Spir Dynamics 361-429, 6/16/94

DOCTRINE OF A PERSONAL SENSE OF DESTINY (Part II)

M. Interim Summary.

1. A personal sense of destiny is related to the protocol plan of God for the Church. There is no personal sense of destiny understood by the believer until he understands God’s plan for his life. God gives all believers the same equal opportunity to execute His plan. Protocol is a rigid, long established code and procedure, prescribing complete deference to superior rank and authority, and is followed by strict adherence to due order and precedence.

a. Our precedence for the Christian way of life comes from the humanity of Christ in His modus operandi in the dispensation of the hypostatic union.

b. Due order includes the utilization of two power options and three spiritual skills. The two power options are the filling of the Holy Spirit and the metabolization of Bible doctrine. The three spiritual skills include the two power options and the formation of the problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul.

c. The rigidity of this code is based on the fact that God has one way of doing a thing, and that is the right way. A right thing must be done in a right way to be right. The end does not justify the means. While God is able to do whatever He will to do in the way He wills it, the omnipotence of God functions under perfect eternal virtue related to divine integrity. God is always fair. God never uses His divine power to cause the end to justify the means. God is never arbitrary in the administration of divine justice and the function of His divine power.

2. A personal sense of destiny is related to cognition of God’s plan and God’s power. He never leaves us in doubt.

a. A personal sense of destiny recognizes the absolute truth that God is able to do all He wills to do, but He may will to do all He can do. This leaves room for the volition of the believer. The major issue of the Christian way of life is volition, not environment, not circumstances. God cannot deny Himself, and therefore, divine modus operandi is compatible with divine essence. God can never deny Himself, not can He fail to reveal Himself to mankind. However, God does not chose to do everything by the immediate agency of His own divine power. Therefore, He delegates divine power to intermediate agents, including every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

b. This means that human volition becomes the issue in the historical phase of the angelic conflict. This means that every believer must take the responsibility for his own decisions in his postsalvation experience.

c. Immediately upon your salvation you have a destiny. The forty things we receive at salvation are a part of our personal sense of destiny. At the moment of resurrection your destiny shifts gears. As a part of our destiny there will be evaluation and great distinction between winners and loser believers.

d. In eternity past the divine initiative of antecedent grace provided for every believer his very own portfolio of invisible assets. Never before in history has the Trinity indwelt every believer. Never before in history has every believer been filled with the Holy Spirit. Never before has every believer been a priest and an ambassador. Since every Church Age believer has been provided with divine power to do God’s will, he cannot violate the grace policy of God by intruding with his own works, his crusades, or assigning spirituality to any system of human good, dead work, legalism, pseudo-compassion, or emotional experience.

3. A personal sense of destiny recognizes that contradictions cannot exist in the protocol plan of God for the Church. God can only create a perfect plan and provide perfect power for its fulfillment. Therefore God’s plan for the Church is perfect. However, we believers are far from perfect after salvation. This contradiction comes from those imperfect persons in a perfect plan.

a. Church Age believers cannot execute the protocol plan of God through any system of human power or ability. Either the believer will fulfill God’s plan through the utilization of divine power or he will continue rejection of God’s plan and walk away from His plan. Even though you walk away from His plan in time, you can never walk away from God. You belong to Him forever. You can commit no sin that will separate you from God as a believer. Every believer has equal opportunity and equal power to execute this plan.

b. A personal sense of destiny recognizes that contradictions cannot exist in the perfect plan of God, but contradictions exist in all those who are in the plan, because we are imperfect. Therefore, the believer must live by principle—Bible doctrine circulating in his own stream of consciousness.

c. When any human experience contradicts what the Bible says, the experience is false. There are no contradictions in God’s plan. The contradictions are all in us.

4. A personal sense of destiny cannot think, apply doctrine, or solve problems through the mind or thinking of another person. The believer who depends on counseling or guidance from others has failed to use the two power options and the three spiritual skills.

a. The believer who blames his bad decisions from a position of weakness on abuse or unjust treatment has never learned to take the responsibility for his own decisions and even come to grips with the overruling power of God. Therefore, the loser believer does not use his equal privilege, equal opportunity, and his priesthood to enter into the function of the two power options and the three spiritual skills.

b. Failure to utilize the power options and spiritual skills results in the function of the arrogance skills and often makes the loser believer far worst than his unbeliever counterpart, because he has moved through more restraints. The result is wrong priorities in life followed by wrong modus vivendi and punitive suffering administered by the supreme court of heaven. We sow to the wind and reap the whirlwind.

c. Postsalvation decisions of the believer are based on his concept of volition and values. You make your decision on the basis of whatever values you have accumulated in your lifetime. Many of these values are erroneous. After salvation, if you continue to make decisions on the basis of false values, the decisions are false. This is one of the ways in which you walk away from God’s plan.

d. Therefore all decisions related to learning doctrine become the most important function of the believer’s life. Eventually you have to come to the point that Bible doctrine has number one priority in your life. All decisions related to the utilization of the power options and spiritual skills are designed to transfer Bible doctrine from the word of God to your soul, where it activates the function of your own FLOT line. In this way a personal sense of destiny can be parlayed into occupation with Christ. A personal sense of destiny then parlays spiritual maturity into maximum glorification of God.

5. A personal sense of destiny must be related to humility. Jam 4:6 and 1 Pet 5:5 quote a verse from Prov 3:34 in the Septuagint, “God makes war against the arrogant believer, but He gives grace to the humble believer.”

a. The arrogant believer is involved in the arrogance skills and the arrogance complex of sins. A personal sense of destiny eliminates these things. But in this case the arrogant believer rejects the attainment of a personal sense of destiny.

b. The arrogance skills are eliminated in providential preventative suffering, which is suffering for blessing in spiritual self- esteem. When you move into spiritual autonomy, it has momentum testing as its suffering for blessing. Spiritual maturity has evidence testing as its suffering for blessing.

c. Humility is teachability. Jam 4:10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will promote you.” Prov 15:33, 11:2, “With the humble is wisdom.” Prov 29:23; Ps 25:9, “He teaches the humble His way.”

6. A personal sense of destiny is always related to divine solutions to the problems of life.

a. Believers who become bogged down in the reality of their problems never seem to face divine solutions. The believer with a personal sense of destiny sees the solution, while others without a personal sense of destiny just see the problem. The solutions are the deployment of the problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul.

b. When a believer has no cognition of these solutions, it is inevitable that he will opt for human viewpoint solutions. These human viewpoint solutions merely become a basis for divine discipline of the believer.

c. Divine solutions are the only solutions; human solutions are no solutions.

7. A personal sense of destiny is entrance into the sophisticated spiritual life (the adult spiritual life).

a. In the sophisticated spiritual life there are three stages: spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity.

b. Each of these stages is attained through a system of cognition of Bible doctrine. Spiritual self-esteem is cognitive self-confidence. Spiritual autonomy is cognitive independence. Spiritual maturity is cognitive invincibility.

c. Each of these stages has problem solving devices to overcome suffering for blessing. Spiritual self-esteem uses personal love for God and impersonal love for man to pass providential preventative suffering. Spiritual autonomy uses sharing the happiness of God to pass momentum testing. Spiritual maturity uses occupation with Christ to pass evidence testing.

d. You cannot have a personal sense of destiny unless you understand the uniqueness of the Church Age, the grace policy of God, the objectives of the protocol plan of God—becoming a winner believer through the power options and spiritual skills. You cannot have a personal sense of destiny unless you have integrated your priorities and spiritual values into the mechanics of the protocol plan of God. You cannot have a personal sense of destiny apart from the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

8. A personal sense of destiny as problem solving device number six plays a major role in the execution of the protocol plan of God for the Church. A personal sense of destiny is a major agent in the glorification of God. The believer has the volition and values to attain a personal sense of destiny. The believer has equality with all other believers to attain a personal sense of destiny. Now it is a matter of decisions based on God’s values.

N. True and False Destiny, Phil 3.

1. Phil 3:4-8, “although I myself might be having confidence in the flesh. If anyone of the same category [religious and racial Jew] presumes to have confidence in the flesh [and they do], I more: circumcised on the eighth day, [born] out from the race of Israel and from the tribe of Benjamin, an outstanding Hebrew; with reference to the Law, a Pharisee; with reference to zeal, a persecutor of the church; with reference to righteousness [morality] which is by means of the Law, having become blameless. But whatever things [the norms and standards of Judaism] were advantages for my benefit, I have regarded these things as loss because of Christ. Not only this but more than this, I conclude all things [Paul’s presalvation celebrityship] to be loss because of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, because of Whom I have suffered the loss of all things. In fact I regard them as dung that I might win for [profit from the source of] Christ.”

a. Paul was a unbeliever celebrity with a false personal sense of destiny. Paul was famous in the field of Judaism and was well trained in Hellenistic culture and as a citizen of the Roman Empire. He became one of the greatest of the Pharisees at a young age.

(1) The presalvation celebrityship of Paul was the basis for a false personal sense of destiny in that when he finally understood a true personal sense of destiny, he went back under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to explain the things that determine happiness in life: volition, decisions, and priorities in life.

(2) A false personal sense of destiny is constructed from the arrogance skills and relates to false standards which conflict with the spiritual life of the believer and contradict the protocol plan of God for the Church.

(3) While a false personal sense of destiny generally is related to overt standards of human achievement, a true personal sense of destiny is the monopoly of the believer who uses the two power options and three spiritual skills on a consistent basis.

(4) A true personal sense of destiny must always be related to the basic status quo of the soul—genuine humility.A true personal sense of destiny is the monopoly of the sophisticated spiritual life.

(5) When a person believes in Christ and carries over into the spiritual life all of their presalvation success standards, they are handicapped in ever fulfilling the protocol plan of God because they want to use human power, human dynamics, the very thing that made them successful as an unbeliever. There is no place for human dynamics in the spiritual life. When success turns you away from the priorities of the spiritual life (the filling of the Spirit and Bible doctrine), you are a loser even though you are successful.

b. A false personal sense of destiny comes in two categories.

(1) The first category deals with the arrogance skills and unreality. Many people have a false personal sense of destiny because they are divorced from reality on the one hand and will not take the responsibility for their bad decisions on the other hand.

(2) The second category of a false personal sense of destiny is one in which the individual’s involved are associated with reality. They understand that they have achieved in some legitimate area of life and have a true sense of destiny only in the sense that they have achieved. But they have a false sense of destiny in that they have not related their achievement to the absolutes of life. Therefore they are living out their life under a pseudo sense of destiny, because, once they depart this life, they are forever separated from God.

c. As Saul of Tarsus, Paul considered himself far greater than any of the Jews of his day in the field of their religion and culture.

(1) The personal sense of destiny of Abraham was characterized by his circumcision. Paul realized that the baptism of the Holy Spirit had replaced circumcision as the sign of a personal sense of destiny. Compare how Paul’s values had changed now that he is a member of the royal family of God:

(a) 1 Cor 7:19, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the mandates of God.” We all have equal privilege to advance to spiritual maturity. What is important is taking all the divine commands in the New Testament and obeying them. Ritual without reality is meaningless.

(b) Gal 3:26, 28, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gentiles in Galatia got carried away with a Jewish ritual activity. There are no racial distinctions in the royal family and social status or sex is not an issue in Christian. You have equal privilege and equal opportunity to execute the plan of God. The issue in the spiritual life is not environment or circumstances but volition.

(c) Gal 5:2-4, “Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every person who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the entire Law. You have been made non-operational from Christ, you who would be justified by the Law; you have drifted off course from grace.” Receiving circumcision here is entering into a system of ritual without reality and legalism. Even though you are in union with Christ you will not glorify Him. To become completely non-operational means failure to attain a personal sense of destiny and enter into the sophisticated spiritual life.

(d) Certain Jewish believers came to Antioch, where Paul was teaching, and claimed that circumcision was necessary for salvation, Act 15:1, “And some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, `Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’”

(e) Paul not only rejected this false teaching but he redefined circumcision in terms of the protocol plan of God for the Church. He said in Phil 3:3, “For we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”

(f) Gal 5:6-9, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but doctrine working through virtue-love. You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion [salvation and spirituality by circumcision], did it come from Him who calls you? No. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” The infiltration of legalism turns the entire lifestyle of the believer into legalism.

(2) The tribe of Benjamin was the great warrior tribe which stayed with Judah when Israel split into two nations.

(3) “A Hebrew of the Hebrews” is an idiom meaning an outstanding Jew. He is saying that he was the greatest Jew of his day. This is not arrogance on his part, but a fact.

(4) The fact he was a Pharisee indicates he was politically a conservative and recognized the Old Testament Scripture as the authority for Israel.

(5) The great oxymoron here is that Paul was both a violent persecutor of the Church and kept the Law perfectly and was a person of great morality. How could he be both a murderer and keep the Law perfectly? He was a person of high moral character, not virtue. “Zeal” denotes religious activism, the function of the arrogance skills. Paul was the greatest activist of his day before he became a believer.

(a) Paul was a very moral and righteous person. Any form of activism comes from a system of morality. Saul was the epitome of religious morality, and therefore, the quintessence of legalism. He was a celebrity in the field of morality and religious activism. The divine viewpoint of Paul’s presalvation activism, motivated by religious zeal and morality of the Law, classifies him in the infallible word of God as the worst sinner who ever lived.

(b) Another divine commentary on Paul as an unbeliever is given in 1 Tim 1:13-15, “even though I was formerly a blasphemer, and a persecutor, also a violent aggressor. And yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost.” Paul murdered Christians in the name of religious morality and activism.

© Morality is not spirituality. Morality is adherence to a moral system which produces a human righteousness. The Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life, executed by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. There is a great difference between the virtue produced by God the Holy Spirit and the morality produced by the Law. The virtue produced by God the Holy Spirit can only be produced through the filling of the Holy Spirit and metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness.

(d) Prior to his salvation, Paul, as Saul of Tarsus, was the worst sinner who ever lived, because he murdered Christians in the name of religion. His self-righteousness motivated his violence.

d. After his salvation Paul became the greatest believer of the Church Age, because he was free from legalism, he utilized the power options to the maximum, and showed how far you can go in glorifying God, if you function consistently under the three spiritual skills.

(1) A personal sense of destiny is constructed exclusively from the spiritual skills. Therefore it is totally incompatible with the arrogance skills. A false personal sense of destiny is constructed from the arrogance skills related to false standards, false motivation, which conflicts with the spiritual life of the protocol plan of God.

(2) A true personal sense of destiny is the product of divine power functioning within the framework of the power options and the three spiritual skills.

(3) While a false personal sense of destiny is generally related to the overt standards of human achievement, a true personal sense of destiny is related to the invisible standards designed to use only divine power and glorify God. 2 Cor 4:18, “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

e. One of the most difficult handicaps in entering the spiritual life is to come in as a great person, as an achiever in some field, to be famous in some area. These believers depend on the priorities and standards which made them famous as unbelievers to be successful as believers and this will not work.

(1) Paul made the transition from the wrong priorities of human success standards to the right priorities of divine power, something most believers do not do, because they continue to function on human power after salvation.

(2) The whole point of suffering for blessing as a adult believer is to squeeze out the arrogance skills and emotional complex of sins, so that divine discipline comes down to a minimum. That is a part of sophistication of spiritual adulthood. Paul was in the process of squeezing out the things that distract from spiritual advance.

f. The SKUBALA metaphor.

(1) This is the one word by which Paul was able to point out to the world how his priorities had changed. Phil 3:8 is the only occurrence of the word in the New Testament. God the Holy Spirit directed Paul to use this word.

(2) This word is a metaphor. A metaphor is the application of a word [SKUBALA] or phrase to an object or a concept it does not literally denote, in order to suggest a comparison with another object or concept ["to be loss"]. SKUBALA is a metaphor for rejection of human dynamics in the spiritual life. There is no place for human power, human ideas, human ability, human success standards, or human gimmicks in the spiritual life.

(a) The word ZEMIA means “loss” and is not strong enough.

(b) The word SKUBALA is the metaphor to bring out the strength of Paul’s concept.

(3) The word SKUBALA means “dung, human excrement.” It is a vulgar term. It does not mean scraps or left overs after a meal, nor does it mean garbage in general. Paul could identify all of his fantastic successes in human achievement as that which one flushes down the toilet. All legalism and asceticism is excrement as far as Paul is concerned. Paul turned his back on everything that had to do with human power.

(4) God provides the hearers and everything necessary for the ministry to be successful. It does not need human gimmicks. This is why God’s plan is perfect for imperfect believers. That is why imperfect believers must establish right priorities that relate to God’s power, not human ability.

(5) Human success has a tendency to produce a false personal sense of destiny. Human success contributes nothing to the advance of the spiritual life. Human success is dung when it comes to the fulfillment of the protocol plan of God. Paul is saying that the values of the unbeliever celebrity are human excrement. Paul concluded that all of his values as a human celebrity where nothing but piles of dung.

g. The Concept of Volition and Values.

(1) Volition is a major issue in your spiritual life, not environment and not your circumstances. The believer is responsible for all his decisions good or bad. You take responsibility for your bad decisions through rebound. You take responsibility for your good decisions through the function of the two power options and the three spiritual skills. You cannot blame bad decisions on bad environment or bad circumstances.

(2) The believer is responsible for the values he establishes in postsalvation experience.

(3) The most basic concept of the spiritual life of the believer is that the spiritual life functions on divine power only. Human power is excluded. Dung represents the use of human dynamics.

(4) All presalvation success standards and the attainment of human celebrityship are a part of human dynamics, human power, human ability, which must be considered as loss in the postsalvation spiritual life. Do not let your celebrityship get in the way of your spiritual life.

(5) Human power and divine power are mutually exclusive. In fact the dung metaphor goes beyond this, establishing a principle of Bible doctrine—human power and the energy of the flesh contradict the spiritual life of the protocol plan of God. The very things that made you a celebrity are the very things that contradict the function of divine power in the spiritual life. You cannot use them in the spiritual life.

(6) The spiritual life of the Church Age combines two divine power options to form the spiritual skills. Therefore anything outside of divine power is not and cannot be part of the spiritual life of the Church. God does all things exceeding abundantly above all we could ask or think on the basis of the divine power given to us.

(7) Human power is excluded in the utilization of the two power options. If you bring in any system of human talent or human dynamics to make them a part of the spiritual life, it destroys the function of the spiritual skills.

(8) Paul’s decision to regard his former celebrityship as dung is recorded in the infallible word of God to establish a permanent precedence for true values on which to make good decisions from a position of strength.

h. Therefore human dynamics have been often misconstrued in every generation as spirituality, and human success by human standards has been regarded as a sign or function of spirituality. There is no place in the spiritual life for the dung of human celebrityship or the regarding of human talent as spirituality.

(1) You are never on track with your spiritual life until your values are straightened out. If Bible doctrine is not number one in your life, you are not spiritual and never will be spiritual, because you do not have the information to be spiritual even if you wanted to be spiritual.

(2) Human success has a tendency to produce a false personal sense of destiny. Human success contributes nothing to the advance of your spiritual life. Human success is never a means of executing the spiritual life and often a distraction.

i. Principles.

(1) Human success and presalvation human celebrityship of Paul was the result of human dynamics, his genius, his religious activism, and the result of the tremendous political power he had in the Sanhedrin.

(2) As a result, Paul as an unbeliever had a false personal sense of destiny from his fantastic human achievements in Judaism. He was the worst of all sinners because he was perfectly moral and willing to wipe out the Church.

(3) Today the Judaism of Paul’s day is represented by legalism in all forms, Christian activism, the function of the arrogance skills which distract and destroy the power of the spiritual life provided by God for every Church Age believer.

(4) Grace and legalism are mutually exclusive just as in the life of any human being the body and human excrement are mutually exclusive.

(5) The spiritual life of the believer originated from the divine initiative of antecedent grace in eternity past.

(6) You have your very own spiritual life in your portfolio of invisible assets. This is why you and you alone are the only one who can live your spiritual life. You do not live it on the basis of others bullying you into systems of legalism or false doctrine. You live your spiritual life on the basis of what the word of God teaches.

(7) You may succeed as a result of your spiritual life in some human endeavor, but your success is not the means nor the function of your spiritual life. In fact your success can often become a distraction. You may succeed as a result of your spiritual life in some human endeavor, but your success is never the means of your spiritual life. You may succeed as a result of being involved in Christian service, but your Christian service is not the means of your spiritual life.

j. There are two metaphors used in the New Testament which make an analogy to the believer: the body and dung. Both are one word metaphors. Your spiritual life is related to the body metaphor. Human success and achievement standards are related to the dung metaphor. Values and decisions go together. You make your decisions on the basis of your values.

(1) The word body is used as a one word metaphor to explain some of the principles related to the Church.

