This month, we covered a seemingly simple concept that has powerful, revelatory, and wide ranging applications: Right-Right vs Right-Wrong...Right WHAT-Right HOW/WHY vs. Right WHAT-Wrong (or NO) HOW/WHY.
The overview for the last section of this Series was that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
Throughout this Series we saw the brain is the battlefield on which God and our mind participate in Spiritual Warfare against the enemy and our flesh. So, there are two participants attempting to access our strongholds: the enemy and our flesh.
Today, we will conclude this series.
SPIRITUAL WARFARE CONCLUSIONS
Taking in everything we have covered, we are now ready to interpret Paul's explanation for Spiritual Warfare.
II Corinthians 10
"1 Now I Paul myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am of good courage toward you:
2 yea, I beseech you, that I may not when present show courage with the confidence wherewith I count to be bold against some, who count of us as if we walked according to the flesh."
(Most people skip the introduction to this critical passage. Paul is setting everything up by confirming that he is LOWLY in his physical presence, but mighty in WORDS. NO ONE ought to associate the rest of this passage with ANYTHING related to physical strength.)
"3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh
4 (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds),"
(Paul calls everything that follows verse 3 "war". He also states this is NOT according to the flesh...so it must be according to the spirit. Hence, this passage SPECIFICALLY deals with Spiritual Warfare. Then Paul parenthetically supports verse 3 with a reason that has to do with the weapons of our warfare. This is a key parenthetical point that most people miss: the weapons of our warfare are mighty AND they are able to cast down strongholds. The mightiest weapons are NOT physical. The mightiest weapons that we can INTENTIONALLY use are able to cast down strongholds. Strongholds are sources of ammunition for the enemy that are inside of us. We have covered how and where strongholds are formed: Amygdala, Emotion, and Facts. We have covered HOW the enemy does Spiritual Warfare and HOW to cast down strongholds: Apostles, Jesus, Heart, Mind, and Faith. Basically, all of this is done with WORDS in our brains. These strongholds are able to be accessed by the enemy through WORDS and SENTENCES that enter our being through the heart.)
"5 casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;"
(The essence of Spiritual Warfare involves casting down imaginations (thoughts). In fact, Paul specifically says we ought to bring EVERY thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So far, everything Paul has stated is something we can intentionally do. We can initiate this aspect of Spiritual Warfare. We called this "Defensive Spiritual Warfare". We initiate defensive Spiritual Warfare by: removing strongholds, taking thoughts into captivity, getting aligned with God's doctrine, guarding our heart, and not focusing on the cares of this world. We need to get rid of all the junk inside of us that hinders the Holy Spirit from flowing through us. Paul also called this "killing the flesh". Ultimately, killing the flesh is a work and something we can intentionally do. We cannot control God. We cannot make the Holy Spirit flow through us. All we can do is get our vessel ready for the Holy Spirit to move through us in order to do God's Will. We saw the fundamental way to do this is to apply the four God-given principles to ourselves: non-contradiction, causality, contrastive thinking and growth.)
"6 and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be made full."
(The first part of this verse states that we ought to do Defensive Spiritual Warfare constantly so that we are READY to avenge all disobedience. READY means we are prepared for the Holy Spirit to initiate Offensive Spiritual Warfare. It does NOT mean we initiate Offensive Spiritual Warfare. Look at the second half of the verse: when our obedience is made full. When we remove the strongholds and bring every thought captive, then our obedience has been made full. Then the Holy Spirit is able to flow completely and at full power. Then we are ready to respond to the Holy Spirit initiating Offensive Spiritual Warfare. It is like a firefighter. The firefighter doesn't decide when they are going to suit up and fight a fire. All they can do is be prepared...be ready. It is the fire that determines when they get to fight. This is a HUGE point. We do NOT initiate Offensive Spiritual Warfare. The Holy Spirit initiates Offensive Spiritual Warfare. People who schedule times to do Offensive Spiritual Warfare are similar to firefighters scheduling their fires.)
(One of the questions that began this series is, "Why don't we see more signs and wonders today?" I believe the main reason is that very few people are able to remove strongholds, take all their thoughts into captivity, align with God's doctrine, guard their hearts, and not focus on the cares of this world. Think how hard it is to do this in our current culture. Think how it would be easier to do this as a missionary in a third world country. I've had people tell me signs and wonders are happening, however it seems to usually involve a missionary from a foreign country serving in a third world country. Remember, Peter said silver and gold have I none, but what I got I give to you. Jesus needed Peter to go fishing in order to pay his taxes. None of the people who did Offensive Spiritual Warfare had money and cares of the world. In Acts, a man tries to buy this Offensive Spiritual Warfare ability!)
"7 Ye look at the things that are before your face. If any man trusteth in himself that he is Christ's, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ's, so also are we."
(Notice the rest of this passage also deals with Spiritual Warfare. Paul is going to follow through on the idea that Spiritual Warfare is NOT physical and the individual needs to actively realize that looking to the physical (cares of this world?) hinders their ability to do Spiritual Warfare.)
"8 For though I should glory somewhat abundantly concerning our authority (which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for casting you down), I shall not be put to shame:
9 that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by my letters.
10 For, His letters, they say, are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.
11 Let such a one reckon this, that, what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such are we also in deed when we are present.
12 For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with certain of them that commend themselves: but they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding.
13 But we will not glory beyond our measure, but according to the measure of the province which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even unto you."
The key passage is that Paul said we are in word by letters when we are absent what we are in deed when we are present. There ought to be NO difference between our WORDS and our actions.
DOCTRINE
Another reason I believe we haven't seen more signs and wonders is DOCTRINE.
We saw that God brings about His Will by influencing the heart of the individual through grace. This influence is checked with the faith (understanding and experience) of the individual. The understanding is doctrine.
When it came to the HOW of Spiritual Warfare for the enemy, we saw that the enemy's influence was a thought that was meant to lead the person into a stronghold as they tried to understand the thought.
When it came to the HOW of Spiritual Warfare for God, we saw that God's influence was a fully formed, complex causeless thought. The individual doesn't need to make an effort to build up the thought. The thought actually teaches the individual and all the individual does is choose to allow it to reflect in his life or not. The reason the individual fully understands the thought is that the thought accesses the doctrine within the individual that agrees with God.
I look at doctrine like piano chords. If a person knows a couple of chords, they can only play a few simple songs. However, with every chord they learn, the quantity and complexity of the songs they can now play grows.
Likewise, as a person gets more of God's doctrine in their brain, they are able to be influenced more by God and at a higher level of complexity. They are able to hear more clearly and more often from God.
God's ability to influence the individual depends on the doctrine within the individual. This is WHY we have teachers. This is WHY we ought to understand MORE about God and His Word. People who believe we can't understand more about God are actually hindering peoples' ability to be directed by God.
In the Old Testament, we saw the GREATEST PROPHECY ever presented in the Bible came to Daniel. We saw Daniel was present for many signs and wonders. We saw that Daniel had his doctrine perfect. Daniel perfectly participated in Defensive Spiritual Warfare. Why did Daniel have his doctrine perfect?
"34 And Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim: but he took Jehoahaz away; and he came to Egypt, and died there." (2 Kings 23:34)
We have seen that Josiah was the greatest Old Testament King. He focused on doctrine. People who lived under Josiah had the opportunity to get their doctrine right. Jehoiakim was Josiah's son and ruled when Josiah died.
"1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it." (Daniel 1:1)
The Book of Daniel BEGINS by saying Jehoiakim was king for three years before Daniel was taken into captivity. Daniel grew up under Josiah's reign. Daniel's parents lived under Josiah's reign. Daniel had the best opportunity of any Old Testament person to get their doctrine right.
Look at the New Tesament. I have already stated that I see the Gospel of Mark as the action gospel. As for the other gospels...Luke is the exhaustive gospel. Matthew is the story gospel. John is the doctrinal gospel. There is more doctrine found in the Gospel according to John, than any other New Testament book. The Book of I John is a completely philosophical presentation that organizes doctrine. While I am hoping to present I John later this year, I am going to leave our Series of the Gospel according to John for next year.
My point is, the greatest New Testament prophecies are presented by John in The Book of Revelation. Just like Daniel, the person with the greatest understanding of doctrine is able to receive the most complex revelations from God.
There is one more issue to consider when looking at why we don't see more signs and wonders. Yesterday, we looked at blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. At its most basic level, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is SPEAKING against the Holy Spirit. The example Jesus gave was the Pharisees saying that Jesus healed by the prince of demons when He actually healed by the Holy Spirit. What would happen if God suddenly had signs and wonders abundantly manifest through the Holy Spirit today? How many people would state that these people are actually doing miracles by the devil? How many people would be committing an unforgivable sin?
It would seem to me that God needs to make sure we can handle abundant signs and wonders by the Holy Spirit before He has them manifest. At the very least, it would seem that we would need to UNDERSTAND blasphemy of the Holy Spirit more before signs and wonders became abundant. THAT is doctrine. This would be another reason why we need to have sound doctrine and teach it to others. What if people are actually healing by the Holy Spirit today? What do you hear most people say about those who claim they are healing people by the Holy Spirit?
Again, the unforgivable sin is commited by SPEAKING WORDS against the Holy Spirit...crediting the actual work of the Holy Spirit to the devil through WORDS. WORDS are important!
WORDS
Ultimately, the ability we need most in order to participate in Spiritual Warfare involves WORDS.
God speaks to us in terms of WORDS.
The enemy speaks to us in terms of WORDS.
Our heart, brain, and mind all work in terms of WORDS.
We communicate to others in terms of WORDS.
WORDS are important.
The novel "1984" was written to illustrate the power of WORDS. The basic premise is that people can be controlled when you limit their WORDS. If people are only allowed to use certain abstract WORDS, then they are unable to think at a higher level. They are unable to be unique. Once you have limited peoples' uniqueness and ability, you can treat them all the same...like the Law.
EVERYTHING we learned in this Series was built on the foundation that Spiritual Warfare was NOT physical, but was ACTUALLY based on WORDS. Not only using the correct WORDS, but WORDS that the individual understood and was able to arrange correctly in Statements, Questions, or IF/THEN Statements.
Look at what Jesus said in John 14:10
"10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works."
I will always remember these last two months as the time I acquired a greater appreciation for God and Jesus. There are MASTERS with their WORDS!
They made it look so easy, yet you will see how AWESOME they are when you try to recreate their sentences. Like I stated in an earlier post, when you read the Bible, pause before you read what God and Jesus say. Take a moment to try and state exactly what they will say. This is especially enlightening with a passage that you think you know. It is so easy to say WORDS that are condemning, judgmental, wrong, unjust, or even open ourselves up to being wrong or unjust.
SUMMARY
There are two aspects to Spiritual Warfare: Defensive and Offensive.
Defensive Spiritual Warfare involves removing strongholds, taking all our thoughts into captivity, aligning our doctrine with God's doctrine, guarding our hearts, and not focusing on the cares of this world. The SPECIFIC HOW of Defensive Spiritual Warfare is described by Paul in Ephesians 6 as "The Whole Armor of God"...but this is ONLY Defensive Spiritual Warfare.
Defensive Spiritual Warfare is a work we ought to constantly do so that we are ready for when the Holy Spirit initiates Offensive Spiritual Warfare. Paul stated this in II Corinthians 10. So, put on the Whole Armor of God so that you are ready to avenge all disobedience when the Holy Spirit leads you!
Offensive Spiritual Warfare involves casting out unclean spirits and healing people. In every successful instance, we have saw the participant in Offensive Spiritual Warfare makes a Statement that is a statement of the will for someone or something that can't state a will OR for someone who has faith and is in agreement.
Offensive Spiritual Warfare is made up of WORDS and SENTENCES. These WORDS and SENTENCES are a Statement of a will. This Statement of a will depends on the faith (understanding and experience) of the individual. Notice, in "The Whole Armor of God" there is ONE Offensive Weapon: The Sword. What did the Sword stand for? The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God! Offensive Spiritual Warfare is initiated by the Holy Spirit and COMPLETELY involves WORDS! How much more blatant does this have to be?
Why don't we see more signs and wonders? Ultimately, we aren't successful in Defensive Spiritual Warfare. While we have seen that our doctrine tends to be based on man-made tradition instead of God's doctrine, there is no reason why a person needs to have all of God's doctrine before they participate in Offensive Spiritual Warfare. However, having strongholds can prevent the Holy Spirit from operating at full capacity because there is always a part of you that the enemy can access. We need to remove strongholds, especially the biggest ones.
I believe there are two HUGE strongholds that are holding back the Holy Spirit from demonstrating more signs and wonders in our presence.
Next month we will begin a new Series. We will look at these two "universal" strongholds...
Next Post
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
The Invitation
This month, we are covering a seemingly simple concept that has powerful, revelatory, and wide ranging applications: Right-Right vs Right-Wrong...Right WHAT-Right HOW/WHY vs. Right WHAT-Wrong (or NO) HOW/WHY.
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
Throughout this Series we have seen the brain is the battlefield on which God and our mind participate in Spiritual Warfare against the enemy and our flesh. So, there are two participants attempting to access our strongholds: the enemy and our flesh.
This week we will conclude this series. In the previous post, we looked at Old Testament examples for the HOW of Spiritual Warfare:
Cain and Lucifer both chose to pursue an Unprofitable Thought Process that EVENTUALLY formed a stronghold and led to sin having the opportunity to activate in their lives.
Today, we will look at a stronghold affecting leaders in today's churches...
THE INVITATION
As we saw at the beginning of this two months Series, the church in America embraced The Godless Christianity Movement forty years ago. In that time, the difference between people who go to church and people who don't go to church has become non-existent. The rate of divorce, infidelity, teen pregnancy, etc. among people in the church is statistically the same as people who don't attend church. What happened?
We saw that the "God is Dead" movement was gaining momentum by 1960. Basically, the atheists could show that God does NOT exist because EVERY explanation the church gave for God was contradictory. The church could NOT explain God's Nature.
The church responded with what we called, THE WILDEST RATIONALIZATION!
"It is Right to NOT be able to state the HOW and WHY supporting our Christian beliefs (WHAT)"...which eventually becomes: "It is Wrong to state the HOW and WHY supporting our Christian beliefs (WHAT)".
Is this the first time the Christian church had decided NOT to state the definition for God...that is, "What God is like?"
Apparently not! Look at what AW Tozer wrote in "The Knowledge Of The Holy" (1961), five years before the "Is God Dead?" Time magazine cover:
"Before the Christian church goes into eclipse anywhere, there must first be the corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, “What is God like?” Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed, her practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is; and that is heresey of the most insidious and deadly kind."
Tozer warned us of this in 1961. The "God is Dead" movement reached national prominence five years later...and church leadership CHOSE to "go without an orthodox explanation of God".
The church in America CHOSE to NOT explain God objectively...it chose NOT to be able to answer the question, "What is God like?" Forty years ago, seminaries began teaching religious leaders that it is WRONG to be able to have an objective explanation for God.
The church became THE SAME as the world.
The fundamental belief of the church (contradictory God) became THE SAME as the world (contradictory God). The effect of having the same belief (cause) is that the behavior of people in the church and people in the world is NOT significantly different...
This is a STRONGHOLD!
Most religious leaders today believe that we can't know or aren't supposed to know God's Nature objectively. They believe that when it comes to God, the individual can't intentionally make progress in their Fellowship with God...yet this does NOT stop these religious leaders from making a living at "teaching" the individual about God. (In seminaries, instead of "Theology" giving an explanation of God, it became a history course where students learned the history of what other people thought God was like.)
In fact, some religious leaders are so entrenched in this STRONGHOLD that they don't want to admit they are intentional AT ALL! Some of them present a model for what you should do...yet say that they don't have any models. Whenever a pastor presents a parable, analogy, step-by-step list to follow, or diagram, they are presenting a MODEL.
However, this STRONGHOLD has convinced these religious leaders that it is possible to hold you to being intentional WHILE relieving them of the responsibility of being intentional...and all of this began forty years ago with the decision to go without an orthodox explanation for God.
I recognized something was wrong twenty years ago. It took me five years to realize the issue is that no one had a definition for God. Thousands of years ago, the philosophers had theorized (APART FROM THE BIBLE) that God had to be omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. Then they easily showed this was NOT possible because it was contradictory.
