CONVERSATIONS

Who are you? If people would describe what kind of person you are, what would they say? Not what would they truthfully say? How do others perceive you. Do they perceive you as an intelligent person or a know-it-all? Do they perceive you as caring or overbearing? Do they look at you and say you're a child of God or do they see you as a preachy judgmental religious fanatic with an attitude of nonacceptance?

Many of us use the statements, "I don't care what people think about me. I don't care what they say about me." Isn't that truly the point? How do we reach people without taking an honest look at what we look like and sound like to them? One of the best ways to do that is to get another person's honest opinion of you. You should have someone you trust to evaluate who you are and give an honest look at your character, personality and what you release into the world. If a billionaire can pay someone to come in and look at his business and tell him what it looks like, what is our problem that we can't ask someone to look at us and tell us what they see? Are we afraid of what truth they may uncover? Are we afraid we may have to actually do some work to get better? Or is it that we already think we are good and don't welcome someone else's opinion?

The perfect one, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God and the one who knew no sin asked his disciples in Matthew 16:13, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" It's not that he wanted to necessarily be what they wanted. Jesus was teaching the disciples that what people think of Him and what Simon Peter had to say were very different. People perceived him as John the Baptist or just another preacher. Some even said he was a prophet like Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the others. When Jesus asked the question, "Who do you say I am?" and Simon said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God," Jesus had to respond as it was a great teaching moment. Jesus said, "Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you." Nobody told you that. No one convinced you. You perceived this by the Holy Spirit. It's important to note what Jesus says in the 20th verse. "Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Christ." What? Are you trying to hide the truth? Isn't this what people should know? Why wouldn't we tell them? It just makes sense! Let's get some flyers made, create a Facebook page, start an Instagram account and just start telling everybody who you are. Jesus said no. His point was for people to get to know who he was the same way the disciples came to know; by the Holy Spirit.

My uncle used to say, "Man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." You can preach and teach and tell people who Jesus is all day long. Until the revelation of who he is becomes real to them, none of our preaching and teaching will make any difference no matter how good, hard or convincing we make it. So does that mean we don't need to say anything? No. You let your life speak what you say you are. Jesus would ask questions of those he was doing miracles for. He would always start the process with qualifying questions. If they were not ready, he would not waste his time. To others he would say, "Your faith has made you whole."

You are not responsible for those who don't believe. You are responsible for those God has placed in your path. You can only bless those who are ready for a blessing.

There is one other thing you must recognize. Jesus didn't allow demons to speak either. Read Mark 1:22-25 and 32-34. He didn't want the demons to talk about who He was. God's spirit would reveal it. I also learn here that Jesus didn't converse with demons and evil spirits. I don't have anything to say to you. Some of us spend too much time holding a conversation with evil spirits. Doing so we establish a bond and the evil becomes connected to us. I refuse to have a conversation with depression, loneliness, sickness, poverty, disillusionment, discouragement, doubt, fear and anything else that is not bringing prosperity and good health to my life. You do know that who and what you talk with the most begins or establishes a relationship with that person or thing?