Lesson for November 18, 2018
The Doctrine of Spirituality vs. Carnality
The Doctrine of the Lifestyle of Wisdom (cont’d)
The Lifestyle of Wisdom is Characterized by Spiritual Maturity
In eternity past, God provided everything necessary for a believer’s advance to spiritual maturity. The Protocol Plan of God is the only plan for the Church Age. Spiritual maturity is the maximum expression of the grace of God in the Protocol Plan of God.
Spiritual maturity is characterized by maximum spiritual independence, which results from Bible doctrine and passing four momentum testings: people, system, thought, and disaster testing. This means spiritual maturity can face any problem in life with a maximum amount of inner happiness. There is no tragedy, disaster, difficulty, or heartache that can overcome the spiritual self-confidence of a spiritually mature believer. Maximum spiritual independence is maximum perception, maximum metabolization, and maximum accurate application of doctrine to life. A spiritually mature believer is totally independent. However, this does not imply that a spiritually mature believer or any believer will ever be independent of accurate Bible teaching.
Maximum grace orientation to life is a function of a spiritually mature believer. Grace orientation of a spiritually mature believer literally removes the “rough edges of life” into smooth grace thinking, along with grace motivation, grace decisions, and consistent grace actions. Each stage of spiritual adulthood advances and perfects grace orientation in the life. In spiritual self-esteem, the process begins, in spiritual autonomy, the process continues and in spiritual maturity, the process is perfected and completed.
Maximum control of your own life also accompanies spiritual maturity. This means maximum utilization of the privacy of your royal priesthood, which means the elimination of false applications in your life, such as comparing yourself with others. In spiritual maturity, a believer lives his own life for the Lord rather than for other people. Therefore, he is able to control his life. Since the Lord really has all the control and a spiritually mature believer’s volition is subordinate to the Lord, he is in a state of maximum happiness.
A believer in spiritual maturity takes responsibility for his own decisions (good or bad). He also takes responsibility for others under his authority but does so without seeking to control and interfere in their lives. Therefore, a spiritually mature believer is motivated without being possessive or lusting for power. A believer in spiritual maturity is not possessive of those whom he loves, thus avoiding the pitfall of jealousy. A spiritually mature believer concentrates on his relationship with God over relationship with people. A spiritually mature believer has a mature mental attitude from accumulated metabolized doctrine plus maximum utilization of the Problem-Solving Devices. (Philippians 3:15-16)
A spiritually mature believer has a maximum personal sense of destiny. No matter what happens in his life, he relates it to the fact that God has a purpose for his life. He understands that purpose, applies it to situations, maintains his happiness. Therefore, a spiritually mature believer recognizes that he is fulfilling his purpose and destiny in life by executing the Protocol Plan of God. He can face any testing and solve any problem.
A believer who has reached spiritual maturity has increased his personal love for God. He has become aware that in fulfilling the plan of God for his life, he is fulfilling his own destiny. By relating to God instead of to people and circumstances, spiritual maturity increases one’s personal sense of destiny.
Maximum production in Christian service is a characteristic of a spiritually mature believer. Maximum production means maximum use of your spiritual gift, whatever it is. It means maximum effectiveness in Christian service so that you will have gold, silver, and precious stones at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Maximum production means living your life as unto the Lord and not by standards that people have developed for you (by flattery, encouragement, persuasion). Spiritual maturity develops fantastic common sense, and a marvelous sense of humor. You are never envious of those whose abilities are greater than yours, whose success (by human standards) is greater than yours. Therefore, spiritual maturity wipes out all of the frustrations of life that could be caused by not succeeding as you or others thought you should. You have a destiny far greater than that of any person who’s ever been successful or great in this life!
The environment for attaining spiritual maturity is maximum spiritual freedom. In the Protocol Plan of God, a new type of freedom exists, which has never existed before in any other dispensation – spiritual freedom provided by residence in God’s power system. So, this spiritual freedom provided inside God’s power system is a very important factor. Spiritual freedom can exist with or without human freedom. Spiritual freedom is the divine provision of logistical grace to execute the Protocol Plan of God through residence, function, and momentum inside God’s power system.
When you are functioning within God’s power system (filled with the Holy Spirit) you have spiritual freedom. The Holy Spirit in God’s power system is the enabling power for the execution of the Protocol Plan of God. We glorify Christ by living inside God’s power system, the place of the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, the place of metabolization of doctrine, the place of advancing to spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity.
There’s fantastic distribution of escrow blessing for spiritually mature believers in the eternal state. Eternal rewards for believers are in many ways similar to the blessings of this life, but there are some differences. Eternal rewards are blessings based on the grace of God. God in His grace gives a believer everything he needs to attain these rewards. The writers of Scripture were very familiar with the Roman system of rewards for both the military and for athletic competition. These are primarily the illustrations used throughout the New Testament to represent eternal rewards for believers. Crowns were wreaths worn on the head like a crown, battle medals or medals for winners in athletic competition worn on the uniform. Both carried with them immense honor and wealth. Some were given land, some were made rulers over cities or estates, some received cash, but all were exempt from paying income taxes for life.