However, five hundred years ago, a man (John Calvin) picked up this flawed description of God that was created by philosophers (man) and tried to say the same description of God is in the Bible. It is NOT. However, the rise of Calvinism continues to coincide with each time the church goes into eclipse.
At its core, Calvinism believes that we CANNOT describe God. Even though Calvinism presents a worldview based on sovereignty and predestination, it quickly contradicts itself within two or three questions. It is at that point that the Calvinist states that we can't describe/understand God or aren't supposed to be able to describe/understand God.
EVERY TIME you get that response from a person, it PROVES they are ultimately Calvinistic in their beliefs EVEN IF they have a rationalization for why they don't believe EVERYTHING that a Calvinist believes. A Calvinist CANNOT PROVE their worldview using the Bible...they have to use what other Calvinists have written.
It took me four years to determine the non-contradictory model for God THAT IS CONSISTENT WITH THE BIBLE.
God is ALWAYS COMPLETELY RIght and ALWAYS COMPLETELY Just...AND God CANNOT do anything that is apart from RIGHT and JUST...not only in WHAT He does...but in HOW He does it...and in WHY He does it. Calvinism attempts to justify a Right WHAT with a Wrong (or NO) HOW/WHY.
I thought religious leaders would embrace this revelatory explanation that I believe I received from the Holy Spirit.
Instead, I got a lot of LUKEWARM responses. I had two pastors who have preached for over a dozen years separately tell me that I was right about the material, however, they would never teach it because they didn't want their congregation asking them why they had been wrong for over a decade.
As I did fourteen years of research, read the Bible cover-to-cover fourteen times, and talked with people, I realized the issue came down to this:
"Believers" tended to think it would be WRONG to be able to explain their faith logically.
"Non-believers" resented believers because believers are able to fully accept something that made no sense. However, non-believers couldn't imagine the hypocrisy that would come with judging others for NOT believing something that didn't make sense, so non-believers actually resented believers for not having the ability to explain their beliefs. It looked to the non-believers that God isn't fair because He was unable to be explained by the people who claimed to be getting the benefit of KNOWING God.
As I continued to read the Bible, I found that the Bible uses four God-given principles TOGETHER to PROVE truth. They are:
GROWTH
"2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit." (John 15)
Throughout the entire Bible, God's goal for the individual is growth...NOT comfort. In fact, the hard truth about God in this respect is that the individual has an initial choice: grow (learn the WHAT) or get worse.
However, the catch is, if the individual chooses to grow, they will face a second choice: grow (learn the WHY) or get MUCH worse. There is NO finish line with God. There is NO "acceptable level". We NEVER "arrive".
If the individual chooses to grow, then they face another choice: grow (learn the HOW) or get VERY MUCH worse. In the bible, there are numerous examples where a person is in a worse shape because they "made progress". For instance, we saw in this series that the person who gets an unclean spirit casted out will end up in a much worse state (Jesus' even stated this) if they don't grow.
What is a church doing if they grow people from Phase I (don't know anything about God) to Phase II (know the WHAT)...and then are unable to grow them to Phase III (know the WHY)? These people are ACTUALLY WORSE OFF then if they hadn't grown at all!
The church can teach people the WHAT. Most churches are ACTUALLY AGAINST teaching people the WHY. They are actually in the business of growing people and then preventing their growth so that the individual is much worse off than if they had stayed in the world and never grown at all. (We saw this in the post concerning the Willowcreek book "Reveal". Today, the church is not very successful growing people from Phase II to Phase III.)
The ONLY way to grow is to identify a wrong belief and change it. People who haven't changed their beliefs either are perfect or aren't growing. When is the last time you changed a deeply held belief?
CONTRASTIVE
"4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (Matthew 7)
Throughout the entire Bible, people who focus on proving themselves wrong (contrastive) are the ones who continually grow in their understanding of God. Again, throughout the entire Bible, people who focus on proving themselves right (comparative) are the ones who end up sinning.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to sin if you are contrastive. However, when you do sin, it will be due in some part to being comparative.
CAUSALITY
"33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit." (Matthew 7)
The entire Bible is written from cause to effect. In fact, the aspect that makes the Bible most different than every other religious book is that the Bible gives the WHY and it doesn't contradict.
Every other religious book presents a WHAT and tends to leave out the WHY. Unfortunately, people tend to read the Bible the same way as they read other religious books...and they miss the Bible's explanation of the WHY.
In my Bible, I have circled all of the "for's", "because's", and "cause's". I have also circled all of the "that's" and "which's" that serve as a "because". WHY do I do this? Because everything after these words are the REASONS for WHAT is being stated. The reason other religious books won't focus on giving a reason is that they would contradict themselves.
NON-CONTRADICTION
"24 No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6)
Contradictions do NOT exist. Conflicts do. I can be both happy and sad. However, I can't be both happy AND not happy at all.
The above examples from scripture came directly from Jesus' Mouth. There are plenty of other scriptures and explanation for each God-given principle if you click the title of each section.
This principle causes the most hypocrisy among people who fight it. EVERY TIME these people argue, the way they prove they are right is when they find a contradiction in the other person's explanation!
Truth is ONLY proven when ALL four God-given principles are used together. Leaving out even one of the principles can result in error.
What I realized is that doing the opposite of each of the four God-given principles is "the flesh" that they Bible speaks about.
Also, EVERYONE PERFECTLY applies these four God-given principles to EVERYONE ELSE.
However, EVERYONE refuses to apply these four God-given principles to themselves.
This is what ultimately makes us hypocrites...we hold others to a standard to which we don't hold ourselves. The solution would be to apply the four God-given principles to yourself AND NOT judge others...which is EXACTLY what Jesus (and Paul) stated in the Bible!
Forty years ago, the church ACTUALLY decided that it didn't have to hold itself to the four God-given principles. The church didn't have to grow (improve and change its worldview), give an objective explanation of God that made sense (non-contradiction), explain the WHY supporting their beliefs (causality), and consider that it was wrong (contrastive).
What I saw in most of the religious leaders is that they used the four God-given principles to prove themselves right, however, they refused the existence of the God-given principles when these principles proved them wrong. These people were being hypocrites. The excuse is that when it comes to God, these leaders thought they could violate God's principles.
I realized that any book I wrote with all this information had to begin by pointing out this hypocrisy.
The first chapter in "Modeling God" is called "The Invitation". It is meant to help the individual determine from the very beginning if they are going to be consistent in ALL their thoughts and actions or if they are going to be LUKEWARM and hypocritical by choosing to live by one set of principles (their own) when it came to God and a different set of principles (God's) when it came to everything else.
What I have found is that most religious leaders who read "The Invitation" get so uncomfortable, their amygdala's fire and they respond emotionally. They try to focus on HOW the message is presented in an attempt to ignore the truth that is presented. This chapter triggers the stronghold they have formed from their training. They hold to their emotions instead of the reasoning...and they end up going the way of Cain.
When a person who isn't a religious leader reads this first chapter, they also get uncomfortable. If they are looking for a reason to avoid growth, they will find someone who will think comparatively and denounce the chapter. What this person says is hypocritical, however, since it was said by another person, they feel justified going the way of Cain...
When a person who isn't a religious leader reads this first chapter and pushes through the discomfort, they begin to get answers to the WHY behind God, Salvation, faith, grace, sin, truth, life, love, prayer, etc. Even if they don't agree with what is written in "Modeling God", they end up determining what they DO believe and WHY. As we saw in the Brain Series, this is a tremendous help to the individual.
ALL of the people who have spoken against "Modeling God" have had an interaction with a religious leader (or are a religious leader) that does NOT understand the book. However, these people do NOT want to reach out to me in order to understand the book before denouncing it. In fact, some of these religious leaders have rationalized that since it is a published work, they don't have to reach out to the author to understand the work before reaching an incorrect interpretation and denouncing the book.
Some people have gone so far as to say the information is from "the pit of hell" or the devil or the enemy. I believe this information is from the Holy Spirit.
However, to those who have stated that this information, that I believe is from the Holy Spirit, is (in their Statement) from the devil, I have a passage from Matthew 12 for them to consider. (Notice the four God-given principles are used by Jesus throughout. Can you pick them out?)
"24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This man doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub the prince of the demons.
25 And knowing their thoughts he said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:
26 and if Satan casteth out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand?
27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges.
28 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.
29 Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
30 He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.
31 Therefore I say unto you, Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.
32 And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.
33 Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit.
34 Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
35 The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things: and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
36 And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
If "Modeling God" was given to me by the Holy Spirit, and a person has spoken a word against the source of this material...
However, I would like the reader to judge for themselves. Here is a reprint of the first chapter of "Modeling God".
THE INVITATION
Imagine you are invited to a party where you will be able to participate in any sensual pleasure you desire for as long as you want.
It’s an exclusive party, but the invitation I hand you simply says Admit One and has a place for you to fill in your name. As you look at the invitation, you notice it contains no other information. The first question you would probably ask is, “When is the party?”
You’d be relieved to find out the party was several months away and you had plenty of time to fit it into your schedule. Your next question would probably be, “Where is the party?”
To this I might say, “Chicago.”
As I turned to leave, you’d stop me so you could ask, “Where in Chicago?”
When I answered, “In a building with a sign in front. Why do you ask?” you may begin to show frustration.
“Why do I ask? I want to know how to find it, that’s why!”
My answer would depend on where you were coming from. If you were a great distance away, I’d tell you to first take a plane. Then, I’d tell you to drive a car. As you tried to interrupt, I’d say, “Let me be more helpful…when you drive the car, one pedal is the gas. That makes the car go. The other pedal is the brake. That makes the car stop. There is also a steering wheel. That helps you direct the car.”
If you haven’t given up, you may ask, “What am I supposed to do, drive every street until I find it? Could you please give me an address?” The reason you want an address is to know exactly where the party is so that you can find it intentionally. Another benefit of an address is that it allows you to measure your progress.
Up until you got the address, this process would be totally unacceptable for directions to the party. However, these are the same type of directions we get from people when we ask how to get closer to God. Think about it - the most important desire of your heart and you settle for directions that you’d consider ridiculous for something less important.
Intentional Perspective
When we ask how to get closer to God, we are told to read the Bible, pray, believe (have faith), and love others. What parts of the Bible should we read? Read the whole thing? How is this any different from me giving you a Chicago phone book and saying, “The address is in here”? In the same way that we are looking for a specific street; when we read the Bible, what are we supposed to focus on?
How do we build our faith or love more? People usually point to Hebrews 11:1 (“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for”) or I Corinthians 13:4 (“Love is long suffering, kind”, etc.) to answer these questions, yet these passages don’t tell us how faith or love works or, more importantly, how to intentionally increase these attributes.
Unfortunately, most people believe that when it comes to religion, we can’t be intentional. They express this by saying, “We can’t know these things,” or, “We aren’t supposed to try to understand them; it’s a mystery”. Some would even say it is “unnatural” to be able to explain these principles. Let’s deal with the first two responses separately.
First, religion commands us to make progress in these areas. In fact, we are held accountable for it. If we “can’t know” how to intentionally make progress, then why are we told to do these things? More to the point, why are we guilty when we don’t grow in these areas?
The weaker of the two responses is that we aren’t supposed to try to understand. This goes against everything we do, from reading the Bible to listening to a sermon. What is the purpose of teachers if it isn’t to try to intentionally help others understand? What is the purpose of the Bible if God doesn’t want us to try to understand? More importantly, why do these people want to avoid thinking?
The Excuse
These questions make some people so uncomfortable, sometimes their response is: “You are being scientific, while I have an artistic perspective.” When it is posed this way, this is an excuse. This has nothing to do with being creative.
When they say a person is scientific, they are saying that person believes if he understands the cause, he can intentionally get a desired result. When they say they are artistic, they are saying they don’t do things intentionally because they aren’t supposed to or can’t know the causes. These are the two previously mentioned responses. Their real hope is to have an excuse why they don’t have to think. They believe this will allow them to do whatever they want without guilt.
Isn’t it interesting that unintentional people get upset when others become unintentional? They get mad when their car breaks down, their medication doesn’t work, or their leaders make bad decisions. Yet, intentional people don’t get upset when others become intentional. In fact, they can be intentional in everything they do, while the people with the excuse cannot be unintentional in everything they do.
If you talk to these artists long enough, you will find they are very intentional with their art. They have certain guidelines on what does and doesn’t work. You will see this very quickly if you disagree with them. After all, if things can’t be understood, how can they be so sure their point of view is correct? In fact, their ability to convey the initial point of being unintentional requires them to be intentional in order to be understood. For example, they must be intentional when they use words. In reality, it takes an intentional approach to remain unintentional.
Later, we will see the areas they want to remain unintentional in are areas in which they are comfortable. Their goal is to have an excuse not to think.
Avoiding Thought
People who avoid thinking believe that not understanding somehow relieves them from the responsibility of changing their behavior. As you'll see, however, the concepts in this book are true and impact our lives whether we understand them or not. What if we followed their example in other areas?
For example, over a hundred years ago, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that maternity patients were dying at an alarming rate. He made the connection that students who had just finished working on cadavers were treating the patients! After insisting that the students wash their hands before treating the mothers, the number of deaths decreased by over a factor of five.
Should Dr. Semmelweis have not tried to understand the reason maternity patients were dying? Should he have not altered the behavior of his students? Most importantly, even if he had decided he couldn’t understand, it still would have negatively affected his patients. Allow me one more analogy…
Wine is made from fermented grapes. People initially found that when grapes were crushed and allowed to stand, the juice unexpectedly turned into alcohol. Eventually, they understood that yeast on the skin of the grape converted the sugar in the grape juice into alcohol. What was their response? Was it to continue crushing grapes and hope for the best? No; they began to apply this knowledge and intentionally add yeast to the crushed grapes in order to ensure progress toward turning the juice into wine.
Summary
God acts according to a set of principles whether we understand them or not. If we don’t understand them, things appear to be random and we will eventually become frustrated. However, if our understanding is increased and applied, it will result in more progress toward improving our interactions with God. This is most helpful when we face adversity. It is these moments when everyone strives to be intentional. God knows that and wants to help us overcome those times intentionally. He has given us everything we need in order to intentionally grow and overcome adversity, but we must understand how the principles work if we want to ensure our progress, especially through the tough times. Ultimately, understanding God from first principles involves thinking more, not less.
We can know how God works. In fact, we are supposed to know. God did give us an address because He wants us to make it to His party.
(Pages 19-22, "Modeling God")
SUMMARY
We have seen in the post titled, "Parables Are Models" people who claim God is a mystery are PROVING they are NOT followers of God:
"And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." (Matthew 13:10-13)
Jesus spoke in parables. The reason is so that those who are supposed to understand the mystery (believers) do understand and those who aren't supposed to understand the mystery (non-believers) don't.
Notice, this means that people who claim that Jesus can't be understood or that God is a mystery are actually testifying about themselves...they are publicly proclaiming they aren't "given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven".
Why do these people want to "celebrate the mystery"? Do you want to be one of them?
Tomorrow, we will conclude this Series on Spiritual Warfare...
Next Post
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
Throughout this Series we have seen the brain is the battlefield on which God and our mind participate in Spiritual Warfare against the enemy and our flesh. So, there are two participants attempting to access our strongholds: the enemy and our flesh.
This week we will conclude this series. In the previous post, we looked at Old Testament examples for the HOW of Spiritual Warfare:
Cain and Lucifer both chose to pursue an Unprofitable Thought Process that EVENTUALLY formed a stronghold and led to sin having the opportunity to activate in their lives.
Today, we will look at a stronghold affecting leaders in today's churches...
THE INVITATION
As we saw at the beginning of this two months Series, the church in America embraced The Godless Christianity Movement forty years ago. In that time, the difference between people who go to church and people who don't go to church has become non-existent. The rate of divorce, infidelity, teen pregnancy, etc. among people in the church is statistically the same as people who don't attend church. What happened?
We saw that the "God is Dead" movement was gaining momentum by 1960. Basically, the atheists could show that God does NOT exist because EVERY explanation the church gave for God was contradictory. The church could NOT explain God's Nature.
