Don’t Believe Everything You Hear

 

“It’s not what we don’t know that gets us in trouble. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Mark Twain

There is a guiding principle among government servants, those at the wage grade level, which is “Believe none of what you hear, and half of what you see.” Adhering to this served me well during my time of service to our nation. Today Americans would do well to apply this to what they hear from the many voices that come at them every day. There is an adage that states, “Not everything that sounds great is good, but everything that is true, right, and just, is good.”

Back in the late eighties I became consumed with politics. With the creation of the various news entertainment outlets, I along with other political junkies were afforded the endless 24/7 conversations. Through television at night and radio by day I found myself being fed with what I was accepting as truth. I was not being careful with what I was hearing. With so much erroneous information filling my ears, I was swallowing the sugar-coated soundbites of false promises or the false proclamations designed to instill fear. With the arrival of the internet, information increased in quantity and came to me faster than at any time before. It was so easy to enter the search bar a subject and get thousands of hits or suggestions. As information came to me, it brought knowledge. I was no longer ignorant but became responsible for how I would use it. Having knowledge can be helpful, it can be the starting point to becoming skillful in something. It can also be a detriment or hinderance. It began to puff me up, cause me to become arrogant and argumentative. I came to hold strong opinions that I knew everything and was becoming unwilling to listen and stopped growing from knowledge to wisdom.

1 Corinthians 8:2 NIV
Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.

Then, one day I was at a theater watching the movie “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” where the sailors are gathered on the deck after their adversary, the French ship Acheron has been spotted. An older and experienced sailor is being looked at by a young and unproven midshipman. The sailor shows him his fist with the words “Hold Fast” tattooed on his knuckles. Inside me I heard the Holy Spirit sweet gentle voice, “Hold Fast to the Truth!” He then led me to this verse.

1 Corinthians 3:18
Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.

I felt busted as a cheap toy. In prayer I repented, I sought forgiveness from those that I had offended, then I shut up. I learned two tremendous lessons in leadership, influence, and relationship. One, if I were to become more effective, my speech would have to become more selective. And secondly, what I put before my eyes, and listen to with my ears, would fill my heart. And that out of the abundance of the heart, my mouth leaketh, or speaketh.

America has suffered now that journalism and news reporting have been replaced with propaganda and news entertainment. Truth and transparency succumbed to viewership and relevancy. The relentless investigative journalists of the past have been replaced by opportunistic public relation specialist and talented spin doctors. All this with the goal of image management for their chosen benefactors.

Gone are the days when newscasters did just that, cast the news and allowed people to think. Much of our society has become sheeple led from one pasture or news cycle to another, grazing on whatever is put before them. From the breakrooms and water coolers of our workplaces to church foyers and restaurants, opinions are formed and repeated based on whichever talking head has influenced them. We live in a time when everyone wants a voice. They want their opinion to be heard and accepted as truth. But opinions based on propaganda-that which is biased or misleading and used to promote a political cause or agenda-is a lie spoken from shifting sand.

Do Not believe everything you hear.

I want to share what has helped me with my informational diet, and that is the use of a filter. I apply it to everything I hear, whether a sermon, instruction, or training, and even entertainment. With absolute and final authority, I filter EVERYTHING through the Holy Spirit. You or I do not need to be a theologian to understand that we are living in the last days. Now, more than any time before, deception is rampant and comes to us from everywhere and in everything. Its source is the god of this world, and he will use anyone or anything to corrupt the powerful, deceive the simple minded, and make apathetic the majority. It is why our Lord gave us this warning.

Matthew 24:4
And Jesus answered and said unto them, “take heed that no one deceives you.”

By checking with the Holy Spirit, He will show me if it is true, is it necessary to hear, and will it edify or give me peace.

Is it true?

He is the Spirit of Truth and will guide me into all truth by reminding me if the Word of God agrees or it is contrary to it. If He reveals any part of what I hear as dishonest, I throw it away.

Was it necessary to hear?

Does it strengthen my faith in God and my love for others. Or does it bring doubt and unbelief, and cast seeds of suspicion, criticism, and hate? It is sad that so many relationships are broken or severed over “hearsay.” The truth in this noun is that you were not meant to HEAR so you should not SAY.

Is there any peace with it?

Colossians 3:15a AMP
Let the peace of Christ [the inner calm of one who walks daily with Him] be the controlling factor in your hearts [deciding and settling questions that arise].

Let’s never say “Don’t confuse me with the truth, my mind is made up.” Let’s commit to listening to the wisdom and guidance of the Word and Spirit before we listen to anyone else. And DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR!