Modeling God

Luke 1:67-75

2012-01-27T00:03:00.001-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:63-66. Here was the conclusion:

Zacharias confirmed what Elisabeth had stated: their son's name was John. Zacharias was immediately able to speak and the people began to wonder what John would grow up to accomplish.

Luke 1
"67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying,"

(Another effect of Zacharias obeying Gabriel, which proved Zacharias' faith, was the he was filled with the Holy Spirit. What Zacharias stated was prophecy and of the Holy Spirit...)

"68 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; For he hath visited and wrought redemption for his people,
69 And hath raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of his servant David
70 (As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from of old),"

(Zacharias began with Messianic Prophecy. He stated that God had brought the Messiah to that generation...as He stated in the Old Testament by the prophets.)

"71 Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
72 To show mercy towards, our fathers, And to remember his holy covenant;
73 The oath which he spake unto Abraham our father,"

(Zacharias then referenced the everlasting covenant God made with Abraham. We saw that Matthew began his Gospel Account referencing both David and Abraham.)

"74 To grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies Should serve him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before him all our days."

(Zacharias then referenced eternity in paradise.)

CONCLUSION
Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit. He began by speaking of God's everlasting covenant with Israel, God's messianic covenant with David, and eternity in paradise.

Luke 1:63-66

2012-01-26T00:03:00.001-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:56-62. Here was the conclusion:

Mary left Elisabeth shortly before John the Baptist was born. Those who performed the circumcision wanted to name him Zacharias, but Elisabeth said to name him John. They didn't want to listen to her, so they turned to Zacharias to find out the name of his son...

Luke 1
"63 And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all."

(Zacharias confirmed what Elisabeth said: His name is John. This caused all the people to marvel.)

"64 And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, blessing God."

(Zacharias was able to speak immediately after doing what Gabriel told him to do: name his son John. When Zacharias could speak, he blessed God.)

"65 And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judaea."

(People became aware of these events and made other people aware...which was one reason why Luke was able to find out about this decades later.)

"66 And all that heard them laid them up in their heart, saying, What then shall this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him."

(Not only was everyone aware of these events, but the people wondered what John would grow up to accomplish because they knew the hand of the Lord was with him. John grew up in an environment where the people had high expectations of him.)

CONCLUSION
Zacharias confirmed what Elisabeth had stated: their son's name was John. Zacharias was immediately able to speak and the people began to wonder what John would grow up to accomplish.

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Luke 1:56-62

2012-01-25T00:03:00.001-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:46-55. Here was the conclusion:

Mary confirmed her faith in what was stated to her by the Holy Spirit and Elisabeth concerning JESUS.

Luke1
"56 And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned unto her house."

(Mary stayed with Elisabeth until her ninth month and then returned to Nazareth. Mary was not pregnant at this point...)

"57 Now Elisabeth's time was fulfilled that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son."

(John the Baptist was born at least nine months before Jesus.)

"58 And her neighbors and her kinsfolk heard that the Lord had magnified his mercy towards her; and they rejoiced with her."

(People rejoiced at the news that she got her heart's desire in her old age. Notice, this drew attention to the birth and connected events...which would allow Luke to learn about this decades later.)

"59 And it came to pass on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him Zacharias, after the name of the father."

(When they went to circumcise John and name him, those who did the circumcision would have named him Zacharias.)

"60 And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John."

(Elisabeth stated that his name would be John. Notice, Elisabeth was full of the Holy Spirit and pronounced the correct name. Perhaps Zacharias was able to let Elisabeth know what Gabriel said...but even if he didn't Elisabeth was full of the Holy Spirit and correctly stated what Gabriel had said.)

"61 And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name.
62 And they made signs to his father, what he would have him called."

(The people stated that none of her relatives were called John. The crowd then turned to Zacharias to see what he wanted the child to be named...)

CONCLUSION
Mary left Elisabeth shortly before John the Baptist was born. Those who performed the circumcision wanted to name him Zacharias, but Elisabeth said to name him John. They didn't want to listen to her, so they turned to Zacharias to find out the name of his son...

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Luke 1:46-55

2012-01-24T00:03:00.001-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:39-45. Here was the conclusion:

Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit when she heard Mary's voice because John the Baptist leaped for joy in her womb. Elisabeth spoke prophecy and blessings by the Holy Spirit to confirm what Mary had believed by the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1
"46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."

(Mary's response to Elisabeth was to speak according to Mary's faith. She testified that her Son would be the Messiah...and that Mary needed a Saviour. For those who believe Mary was sinless, verse 47 contradicts that doctrine.)

"48 For he hath looked upon the low estate of his handmaid: For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; And holy is his name."

(Again, Mary confessed her low state and gave the credit to God.)

"50 And his mercy is unto generations and generations On them that fear him."

(A modern translation of "fear" is respect and honor.)

"51 He hath showed strength with his arm; He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart.
52 He hath put down princes from their thrones, And hath exalted them of low degree.
53 The hungry he hath filled with good things; And the rich he hath sent empty away."

(These three verses were effects and examples of verses 48 and 49: God blesses those who are humble and of a low state.)

"54 He hath given help to Israel his servant, That he might remember mercy
55 (As he spake unto our fathers) Toward Abraham and his seed for ever."

(These two verses were effects and examples of verse 50: God's mercy is on those who respect Him. Abraham and Israel would be shown God's mercy through JESUS.)

CONCLUSION
Mary confirmed her faith in what was stated to her by the Holy Spirit and Elisabeth concerning JESUS.

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Luke 1:39-45

2012-01-23T00:03:00.001-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:34-38. Here was the conclusion:

Gabriel responded to Mary's question by stating God would impregnate her through the Holy Spirit. Mary's response was to have faith in what Gabriel stated and accept it.

Luke1
"39 And Mary arose in these days and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah;
40 and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elisabeth."

(Mary was in a different city and did not know Elisabeth was pregnant.)

"41 And it came to pass, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit;"

(When Elisabeth heard Mary's voice, John the Baptist leaped in Elisabeth's womb...and Elisabeth became filled with the Holy Spirit. The word for "leaped" was Strong's #4640 skirtao - "leap for joy". This word occurred three times in the New Testament...all in Luke's Gospel Account. It was used in verse 44 and Jesus used it in Luke 6:23.)

(The first person John filled with the Holy Spirit was Elisabeth as an effect of Mary speaking. John's life was so dedicated to preparing the way for the Lord that he reacted with joy when his mother heard the voice of JESUS' mother.)

"42 and she lifted up her voice with a loud cry, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb."

(Elisabeth stated by the Holy Spirit that Mary was blessed among women and the fruit of her womb was blessed...even though she wasn't pregnant yet. The Holy Spirit spoke prophecy.)

"43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come unto me?
44 For behold, when the voice of thy salutation came into mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy."

(Elisabeth stated by the Holy Spirit that Mary was the mother of the Messiah! Elisabeth even gave the reason why she stated this: her baby leaped for joy (skirtao) when she heard Mary's words. Words are powerful and important!)

"45 And blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a fulfilment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord."

(Notice, Elisabeth stated a word of knowledge: she said Mary was blessed because Mary believed. Elisabeth knew by the Holy Spirit that Mary had believed the Holy Spirit's prophetic word to Mary. Elisabeth then stated prophecy: there shall be fulfillment of the things the Holy Spirit spoke to her.)

CONCLUSION
Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit when she heard Mary's voice because John the Baptist leaped for joy in her womb. Elisabeth spoke prophecy and blessings by the Holy Spirit to confirm what Mary had believed by the Holy Spirit.

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Luke 1:34-38

2012-01-20T00:03:00.001-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:26-33. Here was the conclusion:

Gabriel visited Mary in Nazareth six months after John the Baptist was conceived. Gabriel essentially gave Mary the same news as he gave Zacharias about Elisabeth: Mary would conceive a son...and then told Mary what to name Him: JESUS. However, Gabriel told Mary JESUS would be the Son of God...the Messiah. JESUS would reign over an eternal kingdom.

Luke 1
"34 And Mary said unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?"

(Notice, Mary asked the angel HOW this would occur. Mary did NOT state it wouldn't occur. It sounded like Mary wanted to know what she could do to help...did she have to have sexual intercourse with Joseph? Remember, in verse 18, Zacharias' response to Gabriel was to ask WHY he should believe Gabriel..."Whereby shall I know this?". Gabriel made Zacharias unable to speak because of Zacharias' response. How would Gabriel answer Mary's question?)

"35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God."

(Gabriel stated the Holy Spirit would impregnate her. In face, Gabriel even followed up with a Reason: that is why JESUS will be the Son of God because He will be begotten of God through the Holy Spirit.)

"36 And behold, Elisabeth thy kinswoman, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that was called barren.
37 For no word from God shall be void of power."

(Gabriel stated that Elisabeth, a relative of Mary's (some translations stated she was a cousin), was also conceived of a son and was in her sixth month. Mary would not have known this because Elisabeth was hidden and Mary was in Nazareth. Gabriel stated this fact to confirm God had a plan for Elisabeth' son and her Son. In verse 37, the word "word' was rhema - the powerful and revelatory spoken word from God that is without precedence. Remember, power is the ability to make things happen. Gabriel stated the revelatory spoken word from God's mouth is not lacking the ability to make things happen.)

"38 And Mary said, Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her."

(Mary accepted what Gabriel stated. In fact, the word "word" in verse 38 was also rhema. Mary demonstrated faith and Gabriel departed without any punishment on Mary.)

CONCLUSION
Gabriel responded to Mary's question by stating God would impregnate her through the Holy Spirit. Mary's response was to have faith in what Gabriel stated and accept it.

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Luke 1:26-33

2012-01-19T00:03:00.004-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:21-25. Here was the conclusion:

A multitude was aware that Zacharias had seen a vision while burning incense and was unable to speak. Elisabeth conceived once Zacharias returned from his responsibilities. Elisabeth hid herself for five months.

Luke 1
"26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary."

(Six months after Elisabeth conceived, Gabriel went to Nazareth to Mary. Mary was betrothed to Joseph...yet she was a virgin. We have covered the Doctrine of Marriage extensively on this blog and other blogs. If you want details, please check out Jonathan Fries' blog: Doctrine #57: Marriage. The short explanation is that a Marriage Covenant was begun with one of three ways: exchange of tokens, exchange of vows, and sexual intercourse. The completion of the Marriage Covenant only occurred with Covenantal sexual intercourse. The word "betrothed" was Strong's #3423 mnesteuo - "to be promised in marriage". Whether this was through exchange of tokens and/or exchange of vows, this verse did not specify. However, we know it was NOT through sexual intercourse because Mary was a virgin.)

"28 And he came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee.
29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this might be."

(Gabriel stated Mary was highly favored and the Lord was with her. Mary was greatly troubled and wondered what this meant.)

"30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God."

(Gabriel told her not to fear and repeated that she had found favor with God.)

"31 And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS."

(Gabriel essentially gave Mary the same news: she would conceive a son...and then told her what to name Him. The only difference so far is that Elisabeth was old and not a virgin...Mary was young and a virgin.)

"32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33 and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."

(Gabriel stated JESUS would be the Son of God! The Messiah! He confirmed this by stating God would give Him the throne of David. Remember, "son of David" referred to the Messiah. Gabriel further confirmed this by saying JESUS would reign over the house of Jacob FOR EVER...and His Kingdom shall have no end. The Messiah would have an eternal kingdom.)

CONCLUSION
Gabriel visited Mary in Nazareth six months after John the Baptist was conceived. Gabriel essentially gave Mary the same news as he gave Zacharias concerning Elisabeth: Mary would conceive a son...and then told Mary what to name Him: JESUS. However, Gabriel told Mary JESUS would be the Son of God...the Messiah. JESUS would reign over an eternal kingdom.

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Luke 1:21-25

2012-01-18T00:03:00.002-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:18-20. Here was the conclusion:

Zacharias did not believe Gabriel. Consequently, Zacharias would not be able to speak until after his son was named John.

Luke 1
"21 And the people were waiting for Zacharias, and they marvelled while he tarried in the temple."

(Zacharias took much longer than normal to burn incense before the altar. Remember, verse 10 stated the whole multitude was praying outside while he did this chore. So, the multitude's attention was focused on wondering why Zacharias was taking so long...)

"22 And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: and he continued making signs unto them, and remained dumb."

(The multitude perceived Zacharias had seen a vision because he was trying to tell them by acting it out...which caused everyone to realize he couldn't speak. Remember, this passage came from Luke's Gospel Account. Luke was not one of the twelve disciples. Luke didn't experience this event firsthand. A multitude experienced it and Luke was able to learn about this memorable event decades later because a multitude experienced it together.)

"23 And it came to pass, when the days of his ministration were fulfilled, he departed unto his house.
24 And after these days Elisabeth his wife conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying,
25 Thus hath the Lord done unto me in the days wherein he looked upon me, to take away my reproach among men."

(After Zacharias finished his responsibilities, he was able to see his wife again. Zacharias and Elisabeth chose to have sexual intercourse "after these days"...God did not impregnate Elisabeth. If He had, He would have done it while Zacharias was away. Zacharias impregnated Elisabeth and God made sure it was a male that had the attributes according to the Gabriel's prophecy. Elisabeth hid herself for five months, so no one knew she was pregnant.)

CONCLUSION
A multitude was aware that Zacharias had seen a vision while burning incense and was unable to speak. Elisabeth conceived once Zacharias returned from his responsibilities. Elisabeth hid herself for five months.

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Luke 1:18-20

2012-01-17T00:03:00.002-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:16-17. Here was the conclusion:

John's mission involved:
-being the spiritual Elijah that prepared the way of the Lord
-introducing the kingdom of heaven which included fathers being focused on the children and disobedient prideful people making progress towards good by grace.

Next, Zacharias talked to the angel...

Luke 1
"18 And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years."

(Genesis 15 documented a similar situation for Abram:
"3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
4 And, behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, This man shall not be thine heir; But he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
6 And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.")

(Abram's response to hearing he would have a son in his old age was to believe...and it was credited to him as righteousness. However, Zacharias questioned it...Zacharias did not believe.)

"19 And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak unto thee, and to bring thee these good tidings.
20 And behold, thou shalt be silent and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall come to pass, because thou believedst not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season."

(First, we see that the angel delivering the news was Gabriel. Gabriel was the angel that appeared to Daniel and gave Daniel the Greatest Prophecy in the Bible...the prophecy that predicted the time of the Messiah's being cut off and the completion of the Dispensation of the Law. So, it made sense that Gabriel would be involved in an event related to the prophecy he divulged to Daniel.)

(Second, because Zacharias did not believe Gabriel's words, Zacharias would not be able to speak until these things came to pass. The things Gabriel spoke of was the birth of his son and naming him John.)

CONCLUSION
Zacharias did not believe Gabriel. Consequently, Zacharias would not be able to speak until after his son was named John.

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Luke 1:16-17

2012-01-16T00:03:00.002-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:14-15. Here was the conclusion:

The angel told Zacharias his son would be great before God because John would essentially be fulfilling the vows of a Nazirite (Numbers 6:1-8). John would not drink wine or strong drink and he would be filled with the Holy Spirit before birth.

However, the angel wasn't done speaking to Zacharias...

Luke 1
"16 And many of the children of Israel shall be turn unto the Lord their God."

(Not all of the Israelites would turn unto the Lord their God...but many would.)

"17 And he shall go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just; to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him."

(Elijah did not die. God took him to heaven. Elijah will physically return (at the conclusion of the Dispensation of the Law as one of the Two Witnesses) before Jesus physically returns to earth. The Jews knew Elijah would physically return before the Messiah physically returned to establish His kingdom. This verse stated John the Baptist would be the spiritual Elijah. Basically, Elijah spiritually returned before the suspension of the Dispensation of the Law (at Pentecost) and before the Messiah's spiritual kingdom was established: the kingdom of heaven.)

(John the Baptist would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. Currently, statistics show that children are much worse off living without a father than without a mother. For instance, 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes and 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes. One main attribute of the kingdom of heaven is that fathers are focused on the children.)

(The disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just. Good is an effect of Right and Just. Grace is the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life. Wisdom is the decision...the choice...the How. Grace results in Wisdom. In order to have Grace a person must be humble and obedient. Finally, to walk means to make progress...to grow. So, another main attribute of the kingdom of heaven is that disobedient prideful people will make progress towards good by grace...by the influence of the Holy Spirit.)

(Ultimately, John the Baptist's main objective was to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for Him. Isaiah 40:3a was a prophecy about John the Baptist: "3 The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah;...")

CONCLUSION
John's mission involved:
-being the spiritual Elijah that prepared the way of the Lord
-introducing the kingdom of heaven which included fathers being focused on the children and disobedient prideful people making progress towards good by grace.

Next, Zacharias talked to the angel...

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Luke 1:14-15

2012-01-13T00:03:00.003-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:8-13. Here was the conclusion:

An angel told Zacharias their supplications had been heard: Elisabeth would bear a son and Zacharias should name him John.

However, the angel wasn't done speaking to Zacharias...

Luke 1
"14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth."

(The angel prophesied that in addition to Zacharias' joy, many would rejoice at the birth of John. Why?)

"15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb."

(John would be great in the sight of God. We know that this would mean he would be seen as lesser by people on earth because his circumstances would not cause the world to consider him "successful". However, John would acquire a lot of Reward by handling well abuse he didn't cause.)

(One example of being blessed in a way that the world doesn't value: John would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb...before birth. Notice, the prophets had the Holy Spirit within themselves and people killed them.)

(Also, John would not have wine or strong drink. Notice, wine was distinguished from strong drink. The circumstances were similar to the birth of Samson as documented in Judges 13:1-5.)

Judges 13
"1 And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
2 And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.
3 And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not; but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son."

(This sounded similar to Luke 1:5-13. Zacharias and Elisabeth were childless and lived under the rule of another nation. An angel told them they would bear a son.)

"4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
5 for, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come upon his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."

(The angel also said no wine or strong drink for Samson. There were two additional requirements mentioned for Samson: not to eat any unclean thing and not to cut his hair on his head. This was stated as being the requirements for a Nazirite which was describe in Numbers 6:1-7.)

Numbers 6
"1 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself unto Jehovah,
3 he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or dried.
4 All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the grape-vine, from the kernels even to the husk.
5 All the days of his vow of separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in which he separateth himself unto Jehovah, he shall be holy; he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow long.
6 All the days that he separateth himself unto Jehovah he shall not come near to a dead body.
7 He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die; because his separation unto God is upon his head.
8 All the days of his separation he is holy unto Jehovah."

(The result of taking this vow was that the Nazirite was holy unto God all his days...he would be great before God. John certainly would be holy unto God all his days...especially since he would be filled with the Holy Spirit before birth!)

CONCLUSION
The angel told Zacharias his son would be great before God because John would essentially be fulfilling the vows of a Nazirite (Numbers 6:1-8). John would not drink wine or strong drink and he would be filled with the Holy Spirit before birth.

However, the angel wasn't done speaking to Zacharias...

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Luke 1:8-13

2012-01-12T00:03:00.004-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered Luke 1:1-7. Here was the conclusion:

Around 4 BC, a priest and his wife (Zacharias and Elizabeth) were both righteous before God, childless, and well beyond the years when they could expect to have children.

In today's post, we will continue this portion of the narrative...

Luke 1
"8 Now it came to pass, while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course,
9 according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to enter into the temple of the Lord and burn incense."

(Zacharias' job was to burn incense in the temple.)

"10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the hour of incense."

(While Zacharias did this job, everyone was praying...)

"11 And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of altar of incense.
12 And Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him."

(Zacharias was in fear because an angel appeared to him.)

"13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: because thy supplication is heard, and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John."

(Zacharias and Elisabeth had been asking God for a son. The angel said Elisabeth would bear a son and Zacharias should name him John.)

(We have covered this in the post titled, "Who Caused You To Be Born?". The angel did not cause Elisabeth to become pregnant against her will. First, Zacharias and Elisabeth were in agreement when they asked for Elisabeth to become pregnant. Second, God can prevent people from being born (by closing the womb of the woman or preventing sperm from reaching the egg). God was only responsible for one Person being born (and we will cover this at the end of this month). So, God could prevent all of the sperm that would result in a girl from reaching Elisabeth's egg. Finally, the cause of this son being born would still depend on Zacharias and Elisabeth...which we will see next week.)

CONCLUSION
An angel told Zacharias their supplications had been heard: Elisabeth would bear a son and Zacharias should name him John.

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Luke 1:1-7

2012-01-11T00:03:00.003-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

This week, we have covered the first fifteen verses of Matthew 1. Here was the conclusion:

Matthew 1-15 covered Christ's lineage from Abraham through Jacob...which was the end of the Old Testament.

Today, we will begin covering the events that took place about a year before Jesus' conception...

Luke 1
"1 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw up a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us,
2 even as they delivered them unto us, who from the beginning wer eyewitnesses and ministers of the word,
3 it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus;
4 that thou mightest know the certainty concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed."

(Luke was not one of the twelve disciples. Luke's perspective came about thirty years after Christ's resurrection. He was a physician and used his scientific mind to compile as much of the critical information as possible. His Gospel Account was the most comprehensive and logical presentation of the events during Jesus' time on earth. To that end, Luke doesn't even begin with Jesus...)

"5 There was in the days of Herod, king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abijah: and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth."

(Luke began with some history from what we refer to as "the silent period of the Bible"...the roughly 400 years between the Old Testament and New Testament. The Big Picture view of the silent period is: Alexander the Great conquered the known world and allowed the Jews to rule themselves in 331 BC. As Daniel predicted, Alexander's kingdom broke into four parts after his death and the portion that was over Israel was conquered by the Romans in 168 BC. In 47 BC Julius Caesar gave Hyrcanus the rights to the high priesthood and Israelites were able to maintain their own culture. In 37 BC Herod the Great became sovereign over Israel and had a Temple built. In 4 BC, Herod the Great died and his son Herod was made ruler over Judea, Samaria, and Edom. during this time a priest named Zacharias was married to Elisabeth...)

(Zacharias was of Abijah...which was mentioned as descendents of Aaron in I Chronicles 24:10 and Nehemiah 12:17. Elisabeth was of the Levites. In fact, Exodus 6:23 stated Aaron's wife was named Elizabeth. Both were of the priesthood.)

"6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless."

(BOTH were righteous before God.)

"7 And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years."

(They didn't have any children and it looked as if they never would.)

CONCLUSION
Around 4 BC, a priest and his wife (Zacharias and Elizabeth) were both righteous before God, childless, and well beyond the years when they could expect to have children.

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Matthew 1:12-15

2012-01-10T00:03:00.001-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post we covered Matthew 1:11. Here was the conclusion:

The first eleven verses of Matthew's Gospel Account covered the events from Abraham up to the captivity...twenty-eight generations from Abraham to Jechoniah: Fourteen generations from Abraham to David...and fourteen from David to the captivity.

Matthew 1
"12 And after the carrying away to Babylon, Jechoniah begat Shealtiel; and Shealtiel begat Zerubbabel;"

(Zerubbabel led the rebuilding of the temple after the captivity. Zerubbabel was also the person who initiated the "trigger event" (from Daniel 9:24-27) that ended the previous dispensation. Daniel was the last book of the Major Prophet Section of the Old Testament.)

"13 and Zerubbabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor;"

(Verse 13 covered the time period that was written about in the Minor Prophet Section of the Old Testament from Hosea through Malachi.)

14 and Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud;
15 and Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob;

(Verses 14-15 covered the "silent years"...the years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament.)

CONCLUSION
Matthew 1-15 covered Christ's lineage from Abraham through Jacob...which was the end of the Old Testament.

Next, we will cover the events that took place about a year before Jesus' conception...

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Matthew 1:1-11

2012-01-09T00:03:00.001-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

Last week we began with John 1:1-5. Here was the conclusion:
John's enigmatic first five verses of his Gospel Account mirrored the first five verses of the Old Testament to show Jesus was present when the heaven and all the physical matter that would ever exist ("earth") was created.

This week we will begin looking at the chronology from the Gospel Accounts that occurred during the Old Testament...

Matthew 1
"1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."

(Matthew's Gospel Account was written to the Jews, consequently he began with a perspective that would mean something to the Jews: Old Testament Doctrine. The phrase "son of David" meant Messiah. The covenant that caused the Jews to be God's People was through Abraham. The Jews referred to him as "Father Abraham"...and Matthew wanted the reinforce Jesus was a Jew.)

"2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judah and his brethren;
3 and Judah begat Perez and Zerah of Tamar; and Perez begat Hezron; and Hezron begat Ram;"

(Judah begat Perez (a bastard) of Tamar (Judah's daughter-in-law, Genesis 38). Tamar was the first woman referenced by Matthew in the lineage of Christ.)

"4 and Ram begat Amminadab; and Amminadab begat Nahshon; and Nahshon begat Salmon;
5 and Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab; and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;"

(Rahab was a prostitute from Canaan (Joshua 2-6) and Ruth was a widow from Moab (Ruth 1-4). Rahab was the second woman referenced by Matthew in the lineage of Christ and Ruth was the third.)

"6 and Jesse begat David the king. And David begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah;"

("Her that had been the wife of Uriah"…this was Bathsheba who was an adulteress (II Samuel 11. Although her name was not mentioned, she is the fourth woman referenced by Matthew in the lineage of Christ.)

"7 and Solomon begat Rehoboam; and Rehoboam begat Abijah; and Abijah begat Asa;
8 and Asa begat Jehoshaphat; and Jehoshaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Uzziah;
9 and Uzziah begat Jotham; and Jotham begat Ahaz; and Ahaz begat Hezekiah;"

(Ahaz passed on the opportunity to ask God for a sign (Isaiah 7). The sign was the prophecy concerning the virgin birth (Isaiah 7:13-15) that we will cover next month.)

"10 and Hezekiah begat Manasseh; and Manasseh begat Amon; and Amon begat Josiah;"

(Manasseh was the reason God put Judah into captivity (Jeremiah 15:3-6). Notice, Christ's lineage came through the kings of Judah.)

"11 and Josiah begat Jechoniah and his brethren, at the time of the carrying away to Babylon."

(We've seen that Josiah was "The Greatest Old Testament King".)

CONCLUSION
The first eleven verses of Matthew's Gospel Account covered the events from Abraham up to the captivity...twenty-eight generations from Abraham to Jechoniah: Fourteen generations from Abraham to David...and fourteen from David to the captivity.

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Summary John 1:1-5

2012-01-06T00:03:00.002-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

This week, we covered the first five verses of John 1:

"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not."

We reached the following conclusions about this passage:
-Jesus existed before the creation of heaven and all the physical matter that would ever exist.
-John stated that in Jesus was life and that life was the light of men...the energy and ability to understand.
-When this ability to understand is in the presence of obscurity, those who lack understanding are not able to overcome those who do understand.

We also saw that John stated the story of Jesus began where the Old Testament began: "In the beginning..." However, John stated Jesus was already with God and already was God when the story in the Old Testament began. Let's look at the first five verses of the Old Testament:

Genesis 1
"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."

