Lesson for October 8, 2023
The Battle for Your Soul
Lesson 1
The very moment you became a Christian, the battle for the control of your soul began. This battle is between your sin nature and God the Holy Spirit. Christians do not lose their sin nature the moment they believe in Christ for eternal salvation. The Apostle Paul wrote extensively about this battle in the Book of Romans, chapters 6 and 7. Paul, like many of us, was perplexed by how his desire to do right could be manipulated to do wrong. The answer, as he discovered after he became a believer in Christ, was the battle between his sin nature and the Holy Spirit. (Romans 7:18-25)
The sin nature is inherited genetically from our human father and is the center of our rebellion against God, according to Genesis 5:3, Psalm 51:5, and I John 1:8. The sin nature began with Adam in the Garden of Eden when he (and Eve) rebelled against God and lost their perfection. Because of the fall of mankind, every person has been born with a sin nature and Adam’s original sin, resulting in spiritual death. (Romans 5:12-14)
The sin nature is composed of an area of weakness and an area of strength. The area of weakness is where the temptation to commit personal sin originates. However, your personal volition is the source of committing personal sin. The temptation to commit personal sin is not a violation of God’s laws, but succumbing to the temptation is. (Hebrews 12:1)
So, Satan in his genius, surmised that the best method of deceiving Eve in the Garden of Eden was to attack her thinking. His ultimate goal was to take control of Eve’s soul and use her to take control of Adam’s soul, and it worked. The reason it worked was that the soul of mankind contains self-consciousness, mentality, volition, and conscience (norms and standards). Satan used these factors to trick Eve into believing she could become as wise as God, a belief that Satan had for himself from eternity past. The deceitful ploy worked, and mankind was plunged into spiritual darkness. This battle for control of Eve’s and Adam’s souls was reversed when they made the decision to believe in the coming Savior, Jesus Christ, for salvation.
When Satan attempted to get Jesus to violate the plan of God, he did not succeed because Jesus used His inner resources of Bible doctrine to combat the temptations. Like Christ, advancing believers have these same inner resources and should be able to defend against the attacks of Satan, his demon army, and his world system, attempting to gain control of our souls. The key to winning the battle is proper thinking.
The Christian Way of Life is a life of thinking the thoughts that Jesus Christ thought. Philippians 2:5, says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” The mind of Christ is the doctrine found in the Word of God, the only source of absolute truth. In order to have the proper thinking, believers must be consistently learning, believing, and applying the Word of God to all situations.
God has given all believers a command to grow spiritually, and He never gives us a command without giving us the means necessary to obey it. God, therefore, has provided His written instruction book (the Bible) and the filling (guidance) of the Holy Spirit. Both are grace functions for every believer in this age, regardless of education or I.Q. Any believer with a positive attitude towards Bible doctrine can learn, believe, and apply Bible doctrine accurately.
At salvation all believers are placed into union with Jesus Christ and become complete in Him (positionally). (Colossians 2:10) However, experientially we are not complete because we still have a sin nature. For this reason, all believers are commanded to grow spiritually and to advance toward spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity and a stabilized mind should be the goal of every person who has trusted Christ as Savior. (Ephesians 4:14-15; II Peter 3:18)
Spiritual maturity does not happen overnight. It takes a lifetime of persistent and consistent study to learn Bible doctrine. God’s Word likens spiritual growth to building a house. Often expressed as edification, the concept in Greek is to build or to build up. For a Christian, this occurs in his soul as he exposes himself to accurate Bible teaching and applies the truth that he learns. As with any building, we must be careful to first lay the right foundation before we build on it. The Scripture is clear that the only foundation for believers is Jesus Christ Himself. We know that the Word of God is the mind of Christ. Therefore, the foundation is the written Word (Christ is the living Word). The written Word of God is meant to be understood and utilized as a blueprint for building your spiritual building (the Christian Way of Life).