(a) God the Holy Spirit as the active agent in the formation of the body is described in 1 Cor 12:11-12.

(b) The body is used as a metaphor for the function of spiritual gifts in the Church, 1 Cor 12:4-10.

(d) All three persons of the Godhead are related to the Church under the body metaphor in Eph 4:3-6.

(e) The body metaphor is used for the spiritual growth of the Church in Eph 4:15-16; Col 3:19.

(f) The body metaphor is used to illustrate the principle of marriage, Eph 5:30-31.

(g) The body metaphor is established by many New Testament Scriptures as illustrated by the phrase “His body, which is the Church,” Col 1:24.

(2) The two metaphors are used in the Bible to emphasize a principle of doctrine. The human body is used to indicate the relationship between Christ and the Church. Dung is a metaphor for rejection of human success standards which distract from the function of the spiritual life of the Church.

(3) The body metaphor helps to explain the dung metaphor; for just as dung is separated from the human body so human values, power, and standards of success and celebrityship are mandated to be separated from the Church. Good decisions are positive toward values related to the spiritual life. Good decisions are negative toward values related to distractions of the spiritual life, and a major distraction is the arrogance skills related to some form of human success.

(4) Therefore the decisions which must be made in the concept of volition and values are related to your spiritual life. Good decisions are positive toward values related to the spiritual life.

(5) Good decisions are negative toward the values related to human success standards which distract the believer from the fulfillment of his spiritual life. Consequently they are regarded as dung—separated from the body without value. The principle applies to both those who have real fame and those who fantasize about fame and celebrityship.

(6) In the interpretation of the dung passage in Phil 3:8, human standards of success in the religion of Judaism were a part of Paul’s presalvation celebrityship. Paul recognized his presalvation celebrityship as a distraction to his relationship with the Lord and the function of his spiritual life, mandated for all Church Age believers. Paul recognized his presalvation fame as loss and now he considers it dung.

(a) Good decisions from a position of strength are positive toward the values related to the spiritual life. Good decisions from a position of strength are also negative toward the values related to human success standards when they become a distraction to the spiritual life.

(b) Paul’s presalvation celebrityship was a distraction. Therefore he regarded it as loss, and since loss is not strong enough, he had to use a metaphor. He separated himself from them forever just as dung is separated from the human body forever.

(d) While the concept is dealing with success standards which distract from the spiritual life, it has a wider application to any distraction to the function of the two power options and the three spiritual skills.

(e) Any distraction in the consistent function of the three spiritual skills has to be regarded as dung, if the believer is to become a winner and invisible hero. The believer rejects any distraction that might come along to keep him from making Bible doctrine number one priority in his life.

(f) Human solutions are no solutions, 2 Cor 12:10; Phil 3:18-19. Many believers through the function of the arrogant skills, through inordinate ambition and competition distract themselves from the spiritual life through their lust for power, success, fame, etc. There is nothing wrong with being famous or successful as an extension of the spiritual life. But when your desire, lust, drive toward becoming famous or successful keeps you from the teaching of the word of God, you are a loser.

(7) There is no substitute for the filling of the Spirit and the metabolization of doctrine. The filling of the Spirit is the teacher of the word of God and the power of the spiritual life. Without the filling of the Spirit everything is false, hypocritical, pseudo-spirituality, legalism, failure. Without the defensive function of rebound there is no offensive action in the spiritual life. It is a reminder that only divine power counts.

(8) Unless the believer understands the objectives of the spiritual life he will be confused and distracted by success based on human power and human talent and by all the distractions which come with entering into reversionism and degeneracy. The objective of your spiritual life is related to the execution of the protocol plan, which means becoming a winner believer and invisible hero, having a personal sense of destiny resulting in the fulfillment of the sophisticated spiritual life, and attaining the final objective—occupation with Christ.

(9) You cannot accomplish this objective with dung, the excrement of human celebrityship. Therefore, the final purpose clause of Phil 3:8 introduces the objectives of the spiritual life.

k. Phil 3:8, “that I might win for Christ.”

(1) This final purpose clause states the objectives of attaining a personal sense of destiny, then entering the sophisticated spiritual life, and then reaching the goal to win for Christ. Winning for Christ is equal to being filled with all the fullness of Christ in Eph 3:19.

(2) We profit from the source of Christ and win the tactical victory of the Christian way of life in the angelic conflict for Christ. To profit from the source of Christ is a reference to the precedence of the spiritual life of the Church Age believer derived from the modus operandi of the humanity of Christ in the dispensation of the hypostatic union. To win for Christ is a reference to the three stages of the sophisticated spiritual life: spiritual self-esteem which is cognitive self-confidence, spiritual autonomy which is cognitive independence, and spiritual maturity which is cognitive invincibility.

(3) The purpose of a military operation is to attainment the objective assigned to a designated force. We are the designated force by analogy. Every military operation must be directed toward a clearly defined, decisive, and attainable objective—to win for Christ. Offensive action is the spiritual life, the utilization of the two power options and three spiritual skills to execute the protocol plan of God. Defensive action is the function of the rebound technique. Offensive action is the function of the power options and spiritual skills.

(4) The military analogy of winning for Christ is related to the principle of objective, offensive, and defensive.

(a) There can be no offensive action until you have objectives clearly assigned. We are kept alive in the Devil’s world to fulfill the objectives which come headquarters in heaven. All believers have equal privilege and opportunity to attain the objective—using our portfolio of invisible assets to live our own spiritual life. All believers can attain the objective. You have the right to succeed or fail on the basis of your values. If your values are wrong, then your decisions are wrong.

(b) The objective constitutes a guide for the interpretation of orders (the divine mandates that are taught to you), the formulation of decisions (the use of your volition), and the employment of means available (the use of the three spiritual skills). Just as every military operation must be directed toward a clearly defined, decisive and attainable objective, so every believer has been assigned a clearly defined objective to become a winner believer and an invisible hero.

© Offensive action is the only action by which a decision is gained. The only way you will ever glorify God is through offensive action. Defensive action simply avoids defeat. Offensive action is the utilization of two power options and the persistent function of the three spiritual skills. Offensive spiritual action increases your effectiveness as a believer, raises morale, permits concentration of effort in the use of divine power and freedom of action.

(d) Defensive action should be used to assist offensive action, to gain time, and to compensate for weaknesses. Defensive action of the spiritual life is the rebound technique. The most important defensive action is the deployment of rebound on the FLOT line of the soul as problem solving device number one. Defensive action of the spiritual life is the function of the rebound technique. There is no offensive action spiritually without the defensive action of the rebound technique. Rebound is the only problem solving device that functions when the believer is in a state of sin. Rebound functions because you have your own priesthood, a private relationship between you and God. The function of rebound has three important results.

i. You recover the filling of the Holy Spirit, which is the divine power operational in your spiritual life, hence, recovery of offensive action.

ii. Restoration to fellowship with God, which is extremely important in reaching the two objectives of a personal sense of destiny and occupation with Christ.

iii. Living the sophisticated spiritual life.

(e) There are two categories of defensive action which avoid defeat: rebound and the defensive action against Satan and demons. We are never commanded to attack Satan and demons. Defensive action is mandated by Jam 4:7, “Stand your ground against the Devil and he will flee from you.” 1 Pet 5:9, “But resist him, firm in doctrine, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.” Eph 6:13, “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand your ground in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” The power of Satan is far greater than the power of human beings, but the power of God is infinitely greater than any creature, 1 Jn 4:4. A personal sense of destiny remains on the defensive against Satan by avoiding offensive action against him and is not distracted from the true objective.

2. Phil 3:9, “and that I may be found by Him, not having my own righteousness from the source of the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from the source of God at the point of faith,”

a. Paul understood his personal sense of destiny as an overriding factor in his life. For Paul came into Christianity recognizing the fact that he was the worst sinner who ever lived and had a great deal to overcome. Right from the start in Arabia Paul had the information that gave him a personal sense of destiny. Paul knew that to live your life as a believer without any regard for the eternal state is a great disaster. Always we should live our lives in terms of eternity. But you have to have a personal sense of destiny to do this.

b. “My own righteousness” refers to a moral self-righteousness as a success standard of Judaism. This was a strict system of morality inculcated in Paul since childhood. Paul kept the Law perfectly, Phil 3:6. The standards were overt; they are not inner standards that deal with the soul. It is easy to build up a facade of morality and have it become meaningless. The attack of Judaism on Christianity was that Christianity was wrong and needed fixing. Human morality cannot stand too much criticism and always enters into self-justification. Only virtue deals with the soul. Morality is a facade. There is no virtue in morality. Paul murdered Christians in the name of morality.

c. The comparison in this verse is between which Paul had keeping the Law as an unbeliever and the righteousness imputed to Paul at the point of salvation. It is not a comparison between the two different kinds of experiential righteousness. The only righteousness that counts is the righteousness from the source of God which comes at the point (locative of time) of faith in Christ.

d. At the point of faith in Christ, God gave us His very own righteousness, which is infinitely greater than any system of morality and is totally apart from and exclusive of morality. If God can provide this for us at salvation, then it follows that God can provide everything we need to live the Christian life.

e. Principles.

(1) Human righteousness is relative and totally unacceptable to God. Only what is absolute is acceptable to God, Isa 64:6.

(2) Human righteousness or righteous deeds are totally unacceptable for salvation, Eph 2:8-9.

(3) Human righteousnesses are totally unacceptable at the last judgment, Rev 20:12-15.

(4) Human righteousness or righteous deeds are totally unacceptable as a part of the spiritual life of the believer. God has opened the door to the greatest possible virtue, a virtue related to the soul and what you think that starts in your inner being.

(5) There is no place for human righteousness where divine righteousness has been provided.

(6) There is no place for human power where divine power functions.

(7) The imputed righteousness of God does many things for the believer. It justifies us. It is the basis for logistical grace blessings. We become objects of God’s personal love. It gives us the capacity for blessing in lag time.

(8) After lag time, spiritual capacity righteousness is attained through the two power options and the three spiritual skills.

