Lesson for November 11, 2018
The Doctrine of Spirituality vs. Carnality
The Doctrine of the Lifestyle of Wisdom (cont’d)
The Lifestyle of Wisdom Characterized by Spiritual Autonomy
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.
Spiritual autonomy is orientation to God and His Word and rejecting anything that destroys the spiritual life such as fear, worry or 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.
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 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 you can identify truth in any area, wherever it is stated and by whomever it is stated.
Spiritual autonomy means the state of being independent. This is not fully accomplished in the Christian life until a believer has developed 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. A key to contentment in life is impersonal love for all mankind. Others’ 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 have unconditional love toward all mankind, you have the most fantastic capacity for personal love for others. Personal love for others 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, vindictiveness, self-pity, hatred, implacability and guilt.
Spiritual autonomy is spiritual self-confidence. Spiritual self-confidence means you have gained the clear understanding 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.
In spiritual autonomy you can begin to handle the Word accurately in its application, in your thought pattern, and in the pattern of your life. In spiritual autonomy you can take all the Bible doctrine you’ve learned and apply it to the Christian life. Spiritual self-confidence will be a higher ability than you’ve ever had before, not only to recall doctrine which you’ve learned and believed, but to use it accurately. And, it’s the only way you will be able to handle the various areas of testing.
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. With all that doctrine in your soul, you need never again feel threatened, and slip into human viewpoint living.
Spiritual autonomy is grace orientation to life. Under the Protocol Plan of God for the Church Age, 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, human behavior or human talent.Grace-oriented problem solving in spiritual autonomy under the filling of the Holy Spirit as a source of strength and power eliminates human viewpoint solutions.Bible doctrine is the manifestation and revelation of grace to mankind. Spiritual adulthood in a believer is the glorification of that grace. Grace is the divine policy for the administration of the Protocol Plan of God for the Church Age.
While grace orientation to life is a characteristic of spiritual self-esteem, it is enhanced in spiritual autonomy. While spiritual self-esteem understands grace, spiritual autonomy consistently practices grace! With spiritual autonomy, grace orientation has the necessary spiritual power for correct and accurate application of grace principles for passing life’s testing. Furthermore, it does so without distortion of grace like adding human viewpoint or human ability in an attempt to pass the tests in life. Those with grace orientation understand that God makes available to us all His infinite, eternal, divine power, just as He provided to the humanity of Christ.
Spiritual autonomy is making better decisions from a position of strength. Right thinking results in right motivation. Right motivation results in right decisions. Right decisions result in right actions. Spiritual autonomy is characterized by right thinking and right motivation necessary to make a maximum number of good decisions from a position of strength. This fulfills a principle of the Protocol Plan of God that a right thing must be done in a right way to be right. In each successive stage of spiritual adulthood, the number of good decisions is increased from that position of strength. Although this characteristic exists in spiritual self-esteem, it is now greater in spiritual autonomy.
The position of strength is an adult believer living inside God’s power system under the enabling power of the Holy Spirit and momentum from Bible doctrine. Having correct thinking and correct motivation means a believer will have correct application. In spiritual autonomy, a believer not only has maximum doctrine in his soul but at the same time he makes consistent right applications of that doctrine to his circumstances. All the thousands of decisions that advance a believer to the various stages of spiritual adulthood are good decisions from a position of strength, having the right priorities in life, and therefore good decisions are made on a consistent, moment-by-moment basis.
Spiritual autonomy remains righteous without being self-righteous. Spiritual autonomy is a state of genuine humility and spiritual blessing. Spiritual autonomy remains moral without becoming a moralistic crusader.
Spiritual autonomy is a personal sense of destiny. A believer is then free to concentrate on the function of his own royal priesthood. He has learned to respect the privacy and freedom of others. He has made the correct application of the principle: “Live and let live” within the Protocol Plan of God. Spiritual autonomy understands God’s plan, will, and purpose. Having resolved the problems of relationships to God, to self, and to others in moving from spiritual self-esteem into spiritual autonomy, a believer in spiritual autonomy concentrates on the Protocol Plan of God which develops an ever-increasing awareness of his own destiny.Every advance in spiritual adulthood means becoming more and more aware of your own destiny as it is related to the Protocol Plan of God.
Spiritual autonomy is characterized by the unique life status of “Christ being at home in your heart.”(Ephesians 3:16-17)