CONCLUSION
John's enigmatic first five verses of his Gospel Account mirrored the first five verses of the Old Testament to show Jesus was present when the heaven and all the physical matter that would ever exist ("earth") was created.

Next week we will begin looking at the chronology from the Gospel Accounts that occurred during the Old Testament...

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John 1:4-5

2012-01-05T00:03:00.002-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we saw that Jesus existed before the creation of heaven and all the physical matter that would ever exist.

JOHN 1
"4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not."

In Him (the Word/Jesus) is life. We've seen that life is the ability to Repair.
-Restoration is the ability to bring something back to its original condition.
-Repair is the ability to make something better.

We will need the ability to Repair in order to exist eternally.

John stated the life was the light of men.

Light is energy. Visible light is only a small portion of the energy spectrum.

In the Bible, light also resulted in manifesting or making apparent to all. While, darkness meant obscurity, hidden, lack of manifesting or being apparent.

Finally, the word apprehended was Strong's #2638 katalambano - "to lay seize; to lay hold of with the mind: understand, learn, perceive, comprehend."

CONCLUSION
John stated that in Jesus was life and that life was the light of men...the energy and ability to understand. When this ability to understand is in the presence of obscurity, those who lack understanding are not able to overcome those who do understand.

Tomorrow, we will summarize our look at the first five verses of John by looking at the first five verses of another book of the Bible...

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John 1:2-3

2012-01-04T00:03:00.002-06:00

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we saw that "In the beginning..." Jesus was already with God and Jesus was already God.

JOHN 1
"2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made."

This passage confirms the definition of "In the beginning..."

In order for all things to be made through Jesus, He would have to exist before these things were made.

Jesus would have to had existed before the beginning.

"In the beginning..." (Genesis 1:1) did not refer to the first moment of time. Genesis 1:1 referred to the moment God created all the physical matter that would ever exist. In fact, the word for "earth" in Genesis 1:1 meant exactly that!

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)

God created the place were He would put His banner (heaven) and He created all the physical matter that would ever exist (earth)...because the next sentence (Genesis 1:2) stated the earth was without form and void. According to Wayne Swokowski, this meant all the physical matter that would ever exist was without a purpose (without logos) and without anything good or bad in it.

In fact, throughout the Creation account in Genesis 1, the definition and etymology of the words used showed there was more than one being present. In fact, in Wayne's podcasts, he explained that God created during the first six days through "agreement and consent of someone else from a thought through others".

Creation can only occur through agreement.

Satan is unable to create. This is a What.

Why can't Satan create?

Satan can't create because he is unable to come into agreement with anyone.

CONCLUSION
Jesus existed before the creation of heaven and all the physical matter that would ever exist.

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John 1:1

2012-01-03T00:03:00.003-06:00

The Gospel Account according to John gave the biggest perspective on Jesus. We will be using his account as our framework...which means we will be fitting the other accounts into John's account.

John was the youngest of the twelve disciples and his account was written the latest of the four accounts...about sixty years after Christ's death and resurrection. Another reason John has the biggest perspective of the Gospel Accounts is his mastery of Doctrine. We've seen with the Series on The Book of Daniel that Daniel's ability to get receive and understand the greatest prophecy in the Old Testament was due to his mastery of Doctrine. Likewise, the greatest prophecy recorded in the New Testament is The Book of Revelation written by John...because of his mastery of Doctrine.

In fact, the first sentence of John's account documented the first (chronological) fact about Jesus...and was full of Doctrine.

JOHN 1
"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Genesis 1:1 began with "In the beginning..." The meaning and etymology of beginning in that passage was "shaking, occurrence".

Genesis 1:1 didn't reference the first moment of time. Genesis 1:1 documented what happened when God began shaking the physical realm...which would involve creating the physical realm.

In verse 1, "Word" is Logos. We saw the following definition in the post titled, "The Spoken Word (New Testament)":

Strong's #3056 logos - "from 3004; something said (including the thought); by impl. a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extens. a computation..."

John referred to Jesus as "the Word"...the ultimate thing that was said...the ultimate thing that was thought...the ultimate topic (subject of discourse)...the ultimate reasoning (mental faculty)...the ultimate motive.

CONCLUSION
John stated the story of Jesus began where the Old Testament began: "In the beginning..."

However, John stated Jesus was already with God and already was God when the story in the Old Testament began...

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Introduction To The Gospel Accounts

2012-01-02T00:03:00.002-06:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This year we're going to combine the four Gospel Accounts and cover them in chronological order.

Last year, as I read Joel Swokowski's Bible Commentary, it became very obvious to me the four Gospel Accounts focused on different time periods of Jesus' three year earthly ministry...and that taken together they give revelatory insight into the story of Jesus' time on earth.

The goal of this year's Series is to present this critical historical period in story form. What I mean by that is currently, while the four Gospel Accounts are all accurate, they appeared to be telling four different stories. They weren't. They were telling the same story from four different perspectives.

Consequently, not only would we have a more full picture taking these accounts together in a chronological fashion, we would also have a greater appreciation if this wasn't done in a rushed fashion. On Joel's blog, which covers the Bible in one year, he allots thirty days to cover these four Gospel Accounts. We are going to take the entire year: A year focused on Jesus.

What this means to you is that Monday through Friday, the posts will be short. We will cover the Bible passage and make comments that give context to the passage. If there is an opportunity to go very deep, links will be provided. The emphasis is on trying to get the experience of having walked with Jesus.

If background or deep Doctrinal explanation is necessary, we will use Friday posts so that you have the weekend to read and study the post.

Tomorrow, we will begin with the Gospel Account that presented the biggest perspective on Jesus...

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Tongues

2011-12-31T00:03:00.007-06:00

In the previous post, we reached the following conclusion:

Ultimately, the Mind/Soul makes two "first cause" decisions:
1. The Mind/Soul chooses to open or close the nucleus basalis.
2. The Mind/Soul chooses the influence from within the Conscious Brain.

We will conclude this Series with a look at the ultimate effects of choosing to allow the Holy Spirit working through an individual...

You are your Mind/Soul. Your Mind/Soul is Eternal.

This is YOUR First Cause.

EVERYTHING after your choice to think or not think is an EFFECT of your decision. This is YOUR responsibility.

Your flesh desires to be comparative and comfortable.

God, through your spirit, desires you to be contrastive and growing.

Your Mind/Soul casts the deciding vote between God and your flesh.

The Ultimate decision is to realize you are flawed and the ONLY way to be Righteous is for YOU to choose to let God direct your actions. This is GRACE.

Yes, God alone is able to make our actions Good, NOT us. However, this does NOT happen UNLESS we FIRST CHOOSE to let God direct our actions. God cannot cause us to receive GRACE against our will. GOD'S WORD stated God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.

THAT FIRST CHOICE IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY.

We can get judged for the choice our Mind/Soul makes.

All three influences (God, flesh, Mind/Soul) battle it out in your Brain.

The battlefield is NOT the Mind...it is the Brain!

We saw Spiritual Warfare takes place in the Brain! Strongholds are in the Brain...NOT the Mind/Soul. Spiritual Warfare is fought with WORDS and THOUGHTS (which are made up of WORDS). The Brain files away information in terms of WORDS.

We are also responsible for the Brain we have.

ALL of this justifies God and blames ourselves.

ANY explanation that justifies ourselves will result in blaming God...which is idolatry.

When the Holy Spirit flows through an immature Christian or immediately after a Christian has made an immature decision, the effect is conviction:

Notice, the Christian ought to respond to conviction by confessing and repenting. The fact that the individual sins is NOT what determines his Salvation. I John 1:8-10 stated we all sin. (We have seen this is First Dimensional Sin.) Salvation is determined by the individual's response to his sin. If the individual rationalizes and justifies himself, he is in pride and not saved. (We have seen this is Second Dimensional Sin.) If the individual confesses his sin, then I John 1:9 stated God is faithful and righteous to cleanse the individual from all unrighteousness that he has as an effect of this sin.

Remember, the Holy Spirit convicts. The Holy Spirit doesn't condemn. If you feel condemnation, it is not from the Holy Spirit. (For more information, look at this post titled, "Conviction vs. Condemnation".)

If we look at the line at the bottom of the diagram as a spectrum from Christian immaturity to full Christian maturity, then this most basic proof that the Holy Spirit dwells within the individual could also be called "Grace"...because responding well to conviction leads to the individual retaining his Salvation. Notice, this effect is in response to sin...

The next most mature effect would be for the individual to allow the Holy Spirit to initiate a good effect through the individual. The most basic effect the Holy Spirit can physically do through a believer is known as "speaking in tongues"...

Notice, the individual is unable to speak in tongues from their Amygdala because the Amygdala responds with physical movement and clouding the Conscious Brain. The individual is unable to speak in tongues from their Unconscious Brain because the Unconscious Brain does not work according to words. The individual is only able to speak in tongues through their Conscious Brain (because it works according to words), however, the Mind/Soul cannot speak in tongues intentionally with the Conscious Brain because the words would have to make sense to the individual and be rehearsed...these words wouldn't flow.

The ONLY way for the individual to speak in tongues is for another influence to speak through the Conscious Brain of the individual.

The reason that Christians run from speaking in tongues is that they don't understand it. They may think they do, but just like Christians think their kids who grow up in the church understand Christianity, the proof they don't is 89% of teenagers who grew up in the church leave the church once they graduate high school. These adults don't truly understand the WHY/HOW well enough to see a value in continuing to grow while attending church.

Likewise, many Christians think that speaking in tongues is from the Unconscious Brain which would make it an effect of the enemy. THAT is a dangerous declaration...

Remember, Jesus stated that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was stating that a miracle done by the Holy Spirit that had obvious benefits was actually an act done by the enemy. When a person does an obviously beneficial act by the Holy Spirit and someone attributes the benefit to Satan, that someone may be beginning the process of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

In the last ten years, most of the people who exhibited this basic proof of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit were attending Pentecostal churches. Today, many of these people who have spoken in tongues are going to non-Pentecostal churches and no longer speaking in tongues. Why? I believe it is the same reason as teenagers raised in the church running from church once they become adults: they don't understand the WHY/HOW.

Ultimately, this all comes back to not UNDERSTANDING Grace: the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life. EVERYTHING that is covered in this post is an effect of GRACE. The enemy has caused the church to be deceived with a man-made definition of Grace ("unmerited favor")...and the effect is that we can't explain the WHY/HOW of tongues.

Let's look at a couple of basic scriptures. First, here is how the Gospel Account of Mark concluded:

"14 And afterward he was manifested unto the eleven themselves as they sat at meat; and he upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them that had seen him after he was risen.
15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation.
16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.
17 And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues;
18 they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
20 And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen." (Mark 16:14-20)

Jesus stated one of the basic signs that are an effect of belief (an effect of having the Holy Spirit direct actions) is speaking with new tongues. This does not mean a person is not saved if they don't speak in tongues. This means that a person has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit if they do speak in tongues.

Second, here is the passage that documented the beginning of our dispensation:

"1 And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

(The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues...as the Spirit gave them utterance. The disciples were taking direction from the Holy Spirit to the point the Holy Spirit physically spoke a language through each of them that each of them did not understand with their Conscious Brain.)

"5 Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.
6 And when this sound was heard, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speaking in his own language.
7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying, Behold, are not all these that speak Galilaeans?
8 And how hear we, every man in our own language wherein we were born?
9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judaea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia,
10 in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our tongues the mighty works of God.
12 And they were all amazed, and were perplexed, saying one to another, What meaneth this?"

(Notice, a person would be speaking in tongues...and each person not speaking in tongues when they heard that person heard about the mighty works of God in their own language...and they knew that others who didn't speak in tongues were hearing the same person state mighty works of God in their own language. Remember, we hear with our brains...not our ears. These people heard logical and powerful declarations in their own language from a person speaking in tongues...and realized someone else who spoke a different language was hearing logical and powerful declarations about God from the same person.)

"13 But others mocking said, They are filled with new wine."

(The Bible stated those who didn't believe and tried to rationalize away the power of speaking in tongues were MOCKERS.)

"14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spake forth unto them, saying, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto my words.
15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose; seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
16 but this is that which hath been spoken through the prophet Joel:"

(Peter stated this event was spoken of by the prophet Joel.)

"17 And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams:"

(Today, the Holy Spirit is upon all flesh. The Holy Spirit dwells within believers. These disciples were full of the Holy Spirit.)

"18 Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show wonders in the heaven above, And signs on the earth beneath; Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke:
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the day of the Lord come, That great and notable day.
21 And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Acts 2:1-21)

It makes sense that the FIRST effect the disciples demonstrated as an effect of being full of the Holy Spirit...as an effect of allowing the Holy Spirit to physically direct them...would be to speak in tongues. This is a Spiritual Gift. Let's look at a key chapter from Paul in order to understand the importance of Spiritual Gifts...

"1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant."

(Paul blatantly stated the point of the following discussion was to make sure Christians weren't ignorant concerning Spiritual Gifts.)

"2 Ye know that when ye were Gentiles ye were led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye might led.
3 Wherefore I make known unto you, that no man speaking in the Spirit of God saith, Jesus is anathema; and no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit."

(Paul stated that before these people were believers...before they were led by the Holy Spirit through their Conscious Brain...they were led by dumb idols in a random, illogical way (Unconscious Brain). However, Paul stated that no man speaking according to the Holy Spirit can say something negative about Jesus.)

"4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in all.
7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal."

(The purpose of Spiritual Gifts is so that others may Profit. NOT so that the individual doing the Spiritual Gift Profits. There are a lot of effects of the Holy Spirit that are called Spiritual Gifts. Here is a list...)

"8 For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit:
9 to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit;
10 and to another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discernings of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; and to another the interpretation of tongues:
11 but all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will."

(Notice, nine effects were listed. Speaking in tongues and interpreting the tongues were two of these nine gifts. Notice, there are some gifts that people consider to be Big Gifts: healings, miracles, prophecy...while the rest of the gifts are considered to be second tier: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. Paul said they all come from the same Spirit...and to this point Paul presented them as unique and equal...)

"12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
13 For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body is not one member, but many.
15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; it is not therefore not of the body.
16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; it is not therefore not of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
18 But now hath God set the members each one of them in the body, even as it pleased him.
19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
20 But now they are many members, but one body.
21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you."

(Paul compared the gifts to parts of the body. Paul stated that looking down on any of the gifts was proof a person was misguided.)

"22 Nay, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary:
23 and those parts of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness;
24 whereas our comely parts have no need: but God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked;"

(Notice, the parts of our body that are necessary are NOT comely/attractive: heart, brain, lungs, liver, kidney, stomach. However, the parts of our body that are attractive are NOT necessary: eyes, hair, nose, teeth, etc. Paul warned us that those gifts that people are attracted to...the Big Gifts...are not necessary...and those gifts that people aren't attracted to are more necessary.)

"25 that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
26 And whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it."

(Paul made the point that the principle that ought to guide us is whether we are caring for each other or not.)

"27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof.
28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues.
29 Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?
30 have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?
31 But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And moreover a most excellent way show I unto you." (I Corinthians 12:1-31)

(There is an order to the Spiritual Gifts as it relates to the Church (Apostles begin the process, etc.), however Paul stated that everyone ought to desire earnestly the greater gifts. What are the greater gifts? What are the Spiritual Gifts that actually ought to be desired? Wouldn't it be the effects seen from a fully mature Christian?)

The ensuing chapter was an aside by Paul to explain the most excellent way (HOW): love. Before Paul explained the greater gifts, he reinforced that HOW these gifts ought to be used was with love.

Remember, love is the giving of a value to another without expecting anything in return from the person to whom you gave the value. Love benefits others in the short term. Likewise, the greater gifts ought to benefit others. In fact, the proof that these gifts are greater is THAT they benefit others. Remember, doing Big Gifts that are attractive benefits the person doing the gift...

Let's see what Paul believed were the greater gifts...

"1 Follow after love; yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy."

(Prophesying is the greater gift. Notice, this is NOT prophecy. Paul explained it...)

"2 For he that speaketh in a tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God; for no man understandeth; but in the spirit he speaketh mysteries."

(When a person speaks in tongues, they do not do it for the benefit of others. They do it for the benefit of themselves. Think about a baby that begins to talk. When the baby first speaks what looks to us like gibberish, how does the parent react? The parent gets excited. Why? Is the parent benefiting from the baby's gibberish. No. Who is benefiting? The baby. The parent is encouraging the baby to continue practicing in hopes that the baby will speak something intelligent. However, until the baby speaks something the parent can understand, the person benefiting from this gibberish is the baby. Likewise, people speaking in tongues are benefiting themselves.)

"3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men edification, and exhortation, and consolation."

(Prophesying is speaking words by the Holy Spirit that are understood and lead to edification, exhortation, and consolation. This sounds A LOT like word of wisdom and word of knowledge.)

"4 He that speaketh in a tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church."

(Notice, Paul blatantly stated the person who speaks in tongues benefits themselves. The person who speaks a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge by the Holy Spirit benefits the church.)

"5 Now I would have you all speak with tongues, but rather that ye should prophesy: and greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying."

(Paul blatantly stated that he would want everyone to speak in tongues. Why? Because there is a personal benefit and now we can see it is a step towards being able to do the greater gifts. Paul even stated that interpreting tongues would be considered as a greater gift if it led to prophesying. Let's see how this would look according to our diagram...)

(Now we see that speaking in tongues essentially "primes the pump"...it gets the Holy Spirit flowing through a person on a minimal physical level in preparation of giving the Holy Spirit more control. However, in order to do the greater gift, a person must be able to understand the Holy Spirit to a higher degree in their Conscious Brain. Again, it is not the person's Conscious Brain creating the word of wisdom or the word of knowledge. If it was, the person would be able to explain the stimulus that caused the Complex Thought. Instead, the person ought to be speaking revelation by the Holy Spirit. Revelation means words without a precedent/cause. Grace is a causeless complex thought. The greater gifts are also causeless complex thoughts that benefit others. Remember, as you read the rest of what Paul stated, that speaking in tongues is a step towards being able to do the greater gifts ...)

"6 But now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching?
7 Even things without life, giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they give not a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain voice, who shall prepare himself for war?
9 So also ye, unless ye utter by the tongue speech easy to understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye will be speaking into the air."

(Paul compared the Profitability of speaking in tongues with the Profitability of hearing a musical sound without understanding. Both tongues and music are sounds that require understanding in order to benefit others.)

"10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and no kind is without signification.
11 If then I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh will be a barbarian unto me."

(Paul also compared the Profitability of tongues with the profitability of hearing a language you don't understand.)

"12 So also ye, since ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may abound unto the edifying of the church."

(The greater gifts benefit everyone else.)

"13 Wherefore let him that speaketh in a tongue pray that he may interpret.
14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
16 Else if thou bless with the spirit, how shall he that filleth the place of the unlearned say the Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he knoweth not what thou sayest?
17 For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified."

(Paul continued to emphasize that helping everyone UNDERSTAND was an effect of the greater gifts. Notice, miracles and healings don't lead to everyone UNDERSTANDING.)

"18 I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all:"

(PAUL SPOKE IN TONGUES MORE THAN EVERYONE HE WROTE TO.)

"19 howbeit in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue."

(Paul said five words of UNDERSTANDING were greater than 10,000 words in tongues. Notice, healings and miracles don't even enter into this conversation.)

"20 Brethren, be not children in mind: yet in malice be ye babes, but in mind be men."

(The KJV uses the word UNDERSTANDING in place of "mind". Paul BLATANTLY told us to be ADULTS in our MIND/UNDERSTANDING. I know people who try to say we are supposed to have childlike faith. The Bible NEVER stated this. Jesus said we ought to be HUMBLE like children...which spoke to GRACE, not FAITH. Faith was this list of Spiritual Gifts. Faith is based on UNDERSTANDING and EXPERIENCE. Being ADULTS in MIND/UNDERSTANDING would also cause us to be ADULTS in Faith. ALL of this would require us to be masters of WORDS and DEFINITIONS. ALL of this would require us to be masters of finding this influence from the Holy Spirit in our Conscious Brain.)

"21 In the law it is written, By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers will I speak unto this people; and not even thus will they hear me, saith the Lord.
22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to the unbelieving: but prophesying is for a sign, not to the unbelieving, but to them that believe.
23 If therefore the whole church be assembled together and all speak with tongues, and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that ye are mad?"

(Paul referenced scripture to show that God meant tongues to be a sign to unbelievers...like it was at Pentecost. At Pentecost, 3000 people got saved as an effect of witnessing the disciples speaking in tongues.)

"24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all;
25 the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is among you indeed."

(Paul clarified that prophesying would involved making manifest a secret only known by the unbeliever. So prophesying would also be a sign to the unbeliever and lead to conversion.)

"26 What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying."

(Paul's metric for what ought to be done was whether it edified others.)

"27 If any man speaketh in a tongue, let it be by two, or at the most three, and that in turn; and let one interpret:
28 but if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.
29 And let the prophets speak by two or three, and let the others discern."

(Paul didn't want people speaking without understanding. He put in a guideline that after every two or three people spoke a word in tongues everyone ought to wait for an interpretation...otherwise, they had not spoken for edification and needed to stop. Notice, prophets were given the same guideline. Prophecy is a revelatory statement about future events. Prophets are also very attractive in the church. However, prophets were required to go through the same testing as people speaking in tongues. Prophecy could be seen as prophesying if the prophecy leads to edification, exhortation, or consolation. However, not all prophecy is prophesying. Notice what takes precedence...)

"30 But if a revelation be made to another sitting by, let the first keep silence.
31 For ye all can prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be exhorted;"

(Notice, this guideline did NOT exist for those prophesying (all could do it one by one...not twos and threes) because understanding was part of each presentation of prophesying!)

"32 and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets;
33 for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,"

(Paul stated that prophets should be able to explain their prophecy so that it edifies, otherwise it will lead to confusion...and could not have been from God because God would not speak through the individual to cause confusion. Notice, the prophetic visions that are documented in the Bible were visions that occurred in the Conscious Brain. The prophet can describe with words what stimuli they were receiving, what they thought, how they responded, and how angels or God responded back...all with logic. We saw the New Age beliefs have crept into the church today by teaching how to "soak" or "meditate" in our Unconscious. Actually, it appears the way to "soak" and have a spiritual experience with God would be to do this in our Conscious Brain. Not by repeating a word that is not a word...but by remaining completely Conscious and stating our will towards God the Father. However, a person would have to know God's Nature in order to state their will towards the correct God. Also, the kingdom of heaven is HERE...it is NOW. The kingdom of heaven is a spiritual kingdom. This means it can be physically within reach of your hand, but in a spiritual dimension...and the way to that spiritual dimension would be through your spirit which is attached to your Conscious Brain. The New Age practices are a perversion of the truth. People who don't understand the WHY/HOW of what is written in this post will lump both practices together and declare what the prophets and John as having done as being from Satan...which can be a very dangerous thing to do.)

(Speaking a word in tongues and speaking prophecy need to be checked for edification and UNDERSTANDING, otherwise it does not benefit everyone. Prophesying is the greater gift because it benefits everyone.)

"34 let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law.
35 And if they would learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home: for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church.
36 What? was it from you that the word of God went forth? or came it unto you alone?"

(Paul's example is that wives ought to ask their questions at home from their husbands. We've seen this was done to benefit the marriage because husbands ought to teach their wives the word of God (Ephesians 5). However, Paul was using this analogy to support his point that there shouldn't be confusion in church because of Spiritual Gifts...just like there shouldn't be confusion in church from wives asking questions during the service.)

"37 If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him take knowledge of the things which I write unto you, that they are the commandment of the Lord.
38 But if any man is ignorant, let him be ignorant."

(Paul's admonition was specifically to prophets. Paul knew this was an attractive gift and could lead to confusion if the gift was presented without UNDERSTANDING. Paul wanted those who thought they were prophets to take knowledge of his guidelines because they are the commandment of God. Paul stated that if a person didn't know if they were a prophet, they ought to stay not knowing this. This admonition to prophets was separate from the conclusion of this chapter which was stated in contrastive fashion from the admonition...)

"39 Wherefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.
40 But let all things be done decently and in order." (I Corinthians 14:1-40)

Paul wanted people who thought they were prophets to be careful and those who didn't know if they were prophets to stay ignorant...BUT he wanted EVERYONE to desire earnestly to prophesy (because it is the GREATER GIFT)...and Paul wanted EVERYONE to not forbid speaking in tongues (because it was the step before being able to prophesy).

CONCLUSION
Jesus said tongues were a sign that followed believers.

The proof that the disciples were full of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was speaking in tongues.

Paul stated that he spoke in tongues more than others and did not want people to forbid the speaking of tongues.

However, Paul recognized speaking in tongues was not beneficial to others...just the person speaking in tongues. Paul stated ALL believers ought to desire earnestly the greater gifts which was prophesying...

...which was word of wisdom, word of knowledge, and (sometimes) interpretation of tongues and prophecy.

Paul realized miracles, healings, and prophecy were attractive gifts, however these didn't just benefit others...because they are attractive they benefit the doer of these signs...which makes them NOT the greater gifts.

ALL of this is impossible to understand without having a correct definition for Grace: the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life. The reason many people who used to speak in tongues don't currently reside in Pentecostal churches is because they don't understand the WHY/HOW of tongues because these churches are preaching a man-made doctrine of Grace.

Next Post

The Flesh vs. The Spirit

2011-12-30T00:03:00.002-06:00

In the previous post we covered the Human Thinking Model when being influenced by the Holy Spirit:

Here was the conclusion:

The effect of the Mind/Soul choosing to allow the Holy Spirit's supernatural influence to reflect in the life of the individual is Grace, Love, and Power.

In this post, we will look at the two decisions for which the Mind/Soul is ultimately responsible.

Decision #1: The Mind/Soul chooses to open or close the nucleus basalis.

Let's look at each effect...

-CLOSE
If the Mind/Soul chooses to close the nucleus basalis, the individual can only act according to the Model for Animal Thinking:

Choosing to close your nucleus basalis is choosing to act according to the flesh.

There are two implications from this choice:
1. Possession - This is how people become demonically possessed. When we close the nucleus basalis, we allow any influence into our Unconscious Brain. In order for a person to become possessed, he would have intentionally close his nucleus basalis and state his will to open himself up to the spirit realm.

Unfortunately today, there are a lot of "mainstream Christian" churches telling people to spend time opening themselves up to the spiritual realm while trying to remain unconscious. This is a New Age practice that has its roots in Eastern Religion. For example, Transcendental Meditation is done by first creating a word that has no meaning. Then, the individual repeats this word for 20-30 minutes with their eyes closed. Notice, the Conscious Brain cannot process this word as a stimulus because it has no meaning. Repeating this "word without a meaning" results in the nucleus basalis closing and the individual spending the time Unconscious...which is the main tenet behind Eastern Religions: trying not to be conscious. Today, these techniques are being taught in "mainstream Christian" churches, but instead of a word without meaning, people are encouraged to focus on the sound of a letter in "Christian" words...for example, the "a" sound in "amen", "abba", etc. The intent is the same: become unconscious.

