In my mind, I can see Jesus hanging on the cross asking God to "forgive them for they know not what they do."
Can you imagine the pain He experienced
inside His heart, knowing that the very people
He was giving His life for...MISUNDERSTOOD Him?
It's not fair.
It doesn't add up.
It doesn't make sense.
After all, Jesus is the one who raised Lazarus up from the dead. Now, He's hanging on a cross, completely MISUNDERSTOOD by the people He came to offer life.
Why didn't He stop the crucifixion? Certainly, He controlled the wind and storms! Surely, He could have escaped this painful process!
If you could...wouldn't you?
His own team forsook Him and fled. (Matthew 26:56). NEVER ONCE did Jesus explain Himself. He watches Mary Magdalene, sobbing with intense emotional pain, but He doesn't even EXPLAIN HIMSELF. He could have at least told her, "It's going to be alright, this is part of the plan. My blood will atone for the sins of the world." .... BUT HE SAID NOTHING.
He was MISUNDERSTOOD.
You too will be MISUNDERSTOOD. You will find yourself in a position where you can't tell what you want to tell. You can't explain it and you can't whisper, no matter how much you want to, because you're a LEADER.
Your desire to please The Lord
will outweigh your desire to please men.
Your relationship with people must be secondary to your relationship with God. No matter how close you are with people, you must be closer to God. Here's the irony of that...the closer people are to God, the more they will LOVE and RESPECT EACH OTHER.
Without a doubt, I love my friends and family. However, some of my friends in the ministry are the dearest and closest people in my life...probably because we share a KINDRED spirit in our shared CALLING.
I believe what keeps us so CLOSE is our love for God more than our love for each other. I know, without a doubt, that if I stopped following after Jesus, these friends would warn me and lovingly rebuke me if I didn't come to my senses. (It works both ways.)
No friendship or relationship is worth it's salt if it doesn't have an INFLEXIBLE commitment to God's glory first and to one another second.
Even your friends will MISUNDERSTAND you, at times. It will happen. What will you do?
Here's what you must do: You must overlook your sentimental attachments and memories. They aren't sufficient to keep a relationship intact if you're not equally committed to hearing God's voice.
You will be called upon to BEAR THE CROSS OF MISUNDERSTANDING. The more you bear it, the more you are putting God's voice first and the more God's voice will speak in your ear.
Leaders will be misunderstood.
Spiritual fathers/mothers will be misunderstood.
Pastors will be misunderstood.
However, good evidence that you can be trusted with God's ANOINTING is your ability to BEAR THE CROSS OF MISUNDERSTANDING in the face of adversity.
- You will be called upon to LAY YOUR LIFE DOWN for people who consider not your life.
- You will at times feel like you're being RUN OVER and used by people.
- You will be taken ADVANTAGE of and then discarded when no longer needed.
- You will be MISUNDERSTOOD on many occasions.
But remember the words of Apostle Paul in Philippians 1:12,
"But I would ye should understand,
brethren, that the things which happened
unto me have fallen out rather unto the
furtherance of the gospel."
What Paul went through, as a leader, couldn't be compared to the GLORY that God would get out of his life, not only in the raising up of spiritual sons but also ensuring that the GOSPEL message would continue onward to future generations.
This MANDATE will bring with it THE LIKELIHOOD OF BEING MISUNDERSTOOD.
But through it all...
- Keep going.
- Keep loving.
- Keep serving.
- Keep sharing.
- Keep leading.
- Keep training.
- Keep teaching.
- Keep fathering.
- Keep pastoring.
- Keep teaching.
- Keep prophesying.
- Keep connecting.
- Keep raising.
