Super-Grace
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)
Super-Grace — Maximum Glorification of God
THE OBJECT OF THE BELIEVER-PRIEST
At the moment you believe in Jesus Christ, you receive forty-plus things, one of
which is an appointment as a priest. (1Pe 2:5; (1Pe 2:9) However it is one thing
to be appointed a priest and something else to function under the priesthood.
Just being saved doesn’t mean a thing as far as your service for the Lord on
this earth is concerned. Until you enter into SUPER-GRACE — MGG, you
cannot serve God with maximum effectiveness. “Super-grace” is that stage in
the Christian’s life which lies beyond the point of Spiritual adulthood and which
appropriates and utilizes God’s grace toward maximum function and production.
In the meantime, you are going to go through all kinds of growing pains; you’re
going to think you’re an expert at every stage — and you’re going to be trouble
for some poor pastor to whose lot will be, to counsel you. In fact, too often the
desire to be counselled is merely a desire for attention. Most people don’t need
counselling. What they need is God’s Thinking — Truth!
There is only one way that any believer can ever basically function under his
priesthood, and that is through the intake of Truth. But as a new believer, we
cannot accomplish this by reading the Bible for ourself. We are just born into a
new kingdom and are totally ignorant of anything that God has provided. The
great objective for you as a priest — the only objective which you can actually
accomplish successfully; is the intake of Truth; when filled with God the Holy
Spirit. (John 4:23)
THE FUNCTION OF GAP
The provision whereby the believer can take in Truth is the “grace apparatus for
perception.” (GAP — Operation Z) You must hear Truth communicated by a
pastor-teacher under the filling of the Holy Spirit. (1Co 1:9-10; (1Co 2:11-13) It
is then understood objectively in the left or perceptive lobe. This information is
called “gnosis” in the Greek. (Knowledge in the staging area) Now, once you
understand what has been taught, volition goes into operation. Positive volition
expresses itself in a non-meritorious manner — FAITH. Faith cycles the
information into the human spirit, where it becomes “epignosis.” (Spiritual
Thinking) (1Co 2:11-12) “Epignosis” is “over or beyond human and satanic
thinking,” (Isa 55:8-9) that is, knowledge beyond the staging area. It is Truth in
the human spirit, which is usable. “Epignosis” is cycled into the right lobe in the
filling of the Spirit, where it goes into the frame of reference and memory
centre; it begins to form vocabulary and categories and to change norms and
standards to line up with God’s Norms and Standards; (Our thoughts start to
line up with God’s Thoughts; Rom 12:2) and it is finally put on the “launching
pad” to be utilized. (Thought with)
THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE EDIFICATION COMPLEX, (TEMPLE —
SPIRITUAL LIFE) OF THE SOUL
“Epignosis” (Spiritual Thinking) also has another function: it is used as building
material for the construction of the “Temple complex” in the soul, (ECS) which is
the objective of the New Covenant Spiritual life; and is the identification of
maturity in the believer. It consists of ten “floors” (1) Rebound; (1Jn 1:9) (2)
The filling of God the Holy Spirit; (Eph 5:18) (3) Faith-Rest Drill; (Rom 4:20;
Heb 4:3) (4) Grace Orientation; (2Co 12:9) (5) Doctrinal Orientation;
(Matt 24:35) (6) Personal Sense of Destiny — Spiritual Adulthood; (Matt 25:21)
(7) Personal love for God; (1Jn 2:5) (8) Impersonal Love for All Mankind;
(1Jn 3:16) (9) +H — Sharing the Happiness of God; (John 17:13) (10) Mental
Occupation with Christ and His Thoughts — absence of mental attitude sins —
SUPER-GRACE — MGG. (Gal 2:20)
Illustration
The ECS — Temple, is the reflected nature of God and the means by which
believers can glorify God! (2Pe 1:4) Basically, you don’t glorify God by what
you do, but by the Spiritual Thinking and Virtue of the Spiritual life. Bona fide
production is the RESULT of reaching Spiritual maturity! Therefore, in order to
glorify God, you must develop the Thinking and Virtue in the soul to the point of
Spiritual maturity! (1Co 2:16; Gal 5:22-24)
Once you have achieved an edification complex, you face a great issue: either
you move into super-grace or you retrogress into reversionism. From +H it is
very easy to move to intensify Operation Z, to continue taking in Truth on a daily
basis and to enter Super-Grace — MGG, which is the last goal of the
Spiritually adult believer.
Illustration
At that point, you begin to function as a priest in the true sense of the word, and
you begin to fulfil the purpose for which you have been left in this world as a
believer. Furthermore, at this point, you enter vigorously into the angelic conflict.
By now you are also Spiritually mature enough to distinguish between Divine
Thinking and Reality vs. satanic-human thinking and the MANY different realities.
RESULTS OF RETROGRESSION
The big problem comes when people get close to Spiritual adulthood, and they
decide they know it all — that they have arrived! And that’s when they fall apart.
(1Co 10:12)
They begin to neglect Truth, and things that hurt begin to happen. When you
neglect the Word of Truth, you will eventually go negative towards it. That puts
scar tissue on the left bank of the soul. At first you are not negative in the
absolute sense — the process is gradual. It often starts with a date or a party
which interferes with Bible class; and since you know everything anyway, you
begin to neglect and disregard the teaching. This opens up “mataiotes” — a
vacuum in the soul and the old sin nature.
A believer cannot be demon-possessed, for his “body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit”; (1Co 6:19) but Satan gets to the believer through the “old sin nature,”
which sucks in the false Biblical and non Biblical thinking of demons. (1Ti 4:1) —
false demonic thinking and human false realities. Once these infiltrate, they
attack Divine Thoughts in the right lobe, and his norms and standards become
the norms and standards of “cosmos diabolicus.” (The thinking of Satan) His
frame of reference and categories change so that he thinks in terms of
“brotherhood,” (So-called) internationalism, one world government, anti-
establishment, anti-military, etc., and there is nothing on the “launching pad”
except propaganda — let’s love the Communists, beat the drums for ecology,
universal Obama-care, give away money to panhandlers and czars!
Now while this is going on, the old sin nature is not idle. Whenever scar tissue is
built up on the left bank of the soul through negative volition toward Truth, you
will inevitably get into some practice or some system which will build scar tissue
on the right bank. If the trend of your old sin nature is toward lasciviousness,
then by hell-raising, you build scar tissue on the right bank of the soul. If the
trend is toward asceticism, you start to build your righteousness on someone
else’s unrighteousness, or you begin to look for some second-blessing type of
experience, some rosy glow. Once you get enough scar tissue on the right
bank, you have a blackout of the soul.
Scar tissue of the soul also leads to emotional revolt of the soul. The emotion
revolts against the right lobe. The right lobe is the “man” of the soul and should
run the soul. The emotion is a responder and therefore analogous to the
“woman.” But once you have emotional revolt in the soul, you shut down the
valves to the right lobe, and you become a sucker for anything in the devil’s
world. Finally, your beautiful Spiritual life — Temple, begins to crumble, until you
are in a state called reversionism; and you will begin to practice reverse
process reversionism. All this may take only a short time, or it may take forty
years, as in the case of King Saul. But no matter how long it takes, you are on
your way to the sin unto death. These are the results of retrogression in the
Christian life.
We are going to turn over the coin and see the results of progression in the
Christian life, particularly after you have reached the point where you have
constructed a Spiritual life in the soul. From there, you can enter the SUPER-
GRACE LIFE, which is the state in which you really begin to live as a believer.
It is the capacity to enjoy what God provides! The purpose of this book is to
challenge you to get into the super-grace life and to find out what it’s all about.
But before we can get into super-grace, we must first understand what grace is.
Therefore, we need the Biblical Principles of grace.
THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE
Definition. The definition of grace includes several factors. First, grace is all that
God is free to do for man on the basis of the cross. Second, grace is God’s
freedom to express His love to mankind without jeopardizing His essence. God’
s essence is God’s INTEGRITY. The three Members of the Godhead possess
sovereignty, absolute righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omniscience,
omnipotence, omnipresence, immutability and veracity. God the Father wants to
love the human race, but He has to have freedom to do so. He can’t love us at
the expenses of some of His other characteristics. If He compromises His
integrity, it is weakened, and His love is worthless. The important thing in love is
Virtue, not maudlin sentimentalism nor some kind of gushing. (Gal 5:22-23)
{Note: This was written in 1973 ~ today in 2009, it is said that the Love of God
is the Integrity of God — the Whole of God’s character.}
God’s righteousness cannot fellowship with sinful man, for “all have sinned.”
(Rom 3:23) Even our righteousness is MINUS “R.” (Isa 64:6) His justice must
condemn a Spiritually dead human race. (Eph 2:1; Rom 6:23) Therefore, His
righteousness and justice stand in the way of His love toward mankind. Yet God
found a grace way to love us without compromising His essence. (Eph 2:4) In
His sovereignty He made a Divine Decision to reach man which satisfied the
righteousness of the Father; on the cross, Christ bore our sins, which satisfied
the justice of the Father. Now love and eternal life can come through the “grace
pipeline” to man — but only by way of the Cross. (Rom 5:8;
(1Pe 2:24) Therefore, grace is the plan and work of God on behalf of man, and
grace begins at the cross.
When you BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, you come under God the Fathers
Virtue love, and at Spiritual maturity His maximum expression of Virtue love.
(John 14:21) No matter what kind of a believer we are, God will always love us
— not because of who and what we are, but because of who and what Christ
is! When we understand this, we begin to understand the Principle of grace.
A third factor in defining grace is the Principle of freedom: no one can truly give
apart from freedom. God gives out of total freedom because of the cross.
Anything that is given to you in the right way is given on the basis of freedom.
When one gives in freedom, no strings are attached. If giving is a bribe for
affection or love or attention, it does not stem from capacity for freedom. This
emphasizes the importance of the super-grace life. The super-grace life gives
you the capacity for freedom whereby you have the ability to give not only of
your finances to help someone, but to give of yourself in love. You are free to
do so because you are not seeking attention or affection or trying to bribe
someone for something.
The fourth definition relates grace both to the cross and to the super-grace life.
Grace is God’s plan as well as God’s policy for Homo sapiens. It is a plan, a
policy, a function and a mechanic of Divine routine and life-style.
The Concept of Grace. Grace depends on the essence or character of God;
therefore, grace depends on who and what God IS, not on who and what man
is. Grace is what God can do for man and be consistent with His own essence.
This is illustrated by propitiation, and the application is fantastic. It’s the most
wonderful thing in the world to realize that God didn’t save you because He
needed your help, your scintillating personality or your status symbols of life.
That is the Madison Avenue type of Christianity we have today. You and I need
God — He doesn’t NEED us! It’s not what we give up or do for Him, but what
He has done for us! Nothing depends on us — everything depends on God!
God has chosen to use the least deserving of all His creation —“HOMO —
SAPS”!! And that is His phenomenal grace! If He did the most for us when we
were His enemies, (Rom 5:8-10) what will He do now that we are His children?
Much more than the most! And He does more than the most through the super-
grace life. You’ll never be grace-oriented if you have your eyes on what you are
doing for God, or what anyone is doing — even a pastor. Preachers aren’t any
different from anyone else. We all have old sin natures; but God has chosen
pastor-teachers to communicate Truth. It isn’t the pastor’s life that is important
— it is God the Holy Spirit’s Message spoken through him — and that is grace!
None of us is anything; and that’s the beauty of God’s plan. God is perfect; His
plan is perfect. If one born-again member of the human race can do anything in
the plan of God, the plan is no good. A plan is no stronger than its weakest link.
Now, honestly — would you like the plan of God to depend on you? Thank God,
His plan doesn’t depend on us, but on SOMEONE WHO IS PERFECT!
The Issue of Grace. The believer must sort out the difference between grace
and legalism. Legalism is man’s ability and works intruding into God’s plan. Man
always has some talent, some ability, some plan or gimmick, some public
relations concept, some Madison Avenue idea that he wants to incorporate into
God’s plan. But NOTHING Satan or man throws into God’s plan, will stand,
because grace rejects the energy of the flesh — human old sin nature good,
human ability, human and satanic viewpoint ideas. Man’s works or plans cannot
coexist with God’s. They are mutually exclusive! This means that when we are
born again we bring nothing to God; God brings everything to us. The sooner
you get with this grace Principle, the sooner you will be able to utilize His
blessings.
Many of you are trying to bribe God through giving. You want a girl friend or
success in business or a better job, so you ante ten percent into the collection
plate. Some of you are trying to bribe God by witnessing to ten people a day.
You’re on a point system, a works system. You can’t bribe God! (Deut 10:17)
The sooner you learn that, the better off you’ll be. One of the things that really
irritates Satan is that God takes fallen creatures, inferior to angels, saves them,
gives them forty plus things at the point of Salvation, and uses them against the
most phenomenal army in the universe — the army of demons! The believer
with Truth in his soul is armed! Truth is his “ammo” for the angelic conflict!
Christianity moves on the basis of Truth — not on personalities. Pastor-
teachers come and go; but Truth goes right on. Nearly two thousand years ago,
the cannon of Scripture was completed. All hell tried to stop it; but in 96 A.D.
it was completed and circulated, and it is still here today. It will still be here
tomorrow and forever. (Matt 24:35) That’s what counts — not you or I!
