I wonder if we will ever really be able to speak with honesty in this day and age. I am certain that all of you that read or hear these words will have a problem and say "But I do!". Yes, I am sure many of you do speak honestly and some even speak bluntly about what they see, hear and feel irrespective of the feelings of those that hear. However, I am also pretty sure that you do not speak honestly all the time and in fact you probably do so in order to protect someone close to you. Also we often do not speak honestly because we are afraid of upsetting someone or it is against the norms of society. Just such an issue is death. We come up with all sorts of fake well sounding euphemisms for death. I remember my mother on the death of my father being told how sorry the person was that she had lost her husband so suddenly. My mother's response was "Madam, I would be foolish to have lost him but he is dead!"; much to the horror of the speaker. It is in these ways that we have all lost the ability to speak honestly in the company of those we are. It of course becomes worse the more we rise in prominence within society as we have to watch the p's and q's of political correctness.
Sometimes I feel that we in the church have lost our ability to speak strongly and honestly about faith and the journey of faith. We are sent out into the world to proclaim the Good News, the Gospel and this is what Christ asks of us. So it is interesting for us to listen with our hearts to what the Spirit is saying to us when we do that because I am fairly certain that most of us when speaking about our faith utilise theology, or our ability to talk about God. I am not saying we should not do that but what I am saying is that we have to take care that we are actually allowing the Spirit to speak (Mark 13:11) and not our own faulty understanding to speak. In hearing what others say to us we are equally guilty in disbelief especially when they say something contrary to what we believe. In doing so we may miss the spark of the Holy Spirit uttering truths to us which are contrary to our pre-conceived ideals and ideas (1 Sam. 1:13-14). It is only when we allow the Spirit to speak through us and we listen for the voice of the Spirit can we begin to truly discern what God wants from us.
One of the issues for all those of the Christian faith is that we are quite muddled in what and how we speak about our faith. I suggest that most people speak about theology and not about the Gospel or rather their perceptions of what theology suggests is the Gospel. The injunction to truth telling is throughout our scriptures and the injunction about the Gospel comes prior to any theological interpretation of Christ's ministry. We to often rely on our own understanding of what the Gospel means to try to convey the message of truth that is inherent in Christ's message. Christ clearly states that it is for us not to be concerned about what we speak but to rely solely on the Spirit as the Spirit is the one that has already prepared what we say. For us the uncomfortable fact is that we are much more comfortable with our own understanding of the Gospel than that which God wishes to pass on through the words of Spirit and truth. Our frailty and our own recognition suffer if we feel we depart from the words that we think are truth and the words or doctrine or message that we wish to convey.
All this may seem heretical or not what the Gospel is about but in reality we need to start to listen to the Spirit that God sent rather than to our own spirits. In speaking about our faith we have firstly to speak with honesty, not our own honesty but the honesty of the Spirit that thrives within us. We are asked to speak about our faith and our faith journey we can only do that when we allow God's Spirit to speak for us. It may seem that what we say or do is contrary to what we think we should say or do but then we need to have sufficient faith to rely on God's presence. It is not as if we need to be timid in faith but rather bold knowing that Christ has been and is our high priest offered and offering up for us the sin which is inherent in us but is no longer (Heb. 10:11-ff). Only in faith can we be assured that God speaks through our actions. The moment we let ourselves to be without faith and rely on our own strength do we fall and not speak the Gospel.
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