Christian Integrity 2

The first technique in faith-application is the utilization of Impersonal love in place of Personal love.  Christ applied this Principle most dramatically on the Cross. Separation is always directed toward, never away from, so that when tested, the advancing believer decides in favor of Truth rather than reacting against changes in the people around him. As the subject of his own Impersonal love, he maintains his Personal scale of values, with Truth as his highest priority. If you are moving toward Spiritual maturity at gate eight and your friends are antagonistic or completely indifferent to the Word, you will eventually leave them behind. You will not choose against them, by becoming a strident, self-righteous legalist; you will decide in favor of the Spiritual life. The Truth will separate you. (Mat 10:34-38) People change; circumstances change. Only the Truth re­mains the same. (Heb 13:7-8) An immature person might wishfully desire that pleasant moments or un-defendable relationships last forever. But when you and former friends grow apart, Impersonal love instead of Personal love becomes your at­titude toward them. Although you may see them frequently and congenially, you are separated mentally. As a matter of your own integrity, you continue to treat them graciously, with thoughtfulness and courtesy, just as you would be con­siderate of anyone else in your area of life. The most demanding tests involving people are not tests that require a gradual shift from Personal to Impersonal love but those that demand an immediate application of Impersonal love. When a friend or loved one offends you in some way, you are not justified in lowering yourself to a level of hatred, self-pity, retaliation, resentment or hostility; this would only get you out of fellowship. Instead, you fall back on your own frame of reference. You remember and Think the Truth, (Tit 3:2-3) and reject the emotion, (Php 3:18-19) and do not Think about the real or imagined imperfec­tions of the object. No one is perfect! Everyone has weaknesses. From time to time we all require toleration. Impersonal love covers a multitude of flaws. (1Pe 4:8) and permits Personal love to flourish between imperfect, changing people. 

THE FAITH-REST DRILL 

CONQUERING FEAR WITH PROMISES

     The second technique for applying Doctrine is the faith-rest drill, a versatile technique for overcoming any difficulty, problem, or disaster in life! By faith the believer Thinks with Truth logically while resting in God’s Promises. In the three steps of the faith-rest drill, the believer first establishes the relaxed mental atti­tude. He then concentrates on pertinent Doctrines in a logical ra­tionale, restoring Divine-Viewpoint Thinking. Finally, he reaches con­clusions and takes control of the situation. Since concentration on Truth requires a relaxed mental attitude, the believer’s mental attitude becomes a prime target of satanic opposition, (2Ti 2:25-26) directed against God’s Word. Mental attitude sins and lucid, Spiritual Thinking cannot coexist. Everyone is susceptible to different combinations of events, circumstances or people that ignite arrogance, jealousy, lust, worry, bitterness, depression or anger, obliterating Divine Viewpoint. But perhaps the most potent enemy is fear. Fear is the mental attitude sin that shuts down Spiritual Thought and makes Doctrinal ap­plication impossible. No matter how much Truth resides in your right lobe, none of it can benefit you if your mind is immobilized in a state of panic, worry, lust, or greed. (Heb 13:5-6). The dif­ference between staying in fellowship and getting out of fellowship is Thinking under pressure! And you might have noticed as you read these books, you are tested on them; I am not following you around, God Is! And He set up these tests in eternity past, and He is not testing us more than necessary! (1Co 10:13) This is normal, (1Pe 1:7) the old man must die, (Rom 6:6-7) and the new man must become strong, (Eph 4:13) and this is the procedure. God controls everything!

     See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand! (Deut 32:39)

 THE FAITH-REST DRILL

Stage One Stage Two Stage Three

Claim a Biblical Promise  Apply a Doctrinal Rationale Reach Doctrinal Conclusions Take Control of the Situation

     There is no fear in love; [In fellowship] but perfect [Spiritually Mature] love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, [Divine discipline] and the one who fears is not [A Spiritually mature believer] perfected in love. (1Jn 4:18) 

     Everyone is susceptible to fear, even the mature believer. When fear catches you off-guard, you must quickly recover your mental poise, your ability to Think and apply Truth in your soul. Rebound is the first requirement, for fear is a sin. But rebound alone will not conquer the source of fear. You need a tech­nique that will enable you to Think with Truth. The relaxed mental attitude of gate two is recovered by Thinking with Promises found throughout the Bible. 

     Do not fear for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. (Isa 41:10)

     In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good [To get us to Spiritual maturity] to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, [Thought about in eternity past] He also predestined [Made a plan for us] to become conformed to the image [Same Thinking and Virtue] of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; [Spiritually mature believers] and these whom He predestined, [Made a plan for] He also called; [Chose us for a privileged part in that plan] and these whom He called, He also justified; [Imputed His righteousness to us] and these whom He justified, He also glorified. [Seated us in Christ now] What then shall we say to these things? If [Since] God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Rom 8:26-32)

     This is a sample of the faith-rest drill there are many like it, just start with this one; it works every time! Except when you do not Think with it, or believe it! First Claim a Promise; (Rom 8:28) Second Apply a Doctrinal Rationale (Rom 8:29-30) Thirdly Reach Doctrinal Conclusions (Rom 8:31-32)

THE PLAN OF GOD RATIONALE

Claim a Biblical Promise Stage One: “God works all things together for good”

THE FAITH-REST DRILL IN ROMANS 8:28 

     A Promise is a Divine guarantee, a capsule statement of Truth, a solid rock on which to anchor your mental attitude. Promises express the essence of God, provide instantaneous perspective, and reduce complicated situations to utmost simplicity. When you lay hold of the fact that God is working all things together for good, fear is brought under control. Where panic reigned, peace is now restored. But the inner peace of the relaxed mental attitude is only the beginning of the faith-rest drill. Claiming Promises is never an end in itself; Divine Prom­ises alone can neither sustain the relaxed mental attitude nor solve complex prob­lems. Promises set the stage for the most important aspect of faith-rest: Spiritual Thinking.

REVERSE CONCENTRATION

     The application of Truth calls for reverse concentration. Concentration during Bible teaching brings Truth into the soul; now concentration moves Truth out to meet the demands of the moment. On the strength of, (Rom 8:28) present a logical Rationale to yourself extracted from epignosis; Spiritual Thinking stored in the right lobe. This series of five basic Spiritual Thoughts restores your Divine­ Viewpoint Thinking.

Rebound and Think (Rom 8:28) Stage Two: Apply a Doctrinal Rationale A. Foreknowledge God Thought about you in eternity past.  B. Predestination God designed a plan for you in eternity past.  C. Election God chose you for the privileged  part of His plan.      D. Justification God can bless you now because you possess His righteousness.  E. Glorification God has seated us in Christ now,  above angels.

THE FAITH-REST DRILL IN ROMANS 8:29-30 

     A Rationale is a “Reasoned exposition of Principles, an explanation or statement of Reasons, a set of Reasoned rules or directions.” By mentally trac­ing out a Rationale in a crisis, you are re-explaining to yourself basic Concepts of Truth that pertain to your relationship with God. This is necessary because fear and emotion have revolted against Divine Thinking, and you must take conscious, deliberate steps to reinstate the rightful authority in your soul. 

     For [We know that] whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image [Thinking and Virtue] of His Son, that He [Christ] might be the firstborn among many [Spiritually Mature believers] brethren. (Rom 8:29)

     Divine foreknowledge is God’s awareness of all the advantages He has prepared for each believer. “Foreknowledge” is a technical, theological term, referring to a category of God’s knowledge different than “omniscience.” Om­niscience encompasses all Divine knowledge of the universe and angelic and human history, including all the alternatives and possibilities that could exist but will not. Foreknowledge is one portion of omniscience, a subcategory focusing on what will actually occur in the believer’s life. Foreknowledge is a positive Concept that implies Divine care and support.

     Foreknowledge assures us that God Thought about us in eternity past; pre­destination means that He designed a plan for us in eternity past. That plan calls for our sanctification, which culminates in eternity future, when we are com­pletely “conformed to the image of His Son” in our resurrection bodies. 

     And whom He predestined, [For a part in His plan] these same ones He also elected to privilege, [Picked for a part in the plan NOW] and whom He elected to privilege, these same ones He also justified, [Declared righteous by imputation] and whom He justified, these same ones He also glorified. [Seated with Christ in heaven NOW] (Rom 8:30) 

     In God’s entire plan for human history, the New Covenant Age stands out as the era of unique privilege. God chose or elected each believer to be Spiritual royalty, just as in the previous dispensation He selected Israel to be His client nation, and the line of Levi to be priests and chose the line of David to bring forth the Messiah, and elected Christ to be the Redeemer of mankind. Divine election bestows special privilege, the honor of having an impact on history. Until Jesus Christ, the Messiah, restores Israel to client nation status at His second advent, God’s pur­pose is for each believer to influence history as part of the Spiritual pivot of a Gentile client nation. The believer fulfills his election by advancing to maturity in the Spiritual life.

     Believers of other dispensations were not elected to the high privilege we enjoy, but all believers of every dispensation are justified or declared righteous. God imputes Divine righteousness to everyone in any era of history who believes in Christ as Savior, and with imputed righteousness God creates the grace pipe­line, the potential for fabulous blessings on earth. Believers who exploit this potential and attain super-grace status will be rewarded or glorified in heaven. (Isa 53:11-12; Psa 45:13-16) Super-grace believers participate forever in the eternal glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, who receives all the credit for any privilege or blessing we possess. In two verses, (Rom 8:29-30) Paul has outlined the plan of God. In their logical order the five Truths of foreknowledge, predestination, election, justi­fication, and glorification encapsulate God’s design, beginning in eternity past and concluding with the Spiritually mature believer. By utiliz­ing this systematic reverse concentration on Truths previously learned, the believer can immediately recall his place in the overall picture of God’s grace. By this faith-application of Bible Truth, he stabilizes his objectivity. 

DOCTRINAL CONCLUSIONS 

     After the plan-of-God Rationale in verses 29 and 30, reach Doctrinal Conclusions. (Rom 8:31-32) 

     To what Conclusion are we forced face to face with these things? God [Is] for us, who [Can be] against us? Who [God the Father] did not even spare His own unique Son, but delivered Him over in behalf of all of us, how shall He not with Him graciously give to us the all things? (Rom 8:31-32)

Stage Three: Reach A Doctrinal Conclusion Take Control of the Situation   A. “God is for us, who can be against us?”                B. “God gave us His Son, He will give us ALL things.”

THE FAITH-REST DRILL IN ROMANS 8:31-32 

     These Conclusions, which are stated as rhetorical questions, enable you to take control of the situation that ignited fear and anxiety only a few moments before. With objectivity and confidence restored, you can evaluate your cir­cumstances and take the action your Divine Thinking dictates as a solution to the problem. (Psa 119:24) If the problem is hopeless, entirely beyond your capacity to resolve, then you can cope with the situation by intelligently trusting the Lord for a solution!

     But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by [Do nothing but trust] and see the deliverance of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today.” (Exodus 14:13)

     (Rom 8:28-32) Occurs in a context that explains undeserved suffering. The mature believer employs the faith-rest drill to transform this maximum pressure into blessing. In dramatic contrast to your adverse circumstances, God demonstrates His power through our application of His Word to our Thoughts. If Truth in our soul gives us mastery over the most difficult, frightening, and shocking situations in life, certainly Truth can sustain and bless us under more tranquil circumstances. The faith-rest drill maintains our ability to Think and to appreciate the grace of God. Testing + Thinking Truth = Growth!

 This is the way we grow, no other way! (1Pe 4:12)

THE FLEXIBILITY OF FAITH-REST 

     Various Promises can be used in stage one of the faith-rest drill, and other Rationales are available for stage two. Besides the plan-of-God Rationale, the more advanced essence-of-God Rationale can be skillfully applied. Example: You are worried about anything, (Or everything!) Lusting, Family, Job, House, Car, ETC... First: Rebound. (1Jn 1:9) Think a Promise. (Heb 13:5-6) Think with Truth: God is Sovereign, and this is in His control! God is Righteous so this is good for me! God is Justice so this is fair for me! God is Eternal Life so if I die from this I have Eternal Life and I will be with God! God is Omniscience so God has always known about this and has the perfect solution! (Just a test) God is Omnipresent so He is here NOW! So if you Think He forgot about you, remind Him! God is Omnipotent unlimited power to help! God is Immutable He will always do the same thing and will never change! God is Veracity and will never! Lie to you! AND GOD IS FOR YOU! SO WHO OR WHAT CAN BE AGAINST YOU! MOVE ON! GROW UP! TRUST HIM! AND STAY IN FELLOWSHIP!

     The LORD said to Moses, Is the LORD'S power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not. (Num 11:23)

     Looking at them, Jesus said, With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God. (Mar 10:27)

     GOD IS: SOVEREIGN, (Psa 115:3) RIGHTEOUS, (Deut 32:4) JUSTICE, (Psa 89:14) LOVE, (1Jn 4:8) ETERNAL LIFE, (Isa 9:6) OMNISCIENCE, (Col 2:3) OMNIPRESENT, (Psa 139:7-12) OMNIPOTENT, (Num 11:23) IMMUTABLE, (Mal 3:6) AND VERACITY. (Joh 14:6) AND GOD IS FOR YOU! WHO CAN BE AGAINST YOU!

     Or the logistical-grace Rationale, (Mat 6:25-34) can comfort and strengthen even new believers. Any Truth you have stored as Spiritual Thinking in your right lobe can be developed into a Rationale to meet a test or crisis in your life. At one time or another you will need every Doc­trine you have had the opportunity to learn. If ever you lack inner resources, you have failed to arm yourself in advance. God provided the opportunity; the fault is your own. (Mar 13:23)

     The three stages of the faith-rest drill are flexible and adaptable to the needs of the moment. You may claim a Biblical Promise in stage one, only to succumb to fear again. You simply return to stage one and start over. Or you may leap from stage one directly to Doctrinal Conclusions in stage three and then recall the logical Rationale that bridged the gap. The faith-rest drill is active Spiritual Thinking; it is not a mechanical step one, step two, step three regimen that you switch on like an automatic pilot. Certainly there are those rare, shocking disasters that so up­set your concentration that you can recover your mental poise only by strict ad­herence to the step-by-step discipline of the drill. The point is that the Christian way of life demands Spiritual Thinking.

     You must learn Bible Truth on a daily basis as your first priority in life. When difficulties arise, you must switch from Personal to Impersonal love or Think one of the Promises that you maintain on twenty-four-hour standby in your soul. From your stabilized soul you rationally call to mind pertinent Divine Thoughts that you have assimilated. Sustained by your Doctrinal Conclu­sions you can proceed to use Spiritual common sense in dealing with the specific problem at hand. Knowledge of Truth is the environment for Spiritual Thinking.

     Gate four of the Spiritual life opens to the most rewarding activity in life: in gate four you explore the Thinking of God and employ His eternal wisdom as your guide and counsel. (Psa 119:24) This vital endeavor gives life its meaning, purpose, and definition! Standing as the main portal of the Spiritual life, your perception and application of Truth represent your personal destiny, your calling, your true vocation in life.

CHRIST’S RELIANCE ON TRUTH 

     The humanity of Jesus Christ Thought continuously with Truth in the prototype Spiritual life, setting the precedent for our function in the operational Spiritual life. (Joh 14:24) In the Person of Christ are two natures — Divine and human — inseparably united without mixture or loss of separate identity, without loss or transfer of properties or attributes. Designated in theology as the hypostatic union, the union of God and man in the Lord Jesus Christ is personal and eternal. That is, as the God-Man, He is one Person, and He will exist forever as both undimin­ished Deity and true humanity. Our Lord is the unique Person of the universe!  (Joh 1:1-14; Rom 1:2-5; Php 2:5-11; 1Ti 3:16; Heb 2:14) In His Deity, Christ possesses all the attributes of Divine essence, coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Our Lord is omniscient; He never needs to learn anything because He has always known all things. Truth is His Mind revealed to man! (1Co 2:16) But in His humanity, Jesus was born as a helpless infant who needed to learn Truth under authority just as we do. (Luk 2:46-52) Jesus received the Spiritual life at birth. This power system was the first Christmas present, from the Father to the humanity of Christ. We have noted Christ’s genuine humility at gate three as He submitted to the authority of His parents and teachers. Empowered by the filling of the Spirit at gate one, Jesus functioned at gate four for the perception of Truth. In that same power Christ continually switched from Personal to Impersonal love. God the Father incorporated Impersonal love into His blueprint for the Spiritual life knowing that Jesus would be surrounded by vacil­lating, unreliable people. (Joh 6:60-66; Joh 13:38; Joh 18:17-27) Our Lord also applied Truth by means of the faith-rest drill. Perpetually in fellowship, He never committed a mental attitude sin! He was never afraid! He maintained a perfectly stabilized mental attitude. Stages two and three were in constant use. Christ was always rational and logical because Truth is rational and logical. He Thought rationally and reached true Doctrinal Conclusions upon which His every action was founded! Even in the most dreadful ordeal ever suffered by a human being, the judgment of our sins in Him on the Cross, Christ was sustained by the Truth in His soul! (Isa 53:11)

     Be concentrating on Jesus Christ, our Prince-Ruler, [The example for the royal family] even the One who brings us to the attainment [Of the objective, gate eight] by means of Truth [“Faith” in the objective sense: “what is be­lieved”] Who [Jesus] instead of His present happiness en­dured the Cross, having disregarded [Thought little of] the shame, [Of bearing our sins and being judged by the Father] and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. [The place of supreme honor] For begin Thinking about such a Person as Jesus Christ, having endured such opposition by sinners against Himself, in order that you do not become fatigued, [By perpetual residence outside the Spiritual life] fainting in your souls. (Heb 12:2-3) 

     Deity cannot bear the sins of mankind or be judged for them. God had to become man to purchase our salvation! The humanity of Christ “was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Co 5:21) On the Cross, Jesus suffered alone, rejected by man, (Isa 53:3) hidden in utter darkness, (Mat 27:45-46) judged by the Father, (Isa 53:4-5) upheld by God the Holy Spirit, (Heb 9:14) And by the Truth in His right lobe! And this sustained Him and kept Him true to His purpose until the last sin of the last individual in human history had been paid for in full! (Joh 19:30) Our Lord’s final words on the Cross were His testimony to the supreme Importance of Divine Thinking. Both Matthew and Mark record the fact that He made a final statement before He physically died. They do not record the content of Christ’s statement but emphasize what impressed them most, His phenomenal strength and breath control after His horrible, debilitating ordeal. (Mat 27:50; Mar 15:37) Luke, too, remarks about the strength with which Jesus spoke, but he also records part of what Christ said. 

     And when Jesus had shouted with a loud voice, He said, “Father, into your hands I deposit My spirit,” and having said this, He let out His breath. (Luk 23:46) 

     Jesus quoted from His assimilated knowledge of the Old Testament Scrip­tures; Luke recorded the Scripture reference. Luke did not copy down the com­plete statement but pointed to the place where we can find it. We must go to the Psalms for the text of Christ’s powerful last statement. 

     Into Your hands I commit My spirit; You have delivered Me, O Jehovah, God of Truth. [Divine Thinking] (Psa 31:5) 

     The last word our Savior spoke on earth prior to His resurrection was “Truth” The Lord Jesus Christ left us a legacy of utilizing Divine Thinking within God’s system.

     The perception and Thinking with Truth in the Spiritual life sustained Christ under circumstances far worse than we can imagine! Without any doubt! Truth can sustain us!

Gates Five and Six, Motivational and Functional Virtue 

VIRTUE DEFINED 

     God loves you because He has integrity; with Christian integrity you can love Him in return. You acquire Virtue, honor, and integrity not to impress God but to gain capacity to enjoy and appreciate Him, and His blessings! (Mar 8:36) There can be no lasting happiness apart from Virtue. Indeed, Virtue or strength of character is itself a Divine blessing. God has given you the power system that produces Vir­tue — when you faithfully Think with His Thoughts. The most ancient definition of Virtue connotes power, the ability that produces certain sublime effects. Our English word is derived from the Latin noun virtus, based on the root word vir, “heroic man.” Virtus originally referred to “the qualities of a man”: strength, bravery, courage, capability, worthiness, manliness, excellence in physical, mental, and moral standards. Virtue implies the fulfillment of moral duties, conformity to moral law. Spiritual Virtue-morality refers to man as he should be, as God designed him to be. This inherent power is generated by God, the inventor of Virtue. Virtue or honor or integrity is His monopoly, and since we are inherently weak, (Psa 39:5) we can acquire Virtue ONLY in fellowship with God and Thinking with His Thoughts. (1Co 13:3-8)

     No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and Him in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. (1Jn 4:12-13)

     We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, [In fellowship] so also are we in this world.  (1Jn 4:16-17)

     God the Father sent His Son to provide eternal Salvation and to provide the environment in which we can produce Virtue in this life. The environment of Virtue is the Spiritual life. In his second epistle, Peter uses the Greek noun arete, “Virtue,” describing Virtue as those qualities produced by the believer in fellowship. 

     Grace and prosperity [The blessings of Spiritual maturity] be multi­plied to you [Through Spiritual momentum] in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Seeing that His Divine power [The Spiritual life] has given to us everything pertain­ing to life [Logistical grace] and godliness [Blessings of Spiritual maturity] through the true knowledge [Spiritual Thinking] of Him [Christ] who called us to His own glory [The prototype Spiritual life] and Virtue, [Arete, manufactured in the Spiritual life] through which things [Both the Spiritual life and Virtue manufactured in it] He has given to us His precious and magnificent Promises, that by them [Divine Thoughts learned and Thought with] you might become partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption [Sin nature] that is in the world by lust. [Because we are born with a sin nature that lusts!]  (2Pe 1:2-4)

      We “partake of the Divine nature,” fulfilling our design by following the precedent of our Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout the First Advent He resided continuously in the prototype Spiritual life. He perfected all the Virtues and shared the happiness of God. Man needs a power greater than himself in order to generate Virtue; he needs the same power that sustained the humanity of our Lord, the system that conquers the devil’s kingdom. (Rev 2:26) Paul uses the word arete when he issues a Command to Concentrate on the Spiritual Thoughts that develop Virtue.

