GOD’S GAME PLAN!
Before you begin your Bible study, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, be
sure you have named your sins privately to God the Father.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
(Known, Unknown and Forgotten sins) (1Jn 1:9)
You will then be in fellowship with God, Filled with the Holy Spirit and ready
to learn Truth from the Word of God.
"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth."
(John 4:24)
GOD HAS A PLAN FOR OUR LIFE
NEVER BEFORE IN HISTORY has every believer in Jesus Christ possessed
two royal Warrants — his priesthood directed toward God and his
ambassador-ship directed toward man and circumstances. Never before in
history has every believer been indwelt simultaneously by God the Son; Jesus
Christ, and by God the Holy Spirit. Never before in history has so much
personal responsibility been delegated to every believer as in the present era
— the New Covenant Church Age. Never before in history has a body of
believers received all its instructions in writing — the completed canon of
Scripture. Never before in history has the ritual in worship been replaced by
illustrations.
Illustration
In the Old Testament, the Tabernacle, (Exo 25:8-9) the Feasts, the
Offerings, the Sabbath, the New Moon, and later the Temple and the Gates
of the City of Jerusalem, (Neh 12:31-39) Etc. Represented who Christ Was,
Is, and will always Be, and what He would do, and the progressive stages of
the Spiritual life of Israel and the Spiritual life Christ would use to grow to
Spiritual maturity. In the past believers used ritual as teaching props,
(Theatrical property) to aid in understanding the meaning of the Doctrines.
Today we have the Reality of what Christ has accomplished! All these
advantages and many more have been taken by God and reduced to a
system, a protocol system designed in heaven to function on earth now.
The unprecedented series of blessings from God to the believer has been
reduced not only to a protocol system but to one system with eight
categories for Christ and ten for the believer. Since this is a Divine power
system, it is called, the fruit of the Spirit, (Gal 5:22-23) Spirit and Truth,
(John 4:24) Joy, (John 17:13) the Divine dynasphere, (Acts 1:8) Glory,
(John 17:22) Love, (John 17:26) the Tabernacle (Exo 25:9; Heb 8:5) the
Temple, (1Ch 29:19; (2Co 6:16) the New self, (Col 3:10) the Divine nature;
(2Pe 1:4) the Edifacation complex, (Eph 4:16) the bottom circle — The New
Covenant Spiritual life — all mean the same thing the Spiritual life for the
believer NOW! (John 17:13-26)
Beyond the protocol plan of God, with its one system of ten gates, is the plan
of Satan for your life — a cosmic system designed to make you, the believer,
an enemy of the Cross. (Php 3:18) As a believer living in this New Covenant
Age, you have an option to exercise: life in the Spiritual life as the protocol
plan of God, or life in the cosmic system, as the strategy of Satan.
(Eph 2:2-3) (Spirit and Truth or Ignorance, arrogance; Eph 4:18) You cannot
exercise that option until you have accumulated the facts — information about
the plan of God for your life.
This book is designed to place in perspective the simple and sometimes
complex facts about the plan of God. The Principles of the Bible presented in
this book bring together categorically the information you need to be a
winner! Ignorance of God’s plan will make you a loser! Rejection of God’s
plan will keep you entangled in yokes of bondage to Satan’s cosmic system
and your old sin nature. (2Ti 2:25-26; (1Sa 15:22-23)
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth,
and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
(Gen 6:5)
I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of
man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living
thing, as I have done. (Gen 8:21)
And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days
of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying,
they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as happened in
the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they
were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot
went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed
them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.
(Luk 17:26-30)
O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, [Spirit and Truth]
avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is
falsely called "knowledge"-- which some have professed and thus gone
astray from the faith. [Spirit and Truth] Grace be with you. (1Ti 6:20-21)
But He turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me, Satan! You are a
stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests,
[Spirit and Truth] but man’s. [Ignorance and arrogance] (Matt 16:23)
But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your
minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
(2Co 11:3)
These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the
Spirit. [Spirit and Truth] (Jud 1:19)
The only way out is to learn God’s Thoughts in the filling of God the Holy
Spirit and Think with them, God has made a way, regardless of human
intellect or IQ, we can all reach maturity!
Illustration
For to us God revealed them [His Thoughts — Truth] through the Spirit;
for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. Now we have
received, not the spirit of the world, (Satan’s system) but the Spirit who is
from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which
things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those
taught by the Spirit, combining Spiritual thoughts with Spiritual words. But a
natural man [The unbeliever and carnal Believer] does not accept the things
[Thoughts] of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot
understand them, because they are Spiritually appraised. But he who is
Spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO
HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM?
But we have The Mind of Christ. (1Co 2:10-16)
Mastery of these Spiritual Thoughts will provide for you the options and
decisions necessary to glorify God in the fulfillment of His plan. The plan of
God for the believer is that intersection of life where the protocol of heaven
meets the protocol of earth, (Protocol: A strict long established code or
procedure, (God’s Plan) giving complete submission to superior rank and
authority, (God’s Word) with due order of precedence, (Christ; Heb 12:1-4)
coupled with exact correct precise procedure! (Obedience: for the purpose
of glorifying our Lord Jesus Christ; 2Ti 2:4).
You stand at that crossroads as you read the pages of this book! On the
first Christmas in history, the virgin birth of Christ, God the Father gave Jesus
Christ the prototype New Covenant Spiritual life. This protocol system
sustained our Lord throughout His life on earth. An unprecedented change
had taken place which necessitated a new plan; the presence of Jesus
Christ, the God of Israel — who had resided as the Shekinah Glory in the
Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and later the Temple — had come in the
flesh!
And the Word [Logos, the title of Christ as eternal God] became flesh and
tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory [Shekinah Glory] glory as the
unique Son of the Father, full of grace and Truth. [Spirit and Truth] (John 1:14)
We are now Commanded to reflect that same Spiritual life, and the
presence of Jesus Christ, who indwells us. (John 14:20; Col 1:27) Our bodies
are His temple during the New Covenant Age; we are His new sanctuary.
(Rom 8:9-11; (1Co 6:19-20)
Jesus Christ is the “author and perfecter of our Spiritual life” because, as a
man, He resided in the prototype; the operational Spiritual life now belongs to
us. (Heb 12:2) God has given us the sphere of power, the system of protocol
that we need to “proclaim the Virtues” of Christ in our lives. (1Pe 2:9) As
believers we come to love our Lord Jesus Christ — our “most important love”
(Rev 2:4) — by living within the system in which His humanity lived. By
obeying the Commands of His protocol system, by Thinking with His Thoughts
— Bible Doctrines, Promises and Commands — the “Mind of Christ”
(1Co 2:16) — by utilizing the filling of God the Holy Spirit Who sustained our
Lord, we become “imitators of God.” (Eph 5:1) The dynamics of Christ’s
humanity becomes our dynamics. His Virtues become our Virtues; His
capacity for happiness becomes our capacity; His glory, (Divine nature)
becomes our glory. (Our new Divine nature; 2Pe 1:4) cf. (2Co 3:18)
INNOVATION WITHIN A SYSTEM
God’s plan for your life is analogous to the game plan for the Super-bowl.
Two teams are involved, and two systems are in competition. One game plan
works and wins; the other fails and loses. There is only one game plan that
wins for the believer—the Spiritual life with its ten gates.
Illustration
In His matchless grace God has provided a precise instrument system.
We are not authorized to fly by the seat of our pants. Without a system we
have no Standards, no coordination, no performance, and no effectiveness.
Success demands a system! A system is a coordinated plan that unifies and
directs the efforts of all the diverse individuals and elements within an
organization. No coach can innovate on the playing field without a cohesive
system of organization, authority, training, and discipline.
Innovation without a system is disastrous in any realm — athletics, business,
politics, economics, the military, social life and the Spiritual life. We as
believers in Christ cannot successfully innovate in our lives, exercising wisdom
and common sense in the challenges that confront us, unless we live in the
system God has ordained. Each life is unique; the system establishes
protocol for all. God does not tell us precisely what to Think and do in each
situation; He gives us freedom to apply the correct Verse and or Verses,
Doctrine and or Doctrines, Promise and or Promises in our own lives. But
innovation and practical application must be within His system. Each believer
must learn God’s game plan just as a professional athlete learns the
playbook.
One of the most effective systems in professional football forbids the
quarterback to call the plays. The coach personally directs every play from
the sidelines. He is the one who does the thinking and plans the strategy. The
players execute the game plan with confidence because they know the
system works. No quarterback under pressure on the field can out-think the
coach.
Every successful system has a purpose, policy, and structure of authority.
On a football team the coach’s purpose is to win; his policies promote
winning; and his structure of authority takes the talented, the arrogant, the
strong, the weak, the lazy, the unconcerned, and then teaches them to
concentrate under pressure, and transforms them into one of the finest teams
in professional football. The smart coach devises his system to be greater
than any of its component parts, greater than any individual player. The
system enables his organization to establish a consistent winning record over
the years regardless of who is on the team. It does not matter who executes
the plays, as long as he does it the coach’s way! God’s perfect system —
the Spiritual life — is greater than any human system or individual believer.
God’s plan works in every generation, for anyone who will follow its
Mandates. The Divine system transforms all kinds of believers into Spiritually
mature believers; winners in the devil’s world. (John 12:31; John 14:30;
John 16:11; Eph 2:1-8; (1Jn 2:13-14)
In God’s system the purpose is to glorify Jesus Christ; the policy is grace;
the authority is the sovereignty of God. Christ is glorified by the Salvation of
unbelievers and the imputation of blessings to believers; the policy of grace is
defined in the Bible; Divine authority is embodied in the Word of God
(Rom 1:16) and delegated as temporal authority under the Divine laws of
establishment. (Rom 13:1-8) Like the coach, God has done the Thinking,
planned the strategy, and called the plays. As believers our responsibility is
to execute His plan! (Isa 14:24)
MANY COMMANDS, ONE SPIRITUAL LIFE
God has issued hundreds of Commands throughout the New Testament.
We are instructed to be filled with God the Holy Spirit, to confess our sins, to
love the brethren, to rest in the Lord, to maintain humility, to learn and apply
the Word of God, to love God and be Occupied with Christ, to acquire Virtue,
to resist evil, to achieve Spiritual maturity! These imperatives are not isolated
Commands unrelated to one another; all these diverse Commandments for
the believer combine to form the perfect Divine system.
If you keep My Commandments, you will abide in My love; [Spiritual life]
just as I have kept My Father’s Commandments and abide in His love. [Spirit
and Truth] (John 15:10)
God’s system is designated the “sphere of love” or love complex to
emphasize love as the supreme Christian Virtue. (1Co 13:13) The New
Testament Commands us to love, but no one can obey this Command without
understanding that love is an entire sphere, a complex of interrelated
elements, a system of power. The coined term for this Divine system, from
the Greek is dunamis, “power,” and sphaia, “sphere”: the “Divine dynasphere
— Spiritual life — Spirit and Truth.” These descriptive synonyms emphasize
the efficacy and sustaining strength of the love complex. (The fruit of the
Spirit; Gal 5:22-23)
In the future, keep on being strong [Dunamai, the cognate verb of
dunamis] in the Lord, even by means of the inner rule of His endowed power
[The Divine dynasphere] Wear for yourselves the full armor from God [The
Spiritual life] that you may be able [Dunamai] to hold your ground against the
tactics [False thinking] of the devil. (Eph 6:10-11)
In, (Eph 6:13-17) Paul illustrates the Spiritual life through an analogy to
the Roman soldier’s uniform — his belt, breastplate, sandals, shield, helmet,
and sword. The panoply of God consists of separate items of Spiritual armor
and weaponry, each of which contributes to the believer’s victory in Spiritual
combat. Just as the Directive to “don the full armor of God” requires you to
skillfully wield an array of offensive and defensive weapons against the
enemy, so also the Command to reside in the Spiritual life demands
obedience to an entire system of Divine Imperatives. The Divine system
coordinates every legitimate temporal and Spiritual activity in life. By
consistently living in this power system, the believer obeys all God’s
Commands. (John 14:21; Gal 5:22-23)
THE GATES OF THE SYSTEM
Since Divine Commands can be organized into categories, the prototype
Spiritual life has eight “gates.”
1. THE POWER GATE: the filling of God the Holy Spirit.
2. OBJECTIVITY: basic Christian modus operandi.
3. TEACHABILITY: enforced and genuine humility.
4. SPIRITUAL MOMENTUM: perception and application of Bible Doctrine.
5. MOTIVATIONAL VIRTUE: Personal love for God.
6. FUNCTIONAL VIRTUE: Impersonal love for mankind.
7. MOMENTUM TESTING: acceleration of Spiritual growth.
8. THE WINNER’S GATE: Spiritual maturity, sharing the happiness of God.
Because all eight gates are engaged as one dynamic unity, this is also
designated the love complex as the “interlocking system of love.” A diagram
of the system shows the coalescence of the gates.
Illustration # 1 Compare Illustration # 2
Gates one, two, and three interlock to provide the power, objectivity, and
receptivity needed for learning and applying the Word of God at gate four.
Gate four is the momentum gate. All momentum in the Spiritual life is fueled
by knowledge of Divine Thoughts and accelerated by proper application of
God’s Spiritual Thinking. Spiritual momentum carries the believer to Spiritual
maturity. Gates one through three constitute motivation essential for
concentration on Truth, whereas gates five through eight are result gates, the
results of Spiritual momentum. Gates five and six form a double gate that
expresses the most vital Concept in experiential Christianity: integrity
precedes love. In dealing with mankind, God’s integrity always comes before
His love; the essence of God establishes the precedent for the Christian way
of life. We, too, must possess integrity before we have capacity to love God
or man. This is the Doctrine of Virtue-love.
The first four gates of the system build Christian Virtue, honor, and integrity;
Virtue love pervades the system at gates five and six. The Spiritual Virtues in
gate five directed toward God motivate the functional virtues in gate six
directed toward people, self, things and circumstances. These motivational
and functional Virtues stand or fall together. Gate seven provides Divine
solutions to resolve the problems of life as the believer’s Spiritual momentum
is repeatedly challenged. Passing these tests accelerates Spiritual growth.
(Sin nature, people, thought, system — organization, and disaster testing)
Gate eight, the objective is Spiritual maturity!
And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is
perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my
weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am
well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with
persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I
am strong. (2Co 12:9-10)
MATURITY AND INTEGRITY
Maturity, the goal of the Christian’s life, is achieved through steadfastness in
the Spiritual life, where the believer acquires capacity for life, for love, for
happiness, for “greater grace” or super-grace, (Jas 4:6) beyond God’s
faithful sustenance of all believers. The believer in gate eight has become a
Spiritual aristocrat invested with the title “Friend of God.” (Jas 2:23) Through
his tenacity to reside and function in the Spiritual life, he has attained an
honorable status in his soul that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.
The superior quality of the Spiritually mature believer’s life is a testimony
to Divine grace; all the mature Christian has and is depends entirely on Christ’
s saving work and His gift of the Spiritual life. God can prosper the mature
believer with a maximum expression of grace because he has capacity to
appreciate God’s blessings without forgetting their source. In gate eight the
believer recognizes the giver, God Himself, in every gift received.
The Spiritually mature believer approaches life from the Divine Viewpoint,
which is manifested in discernment, thoughtfulness toward people, and the
ability to astutely interpret current trends of history. Stabilized by his love for
Truth, he is distinguished by his Spiritual common sense. He maintains his
poise in all circumstances, sustained by the unseen Reality of his Virtue love
for God. In the strength of the Spiritual life, the mature believer has
constructed an edifice in his soul, (1Co 3:9-17; Eph 4:12) an inner structure
called the “edification complex,” with a penthouse that represents the
happiness of God.
Illustration
True happiness is achieved only in the Spiritual life. Happiness depends on
Virtue, honor, and integrity.
Integrity is a state or quality of being complete; an unimpaired state of
honesty and purity; a soundness of Principle; the character of uncorrupted
Virtue, especially in relation to Truth and fair dealing. Integrity is uprightness
of character; probity; candor; uncompromising adherence to a code of
Spiritual or professional values; the avoidance of deception, expediency,
artificiality, or shallowness of any kind.
Reduced to essentials, integrity is loyalty to Truth. Truth exists in three
categories: the Divine laws of establishment, the Gospel, and Truth — the
Divine Thinking of the Bible. Our residence in the sphere of God’s power is
our loyalty to the absolute Truth of His design. In Commands that form part of
the Bible, He has prescribed for us this complete, interlocking structure for
developing integrity so that, from His own integrity, He may share His
happiness with us both now and forever.
For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent
Promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the Divine Nature,
having escaped the corruption [The old sin nature] that is in the world by lust.
(2Pe 1:4)
PAUL’S PRAYERS CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
The Spiritual life is the subject of two apostolic prayers by Paul, the man
who exploited God’s power and advanced farther in the Spiritual life than any
other believer. (2Pe 3:15-16)
For this reason I [Paul] too, having heard about your faith in the Lord
Jesus and the love toward all the saints [Functional Virtue, Impersonal love
toward all believers, gate six] do not cease giving thanks for you while
mentioning you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give you a Spirit of wisdom and of revelation [The filling
and teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit, gate one] in the full knowledge
of Him, [Learning and Thinking with the Mind of Christ, gate four, resulting in
Personal love for God, gate five] that the eyes of your heart [The Thinking
portion of the soul] may be enlightened [Perceptive ability based on the first
four gates of the system] so that you may know what is the hope of His
calling [Spiritual maturity] and what are the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints, [Temporal and eternal blessings to believers who live
in the system] and what is the surpassing greatness of His power [Spiritual
victory from living in fellowship with God] toward us who believe. These are
according to the standard of the operational power [The function of the Divine
system] of His inner power, [The Spiritual life] which power that has been
operational in Christ [The humanity of Christ living in the prototype throughout
the First Advent] when He [The Father] raised Him from the dead and seated
Him at the right hand in the heavenly places. [Christ’s strategic victory over
Satan through death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session]
(Eph 1:15-20)
The second apostolic prayer expresses Paul’s exhortation that believers
“Become strong by means of His power [The Spiritual life] through His Spirit
[God the Holy Spirit, gate one] in the inner man” [The new Divine nature] and
that they “may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:16-19) A
synonym for Spiritual maturity. This second prayer concludes:
Now to the One [God the Father] Himself being able [Dunamai, referring
to Divine omnipotence] far beyond all things to do infinitely more than that
which we could ask or imagine, according to the power [Dunamis, the
Spiritual life] being itself effective in us, to Him be the glory in the Church and
in Christ Jesus with reference to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
(Eph 3:20-21)
SPIRITUAL ARISTOCRACY
The New Covenant Spiritual life is here at unique period of human history
from the day of Pentecost, (Acts 2:1) circa A.D. 30, through the Church Age,
Tribulation (Luk 12:35-53; (2Co 3:6; Rev 14:4-5) and until the end of the
Millennium. (Jer 31:33-34) cf. (Heb 13:20) We are on the victory side of The
Cross, The Spiritual life for the Reality plan, was designed for Jesus Christ.
This system of power could not be given to believers until Christ had proven
the system throughout His life, accomplishing His mission for the First Advent,
earning the glory of a new royal title, founding a new royal dynasty to which
He could bequeath His system of power and love. (John 4:23; Gal 5:22-23)
During the Church Age, Jesus Christ as glorified royalty is seated at the right
hand of God the Father in heaven, while the Father forms on earth a royal
family for Him. We are the New Covenant royal family!
Jesus Christ retains three titles of royalty, each with a royal family. As
God, our Lord is Divine royalty, the “Son of God,” and His royal family is the
Trinity. As man, Jesus is Jewish royalty, the “Son of David,” and His royal
family is the line of King David. As the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ won
the strategic victory over Satan at the Cross and earned a third series of
royal titles, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” and “The Bright Morning Star.”
(1Ti 6:15; Rev 19:16; Rev 22:16) These last titles signify His battlefield
royalty, His strategic victory over Satan.’
THE THREE ROYALTIES OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
When Christ ascended to heaven, after perfectly accomplishing His
mission on earth, He was rewarded with this third patent of royalty from the
Father. (Eph 1:20-23) For the first time our Lord possessed a royal title with
no royal family. To establish a royal family for Christ’s new aristocracy, God
started the New Covenant Age of the Church. Designated the “body of Christ”
(Eph 1:22-23; Eph 4:12) the “bride of Christ” (2Co 11:2; Eph 5:25-27) and
implied in the vocatives “beloved” and “brethren,” the Church, the 144,000,
the Millennial believers, all receive the New Covenant Spiritual life.
(2Co 3:5-11; Heb 8:8-13) cf. (Heb 10:14-17; Heb 13:20) And this is His third
royal family. Everyone who believes in Christ from now till the end of time,
simultaneously becomes a member of the royal family of God forever and
has access to the completed Spiritual life! (Rom 8:11-14)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His
glory, [God Himself in a human body] glory as the unique Son of the Father,
full of grace and Truth. [The New Covenant Spiritual life] (John 1:14)
And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God
and men. (Luk 2:52)
Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He
suffered. And having been made perfect, [Spiritually Mature] He became to
all those who obey Him the source of eternal Salvation. [In time and through
Eternity] (Heb 5:8-9)
Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with
God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-
servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance
as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and
bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name
of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth
and under the earth and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Php 2:6-11)
As a demonstration of love for the Son, God the Father provided the
Spiritual life to sustain the humanity of Christ who, from the virgin birth until
His ascension to heaven, would face continuous opposition in the devil’s
world. God combined certain Divine Principles into a unique system. He took
Impersonal love and Personal love —patterned after His own Divine attribute
of love — and added the ministry of God the Holy Spirit as the power to
support our Lord during his earthly ministry. (Given at the virgin birth) After He
reached Spiritual maturity He was fully empowered by the Holy Spirit.
(Isa 11:2-3; Isa 61:1)
Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and
while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended
upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, You are
My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased. (Luk 3:21-23)
Then tested! Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and
was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted
by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had
ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, If You are the Son of
God, tell this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, It is written,
MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE. [He passed the lust of the flesh]
And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a
moment of time. And the devil said to Him, I will give You all this domain and
its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours. Jesus answered
him, It is written, YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND
SERVE HIM ONLY. [He passed the lust of the eyes] And he led Him to
Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him,
If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written,
HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,
and, ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL
NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE. And Jesus answered and
said to him, It is said, YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO
THE TEST. [He passed the pride of life!] When the devil had finished every
temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. (Luk 4:1-13)
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, And the book of the
prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the
place where it was written, "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND
RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE
OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD."
And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the
eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to
them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. (Luk 4:17-21)
The earth was lost by Adam and Eve to Satan. When the woman saw that
the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the
tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she
gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. (Gen 3:6)
And the LORD won it back! And set the Standard that we must overcome.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and
the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
(1Jn 2:16)
He who overcomes, [The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the
pride of life] I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also
overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. (Rev 3:21)
Ten days after our Lord ascended and was seated in heaven, the New
Covenant Church Age began, and the completed Spiritual life was the first
blessing given to each member of the royal family. On the night He was
betrayed, fifty days before the Church Age began, our Lord prophesied to His
disciples that they would receive the same system of Divine power that had
sustained and blessed Him throughout the First Advent. He taught them that
His Virtue love in the prototype was patterned after the Virtue love of God.
Reside [Remain, persist] in My love. [In fellowship] If you keep [Observe,
fulfill] My Commandments, [Thoughts] you shall reside in the sphere of My
love, [The Spiritual life] just as I have fulfilled the Commandments [Thoughts]
of My Father and I reside in the sphere of His love. [Spiritual life]
(John 15:9-10)
Christ lived and functioned for thirty-three years in the very system in
which we are now Commanded to live! He succeeded in fulfilling perfectly
God’s plan, not in His own power but in the power of God the Holy Spirit and
the Spiritual life. This same Divine power is now available to us; we too can
fulfill the plan of God. We cannot be sinless, as was the humanity of Christ,
but with the rebound provision, (1Jn 1:9) which enables us to recover instantly
from the control of the sin nature; we can execute God’s game plan for our
lives.
If we walk in the light [In fellowship with God] as He is in the light we have
fellowship with each other [God and the Spiritual believer] and the blood of
Jesus Christ [The basis for rebound] cleanses us from all sin. (1Jn 1:7)
The believer inside the Spiritual life is also described as “filled with the
Spirit”; (Eph 5:18) he “walks by means of the Spirit” (Gal 5:16) and he is said
to be “cleansed.” (1Jn 1:9) He has “put on Christ” (Rom 13:14) because
Christ lived in the original system. The believer in the love complex is “walking
in love” (Eph 5:2) “loving one another” (1Jn 3:23) and, as we have seen,
“residing in the love. [Complex]” (John 15:9-10) He is “holding his ground” in
the full armor of God. (Eph 6:11) Each phrase emphasizes a different aspect
of our royal way of life.
Aristocracy means achievement. Christ achieved strategic victory in the
angelic conflict and established a new and unique dynasty of Spiritual nobility.
As His eternal royal family we depend entirely on Christ and therefore must
emulate the integrity He possessed in the prototype Spiritual life. He gave us
the system by which we can in our temporal lives manifest the superiority of
our eternal position. Integrity perpetuates nobility. Royalty lives by a superior
code of honor, and as members of Spiritual aristocracy, we fulfill the royal
family honor code and create Christian integrity by functioning in fellowship
with God.
Illustration
CHARACTERISTICS AND PRIORITIES
In summary, God’s game plan, the Spirit and Truth, has the following
general characteristics:
A purpose: glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ in time. The believer’s
tactical victory exploits our Lord’s strategic victory over Satan in the angelic
conflict.
An objective: Spiritual maturity. Momentum toward Spiritual maturity is
possible only in fellowship with God.
A policy: grace. Grace is always the policy of God in the administration of His
plan for sinful man.
A protocol: obedience to Divine Commands. Believers and elect angels in
heaven observe Divine protocol; happiness on earth is based on the precisely
correct procedure of the Spiritual life.
A system: Virtue first. The foundational Virtue of humility, which is directed
toward authority, lays the groundwork for motivational Virtue toward God and
functional Virtue toward man and circumstances.
A point of reference: the justice of God. The holiness or integrity of God is
composed of His absolute righteousness and perfect justice. Our point of
contact with God is His integrity.
An authority: the Word of God. The Bible reveals the essence of God to man
and embodies the absolute authority of Divine sovereignty.
A result: good decisions from a position of strength in the Divine system,
control of your life, and a personal sense of destiny.
An enemy: the cosmic system of Satan.
These nine characteristics will become meaningful in the study we are
about to begin. We can translate these axioms into a set of priorities, which
provide a framework for organizing our life and Thinking with the correct
Divine Thoughts under all circumstances.
In God’s plan the priority is Commands first.
In God’s system, Virtue first.
In God’s purpose, Christ first.
In God’s policy, Grace first.
In God’s objective, Momentum first.
In God’s authority, Divine Thinking first.
These six priorities represent one superior way of life, one system of
power and love with different emphasis as the believer continues to grow. As
we approach all the gates of the Spiritual life, you will learn that these
priorities enable you to make good decisions from a position of strength, take
control of your old sin nature, and acquire a personal sense of destiny within
God’s game plan.
Gate One, The Power Gate
THE SOURCE OF ENERGY
Just as God the Holy Spirit sustained the earthly ministry of Jesus, (Matt
12:18; John 3:34) the filling of God the Spirit provides the power for our lives.
On the eve of His crucifixion, fifty days before the feast of Pentecost when
God the Holy Spirit would be given and the New Covenant Age would begin,
Christ Himself prophesied the advent of God the Holy Spirit in the New
Covenant Spiritual life.
And when the Energizer comes [God the Holy Spirit as the power source
of the New Covenant Spiritual life] whom I will send from the Father, that is,
the Spirit of Truth [A fact that God ALONE owns all Divine Thinking] who
proceeds from the Father, that He will give evidence [Make a deposition,
testify] concerning Me. (John 15:26)
The Greek noun parakletos, which I have translated “Energizer,” is used in
the Bible only by the Apostle John, referring once to Christ (1Jn 2:1) but
generally to the Holy Spirit. (John 14:16; John 14:26; John 16:7) This title for
God is translated “Comforter” in the King James Version and “Helper” in the
New American Standard Version.
In the classical Greek a parakletos was someone called to the aid of
another, particularly in the legal process; hence, an advisor, intercessor, or
mediator in court. In Roman times, when the official Greek language of the
eastern empire was translated into the official Latin of the west, the Latin
equivalent for parakletos was advocatus, from which we derive the English
word “advocate” or lawyer.
A parakletos was a professional legal advisor, sometimes a defense
attorney. The word connotes ability, aid, and assistance, rather than
assuagement of pain or distress, as the translation “comforter” suggests.
Certainly comfort is implied; the one being aided by a powerful helper is
relieved and encouraged. But eternal God, the third Person of the Trinity,
does not come to the royal family to say, “There, there, everything will be all
right.” Instead, He was sent by the Father (John 15:26) to empower, help,
and sustain the humanity of Christ against all the forces of evil Satan could
hurl against Him.
This same omnipotent Member of the Godhead was in turn sent by the
Father and the Son, (John 14:26) to be the power source for the new royal
family. The Holy Spirit reproduces in us the Virtues of Christ as we advance
to Spiritual maturity. (Eph 5:1-2; Gal 5:22-23; Rom 13:14) The Spirit’s title,
Parakletos, must be understood in terms of power within the Divine system,
in which we, like the humanity of Christ, must live in the devil’s world.
Christ’s final words on earth before ascending into heaven prophesied the
coming of God the Holy Spirit, the Energizer of the Spiritual life. The Divine
power system would motivate growing believers to spread the Gospel and
the teaching of the Mind of Christ throughout the world.
But you shall receive power [The Spiritual life] when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and
Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
God the Energizer has two basic ministries to the royal family, one of
which is indicated by His functional title in, (John 15:26) “Spirit of Truth, or
Spirit of Divine Thoughts.” He provides the Spiritual IQ for learning Truth,
which itself is the power of God. (Rom 1:16) Thus the filling of God the Holy
Spirit at gate one and the perception and application of Divine Thinking at
gate four interlock with each other. (1Co 2:9-16) The Word and the Spirit join
forces to form the greatest power system ever offered to any dispensation in
the history of mankind.
And my message and my preaching [Divine Thoughts] were not in
persuasive words of [Human] wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and
of power, [The Spiritual life] that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of
men, but on the power of God. (1Co 2:4-5)
Enhancing the believer’s IQ for perception of the written Word of God in
gate four, God the Holy Spirit also supplies energy for the believer’s function
in the entire love complex. (Gal 5:16-23) At all gates of the Divine system,
God the Holy Spirit energizes the Christian life with an unseen power that
surpasses any ability, talent, genius, or achievement of man.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the Words that I
have spoken to you are spirit and are life. (John 6:63)
We have an inexhaustible supply of Spiritual strength in gate one, with this
power we can obey God’s Commands and receive Divine blessings beyond
imagination! Apart from the power of God the Holy Spirit there is no Spiritual
life!
Holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; [The
filling of God the Holy Spirit] avoid such men as these. (2Ti 3:5)
The Holy Spirit had a limited ministry to believers of Old Testament
dispensations, but the procedure of believers changed dramatically when the
New Covenant Age began. The Spirit temporarily indwelt certain believers of
the past; He permanently indwells all believers in the New Covenant Age.
(John 14:17) We have a superior system that even mature Old Testament
believers did not possess. Never before has every believer been Commanded
to “be filled with God the Spirit” (Eph 5:18) and to “walk by means of the
Spirit.” (Gal 5:16)
TWO POSITIVE MANDATES
The first of these two Mandates Commands the New Covenant Age
believer to reside in the bottom circle — in fellowship — in the Spiritual life —
in the love complex — in our new nature — in our Temple — in Spirit and
Truth.
Illustration
Stop being intoxicated with wine, which is dissipation, [And escapism] but
be filled with the Spirit. (Eph 5:18)
The Greek verb pleroo, translated “be filled,” conveys a wealth of related
meanings. Each of its four basic definitions applies to the ministry of God the
Holy Spirit.
“Fill up a deficiency”: Outside the bottom circle we possess no ability to
learn or Think with Divine Thoughts or resist the influence of Satan’s false
Biblical and non-Biblical systems of thinking. (2Co 11:13-15; Col 1:27-28;
(1Jn 4:4)
“Be fully possessed”: God the Holy Spirit, who indwells the body of every
believer, (1Co 6:19) empowers the soul of the believer residing in fellowship
with Him. (1Jn 1:3-7)
If we say that we have fellowship with Him [Spirituality] and yet walk in the
darkness, [Carnality] we lie and do not practice [Think with] the Truth.
(1Jn 1:6)
“Be fully influenced”: The Spiritual life, with the Holy Spirit as the power
source, is a comprehensive system that influences every facet of the believer’
s life.
“Filled with a certain quality”: The ministry of God the Holy Spirit is to lead
the believer to Spiritual maturity. (Eph 3:19; Php 1:11; Rev 3:2; (1Jn 1:4)
This Command to “be filled with the Spirit” orders us to enter the Spiritual
life at gate one.
Pleroo indicates that the filling of God the Holy Spirit is an absolute. You
are in fellowship or you are not; there is no middle ground for the believer.
Under His filling ministry, God the Holy Spirit fully energizes the believer and
fully protects his soul. Although the Spirit fully protects the believer whenever
he resides in fellowship, the manifestations of the filling of God the Holy Spirit
increase with Spiritual maturity. In the immature Christian the Spirit has little
Spiritual Thinking to use as raw material for the “fruit of the Spirit” to be
produced in the believer. (Gal 5:22-23) The Spiritually mature believer can
use the Mind of Christ. (1Co 2:16) Spirit and Truth, together reproduce the
Virtues of Christ! (John 4:23-24; (1Pe 2:9)
(Eph 5:18) teaches that the filling of the Spirit is the opposite of
drunkenness. As the believer’s IQ for “Spiritual Appraising” increases,
(1Co 2:14-15) the filling of the Spirit contributes to concentration and mental
focus, not to dissipation. Imbibing too much alcohol depresses the mentality,
releasing uninhibited emotion; the filling of God the Holy Spirit supports lucid
Divine Thinking and is undetectable, behind the scenes, and unrelated to
emotion. The mission of God the Holy Spirit to the royal family is not to make
a name for Himself by interjecting ecstatic experiences but to reveal the Lord
Jesus Christ. (John 16:13-15)
This first Command regarding God the Holy Spirit contributes to the integrity
of the entire Divine system. Christians who lack the complete Doctrines of the
Spiritual life assume that the filling of God the Holy Spirit is an end in itself
when actually the power of God the Holy Spirit is a means to an end. The
ultimate objective is the consistent, coordinated function of all the gates of the
system, which result in phenomenal blessing for the believer and maximum
glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 4:13-24)
The Spiritual momentum required to reach this objective is Commanded in
the second positive Command concerning God the Holy Spirit.
Keep walking by means of the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire
of the flesh. (Gal 5:16)
God never forces your volition. He designed you and knows what is best
for you at each moment of your life. He has established clear Thoughts for
you to Think with that you may fulfill His perfect plan for your prosperity and
happiness. You can accept His authority and obey His Commands, or revolt
and disobey. God’s sovereign authority cannot prosper you without your
consent. (1Sa 15:22-23)
The filling of God the Holy Spirit alone is not the entire thrust of the Christian
way of life. Gate one, the filling of God the Holy Spirit, functions as part of a
system in conjunction with our volition. After we have entered gate one, we
must by our own decisions enter the other gates of the complex; this is
“walking by means of the Spirit.”
While filled with God the Holy Spirit, we claim promises, resist
temptations to sin, and maintain the objectivity of basic Impersonal love in
gate two. We remain teachable through enforced and genuine humility in gate
three. We establish the habit of Doctrinal perception in gate four, where we
also maintain a constant alertness in the application of Divine Thinking to
circumstances. (Luk 16:10) Thousands of positive decisions in these first four
gates of the Spiritual life comprise our Christian walk, resulting in Personal
love for God in gate five, the integrity of Impersonal love in gate six, stability
under testing in gate seven, and the happiness of Spiritual maturity in gate
eight. The filling of God the Holy Spirit is the motivation of the Spiritual life;
walking by means of the Spirit is the function of the Christian life.
TWO NEGATIVE MANDATES
Two additional Commands define the power struggle in which the believer
must rely on the Holy Spirit. God Commands us to resist the power and
influence of Satan. And stop grieving the Holy Spirit from God. (Eph 4:30)
Do not quench the Spirit. (1Th 5:19)
These two Commands warn us that, when we sin, we cut off the power of
the Spiritual life and permit the old sin nature to seize control of the soul.
Fellowship with God and Satan’s cosmic system are mutually exclusive! We
always reside in one or the other: if not in God’s system, we live in Satan’s
power system. We “grieve” the Spirit when we enter Satan’s system of
preoccupation with self; we “quench” the Spirit when we live in Satan’s
system of preoccupation with others and antagonism toward God, Truth, and
the Divine plan. Both of these negative Commands describe God the Holy
Spirit in terms of anthropopathisms. Grieving and quenching are language of
accommodation, describing God in human terms to make His infinite functions
perspicuous to finite man. Perfect happiness belongs eternally to the essence
of God. The third Person of the Trinity cannot suffer grief, nor can His infinite
power be quenched. He is always omnipotent.
By negative volition we refuse to benefit from the plan of God so that the
attributes of God do not have their intended function in our lives. We may
reject the grace provisions of God’s power system, but we cannot jeopardize
the essence of God. God will always have His way; He will be glorified with
us or without us! Our blessings accrue through obedience to the positive and
negative Commands concerning the Energizer of the Divine system.
OPPOSITION THROUGH DISTORTION
So effective is our power source that we are not surprised that Satan
would mount a concentrated assault against this Divine provision. With
insidious cunning he has distorted the Doctrines pertaining to God the Holy
Spirit by counterfeiting bona fide functions of the past and linking them to
human emotion and arrogance to consolidate his evil sedition. Satanic false
Biblical Doctrines influence people to vie for Spiritual status by claiming to
speak in tongues, hear voices, see visions, perform miracles, heal the sick —
all in a welter of emotionalism. The post canon New Covenant ministry of God
the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with such practices. (Rom 16:17-18;
(1Co 13:8; Php 3:18-19)
The pursuit of such ecstatic experiences in the name of Spirituality obscures
the Truth and blasphemes against God. Christianity is a system of Thinking
— Thinking With the Mind of Christ — and God the Holy Spirit provides the
power that, first, aids our concentration in learning the Word of Truth and,
second, enhances our ability to apply those Thoughts in EVERY
CIRCUMSTANCE.
A period of transition existed between the beginning of the Church Age in
A.D. 30 and the completion of the written canon of Scripture in A.D. 96, when
the Apostle John wrote Revelation. During this time spectacular but
temporary Spiritual gifts facilitated the change from the completed Old
Covenant; (Matt 5:17; Acts 3:18) into the New Covenant. Miracles and
healings were performed to focus attention upon the Divine authority of the
apostles and to authenticate their new message. (Acts 19:11-20) The Spirit
inspired the apostles to write the New Testament canon, including the
Doctrines of the New Covenant, (Acts 3:24) because they were now pertinent
to the royal family. (John 14:26; Eph 3:2-6) The gift of tongues was a bona
fide ministry for the first forty years of the Church Age as a warning sign to
Israel of her approaching national destruction, which occurred in AD. 70
(Isa 28:11-12; (1Co 14:21) In that pre-canon transition period of the New
covenant Church Age, the coming of the Holy Spirit as the power for the
Spiritual life was accompanied by unusual and now defunct manifestations.
On the day the Church Age began, temporary gifts accompanied the New
Covenant Spiritual life; initially the ministry of the Spirit included functions that
have since ceased to legitimately exist. (1Co 13:8; Php 2:27; (2Ti 4:20) In the
Scriptures we must distinguish these overt, temporary ministries of the Spirit
from His invisible, permanent ministries if we are to avoid the trap of
emotional arrogance. We must “rightly divide the Word of Truth” in order to
execute God’s game plan for our lives. (2Ti 2:15)
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE AT SALVATION
Christ received the prototype at His virgin birth; the apostles and others
received it on the day of Pentecost; we receive the Spiritual life at the new
birth.
At the moment when anyone is born from God, [The moment of Salvation
through faith in Christ] he is not sinning [It is impossible to sin inside the
Spiritual life], because His seed [God the Holy Spirit] keeps residing in him.
Furthermore, he is not able to sin [In fellowship with God] because he has
been born of God. (1Jn 3:9)
The Greek personal pronoun autos, takes the same form in both neuter
and masculine genders; the context determines whether this pronoun is
translated “it” or “him.” In (1Jn 3:9) autos is rendered by the neuter, “keeps
residing in it.” (The Spiritual life) The Holy Spirit, as the “seed” or source of
Divine energy for Spiritual growth, perpetually belongs to God’s power
system. The Holy Spirit does reside “in him” — in every member of the royal
family — but in this passage John is not teaching the indwelling of the Spirit.
(1Co 6:19-20; Gal 3:2; Gal 4:6; John 7:37-39; John 14:16-17) The Spirit
indwells the believer’s body, where He opposes the genetic old sin nature and
seeks to fill and empower the soul. (Eph 5:18) We are permanently indwelled
by the Spirit, even when we sin, (Rom 8:9) but we are filled with the Spirit
only when residing in the bottom circle. Empowered by the infinite power of
God the Holy Spirit, the agent of our eternal Salvation, we cannot sin inside
the bottom circle, a status we first attain at the moment of Salvation. When
anyone believes in Christ during the Church Age, he receives simultaneously
— entirely unfelt and undetected — the baptism of God the Holy Spirit, the
indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, and the filling of God the Holy Spirit. The
baptism of God the Holy Spirit places us into union with Christ so that we
share all He IS and all He has; this union makes us members of the royal
family. Unique among believers in all dispensations, we are “in Christ,”
identified with Christ forever. (Rom 16:7; (2Co 5:17) Like the baptism of God
the Holy Spirit, which has eternal repercussions, the indwelling of God the
Holy Spirit is also permanent. Never before has God the Holy Spirit
permanently resided in the body of any believer, but from the moment of
Salvation, God the third Person perpetually indwells the body of each
member of the royal family. The finest believers, and all believers in between,
are beneficiaries of this aspect of gate one — the body of every Christian is
the temple of God the Holy Spirit. (1Co 6:19) just as in the prototype our
Lord described His body as a temple. (John 2:19-21)
LEAVING AND REENTERING THE DIVINE SYSTEM
Illustration
The baptism and indwelling of the Spirit cannot be lost, but we close down
the filling of the Spirit each time we succumb to temptation and decide to sin.
And this is the message which we have heard from Him [Jesus Christ] and
communicated to you, that God is light and in Him darkness does not exist.
[No compromise of God’s system with Satan’s system] If we contend [Claim,
assert, maintain] that we have fellowship with Him [God] and keep walking in
darkness, [Living in carnality through sin, followed by continued function in
Satan’s system] we lie and do not practice the Truth... If we contend that we
have no sin, [No sin nature, the source of temptation] we are deceiving
ourselves and the Truth [Divine Thinking] is not in us... If we contend [When
we have sinned] that we have not sinned, [Have not succumbed to
temptation, have not exited the bottom circle] we keep making Him [God] a
liar, and His Word is not in us. (1Jn 1:5-10)
Under His filling ministry God the Holy Spirit empowers, only when we
reside in fellowship. We begin our Christian lives filled with God the Holy
Spirit, but that initial filling is short-lived because we still possess volition and
the old sin nature still resides in our bodies. (Rom 6:16-22; Rom 7:7-18;
1Jn 1:8)
As the resident antagonist against the indwelling Holy Spirit, the old sin
nature is Satan’s inside agent for distracting us from God’s game plan.
(John 2:24-25; Gal 5:17) The sin nature is the source of temptation, but our
volition is the source of sin. When the sin nature tempts us to commit a sin,
we can resist the temptation and remain filled with God the Holy Spirit. The
Biblical Commands to resist temptation are incorporated into the Spiritual life
at gate one.
Submit therefore to God. [Stay in fellowship with God] Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you. [Be cut off from your sin nature] (Jas 4:7)
No testing has caught up with you except the human kind; moreover, God
is faithful who will not allow you to be tested beyond your capabilities, but
with the testing He will also provide [Through Truth] the way of escape so
that you may be able to endure it. (1Co 10:13)
We can choose to resist temptation and remain in fellowship, or we can
acquiesce to temptation and eject ourselves from God’s power system.
Because no one can sin inside the filling of God the Holy Spirit, we exit when
we choose to sin. We are still saved, still in the royal family of God, still in
union with Christ, still indwelled by the Spirit, but we must return to God’s
system. If we are outside, we can reenter through gate one just as we first
entered at Salvation. God has given us the rebound technique, which restores
us to the Divine system after we have sinned.
If we acknowledge [Name, admit, confess] our sins, He [God the Father]
is faithful and just so that He forgives us our sins [Known sins] and also
cleanses us from all unrighteousness. [Unknown and forgotten sins] (1Jn 1:9)
By acknowledging our sins privately to God, we restore the filling of God
the Holy Spirit and once again reside in the sphere of Divine power. All
Biblical Commands to recover from sin and resume our fellowship with God
pertain to gate one. These Commands are variously phrased to emphasize
different facets of the Doctrine. We are Commanded to “acknowledge our
sins.” (Prov 1:23; Jas 5:16; Rev 3:3) “yield” ourselves to God, (Rom 6:13)
“judge ourselves,” (1Co 11:31-32) “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin
which so easily entangles us,” (Heb 12:1) “put aside all filthiness,” (Jas 1:21)
“be in subjection to the Father,” (Heb 12:9) “lay aside the old self,” (Eph 4:22)
“present our bodies” (Rom 12:1-2) “make straight paths,”
(Matt 3:3; Heb 12:13) “stand up again from out of death,” [Temporal death —
Carnality] (Eph 5:14) and “lift up the hands that hang down.” (Heb 12:12)
Once we reenter the bottom circle through rebound, the pertinent Command
then becomes “walk by means of the Spirit,” (Gal 5:16) the Command to
advance Spiritually in the other gates of the system powered by the Energizer.
Gate Two, Basic Christian
Modus Operandi
THE BELIEVER’S OBJECTIVITY
Early in his Christian life the believer must learn the basics of God’s game
plan. He must practice and master certain rudimentary skills until they
become second nature to him. The new believer may not understand the
system, but God has issued basic Commands and the believer must obey
them. The Christian way of life begins with obedience, not with perfect
understanding.
Gate two represents the routine procedure of the Christian way of life.
Obedience to basic Doctrines in our daily lives keeps us in God’s system and
creates and maintains objectivity. (Looking at life, people, circumstances and
self the way they are! Not the way you “feel” they should be!) Gate two, the
objectivity gate, is mandatory for the function of the other gates. (2Ti 1:7)
The techniques of gate two are designed to sustain the daily discipline of
Thinking with the Word of God, (Psa 1:2-3)
The basic techniques of gate two go beyond rebound to include Thinking
with Divine Promises (Rom 8:28-32) and exercising Impersonal love.
(Rom 13:8) I will summarize the Principle of Thinking with Promises then
define Impersonal love, which is essential to the dynamics of Christian
integrity.
Thinking with the Promises that God has given us eliminates fear, worry,
and anxiety — sins that cut off Divine Thinking. The immature believer can
cling to Promises until he can learn enough Truth to fully understand God’s
plan for his life.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
Him, And He will make your paths straight. [Accurate] (Prov 3:5-6)
And the LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He
will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. (Deut 31:8)
Therefore, the LORD waits to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits
on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How
blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isa 30:18)
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may
exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on Him, because He cares
for you. (1Pe 5:6-7)
Promises enable the growing believer to enter the “peace of God which
passes all understanding.” (Php 4:7) In this peace or “rest,” (Heb 4:1-3) he
possesses the objectivity required to Think clearly and function in the other
gates of the Divine system.
Relying on the Promises of God is only the first step of the faith-rest drill,
a three-step technique for applying Divine Thinking to life. A believer acquires
the ability to utilize the entire faith-rest drill as he grows in Truth, but from the
beginning of his Christian life he can latch on to Divine Promises and stabilize
himself under pressure.
The practice of Impersonal love also contributes to the new believer’s
objectivity. An entire gate, gate six, is devoted to the Virtue of impersonal
love, but at this point in gate two, Impersonal love becomes an issue and
must be developed as a category of Doctrine.
SPIRITUAL PRODUCTION AND THE SUPREME CHRISTIAN VIRTUE
In John 15, where our Lord prophesied the coming of the New Covenant
Spiritual life, He also identified Spiritual growth and maturity as the objective
of the Divine plan! He emphasized that properly motivated Christian
production results from Spiritual advance. (We grow to be productive! We
are not to be doing to grow! Production is a result of Spiritual growth!)
Impersonal love is a category of Spiritual production and is essential for
further growth.
You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would
go and bear fruit, [Reach Spiritual maturity] and that your fruit would remain,
[Blessings in time and eternity] so that whatever you ask of the Father in My
name He may give to you. (John 15:16)
To illustrate mature production, Christ described effective prayer as the
mature believer’s tremendous privilege to engage Divine power in personal or
historical circumstances. Prayer is a weapon for the strong, not an expedient
for the weak. Except for the rebound prayer, which restores the believer to
the Divine power system, all effective prayer must be offered in fellowship
with God. (Psa 66:18) Because the Father is the author of the Divine plan
and designer of the Spiritual life, all prayer is addressed to God the Father,
filled with God the Holy Spirit, in the name of Christ, who won our Salvation
and pioneered the Christian way of life.
God’s Commands for the royal family are classified as Commands for
either residence or function. Residence in the bottom circle is exploited
through function in the bottom circle. Rebound fulfills the Command to “reside
in love,” (John 15:9) then in the strength of gate one, we generate Christian
production as we “walk by means of love,” (Eph 5:2) obeying the functional
Commands. Prayer is an example of a functional responsibility of every
believer, (1Th 5:17) in the power of God the Holy Spirit, (Rom 8:26-27) the
believer is given the privilege of bringing gratitude, intercessions, and
personal petitions before the throne of grace. (Heb 4:16)
A further definition of the “fruit” mentioned by our Lord in, (John 15:16) is
found in, (Gal 5:22-23).
The fruit of God the Holy Spirit is love, happiness, prosperity, stead
fastness, integrity, generosity, Doctrinal confidence, humility, self-discipline.
Against such things there is no law. (Gal 5:22-23)
From these two verses we learn that the believer’s production encompasses
far more than just the overt fulfillment of Christian responsibilities — giving,
prayer, witnessing, and service in the local church. These legitimate
demonstrations of Christian service, when properly motivated, are the result
of Spiritual growth, not the cause. Integrity comes first; service demands
integrity. True Spiritual Thinking creates true motivation; true motivation
creates true action, a right thing must be done in a right way! Christian
production is the coordinated; interlocking function of all the gates in the
Divine system empowered by God the Holy Spirit. (2Th 1:11) This takes time
and function in fellowship with God.
Go to #2
FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE
Heading the list in, (Gal 5:22-23) love receives top billing because it is the
title of God’s game plan. First Corinthians 13 shows that love is a system and
states that love is the supreme Christian virtue.
Now remain [Temporary Spiritual gifts are excluded] faith, hope, and love,
these three, and the greatest of these is love. (1Co 13:13)
Given to only a few believers in the pre-canon period of the New
Covenant Church Age, temporary Spiritual gifts are gone; only the superior
Virtues remain, which are available to all. The Virtues of faith, hope, and love
are part of our permanent heritage as Spiritual aristocracy.
Translated “faith,” the Greek noun pistis has a dual connotation. In its
objective sense pistis means “what is believed,” Truth. Never in any previous
dispensation has Bible the Mind of Christ been committed to writing in a
completed canon of Scripture. Pistis also refers, as here, to the believer’s
application of Divine Thoughts to experience, the faith-rest technique. Just as
“faith” represents an entire system of applying the Word of God, so also
“hope” is a system, which is derived from knowledge of God’s Word. Hope is
absolute confidence in future Divine provisions and blessings. (Rom 8:24-25)
At each stage of a person’s life, he not only can enjoy the blessings he has
but also can anticipate with assurance or “hope” for the blessings that will
come with the next stage of growth. Thus, there are three hopes; together
they trace an individual’s advance from being an unbeliever who anticipates
Salvation, to becoming an immature believer who looks forward to super-
grace blessings, to becoming a mature believer who eagerly awaits the
eternal rewards of heaven. The fulfillment of each hope lays the foundation
for the next hope. No matter how much God blesses us, we can always
anticipate more!
Both faith-rest and hope are subordinate systems that function within the
larger sphere, the bottom circle. A believer can Think with Truth and advance
from hope to hope to hope.
Illustration
Faith and hope depend on the Divine system, which empowers us to learn
Spiritual Thoughts and sustain our Spiritual momentum. Virtue love is superior
to either faith or hope because Virtue love is the characteristic Virtue of the
entire Divine system. We will develop the full significance of this Virtue when
we study the Doctrine of Virtue love in connection with gates five and six of
the Spiritual life.
Even before the Church Age began, Christ encapsulated the entire Mosaic
Law in two Commandments: to love God and to love man. (Matt 22:36-40) In
the Spiritual life every gate involves Virtue love. In order to describe the basic
exercise of Impersonal love in gate two, we must define the overall Concept
of Virtue love. We must understand why it is the highest Christian Virtue and
the Biblical designation for the Christian way of life.
IMPERSONAL AND PERSONAL LOVE
In English as well as the Greek, “love” is a transitive verb; love takes both
a subject and an object. The subject is the one who loves; the object is the
one loved, the recipient of love. In the sentence I love you, “I” is the subject,
and “you” is the object.
This distinction between subject and object explains the two basic types
of genuine Virtue love that exist. I have designated these two categories
“Impersonal love” and “Personal love.” Impersonal love emphasizes the
subject; personal love emphasizes the object. Impersonal love depends on
the honor and integrity of the one who loves; personal love depends on the
attractiveness, capacity, and response of the one who is loved.
By “Impersonal” I mean that this love does not require intimacy, friendliness,
or even acquaintance with the object of love. A close relationship between
subject and object may exist but is not necessary; Impersonal love is simply
the consistent function of your own Spiritual life toward other people.
Impersonal love can be directed toward friends, enemies, loved ones,
strangers the attractive and or repulsive! — in fact, toward the entire human
race.
(Luk 23:34) In contrast, Personal love requires that you know the object with
some degree of intimacy. The object of Personal love must be attractive to
you, share basic Divine Thoughts with you, and have capacity to love you in
return. (Amos 3:3) Only a select few people qualify as objects of your
Personal Esprit de corps love, whereas all mankind can be the object of your
Impersonal love. Personal Esprit de corps love, is designed for interaction
with a few; Impersonal love is designed to benefit the human race. Personal
love is highly discriminating; Impersonal love is non-discriminating. Personal
love is conditional; Impersonal love is unconditional. (With the condition we
are in fellowship) Personal HUMAN love creates weaknesses. You bring your
own problems into any personal relationship, but so does the one you love.
The problems, shortcomings, and faults of two people are combined and
multiplied by personal love. Your vulnerability to the influence of the one you
love can spawn subjectivity and the mental attitude sins of jealousy, self-pity,
and bitterness. Personal love in the human race is highly volatile, emotionally
charged, and complicated with variables and unpredictables that personal
love cannot control. Often turbulent and frustrating, Personal love is never
stronger than the integrity of those involved. An enduring Personal Esprit de
corps love depends on Impersonal love.
Impersonal Virtue love is the integrity that alone can strengthen, stabilize,
and perpetuate Personal love. The only variable in Impersonal love remains
under your control: your own mental attitude. Whereas personal Human love
may lead to compromise of true norms and standards. Impersonal love for
mankind is a result of your Personal love for God; (Mark 12:30-31) Personal
love is often a distraction from what is most important, God’s Word.
Impersonal love is a problem-solver; Personal love can be a problem,
if we use for anyone besides GOD
ALONE!
IMPERSONAL AND PERSONAL LOVE
In, (1Co 13:13) Divine Personal and Impersonal love are proclaimed the
ultimate Christian Virtue. Impersonal love, furnishes the environment for faith
and hope. Impersonal love is mandatory; Personal love is mandatory toward
God ALONE; optional toward others. Certainly Personal love toward others is
legitimate and potentially wonderful, but it is Virtue-dependent, hinging on the
Virtue of Impersonal love, which represents the highest degree of integrity the
soul can attain.
LOVE AND INDEPENDENCE
A believer with Impersonal love does not rely on any person,
circumstance, thing or self for strength and support; he is sustained by Divine
Thinking in his own soul. No variables or unpredictables are involved except
those controlled by his own self-determination. Based on his own right
decisions over an extended period of time to learn and Think with the Mind of
Christ, he can solve or cope with the problems of Personal Esprit de corps
love toward members of the human race and maintain a marvelous
relationship with another person, or he can be content alone. He functions
consistently whether faced with hostility or admiration, antagonism or
Personal love. His attitude of Impersonal love does not depend on emotional
stimulation, reciprocation, or attraction. He cannot be manipulated by flattery
or approbation. This is the genuine and honorable independence of the
believer who is Spiritually self-sustaining. He does not depend on the advice
of others or on a pastor’s counseling; the Word of God in his own soul gives
him the strength and wisdom to live his own life before the Lord. Although
genuinely humble and teachable, he is not controlled by what anyone else
thinks, says, or does. Impersonal love, generated in the believer’s soul no
matter whom he encounters, is the only category of love that can fulfill the
Divine Command to love all members of the human race!
A new Commandment I give to you, that you [Virtue] love one another,
even as I have [Virtue] loved you, that you also love one another.
(John 13:34)
Some Christians are Virtuous, but then again others are among the most
arrogant, self-righteous, boorish, obnoxious people on the face of the earth.
Believers can have a background, personality, life-style or combination of
interests that makes him utterly incompatible with you. According to Divine
Commands you must love ALL these believers and ALL believers must Think
with the Mind of Christ. (1Co 1:10) Obviously your exclusive Personal love
cannot be granted to rude, arrogant believers or to those with whom you
have no rapport of Thought. Nor should you burn up your nervous energy
trying to do the impossible — Personally love all Christians.
The only love you can possess for most individuals is based, not on their
weaknesses, idiosyncrasies, or incompatibility with you, but on the strength of
your own Spiritual life. Through Impersonal love your attitude toward
everyone will be basically the same, manifested in courtesy, thoughtfulness,
sensitivity to the feelings of others, tolerance, and flexibility in nonessential
areas of disagreement or dispute. Such attitudes can be consistently
maintained toward any person, regardless of how incompatible your
personalities or modus vivendi, (Way of life) may be. Virtue love is not
condescending, hypocritical, or self-righteous.
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
(Rom 12:9)
Impersonal love is not a stoic, artificial, emotionless facade, but rather a
gracious attitude consistent with the Divine Thinking in your soul. The policy of
Impersonal love is simply this: integrity toward all, no matter who or what
they are. Through this attitude your Spiritual aristocracy is revealed as you
honorably represent Christ in the devil’s world.
Impersonal love must be directed not just toward other believers but
toward unbelievers as well. You need not determine that a person is a
Christian before you exhibit Virtue love. This explains God’s Commands that
you love your neighbors — everyone in your periphery — and even your
enemies.
Jesus answered, "The foremost is, HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR
GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD
WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL
YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. The second is this, YOU
SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. There is no other
Commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:31)
You have heard that it was said, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven;
for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the
righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what
reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
(Matt 5:43-46)
Personal love for another member of the human race is not a Virtue in
itself but must rely on the true Virtue of Impersonal love. The Divine
Command to love all mankind; Commands us to develop Virtue.
With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
(Matt 19:26)
REBOUND AND THE RELAXED MENTAL ATTITUDE
In contrast to the advanced integrity of the Spiritually mature believer,
basic Impersonal love at gate two of the Spiritual life is simply a relaxed
mental attitude. Basic impersonal love is the absence of mental attitude sins
toward those you know or do not know, toward friends or enemies.
But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate
you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
(Luk 6:27-28)
The believer who utilizes rebound to reenter gate one after he has sinned,
but who then becomes arrogant, jealous, angry, petty, vindictive, afraid, or
filled with self-pity or guilt, has again removed himself from the bottom circle.
He has been tempted to sin and has acquiesced. This problem of chain
sinning is solved by rebound and an immediate interlock with gate two. The
relaxed mental attitude of basic Impersonal love insulates the believer against
the temptations of the old sin nature. You must rebound and then start
remembering Verses, Principles and Promises (Rom 8:28-32; Rom 14:13) or
the lack of stability will continue! When (Gal 5:22-23) states that “the fruit of
the Spirit is love,” some believers expect the fruit of the Spirit to appear, as if
by magic, as soon as they rebound and regain the filling of the Spirit. When a
feeling of love for all mankind does not materialize instantaneously, they
assume that something is wrong with the rebound technique. They then resort
to remorse, penance, self-effacement, or self-reproach in an attempt to
deserve God’s forgiveness and feel restored to fellowship with Him. This
common practice among immature Christians is an exercise in futility. First,
God forgives us because He IS perfect justice; (1Jn 1:9) the sin we confess
in rebound was judged on the Cross. Second, we cannot earn forgiveness.
Restoration to fellowship was earned for us by the only One who is qualified
to earn it, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who gave us His Own Spiritual life.
Human works added to the work of Christ is blasphemous. (Eph 2:8-9) Third,
we are instantly restored to fellowship — the ministry of God the Holy Spirit
in the New Covenant Age is not related to feelings or emotion. We may feel
wonderful or wretched and still be filled with God the Holy Spirit, just as we
may have felt wonderful or wretched when we first believed in Christ yet we
were still saved. Emotion is never the criterion of Spiritual status. (Rom 16:18)
Fourth, the love designated as the fruit of the Spirit, is Personal love for
God and Impersonal love for all mankind. We need not feel any kind of
special inner warmth to manifest the fruit of the Spirit. (The Spiritual life) We
must, however, avoid mental attitude sins in order to fulfill the Divine
Command to “love one another.” Finally, even freedom from mental attitude
sins is not automatic with rebound. God is faithful; (1Jn 1:9) rebound always
works; we are always forgiven, cleansed, and free from mental attitude sins
when we rebound. But our restoration to fellowship with God may last only a
split second. We possess free will, and as soon as we rebound we can
choose to sin again. At all times we are solely responsible for our own state
of mind. We must interlock gate one with gate two as soon as we rebound,
or we will be out of fellowship again. Consistent Impersonal love as the fruit
of the Spirit requires us to be continually filled with God the Holy Spirit.
APPLYING DOCTRINE IN REBOUND
Only our volition can resolve the problem of chain sinning. With rebound,
the filling of God the Holy Spirit, and the application of Bible Doctrine, God
has given us the power to break the momentum of consecutive sinning. Upon
rebounding we must use Divine Thinking to resist the temptation to follow one
sin with another. Hence, rebound has three stages.
First, we claim God’s rebound Promise by admitting our already-judged sins
to Him.
Second, we remember the Doctrine that, because of the Cross, we are
completely restored to fellowship.
Third, we take control of the situation by forgetting that sin and moving on in
the plan of God.
Claiming Promises, recalling a logical rationale, and reaching Doctrinal
conclusions that enable us to take control of the situation constitute the three
stages of the faith-rest drill. Faith-rest, which we will develop in greater detail
in our study of gate four, and is an essential technique that adapts to rebound
or any other practical application of God’s Word. The ability to avoid mental
attitude sins comes from self-discipline in applying the Doctrines we know.
There is a pertinent Divine Spiritual thought to neutralize every mental attitude
sin! Vindictiveness and implacability are dispelled by taking God at His word
when He says, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay.” (Rom 12:19) Fear is
removed by the Doctrine that “Since God is for us, who can be against us?”
(Rom 8:31) Arrogance and self-righteousness are excluded when we
remember that we are not appointed to judge other people. (Matt 7:1-2;
Luk 6:37; Rom 2:1) And we are left with no cause for jealousy since our own
blessings are sufficient and perfectly timed for our maximum benefit: we must
concentrate on what we have, not on what we have not. (Matt 6:25-34)
Your love must be non-hypocritical; despise the evil, [Including mental
attitude sins] adhere to the good; [Stay in fellowship] with regard to your
brotherly love, [Esprit de corps Virtue love] be devoted to each other.
(Rom 12:9-10)
In place of mental attitude sins, Impersonal love insures the serenity of
mind that lays the foundation for toleration, flexibility, courtesy,
thoughtfulness, and discretion. These manifestations of integrity, demanded
by the royal family honor code, become stronger and more constant as the
believer advances in learning Truth under the power of God the Holy Spirit.
(1Co 2:4-5) Divine Thinking in the soul is the raw material from which God the
Holy Spirit manufactures the fruit of the Spirit. If you are negative toward
Doctrinal teaching and refuse to store up God’s Word in your soul, the filling
of God the Holy Spirit will be intermittent and will not produce the
characteristics of Spiritual maturity. In the absence of Spiritual Thoughts, the
old sin nature dominates the inner, Spiritual conflict for control of the soul. By
giving God’s Thoughts first priority in your life, you rise above the pettiness
that engenders mental attitude sins, and you establish yourself in gate two of
the love complex. God’s Thoughts strengthen objectivity and sustains the
relaxed mental attitude.
JESUS CHRIST’S IMPERSONAL LOVE
The perfect example of Impersonal love was the Lord Jesus Christ living
in the original New Covenant Spiritual life. Since sin is impossible inside the
love complex (1Jn 3:9) and Christ remained in the bottom circle throughout
His Incarnation, (John 15:10) our Lord never committed a mental attitude sin.
He never departed from His Impersonal love for all mankind, not even when
being ridiculed by arrogant scribes and Pharisees. (Mark 15:29-32) In
addition to being our unique Savior, Jesus was also a man of matchless
grace, courage, thoughtfulness, honor, and integrity toward people and
circumstances. He possessed a resolute, stabilized mental attitude. Indeed,
He reached the first stage of Spiritual adulthood sometime before twelve
years of age (Luk 2:40-52) so that His Virtue love rapidly exceeded the basic
modus operandi, (Way of operating) of gate two of the love complex and
became the functional Virtue of gate six.
During His life on earth, the ultimate demonstration of Christ’s Impersonal
love was His stalwart attitude throughout His trials and crucifixion. Certainly
no one can duplicate His saving work, but Christ enjoins us to emulate toward
others the attitude He sustained toward all of us when He acquiesced to the
ordeal of unjust and discriminatory treatment at the hands of evil men.
When anyone loves father or mother [Personal love] more than Me,
[Personal love for Christ, which motivates Impersonal love for mankind] he is
not worthy of Me. [He is not living in the New Covenant Spiritual life as Christ
lived in the prototype] And when anyone does not take up his cross [Human
old sin nature thoughts and desires] and follow Me, [Putting the Thinking and
desires of Christ above our own thoughts and personal desires] he is not
worthy of Me. He who has found his life [Human old sin nature life] will lose it,
[As a believer; die the sin unto death] and he who has lost his life [Stops living
in and by the old nature] for My sake will find it. [The New nature and life that
appreciates God His Thoughts and Virtue] (Matt 10:37-39)
Christ does not suggest we stop loving our parents, exhort us to endure
literal crucifixion, or teach us to place a premium on suffering. Only His
suffering was efficacious — the self-flagellation of religion is an abomination.
Instead, our Lord Commands us to obey the plan of God for our lives, setting
aside every distraction. For Him the plan of God required death on the Cross;
for us the plan of God requires death to the old sin nature.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
passions and desires. (Gal 5:24)
The growing believer’s Impersonal love establishes his inner strength and
separates him from people, organizations, and activities that would clutter his
mind with false concepts, dissipate his time and energy, and interfere with his
Spiritual progress. Taking up one’s cross occurs in the soul; it is mental
separation from the influences of the old sin nature and Satan’s world system.
Do not love the world [Satan’s world system] nor the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the [Virtue] love of the Father is not in him. For all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the
boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. (1Jn 2:16)
THE EXAMPLE OF THE CROSS
Christ had been tortured and abused throughout the night in Jewish and
Roman courts, but when He staggered from the Praetorium carrying that
beam of wood on His lacerated back, He was neither a Jewish nor a Roman
criminal. He was the perfect God-Man, the unique Person of the universe. He
had been beaten and condemned to death by men who did not deserve to
touch the hem of His robe. Throughout His seven trials He refused to utter
obscenities or complain against His cruel and unfair treatment. When
scourged, He “opened not His mouth.” (Acts 8:32) Our Lord’s valiant courage
under the most agonizing pressure is proof that the power of Impersonal love
does triumph over evil.
As Christ was nailed to the Cross, He saw around Him wicked men
gloating over their apparent victory. Yet He did not lower Himself to their level
by denouncing them. He functioned on His own honor and integrity. He did not
react to their dishonor. (Luk 23:32-46) Christ remained free from all mental
attitude sins even when God the Father, who loved Him and whom He loved,
imputed to Him the sins of mankind and became His judge. The pain of
Spiritual death and judgment was so excruciating to our perfect Savior that
He screamed and kept screaming. (Psa 22:1) He had the power to end His
ordeal at any moment, yet He remained on the Cross and bore the
punishment until every human sin was paid for in full.
As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By
His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He
will bear their iniquities. (Isa 53:11)
When Christ was bearing our sins, no member of the human race
deserved to be the object of His Personal love. Only Christ was impeccable;
everyone else is a sinner and contributed to His agony on the Cross.
Personal rapport with anyone was impossible, and He endured the Cross
alone, in the strength of His Spiritual maturity; He took up His Cross, He
switched from Personal to Impersonal love, mentally separating Himself from
the entire human race, including those He had Personal and Esprit de corps
love with during His Incarnation. (John 19:25-27) Under Divine judgment
Christ concentrated exclusively on the Word of God in His soul, and He
Commands us to emulate His concentration on God’s Word and to remember
Him and follow His example. (Heb 12:2-4)
In the Communion service, or Eucharist, we focus our minds on Jesus
Christ in a tribute, an auld lang syne, to the One we Personally love.
(Luk 22:19) The bread represents the Person of Christ; the cup, His work of
Salvation on the Cross. As we partake of the bread, we remember the
Personal love of Christ: His love for the Father that motivated Him to obey
God’s plan in every detail “unto death, even the death of the Cross.”
(Php 2:8) As we partake of the cup, we concentrate on His Impersonal love:
His integrity as He “endured the Cross, having disregarded [Thinking little of]
the shame” of being imputed with the sins of ALL mankind and judged by the
Father in our place. (Isa 53:10; (2Co 5:21; Rom 8:3; (1Jn 2:2) Impersonal
love for all mankind, and Personal love for God, enabled Jesus to remain
undaunted against those who were reviling and mocking Him, those who
would never appreciate His saving work on their behalf, who would live out
their lives in unbelief, die, and spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. He was fully
aware of their arrogant and adamant hostility against Him, yet He died in their
place without harboring a single mental attitude sin, without succumbing to the
temptation to retaliate. (1Jn 2:2; (1Pe 2:22-23) Christ demonstrated a
perfectly relaxed mental attitude as He operated on His inner resources of
Truth even when the sins of Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, Herod and the
priests of the Sanhedrin came up for judgment on the Cross. Perhaps more
startling to us, when the sins of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Tse-tung were
imputed to Him and judged, Christ’s Impersonal love kept Him on the Cross
without complaint.
SEPARATION AND IMPERSONAL LOVE
When our Lord Commands, “Take up your cross and follow Me,” He
means, “Develop Impersonal love. Live on the basis of your own integrity
from the Word of Truth in your own soul. Do not let the pressures of life
distract you from living according to God’s game plan.” By the order “take up
your cross,” Christ is not advocating a martyr complex or self-sacrifice, as
some Christians assume; He is advocating personal control of the old sin
nature’s thoughts and desires.
And they went on to another village. As they were going along the road,
someone said to Him, "I will follow You wherever You go. And Jesus said to
him, The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of
Man has nowhere to lay His head. (Luk 9:57-58) (God’s will must become
more important than our human security. Luk 12:29-31)
And He said to another, Follow Me. But he said, Lord, permit me first to
go and bury my father. But He said to him, Allow the [Spiritually] dead to bury
their own [Physically] dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the
kingdom of God. (Luk 9:60) (God’s will must also be more important than
tradition, sentiment, or social acceptance. (John 15:19)
Another also said, I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-
bye to those at home. But Jesus said to him, No one, after putting his hand to
the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luk 9:61-62) (Truth
must be more important than what your family thinks you should do.
(Luk 18:29-30) So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up
all his own possessions. (Luk 14:33)
“If because of the Sabbath, (Heb 4:9-11) you turn your foot From doing
your own pleasure on My holy day, And call the rest a delight, the holy day of
the LORD honorable, And honor it, desisting from your own ways, From
seeking your own pleasure And speaking your own word, Then you will take
delight in the LORD, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
[Be a Spiritually mature believer] And I will feed you with the heritage [Mature
Truth] of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
(Isa 58:13-14)
As members of the royal family of God, we are in the world but not of the
world. Our Spiritual heritage is heavenly, not earthly, yet God preserves us
alive in the devil’s world after Salvation to represent the absent Christ. God
does not totally separate us from the devil’s kingdom but intends that we
advance to Spiritual maturity and become imitators of God and ambassadors
of Christ in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. (Eph 5:1; (2Co 5:20)
God is glorified by our lives in the devil’s world when we can be prospered
with phenomenal blessings of super-grace in the midst of the failures, pseudo-
blessings, pseudo-happiness, and misery that characterize Satan’s
counterfeit systems.
The devil’s world has a pull greater than any force of gravity to draw the
believer away from fellowship with God. Regardless of our dedication or
altruism, we cannot improve Satan’s evil system; we can only avoid his
influence by opting for the power of God’s perfect system. God alone can
successfully oppose evil. He will eradicate evil in His perfect time, but our
human old sin good contributes nothing to the Divine plan. (Isa 64:6) Indeed,
Satan sponsors human old sin nature good, and the old sin nature produces
human good. The quickest road to evil is always through human old sin nature
good. We must depend on Divine power, which alone produces intrinsic
Divine good. (Rom 8:28)
God’s purpose for our lives on earth requires that we mentally separate
ourselves unto Him. As we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we renew our minds with the Mind of Christ. (2Pe 1:2;
Rom 12:2; (1Co 2:16) Simultaneously we separate ourselves from satanic
distractions that would swerve us away from God’s plan. Impersonal love,
which depends on the subject, never the object, is the requisite attitude
toward anyone or anything that would prevent us from fulfilling our Spiritual
destiny. Impersonal love obeys the Divine Commands to avoid reversionism,
(2Th 3:6-15; (2Ti 3:5; Heb 13:13) perversion, (1Co 5:10) emotionalism,
(Rom 16:17) negative volition, (Matt 10:34-40; (1Jn 2:15-17) social life,
business, marriage etc., with carnal believers and unbelievers, (2Co 6:14)
idolatry, (2Co 6:15-16) distracting social life, (1Pe 4:3-4) and crime.
(Prov 1:10-19)
We must separate ourselves from Satan’s nefarious, multifaceted
systems, but always our emphasis must be separation unto God, not
separation from the world. Each believer must stress the function of the Word
of God in his own soul and his own Christian integrity, not the object he
wishes to avoid. We must focus on Divine Thinking, not on the false thinking
we intend to leave behind. In this manner we avoid the arrogance of self-
righteous crusading, which itself is a subtle satanic trap. The proper Spiritual
priority places God’s Word before the influence of any personal relationship,
even beneficial relationships. (Matt 10:37; Rom 12:1-3) As a result of
Spiritual growth, we leave behind entanglements that would impede our
continued advance. (2Ti 2:4) Loyalty to the Truth supersedes but does not
eliminate loyalty to people and organizations. Separation means, first, to
avoid distractions by switching from Personal to Impersonal love in mental
separation. Then, only if necessary and if possible, physical separation is a
drastic measure to avoid satanic influence by removing yourself from a
relationship. In most cases mental separation is sufficient without the
unwarranted major surgery of abruptly removing yourself from those who
were once close friends, loved ones, or associates. If you retreat from every
situation that puts pressure on you, you will be continually running from one
problem to another without making any progress in the Christian life. Often
pressure is designed to teach, and you accelerate your Spiritual growth by
remaining under pressure, exercising Impersonal love, and waiting on the
Lord! Impersonal love insulates you from false influences, even when you are
in their presence, while also eliminating instability, bitterness, hostility, malice,
subjectivity, revenge, and arrogance. Impersonal love is not swayed by any
relationship but continues to operate with capacity for life under all
circumstances. Impersonal love is civilized separation, in contrast to the
boorish, arrogant behavior of those Christians who call attention to
themselves by self-righteously “taking a stand” against the world!
THE INTEGRITY OF GOD / DIVINE LOVE
In designing the power system that would sustain Christ’s humanity on earth,
God patterned Virtue love after His own Divine attribute of love.
According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the
tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.
(Exo 25:9)
The outside of the Tabernacle was plain leather ram’s skins. (Heb 10:5;
Exo 36:19) (The Human body of Christ)
The Inside Pure Gold, Silver, Beauty. (Exo 39:35-40) This is an illustration
of the copy of God’s Nature — the Spiritual life that Christ perfected by
staying in fellowship — and we reach Spiritual maturity by staying inside the
same system!
For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent
Promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the Divine Nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. (2Pe 1:4)
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.
God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides
in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in
the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
(1Jn 4:16-17)
God is much more than love. He is a Person; His essence consists of
many attributes, all of which exist together in complete consistency and
integrity. The function of one attribute never compromises any other. God’s
love is perfect, but His love is also perfect in its relationship with His
sovereignty, righteousness, justice, eternity, omniscience, omnipotence,
omnipresence, immutability, veracity, and all other characteristics of His
essence, A case in point: God never blesses us on the basis of His love.
God’s love motivates Him to prosper us, but any Divine blessing given to
imperfect man must be compatible with God’s justice.
Justice and righteousness are the two Divine attributes that directly
influence all God’s blessings to us. Together these two attributes have been
traditionally designated the holiness of God, (Isa 6:3) but holiness has
become an obscure term. Integrity is a more definitive and meaningful word.
Righteousness is the Principle of Divine integrity; justice is the function of
Divine integrity.
God’s justice is not an arbitrary or overhasty attribute but invariably
operates according to the absolute standard of His perfect righteousness.
What righteousness demands, justice executes: if righteousness disapproves,
justice condemns; if righteousness approves, justice blesses. Hence, grace
involves far more than “unmerited favor,” as grace is commonly defined.
Grace is the policy of the justice of God for blessing mankind.
Illustration
Since our sinful status at birth violates God’s Standards, He cannot treat
us on the basis of His Personal love. Instead, every action that God takes
toward sinful man must be endorsed by His justice to avoid compromising His
righteousness. Because justice is the guardian of the essence of God, Divine
justice, not Divine love, is man’s point of contact with God. Justice, not love,
is the source of all Divine blessings. Toward us, Divine justice takes
precedence over Divine love.
Under grace the justice of God has accomplished everything necessary to
make us acceptable to His righteousness. This is the Doctrine of propitiation;
(Rom 3:25; (1Jn 2:2, (1Jn 4:10) as the foundation for the Doctrine of
justification. (Rom 3:28; (2Co 5:21) Propitiation means that on the Cross
Jesus Christ satisfied the righteousness of God the Father on our behalf.
Justification is the Doctrine that, at the moment we first believed in Christ,
God credited to us His own absolute righteousness and declared us to be
totally acceptable to His integrity! By imputing Divine righteousness to us,
God has made our position so absolutely, eternally secure that He blesses us
on the Principle of His impartial fairness. Divine righteousness, resident in us,
deserves blessing! (Not Us) The approval to bless us has come from the
most exalted authority, the supreme court of heaven. Nothing can overturn
that decision. Divine righteousness in the essence of God gives approval for
justice to bless Divine righteousness in us. This judicial verdict is executed by
God’s absolute justice, which gives us the right blessings at the right time.
Timing is essential. Even when we are Spiritually mature, timing must be
right. God has a plan for each believer’s life and knows each individual’s
capacity; too much prosperity at the wrong time can destroy a person more
quickly than intense adversity. (1Co 10:13) Only through the filling of God the
Holy Spirit and Thinking with Truth can we keep pace with God’s timing! In
grace, therefore, God gives us every blessing that we have the capacity to
receive and appreciate. He has already given us the means for developing
capacity: Spirit & Truth. If grace were based on love instead of justice, God’s
plan would be reduced to favoritism, maudlin sentimentality, and competition
for Divine approval; the Spiritual life would become a hollow shell of
superficiality.
LOVE BASED ON INTEGRITY
When we understand God’s policy of grace, we are confident that when
He prospers us His entire essence is involved, not just His love. Divine love
does not and cannot function independently of His integrity. But the
connection between God’s love and God’s integrity has escaped most
Christians today. Tragically, believers have created God in their own image,
ascribing to Him their own superficial, emotional love. The Bible tells us that
God is love, but that does not imply that He is sentimental about us. He does
not bless or reward us for our human good works or sincerity in wanting to
please Him. These are man’s illusions, not God’s plan. God blesses us only
according to His own game plan, and He disciplines us when we depart from
His plan. God never changes: only man changes. Blessing or discipline from
God perfectly reflects changes in man while the justice of God remains
consistent. God is completely impartial; His standards are absolute; His love
comes to us only by way of His integrity.
God’s love, therefore, possesses all the strength of His integrity.
Likewise, in fellowship, our Espirt de corps love for a few, derives its strength
from our Spiritual maturity, and our Spiritual growth is demonstrated in our
Impersonal love for all.
Beloved, [Members of the royal family] let us love one another,
[Impersonal love] for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of
God and knows God. (1Jn 4:7)
Love is from God because He is the source of Virtue love and because
His love is the pattern for all genuine love. As John continues to explain
Christian love, he specifies “everyone who loves,” referring to believers only,
those to whom the epistle is written. Unbelievers are never addressed as
“beloved.”
Furthermore, everyone who loves [The believer’s Impersonal love] has
been born from the source of God [Initial entry into the bottom circle at the
moment of Salvation] and has come to know God [Impersonal love is visible
evidence of the believer’s Spiritual maturity. Jer 9:24] When anyone does not
love, [With Virtue love] he has not come to know God, because God IS love.
(1Jn 4:7-8)
Capacity for Virtue love involves Spiritual Thought, emotion, physical and
Spiritual expressions from Truth in the soul. Knowledge of Truth builds our
integrity, which is our capacity for love, and orients us to the Reality of God’s
essence. In God’s essence His attribute of love is the pattern for human love.
God’s attribute of love shows us in terms of absolute, ultimate Reality the
difference between Impersonal and Personal love and the true superiority of
Impersonal love. These distinctions are clarified by understanding the three
categories of God’s love. His Personal love is classified according to its
objects: Divine Personal love directed toward Himself, God the Son, God the
Holy Spirit, the elect angels and humans that are going to be with him forever
and toward His Thoughts and Virtue.
GOD’S LOVE FOR GOD
PERFECT SELF-SUFFICIENCY
God’s love for His Own essence explains (1Jn 4:8) “God is love.” Only God is
said to be love. We may love someone or something or may be in love, but
we never are love. Human love is always related to an object. “God IS love”
means not only that His love is an attribute of His essence, an integral part of
Who and What He IS, and that Divine love is the quintessence of love, but
also that His love does not require an object. Before God created the
universe, He loved just as He loves today and will love forever. God is
immutable and eternal, and as an attribute of His perfect Divine essence, His
love always existed. We may or may not have capacity to love, depending on
our integrity. Our love for another person can grow or disappear. We can fall
in or out of love, but God does not. Our love fluctuates; His does not. God’s
love remains eternal and changeless because He is eternal and changeless.
Changes in us do not create changes in God’s love. His love does not depend
on us or any other object.
God’s integrity supports and guarantees His love, but His love also is
directed toward His own integrity. This tremendous inner affinity within the
attributes of God is expressed in the statement that God IS love. He loves
Who and what He IS. God perfectly fulfills His Own uncompromising
Standards; therefore, He loves His Own righteousness and justice.
(Psa 11:7; Psa 33:5; Psa 37:28)
In man, total self-love is arrogance because we are imperfect and sinful;
in God, total self-love is legitimate because He is absolutely worthy. God
would compromise His integrity if He loved anything less than perfection,
(As with the believers personal love) but He would also be compromised if He
failed to love what is perfect, His Own essence. If God did not love Himself,
there would be no reason for us to love Him, but when we share His Thinking
we come to share His Own respect and love for Himself!
Remember the former things long past,
For I am God and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning
And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, “My
purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure.”
(Isa 46:9-10)
God knows Himself to be beyond comparison with any other being, and in
the interest of absolute Truth He claims all glory for Himself. The purpose of
God’s game plan is His Own glorification through blessing us. Indeed, only
omnipotent God is capable of glorifying Himself as He deserves, which
explains why human old sin nature good is unacceptable to God. (Psa 39:5)
Our residence and function inside His power system enables God to
demonstrate the utter superiority of His Divine nature — the Spiritual life in us
and to be glorified to the maximum in our lives.
SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE DIVINE LOVE
God exists in three separate and distinct personalities, each having
identical Divine attributes from eternity past: the Father, (1Co 8:6; Eph 1:3)
the Son, (John 10:30; John 14:9; Col 2:9) and the Holy Spirit (Isa 11:2;
Exo 31:3; Acts 28:25; Prov 1:23) The Godhead is One in essence, Three in
Personality (Isa 6:8-9) We have been created in the Image of God. Body,
Soul and Spirit, and these three are one! As believers we share His Body
Soul and Spirit!
So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members’
one of another. (Rom 12:5)
He who does not love Me does not keep My Words; and the Word which
you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. (John 14:24)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
(Gal 5:22)
Our body has life, our soul has life, and our spirit has life, and they are
one! (1Th 5:23) When the essence of God is in view, God is said to be One;
(Deut 32:39) when the individual Members of the Godhead are in view, God
is said to be Three! (Luk 3:22; (2Co 13:14) The Doctrine of the Trinity
introduces a distinction in describing God’s love: God’s love for God is both
subjective and objective. God’s subjective love is the love of each Member of
the Trinity for His Own integrity. God’s objective love is each Person’s love
for the equal integrity of the other two Members of the Trinity. This means
that God the Father subjectively loves His Own righteousness and justice with
maximum love, but since God the Son and God the Holy Spirit possess
identical righteousness and justice, He also loves them with maximum
objective love. Likewise, the Son loves His Own integrity as a matter of
subjective love and loves the integrity of the Father and the Holy Spirit with
objective love. So also, the Spirit loves Himself subjectively and loves the
Father and the Son objectively. Subjectivity is different in God than in man.
The attributes of God’s essence guarantee that God’s subjective Thinking is
perfect, just as His objective Thinking is perfect. In human beings subjectivity
is a breeding ground for evil. A subjective person, whether believer or
unbeliever, is preoccupied with himself. Subjectivity cuts him off from God’s
game plan. Therefore, the self-occupied person is arrogantly divorced from
Divine Reality and in opposition to the Truth. God is the author of Reality, the
designer of the Spiritual life which is patterned after His Nature. God IS Truth!
(John 14:6; (1Jn 5:6)
We can learn Truth and Think with Truth, but God IS Truth. We
comprehend Truth in three categories: the Divine laws of establishment, the
Gospel, and Bible Doctrines. Every category of Truth is an aspect of God’s
perfect purpose and design. The Divine decrees, through which God
established the existence of every detail of Reality, are based on all the
attributes of Who and What He IS, which He has objectively revealed in the
written canon of Scripture. God’s Veracity guarantees His absolute freedom
from compromise, contradiction, or falsehood in all He Thinks, says, or does.
(Deut 32:4) His omniscience knows all things from eternity past, throughout
history, and forever. His knowledge is not restricted, nor is His span of
concentration limited, as is ours. Concentration is a human attribute, but God
never needs to exclude one subject in order to focus on another. He is
constantly occupied with all things at once! He cannot be distracted, lose His
perspective, or become divorced from Reality. Since He is a Person, God is
conscious of Himself, and when He Thinks about Himself, as He always does,
He is Thinking the Truth. God’s subjectivity is legitimate, necessary, and
perfect, just as His self-love is legitimate, necessary, and perfect.
God’s love for God is subjectively internal within the essence of each
Member of the Godhead and objectively external between the Members of
the Godhead. This establishes the pattern of Virtue love as a transitive verb
with a subject and an object. At the absolute source of love, both the subject
and the object are equal. Both are God. This love relationship between the
three Members of the Trinity is the most exclusive relationship in the universe.
The entry requirements are infinite, absolute and perfect — impossible for
sinful man to meet. As fallen mankind we simply do not qualify for the same
love that the Members of the Trinity merit. Our beggarly human old sin nature
morality, by which we attempt to please God, is not only a blasphemous
insult to His superior Standards but is an arrogant attempt to intrude on God’s
Virtue love and God’s plan. No wonder the Scriptures say, “By grace are you
saved... not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Eph 2:8-9) No wonder we
are dependent on the interlocking system of Virtue love, the system of power
— that God has ordained. We have no entrance with God apart from the
system He has given us!
GOD’S LOVE FOR MAN
The second category of Divine love is directed outside the Godhead toward
imperfect man. As in God’s love for God, Divine integrity is involved, except
that now the integrity resides only in the subject, not in the object of love.
Hence, God’s love for man is classified as Divine Impersonal love and,
toward those who fulfill His plan by staying in fellowship, Divine Personal
esprit de corps love. This further establishes the pattern for Virtue love.
inside the Divine dynasphere. Divine Impersonal love emphasizes the subject;
Divine personal love emphasizes the object. Divine Impersonal love
emphasizes the integrity of God; Divine personal love emphasizes the
Spiritual condition and positive volition of the object. Divine Impersonal love is
unconditional, directed toward all; Divine Personal love is conditional, directed
toward the few who execute God’s game plan (Rom 9:13; Acts 26:17-18)
Divine Impersonal Love
Divine Esprit de corps Personal Love
Emphasizes subject Integrity of God Unconditional Toward all
Emphasizes object Positive volition of man Conditional Toward a few
GOD’S IMPERSONAL AND PERSONAL LOVE FOR MAN
The criterion for God’s Virtue love, both Impersonal and Personal, is always
His Own absolute integrity: He loves only what His righteousness approves.
Each Person of the Godhead loves absolute Divine righteousness, but how
can God direct that same love toward imperfect human beings whom His
perfect righteousness rejects and His justice has condemned? God cannot
compromise any Divine standard without destroying His integrity. If His
integrity is destroyed, so is His love. This is a critical issue for man to
understand. God cannot be God if He loves the unworthy, yet He is said to
love all mankind, (John 3:16) whom He condemns at birth. (Rom 5:19) The
solution is found in Divine Impersonal love, which depends exclusively on the
absolute character of God. Perfect God can create only that which is perfect.
When He created Adam and the woman, the human race was a fitting object
for Divine Personal love. As perfect humanity Adam was not equal with God,
but neither did he violate God’s integrity. No conflict with Divine righteousness
and justice existed with man in the perfection of the Garden, with the result
that Divine love was God’s point of contact with man. Adam and the woman
were blessed from God’s love rather than from His justice. Grace is the
policy of God’s justice in blessing sinful man, but man had not yet sinned.
There was no need for grace until the Fall of man. (It was just God’s good
pleasure to do so. Php 2:13)
When Adam chose to sin, God condemned him. Divine justice, the
executor of Divine righteousness, became God’s point of contact with man in
place of Divine love. The emphasis in God’s relationship with Adam shifted
from the object, man, to the subject, God, whose righteousness and justice
are absolute, immutable, and eternally worthy of Divine love. At the Fall of
man, God switched from Divine Personal love to Divine Impersonal love.
Divine Impersonal love never relies on the merit of its object. Instead, the
integrity of the subject established grace as an entirely new Divine policy,
under which the justice of God initiated a plan to save fallen man.
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world; but that
the world should be saved through Him. (John 3:17)
...Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved... (Acts 16:31)
THE EXTENT OF GOD’S IMPERSONAL LOVE
Can perfect God love imperfect, condemned, depraved, unregenerate
man? Yes, but only with Impersonal love. We are born Spiritually dead
because of Adam’s Fall, (Rom 5:12) but from the moment of physical birth
every human being is the beneficiary of the integrity of God. Our lack of merit
does not prevent God from designing and executing a plan to save us without
violating His own Standards. Under the Principle of grace before judgment,
God delays final judgment to permit us the opportunity to believe in Christ and
receive eternal life.
Or do you disparage [By maliciously judging each other] the riches of His
generosity [God’s Impersonal love, His “kindness” to man based solely on His
Own integrity] and clemency [Delay in judgment] and patience,
[His consistency regardless of our recalcitrance] not knowing that the
kindness of God brings you to a change of mind. (Rom 2:4)
God delayed mankind’s final judgment so that He could extend to us His
kindness, and Virtue love. An impassable barrier stood between man and
God.
Illustration
God cannot tolerate sin (Rom 3:23; Jer 17:9) He cannot cancel the
penalty of sin; (Rom 6:23) nor can He ignore the problem of our physical birth
and Spiritual death. (Eph 2:1) Our position in Adam, which makes us objects
of Divine condemnation, and we by ourselves cannot suddenly become
pleasing to God. (1Co 15:22) God’s absolute righteousness can never accept
our relative righteousness, (Isa 64:6; Rom 9:30-33) nor can any attribute of
God’s essence be compromised. (Isa 46:9; Rom 8:8; (1Ti 6:16) This barrier
was removed by the work of Christ on the Cross so that only the Cross now
stands between man and God. Only one issue remains: our volition. God
cannot force our free will without compromising His integrity; He cannot
arbitrarily save us. We must freely believe in Christ to be saved and avoid the
Last Judgment. (John 3:18)
If God preempted our volition in Salvation, He would destroy His own plan.
He would cancel the very purpose of THE EARTH: that each individual might
choose to have a personal relationship with Him. Therefore, in Impersonal
love God does everything except make the decision for us! Positive volition is
the only missing link, the only factor needed to complete our reconciliation
with God. We are born totally abhorrent to God, but a single decision of non-
meritorious faith in Christ closes the gap and establishes us as God’s beloved
sons forever. The mechanics of Salvation demonstrate the tremendous scope
of God’s Impersonal love, the absolute “riches of His generosity.” Without
violating His integrity or relying on the unworthy objects of His Impersonal
love, God marshaled all His infinite genius and power for our advantage, “not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
[A change of mind concerning the Word of Truth] (2Pe 3:9)
THE ALL AND THE FEW IN EACH PHASE OF GOD’S PLAN
God has provided everything for the eternal Salvation of every unbeliever
and the maximum prosperity of every believer in both time and eternity. If an
unbeliever rejects God’s saving grace, he remains the object of only Divine
Impersonal love until he dies, when the delay in judgment runs out.
(Heb 10:27) When the unbeliever accepts the work of Christ, he becomes the
object of Divine Personal love just as Adam was the object of God’s Personal
love in the Garden. But God’s plan for the royal family gives us a higher
position after Salvation than Adam enjoyed before the Fall. God’s game plan
is to make us like His Son. (Heb 2:10-11) This is the Doctrine of sanctification.
Sanctification is a technical, Theological term that refers only to the royal
family. (1Co 1:2; (1Co 1:30) Heb 10:19-20) We are set apart as sacred or
consecrated to God; we belong to God under a unique, eternal contract.
Faith in Christ affixes our signature to a royal contract under which we share
the sanctification of Jesus Christ, the “Holy One from God.” (Luk 4:34;
John 6:69) The death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session of Christ
fulfilled and therefore abrogated the old contract or Old Testament of the
Mosaic Law. (Rom 10:4; Gal 4:4-5) We live under a new grace contract, the
New Testament, which we fulfill in fellowship with God. (Gal 5:14-25)
Sanctification is accomplished in three phases: positional, experiential,
and ultimate. At the moment of faith in Christ, the believer is placed into union
with Christ — positional sanctification and retroactive positional death.
(1Th 5:23; Rom 6:3) As the believer functions in Christ’s Spiritual life and
acquires the Mind of Christ, he reaches Spiritual maturity — experiential
sanctification and experiential death. (John 12:24-26; John 17:17) And in
heaven the believer receives a body like Christ’s resurrection body — ultimate
sanctification and ultimate death to the old sin nature. (1Jn 3:2;
(1Co 15:53-54)
This plan is based on God’s integrity and the work of Christ, not on any
merit in the human race. We are the beneficiaries of God’s plan. God loves
us because of Who and What He IS, because of the provisions He has made,
because on the Cross His justice fulfilled the demands of His righteousness.
This is grace! After Salvation the justice of God remains the source of all our
blessings. We were saved by grace; we are always under grace, whether
objects of God’s Impersonal love or objects of His Personal love.
In each phase of God’s plan — phase one, Salvation; phase two, the
believer in time; or phase three, the believer in eternity — a different category
of people is specified. All members of each category receive Divine
Impersonal love; a few in each group qualify for Divine Personal love by
obeying God’s will.
God’s Impersonal Love for the All
God’s Personal Love for the Few
PHASE ONE Salvation
ENTIRE HUMAN RACE Unlimited Atonement
BELIEVERS IN CHRIST Imputed Righteousness
PHASE TWO Believer on Earth
ALL BELIEVERS Logistical Grace
MATURE BELIEVER Super-grace
PHASE THREE Believer in Heaven
ALL BELIEVERS Resurrection Body
MATURE BELIEVERS Eternal Rewards
OBJECTS OF GOD’S IMPERSONAL AND PERSONAL LOVE
In phase one God offers Salvation to all mankind from His Impersonal
love, but only the few accept Christ as Savior and come under God’s
Personal love. In phase two all believers on earth are sustained and
protected by God’s logistical grace from His Impersonal love, but only the
few utilize logistical grace, advance to maturity, and become recipients of
super-grace blessings motivated by His Personal love. In phase three all
believers in heaven possess the resurrection body, but only the few receive
special rewards, decorations, and honors as the most eminent eternal
aristocrats.
DIVINE LOVE IN SALVATION
The category in view in phase one of God’s plan is the entire human race.
The Doctrine of unlimited atonement declares that Christ died for all mankind.
(Rom 5:6; (2Co 5:15; (1Ti 2:6; (1Ti 4:10; Tit 2:11; Heb 2:9)
And He [Jesus Christ] is the propitiation [He satisfied God the Father] for
our sins, and not ours only, but also for the entire world. (1Jn 2:2)
For God so loved the world [With Divine Impersonal love] that He gave His
uniquely-born Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
eternal life. (John 3:16)
God manifests Impersonal love toward everyone He imputed human life
to, evil men, like Stalin and Hitler, and presented them with repeated
occasions to be saved. (Rom 11:32; (2Pe 3:9) The Cross is a conditional
possibility for ALL. In contrast, God reserves His Personal love for only those
few who believe in Christ and thus fulfill the conditions of the Gospel. In each
generation a different proportion of all living people will trust in Christ, but
those few, whatever their number, are the objects of Divine Personal love
with reference to phase one.
The work of Salvation exacted a terrible price, the Spiritual death and
judgment of Christ on the Cross. No unbeliever has ever earned or deserved
Salvation, but if God has accomplished the most for those He Impersonally
loves, He can do only much more than the most, for those special few He
Personally loves. God imputed all man’s sins to Christ on the Cross in behalf
of the entire human race, but God goes much farther for those who believe in
Christ: to them He imputes Divine righteousness.
One of the most remarkable Bible Doctrines is that God credits His Own
righteousness to every believer. We possess forever the very Principle and
Standard of God’s integrity, the quality that God has respected, honored,
and loved throughout all His eternal existence. We could receive no more
valuable or significant blessing. Now the same phenomenal love that has
always existed between the Members of the Trinity is directed toward us.
God loves His own righteousness; He has given us His righteousness;
therefore, He loves us!
He [God the Father] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin [Impeccable in
the Spiritual life] to be sin on our behalf, [The judgment of all human sins in
Christ] that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2Co 5:21)
For by one man’s disobedience [Adam’s original sin] many [The entire
human race] were made sinners, so by the obedience of the One [Christ
submitting to the Spiritual death and judgment of the Cross] shall many be
made righteous. [Imputed righteousness at Salvation] (Rom 5:19)
And he [Abraham] had believed in the Lord, and He [The Lord] counted it
to him for righteousness. [Abraham received God’s righteousness at the
moment of Salvation] (Gen 15:6)
So I stand convinced that neither death nor life, neither demons nor rulers
of demons, neither present things nor future things, neither powers, neither
height [Nothing in heaven] nor depth [Nothing in hell] nor any other created
thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. [In union with Christ we share His righteousness]
(Rom 8:38-39)
As Spiritual royalty each believer possesses a double portion of Divine
righteousness. The righteousness of God the Father is imputed to us at
Salvation, as it is to every believer of all other dispensations. (Gen 15:6) But
we also share the righteousness of God the Son through our royal position in
union with Christ. (2Co 5:21) We are included in the dynamics of “God is
love,” not because of who and what we are, but because of Who and What
God IS, because of His integrity!
HUMILITY IN LEARNING TRUTH
God has established for believers a way to grow Spiritually, the
autonomous local church, MP3 player, DVDs; and now the computer; this is a
provision of logistical grace. Like all effective organizations this one also has
a purpose, a policy, and an authority. Its purpose is the communication and
inculcation of God's Thoughts. And insists on good manners and restricts
activities that would distract serious students from concentrating on the Word
of God. (2Ti 2:14-17) The pastor holds the highest authority. (Heb 13:7-18)
He oversees a system, and the pastor’s authoritative teaching and his system
of delegated authority constitute enforced humility for the royal family. Within
this system of enforced humility, genuine humility is the believer’s positive
volition toward Truth. Humility, both enforced and genuine, provides
teachability. If you are emotional, if you are continually proving your¬self to
others, if you relate everything in life to yourself, you are arrogant and
unreceptive to all categories of Truth. As does any unbeliever, the believer
re¬quires genuine humility to adjust to life in general, but he also needs
genuine humility to faithfully learn and apply Truth and must learn to stay in
fellowship. The believer’s humility is positive volition toward the Truth of the
Bible as well as Divine establishment.
An arrogant believer may listen to Bible teaching every day, but he is
unteachable. He may go through all the proper motions; he may be
considered a pillar of the church; but he remains preoccupied with himself. He
is too subjective to accept the Doctrines that expose the frailties and flaws of
his sin nature. A hypocritical eclectic, he chooses to believe only what he
wishes to hear and refuses to submit to the whole realm of Truth. As a result
he never grows Spiritually despite his continual exposure. The humble
believer attends Bible teaching to learn God’s system, not to agree or
disagree. When a person does not know what God’s plan is, his agreement
or disagreement mean nothing. The humble believer grows because he is
receptive to the Truth rather than protective of his inflated opinion of himself.
The sin nature is a direct link to demon influence and must be overcome. (Jas
3:14-15) The enemy inside being rejected, is the key to learning, so do not
submit to self, (Rom 6:11-12) submit to God! A person who becomes a
believer in adulthood has an advantage in the Christian life if he was authority-
oriented as an unbeliever; he has a foundation. As he learns the Thinking of
the Spiritual life, he recognizes this system to be the accelerator of his
freedom rather than a confining maze of Commandments, and prohibitions,
as seen by a believer who resists authority. (This is a play book! Not a rule
book!) But while there is life there is hope; (Eccles 9:4) God supplies him with
the logistical grace to grow up Spiritually. His environment or background is
no excuse for failure to advance in the plan of God. He can develop respect
for authority and Truth, but he must enter gate three the hard way. Under
strict academic discipline and enforced humility he must persevere under the
authority and teaching of his pastor. He must avoid mental attitude sins when
he is tempted to malign the pastor, resent his message, or criticize others.
He must remain constantly alert and rebound quickly when he sins. For any
believer the transition from ignorance of Truth at Salvation to cognizance at
Spiritual maturity is as difficult as the transition from authority in the home to
freedom in adulthood. Few believers succeed. Most lack the tenacity day
after day, year after year, to make the many right decisions to learn and
Think with Truth, to keep residing and functioning in Fellowship with God.
(Matt 7:13-14)
THE HUMILITY OF CHRIST
SUBMISSION TO ESTABLISHMENT AUTHORITY
The Divine Laws of establishment embrace all mankind. Since our Lord
Jesus Christ was true humanity, He too was subject to these Laws. Born into
the organizational humility of a family, He grew up under the enforced humility
of His parents. In genuine humility He was always obedient to His parents
until He reached physical, mental and Spiritual maturity. (Luk 2:40; Luk 2:51-
52) Christ as an adult was subject to the same system of humility that for us
replaces the authority of the home. Our Lord’s human soul was His
organizational humility, and His positive volition in resisting every temptation to
sin was His enforced humility. (Heb 4:15) He was always obedient to the
Truth. By His own self-discipline He perpetually resided in fellowship and
developed maximum capacity for life. His enforced humility merged into
genuine humility. Since our Lord lived during the Age of Israel, Jesus fulfilled
the Principle of learning under authority. (Luk 2:46) So diligent was He in His
studies that at age twelve He surpassed the theologians in His understanding
of Old Testament Scriptures. (Luk 2:46-47)
SUBMISSION TO A UNIQUE DESTINY
The prototype Spiritual life was designed to sustain the humanity of Christ
in accomplishing His unique mission, His destiny on earth. God’s plan for the
First Advent called for Christ to enter Satan’s domain as a man, to remain
impeccable and thus acceptable to Divine righteousness, and to voluntarily go
to the Cross as our substitute in payment for the sins of mankind. (2Co 5:21)
Christ lived under this system of humility to which believers must adhere. The
plan of God was organizational humility for Christ. The will of God — the
sovereignty of the Father, the author of the Divine plan—was enforced
humility. And Christ’s obedience to the Father’s plan by going to the Cross
was genuine humility. Shortly before He was betrayed, Jesus expressed in
prayer His genuine humility under Divine authority.
Saying, ‘Father, if You are willing, [God’s sovereignty over the humanity of
Christ] remove this cup [The Cross] from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be
done.” [Christ’s genuine humility] (Luk 22:42)
Although the prospect of bearing our sins was abhorrent to Christ, He humbly
submitted to Divine judgment in our place.