Grace, Sanctification and the Angelic Conflict. The greatest thing that God can
do for the believer is to make him like His Son. Jesus Christ is the only Celebrity
in the Church Age, and the objective of grace is to make every believer like Him
in Thought and Virtue. (Rom 8:29) Man was created to resolve the angelic
conflict; therefore, Christ had to become a human being, not an angel, in order
to resolve the conflict. (Heb 2:14-16) The first Adam lost the victory through the
fall; the Last Adam won the victory through the cross. (Col 2:14;
Heb 2:14) Through the cross grace found a way to take man, created inferior to
angels, and make him superior to angels. This is accomplished in three stages
of sanctification.
Stage 1: Positional Sanctification, administered by the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. This is the Holy Spirit’s entering the believer into union with Jesus Christ.
Christ was made lower than angels, (Heb 2:9-10) but became superior to them
at the moment He was seated at the right hand of the Father. Since believers
are in union with Christ, they are positionally higher than angels.
Stage 2: Experiential Sanctification and Experiential death. (2Co 4:10-12) After
the construction of the edification complex of the soul, the believer enters into
the super-grace life; therefore, super-grace is the Principle of experiential
sanctification. In Stage 2, believers are able to defeat demons only under the
filling of God the Holy Spirit and Thinking with the Mind of Christ by reaching
Experiential sanctification.
Stage 3: Resurrection or Ultimate Sanctification. The body of the believer in
resurrection becomes exactly like the body of Christ in resurrection; and as a
result the believer is physically superior to angels. He is POSITIONALLY
superior at the cross; (Soul) (Stage 1) EXPERIENTIALLY superior at Spiritual
maturity; (Spirit) (Stage 2)
PHYSICALLY superior when he receives a resurrection body. (Body) (Stage 3)
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit
and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
(1Th 5:23-24)
Notice that in each one, GOD DOES THE WORK! Inferior mankind becomes
superior through the Principle of grace sanctification.
The Entrance Factor of Grace. Every believer has tasted the grace of God at
least once. (Heb 6:4; (1Pe 2:3) We cannot enter the plan of God without tasting
grace. When we believe in Christ, we taste His grace, and we receive forty plus
things we neither earn nor deserve. This grace package cannot be cancelled or
destroyed by either man or angels. Among the forty plus things received at
Salvation — propitiation, (1Jn 2:2) whereby the believer, regardless of his
Spiritual status, is under maximum grace. But grace can find a place to lodge
only where there is capacity for grace. Entering the plan of God by faith in
Christ does not give you CAPACITY for grace. Therefore, God had to construct
a whole series of things in grace for you: (Jas 4:6) the filling of God the Holy
Spirit, the edification complex — Spiritual life, Divine Thinking, Operation Z,
Spiritual maturity and the super-grace life; and these are GREATER GRACE!
Capacity for grace increases on the basis of the intake of Truth. The filling of
the Spirit is the beginning capacity for a new believer, and the construction of
the Temple increases that capacity; but ultimately, capacity for grace is the
super-grace life. Grace never goes where it is not wanted. That’s why some
believers will never know the wonderful things God has for them as His children.
The Occupational Hazard of Believers. The greatest hazard in the life of the
believer is disorientation to grace through reversionism. (Gal 5:4;
Heb 12:15) After one has constructed the mature Spiritual life through the
function of Operation Z, the great danger is reversionism; this prevents us from
moving on into super-grace life.
The Divine Attitude in Grace. God is constantly waiting to pour out His grace on
every believer! (Isa 30:18-19) Some of you will know what this means, and
some of you will never know because you will never reach Spiritual maturity by
means of the daily intake of Truth through Operation Z, and then continue into
super-grace. After the Temple has been constructed, progression is absolutely
necessary in order to go into super-grace and the fantastic blessing waiting
there. But some of you will go into reversionism and never know what hit you!
The objective of this book is to challenge you to move on in spite of ANYTHING
— in spite of any situation, in spite of EVERY situation, in spite of friends or
even of loved ones! (Deut 13:6-11)
Grace in Phase One. The Principle of grace in Phase One, (Salvation) is found
in many passages, such as, (Psa 103:8-18; Rom 3:23-24; Rom 4:3;
Rom 5:20; Eph 2:8-9; Heb 2:9) — to mention a few. Salvation is all grace
because Jesus Christ did all the work.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves,
(Salvation) it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may
boast.” (Eph 2:8-9)
Grace in Phase Two. This is the believer in time. The first Principle is prayer.
(Heb 4:16) No one is completely effective in his prayer life until he reaches
super-grace. This is the place of dynamics in prayer. This is where prayer has
maximum faith-rest function and usefulness. The second area is suffering.
(2Co 12:9-10) Super-grace suffering is designed for blessing. The third area is
growth. (2Pe 3:18) The first part of this verse, “grow in grace,” refers to the
construction of the edification complex; the last part of the, (Spiritual life) “and in
the knowledge (Thinking) of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” refers to
occupation with Christ in super-grace. The fourth area is stability.
(1Pe 5:12; Heb 13:9) The fifth area is Christianity’s life-style; and this demands
the function of super-grace. As a result of this, we have the sixth function of
super-grace — the production of Divine good. (1Co 15:10; (2Co 6:1) In other
words, you don’t have to WORRY about hustling out to do something for God.
You don’t force production — it will come naturally AFTER REACHING Spiritual
maturity!
Grace and Giving. Grace orientation is the bona fide motivation and Thought
pattern for giving in the New Covenant Church Age. (2Co 8:9; Php 4:14-17) You
have to be free to give properly, and freedom comes through the intake of
Truth. The intake of Truth builds the Spiritual life; the continuation of MAXIMUM
intake and Thinking with Truth after you build an ECS puts you in the super-
grace bracket! Once we are in super-grace, we are really free to give of of our
time, money, energy and effort to ALL THINGS, PEOPLE AND
CIRCUMSTANCES that God leads us to do! Without strings or coercion.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all
sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
(2Co 9:8)
Grace in Suffering. Through grace, God is able to bless the believer in the
midst of pressure, suffering and adversity. Grace is the only sufficiency for
suffering in Phase Two. (2Co 12:7-10)
The Axioms of Grace. (1) God is perfect; His plan is perfect. (2) A perfect plan
can only originate and function from a perfect God. In other words, a perfect
plan must have a perfect Source. (3) If man can do anything meritorious in the
plan of God, it is no longer perfect. (4) A plan is no stronger than its weakest
link. For this reason, grace excludes all human merit, all human ability, all human
good. “Do-gooders” and “bleeding hearts” will never make it under God’s Plan.
That’s super-reversionism! (5) Since legalism and human old sin nature good
deeds are the enemies of grace, works of human righteousness have no place
in the plan of God. (6) All human old sin nature good is associated with the
greatest mental attitude sin — PRIDE! The most devastating mental attitude
sins are jealousy and guilt; but the first and the worst is pride. (Isa 14:13-14)
Four Areas in Which Pride Rejects God’s Grace. These explain Satan’s pride;
they explain human pride and why pride is the WORST mental attitude sin.
(1) The pride of the believer who rejects the Doctrine of eternal security from
the Lake of Fire. Because it amounts to thinking that your sins are greater than
the Plan of God.
(2) The pride of the believer who succumbs to pressure and adversity. He
thinks his sufferings are greater then the Divine Thoughts God has granted us
to Think with!
(3) The pride of pseudo-Spirituality in which the believer thinks that his human
systems are greater than the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in his life. His
human system may be personality imitation or observation of certain taboos. It
may be confusing the means with the result. It may be some system of relativity
— e.g., “My sins are more refined than your sins; therefore, I am Spiritual.” It
might be Spirituality by asceticism, programism or ritualism. All of these are
pride systems: “I’m doing something. I have found the way. I speak all this
gibberish under ecstatic conditions; therefore, I am a great believer!” So human
pride is associated with any system of pseudo-Spirituality, and is sustained by
human pride.
(4) The pride of the believer in emotional revolt of the soul. He assumes that his
thoughts, emotions, feelings and experiences are more important than the Bible;
the Word of Truth. (Isa 65:2; Php 2:21)
The Relation of Grace to Divine Operating Assets. This is found in such
passages as, (John 1:14-17; (1Co 1:4-5; Eph 1:6-7)
The Principle of Super-Grace. (Jas 4:6) “He gives greater grace.” Jesus Christ
moved into super-grace. (John 1:14-17) There are many portions which explain
and develop the Concept of super-grace. The passages we will examine will be
primarily Philippians 4 and James 4.
THE PRELUDE TO THE SUPER-GRACE LIFE
(Php 4:1-13) gives us the function of the edification complex of the soul; as a
prelude to the super-grace life. In many previous studies we have established
the fact that the construction of the Temple complex in the soul is the point of
Spiritual adulthood for the believer in Jesus Christ. But this only brings him to
the point of Spiritual adulthood without the benefits of Spiritual maturity. The
Christian life really begins, as far as function and production are concerned,
after the ECS, (Temple — Spiritual life) is built. So, the question is, what’s
beyond the ECS? Or, after Spiritual maturity — what? There is the great
territory of SUPER-GRACE — generally unknown and unexplored in our
generation! Because of widespread reversionism in Christendom today, this
area continues to be unexplored and unexploited.
In the first three chapters of Philippians, Paul has warned us concerning
reversionism; now in the fourth chapter, he describes the great blessing of
moving into the super-grace life. As we begin this chapter, there are six
Principles we should keep in mind.
(1) No one remains the same in Phase Two. (The New Covenant Spiritual life)
As a believer-priest, you either advance or retrogress, but you do not stand
still. Phase One, (Salvation) takes just a second. Faith in Jesus Christ requires
only a simple and brief act of positive volition. Phase Two begins one second
after you believe in Him; and continues until death or the Harvest, (Apart from
Spiritually mature believers being keep from the Tribulation period;
Rev 3:10-11) whichever occurs first. Phase Two is divided into two parts —
living and dying. Phase Three is the believer in eternity in the presence of the
Lord after the Second Advent. (2Co 5:8; Rev 21:1 thru Rev 22:1-21) (2)
Retrogression means carelessness in the function of Operation Z, the
accumulation of scar tissue on the soul, emotional revolt and blackout of the
soul, reversionism and the practice of reverse process reversionism. (3) We
are challenged to move forward after reaching Spiritual maturity. (4) The
believer cannot afford to spend much of his time recovering from reversionism.
(5) Recovery from reversionism simply brings you back to the point of maturity,
but doesn’t move you into the super-grace life, where the real benefits begin to
increase. That involves an intense thrust of Operation Z, and sometimes takes
years. (6) Few believers live very long in the penthouse of the edification
complex. (+H — Sharing the Hapiness of God and Occupation with Christ) They
either move on into something greater (God’s +H and Occupation with Christ;
perpetuated and intensified, (Php 4:4) or they retrogress into various stages of
reversionism, which leads to self-induced misery and discipline.
THE COMMAND TO STABILITY
(Php 4:1) gives us the Principle of how to move into the super-grace life. It has
to be through the continuation of the function of Operation Z, producing stability
in your life. You don’t move forward on your emotions. The intake of Truth is the
only way any believer will ever move forward. Truth is manna from heaven; it is
your life! It is as important to your Spiritual life as the air you breathe is to your
physical life.
“Therefore, my brethren, loved ones, deeply desired ones, my happiness and
victory crown; in this way (Spiritual Maturity) keep on being STABILIZED by the
Lord, ones worthy of love (Php 4:1)
“Therefore” — in view of all the Principles in which believers grow from Spiritual
infancy to the point of MGG, (Php 1:1-30) is in view; of the pre-eminence of
Jesus Christ as the only Celebrity in the Christian life, (Php 2:1-29) is in view; of
the importance of discipline, (Php 3:1-21) — the believer is now ready for the
Spiritual Thinking which leads him in the Christian life: capacity for love and
happiness, capacity for life, and capacity for freedom.
“Therefore, my brethren” — members of the family of God... We enter the
family of God by the new birth through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
(John 1:12; Gal 3:26) The life of every believer has meaning, purpose and
definition! No matter how insignificant you think your life is, as far as God is
concerned, it is important! No matter how you may have failed, you are still
alive; therefore, God has a purpose for your life. Phase Two does not depend
on who and what you are, but on WHO AND WHAT CHRIST IS! It depends on
orienting to grace as quickly as possible. Even though you may think of yourself
as a second-class Christian, you are a believer in full-time Christian service.
You are a priest, appointed at the moment of your Salvation, and God has a
plan for your life.
The fact that you are alive right now means that you can recover from any
failure, any disaster, any difficulty, and go on to the great Principle of the super-
grace life. God has left you here primarily for one reason — not to hustle and
work around a church — not even to witness and pray, but to reach the place
of super-grace and function in your priesthood to the maximum capacity!
“Dearly beloved” is literally, “worthy of love,” Now you may say to yourself,
“What have I ever done to make me worthy of love, as far as God is
concerned?” Obviously, in view of God’s essence, none of us is worthy of God’
s love. But Jesus Christ is worthy of the Father’s love, and because every
believer is in union with Christ, we become worthy of the Father’s love through
Christ. (Eph 1:6)
Paul also has a deep love and desire for the Philippians. Their pastor,
Epaphroditus, is at this time on leave in Rome to visit Paul; but as founder of
the Philippian church and writer of this epistle as an Apostle, Paul is again their
temporary right pastor. They are his “joy” in time because down through the
years they have so responded to his Doctrinal teaching that they are a great
source of happiness to him. There are two kinds of joy: one is, the +H, which
indicates Spiritual maturity; and two, the follow-through of +H in the super-grace
life. The two together make up the greatest happiness which it is possible to
have in the devil’s world — a life that really counts. This happiness is a part of
Paul’s capacity for love.
Most believers are unaware of the fact that both types of happiness are open
to them. However, you don’t get there by doing things or by clapping your
hands and singing, “I have the joy, joy, joy.” You get there by learning and
Thinking with Truth filled with God the Holy Spirit! Yet we have people today
warning believers to be careful of getting too much Truth or they will become
stagnant. That’s the devil’s own propaganda!
New believers should not be DOING anything — they are Spiritual babies. No
one expects a baby to get a job and earn his own living the minute he is born,
or for many years after. We all have to go through a long learning process
before we are able to work or to stand on our own. That’s true in the Spiritual
life as well. You are in training from the moment you are saved until you
construct the edification
complex. The intake of Truth through the function of Operation Z, is the means
by which this is accomplished in the Spiritual life. With a crash program of
Operation Z, you could get there in eighteen months or two years. And then you’
re really ready to live!
You are designed for living the Spiritual life. But the fulfilment for living is in the
super-grace life. Many of you have remained in bondage to legalism since the
day of your Salvation. Someone grabbed you right after you were saved and
told you that you couldn’t grow until you gave up five things that always shocked
that person. So your whole Christian life has consisted of giving up the “big
five.” Some of you are in bondage to emotional revolt of the soul and
reversionism, and you’ll never have the experience of the happiness for which
you are frantically searching because the capacity comes from Truth!
The people who have responded to Truth are Paul’s victory crown in eternity as
well as his joy in time. Paul often used the analogy to the ancient games of the
Graeco-Roman world — the Olympic games, the Isthmian games at Corinth,
the Pythian games, etc. The victor’s crown was a crown of ivy leaves, which
doesn’t sound like much of a reward for spending ten months in “beast
barracks” training under the most rigid discipline. But the real reward is
revealed when the victor returns to his hometown. A hole just large enough for
him to walk through is cut in the wall of the city. He is no longer just an ordinary
person; therefore, he does not walk through the city gates as other citizens.
After he enters the city through the hole in the wall, it is sealed up and a plaque
placed over the spot to memorialise his victory.
From there, the victor is honoured by a great parade through the city. After the
shouting is over, the athlete is sculptured in bronze, and the statue is exhibited
in a public place. He is also given a cash prize, his children are educated at
public expense, he is given a lifetime pass to the games in which he won an
event, and he is eliminated from any future payment of income taxes.
Believers receive only the “well done” now — ivy leaves compared to the
fantastic rewards which will be given in heaven to those who have fulfilled their
priesthood in the super-grace life!
“In such a condition,” Paul goes on to say, “don’t lose ground.” In other words,
STAND FAST! KEEP ON BEING STABILIZED! This is the first Command to
keep moving into the super-grace life. How? “By the Lord,” and “by the Thinking
of the Lord.” The “Thinking of the Lord,” is the Bible — Truth — the “Mind of
Christ” (1Co 2:16) — and emphasizes the importance of the perpetuation of
Operation Z on a daily basis! AFTER the construction of the Spiritual life —
beyond the completion; lies the realization of a fantastic world of beyond normal-
grace provisions!
PERSONALITY CONFLICTS
Now before Paul can go on with the Doctrine of the super-grace life, he has to
stop and resolve a problem which has arisen in the local church. There was a
personality conflict which had affected the entire church. Wherever personalities
gather, the differences which always exist form the basis for conflict. Two
ladies had emerged into a donnybrook in the Philippian church, and everyone in
the church had taken sides. It could have destroyed the congregation if it had
been allowed to continue.
“I admonish Euodias, and I admonish Syntyche to have the same Divine
Viewpoint by means of the Lord.” (Through the Thinking of Christ) (Php 4:2)
The word “urge” (“Parakaleo”) has several meanings; but here it means “to
admonish.” It is the beginning of a mild rebuke from headquarters. The first of
these women is Euodias, whose name means “prosperous journey.” From her
name it is concluded that she was a very capable businesswoman. “Possibly”
she was a little on the intense side, wore tailored clothes and sombre shades.
At this time she was engaged in a personality conflict with another prominent
woman in the church, known as Syntyche, whom she regards as a flighty social
butterfly. Syntyche means “pleasant acquaintance” or “happy chance.” No doubt
she is exact opposite of Euodias and “possibly” regards Euodias as too
ambitious and efficient.
Both of these ladies are playing a game of “Spiritual king of the mountain” in the
local church. They once had an edification complex, but have neglected Truth
for one reason or another and have gone into reversionism. The conflict
between them is a part of reverse process reversionism. Although the object of
their true love was Jesus Christ, they had become occupied with
inconsequential persons, perhaps human celebrities. If they had a right man, he
was phased out for the moment.
Only Truth in the right lobe can resolve personality conflicts among believers. If
these ladies had obeyed the admonition in, (Php 4:1) there would have been no
problem. Now they need to get back to Doctrinal or Divine Viewpoint. The
neglect of the daily function of Operation Z not only results in the function of
reverse process reversionism, but if widespread enough, can turn a local church
into a battleground.
We must understand that Christianity is not a change of personality. Many
people today are teaching Christianity as a kind of system of psychology. They
are analysing and defining personalities in psychological terms, making an issue
of personality, and trying to solve problems from the human viewpoint, such as
sensitivity training. Changing the personality is not the answer to any kind of
personality conflict. God uses all kinds of personalities, and these are never to
be an issue. In the following verses, Paul continues with the solution to the
personality conflict and Commands for the super-grace life.
“Okay — I request you also, reliable Syzygus, (Proper name, meaning,
“yokefellow”) give assistance to those women who teamed up with me in the
gospel, with Clement also and the rest of my associates, whose names in the
book of life.” (Php 4:3)
“Indeed,” which begins this verse in the English, is a confirmation of the
preceding statement, and indicates the need to take a further step to solve the
problem. It is usually translated “yes.” In our idiom, “okay” would best express
the meaning. These ladies actually need two things to resolve their conflict:
first, recovery from reversionism, which calls for the reconstruction of the ECS
through the daily function of Operation Z; second, their conflict is so serious that
Spiritual leadership and authority from a mature male member of the
congregation is necessary. Remember, their pastor, Epaphroditus, is absent
and cannot step in and handle the situation. Therefore, the Apostle Paul is
appointing a man in the congregation to take the place of leadership.
Now there is nothing charming or more beautiful and lovely than a woman, and
God has given women a wonderful place in life; but it doesn’t include authority in
a church! When woman get into reversionism, one of the first signs is a
tendency to try and start running the church and the pastor and, of course, their
husbands. If their husbands had exercised their authority at home, these two
gals would never have entered into the donnybrook at the church.
There is one super-grace type male in the church who is still totally objective
and who hasn’t taken sides. His name is Syzygus, but I’m going to call him
“Gus” for short. So Paul says, “Okay, Gus step in and straighten out these two
reversionistic cats who have started a gang war in the congregation.” He will
have to take the place of the pastor in this case. The pastor (Shepherd) does
two things for the sheep: on the one hand he feeds and protects them; on the
other hand, he whacks them. Sheep are so stupid they can’t think; but when
they get whacked with the stick, it is a reminder to get back in line.
The pastor is THE AUTHORITY in the local church. If you are not satisfied in
your local church, don’t start trouble! You may know more Truth than the pastor
— but he still represents authority. It is not your job to straighten him out or to
tell the other members in the congregation what he doesn’t know. If he isn’t
feeding you the way you think he should, or you cannot respect his authority, it
still doesn’t give you the right to start a fuss. You will be disciplined and judged.
If necessary, just depart. Quietly!
In the absence of the pastor, some qualified person has to assume authority —
one in super-grace who has enough Truth to use his authority without abusing it.
“True” means three things: “genuine, legitimate and reliable.” All three describe
a super-grace believer. He is genuinely objective; he can legitimately assume
authority; and he can be depended on the handle the situation with justice and
equity. The fact that Syzygus means “someone in harness, companion”
indicates he has had experience in recognizing authority himself. He went
through “beast barracks” with Paul. No one ever properly exercises authority
until he has learned to take authority. Sometimes to take authority you have to
be ground down into the dust. You have to take it and take it and take it! It’s no
fun — but the important thing is to learn to respect authority.
Some of you have pastors you don’t like. So what? That isn’t even the issue.
The Scripture doesn’t say anywhere that you have to like the pastor. But it does
say you have to respect his authority. Gus was under the authority of three
pastors — Paul, Timothy and Epaphroditus. They all had different personalities,
but they all cranked out Truth; and Gus had Divine Thinking — Truth!
In the past, the two ladies in conflict had been associated with Paul and had
been a fantastic help to him in the work of evangelisation in Philippi. They had
worked with Clement also, who was of a different personality from Paul, as well
as with many others in the church. When Euodias and Syntyche possessed the
ECS, they had no trouble working as a team with many different kinds of
personalities. Emotional revolt, reversionism, and their subsequent conflict have
made casualties of them.
The mention of the “book of life” indicates that all these people were believers
in Jesus Christ. The book of life originally contained the names of all members
of the human race. (Doctrine of unlimited atonement) When anyone dies without
believing in Christ as Saviour, his name is blotted out of the book of life.
(Rev 3:5; Rev 13:8; Rev 17:8; Rev 20:12; Rev 20:15; Rev 21:27)
After giving enough instruction to take care of the problem, Paul stops and
points them toward the goal of the Christian life, which apparently only Gus has
achieved. This goal is mentioned in, (Php 4:4-5). But before we go any farther,
I want to switch over to a passage which explains why the two women were in
this conflict and why any conflict develops in a local church.
HINDRANCES TO SUPER-GRACE (Jas 4:1-6)
This passage is not dealing with military warfare. War is Biblical when it is
necessary for the maintenance of freedom. We have freedom today in this
country because men have fought and died on battlefields and killed the enemy!
But “wars and fightings” connected with the prepositional phrase here, “among
you,” indicates personal quarrels or strife. Conflicts develop when believers in
reversionism seek to gratify approbation and power lust by overthrowing or
replacing existing authority in the local church. This is the aggressive Principle.
The passive Principle in a conflict results when reversionism causes a believer
to become subjective. Subjectivity plus hypersensitivity in a believer makes him
easily susceptible to a personality conflict. He is quick to take offence.
What is the source of these conflicts? The word translated “lust” is “hedone” in
the Greek, meaning “pleasure or passion,” and thus signifies “a frantic search
for happiness through pleasure.” Our word “hedonism” comes from this word,
which was a philosophical system as well as a normal routine and life-style in
the ancient world. The reversionist has a choice for his frantic search for
happiness: he can go the route of asceticism and agonize in the closet, go up
on a mountain top and throw a fagot on the fire, dedicate, rededicate and
reaffirm his faith; (All the mixed-up emotional superficial, ignorant and
blasphemous rigmaroles with which people are using today) or he can go the
route of immorality or lasciviousness.
Now this frantic search for happiness results from a condition in the soul.
“Members” is literally “the parts of your soul,” including the old sin nature.
Personality conflicts do not come from the body, but from the soul; they are
antagonisms in the soul. The war in the parts of the soul results in both
emotional revolt and reversionism. Under reversionism and the practice of
reverse process reversionism, the conflicts and quarrels among believers are
intensified. This becomes a major hindrance to the function of the super-grace
life.
Hindrance Through the Principle of Reverse Process Reversionism (Jas 4:3-4)
In these two verses the actual practice of reverse process reversionism is not
in view, but the Principle on which it is practiced.
You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot
obtain; (Happiness) you fight and quarrel. (Under reversionism) (Under super-
grace) you do not have because you do not ask. (Jas 4:2)
“Lust” in this verse is actually used for the lust pattern of the old sin nature —
power lust, approbation lust, materialism lust, sex lust, etc. The believer in
reversionism is constantly motivated and dominated by the lust pattern of the
sin nature! The sin nature becomes dominant at the point of emotional revolt.
There are three kinds of emotional revolt: (1) mental attitude sins from the area
of weakness in the old sin nature; (2) the lust pattern; (3) the area of human old
sin nature good. Sometimes you have all three. This is a part of that warfare in
the soul. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.
(1Jn 2:15-16)
When the lust pattern is frustrated, it intensifies the lust as well as the frantic
search for happiness and the practice of reverse process reversionism. A
reversionist is in a constant state of frustration: he keeps on lusting and he does
not have. So when you are frustrated, what do you do? You kill, (The Greek
word for “homicide”) YOU MURDER! Here is a maximum attempt under
reversionism to gain money or power or to gratify some desire. But “desire” is
literally “to be jealous.” Murder is the overt sin; jealousy, the mental attitude sin.
Both are vicious sins. Anything you acquire through jealousy, murder or lust will
never make you happy whether it is a person or things.
