DOCTRINE OF PROBLEM SOLVING DEVICES
A. Introduction.
1. Solutions to Problems.
a. Every problem in life has a solution stated in the Word of God. And why not? Plenary verbal inspiration of the Scripture establishes the fact that all problems in the human race can be solved by God.
b. Today, God reveals Himself and His policy through the written page of the Bible, which we called the Word of God, the mind of Christ, and the voice of the Holy Spirit.
c. The definition of inspiration is that God so supernaturally directed the human writers of Scripture, that without waiving their personal feelings, human intelligence, their literary style, or any human factor, His complete and coherent message toward mankind was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of Scripture, the very words bearing the authority of divine authorship.
d. Therefore, there is no such thing as a problem in life that does not have a solution in the Word of God.
e. For the unbeliever, solutions are always related to establishment principles, for only in establishment principles can the unbeliever extrapolate virtue and make it a part of his life. Therefore, solutions for the unbeliever are limited because he does not have an eternal or temporal relationship with God.
f. Ultimately then, problem solving is restricted to the person who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. This doesn’t mean that unbelievers cannot solve problems, but that unbelievers do not have answers to all their problems.
g. Consequently, the subject of problems and solutions is always directed toward the believer in Jesus Christ, and specifically toward the Church Age believer whose possession of the mystery doctrines of the Church Age, his very own portfolio of invisible assets, the unique availability of divine power, the fantastic privileges related to being a member of the royal family of God all have clearly defined problem solving devices.
h. In other words, beyond gnosis there is the most fantastic system of solving your own problems from your own thinking. As Marcus Aurelius said, “Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
i. So unless you put Bible doctrine first in your life, you will have unsolvable problems in your life.
j. See the Doctrine of the Problem Solving of God.
2. The Option of the Loser.
a. The malfunction of postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation results in becoming a loser. You don’t lose your salvation, but you fail to execute God’s plan, will, and purpose for your life in this great power experiment of the Church Age.
b. Malfunction of postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation is defined as failure to learn the Bible doctrines related to the mystery of the Church Age, subsequent failure to advance to spiritual maturity, and above all failure to learn these most fantastic systems whereby you can actually solve every problem in your own life totally apart from counseling or help from another human being.
c. There are two general causes for the malfunction of postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation.
(1) The rejection of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age when heard.
(2) Apathy or indifference to that same doctrine, so that it is not heard. 3. The Functions of the Problem Solving Devices.
a. The problem solving devices deployed on the FLOT line of the soul provide accurate and objective application of metabolized Bible doctrine to your postsalvation experience. God never left us with doctrine sitting in our souls and only human functions to apply it. Your doctrine is not applied through human functions. Doctrine is applied to experience by learning and using the problem solving devices. The problem solving devices are the only means of application of doctrine in your stream of consciousness to the outside pressures of adversity and prosperity. When you apply doctrine apart from any one of the ten problem solving devices, it is inaccurate, it is distorted, and inevitably it leads to false doctrine.
(1) The problem solving devices are how you relate doctrine to your experience. This is how sharing the happiness of God is formed.
(2) The application of doctrine to experience establishes spiritual values that are not shaken by anything you see or hear in your experience. Spiritual values are established through the application of doctrine to your reality.
(3) This same doctrine circulating in your stream of consciousness is the mirror into which you can look and see yourself as you really are—objective self-evaluation.
b. The problem solving devices provide the basis for the doctrine of volition and values. Doctrine changes your values in life related to your volition. Problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul establish right priorities and true spiritual values, which cause the believer to fulfill the protocol plan of God.
c. The problem solving devices provide the means of winning the four great battles in your soul. The divine solution is the only solution, and the human solution is no solution, 2 Cor 12:9.
(1) The battle of stress in the soul.
(2) The battle of sin in the soul.
(3) The battle of false doctrine in the soul.
(4) The battle of wrong solutions or false variables of the soul, including defense mechanisms.
d. The problem solving devices provide self-motivation for perseverance in the function of the four spiritual mechanics of your spiritual life. Motivation is based on spiritual values created by spiritual skills, and that is the only motivation for the spiritual life. The purpose of the problem solving devices is to provide the self-motivation for perseverance in the utilization of the two power options, perseverance in the function of the three spiritual skills, perseverance in deploying the problem solving devices as you grow spirituality, and perseverance in the three stages of spiritual adulthood.
e. The problem solving devices function to prevent the outside pressure of adversity from becoming the inside pressure of stress in the soul. This is tantamount to sin nature control of the soul.
(1) Adversity is the outside pressure of life; stress is the inside pressure of the soul.
(2) Adversity is inevitable, but stress is optional. Adversity does not hurt us, but the stress we create in the soul.
(3) Adversity is what circumstances do to you, stress is what you do to yourself.
(4) Stress in the soul is tantamount to sin nature control of the soul; hence, stress puts your spiritual life out of action. Since stress in the soul contradicts the protocol plan of God, the function of the rebound technique becomes a major recovery factor based on the grace provision of God.
f. The problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul establish true compatibility between the absolutes of Bible doctrine and the true variables related to a specific doctrine.
g. The problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul reject false variable, false doctrines related to specific absolutes, such as false doctrine related to the Rapture, salvation, the destruction of the universe, false concepts of marriage, etc.
h. The problem solving devices provide the on the FLOT line of the soul provide the only accurate and objective system of self-evaluation as noted in the mirror metaphors of the New Testament, Jam 1:22-25.
i. The problem solving devices function to provide the God-given spiritual environment for your soul. This is the very best and only perfect environment in history. The issue is not your outside environment but the environment of your soul, and the environment of your soul depends on the ten problem solving devices on the FLOT line of your soul. Mankind fails twice in overt perfect environment, at the beginning and end of history. B. Four Basic Problems of Modus Operandi in the Life of the Believer.
1. Introduction.
a. The believer emphasizes his relationship with people as a priority over his relationship with God. This is always a very serious problem.
b. The believer attempts to execute the protocol plan of God for the Church Age through human power rather than through the divine power available.
c. Because of total ignorance of Bible doctrine, especially the subject of love, believers create problems. They always associate love in the Bible with their own concepts of love. Therefore, they fail to understand the mandates to love God and to love all people.
d. Malfunction of epistemological rehabilitation means ignorance of the protocol plan of God, and of the precedence for the protocol plan which is the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, not the Old Testament and the Mosaic Law. It means failure to understand spirituality as an absolute, and ignorance of our portfolio of invisible assets prepared for us in eternity past by God the Father. It means total blackout of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, and therefore failure to comprehend the unique assets we have in this dispensation. Above all, it means failure to understand the problem solving devices; how they work and what they can do.
2. The Problem of People Emphasis over God Emphasis.
a. The present trend in Christianity is to emphasize people relationship over relationship with God, or to assume that a good relationship with people means that you automatically have a good relationship with God.
b. Actually, good relationships with people occur from first having a good relationship with God.
c. The first sign of spiritual death in our original parents in the garden was the erroneous assumption that if you have a good relationship with people, you automatically have a good relationship with God.
d. Immediately after the original sin, both Adam and the woman assigned number one priority to their relationship with each other. This was Operation Fig Leaves. They didn’t give one thought about God until our Lord came in the garden, and then they had to hide.
e. Both Adam and Ishah were naked after their original sin of disobedience, and they tried to solve their problem by putting on clothes.
f. So their first function in spiritual death was one of self- righteousness. They assumed that by covering their naked bodies with fig leaves and adjusting to each other that they would be adjusted to God.
g. When the Lord came to visit in the garden, they discovered the true meaning of spiritual death, which is total helplessness to have fellowship with God on the basis of their own merits, and so they hid from our Lord.
h. This trend has continued throughout history so that even today, many believers in ignorance and/or rejection of doctrine allow people emphasis to take precedence over God emphasis. This is one reason why people never come to understand these fantastic problem solving devices.
i. This problem can only be resolved by consistent perception of Bible doctrine, called postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation. That is defined as consistent perception, metabolization, and application of doctrine.
j. The number one priority in the Christian way of life must be our relationship with God. Therefore, all the problem solving devices take this into consideration.
k. It is no accident that, in the Church Age, each believer is a priest and as such represents himself before God. In reality, this priesthood is the basis for the function of all ten problem solving devices.
l. There can be no solution to human relationships until we as believers have sorted out our relationship with God. Spiritual adulthood is the place where this is accomplished. 3. The Problem of Using Human Power rather than Divine Power.
a. This problem is the believer’s attempt to execute the protocol plan of God through human power or energy of the flesh.
b. God is perfect, which means the plan He has for us is perfect. A perfect God could only design a perfect plan. However, we who are in that perfect plan are obviously not perfect.
c. So perfect God has designed the protocol plan for the Church Age believer so that we can have a relationship with Him first as our number one priority.
d. The recipients of this perfect plan—each believer in Jesus Christ—still possess an old sin nature, still sin, and still fail, 1 Jn 1.
e. Great portions of the New Testament epistles record the problems of believers related to sin and their failure to use the problem solving devices for sin which is rebound.
f. Under the law of equivalent power, the perfect plan of God can only be executed by perfect power. Perfect power is God’s power or omnipotence. The only way God’s power can be executed is the omnipotence of God. But we keep intruding with our own ability in all forms of legalism.
g. God has provided His power for the execution of His plan.
h. Each eternal, immutable, infinite, omnipotent, sovereign person of the Trinity indwells every believer as well. Divine power is guaranteed to every Church Age believer through the indwelling of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Never before in history has so much power been made available to the individual believer. This is a key point in the study of problem solving devices, for they all function on the thinking of Christ. The Bible is the thinking of our Lord, and “our life is what our thoughts make it.”
i. So the key to the protocol plan of God is the fact that divine power is guaranteed to each one of us, available to each one of us, delegated to each one of us through the perception of the mystery doctrine, and utilized by us through the problem solving devices. Therefore, these problem solving devices become the real key to experiential Christianity. 4. The Problem of Ignorance and Rejection of Bible Doctrine.
a. The fact that so many believers reject Bible doctrine means they are ignorant of every subject related to solving problems from their own base of thinking. This means the impossibility of executing God’s plan.
b. When you do not use God’s plan, you always use your own substitute, and it is never adequate.
c. An illustration of this is problem is found in marriage. See the Doctrine of Marriage.