     Therefore, brethren, [Royal family] everything that is true, [Divine Thoughts] everything that is honorable, [Having integrity, which comes from Truth] everything that is righteous, everything that is pure, everything that is capacity for love, everything that is commendable; if there is any Virtue [Arete — and there is] and anything worthy of praise, [And there is] Concentrate on these Thoughts. (Php 4:8)  

     You “Concentrate on Virtue” by Concentrating on Truth; Truth reveals Jesus Christ, the perfect example of Virtue. Christian Virtue is not super­ficial adherence to religious traditions or self-righteous avoidance of taboos; Virtue is strength of character based on Thinking with the Thoughts that God declares are Real! (Heb 11:3) God's Reality — based on the essence of God revealed in the Person of Christ. The Mind of Christ, Truth, in your soul forms the character of Christ as your life! (Gal 4:19; Col 3:2-4) Thought precedes action; motiva­tion precedes function.

MOTIVATION TOWARD GOD FUNCTION TOWARD MAN

     Anyone who consistently resides in the first four gates of the Spiritual life develops Christian integrity, first toward God, then toward man, self, things and circumstances. Among the Virtues of the Christian life — humility, worship, Virtue-morality, confidence, courage and love — humility is unique. Humility is directed toward legitimate authority, both Divine and human. Standing alone as the foundation for all other Virtues, humility makes the believer receptive to Bible teaching and the unbeliever receptive to establishment Principles. The resultant Virtues for the believer are divided into two categories in gates five and six:

     Motivational Virtues and Functional Virtues. These two categories are inseparable and must be studied as one Doctrine. Gates five and six stand or fall together. Like two sides of the same coin, one cannot exist without the other.

     All Virtue has direction. The motivational Virtues are directed toward God; the functional Virtues, toward man, self, things, and circumstances. Each motivational Virtue sustains a functional Virtue; each functional Virtue depends on its counterpart motivational Virtue.

     There are three outstanding pairs of counterpart Virtues in the Christian life. The motivational Virtue of worship toward God generates the functional Virtue of Virtue morality toward man, self, things, and circumstances. (Heb 11:25-26) The motivational Virtue of confidence in God supports the functional Virtue of courage toward man and circumstances. (Heb 11:33-40) And the motivational Virtue of Per­sonal love for God sustains the functional Virtue of Impersonal love toward man. (Luk 23:34)

     These Virtues correspond to your two areas of responsibility as a Christian. You hold two Divine warrants: you are a royal priest and a royal ambassador. “Your priesthood is invisible and private, directed toward God. Your ambassa­dorship is visible and public, directed toward people and circumstances. As a priest you are re­sponsible to represent yourself before God as a growing believer; as an ambas­sador you are responsible to “proclaim the Virtues of Christ” before man. (1Pe 2:9) The motivational Virtues belong to your relationship with God; the func­tional Virtues enrich your relationships with other people. Motivation precedes function; the priesthood sustains the ambassadorship; your relationship with God strengthens you in your relationships with people.

     Motivational and functional Virtues are explained by defining their charac­teristics and by describing how these Virtues become absurdities when aimed in the wrong direction.

MISDIRECTED VIRTUE 

WORSHIP AND VIRTUE MORALITY 

     The strength of Virtue is distorted into weakness when a Virtue is directed toward the wrong object. Worship is a Virtue directed toward God, which motivates Virtue morality as a Virtue directed toward man and circumstances. To worship man, however, becomes arrogance, and to direct human morality toward God becomes legalism and self-righteousness. So we have been taught, directly or indirectly, to be right with each other is to be right with God. This is from Satan. (Gen 3:7) This is very difficult when we are taught to be moral! Human morality is directed toward God. So that we can earn our way into heaven, by doing  “good things” being a “good person” “treating others as you would be treated,”  “as well as anything and EVERYTHING that we think and or do performed in the power of the old sin nature,” is meaningless; even using Bible Verses, Promises, and Doctrines! (Joh 4:23; Jer 17:5) (THE DIVINE SOLUTION IS THE ONLY SOLUTION! (Heb 11:6) THE HUMAN SOLUTION IS NO SOLUTION!) (Rom 8:8) This is a supernatural life! And demands a supernatural way of Spiritual Thinking to live it!  A right thing cannot be done in a wrong way! And a wrong thing cannot be done in a right way! A right thing must be done in a right way! We can be very honest in some areas, but are dishonest in others, this is normal; we are sinners! (Rom 3:10) And it is impossible, for a unbeliever or a believer “without Spiritual maturity,” (Eph 4:13; Mat 5:48) to have integrity in every area of his life! (Psa 39:5) So in this cosmic world, we see only, self-righteousness and relative-righteousness, and this automatically produces arrogance! (Mat 16:1) Worship above anything else; is our Thinking being changed into His! (Rom 12:1-2; Hos 4:6) True worship is a priestly function. (Heb 10:25) Singing hymns, (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16) offering prayer, (Eph 6:18; 1Th 5:17) giving, (2Co 9:7) — these are all aspects of worship. Worship always involves giving back to God something we possess from Him. (Eph 5:16) We can learn to worship from descriptions of high ranking elect angels who “give glory, honor, and thanksgiving” to the Lord. (Rev 4:8-11) We cannot yet fully join these angels in giving glory to God, because we will be glorified only in heaven; (Mat 13:43) we cannot give in worship what we do not possess. We will acquire glory when we receive resurrection bodies and eternal rewards. We can give honor to the Lord in this life, but only when we have acquired honor, Virtue and integrity. If we lack Christian integrity in our Spiritual life, we cannot offer integrity or honor to God. Likewise, we can give God thanksgiving only if we have gratitude to give. Any believer who does not understand from knowledge of Truth what God has done for him cannot be grateful to God. For such a believer true worship is impossible. (Mat 15:8-9; Luk 11:40) He may be sincere, but any worship he affects is an arrogant, legalistic attempt to win God’s favor or gain a reputation among men. Any overt activities connected with worship must be performed as unto the Lord, in fellowship and not to please or impress man. (Mat 6:5) Another phase of worship is the ritual of, the Eucha­rist or Communion Table. This periodic auld lang syne observed in memory of our Lord and Savior calls upon the Truth in your right lobe. The bread rep­resents the Person of Christ; the cup, His saving work. (1Co 11:23-26) The Eucharist tests our Spiritual maturity, and understanding of Truth, and our ability to concen­trate. Memory is reverse concentration; remembering Christ is giving back to God in worship the Divine Thinking and or Thoughts inculcated in our soul through learning Truth. The most important aspect of worship, which makes all other worship pos­sible, is the perception of Truth. God gives us time, one day at a time; we “redeem the time” by devoting a portion of each day to the intake of His Word. (Eph 5:16) Concentration in learning the Word of God in gate four of the Spiritual life is the highest form of worship directed toward God! (1Ti 4:12-16) When you elevate yourself or any other person above the Word of Truth on your scale of values, you have misdirected your worship. (Psa 138:2) The Virtue in worship is nullified; you live in subjective reality. Worship by those outside the Spiritual life becomes religion, the enemy of Christianity! A strong social life with God is Occupation with Christ and His Thoughts! These are synonyms for worship, motivating Virtue morality toward men. Virtue Morality is a function of the ambassador. For many Christians the word “morality” means no more than abstinence from illicit sex. Most certainly that is part of morality, but in its wider sense Virtue morality extends to all facets of life. Obedience is honorably motivated adherence to the Divine laws of establishment and is required of the entire human race, believers and unbelievers alike. What the unbeliever can produce cannot be the Christian way of life! But he can contribute to the stability of his nation and his own happiness in this life. Christianity includes Virtue morality but exceeds human morality through the combined opera­tion of all the Christian Virtues of The Filling of God the Holy Spirit and Truth. (Gal 5:22-23) A believer misdirects and distorts morality when he assumes that he is pleasing God by being good. He believes that if he is nice to people, has a sweet disposition, helps the poor, avoids certain taboos, and follows certain traditional Christian practices, then God must approve of him and bless him. This is utterly false! Blessings from God are related to the priesthood, not the ambassadorship; they belong to the believer’s relationship with God, not his relationship with the human race! Super-grace prosperity comes from God’s justice, down the grace pipeline to imputed Divine righteousness in us! When we develop the capacity to appreciate and enjoy that prosperity. (Isa 30:18) We never earn or deserve blessing from God; God’s own perfect righteousness is at the receiving end of the pipeline! He has done all the work. If we think we can merit God’s favor by our works, we are legalists. (1Co 1:27-31) The legalist may look impressive on the surface and may be involved in many legitimate activities, but, again, a misdirected Virtue has been robbed of its impact. Many believers appear to be extremely “moral,” but they do not reside in the Spiritual life. (2Ti 3:5) The believer who confuses his priesthood, (Motivation and means; relationship with God) with his ambassadorship, (Function, the result of Spiritual growth; relationship with people) has placed himself under Satan’s influence. (2Ti 2:25-26)

     The believer’s Spiritual growth and relationship with God determines his happiness, production and reward; (Jer 9:24) not his relationship with the human race! (Gen 3:7; Mat 7:23; Joh 21:22)

     But let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the LORD. (Jer 9:24)

 CONFIDENCE AND COURAGE 

     The second pair of counterpart Virtues is also distorted if Virtue is mis­directed. Confidence is a priestly Virtue directed toward God; courage is a Virtue of the ambassador directed toward man. Confidence toward God is the invisible strength behind the believer’s visible courage toward other people or adverse circumstances. But if the objects are reversed, the Virtues are destroyed: courage toward God is blasphemous; complete confidence in man is naive at best and evil at worst. (Jer 17:5; Joh 2:24-25) We are justified in placing total confidence in God because He is infinite, absolute, and eternal; He never has and never can fail anyone who trusts in Him. He is totally worthy of our complete trust! Confidence is a function of the priesthood and is related to learning Truth. The more Truth we know, the greater is our confidence in God! (Rom 10:17) Eternal security creates confidence in God. 

     For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, [Satan nor the demons] nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38-39) 

     Prayer is an expression of confidence in God. 

     Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, [Rebound not demanded because we reside in the Spiritual life] we keep on having confidence before God. [Face to face with God] Furthermore, whatever we have asked we receive from Him because we continue to keep [Think with] His Commandments [Thoughts] and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. (1Jn 3:21-22) 

     We can repose our complete trust in perfect God, but we cannot place unqualified confidence in any member of the human race. Everyone fails from time to time. (Psa 143:2; 2Ch 6:36; Eccles 7:20) We all possess the old sin nature as the inner dis­torter of life! And Satan’s influence is too powerful for us to resist in our own strength. (1Pe 5:8-9) An employer must be able to rely on his employees to do their jobs; hus­bands and wives must trust each other; there is trust involved in friendship. However, trust in another person can extend only so far before it becomes naiveté. Total confidence in man is sheer idiocy. Confidence in man is never Vir­tuous in itself but is Virtue-dependent; your confidence in God gives you a sense of proportion toward man. Jesus Christ in the prototype Spiritual life did not consider confidence in mankind to be a Virtue. 

     Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, beholding His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not en­trusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man for He Himself knew what was in man. [The old sin nature connected to Satan] (Joh 2:23-25) 

     Confidence without cognizance is not true confidence and is ultimately self-destructive. This is the problem when you place someone on a pedestal of perfec­tion and then react with disillusionment. Like­wise, false confidence in the alleged goodness and nobility of mankind is the root of political liberalism. Confidence in man is not a Virtue, but courage toward man and circum­stances is a functional Virtue of the royal ambassador. 

     Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. [Courage is motivated by confidence in God] I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. (Isa 41:10)  

     Courage is an ambassadorial Virtue. The believer overcomes fear with the faith-rest drill, reverse concentration in a logical Rationale — to establish and sustain his courage. 

     Fear does not exist in fellowship... (1Jn 4:18)

     Fear, worry lusting, arrogance, competing, hating, greed, discontentment with job, wife, husband, money, house, car, circumstances, Etc... Allows us to know we are out of fellowship! Rebound and start reading and keep reading! And little by little you will overcome! (Gal 5:16-17; 1Pe 4:1-2)  

     We know when we are in fellowship! Because we have love, joy, harmony (Tolerant thoughtful and generous) patience, kindness, integrity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (1Jn 2:5; Gal 5:22-23)

     God’s objective is to bless you! Not to destroy you! When you use His logistical grace and execute His game plan, you have nothing to fear from God; courage is unnecessary and com­pletely out of order. You may need courage to face life but never to face God! He has already blessed you beyond measure and is waiting to give you greater grace. (Jas 4:6) He is always near to help in time of need. (Psa 46:1-2) The blasphemy of misdirected courage is illustrated in the improper use of rebound. When you exit the Spiritual life and commit a sin, you must acknowl­edge that sin privately to God to be restored to fellowship. (1Jn 1:9) When you follow God’s policy, you do so as a royal priest from your confidence in God’s ability to forgive you. The more you understand about rebound, the greater is your con­fidence in God, you know with absolute certitude that at the Cross He has already judged the sin in question. The believer who abuses rebound, however, attempts to distort this simple grace procedure of the royal priest into a function of the ambassador. He faces his sinfulness with great courage, standing before God and promising to do bet­ter next time. He performs some overt penance for all to see; he makes a great show of his remorse so God will be convinced of his sincerity. But a Virtue that is misdirected ceases to be a Virtue. Bravery in making promises to God, which cannot be kept, boils down to sheer presumption and arrogance. God does not want our human reasoning! He has already done all the work necessary to restore us to residence in the Spiritual life. We just believe God, and forget it and move on, and just keep moving! (Php 3:13)

PERSONAL AND IMPERSONAL LOVE

     The quintessence of motivational and functional Virtue is Virtue-love: Per­sonal love for God and Impersonal love for mankind. At gate five of the Spiritual life, Personal love for God is a function of the royal priest developed through the persistent intake of Truth. At gate six Impersonal love for all man­kind is the integrity of the royal ambassador displayed in the application of Truth. This is the structure of the Christian way of life. Hatred of one’s fellow believer is a malfunction of the ambassadorship. The lack of Impersonal love as a functional Virtue, which can be seen, indicates the lack of Personal love for God as a priestly, motivational Virtue, which cannot be seen. Malfunction in the visible indicates malfunction in the invisible. Any believer who lacks the integrity of Impersonal love toward others and yet claims to love God is a liar. (1Jn 4:20) The objects of Personal and Impersonal love cannot be switched without destroying it. When misdirected toward God, Impersonal love becomes the arrogance of assuming that God must be tolerated or that we as sin­ners have greater integrity than God. It is the arrogance of presuming we know how to run our lives better than He does and, therefore, that we can dis­pense with His Commands. (Isa 65:2) On the other hand, personal human love misdirected toward man becomes weak­ness. Obviously any attempt to love the entire human race with personal human love is ludicrous and doomed to failure, but even legitimate personal human love for the wor­thy few creates vulnerability. We tend to make exceptions for those we love; we are susceptible to making emotional instead of Divine Decisions; and we are often wrongly influenced by our desire to please the one we love. Personal human love for a member of the human race can be wonderful and rewarding, but it is not Spiritual Personal love.

     For any believer who lacks the motivational and functional Virtues, personal human love becomes a dead end for his Spiritual life. Personal human love can destroy common sense, discernment, and good judgment. Close friends or loved ones may influ­ence a growing believer to ignore or reject certain Divine Thoughts, to leave the right church, to quit a job where he is satisfied and doing well, to move to another geographical area, even to enter a life of crime. Every important decision a per­son makes will be influenced by those he has chosen to love.

     Be not deceived, evil companions corrupt good morals. [Virtues] (1Co 15:33)

      He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the com­panion of fools will suffer harm. (Pro 13:20) 

     The only category of personal love that is a Virtue in itself is Personal love for God in gate five of the Spiritual life. Personal human love for a man, a woman, friends or family is not a Virtue in itself but is Virtue-dependent; successful human Per­sonal love for people depends on the Virtue of Impersonal love in gate six. When based on Impersonal love, Personal love for a select few people can flourish and is therefore called Esprit de corps Personal love. And is based on the other person or individuals staying in fellowship and operating with Divine Thinking. But lacking the Virtue of Impersonal love, personal human love becomes emotional self-gratification, emphasizing self and producing arrogance, hypersensitivity, and misery.

     Impersonal love is the supreme functional Virtue, the dynamics of the am­bassador’s testimony to the human race, and the primary Christian Virtue re­quired by the royal family. But the strength of Impersonal love dissipates if not nurtured, sustained, and motivated by a growing Personal love for God. 

VIRTUE LOVE AND OBJECTIVE REALITY 

     God is the Paragon, the Exemplar of Virtue-love. Our standard of Virtue is His Divine Nature, not relative systems of human ethics. For our understanding of Virtue-love, we go to the source, to objective Reality, to God’s love for us. God loves us because He has integrity. Love requires integrity; integrity comes first. Each Divine attribute has equal importance in the essence of God, but in the logical presentation of His essence to man, God’s holiness or integrity precedes His love. God is perfect; therefore, God is perfect love. Divine love is far superior to the strongest human love we will ever know, because God has absolute integrity that cannot and will not be compromised or violated.

     God’s attribute of righteousness is the motivation of His integrity; His justice is the function of His integrity. The same as our priesthood: motivation. And the same as our ambassadorship: function.

     Divine righteousness and justice secure God’s love for every believer. Divine justice condemned all mankind for Adam’s original sin, making Sal­vation by grace possible. Justice judged Christ as our substitute on the Cross. (Rom 8:3) Justice imputed Divine righteousness to us at the moment of faith in Christ. (Gal 2:16) Our point of contact with God is the functional half of His integrity, Divine justice. The justice of God did not impute His love to us; justice imputed His righteous­ness. We have direct contact, not with His love, but with the attributes that protect and guarantee His love for us, the integrity of God. We now possess the righteousness of God. Imputed righteousness is more valuable than anything we could imagine or desire. We have it; it is there, within us. Now and forever there is no possibility that Divine integrity will be com­promised as God pours out grace and blessings to believers; God can love His own righteousness in us with absolute, eternal love. In God’s dealings with man­kind, integrity always takes precedence over love.

     Divine integrity not only gives us a point of contact with perfect God but also lays the foundation upon which we can build Virtue. The Principle that God’s integrity exists in every believer is the basis for the system, the Christian way of life, within which we are Commanded to live. In the Church Age the sys­tem that accompanies, exploits, and is demanded by imputed righteousness is the Spiritual life. Residence and function in the Spiritual life constructs our integrity upon Divine integrity. God has given us limitless potential for pro­ducing Virtue. In the Spiritual life we imitate God as we build Virtue on the Divine righteousness He has imputed to us. The Spiritual life is Christian integrity. No Spiritual life no Christian integrity! 

     Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, [Does not Think with the Mind of Christ] does not have God; the one who abides in [Thinks with] the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. (2Jn 1:9) 

     Capacity to love God emanates from Christian integrity — loyalty to the Truth and orientation to the Reality of God’s system. We advance inside the Spiritual life Thinking with Truth, in which Jesus Christ lived and Thought with throughout His first advent. In gates one through four, we develop integrity. As we build integrity, Personal love for God and advanced Impersonal love for man enters us into gates five and six. The Nature of God establishes the pattern for the Christian life: He loves us because He has integrity; we love only when we possess integrity or Virtue. The motto of the Christian way of life is Virtue First, and we acquire Virtue, honor, and integrity only inside God’s system.

     Love is never stronger than honor. The English Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace expressed this Truth when he wrote, 

I could not love thee Dear so much,

Loved I not honor more. 

     A man might tell a woman, “I love you,” but if he lacks integrity, his love is false. His words manifest only arrogance, whether lust, infatuation, response to flattery, desire to control, or fear of facing life alone. No matter how sincere or emotionally smitten he may be, if he lacks Virtue, honor, and integrity, he does not love. He does not love any member of the human race; he does not love God. Subjectivity is living in a false reality; that is what we think reality is, instead of what God declares REALITY to be! And is a posi­tion of weakness. Little by little our Thinking is changed. (Or should be) The more Divine Thinking we understand and believe and use, is how much Reality we have of God and His Thoughts and His plan — and our objective and purpose. God is perfect and He has a perfect plan, for us, the angels, the earth and eternity! And this change will not take place, without a maximum reception retention and recall of Truth, resisting temptation and distraction every day, for an extended period of time! Success in any endeavor in life requires the concentration to pay attention to detail while staying focused on the objective. And this demands self-discipline which is the consistent decision to do what must to be done, with the determination to avoid any distractions that hinder the accomplishment of an objective! In sports, the medical field, music industry, military, Etc. Practice! Practice! Practice!

     But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses [Thoughts] trained to discern good [God's Thinking] and evil. [Satan's thinking] (Heb 5:14)

     We have learned that the Son of God has come, [The First Advent] and He has given us the faculty for perception [Dianoia, the Spiritual life] so that we may understand God's Reality; and we are in the sphere of objective Reali­ty [The Spiritual life] by means of His Son, Jesus Christ. This One [Christ] is the true God and eternal life. (1Jn 5:20) 

     The Attic Greek noun dianoia means “the ability to Think, a way of Thought, a purpose, a plan,” and in this verse, “faculty for perception.” Dianoia calls at­tention to the Spiritual life as the believer’s only way, through the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit to Think Spiritual Thoughts. Regardless of human IQ we all have equal ability to reach Spiritual maturity, (1Co 2:13) resulting in Virtue. (Gal 5:22-23) This means that any believer’s understanding of Truth is a potential, not an actuality, and that every believer is obligated to fulfill this potential through his own decisions to reside and function in the Spiritual life. Jesus Christ gave us the Spiritual life so that, through the perception and application of God’s Word, we might understand and appreciate His Reali­ty, so that we might know and love Him. 

PERSONAL LOVE FOR GOD AND

VIRTUE LOVE FOR ALL MANKIND 

     The Mandates for gate five are not unique to the Church Age. Every believer of every dispensation is Commanded to have Personal love for God, by reaching Spiritual maturity! 

     You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart [Thinking] and with all your soul [Person] and with all your might. [Effort] (Deut 6:5)

     You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; [Impersonally and objectively] I am the LORD. (Lev 19:18)

     In the New Covenant Church Age “all your might” takes on added significance: we have received the power of God the Holy Spirit as the Energizer of the Spiritual life. We love God only in the Spiritual life. No one loves God by being ordered to love Him, but God never issues a Command without supplying the means of compliance. Through Spiritual momen­tum from the perception and application of Truth, we obey the Divine Command to love God, and to love our neighbor as our self!