In this verse, envious — jealousy, which is a sign of reversionism, is also the
motivator, while murder is a result of it. Under reverse process reversionism,
frustration produces factions and antagonisms — “you quarrel and fight.” These
factions will cause believers to establish themselves as an authority in some
area. Such believers often distort Truth or Scripture to attack or discredit the
authority or ministry of the pastor. On the basis of the Scriptures they distort,
they gain adherents, who are not aware of the jealousy involved — only the
Truth distorted to gain authority. The result is revolt in the congregation.
The last phrase in, (Jas 4:2) introduces the grace Principle. Under super-grace,
the believer can ask and acquire. The only reason a Spiritually mature or super-
grace believer does not have is that he does not ask. Under reversionism, the
believer cannot ask and acquire. The reversionist can fight or quarrel to gain
authority, but he will never have it. Whatever he manages to acquire will turn
sour, or it won’t be worth it!
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you
may spend it on your pleasures. (Jas 4:3)
Not all reversionistic believers use violence, jealousy or strife to satisfy their
lusts. Some distort Spiritual Principles, such as prayer, to gratify their desires.
This is the ascetic-type believer. No matter how eloquent the prayer or how
beautifully you pray as a reversionistic believer, you will not be heard.
(Psa 66:18; Prov 15:8; Prov 28:9)
Hindrance Through the Function of Reverse Process Reversionism. (Jas 4:6)
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility
toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes
himself an enemy of God. (Jas 4:4) cf. (1Jn 2:15-16)
“Adulteresses” is addressed to all believers in reversionism practicing reverse
process reversionism. The feminine gender is used to illustrate the analogy of
right man - right woman and the relationship between Christ and the believer.
Under Personal love, Jesus Christ is the Right Man; believers, the right woman
(Eph 5:22-32) Adultery illustrates reverse process reversionism in Category
One love. The believer in reversionism is occupied with inconsequential persons
under pseudo-love fanaticism. (Described as both “love and lover of the world”
— “cosmos,” or Satan’s kingdom — living in the power of the sin nature —
carnality)
Now, whether you will go on into super-grace or retrogress into reversionism
becomes a matter of your VOLITION. Every negative decision you make in a
frantic search for happiness, every decision you make under the influence of
“the false thinking of demons,” which infiltrate through the “old sin nature”; all of
the decisions made under emotional revolt of the soul and reverse process
reversionism; are decisions for reversionism. These decisions are
DELIBERATELY negative when they could have been positive. The believer in
reversionism is the enemy of grace and therefore the enemy of the cross, (And
the Spiritual life) where grace was first manifest. (Php 3:18)
THE CONTRAST BETWEEN REVERSIONISM AND SUPER-GRACE
Or do you think that the Scripture Speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires
the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? But He gives a greater grace.
Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE
TO THE HUMBLE." (Jas 4:5-6)
We begin with the subjective thinking of the reversionist, who presumes that the
Scripture doesn’t mean what it says. The Scripture he scorns is from,
(Prov 3:34) (Taken from the Septuagint) but is not quoted until AFTER the
parenthesis. Inside the parenthesis we have super-grace; outside the
parenthesis we have reversionism on one side and recovery on the other side,
or the contrast between reversionism and super-grace.
The first word in the parenthesis, “Spirit,” is God the Holy Spirit with reference
to the Spiritual life. The Greek word translated “lust” is literally “to love deeply.”
The Holy Spirit loves every believer, even those in reversionism. He gives
Spiritually mature believers GREATER GRACE — and that’s SUPER-GRACE!
But God the Holy Spirit gives super-grace through His teaching ministry of
Truth. (John 14:26; John 16:12-15; (1Co 2:9-16) God the Holy Spirit, in other
words, is the One who enables the Spiritual life to function. GOD “JEALOUSLY
DESIRES” — FOR US TO STAY IN FELLOWSHIP!
On the other side of the parenthesis, we now have the quotation from
Proverbs, in the Greek, the repetition of “IT says” (“lego”) indicates both the
opening and closing of the parenthesis. God the Father, Author of the Divine
plan of grace, fights against the reversionist — the proud — another mental
attitude sin, used on this side of the parenthesis as a manifestation of
reversionism. In contrast, He gives super-grace to the humble (Dative of
possession) — the super-grace believer who possesses a maximum amount of
TRUTH AND CONTINUES TO TAKE IN TRUTH!
Now, in order to get the clearest picture of the super-grace life, we are going to
have to skip back and forth between Philippians 4 and James 4. But before we
resume in Philippians 4, I want you to remember some things. First of all, you
must completely disassociate yourself with the concept that you are a second-
class Christian unless you are hustling for God, witnessing to so many people
every day, praying so many hours a day, making some kind of an all-out
sacrifice, and all the other things generally classed as “doing great things for
God.” Your soul was saved at the cross — not your body, not your energy.
God is not impressed with either. The basic Principle of Christianity is feeding
the soul so that you can fulfil the purpose of the angelic conflict. The only way
the soul can be fed is from the daily intake of Bible Truth. This cannot be
emphasized enough, for there is no substitute for Operation Z.
Illustration
Remember the issue in Operation Z: when Truth comes into the left lobe as
“gnosis,” God the Holy Spirit makes it objective Reality. Faith or positive volition
transfers God’s Thoughts to the human spirit, where it becomes “epignosis.”
(Spiritual Thinking) It is cycled into the right lobe and enters the frame of
reference and memory center; it becomes a part of the vocabulary and
categories as well as the norms and standards, and it is put into the launching
pad where, of course, you get your first application of Truth to experience.
“Epignosis” Truth is also constructing a Temple in your soul, and you are moving
to maturity. And here is where you have to be careful. You don’t stay here.
Either you progress or you retrogress once you have completed an ECS.
Progression is moving into super-grace; retrogression is moving into
reversionism. This brings us back to, (Php 4:4)
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
SUPER-GRACE HAPPINESS
Keep on having happiness by means of the Lord at all times; further, I will
communicate, keep on having happiness. The first Command of this verse is to
build an edification complex in the soul. The second maturity level of the ECS is
PLUS-H (Divine happiness) and indicates a nearly completed ECS. The believer
can possess happiness by means of Truth — the only way in which an Temple
can be built in the soul! (1Co 3:11-20) cf. (Prov 3:13-15) Most of the people
who had become involved in the donnybrook between the two women in the
Philippian church were in reversionism, and they needed to recover. Part of the
recovery is the reconstruction of the Spiritual life.
Now in the second half of the verse, there is something further. (“Again” is
literally “further”) This time the Command is to go on from the ECS and enter
into the super-grace life where PLUS-H is perpetuated and intensified. At this
point we need to look at the categorical Doctrine of happiness, which is the
transitional Doctrine between the PLUS-H of the Temple and PLUS-H in the
super-grace life.
THE DOCTRINE OF HAPPINESS
Happiness is related to the essence of God. God always possessed perfect
happiness or PLUS-H in eternity past. This happiness is both a part of His
character and the result of His character. It is impossible for God to be
unhappy; it would be incompatible with His essence. (Deut 28:63; Psa 43:4)
Therefore, God is not only perfect, but He possesses a perfect and eternal
happiness. (Rom 1:25) Possessing perfect happiness, God is also the source
of perfect happiness, which is acquired in the four stages of Phase Two. First
of all, you get your first taste of this happiness from the filling of the Spirit.
(Rom 14:17; Gal 5:22-23; (1Th 1:6) PLUS-H also comes from the function of
Operation Z, (1Jn 1:4) and, as we have seen, from the ECS and the super-
grace life. (Php 4:4)
Happiness is related to the plan of God. In eternity past God desired to share
His perfect happiness with man in time. It is impossible for you to work up
happiness. The things in this life that make you the happiest, if you get enough
of them, can also make you miserable. Happiness cannot be realized apart
from God; (Psa 5:11-12; Psa 9:1-2; Psa 97:12; Hab 3:18; Zec 10:7) therefore,
the entrance into the plan of God — Salvation — is related to happiness.
(Psa 9:14; Psa 51:12) Happiness is accomplished through grace. (Psa 31:7) In
grace God found a way to share His perfect happiness with man in time. Every
benefit from God to man comes through grace. (Psa 21:1-2) Therefore, only
the believer can possess this happiness. (Eph 2:8-9) Grace is the means of
administering Salvation, and grace is the means of administering this happiness.
Grace-happiness, which must be accomplished through Truth, is described in,
(Psa 32:10-11).
Virtue-Happiness is confined to believers in fellowship with God the Holy Spirit.
(Gal 5:22-24) Man enters the plan of God by faith in Christ.
(John 3:16; John 3:18; John 3:36; John 20:31; Acts 16:31) However, being
saved does not imply instant or automatic happiness. PLUS-H, (Virtue-
happiness) is only potential. Between Salvation and acquiring PLUS-H is much
Truth! You have to “learn and THINK with Divine Thinking” consistently! You can’
t grow up Spiritually by merely reading a chapter in the Bible every day. If you
could, there would be no need for the gift of pastor-teacher. You have to get
Truth isagogically, categorically and exegetically. (I.C.E.) Salvation is often
accompanied by a temporary happiness, (Psa 51:12) but this is not the PLUS-H
or perfect Divine happiness which comes from Spiritual maturity.
Truth and the function of Operation Z are the basis for PLUS-H. (1Jn 1:4) The
first taste of PLUS-H comes through the filling of the Spirit.
(Rom 14:17; Gal 5:22-23; (1Th 1:6) This joy can exist only when the believer is
filled with the Spirit, although you don’t always experience PLUS-H when you
are filled with the Spirit. The next step in PLUS-H is the function of Operation Z
whereby the happiness of God is fulfilled in the believer through Truth;
(John 17:13) compared with (John 17:17). The next step is the construction of
the edification complex of the soul, with joy or PLUS-H as one of the goals.
(Neh 8:8-10; Psa 30:5; Php 4:4) The great giant step is PLUS-H and
OCCUPATION WITH CHRIST; in the super-grace life. (Php 4:4; Heb 12:2;
(1Pe 1:8)
At this point we have to stop and recognize the other types of happiness. PLUS-
H is God’s happiness shared with man in time through Operation Z and the
super-grace life. But there are certain kinds of human happiness.
The Recognition of happiness.
(Prov 23:24-25; Eccles 9:9; Eccles 11:8-9; Isa 9:3; Isa 62:5) In contrast to God’
s happiness shared with the believer, let’s call legitimate human happiness
“neutral-H.” Any member of the human race who follows the laws of Divine
establishment may have this “neutral-H.” For example, a man can be happy as
a military hero — killing the enemy. That’s providing freedom for your country.
There is happiness in the right man - right woman relationship under the laws of
establishment, even if those involved are not born again. (Eccles 9:9) So there
is a type of happiness for both believers and unbelievers under the Principles of
establishment.
Another type of human happiness is “minus-H." This is temporary, superficial
stimulation. “Minus-H” happiness depends on pleasant environment, possession
of the details of life, stimulating circumstances, having one’s own way or never
being crossed. Boredom, frustration, restlessness, instability and reversionism
neutralize this happiness. It isn’t worth much, and it won’t carry you anywhere.
Whatever you have by way of fun doesn’t sustain you in a crisis.
In contrast, God has designed PLUS-H to be permanent, perpetuated and
stabilized through Operation Z, the ECS and the super-grace life (Jer 15:16;
Matt 4:4; John 13:17; John 17:13) compared with, (John 17:17; Jas 1:25).
PLUS-H, in contrast to minus-H or neutral-H, is designed to bless and sustain in
every circumstance of life, whether in prosperity or adversity. PLUS-H in the
super-grace bracket gives capacity for freedom, capacity for life and love, and
is one of the greatest things you can have as a believer. But again, this
happiness cannot exist apart from the filling of God the Holy Spirit and Truth
(John 4:23-24; (1Jn 1:4)
Super-grace happiness lies beyond the Temple in the soul. (Php 4:4) Once the
believer achieves an ECS, he either retrogresses into reversionism or
progresses into super-grace. You never stand still in the Christian life. Minus
Truth takes you into reversionism, by way of scar tissue, blackout of the soul,
emotional revolt and the practice of reverse process reversionism. Plus Truth
moves you on to super-grace, and you add happiness to happiness. And I’m not
talking about a rosy-glow experience on a mountain top somewhere after
throwing a faggot on the fire and making a vow. There have been more let-
downs after this type of operation, and it just won’t cut it. It takes day in and
day out learning and Thinking with the Word Truth — keep going and keep
going. That’s what moves you up to the super-New Covenant Spiritual life!
(1Th 5:16-18)
PLUS-H protects from disillusion. It protects you from disillusion regarding the
circumstances of life, (Php 4:11-12) as well as regarding the details of life;
(Heb 13:5-6) and other believers. (Heb 12:2)
Inner happiness or PLUS-H stimulates and enhances capacity for love. Once
the ECS is completed, the believer has capacity for freedom, for life and for
Virtue love. These are enlarged and intensified and become a part of his
happiness and fragrance of memory in Personal love for God. (Occupation with
Christ — Luk 22:19; (1Co 11:24-25) and Personal and Impersonal love; (Right
man-right woman) (Song 3:1; Song 4:6-7 — frankincense and myrrh represent
fragrance; toward believers using Truth. (Php 1:3; (2Ti 1:5) One who has Virtue
love has capacity for life; one who has capacity for life; (Through Truth and
PLUS-H) loves!