3. Phil 3:10, “that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, for the purpose of being conformed to His death.”

a. “That I may know Him” refers to occupation with Christ. The purpose of a personal sense of destiny is to parlay that personal sense of destiny into occupation with Christ. This is done through the function of the two power options and three spiritual skills as a part of the sophisticated spiritual life. A personal sense of destiny motivates the fulfillment of God’s plan. The motivation for occupation with Christ is found in the final phrase of Phil 3:8, “that I may win for Christ.” The result of occupation with Christ is stated in Eph 3:19, “and come to know the love for Christ which goes beyond gnosis that you may be filled with all the fullness from God.”

b. A personal sense of destiny is related to the divine power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

(1) No one reaches a personal sense of destiny without an understanding of God’s power. God’s perfect plan runs on God’s perfect power for imperfect persons because God is perfect. There are two power options: the filling of the Holy Spirit and metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness of the soul. Human power does not execute God’s plan. Metabolized doctrine creates its own system of application of doctrine to experience. It deploys the problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul to apply doctrine.

(2) The humanity of Jesus Christ did not use the essence of His deity to glorify Himself in any way. Instead He depended entirely on what God the Father provided. God the Father provided the same things for every Church Age believer as He provided for our Lord Jesus Christ. The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power available to every believer in the Church Age to execute the plan of God. This is the same power that will resurrect every Church Age believer.

(a) Eph 1:19-20, “and what is the surpassing greatness of His power to us who have believed for the working of His superior power, which He made operational by means of Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in heavenly places.”

(b) 1 Cor 6:14, “Now God not only resurrected the Lord but He will also resurrect us through His power.”

© 2 Cor 4:14, “Knowing that He who resurrected the Lord Jesus will resurrect us in association with Jesus and He will present us with you at the rapture.” (3) What is the power of our Lord’s resurrection? The direct power available to us in the filling of the Spirit and the indirect power available to us in metabolized doctrine circulating in our stream of consciousness. This power creates its own solutions in the Christian life— the ten problem solving devices, something infinitely greater than human morality.

c. “And the fellowship of His sufferings” means that a personal sense of destiny is related to precedence for the deployment and function of the problem solving devices.

(1) Epignosis doctrine establishes the FLOT line of the soul and at the same time it establishes the perfect set of circumstances, a perfect home for metabolized doctrine. The purpose of these problem solving devices defensively is to prevent stress in the soul and offensively to use the FLOT line of the soul as a staging area for the offensive action, such as the application of doctrine to your own experience.

(2) Spiritual wealth, the only true wealth in the world, is metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness. There is nothing else like it in the world. Bible doctrine is the greatest value in the world. Do not be surprised when you are disappointed in people. When you place your values on relationships with others, you will be disappointed.

(3) The “fellowship of His sufferings” means that just as our Lord used the problem solving devices to handle sufferings, so we also do likewise. The “fellowship of His sufferings” is maximum function of the problem solving devices in the sophisticated spiritual life.

(4) The deployment of the problem solving devices performs pertinent functions:

(a) Application of metabolized doctrine to postsalvation experience.

(b) The accelerated momentum of the spiritual life.

(d) Prevention of the outside pressures of adversity becoming the inside pressures of the soul.

d. The ultimate objective of a personal sense of destiny is the fulfillment of the first three lines of Phil 3:10, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.” This demands the understanding of the sophisticated spiritual life. You will always be disillusioned and disappointed in life as a believer unless you attain occupation with Christ.

e. “For the purpose of being conformed to His death” indicates that our Lord’s humanity functioning under the power options and spiritual skills is the role model for Church Age believers. Being conformed to His death is the tactical victory of the angelic conflict.

f. The great principle of this verse is that ignorance is no excuse.

(1) God has provided equal privilege and opportunity for every believer to execute the protocol plan of God and fulfill the sophisticated spiritual life.

(2) Volition and values is the issue. Values related to the spiritual life are based on the utilization of the two power options and three spiritual skills. Volition is related to values.

(3) Good decisions in postsalvation experience are always based on cognition of Bible doctrine.

(4) Cognition is a major factor in the adult spiritual life. Each stage of spiritual adulthood has a cognitive status quo: cognitive self-confidence, cognitive independence, and cognitive invincibility.

(5) Every believer has the same equality and opportunity to attain a personal sense of destiny and parlay it into occupation with Christ through the function of the sophisticated spiritual life.

(6) Ignorance and failure is no excuse, either now or at the judgment seat of Christ. For each believer is responsible for his own failure.

(7) Because of the divine initiative of antecedent grace both in time and eternity past, ignorance is no excuse. God does not give you something and then hide it from you. God intends for you to use it and has revealed everything related to it. Parlaying a personal sense of destiny into occupation with Christ is open to every believer. It only requires volition, decisions that only you can make, decisions that no one can force you to make, decisions that you want to make, because those decisions will be tested. You can never make great decisions for God without them being tested. You will always have options and key points in your spiritual life where you can succeed or fail. Volition is the issue. Therefore, every believer is responsible for his own failure.

(8) Human I.Q. is an unequal genetic product beyond human control through physical birth, but spiritual I.Q. is the equal opportunity under divine control through spiritual birth and the filling of the Holy Spirit. The inequality of human I.Q. is overcome by the divine initiative of antecedent grace in eternity past. God creates equality at the new birth through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The soul is the battlefield of your life. It is the function of the filling of the Holy Spirit to take the inequalities of human comprehension and provide equality for all believers to enter into doctrinal perception through the converting of human I.Q. into spiritual I.Q.

(a) Carnality causes the grieving and quenching of the Holy Spirit. When the believer sins, the filling of the Spirit as the first power option is lost to him in the sense that the Holy Spirit is quenched or squelched, 1 Thes 5:19. The believer is said to grieve the Holy Spirit in Eph 4:30. Every time we sin we are grieving the Holy Spirit and no longer have the power that runs the spiritual life.

(b) Even though we become carnal or out of fellowship with God when we sin, we still have eternal security, because we are still sealed by the Holy Spirit, Eph 4:30. There are four signature guarantees of the Holy Spirit that guarantee your eternal relationship with God: efficacious grace, regeneration, eternal security, and your portfolio of invisible assets.

© Without rebound there is no spiritual life. Eph 4:23, “and become renewed by means of the Spirit by means of your thinking, and put on the new man, which on the basis of grace provision from God has been created in righteousness and the divine viewpoint of doctrine.”

i. The filling of the Spirit is the divine power which causes the spiritual life of the believer to function.

ii. The second power option, operation Z, cannot function apart from the filling of the Spirit, because we have an inequality problem in the six thinking skills of human I.Q.. But that is completely overcome by the filling of the Holy Spirit. The mechanics of the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit to the human spirit is mentioned in Rom 8:16; 1 Cor 2:10,12-13. The teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit is the basis of the existence of the three spiritual skills, Jn 14:26, 16:12-14; 1 Cor 2:9-16.

(d) The filling of the Spirit plus operation Z provides your true spiritual values. Your true spiritual values determine the function of your volition. If you make Bible doctrine number one in your life, then your decisions are going to function around that value. Values related to the spiritual life which are not based on the utilization of the two power options and three spiritual skills explain why so many believers get out of fellowship, never recover, and cannot be distinguished from their unbeliever counterpart.

(e) The divine power of God the Holy Spirit recognizes the function of human positive volition in three areas of life: at God consciousness, at gospel hearing, and in the modus operandi and modus vivendi of the spiritual life. Therefore it is the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit that converts the inequalities of human I.Q. into completely equal spiritual I.Q.. God the Holy Spirit provides equality in comprehension, memory center, problem solving, decision making, creativity, and awareness.

(9) Under the principle of equality of all believers, every believer has the same opportunity to reach the first and second objective of the protocol plan of God and fulfill the two stages of glorification of God. The first objective of the protocol plan and the first stage in glorification of God is to reach a personal sense of destiny. The second objective of the protocol plan of God and second stage in the glorification of God is to reach spiritual maturity.

4. A personal sense of destiny lives in the light of eternity. Phil 3:11, “and so by some means I shall advance to the exit-resurrection which is out from the dead.”

a. This verse begins with an Attic Greek idiom that emphasizes the status quo of Paul at the thought of the resurrection of the Church. Paul is a mature believer headed toward evidence testing with the happiness of God and occupation with Christ deployed on the FLOT line of his soul. He understands the doctrine of the immanency of the Rapture. Paul will accomplish the two strategic objectives of the protocol plan of God: parlaying a personal sense of destiny into occupation with Christ and spiritual maturity parlayed into maximum glorification of God.

(1) The idiom does not function as an indirect question of self-reflection, but is a statement of absolute confidence and expectation from a personal sense of destiny. It is a classical Greek idiom of dogmatic expectation. Paul understands the immanency of the Rapture and is wondering which will occur first, his physical death or the Rapture of the Church? Which ever way it goes, it is alright with Paul, because he is a mature believer and will arrive on time at the Rapture. The implication of the verb is that every believer will arrive on time at the Rapture.

(2) The purpose of this idiom is to remind us that regardless of our status related to the spiritual life (winners or losers) and regardless of our status as human beings (dead or alive) these are variables which are solved by knowing an absolute doctrine—that the resurrection of the Church terminates the dispensation of the Church and all believers will be involved in the Rapture. After the Rapture, the Church will never again return to the earth except in a resurrection body.

(3) The purpose of this idiom is to show that a personal sense of destiny emphasizes the future and therefore lives in the light of eternity. A personal sense of destiny can forget was has been wrong about the past, enjoy the present, and look forward to the future.

(4) There is one thing your volition can never accomplish: the resurrection of the Church. God brings the resurrection to you. You do not bring the Rapture to history. The final goal or objective of God’s plan for all Church Age believers comes to us. At the right time God brings it to us. While achievement in the fulfillment of our spiritual life is a matter of our volition and values, the time of the resurrection is a matter of divine volition and action of God. It is the sovereign decision of God.

(5) There are two walls that enclose the Church Age: the dispensation of the hypostatic union and the Rapture of the Church. The dispensation of the Church is governed by historical trends since there is no prophecy during the Church Age.

(a) The humanity of Christ pioneered the utilization of the two power options and the function of the three spiritual skills to establish precedence for a spiritual life that never occurred before the Church Age and will never occur after the Rapture, Heb 12:2, “Be concentrating on Jesus, the pioneer and author of our doctrine, who because of the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross, having disregarded the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

(b) All precedence for the Christian way of life does not come from the Old Testament but from the modus operandi and modus vivendi of the humanity of Christ during the dispensation of the hypostatic union.

(6) Therefore the Rapture is immanent—it can occur at any time during the Church Age. A personal sense of destiny reflects on the two possibilities at the Rapture—mortal [believers alive at the Rapture] can take on immortal or corruption [dead believers at the Rapture] can take on incorruption.