     And He said to him, YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND. This is the great and foremost Commandment. The second is like it, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. On these two Commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets. (Mat 22:37-40)

     For we know that the Law is Spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. (Rom 7:14) So that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. [In fellowship] (Rom 8:4)

     No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love [Spiritual life] is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and Him in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. (1Jn 4:12-13) 

     That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, [Spiritual life] to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; [Truth] and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, [Virtue] may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, [Human thinking] that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. [Full Spiritual maturity!] (Eph 3:16-19)

     Paul’s prayer declares that man by man’s efforts neither comes to know nor loves God. In Paul’s day the philosophy of Gnosticism was an insidious adversary of Christianity. Gnosticism combined Platonic rationalism with Eastern mysticism, added Persian dualism, and expressed itself in Christian vocabulary. Advocating strict asceticism on one hand while encouraging lascivious debauchery on the other, Gnosticism offered something for everyone and appealed to many people, believers included. The Gnostics derived their name from gnosis, which they used as a technical term for the special quality of knowledge they sought. But neither true human thinking gnosis in the left lobe of the soul nor false human and or satanic thinking gnosis glorified by human philosophy measure up to the God's Spiritual Thinking epignosis.  Paul’s prayer is partly polemical: it refutes the Gnostics. But it is also offered to God on the true assumption that the believer’s love for God through Spiritual Thinking is infi­nitely superior to any human philosophy or academic knowledge.

THE ESSENCE OF GOD

     Who is God? What is His nature? The essence of God is revealed in every direct statement of the Word of God, in each line of Biblical poetry, in every his­torical or Prophetical narrative recorded in the Bible. God is revealed in the God-Man, Jesus Christ; whose Spiritual Thinking is the Word of Truth. (Joh 14:6; 1Co 2:16; Heb 1:2-3) Each line of Scripture is essential to God’s revelation of Himself. Man and human history change; God remains the same. Different circumstances elicit different aspects of His character, so that His attributes are presented in Scripture through a wide variety of Divine Decisions and actions. The Truth of Divine essence becomes the common theme that unifies all other Truths; all Truth emanates from the essence of God.

     With Spiritual knowledge of Divine essence, the believer is able to see God’s plan being fulfilled in the kaleidoscope of human events, but the knowledge (Thinking) of God in our souls also causes the believer to Personally love God!  

     This I recall to mind, therefore, I have hope: [Confidence directed toward God] the Lord’s grace functions never cease, for His compassions never fail, they are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion says my soul, therefore I have hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, [By Staying in fellowship!] to the soul who seeks Him! [Positive to Truth, which is God's Thinking! (Lam 3:21-25) cf. (Joh 1:1)

     As a believer advances toward Spiritual maturity by using God's Thoughts and Virtue, in The Spiritual life! Paul explains this Concept very clearly, we just have to understand, (In Greek “pas” in English  “things”) that there are many places in Scripture where things equals thoughts!

     But just as it stands written [In Isa 64:4] things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard, [Beyond empiricism] nor has it entered into the right lobe of man, [Beyond rationalism] the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining Spiritual thoughts with Spiritual Words. But a natural man [Unbeliever or carnal believer] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are Spiritually appraised. [In fellowship with God] But he who is Spiritual [In fellowship] appraises [Understands] all things, yet he himself is appraised [Understood] by no one. [Unbelievers or carnal believers] For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the Mind of Christ. (1Co 2:9-16)

     This Principle is familiar from, (Rom 8:4-14) there, Paul illustrates the same Concept! Things equals Thoughts! And flesh equals carnality. (Being out fellowship)

     So that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh [In carnality] but according to the Spirit. [In fellowship] For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, [Temporal death; being out of fellowship] but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, [Divine Spiritual Thinking] for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh [Out of fellowship] cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, [In fellowship] if indeed the Spirit of God dwells [Filling] in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. [He is an unbeliever] If Christ is in you, though the body is dead [Useless] because of sin, [The old sin nature in us] yet the spirit is alive because of [Experiential] righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die;  [The sin unto death: 1Co 11:30) but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds [Thoughts] of the body, [The old sin Nature] you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (Rom 8:4-14)

OCCUPATION WITH CHRIST 

     As a believer continues to interlock the first four gates of the Spiritual life, he expands his capacity for love in gate five. Gate five increases from Personal love for God, which characterizes the growing believer, to Occupation with Christ, which characterizes the Spiritually mature believer. (Heb 11:27) Christ was the focus of Paul’s life. Despite the pressure and controversy that continually surrounded the great apostle, he was stabilized by his constant awareness of the Lord. Better than anyone else, Paul defines Occupation with Christ: Jesus Christ was Paul’s very life.

     According to my earnest expectation [Concentration] and hope, [Confidence] that I will not be put to shame in anything, (1Jn 2:28) but that with all boldness, [And openness to His will] Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, (2Co 5:15) whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ (Gal 2:20) and to die is gain. [OUT OF THIS FLESH! AND IN HIS PRESENCE!] (Php 1:20-21) 

     The super-grace blessings in gate eight fall into six cate­gories, the first and most important of which makes up Spiritual blessings. Spiritual blessings constitute your capacity for all other forms of prosperity, and Occupation with Christ is itself one of the Spiritual blessings of super-grace. The greater your momentum from gate four, the greater your capacity for loving God. When your capacity for Personal love for God has reached the point of Occupation with Christ, God can entrust you with phenomenal blessings without distracting you from what is most important — the source, God Himself. The fruits of Spiritual momentum continually increase until you possess the capacity of soul that allows God to bless you to the maximum. God gives super-grace only to Spiritually mature believers, because few individuals pass the prosperity test. Only the mature believer who is Occupied with Christ keeps Truth as his first priority, and whether in national or personal pro­sperity or national or personal adversity, passes each test with flying colors. King David, whom the Bible recognizes as “a man after God’s Own heart,” (1Sa 13:14; Act 13:22) expressed this continual desire for Truth moti­vated by his mature love for God. 

     One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [Live in fellowship] all the days of my life, to behold the beauty [Friendship] of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. [Share more of God's lovingkindness and Truth: Psa 117:2) (Psa 27:4)

     Love for God is the basis for all true worship, all motivation for Christian production, all fulfillment of the plan of God, and all glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives! The Spiritual life empowers the royal family to love God, even as the humanity of Christ loved Him! (1Jn 2:10)

THE ROYAL FAMILY HONOR CODE

      The Spiritually mature believer lives by a code of honor. Virtue First is his motto: he respects authority, loves God with Personal love, and loves man with Imper­sonal love. The honor code demands ALL the Virtues of God’s protocol system — the completed Spiritual life. As the supreme functional Virtue, which depends on founda­tional and motivational Virtues, the believer’s Impersonal love manifests the dynamics of Spiritual integrity. The mature believer represents Christ in a gracious style that reflects our Lord’s eternal aristocracy. Aristocracy is maligned as snobbery, social injustice, and tyranny, but in its true sense aristocracy connotes excellence, achievement, courage, and a sense of responsibility. Extraordinary men become outstanding by accomplishing more than their contemporaries, and when this superiority is passed down from gener­ation to generation, the children, too, are inculcated with superior standards. Often the descendants of illustrious men do not share the energy or strength of character that distinguished their ancestors. Therefore, the vigor of the nobility must be perpetuated through a code of honor. The young heir is taught the pro­tocol of aristocracy. He is trained from birth to think and act with poise and courage, always in keeping with his own personality, We are Spiritual aristocrats. We did not earn our exalted new birth, just as no royal infant deserves to be a prince. Our royalty is the result of the accomplishments of someone else. Jesus Christ founded our royal dynasty nearly two thousand years ago as a result of His strategic victory over Satan, for which He earned the exalted title King of Kings and Lord of Lords. At Spiritual birth we enter the royal family of the Lord Jesus Christ, (Gal 3:26) and He has given us His code of honor by which to live. Our royal code of conduct is taught throughout the New Testament, especially by Paul in, (Rom 12:1-21). We do not live under systems of legalism or religious tradition. We live objectively (IN God's Reality) with Divinely shared happiness in the Spiritual life of the King of Kings, not under the subjective, (One of Satan's many, many realities) deceptive influence of the ruler of this world. The Spiritual life is the power system that fulfills the royal family honor code.

1. Respect the privacy of the royal priesthood. 

     The Christian way of life is a life of freedom, (Gal 5:1) exceeding even the freedom of Divine establishment. Privacy is essential to freedom. The principle of the honor code, then, is “live and let live; AND live and let die.” (Rom 14:7-8) This means abstaining from gossip, maligning, judging, character assassination, and evil speculation from rumors and hearsay evidence. (Rom 14:10-13) Respect for the privacy of the priesthood also demands toleration for the erroneous opinions of immature believers on nonessential matters. (Rom 14:2-3) Ultimately Divine Thinking is the essential; everything else, to a greater or lesser degree, is non­essential. (Rom 14:19) As a believer grows in the Word, Truth corrects his opinions, with no need for unsolicited interference from other Christians. Toleration permits all believers to assemble and ap­proach the Word of God with objectivity. As royal priests, representing themselves before the Lord, the immature have the privacy and freedom to grow, while the mature have continued opportunities to develop strength through flexibility. 

2. Love all people with Impersonal love.

     Impersonal love emphasizes your own growth, which demands that you hold no grudge or resentment against ANYONE, especially other believers, who possess the same imputed righteousness of God that you possess. (Heb 13:1; 1Jn 3:11) Impersonal love also rejects self-pity and never seeks to arouse or exploit the pity of others. (Joh 15:12; Rom 12:9-10; 1Jn 4:11) 

3. Recognize that all believers have a common objective. 

     God keeps each believer alive to advance to maturity in the Spiritual life. Under the honor code, therefore, you must persevere in the perception and application of Truth. You must submit to the authority of your pastor-teacher, but this also means that you must demonstrate courtesy, thought­fulness, and sensitivity toward those in the congregation who may be at a dif­ferent stage of Spiritual growth. (Rom 15:5-7) 

4. Build integrity; do not distort morality.

     Integrity, (Staying in fellowship) is the standard of the royal family, superior to human morality. The believer’s Virtue is rooted in the filling of God the Holy Spirit and in Truth, whereas submitting to authority is the fulfillment of the Divine laws of establishment.  Virtue-morality, therefore, exceeds ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING that the old sin nature can produce! Personal Spiritual integrity is the sine qua non (Standard) of the Christian life; human morality devolves into legalism when it is assumed to be the Christian way of life. (Mat 15:8) Anything an unbeliever can do; cannot be the Christian way of life!

5. Never assume that human production is a means of Divine blessing. 

     Your talent, personality, intelligence, sacrifice, asceticism and or ability never merit blessing from God. He blesses His own imputed righteousness in us. God recognizes only integrity, which is the standard of Spiritual maturity attained through residence and function in His power system. Divine integrity is the source of all blessings to man, and God blesses from righteousness to righteousness, not from His integrity to human works. (Rom 8:7-8) Production is a result of Spiritual advance, never the cause. When momentum from Truth in the Spiritual life is recognized as the cause of Spiritual growth, integrity and blessings, then self-righteousness is excluded from your life. (Mat 6:33) 

6. Depend totally on the integrity of God.

     In order to depend on God, we must be intimately aware of His attributes through understanding Truth. Our point of contact with God is His integrity. Hence, the entire Spiritual life can be summarized as Integrity First: A Steadfast adherence to a strict “moral” or ethical code. This total dependence on God’s justice and righteousness is called “hope,” the confident expectation of blessing. (Rom 15:13) Such confidence motivates and sustains your Spiritual momentum: you are carried to maturity by Spiritual Thinking, Thinking under an honor code Principle. Right Thinking creates right motivation, and right motivation leads to right action. (Rom 12:1-2)

7. Remember that the honor code is for all believers.

     The royal family honor code is not just for brilliant or accomplished people. Simply because the royal code is superior to all other approaches to life is no excuse for arrogance. It is God’s system, His code, not ours. Both the Divine laws of establishment and the royal family honor code sustain our advance, blessing, and happiness. All believers, including us, rely on these two Divine systems. (Rom 12:3; Rom 13:1-8)

8. More is demanded of the strong than the beginner. 

     We are all royalty, yet no two believers are equal. Even among royalty some are stronger and more advanced than others by Virtue of their more consistent perception and application of Truth. The Principle of noblesse oblige, (Nobility obligates) applies. Maturity imposes the obligation of honorable, generous, and responsible behavior; and is a companion of high rank or noble birth. (Rom 15:1-5) The strong are obliged to tolerate the nonessential, inconsequential, and occasionally obnoxious opinions and actions of the weak. (Rom 14:1) An arrogant person might assume you are weak and might ridicule you for bending to the demands of immature believers, but there is no weakness in such flexibility. The strong believer is confident and says, “I may bend, but I will not break.” (Willing to do anything, except get out of fellowship) He maintains a relaxed sense of humor about himself, about life, and about others. Impersonal love eases the strong believer’s duty to the weak believer. 

9. Orient to authority. 

     Some people resent authority. But authority pro­tects freedom. (1Pe 2:13-18) Like human freedom, Christian freedom is not an isolated quality. Your freedom as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is an integral part of a system that includes free will, privacy, private property and authority. Genuine humility submits to the pastor who faithfully teaches ortho­dox Divine Revelation from a systematic exegesis of the Scriptures. (Heb 13:7-18) God has delegated His authority to pastors. (Eph 4:11)

JOHN TEACHES VIRTUE LOVE  

     Virtue must be produced through consistently remaining in fellowship. We begin with Truth, not with Virtue. We must obey God’s Commands and make the many positive Divine Decisions necessary to submit to the process of learning Truth: rebound, reception, retention, recall, resist, repeat.

     We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love [Stays in fellowship] abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected [Spiritual maturity is attained] with us, so that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. [Sharing His Spiritual life and living by it] (1Jn 4:16-17; Heb 3:14)

     Truth reveals the Divine nature —Virtue love, which reflects the essence of God. (2Pe 1:4) The Greek noun agape, “love,” establishes a category that encompasses the entire system of practical Theology. Virtue love becomes a description of the Spiritually mature way of life. (1Co 13:1-8) God’s purpose in keeping you alive is that you may develop a Personal love for Him by reaching Spiritual maturity. Until you have achieved Personal love for God, you have accomplished nothing as a believer. (Joh 14:23) Christianity is not witnessing, prayer, giving, singing, sacrifice, emotion. Even in their proper places these are results of Spiritual maturity. Your primary function as a believer is Virtue love; as a result of residence in the Spiritual life. Personal love for God is the motivator of all the normal, legitimate activities of the Christian way of life. God derives pleasure from giving us the option of going through life with Virtue; He has established the game plan by which we can succeed. When we possess motivating Virtue, we can obey all the functional Commands found in the Word of God, including the Command to love all mankind — with Impersonal love. (Mat 5:44-45)

VIRTUE LOVE AND FEAR 

     Along with Virtue love comes confidence. The advancing believer has mental poise and eager anticipation regarding even the ultimate test in life, the Judgment Seat of Christ, where our lives will be evaluated for eternal reward or loss of reward. Summoned before the God man, Jesus Christ, the absolute judge — who will decide the gravest possible issue, the final evaluation of each believer’s Spiritual life — the Spiritually mature believer will stand in complete freedom from anxiety or fear. Such confidence, which we can also possess in this life! (This is our Goal!)

     In order that we may have confidence in the day of evalua­tion, [The Judgment Seat of Christ] because just as He is, [Spiritually mature] so also are we in this world. (1Jn 4:17) 

     Christ, the future judge, possessed impeccable honor and Virtue in the pro­totype Spiritual life. We cannot be impeccable, but the completed Spiritual life can! Constructed upon the imputed Divine righteousness that we received at Salvation, our Divine Thinking and Virtue imitates Christ as we persist in the Spiritual life in the devil’s world.

     A pair of counterpart Virtues in the Spiritual life, are confidence in God and courage toward man and circumstances. The motivational Virtue of confidence in God stands behind the functional Virtue of courage toward people and circumstances. 

     There is no fear in love; [In fellowship] but perfect love [Spiritual maturity] casts out fear, [And all other sins and temptations] because fear involves punishment, [Divine discipline] and the one who fears is not perfected [A Spiritually mature believer] in love. (1Jn 4:18) 

     Uncontrolled fear is the opposite of courage. Courage toward man and confidence toward God stand together as counterpart Virtues, so that when the mental attitude sin of fear “or any other sin” controls the soul, all Virtue is eliminated. Fear is a de­stroyer of love because fear destroys Virtue. The Spiritual life is the sphere of Virtue, in which fear cannot possibly persist. Because courage toward man is the functional Virtue motivated by confi­dence in God, the believer who is sure of God’s omnipotence, faithfulness, and logistical grace remains in control of his life even under maximum stress. Courage is Thinking under pressure; fear is inability to Think. The coward is not nec­essarily the one who runs away but the one who freezes mentally under pressure.

     When a Spiritually mature, Virtuous believer continues to conduct himself with poise and carry out his responsibilities under tremendous strain, he makes the pressure look like no pressure and his courage look like perfect calm. By learning Truth in the power of the Spiritual life, the believer builds confidence in God, which gives him courage, poise, and freedom from anxiety in applying Truth to life. Describing love, the Greek adjective teleios indicates that nothing which belongs to this love is left out; nothing can be added to it as an improvement; nothing of its own excellence is lacking. Often translated “perfect,” teleios is an adjective of excellence. Aeschylus applied teleios to the gods as a Divine attri­bute: “mighty, efficacious.” Plato used teleios interchangeably with arete, “Virtue.” Teleios becomes a synonym for Virtue, so that what is often quoted from the King James Version as “perfect love” takes on tremendous signifi­cance when recognized to mean “Virtue love.” Satan sponsors false systems of love. Only Virtue love, which is the monopoly of God in the Spiritual life, expels fear as well as all other sins. This is not a reference to Divine discipline administered by the justice of God. The believer outside the Spiritual life produces both the fear and his own punishment. (Pro 8:36) Fear causes self-induced misery. By remaining in a position of weakness, a believer becomes his own worst enemy. He continually makes poor decisions, dedicating himself to a life of self-punishment. He cannot blame cir­cumstances, environment, or other people for his unhappiness. He is the product of his own decisions (Isa 65:2) to ignore God’s game plan, and to refuse to live in the sphere of Virtue. He has failed to achieve Virtue love.

VIRTUE LOVE AND HATRED 

In verse 19, John presents the pattern of Virtue-love as found in the essence of God.

     We love because He first loved us. (1Jn 4:19) 

     In eternity past God knew every act of sin, a believer would commit, yet He loved us with Divine Impersonal love based on His own integrity. Integrity characterizes His every action toward us. Because of Divine integrity God the Father sent His Son to be born a man. As true humani­ty Christ paid the penalty for sin, which was demanded by Divine integrity, so that anyone who believes in Him might be reconciled to God. Christ Himself possesses double integrity: as God He has Divine righteousness and justice; as a man He remained impeccable by staying in fellowship.

     God the Father has always loved the Son with perfect, eternal love, but from eternity past the purpose of Christ’s first advent was always that He die on the Cross. At the Cross the integrity of God took precedence over Divine love as the justice of the Father imputed our sins to Christ and judged them in Him. (2Co 5:20-21) The integrity of God makes His love for us possible. Therefore, we love on the same Principle: integrity first. The depth of our Personal love for God and the stability of our Impersonal love for man depend on our Virtue, honor, and integrity developed in fellowship. Indeed, Impersonal love is a technical term for the integrity or Virtue of the subject.

     (1Jn 4:20) presents a hypothetical case in which a believer has lost con­trol of his life, as manifest in the malfunction of Virtue-love.

     If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. (1Jn 4:20)

     When a believer is filled with self-righteousness, guilt, self-pity, jealousy, antagonism, bitterness or implacability he is not in control of his life. Mental attitude sins are a sign of having relinquished command of the soul to the old sin nature, succumbing to the devil’s influence. (2Ti 2:26) If a believer does not control his life, he cannot produce Virtue. He has no functional Virtue toward man and circumstances, and if no functional Virtue, no motivational Virtue toward God. Gates five and six of the love complex stand or fall together; they are coexistent or nonexistent. If one part is missing, the whole is destroyed. The believer who hates his fellow believer has arrogantly elevated himself above others; he has obscured his Personal sense of destiny, having removed himself from the power sphere of God, he resides in a position of weak­ness from which he can make ONLY bad decisions. Satan is “a liar and the father of lies,” (Joh 8:44) and the believer who rejects God’s system lives a lie in Satan’s counterfeit system. 

     Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness [Virtue] is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin [Stays out of fellowship] is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, [We cannot sin in fellowship] because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness [Stay in fellowship] is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.  (1Jn 3:7-10)

     This same Principle is taught in (Joh 8:31-47) When the Virtue of Impersonal love in gate six is obliterated by mental atti­tude sins, the Virtue of Personal love in gate five also fails to operate. Hatred toward anyone robs you of Virtue love toward everyone, including God. It is self­-deception to claim that you have Virtue love toward invisible God if you have none toward people. Gate five is the beginning of the batter’s swing; gate six is the follow-through. There is no functional Virtue without honorable motivation, and no motivational Virtue exists if it’s inevitable result — a relaxed mental attitude toward people; is absent.  

DIVINE COMMANDS FOR VIRTUE LOVE 

     Furthermore, we have this Commandment from Him that he who loves God should also love his fellow believers. (1Jn 4:21) 

     This is the Divine Command for a totality of Virtue, for the unity of Virtue love toward God and man. You obey this Command, not by seeking to love God and man, but by acquiring Virtue in the sustained, coordinated function of gates one through four of the Spiritual life.

     You cannot possess permanent Virtue without a permanent source of motiva­tion. Anyone can put on a show of loving his fellow believer, but in time, as circumstances change, the deception inevitably crumbles. Virtue must be properly motivated. In order to love all mankind with Impersonal love, you need a strong Personal love for God. Love for God is based on a solid foundation of Truth in the soul, applied in the power of God the Holy Spirit, the objectivity of basic Christian modus operandi, and the continued teach-ability of genuine humility. Gates five and six of the love complex stand as one Principle, but ultimately all the gates of God’s system stand or fall together.

     First John 5 continues from chapter 4 and reiterates the link between motiva­tional Virtue and functional Virtue. 

     Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ [Messiah, the Anointed One] has been born from God. Furthermore, everyone who loves the Father loves everyone who has been born from Him. (1Jn 5:1) 

     At the moment of Salvation, every believer first enters the Spiritual life through gate one, the filling of God the Holy Spirit. The system that was a birthday gift from the Father to the Son on the first Christmas becomes a birthday gift to us, not at our physical birth, but at our Spiritual birth. (Tit 3:5-6) We possess the sphere of Virtue, but no one automatically loves God. Nor does anyone automatically love all mankind. As we advance in the Spiritual life, we acquire that capacity for love. In the interlocking gates of the Spiritual life, motivational Virtue toward God and functional Virtue toward man gradually develop as one entity. As we enter gate five, we simultaneously enter gate six. 

     By this we know [Proof that we have Virtue] [It Works!] that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His Commandments. [Think with His Thoughts and His Reality] For this is the love of God, that we keep His Commandments; and His Commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; [Satan's cosmic system and the old sin nature] and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. [The Spiritual life] (1Jn 5:2-4) 

     No one can live the Christian way of life outside the factory that manufac­tures Virtue — the Spiritual life. Every stage of the manufacturing process is clearly described in Divine Instructions and Commands, and the Lord’s Commands are not difficult to fulfill. 

     Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. [Spiritual maturity] Take My yoke [Spiritual life] upon you, and learn from Me, [Truth, gate four, is the Mind of Christ] for I am gentle and humble in heart; [Gate three, genuine humility] and you shall find rest for your souls. [In fellowship] For My yoke is easy, [The Spiritual life] and My load is light [To reach Spiritual maturity] (Mat 11:28-30) 

     We all enter the Christian life with some handicap from our lives as unbelievers or from exposure to false teaching. But every handicap and difficulty is nullified by God’s system of grace. Divine logistical grace, makes the difficult easy. Only our own negative volition pre­vents us from living the Spiritual life and advancing in Virtue. The only issue that remains to be settled is; how will our volition function?

ACCELERATED GROWTH UNDER PRESSURE

     You will inevitably face momentum tests as a necessary part of life; obstacles lie astride the path of every believer’s growth. Testing in gate seven of the Spiritual life is not an exception to God’s grace; testing is an expression of God’s grace. God either permits testing or directly sends testing, (Lam 3:38) but His timing is always perfect. Only Truth can keep pace with God’s timing, and you accel­erate your advance only by successfully overcoming obstacles! Indeed, you must pass tests in order to obtain the prize of sharing God’s happiness in gate eight. (Php 3:14) When you periodically encounter challenges to your progress, you either increase or lose momentum, depending on whether you pass or fail the test. Distractions to Spiritual momentum can become the Christian’s ruin or one of the greatest opportunities for scoring tactical victories in the angelic conflict. If you are right with God, you can face the wrongs of injustice, disaster, or pressure with the power of the Spiritual life. (1Pe 1:6-7) As a believer you sustain your Spiritual momentum through daily decisions to learn and Think with Truth. You manifest the Truth resident in your soul through growth and application, but Spiritual growth withers and faith-rest will not function outside of the Spiritual life. Man’s volition is designed to obey the Commands of God. Volition can be used to succeed or fail; super-grace provides only for success!

     The proper function of volition is hindered by arrogance, which also neutralizes Truth in the soul. The “out of fellowship” believer, therefore, may know Truth, but he cannot make prudent, judicious, and correct application. He can only distort the Word of God. He follows the path of Satan in eternity past. The devil knew more Truth than any other creature, yet arrogance caused his fall. (Isa 14:9-17)

     In opposition to God’s game plan, Satan administers his own power system — the cosmic system — to prevent, impede and reverse your Spiritual momentum. Although the power of God is greater than the power of Satan, the devil can lure you into arrogance or hatred so that you never attain Spiritual strength. You attain cosmic strength, which cannot sustain you. When you reside in Satan’s interlocking system of arrogance, you are a loser entangled in self­-centeredness; in his interlocking system of hatred you are a dupe in rebellion against the Thoughts of God. (1Sa 15:23) Volition is basic authority in life, the guardian of the soul. Because your freewill can defeat the ingenious strategy of Satan, (Jas 4:7) you must strengthen your positive volition. You do so by consistently choosing to function in God’s system: concentrate to learn Truth, then concentrate to Think with Truth. The mental exercise of making right Decisions and to use the Spiritual Truth in your soul, in life’s pressures or in prosperity; builds Spiritual muscle and resolves momentum testing.   

TAKING EXAMS, ENJOYING THE GAME      
     Momentum testing has a counterpart in academic life. In school you progress from one grade to the next because you have passed a series of tests. You have demonstrated your knowledge and application of the subjects taught in the previous grade. Likewise, as you achieve each level of Spiritual growth, you will be tested for knowledge and application of Truth in that increment of your Christian development. If you have been constant in learning Truth under your pastor, you must take an exam, sometimes a pop quiz. Someone you love may die unexpectedly; an old friend may malign you; a cherished possession may be lost; your wealth taken from you. When misfortune comes, you take an exam. How do you face catastrophe? You have already learned the Truth necessary to control the situation, so you apply and Think with the Truth you know! You open your soul by the power of God the Holy Spirit (Joh 14:26) and begin to Think, giving back to the Lord all He has taught you through the grace appa­ratus for perception. (Operation Z) Your use or misuse of the Truth you have learned determines whether or not you will grow at this particular stage in your Christian life. If you fail, (The only way to fail a test is to give in to the sin nature and not rebound you can struggle through it, just don’t give up!) use (1Jn 1:9) and fall back and regroup for an opportunity to learn more and be tested again at a later time. (1Co 10:13) But you have missed the chance to accelerate your capacity for life. You cannot afford to flunk too many tests if you hope to advance all the way to maturity. God gives each believer only a finite number of days, and you must continually learn, apply and Think with Truth, “redeeming the time.” (Eph 5:16)

     I learned to play football under a system called the single wing, which involved making the same moves over and over in practice, a hundred times, a thousand times, before I ever had the opportunity to execute plays in a game. There was no brush blocking; everything was precise. (This is how God interacts with us!) To be effective I had to practice each play the same way again and again. All this was accomplished under the grueling but relatively no pressure situation of scrimmage. After the team had mastered the system and could execute the plays perfectly on the prac­tice field, then we were faced with real opponents. The pressure situation was the actual game. But I had to perform exactly as I did in practice: execute the play; throw a perfect block. Our opponents fell all over themselves while our team gained yardage. We were actually having fun, even under pressure, because the system worked!

     The same Principle applies in coping with pressure in life. You may hear a Truth repeated many times as the pastor faithfully exegetes the Scriptures over a number of years. Repetition means inculcation; under pressure you will need the entrenched knowledge of Doctrinal Concepts. When a crisis comes, you will discover that God's Thinking works! Faith-rest is designed for pressure situa­tions; indeed, the only tranquility in Christianity is humility, borrowing God’s strength inside the Spiritual life. In a hopeless situation reliance on God’s Word is the only solution! God alone can solve hopeless problems; man copes with problems in humility and watches the deliverance of the Lord. (Exodus 14:13) The perception of Truth is an academic function, but it is also a Spiritual function requiring the interlock of the first four gates of the Spiritual life. Learning under the grace apparatus for perception, (Operation Z) demands the filling of God the Holy Spirit, objectivity, and enforced and genuine humility. Likewise, applying Truth in gate four is also a Spiritual function, demanding the interlock of all the gates of God’s system. The Divine Commands to establish and increase your Spiritual momentum summarize all the Thoughts related to the love complex.

     And walk in love, [Stay in fellowship] just as Christ also [Did, and] loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. (Eph 5:2)

     And this is love that, we walk according to His Commandments. [Spirit & Truth; Joh 4:24] This is the Commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. [In fellowship] (2Jn 1:6) 

     You perpetuate your momentum in two ways: through the perception of Truth and the application of Truth. Perception comes in Bible class; application comes in the problems of life — the momentum tests. No believer can advance without both functions of gate four of the Spiritual life.

SUFFERING AS BLESSING OR DISCIPLINE 

     Gate seven of the Spiritual life includes eight categories of testing and their solutions, but the suffering involved in any category of testing is designed for one of two purposes. You suffer either for Divine blessing or for Divine discipline. All causes of suffering and all forms of testing fall within these two categories, and when you come under pressure, the first question to resolve is whether you are suffering for discipline (We have been staying out of fellowship) or for blessing. (We have been staying in fellowship) 

CLASSIFICATION OF ALL CHRISTIAN SUFFERING 

     When you suffer for discipline, the issue is sin. (Jas 4:17) You are under pressure because you have made bad decisions from a position of weakness and are residing in Satan’s power system. You cannot claim that “the devil is after me”; you have pursued the devil. You have chosen to live out of fellowship! (1Co 11:31) Only God can convert Divine discipline, or self-induced misery, into blessing, and this He has done by providing rebound for reentry into the Spiritual life. When you are suffering for discipline, the issue is staying out of fellowship, and that is a sin, (Rom 14:23) but when suffering for blessing, the issue is grace. God is graciously testing us in order to stimulate our appli­cation of Truth. When we store the Word of God in our soul; He Generously expedites our progress toward super-grace. The distinction between these two general categories of testing is that suffer­ing for punishment is unbearable, whereas suffering for blessing is bearable. You cannot endure Divine punishment, self-induced misery and or temptations because you are in a position of weakness, slavery to the power system of Satan. But you can handle temptations, tests and or suffering for blessing through the power of the Spiritual life! 

     Testing [For blessing] has not caught up with you except the human kind; moreover, God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tested beyond your Spiritual growth, but with the testing He will also provide a way out [The faith — rest drill in the Spiritual life and or flee] so that you can endure it. (1Co 10:13) 

     When you are suffering for discipline, your viewpoint is arrogance and subjectivity: (Reality the way WE humanly think it is!) you blame others for your misfortune or feel sorry for yourself. When suffering for blessing, however, your attitude is humility and objectivity: (Reality the way God Declares it to be!) You are using the Doctrinal Rationales of the faith-rest drill. You are teachable and alert to learn from the crisis. Rebound and maximum intake of Truth is the solution to suffering for punishment; the application and Thinking with Truth is the solution to suffering for blessing.

     If you have persevered in the Spiritual life under normal circum­stances, then when pressure arrives you will continue to function honorably. Sometimes the pain and the pressure are so intense that you may feel you are going down instead of up; right Decisions may appear to set you back; compro­mise of God’s Thinking seems to be the route to quick advance or relief from pain. But by continuing to utilize God’s system, all testing is effectively resolved, and a higher plane of Spiritual growth achieved! (Isa 28:28-29)

 STRENGTH IN THE DIVINE SYSTEM 

     In the cosmic system not only are you unable to tolerate suffering, but you will continue to fail. You will become subjective, vacillating, untrustworthy, and you will drag others into your misery. You will impose on your friends or pastor, demanding their time and attention, seeking their sympathy. But no amount of counseling will avail. The best advice in the world falls on deaf ears when that person under pressure is in the cosmic system. Commiserating with such a person will not help. He resides in a sphere of power — Satan’s power — that he can escape only by his own volition. Before any Truth is usable to him, he must leave the cosmic system and reenter the bottom circle. Unless he is willing to make this decision, he will continue to drain his friends and family emotionally, physically, mentally, and often financially. Inside the cosmic sys­tem, no one can keep the Truth organized. That is why believers fall apart, become psychotic, go on criminal binges, and commit suicide. There are eight basic momentum tests, and for each test God has provided a solution. The objective application of Truth operates only inside the interlocking system of the Spiritual life. God has given us a system; His power is available to us only inside that system. We must obey His Thoughts and Think with them in order to pass the momentum tests and forge ahead in the Christian life. God’s promise to “not permit you to be tested beyond your growth level” applies only within the Spiritual life He has provided. 

     Love is patient, [Makrothumeo] love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, [Not preoccupied with self] is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, [Not preoccupied with others] does not rejoice in unrighteousness, [Staying out of fellowship] but rejoices with the Truth; [Divine Thinking in fellowship] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love [The Spiritual life] never fails!... (1Co 13:4-8) 

     The Greek verb makrothumeo means to be longsuffering, enduring, patient; to endure with courage and steadfastness; to exercise forbearance under provo­cation; to be undisturbed by obstacles, delays, failures; to be able to bear the stress and strain of pressure. Fortitude belongs to the Spiritual life because God knew that we would need endurance for accelerated Spiritual momentum in the devil’s world. Stubbornness is not strength; stubbornness is weakness and inflexibility. A false code of honor is always inflexible, subjective, and arrogant, whereas perseverance in the Spiritual life is flexible, leading to integrity in changing, unpredictable circumstances.

TESTS OF SPIRITUAL MOMENTUM         

1. Old Sin Nature Test                      

Rebound & Truth

2. People Test                                  

Impersonal Love

3. Thought Test                                   

Doctrinal Rationales

4. Systems  Test                                

Impersonal Love and

Doctrinal Rationales

5. Arrogance Complex Test              

Spiritual life

6. Hatred Complex Test                      

Spiritual life

7. Disaster Test  

Faith-Rest Drill

8. Prosperity Test                               

Genuine Humility and                                                     Perception of Truth 

     Integrity demands objective Thought. When God commands you to perse­vere in fellowship, He is ordering you to Think Divine Viewpoint. Right Thinking leads to right motivation, and right motivation leads to right action. All the gates of the love complex function together as integral parts of the whole when Truth is being correctly applied. The fundamental conflict between the Spiritual life and the cosmic system, between the bearable and the unbearable, is emphasized in the first momentum test. If you control your old sin nature properly, (Gal 5:16) you assure that you do indeed reside in God's system and stand in a position of strength, ready to meet any challenge! 

THE OLD SIN NATURE TEST 

TEMPTATION VERSUS SIN 

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     The old sin nature is the source of temptation but not the source of sin. Human thinking, (Mar 8:33) and evil, (Satan's thinking) (Act 5:3) are the products of the sin nature when it controls the soul, but they are caused by human volition. Regardless of what you do in thought, word, or deed, you do it because you want to do it. You are responsible for all your thoughts, motives, and actions, whether sinful or honorable. (Rom 2:15-16) Ignorance is no excuse; insanity is no excuse. What you do, you choose to do! You must take responsibility for your personal decisions in order to find solutions to your problems. And by using Divine Thinking we can never fail! Because God can never fail! Volition is the guardian at the gate of the soul, protecting the soul from the old sin nature, Satan’s inside agent headquartered in the body. Only your con­sent allows the old sin nature to take control of your soul. (Rom 6:12) You alone convert temptation into sin. When you succumb to the solicitations of the sin nature, you automatically enter the cosmic system, entering via some variation of mental attitude arrogance. Mental attitude sins are motivational evils that lead to func­tional evils. Mental attitude sins are expressed in verbal and overt sins and con­tribute to sin nature good, (Mar 8:32-33; Isa 65:2-5) and sin nature evil. (Mat 15:19; Jer 17:9)

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     You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the Truth because there is no Truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (Joh 8:44)

     All production from our sin nature, is ultimately from the nature we inherited from Satan. (Rom 5:12) Whatever we think or say or do out of fellowship is wood, hay, and straw (1Co 3:12-14) which is useless for Spiritual growth and reward. (1Co 3:18-20; Psa 39:5)

     In contrast, when you are residing in the Spiritual life and resist temp­tation, you have invisible impact, growth, blessing and in eternity reward! The only way to stay in fellowship consistently is to know God's Reality for your life and to live in His Reality! For the unbeliever; (1Ti 2:4) For the believer. (Joh 8:31-32)

     You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called. Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy. I think then that this is good in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you. But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away. But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things [Thoughts] of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but one who is married is concerned about the things [Thoughts] of the world, how he may please his wife, and his interests are divided! (2Ti 2:4) The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things [Thoughts] of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things [Thoughts] of the world, how she may please her husband. This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord. (1Co 7:23-35)

     Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. (Joh 12:24-26)

 

     These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. (Rev 14:4)

     For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; [As God would have it] for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. (2Co 11:2-3)

         Objectivity: is living and Thinking by what God declares to be Reality! And this insu­lates you against the world. (Cosmic system) (1Jn 2:15-17) And you have freedom from mental attitude sins and human subjectivity. (Jer 18:12) (Reality the way we think it is) This is a built in quality of Impersonal love directed toward all people, circumstances, her, him, this, that and everything else! Which is not only the highest Spiritual Virtue but also your primary line of defense against failing the sin nature test! Temptation is not sin! You do not lose your fellowship with God simply because you are tempted to sin! (Heb 4:15) Your love for God in the Spiritual life gives you the strength and wisdom to resist or avoid temptation. (Heb 12:4; Heb 13:13-14)

VOLITION AS THE GUARDIAN AT THE GATE OF THE SOUL 

     Sin has no place in God’s game plan; nevertheless, we all sin. Even the most mature believers fail from time to time. (Eccles 7:20) When you do slip into the arrogance complex through mental attitude sins of lying, (1Co 6:7) lust, (Mat 5:28) criticism, (Luk 6:35-38) or wanting to know about other people’s lives in Hollywood, or next door, (You have just exited God's Reality!) (1Th 4:11) the solution is no longer resisting tempta­tion. It is too late for that. The answer is immediate rebound. (1Jn 1:9) Everyone in the cosmic system is a loser; you must quickly move back into the sphere of God’s plan in order to be on the winning side again! Rebound is tantamount to recogniz­ing that you are responsible for the decision that took you out of the Spiritual life and that now it is your responsibility to get back in and stay in, through the grace system God has provided. The rebound technique both reinstates you in the Spiritual life and solves the problem of suffering for discipline. Suffering is unbearable only because you have rejected God’s grace system for dealing with suffering. The inner strength of the Spiritual life makes suffering testing and or temptations bearable. In the cosmic system you are arrogant, subjective, and self-centered, which complicates your life and makes any difficulty intolerable. Being in fellowship gives you the ability to “endure with fortitude under pressure,” not with gritted teeth (Sometimes!) but in the confident serenity of your fellowship with God. When you suddenly find yourself in adversity, how do you know if you are suffering for discipline or for blessing? In the cosmic system, you are being disciplined; in the Spiritual life, blessed. But how do you determine which system is controlling you? The issue is unreality and sin. If you are sinning or have un-con­fessed sin in your life, you are under the control of the sin nature in the cosmic system. If you have no un-confessed sins, you have passed the old sin nature test, at least for now, you are filled with God the Holy Spirit, and so the next step is to maximize your intake of God's Thoughts and Reality! (2Co 6:17-18) (Mat 10:34-39)

THE REBOUND RATIONALE 

     Rebound is an extremely simple Thought or Thoughts of Truth. If you keep short accounts with God, if you do not permit un-confessed sins to accumulate, then you need only a moment to admit privately to God; being out of fellowship. Restoration to fellowship is instantaneous, but the rebound technique is backed up by an entire structure of basic Divine Thoughts. Rebound is easy for us because it was hard for Jesus Christ; it cost Him the Cross. In the perception side of gate four, you have concentrated on learning the Salvation Doctrines of propitiation, redemption, and reconciliation, as communi­cated by your pastor.

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     Now in the application side of gate four, you reverse your concentration to bring these pertinent Divine Spiritual Thoughts to mind in a logical Rationale. The rebound Rationale ultimately leads to Doctrinal Conclusions that enable you to forget your failure and move on in confidence. (Isa 43:18; Php 3:13) Thus, rebound employs the three stages of the faith-rest drill.

In stage one of the faith-rest drill, your faith reaches out and claims a Promise.

     For this reason, many among you are weak [Warning disci­pline] and sick, [Intensive discipline] and a number sleep. [Sin unto death] But if we judged ourselves rightly, [Rebound adjustment to the justice of God] we should not be judged. (1Co 11:30-31)

             

     How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge? Turn to my reproof, [Rebound] Behold, I will pour out My Spirit on you; I will make My Words known to you. (Pro 1:22-23)

     If we confess [Name, cite, acknowledge] our sins, He [God the Father] is faithful and righteous [Justified] with the result that He forgives us our sins [Known sins] and also cleanses us from all unrighteousness. [Unknown, and forgotten sins] (1Jn 1:9)

     You claim these Promises by doing what they Command: admit your sins. As a member of the royal family of God, you are your own priest, representing yourself as a private individual before God. When you admit your sins privately to God, He keeps His Promise to forgive you and cleanse you from all your sins, known and unknown, and forgotten. How you feel about your sins is not an issue. There is no reference to your feelings in the rebound Promises. Emotion is never a criterion of Spiritual status. What counts is God’s attitude toward your sins. Your emotion adds nothing, and a guilt complex is just another sin.

     In stage two of the faith-rest drill, your faith reaches out and follows a Logi­cal Rationale. According to the Doctrine of Salvation, specifically the Doctrines of the first and second judicial imputation, your personal sins were imputed to Christ on the Cross and judged. And His righteousness is imputed to us, at the moment of faith in Christ.

     He [God the Father] made Him, [Christ] who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, [In place of us; Christ was our substi­tute] that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2Co 5:21)

     Reverse concentration recalls the Divine Thoughts that explain why rebound works every time and why the procedure is so simple. The sin has already been judged on the Cross, and the judicial verdicts of God are perfect, final, and irreversible. You can add nothing to a legal case that God has closed. By admitting our sins, we are accepting the finished work of Christ on our behalf for the forgiveness of our sins, just as we accepted His work for our Salvation. In both Salvation and rebound all that remains for us to contribute is non-meritorious positive vo­lition. We merely accept what God has done. Rebound does not depend on us. That is why it works every time, and that is why, under the Principle of grace, God receives all the credit. Our emotions, guilt, worry, and remorse are intru­sions that stand in the way of our recovery and continued Spiritual advance. In the third stage of the faith-rest drill, faith reaches Doctrinal Conclusions. We conclude that the sin in question has been paid for in full, that we are now back in fellowship with God, inside the Spiritual life, and that we have escaped the cosmic system and are controlled once again by God the Holy Spirit. In the energy of the Spirit and obeying the Commands connected with the other gates of God’s system, we have regained control of the situation. Pressure and suffering may continue, but what was intolerable has now become bearable, in the dynamics of the eight gates of God’s game plan. 