There is a future happiness even greater than PLUS-H in super-grace. This is a
Phase Three happiness, including both the Millennium and eternity. (Isa 35:10;
Isa 64:4-5; Isa 65:18-19; Isa 66:10; Jud 1:24)
The negative axioms of happiness. You cannot build your happiness on
someone else’s unhappiness. You cannot build your happiness on the details of
life. You cannot build happiness on pleasant environment, on people you love,
on sex, on fame, on lust nor on the overthrow of establishment.
The positive axioms of happiness. You can build happiness on the filling of the
Holy Spirit. You can build more happiness on the intake of Truth; (Operation Z)
and the ECS. (John 4:23-24) You can build happiness to the maximum in the
super-grace life. You can also build happiness on the capacity for freedom, life
and love. This happiness is related to both the Doctrinal provision of God and
the function of the laws of Divine establishment.
Happiness is related to both Spiritual and human freedom. Spiritual freedom is
found in the plan of God for believers.
(Rom 8:21; (2Co 3:17; Gal 5:1; Jas 1:25; Jas 2:12) Human freedom is found in
the function of the laws of Divine establishment.
We enter the plan of God by faith in Christ. Then, being removed from the
bondage of sin by growth to Spiritual maturity, we are free to serve, to honour,
to worship, and to love Jesus Christ. This is the objective of the super-grace
life. (Rom 6:17-18)
THE SUPER-GRACE MENTAL ATTITUDE
Let your super-grace reasonableness be known to all mankind. The Lord is
near. (Php 4:5)
Here is a Command to enter the super-grace life. “Moderation” is literally “over-
reasonableness”; but here it becomes a technical word for the grace mental
attitude of the believer; as he lives in the super-grace life. How is it possible for
your super-grace reasonableness to become known? Through the Principle of,
“live and let live.” This means to recognize the privacy, rights and property of
others; to have a relaxed mental attitude which avoids mental attitude sins; to
mind your own business and live your life as unto the Lord and to no one else.
(1Th 4:11-12)
Right here is where we begin to have the dynamics of the super-grace life.
There is no more relaxing or wonderful person than a believer who has obtained
super-grace. When you relax enough to mind your own business and to have
freedom from mental attitude sins, you are going to have a ball! “To all men”
indicates that super-grace has an impact on believers and unbelievers alike.
Since the super-grace life is the place of maximum grace provision and grace
benefit, every believer ought to get there as rapidly as possible; and this, of
course, depends entirely upon your intake of the Word of Truth!
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor
stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in
the Law of the LORD, And in His Law he meditates day and night. He will be
like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.
(Psa 1:1-3)
THE SHORT CIRCUIT OF SUPER-GRACE
Now, inevitably, when a believer enters the super-grace life, he becomes the
special target of Satan. (God by finesse guides this for our blessing and
advancement) (Job 1:1-22) That doesn’t mean that the devil attacks you
personally; he has a great corps of demons to handle this chore. One of his
particular aims is to get the super-grace believer to worry, (1Pe 5:7-8) in order
to short-circuit him. Therefore we have another Command for the super-grace
life.
STOP WORRING ABOUT EVEN ONE THING, BUT IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES
by prayer and entreaty for personal needs after thanksgiving, let the things
sought for be made known in the presence of God. (Php 4:6)
Some of the Philippians were on the verge of the super-grace life; yet they had
begun to worry, and that is going to cut them off immediately. You cannot worry
and live the Christian way of life. It’s impossible! This doesn’t mean you are not
a Christian; it just means that you are not going to live under grace. Worry is
saying in effect, “grace is not adequate.” Worry is one of the easiest ways to
blaspheme, for when you worry; you are saying that God can’t handle your
LIFE SUPPORT. God KNOWS and has ALWAYS KNOWN every problem and
every need you would ever have, and that’s when He supplied it. (Matt 6:32-33)
He doesn’t supply something when you yell, “God help!” He has supplied your
needs in eternity past. So every time you worry, you injure yourself. (Prov 8:36)
Worry is a mental attitude sin which separates the believer from the inner
resources of Truth in the soul. Have you ever wondered sometimes what’s
wrong? Here you’ve been taking in Truth and taking it in, but somehow it’s not
helping you. Well, you have available all the help you’ll ever need; but you’ve
shorted out by worry. All those inner resources of grace lodged in your soul are
not usable. Worry shuts down every valve to the right lobe.
Only the function of the faith-rest technique can drive back this Satanic
maneuver. (Psa 37:4-5; Psa 55:22) Worry is excluded from the super-grace life
by the DYNAMICS of the faith-rest technique. The super-grace life is designed
to eliminate worry. Faith-rest is not only the answer to worry, but it’s the
preventative of worry. But faith-rest must have “muscle” to be effective. A lot of
you have been using the faith-rest technique for years, but you don’t have any
muscle on it. Faith-rest has been only a temporary expediency to carry you
through some difficulty; but you’ve never followed through and you’ve never
grown.
Putting muscle on your faith is substituting the use of Truth in the soul for fear,
worry and anxiety. Only the regular intake of Truth puts muscle on your faith.
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.” (Rom 10:17)
In other words, the daily function of Operation Z puts muscle on your faith.
Once you get muscle on your faith, you head off worry before it gets started.
The faith-rest technique becomes a breaker system. Worry overloads the line,
and the breaker system goes out. You pull the switch by rebound, and the
power comes back automatically; everything is ready to function again. You just
put it in the Lord’s hands and move on through the continued function of —
learning and Thinking with the Word of Christ!
THE ROLE OF OPERATION Z IN THE SUPER-GRACE LIFE
The Right Congregation.
(Php 4:9-10) takes us back to the role of the grace apparatus for perception
and approaches it from two angles — the right congregation and the right
pastor.
The things [Divine Thoughts] you have learned and received and heard and
seen in me, practice these things, [Think with these Divine Thoughts] and the
God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:9)
“These things” are the Thoughts, Principles, Concepts and Divine Laws which
provide the inner resources of the soul — primarily in our human spirit WE ARE
TO PUT GOD’S THOUGHTS. They are also construction material for the
edification complex of the soul. We have four verbs which describe learning
under Operation Z. The first of these, “come to learn,” means “to learn from
someone as a teacher”; “to appropriate to oneself through instruction”; “to be a
disciple — that is, a student under the authority of a teacher.” It is the highest
of all words for learning, and means learning under strict academic discipline.
This includes and requires good manners, poise, concentration and self-
discipline. You may not agree with what is being taught, you may not agree with
the methods or the rules of the school or classroom; but as a student, you have
no rights except to learn. The same thing applies while in the congregation. The
constantive aorist of this verb means that you learn Truth; day in, and day out;
hence, this is super-grace learning after you have a functioning Spiritual life.
The second word, translated “received,” means “to receive as a matter of
instruction”; “to receive into one’s possession”; “to admit or to acknowledge”;
hence, the verb has a dual meaning of both receiving and taking over in the
sense of agreement or approval. In the function of learning, it refers to the
construction of the Temple in the soul. As you take in Truth daily and build up
“epignosis — Spiritual Thinking” in the human spirit, you begin to construct the
ECS in the soul. “You have come to learn and have appropriated with
approval.” In other words, you agree with what you have learned. (God’s
Reality)
That’s faith transferring Truth into the human spirit where it becomes “Divine
Thinking in the believer.”
The first three words are actually in reverse order or graduated backward. You
have to “receive” before you “learn.” Then in the third word, “heard or read,” we
go back a step farther to the place where Spiritual Comprehension really
begins. Before reaching the ECS, we have to listen, concentrate and accept the
authority of the teacher. I did not say the LIFE of the teacher. That would make
you a slave to a person. Truth depends on who and what God IS. When I make
the statement, “It’s not the man but the message,” I mean that when he gets in
the pulpit after studying his heart out and communicates it in the ministry of God
the Holy Spirit, the message is all you need to be concerned about. There’s no
such thing as a perfect pastor; and whether he’s the sweet or tough type is not
the issue. Some of the nicest pastors in the world have led people astray for
years by their lovely personalities, but their messages have no content.
The fourth word, “seen,” means “to see perceptively.” Here is the believer
seeing with the eyes of the soul. He has Truth in the frame of reference in his
right lobe, (Stream of Consciousness) on the launching pad. Now Paul does not
set himself up as an example. He actually says, “by means of me.” He is the
means of communicating Truth and the one applying Virtue love. He is
emphasizing his MESSAGE and NEW NATURE — not his person. (Rom 7:18;
(2Pe 1:4) cf. (John 4:24)
At this point, after four verbs for learning, guess what you can do! You can
PRACTICE — THINK “keep practicing, (Thinking these Divine Thoughts) these
things”; that is, keep taking in and Thinking with Truth. Do it over and over and
over! Never quit! It’s your soul food. And what is the result? God the Father, the
Author of the plan of grace; in which He found a way to provide “peace,
harmony, benefit, welfare,” shall be together with you all. Here is God in
relation to the super-grace life. This title goes with, (Php 4:7) where God the
Father is the SOURCE of the super-grace life. In, (Php 4:9) the Father is the
AUTHOR of super-grace. The Right Pastor. Now how does a congregation get
all this? They have a right pastor!
But I have received very much inner happiness by means of the Lord, that
already for some time your Thinking on behalf of me has revived, toward whom
also you have been Thinking, but you had no opportunity. (To demonstrate your
Virtue love Thinking) (Php 4:10)
The PLUS-H which Paul has is the good response from his right congregation at
various times when he teaches. His PLUS-H is “by means of the Lord” — that
is, from Truth as the Mind of Christ and Occupation with Christ as a part of the
capacity for Virtue love in the super-grace life. This is actually Paul’s
announcement of his entrance into the super-grace life for the second time. You
see, Paul had gone into a state of reversionism by following his emotions.
(Emotional revolt) Although God had told him not to go to Jerusalem, he went
anyway. (Acts 21:10-11) Then the pastors in Jerusalem refused to listen to
Paul — the greatest Bible teacher of all time! They all began to tell Paul what
HE should do: “Now, look here, Paul, our people won’t buy your grace teaching.
If you want them to listen to you, you’re going to have to commit an act of
legalism. You’re going to have to go into the temple and make an offering.”
(Acts 21:20-24)
When a grace person has to go into a place which has become legalistic to the
core and make a vow in order to be heard, there’s something wrong! But Paul
bought it. Why? Because he was in emotional revolt and reversionism. He
almost died the sin unto death as a result of it, but God spared him. After that,
he was under discipline for blessing for four years — incarcerated two years in
Caesarea and two years in Rome. During that time, however, he made a
reversion recovery and came all the way back to the super-grace life. During
his imprisonment he had time to write the prison epistles — Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. The prison epistles are reversion
recovery, super-grace epistles. They have the greatest concentration of
Doctrine, for Experiential death and Experiential sanctification — Spiritual
maturity. Compared to other Epistles and Writings of the New Testament, they
are light on eschatology, but strong on reversionism versus super-grace.
The word for “concern” (“Phroneo” in the Greek) is literally “objective Thinking.”
This is in contrast to another verb, “dokeo,” which means “to think
subjectively.” “Dokeo” — the thinking of a reversionist; “phroneo” — the
Spiritual Thinking of a super-grace believer or one who is on the way toward
super-grace. Many people in congregations make a habit of thinking of their
pastor subjectively. This expresses itself in various forms — from having “roast
pastor” at Sunday dinner to making his life an issue. One thing about the super-
grace life — you become objective. (Understanding life, self, people and
circumstances as they ARE; according to God’s Word — a completely relaxed
mental attitude in adversity and or in prosperity) maybe you have been a
subjective thinker all your life; you may have related everything to yourself to
the point of hypersensitivity. But once you enter the super-grace life, that’s all
gone.
The Thinking of the Philippians toward Paul is “Virtue love-Thinking.” They had
come to appreciate the Apostle Paul and his teaching again. Their “revived
Thinking” was manifested by the offering sent to Paul by Epaphroditus. This
offering allowed him to have things in prison; so that he could crank out Truth.
In, (Php 4:14-19) Paul gives a more detailed explanation and extensive “thank
you” for the love offering. In the meantime, Paul must go on to other facets of
the super-grace life.
THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE
Disorientation to the plan of God for the Christian life often begins with
ignorance of the rebound technique. (1Jn 1:9) It seems to be very hard for
some believers to understand that all you do to be forgiven is to admit sinning
and being out of fellowship — privately to God — no breast-beating, no
penance, no feeling sorry for sin! One of the most inconsistent things about
legalistic people is that they falsely think they cannot be forgiven; unless they
feel sorry for the sins they have committed. All sin originates from free will and
is committed deliberately, whether you know it is a sin or not. A lot of you are
never going to be filled with God the Holy Spirit because you are waiting around
to feel sorry for sin, or practicing some system of penance by which to atone
for the sin. That’s legalism and disorientation to grace and is the reason why
you never learn Truth. So you run around and “do” things; you work for God,
give your glowing testimony, try to work up a rosy glow! Everything in the
Christian life depends on Who and What God IS; nothing depends on who and
what we are. The sooner you get with grace and understand the Principle of
grace and how to smoke out legalism, the sooner you will get into the super-
grace life.