2. Being Led By Feelings - When a person can't explain WHY he is doing something and states he just feels it is right, the individual is most likely being led by their flesh. The Unconscious Brain works according to feelings without words. My experience is that if a person says he is being led by God (or an influence) and he is unwilling to put the influence into words, then it is most likely he is being led by his flesh. This is especially true when the individual refuses to question the influence to find out the WHY.

Notice, choosing to operate according to the Flesh makes you PREDICTABLE.

This is FATE...DETERMINISM.

Choosing to close your nucleus basalis is choosing to give up your FREE WILL.

We covered this in detail in the post titled, "Third Dimensional Sin". Here is a brief review:

Choosing to open or close the nucleus basalis is actually a choice to think (open) or not think (close).

The individual CHOOSES to consciously think or not think.

If the individual chooses to think, the RESULT is an effect of CHOICE.

If the individual chooses NOT to think, the RESULT is fate...the individual is limited.

BOTH of these RESULTS occurred in the Bible. Consequently, Determinists and people who believe in choice can BOTH support their beliefs by pointing to EFFECTS in the Bible. However, a belief is a cause...not an effect. Calvinsim is not a belief...it is an effect.

If CHOICE didn't exist at all, then people would not be responsible for their actions and the DETERMINISTS can NEVER get upset at anyone...or attempt to convince, encourage, or educate anyone. This is the Ultimate hypocrisy, which is the Ultimate Second Dimensional sin. If Calvninists are right, they still aren't going to Heaven because they are hypocrites!

If someone attempts to say some choice exists, then CHOICE must be the First Cause, because CHOICE cannot be an effect of Determinism. That is contradictory.

Ultimately, Calvinism attempts to make CHOICE as a cause cease to exist by encouraging you to choose not to believe in choice. This is First Dimensional sin (deny CHOICE as a cause) and a Second Dimensional sin (encouraging others to choose not to believe).

Actually, choosing to believe in Calvinism denies you the effects of choice...it is choosing fate.

In our dispensation, the perfect decision is to let God work through you by the Holy Spirit. The Ultimate decision is to realize you are flawed and the ONLY way to be Righteous is for YOU to choose to let God direct your actions. This is GRACE.

The Holy Spirit is untamed...unpredictable...the OPPOSITE of Deterministic.

We have seen Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit occurs when someone observes a work of the Holy Spirit and credits it to demonic forces.

The Holy Spirit is the Ultimate example of CHOICE.

Claiming someone is being controlled by the enemy is the Ultimate example of Determinism.

Ultimately, denying the ability of the Holy Spirit AND attributing this Ultimate example of CHOICE to the enemy is the worst sin...because it is ultimately a Third Dimensional sin.

The second effect of Decision #1 is...

-OPEN
If the Mind/Soul chooses to open the nucleus basalis, then the Mind/Soul is able to make Decision #2...

Decision #2: The Mind/Soul chooses the influence from within the Conscious Brain.

Let's look at each influence...

-CONSCIOUS BRAIN
If the Conscious Brain is itself the influence, then there is a possibility a stronghold from the enemy could actually be making the decision. The devil cannot put ideas into your Conscious Brain against your will. However, the devil can get ideas into your Conscious Brain through Deception (Right What with a Wrong (or no) How/Why)...through the individual choosing to allow the information from the devil into the Conscious Brain.

We studied strongholds during the Spiritual Warfare Series. Here are several posts that give more details on how strongholds are formed:
Forming Strongholds: Emotions
Forming Strongholds: Facts
Strongholds: The Flesh

-MIND/SOUL
If the Mind/Soul is itself the influence, then this is a work in our own strength. If the Mind/Soul is in pride, then the individual can believe what he is doing is right and beyond question. However, this is idolatry...putting one's self in place of God. This is easier to do than most people realize...

In Genesis 1, during the first five days of creation, God initiated His Will. There was nothing preceding God's creation for each of the first five days. On the sixth day, God created humans:

"26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food:
30 and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so.
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day." (Genesis 1:26-31)

Notice, in verse 26 God stated "let them have dominion" and in verse 28 God told them to "have dominion". If at that very moment, Adam and Eve took dominion over everything, there would have been a conflict: God had initiated His Will for six days...and was now stating that humans could initiate their will. Both God and humans couldn't actually be initiating their will at the same time...otherwise, we would have the contradictions religious people disagree over today: If God can initiate His Will, then why is there evil in the world?

Genesis 1 concluded with God stating that everything He had made was very good. So, whatever the arrangement God created, not only was it good...it was very good. Let's look at the very next verses...

Genesis 2
"1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made." (Genesis 2:1-3)

Wayne Swokowski has taught me the definitions and etymology of the key words in these verses. When it stated that God rested, this means God "ceased from His occupation of being a First Cause". God ceased having dominion...God ceased initiating His Will. From the seventh day on, God responds through justice. Man is a first cause...specifically, the Mind/Soul is a first cause.

The reason Determinism isn't true is that humans are currently a first cause (with their Mind/Soul). For those who would point to Prophecy, we've covered both Simple Prophecy and Complex Prophecy...how God knows the future effects if the causes have already exist. Here are links to these posts:
Prophecy Introduction
Simple Prophecy
Complex Prophecy

This idea of "rest" continues today. Here is an excerpt from Joel Swokowski's Bible Commentary covering Hebrews 4:3-6...

3 For we who have believed do enter into that rest; even as he hath said, As I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For he hath said somewhere of the seventh day on this wise, And God rested on the seventh day from all his works;

(God rested on the seventh day from His work. The word "rest" in this verse is katapausis. Rest comes after work; rest without work is sloth. Furthermore, for six days God initiated His Will. God was "All-Powerful"...everything He did was a "first cause". God created man on the sixth day...and then God stated, "let them have dominion" over everything: Genesis 1:26. On the seventh day, we have an apparent contradiction: God has dominion and man has dominion. Only one can truly act as a first cause and initiate their will. Paul referenced Genesis 2:1-3 which stated on the seventh day, God rested from all His work. In that passage, rest meant "ceased from His occupation of being a first cause". During the seventh day, God chose to stop initiating His Will so that man could initiate his will. Throughout this Bible Commentary, we have seen that from the seventh day even until now, God does not initiate His Will...God responds through Justice. God being "All-Powerful" means that God has complete control over everything that does not have a will: the weather, animals, inanimate objects. Paul stated that those who believe also enter into the same rest that God is currently resting in. Christians ought to be resting like God is resting. What does that mean? This is critical because Paul stated believers ought to be doing this...)

5 and in this place again, They shall not enter into my rest.

(However, Paul again referenced Psalm 95:7-11...which he had referenced repeatedly in the previous chapters. This passage was referenced to show that not everyone will actually be saved...)

6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some should enter thereinto, and they to whom the good tidings were before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience,

(Paul stated the reason people fail to enter into the same rest as God will be due to disobedience. Again, understanding what this rest is critical to being a believer.)

When we rest from our work...when we take direction from the Holy Spirt (Grace), then we are able to be saved...which leads to the third option of Decision #2...

HOLY SPIRIT
In the previous post, we covered the result when the influence from the Holy Spirit is followed.

Here is a diagram showing Decision #1 (denoted by the "1") and Decision #2 (denoted by the "2"):

Ultimately, these two decisions are really a choice by the Mind/Soul to follow the Flesh or the Spirit:

Notice, the Mind/Soul and Conscious Brain could do a work and intentionally choose to do something in opposition to the flesh (signified by the dotted line to the right)...or it can intentionally choose to sin (signified by the dotted line to the left).

CONCLUSION
Ultimately, the Mind/Soul makes two "first cause" decisions:
1. The Mind/Soul chooses to open or close the nucleus basalis.
2. The Mind/Soul chooses the influence from within the Conscious Brain.

Next, we have a special Weekend post to conclude this Series...

Next Post

The Will of God

2011-12-29T00:03:00.002-06:00

In a previous post, we looked at GRACE relative to the Model for Human Thinking:

Here were the conclusions from the above diagram:

1. The Holy Spirit speaks into our Conscious Brain through our spirit.

2 We have to choose to look for the influence in our Conscious Brain that is not of ourself...an influence that is not our Conscious Brain and not our Mind/Soul.

3. Consciously choose to focus the nucleus basalis on the influence and cycle it through the First Feedback Loop.

4. Grace results in our looping in order to understand (Faith), not to build a Complex Thought.

Salvation is by Grace through Faith...just what we have illustrated in this post. There are some immediate results of our Salvation...or our first choice in letting this to be reflected in our lives.

In today's post, we will look at what happens after this influence from the Holy Spirit leaves the Amygdala.

Above, we see that the influence from the Holy Spirit is sent to the Amygdala. When the influence is emotional, the result is Emotion and Physical Action (Do). When the influence is logical, the result is Logic and Speaking Action (Say).

Remember, the Holy Spirit's influence is God's Will. This is one way God accomplishes His Will on earth: through people who are humble and allow Him to influence their actions.

When the Holy Spirit's supernatural influence that is God's Will is sent to the Amygdala, the result is Understanding beyond Logic...it is Super Logical...

During the Salvation Series, we saw that Grace always results in killing the flesh...which was referred to as removing dust. In the previous post, we saw an effect of Salvation by Grace through Faith is LOVE.

Love is the giving of a value to an individual without expecting anything in return from the individual to whom the value was given.

Love is an action that is the opposite of our flesh and our logic. It is Super Logical. Notice, it is also done with an attitude that is the opposite of our flesh and our logic. It is Super Emotional. It results in a peace that passes all understanding...

Ultimately, the supernatural influence from the Holy Spirit when it is allowed to reflect in the life of the individual is Grace and results in Love...which accomplishes God's Will.

Accomplishing God's Will is the ultimate example of the ability to make something happen. What is the word whose definition is "the ability to make something happen"?

Power is the ability to make something happen.

CONCLUSION
The effect of the Mind/Soul choosing to allow the Holy Spirit's supernatural influence to reflect in the life of the individual is Grace, Love, and Power.

In the next post, we will look at the two decisions for which the Mind/Soul is ultimately responsible...

Next Post

Human Thinking Model: Salvation

2011-12-28T00:03:00.001-06:00

In the previous post, we looked at GRACE relative to the Model for Human Thinking:

Here were the conclusions from the above diagram:

1. The Holy Spirit speaks into our Conscious Brain through our spirit.

2 We have to choose to look for the influence in our Conscious Brain that is not of ourself...an influence that is not our Conscious Brain and not our Mind/Soul.

3. Consciously choose to focus the nucleus basalis on the influence and cycle it through the First Feedback Loop.

4. Grace results in our looping in order to understand (Faith), not to build a Complex Thought.

Salvation is by Grace through Faith...just what we have illustrated in this post. There are some immediate results of our Salvation...or our first choice in letting this to be reflected in our lives.

In today's post, we will cover these immediate effects that occur with Salvation.

This post will present a brief explanation on each effect of Salvation and offer links for those who want details. The point of this post, is to "demystify" the Doctrinal terms used in relation to Salvation. There are six steps...

1. Conversion
Salvation comes by Grace through Faith.

Grace is "the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life". It is represented in the above diagram by the lines coming from the Holy Spirit and going to the amygdala.

Faith is a belief in something you can't see because it is invisible and/or it hasn't happened yet. Faith is proven in actions. Faith is built by understanding and experience...both of which are in the Conscious Brain.

Faith is represented by the dotted line from the Mind/Soul to the line from the Holy Spirit.

There are two requirements for Salvation:
1. Humility - the individual must humble their Mind/Soul and take direction from the Holy Spirit (which is the first part of the Grace).
2. Faith - the individual must check the influence and intentionally allow it to reflect in the life as actions (which is the second part of the Grace).

The Holy Spirit is upon ALL flesh today.

Conversion is when the individual states their will to allow the Holy Spirit to dwell within the individual. Like the sperm fertilizes the egg to create the physical individual, the Holy Spirit fertilizes the individual to create a being born from above...born again.

Links
Jonathan Fries' Doctrinal Blog:
Doctrine #42: Salvation
Doctrine #41: Grace
Doctrine #20: Faith

We did a month long Series on Salvation that began with this post: "Resolution".

Within that Series, the posts that specifically dealt with Salvation were:
-Salvation
-By Grace Through Faith
-Salvation Overview
-Salvation: OT vs. NT

2. Union with Christ
The Holy Spirit is the representative of Jesus Christ today while Jesus is away making a place for believers. Having the Holy Spirit abiding (dwelling) within you puts you in union with Christ. In fact, it is a union at a complete level...which the Bible calls "Fellowship".

Links
Jonathan Fries' Doctrinal Blog
Doctrine #50 Fellowship

The initial posts covering this topic were:
-Fellowship
-Fellowship With God

We also looked at "Three Way Fellowship", which is Fellowship between two people who both are in Fellowship with God.

In fact, we did a miniseries on this topic during last year's Series. Here are the posts:
-Both Sides of Three Way Fellowship
-Unprofitable Three Way Fellowship
-More Warnings Against Unprofitable Three Way Fellowship
-James 4: Three Way Fellowship Summary
-Jesus' Fellowship With God
-Jesus' Examples of Three Way Fellowship

3. Regeneration
The Holy Spirit is known as the Spirit of Truth.

Jesus stated He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Being in union with Christ results in Life...which is the ability to repair. Notice, restoration is the act of bringing something back to its original condition. Repair is the act of bringing something to a state better than the original.

The effect of being in union with the Truth is that the individual is repaired...which is also known as Regeneration.

The individual receives a new life because they've received a new Nature. The Nature of the Trinity is always completely Right and always completely Just.

Our nature is NOT Right and NOT Just...

Links
Jonathan Fries' Doctrinal Blog:
Doctrine #51: Life
Doctrine #28: Truth

The initial post on this topic was titled, "Life".

We've also looked at specifically "How To Repair" which covered a specific measure I called, "IN, UP, AND THROUGH".

Finally, all of this was covered in a post called, "Repair Means Repentance". That post was the third part of a model that covers ALL of our interactions with God and people. The first two parts were covered in a post titled, "Sharing and Abuse"

Truth was covered in an exhaustive post from January 2008 titled, "Truth". In that post, I shared some of the examples of national ministries that speak about the importance of Truth, yet cannot (and will not) share their definition of Truth.

Here is another post that covered, "Truth vs. Facts".

4. Justification
The new Nature allows God to declare us as Right which puts us in a new standing with God.

The new Nature within us results in Righteous and Just Actions.

The ultimate Righteous and Just Actions are giving to others without expecting anything in return from the one to whom you gave...which is the definition of Love. Love is the end of the Law. Love is the ultimate effect.

When we Love, there is NO WAY we can be wrong and/or unjust.

Links
Jonathan Fries' Doctrinal Blog:
Love
God's Nature

This is such an critical Doctrine, we did an entire month's Series in four weekly posts:
-Love
-Love Is The Ultimate Effect
-I Love You
-Love Applications

We have covered God's Nature in several posts. Here are the main ones:

This post gives the Model For God.

Here are two posts covering the process for discovering the Model for God: My Story and Modeling God.

This model showed that God is Right-Right. God is not only Right in WHAT He does...God is also Right in HOW/WHY He does it.

In fact, we saw that God is Always and Completely Right and Just.

5. Adoption
God then adopts us children of God...with all the benefits and privileges that come with this new standing.

This post is an excellent summary of the previous effects: Friendship, Fellowship, Love, and Grace.

Notice, Friendship is mentioned...which is a very high level of Fellowship...like being a child of God. Here are several posts that explain the Biblical Doctrine of Friend:
Friend
New Testament Friend
Old Testament Friend

6. Sanctification
Adoption sets apart from the world...which is the definition of sanctification.

This is the last step...however, sanctification is itself a process that continues forever. We ought to continually make progress in this process...which causes us to be further set apart from others. The measure for this is Profitability.

We did an entire Series on Spiritual Maturity...which is Biblical Sanctification. Here are the posts explaining in the four stages of Spiritual Maturity:
Stage Alone
Stage Two
Stage Three
Stage Four

In the next post we will look at what happens once the influence from the Holy Spirit leaves the Amygdala...

Next Post

The Complex Causeless Thought

2011-12-27T00:03:00.001-06:00

In the previous post, we saw how the Holy Spirit can be the Seventh Stimulus.

The Holy Spirit is upon all flesh ever since Pentecost. When the individual becomes a believer, the Holy Spirit dwells inside the individual. The way the Holy Spirit communicates with the individual's Conscious Brain is through the individual's spirit. This makes the person's spirit the adaptor between God's Spirit (Holy Spirit) and their Conscious Brain.

In this post, we will see the Holy Spirit is able to serve as a Stimulus to the Conscious Brain, however, the effect on the First Feedback Loop takes on a different progression from the first six stimuli. Here is the progression:

1. The Holy Spirit speaks into our Conscious Brain through our spirit:

2 We have to choose to look for the influence in our Conscious Brain that is not of ourself...

...an influence that is not our Conscious Brain and not our Mind/Soul. This is why it is a tremendous value to get Resolution between your Mind/Soul and your Conscious Brain.

The influence being from our Conscious Brain would include influences from our flesh that are strongholds in our Conscious Brain...which ultimately comes from the enemy.

The influence being from our Mind/Soul would be idolatry...making our very being the replacement for the Holy Spirit which is God in us.

Here is how I represent this step:

Faith (understanding and experience...which both reside in the Conscious Brain) ought to be used to test the influence. If the influence is contradictory (relative to our understanding and/or experience) then it is not from the Holy Spirit. However, the main test is:

3. Consciously choose to focus the nucleus basalis on the influence and cycle it through the First Feedback Loop.

When we cycle a Full Thought that we have created, the result is a Complex Thought that becomes more complex with each cycling. However, the Holy Spirit influences us with "ready made" Complex Thoughts...

...so cycling this Complex Thought through the First Feedback Loop will result in its complexity being reduced because we don't have the preceding thoughts. The Holy Spirit influences us with a "Causeless Thought"...a thought without anything preceding it...which is the definition of revelatory.

The Holy Spirit's influence is known as Grace...and it comes as a Complex Causeless Thought...and cycling it through the First Feedback Loop results in the simplification of the Complex Thought teaching us a new WHY/HOW with each cycle.

We covered this in during the Brain Series. Here is an excerpt from the post titled, "The Seventh Stimulus":

During the previous six stimuli, the first completion of the First Feedback Loop results in a Full Thought. If we want a Complex Thought, we need to cycle the Full Thought through the First Feedback Loop as a stimulus...the more we cycle, the more complex the thought can become. The result will be a focused thought (conclusion) supported by numerous implications.

You see this when someone shares the focused thought (conclusion) with others. Immediately the others ask questions that are related to the implications. If it is a Complex Thought, the person stating the conclusion can explain the implications because they went through the implications to get to the focused conclusion.

For years people have asked me how to tell if an idea is from God versus their flesh. There are several ways God talks to people. Just one of the ways to know if the thought is from God is if it is a Complex Causeless Thought.

First, this means the thought is NOT an effect of what you were thinking...it is about something completely different than what you were thinking about...what you were building in the First Feedback Loop.

Second, the thought is complex...it teaches you. Basically, you are the person asking questions of the thought that deal with implications...and the implications become immediately obvious. In fact, the implications are understanding that weren't previously in your Conscious Brain. (This is why we need to use faith with grace...a Complex Thought from the Holy Spirit can stand up to experience and understanding.)

Grace results in you having a conversation within your Conscious Brain...but this time you are the one who is learning and questioning and God is doing the teaching.

4. Grace results in our looping in order to understand (Faith), not to build a Complex Thought.

Once, we determine this influence is from the Holy Spirit...once we have grace through faith...we can intentionally choose to allow this influence to proceed towards Action:

CONCLUSION
1. The Holy Spirit speaks into our Conscious Brain through our spirit.

2 We have to choose to look for the influence in our Conscious Brain that is not of ourself...an influence that is not our Conscious Brain and not our Mind/Soul.

3. Consciously choose to focus the nucleus basalis on the influence and cycle it through the First Feedback Loop.

4. Grace results in our looping in order to understand (Faith), not to build a Complex Thought.

Salvation is by Grace through Faith...just what we have illustrated in this post. There are some immediate results of our Salvation...or our first choice in letting this to be reflected in our lives. In the next post, we will cover these immediate effects that occur with Salvation...

Next Post

The Spirit

2011-12-26T00:03:00.002-06:00

In today's post, we will look at the final two components for the true Model for Human Thinking.

In a very important post titled, "The Ghost In The Machine" we covered the difference between the Mind/Soul, Brain, and Spirit of the individual. These are three separate entities.

The Mind/Soul is your eternal being. The Bible stated you have only one Soul and you can't be physically alive without your Soul.

Your Conscious Brain is the battlefield...it is physical organ where everything collides.

The Bible stated a person can have more than one spirit and that people have been physically alive while not having their spirit.

I look at the spirit of the individual as a separate entity that is connected to the Conscious Brain of the individual. Here is how I represent it in the Model for Human Thinking:

The Holy Spirit is upon all flesh ever since Pentecost. When the individual becomes a believer, the Holy Spirit dwells inside the individual. The way the Holy Spirit communicates with the individual's Conscious Brain is through the individual's spirit. This makes the person's spirit the adaptor between God's Spirit (Holy Spirit) and their Conscious Brain. Here is how I represent it in the Model for Human Thinking:

This makes the Holy Spirit the Seventh Stimulus. The Holy Spirit is able to serve as a Stimulus to the Conscious Brain, however, the effect on the First Feedback Loop takes on a different progression from the first six stimuli.

In the next post, we will look at this progression...

Next Post

Complex Applications of The Mind/Soul

2011-12-23T00:03:00.005-06:00

In the previous posts we began looking at the importance of getting Resolution between the Mind/Soul and the Conscious Brain...

Here were the four Simple applications:

1. The Mind/Soul controls our ability to build a complex thought.
2. The Mind/Soul controls our ability to end a thought that is looping in the Conscious Brain.
3. The Mind/Soul makes the choice which connecting thought is selected during the First Feedback Loop.
4. The Mind/Soul can stop the Conscious Brain's natural progression towards fear.

I refer to these as Simple applications because they involve a one direct step by the Mind/Soul with the Conscious Brain.

In today's post, we will look at two Complex applications...application that involve more than one step and more than one part of the Brain.

In the previous post, we saw how the Mind/Soul can stop the Conscious Brain from progressing towards fear.

However, recall that the First Feedback Loop results in a Full Thought which consists of:
1. Stimulus
2. Connecting Fact
3. Associated Emotion

In the previous post, we reviewed the following analogy to explain this process:

We use the analogy of a squirrel going up the trunk of the first tree (stimulus), selects a branch on this tree (connecting thought), and experiences an emotion when it makes the leap from the branch of the first tree to the connecting branch on the second tree. The Full Thought is complete when the squirrel returns to the ground near the base of the second tree.

In this post, our first application will deal with more than one step...

Repetitive Steps
As we've seen, from the post titled, "The Conscious Brain: Facts and Emotions::

Every fact...every branch...has an associated emotion. I categorize these emotions according to five levels with the following symbols:

E+ Strong Positive Emotion (Example: getting away for a week to your favorite vacation spot)
e+ Positive Emotion (Example: watching your favorite television show)
0 Neutral Emotion (Example: looking at a sheet of paper)
e- Negative Emotion (Example: watching a commercial on television)
E- Strong Negative Emotion (Example: someone hurting you)

This emotional information is also stored electrically.

When the individual (Mind/Soul) chooses not to direct the squirrel towards a branch, the squirrel will take the most travelled branch. This tends to be the branch with the strongest emotion...whether it is Negative or Positive. Since the point of this post is how to handle a negative thought process, we will assume the individual's most travelled branch for a specific topic is a Strong Negative Emotion.

The way to repair this is to identify the topic with the Strong Negative Emotion and intentionally do a positive Action even though the person doesn't feel like it. For instance, we have seen that the definition of being a man is "doing the causes regardless of the effects". Let's say a male has a Strong Negative Emotion associated with a specific task...

He would do the task, then immediately reflect on how good it was that he did the task. This would adjust the emotion attached to the task from Strong Negative to less Strong Negative...perhaps to even just Negative Emotion. Notice, this still doesn't change the fact that he wouldn't want to do the Action, however, repetitively doing the Action and reflecting on it would eventually result in not having a Negative Emotion associated with this Connecting Fact.

The same technique can be used to build a different most travelled branch. The individual would actively choose to pick a branch other than the most travelled branch until it became the most travelled. Research shows this takes about 21 days. This is why it takes 21 days to build a habit. Doing a task for 21 straight days doesn't mean you are unable to take another branch, it's just that after 21 days it becomes harder to stop taking that path than to continue to take this path.

Both of these applications require repetitive interactions between the Mind/Soul and the Conscious Brain. Next, we will look at an example that involves more than just the Conscious Brain...

More Than One Part Of The Brain
We've seen this Full Thought can become a Complex Thought if the Mind/Soul turns the nucleus basalis internally (towards the Conscious Brain) and treats the Full Thought as a Stimulus.

However, each Full Thought can be sent to the Amygdala...and with each interaction with the Amygdala, we risk the chance that something in the Full Thought will referenced an emotional perspective that will cause the Amygdala to fire: to send a message to the adrenal glands which chemically fogs the Conscious Brain, and then to overload the Conscious Brain with input so that the Unconscious Brain and Amygdala can physically control the body.

Basically, we have the following situation where the line coming from the Conscious Brain becomes the dotted slanted line in the Amygdala:

...which effectively turns our thinking from the Human Model above to this hybrid Model:

...to this Animal Model for Thinking:

Again, this conversion could happen with any of the Full Thoughts that got sent to the Amygdala. What we need is another check point that would halt this progression.

Since the issue is in the Amygdala, we could use the Mind/Soul to prepare the Amygdala ahead of its interaction with this destructive Full Thought. However, the Mind/Soul only interacts with the Conscious Brain. How can the Mind/Soul prepare the Amygdala through the Conscious Brain?

Rehearsal!

The Mind/Soul can focus the nucleus basalis internally and supply a stimulus. If the stimulus is a past event, we call this "Remembering". If the stimulus is a future event, we call this "Imagining".

Basically, the Mind/Soul can Remember a Full Thought that caused the Amygdala to fire...and then change the recollection of the event: from the Amygdala firing to the Conscious Brain realizing the Amygdala was firing and immediately thinking of a positive thought or ending the thought loop by stating the thought out loud or writing it down.

The Mind/Soul is teaching the Amygdala and Conscious Brain that when the individual feels the same feeling as when the Amygdala fires, the Mind/Soul is able to redirect the thought process.

The same can be done with Imagining. The Mind/Soul can Imagine a circumstance that has never occurred in reality...with the scenario ending with the Conscious Brain realizing the Mind/Soul is able to redirect the thought process.

Recall, the Amygdala doesn't know the difference between an event that actually happened or one that was imagined. Also, the Amygdala is a library of every emotional perspective the individual has experienced. If the Amygdala doesn't have a positive response in its library (whether real or imagined) it is not able to respond positively.

CONCLUSION
The Mind/Soul is able to redirect thought processes that are emotionally destructive by:
-repetitive interaction with the Conscious Brain, and
-rehearsing ahead of time (Remembering/Imagining via the Conscious Brain) successful responses through the Amygdala.

