Before you begin your Bible study, as a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, be sure you have named your sins privately to God the
Father.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (Known, Unknown
and Forgotten sins) (1Jn 1:9)
You will then be in fellowship with God, Filled with the
Holy Spirit and ready to learn Truth from the Word of God.
"God is spirit, and those who worship Him
must worship in Spirit and Truth," (Joh 4:24)
Super-Grace
— Maximum Glorification of God
THE OBJECT
OF THE BELIEVER-PRIEST
At the moment you believe in Jesus Christ, you receive
forty-plus things, one of which is an appointment as a priest. (1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 2:9)
However it is one thing to be appointed a priest and something else to function
under the priesthood. Just being saved doesn’t mean a thing as far as your
service for the Lord on this earth is concerned. Until you enter into
SUPER-GRACE — MGG, you cannot serve God with maximum
effectiveness. “Super-grace” is that stage in the Christian’s life which
lies beyond the point of Spiritual adulthood and which appropriates and
utilizes God’s grace toward maximum function and production.
In the meantime, you are going to go through all kinds of
growing pains; you’re going to think you’re an expert
at every stage — and you’re going to be trouble for some poor pastor to
whose lot will be, to counsel you. In fact, too often the desire to be
counselled is merely a desire for attention. Most
people don’t need counselling. What they need is God's Thinking — Truth!
There is only one way that any believer can ever basically
function under his priesthood, and that is through the intake of
Truth. But as a new believer, we cannot accomplish this by reading the
Bible for ourself. We are just born into a new kingdom and are totally
ignorant of anything that God has provided. The great objective for you as a
priest — the only objective which you can actually accomplish successfully; is
the intake of Truth; when filled with God the Holy Spirit. (Joh 4:23)
THE FUNCTION
OF GAP
The provision whereby the believer can take in Truth is the
“grace apparatus for perception.” (GAP — Operation Z) You must hear Truth
communicated by a pastor-teacher under the filling of the Holy Spirit. (1Co 1:9-10; 1Co
2:11-13) It is then understood objectively in the left or
perceptive lobe. This information is called “gnosis” in the Greek.
(Knowledge in the staging area) Now, once you understand what has been
taught, volition goes into operation. Positive volition expresses itself
in a non-meritorious manner — FAITH. Faith cycles the information into the
human spirit, where it becomes “epignosis.” (Spiritual Thinking) (1Co 2:11-12) “Epignosis” is “over or beyond
human and satanic thinking,” (Isa 55:8-9)
that is, knowledge beyond the staging area. It is Truth in the human spirit,
which is usable. “Epignosis” is cycled into the right lobe in the filling
of the Spirit, where it goes into the frame of reference and memory centre; it
begins to form vocabulary and categories and to change norms and standards to
line up with God’s Norms and Standards; (Our
thoughts start to line up with God's Thoughts; Rom 12:2) and it is finally put on the
“launching pad” to be utilized. (Thought with)
THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE EDIFICATION COMPLEX, (TEMPLE — SPIRITUAL LIFE) OF THE SOUL
“Epignosis” (Spiritual Thinking) also has another function:
it is used as building material for the construction of the “Temple complex” in
the soul, (ECS) which is the objective of the New Covenant Spiritual life; and
is the identification of maturity in the believer. It consists of ten
“floors” (1) Rebound; (1Jn 1:9) (2) The
filling of God the Holy Spirit; (Eph 5:18)
(3) Faith-Rest Drill; (Rom 4:20; Heb 4:3) (4) Grace Orientation; (2Co 12:9) (5) Doctrinal Orientation; (Mat 24:35) (6) Personal Sense of Destiny —
Spiritual Adulthood; (Mat 25:21) (7)
Personal love for God; (1Jn 2:5) (8)
Impersonal Love for All Mankind; (1Jn 3:16)
(9) +H — Sharing the Happiness of God; (Joh 17:13)
(10) Mental Occupation with Christ and His Thoughts — absence of mental
attitude sins — SUPER-GRACE — MGG. (Gal 2:20)
The ECS
— Temple, is the reflected nature of God and the
means by which believers can glorify God! (2Pe 1:4) Basically,
you don’t glorify God by what you do, but by the Spiritual Thinking and Virtue of
the Spiritual life. Bona fide production is the
RESULT of reaching Spiritual maturity! Therefore,
in order to glorify God, you must develop the Thinking and Virtue in the soul
to the point of Spiritual maturity! (1Co
2:16; Gal 5:22-24)
Once you have achieved an edification complex, you face a
great issue: either you move into super-grace or you retrogress into
reversionism. From +H it is very easy to move to intensify Operation Z, to
continue taking in Truth on a daily basis and to enter Super-Grace — MGG, which
is the last goal of the Spiritually adult believer.
At that point, you begin to function as a
priest in the true sense of the word, and you begin to fulfil the purpose for
which you have been left in this world as a believer. Furthermore, at this point,
you enter vigorously into the angelic conflict. By now you are also Spiritually
mature enough to distinguish between Divine Thinking and Reality vs. satanic-human thinking and the MANY different realities.
RESULTS OF
RETROGRESSION
The big problem comes when people get close to Spiritual
adulthood, and they decide they know it all — that they have arrived! And
that’s when they fall apart. (1Co 10:12)
They begin to neglect Truth, and things that hurt begin to
happen. When you neglect the Word of Truth, you
will eventually go negative towards it. That puts scar tissue on
the left bank of the soul. At first you are not negative in the absolute
sense — the process is gradual. It often
starts with a date or a party which interferes with Bible class; and since you
know everything anyway, you begin to neglect and disregard the
teaching. This opens up “mataiotes” — a vacuum in the soul and the old sin
nature.
A believer cannot be demon-possessed, for his “body is the
temple of the Holy Spirit”; (1Co 6:19) but Satan gets to the believer through the “old sin nature,”
which sucks in the false Biblical and non Biblical thinking of demons. (1Ti 4:1) — false demonic
thinking and human false realities. Once
these infiltrate, they attack Divine Thoughts in the right lobe, and his norms
and standards become the norms and standards of “cosmos diabolicus.” (The thinking of Satan) His
frame of reference and categories change so that he thinks in terms of
“brotherhood,” (So-called) internationalism, one world government,
anti-establishment, anti-military, etc., and there is nothing on the “launching
pad” except propaganda — let’s love the
Communists, beat the drums for ecology, universal Obama-care, give away money
to panhandlers and czars!
Now while this is going on, the old sin nature is not
idle. Whenever scar tissue is built up on the left bank of the soul
through negative volition toward Truth, you will inevitably get into some
practice or some system which will build scar tissue on the right bank. If the
trend of your old sin nature is toward lasciviousness, then by hell-raising,
you build scar tissue on the right bank of the soul. If the trend is toward asceticism, you start to build your
righteousness on someone else’s unrighteousness, or you begin to look
for some second-blessing type of experience, some rosy glow. Once you get
enough scar tissue on the right bank, you have a blackout of the soul.
Scar tissue of the soul also leads to emotional revolt of
the soul. The emotion revolts against the right lobe. The right lobe
is the “man” of the soul and should run the soul. The emotion is a
responder and therefore analogous to the “woman.” But
once you have emotional revolt in the soul, you shut down the valves to the
right lobe, and you become a sucker for anything in the devil’s world. Finally,
your beautiful Spiritual life — Temple, begins to crumble, until you are in a
state called reversionism; and you will begin to practice reverse process
reversionism. All this may take only a short time, or it may take forty
years, as in the case of King Saul. But no matter how long it takes, you are on
your way to the sin unto death. These are the results of retrogression in
the Christian life.
We are going to turn over the coin and see the results of
progression in the Christian life, particularly after you have reached the
point where you have constructed a Spiritual life in the soul. From there,
you can enter the SUPER-GRACE LIFE, which is the state in which you really begin to live as a believer.
It is the capacity to enjoy what God provides! The
purpose of this book is to challenge you to get into the super-grace life and
to find out what it’s all about. But before we can get into super-grace,
we must first understand what grace is.
Therefore, we need the Biblical Principles of grace.
THE DOCTRINE
OF GRACE
Definition.
The definition of grace includes several factors. First, grace is all that God
is free to do for man on the basis of the cross. Second, grace is God’s
freedom to express His love to mankind without jeopardizing His
essence. God’s essence is God’s INTEGRITY. The three Members of the
Godhead possess sovereignty, absolute righteousness, justice, love, eternal
life, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, immutability and veracity. God
the Father wants to love the human race, but He has to have freedom to do
so. He can’t love us at the expenses of some of His other
characteristics. If He compromises His integrity, it is weakened, and His
love is worthless. The important thing in love is Virtue, not maudlin
sentimentalism nor some kind of gushing. (Gal
5:22-23)
{Note: This was written in 1973 ~ today in 2009, it is said
that the Love of God is the Integrity of God — the Whole of God’s character.}
God’s righteousness cannot fellowship with sinful man, for
“all have sinned.” (Rom 3:23) Even
our righteousness is MINUS “R.” (Isa 64:6) His
justice must condemn a Spiritually dead human race. (Eph 2:1; Rom 6:23) Therefore,
His righteousness and justice stand in the way of His love toward
mankind. Yet God found a grace way to love us without compromising His
essence. (Eph 2:4) In His
sovereignty He made a Divine Decision to reach man which satisfied the
righteousness of the Father; on the cross, Christ bore our sins, which
satisfied the justice of the Father. Now love and eternal life can come
through the “grace pipeline” to man — but only by way of the Cross. (Rom 5:8; 1Pe 2:24) Therefore,
grace is the plan and work of God on behalf of man, and grace begins at the
cross.
When you BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, you come under God the
Fathers Virtue love, and at Spiritual maturity His maximum expression of Virtue
love. (Joh 14:21) No matter what
kind of a believer we are, God will always love us — not because of who and
what we are, but because of who and what Christ is! When we understand this, we begin to understand the
Principle of grace.
A third factor in defining grace is the Principle of
freedom: no one can truly give apart from freedom. God gives out of total
freedom because of the cross. Anything that is
given to you in the right way is given on the basis of freedom. When
one gives in freedom, no strings are attached. If giving is a bribe for
affection or love or attention, it does not stem from capacity for
freedom. This emphasizes the importance of the super-grace
life. The super-grace life gives you the
capacity for freedom whereby you have the ability to give not only of your
finances to help someone, but to give of yourself in love. You are free to do so because you are not seeking attention
or affection or trying to bribe someone for something.
The fourth definition relates grace both to the cross and to
the super-grace life. Grace is God’s plan as well as God’s policy for Homo
sapiens. It is a plan, a policy, a function and a mechanic of Divine routine
and life-style.
The Concept of Grace.
Grace depends on the essence or character of God; therefore, grace depends on
who and what God IS, not on who and what man is. Grace
is what God can do for man and be consistent with His own essence.
This is illustrated by propitiation, and the application is
fantastic. It’s the most wonderful thing in the world to realize that God
didn’t save you because He needed your help, your scintillating personality or
your status symbols of life. That is the Madison Avenue type of
Christianity we have today. You and I need God
— He doesn’t NEED us! It’s not what we give up or do for Him, but what He has done for us! Nothing depends on
us — everything depends on God!
God has chosen to use the least deserving of all His
creation —“HOMO — SAPS”!! And that is His phenomenal grace! If He did the
most for us when we were His enemies, (Rom 5:8-10)
what will He do now that we are His children? Much
more than the most! And He does more than the most through the super-grace
life. You’ll never be grace-oriented if you have your eyes on what you are
doing for God, or what anyone is doing — even a pastor. Preachers aren’t
any different from anyone else. We all have old sin natures; but God has
chosen pastor-teachers to communicate Truth. It isn’t the pastor’s life
that is important — it is God the Holy Spirit's
Message spoken through him — and that is grace!
None of us is anything; and that’s the beauty of God’s
plan. God is perfect; His plan is perfect. If one born-again member of the
human race can do anything in the plan of God, the plan is no good. A plan is
no stronger than its weakest link. Now, honestly
— would you like the plan of God to depend on you? Thank God, His plan doesn’t depend on us, but on SOMEONE
WHO IS PERFECT!
The Issue of Grace.
The believer must sort out the difference between grace and legalism. Legalism is man’s ability and works intruding into God’s
plan. Man always has some talent, some ability, some plan or gimmick,
some public relations concept, some Madison Avenue idea that he wants to
incorporate into God’s plan. But NOTHING Satan or man throws into God’s
plan, will stand, because grace rejects the energy of the flesh — human old sin
nature good, human ability, human and satanic viewpoint ideas. Man’s works or plans cannot coexist with God’s. They are mutually exclusive! This means that
when we are born again we bring nothing to God; God
brings everything to us. The sooner you get with this grace
Principle, the sooner you will be able to utilize His blessings.
Many of you are trying to bribe God through giving. You want
a girl friend or success in business or a better job, so you ante ten percent
into the collection plate. Some of you are trying to bribe God by witnessing to
ten people a day. You’re on a point system, a works system. You can’t bribe
God! (Deut 10:17) The sooner you
learn that, the better off you’ll be. One of the things that really
irritates Satan is that God takes fallen creatures, inferior to angels, saves
them, gives them forty plus things at the point of Salvation, and uses them
against the most phenomenal army in the universe — the army of
demons! The believer with Truth in his soul is
armed! Truth is his “ammo” for the angelic conflict!