PEOPLE TESTING 

REACTION AND ATTRACTION 

     When you fall victim to injustice, you can become bitterly impatient. “How long will my enemy triumph?” (Psa 13:2) Periodic opposition from people is inevitable because the majority of people in the world live exclusively in the cos­mic system of Satan, and in the devil’s kingdom nothing is fair. Only God’s integrity is fair, giving you the Divine system for survival and happiness in all circum­stances. God provides Divine establishment, logistical grace, Spiritual Thoughts, and the Spiritual life, etc..., whereas people often give you nothing but vacillation, an­tagonism, misunderstanding, slander, and disappointment. (Rom 3:10-18) Under such testing there is no excuse for becoming discouraged or cynical. (It is what it is!) Suffering for blessing is always positive: a mature believer’s integrity is revealed not only in his per­sonal Virtues but also, to use the old phrase, you can tell a person’s character by who his enemies are and what is he like under pressure. (Deut 20:8) You can be distracted away from the momentum line to Spiritual maturity if you react to those who naturally rub you the wrong way. A personality conflict, if uncon­trolled, can develop into a deep-seated hatred, revenge motivation, or the arrogance of complete insensitivity. Hostile subjectivity has no place in the plan of God. But our antagonists are only one category of people who can distract us from your Spiritual growth. Our momentum can also suffer through those whom we love. Many a growing believer is led astray by someone he finds fascinating and attractive. Personal love can magnify weaknesses, create vulnerabilities, and obliterate objectivity. Hence, personal human love for another member of the human race, no matter how romantic, is not a Virtue. Such Spiritual Personal love is Virtue-dependent, depending on the true Virtue of Impersonal love, which itself depends on the Virtue of Personal love for God. Furthermore, Personal love for God is constructed on the foundational Virtue of genuine humility, the teachability factor that enables you to learn Truth. Humility develops motivational Virtue toward God; motivational Virtue toward God sustains functional Virtue toward man, which sustains Virtue-dependent Esprit de corps love toward man. Impersonal love is an indi­vidual’s integrity, and integrity gives strength and stability to Virtue-dependent Esprit de corps love toward man.

     If your human personal love is not reciprocated, or if the person you love becomes a disappointment, then reaction sets in. Without Impersonal love you enter the cosmic system through the mental attitude sin of arrogance and quickly interlock with iconoclastic arrogance, the arrogance of unhappiness, or discourage­ment. All the tremendous energy of personal human love is now expressed in disillu­sion, depression, bitterness, implacability, self-pity, vindictiveness and or guilt reaction. The pain and confusion generated by human personal love is a test of your Spiritual momentum. (Eph 6:12) For a help in understanding this, watch this movie!

 Click: http://www.amazon.com/Truman-Show-Jim-Carrey/dp/6305252521

RELYING ON IMPERSONAL LOVE

People testing is generated by those you love or those you dislike, but the solution to both categories is Impersonal love. Whether involved in human personal love or personal hatred, the believer’s attitude must revert to Impersonal love. When someone we love disillusions us or rides roughshod over our feelings, we switch our emphasis from that person to our own objectivity. (Thinking with God's Reality) (Who told you they would never let you down, they will! And you will let them down!) (Joh 2:23-25) In gates two and six of the Spiritual life, you maintain your Virtue love and your own equilibrium; and avoid bitterness! When you switch from personal human love to Impersonal Virtue love, you are actually falling back on the Virtue that sustains your Personal Esprit de corps love for people. Impersonal love and Personal love run parallel: one a Virtue toward God, the other a Virtue toward mankind. Impersonal love is the Virtue of loving all and is also the capacity for loving a few people with Personal Esprit de corps love. No matter what may be the ups and downs of a Personal love relationship, the capacity of Impersonal love is always there. The foundation is consistent; when personal human love falters and one of the select few who are the objects of your Personal Esprit de corps love suddenly becomes less attractive to you, you still have the foundation of Impersonal love. (But you must Think it and use it!) This becomes the mechanics for solving people problems. You do not demand that the object of your love change his personality to suit you or regain the qualities that attract you. Instead, you shift your emphasis from Personal to Impersonal love. If Personal love is not working at the moment, you maintain your own stability. Our emphasis on Impersonal love permits the object of our love the grace and freedom to be a person. They do not and cannot always live up to the high expectations you cherish in the objects of your personal human love. We are all imperfect, and from time to time each of us is living proof of the total depravity of man! (Rom 3:12) Periodically we need to be tolerated with Impersonal love just as our loved ones need to be graced occasionally by our Impersonal love. Impersonal love is the only means of survival for personal human love. Likewise, when you are tempted to enter the cosmic system through hatred, you must switch to Impersonal love. Instead of indulging in vituperation, you must treat the offensive individual on the basis of who and what you are in fellowship, not on who and what he may be. Impersonal love for all people fulfills the principle of live and let live. In social life Impersonal love insures civilized behavior, poise, and graciousness. In business life Impersonal love maintains your honor and professionalism, when dealing with people you may personally loathe. In the Spiritual life Impersonal love enables a completely incompatible vari­ety of believers to assemble in harmony, to hear the teaching of Truth. Without Impersonal love you cannot sustain your happiness and growth in the devil’s kingdom, in close proximity with other people, each of whom possesses his own weaknesses, eccentricities, and old sin nature.

THOUGHT TESTING 

POSITIVE VOLITION VERSUS NEGATIVE VOLITION 

     Momentum in the Spiritual life demands Thought. What you Think is what you are, (Pro 23:7) and in order to grow up Spiritually you must Think with Truth in both learning and applying. In Thought testing the issue is positive versus negative volition toward Truth. In the arrogance complex of Satan’s cosmic system, negative volition makes an issue of self; (Isa 14:13-14) in the hatred complex, negative volition opposes others God and Truth. (Jas 3:14-15)

     As a distraction to Spiritual growth, negative volition can be a subtle detour from the Truth. Not everyone who is negative toward God’s Word blatantly rejects the message. Some Christians agree with everything the pastor communi­cates and may be tenacious in attending Bible class but are nonetheless negative because they think only in terms of self and or others. The Word of Truth is objective Reality, not subjective. Arrogance distorts all Truth. For a believer who is preoccupied with himself and or others, thought testing occurs when a particular Truth strikes a point of hypersensitivity. (Some pet area of holiness or something you learned, used and thought all your life) (Isa 65:2) Immediately he is tempted to shift his attention from the Truth and concentrate on self. (Php 2:21) Will he resist the temptation, and focus his attention on learning the Doctrinal Principle being presented? Will he seek to accurately understand this Doctrines’ place in the whole realm of Scripture? Or will he embark on Operation Over-think? If he indulges his arrogance he loses all objectivity and distorts God’s Word to ration­alize conclusions that defy even common sense!

     God is logical, not illogical; knowledge of Truth is the environment of true Thought. But the hypersensitive believer refuses to concentrate on Truth, frequently going off half-cocked, straining to apply what he does not adequately understand. Only Spiritual Thinking can be used for application, the construction of the edification complex, and Spiritual growth. When a believer tries to apply carnal thinking to his life, he becomes shallow, relying on his own prejudices, subjective instincts, and stubbornness. Stubbornness may pass for positive volition, but the two are not the same. Stubbornness is a flaw that can exist in a stupid person or a smart person. His preoccupation with himself is the weakness that makes him stick with Bible class. He has no genuine interest in or love for the Truth. He is locked into inordi­nate concern for what others think of him, so that he continues to attend even though he has never benefited from the pastor’s message. A believer also faces thought testing when a point of Truth runs counter to his personal opinions; his prejudices and preconceived notions are chal­lenged; but instead of responding with objectivity, he reacts with antagonism against the Truth itself. (Pro 3:5-6; Psa 119:97-105) 

THE NEED FOR A FRAME OF REFERENCE

     In the process of growing Spiritually, you develop a Doctrinal frame of refer­ence. The more you know, the more you can learn; Truth is built on Truth. (Eccles 7:27) When a Principle is taught that is more advanced than your current frame of reference can accommodate, obviously you will not understand it. You may hear that rebound requires nothing more than privately naming your sins to God. If you were reared in a legalistic home, the Truth of rebound may shock you at first. You have spent all your life doing penance, trying to work up a feeling of remorse, promising God you will never commit that sin again, and suddenly you are told that your effort was in vain. Indeed, you are dogmatically taught that all your human works to earn restoration to fellowship with God have been blas­phemous. Your immediate inclination is to reject the entire Concept of rebound by grace.

                             

                          Example

     The problem is your ignorance. Your frame of reference lacks the Doctrines of redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, the principle of the judicial imputa­tion of all personal sins to Christ on the Cross, and an understanding of the privi­leges of your royal priesthood. There is no way that the accurate Truth of rebound could possibly fit into the erroneous frame of reference of your reli­gious upbringing. As a result you are tempted not only to oppose rebound but even to denounce the pastor as apostate. If you flunk thought testing on the issue of rebound, (1Jn 1:9; Psa 66:18) you will never take the step toward Spiritual maturity!

     You may not be able immediately to accept a particular point of Truth at face value, but you must be humble enough to Realize that you still have a lot to learn! Just as, when eating fish, you would place the bones to one side of the plate, you also set aside the Truths you cannot accept. You do not throw out the entire Spiritual meal. Eventually, as you continue to learn Truth, you will construct the frame of reference that enables you to understand and accept these Divine Thoughts. You pass the thought test by objectively concentrating on what the pastor is saying so that you can comprehend the Concept, receptive comprehension in the left lobe precedes full understanding in the right lobe. (Mat 7:7-11) As your frame of reference expands, you will be able to integrate Divine Thoughts that seemed difficult at the time with other Spiritual Thoughts that you have learned in the interim. Throughout your life as a believer, you will always have questions about various points of Truth. All of God’s Word is meant to be understood; it is Divine Revelation, not obscurity. Therefore, if you set aside for later the Concepts you do not understand and continue to take in Truth, eventually those questions will be resolved. But then, other questions will take their place. You will never run out of things to learn. Spiritual growth is the dynamic process of increasing your Spiritual frame of reference and integrating Truth with Truth. (Luk 18:17; Heb 3:12)  

THE COHESIVENESS OF TRUTH 

     A believer can also flunk thought testing by attempting to reconcile Truth with his favorite academic subject. This is the same problem as having a limited Doctrinal frame of reference, but now the believer has a secular rather than a religious background. Contemporary theories of psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology or even the physical sciences may run counter to the teachings of the Word of God. The conflict exists either because Truth itself is mis­understood or because the scientific theory is incomplete.

     Actually all Truth fits together as one coherent whole under the omniscience of God; apparent contradictions are based on arrogance and ignorance in the minds of men!  (2Ti 3:16-17) A believer may have been taught in college certain tenets of philosophy that do not mesh with his current understanding of God’s Word. If he clings to the erroneous philosophy, he either rejects Truth or distorts the Truth to fit the mold of the false.

     During the first century AD., the philosophy of Gnosticism presented a devastating thought test for the early Church. Many believers were lured away from momentum in the Spiritual life. Gnosticism incorporated Christian vocabulary but completely twisted the Truth, advocating as morality everything from self-indulgence, to self-denial. By mixing Spiritual Truth with philosophical and mystical notions. And this was appealing to the lust patterns of nearly everyone! (Col 3:9-10) The Gnostic religious philosophy seduced many early Christians. Your defense against thought testing is the faith-rest drill with emphasis on the Rationales — the essence-of-God Rationale, the plan-of-God Rationale, the logistical-grace Rationale. Loyalty to the Truth is Spiritual integrity, and only a believer with integrity can successfully resist falsehood. This solution demands that you exercise your freedom and personal initiative to habitually take in Truth. When Truth is ignored or treated casually, then doubt becomes another form of thought testing: you lack a fresh inventory of Truth with which to ward off false ideas. Truth in the soul becomes rusty when not maintained by daily intake based on self-motivation. The faith-rest drill cannot operate when the Rationales have deteriorated through a lack of Doctrinal perception. Reverse concentration of the faith-rest drill copes with thought testing because Thinking with Truth exposes the inconsistencies of false thinking and defeats its influence. Thinking the Truth is the only defense against thinking what is false. The conflict of the Spiritual life versus the cosmic system is the battle of Satan's thoughts versus God's Thoughts. This warfare is waged in your soul: Divine Viewpoint is pitted against cosmic-influenced human viewpoint. Satan’s evil counterfeits attack the Reality of God’s plan. (Heb 5:14) Satan’s genius, (Mysticism and occultism delivered through our old sin nature) is far superior to any human rationalism or empiricism. Our only hope of passing thought testing, since we face such a superior enemy, is to Think with Divine Thoughts — the Mind of Christ. That is what defeated Satan THEN, and does NOW! (Mat 4:4) This is the reason for our birth, to be born into God's family and to grow up to be a Spiritually mature son! This is a controlled environment! (1Ki 22:19-23) And all the answers have been provided, (Mar 13:23) we just have to Think with them, for God is Integrity! He cannot pay the winners and the losers! (Jer 17:13; Mal 3:18; Heb 2:10)

SYSTEM TESTING 

IN THE DEVIL’S WORLD 

      Genuine unfairness does exist in human organizations and systems. Sooner or later every believer on the momentum line when he is ready will be tested by an unfair system; in your job, family, doctors office, traffic, church, store, social club, marriage, restaurant, nation, city and or even from our own failures; real or imagined. Etc…

     And WE KNOW that God causes ALL THINGS [Even our own failures] to work together for good to those who love God, [Rebound and stay in fellowship] to those who are called according to His purpose. [To reach Spiritual maturity] (Rom 8:28)

     For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, (Gen 1:3; Joh 1:5) is The One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge (2Pe 1:19) [Spiritual Thoughts leading to Spiritual maturity] of the glory [Spiritual life] of God in the face of Christ. [His prototype Spiritual life] But we have this treasure [The Holy Spirit, Spiritual life, Divine Thoughts, Etc.] in earthen vessels, [Human bodies] so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God! and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, [Sin nature tests] but not crushed; perplexed, [Thought tests] but not despairing; persecuted, [People tests] but not forsaken; struck down, [Organization and disaster tests] but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, (Rom 6:6-8) so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (Rom 8:11; 2Pe 1:4) For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death [Experiential death to the old sin nature] (Joh 12:24-25) for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus [The New nature] (2Pe 1:4) also may be manifested (Gal 2:20) in our mortal flesh. (2Co 4:6-11)

     The advancing believer needs to know this is a necessary part of growth that God has brought to our life! (Deut 32:39) do not allow testing to contribute to failure. (It is only a test!) (Rom 4:20-21)

     And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, [Tests] so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. [Spiritual life made stronger] Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, [Sin nature tests] with insults, [People tests] with distresses, [Thought tests] with persecutions, [System tests] with difficulties, [Disaster tests] for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, [Tested] then I am strong. [Spiritual growth] (2Co 12:9-10)

     If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, [To live in fellowship] because of this the world hates you. Remember the Word that I said to you, A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My Word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. (Joh 15:18-21)

     Should you become bitter or vindictive and vent your wrath to anyone who will listen? Should you take vengeance or seek to vindicate your sullied honor? Should you threaten to sue? Or fall into worry or self-pity? Indeed not! As a member of the royal family of God, possessing the Spiritual life that sustained the Lord Jesus Christ, you were never intended to behave as unbelievers do, or as believers behave in carnality!  (1Co 3:1-3) But if you allow these momentum tests to lure you into a pattern of sin nature reaction, you miss your opportunity! You act like a Spiritual peasant. Failing the system test means failure to advance at this particular stage of your Spiritual life. No testing of the growing believer ever comes as an accident. (1Co 10:13) If you are treated wrongly, God has a purpose in it! He has a reason for bringing pressure into your life. His objective is to accelerate your growth and capacity for more lovingkindness and Truth! (Psa 108:4; Psa 57:3) When an organization implies that you have failed, you have an occasion to advance that does not exist under conditions of success. We can always learn from our failures; rarely do we learn from our successes. At one time or another everyone fails or is considered a failure! But it is your attitude in failure that determines your mettle, not your attitude in success! Anyone can conduct himself with dignity and poise under agreeable circum­stances, but when difficulties abound; then a person’s true Spiritual growth is illuminated. What you really are is what you are under pressure!

     Unless God opens our eyes, we will not see! You can try to never fail; God will make sure you do! (Job 5:17-18) Most do not have that problem! In other words, paradoxically, failure is the making of a person. No one can succeed without overcoming failure! In disaster he forges the Virtues that lead him out of failure into success. Hence, system testing should be the challenge of the believer, not the destruction! You have no excuse for being shocked when you are treated unfairly. Whoever told you the world was fair? Or that you were perfect! (1Pe 4:12-13) You will fail, and you will be treated unjustly! (1Pe 2:18-25) In reality or just imagined! We grow when we Think with His Promises! (Rom 8:28-32) Integrity comes from Truth — Divine Thinking in the soul, which Satan opposes. As the enemy of Truth, Satan can only be unfair. But in the very quality he lacks, God uses to bless us; and provides strength to deal with his injustices. In Truth and by the integrity of living in the Spiritual life, (Eph 3:10-11) we have the solution to system testing. (Heb 5:8) 

SOCIAL LIFE WITH GOD

     In Reality, the solution to all testing is our social life with God. In specific application, the answer is the combination of implementing Impersonal love and using the faith-rest drill. Anyone with discernment and sufficient humility to possess common sense limits his social life! (Psa 26:1-8) He reserves his Personal Esprit de corps love for just those friends who are not only honorable and stimulating but are also compatible with God Thoughts, Interests, and Objectives in life. (2Co 6:14-18) Beyond that inner circle are many acquaintances whose company he may enjoy on a limited basis. You choose your friends by their Virtues; you like their approach to life and value their observations. Because of their integrity you respect their positive volition and Spiritual growth level; therefore, you care what they Think. When you become the victim of an inequitable system; know that System testing often brings the added consequence of peer pressure and exclusion. You may imagine that your friends condemn you, “or they do” so you avoid them and cut out your social life altogether. But such a reaction is strictly preoc­cupation with self. You have fallen into the arrogance of human false reality and self-pity of the cosmic system! But you may also react by going out of your way to explain yourself. You may devote tremendous energy to justifying yourself so friends will not assume the worst. But people will think whatever the old sin nature wants them to think. (1Pe 2:15) When you have been rejected, fired, or censured by an organization, there will always be people who will look down on you. Gloaters are never hard to find, especially if you have excelled in the past. When your reputation and good name come under attack, you may lose some friends, but they were not true friends in the first place. If they forsake you, (Heb 13:5-6) God will not! You have a choice you can believe what you see and hear or you can believe God's Word! (Pro 16:7; Pro 21:1; 2Co 5:7) Genuine believers are revealed under pressure! Therefore, momentum testing has the added benefit of winnow­ing our social life. (Separating us from the wrong people)  In the final analysis, our social life with God is far more important than our social life with people! Our relationship with God is our stability! (This is only possible by resisting our desires! and obeying His!) (2Co 5:15) He is not upset because you have been treated wrongly. He desires that you be Occupied with Him! And He knows that system testing can accelerate your progress toward that goal! We normally call our fellowship with God “Spirituality” or “worship” or “the Christian way of life,” but these often fail to communicate. “Social life with God” more aptly describes our fellowship with Him. We can also enjoy God during our lives on earth! Through His Truth and lovingkindness! (Psa 25:10) We can find pleasure in Him. Our social life does not depend on being able to see, touch, or hear God; the Word of God is a much “more reliable witness” than our human senses! (2Pe 1:19) When we make our relationship with God our most important social life; that is Spiritual momentum! This is the interlock between Truth in gate four of the Spiritual life and Personal love for God in gate five. If you’re social life with Him is right, then no failure or alleged failure in life can cause you to use your own volition to destroy yourself in the satanic system, this is based on your harmonious rapport with God! (Amos 3:3) Since the challenge to your Spiritual momentum involves: sin nature, people, thought, system and disaster testing; the solutions to these separate pressures must com­bine! The believer must utilize Impersonal love to deal with the people in the sys­tem and must use the faith-rest drill to cope with the injustices of the system itself. This will happen over and over and over again! Until we completely live in God's Reality, by God's will! Or we live by our own reality by Satan's will; (Joh 6:66-68 ) and die the sin unto death, (Jer 23:17-18) our choice! (Heb 10:26-27) We are not our own we were bought with a price! (1Co 6:19-20; Jer 23:22) (Do we go all in? Or do we fold?) (1Jn 1:5-6)

DIRECT ATTACKS OF THE COSMIC SYSTEM SATANIC CONTROL OF THE SOUL

     Satan has no integrity! In eternity past he received maximum love and gen­erosity from God, which he repaid with ingratitude and treachery. Ruthlessly ambitious to advance himself, Satan promises happiness and prosperity he can­not produce. His policies appear to be noble, elevated, and enlightened, “and no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2Co 11:14-15) But his apparent “good ideas” always have a dark side. If you are not alert to his sinister lies, you become his slave. 

     If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, [Human and demonic thinking] how great is the darkness! (Mat 6:23) 

     Satan is a menacing foe, “like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1Pe 5:8) He is single-minded; he knows his objective — to discredit God and establish his own utopia on earth. He is well organized. He has a system for achieving his goal. To gain control over the kingdom he now rules, the devil manipulates mankind in the cosmic system. We as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are Satan’s prey. Satan is an insidious genius who would deceive us all — were we not protected by God, His Thoughts, angels and the Spiritual life.

     A magnetic leader, Satan commands vast forces of fallen angels or demons; Earth and fallen mankind belong to his realm. In the Bible Satan’s kingdom is called the kosmos, usually translated “world.” Kosmos refers to a system, an or­derly, cohesive organization with a purpose, policy and structure of authority. When the Bible declares that someone loves the world (2Ti 4:10; Jas 4:4; 1Jn 2:15-16) or lives according to the human and or demonic thinking of the world, (Rom 12:2; Eph 2:2) that individual resides in the satanic system of power. He enslaves himself to Satan’s authority, executes Satan’s policy, and thinks with Satan’s thoughts and fulfills his purpose! The cosmic system employs two main systems of false reality, which pose the fifth and sixth momentum tests. The arrogance complex: Preoccupation with self, leads the believer into being lukewarm toward God and His Word, while the hatred complex: Preoccupation with others, multiplies that indifference into hatred toward God and His Word. Worldliness is individual involvement in the cosmic system. (Just being out of fellowship and not growing Spiritually) Satan encour­ages superficial definitions of worldliness to camouflage his evil strategy. Legal­istic believers mistakenly assume that worldliness consists of gambling, carous­ing, fornication, smoking, dancing, drinking or any behavior that shocks them personally. But while such activities may reflect poor judgment and may indeed involve sin, in one cate­gory or another, they are not the essence of what the Bible describes as worldly. Worldliness is what you think inside the cosmic system, (Pro 23:7) not just what you do. Satan’s ultimate weapon is evil thought — the subtle distortions of God's Word, half Truths and lies he uses to control man’s thinking! This ultimate weapon is called demon influence. When you embrace satanic thoughts you are the dupe of Satan. Your sincerity does not protect you; ignorance is no excuse. You become your own worst enemy. When you believe “the father of lies,” (Joh 8:44) the content of your own soul prevents Spiritual growth and prohibits Divine blessings. 