5. The Problem of Not Making Bible Doctrine the number one Priority in Life.
a. No believer can fulfill the will of God, the plan of God, or the purpose of God for his life apart from cognition of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age.
b. Hence, the basic problem in Christianity is ignorance, which means sloppy, erroneous thinking. “Our life is what our thoughts make it.” And as the Psalm says, “As a man thinks in his right lobe, so he is.”
c. Ignorance is no excuse, for God provides prepared pastor- teachers for every generation of the Church Age for the communication of the necessary doctrine.
d. The objective of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age is the manufacture of the invisible hero.
e. Ignorance of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age means problems.
(1) Problems related to the arrogance complex.
(2) Problems related to emotional sins such as fear, worry, and anxiety.
(3) Problems of substituting emotion for spirituality, or making emotion the criteria for the life.
(4) Problems related to security, such as ignorance of our eternal security as of the moment of our salvation, or confusion about temporal security which means ignoring logistical grace.
(5) The problem of the panacea personality.
(6) People emphasis over God emphasis.
(7) Human wealth emphasized over divine wealth.
(8) Human success emphasized over the execution of God’s plan.
(9) Money as a panacea.
(10) Marriage as a panacea.
(11) Social life and pleasure as a panacea.
(12) Sex as a panacea.
(13) Material things and possessions as a panacea or status symbols for happiness.
(14) Health as a panacea.
(15) The achievement syndrome or happiness through becoming a workaholic.
C. The Seven General Categorical Problems in Life.
1. There are problems of distraction, both related to self and related to others.
2. There are problems of fear plus other emotional sins such as worry, anxiety, anger, violence, and murder.
3. There are problems of rejection in three categories.
a. The rejection of our Lord.
b. The rejection of doctrine.
c. The rejection of the believer.
4. There is the problem of dying.
5. There is the problem of timing.
6. There is the problem of promises versus integrity.
7. The biggest problem is the fragmentation of the sin nature’s trends.
8. This study doesn’t deal with these problems as such, but addresses the actual problem solving devices. See the Doctrine of the Problems of Life.
9. See the Doctrine of Marriage for an illustration of problems and their solutions.
D. An Overview of the Ten Problem Solving Devices.
1. We will study the ten problem solving devices in order to get a feel for the life beyond gnosis.
2. The problem solving devices include the rebound technique, the filling of the Spirit, the faith-rest drill, grace orientation, doctrinal orientation, personal love for God the Father, impersonal love for all mankind, +H or sharing the happiness of God, a personal sense of destiny, and occupation with Christ as the priority solution to life.
a. The first three, rebound, the filling of the Spirit, and the faith-rest drill, are for spiritual childhood.
b. The fourth and fifth, grace orientation and doctrinal orientation, are for spiritual adolescence.
c. The last five, personal love for God the Father, impersonal love for all mankind, +H or sharing the happiness of God, a personal sense of destiny, and occupation with Christ, are for spiritual adulthood.
3. These problem solving devices are based on your own metabolization and application of Bible doctrine. These are problem solving devices are beyond gnosis, so that will be filled with all the fullness of God (as per Eph 3:19) when you master them and use them.
4. These problem solving devices are “infinitely more than all we could ever ask or think,” as per Eph 3:20.
5. These problem solving devices glorify God in this dispensation of the Church, as per Eph 3:21.
6. These problem solving devices are the modus operandi of the invisible hero in the protocol plan of God.
7. The problem solving devices always depend on learning a lot of Bible doctrine around them. They are not simply isolated mechanics, but depend upon a full knowledge of certain categories of doctrine.
8. You were never designed to walk on crutches. You were designed to perceive, understand, and apply Bible doctrine, and to learn the problem solving devices in the privacy of your priesthood. You were never designed to complain and get emotional about your sins and failures.
9. You get no benefit in sharing your problems with others. Your benefit comes from learning and using the problem solving devices. With the result that you can have great happiness and blessing in prosperity or adversity. Blessing is not confined to prosperity, but to the great moments of adversity as well.
10. The secret to spiritual growth is to face every situation in life from the standpoint of God’s problem solving devices, to utilize them and to grow in grace.
11. These problem solving devices are not designed to take up the slack for problems in physical or mental health that require a doctor’s care. Problem solving devices help with the mental anguish.
12. If your number one priority is not Bible doctrine, there is no way you can effectively use the problem solving devices. Why? Because the problem solving devices are encapsulated in Bible doctrine. People who do not get the encapsulated doctrine that goes with these problem solving devices, never use them effectively, are never consistent, and fall back on things that destroy their spiritual life and make them function as any unbeliever would in a crisis.
E. The Formation of The Problem Solving Devices.
1. The filling of the Holy Spirit plus human I.Q. equals spiritual I.Q. plus Operation Z equals the problem solving devices.
a. There are two systems of I.Q. Human I.Q. has great inequality. Spiritual I.Q. is the function of God the Holy Spirit converting human I.Q. into spiritual I.Q., where equality among all believers exists for the execution of the protocol plan of God.
b. The inequalities of human I.Q. are reflected in I.Q. testing and in the variation of thinking skills. There are six thinking skills: comprehension, memory, problem solving, decision making, creativity, and awareness. God the Holy Spirit takes the thinking skills and converts them into skills for perception of God’s revelation. This is accomplished through the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher.
(1) Comprehension is capacity of the mind to perceive and understand; the ability to grasp ideas. The filling of the Spirit is the divine power to understand doctrine. The Holy Spirit teaches the human spirit. When doctrine is taught, God the Holy Spirit converts the thinking skill into perception and cognition of Bible doctrine.
(2) Memory is the mental capacity for retaining or reviving impressions; therefore, the recall of what has been previously comprehended.
(3) Problem solving is a human thinking skill. Lack of common sense and sin nature participation in the human problems of life destroys permanent solutions, and sometimes even temporary solutions to problems. The filling of the Spirit combined with metabolized doctrine in the seven compartments of the stream of consciousness results in ten problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul and they are a part of the perfect environment of the soul.
(4) Decision making is no better than the facts available on which to base the decision. Good decisions are based on correct information. For the believer, good decisions are based on Bible doctrine. For the unbeliever, good decisions are based on establishment thinking. Human viewpoint and sin nature function responds to lust, which is created by decisions to sin and motivated by the lust pattern of the sin nature. Believers make three categories of decisions: a good decision from a position of weakness (to use rebound), a bad decision from a position of weakness (to sin), a good decision from a position of strength (to learn doctrine).
(5) Creativity is the state or quality of being creative; hence, having the ability or power for originality of thought or expression or impression or design. The filling of the Spirit combines with the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher and maximum metabolized doctrine circulating in your stream of consciousness for originality in communication or expression of Bible doctrine. Creativity includes accurate recovery of Bible doctrine through exegesis, categories, and illustrative expression.
(6) Awareness is having knowledge or cognizance of things which make one alert and knowledgeable, like awareness of danger, trends, repercussions, the feelings of others. Awareness is thoughtfulness, the application of Bible doctrine to experience. The wisdom department of the stream of consciousness cannot accurately apply Bible doctrine to experience apart from the God given means of application—the ten problem solving devices.
c. Being in union with Christ, no believer has any more of a chance to reach maturity than any other believer. We have equal privilege and equal opportunity to execute the protocol plan of God for the Church. We no handicaps except what we create through our own negative volition.
d. The only person who can solve your problems is the Lord Jesus Christ and He has provided the problem solving devices for us to us. The only God given means of application of doctrine to experience is the ten problem solving devices. There is no accurate application of doctrine to experience unless you have the ten problem solving devices in place in your soul. All other application is false doctrine.
2. The filling of the Holy Spirit converts awareness into spirituality. The filling of the Spirit converts human I.Q. into spiritual I.Q. The filling of the Spirit takes the thinking skills and enhances them in application. Once the filling of the Spirit converts human I.Q. into spiritual I.Q., it then combines with Operation Z (perception, cognition, inculcation, and metabolization of Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness) to prepare the way for the formation of these problem solving devices.
3. Technically, problem solving devices are formed by the extrapolation of pertinent metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness.
