us by showing us areas that are particularly important to the people we are seeking to communicate with. If we are listening to the Spirit then when will be guided, enabled and envisioned about areas that are essential for the ones we are communicating to. Without His counsel, we are not going to connect and relate well with the people we are ministering to.
6. CLARITY - The Holy Spirit makes our communication clear so that people understand without any equivocation the truth of Christ. Too many people forget that if there is a fog in the mind of the communicater there will be a mist in the minds of the hearers. The Spirit helps us make communication crystal clear so that our listeners will see through the window of our explanations, illustrations and applications directly to the mind of Christ about each subject.
Illustration: A few years ago gifts to the Prarie Bible Institute of Alberta, Canada, declined from a certain geographical area. At that time the school’s president, Dr. Maxwell, had undergone two operations for cataracts, one on each eye. When a representative of the school was visiting in that particular area, a donor asked why Dr. Maxwell was riding around in two Cadillacs.
Resources, No. 2.
7. CHRISTLIKE TRANSFORMATION - Paul writes, "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." (2 Cor. 3:18) When we allow the Spirit of God to direct us we will find our communication more credible as we speak from the mind of Christ. Greater credibility is afforded to those who speak from the scripture as they are given a supernatural authority that transcends human limitations.
Application: Ask the Lord to help you aim for your communication to result in greater Christlikeness in you and your audience. Pray that the Spirit of God works His transformations in you and your audiences’ mind, attitude, emotions, volition and behavior in a way that pleases the Lord in all respects and bears fruit in every good work as you increase in the knowledge of God. (Col. 1:9-11)
Concluding Illustration: Some obstacles to upward communication:
1) Many employees fear that expressing their true feelings about the company to their boss could be dangerous. 2) The fairly wide-spread belief that disagreeing with the boss will block promotion still holds.
3) There is a wide-spread conviction that management is not interested in employee problems.
4) Some have the feeling that employees are not rewarded for good ideas.
5) There is a lack of supervisory accessibility and responsiveness.
6) The conviction is widespread that higher management doesn’t take prompt action on problems.
Bits & Pieces, May 1990, p. 9.