     But that same Spirit [God the Holy Spirit] explicitly communi­cates that in later periods of time some [Believers] will fall away from Truth, [Become apostate] paying attention to deceitful spirits [Occultism through the old sin nature] and concentrating on [False Biblical, demonic and human thoughts] doctrines of demons. (1Ti 4:1) 

     “Doctrines of demons” enters your inventory of ideas when your volition operates without the filling of God the Holy Spirit and Divine Thinking (Joh 4:24) This absence of Truth, this vacuum in the soul, is called in the Greek mataiotes, “emptiness, vanity.” This vacuum draws in false thoughts filling your soul with arrogance and antagonism. 

     For bombastically speaking arrogant words from the source of emptiness, [The mataiotes vacuum] they [False teachers] keep enticing by lusts, by lasciviousness, those [Believers]who barely escape from those who live in error. [Unbelievers] (2Pe 2:18) 

     Man is weak not strong. We borrow strength — for good or for evil — from two antithetical sources: the Spiritual life or the cosmic system. If you re­fuse the power of the Spiritual life, then you are controlled by the tyran­nical cosmic system. When you reject the Word of Truth, you receive the alterna­tive, satanic thinking, with destructive effect. We either live and Think with God's Thoughts and Spirit or Satan's thoughts and spirit!

     He who eats My flesh [Believes: in who He Is, The Christ!] and drinks My blood [Believes: in what He did, being judged for us!] has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (Joh 6:54)

     It is the Spirit who gives life; [Spiritual Thinking] the flesh [Human thinking] profits nothing! The Words that I have spoken to you are spirit [Spiritual] and are life. (Joh 6:63) But He answered and said, "It is written, MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, [Human provisions] BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD. [Spiritual provisions] (Mat 4:4) This is a Spiritual life and requires Spiritual Thoughts! (Joh 6:48; Joh 14:6) Is not the cup of blessing [Communion] which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? [Lamb of God, being judged for us! Etc.] Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? [The perfect God-man unleavened in Thought and Person, (Mat 16:12) Etc.] (1Co 5:8; 1Co 10:16; Num 9:11-12; Joh 19:36; Joh 7:16; Joh 14:24)

     You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them, Your manna You did not withhold from their mouth, And You gave them water for their thirst. (Neh 9:20)

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit [In fellowship] and Truth. [His Thinking] (Joh 4:24)

     No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles [Unbelievers and believers out of fellowship] sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. [By being out of fellowship] You cannot drink the cup of the Lord [Be in fellowship with The Holy Spirit, Living water, Etc.] and the cup of demons; [False spirit, cosmic system] you cannot partake of the table of the Lord [Truth, Bread of life, manna Etc.] and the table of demons. [False thinking] Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we? (1Co 10:20-22)

     You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world [Living out of fellowship] is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world [Living by human and or satanic thoughts] makes himself an enemy of God. (Jas 4:4)

     If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound Words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the Doctrine conforming to godliness, [Staying in fellowship and reaching Spiritual maturity] he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the Truth, who suppose that godliness [The Spiritual life] is a means of gain. But godliness [Staying in fellowship] actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. (1Ti 6:3-7)

     When we are not content with the Spiritual life and Truth we are living by the flesh!

     For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh [The old sin nature] but according to the Spirit. [In Fellowship] For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things [Human and satanic thoughts] of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things [Spiritual Thoughts] of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, [Temporal: being out of fellowship] but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, [In harmony with God] because the mind set on the flesh [Human and or satanic thoughts] is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, [Thinking of God] for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh [Out of fellowship] cannot please God. (Rom 8:3-8) cf. (Heb 11:6)

     When human volition presents any opportunity, (When we get out of fellowship) Satan seizes the initiative; the individual “receives arrogance.” If the unbeliever refuses protection in the Spiritual life, through faith in Christ, (Joh 3:18) and or obedience to the laws of establish­ment; (1Ti 1:9) and if the believer fails to rebound and continue in Truth, arrogance inten­sifies. False thinking and evil ideas infiltrate the soul until he can no longer make good decisions! Spiritual “blindness” blacks out his soul; (Joh 12:40; 2Co 4:3-4) he develops “hardness of heart” or scar tissue of the soul. (Exodus 7:22; Exodus 9:34) Unknowingly or deliberately, you fall victim to satanic influence by your own volition. You choose to submit to “the spirit [Satan's false spirit] that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” (Eph 2:2) Through active or passive consent, you create an opening for demon thinking to enter your soul. You may actively pursue evil, as in Satan worship or idolatry; (Col 3:5) or you may passively render yourself vulnerable through drug addiction or through attitudes of self-righteousness, self-pity, anger, guilt reaction, being lukewarm, (Rev 3:16) or disrespect for establishment authority. Sin is not just sin; sin triggers the power of the cosmic system. (Rom 1:21)

PROFILE OF SATANIC POLICY 

     Both systems of Satan exploit your bad decisions, impris­oning you in a maze of satanic deceit. By definition a Supernatural life is a system of power in which man is controlled by a power greater than himself. God de­signed one system to bless man; Satan has two systems that enslave man. You cannot change these three Realities! You can only recognize their existence and choose between them! The Spiritual life produces winners in life! The two cosmic systems manufacture losers!

THE COSMIC SYSTEM IS USED AS:          

1. The vehicle for administering Satan's rulership of the world. (Eph 2:2) 

2. A repository and or classroom for the transfer of cosmic and false Biblical thinking to man. (1Ti 4:1-2) 

3. A tactical trap for enslaving mankind. (2Ti 2:26) 

4. A factory for producing losers. (Heb 4:1-2) 

     In the arrogance complex, or cosmic one, man is preoccupied with himself. Because he exaggerates his own importance, he cannot appreciate Divine grace, nor can he enjoy the blessings of God’s plan for his life. By overestimating him­self, he becomes his own worst enemy. He emphasizes self instead of God. In the hatred complex, or cosmic two, man is preoccupied with others and antagonistic toward God and the plan of God. A person, who rejects, disputes, contradicts, or ridicules the Word of God creates his own frustration by fighting against the Truth. (Pro 8:36) The hatred complex emphasizes human viewpoint rather than Divine Viewpoint.

     The arrogance and hatred complexes reflect the history of Satan’s personal career. Originally he was the most powerful, intelligent, and personable of all angels; he was the anointed cherub, the exalted, aristocratic guardian of the throne room of God. (Eze 28:14-15) But, savoring the admiration of other angels, Satan became preoccupied with himself. (Eze 28:17-18) He re­garded himself as the equal of God, and for this blasphemous arrogance he fell from grace. (Isa 14:13-17) In his fall Satan lured one-third of all the angels into his self-centered conspiracy. (Rev 12:4) The arrogance complex duplicates in man Satan’s attitude at the time of his own fall. Two cosmic systems exist because Satan intensified the strategy of ar­rogance that he used originally against the angels. When God created man to duplicate the angelic conflict, (Act 26:18) the devils darkness expanded from arrogance into deliber­ate, violent opposition toward God. In bitter antagonism Satan contrived the fall of man. (Gen 3:4) The hatred complex duplicates in man Satan’s attitude beginning with the fall of man. The arrogance complex represents the philosophy of Satan in the prehistoric angelic conflict; the hatred complex is his philosophy in the human extension of the angelic conflict. When anyone lives continually in the arrogance complex, he is inculcated with the thinking of Satan as the ruler of fallen angels before the crea­tion of man. Anyone who remains in the hatred complex is inculcated with the thinking of Satan as the ruler of the world after men became his prisoners. (Isa 42:7) Yes everybody! Nice people, and mean, and everything in between! (Rom 3:10-12)

THE TWO PRISONS OF SATAN’S COSMIC SYSTEM 

     Each of Satan’s prisons creates human slaves. The gates of the arro­gance complex interlock to enslave man to his own bad decisions; the hatred complex enslaves man to Satan. The arrogance and hatred complexes explain sin nature good, evil, and misery in the human race! (Mat 7:22-23)

     But if you have bitter jealousy [Preoccupation with others] and selfish ambition [Preoccupation with self] in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the Truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. (Jas 3:14-16)

     But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, [Religion and human morality: nice on the outside] although they have denied its power; [Not living in fellowship] Avoid such men as these! (2Ti 3:1-5)

     The Spiritual life explains Virtue and capacity for love and happiness.

     Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, [No preoccupation with self] is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, [No Preoccupation with others] does not rejoice in unrighteousness, [Being out of fellowship] but rejoices with the Truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love [The Spiritual life] never fails…! (1Co 13:4-8)

     When we always think about what they are wearing, saying, or thinking, Etc. Or if we are always thinking about the future, the past, self, what we want, money, job (Mat 6:31-34) we are living in Satan's prison! (Pro 23:7) God's Reality is completely different!  (1Jn 2:15-17) God does not want us to live double minded; (Jude 1:18-19) the way we participate is by growing to Spiritual maturity, by staying in fellowship, and Thinking with His Thoughts! (1Pe 4:1-5) And this is hard work! (Rom 8:17-18)  As goes the believer, so goes the nation! If a minimum amount of believers don't reach Spiritual maturity God destroys that nation! (Jer 40:2-3; Amos 3:6)

     And to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we Commanded you, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. (1Th 4:11-12)

     The cosmic system continually threatens your Spiritual momentum. Gates from the arrogance and hatred complexes interlock in many combinations, at­tacking each believer’s personal weaknesses and areas of blindness.

     Be of sober spirit, [Serious-minded] be on the alert. [This is a war!] Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith. [In fellowship, Thinking with the Mind of Christ] (1Pe 5:8-9)

     Wear for yourselves the full armor from God [The Spiritual life] that you may be able to hold your ground against the tactics [False thinking] of the devil. (Eph 6:11) 

     The devious “tactics of the devil” are exposed in the gates of the cosmic system, but we cannot resist the cosmic system in our own power. Only Divine Viewpoint Thinking can defeat the sinister force of the demon influenced (False thinking) in our sin nature. (Mat 15:18-20) We must understand the Commands of the Spiritual life and obey these Thoughts as a guide to using our own judgment and Spiritual common sense. (1Sa 15:22-23; Heb 5:8)

  

SUMMARY OF THE ARROGANCE COMPLEX 

     The arrogance complex is like quicksand. You may enter by any gate, but once in this prison, you are in a position of weakness. In a state of weakness you cannot make good decisions. If, as a believer, you do not escape through imme­diate rebound and application of Truth, you sink into new weaknesses; suc­cumb to new sins that never before tempted you. Arrogance affects every facet of your soul; demon influence eventually alters your personality. Although one gate drew you into the system, many gates will pull you down until you are buried in cosmic involvement. (This is all God's plan! He makes it easy for us! His way is blessing! Eternal happiness, etc.... Any other way! Misery then death! (Luk 16:28; 2Pe 2:17-22)

There are twelve gates in the arrogance complex:  

1. Attitude arrogance

2. Negative volition

3. Authority arrogance

 4. Self-righteous arrogance

 5. Sexual arrogance

6. Criminal arrogance

7. Psychopathic arrogance

8. Arrogance of unhappiness

9. Iconoclastic arrogance

10. Rational and irrational arrogance

11. Arrogance of Christian service

12. Client nation arrogance

     Gate 1, Attitude arrogance. Mental attitude sins are motivational evil, lead­ing to the functional evils of all other gates of the cosmic system. When you are proud, jealous, vindictive, lustful, afraid, bitter, angry, unforgiving or immersed in self-pity or guilt, you “give the devil an opportunity.” (Eph 4:27) No other category of sin is as destructive to your Spiritual momentum, for as a man “thinks within himself, so he is.” (Pro 23:7) You must guard yourself against mental attitude sins! Rebounding quickly and restoring the relaxed mental attitude of gate two of the Spiritual life.

     Gate 2, Negative volition. Preoccupation with self leaves you indifferent to the Word of Truth. You may concede that Truth is God's Thinking, but your priorities are faulty. You ignore the Word of God, and although not antagonistic, you render yourself defenseless in the Spiritual conflict. Satan manipulates you when you cannot wield the “sword of the Spirit” against false thinking! (Eph 6:17)

     Gate 3, Authority arrogance. In pride man duplicates Satan’s original rebellion against God and the devil’s subsequent tyranny over man. Arrogant people under authority despise their leaders and conspire to overthrow or undermine them; (Psa 12:2-4) arrogant people in authority abuse their power. (2Sa 12:1-9) An arrogant, successful person assumes that the organization in which he excels depends on him, but in reality he depends on the organ­ization for the opportunity and environment for success. The arrogant, unsuc­cessful individual blames the system for failures caused by his own inefficiency, ineptitude, or laziness.

     Gate 4, Self-righteous arrogance. The devil incorporates all possible old sin nature good into his cosmic system, (2Co 11:14) attempting to establish his own Millennium and prove himself “like the Most High God.” (Isa 14:14) Satan turns old sin nature morality into self-righteous arrogance. The self-righteous, legalistic Christian believes his experiences and achievements give him special standing with God, but “there is no partiality with God.” God deals with all mankind by the same standards of justice. (Rom 2:11) Self-righteous people often become crusaders, imposing their prejudices on others. Haughty and vain, they judge anyone less perfect than themselves. (Mat 7:1-2)

     Gate 5, Sexual arrogance. When not harnessed by Virtue in the soul, normal desire for sex becomes a powerful distraction to Spiritual momentum. (2Sa 11:2-4; 1Co 7:33-35) Self-centeredness demands self-gratification. Driven by lust, which is desire out of control, sex ceases to be an expression of his love between husband and wife. An unbridled quest for self-gratification uses rather than loves another person. Sexual arrogance destroys capacity for romantic love and leads to boredom, misery, impotence, perversion and degeneracy. (1Co 6:18) Sex becomes ritual without reality, a frantic search for happiness.

     Gate 6, Criminal arrogance. Criminality is an arrogant way of thinking. (Pro 24:1-2) Despising all authority, the criminal chooses to become a crimi­nal. His own arrogance, not his environment nor his upbringing, leads him to the criminal presumption that he is superior to the rights, privacy and property of others. Instead of improving himself, he continually tries to prove himself, using and hurting others to demonstrate that he is in control. Other people exist only for his convenience. He prides himself in being above the law and regards him­self as a good person. By his own volition, the criminal is un-teachable. God ordains capital punishment for duly convicted criminals. (Exodus 21:23; Num 35:30; Rom 13:4)

      Gate 7, Psychopathic arrogance. Apart from certain chemical imbalances in the brain that are physiological not sinful; psychosis illustrates the self-destructive power of human arrogance. Bad decisions limit future options; believer or unbeliever divorce themselves from Divine Reality through their own volition. (Rom 1:21-22) His subjective decisions evolve into a pattern of distorted thinking, which creates a fantasy world in his mind. He does not recognize this imaginary world as unreality and hence has no desire to remedy his illusions. Stubborn, intolerant, insecure, sometimes violent, he cannot relate to other people. This locked-in subjectivity often leads to suicide.

     Gate 8, Arrogance of unhappiness. Happiness is a personal achievement attained through obedience to Divine Commands. Happiness results from Virtue and Truth in the soul translated into good Decisions. In the Spiritual life consis­tent Divine Decisions create an environment for happiness in the soul. The arro­gant person, however, expects circumstances, possessions, and or other people to make him happy. When he is frustrated in these demands, he blames others. He wallows in self-pity, compensating for his bad decisions with further bad deci­sions in a frantic search for new stimulation. Misery does not love company; misery demands company! The unhappy person with a martyr complex spreads a cloud of gloom over all in his periphery in order to control people and have his own way. The arrogance of unhappiness is subjective preoccupation with self. 

     Gate 9, Iconoclastic / Activism arrogance. Historically, in eighth and ninth century Byzantium, an iconoclast or “image breaker” was a fanatic who destroyed reli­gious images or objects of respect and worship. (Gal 1:13) Illustrating cosmic inflexi­bility in personal relationships, an iconoclast is a person who is subjectively pre­occupied with self and others: he builds up a perfect image of someone, then, discovering his idol’s human flaws, attacks this person he delusively worshipped. Worship is a virtue only when directed toward God. (Exodus 20:1-7) The arrogant person idol­izes someone; he should at most respect or admire. Inevitably the iconoclast discovers his idol’s feet of clay, suffers disillusionment, and reacts bitterly; destroying the idol he alone created.

     Gate 10, Rational and irrational arrogance. Whether ignorant and stupid or educated and brilliant, the arrogant fancy themselves rational when disputing or superficially interpreting the Bible. I call this rational arrogance, although no distortion of Truth is ultimately rational. God is rational, and He reveals Him­self to the humble, the teachable, those with positive volition. (Psa 25:9) Truth cannot be reconciled with human philosophy and science; man’s thinking must recon­cile itself to God's Thoughts. Irrational arrogance is emotional revolt of the soul. God designed emotion to be governed by the Word of Truth in the mentality; (Mar 14:36) Satan exploits uncontrolled emotion.

     Gate 11, Arrogance of Christian service. Satan lures sincere Christians into the arrogance complex by weaving normally legitimate deeds into a fabric of legalism. While performing Biblically Commanded activities, (Without the filling of God the Holy Spirit; 1Co 4:20) these believers are oblivious to Satan’s manipulation, unaware that their Spiritual momentum has come to a halt. God Commands Christian service, but prayer, witnessing, giving, teaching, administration, and donations of time, assistance, and expertise to any field of Christian work can also be performed in the power of the old sin nature! (2Ti 3:5) True Chris­tian service is motivated by the Word of Truth in the power of the Spiritual life. No other Way! (Joh 4:24) Service performed out of fellowship with human thoughts and motives is “wood, hay, and straw” fit for burning, not for eternal reward. (1Co 3:12-13)

     Gate 12, Client nation arrogance. Satan rules the world, but Jesus Christ controls history. Our Lord selects certain nations to be His agents. These client nations have established governments that protect the freedom, privacy, and property of their citizens and, under the Concept of separation of church and state, permit the Gospel and God's Word to be taught. These nations also allow organizations to initiate and support missionary activity to other countries. The client nation is also a haven for the Jews, a place of refuge from anti-Semitism and persecution in other parts of the world. Israel was the original client nation, to be God’s chosen people, whom Christ the Messiah will re-gather and restore to client status at His second advent. During the Church Age, however, God blesses the entire human race through gentile client nations. Believers residing in a client nation are the “salt of the land,” the preserv­ative of the nation, (Mat 5:13) also called the “remnant.” (Rom 9:27; Rom 11:5) Although unheralded in the annals of history, anonymous believers determine the up-trends and downtrends of civilization as Christ directs the course of history to bless or discipline His own. (Jdg 2:2-4) Therefore, to subvert the nations, it is Satan’s strategy to attack the integrity of believers. (Job 1:10-11; Rev 20:3-9) When a majority of believers within a client nation become arrogant, rejecting Divine establishment and the Word of Truth, these believers are guilty of client nation arrogance, hastening Divine judgment against their nation. (Hos 4:1-6) 

SUMMARY OF THE HATRED COMPLEX 

      When the gates of the arrogance complex, interlock with the gates of the hatred complex your pride intensifies into stubborn antagonism. When illusions of self-importance are exposed and challenged, you react with resentment. When Divine establishment, the Gospel, and or the Bible contradicts your self-righteous delusions, you take offense at the Word. You rationalize your sins and defend your conceit by denying and attacking Divine Viewpoint Thinking. To jus­tify your own thoughts, you despise God and His Word. You become the ally of Satan in his unrelent­ing hatred of God and the plan of God.             

     If you were of the world, [Satanically inspired human false realities] the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. [A believer in fellowship Thinking with God's ONE REALITY] (Joh 15:19)

     When anyone hates his fellow believer, he is in the darkness, [Out of fellowship and in the hatred complex] and he walks in darkness, and he does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (1Jn 2:11) 

     In these passages “hatred” is more than an isolated mental attitude sin; hatred is a satanic prison, a sphere of interlocking gates whose power can be resisted only in the greater power of the Spiritual life. Your antagonism toward the plan of God increases as the gates of the hatred complex interlock with each other. Negativism spreads to every area of life. Work, politics, entertainment, and friends all become targets of your uncon­structive criticism. Having destroyed your own relaxed mental attitude and capacity for Divine blessings, you become a chronic complainer. Circumstances and people are never right; you are never satisfied. Enslaved in demon influ­ence, you make yourself and those around you miserable. (1Co 10:9-11) You can never afford to succumb to any of the nine gates of the hatred complex:

 1.      The old sin nature

2.       Negative volition

3.       Degeneration

4.       Antiestablishment

5.       Demonism

6.       Cosmic panaceas (Cure-alls)

7.       Religion

8.       Anthropocentric academic speculation

9.       Evil    

     Gate 1, The old sin nature. As Satan’s inside agent the sin nature within man executes the devil’s sinister policy of hatred and antagonism! (Jer 17:9; Mat 15:18-20) Acquired by Adam at the Fall, the old sin nature exists genetically in the human body, “waging war against the principle of the mind” the human spirit where Divine Thinking, “the law from God,” is received, retained, and recalled. (Rom 7:22-23) By tempting man to commit sin, this inherent distorter of human life continually opposes the Divine plan for blessing man. (Gal 5:17)

     Gate 2, Negative volition. In the arrogance complex, negative volition ignores God through preoccupation with self, but in the hatred complex, preoccupation with others; attacks God, the plan of God and the Bible! Unbelievers who adhere to Divine establishment but then react to the Gospel with negative volition will begin to oppose the Truth they formerly believed. As a result, “the last state [Of negative volition] is worse for them than the first.” (2Pe 2:20) Each rejec­tion of Truth by believer or unbeliever intensifies negative volition until an indi­vidual has locked himself into antagonism toward God. (Exodus 9:34-35; Rom 1:20-25)

     Gate 3, Degeneration. Degeneracy is the abuse of freedom that weakens a nation from within, inviting enslavement by a dictator or foreign conqueror. When individual citizens compromise their integrity, the national Spiritual life de­clines, the quality of life within the nation deteriorates. Because of negative voli­tion and prolonged arrogance, “God has delivered them over in the lusts of their old sin nature to degrading passions,” (Gen 19:4-5; Rom 1:26-32) to rampant crime, violence, sexual perversion, and drug addiction. Degeneration is disorganized evil; in contrast to political or religious tyranny, which is organized evil. A dictator monopolizes evil as he restricts freedom and controls the populace; degenerate himself, the tyrant suppresses degeneracy by forcing “strict environmentalist morality” (A political, environmental, economic, religious, demonic —TYRANNY!) upon the people. To secure power, organized evil attacks disor­ganized evil and persecutes Judaism and Christianity; disorganized evil does not persecute but coexists with Christianity. Degenerate unbelievers and believers are evangelized or exposed to Truth by Christians in the Spiritual life, who are the preservative of a nation; the “salt of the land.” (Mat 5:13 ; 2Ti 2:22)

     Gate 4, Antiestablishment. An arrogant individual contributes to the decline of society and the nation, but a rebellious, resentful person who hates Divinely delegated authority makes direct attacks against the Divine institutions — human freedom, marriage, the family, and the national entity. These institutions are essential for the perpetuation and prosperity of mankind, but individuals in the hatred complex subvert human freedom by denouncing its inherent components: freewill, privacy, property, protection and authority. They ridicule the Virtues of marriage and reject parental authority. They condemn, obstruct, and commit treason against the government. Malcontents obsessed with their own anger never offer realistic alternatives but desire only to demolish the authorities under which they live. Oxymoron: Anarchy Rules

     Gate 5, Demonism. Satan commands vast armies of fallen angels or demons who execute his strategy for controlling mankind. Certain echelons of demons operate covertly behind the scenes; others create a variety of overt effects. Demons can indwell the bodies of unbelievers, called demon possession, or in­fluence their souls with “doctrines of demons.” (1Ti 4:1; 2Ti 4:3) Demons cannot possess believers, who are protected by the indwelling God the Holy Spirit, (1Co 6:19-20) but the subjectivity, confusion and false ideas from demon influence effec­tively neutralize the believer.