4. Spiritual skills must precede production skills for the production of divine good in Christian service. Christian service is meaningless unless you have spiritual skills (the filling of the Spirit, metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness, and the problem solving devices on the FLOT line of your soul). Without these things, you will never be effective in your spiritual life. Production skills minus spiritual skills result in the performance of human good, dead works, and evil. Evil destroys freedom, privacy, property, and the life of others.
a. Christian activism contradicts the objectives of the protocol plan of God for the Church. It denies the use of spiritual power and destroys the function of your spiritual life.
b. In eternity past, God the Father provided for you your very own spiritual life and you are the only one who can use it. No one else can live your spiritual life for you. No one can rebound for you. No one can learn doctrine for you.
c. Christian service must be an extension of your spiritual skills.
(1) Christian service is related to your spiritual gift. Full time Christian service is the function of your spiritual gift.
(2) Christian service is related to your royal priesthood.
(3) Christian service is related to your royal ambassadorship.
(4) Christian service is related to your invisible impact (personal, national, international, angelic, and heritage).
(5) Christian service is related to the laws of divine establishment (law enforcement, military service, judges).
d. Spiritual skills plus production skills equal the performance of divine good. Production skills minus spiritual skills equal human good, dead works, and evil.
e. The effectiveness of Christian service is dependent on the function of the three spiritual skills. It must be accomplished in the filling of the Holy Spirit, in metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness, and in the function of the problem solving devices on the FLOT line of your soul.
5. The weak link of your spiritual life will be either ignorance or failure to form the problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul. Without problem solving devices operational in your soul, you create log jams and grid lock in your spiritual life. Doctrine in your soul with no application of that doctrine becomes very detrimental to your spiritual life. It is failure to follow through in your spiritual life. The problem solving devices must first be on the FLOT line of the soul and then become operational.
F. Problem Solving Device number one:
The Rebound Technique.
1. The Importance of the Rebound Technique.
a. The rebound technique is the only problem solving device that functions when the believer is in a state of carnality, in a state of sin, out of fellowship. The reason it can function in a state of carnality is because we are a part of the royal priesthood as of the moment of salvation. This is one of the ten unique factors of the Church Age. A priest functions out of fellowship by using the rebound technique. Rebound is recovery of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Without the filling of the Holy Spirit there is no spiritual life.
b. Without rebound as a problem solving device, it would be impossible to utilize your portfolio of invisible assets. We can’t learn about these assets or any doctrine apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit cannot teach the human spirit when you are out of fellowship.
c. Without rebound as the first problem solving device, it would be impossible to learn and use the other problem solving devices. This problem solving device is the most neglected, and the key to using all other problem solving devices.
d. Without rebound as the first problem solving device, it would be impossible to execute the protocol plan of God. No one has ever fulfilled God’s plan for the Church Age without consistence in the use of rebound. Postsalvation sinning is a contradiction to the protocol plan of God, but God in His grace has provided the solution for it.
e. Without rebound as the first problem solving device, it would be impossible to become an invisible hero, and therefore a member of the pivot who glorifies God. No one glorifies God without the consistent use of rebound.
f. Without rebound as a problem solving device, it would be impossible to be filled with the Spirit. Yet the Christian way of a life is a supernatural way of life and demands a supernatural means of execution. The Christian way of life can only be fulfilled in the power of the Spirit.
g. Without rebound as a problem solving device, it would be impossible to reside in the divine dynasphere under the enabling power of the Spirit and momentum from metabolized doctrine.
h. Without rebound as a problem solving device, the believer will end up being at least nine things:
(1) An enemy of the cross, Phil 3:18.
(2) An enemy of God, Jas 4:4.
(3) Haters of God, Jn 15:23.
(4) Double-minded, Jas 4:8.
(5) Anti (against) Christ, 1 Jn 2:18, 22, 4:3; 2 Jn 7.
(6) Carnal, 1 Cor 3:3.
(7) A disciple of the devil, 1 Jn 3:8, 10.
(8) Grieving the Spirit, Eph 4:30.
(9) Quenching the Spirit, 1 Thes 5:19.
i. The only way you can ever fulfill God’s plan and purpose for your life is through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
j. Eph 4:22, “With reference to your former lifestyle, you yourselves lay aside [rebound] the old man [sin nature], you who are becoming degenerate on the basis of the lusts of deceit.”
(1) The mechanics of laying aside the old man are found in two passages: Ps 32:5b, “I said, `I will acknowledge my transgression to the Lord,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin;” and 1 Jn 1:9, “If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and righteous, with the result that He forgives our sins, and He purifies us from all wrong doing.”
(2) The degenerate are the product of polarized fragmentation, related to the trends of the sin nature. The trend toward self-righteous arrogance or legalism when perpetuated results in moral degeneration. The trend toward lascivious-lawlessness or antinomianism when perpetuated results in immoral degeneration.
(3) The lust pattern of the old sin nature includes approbation lust, power lust, money lust, sexual lust, chemical lust, and emotional lust (including fear, worry, anxiety, hatred, anger, violence, and murder).
2. Definition and Description of Rebound.
a. Rebound is a problem solving device for the sins of the believer. You cannot live the Christian way of life without rebound, because all believers have an old sin nature.
b. We have an old sin nature with an area of weakness, an area of strength, and a trend toward legalism or antinomianism. We all have different old sin natures with different areas and different trends.
c. On the cross, all our sins, past, present and future, were all imputed to Christ, and He received the judgment for every one of them. He used all the problem solving devices to remain impeccable on the cross.
d. In 1 Jn 1:9, rebound is described as one of our priestly functions toward God. “If we acknowledge [admit, cite, name, confess] our sins [postsalvation sins of cognizance], He is faithful and righteous with the result that He forgives our sins [postsalvation sins of cognizance] and cleanses [purifies] us from all unrighteousness [postsalvation sins of ignorance].”
(1) HOMOLOGEO originally meant to cite a courtroom case that proves your contention. In this sense, you acknowledge, name, or cite a case that went to court already: the judgment of your sins in Christ on the cross. You already accepted this fact when you believed in Christ for salvation.
(2) So you, as a royal priest, cite, name, or acknowledge your sin(s) privately and directly to God.
(3) The sins of the believer fragment his life, which is tantamount to being out of fellowship, outside of the divine dynasphere, and no longer filled with the Spirit.
(4) Remember that naming your sins to God is totally non- meritorious. How you feel about the sin or sins is inconsequential. You are simply doing exactly what God says to do, which is to privately acknowledge your sins to God in the privacy of your own priesthood.
(5) But in their arrogance, people always want to go by how they feel. How you feel has nothing to do with your status quo. The only issue is the work of Christ on the cross.
(6) There’s a lot of drive for self-improvement in the old sin nature. We may improve, take vows, try to make it up to God, and if the sin shocks us enough, we will change our behavior pattern. But none of that is the Christian way of life, but is legalism.
(7) The accusative plural direct object from the noun HAMARTIA refers to personal sins and to fragmentation, specifically to the sins of believers only. It doesn’t refer to pre-salvation sins, which are all forgiven and blotted out at the moment of faith in Jesus Christ, Isa 43:25, 44:22; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14.
(8) So the sins mentioned here are postsalvation sins. Hence, rebound deals with the problem of postsalvation sinning, as noted in the context, 1 Jn 1:8, 10.
(9) This basic mechanic of rebound is the only means of recovering the filling of the Spirit, tantamount to restoration to fellowship.
(10) The sins that we confess or acknowledge were judged on the cross. There is no such thing as a sin in human history that was not imputed to our Lord on the cross. You have the right as a royal priest to name, cite, acknowledge your sins to God and be instantly forgiven.
(11) The sin nature’s trends toward legalism want to insert some system of penance. The legalist wants you to publicly announce your sins, which is wrong; it only gets other people out of fellowship. The legalist wants you to feel sorry for sin, and make rash promises about never doing it again. He wants you to hurt, because the legalistic Christian is basically full of malice. He wants to injure you; he wants you to hurt. He is disgusted with you and shocked by you. Therefore, he wants you to burn! That is moral degeneracy.
(12) Legalism ignores God’s grace policy, which means that God did all the work at salvation. In the execution of the Christian way of life or protocol plan the work is accomplished by the omnipotence of God the Father related to our portfolio of invisible assets, the omnipotence of God the Son giving us a day at a time, and the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit who provides the means of understanding the mechanics and execution of His plan.
(13) Since God the Father judged our sins on the cross, they’ve already gone to court. Therefore, the sins we commit today were judged over 1900 years ago. Therefore, postsalvation sins of the believer must be dealt with through a non-meritorious function.
(14) The most basic problem solving device is rebound, wherein we simply admit or cite or name or acknowledge our sins to God as believers in the privacy of our priesthood.
(15) The basis for the forgiveness of postsalvation sinning is the work of Christ on the cross, not the penance of the Christian. No system of penance is a part of the rebound technique.
(16) Just as there is nothing we can add to faith in Christ for salvation, so there is nothing we can add to acknowledgement of our sins for the recovery of our fellowship with God and the filling of the Holy Spirit.
(17) Both believing in Christ for salvation and simply acknowledging our postsalvation sins for forgiveness are non-meritorious. They are totally and completely compatible with God’s grace policy.
(18) Legalism wants to help God by adding human works which cancel grace. The moment we believe in Christ, we possess eternal life, and nothing can change that. But legalism wants to add some form of “commitment” or “lordship” to faith in Christ.