We've seen the first five stimuli are the five senses.

We've seen the Sixth Stimulus is Remembering/Imagining.

In the next post, we will begin looking at the Seventh Stimulus...

Next Post

Simple Applications: Selecting A Branch

2011-12-22T00:03:00.002-06:00

In the previous post we began looking at the importance of getting Resolution between the Mind/Soul and the Conscious Brain...

Here were the first two conclusions:

1. The Mind/Soul controls our ability to build a complex thought.
2. The Mind/Soul controls our ability to end a thought that is looping in the Conscious Brain.

In this post, we will look at another application that is an effect of getting Resolution between the Mind/Soul and the Conscious Brain...

The Mind/Soul controls the decisions made within the First Feedback Loop. Let's get some background on the First Feedback Loop. Here is an excerpt from the post titled, "The Conscious Brain: Complex Thought":

First, we looked at the Conscious Brain. Next, we look at how the Conscious Brain being half fact and half emotion allows it to form a Full Thought. We used an analogy involving trees and a squirrel. Here was the explanation:

The First Feedback Loop of the Model for Human Thinking results in a Full Thought which consists of: a stimulus, a connecting fact, and an associated emotion.

We use the analogy of a squirrel going up the trunk of the first tree (stimulus), selects a branch on this tree (connecting thought), and experiences an emotion when it makes the leap from the branch of the first tree to the connecting branch on the second tree. The Full Thought is complete when the squirrel returns to the ground near the base of the second tree.

The decision concerning which branch to take is made by the Mind/Soul. When people don't have Resolution between their Mind/Soul and their Conscious Brain, they don't believe they have a choice as to where their thoughts lead them.

However, people (Mind/Souls) can be told to only say something positive...and we can see their Mind/Soul stop their squirrel from selecting a negative branch...and then choose a more positive branch.

When a person has Resolution between their Mind/Soul and their Conscious Brain, they can intentionally have a more positive thought process by selecting more positive connecting thoughts.

The final simple application of getting Resolution between your Mind/Soul and your Conscious Brain is the ability to recognize an Unprofitable progression in the Conscious Brain.

When a person doesn't realize his Mind/Soul is separate from his Conscious Brain, he chooses not to direct the squirrel...however, the squirrel is still going to select a branch and jump to the tree with the connecting thought. Here is an excerpt from the post titled "The Conscious Brain: A Full Thought" to give us background:

The easiest example of this is seen when people participate in a word association test...

What is the first word you think of when you hear the word "blue"?

In your Conscious Brain, there is a tree that represents the word blue. I see that as the trunk of the tree being the word blue. The branches on the tree are the words you associate with the word blue. For instance, on your blue tree you could have the following branches:
-sky
-ocean
-sad
-favorite color

The word you said first would be seen as the lowest and biggest branch on your blue tree. It is the connecting thought you have with the least amount of effort. For example, if you associated the word sky, the sky branch on your blue tree would be connected to the blue branch on the sky tree in your Conscious Brain.

Every branch on your blue tree would also have an associated emotion. In the previous post, we saw five general categories for the associated emotion:
E+ Strong Positive Emotion (Example: getting away for a week to your favorite vacation spot)
e+ Positive Emotion (Example: watching your favorite television show)
0 Neutral Emotion (Example: looking at a sheet of paper)
e- Negative Emotion (Example: watching a commercial on television)
E- Strong Negative Emotion (Example: someone hurting you)

So, going back to the possible branches on the blue tree, we could see the following associated emotions:
-sky = 0 (Neutral Emotion)
-ocean = e+ (Positive Emotion for good memories)
-sad = e- (Negative Emotion because it is associated with being sad)
-favorite color = E+ (Strong Positive Emotion because it is your favorite color)

The emotion is released in the Conscious Brain once the connection is made...which brings up the other half of our analogy...

The path of your thoughts is the squirrel while your Conscious Brain is made up of trees.

In our example from above, the squirrel locates the blue tree and runs up the trunk. The squirrel runs out the first branch it encounters which is the sky branch. It runs to the end of the branch and then leaps to the blue branch on the sky tree. During the jump, the squirrel would encounter a neutral emotion. The squirrel runs to the trunk of the sky tree and down the trunk to the ground.

If your Mind/Soul chooses not to direct your squirrel, then your squirrel will take the lowest and biggest (most travelled) branch. If the most travelled branches are connected to Negative Emotions, with each jump, you will feel progressively more pessimistic and may even reach the point where you are in fear.

Notice, if you believe your Mind/Soul is the same as your Conscious Brain, then you will feel like there is nothing you can do about your progressively more negative thoughts...and you won't even try to redirect them.

However, your Mind/Soul can AT ANY TIME choose to pick a positive branch. Your Mind/Soul can also AT ANY TIME bring the squirrel to the ground and state out loud (or write) your thoughts so that the progression is halted.

CONCLUSION
Here are the simple applications of getting Resolution between your Mind/Soul and your Conscious Brain:

1. The Mind/Soul controls our ability to build a complex thought.
2. The Mind/Soul controls our ability to end a thought that is looping in the Conscious Brain.
3. The Mind/Soul makes the choice which connecting thought is selected during the First Feedback Loop.
4. The Mind/Soul can stop the Conscious Brain's natural progression towards fear.

In the next post, we will look at complex applications...

Next Post

The Mind and Thought Loops

2011-12-21T00:03:00.002-06:00

We have seen there must be something outside the Unconscious Brain and Conscious Brain that consciously thinks...that consciously makes the choice whether to use the Conscious Brain or not.

This something is known as The Mind/Soul.

It is extremely important that a person gets Resolution between their Mind/Soul and their Conscious Brain.

In order to get an overview of the difference between The Mind and The Brain, please review this post, "The Ghost In The Machine".

In the previous post, we looked at how we would represent The Mind/Soul in our Model for Thinking:

In this post we will begin to look at the importance of getting Resolution between the Mind/Soul and the Conscious Brain...

Notice, if the nucleus basalis was controlled by the Conscious Brain, then how would the Conscious Brain know when to open the nucleus basalis to external events if it was prevented from focusing on external events. Likewise, we know that adrenaline can hinder the Conscious Brain's ability to think and make choices...yet we are still able to think and make choices because we are our Mind/Soul. The Mind/Soul controls the opening and closing of the nucleus basalis.

1. Since the Mind/Soul controls the nucleus basalis, the Mind/Soul controls our ability to build a complex thought. This can be represented with the following:

Here's the conclusion from the post titled, "The Conscious Brain: Complex Thought":

A Complex Thought is formed when a Full Thought is treated as a stimulus by the nucleus basalis.

This also results in the second application...

2. Since the Mind/Soul controls the nucleus basalis, the Mind/Soul controls our ability to end a thought that is looping in the Conscious Brain.

When people don't have Resolution between their Mind/Soul and their Conscious Brain, they see them as the same...which means they think they ARE their Conscious Brain. If that were true, then we would have no control over building complex thoughts or stopping destructive thought loops.

When people say they can't stop thinking about something that is destructive, they are saying they don't see the difference between who they are (Mind/Soul) and what they use to think with (Conscious Brain).

The individual doesn't believe he has control over his thoughts...and saying this out loud only causes the Unconscious Brain to reinforce this belief in lack of control.

CONCLUSION
1. The Mind/Soul controls our ability to build a complex thought.
2. The Mind/Soul controls our ability to end a thought that is looping in the Conscious Brain.

In the next post, we will look at another application that is an effect of getting Resolution between the Mind/Soul and the Conscious Brain...

Next Post

The Mind

2011-12-20T00:03:00.002-06:00

So far, we have looked at the Complex Model for Human Thinking:

While this seems to explain a lot of phenomena, there is an apparent contradiction: What controls the opening of the nucleus basalis? (The square located between the Unconscious Brain and the Conscious Brain.)

The Unconscious Brain does not control it, otherwise we would not be able to intentionally concentrate on a stimulus.

If the nucleus basalis is opened by something in the Conscious Brain, then how does the Conscious Brain know to open the nucleus basalis to a stimulus once the nucleus basalis is closed? In addition, we've seen that the Amygdala can hijack the Conscious Brain...that the Conscious Brain does not function, yet we are still able to make choices and "think". Clearly, there must be something outside the Unconscious Brain and Conscious Brain that consciously thinks...that consciously makes the choice whether to use the Conscious Brain or not.

This something is known as The Mind/Soul.

It is extremely important that a person gets Resolution between their Mind/Soul and their Conscious Brain.

In order to get an overview of the difference between The Mind and The Brain, please review this post, "The Ghost In The Machine". Here is an excerpt:

You are your Mind/Soul. Your Mind/Soul is Eternal.

This is YOUR First Cause.

EVERYTHING after your choice to think or not think is an EFFECT of your decision. This is YOUR responsibility.

So, the question was: How are the Brain and the Mind connected?

The Mind uses the Brain to express itself.

Descartes essentially said the same thing. So, HOW do the Mind and Brain communicate?

Both the Mind and the Brain work according to four God-given principles!
-Non-contradiction
-Causality
-Growth
-Contrastive Thinking

We have seen our Unconscious Brain works according to all four God-given principles.

We have seen our Conscious Brain begins working according to two of the four God-given principles: Causality and Non-contradiction. It begins working according to comparative and comfort.

We have seen our Mind/Soul determines whether our Conscious Brain will work according to all four God-given principles or none of the God-given principles.

If our Mind/Soul chooses to think contrastively and pursue growth, no matter how uncomfortable, the Conscious Brain will become congruous with the Unconscious Brain and the result is increased health. This choice by the Mind/Soul causes the Conscious Brain to progress towards working according to all four God-given principles.

If our Mind/Soul chooses to think comparatively and pursue comfort, the Conscious Brain will cease to work according to Causality and Non-contradiction. This choice by the Mind/Soul causes the Conscious Brain to lose its ability to work according to ANY of the four God-given principles. The Conscious Brain will be incongruous with the Unconscious Brain with the result being mental, emotional, spiritual, and even physical illness.

We used the analogy of a compose/piano to illustrate the relationship between the Mind/Brain. The composer is the person. The piano is the instrument, the channel, through which the composer expresses his composition. Likewise, the Brain is the instrument through which the Mind expresses itself.

Notice, The composer can be the most creative and talented musician the world has ever seen, however, if he presents his work through an out-of-tune piano, the result is not Profitable.

Here is how we would represent The Mind/Soul in our Model for Thinking:

Tomorrow, we will look at the importance of getting Resolution between the Mind/Soul and the Conscious Brain...

Next Post

The Better Response

2011-12-19T00:03:00.002-06:00

In the previous post, we looked at what I call, "The Brutal Response". The CONCLUSION was as follows:

Asking a Looping Question in response to a person's holding someone to a standard higher than they hold themselves can result in them becoming a hypocrite.

The Brutal Response is to ask a Looping Question of a person who doesn't have access to all of their Conscious Brain.

In today's post, we will look at a better response by first revisiting the original circumstance...

When a person has a bad thought process, there is a contradiction in his thought process.

When the person is confronted, he has two choices, be humble or be prideful.

If he is humble, he will consider he could be wrong and look to understand you. If you explain the contradiction well, the humble person ought to be able to understand it.

However, if he is prideful, the Amygdala fires...and the more it fires, the more he loses his ability to use his Conscious Brain...

CONTINUING TO INTERACT WITH THIS PERSON COULD RESULT IN THEIR FORFEITING THEIR SALVATION.

Take a look at the following Model...

The Conscious Brain sends the Full Thought to the Amygdala which results in Emotion...and a bad Action.

This resulting Action is seen by the Unconscious Brain. The questioner could then use a Looping Question (Stimulus coupled with Unconscious Brain's observation of the Action) to make the prideful person conscious of his bad Action.

In the previous post, we saw how this Looping Question could give the individual the opportunity to become a hypocrite...and possibly forfeit their Salvation. (Review the previous post if you have questions: The Brutal Response.)

THE BETTER RESPONSE:
Instead, I've learned to go onto the next topic and let the Holy Spirit deal with the individual.

I see myself dropping a spiritual sack of dirty laundry on the ground and stepping away from it...to the next question. I have faith the Holy Spirit will take care of this spiritual sack of dirty laundry because:

1. The Holy Spirit wants to lead everyone into all truth.
2. The Holy Spirit is able to convict individuals once they have stated their will.
3. The Holy Spirit is vastly superior to me at convicting people. I could end up facilitating their becoming a hypocrite and forfeiting their Salvation.

The Holy Spirit knows the individual, loves the individual, and is able to approach the individual in the manner that is perfectly suited to the individual.

CONCLUSION
In the past, when I got an individual to state their will in a contradictory fashion, I continued to confront the person about their contradiction.

Today, I release this person to the Holy Spirit and move onto the next topic.

In the next post, we will begin looking at the components necessary to understand how God wants us to think...

Next Post

The Brutal Response

2011-12-16T00:03:00.003-06:00

In a previous post, we looked at a Thought Process Test. Here was the explanation:

One of the things I've learned from Joel Swokowski's Bible Commentary is the structure for a New Testament Sermon. In the Book of Acts, the sermons that resulted in thousands being converted followed a simple and extremely logical structure. In fact, Paul used this same structure in his epistles. Paul's most misinterpreted chapter (Romans 9) was actually four consecutive sermons.

Here is the structure:

1. Premise: The conclusion is stated...which is a WHAT.
2. Reason: An explanation is stated...which is a WHY...the Understanding.
3. Support: Paul usually presented three scriptures to support his Premise and Reason...which is a HOW...the Application.

Each part has to fit with the other parts without contradiction.

Being able to state your thoughts according to this model requires a good thought process because it is an example of a Complex Thought that is manageable. However, a person's response to your statement according to this structure is also a test...

When a person presents their thought process according to Premise-Reason-Support, there are a number of responses they can receive. In the previous post, we looked at examples of responses. Here is a general explanation of these responses:

1. Focused On You - This is characterized by a person only speaking about your Premise, Reason, and/or Support. This proves the responder is focused and has a thought process that is able to come to conclusion.

2. Ignoring - This is characterized by a person speaking about anything other than your Premise, Reason, and/or Support. This proves the responder isn't willing or able to focus and has a thought process that is unwilling or unable to come to conclusion.

DISCLAIMER: My next sentence is a generalization, but I have found this to be valid in almost every occurrence...

When a person Ignores the presentation of your Thought Process, it proves you have (at minimum) a good thought process.

There are many ways for responders to Ignore the presentation of your thought process. Remember, I'm speaking of people whose immediate response is to do anything other than reference your presentation. Here are three general examples:

-Present Their Own Thought Process
If a person's response is to immediately begin presenting their thought process, they are trying to deny your presentation's existence. They are attempting to convince you and themselves that the conversation actually began with them presenting their thought process. Not only is this a sign of a bad thought process, it demonstrates insecurity.

-Topic Jumping
If a person's response is to consistently transition to presenting their thought process on a different topic. This is essentially an iteration of "Present Their Own Thought Process". Continuing the example from above...

Once the person is done responding to you by presenting their thought process and you have Focused On Them, if your attempt to get them to Focus On You is met with another presentation of their thought process, they are Topic Jumping...they are attempting to distract you from your presentation with an endless number of presentations. Not only does this responder have a bad thought process, but depending on how conscious this goal is for the responder they may have some serious mental/emotional issues.

-Questions
The responder could ask questions about other possibilities and try to justify themselves by saying, "I don't understand enough to comment...yet." Notice, responding with a Question about anything that doesn't directly address your presentation is actually an attempt to move a step away from the topic of your presentation.

As is the case with all three of these Ignoring examples, if the responder does not ever respond to your presentation, they have proven to have a bad thought process (at a minimum), and possibly mental/emotional issues.

Today, we will focus on a Response that can cause other people to lose their Salvation...

When a person has a bad thought process, there is a contradiction in his thought process.

When the person is confronted, he has two choices, be humble or be prideful.

If he is humble, he will consider he could be wrong and look to understand you. If you explain the contradiction well, the humble person ought to be able to understand it.

However, if he is prideful, the Amygdala fires...and the more it fires, the more he loses his ability to use his Conscious Brain...

CONTINUING TO INTERACT WITH THIS PERSON COULD RESULT IN THEIR FORFEITING THEIR SALVATION.

Take a look at the following Model...

The Conscious Brain sends the Full Thought to the Amygdala which results in Emotion...and a bad Action.

This resulting Action is seen by the Unconscious Brain. The questioner could then use a Looping Question (Stimulus coupled with Unconscious Brain's observation of the Action) to make the prideful person conscious of his bad Action. Here is an example...

The person has judged you for interrupting him. Now, while you are talking, he interrupts you. When you point out that he interrupted you, his Amygdala fires and he replies with an emotional response, "I didn't do anything wrong."

Looping Question: "Do you think it is right to hold me to higher standard than you hold yourself?"

The thought behind this question is that he has judged you are wrong for doing something that he stated was not wrong when he did it.

However, this Looping Question would have been asked to a person who doesn't have complete access to his Conscious Brain. It is being asked of a person who is brain damaged.

If the person responds with, "Yes" they are a hypocrite...and Jesus said hypocrites go to eternal punishment.

"48 But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord tarrieth;
49 and shall begin to beat his fellow-servants, and shall eat and drink with the drunken;
50 the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not,
51 and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 24:48-51)

A hypocrite is NOT someone who does something different than what they say. That is a person who lacks integrity. We all lack integrity.

A hypocrite is someone who justifies their lack of integrity...specifically, someone who justifies holding others to a higher standard than they hold themselves.

The Pharisees were hypocrites. It wasn't that they only held people to a higher standard than they held themselves...it was that they justified themselves when Jesus confronted them for doing this.

CONCLUSION
Asking a Looping Question in response to a person's holding someone to a standard higher than they hold themselves can result in them becoming a hypocrite.

The Brutal Response is to ask a Looping Question of a person who doesn't have access to all of their Conscious Brain.

In the next post, we will look at a better response...

Next Post

Response To Thought Process Test

2011-12-15T00:03:00.001-06:00

In the previous post, we looked at a Thought Process Test. Here was the explanation:

One of the things I've learned from Joel Swokowski's Bible Commentary is the structure for a New Testament Sermon. In the Book of Acts, the sermons that resulted in thousands being converted followed a simple and extremely logical structure. In fact, Paul used this same structure in his epistles. Paul's most misinterpreted chapter (Romans 9) was actually four consecutive sermons.

Here is the structure:

1. Premise: The conclusion is stated...which is a WHAT.
2. Reason: An explanation is stated...which is a WHY...the Understanding.
3. Support: Paul usually presented three scriptures to support his Premise and Reason...which is a HOW...the Application.

Each part has to fit with the other parts without contradiction.

Being able to state your thoughts according to this model requires a good thought process because it is an example of a Complex Thought that is manageable. However, a person's response to your statement according to this structure is also a test...

When a person presents their thought process according to Premise-Reason-Support, there are a number of responses they can receive. I look at these responses in two major categories. I call the first "Focused On You"...

1. Focused On You - This is characterized by a person only speaking about your Premise, Reason, and/or Support. This proves the responder is focused and has a thought process that is able to come to conclusion.

Notice, whether the person agrees with you or disagrees with you doesn't, in and of itself, prove the responder has an excellent thought process. THAT would depend on whether your presentation was excellent.

-If you had an excellent thought process and the responder agreed, in order for the responder to prove an excellent thought process he would have to explain why he agreed...then consider he was wrong and try to see a perspective other than his own until it led to him teaching you at least one thing.

-If you had an excellent thought process and the responder disagreed, in order for the responder to prove an excellent thought process he would have to explain your belief to your satisfaction and why he disagreed...and then show that he was able to consider he was wrong.

-If you had a poor thought process and the responder disagreed, in order for the responder to prove an excellent thought process he would have to explain your belief to your satisfaction and why he disagreed...and then the test would be applied to you: whether you could show that you were able to consider you were wrong and able to explain the responder's belief to his satisfaction.

-If you had a poor thought process and the responder agreed, in order for the responder to prove an excellent thought process he would have to explain why he agreed...then consider he was wrong and try to see a perspective other than his own until it led to him teaching you at least one thing...which ought to cause both of you to realize you were both wrong.

I call the second response, "Ignoring"...

2. Ignoring - This is characterized by a person speaking about anything other than your Premise, Reason, and/or Support. This proves the responder isn't willing or able to focus and has a thought process that is unwilling or unable to come to conclusion.

DISCLAIMER: My next sentence is a generalization, but I have found this to be valid in almost every occurrence...

When a person Ignores the presentation of your Thought Process, it proves you have (at minimum) a good thought process.

If the presentation of your thought process was flawed, the first response is a comment about the flaw in your presentation...which is, by definition, not Ignoring. Everyone in the world perfectly applies the God-given principle of Contrastive Thinking on everyone else. When a person does not respond at all to the presentation of your thought process, including not succombing to the default ability to be contrastive, you have made at minimum a good presentation of your thought process or the responder is mentally/emotionally ill.

There are many ways for responders to Ignore the presentation of your thought process. Remember, I'm speaking of people whose immediate response is to do anything other than reference your presentation. Here are three general examples:

-Present Their Own Thought Process
If a person's response is to immediately begin presenting their thought process, they are trying to deny your presentation's existence. They are attempting to convince you and themselves that the conversation actually began with them presenting their thought process. Not only is this a sign of a bad thought process, it demonstrates insecurity.

Ideally, the responder ought to transition to their presentation by acknowledging yours. For example, the responder could say, "I don't agree with your premise that (insert restatement of presenter's premise) because I believe (begin presentation of responder's thought process)."

Notice, the responder has actually moved a step away from the topic of your presentation. Ideally, you would respond to their presentation in one of the manners listed under "Focused On You" and then ask them to respond to your original presentation. As is the case with all three of these Ignoring examples, if the responder does not ever respond to your presentation, they have proven to have a bad thought process (at a minimum), and possibly mental/emotional issues.

-Topic Jumping
If a person's response is to consistently transition to presenting their thought process on a different topic. This is essentially an iteration of "Present Their Own Thought Process". Continuing the example from above...

Once the person is done responding to you by presenting their thought process and you have Focused On Them, if your attempt to get them to Focus On You is met with another presentation of their thought process, they are Topic Jumping...they are attempting to distract you from your presentation with an endless number of presentations. This takes two forms...

If the person presents a new topic in response to every mention of your presentation, this is "One Step Topic Jumping" because you are only one step away from your presentation.

If the person presents a new topic in response to your response, this is "Serial Topic Jumping". Basically, you present your thought process, they respond by presenting another topic, you respond by Focusing on their presentation, they respond by presenting yet another topic...at this point you are two steps away from your presentation. If this continues, you may eventually forget what was your original presentation...which was the goal (whether consciously or unconsciously) of the responder.

Not only does this responder have a bad thought process, but depending on how conscious this goal is for the responder they may have some serious mental/emotional issues.

-Questions
The responder could ask questions about other possibilities and try to justify themselves by saying, "I don't understand enough to comment...yet."

Ideally, the responder would transition to their Question just like we saw with Present Their Own Thought Process: "It seems like you are saying (insert explanation) but that may be due to me not understanding what you mean by (insert Question topic...then ask Question)?"

Notice, responding with a Question about anything that doesn't directly address your presentation is actually an attempt to move a step away from the topic of your presentation. Ideally, you would respond to their Question with an answer and then ask them to respond to your original presentation. As is the case with all three of these Ignoring examples, if the responder does not ever respond to your presentation, they have proven to have a bad thought process (at a minimum), and possibly mental/emotional issues.

Tomorrow, we will focus on a Response that can cause other people to lose their Salvation...

Next Post

Thought Process Test

2011-12-14T00:03:00.003-06:00

One of the things I've learned from Joel Swokowski's Bible Commentary is the structure for a New Testament Sermon. In the Book of Acts, the sermons that resulted in thousands being converted followed a simple and extremely logical structure. In fact, Paul used this same structure in his epistles. Paul's most misinterpreted chapter (Romans 9) was actually four consecutive sermons.

Here is the structure:

1. Premise: The conclusion is stated...which is a WHAT.
2. Reason: An explanation is stated...which is a WHY...the Understanding.
3. Support: Paul usually presented three scriptures to support his Premise and Reason...which is a HOW...the Application.

Being able to express your beliefs in this fashion is a test of your thought process.

Each part has to fit with the other parts without contradiction. The reason people misinterpret Romans 9 is that they don't interpret the following passage correctly:

Premise: "6a But it is not as though the word of God hath come to nought."

Reason: "6b For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel:
7 neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed."

(Verse 8 was a restatement of the Reason.)

Support #1:
"9 For this is a word of promise, According to this season will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.
10 And not only so; but Rebecca also having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac--
11 for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth,"

(Paul referenced Genesis 18:10)

Support #2:

"12 it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger."

(Paul referenced Genesis 25:23)

Support #3:

"13 Even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

(Paul referenced Malachi 1:2-3.)

The correct interpretation would have an explanation where the Premise, Reason, Support #1, Support #2, and Support #3 ALL AGREE without contradiction.

Every misinterpretation of this passage occurs because the interpreter ignores at least one of the five aspects of this sermon.

Again, if you want the details behind the interpretation, go to this link for Joel Swokowski's Bible Commentary: Romans 9.

CONCLUSION
Being able to state your thoughts according to this model requires a good thought process because it is an example of a Complex Thought that is manageable. An example of an unmanageable Complex Thought would be a novel...you can't have a concise discussion that comes to completion in minutes when you discuss an entire novel.

In the next post, we will discuss how the person's response to this presentation is also a test...

Next Post

Helping Others With Their "Song"

2011-12-13T00:03:00.001-06:00

In the previous post, we saw the healthiest thing for the individual is to be able to state their thought process in the following general fashion:

"I used to think and feel (this), then I thought and felt (that) when (conflict) happened. Now, I think and feel (this)."

The analogy I used to explain this relates to songs...

Songs are made up of music and words. The key to a good song is progress...both the music and the words need to demonstrate growth.

When it comes to sharing, the lyrics are our thoughts and the music is our feelings...

The progress in our sharing takes place in three sections of a "song" that ought to show progress in the following fashion:

1. We ought to be able to state what we thought and how we felt before the conflict occurred.
2. We ought to state the conflict...and then what we thought and felt about the conflict.
3. We ought to state what we think and feel now that we have gotten past the conflict.

In order to help people, you ought to look at how well their sharing is able to fill in the following seven areas:

1. What they thought before the conflict.
2. What they felt before the conflict.
3. What was the conflict.
4. What they thought about the conflict.
5. What they felt about the conflict.
6. What they think now.
7. What they feel now.

Notice, the person can begin their sharing in any of these seven areas.

One of the first areas I like to fill in is #3...what was the conflict. Notice, people tend to do this when they ask, What happened?

Most people tend to share in story form...which means they begin with #1 and #2: "I was feeling great because I thought I had everything under control. Then all of a sudden..."

The reason the sharing person is in distress is they haven't completed the "song"...he/she doesn't know what they think and/or feel now.

