Lesson for November 10, 2013
Spiritual Dynamics
Three Spiritual Skills
2. Problem Solving
Every problem in life has a solution which is found in the Word of God. Today, God reveals Himself and His policy through the inspired written page of the Bible, which we call the Word of God, the mind of Christ, and the voice of the Holy Spirit. The definition of inspiration is that God so supernaturally directed the human writers of Scripture that without waiving their personal feelings, human intelligence, their literary style, or any human factor, His complete and coherent message toward mankind was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of Scripture, the very words bearing the authority of divine authorship. Therefore, there is no such thing as a problem in life that does not have a solution in the Word of God.
The subject of problems and solutions is directed toward the believer in Jesus Christ, and specifically toward the Church Age believer whose possession of the mystery doctrines of the Church Age, his very own portfolio of invisible assets, the unique availability of divine power, the fantastic privileges related to being a member of the royal family of God, all have clearly-defined problem solving devices. So unless you put Bible doctrine first in your life, you will have unsolvable problems in your life.
The problem solving devices, when utilized, provide accurate and objective application of metabolized Bible doctrine to your experience. God did not give us His Word without the means to apply it. Bible doctrine is not applied through human functions. Doctrine is applied to experience by learning and using the problem solving devices. The problem solving devices are the only means of application of doctrine in your soul. When you attempt to apply doctrine apart from any one of the ten problem solving devices, it is inaccurate, it is distorted, and inevitably it leads to false doctrine. The problem solving devices are how you relate doctrine to your experience.
The application of doctrine to experience establishes spiritual values that are not shaken by anything you see or hear in your experience. Spiritual values are established through the application of doctrine to your circumstances. This same doctrine circulating in your stream of consciousness is the mirror into which you can look and see yourself as you really are – objective self-evaluation. Doctrine changes your values in life related to your volition. Problem solving devices in the soul establish right priorities and true spiritual values, which cause the believer to fulfill the protocol plan of God.
The problem solving devices provide self-motivation. Motivation is based on spiritual values created by spiritual skills, and that is motivation for the execution of the spiritual life. The problem solving devices function to prevent the outside pressure of adversity from becoming the inside pressure of stress in the soul. Adversity is inevitable, but stress is optional. Adversity is what circumstances do to you, but stress is what you do to yourself. Stress in the soul is tantamount to sin nature control of the soul; hence, stress puts your spiritual life out of action. Since stress in the soul contradicts the protocol plan of God, the function of the Rebound Technique becomes a major recovery factor based on the grace provision of God.
The problem solving devices function to provide the God-given spiritual environment for your soul. This is the very best and only perfect environment in history. The issue is not your outside environment but the environment of your soul, and the environment of your soul depends on the ten problem solving devices in your soul.
The present trend in Christianity is to emphasize people relationship over relationship with God, or to assume that a good relationship with people means that you automatically have a good relationship with God. Actually, good relationships with people occur from first having a good relationship with God. The first sign of spiritual death in our original parents in the Garden was the erroneous assumption that if you have a good relationship with people, you automatically have a good relationship with God. Immediately after the original sin, both Adam and the woman assigned number one priority to their relationship with each other. They didn’t give one thought about God until our Lord came in the Garden, and then they had to hide. So their first function in spiritual death was one of self- righteousness. They assumed that by covering their naked bodies with fig leaves and adjusting to each other that they would be adjusted to God. When the Lord came to visit in the Garden, they discovered the true meaning of spiritual death, which is total helplessness to have fellowship with God on the basis of their own merits, and so they hid from our Lord. This trend has continued throughout history so that even today, many believers in ignorance and/or rejection of doctrine allow people emphasis to take precedence over God emphasis. This is one reason why people never come to understand these fantastic problem solving devices. This problem can only be resolved by consistent perception, metabolization, and application of doctrine.
It is no accident that, in the Church Age, each believer is a priest and as such represents himself before God. In reality, this priesthood is the basis for the function of all ten problem solving devices. There can be no solution to human relationships until we have sorted out our relationship with God. God is perfect, which means the plan He has for us is perfect. A perfect God could only design a perfect plan. However, we who are in that perfect plan are obviously not perfect. So, perfect God has designed the protocol plan for the Church Age believer so that he can have a relationship with God, which should be our number one priority.
The perfect plan of God can only be executed by perfect power. Perfect power is God’s omnipotence. The only way God’s power can be executed is the omnipotence of God. But we keep intruding with our own ability in all forms of legalism.
God has provided His power for the execution of His plan; the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, each eternal, immutable, infinite, omnipotent, sovereign Person of the Trinity indwells every believer as well. Divine power is guaranteed to every Church Age believer through the indwelling of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Never before in history has so much power been made available to the individual believer.
So the key to the protocol plan of God is the fact that divine power is guaranteed to each one of us, available to each one of us, delegated to each one of us through the perception of Bible doctrine, and utilized by us through the problem solving devices. Therefore, these problem solving devices become the real key to experiential Christianity.
The fact that so many believers reject Bible doctrine means they are ignorant of every subject related to solving problems from their own base of thinking. This means the impossibility of executing God’s plan. When you do not use God’s plan, you always use your own substitute, and it is never adequate. No believer can fulfill the will of God, the plan of God, or the purpose of God for his life apart from understanding the doctrine related to the Church Age. The basic problem in Christianity is ignorance, which leads to erroneous thinking. Ignorance is no excuse, for God provides prepared pastor- teachers for every generation of the Church Age for the communication of accurate Bible doctrine. Ignorance of the doctrines of the Church Age means problems for a believer.
