Lesson for December 3, 2017
The Doctrine of Spirituality vs. Carnality
The Divine Dynasphere, Lesson #4 (cont’d)
Gate 3: Enforced and Genuine Humility
Enforced humility originates from authority orientation which begins in the home. Parents are to use discipline to teach their children humility. In this way, the child will have a chance to succeed in life once he leaves the home. The opposite of humility is arrogance and arrogant children only end up being losers in life. Arrogance has so many facets that believers (including children) are captured by it when they are not operating within the Divine Dynasphere under the enabling power of the Holy Spirit and momentum from Bible doctrine.
Genuine humility originates from the perception of doctrine under three stages: reception (the gnosis stage); retention (the epignosis stage); and recall (the application stage). Genuine humility is absolutely essential for advance in the plan of God because it provides the teachability necessary for the intake of Bible doctrine.
Learning doctrine comes in three stages:
- Reception: a pastor communicates accurate Bible doctrine and the information goes into the believer’s human spirit. The human spirit is the immaterial part of man designed by God to convert, to store, and to utilize spiritual information. The human spirit receives spiritual information which is academic knowledge (gnosis). The function of the human spirit is to make the spiritual phenomena it receives understandable.
- Retention: the Holy Spirit converts academic knowledge (gnosis) information that is believed by the believer into full spiritual knowledge (epignosis), which is the basis for momentum.
- Recall: the Holy Spirit helps the believer remember the doctrines that are stored in the soul for the proper application of full spiritual knowledge to any circumstance in life, which produces wisdom.
Humility is the quality or status of being humble. While the noun “humble” has many definitions in English, from “feeling of insignificance and feeling of inferiority” to “low in rank or low in importance,” none of these definitions relate to the Biblical word. Humility or being humble in the Protocol Plan of God is recognition of the authority of Jesus Christ and submitting to His authority (teachability). Since the Bible is the mind of Christ, submission to the authority of Christ is tantamount to consistent study and intake of Bible doctrine. We submit to Christ’s authority by our consistent intake of the Word of God. If we become neglectful of doctrine, we are in a state of rebellion.
Through consistent perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine, arrogance is brought low or humbled, while the filling of the Holy Spirit, grace orientation, personal love for God the Father, impersonal love for all mankind, a personal sense of destiny, and occupation with Christ are raised to the highest level of function. In Biblical humility, human power and human ability is reduced to zero, so that dependence on the power and ability of God are increased to the maximum through the function of grace. This becomes grace effectiveness in the Christian Way of Life.
Biblical humility is not the same as humiliation. (Proverbs 15:33) The command of James 4:10 to “Humble yourselves before the Lord” is a command that precedes any effective use of the Problem Solving Devices. This means that humility is a system of Divine Viewpoint Thinking related to grace orientation, occupation with Christ, etc. This means that humility is a system of recognizing the authority of Jesus Christ as the ruler of the Church, and that He has delegated all authority in the Church Age to the Word of God, especially the mystery doctrine found in the Church Age epistles, and the pastor-teacher as God’s delegated authority to teach the Word of God. This means that humility is a system of understanding Bible doctrine, resulting in a believer living in the directive will of God rather than the permissive will of God.
Humility is a system of thinking and should be a way of life for believers. As a system of thinking, humility is free from arrogance. Humility is a system of thinking that becomes a way of life. Humility is a comfortable, relaxed system of thinking. It is not thinking in terms of inferiority, since we are all equal as Royal Family of God on the basis of the baptism of the Spirit. We have equal privilege and equal opportunity, wiping out any human distinctions. (Galatians 3:27-28)
Humility is a system of thinking under spiritual self-esteem. Spiritual self-esteem is the quintessence of humility. In spiritual self-esteem, you no longer feel threatened, have self-pity, and no longer make an issue of yourself in hypersensitivity. You are totally relaxed, and this is the most comfortable possible status until you advance to God’s perfect happiness, one of the greatest of all Problem Solving Devices, sharing of the happiness of God.
As a system of thinking Bible doctrine, humility becomes a way of life. As a way of life, humility is the virtue of grace orientation and occupation with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is both submission to legitimate authority in life and capacity for life, love and happiness without any feeling of inferiority or of feeling threatened. Humility must never be defined in terms of legalism, self- effacement, asceticism, or any form of arrogance, including unrealistic expectation, role model arrogance, iconoclastic arrogance, self-righteous arrogance, crusader arrogance, or any of the other things that are mistaken for humility in life.
Humility as a system of thinking has many synonyms, such as spiritual poise and courage. Poise is the expression of humility under pressure or grace dependence upon the Lord. It is recognition that a far greater power is operating in your life. Courage is the expression of humility under great adversity. It is the ability to think doctrine under pressure, hence, a combination of grace orientation and doctrinal orientation. Humility is the basis for thinking under pressure. Courage and poise are “the clothing” which covers such thinking with glory. Poise is the function of humility in normal life; courage is that function in abnormal circumstances of life. Humility is freedom from pride and arrogance.