Christianity moves on the basis of Truth — not on
personalities. Pastor-teachers come and go; but Truth goes right
on. Nearly two thousand years ago, the cannon of Scripture was
completed. All hell tried to stop it; but in 96 A.D. it was completed and
circulated, and it is still here today. It will
still be here tomorrow and forever. (Mat
24:35) That’s what counts — not you or I!
Grace, Sanctification and the Angelic Conflict. The greatest thing that God can do for the believer is to
make him like His Son. Jesus Christ is the only
Celebrity in the Church Age, and the objective of grace is to make every
believer like Him in Thought and Virtue. (Rom
8:29) Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict; therefore,
Christ had to become a human being, not an angel, in order to resolve the conflict.
(Heb 2:14-16) The first Adam lost
the victory through the fall; the Last Adam won the victory through the cross.
(Col 2:14; Heb
2:14) Through the cross grace found a way to take man, created
inferior to angels, and make him superior to angels. This is accomplished
in three stages of sanctification.
Stage 1: Positional Sanctification, administered by the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the Holy Spirit’s entering the believer
into union with Jesus Christ. Christ was made lower than angels, (Heb 2:9-10) but became superior to them at the
moment He was seated at the right hand of the Father. Since believers are
in union with Christ, they are positionally higher than angels.
Stage 2: Experiential Sanctification and Experiential death.
(2Co 4:10-12) After the
construction of the edification complex of the soul, the believer enters into
the super-grace life; therefore, super-grace is the Principle of experiential
sanctification. In Stage 2, believers are able
to defeat demons only under the filling of God the Holy Spirit and Thinking
with the Mind of Christ by reaching Experiential sanctification.
Stage 3: Resurrection or Ultimate Sanctification. The
body of the believer in resurrection becomes exactly like the body of Christ in
resurrection; and as a result the believer is physically superior to angels. He
is POSITIONALLY superior at the cross; (Soul) (Stage 1)
EXPERIENTIALLY superior at Spiritual
maturity; (Spirit) (Stage
2)
PHYSICALLY superior when he receives a resurrection body. (Body) (Stage 3)
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify
you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and
body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He
also will bring it to pass. (1Th 5:23-24)
Notice that in each one, GOD DOES
THE WORK! Inferior mankind becomes
superior through the Principle of grace sanctification.
The Entrance Factor of Grace. Every believer has tasted the grace of God at least once. (Heb 6:4; 1Pe 2:3) We cannot enter the plan of God without tasting grace. When we
believe in Christ, we taste His grace, and we receive forty plus things we
neither earn nor deserve. This grace package cannot be cancelled or
destroyed by either man or angels. Among the forty plus things received at
Salvation — propitiation, (1Jn 2:2)
whereby the believer, regardless of his Spiritual status, is under maximum
grace. But grace can find a place to lodge only where there is capacity
for grace. Entering the plan of God by faith in Christ does not give you
CAPACITY for grace. Therefore, God had to construct a whole series of
things in grace for you: (Jas 4:6) the filling of God the Holy Spirit, the edification complex
— Spiritual
life, Divine Thinking, Operation Z, Spiritual maturity and the super-grace
life; and these are GREATER GRACE!
Capacity for grace increases on the basis of
the intake of Truth. The filling of the Spirit is the beginning capacity for a
new believer, and the construction of the Temple increases that capacity; but
ultimately, capacity for grace is the super-grace life. Grace never goes
where it is not wanted. That’s why some believers will never know the
wonderful things God has for them as His children.
The Occupational Hazard of Believers. The greatest hazard in the life of the believer is
disorientation to grace through reversionism. (Gal
5:4; Heb 12:15) After
one has constructed the mature Spiritual life through the function of Operation
Z, the great danger is reversionism; this prevents us from moving on into
super-grace life.
The Divine Attitude in Grace. God is constantly waiting to pour
out His grace on every believer! (Isa
30:18-19) Some of you will know what this means, and some of you
will never know because you will never reach Spiritual maturity by means of the
daily intake of Truth through Operation Z, and then continue into super-grace.
After the Temple has been constructed, progression is absolutely necessary in
order to go into super-grace and the fantastic blessing waiting there. But
some of you will go into reversionism and never know what hit you! The
objective of this book is to challenge you to move on in spite of ANYTHING — in
spite of any situation, in spite of EVERY situation, in spite of friends or
even of loved ones! (Deut 13:6-11)
Grace in Phase One. The
Principle of grace in Phase One, (Salvation) is found in many passages, such
as, (Psa 103:8-18; Rom 3:23-24; Rom
4:3; Rom 5:20; Eph 2:8-9; Heb 2:9)
— to mention a few. Salvation is all grace because Jesus Christ did all
the work.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that
not of yourselves, (Salvation) it is the gift of God; not as a result of works,
so that no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8-9)
Grace in Phase Two.
This is the believer in time. The first Principle is prayer. (Heb 4:16) No one is completely effective in
his prayer life until he reaches super-grace. This is the place of
dynamics in prayer. This is where prayer has maximum faith-rest function and
usefulness. The second area is suffering. (2Co
12:9-10) Super-grace suffering is
designed for blessing. The third area is growth. (2Pe
3:18) The first part of this verse, “grow in grace,” refers to
the construction of the edification complex; the last part of the, (Spiritual
life) “and in the knowledge (Thinking) of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ,” refers to occupation with Christ in super-grace. The fourth
area is stability. (1Pe 5:12; Heb 13:9) The fifth area is Christianity's
life-style; and this demands the function of super-grace. As a result of
this, we have the sixth function of super-grace — the production of Divine
good. (1Co 15:10; 2Co 6:1) In other words, you don’t have to
WORRY about hustling out to do something for God. You
don’t force production — it will come
naturally AFTER REACHING Spiritual maturity!
Grace and Giving.
Grace orientation is the bona fide motivation and Thought pattern for giving in
the New Covenant Church Age. (2Co 8:9; Php 4:14-17) You
have to be free to give properly, and freedom comes through the intake of
Truth. The intake of Truth builds the Spiritual life;
the continuation of MAXIMUM intake and Thinking with Truth after you build an
ECS puts you in the super-grace bracket! Once we are in super-grace, we are really free to give of of our
time, money, energy and effort to ALL THINGS, PEOPLE AND CIRCUMSTANCES that God
leads us to do! Without strings or coercion.
And
God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all
sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
(2Co 9:8)
Grace in Suffering.
Through grace, God is able to bless the believer in the midst of pressure,
suffering and adversity. Grace is the only sufficiency for suffering in
Phase Two. (2Co 12:7-10)
The Axioms of Grace. (1) God is perfect; His plan is perfect. (2) A perfect plan can only originate and function from a perfect God. In other words, a perfect plan must have a perfect Source. (3) If man can do anything meritorious in the plan of God, it is no longer perfect. (4) A plan is no stronger than its weakest link. For this reason, grace excludes all human merit, all human ability, all human good. “Do-gooders” and “bleeding hearts” will never make it under God’s Plan. That’s super-reversionism! (5) Since legalism and human old sin nature good deeds are the enemies of grace, works of human righteousness have no place in the plan of God. (6) All human old sin nature good is associated with the greatest mental attitude sin — PRIDE! The most devastating mental attitude sins are jealousy and guilt; but the first and the worst is pride. (Isa 14:13-14)
The Axioms of Grace. (1) God is perfect; His plan is perfect. (2) A perfect plan can only originate and function from a perfect God. In other words, a perfect plan must have a perfect Source. (3) If man can do anything meritorious in the plan of God, it is no longer perfect. (4) A plan is no stronger than its weakest link. For this reason, grace excludes all human merit, all human ability, all human good. “Do-gooders” and “bleeding hearts” will never make it under God’s Plan. That’s super-reversionism! (5) Since legalism and human old sin nature good deeds are the enemies of grace, works of human righteousness have no place in the plan of God. (6) All human old sin nature good is associated with the greatest mental attitude sin — PRIDE! The most devastating mental attitude sins are jealousy and guilt; but the first and the worst is pride. (Isa 14:13-14)
Four Areas in Which Pride Rejects God’s Grace. These explain Satan’s pride; they explain human pride and
why pride is the WORST mental attitude sin.
(1) The pride of the believer who rejects the Doctrine of
eternal security from the Lake of Fire. Because it amounts to thinking that
your sins are greater than the Plan of God.
(2) The pride of the believer who succumbs to pressure and
adversity. He thinks his sufferings are greater
then the Divine Thoughts God has granted us to Think with!
(3) The pride of
pseudo-Spirituality in which the believer thinks that his human systems are
greater than the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in his life. His human
system may be personality imitation or observation of certain taboos. It may be
confusing the means with the result. It may be some system of relativity —
e.g., “My sins are more refined than your sins; therefore, I am
Spiritual.” It might be Spirituality by asceticism, programism or
ritualism. All of these are pride systems: “I’m doing something. I
have found the way. I speak all this gibberish under ecstatic conditions;
therefore, I am a great believer!” So human pride is associated with any
system of pseudo-Spirituality, and is sustained by human pride.
(4) The pride of the believer in emotional revolt of the
soul. He assumes that his thoughts, emotions, feelings
and experiences are more important than the Bible; the Word of Truth. (Isa 65:2; Php 2:21)
The Relation of Grace to Divine Operating Assets. This is found in such passages as, (Joh 1:14-17; 1Co
1:4-5; Eph 1:6-7)
The Principle of Super-Grace. (Jas 4:6) “He gives
greater grace.” Jesus Christ moved into super-grace. (Joh 1:14-17) There are many portions which
explain and develop the Concept of super-grace. The passages we will
examine will be primarily Philippians 4 and James 4.
THE PRELUDE
TO THE SUPER-GRACE LIFE
(Php 4:1-13) gives
us the function of the edification complex of the soul; as a prelude to the
super-grace life. In many previous studies we have established the fact
that the construction of the Temple complex in the soul is the point of
Spiritual adulthood for the believer in Jesus Christ. But this only brings him to
the point of Spiritual adulthood without the benefits of Spiritual maturity.
The Christian life really begins, as far as function and production are
concerned, after the ECS, (Temple — Spiritual life) is built. So, the
question is, what’s beyond the ECS? Or, after
Spiritual maturity — what? There
is the great territory of SUPER-GRACE
— generally unknown and unexplored in our generation! Because of
widespread reversionism in Christendom today, this area continues to be
unexplored and unexploited.
In the first three chapters of Philippians, Paul has warned
us concerning reversionism; now in the fourth chapter, he describes the great
blessing of moving into the super-grace life. As we begin this chapter,
there are six Principles we should keep in mind.
(1) No one remains
the same in Phase Two. (The New Covenant Spiritual life) As a believer-priest,
you either advance or retrogress, but you do not stand still. Phase One,
(Salvation) takes just a second. Faith in Jesus Christ requires only a
simple and brief act of positive volition. Phase Two begins one second
after you believe in Him; and continues until death or the Harvest, (Apart from Spiritually mature believers being keep from the
Tribulation period; Rev 3:10-11)
whichever occurs first. Phase Two is divided into two parts — living and
dying. Phase Three is the believer in eternity in the presence of the Lord
after the Second Advent. (2Co 5:8; Rev 21:1 thru Rev
22:1-21) (2) Retrogression means carelessness in the function of
Operation Z, the accumulation of scar tissue on the soul, emotional revolt and
blackout of the soul, reversionism and the practice of reverse process
reversionism. (3) We are challenged to move forward after reaching Spiritual
maturity. (4) The believer cannot afford to spend much of his time recovering
from reversionism.
(5) Recovery from reversionism simply brings you back to the
point of maturity, but doesn’t move you into the super-grace life, where the
real benefits begin to increase. That involves an intense thrust of Operation
Z, and sometimes takes years. (6) Few believers live very long in the penthouse
of the edification complex. (+H — Sharing the Hapiness of God and Occupation
with Christ) They either move on into something greater (God’s +H and
Occupation with Christ; perpetuated and intensified, (Php 4:4) or they retrogress into various stages
of reversionism, which leads to self-induced misery and discipline.
THE COMMAND
TO STABILITY
(Php 4:1) gives us the Principle of how to move
into the super-grace life. It has to be through the continuation of the
function of Operation Z, producing stability in your life. You don’t move
forward on your emotions. The intake of Truth is the only way any believer
will ever move forward. Truth is manna from heaven; it is your life! It
is as important to your Spiritual life as the air you breathe is to your
physical life.
“Therefore, my
brethren, loved ones, deeply desired ones, my happiness and victory crown; in
this way (Spiritual Maturity) keep on being STABILIZED by the Lord, ones worthy
of love (Php 4:1)
“Therefore” — in view of all the Principles in which
believers grow from Spiritual infancy to the point of MGG, (Php 1:1-30) is in view; of the pre-eminence of
Jesus Christ as the only Celebrity in the Christian life, (Php 2:1-29) is in view; of the importance of
discipline, (Php 3:1-21) — the believer
is now ready for the Spiritual Thinking which leads him in the Christian life: capacity for love and
happiness, capacity for life, and capacity for freedom.
“Therefore, my brethren” — members of the family of
God... We enter the family of God by the new birth through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. (Joh 1:12; Gal 3:26) The
life of every believer has meaning, purpose and definition! No matter how
insignificant you think your life is, as far as God is concerned, it is
important! No matter how you may have failed, you are still alive;
therefore, God has a purpose for your life. Phase Two does not depend on
who and what you are, but on WHO AND WHAT CHRIST IS! It depends
on orienting to grace as quickly as possible. Even though you may think of
yourself as a second-class Christian, you are a believer in full-time Christian
service. You are a priest, appointed at the moment of your Salvation, and
God has a plan for your life.
The fact that you are alive right now means that you can
recover from any failure, any disaster, any difficulty, and go on to the great
Principle of the super-grace life. God has left you here primarily for one
reason — not to hustle and work around a church — not even to witness and pray,
but to reach the place of super-grace and function
in your priesthood to the maximum capacity!
“Dearly beloved” is literally, “worthy of love,” Now you may
say to yourself, “What have I ever done to make me worthy of love, as far as
God is concerned?” Obviously, in view of God’s essence, none of us is
worthy of God’s love. But Jesus Christ is worthy of the Father’s love, and
because every believer is in union with Christ, we become worthy of the
Father’s love through Christ. (Eph 1:6)
Paul also has a deep love and desire for the
Philippians. Their pastor, Epaphroditus, is at this time on leave in Rome
to visit Paul; but as founder of the Philippian church and writer of this
epistle as an Apostle, Paul is again their temporary right pastor. They
are his “joy” in time because down through the years they have so responded to
his Doctrinal teaching that they are a great source of happiness to him. There are two kinds of joy: one is, the +H, which
indicates Spiritual maturity; and two, the follow-through of +H in the
super-grace life. The two together make up the greatest happiness
which it is possible to have in the devil’s world
— a life that really counts. This
happiness is a part of Paul’s capacity for love.
Most believers are unaware of the fact that both types of
happiness are open to them. However, you don’t get there by doing things
or by clapping your hands and singing, “I have the joy, joy, joy.” You get there by learning and Thinking with Truth filled with
God the Holy Spirit! Yet we have people today warning believers to be careful of
getting too much Truth or they will become stagnant. That’s the devil’s own propaganda!
New believers should not be DOING anything — they are
Spiritual babies. No one expects a baby to get a job and earn his own
living the minute he is born, or for many years after. We all have to go
through a long learning process before we are able to work or to stand on our
own. That’s true in the Spiritual life as well. You are in training from the moment you are saved until you
construct the edification
complex. The intake of Truth through the function of Operation Z, is
the means by which this is accomplished in the Spiritual life. With a crash program of Operation Z, you could get there
in eighteen months or two years. And then you’re really ready to live!
You are designed for living the Spiritual life.
But the fulfilment for living is in the super-grace life. Many of you have remained in bondage to legalism since the
day of your Salvation. Someone grabbed you right after you were saved and
told you that you couldn’t grow until you gave up five things that always
shocked that person. So your whole Christian life has consisted of giving
up the “big five.” Some of you are in bondage to emotional revolt of the
soul and reversionism, and you’ll never have the experience of the happiness
for which you are frantically searching because the capacity comes from Truth!
The people who have responded to Truth are Paul’s victory
crown in eternity as well as his joy in time. Paul often used the analogy
to the ancient games of the Graeco-Roman world — the Olympic games, the
Isthmian games at Corinth, the Pythian games, etc. The victor’s crown was
a crown of ivy leaves, which doesn’t sound like much of a reward for spending
ten months in “beast barracks” training under the most rigid
discipline. But the real reward is revealed when the victor returns to his
hometown. A hole just large enough for him to walk through is cut in the
wall of the city. He is no longer just an ordinary person; therefore, he
does not walk through the city gates as other citizens. After he enters
the city through the hole in the wall, it is sealed up and a plaque placed over
the spot to memorialise his victory.
From there, the victor is honoured by a great parade through
the city. After the shouting is over, the athlete is sculptured in bronze,
and the statue is exhibited in a public place. He is also given a cash prize,
his children are educated at public expense, he is given a lifetime pass to the
games in which he won an event, and he is eliminated from any future payment of
income taxes.
Believers receive only the “well done” now — ivy leaves compared to the fantastic rewards which will be given in
heaven to those who have fulfilled their priesthood in the super-grace life!
“In such a condition,” Paul goes on to say, “don’t lose
ground.” In other words, STAND FAST! KEEP ON
BEING STABILIZED! This is the first Command to keep moving into the
super-grace life. How? “By the
Lord,” and “by the Thinking of the Lord.” The “Thinking of the
Lord,” is the Bible — Truth
— the “Mind of Christ” (1Co 2:16) — and
emphasizes the importance of the perpetuation of Operation Z on a daily basis!
AFTER the construction of the Spiritual life — beyond the completion; lies the realization of a
fantastic world of beyond normal-grace provisions!
PERSONALITY CONFLICT
Now before Paul can go on with the Doctrine of the super-grace
life, he has to stop and resolve a problem which has arisen in the local
church. There was a personality conflict which had affected the entire church.
Wherever personalities gather, the differences which always exist form the
basis for conflict. Two ladies had emerged into a donnybrook in the Philippian
church, and everyone in the church had taken sides. It could have destroyed the
congregation if it had been allowed to continue.
“I admonish Euodias, and I admonish Syntyche to have the
same Divine Viewpoint by means of the Lord.” (Through the Thinking of
Christ) (Php 4:2)
The word “urge” (“Parakaleo”) has several meanings; but here
it means “to admonish.” It is the beginning of a mild rebuke from
headquarters. The first of these women is Euodias, whose name means
“prosperous journey.” From her name it is concluded that she was a very
capable businesswoman. “Possibly” she was a little on the intense side, wore
tailored clothes and sombre shades. At this time she was engaged in a personality
conflict with another prominent woman in the church, known as Syntyche, whom
she regards as a flighty social butterfly. Syntyche means “pleasant
acquaintance” or “happy chance.” No doubt she is exact opposite of Euodias and
“possibly” regards Euodias as too ambitious and efficient.
Both of these ladies are playing a game of “Spiritual king
of the mountain” in the local church. They once had an edification complex, but have neglected Truth for one reason or another and have
gone into reversionism. The conflict between them is a part of reverse
process reversionism. Although the object of their true love was Jesus
Christ, they had become occupied with inconsequential persons, perhaps human
celebrities. If they had a right man, he was phased out for the moment.
Only Truth in the right lobe can resolve
personality conflicts among believers.
If these ladies had obeyed the admonition in, (Php
4:1) there would have been no problem. Now they need to get back to
Doctrinal or Divine Viewpoint. The neglect of the daily function of
Operation Z not only results in the function of reverse process reversionism,
but if widespread enough, can turn a local church into a battleground.
We must understand that Christianity is not a
change of personality. Many people today are teaching
Christianity as a kind of system of psychology. They are analysing and
defining personalities in psychological terms, making an issue of personality,
and trying to solve problems from the human viewpoint, such as sensitivity
training. Changing the personality is not the answer to any kind of personality
conflict. God uses all kinds of personalities, and these are never to be an issue.
In the following verses, Paul continues with the solution to the personality
conflict and Commands for the super-grace life.
“Okay — I request you also, reliable Syzygus, (Proper name,
meaning, “yokefellow”) give assistance to those women who teamed up with me in
the gospel, with Clement also and the rest of my associates, whose names in the
book of life.” (Php 4:3)
“Indeed,” which
begins this verse in the English, is a confirmation of the preceding statement,
and indicates the need to take a further step to solve the problem. It is
usually translated “yes.” In our idiom, “okay” would best express the
meaning. These ladies actually need two things to resolve their conflict:
first, recovery from reversionism, which calls for the reconstruction of
the ECS through the daily function of Operation Z; second, their conflict is so
serious that Spiritual leadership and authority from a mature male member of
the congregation is necessary. Remember, their pastor, Epaphroditus, is
absent and cannot step in and handle the situation. Therefore, the Apostle
Paul is appointing a man in the congregation to take the place of leadership.
Now there is nothing charming or more beautiful and lovely
than a woman, and God has given women a wonderful place in life; but it doesn’t
include authority in a church! When woman get into reversionism, one of
the first signs is a tendency to try and start running the church and the
pastor and, of course, their husbands. If their husbands had exercised their
authority at home, these two gals would never have entered into the donnybrook
at the church.
There is one super-grace type male in the church who is
still totally objective and who hasn’t taken sides. His name is Syzygus, but
I’m going to call him “Gus” for short. So Paul says, “Okay, Gus step in and
straighten out these two reversionistic cats who have started a gang war in the
congregation.” He will have to take the place of the pastor in this case.
The pastor (Shepherd) does two things for the sheep: on the one hand he feeds and
protects them; on the other hand, he whacks them. Sheep are so stupid they
can’t think; but when they get whacked with the stick, it is a reminder to get
back in line.
The pastor is THE AUTHORITY in the local church. If you are
not satisfied in your local church, don’t start trouble! You may know more
Truth than the pastor — but he still represents authority. It is not your
job to straighten him out or to tell the other members in the congregation what
he doesn’t know. If he isn’t feeding you the way you think he should, or
you cannot respect his authority, it still doesn’t give you the right to start
a fuss. You will be disciplined and judged. If necessary, just depart. Quietly!
In the absence of the pastor, some qualified person has to
assume authority — one in super-grace who has enough Truth to use his authority
without abusing it. “True” means three things: “genuine, legitimate and
reliable.” All three describe a super-grace believer. He is genuinely
objective; he can legitimately assume authority; and he can be depended on the
handle the situation with justice and equity. The fact that Syzygus means
“someone in harness, companion” indicates he has had experience in recognizing
authority himself. He went through “beast barracks” with Paul. No one
ever properly exercises authority until he has learned to take authority. Sometimes to take authority you have to be ground down into
the dust. You
have to take it and take it and take it! It’s no fun — but the important thing is to learn to respect authority.
Some of you have pastors you don’t like. So what? That isn’t
even the issue. The Scripture doesn’t say anywhere that you have to like the
pastor. But it does say you have to respect his authority. Gus was under the
authority of three pastors — Paul, Timothy and Epaphroditus. They all had
different personalities, but they all cranked out Truth; and Gus had Divine
Thinking — Truth!
In the past, the two ladies in conflict had been associated
with Paul and had been a fantastic help to him in the work of evangelisation in
Philippi. They had worked with Clement also, who was of a different personality
from Paul, as well as with many others in the church. When Euodias and Syntyche
possessed the ECS, they had no trouble working as a team with many different
kinds of personalities. Emotional revolt, reversionism, and their subsequent
conflict have made casualties of them.
The mention of the “book of life” indicates that all these
people were believers in Jesus Christ. The book of life originally contained
the names of all members of the human race. (Doctrine of unlimited atonement)
When anyone dies without believing in Christ as Saviour, his name is blotted
out of the book of life. (Rev 3:5; Rev 13:8; Rev 17:8;
Rev 20:12; Rev
20:15; Rev 21:27)
After giving enough instruction to take care of the problem,
Paul stops and points them toward the goal of the Christian life, which
apparently only Gus has achieved. This goal is mentioned in, (Php 4:4-5). But before we go any farther, I want
to switch over to a passage which explains why the two women were in this
conflict and why any conflict develops in a local church.
HINDRANCES
TO SUPER-GRACE (Jas
4:1-6)
This passage is not dealing with military warfare. War is
Biblical when it is necessary for the maintenance of freedom. We have freedom
today in this country because men have fought and died on battlefields and
killed the enemy! But “wars and fightings” connected with the prepositional
phrase here, “among you,” indicates personal quarrels or strife. Conflicts
develop when believers in reversionism seek to gratify approbation and power
lust by overthrowing or replacing existing authority in the local church. This
is the aggressive Principle. The passive Principle in a conflict results when
reversionism causes a believer to become subjective. Subjectivity plus
hypersensitivity in a believer makes him easily susceptible to a personality
conflict. He is quick to take offence.
What is the source of these conflicts? The word translated
“lust” is “hedone” in the Greek, meaning “pleasure or passion,” and thus
signifies “a frantic search for happiness through pleasure.” Our word
“hedonism” comes from this word, which was a philosophical system as well as a
normal routine and life-style in the ancient world. The reversionist has a
choice for his frantic search for happiness: he can go the route of asceticism
and agonize in the closet, go up on a mountain top and throw a fagot on the
fire, dedicate, rededicate and reaffirm his faith; (All the mixed-up emotional
superficial, ignorant and blasphemous rigmaroles with which people are using
today) or he can go the route of immorality or lasciviousness.
Now this frantic search for happiness results from a
condition in the soul. “Members” is literally “the parts of your soul,”
including the old sin nature. Personality conflicts do not come from the body,
but from the soul; they are antagonisms in the soul. The war in the parts of
the soul results in both emotional revolt and reversionism. Under reversionism
and the practice of reverse process reversionism, the conflicts and quarrels
among believers are intensified. This becomes a major hindrance to the function
of the super-grace life.
Hindrance
Through the Principle of Reverse Process Reversionism (Jas 4:3-4)
In these two verses the actual practice of reverse process
reversionism is not in view, but the Principle on which it is practiced.
You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are
envious and cannot obtain; (Happiness) you fight and quarrel. (Under
reversionism) (Under super-grace) you do not have because you do not ask. (Jas 4:2)
“Lust” in this verse is actually used for the lust pattern
of the old sin nature — power lust, approbation lust,
materialism lust, sex lust, etc. The believer in reversionism is constantly
motivated and dominated by the lust pattern of the sin nature! The sin
nature becomes dominant at the point of emotional revolt. There are three kinds
of emotional revolt: (1) mental attitude sins from the area of weakness in the
old sin nature; (2) the lust pattern; (3) the area of human old sin nature
good. Sometimes you have all three. This is a part of
that warfare in the soul. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the
pride of life. (1Jn 2:15-16)
When the lust pattern is frustrated, it intensifies the lust
as well as the frantic search for happiness and the practice of reverse process
reversionism. A reversionist is in a constant state of frustration: he keeps on
lusting and he does not have. So when you are frustrated, what do you do? You
kill, (The Greek word for “homicide”) YOU MURDER! Here is a maximum attempt
under reversionism to gain money or power or to gratify some desire. But
“desire” is literally “to be jealous.” Murder is the overt sin; jealousy, the
mental attitude sin. Both are vicious sins. Anything you acquire through
jealousy, murder or lust will never make you happy whether it is a person or
things.