The church responded with what we called, THE WILDEST RATIONALIZATION!
"It is Right to NOT be able to state the HOW and WHY supporting our Christian beliefs (WHAT)"...which eventually becomes: "It is Wrong to state the HOW and WHY supporting our Christian beliefs (WHAT)".
Is this the first time the Christian church had decided NOT to state the definition for God...that is, "What God is like?"
Apparently not! Look at what AW Tozer wrote in "The Knowledge Of The Holy" (1961), five years before the "Is God Dead?" Time magazine cover:
"Before the Christian church goes into eclipse anywhere, there must first be the corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, “What is God like?” Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed, her practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is; and that is heresey of the most insidious and deadly kind."
Tozer warned us of this in 1961. The "God is Dead" movement reached national prominence five years later...and church leadership CHOSE to "go without an orthodox explanation of God".
The church in America CHOSE to NOT explain God objectively...it chose NOT to be able to answer the question, "What is God like?" Forty years ago, seminaries began teaching religious leaders that it is WRONG to be able to have an objective explanation for God.
The church became THE SAME as the world.
The fundamental belief of the church (contradictory God) became THE SAME as the world (contradictory God). The effect of having the same belief (cause) is that the behavior of people in the church and people in the world is NOT significantly different...
This is a STRONGHOLD!
Most religious leaders today believe that we can't know or aren't supposed to know God's Nature objectively. They believe that when it comes to God, the individual can't intentionally make progress in their Fellowship with God...yet this does NOT stop these religious leaders from making a living at "teaching" the individual about God. (In seminaries, instead of "Theology" giving an explanation of God, it became a history course where students learned the history of what other people thought God was like.)
In fact, some religious leaders are so entrenched in this STRONGHOLD that they don't want to admit they are intentional AT ALL! Some of them present a model for what you should do...yet say that they don't have any models. Whenever a pastor presents a parable, analogy, step-by-step list to follow, or diagram, they are presenting a MODEL.
However, this STRONGHOLD has convinced these religious leaders that it is possible to hold you to being intentional WHILE relieving them of the responsibility of being intentional...and all of this began forty years ago with the decision to go without an orthodox explanation for God.
I recognized something was wrong twenty years ago. It took me five years to realize the issue is that no one had a definition for God. Thousands of years ago, the philosophers had theorized (APART FROM THE BIBLE) that God had to be omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. Then they easily showed this was NOT possible because it was contradictory.
However, five hundred years ago, a man (John Calvin) picked up this flawed description of God that was created by philosophers (man) and tried to say the same description of God is in the Bible. It is NOT. However, the rise of Calvinism continues to coincide with each time the church goes into eclipse.
At its core, Calvinism believes that we CANNOT describe God. Even though Calvinism presents a worldview based on sovereignty and predestination, it quickly contradicts itself within two or three questions. It is at that point that the Calvinist states that we can't describe/understand God or aren't supposed to be able to describe/understand God.
EVERY TIME you get that response from a person, it PROVES they are ultimately Calvinistic in their beliefs EVEN IF they have a rationalization for why they don't believe EVERYTHING that a Calvinist believes. A Calvinist CANNOT PROVE their worldview using the Bible...they have to use what other Calvinists have written.
It took me four years to determine the non-contradictory model for God THAT IS CONSISTENT WITH THE BIBLE.
God is ALWAYS COMPLETELY RIght and ALWAYS COMPLETELY Just...AND God CANNOT do anything that is apart from RIGHT and JUST...not only in WHAT He does...but in HOW He does it...and in WHY He does it. Calvinism attempts to justify a Right WHAT with a Wrong (or NO) HOW/WHY.
I thought religious leaders would embrace this revelatory explanation that I believe I received from the Holy Spirit.
Instead, I got a lot of LUKEWARM responses. I had two pastors who have preached for over a dozen years separately tell me that I was right about the material, however, they would never teach it because they didn't want their congregation asking them why they had been wrong for over a decade.
As I did fourteen years of research, read the Bible cover-to-cover fourteen times, and talked with people, I realized the issue came down to this:
"Believers" tended to think it would be WRONG to be able to explain their faith logically.
"Non-believers" resented believers because believers are able to fully accept something that made no sense. However, non-believers couldn't imagine the hypocrisy that would come with judging others for NOT believing something that didn't make sense, so non-believers actually resented believers for not having the ability to explain their beliefs. It looked to the non-believers that God isn't fair because He was unable to be explained by the people who claimed to be getting the benefit of KNOWING God.
As I continued to read the Bible, I found that the Bible uses four God-given principles TOGETHER to PROVE truth. They are:
GROWTH
"2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit." (John 15)
Throughout the entire Bible, God's goal for the individual is growth...NOT comfort. In fact, the hard truth about God in this respect is that the individual has an initial choice: grow (learn the WHAT) or get worse.
However, the catch is, if the individual chooses to grow, they will face a second choice: grow (learn the WHY) or get MUCH worse. There is NO finish line with God. There is NO "acceptable level". We NEVER "arrive".
If the individual chooses to grow, then they face another choice: grow (learn the HOW) or get VERY MUCH worse. In the bible, there are numerous examples where a person is in a worse shape because they "made progress". For instance, we saw in this series that the person who gets an unclean spirit casted out will end up in a much worse state (Jesus' even stated this) if they don't grow.
What is a church doing if they grow people from Phase I (don't know anything about God) to Phase II (know the WHAT)...and then are unable to grow them to Phase III (know the WHY)? These people are ACTUALLY WORSE OFF then if they hadn't grown at all!
The church can teach people the WHAT. Most churches are ACTUALLY AGAINST teaching people the WHY. They are actually in the business of growing people and then preventing their growth so that the individual is much worse off than if they had stayed in the world and never grown at all. (We saw this in the post concerning the Willowcreek book "Reveal". Today, the church is not very successful growing people from Phase II to Phase III.)
The ONLY way to grow is to identify a wrong belief and change it. People who haven't changed their beliefs either are perfect or aren't growing. When is the last time you changed a deeply held belief?
CONTRASTIVE
"4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (Matthew 7)
Throughout the entire Bible, people who focus on proving themselves wrong (contrastive) are the ones who continually grow in their understanding of God. Again, throughout the entire Bible, people who focus on proving themselves right (comparative) are the ones who end up sinning.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to sin if you are contrastive. However, when you do sin, it will be due in some part to being comparative.
CAUSALITY
"33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit." (Matthew 7)
The entire Bible is written from cause to effect. In fact, the aspect that makes the Bible most different than every other religious book is that the Bible gives the WHY and it doesn't contradict.
Every other religious book presents a WHAT and tends to leave out the WHY. Unfortunately, people tend to read the Bible the same way as they read other religious books...and they miss the Bible's explanation of the WHY.
In my Bible, I have circled all of the "for's", "because's", and "cause's". I have also circled all of the "that's" and "which's" that serve as a "because". WHY do I do this? Because everything after these words are the REASONS for WHAT is being stated. The reason other religious books won't focus on giving a reason is that they would contradict themselves.
NON-CONTRADICTION
"24 No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6)
Contradictions do NOT exist. Conflicts do. I can be both happy and sad. However, I can't be both happy AND not happy at all.
The above examples from scripture came directly from Jesus' Mouth. There are plenty of other scriptures and explanation for each God-given principle if you click the title of each section.
This principle causes the most hypocrisy among people who fight it. EVERY TIME these people argue, the way they prove they are right is when they find a contradiction in the other person's explanation!
Truth is ONLY proven when ALL four God-given principles are used together. Leaving out even one of the principles can result in error.
What I realized is that doing the opposite of each of the four God-given principles is "the flesh" that they Bible speaks about.
Also, EVERYONE PERFECTLY applies these four God-given principles to EVERYONE ELSE.
However, EVERYONE refuses to apply these four God-given principles to themselves.
This is what ultimately makes us hypocrites...we hold others to a standard to which we don't hold ourselves. The solution would be to apply the four God-given principles to yourself AND NOT judge others...which is EXACTLY what Jesus (and Paul) stated in the Bible!
Forty years ago, the church ACTUALLY decided that it didn't have to hold itself to the four God-given principles. The church didn't have to grow (improve and change its worldview), give an objective explanation of God that made sense (non-contradiction), explain the WHY supporting their beliefs (causality), and consider that it was wrong (contrastive).
What I saw in most of the religious leaders is that they used the four God-given principles to prove themselves right, however, they refused the existence of the God-given principles when these principles proved them wrong. These people were being hypocrites. The excuse is that when it comes to God, these leaders thought they could violate God's principles.
I realized that any book I wrote with all this information had to begin by pointing out this hypocrisy.
The first chapter in "Modeling God" is called "The Invitation". It is meant to help the individual determine from the very beginning if they are going to be consistent in ALL their thoughts and actions or if they are going to be LUKEWARM and hypocritical by choosing to live by one set of principles (their own) when it came to God and a different set of principles (God's) when it came to everything else.
What I have found is that most religious leaders who read "The Invitation" get so uncomfortable, their amygdala's fire and they respond emotionally. They try to focus on HOW the message is presented in an attempt to ignore the truth that is presented. This chapter triggers the stronghold they have formed from their training. They hold to their emotions instead of the reasoning...and they end up going the way of Cain.
When a person who isn't a religious leader reads this first chapter, they also get uncomfortable. If they are looking for a reason to avoid growth, they will find someone who will think comparatively and denounce the chapter. What this person says is hypocritical, however, since it was said by another person, they feel justified going the way of Cain...
When a person who isn't a religious leader reads this first chapter and pushes through the discomfort, they begin to get answers to the WHY behind God, Salvation, faith, grace, sin, truth, life, love, prayer, etc. Even if they don't agree with what is written in "Modeling God", they end up determining what they DO believe and WHY. As we saw in the Brain Series, this is a tremendous help to the individual.
ALL of the people who have spoken against "Modeling God" have had an interaction with a religious leader (or are a religious leader) that does NOT understand the book. However, these people do NOT want to reach out to me in order to understand the book before denouncing it. In fact, some of these religious leaders have rationalized that since it is a published work, they don't have to reach out to the author to understand the work before reaching an incorrect interpretation and denouncing the book.
Some people have gone so far as to say the information is from "the pit of hell" or the devil or the enemy. I believe this information is from the Holy Spirit.
However, to those who have stated that this information, that I believe is from the Holy Spirit, is (in their Statement) from the devil, I have a passage from Matthew 12 for them to consider. (Notice the four God-given principles are used by Jesus throughout. Can you pick them out?)
"24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This man doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub the prince of the demons.
25 And knowing their thoughts he said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:
26 and if Satan casteth out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand?
27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges.
28 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.
29 Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
30 He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.
31 Therefore I say unto you, Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.
32 And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.
33 Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit.
34 Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
35 The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things: and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
36 And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
If "Modeling God" was given to me by the Holy Spirit, and a person has spoken a word against the source of this material...
However, I would like the reader to judge for themselves. Here is a reprint of the first chapter of "Modeling God".
THE INVITATION
Imagine you are invited to a party where you will be able to participate in any sensual pleasure you desire for as long as you want.
It’s an exclusive party, but the invitation I hand you simply says Admit One and has a place for you to fill in your name. As you look at the invitation, you notice it contains no other information. The first question you would probably ask is, “When is the party?”
You’d be relieved to find out the party was several months away and you had plenty of time to fit it into your schedule. Your next question would probably be, “Where is the party?”
To this I might say, “Chicago.”
As I turned to leave, you’d stop me so you could ask, “Where in Chicago?”
When I answered, “In a building with a sign in front. Why do you ask?” you may begin to show frustration.
“Why do I ask? I want to know how to find it, that’s why!”
My answer would depend on where you were coming from. If you were a great distance away, I’d tell you to first take a plane. Then, I’d tell you to drive a car. As you tried to interrupt, I’d say, “Let me be more helpful…when you drive the car, one pedal is the gas. That makes the car go. The other pedal is the brake. That makes the car stop. There is also a steering wheel. That helps you direct the car.”
If you haven’t given up, you may ask, “What am I supposed to do, drive every street until I find it? Could you please give me an address?” The reason you want an address is to know exactly where the party is so that you can find it intentionally. Another benefit of an address is that it allows you to measure your progress.
Up until you got the address, this process would be totally unacceptable for directions to the party. However, these are the same type of directions we get from people when we ask how to get closer to God. Think about it - the most important desire of your heart and you settle for directions that you’d consider ridiculous for something less important.
Intentional Perspective
When we ask how to get closer to God, we are told to read the Bible, pray, believe (have faith), and love others. What parts of the Bible should we read? Read the whole thing? How is this any different from me giving you a Chicago phone book and saying, “The address is in here”? In the same way that we are looking for a specific street; when we read the Bible, what are we supposed to focus on?
How do we build our faith or love more? People usually point to Hebrews 11:1 (“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for”) or I Corinthians 13:4 (“Love is long suffering, kind”, etc.) to answer these questions, yet these passages don’t tell us how faith or love works or, more importantly, how to intentionally increase these attributes.
Unfortunately, most people believe that when it comes to religion, we can’t be intentional. They express this by saying, “We can’t know these things,” or, “We aren’t supposed to try to understand them; it’s a mystery”. Some would even say it is “unnatural” to be able to explain these principles. Let’s deal with the first two responses separately.
First, religion commands us to make progress in these areas. In fact, we are held accountable for it. If we “can’t know” how to intentionally make progress, then why are we told to do these things? More to the point, why are we guilty when we don’t grow in these areas?
The weaker of the two responses is that we aren’t supposed to try to understand. This goes against everything we do, from reading the Bible to listening to a sermon. What is the purpose of teachers if it isn’t to try to intentionally help others understand? What is the purpose of the Bible if God doesn’t want us to try to understand? More importantly, why do these people want to avoid thinking?
The Excuse
These questions make some people so uncomfortable, sometimes their response is: “You are being scientific, while I have an artistic perspective.” When it is posed this way, this is an excuse. This has nothing to do with being creative.
When they say a person is scientific, they are saying that person believes if he understands the cause, he can intentionally get a desired result. When they say they are artistic, they are saying they don’t do things intentionally because they aren’t supposed to or can’t know the causes. These are the two previously mentioned responses. Their real hope is to have an excuse why they don’t have to think. They believe this will allow them to do whatever they want without guilt.
Isn’t it interesting that unintentional people get upset when others become unintentional? They get mad when their car breaks down, their medication doesn’t work, or their leaders make bad decisions. Yet, intentional people don’t get upset when others become intentional. In fact, they can be intentional in everything they do, while the people with the excuse cannot be unintentional in everything they do.
If you talk to these artists long enough, you will find they are very intentional with their art. They have certain guidelines on what does and doesn’t work. You will see this very quickly if you disagree with them. After all, if things can’t be understood, how can they be so sure their point of view is correct? In fact, their ability to convey the initial point of being unintentional requires them to be intentional in order to be understood. For example, they must be intentional when they use words. In reality, it takes an intentional approach to remain unintentional.
Later, we will see the areas they want to remain unintentional in are areas in which they are comfortable. Their goal is to have an excuse not to think.
Avoiding Thought
People who avoid thinking believe that not understanding somehow relieves them from the responsibility of changing their behavior. As you'll see, however, the concepts in this book are true and impact our lives whether we understand them or not. What if we followed their example in other areas?
For example, over a hundred years ago, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that maternity patients were dying at an alarming rate. He made the connection that students who had just finished working on cadavers were treating the patients! After insisting that the students wash their hands before treating the mothers, the number of deaths decreased by over a factor of five.
Should Dr. Semmelweis have not tried to understand the reason maternity patients were dying? Should he have not altered the behavior of his students? Most importantly, even if he had decided he couldn’t understand, it still would have negatively affected his patients. Allow me one more analogy…
Wine is made from fermented grapes. People initially found that when grapes were crushed and allowed to stand, the juice unexpectedly turned into alcohol. Eventually, they understood that yeast on the skin of the grape converted the sugar in the grape juice into alcohol. What was their response? Was it to continue crushing grapes and hope for the best? No; they began to apply this knowledge and intentionally add yeast to the crushed grapes in order to ensure progress toward turning the juice into wine.