(19) So the mechanic is very simple. The moment we acknowledge postsalvation sins, we are forgiven for those sins. Then we recover our fellowship with God and once again live inside the divine dynasphere, the place of the filling of the Holy Spirit.
(20) The rebound technique of 1 Jn 1:9 is the only solution to the problem of self-fragmentation, the life of carnality. Of course, fragmentation does not mean loss of salvation. For no sin or renunciation can cancel the forty things that God did for us at the moment of salvation.
(21) God is faithful in every case of rebound, no matter how monstrous the sin of the believer may be to others. Legalism does not dictate to God; God always forgives. There never has been a sin acknowledged to God that has not been instantly forgiven.
(22) Those who fail to rebound perpetuate their own fragmentation.The perpetuation of self-fragmentation leads to polarized fragmentation, human relationship fragmentation, emotional fragmentation, and fragmentation in our relationship with God.
(23) God is “righteous” or “just” to forgive us because that sin was already judged at the cross. God is righteous and justified in forgiving you because He has already judged that sin on the cross.
(24) “Cleansing us from all unrighteousness” refers to all the unknown sins which occur in fragmentation. These are sins of ignorance for which we are held responsible.
(25) Sins of ignorance result from perpetuation of self- fragmentation. Perpetuation of self-fragmentation results from the failure to understand and use problem solving device number one.
(26) Perpetuation of self-fragmentation leads to polarized fragmentation.
e. Using the rebound technique after we have sinned is the only way to recover fellowship with God and the only way by which we reenter the divine dynasphere, which is why it is called gate number one.
f. This problem solving device was used in the dispensation of Israel. Ps 32:5, “I acknowledge my sin to you. Therefore, I will not hide my guilt. I said to myself, `I will acknowledge [admit] my transgression to the Lord,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” The only difference between rebound in the Old Testament and rebound in the New Testament is that, after rebounding in the Old Testament, you were simply restored to fellowship with God, and a very few had a restored relationship with the Holy Spirit. But after we rebound in this dispensation, not only are we restored to fellowship with God, but we are also filled with the Spirit.
g. The rebound technique follows the pattern of the faith-rest drill.
(1) The believer who has sinned claims promises related to rebound, like 1 Jn 1:9; 1 Cor 11:31; Ps 32:5; Ps 38:18; Jer 3:13.
(2) The believer applies through faith the pertinent doctrinal rationale; i.e., Jesus Christ was judged for our sins on the cross. 1 Pet 2:24, “He carried our sins in His own body on the cross.”
(3) The doctrinal conclusion is: “The sins I confessed to God the Father were judged by Him when He imputed those sins to Christ and judged them.”
(4) In using the faith-rest drill, you have to believe what the Bible says. When you use 1 Jn 1:9, you are forgiven. But knowing that you’re forgiven, cleansed, and now filled with the Holy Spirit becomes a matter of believing the Word of God, of going beyond gnosis (Eph 3:19).
h. Therefore, the mechanics and momentum of rebound are fourfold.
(1) Acknowledge or confess it, 1 Jn 1:9.
(2) Isolate it, Heb 12:15. “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness sprouting up cause trouble, and through this [bitterness - perpetuation of the fragmentation of the life] many are contaminated [polarized fragmentation].”
(3) Forget it, Phil 3:13. “Brethren, I do not evaluate myself to have attained, but I do concentrate on one thing: forgetting those sins which are behind [sins of self-fragmentation], and pressing toward those things which are ahead [execution of the protocol plan].”
(4) Keep moving, Phil 3:14. “I keep advancing toward the objective for the prize of that upward call from God [escrow blessings] in Christ Jesus.” The point is that if you’re still alive after you name your sins, God intends for you to move on!
i. The results of rebound are as follows.
(1) You are restored to fellowship with God.
(2) You have recovered the filling of the Spirit.
(3) You have reentered the divine dynasphere.
j. Any discipline related to those forgiven sins is processed in one of several ways.
(1) The discipline can be removed entirely.
(2) The discipline can be continued at the same intensity.
(3) The discipline can continue but be diminished so that you can handle it.
k. Synonyms for rebound.
(1) 1 Cor 11:31, “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” That is tantamount to rebound. Judging self emphasizes the privacy of your priesthood in naming your sins only to God.
(2) Rom 6:13 and 12:1 teach the concept “to yield.” Yielding refers to the rebound technique as the means of reentry into the divine dynasphere, tantamount to placing yourself under orders to God and getting back in ranks.
(3) Heb 12:1, “Lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us.” The sins of arrogance are the sins which easily entangle us.
(4) Heb 12:9, “Be subject to the Father of our spirits.”
(5) Heb 12:12, “Lift up the hands that hang down.”
(6) Mt 3:3; Heb 12:13, “Make straight paths.”
(7) Eph 5:14, “Arise from the dead.”
(8) Eph 4:22, “With reference to your former lifestyle [fragmentation], you yourselves lay aside [rebound] the old man [sin nature], you who are becoming degenerate [polarized fragmentation] on the basis of the lusts of deceit.”
l. The rebound technique is the most basic problem solving device in the Christian way of life. Without this grace provision for recovery of the filling of the Spirit, it would be impossible to execute the protocol plan of God. The point is that, the first time you commit a sin after salvation, you are not filled with the Spirit until you, as a priest, privately and silently, name that sin to God.
m. Without the execution of the protocol plan, we cannot glorify God, which means we cannot advance to spiritual maturity and become winners and invisible heroes. Therefore, the priestly function of rebound is the first and most basic problem solving device.
n. The power that executes the Christian way of life is the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit. None of us are capable of executing the Christian way of life. It’s impossible! The whole point of the Christian way of life is that it must be executed by God’s power, for it is “`not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord.” The Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life that can only be executed by the Holy Spirit.
o. When you do not understand the filling of the Spirit, it is inevitable that you will jump to superficialities. We in America superimpose our pilgrim culture on the Christian way of life, and set up legalistic taboos to measure one’s spirituality. In the minds of most people, spirituality is related to whatever are the taboos of the society.
p. As a result, we have confused sin with taboos and culture, so that sin is no longer defined in terms of the Word of God and under the divine policy of grace.
q. The facts of grace are that you cannot live the Christian way of life apart from the filling of the Spirit. We do not have the power or ability to do so.
r. Until you understand that you cannot recover fellowship with God until you personally name your sins in the rebound technique, you’re never going anywhere. Therefore, you will move in the direction of your old sin nature, which in most cases, is related to cultural, arrogant self- righteousness.
s. The rebound technique is the most basic problem solving device in the Christian life, and yet is the biggest stumbling block. Its rejection explains why millions of Christians revert to their preconceived ideas, to the Mosaic Law, or to some system of self-righteousness and call it the Christian way of life.
t. There is no substitute for this most basic technique: confess it, isolate it, forget it, and move on!
3. Sin.
a. Categories of Sin. See the Doctrine of Sin.
b. In living the Christian life, it is important to know what is a sin, so that:
(1) You can avoid the temptation, recognizing it to be a sin.
(2) You can rebound if you do sin.
c. So the more you know about sin, the closer the accounts you can keep with God. To understand what is sin gives you the opportunity of building up resistance against it. It means you can identify what is sin in the temptation stage, and that helps you to resist it. However, the identification of temptation sometimes results in succumbing to that temptation, and so you sin.
d. Temptation in itself is not the sin, but the volitional act of succumbing to that temptation is sin.
e. The source of sin is human volition related to two categories.
(1) Volition related to known sin is a sin of cognizance.
(2) Volition related to unknown sin is a sin of ignorance.
f. When the believer commits a sin, identification of that sin makes the function of rebound possible. Remember that one of the problems in identifying sin is that many sins become accepted in a culture through many generations, so that they are no longer considered a sin by society; nevertheless, they are sins.
g. If you do not know a sin is a sin, you cannot rebound until you commit a sin you know is a sin. For the ignorant, that may take some time; and in the meantime they decline in their spiritual life, even going through the stages of reversionism and becoming involved in the cosmic system. So that by the time such a believer gets around to rebounding, he may be so deeply involved in reversionism that, though in the divine dynasphere briefly, he will get out again very quickly.
h. Remember that postsalvation sinning is the issue in rebound, i.e., the issue is not sins you committed before you were saved, but sins you commit after you are saved. i. Don’t ever get the idea that you have reached sinless perfection, or that you sin infrequently. That very thought is the sin of arrogance.
(1) 1 Jn 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth [doctrine] is not in us.” We are not deceiving anyone else, only ourselves. One of the greatest problems in spiritual adolescence is self-deception. You think you’re good or even perfect, not realizing the many sins of self-righteousness of which you are guilty.