(7) A personal sense of destiny knows dogmatically that the resurrection will occur, and a personal sense of destiny does not care whether you are dead or alive when it occurs. If Paul dies it is profit, Phil 1;21. Once you reach a personal sense of destiny, you do not look at the variables around you and panic, but keeps on concentrating on the absolutes. When you have deployed on the FLOT line of your soul a personal sense of destiny, the variables of your life are not the issue. When you have no political freedom left, you still have a personal sense of destiny related to the absolutes. The absolutes always resolve the true variables somewhere in the Scripture (here by 1 Cor 15:53-54). A false variable would be a statement such as “If you live a good life, you will be at the resurrection of the Church.” That statement is a lie, a false variable and is resolved by the absolutes of Bible doctrine.

(8) A personal sense of destiny has five functions.

(a) It is the first tactical objective of the spiritual life.

(b) It is the dividing line between spiritual childhood and spiritual adulthood.

(d) It is confidence, producing spiritual self-esteem.

(e) It is the enhancement of the basic problem solving devices to a higher level of operation.

b. The believer cannot make the resurrection happen; only God can make it happen. The Greek verb KATANTAO is the future active indicative (the particle EI takes the indicative mood) not the aorist subjunctive and means to reach a final goal or objective, to reach a goal set for a person. However, the correct connotation in this idiom is not that you come to something but that something comes to you so that you can possess it. The sovereignty of God brings the resurrection to us.

(1) The connotation in context is that the believer does not come to the resurrection or attain the goal of the resurrection, but is that the resurrection comes to him. Only God can make the resurrection come. Therefore, when it occurs is not the issue. A personal sense of destiny says it is going to happen and it does not matter when it happens.

(2) We do not arrive at the resurrection because of any decision we make, but because God brings the resurrection to us. We reach a goal provided by God. The believer comes to attain the goal of the Rapture, because the resurrection comes to him or her. The final goal of the Church is not a matter of volition. God does not allow the Church to cause the resurrection by anything it does.

(3) The absolute (the Rapture of the Church) removes the problem of the variables (being a loser or winner, being dead or alive) for all believers involved. All believers regardless of status will be at the resurrection on time at the same time in a resurrection body. The variables are not an issue in having a resurrection body forever and do not hinder the believer from being at the resurrection of the Church.

(4) When you come to realize that neither winner or loser can deserve the Rapture, you have enhanced grace orientation to the point where you begin to appreciate the essence and character of God as the source of all blessing, and this is the beginning of true humility. True humility comes by recognizing how and what variables actually adhere to the absolute. True humility is coming to the place where you understand that everything is grace, that you have done nothing apart from the power of God.

c. The Rapture is an exit-resurrection (EXANASTASIS) by which the royal family exits from the earth. Every death of a believer in the Church Age is a victory because of what God has done.

(1) 1 Cor 15:54, “But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, `Death has been swallowed up as a result of victory.’”

(2) When the Rapture takes place, the Church will exit from the earth and not return until the second advent of Christ, and then not again until after the Lord creates a new universe. The exit-resurrection is the final goal of the Church Age and God provides it en toto. Mankind cannot cause or make to come to pass either the Rapture of the Church or the second advent of Christ. Mankind cannot convert the world and cause Christ to come back. God’s timing does not have anything to do with the volition of man. The sovereignty, wisdom, and power of God brings the Rapture to the Church.

d. There are two categories of variables related to the Rapture: the human life variables (being dead before the Rapture occurs or being alive when it occurs) and the spiritual life variables (being a winner or a loser when it occurs). Metabolized doctrine deals with all the true variables and all the false variables in life. True variables include the fact that some believers will be alive at the Rapture and that must believers will be dead at the Rapture. True variables include the fact that some believers will be winners and some believers will be losers at the Rapture. A personal sense of destiny rejects false variables; for they neither adherence or relationship to the absolutes of Bible doctrine.

(1) A personal sense of destiny is not controlled by variables but always by the absolutes of Bible doctrine. The absolutes resolve all variables in life.

(2) A personal sense of destiny resolves all problems related to variables through the application of the absolute—metabolized Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the only way you will ever have any absolutes in your soul. You need the filling of the Spirit to metabolize doctrine in your soul. Metabolized doctrine is the absolute origin of problem solving devices.

(a) While an absolute may be defined as something that is not dependent on external conditions but is independent of any conditions or restrictions, a variable is liable to vary and to change. The key to variables is often the function of human volition where deviation from the absolutes may or may not occur.

(b) Variables that involve volition can be true or false, but the variables related to the Rapture are related to two categories, both of which are true. There is a soul status variable which finds believers who have already died and their soul’s are in heaven and believers who are alive at the Rapture. There is a spiritual life variable which finds both winners and loser believers at the Rapture.

e. The variables are reconciled through the application of the absolutes. All variables in life are settled by Bible doctrine.

(1) True variables are reconciled to the absolute; false variables are rejected. Therefore, variables related to human status quo (being alive or dead) and to the spiritual life (being a winner or loser) are true variables and reconciled to the absolute truth of Bible doctrine. All true variables gravitate to an absolute of Bible doctrine and are resolved by that doctrine. Bible doctrine rejects all false variables, like setting a date for the Rapture.

(2) All Church Age believers in time have the same equal opportunity to execute the protocol plan of God. At the judgment seat of Christ loser believers for the first time will take responsibility for their own decisions.

(3) All Church Age believers will be resurrected regardless of the variables, evaluated, and then live forever in the eternal state. Spiritual freedom gives every believer equal opportunity to succeed or to fail.

(4) Being a winner believer is a matter of volition and values. Therefore, there is no excuse for being a loser believer. Volition and values is the issue, not circumstances, and never environment. The believer has to come eventually to establishing a system of values. The highest value has to come from Bible doctrine in your life.

(5) The Rapture is not a matter of human volition; for God brings the exit-resurrection to all believers regardless of their status quo. This is an exclusive resurrection for just the Church. Only the sovereignty of God brings this final objective. Therefore, a personal sense of destiny concentrates on the absolutes of Bible doctrine, and by so doing resolves all problems related to the variables. True variables are related to doctrine and false variables, which are in conflict with Bible doctrine, are rejected.

f. The role of a personal sense of destiny.

(1) A personal sense of destiny concentrates on the absolutes of Bible doctrine, and by so doing resolves all problems of the variables, orienting to the ones that are pertinent and rejecting the ones that are false.

(2) Through a personal sense of destiny the absolutes of Bible doctrine resolve all problems related to variables.

(3) Through a personal sense of destiny variables that adhere to an absolute are resolved, while variables that conflict with an absolute are rejected.

(4) Therefore a personal sense of destiny is not controlled by the variables but by the absolutes of Bible doctrine.

(5) Cognition and metabolization of the absolutes of Bible doctrine make it possible for right application through the function of a personal sense of destiny. As a system of application, the personal sense of destiny must be kept clean.

(6) A personal sense of destiny plus enhancement from the basic problem solving devices and the deployment of the advanced problem solving devices accomplishes two magnificent advances in the spiritual life. True variables are reconciled to pertinent absolutes. False variables are rejected by pertinent absolutes. The problem with most Christians is that they have false variables clinging to them and they suffer from distraction, disillusion and reaction.

(7) A personal sense of destiny uses enhancement of basic problem solving devices for advancement to advanced problem solving devices. In the sophisticated spiritual life all basic problem solving devices are enhanced and upgraded to meet the challenge of taking the high ground of spiritual maturity. The second challenge of the problem solving devices is the attainment of the advanced problem solving devices.

g. Another case of the absolutes is found in 2 Pet 3:10-14, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will disappear with a roar and the elements will be dissolved with intense heat, and the earth and its works [human good and evil] will be incinerated. Since in this way all things must be destroyed, what sort of person must you become in a dedicated to God lifestyle, that is to say, your spiritual life, while looking forward with confidence and the hastening of the coming of the day of God, in which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But on the basis of His promise [of better things in the eternal state] we are looking forward with confidence to a new heavens and a new earth in which perfect righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since we are looking forward with confidence for these things, be self-motivated to be found in Him in a state of tranquility, spotless [the execution of the spiritual life with emphasis on capacity] and blameless [the result of fulfillment of the spiritual life].”

(1) The destruction of the universe at the end of human history is an absolute Bible doctrine. The “end of the world” is a fact of the future. Before the end of the world we must complete the Church Age, the Tribulation, Second Advent of Christ and His millennial reign. (2) There are five things which survive the destruction of the universe: salvation—anyone who believes in Christ, your resurrection body, Bible doctrine, your escrow blessings, and the historical records of the invisible hero. These things are permanent values and absolutes. Each of these have variables. True variables gravitate to the absolutes, while false variables are rejected by the absolutes.

(a) Salvation is a permanent value which survives the destruction of the universe. The variable that gravitates to it is faith alone in Christ alone.

(b) The second permanent value is a resurrection body. The variable that gravitates to it is all believers, whether living or dead, winner or loser, will receive a resurrection body. The false variable is setting a date for the resurrection of the Church.

© The third permanent value is the infallible word of God which survives the destruction of the universe. The true variable that gravitates to this permanent value is positive volition to doctrine. The false variable is rejection of doctrine.

(d) The forth permanent value is the your escrow blessings. The true variable that gravitates to it is receiving your escrow blessings for eternity. The false variable is the believer’s rejection of his escrow blessings by negative volition to doctrine.

(e) The fifth permanent value is the historical impact of the invisible hero. The true variable that gravitates to it is the invisible hero’s impact on his. The false variable is believer’s rejection of historical impact by negative volition.

(3) The challenge of the absolutes is found in the question, “Since in this way all things must be destroyed, what sort of person must you become in a dedicated to God lifestyle, that is to say, your spiritual life?” Your lifestyle is not what you do; it is what you think. There is nothing in this universe worth keeping for the eternal state expect the five permanent values. You have a spiritual life as a part of your portfolio of invisible assets. Whether or not it becomes operational depends on your values, your volition related to values. You have to be self-motivated to ever live the spiritual life that you have in your portfolio.

(4) Absolutes and variables focus on a personal sense of destiny as the objective of the spiritual life. A personal sense of destiny divides the spiritual life from childhood to adulthood. A personal sense of destiny is entrance into spiritual adulthood or the sophisticated spiritual life.

(5) All absolutes are covered by the grace of God, so that you can learn the absolutes, attain the four objectives (a personal sense of destiny, spiritual maturity, occupation with Christ, and maximum glorification of God), and stand at the judgment seat of Christ as a winner with no regrets.