Humility is a state of honor and integrity. It is living inside the Divine Dynasphere. Humility is the motivation for life. (Ephesians 4:1-3) There is no honor without humility. Respect for the Lord is the prerequisite for humility. Humility is the prerequisite for honor in the Christian Way of Life. Respect for the Lord is personal love for God, one of the characteristics of spiritual self-esteem. No believer can have honor or integrity in his life without the virtue of humility. (Proverbs 11:2, 29:23) God can give greater blessings only to believers who have true humility. (I Peter 5:5-6)
Humility is the basic ingredient for the believer’s capacity for life, love, happiness, blessing, and Christian service; because only humility keeps the grace perspective of life. Humility is the basis for gratitude, appreciation for people, and true thanksgiving in worship. Many people have no gratitude because they are arrogant. Humility is developed only inside the Divine Dynasphere under the filling of the Spirit, through the consistent perception and metabolization of doctrine. With the great virtue of humility, the believer is protected against demon influence in the world system. In fact, humility protects the believer from almost everything in life because it is a total orientation to grace. Therefore, humility is based on truth: Bible doctrine.
No one is born with the virtue of genuine humility. Since humility is not inherent, it must be enforced beginning with a legitimate authority system under the Laws of Divine Establishment. The legitimate Biblical authority system begins with parents (one or more). God has provided for every person of the human race a mechanical system to develop the virtue of true humility. It all starts at physical birth. All members of the human race are born arrogant and self-centered from their sin nature. Humility is not genetic or inherent, but it must be acquired as a virtue. Therefore, humility is something that has to be developed and learned.
The first system for the development of humility is the authority of the home. Humility is acquired, attained, developed by degrees. We are born with parents because we need a system of authority to orient to life. Most degeneracy in society begins with the malfunction of authority in the home. Today we see permissiveness in the home: the failure to discipline, to teach what is right and wrong. After a few generations of this, we go into a dive of social degeneration.
Since we are not born with virtue, the only chance we have of acquiring virtue is the training we receive in the home where normal morality is taught, where normal authority is used, where discipline is fair and firm and consistent. It is important to attain genuine humility in life, not only for capacity for love, life, and happiness, but to avoid the prolonged residence in Satan’s world system and resultant demon influence.
The first responsibility of a child in the home is obedience to the authority and mandates of the parents, whether they seem to be reasonable or unreasonable. Authority is the key to freedom, humility and honor. You cannot have authority without freedom, nor freedom without authority. Freedom without authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny. Once you reject authority, you enter into the frantic search for happiness. The most basic authority delegated to the human race is the authority of parents over children. This authority determines the difference between persons of honor and persons of dishonor. (Romans 9:19-21)
Freedom is designed for adults. Freedom was never designed for children. When children are allowed too much freedom and have no virtue and no respect for the authority of parents, then they become society’s monsters, and society begins to degenerate. Freedom belongs to those who can take responsibility for their own decisions. In the rearing of children in the home, freedom is given gradually as virtue builds. The child who does not respond to authority is going to become a monster in life. Children are not commanded to love their parents nor are parents commanded to love their children. Respect for authority will develop into love. (Colossians 3:20)
The home is the system of organized humility. The parents are the authority designed to provide enforced humility. They have the authority for teaching, training, inculcating, disciplining. The child’s volition determines whether he will be a person of honor or dishonor. Parents are the first authority in life to train, teach, inculcate, and to bring the child to the virtue of humility. There are a lot of things a child must be taught: vocabulary, language, how to think with words, sentences and paragraphs.
Since virtue is not acquired instantaneously, but with many contacts with authority, the first stage of this virtue is enforced humility. Enforced humility at home eventually will develop into genuine humility where there is response to the authority of parents, teachers, coaches, police officers, etc. Positive volition toward enforced humility at home develops genuine humility through acceptance of parental authority. Negative volition at home results in life in the world system of Satan.
As the first authority in life, parents become the first “potter’s wheel” to train, to shape, and to inculcate with God’s Word. Parents teach children the principles of self-control, self-discipline, poise, and restraint by the use of volition as the means of reaching genuine humility in life. In this way, the potter’s wheel of authority manufactures a vessel of honor, which is characterized by good manners, sensitivity, thoughtfulness of others, and respect for the privacy, property and rights of others. From this comes capacity for freedom, life, love, and happiness. In other words, the organizational humility of the home provides the environment for enforced humility of parental authority, which eventuates in the function of genuine humility on the part of the child. The sooner genuine humility comes, the sooner the child is oriented to life.
Genuine humility develops a personal sense of destiny, makes decisions from a position of strength, avoids the world system and demon influence and uses one’s freedom without endangering the freedom of others. No human being attains maturity without genuine humility. No one attains genuine humility without enforced humility of authority in life. From lack of humility comes the “demand syndrome” and self-righteous arrogance.
Once you leave the home, you revert to your own volition. This is the most powerful thing you have in all of your lifetime. Your volition is designed to resolve the Angelic Conflict, since the only thing we have in common with angels is volition. You must learn to make good decisions based on facts related to the Divine Dynasphere rather than bad decisions based on emotion related to the world system. Your volition, not your emotions, becomes the basis for how things turn out in your life. The issue in the Angelic Conflict is the use of your volition to make decisions, either from a position of weakness, or from a position of strength. Decisions from a position of strength start from the recognition, the identification of authority, and submission to it. Humility is submission to authority in its early virtuous state, which becomes submission to God’s authority as an adult, if properly taught as a child in the home.
These vessels of honor who have been molded with Bible doctrine, good manners, thoughtfulness of others, respect for privacy, property and the rights of others, become the next pivot of believers in the Angelic Conflict. The vessels of honor have been trained by parents to respect all systems of authority delegated under the Laws of Divine Establishment, which includes God’s authority over the believer. The vessels of honor accept these things because humility has been enforced by the parents. From this humility comes orientation to life as God would have it to be.