You were never designed to walk on “spiritual crutches.” You were designed to perceive, understand, and apply Bible doctrine, and to learn the problem solving devices in the privacy of your priesthood. You were never designed to complain and get emotional about your sins and failures. You get no benefit in sharing your problems with others. Your benefit comes from learning and using the problem solving devices, with the result that you can have great happiness and blessing in prosperity or adversity. Blessing is not confined to prosperity, but to the great moments of adversity as well.
The secret to spiritual growth is to face every situation in life from the standpoint of God’s problem solving devices, to utilize them and to grow in grace. These problem solving devices are not designed to take up the slack for problems in physical or mental health that require a doctor’s care. If your number one priority is not Bible doctrine, there is no way you can effectively use the problem solving devices because the problem solving devices are contained within Bible doctrine. People who do not have the system of Bible doctrine that goes with these problem solving devices, never use them effectively, are never consistent, and fall back on things that destroy their spiritual life and make them function as any unbeliever would in a crisis.
Since all believers are in union with Jesus Christ, no believer has any more of a chance to reach maturity than any other believer. We have equal privilege and equal opportunity to execute the protocol plan of God for the Church. We have no handicaps except what we create through our own negative volition. The only person who can solve your problems is the Lord Jesus Christ and He has provided the problem solving devices for us to use. There is no accurate application of doctrine to experience unless you have the ten problem solving devices in place in your soul.
The filling of the Spirit converts human I.Q. into spiritual I.Q. Once the filling of the Spirit converts human I.Q. into spiritual I.Q., it then combines with perception, understanding, inculcation, and metabolization of Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness to prepare the way for the formation of these problem solving devices. Technically, problem solving devices are formed by metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness. Spiritual skills must precede production skills for the production of divine good in Christian service. Christian service is meaningless unless you have spiritual skills (the filling of the Spirit, metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness, and the problem solving devices in your soul). Without these things, you will never be effective in your spiritual life. Production skills minus spiritual skills result in the performance of human good, dead works, and evil.
In eternity past, God the Father provided for you your very own spiritual life and you are the only one who can live it. No one else can live your spiritual life for you. No one can confess your sins for you. No one can learn doctrine for you. Christian service must be an extension of your spiritual skills. Christian service is related to your spiritual gift. Full time Christian service is the function of your spiritual gift. Christian service is related to your royal priesthood. Christian service is related to your royal ambassadorship. Christian service is related to your invisible impact (personal, national, international, angelic, and heritage). Christian service is related to the laws of divine establishment (law enforcement, military service, judges).
The effectiveness of Christian service is dependent on the function of the three spiritual skills. It must be accomplished in the filling of the Holy Spirit, in metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness, and in the function of the problem solving devices in your soul. The weak link of your spiritual life will be either ignorance or failure to form the problem solving devices. Without problem solving devices operational in your soul, you create log jams and grid lock in your spiritual life. Doctrine in your soul with no application of that doctrine becomes very detrimental to your spiritual life. It is failure to follow through in your spiritual life.
The filling of the Spirit is unique to the Church Age because this is the first time in history when all believers are mandated to be filled with the Spirit. The whole concept of the filling of the Spirit goes back to the principle that there is no human attribute, no system of human success, no talent, no system of works, no system of any kind whereby we have the ability to execute God’s plan for our lives. Just as we had no human ability to save ourselves, so we have no ability to execute God’s plan in our own energy. You have to be filled with the Spirit before anything you do for God is counted as gold, silver, and precious stones! All Christian production is a result of spirituality on the one hand and spiritual growth on the other hand. And you do not achieve spirituality by works, anything you can do, by any sacrifice, or by any system of giving. Spirituality is the work of God the Holy Spirit when He empowers and guides your life, when you are inside the divine power system.
At salvation, God the Holy Spirit indwells the body of every believer in order to create a temple, a place of residence, for the indwelling of Christ as the Shekinah Glory. The indwelling of Christ is a guarantee of great blessing. So the believer’s body is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, but it is also indwelt by the sin nature. The issue is who controls the soul, the Holy Spirit or the sin nature? The gate to the soul is volition, and your volition decides who controls your soul. The sin nature is the source of temptation; the Holy Spirit is the source of the spiritual life. When the Holy Spirit controls your soul, you are said to be filled with the Spirit. But when your volition succumbs to temptation and you sin, then the Holy Spirit is either quenched or grieved, and He no longer controls your soul and you are out of fellowship with God.
The filling of the Spirit is an absolute state of being in fellowship with God. You are either filled with the Spirit or you are not. There is no such thing as a graduated concept of spirituality. You are either 100% spiritual or 0% spiritual (and 100% carnal). You are either in fellowship or out of fellowship. You are either filled with the Spirit or you are grieving and/or quenching the Spirit. However, spiritual growth is a graduated concept. Tragically, Christians confuse the relative concept of spiritual growth with the absolute concept of spirituality.
Spiritual growth is relative and graduated, either progressively or retrogressively. As a new believer, you start out as a spiritual baby. If you make progress through learning doctrine, you advance to adolescence and then to spiritual adulthood. Or you can retrogress through the various stages of reversionism. Progression is the believer’s advance in the execution of the protocol plan of God. Retrogression is the believer’s failure to execute the protocol plan of God, resulting in reversionism and cosmic involvement.
So in the absolute concept, the believer is either controlled by the Holy Spirit or by his sin nature. He is either inside God’s power system or in Satan’s cosmic system. He is either in fellowship with God through the filling of the Spirit, or in a state of sinfulness through succumbing to the temptations of the sin nature. The filling of the Spirit is the basis for the function of all the problem solving devices. It is not only the basis for learning doctrine, but it is the only way the problem solving devices can function.