(2) 1 Jn 1:10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” So don’t kid yourself; as long as you live, you will have the sin nature in the cell structure of your body, and you will sin.
j. The only way to recover the filling of the Spirit and fellowship with God is through the rebound technique.
k. The only way to metabolize Bible doctrine and to advance to the life beyond gnosis is through the filling of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is the enabling power for the perception of doctrine, Jn 14:26, 16:12-14; 1 Cor 2:9-16.
l. Until the believer understands what the Bible calls sin, it is impossible for him to understand his experiential status quo. Too many people are committing sins and they are not aware that they are sins. Therefore, although they may rebound, they get out of fellowship instantly. This is an unstable situation, and not conducive to spiritual growth at all.
m. So as a royal priest, you must know what sin is so that you can deal with your own sins before the Lord in the use of the rebound technique.
n. Ignorance of one’s status in the protocol plan of God frustrates the function of the ten problem solving devices, which hinders your advance to spiritual maturity where you become a winner and invisible hero.
o. In the rebound technique of 1 Jn 1:9, the believer takes the responsibility for his own decisions, including his own sins, and does not blame someone else for the function of his own volition. Too often, a woman blames a man who “gets to her,” as if she had no volition. Men do the same thing; they always like to blame the woman, as if they had no volition of their own. But you must always take the responsibility for your own decisions. You begin to do so when you are consistent in the use of the rebound technique. G. Problem Solving Device Number Two: The Filling of the Holy Spirit.
1. The filling of the Spirit is unique to the Church Age because this is the first time in history when all believers are mandated to be filled with the Spirit.
2. However, in the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, the Lord Jesus Christ did offer the filling of the Spirit to the disciples. But none of them took Him up on that offer. He said, “If you then, being good, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask for Him?” That verse applied only to the last dispensation; we don’t ask for the Holy Spirit today. (See the doctrine of dispensational theology.)
3. The whole concept of the filling of the Spirit goes back to the principle that there is no human attribute, no system of human success, no talent, no system of works, no system of any kind whereby we have the ability to execute God’s plan for our lives. Just as we had no ability to be saved, so we have no ability to execute God’s plan in our own energy.
4. You have to be filled with the Spirit before anything you do for God is counted as gold, silver, and precious stones! All Christian production is a result of spirituality on the one hand and spiritual growth on the other hand. And you do not achieve spirituality by works, anything you can do, by any sacrifice, or by any system of giving. Spirituality is the work of God the Holy Spirit when He controls your life, when you are inside the divine dynasphere.
5. There are two approaches to the filling of the Spirit: the issue of who controls your soul, and the issue of whether your soul resides in the divine dynasphere or in the cosmic system.
a. Who controls your soul?
(1) At salvation, God the Holy Spirit indwells the body of every believer in order to create a temple, a place of residence, for the indwelling of Christ as the Shekinah Glory. The indwelling of Christ is a guarantee of great blessing.
(2) So the believer’s body is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, but it is also indwelt by the old sin nature. The issue is who controls the soul, the Holy Spirit or the sin nature? The gate to the soul is volition, and your volition or free will decides who controls your soul.
(3) The old sin nature is the source of temptation; the Holy Spirit is the source of the spiritual life, the enabling power of the Spirit.
(4) When the Holy Spirit controls your soul, you are said to be filled with the Spirit. But when your volition succumbs to temptation and you sin, then the Holy Spirit is either quenched or grieved, and He no longer controls your soul. In carnality, the old sin nature controls your soul.
b. Divine dynasphere or cosmic system?
(1) At salvation, one of the seven ministries of the Spirit is that He enters you into union with Christ forever. This is the doctrine of positional truth and eternal security, and the basis for the new spiritual species.
(2) Also at salvation, God the Holy Spirit enters you into your very own palace designed for you by God the Father, the operational- type divine dynasphere.
(a) Gate number one is the filling of the Spirit. That means that as long as you are in your palace, you are filled with the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit enabling you to execute the protocol plan of God in relationship to doctrine, i.e., in the function of Operation Z.
(b) Gate number two is the basic modus operandi for the Christian life. It includes the basic problem solving devices of rebound, the filling of the Spirit, and faith-rest.
© Gate number three is enforced and genuine humility, which produce objectivity and teachability.
(d) Gate number four is Operation Z, i.e., the perception and metabolization of doctrine, which is the momentum for the Christian life.
(e) Gate number five is spiritual self-esteem, the first stage of spiritual adulthood.
(f) Gate number six is spiritual autonomy.
(g) Gate number seven is momentum testing.
(h) Gate number eight is spiritual maturity, the point at which you become a winner and invisible hero. To reach that point you must consistently reside inside the divine dynasphere, under the enabling power of the Spirit with momentum from metabolized doctrine.
(3) So when you are in your palace, you are filled with the Spirit. Its manifestations depend upon your stage of spiritual growth.
(4) When you make a decision to sin, you leave the divine dynasphere and move into cosmic one, where you grieve the Holy Spirit, or cosmic two, where you quench the Holy Spirit. Which cosmic dynasphere you enter depends upon the nature of your sin.
(5) Once in the cosmic system, you are no longer controlled by the Holy Spirit, but you are living under the energy of the flesh. You are in one of the eight stages of reversionism, and involved in those things that are destructive to your spiritual life.
6. The filling of the Spirit is an absolute status quo.
a. This means that the believer can be classified as being in two related conditions: the Holy Spirit controls the soul of the believer, and the believer resides inside the divine dynasphere under the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit.
b. Therefore, the filling of the Spirit is an absolute state of being in fellowship with God. You are either filled with the Spirit or you are not. There is no such thing as a graduated concept of spirituality. You are either 100% spiritual or 0% spiritual (and 100% carnal). You are either in fellowship or out of fellowship. You are either filled with the Spirit or you are grieving and/or quenching the Spirit. Spirituality and carnality are an either/or status quo.
c. However, spiritual growth is a graduated concept. Tragically, Christians confuse the relative concept of spiritual growth with the absolute concept of spirituality.
7. Under the protocol plan of God, there are two categories of experiential Christianity.
a. The absolute concept is spirituality versus carnality.
b. The relative concept is spiritual growth versus reversionism.
(1) Spiritual growth is relative and graduated, either progressively or retrogressively.
(2) As a new believer, you start out as a spiritual baby. If you make progress through learning doctrine, we advance to adolescence and then to spiritual adulthood (spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, spiritual maturity).
(3) Or you can retrogress through the eight cycles of reversionism.
c. Therefore, the believer can be a combination of the two concepts. He can be a baby believer and spiritual or carnal. He can be an adolescent and spiritual or carnal. He can be a spiritual adult and spiritual or carnal. However, in reversionism a believer can only be carnal.
d. Do not confuse relative spiritual living with absolute spiritual living. They are related when you are progressing in the spiritual life, but they are not the same.
8. So progression is the believer’s advance in the execution of the protocol plan of God. Retrogression is the believer’s failure to execute the protocol plan of God, resulting in reversionism and cosmic involvement.
9. The filling of the Spirit is classified by the one word spirituality. Again, spirituality is an absolute. Either you are filled with the Spirit and in fellowship with God, or you are grieving and/or quenching the Spirit and out of fellowship with God.
a. When you are out of fellowship, you may shock yourself by sins you commit, but you can never lose your salvation. You cannot commit a sin that cancels the work of God at salvation.
b. There is no such thing as percentage or relative spirituality. There is percentage or relative growth or failure. The believer is either 100% spiritual or not spiritual at all
c. So in experiential Christianity, the protocol plan of God, there is both an absolute status and a relative status. In the absolute status of experiential Christianity, the believer is either filled with the Spirit or grieving or quenching the Spirit.
d. In the relative status of Christianity, the believer is either progressing or retrogressing in his execution of God’s will, plan, and purpose for his life. Progress in the protocol plan of God includes spiritual childhood, adolescence, and adulthood in its three categories. In any stage of growth at any moment, a believer can and does sin. You will never be free from sin in this life.
10. Retrogression in the Christian way of life includes cosmic involvement. In cosmic one, you grieve the Spirit. In cosmic two, we quench the Spirit. Retrogression in the Christian life includes eight cycles of reversionism.
a. Cycle one is reaction to Bible doctrine, or being distracted from Bible doctrine. In other words, there is the malfunction or failure to function under postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation.
b. As a result, you go in for a frantic search for happiness. Where you search depends upon the trend of your old sin nature, either toward legalism or toward lasciviousness.
c. When your frantic search for happiness dead-ends, you suffer from operation boomerang, so that you’re in worse shape than you were in the first cycle.
d. Operation boomerang results in the emotional revolt of the soul.
e. The fifth cycle is permanent negative volition toward doctrine, and hence the total and complete neglect of perception of Bible doctrine.
f. The sixth cycle is blackout of the soul.
g. The seventh cycle is scar tissue of the soul.
h. The eighth cycle is reverse process reversionism.
11. So in the absolute concept, the believer is either controlled by the Holy Spirit or by his old sin nature. He is either inside the divine dynasphere or in the cosmic system. He is either in fellowship with God through the filling of the Spirit, or in a state of sinfulness through succumbing to the temptations of the old sin nature.
12. The filling of the Spirit is the source of all functional divine power in the execution of the protocol plan of God. There are three categories of divine power.
a. The omnipotence of God the Father related to our portfolio of invisible assets.
b. The omnipotence of God the Son related to the perpetuation and perpetuation of human history.
c. The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit related to the divine dynasphere.