(Php 4:11-13) states an absolute Principle — how the super-grace life should
function. They describe the believer whose happiness never changes because
he has an edification complex and because of the intensity of the intake of
Truth. (cf.; Php 4:9) Now this is not reserved for certain Christians; it is the
NORMAL New Covenant Spiritual life for all believers! But as in physical life, the
believer must grow and mature to this place through the intake of daily Spiritual
food. A lot of believers move up for awhile, and then fall into the valley of
reversionism. The Lord clobbers them and some recover. They get so far, and
down they go again — up and down — and they miss the super-grace life
completely. That’s not a normal Spiritual life — that’s adolescence. Stopping
anywhere short of the completed Temple is the ABNORMAL Spiritual life.
About 90 per cent of all born-again believers are living a pseudo, Spiritual life.
They are not only missing the boat, but they have found some satanic substitute
or gimmick, some do-it-yourself kit, some system of emotional revolt or
reversionism, and they are impressed with their own righteousness and what
they are doing. They have their “bag,” and they’ve got to do it THEIR way! The
woods are filled today with abnormal Christians who are impressed with their
own genius, Christians with a pleasing personality who pass for Spiritual giants.
It gets them by with a lot of people, but it’ll never get them by with the Lord.
The Lord is not impressed by the things you use to impress others. He is not
impressed with a Madison Avenue facade. Never in the history of the Christian
Church have there been so many things to keep believers from Truth! We don’t
need the weirdos, the holy-rollers or the “I-love-Jesus” types who don’t even
know Him, much less love Him. We don’t need the Christian education gimmicks
and points programs; we don’t need lonely hearts clubs or Christian country
clubs. We need today, as we have never needed before, NORMAL
CHRISTIANS — believers who are serious about Thinking with the Mind of
Christ — Truth!
I want you to notice that when Paul talks about the normal Spiritual life, he
doesn’t even mention witnessing, prayer, dedicating, rededicating or speaking in
tongues. He discusses the normal Spiritual life in terms of facing circumstances
in life with Divine Thinking. Some of you want to be babies all of your lives. You
want to be nursed along and patted on the head and told how great you are.
But you will never achieve normality until you reach the point of, (Php 4:11)!
“Not that I speak with reference to need; (Lack, poverty) for I have come to
learn in whatever circumstances I am, to keep on being content, based on
Spiritual maturity.” (Php 4:11)
No matter what the circumstances of life were, Paul was not changed. He was
not a slave to circumstances. Before Epaphroditus had arrived with the love
offering, (From Spiritually mature believers to Paul in prison) Paul was down
practically to nothing. So this might be called an adverse set of circumstances,
humanly speaking. But he did not want them to think that up to this point he was
depressed, upset or disturbed because he didn’t have anything. Therefore, he
was quick to add, “Not that I speak...” He had thanked them in; (Php 4:10) but
in, (Php 4:11) he wanted to make it clear that he was appreciative for this gift,
not because he was broke and now he was on easy street, (“In prison” ) but
because of the Virtue love behind it. The point is that he was in a period of
great adversity. And how was he in that period? He had the super-grace life,
and so he was fine! It didn’t make any difference whether he was rich or poor;
super-grace passes the adversity test, and it passes the prosperity test. Some
of you may be just as broke as you can be. Does that upset you? Are you
worried? If you are, you’ve had it! You already know that worry short-circuits
everything. The issue is to face the changing circumstances of life with the
super-grace Principle of total stability and PLUS-H so that you are not a slave
to your circumstances. And how do you get this way — by witnessing to ten
people a day? By praying an hour a day? By being counselled for thirty minutes
a day? By memorizing five hundred verses? Is that what the Scripture says?
That is what a lot of people would like to read into it. But notice: “I have
learned” — LEARNED, LEARNED!
It isn’t what you’re doing that counts; it’s what you are learning and Thinking.
(Prov 23:7) Everyone has to have his “bag” today. But this verse is saying,
“Drop your bag and start learning!” “To learn” has the meaning of learning under
strict academic discipline. Paul himself learned under strict discipline. He
learned in the school of reversionistic recovery. The local church is our class-
room and or computer for learning Truth.
“Manthano” in the Greek is a word for “learning” in super-grace. This is learning
after you have an edification complex. A lot of you aren’t in the “manthano”
bracket. You have been sidetracked by doing, doing, doing! But the normal
Spiritual life is orientation to whatever state you are in; it is consistency of life
under super-grace.
The word for “content” is a technical word meaning “to be independent, free,
self-sufficient, and therefore content.” It is not the contentment of a purring cat;
it’s not contentment based on someone’s patting you on the head or stimulating
your approbation or power lust. It is the contentment of the believer in the super-
grace life who is self-sufficient on the basis of Truth. By that I mean he has
constructed the ECS with PLUS-H in the penthouse and has moved into
capacity for freedom, capacity for life and Virtue love. These capacities add up
to a perfect sufficiency which leads to contentment, in every generation there
are those few who will persist in staying with Truth — taking it in day by day by
day in all parts of the Word, and will reach super-grace. They will break through
the soul barriers and get into the Supernatural Spiritual life — believers living
beyond the completed Temple in the soul.
GRACE ORIENTATION OF THE SUPER-GRACE LIFE
I know both how to live in extreme pressure and imprisonment and also how to
live in prosperity. In all places and in all circumstances, I have been taught the
secret both how to be well fed and to be hungry; both how to prosper and to be
in poverty. (Php 4:12)
This begins with the real secret to the Spiritual life — “I KNOW!” It is the first of
several uses of the word “oida” — a perfect tense used as a present tense for
the consolidation of Truth in the right lobe under super-grace. As a result of
having the Stream of Consciousness filled with Truth, Truth in the conscience
and on the launching pad, “Spiritual Thinking” Truth for the structure of the
Temple in the soul, Paul says, “I know.”
Paul knew how to live in humility — in an adversity situation in which there is no
way out, no human solution; and he knew how to live in prosperity. These are
antithetical circumstances of life where super-grace remains exactly the same.
The repetition of the verb indicates that the same grace assets are used for
adversity as for prosperity.
“Instructed” (“Mueo”) is a word meaning “to be instructed in the mysteries of a
fraternity.” In fact, this verb is the basis for the noun, (“Musterion”) which is
translated “mystery.” “Musterion” indicates the “secret thoughts” of the
fraternity which are known only by those in the fraternity. They became known
as “the secrets,” and to learn them was “mueo” — “to be initiated by learning
the secret thoughts of the fraternity.” Once you learned them, you had at your
control the system of secrets or thinking. It is once again a word for the super-
grace life. This is learning Spiritual Thoughts beyond the edification complex.
The “secret” is defined by four infinitives of varying circumstances. The first, “to
be full,” means “to be totally and completely satiated,” and therefore is an
infinitive for prosperity. “To be hungry” is an adverse circumstance; yet super-
grace is designed for you to have PLUS-H either way! The last two infinitives
describe the same antithetical circumstances. A lot of people think that if they
are “good Christians,” they will always be happy and everything will go right.
That is NOT the Spiritual life. You must understand that no matter how far you
advance in the Spiritual life, you will never be free from changing circumstances.
But that shouldn’t frighten you — not if you understand the Principles of Divine
Thinking; and you have that super-grace packet in your soul. Maybe some of
you will receive tragic news before the week is out. Will you be one of those
who will need counselling and help, or will you move right on with the Mind of
Christ self-sufficiency so that you won’t have to run to anyone?
THE SUPER-GRACE PERSPECTIVE
There is a parallel Principle to, (Php 4:11-12) found in, (Heb 13:5-7) and we
should look briefly at this passage.
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, (Wanting
anything — at Spiritual maturity) constantly being content with what you have;
(And or do not have) for HE has said, and the statement stands forever, “I will
not, no never, not even, not never abandon you nor desert you!” (Heb 13:5)
This passage begins with the word “character,” and ends with part of the same
word in, (Heb 13:7). But it no longer has the connotation it carried 300 years
ago. Today we would say, “manner of life,” “turn of mind,” “conduct,” or
“Thought pattern." Our Spiritual Thought pattern of life, then, should be without
covetousness. This refers to the mastery of the details of life, or the mature
Spiritual life of the Temple in the soul.
Now we advance a step and see the Principle of the super-grace life:
“constantly being content” Doctrinally sufficient, can be accomplished only in the
super-grace life. How is it possible to be constantly content with the “present
things” — that is, those things you have in your possession at the present time?
“He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER
FORSAKE YOU!” The perfect tense here means that it is a permanent
statement with results that go on forever! The permanent statement is a
quotation from the Old Testament, which occurs five times.
(Gen 28:15; Deut 31:8; Jos 1:5; (1Ch 28:20; Isa 41:10) “I will never leave you
nor forsake you.” In the Greek, “never” is the strongest negative you can have!
Then follows a super-grace application in, (Heb 13:6). So that, being confident,
we (Believers in super-grace) say. The Lord (Title for Deity) helper to me: (In
time of weakness or danger) I will not fear what mankind shall do to me!
(Heb 13:6)
“Fear” is a mental attitude sin; but the super-grace life wipes out mental attitude
sins of pride and jealousy, as we have already seen, and now fear. In the
stability of the super-grace life, we have no fear as to what mankind might do to
us. Why not? Because we have a relationship with Christ. However, confidence
is proportionate to our occupation with Christ. Occupation with Christ in the
SUPER-GRACE LIFE — eliminates ALL fear!
Now (Heb 13:7) gives us the immediate source of the super-grace life:
“Keep concentrating on the ones leading you; they are such a kind who have
communicated to you (For your advantage) the Word from the source of the
God, (Bible Truth) keep on emulating the faith, (Practice Thinking the same
Divine Thinking) concentrating on the subject of the Thoughts of life — THE
BIBLE.”
“The ones” refers specifically to pastors communicating Truth. So the
immediate source of the super-grace life is your concentration on the message
of the pastor. God has given them the authority to lead and to guide those in
their congregations through the communication of Truth. The pastor-teacher is
the one who leads the believer into the super-grace life. The local church and
the computer is the classroom, where there must be strict academic discipline,
concentration, and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
“Faith” with the definite article in the Greek refers to what is believed, and
becomes technical for Truth. From the pastor’s teaching, emulate the Truth.
“Emulate” means a conscious effort to take in Truth; and this must be done
through the function of Operation Z, the construction of the edification complex
and entrance into the super-grace life.
“Considering” is again “to concentrate” — not on the “end,” but on the “issue or
objective” of the manner of life in super-grace. And notice, it is not the issue of
the PASTOR’S manner of life, but the issue of YOUR manner of life! The issue
is not hustling in a program or giving your glowing testimony; it is not trying to
do great things for God nor any of the little hypocritical, sincere but phoney,
superficial activities in your life. The issue is learning Truth! The issue is a soul
filled with Truth! The issue is to get us into the super-grace life, and that’s the
only issue between the moment of our salvation and the moment the last “brick”
is put into our Spiritual Temple! Until you get there, you haven’t even begun to
fight! Now back to Philippians.
THE DYNAMICS OF SUPER-GRACE
I have endowed power [Super-grace provision] for all things by means of the
one who keeps on pouring the power into me. (Php 4:13)
This verse applies to the super-grace believer only! “I can do,” as it stands in
the English, is not only a poor translation, it is a subtle mistranslation. It
becomes an attack on the grace of God. “Ischuo” doesn’t mean that YOU can
do anything; it means “endowed power.” It is not power you acquire or power
exercised or utilized, such as “energeo.” It refers to Truth transferred from the
page of the Bible to your soul by way of Operation Z. The super-grace life has
endowed power for all things — all circumstances.
“Through Christ” is not found in the original. It is literally, “by means of the One
who strengthens me,” or better, “Who pours power into me.” How does Jesus
Christ keep pouring power into you? The continued intake of Truth after the
construction of the ECS pours power into the super-grace believer to the point
of super-grace dynamics. (Psa 138:2) “The Word of God is alive and powerful!”
(Heb 4:12) The construction of the Temple isn’t the time to quit. It’s the time to
pour it on — to drive harder!
I did have a coach who would always say in the fourth quarter: “Hit ’em harder
— hit harder than you’ve ever hit in your life! They’re weak; they’re shot; they’re
worn out! Hit ‘em - hit ‘em - hit ‘em!” And even though he was talking to tired,
worn-out individuals, he always gave us an edge. He actually had us believing
those guys were so tired it would be like walking on marshmallows. So we hit
them harder. We won a surprising number of games in the fourth quarter just on
that!
Now that’s the idea here. You get past that ECS, and it’s time to hit harder.
That’s the time to really dig in and study, study, study! That’s when Truth begins
to pay off and put things together! That’s when you have the endowed power of
the super-grace life — the package that makes you the victor over, and in,
every circumstance of life!
GIVING IN SUPER-GRACE
However, you have done honourably, having shared, and therefore entered into
partnership with me in my pressure. (Php 4:14)
Paul picks up the thread of, (Php 4:10) as an amplification of the Principle of
giving in the super-grace life. Since “Giving” has been discussed more fully in
another book, we will not take this section up in detail. However, certain
Principles in connection with giving under super-grace should be noted.