Summary
God acts according to a set of principles whether we understand them or not. If we don’t understand them, things appear to be random and we will eventually become frustrated. However, if our understanding is increased and applied, it will result in more progress toward improving our interactions with God. This is most helpful when we face adversity. It is these moments when everyone strives to be intentional. God knows that and wants to help us overcome those times intentionally. He has given us everything we need in order to intentionally grow and overcome adversity, but we must understand how the principles work if we want to ensure our progress, especially through the tough times. Ultimately, understanding God from first principles involves thinking more, not less.
We can know how God works. In fact, we are supposed to know. God did give us an address because He wants us to make it to His party.
(Pages 19-22, "Modeling God")
SUMMARY
We have seen in the post titled, "Parables Are Models" people who claim God is a mystery are PROVING they are NOT followers of God:
"And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." (Matthew 13:10-13)
Jesus spoke in parables. The reason is so that those who are supposed to understand the mystery (believers) do understand and those who aren't supposed to understand the mystery (non-believers) don't.
Notice, this means that people who claim that Jesus can't be understood or that God is a mystery are actually testifying about themselves...they are publicly proclaiming they aren't "given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven".
Why do these people want to "celebrate the mystery"? Do you want to be one of them?
Tomorrow, we will conclude this Series on Spiritual Warfare...
Next Post
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The HOW of Old Testament Spiritual Warfare
This month, we are covering a seemingly simple concept that has powerful, revelatory, and wide ranging applications: Right-Right vs Right-Wrong...Right WHAT-Right HOW/WHY vs. Right WHAT-Wrong (or NO) HOW/WHY.
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
Throughout this Series we have seen the brain is the battlefield on which God and our mind participate in Spiritual Warfare against the enemy and our flesh. So, there are two participants attempting to access our strongholds: the enemy and our flesh.
This week we will conclude this series. In the previous post, we looked at a practical application of the HOW of Spiritual Warfare: Conviction vs. Condemnation.
Conviction is the confrontation the individual feels when he fails the HOW of Spiritual Warfare and sins through action, attitude, or thought. This conviction comes in the form of guilt and is NOT focused on the being of the individual.
Condemnation is the confrontation the individual feels when they file the experience of failing the HOW of Spiritual Warfare along with everything else that the person values that is Profitable. When sin is filed away in the cortex along side things that are Profitable, we saw that it can lead to the individual losing faith and not having a Profitable interaction with grace. It can lead to the person losing their Salvation. Condemnation is focused on the being of the individual.
Today, we will look at Old Testament examples of the HOW of Spiritual Warfare.
THE HOW OF OLD TESTAMENT SPIRITUAL WARFARE
Remember, the overview of the HOW of Spiritual Warfare for both sides is as follows...
The HOW of God's Spiritual Warfare Overview
1. The goal is to bring about God's Will
2. God supplies the power through the Holy Spirit with an influence upon our heart
3. We (Mind) choose to speak WORDS that are truth
4. These WORDS are spoken according to our understanding and experience...our imagination and memory.
The HOW of the flesh and the enemy's Spiritual Warfare Overview:
1. The goal is to hinder God's Will
2. The enemy supplies an influence upon our heart
3. The influence from the enemy is meant to encounter strongholds (sin) in our brain
4. The flesh attempts to weaken our understanding and experience...so that our imagination and memory serves the enemy.
Now, let's apply these overviews to our first example: Cain.
Remember, when we began this series we saw warnings about being deceived.
"9 But Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
10 But these rail at whatsoever things they know not: and what they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason, in these things are they destroyed.
11 Woe unto them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah." (Jude)
Notice, the way of Cain (verse 11) is the result of doing the causes in verse 10: rail at things they KNOW not, and what they UNDERSTAND naturally (according to the flesh), like creatures WITHOUT REASON, in these things are they destroyed.
Verse 10 is concerned with the HOW of Spiritual Warfare! It states that thinking in the flesh WITHOUT REASON will lead to destruction. We covered this process in last week's posts:
Strongholds: The Enemy (Faith)
Strongholds: The Enemy (Mind)
Strongholds: The Enemy (Heart)
Let's look SPECIFICALLY at what happened to Cain...
Genesis 4
"1 And the man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah.
2 And again she bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground."
People like to say that Cain was cursed because God cursed the ground. The Bible does NOT support that Cain was cursed at this point.
"3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5 but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell."
This is a HUGE point: Cain did NOT do anything WRONG.
Basically, God gave to Cain (rain, good soil, etc.). Cain gave back to God. When a pastor or teacher states that Cain did something WRONG at this point, they miss the value of this story. Cain gave an offering to God...HOW can that be BAD?
God gave to Abel (healthy animals, etc.). Abel gave back to God MORE...the best of the flock. God gave back to Abel (respect) BECAUSE of Justice.
Cain and Abel both offered to God. Abel's offer required God to have respect because God is Just. Cain's offer did NOT require God to have respect.
HOW of Spiritual Warfare: Cain's response to this experience was negative emotions. Cain was upset and his countenance fell. Cain is at the end of The Second Feedback Loop. Is Cain going to file this information away in a negative fashion? Is Cain going to ignore it and be at the mercy of his amygdala? What OUGHT God to do to Cain at this point?
Before we go on, I would like you to take a moment and decide what God says next to Cain. Don't read ahead. Take a moment to determine what you believe are God's Words to Cain.
During this two month series, my appreciation for God's and Jesus' spoken WORDS has grown. It looks so easy to say what God and Jesus say...until YOU have to state their WORDS. Then you find out how damaging we would be in the same situation...and how awesome God and Jesus are with their WORDS.
Here is what God said to Cain:
"6 And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?"
First, God asks Questions! (Did you ask Cain Questions?) God does NOT say Cain is WRONG. Everytime someone teaches this story and states that God said Cain did something WRONG at this point, they are NOT teaching God's Word!
God used causality. God is asking Cain to look for the cause of his negative emotions. He wants Cain to FACE the situation and file it in his cortex with accurate information. God is helping Cain complete The Second Feedback Loop!
"7 If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door: and unto thee shall be its desire, but do thou rule over it."
God poses another Question in the form of an IF/THEN. This Question focuses on a good cause and asks Cain to IMAGINE the effects of doing a good cause. This is the Sixth Stimulus!
Then God poses an IF/THEN Statement. Notice, God is stating the SIN is waiting for the opportunity. Sin has to be activated. As we saw, SIN is waiting for the individual to create strongholds in their brain. Remember, we change our brain (either for better or worse) every time we begin The First Feedback Loop.
SIN is waiting for Cain's brain to form a stronghold...God is attempting to help Cain do Spiritual Warfare...to cast down a stronghold.
"8 And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him."
Reread the first sentence ONLY: And Cain told Abel his brother.
Cain told Abel about his conversation with God! Cain is now accountable for the information. Cain understands what is happening. NOW if he does something opposite of what he understands...it would be apart from understanding...apart from faith...SIN.
Notice that after that first sentence, time passes from when Cain told Abel about his conversation with God. They were in the field. Was Cain asking Abel's help in picking out the best so Cain's offering would get respect? The Bible does NOT say. The Bible does say that Cain killed Abel.
This is SIN. This is when Cain would feel guilt. Now Cain needs to decide how he will handle this guilt. Will he use it to do the RIGHT thing: confess and repent? Will he succumb to a stronghold and try to ignore the guilt?
"9 And Jehovah said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: am I my brother's keeper?"
Again, God approaches Cain with a Question. How many times do people quote God as making Statements when the Bible actually has God asking Questions?
Cain LIES...he says he doesn't know where his brother is. Cain has completely accepted the stronghold. This is the way of Cain...
The passage from Jude that began this post speaks about the devil...
The ULTIMATE Old Testament example involves the ULTIMATE being to succumb to an Unprofitable Thought Process: Lucifer.
Ezekiel 24
"11 Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
12 Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou wast in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was in thee; in the day that thou wast created they were prepared.
14 Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth: and I set thee, so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee."
This situation troubles a lot of people: how could Lucifer be made "perfect"...yet unrighteousness was found in him?
Some people want to say that God made Satan flawed. That is NOT what the Bible says.
Some people want to say if Lucifer was truly made perfect, he wouldn't have sin in him. The Bible says he WAS made perfect...and eventually sin was found in him.
The ONLY explanation is that Satan chose to become flawed. Without this two month series, you wouldn't be able to explain HOW that happened. Now you can!
Satan's thought process began to go down a path that resulted in the formation of a stronghold.
"16 By the abundance of thy traffic they filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore have I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire."
This says that "abundance of thy traffic" resulted in Lucifer being filled with violence and sinning. What is traffic?
Strong's #7404 rekullah - "fem. pass. part. of 7402; trade (as peddled)"
Strong's #7402 rakal - "to travel for trading"
Basically, all of Lucifer's activity in interacting with others caused his thought process to form strongholds. In fact, it was an abundance of activity...and perhaps NOT completing The Second Feedback Loop.
"17 Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I have cast thee to the ground; I have laid thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18 By the multitude of thine iniquities, in the unrighteousness of thy traffic, thou hast profaned thy sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of thee; it hath devoured thee, and I have turned thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
19 All they that know thee among the peoples shall be astonished at thee: thou art become a terror, and thou shalt nevermore have any being."
Satan's heart was "lifted up" (in pride) over his attributes (beauty, wisdom, brightness, etc.). Verse 18 calls the actual interactions (traffic) "unrighteous". What was it that Satan actually did that PROVED he had unrighteousness in him?
Isaiah 14
"12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!
13 And thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."
Satan said in his heart FIVE "I WILL's"...
1. I will ascend into Heaven
2. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God
3. I will sit upon the mount of the congregation in the uttermost parts of the north
4. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds
5. I will make myself like the Most High
Satan understood that NONE of these were RIGHT in the Long Term. He acted apart from faith...apart from what he understood and experienced to be Right in the Long Term.
SUMMARY
Cain and Lucifer both chose to pursue an Unprofitable Thought Process that EVENTUALLY formed a stronghold and led to sin having the opportunity to activate in their lives.
Tomorrow, we will look at a stronghold affecting leaders in today's churches...
Next Post
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
Throughout this Series we have seen the brain is the battlefield on which God and our mind participate in Spiritual Warfare against the enemy and our flesh. So, there are two participants attempting to access our strongholds: the enemy and our flesh.
This week we will conclude this series. In the previous post, we looked at a practical application of the HOW of Spiritual Warfare: Conviction vs. Condemnation.
Conviction is the confrontation the individual feels when he fails the HOW of Spiritual Warfare and sins through action, attitude, or thought. This conviction comes in the form of guilt and is NOT focused on the being of the individual.
Condemnation is the confrontation the individual feels when they file the experience of failing the HOW of Spiritual Warfare along with everything else that the person values that is Profitable. When sin is filed away in the cortex along side things that are Profitable, we saw that it can lead to the individual losing faith and not having a Profitable interaction with grace. It can lead to the person losing their Salvation. Condemnation is focused on the being of the individual.
Today, we will look at Old Testament examples of the HOW of Spiritual Warfare.
THE HOW OF OLD TESTAMENT SPIRITUAL WARFARE
Remember, the overview of the HOW of Spiritual Warfare for both sides is as follows...
The HOW of God's Spiritual Warfare Overview
1. The goal is to bring about God's Will
2. God supplies the power through the Holy Spirit with an influence upon our heart
3. We (Mind) choose to speak WORDS that are truth
4. These WORDS are spoken according to our understanding and experience...our imagination and memory.
The HOW of the flesh and the enemy's Spiritual Warfare Overview:
1. The goal is to hinder God's Will
2. The enemy supplies an influence upon our heart
3. The influence from the enemy is meant to encounter strongholds (sin) in our brain
4. The flesh attempts to weaken our understanding and experience...so that our imagination and memory serves the enemy.
Now, let's apply these overviews to our first example: Cain.
Remember, when we began this series we saw warnings about being deceived.
"9 But Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
10 But these rail at whatsoever things they know not: and what they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason, in these things are they destroyed.
11 Woe unto them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah." (Jude)
Notice, the way of Cain (verse 11) is the result of doing the causes in verse 10: rail at things they KNOW not, and what they UNDERSTAND naturally (according to the flesh), like creatures WITHOUT REASON, in these things are they destroyed.
Verse 10 is concerned with the HOW of Spiritual Warfare! It states that thinking in the flesh WITHOUT REASON will lead to destruction. We covered this process in last week's posts:
Strongholds: The Enemy (Faith)
Strongholds: The Enemy (Mind)
Strongholds: The Enemy (Heart)
Let's look SPECIFICALLY at what happened to Cain...
Genesis 4
"1 And the man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah.
2 And again she bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground."
People like to say that Cain was cursed because God cursed the ground. The Bible does NOT support that Cain was cursed at this point.
"3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5 but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell."
This is a HUGE point: Cain did NOT do anything WRONG.
Basically, God gave to Cain (rain, good soil, etc.). Cain gave back to God. When a pastor or teacher states that Cain did something WRONG at this point, they miss the value of this story. Cain gave an offering to God...HOW can that be BAD?
God gave to Abel (healthy animals, etc.). Abel gave back to God MORE...the best of the flock. God gave back to Abel (respect) BECAUSE of Justice.
Cain and Abel both offered to God. Abel's offer required God to have respect because God is Just. Cain's offer did NOT require God to have respect.
HOW of Spiritual Warfare: Cain's response to this experience was negative emotions. Cain was upset and his countenance fell. Cain is at the end of The Second Feedback Loop. Is Cain going to file this information away in a negative fashion? Is Cain going to ignore it and be at the mercy of his amygdala? What OUGHT God to do to Cain at this point?
Before we go on, I would like you to take a moment and decide what God says next to Cain. Don't read ahead. Take a moment to determine what you believe are God's Words to Cain.
During this two month series, my appreciation for God's and Jesus' spoken WORDS has grown. It looks so easy to say what God and Jesus say...until YOU have to state their WORDS. Then you find out how damaging we would be in the same situation...and how awesome God and Jesus are with their WORDS.
Here is what God said to Cain:
"6 And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?"
First, God asks Questions! (Did you ask Cain Questions?) God does NOT say Cain is WRONG. Everytime someone teaches this story and states that God said Cain did something WRONG at this point, they are NOT teaching God's Word!
God used causality. God is asking Cain to look for the cause of his negative emotions. He wants Cain to FACE the situation and file it in his cortex with accurate information. God is helping Cain complete The Second Feedback Loop!
"7 If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door: and unto thee shall be its desire, but do thou rule over it."
God poses another Question in the form of an IF/THEN. This Question focuses on a good cause and asks Cain to IMAGINE the effects of doing a good cause. This is the Sixth Stimulus!
Then God poses an IF/THEN Statement. Notice, God is stating the SIN is waiting for the opportunity. Sin has to be activated. As we saw, SIN is waiting for the individual to create strongholds in their brain. Remember, we change our brain (either for better or worse) every time we begin The First Feedback Loop.
SIN is waiting for Cain's brain to form a stronghold...God is attempting to help Cain do Spiritual Warfare...to cast down a stronghold.
"8 And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him."
Reread the first sentence ONLY: And Cain told Abel his brother.
Cain told Abel about his conversation with God! Cain is now accountable for the information. Cain understands what is happening. NOW if he does something opposite of what he understands...it would be apart from understanding...apart from faith...SIN.
Notice that after that first sentence, time passes from when Cain told Abel about his conversation with God. They were in the field. Was Cain asking Abel's help in picking out the best so Cain's offering would get respect? The Bible does NOT say. The Bible does say that Cain killed Abel.
This is SIN. This is when Cain would feel guilt. Now Cain needs to decide how he will handle this guilt. Will he use it to do the RIGHT thing: confess and repent? Will he succumb to a stronghold and try to ignore the guilt?
"9 And Jehovah said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: am I my brother's keeper?"
Again, God approaches Cain with a Question. How many times do people quote God as making Statements when the Bible actually has God asking Questions?
Cain LIES...he says he doesn't know where his brother is. Cain has completely accepted the stronghold. This is the way of Cain...
The passage from Jude that began this post speaks about the devil...
The ULTIMATE Old Testament example involves the ULTIMATE being to succumb to an Unprofitable Thought Process: Lucifer.