In this verse, envious — jealousy, which is a sign of
reversionism, is also the motivator, while murder is a result of it. Under
reverse process reversionism, frustration produces factions and antagonisms —
“you quarrel and fight.” These factions will cause believers to establish
themselves as an authority in some area. Such believers often distort Truth or
Scripture to attack or discredit the authority or ministry of the pastor. On the
basis of the Scriptures they distort, they gain adherents, who are not aware of
the jealousy involved — only the Truth distorted to gain authority. The result
is revolt in the congregation.
The last phrase in, (Jas 4:2)
introduces the grace Principle. Under super-grace, the believer can ask and
acquire. The only reason a Spiritually mature or
super-grace believer does not have is that he does not ask. Under
reversionism, the believer cannot ask and acquire. The reversionist can fight
or quarrel to gain authority, but he will never have it. Whatever he manages to acquire will turn sour, or it won’t
be worth it!
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong
motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (Jas 4:3)
Not all reversionistic believers use violence, jealousy or
strife to satisfy their lusts. Some distort Spiritual Principles, such as
prayer, to gratify their desires. This is the ascetic-type believer. No matter
how eloquent the prayer or how beautifully you pray as a reversionistic
believer, you will not be heard. (Psa 66:18;
Pro 15:8; Pro
28:9)
Hindrance
Through the Function of Reverse Process Reversionism. (Jas 4:6)
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the
world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the
world makes himself an enemy of God. (Jas 4:4) cf.
(1Jn 2:15-16)
“Adulteresses” is addressed to all believers in reversionism
practicing reverse process reversionism. The feminine gender is used to illustrate
the analogy of right man - right woman and the relationship between Christ and
the believer. Under Personal love, Jesus Christ is the Right Man; believers,
the right woman (Eph 5:22-32) Adultery
illustrates reverse process reversionism in Category One love. The believer in
reversionism is occupied with inconsequential persons under pseudo-love
fanaticism. (Described as both “love and lover of the
world” — “cosmos,” or Satan’s kingdom — living in the power of the sin nature — carnality)
Now, whether you will go on into super-grace or retrogress
into reversionism becomes a matter of your VOLITION. Every
negative decision you make in a frantic search for happiness, every decision
you make under the influence of “the false thinking of demons,” which infiltrate through the “old sin nature”; all of the decisions made under emotional revolt of the soul
and reverse process reversionism; are decisions for reversionism. These decisions are DELIBERATELY negative when they could
have been positive. The believer in reversionism is the enemy of grace
and therefore the enemy of the cross, (And the Spiritual life) where grace was
first manifest. (Php 3:18)
THE CONTRAST BETWEEN REVERSIONISM AND SUPER-GRACE
Or do you think that the Scripture Speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." (Jas 4:5-6)
THE CONTRAST BETWEEN REVERSIONISM AND SUPER-GRACE
Or do you think that the Scripture Speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." (Jas 4:5-6)
We begin with the subjective thinking of the
reversionist, who presumes that the Scripture doesn’t mean what it says. The Scripture he scorns is from, (Pro 3:34) (Taken from the Septuagint) but is not
quoted until AFTER the parenthesis. Inside the parenthesis we have super-grace;
outside the parenthesis we have reversionism on one side and recovery on the
other side, or the contrast between reversionism and super-grace.
The first word in the parenthesis, “Spirit,” is
God the Holy Spirit with reference to the Spiritual life. The Greek word
translated “lust” is literally “to love deeply.” The Holy Spirit loves every
believer, even those in reversionism. He gives
Spiritually mature believers GREATER GRACE — and
that’s SUPER-GRACE! But God the Holy Spirit gives super-grace through
His teaching ministry of Truth. (Joh 14:26;
Joh 16:12-15; 1Co 2:9-16) God the
Holy Spirit, in other words, is the One who enables the Spiritual life to
function. GOD “JEALOUSLY DESIRES” — FOR US TO STAY IN FELLOWSHIP!
On the other side of
the parenthesis, we now have the quotation from Proverbs, in the Greek, the
repetition of “IT says” (“lego”) indicates both the opening and closing of the
parenthesis. God the Father, Author of the Divine plan of grace, fights against
the reversionist — the proud — another mental attitude sin, used on this side
of the parenthesis as a manifestation of reversionism. In contrast, He gives
super-grace to the humble (Dative of possession) — the
super-grace believer who possesses a maximum amount of TRUTH AND CONTINUES TO
TAKE IN TRUTH!
Now, in order to get the clearest picture of the super-grace
life, we are going to have to skip back and forth between Philippians 4 and
James 4. But before we resume in Philippians 4, I want you to remember some
things. First of all, you must completely disassociate yourself with the
concept that you are a second-class Christian unless you are hustling for God,
witnessing to so many people every day, praying so many hours a day, making
some kind of an all-out sacrifice, and all the other things generally classed
as “doing great things for God.” Your soul was saved at the cross — not your
body, not your energy. God is not impressed with either. The basic Principle of
Christianity is feeding the soul so that you can fulfil the purpose of the
angelic conflict. The only way the soul can be fed is from the daily intake of
Bible Truth. This cannot be emphasized enough, for there is no substitute for
Operation Z.
Remember the issue in Operation Z: when Truth comes into the
left lobe as “gnosis,” God the Holy Spirit makes it objective Reality. Faith or
positive volition transfers God's Thoughts to the human spirit, where it
becomes “epignosis.” (Spiritual Thinking) It is cycled into the right lobe and
enters the frame of reference and memory center; it becomes a part of the
vocabulary and categories as well as the norms and standards, and it is put
into the launching pad where, of course, you get your first application of
Truth to experience. “Epignosis” Truth is also constructing a Temple in your
soul, and you are moving to maturity. And here is where you have to be careful.
You don’t stay here. Either you progress or you retrogress once you have
completed an ECS. Progression is moving into super-grace; retrogression is
moving into reversionism. This brings us back to, (Php
4:4)
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say,
rejoice!
SUPER-GRACE HAPPINESS
Keep on having happiness by means of the Lord at all times;
further, I will communicate, keep on having happiness. The first Command of
this verse is to build an edification complex in the soul. The second maturity
level of the ECS is PLUS-H (Divine happiness) and indicates a nearly completed
ECS. The believer can possess happiness by means of
Truth — the only way in which an Temple can be
built in the soul! (1Co 3:11-20)
cf. (Pro 3:13-15) Most of the people
who had become involved in the donnybrook between the two women in the
Philippian church were in reversionism, and they needed to recover. Part of the
recovery is the reconstruction of the Spiritual life.
Now in the second half of the verse, there is something
further. (“Again” is literally “further”) This time the Command is to go on
from the ECS and enter into the super-grace life where PLUS-H is perpetuated
and intensified. At this point we need to look at the categorical Doctrine of
happiness, which is the transitional Doctrine between the PLUS-H of the Temple
and PLUS-H in the super-grace life.
THE DOCTRINE
OF HAPPINESS
Happiness is related to the essence of God. God always
possessed perfect happiness or PLUS-H in eternity past. This happiness is both
a part of His character and the result of His character. It is impossible for God to be unhappy; it would be
incompatible with His essence. (Deut 28:63;
Psa 43:4) Therefore, God is not only
perfect, but He possesses a perfect and eternal happiness. (Rom 1:25) Possessing perfect happiness, God is
also the source of perfect happiness, which is acquired in the four stages of
Phase Two. First of all, you get your first taste of this happiness from the
filling of the Spirit. (Rom 14:17; Gal 5:22-23; 1Th
1:6) PLUS-H also comes from the function of Operation Z, (1Jn 1:4) and, as we have seen, from the ECS and
the super-grace life. (Php 4:4)
Happiness is related to the plan of God. In eternity past
God desired to share His perfect happiness with man in time. It is impossible
for you to work up happiness. The things in this life that make you the
happiest, if you get enough of them, can also make you miserable. Happiness
cannot be realized apart from God; (Psa 5:11-12;
Psa 9:1-2; Psa
97:12; Hab 3:18; Zec 10:7) therefore, the entrance into the plan
of God — Salvation — is related to happiness. (Psa
9:14; Psa 51:12) Happiness
is accomplished through grace. (Psa 31:7)
In grace God found a way to share His perfect happiness with man in time. Every
benefit from God to man comes through grace. (Psa
21:1-2) Therefore, only the believer can possess this happiness. (Eph 2:8-9) Grace is the means of administering
Salvation, and grace is the means of administering this happiness.
Grace-happiness, which must be accomplished through Truth, is described in, (Psa 32:10-11).
Virtue-Happiness is confined to believers in
fellowship with God the Holy Spirit.
(Gal 5:22-24) Man enters the plan of
God by faith in Christ. (Joh 3:16; Joh 3:18; Joh 3:36;
Joh 20:31; Act
16:31) However, being saved does not imply instant or automatic
happiness. PLUS-H, (Virtue-happiness) is only potential. Between Salvation and acquiring PLUS-H is much Truth! You
have to “learn and THINK with Divine Thinking” consistently! You can’t
grow up Spiritually by merely reading a chapter in the Bible every day. If you
could, there would be no need for the gift of pastor-teacher. You have to get Truth isagogically, categorically and
exegetically. (I.C.E.) Salvation is often accompanied by a temporary
happiness, (Psa 51:12) but this is not
the PLUS-H or perfect Divine happiness which comes from Spiritual maturity.
Truth and the function of Operation Z are the basis for
PLUS-H. (1Jn 1:4) The first taste of
PLUS-H comes through the filling of the Spirit. (Rom
14:17; Gal 5:22-23; 1Th 1:6) This joy can exist only when the
believer is filled with the Spirit, although you don’t always experience PLUS-H
when you are filled with the Spirit. The next step in PLUS-H is the function of
Operation Z whereby the happiness of God is fulfilled in the believer through
Truth; (Joh 17:13) compared with (Joh 17:17). The next step is the construction of
the edification complex of the soul, with joy or PLUS-H as one of the goals. (Neh 8:8-10; Psa
30:5; Php 4:4) The great
giant step is PLUS-H and OCCUPATION WITH CHRIST; in the super-grace life. (Php 4:4; Heb 12:2;
1Pe 1:8)
At this point we have to stop and recognize the other types
of happiness. PLUS-H is God’s happiness shared with man in time through
Operation Z and the super-grace life. But there are certain kinds of human
happiness.
The Recognition of happiness. (Pro
23:24-25; Ecc 9:9; Ecc 11:8-9; Isa 9:3;
Isa 62:5) In contrast to God’s
happiness shared with the believer, let’s call legitimate human happiness
“neutral-H.” Any member of the human race who follows the laws of Divine
establishment may have this “neutral-H.” For example, a man can be happy as a
military hero — killing the enemy. That’s providing freedom for your country.
There is happiness in the right man - right woman relationship under the laws
of establishment, even if those involved are not born again. (Ecc 9:9) So there is a type of happiness for
both believers and unbelievers under the Principles of establishment.
Another type of human happiness is “minus-H." This is
temporary, superficial stimulation. “Minus-H” happiness depends on pleasant
environment, possession of the details of life, stimulating circumstances,
having one’s own way or never being crossed. Boredom, frustration,
restlessness, instability and reversionism neutralize this happiness. It isn’t
worth much, and it won’t carry you anywhere. Whatever you have by way of fun
doesn’t sustain you in a crisis.
In contrast, God has designed PLUS-H to be permanent,
perpetuated and stabilized through Operation Z, the ECS and the super-grace
life (Jer 15:16; Mat 4:4; Joh 13:17;
Joh 17:13) compared with, (Joh 17:17; Jas 1:25).
PLUS-H, in contrast to minus-H or neutral-H, is designed to bless and sustain
in every circumstance of life, whether in prosperity or adversity. PLUS-H in
the super-grace bracket gives capacity for freedom, capacity for life and love,
and is one of the greatest things you can have as a
believer. But again, this happiness cannot exist apart from the filling
of God the Holy Spirit and Truth (Joh 4:23-24;
1Jn 1:4)
Super-grace happiness lies beyond the Temple in the soul. (Php 4:4) Once the believer achieves an ECS, he
either retrogresses into reversionism or progresses into super-grace. You never
stand still in the Christian life. Minus Truth takes you into reversionism, by
way of scar tissue, blackout of the soul, emotional revolt and the practice of
reverse process reversionism. Plus Truth moves you on to super-grace, and you
add happiness to happiness. And I’m not talking about a rosy-glow experience on
a mountain top somewhere after throwing a faggot on the fire and making a vow.
There have been more let-downs after this type of operation, and it just won’t
cut it. It takes day in and day out learning and
Thinking with the Word Truth — keep going and
keep going. That’s what moves you up to the super-New Covenant Spiritual life!
(1Th 5:16-18)
PLUS-H protects from disillusion. It protects you from
disillusion regarding the circumstances of life, (Php
4:11-12) as well as regarding the details of life; (Heb 13:5-6) and other believers. (Heb 12:2)
Inner happiness or PLUS-H stimulates and enhances capacity
for love. Once the ECS is completed, the believer
has capacity for freedom, for life and for Virtue love. These are
enlarged and intensified and become a part of his happiness and fragrance of
memory in Personal love for God. (Occupation with Christ — Luk 22:19; 1Co
11:24-25) and Personal and Impersonal love; (Right man-right woman)
(Song 3:1; Song
4:6-7 — frankincense and myrrh represent fragrance; toward believers
using Truth. (Php 1:3; 2Ti 1:5) One who has Virtue love has capacity
for life; one who has capacity for life; (Through Truth and PLUS-H) loves!
There is a future happiness even greater than PLUS-H in
super-grace. This is a Phase Three happiness, including both the Millennium and
eternity. (Isa 35:10; Isa 64:4-5; Isa
65:18-19; Isa 66:10; Jude 1:24)
The negative axioms of happiness. You cannot build your
happiness on someone else’s unhappiness. You cannot build your happiness on the
details of life. You cannot build happiness on pleasant environment, on people
you love, on sex, on fame, on lust nor on the overthrow of establishment.
The positive axioms of happiness. You can build happiness on
the filling of the Holy Spirit. You can build more happiness on the intake of
Truth; (Operation Z) and the ECS. (Joh 4:23-24)
You can build happiness to the maximum in the
super-grace life. You can also build happiness on the capacity for
freedom, life and love. This happiness is related to both the Doctrinal
provision of God and the function of the laws of Divine establishment.
Happiness is related to both Spiritual and human freedom.
Spiritual freedom is found in the plan of God for believers. (Rom 8:21; 2Co 3:17;
Gal 5:1; Jas
1:25; Jas 2:12) Human freedom
is found in the function of the laws of Divine establishment.
We enter the plan of God by faith in Christ. Then, being
removed from the bondage of sin by growth to Spiritual maturity, we are free to
serve, to honour, to worship, and to love Jesus Christ. This is the objective
of the super-grace life. (Rom 6:17-18)
THE
SUPER-GRACE MENTAL ATTITUDE
Let your super-grace reasonableness be known to
all mankind. The Lord
is near. (Php 4:5)
Here is a Command to enter the super-grace life. “Moderation” is literally “over-reasonableness”;
but here it becomes a technical word for the grace mental attitude of the
believer; as he lives in the super-grace life. How is it possible for your
super-grace reasonableness to become known? Through the Principle of, “live and let live.” This
means to recognize the privacy, rights and property of others; to have a
relaxed mental attitude which avoids mental attitude sins; to mind your own
business and live your life as unto the Lord and to no one else. (1Th 4:11-12)
Right here is where we begin to have the dynamics of the
super-grace life. There is no more relaxing or
wonderful person than a believer who has obtained super-grace. When you relax enough to mind your own business and to
have freedom from mental attitude sins, you are going to have a ball! “To all
men” indicates that super-grace has an impact on believers and unbelievers
alike.
Since the super-grace life is the place of
maximum grace provision and grace benefit, every believer ought to get there as
rapidly as possible; and this, of course, depends entirely upon your intake of
the Word of Truth!
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of
the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, And in His Law
he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by
streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not
wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. (Psa 1:1-3)
THE SHORT CIRCUIT OF SUPER-GRACE
THE SHORT CIRCUIT OF SUPER-GRACE
Now, inevitably, when a believer enters the super-grace
life, he becomes the special target of Satan. (God
by finesse guides this for our blessing and advancement) (Job 1:1-22) That doesn’t mean that the devil attacks
you personally; he has a great corps of demons to handle this chore. One of his
particular aims is to get the super-grace believer to worry, (1Pe 5:7-8) in order to short-circuit him.
Therefore we have another Command for the super-grace life.
STOP WORRING ABOUT EVEN ONE THING, BUT IN ALL
CIRCUMSTANCES by prayer and entreaty
for personal needs after thanksgiving, let the things sought for be made known
in the presence of God. (Php
4:6)
Some of the Philippians were on the verge of the super-grace
life; yet they had begun to worry, and that is going to cut them off
immediately. You cannot worry and live the Christian
way of life. It’s impossible! This doesn’t mean you are not a Christian;
it just means that you are not going to live under grace. Worry is saying in
effect, “grace is not adequate.” Worry is one of the
easiest ways to blaspheme, for when you worry; you are saying that God can’t
handle your LIFE SUPPORT. God KNOWS and has
ALWAYS KNOWN every problem and every need you would ever have, and that’s when
He supplied it. (Mat 6:32-33) He
doesn’t supply something when you yell, “God help!” He has supplied your needs
in eternity past. So every time you worry, you injure
yourself. (Pro
8:36)
Worry is a mental attitude sin which separates the believer
from the inner resources of Truth in the soul. Have you ever wondered sometimes
what’s wrong? Here you’ve been taking in Truth and taking it in, but somehow
it’s not helping you. Well, you have available all the help you’ll ever need;
but you’ve shorted out by worry. All those inner resources of grace lodged in
your soul are not usable. Worry shuts down every valve to the right lobe.
Only the function of the faith-rest technique can drive back
this Satanic maneuver. (Psa 37:4-5; Psa 55:22) Worry is
excluded from the super-grace life by the DYNAMICS of the faith-rest technique.
The super-grace life is designed to eliminate worry. Faith-rest is not only the
answer to worry, but it’s the preventative of worry. But faith-rest must have
“muscle” to be effective. A lot of you have been using the faith-rest technique
for years, but you don’t have any muscle on it. Faith-rest has been only a
temporary expediency to carry you through some difficulty; but you’ve never
followed through and you’ve never grown.
Putting muscle on your faith is substituting
the use of Truth in the soul for fear, worry and anxiety. Only the regular intake of Truth puts muscle on your faith.
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the
Word of Christ.” (Rom 10:17) In
other words, the daily function of Operation Z puts muscle on your faith. Once
you get muscle on your faith, you head off worry before it gets started. The
faith-rest technique becomes a breaker system. Worry overloads the line, and
the breaker system goes out. You pull the switch by rebound, and the power
comes back automatically; everything is ready to function again. You just put
it in the Lord’s hands and move on through the continued function of — learning and Thinking with the Word of Christ!
THE ROLE OF
OPERATION Z IN THE SUPER-GRACE LIFE
The Right
Congregation.
(Php 4:9-10) takes
us back to the role of the grace apparatus for perception and approaches it
from two angles — the right congregation and the right pastor.
The things [Divine Thoughts]
you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things,
[Think with these Divine Thoughts] and the God
of peace will be with you. (Php 4:9)
“These things” are the Thoughts, Principles,
Concepts and Divine Laws which provide the inner resources of the soul — primarily in our human spirit
WE ARE TO PUT GOD'S THOUGHTS. They are also
construction material for the edification complex of the soul. We have
four verbs which describe learning under Operation Z. The first of these, “come
to learn,” means “to learn from someone as a teacher”; “to appropriate to
oneself through instruction”; “to be a disciple — that is, a student under the
authority of a teacher.” It is the highest of all words for learning, and means
learning under strict academic discipline. This
includes and requires good manners, poise, concentration and self-discipline.
You may not agree with what is being taught, you may not agree with the methods
or the rules of the school or classroom; but as a student, you have no rights
except to learn. The same thing applies while in the congregation. The
constantive aorist of this verb means that you learn Truth; day in, and day
out; hence, this is super-grace learning after you have a functioning Spiritual
life.
The second word, translated “received,” means “to receive as
a matter of instruction”; “to receive into one’s possession”; “to admit or to
acknowledge”; hence, the verb has a dual meaning of both receiving and taking
over in the sense of agreement or approval. In the function of learning, it
refers to the construction of the Temple in the soul. As you take in Truth daily
and build up “epignosis — Spiritual Thinking” in the human spirit, you begin to
construct the ECS in the soul. “You have come to learn and have appropriated
with approval.” In
other words, you agree with what you have learned. (God's Reality)
That’s faith transferring Truth into the human spirit where
it becomes “Divine Thinking in the believer.”
The first three words are actually in reverse order or
graduated backward. You have to “receive” before you “learn.” Then in the third
word, “heard or read,” we go back a step farther to the place where Spiritual
Comprehension really begins. Before reaching the ECS, we have to listen,
concentrate and accept the authority of the teacher. I did not say the LIFE of
the teacher. That would make you a slave to a person. Truth depends on who and
what God IS. When I make the statement, “It’s not the man but the message,” I
mean that when he gets in the pulpit after studying his heart out and
communicates it in the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, the message is all you
need to be concerned about. There’s no such thing as a perfect pastor; and
whether he’s the sweet or tough type is not the issue. Some of the nicest
pastors in the world have led people astray for years by their lovely
personalities, but their messages have no content.
The fourth word, “seen,” means “to see perceptively.” Here
is the believer seeing with the eyes of the soul. He has Truth in the frame of
reference in his right lobe, (Stream of Consciousness) on the launching pad.
Now Paul does not set himself up as an example. He actually says, “by means of
me.” He is the means of communicating Truth and the one applying Virtue love. He is emphasizing his MESSAGE and NEW NATURE — not
his person. (Rom 7:18; 2Pe 1:4) cf. (Joh
4:24)
At this point, after four verbs for learning, guess what you
can do! You can PRACTICE — THINK “keep practicing, (Thinking
these Divine Thoughts) these things”; that is,
keep taking in and Thinking with Truth. Do it over and over and over! Never
quit! It’s your soul food. And what is
the result? God the Father, the Author of the plan of grace; in which He found
a way to provide “peace, harmony, benefit, welfare,” shall be together with you
all. Here is God in relation to the super-grace life. This title goes with, (Php 4:7) where God the Father is the SOURCE of
the super-grace life. In, (Php 4:9) the
Father is the AUTHOR of super-grace. The Right Pastor. Now how does a
congregation get all this? They have a right pastor!
But I have received very much inner happiness by means of
the Lord, that already for some time your Thinking on behalf of me has revived,
toward whom also you have been Thinking, but you had no opportunity. (To
demonstrate your Virtue love Thinking) (Php 4:10)
The PLUS-H which Paul has is the good response from his
right congregation at various times when he teaches. His PLUS-H is “by means of
the Lord” — that is, from Truth as the Mind of
Christ and Occupation with Christ as a part of the capacity for Virtue love in
the super-grace life. This is actually Paul’s announcement of his
entrance into the super-grace life for the second time. You see, Paul had gone
into a state of reversionism by following his emotions. (Emotional revolt)
Although God had told him not to go to Jerusalem, he went anyway. (Act 21:10-11) Then the pastors in Jerusalem
refused to listen to Paul — the greatest Bible teacher of all time! They all
began to tell Paul what HE should do: “Now, look here, Paul, our people won’t
buy your grace teaching. If you want them to listen to you, you’re going to
have to commit an act of legalism. You’re going to have to go into the temple
and make an offering.” (Act 21:20-24)
When a grace person has to go into a place which has become
legalistic to the core and make a vow in order to be heard, there’s something
wrong! But Paul bought it. Why? Because he was in
emotional revolt and reversionism. He almost died the sin unto death as
a result of it, but God spared him. After that, he was under discipline for
blessing for four years — incarcerated two years in Caesarea and two years in
Rome. During that time, however, he made a reversion recovery and came all the
way back to the super-grace life. During his
imprisonment he had time to write the prison epistles — Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. The prison epistles are reversion recovery, super-grace
epistles. They have the greatest
concentration of Doctrine, for Experiential
death and Experiential sanctification — Spiritual
maturity. Compared to other Epistles and Writings of the New Testament,
they are light on eschatology, but strong on reversionism versus
super-grace.
The word for “concern” (“Phroneo” in the Greek) is literally
“objective Thinking.” This is in contrast to another verb, “dokeo,” which means
“to think subjectively.” “Dokeo” — the
thinking of a reversionist; “phroneo” — the Spiritual Thinking of a super-grace believer or one
who is on the way toward super-grace. Many people in congregations make
a habit of thinking of their pastor subjectively. This expresses itself in
various forms — from having “roast pastor” at Sunday dinner to making his life
an issue. One thing about the super-grace life — you
become objective. (Understanding life, self,
people and circumstances as they ARE; according to God's Word — a completely relaxed
mental attitude in adversity and or in prosperity) maybe you have been a
subjective thinker all your life; you may have related everything to yourself
to the point of hypersensitivity. But once you enter
the super-grace life, that’s all gone.
The Thinking of the Philippians toward Paul is “Virtue
love-Thinking.” They had come to appreciate the Apostle Paul and his teaching
again. Their “revived Thinking” was manifested by the offering sent to Paul by
Epaphroditus. This offering allowed him to have things in prison; so that he
could crank out Truth. In, (Php 4:14-19)
Paul gives a more detailed explanation and extensive “thank you” for the love
offering. In the meantime, Paul must go on to other facets of the super-grace
life.
THE NORMAL
CHRISTIAN LIFE
Disorientation to the plan of God for the Christian life
often begins with ignorance of the rebound technique. (1Jn 1:9) It seems to be very hard for some
believers to understand that all you do to be forgiven is to admit sinning and
being out of fellowship — privately to God — no breast-beating, no penance, no
feeling sorry for sin! One of the most inconsistent things about legalistic
people is that they falsely think they cannot be forgiven; unless they feel
sorry for the sins they have committed. All sin originates from free will and
is committed deliberately, whether you know it is a sin or not. A lot of you
are never going to be filled with God the Holy Spirit because you are waiting
around to feel sorry for sin, or practicing some system of penance by which to
atone for the sin. That’s legalism and disorientation to grace and is the
reason why you never learn Truth. So you run around and “do” things; you work
for God, give your glowing testimony, try to work up a rosy glow! Everything in
the Christian life depends on Who and What God IS; nothing
depends on who and what we are. The sooner you get with grace and
understand the Principle of grace and how to smoke out legalism, the sooner you
will get into the super-grace life.
