Remember the picture of that dress that was floating around a few years ago? If you ask one person, they will tell you that the dress was blue and some other color (I don’t even know because they’re WRONG). But if you ask someone whose eyes are working properly (like mine), you see that the dress is white and gold.
It’s interesting that two people can look at the same thing but see something different.
Interpretation is our way of making sense and responding to a specific circumstance. The way we choose to interpret the events we experience has a profound effect on our lives.
In the context of spirituality, there are generally two ways in which a situation can be interpreted. Either in the flesh, or in the spirit. Depending on which lens you are choosing to look through, a given situation may look entirely different.
Choosing to look through the lens of the spirit will often cause you to see something completely differently than you once did. What the flesh may see as hopeless, the spirit sees as an opportunity.
This is exactly what we see in the story of Joseph.
Joseph understood that the only way to correctly interpret circumstances, situations, and seasons in our life is through God- or through the lenses of the Holy Spirit.
The story of Joseph is a beautiful story of tragedy turned to triumph. I encourage you to read it if you haven’t done so before (Genesis chapters 40-50). It details the story of Joseph being sold into slavery, and walking through a series of suffering and trials that included being falsely accused of sexual assault and spending a large amount of time in jail. But through God’s goodness and sovereignty, through his connections in jail, God ends up divinely placing him as Pharaohs right hand man. And while in that position, he has the opportunity to save his family, and thus the nation of Israel, from a deadly famine. What a story! Had his initial circumstances been seen through the wrong lenses, however, the ending of the story may have turned out differently. Joseph had the wisdom to see through the correct lenses. Genesis 45:5 reads
And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. ‘ Genesis 45:5
Two lenses. Two different interpretations.
You sold me….. God sent me…
You sold me (flesh)… God sent me (spirit)…
How many of us are missing opportunities that God has for us to accomplish his purposes because we think we were sold, but really we have been sent?
Reflection: Where in my life have I been interpretation circumstances through fleshly lenses?
Application: How can I see the same circumstance through the lenses of the Holy Spirit?
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20