13. The Holy Spirit is the teacher of Bible doctrine. This is taught in the doctrine of operation Z.
a. Your right pastor communicates doctrine (LOGOS) to your human spirit (PNEUMA).
b. The Holy Spirit teaches your human spirit so that you have spiritual phenomena (PNEUMATIKOS), Jn 14:26, 16:12-14; 1 Cor 2:9-16.
c. That spiritual phenomena travels down a pipeline to the left lobe of your brain (NOUS) where it becomes understood academically (GNOSIS). This is called receptive comprehension. However, gnosis has no spiritual connotation.
d. When you believe what is understood, the Holy Spirit carries that gnosis doctrine you believe and converts it into metabolized doctrine (EPIGNOSIS) in your right lobe (KARDIA). Only epignosis doctrine has spiritual connotation, and only epignosis doctrine provides the believer with spiritual momentum.
e. Operation Z clearly shows how important the filling of the Spirit is in the perception and metabolization of Bible doctrine. Without the filling of the Spirit, you will go nowhere in the Christian life.
f. So the Holy Spirit is the real secret in understanding doctrine. This grace process for perception and metabolization totally eliminates human I.Q. as an issue. You can be a genius in human I.Q. and understand no doctrine and have no spiritual growth. You can be a few points above a moron and grow spiritually to maturity. After all, human I.Q. can only improve 20% if you beat your brains out. Divine I.Q. has no limitations, thanks to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
14. The filling of the Spirit is the basis for the function of all the problem solving devices. It is not only the basis for learning doctrine, but it is the only way the problem solving devices can function.
a. This gives a new connotation to our use of the faith-rest drill, the third problem solving device. For while the Old Testament believers had the faith-rest drill available for their use, they did not have the filling of the Spirit. Yet we have the faith-rest drill with the filling of the Spirit, which gives it a fantastic dynamic and power.
b. The filling of the Spirit, which is comparable to life inside the divine dynasphere, is the means by which all problem solving devices are learned and utilized.
c. The principle is that problem solving devices function under two systems of divine power: the filling of the Spirit and the power of the Word in the application of metabolized doctrine.
d. There are ten problem solving devices for the Church Age: rebound technique, filling of the Spirit, faith-rest drill (with power), grace orientation, doctrinal orientation, personal love for God the Father, impersonal love for all mankind, +H or sharing the happiness of God, a personal sense of destiny, and occupation with Christ as the priority solution.
15. Biblical mandates to use the problem solving device of spirituality include Eph 5:18, “Be filled with the Spirit,” and Gal 5:16, “Walk by means of the Spirit.”
16. What spirituality is not. (See the Doctrine of Spirituality.)
a. You are not spiritual because of the way you dress. How you dress is a matter of personal, individual taste.
b. You are not spiritual by following certain taboos; taboos are not Biblical but cultural.
H. Problem Solving Device Number Three: The Faith-Rest Drill.
1. We have studied the faith-rest drill in detail, e.g., the Meribah incident, the faith of Abraham who “staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, God was able to perform.”
2. The faith-rest drill is the means of claiming the promises of God and applying them to your experience. We can utilize promises in both the Old and New Testament.
3. The faith-rest drill is also the means of application of Bible doctrine to experience. 4. But a new aspect to the faith-rest drill that is unique to the Church Age is that, for the first time in human history, God the Holy Spirit can fill every believer. This gives tremendous dynamics (power) to the faith-rest drill.
a. God the Holy Spirit had a limited ministry to those in the Old Testament dispensations, called enduement.
b. For example, Elijah had the enduement of the Spirit, and Elisha prayed for a double portion of it.
c. David as a ruler had the power of the Spirit. When he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah the Hittite, he prayed “take not Your Holy Spirit from me.”
d. So you could lose the Holy Spirit by stepping out of line in certain ways in the Old Testament. But you cannot pray that prayer today, for you are always indwelt by the Spirit. And you need only rebound to recover the filling of the Spirit if you sin.
e. Remember that the Christian way of life in the Church Age emphasizes the ordinary believer. He can become extraordinary by the use of the greatest assets ever been made available. The ordinary Church Age believer has greater assets than the greatest Old Testament believers had. 5. The faith-rest drill is the means of claiming the promises of God and applying them to your life. It is the means of the application of Bible doctrine to experience.
6. Most of your use of the faith-rest drill occurs when you are filled with the Spirit. But the faith-rest drill can also be used when you are out of fellowship in its use in the rebound technique. Having the faith that God will forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness while out of fellowship is the use of the faith-rest drill.
7. There are three stages to the faith-rest drill.
a. Stage one is mixing the promises of God with faith. This is for new believers in spiritual childhood. Heb 4:2b, “But the doctrine they heard did not profit them, because they did not mix it with faith.”
(1) The Exodus generation were the recipients of marvelous doctrine. For the first time, they heard all the great doctrines related to their dispensation. But they did not mix those doctrines with faith.
(2) So stage one is claiming promises pertinent to specific situations. God’s promises are marvelous, and it is the most relaxing thing in the world to enter into God’s rest.
b. Stage two is claiming actual doctrines, like the essence of God rationale, the logistical grace rationale, and the plan of God rationale. This requires some spiritual advance in doctrine.
c. In stage three, faith makes doctrinal conclusions, so that faith is in control of the situation.
8. At first, you use the faith-rest drill to handle the charge of the mosquito, something which prayer cannot handle. Prayer does not stop the charge of the mosquito (the little pressures of everyday life), but the faith rest drill does. This prepares you for suffering for blessing when you face the charge of the elephant.
9. Again, only in this dispensation do we have the combination of the filling of the Spirit and the faith-rest drill.
10. Scriptural Promises.
a. Heb 4:1-3 admonishes us to look at the Exodus generation. “Therefore, let us fear, while a promise remains, of entering into His rest that any of you should come short of it. For indeed, we have the good news proclaimed to us (as they did also); but the word they heard did not profit them, because those who heard it did not mix it with their faith. For we who have believed enter the rest.”
(1) The “rest” for the Jews was to get into the land. The rest for you is to be free from worry, anxiety, and the emotional sins.
(2) Verse two addresses the question of after salvation - what? The Jews were believers as we are, but they malfunctioned in postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation.
(3) To “enter the rest” in verse three means to claim the promises of God, then believing the doctrines of God so that they can be metabolized from gnosis into epignosis.
b. Ps 37:4-5, “Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Therefore, commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.”
(1) Occupation with the person of Christ results in getting the desires of your right lobe.
(2) Why the right lobe? Because if you delight in the Lord, your right lobe is filled with lots of doctrine, and all your norms and standards and desires have changed to match God’s Word.
c. Ps 56:3, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.”
d. Prov 28:25, “An arrogant person stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper.” This means there is prosperity from the use of the faith-rest drill.
e. Prov 29:25, “The fear of the man builds a trap, but he who puts his trust in the Lord will be promoted.” Here the faith-rest drill is related to spiritual promotion in your life.
f. Prov 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all of your right lobe; do not lean on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths and make straight paths for you.”
(1) The right lobe is where you have all the doctrine. This means you have advanced to where you have some doctrine you can claim as well as promises.
(2) “Do not lean on your understanding” means don’t try to work it out yourself.
(3) Verse 6 says that the faith-rest drill is the way God guides you.
g. 1 Cor 2:5, “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.” Here is the faith-rest drill plus the filling of the Spirit.
h. 2 Cor 5:7, “For we walk by faith and not by sight.” Here is the faith-rest drill plus the filling of the Spirit.
i. However, unless you love God you cannot claim Rom 8:28, that “all things work together for good,” because they don’t unless you “love God.” The verse says, “to those who love God, He works all things together for good.” Love for God the Father and occupation with Christ are the highest problem solving devices. So this verse includes the filling of the Spirit plus the faith-rest drill plus the advance to spiritual adulthood.
j. Rom 8:31-32, “If God be for us, who should be against us? He who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?” The “all things” is the provision of the protocol plan of God, i.e., our portfolio of invisible assets.
k. 1 Cor 10:13, “Testing has not caught up with you except the human kind; moreover, God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tested beyond your capabilities, but with the testing will also provide a solution [a way of escape, i.e., the ten problem solving devices], so that you can carry the pressure.”
I. Problem Solving Device Number Four: Grace Orientation.
1. There are two categories of grace in God’s policy for mankind.
a. In category one, grace is extended to the unbeliever through the salvation work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That is saving grace.
b. In category two, God’s grace is extended to the believer through the protocol plan of God for the dispensation of the Church.
2. Under category two grace, there is grace orientation as a problem solving device related to both understanding God’s policy and relating it to the Christian life and to others.
a. The prevalence today of Christians sticking their noses into others’ business shows no grace orientation at all.
b. There’s no grace in the common trend to slander everyone else. No one wants to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. This indicates that legalism and arrogance always go together.
3. Category one saving grace is defined as all that God is free to do for mankind on the basis of the salvation work of Christ on the cross.
a. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” that means nothing can be added to faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.
b. Saving grace is called the total work of God, because each member of the Trinity contributed to salvation.
(1) God the Father is the author of the salvation plan. “God loved the world so much that He gave His uniquely-born Son,” Jn 3:16. God the Father is also the judge, for He judged our sins after He imputed them to Jesus Christ on the cross.
(2) God the Son is the Savior, and so is the object of faith for salvation. He provided eternal salvation through being judged for our sins, called His substitutionary spiritual death.
(3) God the Holy Spirit reveals the work of salvation. This is called the convicting work of the Spirit in Jn 16. The only sin God the Holy Spirit uses in his conviction ministry at salvation is the sin of unbelief, “concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.”
c. The way of eternal salvation is faith in Jesus Christ totally apart from human works, human talent, human ability, human self- righteousness, human commitment, or making Christ Lord of all, etc., et al, ad nauseam.