(Php 4:11-13) states
an absolute Principle — how the super-grace life should function. They describe
the believer whose happiness never changes because he has an edification
complex and because of the intensity of the intake of Truth. (cf.; Php 4:9) Now this is
not reserved for certain Christians; it is the NORMAL New Covenant Spiritual
life for all believers! But as in physical life, the believer must grow
and mature to this place through the intake of daily Spiritual food. A lot of believers move up for awhile, and then fall into
the valley of reversionism. The Lord clobbers them and some recover. They get so far, and down they go again — up and down — and they miss
the super-grace life completely. That’s not a normal Spiritual life —
that’s adolescence. Stopping anywhere short of the completed Temple is the
ABNORMAL Spiritual life.
About 90 per cent of all born-again believers are living a
pseudo, Spiritual life. They are not only missing the boat, but they have found
some satanic substitute or gimmick, some do-it-yourself kit, some system of
emotional revolt or reversionism, and they are impressed with their own
righteousness and what they are doing. They have their “bag,” and they’ve got
to do it THEIR way! The woods are filled today with abnormal Christians who are
impressed with their own genius, Christians with a pleasing personality who
pass for Spiritual giants. It gets them by with a lot of people, but it’ll
never get them by with the Lord. The Lord is not impressed by the things you
use to impress others. He is not impressed with a Madison Avenue facade. Never in the history of the Christian Church have there been
so many things to keep believers from Truth! We don’t need the weirdos,
the holy-rollers or the “I-love-Jesus” types who don’t even know Him, much less
love Him. We don’t need the Christian education gimmicks and points programs;
we don’t need lonely hearts clubs or Christian country clubs. We need today, as we have never needed before, NORMAL
CHRISTIANS — believers who are serious about
Thinking with the Mind of Christ — Truth!
I want you to notice that when Paul talks about the normal
Spiritual life, he doesn’t even mention witnessing, prayer, dedicating,
rededicating or speaking in tongues. He discusses
the normal Spiritual life in terms of facing circumstances in life with Divine
Thinking. Some of you want to be babies all of your lives. You want to
be nursed along and patted on the head and told how great you are. But you will
never achieve normality until you reach the point of, (Php 4:11)!
“Not that I speak with reference to need; (Lack, poverty)
for I have come to learn in whatever circumstances I am, to keep on being
content, based on Spiritual maturity.” (Php 4:11)
No matter what the circumstances of life were, Paul was not
changed. He was not a slave to circumstances. Before Epaphroditus had arrived
with the love offering, (From Spiritually mature believers to Paul in prison)
Paul was down practically to nothing. So this might be called an adverse set of
circumstances, humanly speaking. But he did not want them to think that up to
this point he was depressed, upset or disturbed because he didn’t have
anything. Therefore, he was quick to add, “Not that I speak...” He had thanked
them in; (Php 4:10) but in, (Php 4:11) he wanted to make it clear that he was
appreciative for this gift, not because he was broke and now he was on easy
street, (“In prison” ) but because of the Virtue love behind it. The point is
that he was in a period of great adversity. And how was he in that period? He
had the super-grace life, and so he was fine! It didn’t make any difference
whether he was rich or poor; super-grace passes the
adversity test, and it passes the prosperity test. Some of you may be
just as broke as you can be. Does that upset you? Are you worried? If you are,
you’ve had it! You already know that worry short-circuits everything. The issue is to face the changing circumstances of life
with the super-grace Principle of total stability and PLUS-H so that you are
not a slave to your circumstances. And how do you get this way — by
witnessing to ten people a day? By praying an hour a day? By being counselled
for thirty minutes a day? By memorizing five hundred verses? Is that what the
Scripture says? That is what a lot of people would like to read into it. But
notice: “I have learned” — LEARNED, LEARNED!
It isn’t what you’re doing that counts; it’s what you are
learning and Thinking. (Pro 23:7)
Everyone has to have his “bag” today. But this verse is saying, “Drop your bag and start learning!” “To learn” has
the meaning of learning under strict academic discipline. Paul himself learned
under strict discipline. He learned in the school of reversionistic recovery.
The local church is our class-room and or computer for learning Truth.
“Manthano” in the Greek is a word for “learning” in
super-grace. This is learning after you have an edification complex. A lot of
you aren’t in the “manthano” bracket. You have been sidetracked by doing,
doing, doing! But the normal Spiritual life is orientation to whatever state
you are in; it is consistency of life under super-grace.
The word for “content” is a technical word
meaning “to be independent, free, self-sufficient, and therefore content.” It is not the contentment of a
purring cat; it’s not contentment based on someone’s patting you on the head or
stimulating your approbation or power lust. It
is the contentment of the believer in the super-grace life who is
self-sufficient on the basis of Truth. By
that I mean he has constructed the ECS with PLUS-H in the penthouse and has
moved into capacity for freedom, capacity for life and Virtue love.
These capacities add up to a perfect sufficiency which leads to contentment, in every generation there are those few who will persist in
staying with Truth — taking it in day by day
by day in all parts of the Word, and will reach super-grace. They will break through the soul barriers and get into the
Supernatural Spiritual life — believers living
beyond the completed Temple in the soul.
GRACE
ORIENTATION OF THE SUPER-GRACE LIFE
I know both how to live in extreme pressure and imprisonment
and also how to live in prosperity. In all places and in all circumstances, I
have been taught the secret both how to be well fed and to be hungry; both how
to prosper and to be in poverty. (Php 4:12)
This begins with the real secret to the Spiritual life — “I KNOW!” It is the first of several uses of the
word “oida” — a perfect tense used as a present tense for the consolidation of
Truth in the right lobe under super-grace. As a
result of having the Stream of Consciousness filled with Truth, Truth in the
conscience and on the launching pad, “Spiritual Thinking” Truth for the
structure of the Temple in the soul, Paul says, “I know.”
Paul knew how to live in humility — in an adversity situation in
which there is no way out, no human solution; and he knew how to live in
prosperity. These are antithetical
circumstances of life where super-grace remains exactly the same. The
repetition of the verb indicates that the same grace assets are used for
adversity as for prosperity.
“Instructed” (“Mueo”) is a word meaning “to be instructed in
the mysteries of a fraternity.” In fact, this verb is the basis for the noun,
(“Musterion”) which is translated “mystery.” “Musterion”
indicates the “secret thoughts” of the fraternity which are known only by those
in the fraternity. They became known as “the secrets,” and to learn them
was “mueo” — “to be initiated by learning the secret thoughts of the
fraternity.” Once you learned them, you had at your control the system of
secrets or thinking. It is once again a word for the super-grace life. This is learning Spiritual Thoughts beyond the edification
complex. The “secret” is defined by four infinitives of varying
circumstances. The first, “to be full,” means “to be
totally and completely satiated,” and therefore is an infinitive for
prosperity. “To be hungry” is an adverse
circumstance; yet super-grace is designed for you to have PLUS-H either way! The last two infinitives describe the same
antithetical circumstances. A lot of people think that if they are “good
Christians,” they will always be happy and everything will go right. That is NOT the Spiritual life. You must understand
that no matter how far you advance in the Spiritual life, you will never be
free from changing circumstances. But that shouldn’t frighten you — not if you understand the Principles of Divine Thinking;
and you have that super-grace packet in your soul. Maybe some of you
will receive tragic news before the week is out. Will you be one of those who
will need counselling and help, or will you move
right on with the Mind of Christ self-sufficiency so that you won’t have to run
to anyone?
THE
SUPER-GRACE PERSPECTIVE
There is a parallel Principle to, (Php 4:11-12) found in, (Heb 13:5-7) and we should look briefly at this
passage.
Make sure that your character is free from the love of
money, (Wanting anything — at Spiritual maturity)
constantly being content with what you have;
(And or do not have) for
HE has said, and the statement stands forever, “I will not, no never, not even,
not never abandon you nor desert you!” (Heb
13:5)
This passage begins with the word “character,” and ends with
part of the same word in, (Heb 13:7).
But it no longer has the connotation it carried 300 years ago. Today we would
say, “manner of life,” “turn of mind,” “conduct,” or “Thought pattern." Our Spiritual Thought pattern of life, then, should be
without covetousness. This refers to the mastery of the details of life,
or the mature Spiritual life of the Temple in the soul.
Now we advance a step and see the Principle of the
super-grace life: “constantly being content” Doctrinally
sufficient, can be accomplished only in the super-grace life. How is it
possible to be constantly content with the “present things” — that is, those
things you have in your possession at the present time? “He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE
YOU!” The
perfect tense here means that it is a permanent statement with results that go
on forever! The permanent statement is a quotation from the Old
Testament, which occurs five times. (Gen 28:15;
Deut 31:8; Jos
1:5; 1Ch 28:20; Isa 41:10) “I will never leave you nor forsake
you.” In the Greek, “never” is the strongest negative you can have! Then
follows a super-grace application in, (Heb 13:6).
So that, being confident, we (Believers in super-grace) say. The Lord (Title
for Deity) helper to me: (In time of weakness or danger) I will not fear what mankind shall do to me! (Heb 13:6)
“Fear” is a mental attitude sin; but the
super-grace life wipes out mental attitude sins of pride and jealousy, as we
have already seen, and now fear.
In the stability of the super-grace life, we have no
fear as to what mankind might do to us. Why not? Because we have a relationship
with Christ. However, confidence is proportionate to our occupation with
Christ. Occupation with Christ in the SUPER-GRACE LIFE
— eliminates ALL fear!
Now (Heb 13:7) gives
us the immediate source of the super-grace life:
“Keep concentrating on the ones leading you; they are such a
kind who have communicated to you (For your advantage) the Word from the source
of the God, (Bible Truth) keep on emulating the
faith, (Practice Thinking the same Divine Thinking) concentrating on the subject of the Thoughts of life
— THE BIBLE.”
“The ones” refers specifically to pastors communicating
Truth. So the immediate source of the super-grace life is your concentration on
the message of the pastor. God has given them the
authority to lead and to guide those in their congregations through the
communication of Truth. The pastor-teacher is the one who leads the
believer into the super-grace life. The local church
and the computer is the classroom, where there must be strict academic
discipline, concentration, and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
“Faith” with the definite article in the Greek refers to
what is believed, and becomes technical for Truth. From the pastor’s teaching,
emulate the Truth. “Emulate” means a conscious effort to take in Truth; and
this must be done through the function of Operation Z, the construction of the
edification complex and entrance into the super-grace life.
“Considering” is again “to concentrate” — not on the “end,”
but on the “issue or objective” of the manner of life in super-grace. And
notice, it is not the issue of the PASTOR’S manner of life, but the issue of
YOUR manner of life! The issue is not hustling in a program or giving your
glowing testimony; it is not trying to do great things for God nor any of the
little hypocritical, sincere but phoney, superficial activities in your life. The issue is learning Truth! The issue is a soul filled with
Truth! The issue is to get us into the
super-grace life, and that’s the only issue between the moment of our salvation
and the moment the last “brick” is put into our Spiritual Temple! Until
you get there, you haven’t even begun to fight! Now back to Philippians.
THE DYNAMICS
OF SUPER-GRACE
I have endowed power [Super-grace provision] for all things
by means of the one who keeps on pouring the power into me. (Php 4:13)
This verse applies to the super-grace believer only! “I can do,”
as it stands in the English, is not only a poor translation, it is a subtle
mistranslation. It becomes an attack on the grace of God. “Ischuo” doesn’t mean
that YOU can do anything; it means “endowed power.” It is not power you acquire
or power exercised or utilized, such as “energeo.” It refers to Truth
transferred from the page of the Bible to your soul by way of Operation Z. The super-grace life has endowed power for all things
— all circumstances.
“Through Christ” is not found in the original. It is
literally, “by means of the One who strengthens me,” or better, “Who pours
power into me.” How does Jesus Christ keep pouring power into you? The
continued intake of Truth after the construction of the ECS pours power into
the super-grace believer to the point of super-grace dynamics. (Psa 138:2) “The Word of God is alive and
powerful!” (Heb 4:12) The construction
of the Temple isn’t the time to quit. It’s the time
to pour it on — to drive harder!
I did have a coach who would always say in the fourth
quarter: “Hit ’em harder — hit harder than you’ve ever hit in your life!
They’re weak; they’re shot; they’re worn out! Hit ‘em - hit ‘em - hit ‘em!” And
even though he was talking to tired, worn-out individuals, he always gave us an
edge. He actually had us believing those guys were so tired it would be like
walking on marshmallows. So we hit them harder. We won a surprising number of
games in the fourth quarter just on that!
Now that’s the idea here. You get past that
ECS, and it’s time to hit harder.
That’s the time to really dig in and study, study,
study! That’s when Truth begins to pay off and
put things together! That’s when you have the endowed power of the
super-grace life — the package that makes you the
victor over, and in, every circumstance of life!
GIVING IN
SUPER-GRACE
However, you have done honourably, having shared, and
therefore entered into partnership with me in my pressure. (Php 4:14)
Paul picks up the thread of, (Php
4:10) as an amplification of the Principle of giving in the
super-grace life. Since “Giving” has been discussed more fully in another book,
we will not take this section up in detail. However, certain Principles in
connection with giving under super-grace should be noted.
