Lesson for May 19, 2024
The Fragmented Life
Lesson 3
Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age,…”
A believer who assumes that good works is spirituality takes a step toward fragmentation. By assuming that human power and human ability are greater than the power of the Holy Spirit, they have become arrogant. This grieves the Holy Spirit and quenches His work in their life.
A believer who succumbs to the pressures of suffering, adversity, and injustice is erroneously assuming their problems are greater than the provision of God. Any believer who depends on emotion, inspirational or motivational speakers, and/or personal attention from others, is erroneously assuming that personal feelings and experiences are greater than the knowledge of Bible doctrine.
II Peter 1:2-4, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,for His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Through these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world on account of lust.”
Godliness is the Greek word “eusebia,” meaning doing that which is well-pleasing to God. Godliness is therefore a reference to our duty and responsibility to God to live within His power system, the Divine Dynasphere. Five doctrines related to godliness are: (1) the principles and mechanics of the Protocol Plan of God for the Church Age (2) The execution of the Protocol Plan (3) our Portfolio of Invisible Assets prepared for us by God the Father in eternity past (4) the Ten Problem Solving Devices (5) Grace Orientation from a clear understanding of salvation by grace and spirituality by grace.
Judging, maligning, and slandering others is the function of self-righteous arrogance and legalism, not the function of godliness. By judging others, a person is attempting to interfere with the disciplinary actions of God. It is not our responsibility to judge or discipline other Christians. Such interference brings judgment to the one judging.
Matthew 7:1-2, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For the manner in which you judge, you will be judged. And by what measure you measure out judgment, it will be measured back to you.”
Judgment is the function of self-righteous, legalistic, arrogant believers seeking to impose their standards of righteousness on others and judging them for not accepting their false standards.
Romans 14:8-10,13, “For if we live, we live for the Lord; or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. But as for you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you as well, why do you regard your brother or sister with contempt? For we will all appear before the Judgment Seat of God (Christ). Therefore, let’s not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this: not to put an obstacle or stumbling block in a brother’s or sister’s way.”
When a believer makes a decision to live in Satan’s world system, they must take the responsibility for their own decision and resultant actions. Instead of being occupied with the Person of Christ by living in the Divine Dynasphere, they often become very concerned about the opinions of others (especially other believers). They become very susceptible to the flattery of others. Therefore, all decisions are being made from a position of weakness, seeking happiness based on a personal achievement instead of sharing the happiness of God.
Fragmented believers abandon divine viewpoint for human viewpoint. They think that they will find happiness and contentment by “outperforming” others. Instead, these believers find misery, discontentment, dissatisfaction, disillusionment, and disappointment. All of this is the result of fragmenting their spiritual lives.
Arrogance is the greatest problem of believers, and it keeps more believers from growing in grace than any other principle!!
Arrogance is the foundation for every form of evil, human good, and sin. Arrogance distorts life’s true scale of values, so that all decisions a person makes are from a position of weakness (no accurate doctrine). Arrogance not only rejects doctrine, but it also distracts believers from living their spiritual lives.
Without the truth of accurate Bible doctrine, believers are unable to fulfill the plan of God for their lives. Arrogance blinds the mind so that truth is rejected.
Arrogance rejects divine authority over a believer’s life, so that the Word of God is resisted or rejected. Since arrogance is always unrealistic, with an expanded opinion of self, it ignores how God assesses our “righteousness.” Isaiah 64:6 tells us our “righteousness” is as “filthy rags” to God. When pressure is put on an arrogant believer, that pressure eventually explodes and fragments their spiritual life. So many believers assume self-righteous arrogance is spirituality.
Spirituality is the term used for the filling of God the Holy Spirit. The filling and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are not the same and should not be confused. At the moment a person trusts Christ as Savior, they are permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit. However, the filling of the Holy Spirit, received at salvation, is temporary and is lost when a believer commits personal sin. The filling of the Holy Spirit (spirituality) is an absolute. You are either being controlled 100% by your sin nature (carnality) or 100% by the Holy Spirit (spirituality). Therefore, spirituality and carnality are absolutes in the Christian Way of Life. You are either filled with the Holy Spirit or you’re not. You are either residing in God’s power system or you’re not. You cannot be partially filled with the Holy Spirit and partially controlled by your sin nature at the same time. (I John 1:6-7, 2:10-11, 3:4-9) Each time a believer sins, they step outside of God’s power system by using their volition to commit sin.
Grieving the Holy Spirit refers to being out of fellowship with God for a short period of time. Believers grieve God the Holy Spirit every time they commit a personal sin. Using I John 1:9 restores the filling of the Holy Spirit and stops the grieving process. The Greek word for grieve is “lupeo” meaning to make sorrowful or sad. When applied to God, it is an anthropopathism which assigns to God an emotion He does not actually feel but gives us, in human terms, a method to understand what His policy is regarding a subject.
Grieving the Holy Spirit describes a personal affront to the Holy Spirit Who is our mentor and guide in life. It is the desire of God the Holy Spirit for every believer to stay in fellowship and be filled with His power. (Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 4:30; I John 1:5-7)
Quenching the Holy Spirit suggests that a believer has ignored or rejected the Rebound Technique over a prolonged period of time. The Greek word for quenching is “sbennumi,” meaning to extinguish a fire. Quenching the Holy Spirit occurs when a believer moves so far from God that the power of the Holy Spirit in their life is extinguished. This occurs when a believer chooses to ignore or neglect Bible doctrine and the use of the Rebound Technique. Relying on false doctrine or human viewpoint quenches the Holy Spirit. When false doctrine, or human viewpoint, is controlling the mentality of the soul, a vacuum opens in the soul and “sucks in” all kinds of satanic doctrine. (Ephesians 4:17) The vacuum of the mind not only attracts every system of false doctrine and human viewpoint but results in seeking solutions related to the Arrogance Complex of sins.
The Arrogance Complex is as follows: self-justification, self-deception, self-absorption, and self-righteousness. Any time we commit a sin, we are saying that our way is better than God’s way. This is exactly what Satan (Lucifer) did in eternity-past when he rebelled against God. The amazing thing is that Satan is still arrogant, even after his fall. However, it should not be surprising to us that Satan is still arrogant, considering he attempted to overthrow God!
The solution to fragmentation is living inside God’s power system. This means that a believer is living their life as unto the Lord and experiences the happiness that comes from a job well done. They also understand that their achievement in life is based on their relationship with God. They do their job as a testimony – not to get ahead, not to ingratiate themselves to their boss or to others, but they do it to glorify God!