4. Category two, postsalvation grace, is all that God is free to do for the Church Age believer on the basis of the protocol plan. Postsalvation grace is totally divorced from any system of human works, human merit, human ability, human behavior, human talent, human emotion, or any form of human power.
a. God’s plan is totally grace, which means we cannot get an oar in anywhere! Yet today and throughout the Church Age, no organized church has correctly taught: after salvation, what? The Reformation did not clarify the issue; neither Zwingli, Luther, or Calvin, nor their theologians were able to clarify the issue.
b. Right down to this very moment in theological seminaries, people do not know what it means to live the Christian life. Most of them think it means morality. Morality is for the entire human race. Unbelievers can be moral, and anything the unbeliever can do is not a part of the Christian way of life. What the Holy Spirit can do for you is far greater than morality. Moral people live under the laws of divine establishment, which are for believer and unbeliever alike.
5. Grace is the function of the attributes of God on behalf of each Church Age believer as royal family. Grace is always the work of God, not the work of man. The work of God is so perfect and so great that God does not need our help; we do need His help.
6. Under the divine policy of grace, everything depends on who and what God is, never on who and what the believer is.
7. Under the divine policy of grace, everything depends on the ability of God; nothing depends on the ability of the believer.
8. Under the divine policy of grace, God has found a way to bless the worst of believers as well as the best without any compromise of His attributes. This is the study of logistical grace. 9. No attribute of God can be compromised or jeopardized in providing blessing for the believer. Therefore, divine blessing comes from grace which excludes any form of human merit, human works, self-righteousness, feelings, emotions, or any other activity of man.
10. Under the divine policy of grace, only the ability and power of God can meet the needs of the helpless believer, and therefore provide answers and solutions to the problems of life.
11. Grace is further defined as the genius of God directed toward mankind. Doctrine is the manifestation of that genius. Our positive, non- meritorious response to that grace is the glorification of that genius.
a. In salvation or category one grace, the non-meritorious response is personal faith in Jesus Christ.
b. In the protocol plan of God for the Church Age (category two grace), cognition by grace, spirituality by grace, execution of the protocol plan by grace, and glorification of God by grace are the non-meritorious responses to God’s grace. God can only be glorified by grace. If the glory goes to God, that means God has done the work, and that’s grace.
12. Invisible God plus invisible assets plus invisible power equals invisible heroes. Before an invisible hero is formed, it all adds up the work of God.
13. So grace is all that God is free to do for each believer and be consistent with His own divine attributes. The illustration is found in the principle of logistical grace.
a. Logistical grace support is given to all believers. It is given on the basis of the splitting of the divine integrity at salvation. We receive the imputation of divine righteousness, one-half of divine integrity. In order to live with God forever, we have to be as good as God is good.
b. Believers in every dispensation receive the imputation of divine righteousness at salvation. Gen 15:6, “Abraham believed in the Lord and it was imputed to him for righteousness.”
c. In this dispensation, the justice of God imputes our life support down a grace pipeline to His own righteousness indwelling us. The justice of God also imputes blessing to His own righteousness indwelling us. This logistical grace support and blessing is imputed to both winner and loser believers alike, as part of the equal opportunity of election.
d. Logistical grace support and blessing is sent from the justice of God to the indwelling righteousness of God. And it is not sent on the basis of any human merit of any kind on our part.
e. The principle is that divine justice can only bless divine righteousness. This illustrates the pattern of grace.
14. The holiness or integrity of God are composed of two merging attributes which form into one: the perfect and eternal justice of God, and the perfect and eternal righteousness of God.
a. In blessing mankind through the policy of grace, divine justice is the guardian of the attributes of God. Divine justice is the believer’s point of contact with God.
b. In the function of God’s holiness or integrity, righteousness demands righteousness, and justice demands justice.
c. To avoid compromise of divine attributes, divine justice, one- half of divine holiness, can only bless divine righteousness, the other half of divine holiness.
d. Righteousness is the principle of divine integrity; justice is the function of divine integrity.
e. God cannot accept anything less than perfect righteousness, and God cannot bless anything less than perfect righteousness.
f. Consequently, the justice of God is the source of all direct blessing from God.
g. Grace demands that God must be compatible with His own attributes. Therefore, God is only free to bless where someone has been the recipient of His perfect righteousness; that someone is anyone who believes in Jesus Christ.
h. The imputation of divine righteousness is absolutely necessary for any blessing from the justice of God. Therefore, the justice of God administers what the righteousness of God demands.
i. The expression of logistical grace is found in many passages. Mt 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness [imputed through faith in Christ], and all these things [blessings listed in the Sermon on the Mount] will be provided for you.”
(1) The Sermon on the Mount will not be operational until the Millennium.
(2) In that message, Christ presented Himself as the Messiah, and He presented the lifestyle that will exist in client nation Israel in the Millennium.
j. Divine justice can only bless divine righteousness. Therefore, at the moment of personal faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God is imputed to each believer. We are blessed undeservedly, because we have the righteousness of God.
k. The imputation of divine righteousness provides three things.
(1) Justification.
(2) Grace mechanics for blessing all believers, winners and losers, through logistical grace.
(3) The personal love of God. As unbelievers, God had impersonal love toward us. Now that we have His own righteousness, God can love us personally.
15. The pattern for grace is established at salvation, and remains consistent with all postsalvation function in the protocol plan of God.
16. Category one grace is taught in Eph 2:8-9. “For by grace you have been saved [in the past with the result that you keep on being saved forever] through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is a gift from God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”
a. The two important words are grace (CHARIS) and faith (PISTIS).
b. The saving work of Christ on the cross excludes any form of human works, human penance, human repentance, and anything meritorious. Faith is the total absence of human merit.
c. Salvation is the work of God, and therefore it excludes anything that man can contribute or add to faith. The only means of salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ, and faith alone with nothing added.
d. Salvation by works is blasphemy. Most of the works added are added through legalism. Christians have added prohibitions that include sins they think are incompatible with the plan of God, sins that shock them. But the point is that no sin is compatible with the protocol plan of God.
(1) In order to determine whether or not you are saved, you must determine whether the first time you believed in Christ, you simply believed in Christ and added nothing else. For if you later believed in Christ and added something, like making a commitment, you’re still saved though very mixed-up. But if the first time you believed in Christ you added making a commitment, then you are not saved because you added to the work of Christ on the cross.
(2) Salvation through “making Christ Lord of all,” is salvation by works. Christ is Lord of all the moment you believe in Christ, because the baptism of the Spirit enters you into union with Christ.
(3) The erroneous belief in salvation through morality or through keeping the Mosaic Law is taught in Eph 4. Gal 2:16, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the Law, because by observing the Law, no one will be justified.” Rom 3:28, “Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law.” Rom 3:20.
(4) Those who advocate salvation through “repent and believe” mean they want you to feel sorry for your sins and believe in order to be saved. This is wrong.
(a) The Greek word METANOEO, sometimes used in connection with salvation, means to change your mind. And it is the convicting work of the Holy Spirit that changes your mind toward Christ before you believe.
(b) So it’s a part of the doctrine of common grace, and it prepares you for salvation by giving right information so you can change your mind about Christ. No one has ever believed in Christ without repenting, in the sense of changing his mind about Christ.
© But it does not mean to feel sorry for your sins. One of the most inconsequential things in life is how you feel about your sins; only what God thinks about them counts. God the Father showed how He felt about your sins when He judged them on the cross.
(5) Salvation through emotional experience is wrong. Although you may have a great experience at the point of your salvation, it has nothing to do with your actual salvation. You are saved only by faith in Jesus Christ. You may feel terrible with a hangover and believe in Christ, and you are saved. You may feel elated and believe in Christ, and you are saved. How you feel has nothing to do with salvation.
(6) Salvation by water baptism is wrong. Being dunked in a tub of water doesn’t effect salvation or change your life. The purpose of water baptism, when it was legitimately practiced before the completion of the Canon, was to teach retroactive positional truth, Rom 6. Salvation has never been by performing a ritual. Ritual is designed to teach doctrine, but no one has ever been saved by a ritual. Salvation isn’t administered by man, i.e., by a ritual which man performs; salvation is the work of God and it occurs at the very second you simply believe in Christ.
(7) Salvation by psychological activity includes jumping through a psychological hoop, raising your hand, or walking an aisle. You can’t be saved by some posture. And to have people come forward so you can “follow up on them” implies God cannot follow up on them.
(8) Salvation by invitation whereby you invite Christ into your heart is colossal gall! Jer 17:9 says, “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” Nor do you invite Christ into your life. There’s no such thing as “inviting Christ” anywhere.
(a) You go to Christ for salvation; He doesn’t come to you. This is a blasphemy that is misleading.
(b) The passage in Revelation from which some derive this idea is a reference to rebound and fellowship with God. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man will open, I will come in and dine with him.” Christ knocks through the rebound technique, and when you rebound you have restored fellowship with God.
(9) No one has ever been saved by good conduct or good behavior. So there’s no such thing as Lordship salvation, or commitment salvation, or discipleship salvation, or even inviting Christ into your heart or into your life.
