Lesson for January 1, 2023
The Victorious Christian Way of Life
Lesson 1
God’s plan for your life can be stated in three ways:
- The Unique Life of the Church Age Believer emphasizes the fact that all three persons of the Godhead permanently indwell your body as a Church Age believer: God the Father (John 14:23; Ephesians 4:6; II John 9), God the Son (John 14:20, 17:22-23,26; Romans 8:10; II Corinthians 13:5; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27; I John 3:24), and God the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11; I Corinthians 3:16, 6:19-20; II Corinthians 6:16).
- The Lifestyle of Wisdom emphasizes a believer’s perception and application of Bible doctrine after salvation. Wisdom is applying the Bible doctrine that you learn. This category is very important because it emphasizes that human I.Q. distinctions are erased at salvation. Any believer with positive volition can learn Bible doctrine and learn how to properly apply it.
- The Protocol Plan of God is the mode of operation of the Royal Family of God inside the Divine Dynasphere, utilizing your Portfolio of Invisible Assets prepared for you by God the Father in eternity past. The Divine Dynasphere is the means of utilizing God’s power for the execution of God’s plan.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit share all the divine attributes, being co-equal and co-eternal and each has a specific function as it relates to believers during the Church Age. The indwelling of the Trinity is designed to make your Christian life unique. Never before the Church Age has this privilege existed.
The Unique Life is related to the three stages of spiritual adulthood: spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity. God the Holy Spirit does something unique for Church Age believers when they reach spiritual adulthood. This is done under the filling of the Holy Spirit as a believer advances through the various stages of spiritual adulthood. The Holy Spirit’s special ministry to believers in spiritual adulthood is related to the experience of glorifying Christ. (Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 5:16; John 16:14)
The experience of spiritual self-esteem is mentioned in Galatians 4:19, which speaks of “Christ being formed in you.” The experience of spiritual autonomy is found in Ephesians 3:17, “Christ at home (dwelling) in your hearts.” The experience of spiritual maturity is mentioned in Philippians 1:20, “Christ glorified in your body.” These things occur as a result of a believer’s spiritual advance under the filling of the Holy Spirit as they learn and apply accurate Bible doctrine.
No believer can attain spiritual self-esteem, the first stage of spiritual adulthood, apart from personal love for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This means that the most important factor in your life is to learn about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. No believer can attain spiritual autonomy apart from impersonal love for all mankind. No believer attains spiritual maturity without understanding the indwelling of the Person of Christ, and how it becomes the motivator through the various categories of spiritual adulthood, which includes the test of suffering for blessing.
The indwelling of Jesus Christ is related to the concept of becoming a new creation in Christ according to II Corinthians 5:17. Romans 8:10 says “If Christ is in you (and He is); on the one hand, the body is dead because of the sin nature (spiritual death resulting in physical death), but on the other hand, the (Holy) Spirit is life (eternal and unique) because of (imputed) righteousness.” Though we receive eternal life at salvation, we still retain a sin nature, which continues to reside in us after salvation and seeks to control us through temptation. The three indwelling factors found in this verse which provide the basis for the believer’s unique life are: 1) the indwelling of Christ, 2) the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and 3) the indwelling of God’s perfect righteousness.
The Unique Life is related to the fact that there has been no permanent indwelling of the Godhead in a believer prior to the Church Age, and never will there be after the Rapture of the Church. The indwelling of the Trinity indicates that members of the Royal Family of God have greater responsibility than believers in any other age in history. In this intensified stage of the Angelic Conflict, the Royal Family of God has been given unique spiritual factors that have never existed before and will never exist again. We have been given the greatest spiritual assets ever given in the history of the human race!
The Unique Life means that God the Father indwells the body of every believer. God the Father’s indwelling is related to the glorification of Himself through the believer’s execution of the Protocol Plan. (Ephesians 1:3, 6, 12) God’s plan for the Church is absolutely unique; there’s never been anything like it in human history. Believers have equal privilege and equal opportunity to execute God’s plan and to fulfill their spiritual destiny as members of the Royal Family of God. (John 14:23; Ephesians 4:6; II John 9) God the Father did not permanently indwell any believer in the Old Testament or the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, nor will He do so in the Tribulation or in the Millennium. Therefore, the indwelling of God the Father is a part of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age.
The indwelling of God the Father is the assurance and guarantee of His personal ministry to Church Age believers. His indwelling guarantees that we each have our very own Portfolio of Invisible Assets, which He prepared in eternity past. His indwelling guarantees that He is the Grantor of our escrow blessings both now and in eternity. He indwells us to assure us of the existence of what He did for us in eternity past. His indwelling guarantees that He is the designer of your very own power system, the Divine Dynasphere. He indwells us to remind us that everything necessary to fulfill His plan has been provided by His grace. He indwells us to encourage us to fulfill His commands, and to execute His plan. (Ephesians 3:19-20)
The Unique Life is characterized by the indwelling of Christ. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is the sign that we belong to Him as Royal Family of God. The indwelling of Christ is a guarantee of the availability of divine power (omnipotence) to every Church Age believer who resides inside the Divine Dynasphere under the filling of God the Holy Spirit. This same power of the Holy Spirit was the power that sustained Jesus Christ in His humanity in the prototype Divine Dynasphere. The indwelling of Christ is the guarantee of eternal security or of life after death (since He was the One Who conquered death for us). Jesus Christ indwells our bodies even in our time of death according to Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” When we die, the first Person we see in Heaven is Jesus Christ, as stated in II Corinthians 5:8, “absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”
The indwelling of Christ is a guarantee of the distribution and the conveyance of all escrow blessings to those believers who meet the escrow conditions. The indwelling of Christ as the escrow officer is a reminder that every Church Age believer must fulfill the conditions of the escrow (reaching spiritual maturity) before there can be distribution of these special blessings.
The conditions for the conveyance of escrow blessings include the execution of the Protocol Plan of God, which means advancing to spiritual maturity inside the Divine Dynasphere. Our personal love for Jesus Christ becomes the basis of awareness of His nearness to us. His indwelling is therefore the motivation for us to pass the test of suffering for blessing as we advance to spiritual adulthood.
The indwelling of Christ is the basis for making your relationship with God the number one priority over your relationship with people. The trend today in “mainstream Christianity” is to emphasize experience and interaction with people over learning and applying Bible doctrine. Systematic Bible doctrine is not taught in most churches today. Sound Bible doctrine has been replaced with programs, the power of positive thinking, prosperity theology, or false doctrine based on making the Word of God match your experience instead of making your experience match what God’s Word teaches. Christians are basically lazy when it comes to studying God’s Word and they take the easy road of allowing some “preacher” to give them a feel-good sermon once a week.
This approach to God’s Word sets aside relationship with God as number one priority. To assign number one priority to God and your relationship with Him requires a tremendous amount of understanding of Bible doctrine. It requires that you consistently spend time (every day, if possible) learning the Word of God. God is invisible, and you see Him only through the study of the Word of God. Neglect of, rejection of, and resistance to doctrine results in giving number one priority to people (including yourself through self-absorption) rather than to God, which destroys any chance of having a spiritual life. Since the Trinity indwells the body of the Church Age believer, it follows that each Person of the Trinity is closer to you than all the people you know. God is inside of you; everyone else is outside of you.
Relationship with people is not the major issue in the Christian life! The major issue in the Christian life is personal love for God and the quality of your relationship with Him!!!