Ezekiel 24
"11 Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
12 Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou wast in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was in thee; in the day that thou wast created they were prepared.
14 Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth: and I set thee, so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee."
This situation troubles a lot of people: how could Lucifer be made "perfect"...yet unrighteousness was found in him?
Some people want to say that God made Satan flawed. That is NOT what the Bible says.
Some people want to say if Lucifer was truly made perfect, he wouldn't have sin in him. The Bible says he WAS made perfect...and eventually sin was found in him.
The ONLY explanation is that Satan chose to become flawed. Without this two month series, you wouldn't be able to explain HOW that happened. Now you can!
Satan's thought process began to go down a path that resulted in the formation of a stronghold.
"16 By the abundance of thy traffic they filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore have I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire."
This says that "abundance of thy traffic" resulted in Lucifer being filled with violence and sinning. What is traffic?
Strong's #7404 rekullah - "fem. pass. part. of 7402; trade (as peddled)"
Strong's #7402 rakal - "to travel for trading"
Basically, all of Lucifer's activity in interacting with others caused his thought process to form strongholds. In fact, it was an abundance of activity...and perhaps NOT completing The Second Feedback Loop.
"17 Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I have cast thee to the ground; I have laid thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18 By the multitude of thine iniquities, in the unrighteousness of thy traffic, thou hast profaned thy sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of thee; it hath devoured thee, and I have turned thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
19 All they that know thee among the peoples shall be astonished at thee: thou art become a terror, and thou shalt nevermore have any being."
Satan's heart was "lifted up" (in pride) over his attributes (beauty, wisdom, brightness, etc.). Verse 18 calls the actual interactions (traffic) "unrighteous". What was it that Satan actually did that PROVED he had unrighteousness in him?
Isaiah 14
"12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!
13 And thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."
Satan said in his heart FIVE "I WILL's"...
1. I will ascend into Heaven
2. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God
3. I will sit upon the mount of the congregation in the uttermost parts of the north
4. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds
5. I will make myself like the Most High
Satan understood that NONE of these were RIGHT in the Long Term. He acted apart from faith...apart from what he understood and experienced to be Right in the Long Term.
SUMMARY
Cain and Lucifer both chose to pursue an Unprofitable Thought Process that EVENTUALLY formed a stronghold and led to sin having the opportunity to activate in their lives.
Tomorrow, we will look at a stronghold affecting leaders in today's churches...
Next Post
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Conviction vs. Condemnation
This month, we are covering a seemingly simple concept that has powerful, revelatory, and wide ranging applications: Right-Right vs Right-Wrong...Right WHAT-Right HOW/WHY vs. Right WHAT-Wrong (or NO) HOW/WHY.
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
Throughout this Series we have seen the brain is the battlefield on which God and our mind participate in Spiritual Warfare against the enemy and our flesh. So, there are two participants attempting to access our strongholds: the enemy and our flesh.
This week we will conclude this series. In the previous post, we concluded the three part mini-series on HOW the enemy participates in Spiritual Warfare:
The HOW of God's Spiritual Warfare Overview
1. The goal is to bring about God's Will
2. God supplies the power through the Holy Spirit with an influence upon our heart
3. We (Mind) choose to speak WORDS that are truth
4. These WORDS are spoken according to our understanding and experience...our imagination and memory.
The HOW of the flesh and the enemy's Spiritual Warfare Overview:
1. The goal is to hinder God's Will
2. The enemy supplies an influence upon our heart
3. The influence from the enemy is meant to encounter strongholds (sin) in our brain
4. The flesh attempts to weaken our understanding and experience...so that our imagination and memory serves the enemy.
Specifically looking at HOW #4...
Using faith to make sure the influence that reaches the brain is from God (grace) will require the person to state WORDS according to their faith so that upon completion of The Second Feedback Loop, the individual's faith and ability to experience grace is built.
Following the flesh and enemy's HOW of Spiritual Warfare for the first three steps results in the faith and individual's ability to experience grace Profitably to be weakened...to put their Salvation in danger.
Today, we will summarize both processes by looking at conviction vs. condemnation...
CONVICTION VS. CONDEMNATION
There are two responses that people confuse to their detriment: conviction and condemnation.
We have seen that if a person fails the HOW of Spiritual Warfare, they will end up feeling guilt. They will have done something that their conscience recognizes as sin...as something that is apart from faith...something apart from what is right in the Long Term according to their understanding and experience. The individual will feel this confrontation from God (through the Holy Spirit) and their Mind concerning the action, attitude, or thought of the individual. This confrontation is conviction.
Conviction in the New Testament is Strong's #1651 elegeho - "to confute, admonish:-convict, convince, tell a fault, rebuke, reprove"
Notice, everything about this word is to confront the individual about their BEHAVIOR, ATTITUDE, or THOUGHT. Remember what was written in "Modeling God"?
"Sin is an action, attitude, or thought that is wrong because it is done apart from what the individual knows is right due to their understanding or experience." (page 89)
In the previous post, we saw that the individual OUGHT to attach this conviction to the sinful behavior, attitude, or thought. Then the individual OUGHT to intentionally file ALL of this information TOGETHER into their cortex, so next time they can access this information BEFORE they choose to sin.
Here are some verses using Strong's #1651:
"7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you.
8 And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9 of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold me no more;
11 of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged." (John 8:7-11)
"7 For the bishop must be blameless, as God's steward; not self-willed, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre;
8 but given to hospitality, as lover of good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled;
9 holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict the gainsayers." (Titus 1:7-9)
"8 Howbeit if ye fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well:
9 but if ye have respect of persons, ye commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors." (James 2:8-9)
These passages state the Holy Spirit will convict the world, bishops ought to be able to convict gainsayers, and those who commit sin by giving preference to people will be convicted by the law. All of this concerns actions, attitudes, and thoughts...not the actual individual's being.
We saw the other way for people to handle sin is to personalize it. To file it away along with everything else that the person values that is Profitable. When sin is filed away in the cortex along side things that are Profitable, we saw that it can lead to the individual losing faith and not having a Profitable interaction with grace. It can lead to the person losing their Salvation. The feeling the person experiences from this sin is condemnation.
Condemnation is Strong's #2917 krima - "from 2919; a decision...damnation, go to law, judgment"
Strong's #2919 krino - "to distinguish, i.e. decide (mentally or judicially); by impl. to try, condemn, punish"
Condemnation goes beyond the action, attitude, and thought. Condemnation reaches the being of the individual. Condemnation results in the individual being judged and receiving damnation...loss of Salvation!
Let's look at some passages using Strong's #2917:
"14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, even while for a pretence ye make long prayers: therefore ye shall receive greater condemnation." (Matthew 23:14)
"38 And there was also a superscription over him, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
39 And one of the malefactors that were hanged railed on him, saying, Art not thou the Christ? save thyself and us.
40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, Dost thou not even fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?" (Luke 23:38-40)
"7 But if the truth of God through my lie abounded unto his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
8 and why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? whose condemnation is just." (Romans 3:7-8)
"2 The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
3 no brawler, no striker; but gentle, not contentious, no lover of money;
4 one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;
5 (but if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)
6 not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil." (I Timothy 3:2-6)
Condemnation in each case is a judgment against the individual that implies eternal consequences.
There's one more passage (John 8) that uses both concepts (conviction and condemnation) together:
"2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
3 And the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery; and having set her in the midst,
4 they say unto him, Teacher, this woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such: what then sayest thou of her?"
Notice, this could be seen as fleshly Spiritual Warfare. The Pharisees ask a Question after stating what the Law said. They are trying to get Jesus to CONDEMN her. We know from John 3:17 that Jesus did NOT come into the world to CONDEMN. What is Jesus going to do?
"6 And this they said, trying him, that they might have whereof to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground."
This verse states that the INTENT of the Pharisees' Question was to trap Jesus! They will continue asking until Jesus does something. What will Jesus do?
"7 But when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground."
I've covered this before as an example of "Weed Killer". Jesus didn't tell them NOT to stone her...which would have violated the Law. Jesus didn't physically try to prevent them from stoning her...that would have triggered their amygdalas and led to them stoning her. Jesus came up with a way TO stone her!
In fact, this looks like Spiritual Warfare. Jesus stated a will for the people in a conditional manner. Basically Jesus said for the people to fulfill the Law by meeting the requirement of being sinless. The result was the most efficient and effective way to disperse the crowd:
"9 And they, when they heard it, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst."
The Greek word for "convict" is in this verse. It is easier to see in the King James Version:
"9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." (KJV)
So, CONVICTION prevented them from continuing in their fleshly pursuit...it prevented their continuing in their actions, attitudes, and thoughts.
Once, the crowd leaves, Jesus addresses the woman:
"10 And Jesus lifted up himself, and said unto her, Woman, where are they? did no man condemn thee?
11 And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more."
The crowd was CONDEMNING her!
Jesus used WORDS to CONVICT the crowd.
Jesus states He doesn't CONDEMN her.
I had an interesting experience this weekend with traditional-minded people...people who hold to man-made traditions instead of God's Word...but think they are following God. The key way to determine if these people are following God or not is whether they operate in conviction or condemnation.
People who know their Bible and operate according to it can convict a person. They can focus on the behavior, attitude, or thought. They can objectively show how it is Unprofitable. They can do this without judging the person. They can do this without getting emotional. They can do this the same way Jesus did like we saw above in John 8. They can be Christians.
Traditional-minded people condemn...they focus on the being of the individual. They don't get all the facts. They make judgmental statements about the being of the individual in an emotional manner. They are NOT focused on reasoning with the individual and patiently showing with the Bible how the behavior, attitude, or thoughts of the person are Unprofitable. They focus on stating the person themselves is Unprofitable. As we saw above, they do this the same way as the crowd did in John 8.
This is the main reason there is so much damage being done today by "Christians"...
We looked at Romans 7 during the post on Strongholds: The Flesh. It was the post that showed how strongholds are formed in the flesh so that the enemy can give a stimulus (thought) that activates this sin that is within us. We saw the conclusion of Romans 7 is:
"22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
Paul showed that the believer's Mind and God's Holy Spirit serve the law of God (grace) while the believer's flesh serves the law of sin.
Once this conclusion is reached, notice Paul's next statement, which is the beginning of Romans 8...
"1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."
There is NO condemnation for believers! Paul's reason was in Chapter 7. However, Paul is going to give more reasons:
"2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death."
Reason #1: Grace freed me from the Law that activated sin in me and brings death.
"3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Reason #2: The Law is good and was meant to help me...but my flesh is too weak to handle the Law Profitably. So, God sent His own Son so that sin itself is condemned!...and that we can walk according to the Spirit and not see condemnation.
"5 For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit."
Reason #3: Our mind is able to be after the things of the Spirit which cannot be condemned.
"6 For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace:
7 because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be:
8 and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12 So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh:
13 for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live."
Reason #4: God's Spirit is able to live in us and do the Righteousness that allows us to avoid condemnation...because it leads to Salvation...which is the avoidance of punishment.
"14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God."
Reason #5: We are sons of God.
SUMMARY
Conviction is the confrontation the individual feels when he fails the HOW of Spiritual Warfare and sins through action, attitude, or thought. This conviction comes in the form of guilt and is NOT focused on the being of the individual.
Condemnation is the confrontation the individual feels when they file the experience of failing the HOW of Spiritual Warfare along with everything else that the person values that is Profitable. When sin is filed away in the cortex along side things that are Profitable, we saw that it can lead to the individual losing faith and not having a Profitable interaction with grace. It can lead to the person losing their Salvation. Condemnation is focused on the being of the individual.
Tomorrow, we will look at Old Testament examples of the HOW of Spiritual Warfare.
Next Post
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
Throughout this Series we have seen the brain is the battlefield on which God and our mind participate in Spiritual Warfare against the enemy and our flesh. So, there are two participants attempting to access our strongholds: the enemy and our flesh.
This week we will conclude this series. In the previous post, we concluded the three part mini-series on HOW the enemy participates in Spiritual Warfare:
The HOW of God's Spiritual Warfare Overview
1. The goal is to bring about God's Will
2. God supplies the power through the Holy Spirit with an influence upon our heart
3. We (Mind) choose to speak WORDS that are truth
4. These WORDS are spoken according to our understanding and experience...our imagination and memory.
The HOW of the flesh and the enemy's Spiritual Warfare Overview:
1. The goal is to hinder God's Will
2. The enemy supplies an influence upon our heart
3. The influence from the enemy is meant to encounter strongholds (sin) in our brain
4. The flesh attempts to weaken our understanding and experience...so that our imagination and memory serves the enemy.
Specifically looking at HOW #4...
Using faith to make sure the influence that reaches the brain is from God (grace) will require the person to state WORDS according to their faith so that upon completion of The Second Feedback Loop, the individual's faith and ability to experience grace is built.
Following the flesh and enemy's HOW of Spiritual Warfare for the first three steps results in the faith and individual's ability to experience grace Profitably to be weakened...to put their Salvation in danger.
Today, we will summarize both processes by looking at conviction vs. condemnation...
CONVICTION VS. CONDEMNATION
There are two responses that people confuse to their detriment: conviction and condemnation.
We have seen that if a person fails the HOW of Spiritual Warfare, they will end up feeling guilt. They will have done something that their conscience recognizes as sin...as something that is apart from faith...something apart from what is right in the Long Term according to their understanding and experience. The individual will feel this confrontation from God (through the Holy Spirit) and their Mind concerning the action, attitude, or thought of the individual. This confrontation is conviction.
Conviction in the New Testament is Strong's #1651 elegeho - "to confute, admonish:-convict, convince, tell a fault, rebuke, reprove"
Notice, everything about this word is to confront the individual about their BEHAVIOR, ATTITUDE, or THOUGHT. Remember what was written in "Modeling God"?
"Sin is an action, attitude, or thought that is wrong because it is done apart from what the individual knows is right due to their understanding or experience." (page 89)
In the previous post, we saw that the individual OUGHT to attach this conviction to the sinful behavior, attitude, or thought. Then the individual OUGHT to intentionally file ALL of this information TOGETHER into their cortex, so next time they can access this information BEFORE they choose to sin.
Here are some verses using Strong's #1651:
"7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you.
8 And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9 of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold me no more;
11 of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged." (John 8:7-11)
"7 For the bishop must be blameless, as God's steward; not self-willed, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre;
8 but given to hospitality, as lover of good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled;
9 holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict the gainsayers." (Titus 1:7-9)
"8 Howbeit if ye fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well:
9 but if ye have respect of persons, ye commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors." (James 2:8-9)
These passages state the Holy Spirit will convict the world, bishops ought to be able to convict gainsayers, and those who commit sin by giving preference to people will be convicted by the law. All of this concerns actions, attitudes, and thoughts...not the actual individual's being.
We saw the other way for people to handle sin is to personalize it. To file it away along with everything else that the person values that is Profitable. When sin is filed away in the cortex along side things that are Profitable, we saw that it can lead to the individual losing faith and not having a Profitable interaction with grace. It can lead to the person losing their Salvation. The feeling the person experiences from this sin is condemnation.
Condemnation is Strong's #2917 krima - "from 2919; a decision...damnation, go to law, judgment"
Strong's #2919 krino - "to distinguish, i.e. decide (mentally or judicially); by impl. to try, condemn, punish"
Condemnation goes beyond the action, attitude, and thought. Condemnation reaches the being of the individual. Condemnation results in the individual being judged and receiving damnation...loss of Salvation!
Let's look at some passages using Strong's #2917:
"14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, even while for a pretence ye make long prayers: therefore ye shall receive greater condemnation." (Matthew 23:14)
"38 And there was also a superscription over him, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
39 And one of the malefactors that were hanged railed on him, saying, Art not thou the Christ? save thyself and us.
40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, Dost thou not even fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?" (Luke 23:38-40)
"7 But if the truth of God through my lie abounded unto his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
8 and why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? whose condemnation is just." (Romans 3:7-8)
"2 The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
3 no brawler, no striker; but gentle, not contentious, no lover of money;
4 one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;
5 (but if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)
6 not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil." (I Timothy 3:2-6)
Condemnation in each case is a judgment against the individual that implies eternal consequences.