Paul was the recipient of a great love offering; but he did
not thank the Philippians simply to tell us that we should be thankful to
people who give us things. He was explaining the conditions under which they
gave this money, as well as a great Principle: grace giving under the
super-grace life is giving WITHOUT STRINGS! Giving without strings, giving
without expecting some kind of praise and giving because you have capacity for
life is an art! And receiving should be done in the same way.
Since the super-grace life is now being discussed from the
standpoint of giving, (Php 4:14) begins
with an adverb used as a conjunction, which should be translated “however” to
relate it to the previous dissertation on giving. The conjunction indicates
that, (Php 4:11-13) do not imply lack
of appreciation on Paul’s part. Far from it! Paul does appreciate this gift.
But Paul’s no phoney. He’s not going to gush over the offering sent by the
Philippians. They aren’t phonies either. They didn’t give with the idea that
Paul would gush all over the place. The ones who contributed this offering were
either on the verge of a completed Spiritual life or they were moving into
super-grace. They did not even expect a “thank you.” There was no desire for
acknowledgment or recognition of it. The emphasis of, (Php 4:14-20) is on the Philippians who gave.
They had the capacity to give. The point of this
passage is not receiving but giving, and Paul is telling us how to give in
super-grace.
A super-grace believer knows how to give without strings,
without the expectation of a pat on the head, without the stimulation of
approbation lust. Many of you are going to be great givers because you are
going to get into super-grace, and you are going to give in a wonderful,
thoughtful and marvellous way; you are never going to look for or expect a
“thank you” or want someone to gush over you. People in emotional revolt never
understand this. Giving from capacity for life and love is described here as
“done well.” A person who has capacity in the
super-grace life is honourable; therefore, anything he does from his honourable
new nature, in fellowship, motivated by God and His Thinking, is an honourable
function! Giving is an honourable function of
the priesthood; but giving isn’t even meaningful until a believer has an
edification complex on the way or until he enters the super-grace life. Giving without pressure or coercion is part of super-grace
function, as well as giving on the basis of the inner resources of grace, apart
from emotional involvement. The super-grace
believer handles the assets of his life better than anyone else.
Moreover, you also know, Philippians, that in the beginning
of the gospel, at the time when I went out from Macedonia, not one church had
fellowship with me with reference to the matter of giving and receiving, except
you only. (Php 4:15)
Because even in Thessalonica you sent (Money) both once and
twice because of my need. (Being in prison) Not that I seek the gift itself,
but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received
everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received
from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable
sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs
according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Php
4:16-19)
You have to learn to give and receive as a Christian. Whatever you did about giving and receiving as an unbeliever
is no longer of any value. Your giving and
receiving must be based upon Truth. The Philippians were the one church
who gave because they had latched onto Truth so rapidly, and they were
motivated through Truth to give.
Now Paul found it necessary to defend himself against some
rather slanderous gossip that he had used the gospel as a means of getting
rich. Paul worked building tents to supply his own needs and those who he
instructed; and relied upon God for the work, (People needing his services) to
be provided. (Mat 6:33) cf. (Act 20:25-35)
Not because I seek after (Desire) the gift, but because I seek after the grace production accumulating
to your account. (Php 4:17) (Giving and
giving thanks benefits us, not God; and creates capacity for apperception of
others and their grace gifts to us)
Paul did not desire the offering so that he might become
rich, but because the Philippians, who were developing through Truth a great
capacity for life and love and freedom, needed an
outlet to commemorate grace. People who develop
a capacity for love need someone to love. Those
who develop a capacity for life need to live. And that’s the Principle
here. God used the grace orientation of the
Philippians to supply Paul’s needs in prison; and at the same time to express
their capacity. It’s a perfect balance.
Their capacity implements his need so that he can move on and communicate
Truth. (Reciprocation)
Capacity is also the basis for production or
fruit. Capacity moves out and becomes production.
Any time you give of capacity, a vacuum is created
in the soul and in the wallet. But grace replaces in the soul as well as in the
financial realm. All Divine giving is a result
of Spiritual maturity, and is THE REWARD in time; and is connected to the
rewards in eternity. But, you say, “I don’t want any rewards; I don’t
want any glory.” Don’t worry! It’s Christ who is glorified by your Spiritual
production. Why? Where did your Spiritual Thoughts,
grace capacity or your Virtue ability originate? From grace! God could
wipe out your money or incapacitate your body or your ability to work in one
second! Everything we have or are is grace!
Grace production accumulates to your account for Phase
Three; where Christ will be glorified with that accumulation. Giving, then, is a super-grace function, which pays
super-grace dividends. These, in turn, glorify Jesus Christ, the Author
of the super-grace life.
Moreover, I have received in full all the monetary offering,
and have more than enough. I have been fulfilled, (Financially) having received
from Epaphroditus the things from you, a fragrant odour, a propitious
sacrifice, pleasing to the God. (Php 4:18)
The Greek word for “abound” means “to abound in the
possession of full sufficiency,” hence, to have more than enough. Too many
people think that those serving the Lord should just eek by. But here’s a passage
that says a servant of the Lord should have MORE than enough. These things will
come along in due time.
Of course, now and then you find some pastor who has a
guilt-complex about prosperity and thinks he has to suffer for Jesus, and he
encourages this idiotic procedure. Forget it! When believers have edification
complexes in their souls and enter the super-grace life, they will see that
this is fulfilled.
“Everything” indicates not just the money, but the Virtue
love that motivated the giving. And that’s why he calls it an aroma, or
literally, “a fragrant aroma.” In the ancient world, pleasant memories were
associated more through the olfactory senses than ours are. Therefore, Paul is
saying that they have caused a fragrance of memory. Great giving comes from the
function of the priesthood in super-grace; but bona fide giving begins when you
start the building of the ECS. It is then Divine
production and is an acceptable sacrifice to God.
Now this is the New Testament sacrifice to God. The
Levitical animal sacrifices are out. Under the
universal New Covenant priesthood of the believer; and the High Priesthood of
Christ; our life, will, plans, praise, thanksgiving, money, sharing, time, energy, and effort is offered to God as
a sacrifice! The Levitical sacrifices
anticipated the cross; but they have been
replaced by sacrifices which commemorate the cross. Basically, then, giving is the commemoration of grace.
Giving to God what God has given to us! (Rom 11:35)
GRACE
PROVISION OF THE SUPER-LIFE
Now my God shall fill up the deficiency of all your need
according to the standard of his riches in glory by means of Christ Jesus (Php 4:19)
This verse is so often quoted out of context; but, it is a
part of the super-grace life. “Supply” or “fill up” is our old friend “pleroo,”
meaning “to fill up a deficiency, to fill with a certain quality, (Monetary replacement of what was given) to fully
influence, and to fully possess.” Each meaning pertains to the Concept of
giving as an offering or sacrifice to God.
Because of sacrificial giving, there is a monetary
deficiency, but God will replace the money given. No
one ever impoverishes himself by giving to the Lord. With the money
fully replaced, the Philippians will be influenced to give again under the
super-grace function of their priesthood, because they are filled with a
certain quality of Truth; hence, they will be fully possessed with money and
fully influenced by Truth to offer that money as a sacrifice in the same way
that the Jew of the Old Testament offered an animal under the Levitical code.
Both offerings commemorated grace.
God is saying, “Not only will I replace what
you gave so that you can do it again and again, but I will replace the
motivation through the function of Operation Z again and again in the super-
grace life.” As a part of the super-grace life,
the Principle of giving includes Truth — Doctrinal application or Truth on the
launching pad as well as money in the pocket. Whenever you give, you launch
Truth from the pad. So the pad is empty — “My God shall supply Truth”; you get
day by day teaching. So the pocket is empty — “My God shall supply money!” (Php 4:19) is actually
referring to two things: material and Spiritual needs. In fulfilling the
function of giving, God must provide for you the Spiritual needs involved in
grace-motivation as well as the financial needs which form the actual gift or
offering. In other words, the Spiritual and material
meet and combine in the priestly function of super-grace giving. When
you give properly, you not only give the money, but you launch Truth! Remember,
it is the Truth that accompanies the giving and sets up the Divine production
Principle that results in further reward in heaven which glorifies Christ.
“Riches” generally refers to money; but here it means
unlimited Divine operating capital. God has provided us with unlimited Divine
capital under grace. In the mundane system of economics, it takes money to make
money. But in the grace system of things, we must
have NOTHING to gain money; and “having nothing” is the total super-grace
picture! God in grace provides
the capital for the function of the priesthood, and He provides it through the
grace apparatus for learning Spiritual Thoughts — Operation Z. Then when the time comes that someone else has a need. He
will provide for you to meet the need of that person, just as He used the
Philippians to meet the need of Paul. In this way, both the teamwork and
super-grace are able to function.
“In glory” indicates that Jesus Christ provides
from heaven all the Divine good you produce as a result of reaching Spiritual
maturity!
THE GRACE
PLANNER OF THE SUPER-LIFE
Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever.
Amen. (Php 4:20)
This is the third verse in a row which begins with a
successive continuative particle. These are used to show that we are going
right on with the subject; but in this verse we are going back to the Source.
Ultimately everything that you have, your being, the very air that you breathe,
the freedom that you enjoy, the things that you possess — everything in life
that you hold dear or worthwhile — goes right back to God the Father, the
Author of the plan of grace. His plan is designed so that there is only one
Celebrity, Jesus Christ; one Person to be glorified — the God-Man, the unique
Person of the universe; yet everything good ultimately has its source in the
First Person of the Trinity.
No matter what happens in your life, in your country or in
the world, and already national and world affairs are taking a bad turn, the
Father will always be in His heaven. Nothing can change that! He can deliver
us, if He so desires, in one second, or He can put us down in one second; so no
one has a right to get on his high horse and think he can stand or fall by
himself. In context with, (Php 4:20-21)
is saying that before we get to saluting other saints.
God the Father must have the first salute!
The word “Father” means several things: first of all,
authority. He is the highest rank, as it were. A father has authority over a
son. Second, he is the provider, the basis of security for his sons. Third, a
father loves his sons. God the Father is our
Authority, our security and our provision. We are His children, and He
loves us with a maximum love. Our testimony should
be what God has done for us, not what we have done for Him. He must get the
glory!
Then the Apostle Paul adds something that we must all add;
“Amen” — “I believe it. I recognize it.” Remember that Paul has just come out
of reversionism himself. He has just paid in discipline for reversionism in
every way except the sin unto death. He has made a complete recovery; he is in
the super-grace life again; and never has it been so clear that everything
depends on Who and What God IS — nothing depends on who and what Paul is.
Therefore, when he says, “I believe it,” that is the official termination of
his dissertation on the super-grace life.
GRACE
RAPPORT IN THE SUPER-GRACE LIFE
But now he recognizes a new Principle, which both directly
and indirectly relates to super-grace. As believers, we are members of the
family of God; we live, as it were, in the same household. We are in the
periphery of each other.
Greet every saint in
Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. (Php 4:21)
This is a Command for the believer in the super-grace life.
“Greet” is a word for acknowledgement and can be translated “embrace or
salute.” “Embrace” doesn’t apply here at all. You embrace only one person of
the opposite sex. Impersonal love excludes embracing a lot of people in the
name of Christianity or any other phoney operation. You don’t embrace every
saint, but you can “salute.”
Now the construction of the Spiritual life often divides the
sheep from the goats in Phase Two. The sheep will go into the super-grace life,
while the goats will go backward into reversionism. When
believers grow up together in Truth and a number of them arrive at the same
point of time with an ECS, a rapport is definitely established. However, this rapport can become a trap. Those who
retrogress at the point of maturity will become a test for their friends:
will love for friends cause them to become dupes and go along into reversionism
with them, or will they have the backbone to keep taking in Truth and move on
into super-grace? Rapport in super-grace must be established by sharing the
same Mind the Mind of Christ. (Amos 3:3;
1Co 1:10) To
continue friendships or love-relationships with reversionists can only lead to
reversionism! (1Co 5:11; 2Co 6:17-18)
When a pastor sees a group of people get party-minded and
peel off from Bible class, it is his job to protect the rest of the sheep.
People going into reversionism often have to be booted out because some of the
other sheep are so stupid they would go along for the ride.
(Php 4:20-21) serve
to remind you that when you get to the point of an ECS, you are not necessarily
clear on your scale of values. But once you get it straight that it’s Who and
What God IS that counts — not who and what people are, you can salute every
saint with discernment.
“All the (Super-grace) saints salute you, especially those
from the palace of Caesar.” (Php 4:22)
This is a specific reference to certain ones in high places.
By this time Nero had constructed his golden palace, and there were many VIP’s
who had their office and their function in the palace. Many of these had
received Jesus Christ as Saviour and completed an ECS; “they salute you.”
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be [Associated] with
your spirit.” (Php 4:23)
Remember that God the Father is the “Commanding General,”
while Jesus Christ is the “Chief of Staff.” This in no way negates the fact
that each Member of the Godhead is coequal and coeternal. But each One has, as
it were, an assigned role in Operation Grace, the Father’s plan for the human
race. This verse emphasizes the Principle of the super-grace life — that what
counts first, is Who and What the Father and the Son are. And how can the grace
of Jesus Christ be associated with your human spirit? Through
the continuous function of Operation Z which gets Truth into the human spirit
where it is usable!