(6) The verb PROSDOKAO (used in verse 12, 13, and 14) means to look forward with confidence or future expectation and describes a personal sense of destiny. Verse 12 states the fact of having a personal sense of destiny. Verse 13 states the function of a personal sense of destiny. Verse 14 states the result of having a personal sense of destiny. When you arrive at a personal sense of destiny, the use of problem solving devices one through five only enhance your personal sense of destiny and your personal sense of destiny makes your use of problem solving devices one through five more effective. For example, a personal sense of destiny is not distracted by past failures, but rebounds and keeps moving; the faith- rest drill takes on new meaning.

h. Principles.

(1) A personal sense of destiny is the first tactical objective of the spiritual life. Under the doctrine of enhancement, a personal sense of destiny derives its initial strength from the first five problem solving devices.

(2) A personal sense of destiny is parlayed into occupation with Christ as the first strategic objective. Spiritual maturity is the second tactical objective and is parlayed into maximum glorification of God as the second strategic objective of the Christian life.

(3) A personal sense of destiny is only the entrance into the sophisticated spiritual life. A personal sense of destiny does not come alone into the sophisticated spiritual life; it comes with five well developed problem solving devices deployed on the FLOT line of the soul.

(4) A personal sense of destiny is a major transformation from people orientation to fellowship with God. When fellowship with God is straightened out, then you can handle people orientation. Personal love for God comes before impersonal love for all mankind.

(5) A personal sense of destiny is a major sponsorer of the changeover from human to divine viewpoint, from spiritual childhood to spiritual adulthood. A personal sense of destiny is a major transformation from people orientation to fellowship with God.

(6) A personal sense of destiny always related the true variables to their proper absolutes. In so doing, a personal sense of destiny rejects all false variables. A personal sense of destiny is not controlled by variables, but by the absolutes of Bible doctrine. A personal sense of destiny resolves all problems related to variables through the application of the absolutes (metabolized doctrine). True variables are reconciled to absolutes. False variables are rejected by the absolute.

(7) A personal sense of destiny understands the objectives of the spiritual life. A personal sense of destiny raises to a higher level of function all of the basic problem solving devices—the principle of enhancement.

(a) The filling of the Holy Spirit and doctrinal orientation intensify the sophisticated spiritual life and give fantastic self-motivation and momentum. Grace orientation is extended into the sophisticated spiritual life to include impersonal love for all mankind. Doctrinal orientation is extended into the sophisticated spiritual life to emphasize Christian fellowship as love for God. In the sophisticated spiritual life rebound awareness leads to a more rapid recovery of fellowship with God and the ability to spot more unusual sins that you not aware of before.

(b) The enhancement factor includes the fact that the believer in the sophisticated spiritual life is more aware of the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit, resulting in the intensification of metabolized doctrine. Awareness and love for God the Holy Spirit result in spirituality sensitivity. Total dependence on the power of the Spirit and total appreciation of divine power in the fulfillment of the spiritual life. The result is sharing the happiness of God and occupation with Christ.

(8) The absolute—the Rapture of the Church—resolves the variables. The application is made through the problem solving devices with emphasis on a personal sense of destiny.

(9) No group of Church Age believers can make the exit- resurrection happen. The Rapture is the decision of the sovereignty of God and the function of the power of God. No one is left out.

(10) The believer cannot make the resurrection happen. Only the sovereignty of God can accomplish it. Under a personal sense of destiny the believer begins to realize that neither winner nor loser, neither dead nor alive can deserve the final objective of the Church Age. The Rapture is neither earned or deserved by the best of believers, and the worst of believers are not excluded. This is the enhancement principle of grace orientation.

i. A personal sense of destiny is never controlled by variables but by the absolutes of Bible doctrine. This is emphasizes in the Christian way of life. The absolutes solve the problems of the variables through three functions: enhancement of the basic problem solving devices, a personal sense of destiny which becomes the enhancer, and the fulfillment of the sophisticated spiritual life. You are never protected from false variables until you have absolutes circulating in your stream of consciousness.

5. The outline for Phil 3:12-15.

a. The objectivity of spiritual maturity, verse 12.

b. The true motivation of spiritual maturity, verse 13.

(1) A personal sense of destiny is objective self- evaluation, 13a.

(2) A personal sense of destiny is objective self- motivation, 13b.

c. A personal sense of destiny is objective self-momentum in spiritual maturity, verse 14

d. The thinking of spiritual maturity, verse 15.

6. Phil 3:12, “Not that I have already received [the exit- resurrection], nor have I already accomplished [the protocol plan], but I keep advancing toward the objective, in order that I may truly understand that purpose for which I was also truly understood by Christ Jesus.”

a. The first two phrases are talking about two different things. They are separated by the Greek disjunctive particle which separates opposites.

(1) Paul has not already received his exit-resurrection. He recognizes the reality of the resurrection of the Church and the immanency of the resurrection. Because the Church Age is a dispensation of historical trends rather than prophetic events, that makes it much more difficult to live a spiritual life. This is why we have been given far greater assets than were given to the Old Testament believers. A personal sense of destiny has total confidence with regard to the eternal future. Therefore, a personal sense of destiny always lives in the light of eternity.

(2) Nor has Paul already accomplished, finished, or completed his very own spiritual life. He had attained three out of four objectives of the spiritual life, but had not finished or accomplished the spiritual life.

(a) This is Paul applying an absolute to his personal experience. This is Paul’s objective application of his status in time with reference to his spiritual life.

(b) The personal sense of destiny is always objective in all of the areas of evaluation—objective in evaluation of relationship with self, God, and others. A personal sense of destiny understands its status in the protocol plan of God. A personal sense of destiny has objective and accurate cognition of the status quo of the sophisticated spiritual life. Paul looks objectively into the mirror of the word of God and sees the status of his own soul.

© Before the Rapture occurs you should be fulfilling, accomplishing, completing the spiritual life for the Church through the use of the three spiritual skills. In the dispensation of the hypostatic union the humanity of Jesus Christ pioneered the two power options, the three spiritual skills, the problem solving devices. He did not depend on His deity. He pioneered this fantastic life and has given it to all believers of the Church Age. Our Lord proved that the plan was absolutely perfect and that anyone who used it would have a fantastic life.

b. You do not relax when you become a winner believer, but continue to advance with offensive action from the FLOT line of the soul. Offensive action allows freedom of action. Offensive action is the only means by which we can win the spiritual battle.

(1) We have four objectives in the spiritual life—two tactical (a personal sense of destiny and spiritual maturity) and two strategic (parlaying a personal sense of destiny into occupation with Christ and spiritual maturity into maximum glorification of God).

(2) We have greater objectives than ever before in history. Therefore we have greater assets to attain those objectives. The objectives demand the utilization of the two power options and three spiritual skills.

(3) Our mandates in Scripture are always interpreted on the basis of the fact we have these four objectives. Our objectives are clearly defined and attainable. The purpose of offensive action is designed to produce winner believers. Offensive action always raises morale, permits concentration of effort, and gives freedom of action—equal privilege and equal opportunity of the spiritual life.

(4) There are two categories of the spiritual life—rebound and all dealings with Satan. The FLOT line of the soul is designed for both offensive and defensive action. We do not have the power to take offensive action against Satan. Dealing with demons is a digression from the spiritual life. A personal sense always remains on defensive against Satan by avoiding offensive action against Satan and demons.

c. The attainment of a personal sense of destiny is always accompanied by a tremendous ability to think. The ability to think requires inculcation which requires repetition.

(1) Phil 2:5, “Keep on thinking this in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

(a) Thinking is not emotion, not bodily stimulation, not the functions of the sin nature. The thinking values (Bible doctrine circulating in your stream of consciousness) is the issue. Your happiness depends on the seven compartments of the stream of consciousness being filled with Bible doctrine. “Keep on thinking this in you” demands the function of the two power options and the three spiritual skills.

(b) The command of Phil 2:5 establishes precedence for our spiritual life. The precedence for our spiritual life comes from the spiritual life which our Lord lived. Bible doctrine must be number one in your life if you are ever going to establish the spiritual life which God gave you. This requires thinking. The spiritual life is a system of thinking. Every facet of the spiritual life is related to thought.

(2) Eph 4:23, “and become renewed through the agency of the Spirit by means of your thinking.” The life of every believer is his mental attitude. You are not spiritual by what you are doing, but by what you are thinking. Your spiritual life is your thinking. Thinking requires three spheres of the spiritual life.

(a) Your utilization of the two power options.

(b) Your consistent function of the three spiritual skills.

© Your application of Bible doctrine through the ten problem solving devices. False application occurs when the problem solving devices are not deployed on the FLOT line of your soul. False applications become false variables, which are incompatible with the absolutes of Bible doctrine. False variables are related to: the arrogance skills and arrogance complex of sins and emotional complex of sins, unrealistic expectation, role model arrogance, psychological solutions substituted for the absolutes of the word of God, false concepts of love in friendship and marriage, false emphasis on Christian fellowship.

(3) 1 Cor 2:9-10,16, “But just as it stands written, `Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.’ For to us God has revealed them [Bible doctrine] through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things from God. For who has known the thinking of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the thinking of Christ.” The thinking of Christ given to us is the delegation of divine power in the form of the two power options and three spiritual skills.The delegated power of God is thinking Bible doctrine.

(4) Thinking is a battlefield of the soul. A thought can make or break you at any time. Prov 23:7, “As a person thinks in his soul, that is what he is.” Prov 2:10, “For wisdom will enter the heart and knowledge of doctrine will be pleasant to your soul.” Divine viewpoint of life requires three thinking functions:

(a) Cognition—both the act and process of cognition, the inculcation of Bible doctrine.

(b) Thinking—the application of what you have learned.

(5) The three arrogance skills hinder the function of divine viewpoint thinking. This is why God makes war against the arrogant believer, but gives grace to the humble believer, Jam 4:6.

(6) The challenge is found in Rom 12:2-3, “And stop being conformed to this world [human viewpoint thinking], but be transformed by the renovation of your thought, that you may prove what the will of God is: the divine good production, the well-pleasing to God, and the mature status quo. For I say through the grace which has been given to me to every one who is among you stop thinking of self in terms of arrogance beyond what you ought to think; but think in terms of sanity for the purpose of being rational without illusion as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from doctrine.”

(7) Your viewpoint in life is based on your emphasis in life—social intercourse with people or fellowship with God. It is your thinking that determines your way of life.