The Greek word for edification is “oikodome” and means the act of building or erecting a structure. (Ephesians 4:11-29) Like any structure, our “building” in our soul must have a firm foundation and properly constructed “floors.” Our foundation is Jesus Christ, and the “floors” are categories of Bible doctrine. Once the foundation is in place, then a believer can begin to build upon it with confidence that it will stand. The foundation is received at salvation, but the floors must be built over time, as Bible doctrine is learned, believed, and properly applied. (Ephesians 4:12,16,29; Colossians 2:7; I Timothy 1:4; James 1:4)
The basis for any system from God is always grace. The word grace itself makes it clear that God’s system for building the spiritual building is void of any human merit, human works, human ability, or Human Viewpoint Thinking. The reason that God planned it this way is to eliminate Human Viewpoint Thinking and human production as the means for building anything spiritual. Instead, He provided a non-meritorious system for both perception and execution of the Christian Way of Life: FAITH. We learn how to erect this building in our souls by faith and it takes faith to put into practice. This method is the only one that can bring honor and glory to God. (Hebrews 11:6)
Our spiritual building is built using the stored Bible doctrine in our mind. Consistent study and accurate application over a period of time is the method for developing our complex. This building is literally Christ being formed in the soul of a believer. Positionally, Christ is “in” every believer, but He is not “formed” in every believer. Jesus Christ had this spiritual building formed in His soul. He had all the characteristics of spiritual maturity: 1) He was full of grace and truth 2) He had a relaxed mental attitude 3) He was free from mental attitude sins 4) He had capacity for love and 5) He had divine inner happiness. Christ erected the spiritual building in His soul as a demonstration to all believers that it is possible for us to do the same, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
As believer-priests, we have the opportunity to build a spiritual building in our souls. With Christ as our example, we simply follow His pattern. Christ, as a perfect human being, built this building under the filling of the Holy Spirit as He learned and applied the Word of God. As we abide in Him (fellowship with God) and His word abides in us (Bible doctrine), we are allowing God the Holy Spirit to produce the character of Christ in our lives. (John 15:10)
Building our spiritual complex is a process of transformation (not reformation), which takes place in the mind of a believer as he thinks Bible doctrine (the mind of Christ). We call this thinking Divine Viewpoint Thinking. As our spiritual complex is being built, happiness, stability, and blessing are being produced by God the Holy Spirit in our life. (Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 5:22-23) Your way of
life right now is being influenced by what you think. Since you have free will, you can think whatever you want to think. (Proverbs 23:7)
The world system has a way of thinking that, generally speaking, is contrary to the thinking of God. We call this Human Viewpoint Thinking. God’s thinking is found in the Word of God. The Bible is more reliable than anything we see, hear, smell, taste, or feel. The Bible is the Word of God the Father, the mind of Jesus Christ, and the voice of the Holy Spirit and it is where we find Divine Viewpoint Thinking. (I Corinthians 2:16; Hebrews 3:7, 4:12; II Peter 1:12-21)
In order to have Divine Viewpoint Thinking, you must know what the Bible teaches. The more Bible doctrine you know and apply, the more Divine Viewpoint Thinking you will be able to utilize. The less Bible doctrine you know, the more Human Viewpoint Thinking you are going to utilize. The more Human Viewpoint Thinking you use, the more insecure and unstable you are going to be. Thinking your way through life with Divine Viewpoint Thinking will bring victory, peace, power and stability. (Isaiah 26:3-4, 33:6) Vacillating between Divine Viewpoint Thinking and Human Viewpoint Thinking makes a believer unstable and plays into Satan’s hands to control your soul. (James 1:8)
The true character of a believer is determined by what he thinks, not by what he does. God never forces us into any course of action. We determine what our own spiritual life is going to look like, based on what we think. Consistent Divine Viewpoint Thinking prevents satanic influence and “takeover” of our souls.
Romans 12:1-3, “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this World System, but be transformed by the renovation of your thinking, that you may discover what the good and perfect will of God is for you. For through the grace that is given to me I say to every person among you to stop thinking of self in terms of arrogance, but to think in terms of sound judgment (humility) since God has allotted to each of us a measure of faith.”