There's one more passage (John 8) that uses both concepts (conviction and condemnation) together:
"2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
3 And the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery; and having set her in the midst,
4 they say unto him, Teacher, this woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such: what then sayest thou of her?"
Notice, this could be seen as fleshly Spiritual Warfare. The Pharisees ask a Question after stating what the Law said. They are trying to get Jesus to CONDEMN her. We know from John 3:17 that Jesus did NOT come into the world to CONDEMN. What is Jesus going to do?
"6 And this they said, trying him, that they might have whereof to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground."
This verse states that the INTENT of the Pharisees' Question was to trap Jesus! They will continue asking until Jesus does something. What will Jesus do?
"7 But when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground."
I've covered this before as an example of "Weed Killer". Jesus didn't tell them NOT to stone her...which would have violated the Law. Jesus didn't physically try to prevent them from stoning her...that would have triggered their amygdalas and led to them stoning her. Jesus came up with a way TO stone her!
In fact, this looks like Spiritual Warfare. Jesus stated a will for the people in a conditional manner. Basically Jesus said for the people to fulfill the Law by meeting the requirement of being sinless. The result was the most efficient and effective way to disperse the crowd:
"9 And they, when they heard it, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst."
The Greek word for "convict" is in this verse. It is easier to see in the King James Version:
"9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." (KJV)
So, CONVICTION prevented them from continuing in their fleshly pursuit...it prevented their continuing in their actions, attitudes, and thoughts.
Once, the crowd leaves, Jesus addresses the woman:
"10 And Jesus lifted up himself, and said unto her, Woman, where are they? did no man condemn thee?
11 And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more."
The crowd was CONDEMNING her!
Jesus used WORDS to CONVICT the crowd.
Jesus states He doesn't CONDEMN her.
I had an interesting experience this weekend with traditional-minded people...people who hold to man-made traditions instead of God's Word...but think they are following God. The key way to determine if these people are following God or not is whether they operate in conviction or condemnation.
People who know their Bible and operate according to it can convict a person. They can focus on the behavior, attitude, or thought. They can objectively show how it is Unprofitable. They can do this without judging the person. They can do this without getting emotional. They can do this the same way Jesus did like we saw above in John 8. They can be Christians.
Traditional-minded people condemn...they focus on the being of the individual. They don't get all the facts. They make judgmental statements about the being of the individual in an emotional manner. They are NOT focused on reasoning with the individual and patiently showing with the Bible how the behavior, attitude, or thoughts of the person are Unprofitable. They focus on stating the person themselves is Unprofitable. As we saw above, they do this the same way as the crowd did in John 8.
This is the main reason there is so much damage being done today by "Christians"...
We looked at Romans 7 during the post on Strongholds: The Flesh. It was the post that showed how strongholds are formed in the flesh so that the enemy can give a stimulus (thought) that activates this sin that is within us. We saw the conclusion of Romans 7 is:
"22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
Paul showed that the believer's Mind and God's Holy Spirit serve the law of God (grace) while the believer's flesh serves the law of sin.
Once this conclusion is reached, notice Paul's next statement, which is the beginning of Romans 8...
"1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."
There is NO condemnation for believers! Paul's reason was in Chapter 7. However, Paul is going to give more reasons:
"2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death."
Reason #1: Grace freed me from the Law that activated sin in me and brings death.
"3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Reason #2: The Law is good and was meant to help me...but my flesh is too weak to handle the Law Profitably. So, God sent His own Son so that sin itself is condemned!...and that we can walk according to the Spirit and not see condemnation.
"5 For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit."
Reason #3: Our mind is able to be after the things of the Spirit which cannot be condemned.
"6 For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace:
7 because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be:
8 and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12 So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh:
13 for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live."
Reason #4: God's Spirit is able to live in us and do the Righteousness that allows us to avoid condemnation...because it leads to Salvation...which is the avoidance of punishment.
"14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God."
Reason #5: We are sons of God.
SUMMARY
Conviction is the confrontation the individual feels when he fails the HOW of Spiritual Warfare and sins through action, attitude, or thought. This conviction comes in the form of guilt and is NOT focused on the being of the individual.
Condemnation is the confrontation the individual feels when they file the experience of failing the HOW of Spiritual Warfare along with everything else that the person values that is Profitable. When sin is filed away in the cortex along side things that are Profitable, we saw that it can lead to the individual losing faith and not having a Profitable interaction with grace. It can lead to the person losing their Salvation. Condemnation is focused on the being of the individual.
Tomorrow, we will look at Old Testament examples of the HOW of Spiritual Warfare.
Next Post
Monday, July 27, 2009
Strongholds: The Enemy (Faith)
This month, we are covering a seemingly simple concept that has powerful, revelatory, and wide ranging applications: Right-Right vs Right-Wrong...Right WHAT-Right HOW/WHY vs. Right WHAT-Wrong (or NO) HOW/WHY.
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
Throughout this Series we have seen the brain is the battlefield on which God and our mind participate in Spiritual Warfare against the enemy and our flesh. So, there are two participants attempting to access our strongholds: the enemy and our flesh.
This week we will conclude this series. Today, we will conclude the three part mini-series on HOW the enemy participates in Spiritual Warfare:
The HOW of God's Spiritual Warfare Overview
1. The goal is to bring about God's Will
2. God supplies the power through the Holy Spirit with an influence upon our heart
3. We (Mind) choose to speak WORDS that are truth
4. These WORDS are spoken according to our understanding and experience...our imagination and memory.
We covered HOW #3: The Mind...and summarized the post with:
God's influence upon our heart is a fully formed complex causeless thought that teaches us. It requires NO effort from us. All we can do is agree and let it reflect in our life OR disagree and prevent it from reflecting in our life.
The enemy's influence upon the heart of the individual is a deceptive thought that APPEARS complex. The individual adds the HOW/WHY to the thought and may encounter a stronghold. Once the influence is planted the enemy leaves because we are the ones who do all the work.
When this influence from the enemy is successful, the result of this is that our faith runs down...
While ALL influences OUGHT to be checked according to understanding and experience (faith), there is a greater objective concerning these two areas...
Today, we will look at these areas with HOW #4.
STRONGHOLDS: THE ENEMY (Faith)
HOW #4 concerns faith...our experience and understanding...our memory and imagination.
Notice, faith OUGHT to be used to determine which influences that come into the heart (HOW #2) are allowed to progress to the brain (HOW #3). What we are talking about today is the role of faith AFTER the screening process.
The words that are spoken OUGHT to be according to our faith. In earlier posts, we saw this faith was the REASON the Spiritual Warfare was successful or unsuccessful. So, in the OUGHT situation, the WORDS that are spoken can be fully supported by the person and the completion of The Second Feedback Loop would result in the entire experience (and the understanding of the individual as it relates to the experience) being strengthened in the brain of the individual and associated with Profitable emotions. This is one way that faith is built!
This also means that when the individual participates in the Sixth Stimulus, the individual's memory and imagination would serve the individual.
An example of this is at the beginning of the Bible:
"1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day." (Genesis 1:1-5)
The Bible begins with God SPEAKING the Physical World into existence. God has a Will. The Spirit is present among the elements. God speaks WORDS. God evaluates the result...so that His imagination can move on to the next more complicated thing to be SPOKEN into existence...
However, we saw the HOW of the flesh and the enemy's Spiritual Warfare Overview is:
1. The goal is to hinder God's Will
2. The enemy supplies an influence upon our heart
3. The influence from the enemy is meant to encounter strongholds (sin) in our brain
4. The flesh attempts to weaken our understanding and experience...so that our imagination and memory serves the enemy.
So, the flesh and the enemy want the individual to encounter a stronghold which throws the individual off course. This makes the individual Unprofitable. In this case, the completion of The Second Feedback Loop results in the entire experience (and the understanding of the individual as it relates to the experience) being weakened in the brain of the individual and associated with Unprofitable emotions.
The faith of the individual is being weakened especially as it relates to what the individual believes when it involves taking direction from God's influence. This step of weakening the individual's faith ALSO results in weakening the individual's ability to Profitably experience grace!
Since Salvation is by grace through faith...the enemy's goal is to hinder the Salvation of the individual.
This is serious...HOW ought the individual to respond when they have been taken off course by an influence that is NOT from God?
The individual ought to make sure they face the fact that what they experienced was NOT God's influence. They need to state their will so that what gets put in their brain is an experience and understanding that is NOT associated with God...so that it cannot be accessed when they are operating in faith and grace in the future.
Here is an often over-looked example of Spiritual Warfare...in fact, it takes place shortly after Jesus says that Peter had a response that came from Heaven:
"21 From that time began Jesus to show unto his disciples, that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up."
Jesus is giving the disciples information. Jesus is attempting to build their faith so that when these events happen, they aren't Unprofitable.
"22 And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall never be unto thee."
Peter rebuked Jesus! Actually, THAT is NOT the worse part of this...
Peter stated a will for Jesus!
This is Spiritual Warfare!
Where is this influence coming from? What would happen if everyone present filed this away in their cortex along with their experience and understanding? What OUGHT Jesus to do?
"23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:21-23)
Jesus performed Spiritual Warfare on Peter!
He stated a will for the influence in Peter...He stated a fact...He stated a reason.
Jesus made sure that NO ONE filed THAT moment in their cortex along with their faith.
SUMMARY
Using faith to make sure the influence that reaches the brain is from God (grace) will require the person to state WORDS according to their faith so that upon completion of The Second Feedback Loop, the individual's faith and ability to experience grace is built.
Following the flesh and enemy's HOW of Spiritual Warfare for the first three steps results in the faith and individual's ability to experience grace Profitably to be weakened...to put their Salvation in danger.
Tomorrow, we will summarize both processes by looking at conviction vs. condemnation...
Next Post
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
Throughout this Series we have seen the brain is the battlefield on which God and our mind participate in Spiritual Warfare against the enemy and our flesh. So, there are two participants attempting to access our strongholds: the enemy and our flesh.
This week we will conclude this series. Today, we will conclude the three part mini-series on HOW the enemy participates in Spiritual Warfare:
The HOW of God's Spiritual Warfare Overview
1. The goal is to bring about God's Will
2. God supplies the power through the Holy Spirit with an influence upon our heart
3. We (Mind) choose to speak WORDS that are truth
4. These WORDS are spoken according to our understanding and experience...our imagination and memory.
We covered HOW #3: The Mind...and summarized the post with:
God's influence upon our heart is a fully formed complex causeless thought that teaches us. It requires NO effort from us. All we can do is agree and let it reflect in our life OR disagree and prevent it from reflecting in our life.
The enemy's influence upon the heart of the individual is a deceptive thought that APPEARS complex. The individual adds the HOW/WHY to the thought and may encounter a stronghold. Once the influence is planted the enemy leaves because we are the ones who do all the work.
When this influence from the enemy is successful, the result of this is that our faith runs down...
While ALL influences OUGHT to be checked according to understanding and experience (faith), there is a greater objective concerning these two areas...
Today, we will look at these areas with HOW #4.
STRONGHOLDS: THE ENEMY (Faith)
HOW #4 concerns faith...our experience and understanding...our memory and imagination.
Notice, faith OUGHT to be used to determine which influences that come into the heart (HOW #2) are allowed to progress to the brain (HOW #3). What we are talking about today is the role of faith AFTER the screening process.
The words that are spoken OUGHT to be according to our faith. In earlier posts, we saw this faith was the REASON the Spiritual Warfare was successful or unsuccessful. So, in the OUGHT situation, the WORDS that are spoken can be fully supported by the person and the completion of The Second Feedback Loop would result in the entire experience (and the understanding of the individual as it relates to the experience) being strengthened in the brain of the individual and associated with Profitable emotions. This is one way that faith is built!
This also means that when the individual participates in the Sixth Stimulus, the individual's memory and imagination would serve the individual.
An example of this is at the beginning of the Bible:
"1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day." (Genesis 1:1-5)
The Bible begins with God SPEAKING the Physical World into existence. God has a Will. The Spirit is present among the elements. God speaks WORDS. God evaluates the result...so that His imagination can move on to the next more complicated thing to be SPOKEN into existence...
However, we saw the HOW of the flesh and the enemy's Spiritual Warfare Overview is:
1. The goal is to hinder God's Will
2. The enemy supplies an influence upon our heart
3. The influence from the enemy is meant to encounter strongholds (sin) in our brain
4. The flesh attempts to weaken our understanding and experience...so that our imagination and memory serves the enemy.
So, the flesh and the enemy want the individual to encounter a stronghold which throws the individual off course. This makes the individual Unprofitable. In this case, the completion of The Second Feedback Loop results in the entire experience (and the understanding of the individual as it relates to the experience) being weakened in the brain of the individual and associated with Unprofitable emotions.
The faith of the individual is being weakened especially as it relates to what the individual believes when it involves taking direction from God's influence. This step of weakening the individual's faith ALSO results in weakening the individual's ability to Profitably experience grace!
Since Salvation is by grace through faith...the enemy's goal is to hinder the Salvation of the individual.
This is serious...HOW ought the individual to respond when they have been taken off course by an influence that is NOT from God?
The individual ought to make sure they face the fact that what they experienced was NOT God's influence. They need to state their will so that what gets put in their brain is an experience and understanding that is NOT associated with God...so that it cannot be accessed when they are operating in faith and grace in the future.
Here is an often over-looked example of Spiritual Warfare...in fact, it takes place shortly after Jesus says that Peter had a response that came from Heaven:
"21 From that time began Jesus to show unto his disciples, that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up."
Jesus is giving the disciples information. Jesus is attempting to build their faith so that when these events happen, they aren't Unprofitable.
"22 And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall never be unto thee."
Peter rebuked Jesus! Actually, THAT is NOT the worse part of this...
Peter stated a will for Jesus!
This is Spiritual Warfare!
Where is this influence coming from? What would happen if everyone present filed this away in their cortex along with their experience and understanding? What OUGHT Jesus to do?
"23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:21-23)
Jesus performed Spiritual Warfare on Peter!
He stated a will for the influence in Peter...He stated a fact...He stated a reason.
Jesus made sure that NO ONE filed THAT moment in their cortex along with their faith.
SUMMARY
Using faith to make sure the influence that reaches the brain is from God (grace) will require the person to state WORDS according to their faith so that upon completion of The Second Feedback Loop, the individual's faith and ability to experience grace is built.
Following the flesh and enemy's HOW of Spiritual Warfare for the first three steps results in the faith and individual's ability to experience grace Profitably to be weakened...to put their Salvation in danger.
Tomorrow, we will summarize both processes by looking at conviction vs. condemnation...
Next Post
Friday, July 24, 2009
Strongholds: The Enemy (Mind)
This month, we are covering a seemingly simple concept that has powerful, revelatory, and wide ranging applications: Right-Right vs Right-Wrong...Right WHAT-Right HOW/WHY vs. Right WHAT-Wrong (or NO) HOW/WHY.
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
Throughout this Series we have seen the brain is the battlefield on which God and our mind participate in Spiritual Warfare against the enemy and our flesh. So, there are two participants attempting to access our strongholds: the enemy and our flesh.
The previous post began a three part mini-series on HOW the enemy participates in Spiritual Warfare:
The HOW of God's Spiritual Warfare Overview
1. The goal is to bring about God's Will
2. God supplies the power through the Holy Spirit with an influence upon our heart
3. We (Mind) choose to speak WORDS that are truth
4. These WORDS are spoken according to our understanding and experience...our imagination and memory.
We covered HOW #2: The Heart...and summarized the post with:
The heart is the gateway to the battlefield of Spiritual Warfare.
EVERYONE has access to the heart of the individual...
Today, we will look at HOW #3: The Mind.
STRONGHOLDS: THE ENEMY (Mind)
The HOW #3 for God's Spiritual Warfare Overview is:
3. We (Mind) choose to speak WORDS that are truth
The HOW #3 for the flesh and enemy's Spiritual Warfare Overview is:
3. The influence from the enemy is meant to encounter strongholds (sin) in our brain
We saw from the post titled, "The Seventh Stimulus" that when God puts an influence upon the heart, it is a fully formed complex causeless thought.