(8) 2 Cor 10;4-5, “for the weapons with which we fight are not weapons of this world. On the contrary they have divine power to demolish fortifications [problems in your life]. We demolish speculations and every lofty thing that sets itself above the knowledge of God, even when we bring every thought into captivity to make it obedient to Christ.”

d. Precedence plus power equals protocol.

(1) The Precedence Premise. In the dispensation of the hypostatic union the humanity of Christ pioneered two power options, three spiritual skills, and eight of the problem solving devices to establish precedence for the unique spiritual life of the protocol plan of God in this dispensation of the Church.

(a) Our Lord functioned in His humanity and did not depend upon His deity to execute the spiritual life which He pioneered. He depended on power options, spiritual skills, and problem solving devices rather than His deity.

(b) Our Lord pioneered the problem solving devices: grace orientation—Jn 1:14, sharing God’s happiness and doctrinal orientation—Jn 15:11, Heb 12:2, the filling of the Spirit—Heb 9:14.

(d) Our Lord’s humanity pioneered the sophisticated spiritual life. In the sophisticated spiritual life the advanced problem solving devices function on a consistent basic. In the advance to the sophisticated spiritual life they only function sporadically.

(2) The Power Premise. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the power for and the key to the fulfillment of the spiritual life for the Church Age.

(a) The divine mandate for spirituality is found in Eph 5:18. The mandate for the spiritual life is found in Gal 5:16.

(b) The transferring of the thoughts from the Scripture to your soul is strictly the power of God the Holy Spirit. The power that sustained Christ during His first Advent and that raised Him from the dead is the same power available to us during the Church Age. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that runs the spiritual life.

© Our Lord explained the importance of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age, Jn 14:16-17,26. “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world is not able to receive, because they neither see nor know Him, but you know Him because He lives with you, and will be in you.” “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and cause you to remember all that I have said to you.” Our Lord’s unfinished messages are mentioned in Jn 16:12-14, “I have many more things to say to you, but you are not able to sustain them in your frame of reference now. However when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; because He shall receive from Me [My messages], and He shall report it back to you.”

i. God the Holy Spirit receives the finished message to the Church from our Lord in heaven and reports that message back to us through the apostles, who write it down. The Holy Spirit reveals the plan of God the Father and the thinking of our Lord under verbal plenary inspiration. In the dispensation of the Church God the Holy Spirit reveals to the human authors of the New Testament the rest of our Lord’s unfinished message. It is the function of the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher to communicate what has been written in the infallible New Testament canon, so that our Lord’s messages are presented to every generation of the Church Age.

ii. The New Testament is the unfinished message of Jesus Christ completed through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to human authors. This is why 1 Tim 3:16 uses the word THEOPNEUSTOS, meaning “God- breathed.” “All Scripture is God-breathed.”

(d) God the Holy Spirit is involved in all areas of transmission of God’s message to the Church Age believer.

(3) The Perception Premise. Human I.Q. is the unequal genetic product beyond human control through physical birth, but spiritual I.Q. is equal opportunity under divine control through spiritual birth at salvation through faith in Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit. We all have the same qualifications for spiritual thinking. There is no handicap from mentality, the issue is your own volition and motivation.

(4) The Protocol Premise.

(a) The protocol plan of God is a rigid, long established code and procedure, prescribing complete deference to divine authority both direct and delegated, followed by strict adherence to due order and precedence, coupled with precisely correct procedure.

(b) A wrong thing done in a wrong way is wrong. A wrong thing done in a right way is wrong. A right thing done in a right way is wrong. Only a right thing done in a right way is right. A right thing done in a right way demands the utilization of two power options, the function of three spiritual skills, and the application of ten problem solving devices.

© The power of volition and values of the protocol plan of God and its spiritual life gives you options; options which often determine variables; variables which adhere to absolutes. Skills, competent excellence, and right mechanics of the spiritual life fulfill the premise of a right thing done in a right way as being right.

(d) Devices are the divine design for working purposes of the spiritual life. The working modus operandi of the spiritual life are the ten problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul.

(e) From the protocol premise originates both the absolutes of Bible doctrine and the variables related to the volition of the believer. There are always options, such as the option to become a winner or loser believer. Options are based on volition and values. When the values of life give number one priority to Bible doctrine, the believer establishes an option base for becoming a winner and must learn the mechanics of the spiritual life.

(f) There are four volitional objectives of the spiritual life.

i. There are two tactical objectives: attaining a personal sense of destiny and the advance to spiritual maturity through the sophisticated spiritual life. Each of the tactical objectives sets up the principle of the strategic objectives for the spiritual life.

ii. There are two strategic objectives: parlaying a personal sense of destiny into occupation with Christ and parlaying spiritual maturity into maximum glorification of God.

(g) There is one non-volitional objective of the spiritual life—the exit-resurrection of the Church from planet earth.

(5) The Equality Premise. Every believer of the Church Age has equal privilege and equal opportunity to execute the protocol plan of God. This means that every believer has the same equality to function in the three spiritual skills. The equality premise is based on the forty things we received at salvation, the uniqueness of the Church, and on equal privilege and equal opportunity under election and predestination.

(a) Equal privilege under election is our very own priesthood. Equal opportunity under election is our logistical grace blessings.

(b) Equal privilege under predestination is our union with Christ, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Equal opportunity under predestination is our two power options, three spiritual skills, and ten problem solving devices. There is an inequality roadblock—human I.Q., an unequal genetic factor. Spiritual I.Q. is equal opportunity under divine control through the spiritual birth and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

e. There are seven functions of a personal sense of destiny.

(1) A personal sense of destiny is problem solving device number six deployed on the FLOT line of the soul to solve problems. A personal sense of destiny is an extension of the faith-rest drill in that it makes application of doctrinal rationales to the experience of the believer.

(2) A personal sense of destiny is the dividing line between spiritual childhood and spiritual adulthood.

(3) A personal sense of destiny provides self-motivation for continued momentum in the spiritual life of the Church Age believer.

(4) A personal sense of destiny is entrance into the sophisticated spiritual life. The sophisticated spiritual life has three stages: spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity. A personal sense of destiny and spiritual self-esteem are exactly the same thing.

(5) A personal sense of destiny enhances the function of the basic problem solving devices (rebound, the filling of the Spirit, the faith-rest drill, grace orientation, and doctrinal orientation), so that they can be compatible with the sophisticated spiritual life.

(6) A personal sense of destiny is the first tactical objective of the spiritual life and is parlayed into the first strategic objective—occupation with Christ.

(7) A personal sense of destiny provides the true definition of “hope” as a confident expectation in relationship to eternal life and the resurrection of the Church. A personal sense of destiny provides absolute confidence about the future, such as the Rapture of the Church and the believer’s reception of a resurrection body.

(a) Col 1:27, “To whom God willed to reveal to the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery [your portfolio], which is Christ in you, the confidence [hope] of glory.” The indwelling of Christ provides absolute confidence, a personal sense of destiny, that we will glorify God.

(b) Tit 2:13, “looking for that blessed hope, that is, the appearing of the glory of the great God, even our Savior, Christ Jesus.” Our personal sense of destiny gives us absolute confidence about our resurrection.

© 1 Pet 1:13, “Therefore, gird up your minds for action, be constantly stabilized and oriented, fix your confidence [hope] on the grace being brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The grace being brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ is the resurrection body. You are to have absolute confidence in the fact you will received a resurrection body.

(d) Hope is a part of the absolute confidence of a personal sense of destiny. The first hope or absolute confidence is that you have eternal life at the point of faith alone in Christ alone. The second hope or absolute confidence is that you will receive your escrow blessings for time at the point of reaching spiritual maturity. The third hope or absolute confidence is that you will receive your escrow blessings for eternity at the judgment seat of Christ and glorify God to the maximum. Hope is the confidence of a personal sense of destiny related to the spiritual life.

(e) Heb 6:18-19, “In order that by means of two immutable things [escrow blessings for time and eternity], in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge might have strong motivation to seize the hope that is set before us, which hope [personal sense of destiny regarding our escrow blessings for time and eternity] we have as an anchor [problem solving device] of the soul, both stabilized and reliable, in fact a hope which has entered inside the veil.” “Inside the veil” is the demonstration that Jesus Christ, the Shekinah Glory, is the escrow officer who conveys our escrow blessings for time and eternity. The indwelling of Jesus Christ inside of all Church Age believers is a guarantee that the escrow blessings for time and eternity are available. This was prophesied by our Lord in Jn 14:20, 17:22-23; and is fulfilled in the Church Age according to Rom 8:10; 2 Cor 13:5; Gal 2:20b; Col 1:27; 1 Jn 2:24.

f. One of the meaning of the verb KATALAMBANO is to truly understand something (and to attain an objective, which is how it will be used in the next verse). Paul truly understands what he has achieved spiritually and where he has to go spiritually to finish his course.

(1) He has attained a personal sense of destiny and parlayed it into occupation with Christ. Doctrine helps you to see yourself in the mirror of the word of God just as Jesus Christ saw you in eternity past in His omniscience. You know yourself, your successes and your failures, better than anyone else. Knowing all about you in eternity past, God still provided everything for you. This is grace and excludes anything we could do to earn or deserve anything from God. Looking at your own soul from the doctrinal viewpoint is the only way you can ever make corrections.

(2) Paul uses a personal sense of destiny in self- evaluation. From that self-evaluation comes accurate self-motivation. From accurate self-motivation comes accurate self-momentum.

(3) Because the omniscience of our Lord fully understood every Church Age believer in eternity past, He gave each one of us our very own portfolio of invisible assets. This was the divine initiative of antecedent grace in eternity past. Our portfolio gives us the opportunity to have a true relationship with God, which is the beginning of having true honesty in ourselves.

7. Phil 3:13, “Brethren, I do not evaluate myself to have attained the objective; but one thing I do, on the one hand disregarding those things which are behind, but on the other hand sprinting toward those things which are ahead,”

a. A personal sense of destiny includes objective self- evaluation. This is self-evaluation which produces self-motivation to keep moving in the spiritual life.

(1) Paul challenges us to the fact we must have a mirror in the soul and evaluate ourselves. You never see yourself as you appear to God until you have metabolized doctrine as a mirror in your soul. Most believers do not have mirrors in their souls. The problem solving devices not only look out from the FLOT line of the soul but inward at the mirror in the soul. Without the advance in cognition there is no self-evaluation. If you do not have metabolized doctrine circulating in your stream of consciousness, you have no mirror in your soul.

