OK, I got a question. Have you ever had a misunderstanding with someone? I’m not talking about just the small, “oh, you didn’t want cream in your coffee, oops” kind of misunderstanding. I mean a “what the heck do you mean by that” or “Oh, hell no, I won’t take this sitting down” kind of misunderstanding. Then after you responded…poorly…you have to grovel all over yourself to fix the situation. Maybe your response was so strong that you lost your job, lost a relationship or lost something really hard to get back…TRUST!
The Importance of Understanding
On the Spiritual side of things, the Spiritual characteristic of understanding helps to fight these types of situations. Ultimately, we want to be at peace within our minds, right? We want to be able to go to work, do our job, have pleasantries with our neighbors, love our spouses, raise our children, and mow our grass…low stress kind of life. Ok, to be able to do this, the spirit of understanding is very important. It goes hand in hand with Wisdom (another post for another week), but wisdom, like discernment, peace, etc, etc, are much more effective with understanding.
Solomon wrote:
Wisdom [is] the principal thing; [therefore] get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Proverbs 4:7
You see, the spirit of understanding gives us the ability to “get it”. We may have head knowledge, but to have that “ah ha” moment takes understanding. In the parable of the sower, Christ explains it this way:
When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth [it] not, then cometh the wicked [one], and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. Matthew 13:19-21
You see, that guy didn’t “get it”. He received a good word, didn’t understand it, and it was lost. Then there was the guy that did receive it, was happy for a time, but it didn’t sink in to make it a usable word for those tough times in life. But we don’t have tough times today, do we?
Paul, one of the most prolific writers of the New Testament gives us this piece of advice on understanding:
For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that [by my voice] I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an [unknown] tongue. 1Corinthians 14:14,19
What he means here is, praying in tongues may be a good thing, but if I or you don’t understand what we are saying, how is that useful? It may bless the spirit, but how does it edify us or those around us? Another real concern pertaining to prayer is to understand what to pray for. Have you ever wanted to help, but didn’t know what was the best course of action. I have, and more often than not, no action was taken. The same is true with prayer. If we can have an understanding of what is needed, wouldn’t our prayer life be a little more practical, maybe even a bit more productive?
The Practical application of Understanding
In today’s digital world, miscommunication is even more a concern, because this form of communication has the challenge of understanding in a huge way. It is harder to “see” or “feel” what the messenger is conveying. This is a really big problem with social network sites and the quick comments we all make. It is easy to misunderstand the meaning that leads to possible irrational thoughts, spurring on more comments made in the wrong spirit. And the cycle goes on and on. You know this cycle must be broken if we plan to work on that “low stress” lifestyle mentioned above. Understanding will fight against miscommunication.
So, we should pray to God for understanding. One of the biggest favors we can do for ourselves is to continue to read God’s word daily, making every effort in personal study to “get it” so we can have it in a useful format. We don’t want to just read, then forget, or worse, read and not understand what we are reading, then get bored and not read any further. Just like our muscles, our brain needs to be worked too. Part of understanding is to stop and listen, look around, assess the situation, derive the most plausible action, and then we can act with faith that we made the right choice. And it all starts with…understanding.
Here are some scriptures you may find helpful in your daily devotions as we strive to be filled with the spirit of understanding.
Ephesians 5:17 Proverbs 11:12
Proverbs 15:14 Isaiah 40:28
Colossians 1:9 Colossians 2:2
1 John 5:20
The author of this article begins his essay with a question? Have you ever had a misunderstanding? He then answers his own question by stating that understanding is the key to good communications. I agree 100%. Today, I draw from my old Speech Communications text, "Speech Communication Foundations and Challenges." Authors Jim D Hugley and Arley W. Johnson, 1975. In Unit 14, "Communication Sensitivity" they begin the chapter by asking if you've ever had a satisfying experience communicating with someone, where you came away feeling good about your communication. That you came away with a "warm feeling" and that you felt really "tuned in" to each other? In other words that you "understood" one another? Like prayer, our authors go on to say that "sensitive communicators are aware that communicative encounters take place for a multitude of reasons." Sensitive communicators are "ultimately concerned with understanding rather than influencing.... create a supportive climate by being considerate and thoughtful of the feelings of others.... tend to give top priority to the other person's transmission of information rather than their own." And, the final quote that I'll list is that "they listen to others even when they think they have nothing important to say."
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