Paul was the recipient of a great love offering; but he did not thank the
Philippians simply to tell us that we should be thankful to people who give us
things. He was explaining the conditions under which they gave this money, as
well as a great Principle: grace giving under the super-grace life is giving
WITHOUT STRINGS! Giving without strings, giving without expecting some kind
of praise and giving because you have capacity for life is an art! And receiving
should be done in the same way.
Since the super-grace life is now being discussed from the standpoint of giving,
(Php 4:14) begins with an adverb used as a conjunction, which should be
translated “however” to relate it to the previous dissertation on giving. The
conjunction indicates that, (Php 4:11-13) do not imply lack of appreciation on
Paul’s part. Far from it! Paul does appreciate this gift. But Paul’s no phoney. He’
s not going to gush over the offering sent by the Philippians. They aren’t
phonies either. They didn’t give with the idea that Paul would gush all over the
place. The ones who contributed this offering were either on the verge of a
completed Spiritual life or they were moving into super-grace. They did not even
expect a “thank you.” There was no desire for acknowledgment or recognition
of it. The emphasis of, (Php 4:14-20) is on the Philippians who gave. They had
the capacity to give. The point of this passage is not receiving but giving, and
Paul is telling us how to give in super-grace.
A super-grace believer knows how to give without strings, without the
expectation of a pat on the head, without the stimulation of approbation lust.
Many of you are going to be great givers because you are going to get into
super-grace, and you are going to give in a wonderful, thoughtful and
marvellous way; you are never going to look for or expect a “thank you” or want
someone to gush over you. People in emotional revolt never understand this.
Giving from capacity for life and love is described here as “done well.” A person
who has capacity in the super-grace life is honourable; therefore, anything he
does from his honourable new nature, in fellowship, motivated by God and His
Thinking, is an honourable function! Giving is an honourable function of the
priesthood; but giving isn’t even meaningful until a believer has an edification
complex on the way or until he enters the super-grace life. Giving without
pressure or coercion is part of super-grace function, as well as giving on the
basis of the inner resources of grace, apart from emotional involvement. The
super-grace believer handles the assets of his life better than anyone else.
Moreover, you also know, Philippians, that in the beginning of the gospel, at the
time when I went out from Macedonia, not one church had fellowship with me
with reference to the matter of giving and receiving, except you only.
(Php 4:15)
Because even in Thessalonica you sent (Money) both once and twice because
of my need. (Being in prison) Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the
profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and
have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus
what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to
God. And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in
Christ Jesus. (Php 4:16-19)
You have to learn to give and receive as a Christian. Whatever you did about
giving and receiving as an unbeliever is no longer of any value. Your giving and
receiving must be based upon Truth. The Philippians were the one church who
gave because they had latched onto Truth so rapidly, and they were motivated
through Truth to give.
Now Paul found it necessary to defend himself against some rather slanderous
gossip that he had used the gospel as a means of getting rich. Paul worked
building tents to supply his own needs and those who he instructed; and relied
upon God for the work, (People needing his services) to be provided.
(Matt 6:33) cf. (Acts 20:25-35)
Not because I seek after (Desire) the gift, but because I seek after the grace
production accumulating to your account. (Php 4:17) (Giving and giving thanks
benefits us, not God; and creates capacity for apperception of others and their
grace gifts to us)
Paul did not desire the offering so that he might become rich, but because the
Philippians, who were developing through Truth a great capacity for life and
love and freedom, needed an outlet to commemorate grace. People who
develop a capacity for love need someone to love. Those who develop a
capacity for life need to live. And that’s the Principle here. God used the grace
orientation of the Philippians to supply Paul’s needs in prison; and at the same
time to express their capacity. It’s a perfect balance. Their capacity implements
his need so that he can move on and communicate Truth. (Reciprocation)
Capacity is also the basis for production or fruit. Capacity moves out and
becomes production. Any time you give of capacity, a vacuum is created in the
soul and in the wallet. But grace replaces in the soul as well as in the financial
realm. All Divine giving is a result of Spiritual maturity, and is THE REWARD in
time; and is connected to the rewards in eternity. But, you say, “I don’t want
any rewards; I don’t want any glory.” Don’t worry! It’s Christ who is glorified by
your Spiritual production. Why? Where did your Spiritual Thoughts, grace
capacity or your Virtue ability originate? From grace! God could wipe out your
money or incapacitate your body or your ability to work in one second!
Everything we have or are is grace!
Grace production accumulates to your account for Phase Three; where Christ
will be glorified with that accumulation. Giving, then, is a super-grace function,
which pays super-grace dividends. These, in turn, glorify Jesus Christ, the
Author of the super-grace life.
Moreover, I have received in full all the monetary offering, and have more than
enough. I have been fulfilled, (Financially) having received from Epaphroditus
the things from you, a fragrant odour, a propitious sacrifice, pleasing to the
God. (Php 4:18)
The Greek word for “abound” means “to abound in the possession of full
sufficiency,” hence, to have more than enough. Too many people think that
those serving the Lord should just eek by. But here’s a passage that says a
servant of the Lord should have MORE than enough. These things will come
along in due time.
Of course, now and then you find some pastor who has a guilt-complex about
prosperity and thinks he has to suffer for Jesus, and he encourages this idiotic
procedure. Forget it! When believers have edification complexes in their souls
and enter the super-grace life, they will see that this is fulfilled.
“Everything” indicates not just the money, but the Virtue love that motivated the
giving. And that’s why he calls it an aroma, or literally, “a fragrant aroma.” In the
ancient world, pleasant memories were associated more through the olfactory
senses than ours are. Therefore, Paul is saying that they have caused a
fragrance of memory. Great giving comes from the function of the priesthood in
super-grace; but bona fide giving begins when you start the building of the ECS.
It is then Divine production and is an acceptable sacrifice to God.
Now this is the New Testament sacrifice to God. The Levitical animal sacrifices
are out. Under the universal New Covenant priesthood of the believer; and the
High Priesthood of Christ; our life, will, plans, praise, thanksgiving, money,
sharing, time, energy, and effort is offered to God as a sacrifice! The Levitical
sacrifices anticipated the cross; but they have been replaced by sacrifices
which commemorate the cross. Basically, then, giving is the commemoration of
grace. Giving to God what God has given to us! (Rom 11:35)
GRACE PROVISION OF THE SUPER-LIFE
Now my God shall fill up the deficiency of all your need according to the
standard of his riches in glory by means of Christ Jesus (Php 4:19)
This verse is so often quoted out of context; but, it is a part of the super-grace
life. “Supply” or “fill up” is our old friend “pleroo,” meaning “to fill up a deficiency,
to fill with a certain quality, (Monetary replacement of what was given) to fully
influence, and to fully possess.” Each meaning pertains to the Concept of giving
as an offering or sacrifice to God.
Because of sacrificial giving, there is a monetary deficiency, but God will
replace the money given. No one ever impoverishes himself by giving to the
Lord. With the money fully replaced, the Philippians will be influenced to give
again under the super-grace function of their priesthood, because they are filled
with a certain quality of Truth; hence, they will be fully possessed with money
and fully influenced by Truth to offer that money as a sacrifice in the same way
that the Jew of the Old Testament offered an animal under the Levitical code.
Both offerings commemorated grace.
God is saying, “Not only will I replace what you gave so that you can do it again
and again, but I will replace the motivation through the function of Operation Z
again and again in the super- grace life.” As a part of the super-grace life, the
Principle of giving includes Truth — Doctrinal application or Truth on the
launching pad as well as money in the pocket. Whenever you give, you launch
Truth from the pad. So the pad is empty — “My God shall supply Truth”; you
get day by day teaching. So the pocket is empty — “My God shall supply
money!” (Php 4:19) is actually referring to two things: material and Spiritual
needs. In fulfilling the function of giving, God must provide for you the Spiritual
needs involved in grace-motivation as well as the financial needs which form the
actual gift or offering. In other words, the Spiritual and material meet and
combine in the priestly function of super-grace giving. When you give properly,
you not only give the money, but you launch Truth! Remember, it is the Truth
that accompanies the giving and sets up the Divine production Principle that
results in further reward in heaven which glorifies Christ.
“Riches” generally refers to money; but here it means unlimited Divine operating
capital. God has provided us with unlimited Divine capital under grace. In the
mundane system of economics, it takes money to make money. But in the
grace system of things, we must have NOTHING to gain money; and “having
nothing” is the total super-grace picture! God in grace provides the capital for
the function of the priesthood, and He provides it through the grace apparatus
for learning Spiritual Thoughts — Operation Z. Then when the time comes that
someone else has a need. He will provide for you to meet the need of that
person, just as He used the Philippians to meet the need of Paul. In this way,
both the teamwork and super-grace are able to function.
“In glory” indicates that Jesus Christ provides from heaven all the Divine good
you produce as a result of reaching Spiritual maturity!
THE GRACE PLANNER OF THE SUPER-LIFE
Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Php 4:20)
This is the third verse in a row which begins with a successive continuative
particle. These are used to show that we are going right on with the subject;
but in this verse we are going back to the Source. Ultimately everything that you
have, your being, the very air that you breathe, the freedom that you enjoy, the
things that you possess — everything in life that you hold dear or worthwhile —
goes right back to God the Father, the Author of the plan of grace. His plan is
designed so that there is only one Celebrity, Jesus Christ; one Person to be
glorified — the God-Man, the unique Person of the universe; yet everything
good ultimately has its source in the First Person of the Trinity.
No matter what happens in your life, in your country or in the world, and already
national and world affairs are taking a bad turn, the Father will always be in His
heaven. Nothing can change that! He can deliver us, if He so desires, in one
second, or He can put us down in one second; so no one has a right to get on
his high horse and think he can stand or fall by himself. In context with,
(Php 4:20-21) is saying that before we get to saluting other saints. God the
Father must have the first salute!
The word “Father” means several things: first of all, authority. He is the highest
rank, as it were. A father has authority over a son. Second, he is the provider,
the basis of security for his sons. Third, a father loves his sons. God the Father
is our Authority, our security and our provision. We are His children, and He
loves us with a maximum love. Our testimony should be what God has done for
us, not what we have done for Him. He must get the glory!
Then the Apostle Paul adds something that we must all add; “Amen” — “I
believe it. I recognize it.” Remember that Paul has just come out of
reversionism himself. He has just paid in discipline for reversionism in every way
except the sin unto death. He has made a complete recovery; he is in the super-
grace life again; and never has it been so clear that everything depends on Who
and What God IS — nothing depends on who and what Paul is. Therefore,
when he says, “I believe it,” that is the official termination of his dissertation on
the super-grace life.
GRACE RAPPORT IN THE SUPER-GRACE LIFE
But now he recognizes a new Principle, which both directly and indirectly relates
to super-grace. As believers, we are members of the family of God; we live, as
it were, in the same household. We are in the periphery of each other.
Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you.
(Php 4:21)
This is a Command for the believer in the super-grace life. “Greet” is a word for
acknowledgement and can be translated “embrace or salute.” “Embrace”
doesn’t apply here at all. You embrace only one person of the opposite sex.
Impersonal love excludes embracing a lot of people in the name of Christianity
or any other phoney operation. You don’t embrace every saint, but you can
“salute.”
Now the construction of the Spiritual life often divides the sheep from the goats
in Phase Two. The sheep will go into the super-grace life, while the goats will
go backward into reversionism. When believers grow up together in Truth and a
number of them arrive at the same point of time with an ECS, a rapport is
definitely established. However, this rapport can become a trap. Those who
retrogress at the point of maturity will become a test for their friends: will love
for friends cause them to become dupes and go along into reversionism with
them, or will they have the backbone to keep taking in Truth and move on into
super-grace? Rapport in super-grace must be established by sharing the same
Mind the Mind of Christ. (Amos 3:3; (1Co 1:10) To continue friendships or love-
relationships with reversionists can only lead to reversionism!
(1Co 5:11; (2Co 6:17-18)
When a pastor sees a group of people get party-minded and peel off from Bible
class, it is his job to protect the rest of the sheep. People going into
reversionism often have to be booted out because some of the other sheep are
so stupid they would go along for the ride.
(Php 4:20-21) serve to remind you that when you get to the point of an ECS,
you are not necessarily clear on your scale of values. But once you get it
straight that it’s Who and What God IS that counts — not who and what people
are, you can salute every saint with discernment.
“All the (Super-grace) saints salute you, especially those from the palace of
Caesar.” (Php 4:22)
This is a specific reference to certain ones in high places. By this time Nero had
constructed his golden palace, and there were many VIP’s who had their office
and their function in the palace. Many of these had received Jesus Christ as
Saviour and completed an ECS; “they salute you.”
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be [Associated] with your spirit.”
(Php 4:23)
Remember that God the Father is the “Commanding General,” while Jesus
Christ is the “Chief of Staff.” This in no way negates the fact that each Member
of the Godhead is coequal and coeternal. But each One has, as it were, an
assigned role in Operation Grace, the Father’s plan for the human race. This
verse emphasizes the Principle of the super-grace life — that what counts first,
is Who and What the Father and the Son are. And how can the grace of Jesus
Christ be associated with your human spirit? Through the continuous function of
Operation Z which gets Truth into the human spirit where it is usable!
Now we move back to James 4 to conclude several Principles in the super-
grace function.