The goal is to help them fill in #6 and #7...THEN restate the entire "song" out loud:

"I used to think and feel (this), then I thought and felt (that) when (conflict) happened. Now, I think and feel (this)."

There is NOTHING healthier for your emotional well being than to be able to state this "song" out loud...so that your Conscious Brain has it connected and filed away (closure) in a healthy fashion...and so that your Unconscious Brain is in agreement with your Conscious Brain. Stating this out loud also brings Resolution to the individual's brains that progress has been made...and they can continue forward instead of looping on the past.

However, not all people share in this fashion...

Someone who begins sharing at the end of the "song" will say, "I think I understand what happened and I'm no longer mad."

6. You have understanding
7. You are not mad.

When helping these people, I tend to work backwards because it is easiest for the person who is sharing...

3. What happened?
4. What did you think about the conflict?
5. What were you feeling when it happened?

Then I try to take them back to the beginning...

1. A week before the conflict happened, what were you thinking?
2. A week before the conflict happened, what were you feeling?

Again, this sharing isn't completed until they restate the entire "song" out loud:

"I used to think and feel (this), then I thought and felt (that) when (conflict) happened. Now, I think and feel (this)."

Sometimes I will even state their "song" for them and ask them if it is correct. Even if they say it is, I still encourage them to state the same "song" out loud for their benefit.

Next Post

The Healthiest Response

2011-12-12T00:03:00.002-06:00

In the previous post, we saw that the goal of Modern Psychology is for the individual to respond to a stimulus with a balance of Emotion and Logic.

Actually, the healthiest thing for the individual is to be able to state their thought process in the following general fashion:

"I used to think and feel (this), then I thought and felt (that) when (conflict) happened. Now, I think and feel (this)."

The analogy I use to explain this relates to songs...

Songs are made up of music and words. The key to a good song is progress...both the music and the words need to demonstrate growth.

Notice, the simplest songs only show progress in one of the two areas.

An example of a song making progress in words and not music is "Old McDonald". The same music is repeated, however, with each iteration a new animal with a new sound is added. By the end of the song, the music hasn't changed, but Old McDonald's farm has grown to a menagerie of animals.

The opposite example, a song that makes progress musically, but not lyrically, is "The Song That Never Ends". The same lyrics are sung over and over, however, with each iteration, the tempo of the music is increased...until the person is unable to sing the song.

These simple songs are taught to children in hopes they will mature to complex songs...songs that make progress in both the music and the lyrics.

When it comes to sharing, the lyrics are our thoughts and the music is our feelings...

The progress in our sharing takes place in three sections of a "song" that ought to show progress in the following fashion:

1. We ought to be able to state what we thought and how we felt before the conflict occurred.
2. We ought to state the conflict...and then what we thought and felt about the conflict.
3. We ought to state what we think and feel now that we have gotten past the conflict.

There is NOTHING healthier for your emotional well being than to be able to state this "song" out loud...so that your Conscious Brain has it connected and filed away (closure) in a healthy fashion...and so that your Unconscious Brain is in agreement with your Conscious Brain.

In tomorrow's post, we will look at how to help others be able to complete their "song"...

Next Post

Modern Psychology

2011-12-09T00:03:00.001-06:00

Today, modern psychology's goal is to get the stimulus through the individual with a balance of Logic and Emotion.

Look again at the following Model for Human Thinking:

If you imagine a balance scale in place of Actions, with one side being pushed down by Emotions and the other side being pushed down by Logic, the goal would be for the scale to remain level.

If there is too much Emotion, then the person is seen as emotionally unstable and erratic.

However, if there is too much Logic, the person is seen as unfeeling and robotic.

Basically, modern day psychology is looking for the best way to help the individual respond to a stimulus with some emotion and some logic.

Next Post

The Future Looping Question

2011-12-08T00:03:00.001-06:00

In the previous post, we introduced the most powerful tool when it comes to Confrontations. NO ONE is able to withstand this tool that I call "The Looping Question".

We've been using the following diagram of the Complex Model for Human Thinking:

We've seen that combining the following two conclusions results in "The Looping Question":
-The most powerful step is the presentation of a second stimulus while the Unconscious Brain observes the Action from the original stimulus.
-In order to get to make the individual conscious of their destructive Actions, the second stimulus ought to be a Question, not a Statement, because people can ignore a Statement.

In the previous post, we stated there are two possible perspectives for the Question:
-Past
-Future

The Question is used to make the individual conscious of their Action (which could be a SAY or a DO).
-When the Question refers to the Past, we are causing the individual to Remember...which takes place in the Conscious Brain.
-When the Question refers to the Future, we are causing the individual to Imagine...which also takes place in the Conscious Brain.

In today's post, we will see excerpts from the post covering the Future Perspective...

Basically, we take a present event (action or statement) that an individual did and we bring it to their attention in Question form about a future event that could happen to them.

For example, in the previous post, we took a past event (action or statement) that an individual did and we brought it to their attention in Question form. The specific example dealt with me hitting someone and being asked: "John, do you think it was right to hit that person?"

If I was LEAST excellent, this Question would become: "John, are you going to think it is right if someone hits you?"

There are some subtle points to notice about this Question...

First, answering "yes" would be a statement of the will that I will not complain in the future if they same thing happens to me...which is essentially a statement of the will that I don't believe I did anything wrong by hitting the person...which means I am stating my will that God can equal out Justice by having someone hit me.

Second, answering "no" would be a statement of the will that I was either wrong OR a hypocrite...and hypocrites don't go to Heaven. Either way, this answer allows God to equal out Justice against me.

Third, the confronter is NOT directly referring to me hitting someone else. IF I try not to answer this Question by getting defensive and linking this Question to my having hit someone, I would be PROJECTING and JUDGING the confronter which would become an admission of guilt!

I don't care how "unexcellent" or damaged a person is, I have NEVER seen a person immediately jump to making projecting and judgmental Statements to me when I have asked this type of Question. The unexcellent/damaged person knows THAT would be an admission of guilt...a statement of the will they know they are guilty.

If they did ramp up, the confronter could ask, "Do you have a guilty conscience? I didn't mention what you DID...I'm trying to understand how you would feel if you got hit."

The "best" the confronted could hope for is to walk away from the confronter without answering the Question...there is NO POSSIBILITY they can ramp up emotionally and maintain this state.

Next Post

The Past Looping Question

2011-12-07T00:03:00.002-06:00

In the previous post, we reviewed the topic of Confrontation. This involved referencing the Complex Model for Human Thinking:

...and using the two previous posts to build a premise in the following fashion...

-The most powerful step is the presentation of a second stimulus while the Unconscious Brain observes the Action from the original stimulus.
-In order to get to make the individual conscious of their destructive Actions, the second stimulus ought to be a Question, not a Statement, because people can ignore a Statement.

PREMISE: The more excellent a person is, the more you will be able to confront them with Statements.

This premise was supported with numerous Bible passages.

Today's post covers the most powerful tool when it comes to Confrontations. NO ONE is able to withstand this tool that I call "The Looping Question".

There are two possible perspectives for the Question:
-Past
-Future

The Question is used to make the individual conscious of their Action (which could be a SAY or a DO):
-When the Question refers to the Past, we are causing the individual to Remember...which takes place in the Conscious Brain.
-When the Question refers to the Future, we are causing the individual to Imagine...which also takes place in the Conscious Brain.

In today's post, we will see excerpts from the post covering the Past Perspective...

Basically, we take a past event (action or statement) that an individual did and we bring it to their attention in Question form.

This technique is very similar to a Non-Judgment Question. However, what makes it different is the question is intentionally presented in a manner that will lead to the individual bringing judgment on themselves with their answer.

For example, God's Non-Judgment Question to Adam was: "Where art thou?"

With a State Your Will About The Past, the Question would look more like this: "Adam, do you think it was right to hide from God?"

The purpose of this type of Question is to get the LUKEWARM person out from under mercy.

Remember, mercy is the time between the bad act and the punishment. If there is a short time, then there is little mercy. If there is a long time, there is great mercy.

Mercy is NOT the removal of punishment...THAT would violate Justice.

When a person has done something wrong, their punishment can be delayed because they are under mercy. God grants mercy in order to give the individual time to Repent/Repair the effects of the bad act. When a person has a lot of mercy, God will not resolve Justice NOW because the person hasn't even gotten to the step where they admit what they did was a bad act. God is giving the individual time to work it out.

However, if the individual were to state outloud they thought the bad act was good, God would have to resolve Justice NOW, otherwise, God would be leading the person to believe He wanted them to continue acting in this way.

EXAMPLE
I have expanded this Confronting technique to three Questions for people whose SAY and DO are incongruous...

First Question: Did you say you would do (action)?
Second Question: Did you do (action)?
Third Question: Do you think THAT is right?

For example, I may have told you I would give you a ride to work...and then I don't do it. You would say:

"John, did you say you would give me a ride to work?"
"John, did you give me a ride to work?"
"John, do you think that was right?"

I have told the confronter to begin by saying to the confronted:
1. I want to ask three Questions
2. All I am looking for is a "Yes" or a "No" (The Bible says in TWO PLACES, let your "yes" be "yes" and your "no" be "no".)
3. I will not say anything else...I will walk away

If the confronted person begins their answers with anything other than "yes" or "no", I have the confronter say, "I will hear ANYTHING you want to say AFTER you say 'yes' or 'no' ONLY."

You will be amazed how hard it is for people to answer three factual Questions! I have had confronters tell me it took an hour to get a confronted person to answer the first two questions!

For years, I believed people must know UNCONSCIOUSLY that giving ANY answer will bring an end to their mercy...

We now know this technique is involving the Unaware Brain. The three Questions make the Conscious Brain share its intentions with the Unconscious Brain. If the intentions are hypocritical, the Unconscious Brain recognizes an inconsistent pattern and begins to shut down (depress) the confronted person.

I have taught this technique to people who are married. When they use it on their spouse, I tell them to release their spouse to God after they get the three answers. Sure enough, the confronted spouse doesn't sleep that night and wants to change or qualify their answers the next day.

CONCLUSION
When we have someone state their will about a past action, they can still ramp up emotionally and attempt to feel good about themself by feeling bad about us. The person can respond to "Do you think THAT is right?" with: "Who do you think you are...God? You aren't my judge! You aren't perfect either!"

If the confronted person did this, he would be proving he is not excellent. This brings up the following Question: Is there a way to confront someone so that they can't ramp up emotionally?

The answer is "Yes"...however, this technique is intended for the LEAST excellent people...especially people who are "damaged".

We will look at this technique tomorrow...

Next Post

Human Thinking Model: Confrontation

2011-12-06T00:03:00.001-06:00

If we take the last two posts together, we can see how and why the most powerful way to confront people actually works...

Here is the Complex Model for Human Thinking:

As you read the following two conclusions, review the Complex Model for Human Thinking:

-The most powerful step is the presentation of a second stimulus while the Unconscious Brain observes the Action from the original stimulus.
-In order to get to make the individual conscious of their destructive Actions, the second stimulus ought to be a Question, not a Statement, because people can ignore a Statement.

In this post, I want to present a premise and use the rest of the post to support this premise...

PREMISE: The more excellent a person is, the more you will be able to confront them with Statements.

During last year's Series, we did a mini-series on Confrontation. Here are a list of posts:

Confronting People
State Your Will About The Past
State Your Will About The Future
Matthew 18:15-17
Matthew 18:15-16 & Luke 17:3
Matthew 18:15-17 (Red, Yellow, and Green Lights)
Matthew 18:15-17 Summary
Confrontation Example (Part I)
Confrontation Example (Part II)

The rest of this post consists of an excerpt from the first post in the above list: Confronting People.

As you read this excerpt, refer to the diagram above and notice that less excellent people are able to close their nucleus basalis to a Statement and not be conscious of the confrontation. However, the Bible showed that God confronted the most excellent people with Statements, while confronting the less excellent people with Questions...

During the Leadership Series, we saw Leaders facilitate the Purpose and Progress of others. Leaders adjust their expectations of people according to the excellence of the individual. However, Leaders (God's Doctrine) are harshest towards the most excellent people, while Bosses (Man's doctrine) are most harsh towards the least excellent people.

The Bible shows us God the Father and Jesus Christ acted more harshly the greater the maturity of the individual. Let's look at this scale beginning with the harshest confrontational style...

1. Judgment Statement - the Leader's FIRST WORDS are a Statement that Judges or Projects onto the individual.

Remember, we've already covered this verse during this Series:

"36 And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." (Matthew 12:36)

If the Leader is wrong AT ALL, the Leader will pay for the portion they were wrong about. Consequently, God the Father and Jesus ought to be the only people who do this. However, the person they do this to is someone they considered as excellent. For example, we saw the following passage last month:

"22 And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall never be unto thee.
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 16:22-23)

Peter rebuked Jesus. Jesus' confrontational response? Jesus made a Judgment Statement.

Think about this: The embodiment of Right and Just called Peter the embodiment of evil. Is there anything Jesus could have said to Peter that would have been WORSE? Jesus had high expectations for this Leader among Jesus' Disciples.

Let's look at an Old Testament example:

"34 Men of understanding will say unto me, Yea, every wise man that heareth me:
35 Job speaketh without knowledge, And his words are without wisdom.
36 Would that Job were tried unto the end, Because of his answering like wicked men.
37 For he addeth rebellion unto his sin; He clappeth his hands among us, And multiplieth his words against God." (Job 34:34-37)

During the Job Series, we saw Elihu spoke for God when he stated these Judgment Statements to Job. The entire point of the Book of Job rests on the fact that Job was the most excellent person!

(In fact, we followed the Job Series with a Series on "The New Testament Job"...which was Peter going through the sifting process.)

2. Judgment Question - the Leader's FIRST WORDS are a Question that Judges or Projects.

"1 But Saul, yet breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
2 and asked of him letters to Damascus unto the synagogues, that if he found any that were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
3 And as he journeyed, it came to pass that he drew nigh unto Damascus: and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven:
4 and he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" (Acts 9:1-4)

Jesus' first words to Paul (Saul) asked him why he was persecuting Jesus!

3. Judgement IF/THEN - the Leader's FIRST WORDS are an IF/THEN Statement bringing Judgment.

We have seen IF/THEN Statements are not, in and of themselves, condemning. We have seen during this Series, Jesus used this type of confrontation when dealing with the Pharisees on the WORST Sin:

"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." (Matthew 12:28-31)

Jesus stated an IF/THEN which could result in the Pharisees committing blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

A lot of the Old Testament Prophets talked this same way on God's behalf:

"1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers that write perverseness;
2 to turn aside the needy from justice, and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
4 They shall only bow down under the prisoners, and shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." (Isaiah 10:1-4)

Notice, verses 1 and 2 were a Judgment IF/THEN.

Verse 3 contains THREE QUESTIONS.

Then Judgment Statements are made from verse 4 on...

4. Non-Judgment Question - the Leader's FIRST WORDS are a Question that does not Judge or Project.

We saw several examples of this last week and this week:

"9 And Jehovah God called unto the man, and said unto him, Where art thou?" (Genesis 3:9)

"6 And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?" (Genesis 4:6)

"9 And Jehovah said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?..." (Genesis 4:9)

These are the FIRST PEOPLE to have existed, so God was LEAST harsh with them.

Notice, the previous method (Judgment IF/THEN) was used during the Law...the people that existed from Exodus through Malachi.

Finally, notice the difference between the two Question methods (#2 and #4):

If Jesus had confronted Saul (Paul) the same way (#2) as God did Adam and Cain (#4), He would have said: "Saul, Saul, what are you doing?"

If God had confronted Adam the same way (#4) as Jesus did Saul (Paul) (#2), He would have said: "Adam, Adam, why did you disobey me?"

SUMMARY
God used four methods to confront people depending on the excellence of the individual. We saw these methods were arranged on a scale depending on the excellence of the person being confronted.

The most excellent people were confronted with a Judgment Statement. The next most excellent people were confronted with a Judgment Question. Next, God confronted people with Judgment IF/THEN's. The rest of the people were confronted with a Non-Judgment Question.

We will look at two more ways to confront people. Both involve dealing with people who are even less excellent than what we've covered.

(We will look at these ways to confront people in light of the Complex Model for Human Thinking...)

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Human Thinking Model: Questions vs. Statements

2011-12-05T00:03:00.001-06:00

This week we will continue to cover applications of the Model for Human Thinking. In today's post, we will briefly look at the value of Questions vs. Statements.

Here is the Complex Model for Human Thinking:

Notice, the only stimulus that makes it to the Conscious Brain is the one that made it through the nucleus basalis (the square between the Unconscious Brain and Conscious Brain. We saw the nucleus basalis is the doorway to the Conscious Brain.

When the stimulus is a Statement, the individual can close the nucleus basalis preventing the Statement from making it to the Conscious Brain.

The first effect of this is that the individual will not respond to the Statement with Words. If the individual does respond at all, it will be with Emotions and Actions.

The second effect is that the individual will not Remember the Statement. If you have ever had someone tell you they don't Remember a Statement you made towards them, it could be because they chose to close their nucleus basalis.

The way to get your information to their Conscious Brain is to put the information in the form of a Question. Questions have to be processed in the Conscious Brain. People respond to Questions with Words...which are an effect of a stimulus reaching the Conscious Brain.

Here is a brief excerpt from a section of "Modeling God's Wills" that dealt with Statements vs. Questions:

There really two types of ways people exchange information. The most common is the statement. A person can say a sentence that attempts to state a fact. The issue with statements is the originator needs to make sure their statement is 100% factual. If they state something that is not factual, justice says they will pay for it. Be careful when you make statements...we will be judged for every idle (unprofitable) word according to Jesus.

The safest way to exchange information is through questions. This is essentially a request for information or confirmation of information that could have been stated. Questions do not open you up to justice (unless you are making a judgment in the question, which we will cover in the next section).

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Complex Model for Human Thinking: Destructive Behavior

2011-12-02T00:03:00.002-06:00

During the explanation for the Complex Model for Animal Thinking we saw the most powerful step is the presentation of a second stimulus while the Unconscious Brain observed the Action from the original stimulus. Here was the conclusion from that post:

The Unconscious Brain can be reprogrammed with an intentional stimulus coupled to an Action. Notice, the reprogramming of the Unconscious Brain occurs as a reaction to an Action.

Here is the Complex Model for Human Thinking:

Likewise, we can see that a second stimulus introduced while the Unconscious Brain observes the Action resulting from the original stimulus can lead to powerful results...and like we saw in the post titled, "Unaware Brain Applications" the results tend to be destructive.

In that post we covered a destructive effect for females and a destructive effect for males. Both destructive results are an effect of the Unconscious Brain hearing a rationalization (second stimulus) while observing destructive Actions from a destructive original stimulus.

For an animal, the second stimulus comes from outside the animal. However, for humans, the stimulus comes from within the individual. it is actually the individual's Conscious Brain rationalization for their own destructive behavior.

As you read the excerpts from the post titled, "Unaware Brain Applications", notice how the Complex Model for Human Thinking predicts these effects...

6. Attracted to destructive guys
How many times have you heard a female lament, "WHY am I always attracted to the wrong guys?"

When the female dates the first destructive guy, the Unaware Brain KNOWS that this guy is Unprofitable. However, the Unaware Brain does NOT know if the conscious brain desires Unprofitable guys or not. So the Unaware Brain watches...

When her friends and/or parents tell her the guy is destructive, the conscious brain reaches the critical moment.

If she would admit the guy is destructive and state she does NOT desire a destructive guy, the Unaware Brain will NOT juice her towards him or any other Unprofitable guy.

However, if she RATIONALIZES her choice, she will say something like, "You don't know him. He is actually nice. He really loves me. I love him. This is the type of guy I want"...the Unaware Brain now knows to juice the female whenever she meets Unprofitable guys.

The Unaware Brain is assessing every guy it observes. If a guy is Profitable, the Unaware Brain will cause her consciously to "feel nothing" towards the Profitable guy. However, once she consciously observes an Unprofitable guy, her Unaware Brain will juice her...and she will "feel that special something" towards the destructive guy.

The guy may even physically Abuse her. Her conscious brain knows this is wrong, so she leaves him. However, her Unaware Brain hasn't been told that she doesn't want a destructive guy...so when she sees him at a later date, she finds herself attracted to him again. This is especially true if she RATIONALIZES her time with him during the time she leaves him.

7. Lusting Men
The same destructive result can be seen for males...

When a boy stares at a female, the Unaware Brain is waiting for direction.

If the boy would consciously state he doesn't want to stare at females or that it is wrong and he doesn't want to be wrong, his Unaware Brain will stop juicing him that way.

However, if the boy or his friends or his dad RATIONALIZES his behavior ("My son is ALL man" or "It's not a crime to look." or "You can look but you can't touch" or "That is just the way it is" or "Boys will be boys"), the Unaware Brain intentionally juices the male towards staring at females. How much damage are the church and national ministries doing when they RATIONALIZE destructive behavior?

I know someone who got juiced when a woman with very specific characteristics visited his workplace. He even thought about how he had told people he had always wanted to date a woman with these characteristics. He was extremely attracted to her. However, he kept thinking and realized that he was valuing the physical over the mental, emotional, and spiritual. His response? He stated OUTLOUD that he did not want to be attracted to women for ONLY that specific physical characteristic AND he wanted to be attracted to the mental, emotional, and spiritual characteristics.

He saw the woman the next day. What happened? He felt no attraction! In one day, this woman who he found extremely attractive, suddenly was not attractive at all...because of his Unaware Brain.

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Human Thinking Model: Part 4

2011-12-01T00:03:00.003-06:00

This is a short post coordinating another component of the Model for Human Thinking from the previous posts (with links provided).

Notice the differences between the diagram above and the diagram below:

The differences are:

1. It is possible for the Full Thought from the Conscious Brain that is sent to the Amygdala to result in an Emotion or some combination of Logic and Emotions. The effect would be Actions (from Emotions) or some combination of Words and Actions (from Logic and Emotions). The Unconscious Brain can only result in Actions.

2. Notice, the Words and Actions that result are all stimuli to the Unconscious Brain.

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Human Thinking Model: Part 3

2011-11-30T00:03:00.006-06:00

This is a short post coordinating another component of the Model for Human Thinking from the previous posts (with links provided).

Notice the differences between the diagram above and the diagram below:

The differences are:

1. The Full Thought that resulted from the Conscious Brain is sent to the Amygdala.

2. A possible result of the Full Thought being sent to the Amygdala is that no emotion results...which we represented with the rectangle marked "Logic".

3. The Action that results from Logic is the individual SAYS something. (We saw the Action that results from Emotion is the individual DOES something.)

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Human Thinking Model: Part 2

2011-11-29T12:17:00.005-06:00

This is a short post coordinating another component of the Model for Human Thinking from the previous posts (with links provided).

Notice the differences between the diagram above and the diagram below:

The differences are:

1. In the top diagram, the nucleus basalis (represented by the square located between the Unconscious and Conscious Brains) is opened to an external stimulus that reaches the Conscious Brain.

In the bottom diagram, the nucleus basalis is opened to an internal stimulus (the Full Thought coming from the Conscious Brain) that returns back to the Conscious Brain as a stimulus. The initial stimulus could have been external or it could have been internal through Imagining or Remembering.

2. In the bottom diagram, the cycling of the Full Thought through the nucleus basalis results in a Complex Thought.

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Human Thinking Model: Part 1

2011-11-28T10:42:00.005-06:00

This is a short post coordinating the previous posts with the Basic Model for Animal Thinking.

Notice the differences between the diagram above and the diagram below:

1. One of the stimuli made it through the Unconscious Brain to the Conscious Brain.

The small square between the Unconscious Brain and the Conscious Brain represents the nucleus basalis...which represents our ability to focus and determines our attention span.

2. The result of Conscious Brain thinking is a Full Thought, which is sent to the Amygdala.

Both the Unconscious Brain and the Conscious Brain send information to the Amygdala.

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The Conscious Brain: Building Faith

2011-11-25T00:03:00.001-06:00

Last week we began looking at the components of the Human Thinking Model. In the previous two posts, we've seen that Imagining and Remembering are the two ways the individual can initiate the First Feedback Loop in the Conscious Brain with an internal stimulus. We saw:

If the stimulus is not an existing fact, this intentional process is known as "imagining".

If this stimulus is an existing fact, this intentional process is known as "remembering".

Both of these ought to be used to build our faith.

Here's an excerpt from Jonathan Fries' Doctrinal blog on Doctrine #20: Faith":

Faith is belief without seeing. Faith is a belief in something that you can't see or something that hasn't happened yet. Faith is proven by actions. Faith is built with experience and/or understanding.

Imagining builds our faith by understanding.

Remembering builds our faith by experience.

Here is an excerpt from the chapter in the Bible that presented what is known as "The Faith Hall of Fame":

"And what shall I more say? for the time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the prophets:" (Hebrews 11:32)

One of the reasons David is in the "Faith Hall of Fame" is because of Goliath.

Let's briefly look at two passages from the story of David and Goliath that illustrate this...

Jesse sent David to his brothers. While David was there, he saw that Goliath came out every day to taunt the Israelites. David asked why no one stood up to Goliath. David's brothers didn't like David implying that he could stand up to Goliath. David would have to convince king Saul...

"And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause? And he turned away from him toward another, and spake after the same manner: and the people answered him again after the former manner. And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul; and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth." (I Samuel 17:29-33)

David rehearsed his words...he imagined saying them to king Saul, which built David's faith.

Next, David convinced Saul by demonstrating faith from experience...from remembering past events...

"And David said unto Saul, Thy servant was keeping his father's sheep; and when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him." (I Samuel 17:34,35)

David began by building his faith by using his memory...then he moved to building his faith by understanding...

"Thy servant smote both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. And David said, Jehovah that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and Jehovah shall be with thee." (I Samuel 17:36,37)

David moved to imagination...he understood why God would move on his behalf in the future and gave his explanation. He even described what he imagined: "this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them..." and "...he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine."

Saul was convinced.

CONCLUSION
Humans can intentionally build their faith because of their Conscious Brain. Humans can intentionally initiate the First Feedback Loop in the Conscious Brain with an internal stimulus by Imagining and/or Remembering.

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Imagining

2011-11-24T00:03:00.004-06:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Last week we began looking at the components of the Human Thinking Model. In a previous post, we looked at the factors affecting a person's attention span. We found:

Your attention span is a direct result of your ability to keep your nucleus basalis opened to an external stimulus.

The physiological ability to keep your nucleus basalis open can be developed through repetition.

Increasing the speed of your Conscious Brain thinking also helps you keep your nucleus basalis opened to external stimulus.

In the previous post, we looked at the first of two ways the individual can initiate the First Feedback Loop internally: Remembering.

IMAGINING
In the previous post titled, "The Conscious Brain: A Full Thought" we saw the following:

The First Feedback Loop of the Model for Human Thinking results in a Full Thought which consists of: a stimulus, a connecting fact, and an associated emotion.

In that post, the stimulus was external through the five senses. When the nucleus basalis was focused on the external stimulus, the Conscious Brain identified a connecting fact with an associated emotion...and the result was a Full Thought.

