By Braiden Rosario
Hi Family! Today we are going to talk about UNDERSTANDING! In all honesty, this is a challenging subject to talk about and can be taken in at many different angles. But I’ll do my best to share the revelation given to me from the Lord, and I hope that it blesses you.
In a worldview definition, to understand is to be able to perceive the intended meaning of, or to interpret that which is being spoken. At face value, it is a mental faculty. But is that definition of understanding all there is to it? Let’s look at the word of God.
In many references involving understanding, we see in God’s word that “wisdom” is right there alongside it. For example, Proverbs 16:16 says, “How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is preferable silver.” Right off the bat we can distinguish the difference between wisdom and understanding. Let’s hold that thought for a second.
"Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern Your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of Yours?" (1 Kings 3:9 NLT)
Now going back to understanding being a mental faculty, we also read in the scriptures that during his reign, King Solomon asks the Lord for an understanding heart to lead his people well (see 1 King 3:8-12). King Solomon comes to the realization that he has some big shoes to fill following the footsteps of his father, the great King David. God answers his prayer and blesses him abundantly. What was King Solomon known for? You got it: having great Wisdom and Understanding (*There's the pair again. We’ll tie it all together soon*). But notice that he asks for an understanding HEART. Not an understanding mind, but an understanding heart. Anatomically, we can define our heart as the organ that pumps blood to the rest of our body, but scripturally, we can define our heart as the center of our personality where we will find our intuition, feeling, emotions and understanding (see Proverbs 14:30, 15:13, Jeremiah 17:9). So, not only is understanding something we do mentally, it also involves our emotion.
Rosario Ministries exists to envision families to be on mission for the Kingdom of Heaven. But how can we do so? We need to learn how to understand each other. For the guys, we may lean more toward the mental aspect of understanding, and for the gals, you may lean more toward the emotional part of understanding. I know for me, I lean toward logical reasoning and factual evidence. In part, it hasn’t done me well especially if I’m not emotionally invested in the conversation, and I’m sure we can all relate to that in some way.
While in a time of “intense fellowship” (a.k.a. argument), have you ever heard, “I just need to be heard and understood”? Bingo! I’m the logic leaning legend and I’ve said that statement myself! LOL. Sometimes feelings matter more than the facts, and since feelings aren’t always right, facts will sometimes matter more than the feelings! Regardless of what side you lean toward, I believe the Lord desires for us to be great at both. As we read in James 1:19, the Lord commands us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Every part of that scripture indicates that we need to be both mentally and emotionally attune to the skill of understanding. We need to be able to perceive what is being spoken and what isn't, and we need to be emotionally aware of ourselves and others. That’s right friends, iron sharpens iron. Yes it may be tough, especially with the people closest to you, but before you can get sharp, there’s going to be friction. As Pastor Glenn would say, “PT and I are sandpaper. We kept rubbing with each other and eventually we got smoother and smoother”. The beautiful thing we can all be grateful for is knowing that the Lord is building us to be more like Him.
Remember the pair of words we we’re going to come back to? How do we get good at understanding? You guessed it; Wisdom, knowledge and revelation from the Father. It is not by our own might, nor by our own power, but only by the Spirit of the Living God. (Zechariah 4:6). This gives us access to the fruit of the Spirit, which teaches us how to put ourselves in other’s shoes with patience, gentleness and self control. So how do we access Wisdom? In order for us to access the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord, we must fear Him.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10)
If we are to be able to understand others in a supernatural way, we have to humbly access the supernatural; the Holy Spirit. You think you can handle it with your own strength? Think again. Where has it gotten you? Maybe in a satisfactory place. But we’re not going after a satisfactory family life. We’re going after a supernatural, Christ-Centered, God-Fearing Family life!
The Father is our fountain, His wisdom and knowledge is our fuel. If we’re an F 1-50, our mind is the fuel tank and our heart is the motor that gets the engine of our life going, so that we can live out the wisdom of Christ. To Understand is to live out what the Lord commands of us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your HEART, with all of your soul and with all of your MIND. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mathew 22:37-38).
Did you UNDERSTAND any of that?
Comments