(2) Accurate self-evaluation requires: genuine humility, cognition of the facts, spiritual growth, a personal sense of destiny, and understanding the final objectives (a personal sense of destiny, spiritual maturity, parlaying a personal sense of destiny into occupation with Christ, and parlaying spiritual maturity into maximum glorification of God). You must not choke up as you face the final test of maximum glorification of God.

(3) Human prosperity is not the key to the final advance in the spiritual life. While prosperity is not an accurate barometer for self- evaluation, suffering for blessing carries a far greater precision. Without advance in cognition there is no self-evaluation. A personal sense of destiny is both accurate and objective in self-evaluation. From self- evaluation comes self-motivation, and from self-motivation comes self- determination, and from self-determination comes self-momentum. There are three sources of true prosperity from the standpoint of the spiritual life.

(a) We have blessing by association in which the spiritual status of the recipient of blessing is unknown.

(b) Logistical grace blessings in which the believer can be a winner or loser.

(4) One of the most dangerous times in your life is when you finally reach a personal sense of destiny and have spiritual self-esteem. If spiritual self-esteem does not pass providential preventative suffering, then you are going to be one of the most arrogant, bitter, vindictive people in the world. The arrogance skills are not eliminated from your life. You are pinned down by your own failure. When you react with any mental attitude sin to providential preventative suffering, you become a loser. You must get up and move forward.

(5) The cognitive self-confidence of spiritual self-esteem recognizes providential preventative suffering and distinguishes it from punitive suffering. Once you have a personal sense of destiny you have the ability to recognize suffering for blessing and distinguish it from punitive suffering. Cognitive independence of spiritual autonomy recognizes the four categories of momentum testing and distinguishes it from punitive suffering. Cognitive invincibility of spiritual maturity recognizes the two categories of evidence testing and distinguishes them from punitive suffering.

(6) Prosperity can be deceptive; it is never happiness. Therefore objective reality must reside in cognition. If you do not have the problem solving devices operational in your stream of consciousness, you will be a loser on a continual daily basis.

(7) A personal sense of destiny is both accurate and objective in self-evaluation. Once you can accurately and objectively evaluate yourself, then you can accurately and objectively evaluate any adversity that comes into your life and welcome it, because out of adversity will come an advance in happiness. When you come out of adversity as a winner believer through the use of the problem solving devices, you will have increased happiness.

b. A personal sense of destiny includes objective self- motivation. The one thing Paul does covers the next three verses and begins with disregarding past failures. You rebound and keep moving. You do not let anything in the past keep you from moving forward.

(1) The Greek word EPILANTHANOMAI, translated “forgetting,” does not mean to forget something that is important. It means to disregard silly things, things that are really not important in life, things that are distracting, petty, unjust, evil. It means do not be distracted by your past success or by your past failures. True happiness is concentration on things that are important. You do not forget the bad things that happen to you as a part of suffering for blessing as you advance to maturity, but you disregard them and do not let them become a distraction through the reaction of bitterness, self-pity, vindictiveness, implacability, etc. It does not really mean forgetting those things which are behind, but disregarding those things good or bad in your past which distract you from God’s plan for your life.

(2) A personal sense of destiny never handicaps self with past sins, failures, unjust treatment, or anything that can cause reaction. Objectivity in the spiritual life begins with rebound, in order to set aside anything that could be distracting through personal failure. But here it major problem is that the more believers advance in the spiritual life the more they are going to be misunderstood and ridiculed by the stupid, petty people who really do not have a clue to what life is all about.

(3) Past failure must never interfere with present momentum. Past self-induced misery and divine discipline must never be confused with suffering for blessing. Paul is not distracted by the past in any way as he concentrates and focuses on his objective of maximum glorification of God. You have to be able to distinguish punitive action from God with suffering for blessing. Past failures must never distract you from taking the high ground of spiritual maturity.

(4) Do not allow past failures to become present distractions. As long as you are alive God has a plan and purpose for your life. Therefore, rebound and keep moving. Past failures (skeletons in the closet) must never interfere with present spiritual momentum.

(5) Morbid brooding over past failures or reaction through projection—the transfer of your flaws and failures to others—can only produce a confused mess of the sins of the arrogance complex and emotional complex of sins. Transferring the blame to others for your own bad decisions and sins not only avoids reality but is a retreat from a personal sense of destiny.

(6) All of this results in the substituting of the arrogance skills for the spiritual skills—a major and sometimes permanent distraction from the mechanics of the spiritual life.

(7) Either God the Holy Spirit is your mentor or the old sin nature is your mentor. Either you are filled with the Spirit or controlled by the sin nature.

(8) 1 Jn 1:8-10, “If we say that we have no sin [self- justification], we are deceiving ourselves [self-deception], and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and just with the result that He forgives us our sins and purifies us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

(9) The alternative to using rebound is a lifetime of functioning under the arrogance skills, a life of evil and irrationality. A believer out of fellowship will never know any happiness in this life. He will be the recipient of the three categories of divine discipline. He will be used by God to provide people testing to positive believers.

c. A personal sense of destiny continues self-momentum.

(1) A personal sense of applies the faith-rest drill in enhanced form to the past and is not distracted by past failures or past successes. Both past failures and past successes can distract you from God’s plan. You have to disregard past success or failure in the sense of not being distracted by past success or failure. If you are going to move forward, you cannot be distracted. You will always remember past failures, but you must not be distracted by them.

(2) If you live in the past with regard to past successes, you get into an approbation lust area that is very distracting to your spiritual momentum.

(3) Heb 12:2, “Be concentrating on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our doctrine, who because of His exhibited happiness, having disregarded the shame, He endured the cross and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” The Greek word KATAPHRONEO is a synonym for EPILANTHANOMAI and means to disregard something. Jesus Christ disregarded the shame as God the Father judged our sins in Him on the Cross.

(4) In the advance toward the objectives of the spiritual life we must disregard past failures and past successes, achievements, fame, or greatness in some category. You can lose your momentum by assuming that all suffering in your life is punitive suffering from God for past failures. The spiritual life is not designed to be haunted by past failures or past success. Job did not allow the immediate past to haunt him: the loss of his children, the terrible vindictiveness of his wife, or the judgmental arrogance of his three closest friends.

(5) In the advance of your spiritual life the rebound technique becomes a major function of your royal priesthood dealing with your sins and failures. In the advance of your spiritual life the spiritual skills become a major factor in the avoidance of distraction by past successes or fame. If you persist in being haunted failures and inflated by past successes, you will be completely distracted and recover the function of the arrogance skills. The arrogance skills feed on past achievements and present approbation from others. True humility keeps you focused on the objective of maximum glorification of God.

(6) The farther you go in your spiritual life the more sophisticated becomes the experiences that you face. You will easily misjudge those experiences, if you are haunted by past failure or successes. Heb 12:15, “See to it that no one comes short of [fails to reach] the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes you trouble [distracts you], and by your distraction many receive pollution.” When you fail, those in your periphery are covered with excrement. There is always someone else who gets hurt when you fail. You cannot live in the past and fulfill God’s objective in the present or near future.

(7) Disregarding those things which are behind includes not being distracted by unjust treatment, so that you react with revenge motivation and revenge modus operandi.

d. Paul’s Athletic Analogy.

(1) A metaphor is the application of a word or a phrase to an object or concept it does not literally denote, in order to suggest an analogy. A mixed metaphor is the use of the same expression of two metaphors that are incongruous or illogical in combination, such as military and athletic, but both establish either one or two analogies that relate to each other in a given verse. This is very close to a simile, which is a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared.

(2) Worship and love for the body in the Greek states led to extreme physical culture. The Romans inherited the Greek’s love for athletic events and had games everywhere. The games included boxing, wrestling, and track competition. The multitude of athletic metaphors in Paul’s epistles imply that Paul had a spectacular knowledge of the games.

(3) The professional athletes had to go through a rigorous system of training, which included self-discipline and obedience to authority.

(a) The athlete had to be a citizen. He entered into the training program of the gymnasium for ten months and disqualified from competing if he broke any of the rules. He had a specific diet, no wine, no contact with women, and trained together in a group without any clothing regardless of the weather.

(b) If they made it to the end of the ten month training period, they were considered honored people and were allowed to compete in the games.

(4) 2 Tim 2:5, “And also if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.” If you do not follow the two power options, three spiritual skills, and ten problem solving devices, you have no way of executing the protocol plan of God for the Church. There are rules in your spiritual life and you are not qualified to be a winner unless you recognize the authority of the Holy Spirit as your mentor. A perfect plan demands we use divine power.

(5) 1 Tim 4:7-8, “But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, exercise yourself for the function of the spiritual life; for physical exercise is profitable for a short time, but the spiritual life is profitable for all things, since it has promise for the present life and for the life which is about to come.” There is no honor for the believer unless he utilizes the wonderful invisible assets given to each of us. If you won the victory, then you were one of the most highly honored citizens of your city.

(6) 1 Cor 9:24-27, “Do you not know that those who run in a stadium all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self- discipline in all things. Therefore they do it in order that they might receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. Therefore I keep running in this manner, not aimlessly; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I impose strict discipline on my body and make it my slave, lest having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.”

(a) Every believer has the same equal privilege and opportunity to become a winner in the plan of God, but so few believers make it. Running in such a way that you may win means doing a right thing in a right way. Self-discipline means you are responsible before the Lord for your own decisions. God created equality and spiritual freedom, so that there is no excuse for any believer not becoming a winner at the judgment seat of Christ.

(b) In the ancient world, boxing was quite different. There were no rounds, and the men kept fighting until one gave up or was knocked out. An apostle or minister can be disqualified from escrow blessings just as quickly as any other believer.

(7) 2 Tim 2:4-5, “No soldier on active service entangles himself in the affairs of civilian life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive a winner’s crown unless he trains according to the rules.” Paul mixed a military metaphor with an athletic metaphor because they both have in common the values of self-discipline and respect for authority.

(a) The crown of righteousness is awarded for the execution of the protocol plan of God through the function of the mechanics of spiritual life, 2 Tim 4:7-8.

(b) The crown of life is awarded for utilization of the problem solving devices to overcome all testing categories of the sophisticated spiritual life with emphasis on maximum glorification of God. The crown of life is always related to suffering for blessing, as in Jam 1:12; Rev 2:10.

(d) There is warning and encouragement to us from many passages, Heb 10:35-36, “Therefore, do not throw away as worthless your confidence, which keeps on having rich distribution of blessings. For you keep on having need of perseverance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive the deposit which was promised.”

R. B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740

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