In the previous post, we saw the nucleus basalis can be focused internally to find a stimulus. If this stimulus is an existing fact, this intentional process is known as "remembering".

If the stimulus is not an existing fact, this intentional process is known as "imagining".

Humans can intentionally imagine. Humans can intentionally focus their nucleus basalis internally, identify a fact that never existed and use this fact as the stimulus that begins the First Feedback Loop.

Animals cannot intentionally imagine. For example, a pup doesn't choose to think about what life will be like when they are a dog...or even intentionally think about tomorrow. Animals don't physiologically possess the components in their brain to be able to intentionally imagine.

CONCLUSION
Remembering and Imagining are the two ways the individual can initiate the First Feedback Loop internally.

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Remembering

2011-11-23T00:03:00.001-06:00

Last week we began looking at the components of the Human Thinking Model. In the previous post, we looked at the factors affecting a person's attention span. We found:

Your attention span is a direct result of your ability to keep your nucleus basalis opened to an external stimulus.

The physiological ability to keep your nucleus basalis open can be developed through repetition.

Increasing the speed of your Conscious Brain thinking also helps you keep your nucleus basalis opened to external stimulus.

In today's post, we will look at the first of two ways the individual can initiate the First Feedback Loop internally...

REMEMBERING
In the previous post titled, "The Conscious Brain: A Full Thought" we saw the following:

The First Feedback Loop of the Model for Human Thinking results in a Full Thought which consists of: a stimulus, a connecting fact, and an associated emotion.

In that post, the stimulus was external through the five senses. When the nucleus basalis was focused on the external stimulus, the Conscious Brain identified a connecting fact with an associated emotion...and the result was a Full Thought.

However, the nucleus basalis can be focused internally to find a stimulus. If this stimulus is an existing fact, this intentional process is known as "remembering".

Humans can intentionally remember. Humans can intentionally focus their nucleus basalis internally, identify a fact from their past and use this fact as the stimulus that begins the First Feedback Loop.

Animals cannot intentionally remember. For example, a dog doesn't choose to think about what life was like when they were still a pup...or even intentionally think about yesterday. Animals don't physiologically possess the components in their brain to be able to intentionally remember.

CONCLUSION
Remembering is the first of two ways the individual can initiate the First Feedback Loop internally.

Tomorrow, we will look at the other way the individual can initiate the First Feedback Loop...

Next Post

Attention Span

2011-11-22T00:03:00.002-06:00

Last week we began looking at the components of the Human Thinking Model. In the previous post, we looked at the factors affecting the speed of Conscious Brain thinking. We saw that the speed at which a person is able to complete the First Feedback Loop determines the speed of Conscious Brain thinking.

We saw the First Feedback Loop is made up of a stimulus, connecting fact, and associated emotion.

Last week, we saw the nucleus basalis is the "doorway" to the Conscious Brain. The nucleus basalis determines the stimulus we allow into the Conscious Brain.

In today's post, we will look at the two main factors affecting a person's attention span...

ATTENTION SPAN
A person's attention span is a direct result of the person's ability to keep his nucleus basalis opened to an external stimulus.

This ability consists mainly of two attributes:

1. Physiologically keep the nucleus basalis opened to external stimulus.

We've seen the nucleus basalis is opened when we are surprised, experience something novel, are told "pay attention to this", or when we choose to focus. However, there is a limit to how long each person is able to continuously focus. This ability can be developed.

Notice, we are speaking about a person keeping their focus intentionally...on something a person doesn't necessarily want to pay attention. We know most teenagers have a short attention span during school, however, they are able to focus for hours when they are playing a video game.

Like everything else in the brain, the more a pathway is used, the easier it is to maintain the pathway. The ability to intentionally open the nucleus basalis to external stimuli is capable of being increased through repetition.

2. The speed of Conscious Brain thinking

In the previous post, we covered the ability to improve the speed of Conscious Brain thinking. However, when it comes to improving a person's focus, the role of speed of Conscious Brain thinking has a more complex explanation...

Imagine you are listening to a lecture from a teacher or a sermon from a pastor...both of which are presentations that build on foundational facts. For the sake of this post, we will represent the presentation as a series of ten facts...each of which is represented by a letter of the alphabet: from A to J.

If the presenter made his presentation as simple as possible, the presentation would be represented like this:
ABCDEFGHIJ

Each fact is a stimulus. Each fact would initiate the First Feedback Loop in your Conscious Brain. Since, each fact consecutively built on the preceding fact in the simplest possible fashion, you would be able to keep your nucleus basalis opened to the speaker during the entire presentation.

If the presenter was less detailed oriented, the presentation might be represented like this:
A__D__G__J

Notice, when the speaker presented A, the First Feedback Loop was initiated in the Conscious Brain...and the nucleus basalis stayed open to the next stimulus which was D.

When the First Feedback Loop was completed, you would realize there was a gap between A and D. You would now need to determine the facts that connected A and D. In order to determine the connecting facts, you would focus your nucleus basalis internally...you would intentionally go looking with your Conscious Brain for the connecting facts.

If your speed of Conscious Brain thinking is fast, you may be able to find B and C internally before the speaker mentions G externally. Ideally, while your nucleus basalis was focused internally you would find B and C...then you would focus your nucleus basalis externally in time to hear about G...and then focus your nucleus basalis internally to find E and F.

If the speed of Conscious Brain thinking wasn't fast enough, you would have a decision to make:
1) Continue to focus your nucleus basalis internally to determine B and C...and forget about the next stimulus from the speaker (G).
2) Focus your nucleus basalis externally on G...and forget about finding the connecting facts between A and D.

This explains a practice that excellent speakers use when they cover complex topics...

After a speaker presents a complicated slide or introduces a complex topic, the excellent speakers immediately follow this topic with the easiest information...sometimes no information: they tell a joke or a personal anecdote. Likewise, an excellent writer will immediately follow a complicated sentence with the shortest and simplest sentence. Both of these techniques gives the audience additional time to focus their nucleus basalis internally in order to find the connecting thoughts in their Conscious Brain.

CONCLUSION
Your attention span is a direct result of your ability to keep your nucleus basalis opened to an external stimulus.

The physiological ability to keep your nucleus basalis open can be developed through repetition.

Increasing the speed of your Conscious Brain thinking also helps you keep your nucleus basalis opened to external stimulus.

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Speed of Conscious Brain Thinking

2011-11-21T08:43:00.007-06:00

Last week we began looking at the components of the Human Thinking Model. First, we looked at the Conscious Brain. Next, we look at how the Conscious Brain being half fact and half emotion allows it to form a Full Thought. We used an analogy involving trees and a squirrel. Here was the explanation:

The First Feedback Loop of the Model for Human Thinking results in a Full Thought which consists of: a stimulus, a connecting fact, and an associated emotion.

We use the analogy of a squirrel going up the trunk of the first tree (stimulus), selects a branch on this tree (connecting thought), and experiences an emotion when it makes the leap from the branch of the first tree to the connecting branch on the second tree. The Full Thought is complete when the squirrel returns to the ground near the base of the second tree.

In today's post, we will look at the factors that affect the speed of thinking in the Conscious Brain...

SPEED OF CONSCIOUS THINKING
As we can see our ability to think is dependent on completing the First Feedback Loop...it is the basic attribute necessary for Conscious Brain thinking.

The simplest test is "word association". We saw the following explanation in the post titled, "The Conscious Brain: A Full Thought":

What is the first word you think of when you hear the word "blue"?

In your Conscious Brain, there is a tree that represents the word blue. I see that as the trunk of the tree being the word blue. The branches on the tree are the words you associate with the word blue. For instance, on your blue tree you could have the following branches:
-sky
-ocean
-sad
-favorite color

The word you said first would be seen as the lowest and biggest branch on your blue tree. It is the connecting thought you have with the least amount of effort. For example, if you associated the word sky, the sky branch on your blue tree would be connected to the blue branch on the sky tree in your Conscious Brain.

Stating the word sky would be the completion of the First Feedback Loop...and prove you have the ability to think.

If a person could not complete this loop, they would be proving they don't have the ability to think.

However, today's post is not focused on the ability to think, but the speed of thinking.

The speed at which you complete the First Feedback Loop determines the speed of your Conscious Brain thinking. There are two attributes that most affect the speed of your Conscious Brain thinking:

1) Emotions

Every fact in your Conscious Brain has an associated emotion.

We also saw the following information in the post titled, "The Conscious Brain: A Full Thought":

Every branch on your blue tree would also have an associated emotion. In the previous post, we saw five general categories for the associated emotion:
E+ Strong Positive Emotion (Example: getting away for a week to your favorite vacation spot)
e+ Positive Emotion (Example: watching your favorite television show)
0 Neutral Emotion (Example: looking at a sheet of paper)
e- Negative Emotion (Example: watching a commercial on television)
E- Strong Negative Emotion (Example: someone hurting you)

So, going back to the possible branches on the blue tree, we could see the following associated emotions:
-sky = 0 (Neutral Emotion)
-ocean = e+ (Positive Emotion for good memories)
-sad = e- (Negative Emotion because it is associated with being sad)
-favorite color = E+ (Strong Positive Emotion because it is your favorite color)

The emotion is released in the Conscious Brain once the connection is made.

If the connecting fact has a Strong Negative Emotion associated with it, it can cause the Amygdala to hijack the Conscious Brain with the "fight and flight" response.

Next week we will look more closely at how the Full Thought is sent to the Amygdala. For now, realize the Conscious Brain is electrical and has connections to the Amygdala. However, the Amygdala is electrical and chemical...and it has more electrical connections to the Conscious Brain than the Conscious Brain has to the Amygdala.

Consequently, the Amygdala can overload the Conscious Brain with electrical information...and fog the Conscious Brain chemically which slows down the speed of Conscious Brain thinking...to the point the Conscious Brain is unable to remember what happened while it was hijacked by the Amygdala.

The Conscious Brain can send an associated emotion that is so Strongly Negative it slows down the speed of Conscious Brain thinking.

2) Definitions

ALL the information (facts and emotions) stored in the Conscious Brain are in the form of words. The Conscious Brain's speed in understanding a word is dependent on the definition.

If the definition is contradictory, the Conscious Brain will attempt to follow two paths at the same time which puts the thought process into an endless loop.

If the definition is in terms of effects, then the application (effects) of this definition can be contradictory. At the very least, the definition for the word will require an additional step to determine the definition of the words that are effects within the definition of the original word.

The way to speed up your Conscious Brain thinking is to define words in terms of causes. If a definition is in terms of causes, then the effects can be non-contradictory...which allows the brain to follow the shortest possible path and achieve its quickest possible speed.

CONCLUSION
The two attributes that affect the speed of Conscious Brain thinking are:
-associated emotions
-definitions

A fast brain is made up of words defined in terms of causes and has very few Strongly Negative Emotions associated with the most frequently accessed connecting facts.

Tomorrow, we will see how the speed of our Conscious Thinking is one factor affecting our attention span...

Next Post

The Conscious Brain: Complex Thought

2011-11-18T00:03:00.001-06:00

This week we began looking at the components of the Human Thinking Model. First, we looked at the Conscious Brain. Next, we look at how the Conscious Brain being half fact and half emotion allows it to form a Full Thought. We used an analogy involving trees and a squirrel. Here was the explanation:

The First Feedback Loop of the Model for Human Thinking results in a Full Thought which consists of: a stimulus, a connecting fact, and an associated emotion.

We use the analogy of a squirrel going up the trunk of the first tree (stimulus), selects a branch on this tree (connecting thought), and experiences an emotion when it makes the leap from the branch of the first tree to the connecting branch on the second tree. The Full Thought is complete when the squirrel returns to the ground near the base of the second tree.

In the previous post, we looked at the nucleus basalis. Here was the explanation:

The nucleus basalis is the "doorway" to the Conscious Brain. The nucleus basalis determines the stimulus we allow into the Conscious Brain.

So, when something important, surprising, or novel occurs, the brain becomes plastic (adjustable) in order to intentionally take in the moment. This also occurs if we make the effort to pay close attention...if we chose to be conscious. People who are able to focus well are people who can keep their nucleus basalis opened.

So, our choice to become conscious allows us to change the information in (and structure of) our brain. The nucleus basalis is the door TO the conscious brain. When the nucleus basalis is opened, then we are using our conscious brain. If the nucleus basalis is closed, we are using our Unaware Brain only...we are always using our Unaware Brain.

In today's post, we will combine these two components to show how the Conscious Brain forms a "Complex Thought"...

COMPLEX THOUGHT
Once the Full Thought is formed there are two possible next steps:
1. Send the Full Thought to the Amygdala
2. Treat the Full Thought as a stimulus

Notice, #1 ends the role of the Conscious Brain. In our trees and squirrel analogy, the squirrel goes down the trunk of the second tree. This will happen naturally if the nucleus basalis is opened to a stimulus outside the individual.

However, if the person opens their nucleus basalis to the Full Thought, then the Full Thought becomes the stimulus and another Full Thought is formed beyond the original Full Thought...which we are calling a "Complex Thought". In our trees and squirrel analogy, rather than the squirrel going down the trunk of the second tree, the squirrel finds another branch on the second tree and jumps to a third tree...where the squirrel, again, has the same two options: go to the ground or find another branch.

Let's look at an example...

I see the color red and think of firetrucks and get excited.

I have formed a Full Thought:
1. Stimulus: red
2. Connecting Fact: firetrucks
3. Associated Emotion: excited

If I turn my nucleus basalis towards getting excited by red firetrucks and treat it like a stimulus, I may get happy thinking about my friend Dave when we were five years old.

I have formed a Complex Thought:
1. Full Thought: excited by red firetrucks
2. Connecting Fact: Dave (my friend when I was five years old)
3. Associated Emotion: happy

If I continued to cycle this Complex Thought to form a more Complex Thought:

"When I was five years old, my friend Dave and I were playing in the front yard when a red firetruck came down the street. We followed it to a fire. It was the most exciting thing I had ever seen in my life."

CONCLUSION
A Complex Thought is formed when a Full Thought is treated as a stimulus by the nucleus basalis.

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The Nucleus Basalis

2011-11-17T00:03:00.000-06:00

This week we are beginning to look at the components of the Human Thinking Model. In the previous posts, we looked at the Conscious Brain. Last week, we looked at the Animal Thinking Model which relied heavily on the Unconscious Brain.

We have seen that humans have both an Unconscious Brain and a Conscious Brain. During the posts that presented the Unconscious Brain and the Conscious Brain we saw the following:

The Unconscious Brain takes in EVERYTHING we experience through our senses without effort.

For example, if you and I were talking in a restaurant, our Unconscious Brains would be "listening" to the conversation two and three tables away...even though we were focusing on each other.

The Conscious Brain takes in ONLY what we choose to focus on.

For example, if you and I were talking in a restaurant, our Unconscious Brains would be "listening" to the conversation two and three tables away even though we were focusing on each other...or you could focus your Conscious Brain on the conversation two tables away and your Unconscious Brain would be listening to what I was saying.

In today's post, we will look at the part of the brain that physiologically is responsible for what we focus on...

THE NUCLEUS BASALIS
The nucleus basalis is the "doorway" to the Conscious Brain. The nucleus basalis determines the stimulus we allow into the Conscious Brain.

In the above example, we could open our nucleus basalis towards the person we are having dinner with or we can open it towards the people sitting at other tables.

The nucleus basalis is opened when we are surprised, experience something novel, are told "pay attention to this", or when we choose to focus.

Medical Definition of nucleus basalis - "the gray matter of the substantia innominata of the forebrain that consists mostly of cholinergic neurons".

During last year's Series, we explained the importance of the nucleus basalis and looked at a Biblical application in the post titled, "Genesis 3:1-7". We will close this post with an excerpt from that post:

I just finished a book that was a New York Times Bestseller by Dr. Norman Doidge. "The Brain That Changes Itself" presents the discovery that our thoughts can change the structure and function of our brains...even in old age! Some are calling this the most important breakthrough in neuroscience in four hundred years. I will be quoting from this book for the rest of the month.

For hundreds of years, people have believed in "localization" when it comes to the brain. They believe specific parts of the brain are dedicated to specific tasks and there is nothing we can do to change this.

Dr. Doidge's book documents the existence of "plasticity"...the brain's ability to change itself literally overnight. This book shows God made our brains to adjust the structure and function as an effect of our choices to think or not think!!!!!

In babies, there is a "critical period" where the conscious brain is turned on and information is taken in so that the structure of the brain can be established. (The author shows autism is an effect of this "critical period" being cut short!) Here is the explanation:

"During the critical period BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) turns on the nucleus basalis, the part of the brain that allows us to focus our attention - and keeps it on, throughout the entire critical period. Once turned on, the nucleus basalis helps us not only pay attention but remember what we are experiencing. It allows brain map differentiation and change to take place effortlessly. Merzenich told me, 'It is like a teacher in the brain saying, 'Now this is really important - this you have to know for the exam of life.' ' Merzenich calls the nucleus basalis and the attention system the 'modulatory control system of plasticity' - the neurochemical system that, when turned on, puts the brain in an extremely plastic state."

"Once the main neuronal connections are laid down, there is a need for stability and hence less plasticity in the system. When BDNF is released in sufficient quantities, it turns off the nucleus basalis and ends that magical epoch of effortless learning. Henceforth the nucleus can be activated only when something important, surprising, or novel occurs, or if we make the effort to pay close attention." (The Brain That Changes Itself, p. 80)

CONCLUSION
So, IN ADULTS, when something important, surprising, or novel occurs, the brain becomes plastic (adjustable) in order to intentionally take in the moment. This also occurs if we make the effort to pay close attention...if we chose to be conscious. People who are able to focus well are people who can keep their nucleus basalis opened.

So, our choice to BECOME conscious allows us to change the information in (and structure of) our brain. The nucleus basalis is the door TO the conscious brain. When the nucleus basalis is OPENED, then we are using our conscious brain. If the nucleus basalis is CLOSED, we are using our Unaware Brain ONLY...we are ALWAYS using our Unaware Brain.

The Conscious Brain: A Full Thought

2011-11-16T00:03:00.001-06:00

This week we are beginning to look at the components of the Human Thinking Model. In the previous post, we looked at an overview of the Conscious Brain.

Our Conscious Brain consists of dendrites. The information in our Conscious Brain is half facts and half emotions. This information is electrically stored in terms of words. Our thought process naturally works according to comfort and comparative thinking.

In this post, we will look at an analogy to explain how the thought process in our Conscious Brain is called "The First Feedback Loop" and forms a "Full Thought".

A FULL THOUGHT
We have covered the physiology of the creation of a "Full Thought" in the post titled, "Brain Overview". Here's an excerpt:

When you experience something through any of your five senses, this information enters the brain (cortex) in an electrical form. The information reaches the "relay station" of the brain...also known as the thalamus. The thalamus is the "relay station" because it is the site of the First Feedback Loop.

The thalamus sends an alerting signal to the cortex to prepare it for the information to follow. The cortex holds your memory in electrical form, so the thalamus is going to search your memory connected with the electrical impulse you just experienced from your senses in order to create a "Full Thought". The alerting signal actually creates your attitude...it finds out ahead of time if the memory is positive or negative and then the desired information in your memory is viewed with this attitude.

The electrical impulse you experienced from your senses and the electrical impulse(s) from your memory (along with the attitude) are then fed back to the thalamus (relay station). The First Feedback Loop is complete and results in a "Full Thought": an experience, a memory (or memories), and an emotion.

The First Feedback Loop results in a Full Thought which consists of:
1. Stimulus
2. Connecting Fact
3. Associated Emotion

TREES AND SQUIRRELS
The analogy to explain the formation of a Full Thought involves trees and squirrels.

In the previous post, we saw the Conscious Brain is made up of dendrites...which is the greek word for "trees". (There is a picture of these dendrites next to a picture of trees in the previous post.) In the previous post, we saw each tree in the Conscious brain represents a topic with each branch representing a connecting thought leading to the tree represented by that connecting thought.

The easiest example of this is seen when people participate in a word association test...

What is the first word you think of when you hear the word "blue"?

In your Conscious Brain, there is a tree that represents the word blue. I see that as the trunk of the tree being the word blue. The branches on the tree are the words you associate with the word blue. For instance, on your blue tree you could have the following branches:
-sky
-ocean
-sad
-favorite color

The word you said first would be seen as the lowest and biggest branch on your blue tree. It is the connecting thought you have with the least amount of effort. For example, if you associated the word sky, the sky branch on your blue tree would be connected to the blue branch on the sky tree in your Conscious Brain.

Every branch on your blue tree would also have an associated emotion. In the previous post, we saw five general categories for the associated emotion:
E+ Strong Positive Emotion (Example: getting away for a week to your favorite vacation spot)
e+ Positive Emotion (Example: watching your favorite television show)
0 Neutral Emotion (Example: looking at a sheet of paper)
e- Negative Emotion (Example: watching a commercial on television)
E- Strong Negative Emotion (Example: someone hurting you)

So, going back to the possible branches on the blue tree, we could see the following associated emotions:
-sky = 0 (Neutral Emotion)
-ocean = e+ (Positive Emotion for good memories)
-sad = e- (Negative Emotion because it is associated with being sad)
-favorite color = E+ (Strong Positive Emotion because it is your favorite color)

The emotion is released in the Conscious Brain once the connection is made...which brings up the other half of our analogy...

The path of your thoughts is the squirrel while your Conscious Brain is made up of trees.

In our example from above, the squirrel locates the blue tree and runs up the trunk. The squirrel runs out the first branch it encounters which is the sky branch. It runs to the end of the branch and then leaps to the blue branch on the sky tree. During the jump, the squirrel would encounter a neutral emotion. The squirrel runs to the trunk of the sky tree and down the trunk to the ground.

The squirrel has made progress by completing a "loop". The squirrel began at the base of the blue tree and ended up at the base of the sky tree with a Neutral Emotion.

CONCLUSION
The First Feedback Loop of the Model for Human Thinking results in a Full Thought which consists of: a stimulus, a connecting fact, and an associated emotion.

We use the analogy of a squirrel going up the trunk of the first tree (stimulus), selects a branch on this tree (connecting thought), and experiences an emotion when it makes the leap from the branch of the first tree to the connecting branch on the second tree. The Full Thought is complete when the squirrel returns to the ground near the base of the second tree.

Next week, we will look at applications of this analogy. Tomorrow, we will continue looking at components of the Model for Human Thinking.

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The Conscious Brain: Facts and Emotions

2011-11-15T00:03:00.001-06:00

This week we are beginning to look at the components of the Human Thinking Model. In the previous post, we looked at an overview of the Conscious Brain. Here is the list:

1. The Conscious Brain takes in ONLY what we choose to focus on.

2. The Conscious Brain is where we intentionally think.

3. The Conscious Brain communicates with words.

4. The Conscious Brain is made up of facts and emotions...50% of each because every fact has an associated emotion.

5. The Conscious Brain is electrical.

6. Without effort, the Conscious Brain models according to two of the four God-given principles: non-contradiction and causality. The Conscious Brain operates naturally according to the opposite of the other two of the God-given principles. The Conscious Brain naturally operates according to comparative thinking and comfort.

7. The Conscious Brain is moral. It is where lies originate.

In today's post, we will look at #4, #5, #6 and #7 more closely...

FACTS AND EMOTIONS
The Conscious Brain is the seat of our morality. It is the site where we choose to be moral or immoral. The Conscious Brain is made up of dendrites which is the greek word for "trees". Below is a picture of trees followed by a picture of dendrites...

Also, here is a link ("Trees") showing that throughout the Bible, trees are consistently used to present an overarching theme as to the importance of the Conscious Brain and our decisions.

You have about 100 trillion trees in your brain and each tree is capable of growing up to about 70,000 branches. This means you have about three million years worth of storage in your brain.

The connections between the branches of these trees is electrical. Basically, our thought process is completed by electrically going from tree to tree through the connections made by branches. Like electricity, our thought process naturally takes the shortest (most comfortable) path.

Each tree represents a topic with each branch representing a connecting thought leading to the tree represented by that connecting thought. Notice, the brain naturally works according to comparative thinking: looking for facts that agree with the previous fact.

This factual information is present in the Conscious Brain in the form of words. Notice, everything we've mentioned is a fact...it is logic based. However, this is only half of the information that is stored in your conscious brain...

Every fact...every branch...has an associated emotion. I categorize these emotions according to five levels with the following symbols:

E+ Strong Positive Emotion (Example: getting away for a week to your favorite vacation spot)
e+ Positive Emotion (Example: watching your favorite television show)
0 Neutral Emotion (Example: looking at a sheet of paper)
e- Negative Emotion (Example: watching a commercial on television)
E- Strong Negative Emotion (Example: someone hurting you)

This emotional information is also stored electrically.

CONCLUSION
Our Conscious Brain consists of dendrites. The information in our Conscious Brain is half facts and half emotions. This information is electrically stored in terms of words. Our thought process naturally works according to comfort and comparative thinking.

In the next post, we will look at an analogy to explain how the thought process in our Conscious Brain forms a "Full Thought".

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The Conscious Brain

2011-11-14T00:03:00.003-06:00

This week we are beginning to cover the components of Human Thinking. In this post, we will look at an overview of The Conscious Brain.

THE CONSCIOUS BRAIN
1. The Conscious Brain takes in ONLY what we choose to focus on.

For example, if you and I were talking in a restaurant, our Unconscious Brains would be "listening" to the conversation two and three tables away even though we were focusing on each other...or you could focus your Conscious Brain on the conversation two tables away and your Unconscious Brain would be listening to what I was saying.

2. The Conscious Brain is where we intentionally think.

3. The Conscious Brain communicates with words.

4. The Conscious Brain is made up of facts and emotions...50% of each because every fact has an associated emotion.

5. The Conscious Brain is electrical.

6. Without effort, the Conscious Brain models according to two of the four God-given principles: non-contradiction and causality. The Conscious Brain operates naturally according to the opposite of the other two of the God-given principles. The Conscious Brain naturally operates according to comparative thinking and comfort.

7. The Conscious Brain is moral. It is where lies originate.

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Animals Lack Understanding

2011-11-11T00:03:00.002-06:00

Last week we covered the four components of the Animal Thinking Model. In the Basic Model for Animal Thinking, we saw how these four components are arranged in a causal Model that explains why animals are unable to change their own behavior: There are no steps in this model for the animal to act apart from its nature.

We've also seen the Complex Model for Animal Thinking showed how animals do change their behavior: from an outside source that offers a Reward in conjunction with acceptable behavior. Likewise, the outside source could offer a punishment in conjunction with unacceptable behavior. Either way, the animal is unable to change their own behavior because the animal does not have Understanding. An animal only has knowledge.

Remember:
-Knowledge is facts. It is a WHAT.
-Understanding is the cause. It is a WHY.
-Wisdom is the conscious action. It is a HOW.

Rather than reiterate how the Models for Animal Thinking prove the animal does not have Understanding, let's review the Doctrine of Animal Thinking with an excerpt from Jonathan Fries' blog along with Bible passages.