Now we move back to James 4 to conclude several Principles
in the super-grace function.
THE ISSUE OF THE SUPER-GRACE LIFE
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee
from you. Draw near to God (Stay in fellowship with God) and He will draw near
to you. (Stay in fellowship with you) Cleanse your hands, (Rebound) you
sinners; and purify your hearts, (Think with the Mind of Christ) you
double-minded. (Jas 4:7-8)
As believers, we must face the issue of obedience to God’s
authority and the rejection of the authority of Satan as the ruler of this
world. The world was originally restored for man’s rulership; (Gen 1:2; Gen 1:28)
but when Adam sinned, he lost the sovereignty of the world to the super angel. With the fall, Adam and the woman acquired Satan's sin nature,
(Joh 8:44) and
became the first citizens of Satan’s kingdom, or “cosmos diabolicus.”
Since that time, all of us born into the world, with the exception of Jesus
Christ, are born with Satan's sin nature, which renders us Spiritually dead. The identification of citizenship in Satan’s kingdom is the
sin nature, and Spiritual death. (Act
26:17-18)
God made a way through grace for members of the human race
to break out of the Spiritual darkness of “cosmos diabolicus,” and that way was
the cross, where Satan’s back was broken. While Jesus Christ was hanging on the
cross. He was judged for every sin in the human race, past, present and future.
As He bore our sins and became our Substitute, He suffered Spiritual death for
us and thus made it possible for us to be born a second time into a new
kingdom. Those who through FAITH receive His substitutionary work on the cross
are born again into citizenship in God’s kingdom — “For He rescued us from the
domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:13)
However, Satan will continue to reign until the Second
Advent, at which time there will be a coup d’état, and the Last Adam, Jesus
Christ as the Son of David, will replace Satan and will rule the world. In the meantime, believers — particularly
super-grace believers — are under heavy attack
from Satan. Now, as members of God’s kingdom, yet still residing in
“cosmos diabolicus,” God had to make provision whereby our priesthood could
function during the reign of Satan.
A super-grace believer has settled the issue of submission
to authority. To submit to the authority of God demands entrance into certain
grace functions: the filling of the Spirit, and the
intake of Truth. (Joh 4:24) God
has designed a grace system for transmission of Truth from the Canon of
Scripture into your soul. It is only Spiritual Thinking in your soul which is
usable; and this, of course, is the basis for the power and function of the
Christian way of life.
“Submit” is a military word, which means “to be under the
Command or authority of someone.” It includes both the recognition of authority
and the function under that authority. You have not fulfilled this Command just
because you have said sincerely that you want to do God’s will or you have
thrown a fagot on the fire and made a vow to do God’s will. There’s only one
way to fulfil the Command to submit to God and that is to function under
Operation Z daily. This becomes even more important when you reach the
threshold of the super-grace life. Although subordination to the authority of
God is the responsibility of every believer, it is properly fulfilled only in
the super-grace life. (Jas 4:7)
All the Principles of authority revolve around the Word of
God; hence the neglect of Bible teaching and Doctrinal intake results in
insubordination to God’s authority. This refutes the concept floating around
today that all you have to do after you are saved is to read your Bible and
thereby become an expert; then add to this a few books, and you will become a
super expert! You cannot learn Truth apart from the
one who has the gift of pastor-teacher who has reached Spiritual maturity.
Since you cannot feed yourself, you must go to the place where there is
authority — a pastor-teacher communicating the Mind of Christ. “Be subordinate
to God” is a Command, then, to stay with Bible Truth and the teaching of the
Word in Phase Two after constructing an edification complex.
“Resist” is another military word. If you are under the
authority of someone in a military organization, the purpose is to wipe out the
enemy on the battlefield. You can’t resist unless you are under authority. The
Command to resist is only given to those who are under authority. You are not
truly under God’s authority unless you are in super-grace. Then once you are under His authority, as defined by the
Word of Truth, you can resist the devil. But you have to be careful
here. Resisting the devil is not some emotional experience, but the use of
Truth in the soul. When you follow the first two Commands, submit and resist,
which indicate the super-grace life, you have a Promise: the devil will flee
from you. (Jas 4:7)
Even though the devil is exceedingly more powerful, wiser
and more subtle, and can outmaneuver any of us any time anywhere, yet under
God’s direction, he flees. And notice, he will flee FROM YOU, or your
periphery, and he will attack some other place where he finds a weak spot. In other words, when the believer stands and stays in
fellowship consistently; we share in God's victory and God will have Satan to
flee.
THE RECOVERY OF SUPER-GRACE
THE RECOVERY OF SUPER-GRACE
Draw near to God
(Stay in fellowship with God) and He will draw near to you. (Stay in fellowship
with you) Cleanse your hands, (Rebound) you sinners; and purify your hearts,
(Think with the Mind of Christ) you double-minded. (Jas 4:8)
“Draw near” is a constantive aorist, referring to the
believer who once more functions daily in fellowship. This verse goes back to
the reversionistic believer and is a Command to recover. “Draw near” includes
the entire function of Operation Z — rebound before you listen to the teaching
of the Word, relearning the basic Doctrines, and avoiding those things that
would hinder the daily intake of Truth. As a result, God will draw near to you
in the sense of reversionistic recovery and re-entrance into the super-grace
life.
Certain things hinder the recovery of reversionism, so we
have another Command: “cleanse your hands.” This is the rebound technique by
which the believer regains the filling of God the Holy Spirit so that he can
submit to the authority of ICE Bible teaching. The “dirty hands” depict the
believer’s sins in reversionism, particularly the mental attitude sins which
identify reversionism. (Jas 4:5-6)
“Sinners” here are reversionistic believers.
“Purify your hearts” indicates the importance of the
Thinking of Christ in the right lobe. The reversionistic believer has the
valves to the right lobe shut down. He is not taking in Truth, and the only
information he gets is the “false Truths of demons.” (1Ti 4:1) He has cobwebs in his frame of
reference; his memory centre has shorted out, as far as Truth is concerned; and
he begins to think in terms of anti-establishment, social action, brotherhood,
and all the other pseudo-cosmic ideas. The double-souled person is the
reversionist and or the novice.
THE
ALTERNATIVE TO SUPER-GRACE
Now if you really want to stay in reversionism, there’s an
alternative to super-grace. We have a verse on the opportunities and activities
as well as Commands to those who wish to AVOID the super-grace life.
Be miserable and lament and weep! Your laughter be turned to
grief, and the happiness to depression, dejection. (Jas
4:9)
So you want to be a reversionist? Then here’s a Command
which you WILL OBEY: “Be miserable!” (Carnal believers and rebound) Or you will
have no choice. Free will is for grace. God doesn’t say, “Now, you’re such a
nice believer in reversionism — what would you like in the way of
discipline?”
When you’re miserable, there are going to be some tears!
What laughter you have — through a frantic search for happiness or escapism —
will be converted to grief, and temporary happiness, (Neutral-H) will be
converted to depression or dejection. Reversionism is the status of perpetual
self-induced misery.
PROMOTION
AND PROSPERITY UNDER SUPER-GRACE
(Jas 4:8) sets up an
issue for the believer in reversionism. To obey the Commands of verse 8, leads
to the promotion and prosperity of verse 10.
Receive humility (Super-grace) in fellowship with the Lord,
and he will promote you. (Jas 4:10)
The Principle of verse 10 is that if
the Lord doesn’t promote you, you’re not promoted. Behind the Principle
there is a Concept which is amplified in, (1Pe
5:5-6).
In the same way, comparative novices, (By comparison to the
pastor) be under the authority and Instruction of the pastor-elders. All of you, congregation, fasten yourselves to each other
with grace Thinking because God opposes the arrogant, (Reversionistic and or negative believers) but gives grace to the humble. (Believers who are positive toward Truth and stay in
fellowship)
Therefore, become grace-oriented, (Through positive volition
toward Truth) under the authority of the ruling hand of God, (OBEY DIVINE THINKING; THE WORD OF GOD!) that He may
promote you at the proper time.
There are three things in the function of a pastor-teacher:
first, his authority, which resides in the gift; second, his
function - teaching Truth; and third, his life. Now even though a
pastor-teacher has an old sin nature like everyone else and he will sin and
fail like everyone else, he will go right on being a pastor-teacher. It’s his
gift and message that counts. God doesn’t promote some character who is now
living a very moral life, who offends very few people, who is sweet and says
all the right things! He promotes the humble.
Now, how do you “humble yourself?” By dressing in rags? By
lowering your head and shuffling your feet? By agonizing and giving up
something? Through asceticism? No! Humility is
mental subordination to Bible Thinking and therefore, Grace Orientation.
It is not self-effacement or whitewash. In the passive
voice, the believer receives this humility through taking in the Word; in the imperative mood, the believer must “READ AND THINK
WITH TRUTH” until he gets into super-grace and then “READ AND THINK WITH TRUTH”
some more!
When you have the Divine Viewpoint of humility — Grace
Orientation — the Lord will promote you SPIRITUALLY!
The Lord only promotes in super-grace — those who are dependent on Who and What
He IS. He doesn’t promote those who have illusions and delusions that they are
doing something for God! God gives grace through Truth, and then He gives
promotion. Grace and Truth always come first. (Joh
1:14; Col 1:5-6) There must
be capacity for promotion. (To understand and appreciate all the blessings God
gives us; from food and fellowship to computers and transportation!)
Never before in our history has the nation needed
super-grace believers as it needs them today. But YOU ALSO need super-grace as
you’ve never needed it before. And you have the privilege and the challenge of
entering into something that truly can glorify God!
APPENDIX
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
ANGELIC CONFLICT:
Unseen conflict in which the forces of Satan are warring against the
forces of God.
COSMOS DIABOLICUS: Satan’s world system.
DISPENSATION: A period of time expressing the Divine
Viewpoint of human history; the Divine outline of history, or the Divine
interpretation of human history.
EMOTIONAL REVOLT OF THE SOUL: Emotions dominating the
mentality instead of responding to it. Contrary to the Divine order whereby the
heart or right lobe should control the soul.
FAITH-REST TECHNIQUE: Mixing the promises of God with faith;
i.e., believing God and God’s Thoughts expressed in
His Word and Thinking with them above our own! (Psa 138:2; Mar 8:33-38; Luk 6:47-48; Joh 14:24) cf. (Heb 4:1)
GRACE APPARATUS FOR PERCEPTION (OPERATION Z): The provision
of God whereby EVERY believer can understand EVERY BIBLICAL THOUGHT, regardless
of education or human IQ.
HEART: The dominant or right lobe of the mentality of the
soul. (See Right Lobe)
“ICE” TEACHING: Isagogics, categories, exegesis —
exegesis: to understand the meaning from
the Greek and or Hebrew. Isagogics: The interpretation of the Bible in its
historical setting.
LOVE: Personal love toward God; Impersonal love toward ALL
mankind; rapport from Truth toward right man or right woman; and toward
friends.
“MATAIOTES”: Greek word translated “futility,” as in, (Eph 4:17) this is a vacuum in the soul created
by negative volition toward God and or the Word of Truth.
OLD SIN NATURE: The “old self” of, (Eph 4:22)
the Adamic nature or “flesh” of, (Rom 8:3-4)
the Principle of “sin” of, (Rom 7:8-24).
The OSN has an area of weakness which produces personal sins; an area of
strength which produces human old sin nature good; a lust pattern; and trends
toward asceticism and lasciviousness.
PROPITIATION: The God-ward side of the cross: God the
Father’s satisfaction with the work of God the Son on the basis of the cross.
REBOUND: The believer’s being restored to fellowship with
God through confession of his sins. (1Jn 1:9)
REVERSE PROCESS REVERSIONISM: The function of a
reversionistic believer in which he rejects true objects of love and enters
into pseudo-love fanaticism toward false or inconsequential objects of love.
REVERSIONISM: The loss of all or part of the Edification
Complex through negative volition toward Truth, scar tissue of the soul,
emotional revolt and apostasy.
RIGHT LOBE: The dominant lobe of the mentality of the soul,
designated by two different Greek words: “kardia” (Heart) and “noema.”
(Understanding or Thought) Right lobe or human spirit has seven areas: frame of
reference, memory center, vocabulary storage, categorical storage, conscience,
(Norms and standards) momentum and wisdom; leading to the Divine Viewpoint of life on any given
subject)
RIGHT MAN-RIGHT WOMAN: The Divine Concept that God has
designed one specific man for one specific woman. Each member of the human race
has a right opposite number, except in cases where a person has the gift of
being single.
SCAR TISSUE: The Concept of the “hardening of the heart.”
Negative volition toward God or Truth puts scar tissue on the soul; i.e., the
heart becomes “hardened” toward God and Truth. Promiscuity, drug addiction,
alcoholism, or any other frantic search for happiness puts scar tissue on the
soul; i.e., no meaningful soul activity with other people is possible.
SIN UNTO DEATH: Maximum discipline to the reversionistic
believer whereby he is removed, before his time, from Phase Two without benefit
of dying grace.
SPIRITUAL DEATH: of Christ: the separation of His humanity
from the other Members of the Godhead while bearing the sins of the world on
the cross. (Isa 53:11) Of the human
race: separation from God in time; no fellowship with Him. (Isa 59:2)
SOUL: The area of human life; the real person; located in
the cranium. The soul has essence: self-consciousness; mentality, (Made up of
two frontal lobes) volition, faith, conscience, emotion, and the old sin
nature. (Causing man to be Spiritually dead)
End
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