"Fully formed complex" means it is a thought that has gone through more than one cycle of The First Feedback Loop. It isn't just a stimulus, connecting fact, and emotion. It is made up of several connecting facts. It is a thought that would have taken several cycles of The First Feedback Loop for us to come up with...
"Causeless thought" means the fully formed complex thought doesn't have an associated stimulus. When we become aware of the influence from God, we can't trace what the stimulus was that began The First Feedback Loop. Actually, since the fully formed complex thought would have required several cycles of The First Feedback Loop, we would also realize that we don't have any memory of ANY of the cycles in The First Feedback Loop. In fact, we were thinking about a completely different topic when this fully formed complex thought landed upon our heart and got sent to the brain as a stimulus.
So, when we now examine where this thought came from and we realize we have no causality trail in our brain, we begin to take the fully formed complex thought apart. When we do this, we find the thought teaches us. The thought contains information that we don't have filed away in our cortex.
Notice, physiologically, the thought couldn't come from our brain because if we came up with the thought it would have to come from The First Feedback Loop and we have no memory of this happening. Also, if one were to say it came from the unaware brain, the amygdala, the amygdala sees patterns and translates them into action. The amygdala doesn't build complex thoughts that teach us.
However, if you were going to stick to physiology, you could point out there is "another brain" in the body. Recently, research has found that the heart is a "mini-brain". It makes complex decisions. Since this is a Friday post, here are a couple more links to look into during the weekend:
The Intellect of the Heart
This post shows how the heart is a mini-brain.
Hearts and Minds
This post looks at Bible verses showing that the heart and the mind are treated as two completely separate "belief centers".
Keep Your Heart
This post talks about how we ought to manage our heart: how we ought to sow into our heart and how we ought to deal with tares being sown in the heart.
So, even physiologically, we can see that it is more likely for a fully formed complex thought apart from the cortex to come from the heart rather than the amygdala.
So, the fully formed complex thought is placed upon the heart by God through the Holy Spirit (grace) and then it goes to the brain where it will be received as a causeless thought that teaches.
Notice, this means that Spiritual Warfare is ALWAYS initiated by the Holy Spirit.
Look again at the Bible passages we have covered concerning Spiritual Warfare...when Spiritual Warfare worked it was when people were "full of the Holy Spirit" or directed by the Holy Spirit. When Spiritual Warfare didn't work...like the sons of Sceva...it was done from the person's strength. In fact, let's take a brief look at the most famous example of Spiritual Warfare...
Hebrews 4
"14 Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
In the post titled, "Overcoming Temptation", we looked in depth at the above passage and Jesus being tempted in the desert. We saw that there is NO Greek word for the word "points" in this passage. The word is NOT "things". We found that Jesus was tempted in the areas that could have caused Him to fall, just like we are tempted in the areas that could cause us to fall. This gets back to sin being that which is done apart from faith FOR THE INDIVIDUAL.
The devil is a spiritual being. The devil can see our "points" in the spiritual realm that we can be tempted. The devil doesn't tempt us with things that couldn't work on us individually. The devil won't tempt you to play too much golf if that couldn't cause you to fall. Also, Jesus wasn't tempted in EVERYTHING that we were tempted because there are things that weren't around when Jesus walked the earth...for instance, Jesus wasn't tempted to play too many video games.
The passage in Hebrews says Jesus was tempted in all "points" like as we are, yet without sin. This means that the temptations didn't lead to Jesus sinning...like it does with us. Let's look briefly at Jesus' temptation...
Luke 4
"1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led in the Spirit in the wilderness
2 during forty days, being tempted of the devil. And he did eat nothing in those days: and when they were completed, he hungered."
Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit was led by the Holy Spirit INTO Spiritual Warfare with the devil.
Also, remember that John 8 says Jesus said He didn't do anything of Himself. All the Spiritual Warfare Jesus did was initiated by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was led of the Holy Spirit.
John 8
"26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you: howbeit he that sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these speak I unto the world.
27 They perceived not that he spake to them of the Father.
28 Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things."
Notice, this passage deals SPECIFICALLY with what things Jesus came TO SPEAK (HOW #3)...with WORDS. Jesus says the CAUSE of what He speaks is what God teaches and tells Him. Jesus did the HOW of Spiritual Warfare PERFECTLY. EVERYTHING He did during Spiritual Warfare was initiated by the Holy Spirit and focused on bringing about God's Will.
Remember, also that this influence upon the heart by God through the Holy Spirit is grace. We saw in the Salvation Series that Grace is going to be uncomfortable. It is going to tell us to give...to love. It is going to do it with specific WORDS. These WORDS are truth...they will create.
Remember, Jesus said the Holy Spirit will lead us into ALL truth and will show us what will come. Truth is a Right WHAT stated with a Right HOW/WHY. This fully formed complex thought through grace will have a HOW or WHY that we are able to prove to be true according to our experience or understanding of God. Let's look at some examples...
EXAMPLES
Medicine - In the grace post, we used the analogy of taking medicine. The medicine is like the divine influence and our choice (responsibility) is whether we take the medicine or not. When we get healed, we don't say that we healed ourselves. We know the medicine healed us (grace), however, we are responsible for whether we take the medicine or not. God provides EVERYONE the medicine (grace) and the individual is responsible for their own healing (Salvation) whether they apply the medicine (grace) to their life or not.
In this post, we are saying grace is the fully formed complex causeless thought that teaches us. So, notice the medicine is a fully formed complex pill. We didn't make the pill, so to us it is causeless. Asking questions about the pill would teach us. We are NOT adding anything to this from ourselves.
Here is how this example would look if it was from the enemy: We would get an ingredient (powder, bark, even a pill). Then we would be told we would have to do something to it or add something to it. We would have to grind up the bark, dissolve the powder in boiling water, look up what other medication to take with the pill, etc. In this case, there is an opportunity to do something that would make the medicine ineffective, or worse, deadly. We were only given a portion of the answer and we had to add to it in order to attempt to make it effective.
The Matrix - One of my favorite ways to explain grace is to reference the scene in The Matix where Morpheus mails Neo a phone. Here is a link to the scene: Neo being led by Morpheus.
In this example, Morpheus is the Holy Spirit. Neo takes complete direction from Morpheus. Morpheus leads Neo into all truth and shows what will come. Morpheus constantly gives a HOW/WHY for every WHAT that he states. Everything that Morpheus says is uncomfortable to Neo. Neo doesn't have to add anything of himself to each direction. The directions are teaching him. Eventually, the final decision is Neo's to make...it is his responsibility. When he loses the phone, he loses his faith...and then he makes a Statement of unbelief ("I can't do this")...and the actions follow just as Morpheus stated.
If the same scene was done along the enemy's objective, the influence would be cryptic. For instance, instead of: "There's an office in the corner, when I tell you, go to it." The influence would say: "If you think there is a way out, you had better find it quick."
That influence could cause the individual to doubt that there is a way out and quit. If the indivdiual didn't quit, they'd need to first figure out if they think there is a way out. Then they would have to decide how much time they think they have. Then they would have to, etc.
The point is: the individual is doing all the work from their own strength. The influence got them started by creating a work. With God, the individual needs to decide whether allow the influence to reflect in their life...it is a yes or no answer. It does NOT require the individual to do anything in their own strength, and consequently, they can't take credit for it. If Neo had made it out of that building, could he have taken credit for doing it in his own strength? (No.)
Notice, most stories/novels are written like the devil is leading the individual. We get a portion of the answer and we need to keep reading to get all the answer. This story is focused on the WHAT.
One thing that makes the Bible different from every other book is it gives the WHAT up front. Grace gives the entire WHAT up front. Joseph knows his brothers and dad will bow down to him. We know Jesus is going to be crucified. The Bible is NOT written focused on a WHAT. The Bible is written focused on the HOW/WHY. That is WHY you can read the same story over and over, knowing the end result (WHAT), yet still learn something new...BECAUSE God is focused on the HOW/WHY, NOT the WHAT!
Parable of Trees - The entire Brain Series was presented in terms of "trees". In fact, this brings up a point I want to emphasize from that series: Parables Are Models!
A model is an explanation for observed effects. A good model can teach you more as you apply it to other areas. Jesus spoke in parables. A good parable can teach you more as you apply it to other areas. An analogy or diagram is also a model. Not only are models NOT bad, God wants us to MODEL! God is constantly telling us models throughout His Word so that we can understand MORE and intentionally get the effects God desires us to get!
I recently had a pastor tell me his plan for a project by stating it in four consecutive steps. When I referred to his plan as a model, he lost his mind. He begged me NOT to call it a model! People who want to be unintentional and NOT bear the responsibility for their actions try to avoid ANYTHING that looks intentional...and that includes models, parables, analogies, diagrams, etc. It is hypocritical for a person to say they are unintentional, yet get mad when other people are unintentional towards them! I have written this before:
EVERYONE had a model for EVERYTHING.
The difference is whether the individual is aware of their models. Stating that you don't have models is really an admission that you are unaware of the reason WHY you do what you do. It may even be an attempt to damage your own brain...
At the end of the brain Series we looked at a TREE as a model of our spiritual selves. We know all the factors affecting the growth of a tree. However, we then looked at how each factor related to ourselves in a spiritual manner. We began with The Soil.
We found there was a reason Jesus used trees in His parables as it relates to us...each aspect of the tree ended up teaching us a spiritual truth about ourselves.
However, the enemy comes up with bad analogies. One of my pet peeves is people who use bad analogies. I've written how Rob Bell used a trampoline as an analogy for the Christian's experience with God. Again, it is a partial thought that only applies to one narrow aspect and causes damage when expanded to other areas. For instance, half the time a person uses a trampoline they are coming down and in the end they are in the same place they started. People who present bad analogies are proving they are trying to do things in their own strength...according to their flesh.
EXAMPLE SUMMARY
God's influence teaches us. It creates and we learn from it. The enemy's influence requires us to create. Let's look at what happens when the enemy puts an influence upon the heart...
When the enemy puts an influence upon the heart, it is a thought that APPEARS complex because it is built on deception.
Remember from the post titled, "Deception" that deception is a Right WHAT presented with a Wrong (OR NO) HOW/WHY. If we choose to examine the thought, we will realize there is NO HOW/WHY or the HOW/WHY does NOT prove true (create) according to our experience and understanding of God. This causes us to supply a HOW/WHY...usually incorrectly.
(Also, if the influence is not causeless, it is most likely from the enemy or our flesh. If we can trace the creation of the influence, then it needs to be checked twice as much.)
Again, the enemy's influence can be causeless, but it won't teach...it will cause YOU to build on the fragment...you will be adding your connecting facts from your cortex. Grace causes you to learn FROM the influence, NOT have to add to the influence. Let's take a moment to look more deeply at how the brain works so that we can understand HOW the enemy wants his influence to hinder God's Will...
BRAIN REVIEW
Our brains are built to apply causality and detect contradictions. These are two of the God-given principles. However, our brains are also designed to be comparative and comfortable...the opposite of the other two God-given principles.
When we get a stimulus, our brain immediately looks for a connecting fact...for something that is SIMILAR to the stimulus. With each feedback loop, the brain is building a full thought that is based on similarity...on comparative facts. The brain does NOT want to look for contradictory facts...the brain is NOT contrastive. The Mind makes the choice to be contrastive.
Our brain being built on comfort means we will choose the easiest and quickest route during the feedback loop. We will choose the loop that makes us feel best and has been traveled the most. Remembering back to our squirrel in a tree analogy...the squirrel comes to a tree that represents the stimulus. For example, somebody just shoved us.
In our brain, there is a "shove tree". There is a tree that represents all the thoughts we have in conjunction with shoving. The squirrel runs to the trunk of that tree and now has to pick a branch. There may be a few branches. There may be many branches.
(Notice, when people play games where they have to come up with a list in a short amount of time, they are showing how many branches they have. For instance, if I asked you to name as many things as you could in 30 seconds that are "red", you would be showing if your "red tree" has a lot of branches or few branches.)
If the squirrel is rushed he is going to go to the first branch which is usually the biggest and most traveled...and most likely we will shove the other person back in response to this most popular connecting fact. When someone always chooses the biggest and most traveled branch, the person will appear to be in a rut or close-minded. For example, this is what we see when we mention New York City and a relative ALWAYS has to tell the same story about Empire State Building. In order to exercise your brain, you ought to try to think of something different...you ought to take a less traveled path...you ought to be contrastive.
We also see this when someone ALWAYS thinks of the most negative response to every stimulus...or the most positive response to every stimulus. Telling the positive person to be realistic or the negative person not to be such a downer, is an attempt to get them to be contrastive and have their squirrel intentionally pick a different branch.
The enemy can tell your strongholds because they are spiritual. The devil can tell which branches your squirrel likes to travel. The devil also knows which circumstances and influences can lead your squirrel to a branch where they will hit the solid invisible cube (stronghold), fall out of the tree, and get upset and act in confusion.
So, the principles that would solve this technique of the enemy are:
Contrastive Thinking
Choose to intentionally think the opposite of what your comparative brain is attempting to create.
Growth
Choose to be uncomfortable and grow in the Long Term.
Fellowship
Actively seek the opinions of other people you trust. Use the understanding and experience that others have of God to test if the influence you are following is from God.
Now we can look briefly at HOW the devil participated in Spiritual Warfare with Jesus. We saw in the post "Overcoming Temptation", the devil used three IF/THEN Statements.
Luke 4
"3 And the devil said unto him, if thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it become bread."
"6 And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall all be thine."
"9 And he led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
10 for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to guard thee:
11 and, On their hands they shall bear thee up, Lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone."
The devil made a conditional Statement that would require the individual to supply the rest of the information. (Notice, the devil even quoted the scriptures with the third IF/THEN!) Remember, the Serpent did this to Adam and Eve.
The devil is NOT going to state a HOW/WHY. The devil is going to let you come up with the HOW/WHY. This HOW/WHY is going to be according to YOUR uniqueness.
The devil's goal is for the individual to look for comparative facts associated with the THEN. In fact, the ideal situation for the devil would be for the individual to find comparative facts that have positive emotions associated with them. For instance, the devil wanted Jesus to think about what it would be like to be in authority over everything. Then the devil is hoping the individual continues to create from the individual's uniqueness something that the individual wants. Eve created from the thought she would be like God.
The devil knows your strongholds.
The devil attempts to plant an influence on your heart that YOU build a HOW/WHY on top of with your comparative brain. The devil wants you to create something in your uniqueness that will cause YOU to want something so much that you then imagine it is God that wants you to have it...because it feels so right. The devil wants the loops that you go through to encounter a stronghold which will ensure that you will justify yourself instead of God or cause you to get angry and confused enough to do something destructive.
Jesus' response to each of the devil's influences was to be contrastive. Jesus quoted truth. He quoted the Bible according to His understanding and experience in a manner that it created in the Long Term.
Eve's response was to be comparative. She stated three facts that seemed to create in the short-term, but ended up in destruction in the Long Term.
SUMMARY
God's influence upon our heart is a fully formed complex causeless thought that teaches us. It requires NO effort from us. All we can do is agree and let it reflect in our life OR disagree and prevent it from reflecting in our life.
The enemy's influence upon the heart of the individual is a deceptive thought that APPEARS complex. The individual adds the HOW/WHY to the thought and may encounter a stronghold. Once the influence is planted the enemy leaves because we are the ones who do all the work.
When this influence from the enemy is successful, the result of this is that our faith runs down...
While ALL influences OUGHT to be checked according to understanding and experience (faith), there is a greater objective concerning these two areas...
We will look at these areas on Monday with HOW #4.
Next Post
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
Throughout this Series we have seen the brain is the battlefield on which God and our mind participate in Spiritual Warfare against the enemy and our flesh. So, there are two participants attempting to access our strongholds: the enemy and our flesh.
The previous post began a three part mini-series on HOW the enemy participates in Spiritual Warfare:
The HOW of God's Spiritual Warfare Overview
1. The goal is to bring about God's Will
2. God supplies the power through the Holy Spirit with an influence upon our heart
3. We (Mind) choose to speak WORDS that are truth
4. These WORDS are spoken according to our understanding and experience...our imagination and memory.
We covered HOW #2: The Heart...and summarized the post with:
The heart is the gateway to the battlefield of Spiritual Warfare.