DOCTRINE #8: ANIMAL THINKING
Animals have knowledge without effort. This is called "cognition" and is accomplished with the Unconscious Brain. However, no matter how much effort they exert, they do not have understanding and wisdom. Animals don't have a Conscious Brain. Animals do not use words. An animal does not have "meta-cognition": the ability to intentionally remember or imagine. An animal focuses only on the WHAT.

If you need it, here is the support from God's Word...

SCRIPTURE
"1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
2 How long will ye hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak.
3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts, And are become unclean in your sight?
4 Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger, Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?" (Job 18:1-4)

(Bildad stated that intentionally searching for words and speaking is what man does. Beasts don't intentionally speak and they don't use words. Words ought to be spoken with understanding...we ought to "consider" what we say.)

"20 Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, Is like the beasts that perish." (Psalm 49:20)

(Psalms stated man who doesn't understand is the same as an animal. Are there things that you are trying NOT to understand? Things that you don't want to understand?)

"15 Nevertheless leave the stump of its roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven: and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth:
16 let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him.
17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the lowest of men." (Daniel 4:15-17)

(Nebuchadnezzar was given a beast's heart so that he would know God is the Most High.)

"34 And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth for ever; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation." (Daniel 4:34)

(When Nebuchadnezzar lost his beast's heart, he got understanding. Animals recognize that there is something above them, something "higher" than they are. They have fear that they will be destroyed by something that is bigger or higher on the food chain than they are. We also have fear. How are we different? We can choose to see ourselves as higher than anyone...even God)

"32 If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." (1 Corinthians 15:32)

(Paul compared people who don't understand and make wise choices to beasts. In fact, he showed that beasts aren't able to profit. Remember, an animal can only survive. Is that your goal, or do you want something more?)

"6 And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell.
7 For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind.
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God:
10 out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be." (James 3:6-10)

(Animals don't speak words. Consequently, they can't be profitable or unprofitable spiritually. Words can create or destroy spiritually.)

"10 For there are many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision,
11 whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.
12 One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons.
13 This testimony is true. For which cause reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
14 not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.
15 To the pure all things are pure: but to them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
16 They profess that they know God; but by their works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." (Titus 1:10-16)

(Beasts are idle, unsound, and have a defiled mind. They still have knowledge but they don't have wisdom.)

CONCLUSION
This week we have seen that animals cannot change their behavior. This is because they lack Understanding. An animal is driven only by knowledge. Their actions are the result of a pre-programmed causal chain.

Next week we will begin looking at the component for Human Thinking...

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Free Will and the Unconscious Brain

2011-11-10T00:03:00.001-06:00

Complex Model For Animal Thinking

2011-11-09T00:03:00.008-06:00

Last week we covered the four components of the Animal Thinking Model. In the previous post, we saw how these four components are arranged in a causal Model that explains why animals are unable to change their own behavior: There are no steps in this model for the animal to act apart from its nature.

In today's post, we will see how the only way an animal's behavior can change is for it to be initiated outside of the animal. This can be seen in the following representation of our Model for Animal Thinking:

The previous post showed the Basic Model for Animal Thinking which ended in the Action. This Complex Model for Animal Thinking shows a feedback loop: from the Action back to the Unconscious Brain.

The Unconscious Brain of the animal sees the action done by the animal.

However, if a reward (which is an intentional stimulus) is given to the animal at the same time it does a specific action, the Unconscious Brain will begin to associate the action with the intentional stimulus. When this is done enough times for the Unconscious Brain to consider it to be a pattern, the animal will expect the reward when it does the Action. In fact, the animal will even DO the Action in order to get the reward.

This is how an animal trainer works: they give a stimulus (either a verbal command or a motion) in hopes of the animal responding with a specific action. For example, saying "Sit" to a dog in hopes the dog will sit. Once the animal does the Action, the trainer immediately gives the animal a reward (food or attention). In our example, once the dog sits in response to the command to sit, the trainer will give the dog food.

When this is done enough times, the dog's Unconscious Brain has been reprogrammed: the command "sit" is associated with a physical Action and a reward. The Unconscious Brain is reprogrammed as a reaction to an Action.

The animal still doesn't have a choice to operate against its nature. The animal also didn't choose to change its programming. This was done outside of the animal and in response to an action the animal does without effort.

This happens in humans because we have an Unconscious Brain and a Conscious Brain. Remember the example with the sweet kool aid?

Dr. Gregory Burns of Emory University placed people in a setting where they had to respond to a visual screen by moving their right or their left index finger. At the same time a tube was placed in their mouth that either gave them a burst of water or sweet kool aid.

The screen and the liquid seemed to give a random pattern to the Conscious Brain. However, the Unconscious Brain did recognize that a left index finger triggered a burst of sweet kool aid. In every case, people would "involuntarily and without awareness" suddenly rapidly move their left index finger...the Unconscious Brain took direct control of physical movement.

Once the Conscious Brain was occupied, the person became an animal that got its Unconscious Brain reprogrammed.

CONCLUSION
The Unconscious Brain can be reprogrammed with an intentional stimulus coupled to an Action. Notice, the reprogramming of the Unconscious Brain occurs as a reaction to an Action.

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Basic Model For Animal Thinking

2011-11-08T00:03:00.001-06:00

Last week we covered the four components of the Animal Thinking Model. In the previous post, we saw how this Model explains why animals are unable to change their own behavior: There are no steps in this model for the animal to act apart from its nature. (The real life examples covered in the previous post concerned robin red-breasts and turkeys.)

In order to see how the only way an animal's behavior can change is for it to be initiated outside of the animal, let's first look at the following representation of our Model for Animal Thinking:

Here is the brief explanation for the four components:
1. Unconscious Brain - It takes in EVERYTHING we experience through our senses without effort.
2. Amygdala - The library of emotional perspectives.
3. Emotions - Emotion is required to take action.
4. Actions - The ultimate effect of Animal Thinking is taking a physical action.

This Basic Model for Animal Thinking is essentially a linear list of causal occurrences:
-A stimulus is the cause and the effect is the Unconscious Brain's detection of a pattern.
-The Unconscious Brain's identification of a pattern is the cause and the effect is the Amygdala's identification of an emotional perspective.
-The Amygdala's identification of an emotional perspective is the cause and the effect is the body makes a chemical (which is an emotion).
-The body making a chemical (that is an emotion) is the cause and the effect is the body takes an action.

Notice, there is no opportunity for the animal to interrupt this Animal Thought Process. Basically, an external stimulus occurs and the next four steps occur without effort. The animal's actions are essentially "pre-programmed" and there is nothing that the animal can do about it.

However, there is one more step to this model which creates the opportunity for an external source to change the animal's behavior.

Tomorrow, we will look at how the external action that is able change the animal's behavior...

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Animal Thinking: Pre-Programmed

2011-11-07T00:03:00.001-06:00

Last week we covered the four components of the Model for Animal Thinking.

They were:
1. Unconscious Brain - It takes in EVERYTHING we experience through our senses without effort.
2. Amygdala - The library of emotional perspectives.
3. Emotions - Emotion is required to take action.
4. Actions - The ultimate effect of Animal Thinking is taking a physical action.

Notice, there is no opportunity for the animal to interrupt this Animal Thought Process. Basically, an external stimulus occurs and the next four steps occur without effort. The animals actions are essentially "pre-programmed" and there is nothing that the animal can do about it. Here are two examples of this "pre-programming"...

1) Robin red-breasts attack other robin red-breasts. Why? What is the CAUSE? Some people theorized that the robin was defending his territory from another male.

It turns out that when a pile of red feathers from a robin red-breast were put into a small pile on the ground, a robin red-breast would attack the pile! So, the robin is "pre-programmed" to attack those feathers...not necessarily the bird itself.

2) Another example has to do with turkeys and polecats. The polecat is a natural enemy of the turkey. However, when a stuffed polecat had a tape recorder placed inside that played the sounds from a baby turkey, the mother turkey would take the stuffed polecat under her wings. The minute the tape recorder was turned off, the turkey would attack the stuffed polecat!

The turkey is "pre-programmed" to first take care of anything that sounds like a baby turkey...then, the turkey is "pre-programmed" to attack a pole-cat.

CONCLUSION
The animal is unable to change their own behavior.

Tomorrow, we will look at how the changing of the animal's actions has to come from outside the animal...

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Actions

2011-11-04T00:03:00.004-05:00

This week we are covering the components of the Model for Animal Thinking.

In the previous post, we covered the third component: Emotions. Prior to that we covered the second component: The Amygdala and the first component: The Unconscious Brain. In this post, we will cover the fourth and final component.

ACTIONS

1. The ultimate effect of Animal Thinking is taking a physical action.

Dr. Gregory Burns of Emory University placed people in a setting where they had to respond to a visual screen by moving their right or their left index finger. At the same time a tube was placed in their mouth that either gave them a burst of water or sweet kool aid.

The screen and the liquid seemed to give a random pattern to the conscious (logical) part of the brain. However, the Unconscious Brain did recognize that a left index finger triggered a burst of sweet kool aid. In every case, people would "involuntarily and without awareness" suddenly rapidly move their left index finger...the unconscious part of the brain took direct control of physical movement.

2. Emotion creates chemicals that cause action.

In the previous post, we saw:

Emotions play two roles during thinking. We will look at these as the first emotion and the second emotion.

The first emotion ought to alert and focus the brain, not lead directly to action. The second emotion is required to take action.

Another excerpt from "Who Switched Off My Brain?" by Dr. Leaf:

"This is why it is never wise to react to the first emotion you feel. It is a physiological response designed to alert and focus you, not to direct your actions."

"When your thoughts go wrong, your emotions rule; to overcome that, you need to learn to rule your emotions with wisdom and rational thinking."

"Emotional perceptions are not reliable because they can misinterpret the truth: they mix truth and fact. Their chemical nature, when allowed to run unchecked, causes them to rule the brain. The flow of chemicals of emotion that cause a lack of integrity in the brain immediately throws the body into a stress reaction that is potentially dangerous."

"Remember that perceptions are emotionally based and unreliable. Emotional perceptions are designed to create alertness, to guide but not to rule. You need to take them captive, tame and control them, take the opportunity to evaluate them thoroughly before believing them and acting upon them. If not, you allow your emotional perceptions to take over and rule you. If they happen to be negative or destructive emotions, you set the scene for irrational behavior, bad decision making and harmful reactions in both body and mind."

Next week, we will put these building blocks together and look at applications of Animal Thinking.

Next Post

Emotions

2011-11-03T00:03:00.005-05:00

This week we are covering the components of the Model for Animal Thinking.

In the previous post, we covered the second component: The Amygdala. Prior to that, we covered the first component: The Unconscious Brain. In this post, we will cover the third component.

EMOTIONS

Emotions play two roles during thinking. We will look at these as the first emotion and the second emotion.

1. The first emotion is required to believe something as true.

Here is an excerpt from "Who Switched Off My Brain?" by Dr. Leaf:

"A fascinating aspect of all this interaction, and something you really need to be aware of, is that even though you can be presented with evidence that something is true, you won't really believe it, unless you feel it is true. It may be reasonable, logical, scientifically proven or just plain common sense, but you won't believe it unless your brain's limbic system (the seat of your emotions) allows you to feel it is true."

"Your emotions are not separate, but rather enmeshed in the neural networks of reason in your mind. The limbic system provides you with feelings that tell you what is real, true and important. You have your own criteria for this "self-convincing" process which are different from anyone else's because your memory and natural learning and thinking style is different."

2. The second emotion is required to take action.

Another excerpt from "Who Switched Off My Brain?" by Dr. Leaf:

"This is why it is never wise to react to the first emotion you feel. It is a physiological response designed to alert and focus you, not to direct your actions."

"When your thoughts go wrong, your emotions rule; to overcome that, you need to learn to rule your emotions with wisdom and rational thinking."

"Emotional perceptions are not reliable because they can misinterpret the truth: they mix truth and fact. Their chemical nature, when allowed to run unchecked, causes them to rule the brain. The flow of chemicals of emotion that cause a lack of integrity in the brain immediately throws the body into a stress reaction that is potentially dangerous."

"Remember that perceptions are emotionally based and unreliable. Emotional perceptions are designed to create alertness, to guide but not to rule. You need to take them captive, tame and control them, take the opportunity to evaluate them thoroughly before believing them and acting upon them. If not, you allow your emotional perceptions to take over and rule you. If they happen to be negative or destructive emotions, you set the scene for irrational behavior, bad decision making and harmful reactions in both body and mind."

Next Post

The Amygdala

2011-11-02T00:03:00.003-05:00

This week we are covering the components of the Model for Animal Thinking.

In the previous post, we covered the first component: The Unconscious Brain. In this post, we will cover the second component.

THE AMYGDALA
1. The amygdala is an almond shaped structure in the brain that stores all the emotional perceptions that have ever occurred every time a memory has been built...since the womb.

It is like an emotional library were memory and emotions are linked together.

2. The amygdala is electrical and chemical.

3. The amygdala supplies an emotional response based on the past.

This tends to be negative, however, the amygdala can also supply a positive emotional response.

4. The amygdala is able to supply a physical response.

The amygdala is the cause of the "fight or flight" response. If it sends a negative message to the adrenal glands, adrenaline and cortisol are released which fogs the brain...and encourages the response: fight or flight...which is a physical response.

Next Post

The Unconscious Brain

2011-11-01T00:03:00.003-05:00

For the rest of the year, we will be covering three Models for Thinking:
1. Animal Thinking
2. Human Thinking
3. Godly Thinking

This week, we will cover the key components of the Model for Animal Thinking. Each post will be short and address a component of Thinking in outline form. These posts will serve as a reference for all three Models.

THE UNCONSCIOUS BRAIN

1. The Unconscious Brain takes in EVERYTHING we experience through our senses without effort.

For example, if you and I were talking in a restaurant, our Unconscious Brains would be "listening" to the conversation two and three tables away...even though we were focusing on each other.

2. The Unconscious Brain does NOT know what we are thinking IF we don't express it through our senses.

3. The Unconscious Brain does NOT communicate with words.

4. The Unconscious Brain communicates physically: emotions, feelings, physical movements, non-verbal sounds, etc.

5. Without effort, the Unconscious Brain models according to the four God-given principles: non-contradiction, causality, contrastive thinking, and growth.

6. The Unconscious Brain focuses on patterns (Models). Whatever fits a pattern (model), the Unconscious brain uses to guide its understanding. Whatever does not fit a pattern, the Unconscious Brain retains as disconnected facts.

7. The Unconscious Brain is NOT moral. It looks for right and wrong (patterns), NOT Good and Evil/Bad (morality).

Next Post

Introduction to Three Thinking Models

2011-10-31T16:06:00.001-05:00

Thought Process Adjustments

2011-10-26T00:03:00.001-05:00

In order to grow and interact profitably with others, we need to be aware of our Personality and the Personality of the people with which we interact. Then we need to determine whether we need to adjust and in which area.

We saw The Personality Model consists of four levels. The first level is the Mind/Soul which never changes. We saw the Mind/Soul of the person is the WHY and HOW Motivational Spiritual Gifts. The second level of The Personality Model is the picture perspective.

The picture perspective is the half of the brain in which the thought process begins. This can change with difficulty, like a right-handed person writing with their left-hand.

The third level of The Personality Model is the Thought Process.

The Thought Process is how the Brain functions. We have seen this changes daily...with the health of the Thought Process either getting better or getting worse. The health of the Thought Process doesn't stay the same for two consecutive days. For the rest of this year, we will be looking at this in detail. However, this information is extremely critical and has been covered as in overview form.

In this post, we will summarize what we've already covered in these two posts:
-Brain Review
-Repairing Damage in The Brain

BRAIN REVIEW
There are three parts of the brain that play a critical role in our thought process:
1. Unconscious Brain
2. Conscious Brain
3. Amygdala

Unconscious Brain - This is the same brain as an animal.

The Unconscious Brain takes in EVERYTHING we experience through our senses without effort. For example, if you and I were talking in a restaurant, our Unconscious Brains would be "listening" to the conversation two and three tables away...even though we were focusing on each other.

This means, our Unconscious Brain does NOT know what we are thinking IF we don't express it through our senses.

The Unconscious Brain does not communicate with words. It communicates physically: emotions, feelings, physical movements, non-verbal sounds, etc.

Without effort, the Unconscious Brain models according to the four God-given principles: non-contradiction, causality, contrastive thinking, and growth. Whatever fits a pattern (model), the Unconscious brain retains. Whatever does not fit a pattern, the Unconscious Brain forgets.

The Unconscious Brain is not moral. It looks for right and wrong (patterns), NOT Good and Evil/Bad (morality). Let's look more closely at the difference...

Good and Evil/Bad are quantitative measures. They are moral and speak to the value of the person...their worth.

Right and Wrong are qualitative measures. They are not necessarily moral. They don't speak to the value of the person, just whether the person matches/agrees with a standard or not...and the standard doesn't have to be moral.

Conscious Brain - This is the brain unique to spiritual beings: humans, angels, God.

The Conscious Brain only takes in stimuli that we choose to take in. This means we can take in information through our five senses, as well as internal stimuli. Specifically, we can choose to remember and/or imagine ("The Sixth Stimulus"). We can also choose to take in God's divine influence (Grace)..."The Seventh Stimulus"

The First Feedback Loop occurs in the Conscious Brain. In response to a stimulus, the Conscious Brain looks for a connecting fact and an associated emotion. This is known as a full thought: stimulus, connecting fact, and associated emotion.

The Conscious Brain has the ability to form complex thoughts. If the individual chooses to use the full thought as a stimulus, each cycle of The First Feedback Loop makes the full thought more complex.

The Conscious Brain works according to words. Everything that is store in the Conscious Brain is stored in terms of words. When we remember, our brain is recreating the images and feelings from words. If we put experiences in our brains with the wrong words, we will remember something different than reality.

Every fact in your Conscious Brain is stored with an emotion. So, half of the information in your Conscious Brain are facts and half of the information are emotions.

The Conscious Brain works according to morality. The Conscious Brain can choose to lie.

This means the person can be Wrong because they:
1. filed away the information with the wrong words AND/OR
2. chose to express wrong information

The Conscious Brain naturally works according to two of the God-given principles: non-contradiction and causality. The Conscious Brain naturally works according to the opposite of the other two principles. The Conscious Brain works according to comparative thinking and comfort.

We can't stop the Unconscious from working according to the four God-given principles. This means our ability to have continuity between the Unconscious and Conscious Brain depends on our Conscious Brains. Are we choosing to work according to all four principles or none of the four principles? Every day, we are progressing our Conscious Brain towards or away from our Unconscious Brain.

We saw Dr. Leaf showed that 87% of illness can be traced to a faulty thought process. The disconnect between the Conscious and Unconscious Brains can cause the body to produce toxic chemicals that lead to illness.

Amygdala - This is a library containing every emotional perspective you've ever experienced...even from the womb.

The Amygdala has more electrical connections to the Conscious Brain than the Conscious Brain has to the Amygdala.

The Amygdala is also chemical...it can fog (slow down) the Conscious Brain with adrenaline. The Amygdala can hijack the person's actions and the individual won't remember any of it!

REPAIRING DAMAGE IN THE BRAIN

Conscious Brain
If the Damage/Tradition is in the Conscious Brain, the way to repair it is to lessen the strong negative emotion tied to it so it can be intentionally addressed. The way to do this is to tell your story well to someone who is good at hearing a story.

Every fact in your Conscious Brain has an emotion tied to it. I categorize the emotions as one of five types: strong negative emotion, mild negative emotion, neutral emotion, mild positive emotion, or strong positive emotion.

When you tell a story involving this fact, the emotion tied to it will change as an effect of telling the story. If a person has a strong positive emotion and they tell the story to someone who mirrors back a strong positive emotion, the fact will now be tied to an even stronger positive emotion. This would be like telling a funny story that gets funnier each time you tell it. The reason it gets funnier is the story is tied to the original funny feeling as well as the funny responses you got from others to whom you told the story.

If an individual is not good at telling a story, then he will find his positive emotions will fade with each telling of his story. He will be attaching his negative emotions from the actual telling of the story to the original positive emotion tied to the story.

You may even know people who say they aren't good at telling stories and don't want to tell a story. They are trying to retain the positive emotions by not telling their stories. However, they really ought to learn how to tell a story.

The real ability that is hindering repairing of Damage in the Conscious Brain is the inability to hear a story. Very few people think in terms of stories.

Unconscious Brain
The Unconscious Brain needs words put to its feelings. The way to repair Damage in the Unconscious Brain is to put words to people's feelings so they feel "settled". This also involves determining definitions.

I've written in detail about the process to helping people with Repair in this area. Here is the link: Counseling the Unconscious.

The best way to think of Repair in the Unconscious Brain is a game of Charades. The Unconscious Brain is mute and gives an emotional response in line with the "guesses" that are made. Basically, the counselor states possible causes and then reads the response of the individual being counseled.

Here's the list from the post linked above:

1. I ask the person what they are feeling...however, I do the next step immediately...
2. I reinforce that there are no right or wrong feelings.
3. I tell the person they won't be held to their WORDS.
4. I may even throw a couple of words at them to get them to respond emotionally without thinking...without their conscious brain.
5. I don't immediately accept the WORDS they give.
6. I ask the person if they are willing to consider a couple of scenarios.
7. Then I pose different Words to explain their feelings.

Amygdala
The Amygdala responds emotionally to a specific input. The key to repairing damage in the Amygdala is to determine the cause and rehearse it away: Causality and Rehearsal.

We covered the importance of Rehearsing during the Brain Series in a post titled, "Rehearsing".

Basically, the Amygdala does NOT know the difference between Reality and Imagination. If you imagine a situation and state a positive response outloud, your Amygdala believes you DID handle the situation well...and now has a positive option to fall back on during a similar stressful moment.

Beginning next week, we will look at a Model for "Animal Thinking"...

Next Post

Picture Perspective Adjustments

2011-10-25T00:03:00.001-05:00

Mind/Soul Adjustments

2011-10-24T10:11:00.003-05:00

The previous post gave a Summary for The Personality Model.

We saw The Personality Model consists of four levels. The first level is the Mind/Soul which never changes. We saw the Mind/Soul of the person is the WHY and HOW Motivational Spiritual Gifts.

In order to grow and interact profitably with others, we need to be aware of our Personality and the Personality of the people with which we interact. Then we need to determine whether we need to adjust and in which area.

Consequently, a person can adjust the actions of their Mind/Soul as an act of love in order to facilitate Profitable interactions.

In this post, we will summarize the adjustments that are possible in the Mind/Soul covered in these three posts:
-Interactions Between People
-HOW Adjustments
-WHY Adjustments

When it comes to two people interacting:

1. The Tension experienced between two people correlates to the distance between their WHY's. For example, a Perceiver WHY (1) and an Exhorter WHY (7) experience the greatest possible Tension: 6.

Remember, the WHY is the effect the person wants others to have. A Perceiver would want others to be Aware of a Past issue. The Exhorter would want others to be encouraged about a Future event. So, when a Perceiver and Exhorter work together on a situation, they are literally wanting the opposite effect on the situation...which creates Tension.

2. The Release experienced between two people correlates to the SIMILARITY between their HOW's. For example, a Perceiver HOW (1) and an Exhorter HOW (7) will not experience much Release: 6 (which means the Release isn't focused). A Perceiver HOW (1) and another Perceiver HOW (1) will experience the most Release: 0 (which means the Release is focused).

Remember, the HOW is the action the person takes. Two Perceiver HOW's would both want to make people Aware of a Past issue by Speaking about the Past...which means they can DO the same thing together. This most focused action results in the greatest Release. The opposite case if a Perceiver HOW worked with an Exhorter HOW. The Perceiver would want to make people Aware of a Past issue, while the Exhorter would take the opposite action: encourage people about a Future event. The Perceiver would DO the opposite of what the Exhorter would DO...which would cause the effort to be unfocused and there would be little to no Release.

Notice: The Release can be achieved if one of the people acts differently from their HOW...which is possible and stressful.

HOW ADJUSTMENTS BETWEEN PEOPLE
When two people have different HOW's, there are two general methods of adjusting in order to achieve a Release.

1. Ministers Move
Remember, Minister (5) is the Motivational Spiritual Gift that fulfills a need...which means a Minister HOW is able to do any of the Motivational Spiritual Gifts in order to fulfill a need. The key is for the Minister HOW to determine what the other person will respond to. Since the HOW Motivational Spiritual Gifts appear to be equally distributed, this means a Minister HOW ought to spend 1/7 of their interactions in each HOW gift. The danger for a Minister HOW is to consistently rely on one Motivational Spiritual Gift.

The person with a HOW Minister Motivational Spiritual Gift ought to be able to determine the HOW Motivational Spiritual Gift of the person he is interacting with and adjust to that Gift. A HOW Minister would adjust to Teacher with a HOW Teacher...and adjust to Exhorter with a HOW Exhorter.

This ability to move in the HOW makes Ministers "super heroes". They are the glue of the Body...able to get a Release with everyone. If you looked at the Motivational Spiritual Gifts of "super heroes", they are all Minister HOW. For example, Spiderman is Compassion-Minister...he's your friendly, neighborhood Spiderman.

However, this means Ministers have one more area (than other Gifts) for Growth for which they are responsible: the ability to move between Gifts.

2. Acting Outside Your Gift
If the first way is for Minister's to act within their Gift, the second way is for people to act outside their Gift.

In order to achieve Release, one or both of the people need to act outside their HOW Motivational Spiritual Gift.

WHY ADJUSTMENTS BETWEEN PEOPLE
As we've seen, the WHY adjustment is focused on the Tension. Also, we've seen the WHY is who the person was made to be.

When it came to HOW adjustments, we wanted the two people to have the same HOW. However, when two people have the same WHY, they have little to no Tension which is not conducive to a Long Term friendship. Situations without Tension cause people to eventually become bored. So, the adjustment we are looking for, relative to the WHY, is not an adjustment leading to two people sharing the same WHY.

The WHY adjustment has everything to do with the maturity and security of the person to whom you adjust.

Immature and insecure people are not able to handle great amounts of Tension. For example, if a Perceiver-Perceiver is immature, they will not be able to spend a lot of time interacting directly with a person whose WHY is very far from Perceiver.

When it comes to insecurity, we have a more temporary condition: the same person could be secure in one area and insecure moments later in another area. For this situation, it is best to interact with a Minister WHY...

The Minister WHY could move to a gift near the individual's gift when the individual is feeling insecure in one area...and then when the individual moves to an area in which he is secure, the Minister WHY could move to a gift away from the individual's WHY gift.

CONCLUSION
The Mind/Soul of the individual NEVER changes. Each of us will have the same Mind/Soul throughout eternity.

However, we can change our behavior so that we have more Tension and more Release with others. DOING another Mind/Soul while still BEING your own Mind/Soul in order to allow others to not have to adjust is an act of love and worthy of Reward.

The second level of The Personality Model is the picture perspective (Big vs. Little). In the next post, we will look at Adjustments in the picture perspective.

Next Post

Personality Model Summary

2011-10-21T00:03:00.001-05:00

The previous post gave a Summary for the Motivational Spiritual Gifts Series. That Series covered a revelatory tool taught to me by Wayne Swokowski concerning Spiritual Gifts.