     Gate 6, Cosmic panaceas. After aggravating the difficulties of life, Satan entices man with solutions apart from the Mind of Christ. Human viewpoint replaces Divine establishment, the Gospel and Divine Thinking. A panacea is an oversimplified, supposed cure-all prescription guaranteed to remedy a complex problem. Pana­ceas captivate the ignorant, those who resent Truth and arrogantly cling to false premises. A prevalent historic panacea is human equality, yet equality cancels freedom! The key to freedom in life; is inequality! Now and in heaven! (Luk 19:24-27; Rev 3:21) Socialism, communism and altruism all claim to accomplish good, but belong to the old sin nature and Satan's system! Although compassion and generosity are Spiritual Virtues practiced by individual believers in the Spiritual life, Christianity and or the Spiritual life is not a program of social justice and or social action. (Mat 24:6; Joh 12:8) Chris­tianity is not a crusade to eradicate evil from the devil’s world, (1Th 4:11-12) but a system of personal Spiritual growth. Understanding and Thinking with God's Thoughts Filled with God the Holy Spirit — and this provides the ONLY gen­uine solutions to life, death and everything in-between! (Mat 8:22; Luk 9:61-62; Joh 21:22; Rev 22:11-14)

     Gate 7, Religion. Satan’s most insidious ploy against the human race is religion. Christianity is not a religion. Religion is man by man’s efforts striving to gain the approbation of God; (2Ti 3:5) Christianity is man’s relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, and sharing His Thoughts and Nature! (2Pe 1:4) In religion man seeks God through personal merit and works; (Eph 2:9) in Christianity God seeks man through the saving work of Christ. (Eph 2:8) Christianity nurtures capacity for happiness when the believer turns over the control of his life to God through obedience to Divine Commands. Religion breeds unhappiness to the proselyte who surrenders control of his life and custodianship of his happiness to a hierarchy of human beings, who enforce ritualistic systems of asceticism and or lasciviousness. Christians who work for Divine blessing distort Christianity into legalism. They elevate themselves above Christ by emphasizing Christian service above His perfect, finished work on the Cross. Legalists exalt human production above obedience to Divine protocol and Thinking.

     Gate 8, Anthropocentric academic speculation. “Anthropocentric” means “centered in man; considering man to be the most significant fact of the uni­verse; assuming man to be the measure of all things; interpreting the world in terms of human values and experiences.”  If not seduced by religion, man can be deceived by philosophical academic criticism; to dismiss the Word of God as absolute Truth. When philosophical assumptions give central importance to man instead of God, academic research can amass persuasive yet fraudulent evidence against Divine Viewpoint. Because human rationalism and empiricism cannot prove Biblical Truth, the pseudo-intellectual rejects Truth and “advances in human knowledge out of bounds and does not remain on the field of play; by means of the Mind of Christ.” (2Jn 1:9) No one becomes a winner in life by running brilliant, intellectual touchdowns out of bounds, ignoring the Thinking of the Divine game plan. Life must be interpreted in terms of God’s Reality not man’s. (Mar 8:33)

     Gate 9, Evil. Evil is Satan’s self-destructive thinking as ruler of the world. The cosmic system is his vehicle for administering this sinister policy. God warns against evil; (Rom 12:9; 1Pe 3:9) and restrains evil in human his­tory through timely Divine judgments. (Gen 6:13; Gen 15:16; Mat 23:37-38; Mat 24:22) God will ultimately destroy all evil; God permits the devil’s policy to run its course in human history, to move people along! Although Satan labors to es­tablish a perfect kingdom, to rival the prophesied Millennium of Christ, the devil is incapable of enlightened rule. Evil excludes integrity. (Heb 5:14) Evil, “craftiness” Satan's thinking, (2Co 11:3) includes much apparent “good,” along with deceit, violence, terror, and confusion. Evil is the manifestation of Satan’s arro­gant, distorted genius in opposition to Divine Thinking, which is the manifestation of God’s grace.

     This summary of the arrogance and hatred complexes forces us to one conclusion: for your own happiness, avoid the cosmic system! In genuine humility you must recognize that you are no match for Satan, now or ever, and must never give him an opportunity to exploit your weaknesses. Regardless of your level of Spiritual maturity, his strategy appeals to your weaknesses. Human weakness can never defeat old sin nature strength. You can successfully pass these momentum tests only by learning and obeying the Divine system. You can follow Christ as a Spiritual winner only in the strength of the Spiritual life! 

DISASTER TESTING 

     The believer’s reaction to intense suffering can divert him from the momentum line and into the two cosmic systems. Loss of a loved one, a crippling accident, dismissal from a long-secured job, sudden disappearance of financial security, terminal illness — these major distractions can cause the believer to focus on himself and his problems to the exclusion of God's Declared Reality. (Mat 6:32-34) Even in the most dreadful circumstances, the believer must remain in control of his Spiritual Thinking, retain his Personal sense of destiny, and make good Decisions from a position of strength — in fellowship. If he permits himself to become enmeshed in mental attitude sins, he surrenders to Spiritual laziness and refuses to take the responsibility for his thoughts and actions! He has entered the cosmic system and failed the disaster test.

     The solution to disaster testing is Thinking by means of the three stages of the faith-rest drill. In particular, the shock of the crisis must be neutralized by Thinking Biblical Promises in stage one of the drill. Promises are concise Thoughts of God’s faithfulness and power, Reminders of His plan for our life.

     Self-pity and fear are often the immediate reactions in a disaster, and the believer controls his subjectivity and fear by reaching out with his faith to Think with Divine Promises. Promises refocus attention on God instead of self; they clear the decks for action, establishing the inner peace of the relaxed mental attitude. Without the relaxed attitude of the Spiritual life, no one can concentrate on the logical Rationales of stage two of the faith-rest drill. Mental sins like self-pity, lust, fear, and worry cut off Spiritual Thought; they obscure Divine Reality; they eliminate common sense. In a crisis the believer must reduce com­plexity to simplicity. He must remember Promises, which clarify his eternal relationship with God, instead of being overwhelmed by the complications that beset him. (Psa 61:2) When Divine Promises have calmed his fear, then with a clear mind he is able to concentrate on God’s provisions and reach Doctrinal conclusions. After Thinking that; “Since God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom 8:31) The believer can then approach the complexity of his current problems from a position of strength, not a position of weakness and reaction. Testing can come as personal disaster in which the believer faces a devastating situation in his own life, or it can take the form of historical disaster. Even the dangers and uncertain­ties of economic depression, social degeneration, and military defeat cannot destroy the Spiritually mature believer’s blessings under the plan of God. (Job 5:19-27) The believer inside the Spiritual life applies the logistical grace Rationale. He knows that God will support and bless him as long as the Divine plan calls for him to remain in this life. He knows that Jesus Christ controls history and that no Divine blessing will be denied to any advancing believer! (Psa 84:11) Historical circumstances never hinder God from blessing Spiritually mature believers. The believer residing in the Spiritual life faces national and worldwide disasters with the same Confidence in God and Courage toward people and circumstances that he maintains in a personal crisis! 

PROSPERITY TESTING 

THE MOST DANGEROUS TEST 

     Disaster obviously challenges the believer’s equilibrium in route to gate eight of the Spiritual life, but a much more subtle and dangerous test is posed by prosperity. Historically, no nation has ever survived its own prosperi­ty; individually, very few Christians successfully pass the prosperity test. Whether in national or personal prosperity, a believer is usually oblivious to the fact that he is confronting the gravest of all obstacles on the road to Spiritual maturity. Prosperity tends to blind the believer to the source of his blessings and the importance of Thinking with the Word of Truth. This causes more Spiritual casualties than does any other momentum test. God’s objective is to bless the believer on earth with Spiritual, temporal, social, historical and even dying blessings “exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think!” (Eph 3:20) Phenomenal Divine blessings are in store for you, not just in heaven but here in the devil’s world. This super-grace prosperity requires great capacity of soul. The accessories of happiness that many people struggle to acquire bring only complications and disillusionment for those who have not developed the capacity for appreciating and using them. Neither wealth, status, promotion, fame, social life, sex, possessions, nor any other attainment; automatically brings happiness. You must acquire the capacity for life, for love, for happiness. Such capacity is one of the mature believer’s Spiritual blessings, which protect him so that other, temporal blessings do not distract him from his continued Spiritual growth! Prosperity is always a test of character, self-discipline, concentration, and capacity. That is the rea­son the greatest blessings of the Christian life are reserved for mature believers or are given as a momentum test to believers who are just reaching the threshold of Spiritual maturity. From the point of Salvation onward, logistical grace provides what may be considered to be wonderful blessings, but the truly exceptional blessings are reserved for those who have developed capacity through consistent residence and function inside the Spiritual life! Because of your faithfulness to the Commands of the Word of God, you will be prospered! God invented the Spiritual life as His game plan for blessing you, and His game plan works! God keeps His word; if you follow His plan, you will be blessed! In social life you may find a wonderful new friend. In business you may be promoted into a new position of confidence that carries great authority. Economically a particular investment may make you wealthy in a relatively short period of time. There is an infinite variety of blessings that God can give; God prospers each believer individually with a different combination of blessings. In the midst of your pleasure and enthusiasm, you cannot imagine that anything could go wrong. But if you forget your Personal love for God, which motivates your Impersonal love for man, and if you forget the source of your capacity for Personal love, Divine Thinking, than everything will go wrong. Not only will you fail to enjoy your life, but any relationship you have, will multiply your own unhappiness and frustration! Any form of prosperity without capacity leads to boredom, dissatisfaction, and unhappiness! 

CAPACITY FOR PROSPERITY 

     No matter what your particular blessings may be that prosperity becomes a test of your capacity. Will you become so preoccupied that you forget the source? Will you complain about what you do not have rather than appreciate what you have? (Heb 13:5) Will you forget that God gave you everything you possess and that He alone sustains you in this life? Many believers never pass the sophomore stage of their Spiritual lives because they lose their perspective in the midst of the wonderful life that God has given them. Even with the relatively routine bless­ings of logistical grace, they fail to pass the prosperity test. Spiritual prosperity in the soul is the basis for enjoying all the temporal pros­perity that God can provide. The easiest thing in the world, however, is to lose your capacity. Your Spiritual prosperity can disappear even though you still possess all the overt accessories of happiness. If you neglect Thinking with the Word of Truth, that is all that is necessary for your capacity to evaporate. You will fail the pros­perity test, if you assume that your blessings alone will sustain you. If you assume that since you have already advanced so far you no longer need to take in Truth every day, day after day, every day! Till death! You will fall into the cosmic system! Momentum must be continually maintained; no believer can afford to neglect the perception of Truth. (Eccles 11:6) But Doctrinal perception is not merely a means to an end, a system of perpet­uating your capacity for overt prosperity. Thinking with the Mind of Christ is its own reward! Truth in the soul is the fountainhead of happiness; temporal blessings are never the source of happiness. (Eccles 12:8) Your happiness from your social life with God inside the Spiritual life overflows into the realm of overt blessings. When your daily wor­ship and fellowship with God through Truth are forgotten, then whatever overt prosperity you may still possess becomes ritual without Reality! The secret to the prosperity test is genuine humility, which enables you to learn capacity and appreciation. Genuine humility motivates obedience to the Divine Commands to faithfully absorb the Word of God! The perception of Truth in gate four not only produces Virtue love for God but also creates and maintains capacity for the blessings that He desires to pour out upon us as the demonstra­tion of His power and integrity in the angelic conflict. (Eph 3:10-11)

STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL VICTORY 

     Every believer is a strategic winner (Eternal life) in the plan of God, but few achieve tactical victory. (Reach Spiritual maturity) Christ won the strategic victory on our behalf; the Cross separates all believers from unbelievers, who remain strategic losers and will spend eter­nity in the Lake of Fire. (Rev 20:15) Our Lord has placed us in a position of supreme advantage over our arch­enemy, Satan, just as a brilliant general decides the outcome of a battle by choos­ing the terrain on which his forces will engage the enemy. At Salvation Christ places us in a position of maximum strength, the Spiritual life! Although His strategic victory guarantees us eternal life and a resurrection body, there is no guarantee of tactical victory in this life or eternal rewards in heaven. We secure tactical victory on the battlefield of our own souls only through continued function in the Spiritual life. Our objective is to become double winners, (Rev 2:26) to seize and hold the high ground of Spiritual maturity in gate eight of God’s power sphere! The strategic winner glorifies Jesus Christ once by making a single decision to believe in Christ for Salvation; (Joh 3:18) the tactical winner not only believes in Christ but makes thousands of Spiritual Decisions to obey the Commands of the Divine system. The believer advancing to Spiritual maturity maintains his perspective and organizes his life based on right priorities: Commands first, Virtue first, Christ first, grace first, momentum first, God's Thoughts first. The strategic winner is one of the “all” in phase two of God’s plan who receives Divine Impersonal love; the believer who is also a tactical winner is among the “few” recipients of Divine Personal Esprit de corps love. The greater blessings of time and eternity are reserved exclusively for double winners. Although the single winner will receive a resurrection body in heaven, he loses all eternal rewards. 

TWO CATEGORIES OF WINNERS IN THE PLAN OF GOD 

     Logistical grace sustains the strategic winner even though he lives in the cosmic system. In contrast, the tactical winner has exploited logistical grace in his advance to Spiritual maturity so that now he is blessed by logistical grace and super-grace. No adversity can disturb his inner tranquility; (With practice!) any suffering he endures is intended for blessing and accelerated growth. The believer who is only a strategic winner, however, is upset by the most mundane problems and suffers unbearably under Divine discipline. In all circumstances he creates his own misery, which is relieved only by intermittent stimulation that he mistakes for happiness. In similar circumstances the tactical winner manufactures his own happiness from Thinking with Divine Thoughts and shares the Happiness of God.

     The Christian who fails to exploit his strategic victory fears death and dies under maximum Divine discipline, the sin unto death. (Rev 3:3)  The tactical winner fears nothing in life or death. The believer in the cosmic system is a strategic winner but a tactical loser; after Salvation he will not glorify God, until entering the eternal state. The believer in gate eight of the Spiritual life is a strategic and tactical winner; he glorifies God in time and eternity. The cosmic believer may be a permanent winner, but after Salvation he makes wrong decisions from a position of weakness. The believer who exploits the power of the Spiritual life establishes a habit of making Divine Decisions.

     John defines both categories of victory and declares that only our Lord’s strategic victory places us in position to win the tactical victory. 

     For this is the love for God [Motivational Virtue], that we may continue observing [Thinking with] His Commands, [Advance to tactical victory in the Spiritual life] because every category of humanity which has been born from God [Strategic winners] overcomes the cosmic system, [Strategic victory as the basis for tactical victory] and this is the [Initial] victory which has overcome the cosmic system, our faith. Who is this person overcoming the cosmic system? No one else but he who has come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. (1Jn 5:3-5) 

     As Peter was writing his second Epistle, he knew that he would soon die and be present face to face with the Lord. (2Pe 1:14-16) This impulsive apostle, who had overcome many obstacles on the road to Spiritual maturity, concludes his dying words with a Command to maintain momentum and achieve tactical victory. 

     You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprin­cipled men, [Carnal believers] you fall from your own stead­fastness, [Secure position in fellowship] but grow in the grace [Logistical grace] and knowledge [The Mind of Christ] of our Lord  and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2Pe 3:17-18) 

     Peter had earlier outlined the system for developing Spiritual momentum. The first three gates of the Spiritual life support the intake of Truth in gate four, and the tactical victory of gate eight is a result of faithfulness in learning and Thinking with the Word of God! 

     Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypoc­risy and envy and all slander, [Mental and verbal sins are eliminated by gates one, two, and three of the Divine sys­tem] like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the Word, [Basic Divine Thoughts] that by it you may grow [Tactical victory] in respect to Salvation, [Strategic victory] if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. [And WE have] (1Pe 2:1-3)

         

THE COMPLETED STATE OF HAPPINESS

      The believer who passes the momentum tests accelerates his growth and enters the winner’s gate. Many blessings belong to gate eight, all of which con­tribute to the completed state of happiness in which the believer shares the Happiness of God. This gate is the culmination and intensification of all the other gates. The inner strength of stabilized Spiritual maturity is the ultimate objective of God’s game plan for the royal family!

     Throughout the First Advent, Jesus Christ resided in fellowship. (Heb 4:15) In His Gethsemane discourse, the night before He was betrayed, Christ spoke concerning the Spiritual life that He would soon turn over to His royal family. He stated that happiness is the ultimate goal of the Christian way of life!

     Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. [Spiritual life] If you keep [Think with] My Commandments, [Thoughts] (Rom 6:17-18) you will abide in My love; [Spiritual life] just as I have kept My Father's Commandments and abide in His love. These things [Thoughts] I have spoken to you so that My joy [Sharing the happiness of God] may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. [At Spiritual maturity] (Joh 15:9-11)  

     The Apostle John identifies Truth as the source of the believer’s happiness. 

     In fact, we write these things [Thoughts] in order that our state of happiness [Spiritual life] might be completed!  (1Jn 1:4)

     In time before death we are to complete the Spiritual life! 

     The state of happiness is the Spiritual life; but there are degrees of happi­ness, from minimum for the immature believer who occasionally resides in the system, to maximum for the faithful believer who per­severes in his intake of Truth to Spiritual maturity and beyond. Each gate contributes to the happiness of the one functioning in the system. There is no happiness for anyone outside God’s system! All true happiness is based on Truth in our soul; the temporal happiness of the Spiritually mature believer who functions in all the gates is Amazing! (Psa 84:10) God designed us; He created us. He “knows our frame” from eternity past. (Psa 103:8-14) He Knows a great deal more than we do! About everything! And what makes us happy! The completed Spiritual life is the envi­ronment for complete happiness! The tragedy is that people assume they can find happiness through their own devices; outside God’s system. And people can and will find happiness in everything under the sun, (Eccles 1:8-9) so will a dog that has a good bone, a tree, a blanket, a dish, wags his tail, runs and jumps! Meaningless! (Pro 1:32; Eccles 11:9) This attitude is the common ingredient of all people without Truth. Satan, who is utterly unhappy and frustrated in the angelic conflict, observed Jesus in the prototype Spiritual life. Our Lord’s constant inner happiness, stability, poise and courage, which under varying circumstances had an entire spectrum of expressions but was never broken. Even at the decline of His nation; (Luk 13:34) and the anticipation of His suffering on the Cross! (Mat 26:39) Which brought out expressions of Christ’s tremendous capacity for life, which included His constant, stabilized happiness in the plan of God. Christ’s happiness was stabilized by His Divine Thinking. He understood the Doctrine of Divine decrees: The decree of God is His eternal, holy, wise, and sovereign purpose, comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be, in their causes, conditions, successions and relationships, and determining their certain future. Which explains how all things fit into God’s overall Viewpoint of time and eternity! But Satan rejects all Truth. Totally arrogant and desperate, Satan tried to destroy our Lord’s happiness. But no antagonism, opposition, injustice and or violence could destroy the power of Christ’s “completed state of happiness.” (Joh 14:27) Failing in his attack against Christ, the devil now concentrates his genius against the believer and unbeliever by counterfeiting the happiness that only the Spiritual life can produce. (Luk 12:19-21) 

         

FALSE HAPPINESS IN RELIGION 

     Satan has no happiness to share. He therefore creates a worldly temporary fleshy-happiness to lure people away from God’s plan. As the ruler of the world, Satan has the power to provide emotional and external-prosperity. (Mat 4:8-9) He presents the attractiveness of wealth, fame, sex and power as if they were happiness in themselves, but Satan’s most subtle and effective deception is religion. The ritual of going to church, giving money, “helping out” (Eccles 5:1; Mat 23:25-28) and not knowing the only way for Reality is, (1Jn 1:9; Joh 4:23) The Spiritual life!  Christians have the impression that they will be happy if they are performing certain “Spiritual” functions, avoiding certain “worldly” activities, or receiv­ing the approbation of others in the congregation or community. Because pastors and other religious leaders often encourage this fallacy as a way of life for happi­ness, believers are tempted to fake happiness in order to vindicate their religious beliefs. The New Covenant Spiritual life is not a ritual; it is the ONLY TRUE REALITY! The Christian life is residence in the whole Spiritual life. And making God's Thoughts and Plan more important than our own! (2Co 5:15) Until this happens the Christian will never understand true happiness! (Mat 16:23-26)

     God The Son laid down his life as perfect God; (Php 2:5-8) this is His WAY! If Christ is being formed in us mentally and in Virtue we will Think the same way, One Mind — One accord. (1Co 1:10; Rom 15:6) Religion is Satan’s ace trump. The worldly-happiness of Christians out of fellowship is just as short-lived and ultimately destructive as the high from a drug. Spirituality, however, is residence and function inside the Spiritual life. Spirituality emphasizes not emotion but Spiritual Thought, Thinking Truth. Emotion without true Divine Thinking is involvement in Satan’s system! Many cults promote an aggressive, unrestrained “joy” as a means of enslaving and controlling their members. Emotion is used as a tool for breaking down the common sense of new converts. Often, joy is integrated with illegitimate forms of ecstatics connected with “speaking in tongues.” and is a satanic substitute for the genuine inner happiness of the Spiritually mature believer. This is not to condemn legitimate expressions of emotion, nor to advocate a stern, facade of strict inflexibility. We are exploring a word found in the Bible, and in order to discover the accurate meaning we must scrape away the barnacles of religion. Gate eight of the Spiritual life is not devoid of emo­tion, but emotion is in response to an entire frame of reference of God's Thoughts. Genuine happiness depends on the Word of Truth. (Jer 15:16; Neh 8:9-10; Jer 23:9) 

HAPPINESS AS A BY-PRODUCT OF TRUTH 

     Although happiness is the ultimate objective of God’s game plan, happiness is strictly a by-product. God’s plan calls for us to pursue Truth in gate four of the Spiritual life. There is no shortcut to gate eight. The shortcut to happiness is the long road to misery! 