EVERYONE has access to the heart of the individual...
Today, we will look at HOW #3: The Mind.
STRONGHOLDS: THE ENEMY (Mind)
The HOW #3 for God's Spiritual Warfare Overview is:
3. We (Mind) choose to speak WORDS that are truth
The HOW #3 for the flesh and enemy's Spiritual Warfare Overview is:
3. The influence from the enemy is meant to encounter strongholds (sin) in our brain
We saw from the post titled, "The Seventh Stimulus" that when God puts an influence upon the heart, it is a fully formed complex causeless thought.
"Fully formed complex" means it is a thought that has gone through more than one cycle of The First Feedback Loop. It isn't just a stimulus, connecting fact, and emotion. It is made up of several connecting facts. It is a thought that would have taken several cycles of The First Feedback Loop for us to come up with...
"Causeless thought" means the fully formed complex thought doesn't have an associated stimulus. When we become aware of the influence from God, we can't trace what the stimulus was that began The First Feedback Loop. Actually, since the fully formed complex thought would have required several cycles of The First Feedback Loop, we would also realize that we don't have any memory of ANY of the cycles in The First Feedback Loop. In fact, we were thinking about a completely different topic when this fully formed complex thought landed upon our heart and got sent to the brain as a stimulus.
So, when we now examine where this thought came from and we realize we have no causality trail in our brain, we begin to take the fully formed complex thought apart. When we do this, we find the thought teaches us. The thought contains information that we don't have filed away in our cortex.
Notice, physiologically, the thought couldn't come from our brain because if we came up with the thought it would have to come from The First Feedback Loop and we have no memory of this happening. Also, if one were to say it came from the unaware brain, the amygdala, the amygdala sees patterns and translates them into action. The amygdala doesn't build complex thoughts that teach us.
However, if you were going to stick to physiology, you could point out there is "another brain" in the body. Recently, research has found that the heart is a "mini-brain". It makes complex decisions. Since this is a Friday post, here are a couple more links to look into during the weekend:
The Intellect of the Heart
This post shows how the heart is a mini-brain.
Hearts and Minds
This post looks at Bible verses showing that the heart and the mind are treated as two completely separate "belief centers".
Keep Your Heart
This post talks about how we ought to manage our heart: how we ought to sow into our heart and how we ought to deal with tares being sown in the heart.
So, even physiologically, we can see that it is more likely for a fully formed complex thought apart from the cortex to come from the heart rather than the amygdala.
So, the fully formed complex thought is placed upon the heart by God through the Holy Spirit (grace) and then it goes to the brain where it will be received as a causeless thought that teaches.
Notice, this means that Spiritual Warfare is ALWAYS initiated by the Holy Spirit.
Look again at the Bible passages we have covered concerning Spiritual Warfare...when Spiritual Warfare worked it was when people were "full of the Holy Spirit" or directed by the Holy Spirit. When Spiritual Warfare didn't work...like the sons of Sceva...it was done from the person's strength. In fact, let's take a brief look at the most famous example of Spiritual Warfare...
Hebrews 4
"14 Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
In the post titled, "Overcoming Temptation", we looked in depth at the above passage and Jesus being tempted in the desert. We saw that there is NO Greek word for the word "points" in this passage. The word is NOT "things". We found that Jesus was tempted in the areas that could have caused Him to fall, just like we are tempted in the areas that could cause us to fall. This gets back to sin being that which is done apart from faith FOR THE INDIVIDUAL.
The devil is a spiritual being. The devil can see our "points" in the spiritual realm that we can be tempted. The devil doesn't tempt us with things that couldn't work on us individually. The devil won't tempt you to play too much golf if that couldn't cause you to fall. Also, Jesus wasn't tempted in EVERYTHING that we were tempted because there are things that weren't around when Jesus walked the earth...for instance, Jesus wasn't tempted to play too many video games.
The passage in Hebrews says Jesus was tempted in all "points" like as we are, yet without sin. This means that the temptations didn't lead to Jesus sinning...like it does with us. Let's look briefly at Jesus' temptation...
Luke 4
"1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led in the Spirit in the wilderness
2 during forty days, being tempted of the devil. And he did eat nothing in those days: and when they were completed, he hungered."
Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit was led by the Holy Spirit INTO Spiritual Warfare with the devil.
Also, remember that John 8 says Jesus said He didn't do anything of Himself. All the Spiritual Warfare Jesus did was initiated by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was led of the Holy Spirit.
John 8
"26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you: howbeit he that sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these speak I unto the world.
27 They perceived not that he spake to them of the Father.
28 Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things."
Notice, this passage deals SPECIFICALLY with what things Jesus came TO SPEAK (HOW #3)...with WORDS. Jesus says the CAUSE of what He speaks is what God teaches and tells Him. Jesus did the HOW of Spiritual Warfare PERFECTLY. EVERYTHING He did during Spiritual Warfare was initiated by the Holy Spirit and focused on bringing about God's Will.
Remember, also that this influence upon the heart by God through the Holy Spirit is grace. We saw in the Salvation Series that Grace is going to be uncomfortable. It is going to tell us to give...to love. It is going to do it with specific WORDS. These WORDS are truth...they will create.
Remember, Jesus said the Holy Spirit will lead us into ALL truth and will show us what will come. Truth is a Right WHAT stated with a Right HOW/WHY. This fully formed complex thought through grace will have a HOW or WHY that we are able to prove to be true according to our experience or understanding of God. Let's look at some examples...
EXAMPLES
Medicine - In the grace post, we used the analogy of taking medicine. The medicine is like the divine influence and our choice (responsibility) is whether we take the medicine or not. When we get healed, we don't say that we healed ourselves. We know the medicine healed us (grace), however, we are responsible for whether we take the medicine or not. God provides EVERYONE the medicine (grace) and the individual is responsible for their own healing (Salvation) whether they apply the medicine (grace) to their life or not.
In this post, we are saying grace is the fully formed complex causeless thought that teaches us. So, notice the medicine is a fully formed complex pill. We didn't make the pill, so to us it is causeless. Asking questions about the pill would teach us. We are NOT adding anything to this from ourselves.
Here is how this example would look if it was from the enemy: We would get an ingredient (powder, bark, even a pill). Then we would be told we would have to do something to it or add something to it. We would have to grind up the bark, dissolve the powder in boiling water, look up what other medication to take with the pill, etc. In this case, there is an opportunity to do something that would make the medicine ineffective, or worse, deadly. We were only given a portion of the answer and we had to add to it in order to attempt to make it effective.
The Matrix - One of my favorite ways to explain grace is to reference the scene in The Matix where Morpheus mails Neo a phone. Here is a link to the scene: Neo being led by Morpheus.
In this example, Morpheus is the Holy Spirit. Neo takes complete direction from Morpheus. Morpheus leads Neo into all truth and shows what will come. Morpheus constantly gives a HOW/WHY for every WHAT that he states. Everything that Morpheus says is uncomfortable to Neo. Neo doesn't have to add anything of himself to each direction. The directions are teaching him. Eventually, the final decision is Neo's to make...it is his responsibility. When he loses the phone, he loses his faith...and then he makes a Statement of unbelief ("I can't do this")...and the actions follow just as Morpheus stated.
If the same scene was done along the enemy's objective, the influence would be cryptic. For instance, instead of: "There's an office in the corner, when I tell you, go to it." The influence would say: "If you think there is a way out, you had better find it quick."
That influence could cause the individual to doubt that there is a way out and quit. If the indivdiual didn't quit, they'd need to first figure out if they think there is a way out. Then they would have to decide how much time they think they have. Then they would have to, etc.
The point is: the individual is doing all the work from their own strength. The influence got them started by creating a work. With God, the individual needs to decide whether allow the influence to reflect in their life...it is a yes or no answer. It does NOT require the individual to do anything in their own strength, and consequently, they can't take credit for it. If Neo had made it out of that building, could he have taken credit for doing it in his own strength? (No.)
Notice, most stories/novels are written like the devil is leading the individual. We get a portion of the answer and we need to keep reading to get all the answer. This story is focused on the WHAT.
One thing that makes the Bible different from every other book is it gives the WHAT up front. Grace gives the entire WHAT up front. Joseph knows his brothers and dad will bow down to him. We know Jesus is going to be crucified. The Bible is NOT written focused on a WHAT. The Bible is written focused on the HOW/WHY. That is WHY you can read the same story over and over, knowing the end result (WHAT), yet still learn something new...BECAUSE God is focused on the HOW/WHY, NOT the WHAT!
Parable of Trees - The entire Brain Series was presented in terms of "trees". In fact, this brings up a point I want to emphasize from that series: Parables Are Models!
A model is an explanation for observed effects. A good model can teach you more as you apply it to other areas. Jesus spoke in parables. A good parable can teach you more as you apply it to other areas. An analogy or diagram is also a model. Not only are models NOT bad, God wants us to MODEL! God is constantly telling us models throughout His Word so that we can understand MORE and intentionally get the effects God desires us to get!
I recently had a pastor tell me his plan for a project by stating it in four consecutive steps. When I referred to his plan as a model, he lost his mind. He begged me NOT to call it a model! People who want to be unintentional and NOT bear the responsibility for their actions try to avoid ANYTHING that looks intentional...and that includes models, parables, analogies, diagrams, etc. It is hypocritical for a person to say they are unintentional, yet get mad when other people are unintentional towards them! I have written this before:
EVERYONE had a model for EVERYTHING.
The difference is whether the individual is aware of their models. Stating that you don't have models is really an admission that you are unaware of the reason WHY you do what you do. It may even be an attempt to damage your own brain...
At the end of the brain Series we looked at a TREE as a model of our spiritual selves. We know all the factors affecting the growth of a tree. However, we then looked at how each factor related to ourselves in a spiritual manner. We began with The Soil.
We found there was a reason Jesus used trees in His parables as it relates to us...each aspect of the tree ended up teaching us a spiritual truth about ourselves.
However, the enemy comes up with bad analogies. One of my pet peeves is people who use bad analogies. I've written how Rob Bell used a trampoline as an analogy for the Christian's experience with God. Again, it is a partial thought that only applies to one narrow aspect and causes damage when expanded to other areas. For instance, half the time a person uses a trampoline they are coming down and in the end they are in the same place they started. People who present bad analogies are proving they are trying to do things in their own strength...according to their flesh.
EXAMPLE SUMMARY
God's influence teaches us. It creates and we learn from it. The enemy's influence requires us to create. Let's look at what happens when the enemy puts an influence upon the heart...
When the enemy puts an influence upon the heart, it is a thought that APPEARS complex because it is built on deception.
Remember from the post titled, "Deception" that deception is a Right WHAT presented with a Wrong (OR NO) HOW/WHY. If we choose to examine the thought, we will realize there is NO HOW/WHY or the HOW/WHY does NOT prove true (create) according to our experience and understanding of God. This causes us to supply a HOW/WHY...usually incorrectly.
(Also, if the influence is not causeless, it is most likely from the enemy or our flesh. If we can trace the creation of the influence, then it needs to be checked twice as much.)
Again, the enemy's influence can be causeless, but it won't teach...it will cause YOU to build on the fragment...you will be adding your connecting facts from your cortex. Grace causes you to learn FROM the influence, NOT have to add to the influence. Let's take a moment to look more deeply at how the brain works so that we can understand HOW the enemy wants his influence to hinder God's Will...
BRAIN REVIEW
Our brains are built to apply causality and detect contradictions. These are two of the God-given principles. However, our brains are also designed to be comparative and comfortable...the opposite of the other two God-given principles.
When we get a stimulus, our brain immediately looks for a connecting fact...for something that is SIMILAR to the stimulus. With each feedback loop, the brain is building a full thought that is based on similarity...on comparative facts. The brain does NOT want to look for contradictory facts...the brain is NOT contrastive. The Mind makes the choice to be contrastive.
Our brain being built on comfort means we will choose the easiest and quickest route during the feedback loop. We will choose the loop that makes us feel best and has been traveled the most. Remembering back to our squirrel in a tree analogy...the squirrel comes to a tree that represents the stimulus. For example, somebody just shoved us.
In our brain, there is a "shove tree". There is a tree that represents all the thoughts we have in conjunction with shoving. The squirrel runs to the trunk of that tree and now has to pick a branch. There may be a few branches. There may be many branches.
(Notice, when people play games where they have to come up with a list in a short amount of time, they are showing how many branches they have. For instance, if I asked you to name as many things as you could in 30 seconds that are "red", you would be showing if your "red tree" has a lot of branches or few branches.)
If the squirrel is rushed he is going to go to the first branch which is usually the biggest and most traveled...and most likely we will shove the other person back in response to this most popular connecting fact. When someone always chooses the biggest and most traveled branch, the person will appear to be in a rut or close-minded. For example, this is what we see when we mention New York City and a relative ALWAYS has to tell the same story about Empire State Building. In order to exercise your brain, you ought to try to think of something different...you ought to take a less traveled path...you ought to be contrastive.
We also see this when someone ALWAYS thinks of the most negative response to every stimulus...or the most positive response to every stimulus. Telling the positive person to be realistic or the negative person not to be such a downer, is an attempt to get them to be contrastive and have their squirrel intentionally pick a different branch.
The enemy can tell your strongholds because they are spiritual. The devil can tell which branches your squirrel likes to travel. The devil also knows which circumstances and influences can lead your squirrel to a branch where they will hit the solid invisible cube (stronghold), fall out of the tree, and get upset and act in confusion.
So, the principles that would solve this technique of the enemy are:
Contrastive Thinking
Choose to intentionally think the opposite of what your comparative brain is attempting to create.
Growth
Choose to be uncomfortable and grow in the Long Term.
Fellowship
Actively seek the opinions of other people you trust. Use the understanding and experience that others have of God to test if the influence you are following is from God.
Now we can look briefly at HOW the devil participated in Spiritual Warfare with Jesus. We saw in the post "Overcoming Temptation", the devil used three IF/THEN Statements.
Luke 4
"3 And the devil said unto him, if thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it become bread."
"6 And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall all be thine."
"9 And he led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
10 for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to guard thee:
11 and, On their hands they shall bear thee up, Lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone."
The devil made a conditional Statement that would require the individual to supply the rest of the information. (Notice, the devil even quoted the scriptures with the third IF/THEN!) Remember, the Serpent did this to Adam and Eve.
The devil is NOT going to state a HOW/WHY. The devil is going to let you come up with the HOW/WHY. This HOW/WHY is going to be according to YOUR uniqueness.
The devil's goal is for the individual to look for comparative facts associated with the THEN. In fact, the ideal situation for the devil would be for the individual to find comparative facts that have positive emotions associated with them. For instance, the devil wanted Jesus to think about what it would be like to be in authority over everything. Then the devil is hoping the individual continues to create from the individual's uniqueness something that the individual wants. Eve created from the thought she would be like God.
The devil knows your strongholds.
The devil attempts to plant an influence on your heart that YOU build a HOW/WHY on top of with your comparative brain. The devil wants you to create something in your uniqueness that will cause YOU to want something so much that you then imagine it is God that wants you to have it...because it feels so right. The devil wants the loops that you go through to encounter a stronghold which will ensure that you will justify yourself instead of God or cause you to get angry and confused enough to do something destructive.
Jesus' response to each of the devil's influences was to be contrastive. Jesus quoted truth. He quoted the Bible according to His understanding and experience in a manner that it created in the Long Term.
Eve's response was to be comparative. She stated three facts that seemed to create in the short-term, but ended up in destruction in the Long Term.
SUMMARY
God's influence upon our heart is a fully formed complex causeless thought that teaches us. It requires NO effort from us. All we can do is agree and let it reflect in our life OR disagree and prevent it from reflecting in our life.
The enemy's influence upon the heart of the individual is a deceptive thought that APPEARS complex. The individual adds the HOW/WHY to the thought and may encounter a stronghold. Once the influence is planted the enemy leaves because we are the ones who do all the work.
When this influence from the enemy is successful, the result of this is that our faith runs down...
While ALL influences OUGHT to be checked according to understanding and experience (faith), there is a greater objective concerning these two areas...
We will look at these areas on Monday with HOW #4.
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