Keep on Thinking this within yourself, which was also resident in Christ
Jesus, who though He existed eternally in the essence of God, [Christ IS
God] did not Think equality with God a profit to be seized and held, [Unlike
Satan, Jesus was not arrogant] but He deprived Himself [Of the proper
function of Deity, voluntarily limiting Himself in order to execute God’s plan]
when He had received the form of a slave, when He was born in the likeness
of mankind. [Perfect man, like Adam before the Fall] In fact, although He was
discovered in the outward appearance as a man, [Without a sin nature] He
humbled Himself [Genuine humility] by becoming obedient to the point of
death, that is, the death of the Cross. (Php 2:5-8)
Christ’s attitude sets the example: (Matt 10:38-39) equality was
unimportant to Him. Although coequal with the Father and God the Holy Spirit,
“He did not Think equality with God a profit to be seized and held.” Our Lord
the Creator submitted to the utter humility of becoming a creature, a man
who was ignored, rejected, mis¬represented, ridiculed, and ultimately
crucified. Despite abuse and injustice from people and the ignominy of
exposing Himself to presumptuous, arrogant attacks from Satan, whom He
had created, Christ never succumbed to approbation lust or selfish ambition.
He was motivated by His Personal love for God; genuine humility gave Jesus
capacity to appreciate God’s faithful support. (John 11:41) Far from being
discouraged or bitter, our Lord’s Attitude was one of constant thanksgiving,
which is the essence of true worship. Yet without humility gratitude cannot
exist.
NO SELF-GLORIFICATION, NO SELF-DEPRECATION
Jesus Christ had nothing to prove. He came to pay for man’s sins, not to
trumpet His own cause. Our Lord did not exalt Himself; (John 8:50) the
Father exalted Him. (Psa 110:1) The mission of glorifying Christ on earth was
assigned to the Holy Spirit. (John 16:14) The Holy Spirit empowered the
apostles to spread the Gospel of Christ and to record Church Age Doctrine in
the New Testament; (2Pe 1:20-21) the Spirit also empowers us to glorify
Christ. God the Father loved the humanity of Christ with conditional, Personal
love, which hinged on our Lord’s obedience to the Father’s plan. (John 10:17-
18) Christ succeeded in every respect. (John 15:10) He relied on the Father’s
power system and was sustained by the Holy Spirit throughout His life, never
once utilizing His own Divine power to act independently of the Father’s plan.
(Matt 4:3-11) Christ’s submission to the plan of God resulted in judgment; our
submission results in blessing. This complete reversal of the purpose of the
Spiritual life reveals the efficacy of Christ’s finished work and the scope of
God’s Impersonal love for mankind. Knowledge of Divine Thinking fuels in us
the same mental dynamics that Christ possessed. But our genuine humility
orients us to blessing, not cursing, from the justice of God. Humility generates
gratitude, which results in true worship and love of God. In blind arrogance
some Christians falsely claim to be humble in that they follow Christ in His
sufferings, failing to recognize that Christ’s sufferings were unique. There is
no Spiritual significance or merit in our pain; only the work of Christ on the
Cross was efficacious for our Salvation. We add nothing to His finished work.
This is not what the Bible means by humility. Christianity is not a system that
glorifies believers for their legalism, sacrifice, and self-denial; Christianity is a
life of multifaceted prosperity that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. (Col 1:27;
Gal 4:19) Humility is orientation to Principle, to Truth, to the Reality of God’s
grace.
Gate Four, Spiritual Momentum
THE MOST IMPORTANT GATE
The fourth gate of the Spiritual life is a double gate — perception and
Thinking with Truth — that opens upon the richest treasure in the universe.
Truth is the Thinking of God. The Bible is designated as the Word of God,
(Heb 4:12) the Mind of Christ, (1Co 2:16) and the Voice of the Holy Spirit.
(Heb 3:7) Truth is our door to the Reality of God and His marvelous plan. His
Word is more reliable than anything we see, hear, touch, smell, taste, or feel;
more real than empirical knowledge. (2Pe 1:15-21)
Truth preexisted the human race, (Prov 8:7-9; Prov 8:23) so that through
the generosity of logistical grace, God makes available to us the wisdom of
the ages. During the Church Age God reveals His essence and plan only
through His Written Word, the completed, inerrant Canon of Scripture. (Heb 1:
1-2) Our attitude toward Truth is our attitude toward God. If we pursue Truth,
we love God;
(John 14:24) if we listen to Bible teaching only at our convenience or when
we are in trouble, then we ignore and insult God, (Heb 10:28-29) despite our
pious pretenses. The one form of worship that gives meaning to all other
expressions of worship is our perception and Thinking with the Word of Truth.
Without a thorough growing knowledge, any alleged worship of God becomes
ritual without Reality. (Matt 15:8)
When David wrote (Psa 138:2) the earthly temple did not yet exist. He was
reflecting on the Spirit & Truth (Temple) in his soul, which revealed God in the
true Holy of Holies located in heaven. In the next generation David’s son,
Solomon, would construct the Temple in Jerusalem to exacting Divine
specifications.
(Exo 25:9; 1Ch 28:19) As a place of worship, the Temple itself was designed
to communicate Truth by its very structure and furnishings. God’s grace
enabled David to learn Truth, which gave him capacity to appreciate and
delight in God's Thinking and Nature that was being constructed in his soul —
the copy of the Divine nature of God. (The Edification complex) (1Co 3:9-10;
2Pe 1:4) God’s Person is Who and What He IS, and in order to live with God
now and in eternity, we must share His Divine nature, (1Pe 1:15-16) the
perfect coalescence of all His attributes. Now David makes one of the most
dramatic statements in all of Scripture.
I will bow down toward Your holy temple And give thanks to Your name For
You have magnified Your Word [Divine Thinking] according to all Your name.
(Reputation) (Psa 138:2)
God Himself elevates His Thinking above all else, above even His Own
Name. In no other way can we approach Him, understand Him, (Prov 23:7) or
fulfill His plan for our lives. Truth is more important than the food we eat or
the air we breathe. Divine blessings in both time and eternity are distributed
according to the believer’s understanding of Truth. (Heb 11:2) Nations rise or
fall because of Truth (Zec 8:3-8) Jesus Christ controls history in reverence
for the Truth in the souls of believers. (Eccles 9:15) As we grow in knowledge
of Truth, we become personally familiar with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Perception and Thinking with Truth establish the central gate of the Spiritual
life. God’s Word generates Spiritual momentum in the Christian’s life.
COMMANDS TO LEARN AND THINK WITH TRUTH
The Scriptures repeatedly Commands the intake and use of Truth, as
expressed by John in relation to several young people in his congregation in
Ephesus. Several of her children had developed genuine humility and were
positive toward Truth. They had moved from Laodicea to Ephesus in order to
learn Truth from John face to face, while their mother continued to hear his
written sermons, or Epistles, which were read to the congregation in her
home.
I was very pleased because I discovered that some of your children
continued their momentum by means of Truth, even as we have received
Commandment from the Father. (2Jn 1:4)
John explains that this Divine Command for “continued, momentum by
means of Truth” is obeyed only in fellowship with God.
Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new
Commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we
[Impersonal] love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His
Commandments. [Thoughts] This is the Commandment, just as you have
heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. [Residence and function
in fellowship — the bottom circle — the Spiritual life] (2Jn 1:5-6)
The Divine Command to learn and Think with Truth is implied in Paul’s
dissertation on the pastor’s professional objectives.
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as
evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the
saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we
all attain to the unity of the Truth, the Thinking of the Son of God, to a mature
man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
(Eph 4:11-13)
Spiritual maturity comes through knowledge and Thinking with the Mind of
Christ, which results in emulating the integrity and capacity for life that He
acquired in the original Spiritual life. “Full knowledge” or epignosis in the
Greek, [Pronounced: eppy-no-sis] is Truth that the Christian understands and
believes,
If he does not understand and believe it is removed. (Matt 13:19; Luk 8:12)
Paul continues with the pastor’s job description. The pastor must study and
teach Truth in the power of the Holy Spirit. (1Co 4:20)
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by
waves [Our sin nature's thoughts] and carried about by every wind of [False]
doctrine, [Satan's thinking] by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful
scheming;
(John 2:24-25) but speaking the Truth in love, [In fellowship] we are to grow
up [Reach maturity] in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.
(Eph 4:14-15)
Writing to the Thessalonians, Paul reiterates the Divine Command, but this
time the Command is related to the congregation. Those who listen to the
pastor must be in fellowship in order to benefit from the Spiritual Truth they
hear.
But we request you, brethren, [Members of the royal family] that you
appreciate those [Pastors] who diligently labor among you and have charge
over you in the Lord [Enforced humility] and give you instruction, and that you
esteem them very highly in the sphere of love because of their work. (1Th 5:
12-13)
A pastor should be respected for his sound knowledge and
conscientiousness in teaching. His “diligent labor” consists of long hours every
day in disciplined, concentrated study; He is an authority on Truth. Members
of the congregation demonstrate their appreciation for the pastor by
submitting to his authority and concentrating. Believers appreciate their
pastor by allowing his work to produce its in¬tended result in their lives. (1Th
2:13) The pastor considers himself a voice, a spokesman who communicates
God’s Word. (Matt 3:3) He does not promote himself. He is impressed with
God’s Thoughts, not his own! He is most gratified by those who receive the
teaching as from the Lord, (Heb 4:12) and use that teaching in their own lives
as they advance to Spiritual maturity.
TRUTH AND LOVE AS A WAY OF LIFE
All Virtue, love, and genuine humility, for the believer, are found only inside
the Spiritual life. Now the unbeliever can comprehend the Thoughts of Divine
establishment, but the believer alone has access to the Doctrines of the Word
of God. In gate four he advances beyond any strength, integrity, humility,
wisdom, or happiness that the unbeliever can achieve! Virtue love cannot
exist without Truth. Truth makes Virtue love possible, because genuine love is
rational, never absurd, always dependent on Thought, never strictly
emotional. As the pattern, Divine love is rational because it is always linked
with God’s absolutely consistent Integrity. Consistency of Thought is
rationality, and by reason of His immutability, omniscience, and veracity, God
is perfectly rational, totally logical. God IS Truth, and God IS Virtue love;
these two attributes are inseparable. (John 4:23-24;
1Jn 4:8)
Nor can Truth and Virtue love be separated in the believer. The Christian’s
capacity for Impersonal and Personal love is increased by his consistent
function in gate four. Understanding of Truth creates capacity for Virtue love.
At gate four the believer fulfills the ultimate purpose of the Spiritual life: God’s
objective for us is that we understand and Think with His Word! God reveals
Himself in the Scriptures, and a believer’s daily intake is the indicator of his
Virtue love for God. Learning requires academic discipline, but God’s Word
surpasses any subject that he might be taught in a school or college
classroom. Truth is supernatural information. (1Co 2:12-16) God’s revelation
extends beyond the range of human intellect or concentration and beyond
man’s empirical powers to observe his environment. More than mastering and
reciting an academic subject, learning and applying Truth constitute a way of
life, the Christian way of life in fellowship with God.
But He [Christ] answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on
bread alone, [Human needs] but on every Word that proceeds out of the
mouth of God.” [Spiritual needs] (Matt 4:4)
The Christian life depends on learning God’s Word and this is not an
isolated activity; it is part of the complete, interlocking system. The first three
gates of the Divine game plan operate in con¬cert to motivate faithfulness to
Truth, which in turn strengthens all the gates.
THE INTERLOCK OF THE FIRST THREE GATES POWER AND
OBJECTIVITY
Spiritual momentum from gate four of the Spiritual life depends on the first
three gates. Gates one, two, and three furnish the power, objectivity, teach-
ability and motivation needed to transfer Truth from the written pages of
Scripture into the believer’s soul and then out again as application to life. We
possess no capacity to assimilate, recall, or apply Truth apart from the
unseen power of the Holy Spirit. (John 16:12-15; John 14:26)
We are able to understand Spiritual Truth only when filled with the Spirit. As
Truth accumulates in our souls, the Holy Spirit uses that Truth to increase our
capacity to understand more Truth. The more you learn, the more you can
learn. Truth builds on Truth. (Eccles 7:27)
You must be objective to avoid misinterpreting or misapplying Truth. This
objectivity derives primarily from gate two. In gate two reliance on Divine
Promises, and the exercise of Impersonal love secure freedom from mental
attitude sins, eliminating the subjectivity of arrogance, jealousy, self-pity,
bitterness, or a guilt complex. By exercising basic Impersonal love, and
rebounding when necessary, you maintain your orientation to the essentials of
life, even when people or circumstances challenge you to lose your
perspective
(Get out fellowship) and turn your eyes on self. The two primary techniques
are implementing basic Impersonal love. And using the faith-rest drill by
claiming Promises, establishes the relaxed mental attitude needed to
rationally Think with Truth, and switch from Personal love or dislike, to
Impersonal love and maintain objectivity. Gate three of the system also
contributes to objectivity. Humility is obedience to authority, and authority-
orientation is orientation to Reality. Reality is objective, not emotional. The
genuinely humble believer understands his significance in the overall scheme
of God’s plan and human history; he recognizes that he is dependent on Truth
for his integrity and that the source of his happiness is being in fellowship with
God. The humble believer possesses a Personal sense of destiny as he
witnesses the glorification of Jesus Christ in his life. Objectivity in gate three
makes him receptive and teachable; he is motivated to learn the Truth rather
than prove how much he knows or how superior he is. The more Truth he
learns in gate four, the stronger becomes his objectivity in gates two and
three, which, barring the intrusion of arrogance motivates him to learn and
apply still more Truth.
MOTIVATION
OBEDIENCE AND MOTIVATIONAL VIRTUE
Motivation is a major issue in the Christian life. When we study Virtue, we
will discover that motivational Virtues exist inside the Spiritual life. A
motivational Virtue is the invisible counterpart for each visible, functional
Virtue. For example, the Virtue of confidence toward God motivates the
functional Virtue of courage toward man and circumstances. All functional
Virtues stem from motivational Virtues, and all motivational Virtues originate
from your free¬will decisions to obey God’s Commands. God’s power
system is perfect in that it not only leads to Spiritual maturity but also
motivates its own momentum. (Php 2:13) Motivation for the perception and
application is created by obedience to the Commands related to gates one,
two, and three. But even in God’s complete, self-energized system, human
volition remains the key! You can choose to remain in fellowship or reject God’
s plan and live in one of Satan’s counterfeit systems.
No one can reach into another person’s soul and switch on motivation like a
light in the dark. Nor can God force you to have the correct motivation toward
His plan. He will never coerce, (Force) your free will. Although God’s game
plan is designed for your maximum benefit and His eternal glory, you are free
to ignore His Word. If you assume that your own plans and thoughts are
better than God’s Thoughts and Design, you oppose yourself and Him, create
your own misery, and incur Divine discipline. (Jer 18:12) But fear of
punishment is not the proper motive for adhering to Divine policy. If you are
objective, you obey initially out of respect for God, and then eventually from
Personal love for God. As you come to know and appreciate Him through His
Word. This motivation — this positive volition — must emanate from your own
soul, not from any external source.
ESTABLISHING PRIORITIES, ORGANIZING A ROUTINE
Among believers and or unbelievers; the most admirable and successful
people are self-motivated. In the conscience of the soul, where the norms
and standards and scale of values reside, these individuals have established
true priorities, and
