Lesson for March 18, 2018
The Doctrine of Spirituality vs. Carnality
The Divine Dynasphere, Lesson #4 (cont’d)
Gate 7: Momentum Testing
8. System Testing
A system is an organization composed of people under the direction of other people functioning under a policy which is designed to fulfill a specific objective. The characteristics of a system are authority, a policy and an objective. Believers under the authority of others often face system testing. The policy of management or the organization can cause system testing. (I Peter 2:18-23)
There are good and bad organizations, systems, leadership, policies, and objectives. Your system testing may be from either category, good or bad. Therefore, there are many areas of system testing related to people, policy, and purpose of any organization. Because no one is perfect and because everyone has a sin nature, personality, policy, and purpose conflicts will often exist. (Psalm 37:1-6)
Generally, there are three areas of system testing: 1) the authority may give unfair and unjust treatment or favoritism 2) policies may be unreasonable, may conflict with your personal norms and standards, or may be stupid though still enforceable 3) the objectives may be unreasonable or even impossible because of lack of ability in the personnel trying to fulfill them or there may be a conflict between your personal life and the objectives. The greatest enemy to any organization is arrogance in its personnel. Arrogance is the great enemy wherever there are people, the second enemy is incapability and the third is laziness. Other enemies include distraction from wrong priorities and ignorance. (Proverbs 11:1-6)
The motivation for a believer in spiritual adulthood is always his personal love for God, occupation with Christ and his impersonal love for all mankind. Therefore, he does not do his job to please men, but he does his job as unto the Lord. A person with the attitude of doing his job as unto the Lord will do a good job regardless of any unfair treatment or injustice in the system. With the motivation of spiritual autonomy, he can do his job under an unfair policy, under unjust treatment from management, and under unfair bullying regarding the objectives. (Colossians 3:23-24)
Spiritual autonomy always does the best possible job regardless of unfair treatment, unjust criticism, or even any form of job discrimination. Spiritual autonomy does not complain. Spiritual autonomy does not become involved in organizational conspiracy. The impersonal love of spiritual autonomy can always deal with any form of personality conflict. When a believer with spiritual autonomy is the victim of unfair leadership, unjust management or a rotten system, he deals with all the personality conflicts from his impersonal love. We must always remember, regardless of our stage of spiritual growth, that while God is always fair, it is inevitable that people will be unfair. Through the function of the Faith-Rest Drill, the believer in spiritual autonomy will not complain but will put the matter in the hands of the Supreme Court of Heaven. People who always quit when the pressure is great spend all their lives failing system testing.
Spiritual autonomy is utilizing the Problem Solving Device of Sharing the Happiness of God. Sharing God’s happiness as a Problem Solving Device begins in spiritual self-esteem, gains momentum in spiritual autonomy, and reaches its peak in spiritual maturity. Sharing God’s happiness gives us the ability to be content in prosperity or in adversity, and it gives us the solution to the problems people have in constantly becoming slaves to their circumstances. Sharing God’s happiness is victory over your circumstances. (James 1:12)
Spiritual autonomy is orientation to God and His Word and rejecting anything that destroys the spiritual life such as fear, worry, and anxiety. Mental stability from spiritual self-esteem and spiritual autonomy is a key issue in the spiritual life because spirituality is a mental attitude produced by the filling of the Holy Spirit inside God’s power system, the Divine Dynasphere. (James 1:7-8)
Mental stability is the ability to think accurate Bible doctrine and divine viewpoint under pressure. It is the ability to make correct and accurate application of Bible doctrine in the midst of testing. Mental stability is the God-given ability to make accurate application of Bible doctrine. From spiritual autonomy comes a maximized stabilization of the mentality. In spiritual autonomy, when you hear truth, you identify it as truth because you have learned so much Bible doctrine that your norms can identify truth in any area, wherever it is stated and by whomever it is stated. (Proverbs 2:6-9)
The key to contentment is impersonal love for all mankind. People’s imperfections and mistakes will not be a source of unhappiness to you with impersonal love. Impersonal love is the build-up of virtue so that unconditional love is directed toward everyone. If you, in spiritual autonomy, have unconditional love toward everyone, you have the most fantastic capacity for personal love toward those in your periphery. Personal love in the human race is based on the attractiveness of the object. Impersonal love is based on the virtue of the subject. Impersonal love is a relaxed, objective mental attitude toward the entire human race. Impersonal love is free from arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, resentment, vindictiveness, self-pity, hatred, implacability and guilt. (Ephesians 4:30-32)
Spiritual autonomy means the state of being independent. This is not fully accomplished in the Christian life until the believer has the use of virtue-love as a problem solving device. Personal love for God must precede spiritual self-esteem, and impersonal love for all must precede spiritual autonomy.