Believers are given similar rewards in Heaven:
- Rulership of cities – This reward is given to all believers who faithfully fulfill their spiritual lives before God. It is given to those who are advancing in their Christian lives and to those who are consistently learning God’s Word from accurately taught Bible doctrine and making correct application of it to their lives. (Luke 19:17; II Timothy 2:12; Revelation 5:10)
- Crown of Righteousness – This reward is for all believers who attain spiritual maturity, thus fulfilling the potential established by the imputed righteousness of Christ in their souls. In other words, they are making their experience align with their position in Christ. (II Timothy 4:7-8)
- Crown of Life – This reward is reserved for all believers who pass the test of undeserved suffering or divine testing. This crown is attained by applying Bible doctrine to your experience while in the midst of suffering. Remember that all suffering is not divine discipline. Some suffering is designed for our growth. (James 1:12; Revelation 2:10)
- Crown of Joy – This is a reward reserved for all believers who consistently share the gospel with others. (Philippians 4:1; I Thessalonians 2:19-20)
- Crown of Glory – This reward is reserved for those with the gift of pastor-teacher. It is given for faithfully fulfilling the gift by using it to teach accurate Bible doctrine. The primary job of the pastor-teacher is to study and teach. (I Peter 5:4)
- The Winner’s Crown – This reward is given to all believers who advance according to the rules. In other words, doing a right thing in a right way. This reward is for those who exercise self-discipline, diligence and persistence over a long period of time to inculcate a system of doctrinal truth and accurately apply this truth. (II Timothy 2:5; I Corinthians 9:24-27)
A spiritually mature believer is classified as a winner because of his tactical victory. A spiritually mature believer is classified as an invisible hero because of his impact on human history. The greatest impact in the last 2000 years and an impact that will continue until the Rapture of the Church comes from spiritually mature believers. God has designed a system whereby invisible impact from an invisible hero is far, far greater than that of any visible hero. A spiritually mature believer glorifies God in two stages:
1) the attainment of spiritual maturity 2) passing of evidence testing and becoming a witness for the prosecution in the Angelic Conflict. This is the ultimate in glorifying God.
The Application of the Lifestyle of Wisdom
The Lifestyle of Wisdom is the winner portion of the Protocol Plan of God. God is perfect; His protocol plan is perfect. God’s protocol plan was designed to be lived inside your very own palace, the Divine Dynasphere, designed for you by God the Father in eternity past. This result of living in the Divine Dynasphere is the elimination of opposition to God’s plan in your life. Either a believer will reside, function, and continue his advance in God’s power system or he will eventually become a loser through residence in Satan’s cosmic system, with results such as apostasy, reversionism, moral or immoral degeneracy. Becoming a loser as a Christian is a contradiction to the Protocol Plan of God, and therefore a contradiction to the Lifestyle of Wisdom.
The Lifestyle of Wisdom eliminates inconsistencies in the life through the consistent residence, function and momentum inside the Divine Dynasphere. In order to continue in the Divine Dynasphere, you cannot be in a state of ignorance. You have to know how to Rebound when you’re outside of the Divine Dynasphere, and how to recognize when you’re in the cosmic system. It’s very important to understand the cosmic system, because the Lifestyle of Wisdom demands that you know your status at all times. You must know how to handle your failures so that they are converted into victory through the grace of God.
The Lifestyle of Wisdom means you can define the principles of Christianity and relate them to your life on a daily basis. The Protocol Plan of God has its own technical vocabulary and its own language. Through the consistent learning and metabolization of Bible doctrine a believer will master technical, theological language.
This means the believer’s #1 priority should be perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine. You learn and apply doctrine in your relationship with God, with yourself, with others and to the circumstances around you. This means understanding your Portfolio of Invisible Assets. Each of us has equal privilege and equal opportunity to have the Lifestyle of Wisdom. You must understand when you are failing and when you are succeeding by looking into the mirror of the Word of God. A new believer has no spiritual language, no spiritual vocabulary, and no knowledge about God or His plan. Therefore, it is necessary to be consistent in studying, learning and applying Bible doctrine.
The Lifestyle of Wisdom cannot be executed through human viewpoint thinking, human counseling, human coercion, or the influence of another person. The royal priest is designed to walk on his own. This means you cannot think, be motivated, make decisions, solve problems, or function through advice, counseling, or flattery from someone else. The Lifestyle of Wisdom is designed for you to have the necessary resources in your own soul from Bible doctrine to meet and solve problems and enjoy the blessings of life.
The privacy of the Royal Priesthood assures that a believer with positive volition toward doctrine is able to learn without coercion from anyone. It allows a believer to take full control of their own spiritual life and solve their own problems in life. Every royal priest must advance on the content of doctrine in his own soul. Every believer must learn to master the Problem-Solving Devices because every believer-priest must solve his own problems inside the Divine Dynasphere. For spiritual childhood, Problem-Solving Devices are limited to Rebound, the filling of the Holy Spirit and the Faith-Rest Drill. For spiritual adulthood the remainder of the Problem Solving Devices are utilized to the maximum. A believer must use the tools in his own soul to fulfill the Protocol Plan of God. As a result, a believer will become spiritually self-sustaining.