The Motivational Spiritual Gifts makes up just the first of the four parts of the Personality Model. In this post, we will summarize the Personality Model covered in these two posts:
-Part I
-Part II

The Personality Model consists of four levels:
1. The Motivational Spiritual Gifts are who the person was made to be. This will never change because it is the Mind/Soul.
2. The picture perspective is the half of the brain in which the thought process begins. This can change with difficulty, like a right-handed person writing with their left-hand.
3. The thought process is the way the Unconscious Brain, Conscious Brain, and Amygdala interact. This alters daily.
4. The experiences are the external circumstances that constantly change and may or may not affect the person.

The Mind/Soul is a cause and the effect is the picture perspective.

The picture perspective is a cause and the effect is the thought process.

The thought process is a cause and the effect is how the experiences affect the individual's personality.

In order to grow and interact profitably with others, we need to be aware of our Personality and the Personality of the people with which we interact. Then we need to determine whether we need to adjust and in which area.

In the next post, we will summarize adjustments made in our Mind/Soul.

Next Post

Motivational Spiritual Gifts: Summary

2011-10-20T00:03:00.001-05:00

This Series covered a revelatory tool taught to me by Wayne Swokowski concerning Spiritual Gifts. Here is a summary with links to the posts:

There are seven Motivational Spiritual Gifts according to Romans 12:6-8.

Here is how to figure out you Motivational Spiritual Gifts: What is Your Motivational Spiritual Gifts? and specifically your HOW and WHY Motivational Spiritual Gifts.

We looked at five aspects of each Motivational Spiritual Gift and a summary. Here is the list:

PERCEIVER
-Definition
-Eyes
-Interaction
-Christ's Miracles
-Abuse
-Summary

TEACHER
-Definition
-Ears
-Interaction
-Christ's Miracles
-Abuse
-Summary

COMPASSION
-Definition
-Heart
-Interaction
-Christ's Miracles
-Abuse
-Summary

GIVER
-Definition
-Hands
-Interaction
-Christ's Miracles
-Abuse
-Summary

MINISTER
-Definition
-Mouth
-Interaction
-Christ's Miracles
-Abuse
-Summary

EXHORTER
-Definition
-Breath (and Words)
-Interaction
-Christ's Miracles
-Abuse
-Summary

We looked at the HOW versions of each of the following WHY Motivational Spiritual Gifts:
-Perceiver
-Teacher
-Compassion
-Giver
-Minister
-Administrator
-Exhorter

We looked at the stress within the individual due to the difference in their HOW and WHY Motivational Spiritual Gifts

We looked at how these seven Motivational Spiritual Gifts results in Perfect Repair

We looked at how the order of the person's HOW and WHY results in either initiating or responding their Purpose.

We looked at the effect of the Motivational Spiritual Gifts on the ability to motivate a person...and hear personal revelation from God

We looked at the Motivational Spiritual Gifts grouped by:
-Past Speak
-Do
-Future Speak

We looked at how the serpent in the Garden of Eden had the gifts corresponding to the body parts he possessed.

We looked at the church of today relative to the Motivational Spiritual Gifts.

We looked at the concepts of:
-Tension and Release
-Repair vs. Restoration
-Working from Exhorter to Perceiver

The rest of the posts were an effect of understanding The Personality Model.

In the next post, we will summarize The Personality Model...

Next Post

Motivational Spiritual Gifts: WHY Adjustments Between People

2011-10-18T00:03:00.003-05:00

This Series covers a revelatory tool taught to me by Wayne Swokowski concerning Spiritual Gifts. We saw there are seven Motivational Spiritual Gifts according to Romans 12:6-8.

We've seen that each person has both a WHY and a HOW Motivational Spiritual Gift that is their Mind/Soul.

In a previous post, we looked at the four general cases of extreme interactions between people:

1. Maximum Tension and Maximum Release
Example: Perceiver-Perceiver and Exhorter-Perceiver

Tension: 6 (Exhorter 7 - Perceiver 1 = 6...which is the maximum.)
Release: 0 (Perceiver 1 - Perceiver 1 = 0...which is the maximum: most focused.)

2. Minimum Tension and Maximum Release
Example: Administrator-Teacher and Administrator-Teacher

Tension: 0 (Administrator 6 - Administrator 6 = 0...which is the minimum.)
Release: 0 (Teacher 2 - Teacher -2 = 0...which is the maximum: most focused.)

3. Minimum Tension and Minimum Release
Example: Compassion-Perceiver and Compassion-Exhorter

Tension: 0 (Compassion 3 - Compassion 3 = 0...which is the minimum.)
Release: 6 (Perceiver 1 - Exhorter 7 = 6...which is the minimum: least focused.)

4. Maximum Tension and Minimum Release
Example: Perceiver-Perceiver and Exhorter-Exhorter

Tension: 6 (Perceiver 1 - Exhorter 7 = 6...which is the maximum.)
Release: 6 (Perceiver 1 - Exhorter 7 = 6...which is the minimum: least focused.)

(Please click the following link to get more explanation for each case: "Interactions Between People".)

In the previous post, we covered HOW Adjustments Between People in order to achieve Release.

If you need the background on the method of measuring Tension and Release please review, the post titled, "Motivational Spiritual Gifts: HOW and WHY" and/or the following:

When it comes to two people interacting:

1. The Tension experienced between two people correlates to the distance between their WHY's. For example, a Perceiver WHY (1) and an Exhorter WHY (7) experience the greatest possible Tension: 6.

Remember, the WHY is the effect the person wants others to have. A Perceiver would want others to be Aware of a Past issue. The Exhorter would want others to be encouraged about a Future event. So, when a Perceiver and Exhorter work together on a situation, they are literally wanting the opposite effect on the situation...which creates Tension.

2. The Release experienced between two people correlates to the SIMILARITY between their HOW's. For example, a Perceiver HOW (1) and an Exhorter HOW (7) will not experience much Release: 6 (which means the Release isn't focused). A Perceiver HOW (1) and another Perceiver HOW (1) will experience the most Release: 0 (which means the Release is focused).

Remember, the HOW is the action the person takes. Two Perceiver HOW's would both want to make people Aware of a Past issue by Speaking about the Past...which means they can DO the same thing together. This most focused action results in the greatest Release. The opposite case if a Perceiver HOW worked with an Exhorter HOW. The Perceiver would want to make people Aware of a Past issue, while the Exhorter would take the opposite action: encourage people about a Future event. The Perceiver would DO the opposite of what the Exhorter would DO...which would cause the effort to be unfocused and there would be little to no Release.

For a complete explanation of HOW Adjustments Between People, please read the previous post: "HOW Adjustments". Here is a summary:

When two people have different HOW's, there are two general methods of adjusting in order to achieve a Release.

1. Ministers Move
Remember, Minister (5) is the Motivational Spiritual Gift that fulfills a need...which means a Minister HOW is able to do any of the Motivational Spiritual Gifts in order to fulfill a need. The key is for the Minister HOW to determine what the other person will respond to. Since the HOW Motivational Spiritual Gifts appear to be equally distributed, this means a Minister HOW ought to spend 1/7 of their interactions in each HOW gift. The danger for a Minister HOW is to consistently rely on one Motivational Spiritual Gift.

For example, a person with a HOW Minister Motivational Spiritual Gift may rely too heavily on being a Perceiver or a Teacher. This would cause him to Perceive and/or Teach in situations when people need something other than a Past Speak Gift...which would cause stress on other people. Remember, these Motivational Spiritual Gifts from Romans 12 are the only Spiritual Gifts that come with qualifiers...it is possible to do these Gifts incorrectly. Consequently, the HOW Minister needs to be aware of all seven qualifiers...and do them.

The person with a HOW Minister Motivational Spiritual Gift ought to be able to determine the HOW Motivational Spiritual Gift of the person he is interacting with and adjust to that Gift. A HOW Minister would adjust to Teacher with a HOW Teacher...and adjust to Exhorter with a HOW Exhorter.

This ability to move in the HOW makes Ministers "super heroes". They are the glue of the Body...able to get a Release with everyone. If you looked at the Motivational Spiritual Gifts of "super heroes", they are all Minister HOW. For example, Spiderman is Compassion-Minister...he's your friendly, neighborhood Spiderman.

However, this means Ministers have one more area (than other Gifts) for Growth for which they are responsible: the ability to move between Gifts.

2. Acting Outside Your Gift
If the first way is for Minister's to act within their Gift, the second way is for people to act outside their Gift.

In order to achieve Release, one or both of the people need to act outside their HOW Motivational Spiritual Gift. We saw extreme examples listed near the beginning of this post from the previous post.

These two would require NO CHANGE:
Perceiver-Perceiver and Exhorter-Perceiver (Maximum Tension and Maximum Release)

Administrator-Teacher and Administrator-Teacher (Minimum Tension and Maximum Release)

These two cases could result in the ability to interact with each other for eternity...whether it was a friendship or a Marriage.

These two would require tremendous adjustments in the HOW.
Compassion-Perceiver and Compassion-Exhorter (Minimum Tension and Minimum Release)

Perceiver-Perceiver and Exhorter-Exhorter (Maximum Tension and Minimum Release)

These two cases likely would not result in the ability to interact with each other for more than a year. Let's look at two less extreme examples...

Minor Adjustment: Administrator-Teacher and Minister-Giver.

The Tension is low: Administrator (6) - Minister (5) = 1.

The Release is not focused: Teacher (2) - Giver (4) = 2.

Notice, this case would lead to two people actually being able to interact for decades without becoming Unprofitable because it is relatively comfortable: very little Tension with an unfocused Released. The only way for these two people to have a complete Release is for the Teacher to act as a Giver or the Giver to act as Teacher.

Medium Adjustment: Minister-Teacher and Perceiver-Minister.

The Tension is relatively high: Minister (5) - Perceiver (1) = 4.

The Release is unfocused: Teacher (2) - Minister (5) = 3.

Notice, this case would lead to two people actually being able to interact for years because the Unprofitability isn't average. These two would experience a lot of low's because the Tension isn't sufficiently Released. However, Release could be achieved if the Teacher HOW acts as a Minister (becomes active in the DO) or the Minister HOW acts as a Teacher.

Now, we will look at WHY Adjustments Between People...

WHY ADJUSTMENTS BETWEEN PEOPLE
As we've seen, the WHY adjustment is focused on the Tension. Also, we've seen the WHY is who the person was made to be.

When it came to HOW adjustments, we wanted the two people to have the same HOW. However, when two people have the same WHY, they have little to no Tension which is not conducive to a Long Term friendship. Situations without Tension cause people to eventually become bored. So, the adjustment we are looking for, relative to the WHY, is not an adjustment leading to two people sharing the same WHY.

The WHY adjustment has everything to do with the maturity and security of the person to whom you adjust.

Immature and insecure people are not able to handle great amounts of Tension. For example, if a Perceiver-Perceiver is immature, they will not be able to spend a lot of time interacting directly with a person whose WHY is very far from Perceiver.

Another Perceiver (1) would result in no Tension. A Teacher (2) would result in a Tension of 1...which may still be acceptable. The Perceiver wants another person to be Aware of a problem. The Teacher would want that same individual to understand WHY the problem occurred. In fact, people tend to confuse Perceivers and Teachers...and may not notice the difference between a Perceiver and Teacher both interacting with them. We can see how a person may feel confusion when the Perceiver (1) is focused on making them Aware of the problem, while Compassion (3) is attempting to relieve them of their emotional pain. Obviously, the greatest Tension (and possibly most confusion) would occur while a Perceiver (1) is making the person Aware of a past issue while the Exhorter (7) is encouraging the individual about the future.

When it comes to insecurity, we have a more temporary condition: the same person could be secure in one area and insecure moments later in another area. For this situation, it is best to interact with a Minister WHY...

The Minister WHY could move to a gift near the individual's gift when the individual is feeling insecure in one area...and then when the individual moves to an area in which he is secure, the Minister WHY could move to a gift away from the individual's WHY gift.

For example, the Minister WHY could interact well with an insecure Exhorter (7) WHY by becoming an Administrator (6) or Exhorter (7) WHY. However, once the Exhorter WHY became more secure, the Minister WHY could move to Teacher (2) WHY.

Next Post

Motivational Spiritual Gifts: HOW Adjustments Between People

2011-10-14T00:03:00.006-05:00

This Series covers a revelatory tool taught to me by Wayne Swokowski concerning Spiritual Gifts. We saw there are seven Motivational Spiritual Gifts according to Romans 12:6-8.

We've seen that each person has both a WHY and a HOW Motivational Spiritual Gift that is their Mind/Soul.

In the previous post, we looked at the four general cases of extreme interactions between people:

1. Maximum Tension and Maximum Release
Example: Perceiver-Perceiver and Exhorter-Perceiver

Tension: 6 (Exhorter 7 - Perceiver 1 = 6...which is the maximum.)
Release: 0 (Perceiver 1 - Perceiver 1 = 0...which is the maximum: most focused.)

2. Minimum Tension and Maximum Release
Example: Administrator-Teacher and Administrator-Teacher

Tension: 0 (Administrator 6 - Administrator 6 = 0...which is the minimum.)
Release: 0 (Teacher 2 - Teacher -2 = 0...which is the maximum: most focused.)

3. Minimum Tension and Minimum Release
Example: Compassion-Perceiver and Compassion-Exhorter

Tension: 0 (Compassion 3 - Compassion 3 = 0...which is the minimum.)
Release: 6 (Perceiver 1 - Exhorter 7 = 6...which is the minimum: least focused.)

4. Maximum Tension and Minimum Release
Example: Perceiver-Perceiver and Exhorter-Exhorter

Tension: 6 (Perceiver 1 - Exhorter 7 = 6...which is the maximum.)
Release: 6 (Perceiver 1 - Exhorter 7 = 6...which is the minimum: least focused.)

(Please click the following link to get more explanation for each case: "Interactions Between People".)

In this post, we will cover HOW Adjustments Between People in order to achieve Release.

If you don't need the background on the method of measuring Tension and Release, skip down to the heading in CAPS. Otherwise, here is the background:

We also saw that each person has both a HOW and WHY Motivational Spiritual Gift. Here is an excerpt from the post titled, "Motivational Spiritual Gifts: HOW and WHY":

Notice, WHO you really are is your WHY. Who others think you are is your HOW. The greater the distance between your WHY and HOW, the more likely your are to be misjudged. I list the WHY first and the HOW second.

We have looked at the Motivational Spiritual Gifts in the following order relative to WHY and HOW:

If the following was your WHY, you wouldn't be settled until you got the following response FROM people:

1. Perceiver - people are aware of the issue.

2. Teacher - people understand WHY the issue exists.

3. Compassion - people are relieved of emotional pain.

4. Giver - people receive a tangible need.

5. Minister - people had their need filled.

6. Administrator - a group of people are involved in a goal.

7. Exhorter - people are encouraged about the future.

If the following was your HOW, you wouldn't be settled until YOU got to respond in the following way:

1. Perceiver - you point out the issue.

2. Teacher - you explain the WHY behind the issue.

3. Compassion - you bear emotional pain.

4. Giver - you give a tangible need.

5. Minister - you DO what it takes to fulfill the need.

6. Administrator - you focus a group of people on the group's goal.

7. Exhorter - you encourage someone about the future.

We've seen this list goes from most Past focused (Perceiver) to most Future focused (Exhorter).

Your WHY is who you are.

Your HOW is who others think you are.

When it comes to two people interacting:

1. The Tension experienced between two people correlates to the distance between their WHY's. For example, a Perceiver WHY (1) and an Exhorter WHY (7) experience the greatest possible Tension: 6.

Remember, the WHY is the effect the person wants others to have. A Perceiver would want others to be Aware of a Past issue. The Exhorter would want others to be encouraged about a Future event. So, when a Perceiver and Exhorter work together on a situation, they are literally wanting the opposite effect on the situation...which creates Tension.

2. The Release experienced between two people correlates to the SIMILARITY between their HOW's. For example, a Perceiver HOW (1) and an Exhorter HOW (7) will not experience much Release: 6 (which means the Release isn't focused). A Perceiver HOW (1) and another Perceiver HOW (1) will experience the most Release: 0 (which means the Release is focused).

Remember, the HOW is the action the person takes. Two Perceiver HOW's would both want to make people Aware of a Past issue by Speaking about the Past...which means they can DO the same thing together. This most focused action results in the greatest Release. The opposite case if a Perceiver HOW worked with an Exhorter HOW. The Perceiver would want to make people Aware of a Past issue, while the Exhorter would take the opposite action: encourage people about a Future event. The Perceiver would DO the opposite of what the Exhorter would DO...which would cause the effort to be unfocused and there would be little to no Release.

HOW ADJUSTMENTS BETWEEN PEOPLE
When two people have different HOW's, there are two general methods of adjusting in order to achieve a Release.

1. Ministers Move
Remember, Minister (5) is the Motivational Spiritual Gift that fulfills a need...which means a Minister HOW is able to do any of the Motivational Spiritual Gifts in order to fulfill a need. The key is for the Minister HOW to determine what the other person will respond to. Since the HOW Motivational Spiritual Gifts appear to be equally distributed, this means a Minister HOW ought to spend 1/7 of their interactions in each HOW gift. The danger for a Minister HOW is to consistently rely on one Motivational Spiritual Gift.

For example, a person with a HOW Minister Motivational Spiritual Gift may rely too heavily on being a Perceiver or a Teacher. This would cause him to Perceive and/or Teach in situations when people need something other than a Past Speak Gift...which would cause stress on other people. Remember, these Motivational Spiritual Gifts from Romans 12 are the only Spiritual Gifts that come with qualifiers...it is possible to do these Gifts incorrectly. Consequently, the HOW Minister needs to be aware of all seven qualifiers...and do them.

The person with a HOW Minister Motivational Spiritual Gift ought to be able to determine the HOW Motivational Spiritual Gift of the person he is interacting with and adjust to that Gift. A HOW Minister would adjust to Teacher with a HOW Teacher...and adjust to Exhorter with a HOW Exhorter.

This ability to move in the HOW makes Ministers "super heroes". They are the glue of the Body...able to get a Release with everyone. If you looked at the Motivational Spiritual Gifts of "super heroes", they are all Minister HOW. For example, Spiderman is Compassion-Minister...he's your friendly, neighborhood Spiderman.

However, this means Ministers have one more area (than other Gifts) for Growth for which they are responsible: the ability to move between Gifts.

2. Acting Outside Your Gift
If the first way is for Minister's to act within their Gift, the second way is for people to act outside their Gift.

In order to achieve Release, one or both of the people need to act outside their HOW Motivational Spiritual Gift. We saw extreme examples listed near the beginning of this post from the previous post.

These two would require NO CHANGE:
Perceiver-Perceiver and Exhorter-Perceiver (Maximum Tension and Maximum Release)

Administrator-Teacher and Administrator-Teacher (Minimum Tension and Maximum Release)

These two cases could result in the ability to interact with each other for eternity...whether it was a friendship or a Marriage.

These two would require tremendous adjustments in the HOW.
Compassion-Perceiver and Compassion-Exhorter (Minimum Tension and Minimum Release)

Perceiver-Perceiver and Exhorter-Exhorter (Maximum Tension and Minimum Release)

These two cases likely would not result in the ability to interact with each other for more than a year. Let's look at two less extreme examples...

Minor Adjustment: Administrator-Teacher and Minister-Giver.

The Tension is low: Administrator (6) - Minister (5) = 1.

The Release is not focused: Teacher (2) - Giver (4) = 2.

Notice, this case would lead to two people actually being able to interact for decades without becoming Unprofitable because it is relatively comfortable: very little Tension with an unfocused Released. The only way for these two people to have a complete Release is for the Teacher to act as a Giver or the Giver to act as Teacher.

Medium Adjustment: Minister-Teacher and Perceiver-Minister.

The Tension is relatively high: Minister (5) - Perceiver (1) = 4.

The Release is unfocused: Teacher (2) - Minister (5) = 3.

Notice, this case would lead to two people actually being able to interact for years because the Unprofitability isn't average. These two would experience a lot of low's because the Tension isn't sufficiently Released. However, Release could be achieved if the Teacher HOW acts as a Minister (becomes active in the DO) or the Minister HOW acts as a Teacher.

Next, we will look at WHY Adjustments Between People...

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Motivational Spiritual Gifts: Interactions Between People

2011-10-12T00:03:00.003-05:00

This Series covers a revelatory tool taught to me by Wayne Swokowski concerning Spiritual Gifts. We saw there are seven Motivational Spiritual Gifts according to Romans 12:6-8.

We also saw that each person has both a HOW and WHY Motivational Spiritual Gift. Here is an excerpt from the post titled, "Motivational Spiritual Gifts: HOW and WHY":

Notice, WHO you really are is your WHY. Who others think you are is your HOW. The greater the distance between your WHY and HOW, the more likely your are to be misjudged. I list the WHY first and the HOW second.

We have looked at the Motivational Spiritual Gifts in the following order relative to WHY and HOW:

If the following was your WHY, you wouldn't be settled until you got the following response FROM people:

1. Perceiver - people are aware of the issue.

2. Teacher - people understand WHY the issue exists.

3. Compassion - people are relieved of emotional pain.

4. Giver - people receive a tangible need.

5. Minister - people had their need filled.

6. Administrator - a group of people are involved in a goal.

7. Exhorter - people are encouraged about the future.

If the following was your HOW, you wouldn't be settled until YOU got to respond in the following way:

1. Perceiver - you point out the issue.

2. Teacher - you explain the WHY behind the issue.

3. Compassion - you bear emotional pain.

4. Giver - you give a tangible need.

5. Minister - you DO what it takes to fulfill the need.

6. Administrator - you focus a group of people on the group's goal.

7. Exhorter - you encourage someone about the future.

We've seen this list goes from most Past focused (Perceiver) to most Future focused (Exhorter).

Your WHY is who you are.

Your HOW is who others think you are.

When it comes to two people interacting:

1. The Tension experienced between two people correlates to the distance between their WHY's. For example, a Perceiver WHY (1) and an Exhorter WHY (7) experience the greatest possible Tension: 6.

Remember, the WHY is the effect the person wants others to have. A Perceiver would want others to be Aware of a Past issue. The Exhorter would want others to be encouraged about a Future event. So, when a Perceiver and Exhorter work together on a situation, they are literally wanting the opposite effect on the situation...which creates Tension.

2. The Release experienced between two people correlates to the SIMILARITY between their HOW's. For example, a Perceiver HOW (1) and an Exhorter HOW (7) will not experience much Release: 6 (which means the Release isn't focused). A Perceiver HOW (1) and another Perceiver HOW (1) will experience the most Release: 0 (which means the Release is focused).

Remember, the HOW is the action the person takes. Two Perceiver HOW's would both want to make people Aware of a Past issue by Speaking about the Past...which means they can DO the same thing together. This most focused action results in the greatest Release. The opposite case if a Perceiver HOW worked with an Exhorter HOW. The Perceiver would want to make people Aware of a Past issue, while the Exhorter would take the opposite action: encourage people about a Future event. The Perceiver would DO the opposite of what the Exhorter would DO...which would cause the effort to be unfocused and there would be little to no Release.

Notice: The Release can be achieved if one of the people acts differently from their HOW...which is possible and stressful. We will look at these cases more on Friday.

There are four general types of interactions between people:

1. Maximum Tension and Maximum Release
Example: Perceiver-Perceiver and Exhorter-Perceiver

Tension: 6 (Exhorter 7 - Perceiver 1 = 6...which is the maximum.)

Release: 0 (Perceiver 1 - Perceiver 1 = 0...which is the maximum: most focused.)

The Perceiver WHY would want the person experiencing the issue to be made Aware of a Past issue. The Exhorter WHY would want the person experiencing the issue to be encouraged about the Future. This creates Tension. However, the fact that both of these people would DO this by Speaking of a Past issue (Perceiver HOW) would cause their effort to be focused. This ability to act together results in the maximum Release...both people feeling they are working (DOING) together and the individual gets a much bigger benefit: Aware of a Past issue and encourage about the Future.

The other example of maximum Tension and maximum Release is: Exhorter-Exhorter and Perceiver-Exhorter.

These combinations will experience high high's (during Release) and low low's (if Release isn't achieved).

2. Minimum Tension and Maximum Release
Example: Administrator-Teacher and Administrator-Teacher

Tension: 0 (Administrator 6 - Administrator 6 = 0...which is the minimum.)

Release: 0 (Teacher 2 - Teacher -2 = 0...which is the maximum: most focused.)

The Administrator WHY would want the person experiencing the issue to understand their role towards achieving a group goal. There is no Tension between these two people because they have the same WHY. The Teacher HOW would cause both people to explain the reason behind the Past issue. While this is a focused Release, the amount of Tension released is minimal. The person with the issue doesn't really benefit from the presence of the second Administrator-Teacher.

While this interaction has the maximum Release, the Tension that is released is the minimum. These two people will get along quickly (low Tension) and not experience high high's and low low's (because there isn't much Tension).

3. Minimum Tension and Minimum Release
Example: Compassion-Perceiver and Compassion-Exhorter

Tension: 0 (Compassion 3 - Compassion 3 = 0...which is the minimum.)

Release: 6 (Perceiver 1 - Exhorter 7 = 6...which is the minimum: least focused.)

The Compassion WHY would want the person experiencing the issue to have their emotional pain relieved. There is no Tension between these two people because they have the same WHY. Worse, the Perceiver HOW would want to Speak about Past issues. The Exhorter HOW would want to encourage the person about a Future event. The fact that both of these people would DO the opposite would cause their effort to be unfocused. DOING the opposite results in the minimum Release...both people feeling they are working (DOING) against each other. The individual can end up in a worse condition: being confused by a person Speaking of a Past issue and a person Speaking of the Future, while they continue to experience emotional pain.

This interaction has the minimum Tension and the minimum (least focused) Release. These two people will get along quickly (low Tension) and will become frustrated with each other (because there isn't a focused Release). This interaction can be DECEPTIVE...people immediately believing they are compatible because of lack of Tension...and then finding out in the Long Term they are incompatible.

4. Maximum Tension and Minimum Release
Example: Perceiver-Perceiver and Exhorter-Exhorter

Tension: 6 (Perceiver 1 - Exhorter 7 = 6...which is the maximum.)

Release: 6 (Perceiver 1 - Exhorter 7 = 6...which is the minimum: least focused.)

The Perceiver WHY would want the person experiencing the issue to be made Aware of a Past issue. The Exhorter WHY would want the person experiencing the issue to be encouraged about the Future. This creates Tension. Worse, the Perceiver HOW would want to Speak about Past issues. The Exhorter HOW would want to encourage the person about a Future event. The fact that both of these people would DO the opposite would cause their effort to be unfocused. DOING the opposite results in the minimum Release...both people feeling they are working (DOING) against each other.

This interaction is the most destructive: the maximum Tension and the minimum (least focused) Release. These two people will not get along and will consistently oppose each other over the Long Term. There is nothing DECEPTIVE about this interaction: everyone knows these two people don't get along.

As we saw earlier, The release can be achieved if one of the people acts differently from their HOW...which is possible and stressful. We will look at these cases more on Friday...

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