     For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, [Human provisions] but righteousness [Staying in fellowship] and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. [Spiritual Maturity] For he who in this way serves Christ [By staying in fellowship] is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then we pursue the things [Divine Thoughts] which make for peace [Spiritual Maturity] and the building up of one another. (Rom 14:17-19) 

     “Edification — building up” refers to erecting a structure in the soul, the believer’s inner strength which is completed upon reaching gate eight. All believers share the common objective of Spiritual maturity and under the royal family honor code are bound to avoid what would distract another believer from reaching the goal. (Rom 14:13) Happiness comes to those who keep faithfully learning and Thinking with Truth.

     But seek first His kingdom [Divine Thoughts] and His righteousness, [Staying in fellowship] and all these things [Human provisions] will be added to you. (Mat 6:33)

     How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, In whose heart are the highways [Thoughts] to Zion! [The kingdom of God] (Psa 84:5)

     In contrast, those who seek happiness itself, whether in wealth, power, religion or any other system of old sin nature happiness; finds only frustration, disappointment and misery. A frantic search for happiness merely intensifies the unhappiness that motivated the search in the first place, as illustrated by addic­tion to drugs.

     The Greek verb in, (1Jn 1:4) which the King James Version renders “may be full,” is the perfect passive subjunctive form of pleröo. Pleröo has a number of related meanings: to fill up a deficiency, to fully possess, to fully influence, to fill up with a certain quality. The Concept of pleröo is comple­tion: “that our state of happiness might be completed.” The perfect tense of the verb indicates completed results from past action. Prolonged residence and function inside the Spiritual life brings about the completed state of happiness! Every gate of the system works at maximum capacity for the mature believer.

     The passive voice of pleröo indicates that such happiness receives the action of the verb rather than produces the action. John makes it clear that Truth brings us to this completed state of happiness. Supported by the first three gates, gate four provides the Spiritual momentum that result in gate eight. Truth pre­cedes happiness. If we seek happiness apart from God’s plan, we will always be unhappy. God’s game plan calls for us to seek Truth, since happiness comes as a natural consequence of learning and Thinking with the Mind of Christ. (1Co 2:16) The subjunctive mood of pleröo means that the completion of our happiness is a potential, the fulfill­ment of which depends on our Decisions over a long period of time to keep residing and functioning in God’s power system.

     John reiterates the importance of Bible teaching in the second Epistle, in which he repeats the same form of pleröo. 

     Although having many [Divine Thoughts] to write to you, I do not wish to do so with paper and ink, but I anticipate coming to you and teaching face to face, that our [Everyone's] state of happiness might be completed! (2Jn 1:12)

  

COMPONENTS OF COMPLETED HAPPINESS  

     The mature believer’s “completed state of happiness” in gate eight of the Spiritual life includes sharing God’s happiness, becoming Spiritually self-sustaining, completing the edification complex of the soul, receiving super-grace blessings, and being appointed to the highest order of royal family knighthood. Sharing God’s happiness has nothing to do with circumstances or the details of life. (Money, sex, job, position, family, friends, wealth, etc.) Sharing the happiness of God is a result of knowing God! And being “brainwashed” with His Thinking! (Eph 5:26-27) God always has perfect happiness; when the believer shares the Thinking of God, as revealed in the Word, he shares God’s happiness. 

     You will make known to me the path [Divine Thinking] of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. (Psa 16:11) [Reward for reaching Spiritual maturity] (Rev 3:21)  

     Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart. [Spiritually mature believers] (Psa 32:11)

     Now therefore, O sons, listen to me, [Learn Truth] for blessed are they who keep my ways. [Think with Truth] Heed instruction [Obey] and be wise, [Grow to Spiritual maturity] And do not neglect it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting [Positive volition] at my doorposts. (Rev 3:16) For he who finds me [God's Thoughts] finds life And obtains favor from the LORD!” But he who sins against me injures himself; All those who hate me love death. (Pro 8:32-36)

      As the believer resides and functions inside the Divine system, he is strengthening his soul. He is making himself Spiritually self-sustaining so that he can Think, Decide, and act with Divine-Viewpoint without seeking advice or approval from others! The more we know about God, the more we love Him, and understand His Commands and His plan for our lives! Divine guidance becomes easy to obey, because, finally we trust Him with our lives! (Eph 3:20)

     Divine guidance is why we are here, (Joh 12:26) this is God's plan; He does not leave it to us to live His plan! We need guidance, (Jas 1:5-8) and He gives it! You must obey it!  There are eight ways God directs us, in, (Act 11:5-16) we have the pattern.

     I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky; and it came right down to me, and when I had fixed my gaze on it and was observing it [Thinking Truth] I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the crawling creatures and the birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, [The Word Taught] Get up, Peter; kill and eat. But I said, By no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth. But a voice from heaven answered a second time, What God has cleansed, no longer Consider unholy. This happened three times, [God Repeats] and everything was drawn back up into the sky. And behold, at that moment [Coincidence; no such thing for believers!] three men appeared at the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from Caesarea. The Spirit told me [Inside impelling] to go with them without Misgivings. These six brethren also went with me and we entered the man's house. And he reported to us [Comparison of events and information] how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here; and he will speak Words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household. And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning.  And I Remembered the Word of the Lord, [Remembering Verses, Principles, Promises, Doctrines, etc.] how He used to say, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. (Act 11:5-16)

     Praying, Thinking Truth, The Word, Confirmation, Providential coincidence, The Holy Spirit Impelling us, Comparison of events and information, Remembering! God Is The One bringing these Thoughts to our mind! (Joh 14:26)

     For we walk by faith, not by sight-- (2Co 5:7)

This is walking by faith.

All Divine guidance excludes sin, and temptation! If the guidance does not line up with The Word then it is not God's guidance! This takes practice; (Heb 5:14) and God will not guide us beyond our capacity. (1Co 10:13) We discover that we can make good Decisions from our own inventory of Truth. The more of the Word we Think with; the more Personal dependence on God! and His Personal Guidance, (Exodus 33:16) this is found in subordination to God’s system. The Spiritual life is our position of strength. The better we understand how God deals with us through a system, the more stabilized is our happiness and the more meaningful our lives become. God is perfect; He never disappoints; He has never let anyone down. As you learn about Him, you realize how wise He is, how faithful, how entirely wonder­ful. You come to depend on Him! (Psa 25:3-5) And in doing so you gain a better perspective of people. With your Confidence grounded in Personal love for God, you can successfully handle any human relationship. No one can disturb, upset, or depress you; this is the strength of Impersonal love for all mankind. (Joh 14:21) The combined power of these two gates con­tributes to your strength in gate eight, and that is the strength of Spiritual maturity; that any believer can have in this life. (Rom 4:20-21) Such strength has nothing to do with physical muscle; it has everything to do with thoughts! Divine Thoughts — BELIEVED AND THOUGHT WITH!

     I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest, [Spiritual maturity] declares the Lord GOD! (Eze 34:15)

THE SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE EDIFICATION COMPLEX  

     The Bible depicts this strengthening of the soul in terms of erecting a struc­ture or constructing a building in the soul. This process is called edification. An edifice is a building, and the Greek verb oikodomeo, “to edify,” is a compound from oikia, “house,” and domeo, “to build.” The believer attains Spiritual maturity when he completes the construction of the edification complex in his soul and grows the completed state of happiness. In the Old Testament the Tabernacle and the Temple building were illustrations of the edification complex for Israel, the building on the inside (Zec 6:12-13) and the feasts, (Lev 23:5-34) are  the progressive stages of the Spiritual life. The gates of the system that Christ fulfilled! In the New Covenant we have the completed version! (Gal 4:19) Christ and His Spiritual life (1Co 3:11-16) are formed in us!  

     To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col 1:27)

     Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the Promise [The New Covenant royal priesthood] in Christ Jesus through the Gospel, [The full realm of Scripture] (Eph 3:5-6)

     So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers [Demon rulers] and the authorities [Demon officers and the angelic trial proceedings] in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Eph 3:10-11)

     The mystery is Christ in us, and that all people are priests at the moment of Salvation! (Gal 3:28) In Israel only the priest could work in the Tabernacle and had to be born in the tribe of Levi, (Num 1:51; Heb 7:11-16) we are born again priests; a new Spiritual species, this is the New Covenant, (Jer 31:33-34; 1Co 11:25; 2Co 3:3-6; Heb 8:6-7; Heb 10:14-20; Heb 13:20)

     These are illustrations that only the priests could perform! And they show Who Christ Is and what He would do! And He did It! Now there is a new completed Spiritual life, that all Spiritually mature priests are to perform, all we have to do is learn how! This was passage of Scripture is just illustrating the basic Doctrines. We have the same and more Doctrines now in writing.

     Now even the first Covenant had regulations of Divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, [Representing the Humanity of Christ] in which were the lampstand [The God man as the light of the world] and the table and the sacred bread; [Perfect with no sin nature, imputed sin, personal sin or human thinking; the unleavened, Bread of life] this is called the holy place. [Fellowship with God] Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, [Face to face with God at Spiritual maturity, now Thought to Thought] having a golden altar of incense [Prayer] and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, [Deity of Christ] in which was a golden jar holding the manna, [God's provision, Truth, and the Spiritual life] and Aaron's rod which budded, [Human authority for teaching] and the tables of The Covenant; [The laws of Divine establishment and the condemnation of man] and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; [Righteousness and Justice of God] but of these things we cannot now speak in detail! Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the Divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, [Representing Christ's judgment for our sin's] which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. [Group Rebound] The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. [Until Christ was judged] Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food [Who Christ Is] and drink [What Christ would do] and various washings, Rebound, ordination regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation! [The New Covenant] But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation. [God the Father's realm] (Heb 9:1-11)        

     The Old Testament is the ritual for what would happen, we read! The Reality of what did happen, and Think with it! This is a supernatural life and we use supernatural Information that changes us from the inside out, (Mat 23:26) and makes us into Spiritually mature priests, (2Co 3:18) ministers of the New Covenant! (2Co 3:9) The main job being to lead people to Salvation, and then to Spiritual maturity! (1Ti 2:4) To glorify Christ by letting His Thoughts and Virtues to shine (1Pe 2:9) through us! (Php 1:20-21) So He can reward us now (Heb 11:6) in Satan's kingdom, and rule with Him in Eternity! (Rev 5:10) No more No less!

THE EDIFICATION COMPLEX RELATED TO THE GATES OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

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The system, which is the Spiritual life, and the edifica­tion complex — Christ used eight gates, we need ten; which is the inner result of obeying God’s Commands; they both merge at the ultimate objective. [Spiritual maturity] From the foundation to the penthouse, the floors of the edifi­cation complex correspond to the building of the Temple in the Old Testament; the very same building is the completed Reality Plan of God! The foundation of the inner structure of the soul! The unseen Temple supported by the filling of God the Holy Spirit. (Eph 2:21) All Christian dynamics, strength, and growth are based on the power of the Energizer! The first floor of the structure corresponds to gate four of the progressive stages of the Spiritual life. Spiritual momentum in the system equals the construction of the edification complex.

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     This is happening in our life as we go through the gates of the system! Two things are happening! Spiritual Growth to be free from slavery to the old sin nature.

     But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. [Spiritual maturity] (Rom 6:17-18)

And growth out of Satan's world system!

     Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. (1Jn 2:15-16) (Isa 42:7; Luk 4:18)

     To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. [Full Spiritual maturity] (Col 1:27-28)

     And on this mountain [At Spiritual maturity] He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, [Sin nature control] Even the veil which is stretched over all nations. [Cosmic system control] (Isa 25:7)

     For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. (Col 1:13)

     ...I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. (Act 26:17-18)

     That their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, [Virtue love] and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, [Spiritual maturity] resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Col 2:2-3)

     For I say, through the grace which has been given to me, to everyone who is among you, stop thinking of self in terms of arrogance beyond what you ought to think, but Think in terms of sanity for the pur­pose of being rational without delusion, as God has assigned to each one a Standard of Thinking to Think with [The Mind of Christ] (Rom 12:3)

     For even if I should boast somewhat freely about our authority, [The authority of the pastor in teaching Truth] which the Lord gave for edification [Building up of the Spiritual life in the believer through Truth] and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed of it. (2Co 10:8)

         

     The happiness of the mature believer with a completed edification complex is the beginning of super-grace. The immature believer has limited capacity, which becomes maximum capacity when his Spiritual momentum has carried him to Spiritual maturity. Each gate of the Spiritual life contributes to the believer’s happiness — happiness exists in varying degrees until completed happiness is stabilized in gate eight. Consistently sharing the happiness of God belongs to the first category of super-grace — Spiritual blessings. Spiritual blessings are the pre­requisite for the other five categories of super-grace blessings: temporal bless­ings, blessings by association, and historical impact, and special blessings connected with undeserved suffering, and dying grace. His state of happiness does not hinge on money, success, promotion, mar­riage or the approbation of others. Whether people appreciate him or not is inconsequential to his happiness. (Heb 12:2)

   

     I have come to know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret [Thinking by God's Reality] of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do [Endure] all things through Him who strengthens me. [Empowers us as we stay in fellowship] (Php 4:12-13)

     Since the believer who enjoys a mature relationship with God does not need any other special blessings, God can give such blessings to him! God can prosper the happy believer precisely because he will not base his happiness on the pros­perity that God gives him. The details of life will not distract the mature believer from his first priority — his Personal love for God through the intake and applica­tion of the Mind of Christ. The details of life will not distract us if we continue in the Spiritual life.

     But I hold this against you: you have abandoned [Forsaken, deserted] your most important love. [The Lord Jesus Christ] (Rev 2:4)       

     Worldly human-prosperity is the most difficult test for anyone to pass. In contrast to adver­sity, which forces a person to draw upon his inner resources of Truth in order to weather the storm, prosperity tends to deceive the believer into letting down his guard. The prosperous believer may struggle to secure the blessings he has; he loses his momentum by emphasizing security instead of freedom. (Joh 8:32) He takes his eyes off the source of his prosperity. God in His perfect justice gives the bless­ings of super-grace only to the Spiritually mature believer who has already attained maxi­mum happiness without reference to circumstances! Anyone who prospers without capacity, whether through the laws of establishment in the business world or by some satanic system of overt or emotional-prosperity, is no happier because of his achievement. That is why the Psalmist says, “Do not be envious of evil men...” (Psa 37:1)

THE SUPREME HONOR: FRIEND OF GOD

     Every New Covenant believer is a member of the royal family of God, but even among royalty there is no equality, now or in eternity. (Rev 2:26) Volition makes the difference. By our own decisions we advance Spiritually and attain super-grace and the other blessings of gate eight of the Spiritual life, or we retrogress into reversionism. (Moral and immoral degeneracy)

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     The in­equalities among the Spiritual nobility of the Church Age will be most dramatic at the Judgment Seat of Christ. There, the mature believer will be rewarded with tremendous eternal blessings. (2Ti 4:7-8; Jas 1:12; Rev 2:7) The superiority of the Spiritually mature believer is not restricted to eternity future. On earth the believer who reaches gate ten of the Spiritual life; Occupation with Christ and perpetu­ates his Spiritual momentum is invested into the most exclusive order of royal family knighthood. He is called the friend of God. The mature believer’s investiture into the royal order of the friend of God is the ultimate honor in this life. Few believers have ever attained this order of knighthood. (Heb 11:1-40; Joh 15:15) Now, inside the Spiritual life, every member of the royal family has an unprecedented opportunity to attain this supreme honor from our Lord. Even the believer who seems to you most unlikely to succeed has a far greater oppor­tunity to become the friend of God than did Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Daniel or any other outstanding believer of past dispensations. The friend of God ceases to be merely the object of Divine Impersonal love; he now becomes the object of God’s complete Personal love. At Salvation all believers receive God’s righteousness, which not only completes their Salvation but also gives them potential for all the special Divine blessings of time and eternity. In our study of Divine Personal and Impersonal love, we noted that God can love Personally only what His righteousness approves. When Salvation is the issue, God loves us with Personal love the moment we receive His absolute righteousness. But when the issue is the Spiritual life, God cannot love us with Personal Esprit de corps love until we learn Truth and reach Spiritual maturity. Every believer receives logistical grace as the constant demonstration of God’s faithfulness and Virtue love, but very few believers in any dispensa­tion fully exploit logistical grace. Few even begin to fulfill the tremendous potential of imputed righteousness. As members of the royal family, we possess the same Divine righteousness that Abraham and Moses received, but our logisti­cal grace is far superior to theirs. We have the complete Spiritual life to sustain our Spiritual advance. We may have many reasons, but there is no excuse for failing to attain the maximum blessings of Spiritual maturity!

This, then, is the goal of the Spiritual life — not only that we be Occupied with the Person of Christ and enjoy maximum social life with God but that He can love us with maximum Personal love and accept us into the exclusive circle of His friends! The super-grace advantages of being the friend of God are phenomenal. This is our purpose in life, our Spiritual destiny!

  

THE TEST OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

     We have now developed the Spiritual life. In sum­mary, God the Father gave a sphere of power to the incarnate Christ to sustain His humanity in the devil’s world. This was the prototype Spiritual life; Christ was the test pilot. For thirty-three years our Lord functioned inside God’s system, and despite continual temptations, beyond any we will ever know, (Heb 4:15) Christ resisted every satanic attack and perfectly fulfilled the plan of God! After accomplishing His mission in the First Advent, Christ turned over His power system to us. He ran the Spiritual life through a complete checkout and then gave the entire system to us so that we, too, can fulfill the plan of God for our lives. As the royal family of God, we have a power system greater than has existed in any previous dispensation. When our Lord was about to be betrayed, He gave us a Command: “Reside in My love.” (Joh 15:9) This is tantamount to a test pilot saying, “Fly it.” Christ had wrung out the system completely and reported “All systems go. The design Was and IS perfect. For us to obey that simple Divine Command, we must know and obey many other Divine Commands.

     When a pilot receives orders to fly a mission, that one order incorporates many other instructions. He is implicitly ordered to check his instruments, to taxi to the end of the proper runway, to set his flaps for takeoff, to handle the throttle in a certain way, to follow a prearranged flight plan. There are literally thousands of functions implied in the command to fly a particular aircraft, all of which the pilot learned step by step. The same analogy applies to the Spiritual life!

     The Divine order to “reside in My love” is a single Command that involves many other Commands, but all of them interlock into one complete sys­tem. The New Testament frequently refers to love and Divine power, but we cannot possibly obey our Instructions if we fail to understand that love is a sys­tem. Christian love is not a nebulous emotion encouraged by a collection of unrelated Bible Verses; Christian love is a cohesive system of power. The Spiritual life in which we must conduct our Christian lives is comprehensive; we obey the order to “fly it” by properly operating in all of its gates.

     Many believers try to live the Christian way of life in only one or two gates. Some make an entire modus operandi out of gate one, distorting the ministry of God the Holy Spirit by “speaking in tongues.” Other believers seek to apply human personal love to all mankind without understanding the Doctrine of Impersonal love; they sen­tence themselves to a life of frustration.

     Likewise, some believers take witnessing, giving, church attendance and prayer out of the overall system. When properly motivated, these are legitimate Christian responsibilities of the royal ambassador. They fit into the Spiritual life as applications of Truth in gate four. However, when believers emphasize these legitimate activities in isolation from the system, then witness­ing or prayer become illegitimate programs of legalism. Such believers go through the motions of serving God in order to impress other Christians or to im­press God and earn His blessings. No one can earn or deserve God’s blessings and anything less than the entire Virtue love complex distorts God’s plan and incurs His discipline. God designed the entire system. The system as a whole is far superior to any of its parts. Each gate is legitimate in itself, but all the gates must function together as the Christian way of life. Only the believer, who resides and functions in the love complex as a complete balanced system, obeys our Lord’s Command to “reside in My love.” Stay in Fellowship!

     What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, [Carnality] we lie and do not practice [Think with] the Truth; but if we walk in the Light [In the Spiritual life] as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1Jn 1:3-7)

THE TEST OF TRUTH

     The eight gates of the Spiritual life work together in the believer without fanaticism, without exaggerating, misapplying, or overlooking isolated Divine Thoughts. All the pieces fit. This categorical Doctrine gives you a balanced approach to your Christian life, enabling you to execute the plan of God as one consistent, orthodox system of protocol. You know when you are in God’s system; you know when you are out. You understand the requirements of gaining and main­taining Spiritual momentum. Foremost in your priorities is “the author and perfecter of our faith,” (Heb 12:2) Jesus Christ, who tested the prototype of the system. We become Occupied with Him as we obey the very Commands He obeyed, molding your life with positive Decisions similar to His steadfast Deci­sions. The Spiritual life enables us to fulfill God’s purpose for keeping us alive, and this categorization of the Christian way of life also answers the longstanding question: after SALVATION WHAT?

     NOW WE JUST HAVE TO THINK IT AND DO IT!

End