THE ISSUE OF THE SUPER-GRACE LIFE
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near
to God (Stay in fellowship with God) and He will draw near to you. (Stay in
fellowship with you) Cleanse your hands, (Rebound) you sinners; and purify
your hearts, (Think with the Mind of Christ) you double-minded. (Jas 4:7-8)
As believers, we must face the issue of obedience to God’s authority and the
rejection of the authority of Satan as the ruler of this world. The world was
originally restored for man’s rulership; (Gen 1:2; Gen 1:28) but when Adam
sinned, he lost the sovereignty of the world to the super angel. With the fall,
Adam and the woman acquired Satan’s sin nature, (John 8:44) and became the
first citizens of Satan’s kingdom, or “cosmos diabolicus.” Since that time, all of
us born into the world, with the exception of Jesus Christ, are born with Satan’s
sin nature, which renders us Spiritually dead. The identification of citizenship in
Satan’s kingdom is the sin nature, and Spiritual death. (Acts 26:17-18)
God made a way through grace for members of the human race to break out of
the Spiritual darkness of “cosmos diabolicus,” and that way was the cross,
where Satan’s back was broken. While Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross.
He was judged for every sin in the human race, past, present and future. As He
bore our sins and became our Substitute, He suffered Spiritual death for us and
thus made it possible for us to be born a second time into a new kingdom.
Those who through FAITH receive His substitutionary work on the cross are
born again into citizenship in God’s kingdom — “For He rescued us from the
domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son”
(Col 1:13)
However, Satan will continue to reign until the Second Advent, at which time
there will be a coup d’état, and the Last Adam, Jesus Christ as the Son of
David, will replace Satan and will rule the world. In the meantime, believers —
particularly super-grace believers — are under heavy attack from Satan. Now,
as members of God’s kingdom, yet still residing in “cosmos diabolicus,” God
had to make provision whereby our priesthood could function during the reign of
Satan.
A super-grace believer has settled the issue of submission to authority. To
submit to the authority of God demands entrance into certain grace functions:
the filling of the Spirit, and the intake of Truth. (John 4:24) God has designed a
grace system for transmission of Truth from the Canon of Scripture into your
soul. It is only Spiritual Thinking in your soul which is usable; and this, of course,
is the basis for the power and function of the Christian way of life.
“Submit” is a military word, which means “to be under the Command or
authority of someone.” It includes both the recognition of authority and the
function under that authority. You have not fulfilled this Command just because
you have said sincerely that you want to do God’s will or you have thrown a
fagot on the fire and made a vow to do God’s will. There’s only one way to fulfil
the Command to submit to God and that is to function under Operation Z daily.
This becomes even more important when you reach the threshold of the super-
grace life. Although subordination to the authority of God is the responsibility of
every believer, it is properly fulfilled only in the super-grace life. (Jas 4:7)
All the Principles of authority revolve around the Word of God; hence the
neglect of Bible teaching and Doctrinal intake results in insubordination to God’s
authority. This refutes the concept floating around today that all you have to do
after you are saved is to read your Bible and thereby become an expert; then
add to this a few books, and you will become a super expert! You cannot learn
Truth apart from the one who has the gift of pastor-teacher who has reached
Spiritual maturity. Since you cannot feed yourself, you must go to the place
where there is authority — a pastor-teacher communicating the Mind of Christ.
“Be subordinate to God” is a Command, then, to stay with Bible Truth and the
teaching of the Word in Phase Two after constructing an edification complex.
“Resist” is another military word. If you are under the authority of someone in a
military organization, the purpose is to wipe out the enemy on the battlefield.
You can’t resist unless you are under authority. The Command to resist is only
given to those who are under authority. You are not truly under God’s authority
unless you are in super-grace. Then once you are under His authority, as
defined by the Word of Truth, you can resist the devil. But you have to be
careful here. Resisting the devil is not some emotional experience, but the use
of Truth in the soul. When you follow the first two Commands, submit and
resist, which indicate the super-grace life, you have a Promise: the devil will flee
from you. (Jas 4:7)
Even though the devil is exceedingly more powerful, wiser and more subtle, and
can outmaneuver any of us any time anywhere, yet under God’s direction, he
flees. And notice, he will flee FROM YOU, or your periphery, and he will attack
some other place where he finds a weak spot. In other words, when the
believer stands and stays in fellowship consistently; we share in God’s victory
and God will have Satan to flee.
THE RECOVERY OF SUPER-GRACE
Draw near to God (Stay in fellowship with God) and He will draw near to you.
(Stay in fellowship with you) Cleanse your hands, (Rebound) you sinners; and
purify your hearts, (Think with the Mind of Christ) you double-minded.
(Jas 4:8)
“Draw near” is a constantive aorist, referring to the believer who once more
functions daily in fellowship. This verse goes back to the reversionistic believer
and is a Command to recover. “Draw near” includes the entire function of
Operation Z — rebound before you listen to the teaching of the Word,
relearning the basic Doctrines, and avoiding those things that would hinder the
daily intake of Truth. As a result, God will draw near to you in the sense of
reversionistic recovery and re-entrance into the super-grace life.
Certain things hinder the recovery of reversionism, so we have another
Command: “cleanse your hands.” This is the rebound technique by which the
believer regains the filling of God the Holy Spirit so that he can submit to the
authority of ICE Bible teaching. The “dirty hands” depict the believer’s sins in
reversionism, particularly the mental attitude sins which identify reversionism.
(Jas 4:5-6) “Sinners” here are reversionistic believers.
“Purify your hearts” indicates the importance of the Thinking of Christ in the right
lobe. The reversionistic believer has the valves to the right lobe shut down. He
is not taking in Truth, and the only information he gets is the “false Truths of
demons.” (1Ti 4:1) He has cobwebs in his frame of reference; his memory
centre has shorted out, as far as Truth is concerned; and he begins to think in
terms of anti-establishment, social action, brotherhood, and all the other
pseudo-cosmic ideas. The double-souled person is the reversionist and or the
novice.
THE ALTERNATIVE TO SUPER-GRACE
Now if you really want to stay in reversionism, there’s an alternative to super-
grace. We have a verse on the opportunities and activities as well as
Commands to those who wish to AVOID the super-grace life.
Be miserable and lament and weep! Your laughter be turned to grief, and the
happiness to depression, dejection. (Jas 4:9)
So you want to be a reversionist? Then here’s a Command which you WILL
OBEY: “Be miserable!” (Carnal believers and rebound) Or you will have no
choice. Free will is for grace. God doesn’t say, “Now, you’re such a nice
believer in reversionism — what would you like in the way of discipline?”
When you’re miserable, there are going to be some tears! What laughter you
have — through a frantic search for happiness or escapism — will be converted
to grief, and temporary happiness, (Neutral-H) will be converted to depression
or dejection. Reversionism is the status of perpetual self-induced misery.
PROMOTION AND PROSPERITY UNDER SUPER-GRACE
(Jas 4:8) sets up an issue for the believer in reversionism. To obey the
Commands of verse 8, leads to the promotion and prosperity of verse 10.
Receive humility (Super-grace) in fellowship with the Lord, and he will promote
you. (Jas 4:10)
The Principle of verse 10 is that if the Lord doesn’t promote you, you’re not
promoted. Behind the Principle there is a Concept which is amplified in,
(1Pe 5:5-6).
In the same way, comparative novices, (By comparison to the pastor) be under
the authority and Instruction of the pastor-elders. All of you, congregation,
fasten yourselves to each other with grace Thinking because God opposes the
arrogant, (Reversionistic and or negative believers) but gives grace to the
humble. (Believers who are positive toward Truth and stay in fellowship)
Therefore, become grace-oriented, (Through positive volition toward Truth)
under the authority of the ruling hand of God, (OBEY DIVINE THINKING; THE
WORD OF GOD!) that He may promote you at the proper time.
There are three things in the function of a pastor-teacher:
first, his authority, which resides in the gift; second, his function - teaching
Truth; and third, his life. Now even though a pastor-teacher has an old sin
nature like everyone else and he will sin and fail like everyone else, he will go
right on being a pastor-teacher. It’s his gift and message that counts. God
doesn’t promote some character who is now living a very moral life, who
offends very few people, who is sweet and says all the right things! He
promotes the humble.
Now, how do you “humble yourself?” By dressing in rags? By lowering your
head and shuffling your feet? By agonizing and giving up something? Through
asceticism? No! Humility is mental subordination to Bible Thinking and therefore,
Grace Orientation. It is not self-effacement or whitewash. In the passive voice,
the believer receives this humility through taking in the Word; in the imperative
mood, the believer must “READ AND THINK WITH TRUTH” until he gets into
super-grace and then “READ AND THINK WITH TRUTH” some more!
When you have the Divine Viewpoint of humility — Grace Orientation — the
Lord will promote you SPIRITUALLY! The Lord only promotes in super-grace
— those who are dependent on Who and What He IS. He doesn’t promote
those who have illusions and delusions that they are doing something for God!
God gives grace through Truth, and then He gives promotion. Grace and Truth
always come first. (John 1:14; Col 1:5-6) There must be capacity for
promotion. (To understand and appreciate all the blessings God gives us; from
food and fellowship to computers and transportation!)
Never before in our history has the nation needed super-grace believers as it
needs them today. But YOU ALSO need super-grace as you’ve never needed it
before. And you have the privilege and the challenge of entering into something
that truly can glorify God!
APPENDIX GLOSSARY OF TERMS
ANGELIC CONFLICT: Unseen conflict in which the forces of Satan are warring
against the forces of God.
COSMOS DIABOLICUS: Satan’s world system.
DISPENSATION: A period of time expressing the Divine Viewpoint of human
history; the Divine outline of history, or the Divine interpretation of human history.
EMOTIONAL REVOLT OF THE SOUL: Emotions dominating the mentality
instead of responding to it. Contrary to the Divine order whereby the heart or
right lobe should control the soul.
FAITH-REST TECHNIQUE: Mixing the promises of God with faith; i.e., believing
God and God’s Thoughts expressed in His Word and Thinking with them above
our own! (Psa 138:2; Mark 8:33-38; Luk 6:47-48; John 14:24) cf. (Heb 4:1)
GRACE APPARATUS FOR PERCEPTION (OPERATION Z): The provision of
God whereby EVERY believer can understand EVERY BIBLICAL THOUGHT,
regardless of education or human IQ.
HEART: The dominant or right lobe of the mentality of the soul. (See Right
Lobe)
“ICE” TEACHING: Isagogics, categories, exegesis — exegesis: to understand
the meaning from the Greek and or Hebrew. Isagogics: The interpretation of
the Bible in its historical setting.
LOVE: Personal love toward God; Impersonal love toward ALL mankind;
rapport from Truth toward right man or right woman; and toward friends.
“MATAIOTES”: Greek word translated “futility,” as in, (Eph 4:17) this is a
vacuum in the soul created by negative volition toward God and or the Word of
Truth.
OLD SIN NATURE: The “old self” of, (Eph 4:22) the Adamic nature or “flesh”
of, (Rom 8:3-4) the Principle of “sin” of, (Rom 7:8-24). The OSN has an area of
weakness which produces personal sins; an area of strength which produces
human old sin nature good; a lust pattern; and trends toward asceticism and
lasciviousness.
PROPITIATION: The God-ward side of the cross: God the Father’s satisfaction
with the work of God the Son on the basis of the cross.
REBOUND: The believer’s being restored to fellowship with God through
confession of his sins. (1Jn 1:9)
REVERSE PROCESS REVERSIONISM: The function of a reversionistic
believer in which he rejects true objects of love and enters into pseudo-love
fanaticism toward false or inconsequential objects of love.
REVERSIONISM: The loss of all or part of the Edification Complex through
negative volition toward Truth, scar tissue of the soul, emotional revolt and
apostasy.
RIGHT LOBE: The dominant lobe of the mentality of the soul, designated by
two different Greek words: “kardia” (Heart) and “noema.” (Understanding or
Thought) Right lobe or human spirit has seven areas: frame of reference,
memory center, vocabulary storage, categorical storage, conscience, (Norms
and standards) momentum and wisdom; leading to the Divine Viewpoint of life
on any given subject)
RIGHT MAN-RIGHT WOMAN: The Divine Concept that God has designed one
specific man for one specific woman. Each member of the human race has a
right opposite number, except in cases where a person has the gift of being
single.
SCAR TISSUE: The Concept of the “hardening of the heart.” Negative volition
toward God or Truth puts scar tissue on the soul; i.e., the heart becomes
“hardened” toward God and Truth. Promiscuity, drug addiction, alcoholism, or
any other frantic search for happiness puts scar tissue on the soul; i.e., no
meaningful soul activity with other people is possible.
SIN UNTO DEATH: Maximum discipline to the reversionistic believer whereby
he is removed, before his time, from Phase Two without benefit of dying grace.
SPIRITUAL DEATH: of Christ: the separation of His humanity from the other
Members of the Godhead while bearing the sins of the world on the cross.
(Isa 53:11) Of the human race: separation from God in time; no fellowship with
Him. (Isa 59:2)
SOUL: The area of human life; the real person; located in the cranium. The soul
has essence: self-consciousness; mentality, (Made up of two frontal lobes)
volition, faith, conscience, emotion, and the old sin nature. (Causing man to be
Spiritually dead)
End
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