Spiritual autonomy is spiritual self-confidence. Spiritual self-confidence means you have gained the perception and metabolization of accurate Bible doctrine, so that you have a tremendous amount of divine viewpoint that can be used in pressure situations as well as non-pressure situations. Having spiritual self-confidence means your hope and your confidence are based on the Word of God and not on human opinion. No one should form an opinion without the facts. Spiritual self-confidence is maximum use of Bible doctrine in facing and overcoming the problems of life. Spiritual self-confidence is understanding and loving God by means of Bible doctrine. (Psalm 25:8-10)
In spiritual autonomy you can begin to handle the Word of God accurately in its application, in your thought pattern, and in the pattern of your life. Now you can take all the Bible doctrine you’ve learned and apply it to your life. Spiritual self-confidence is a higher ability than you’ve ever had before, not only to recall doctrine which you’ve learned, but to use it accurately without distortion of your spiritual life. And it’s the only way you will be able to handle the various areas of testing. (Psalm 106:3)
Spiritual self-confidence means no one can hurt you any longer, not even those closest to you. You are now insulated against the failure, the disappointments, the frustrations, and the disillusionments that come from association with people and organizations. With all that doctrine in your soul, you never again feel threatened, and you never again slip into human viewpoint thinking and living.
Spiritual autonomy is grace orientation to life. Under the Protocol Plan of God, grace is all that God is free to do for each one of us from salvation through the eternal state, totally apart from any human merit, human ability, or any system of human planning, behavior or talent. There are many ways in which people use their own human abilities to solve problems. But grace-oriented problem solving in spiritual autonomy enhances our human abilities by utilizing the filling of the Holy Spirit as a source of strength.
Utilizing spiritual autonomy is how you will pass system testing. You may not respect the leadership or the authority, but believers should always respect the Lord. Therefore, there is no excuse for our failure in system testing! Our personal love and respect for God is the basic factor in solving the problem of system testing. If those in authority over you have poor judgment, that is not an issue to you! You respect the Lord, and you do your job to the best of your ability as unto the Lord. You must understand how the Law of Volitional Responsibility not only applies to you, but to others, so that you do not interfere in others’ lives. Once you focus only on serving Jesus Christ, the Supreme Court of Heaven takes care of them. (Psalm 31:14-15)
When you are the victim of system testing, you must use spiritual autonomy and impersonal love motivated by personal love for God to meet and pass the test. To flunk system testing is a deterrent to momentum in the spiritual life. Man will always be unfair, but God is always fair, and uses man’s unfairness to promote you. How you handle unfair situations determines whether you are ever going to reach spiritual maturity. Unfair situations frighten the believer who has no spiritual self-esteem or spiritual autonomy. Failure to pass system testing often results from mental attitude sins. You can’t feel sorry for yourself without becoming arrogant, bitter, and seeking revenge. You must not react to unjust situations. Reaction means taking the problem out of the Lord’s hands. (Psalm 147:5-6)
The Supreme Court of Heaven is open twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. As soon as you react and go over your boss’ head, you lose your case in the Supreme Court of Heaven. There will never be a time when you put anything in the Lord’s hands that you do not come out ahead. God will promote the person who passes system testing. There is no such thing as an injustice that will not be rectified by God for your benefit, provided you do not react. (Psalm 146:9; Romans 12:19-21)
With spiritual autonomy you do not feel threatened by past unjust treatment. If you have been bitter over unfair treatment recently, you have failed to pass this test. You are not allowed by the Word of God to have an unkind thought about any unjust treatment in the past. Leaving a job is okay, but leaving a job with bitterness is flunking the system test. Spiritual autonomy has the power to accept authority in a system without becoming arrogant, bitter, disturbed, or upset. Spiritual autonomy has the power to handle unjust or unfair treatment or any authority problems. Spiritual autonomy carries out the policy of management without becoming discouraged or antagonistic. Spiritual autonomy fulfills the objectives of the organization, no matter how incompetent, insufficient, or unreasonable others are in the organization.
Dealing with people in a system requires spiritual autonomy and impersonal love. Dealing with policy and objectives of an organization requires flexibility or separation. If you stay in an organization you must be flexible. Spiritual autonomy has the power to put the problems in the hands of the Lord and carry on without reaction of arrogance, bitterness, implacability, hatred, self-pity, revenge motivation and function. Remember that what God does not remove, He gives you the means to bear it and pass the test. Spiritual autonomy has the power to put the case before the Supreme Court of Heaven and leave it there for a solution. (Romans 12:21)
The system testing in any evil organization means separation would be in order. Your association with an evil organization means you will suffer its evils by association with it. Apostate churches fall into this category, whether it’s apostasy in a local church, a denomination, or a cult. Also included are criminal organizations or any other organization which seeks to undermine the authority of government through civil disobedience.
To avoid becoming a source of system testing to others, a believer should be familiar with the divine authority and the requirement for a sense of responsibility. For example, a pastor who leads by teaching accurate Bible doctrine faithfully does not personally interfere with the privacy of the priesthood of his congregation. By so doing, the pastor is a true leader because he permits the Holy Spirit to fulfill His ministry in the lives of believers. On the other hand, a pastor who tries to manage the attention and attendance of the congregation has inordinate ambition. He depends on programs and gimmicks to develop and promote his agenda, so that people come to participate in all the activities. He uses these programs in an attempt to attract and regulate the lives of those in his congregation.
It is not our job to change an organization which is bad. Bad organizations are part of system testing, because they have bad systems and unjust authority. Fools often rise to the top in many organizations. A bad system always has its victims. Bad systems can destroy the honor and integrity of those who are in the system unless they are operating within the Divine Dynasphere. (Galatians 6:9)