(10) In fact, Roman Catholics believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior, and that He died on the cross for their sins. But, they add to that faith a whole category of works as also being prerequisite for their salvation. Therefore, they are not saved unless at one point they only believed in Christ.
e. The only condition for eternal salvation is a non-meritorious condition compatible with God’s policy of grace. The only thing we have that is totally non-meritorious is faith (PISTEUO). The subject is anyone (PAS); the object is CHRISTOS. There is no merit in faith, because PISTEUO is a non-meritorious system of perception. Faith is the foundation for everything you ever learn. All merit in faith always resides in the object.
f. So it’s important to understand that you cannot add anything to faith in Christ and have salvation, because when you add anything you are giving merit to yourself. For example, people boast, “I invited Christ into my heart, I made a commitment, I made Christ Lord of all, I repented, I was baptized, I had a rosy glow.” All these add something and attempt to help God. All this is legalism and not grace at all.
g. So the only condition for eternal salvation which is non- meritorious is personal faith in Jesus Christ, whose substitutionary spiritual death on the cross provided all the work for salvation.
h. Eternal salvation is a free gift compatible with grace. It is attained by faith and faith alone; therefore all the works listed above are eliminated. This explains why many believers never get straightened out. They are mixed-up about salvation, and therefore they are mixed-up about the Christian life.
17. Legalism is the enemy of grace. Man intrudes into the grace policy of God with his self-righteousness, works, good behavior, self-improvement, emotionalism, ritual, and talent.
a. Ritual is one of the easiest ways of adding works, because it’s usually provided in a beautiful setting where you don’t have to think or do anything. Ritual is a non-thinking person’s way of worshipping, but it is not worship at all. The only ritual we have today is the Eucharist.
b. Anything added to faith in Christ becomes a contradiction to the divine policy of grace.
c. There are at least four categories of legalism.
(1) Legalism is salvation by works.
(2) Legalism is spirituality by works.
(3) Legalism is crusader arrogance, trying to improve the devil’s world, as per post-millennial theology.
(4) Legalism is human plans substituted for the protocol plan of God.
d. Legalism always wants to invite Christ somewhere for salvation. Such a person therefore assumes Christ is in his life and he becomes very self-righteous. We are saved by believing in Christ, not by inviting Christ anywhere.
e. Grace and legalism are mutually exclusive at salvation. Grace and legalism are mutually exclusive in the Christian way of life. They cannot coexist in any category, whether at salvation or in the protocol plan of God.
f. Legalism in salvation is man seeking to gain the approbation of God through his own works or production; this can be called the Cain syndrome.
g. Legalism in the protocol plan of God is the believer seeking to gain the approbation of God through his own works.
h. Grace in salvation is the work of God. Grace in the protocol plan of God is the work of God.
i. The ten unique factors in the Church Age are all provided by grace. The ten problem solving devices all function on a grace basis. The problem solving devices of the protocol plan of God cannot function where legalism is practiced by Christians.
j. Legalism creates problems and excludes the use of divine solutions.
18. So grace is the policy of God in blessing mankind totally apart from any creature merit.
a. Grace is not an excuse to take what we want in life. Therefore, grace must not be rationalized. Grace must not be distorted so as to bring reproach on the name of Christ which is tantamount to blasphemy.
b. Grace is the policy of God to sustain and regulate our lives under the protocol plan.
c. As Church Age believers and royal family of God, we must avoid superimposing our personal desires on God, and making stupid demands in the name of grace. This is an insult to the wisdom of God. What He has already provided in grace is far, far greater than anything for which we could ask. He has given us “exceedingly abundantly above all we could ever ask or be imagining.”
d. Under the grace policy of God, every believer has equal privilege and equal opportunity for the execution of the protocol plan, resulting in the manufacture of invisible heroes and the glorification of God.
e. Grace is the divine policy for using the baptism of the Spirit to create a new spiritual species. God has provided for you in grace the most fantastic divine power.
f. Grace is the divine policy for keeping both winners and losers alive under logistical grace.
g. Grace is the divine policy for providing equal privilege and equal opportunity, for making each one of us a royal priest and a royal ambassador.
h. Grace is the divine policy for the manufacture of invisible heroes and the glorification of God.
i. Therefore, we cannot squeeze grace into the narrow confines of human viewpoint, but we utilize grace through the wide expanse of God’s thinking through the perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine.
j. We do not distort grace to comply with our lusts or our concupiscence, but we expand our horizons through the perception of doctrine and the function of the ten problem solving devices.
k. Grace does not give us what we want; grace gives us something far greater: what God wants, something far better than anything we could think of or imagine.
l. Grace is dependence on God’s wisdom rather than on our own desires and lack of wisdom.
m. In other words, grace is the only policy in life worth knowing and worth practicing. Therefore, grace orientation becomes a problem solving device. J. Problem Solving Device Number Five: Doctrinal Orientation. (See the Doctrine of Visibility versus Invisibility.)
1. Essentially, doctrinal orientation to the protocol plan of God is the function of postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation, defined as consistent perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine.
2. There are two ways of describing the application of metabolized doctrine: wisdom and the ten problem solving devices.
3. Perception (GNOSIS) and metabolization (EPIGNOSIS) always results in confidence. 4. This confidence can be classified in the Bible in several ways.
a. Confidence can be classified as spiritual adulthood in its three stages of spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity.
b. Confidence can also be referred to by the technical Greek word ELPIS. It is always translated hope, but in the English language hope implies doubt and uncertainty. However, ELPIS means confident expectation.
(1) Plato used ELPIS for confidence or expectation about the future. From the time of Plato in the fifth century B.C. until the time of our Lord, ELPIS generally held this connotation.
(2) In fact, ELPIS is considered synonymous with the Greek word PROSDOKIA, which means confidence.
5. Therefore, hope is an expression for doctrinal orientation, an extension of faith or confidence into future things, whether near future or distant future. So ELPIS in the New Testament means to have confidence in something in either the near future or the distant future.
6. When hope is directed toward Bible doctrine and the protocol plan, it becomes confidence in the sphere of anticipation or expectation, i.e., legitimate and real expectation.
7. Hope is defined as confidence in what is attainable by you in the protocol plan of God. Therefore, hope cannot be divorced from the function of postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation and resultant confidence related to progress in the protocol plan of God for the Church Age.
8. Hope even becomes motivation for momentum and advance in God’s plan, purpose, and will for your life.
9. The unbeliever is described in Eph 2:12 as “having no hope and without God in the world.”
10. When the believer faces the death of a loved one, 1 Thes 4:13 describes his attitude as follows. “We do not grieve as others who have no hope.” For when our loved ones die, if they are believers we know we will see them again. That is confidence in something in the future.
11. Hope is defined in relationship to doctrine in Heb 11:1. Throughout Heb 11, PISTIS means what is believed, or doctrine. “In fact, doctrine is the reality from which we receive hope, the proof of matters not yet being seen.” Doctrine is the reality, the legitimate expectation as we progress in the protocol plan of God.
12. The place of hope in the protocol plan of God is defined in the principle of X + Y + Z. X [HL + AOS = P1 + D = H1] + Y [J1 + J2 = P2 + D = H2] +
Z [EL + BT = P3 + D = H3] = the protocol plan of God. (See the Doctrine of Hope.)
13. Hope is a problem solving device as a part of doctrinal orientation.
a. Rom 12:2, “With reference to hope, be rejoicing; with reference to pressure, stand fast. Persist in prayer.” Hope is related to +H here. Pressure refers to suffering for blessing.
b. Rom 15:4, “For many doctrines as have been written before [in the Old Testament canon] were written for our instruction in order that, through perseverance and encouragement from the Scriptures, we [Church Age believers] might have hope.” In other words, hope has always been a problem solving device for believers in every dispensation.
c. Lam 3:21-25, “This I recall to mind; therefore, I have hope [hope 2 and 3]. The Lord’s gracious functions never cease [grace orientation]; His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness. `The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, `therefore I have hope in Him [occupation with Christ].’ The Lord is good to those who trust in Him [faith-rest drill], to the soul who seeks Him [doctrinal orientation].”
(1) Notice that as a result of recall or the application of metabolized doctrine, the believer has confidence.
(2) Being “new every morning” means we are to live a day at a time as a part of God’s plan for all dispensations.
(3) The only way you can seek God after salvation is through the perception and metabolization of Bible doctrine.
d. Jer 17:7, “Happiness belongs to the person who trusts in the Lord [+H related to the faith-rest drill and to hope], and whose hope [confidence] is in the Lord [occupation with Christ].”
e. Ps 71:5, “For You are my hope, O Lord God, my confidence from my youth.”
f. Rom 15:13, “Now may the God of hope [confidence] fill you with all happiness [+H] and prosperity [escrow blessings for time] in believing, that you may abound in hope [fulfillment of hope 2] by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Once hope 2 is fulfilled, then hope 3 is your confidence for the eternal future.
g. Job 4:6, “Is not your fear [reverence, awe, love] of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?” When you are executing the plan of God, you have hope, which is absolute confidence in the fulfillment of His plan in your life.
h. Rom 5:5, “And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God [virtue-love] has been poured out within our right lobes through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Confidence, or hope 2 and hope 3, has no disappointment for the believer who is occupied with Christ.
i. 1 Pet 1:21, “who through Him [Jesus Christ], we are believers in God who raised Him from the dead, and gave Him [Jesus Christ] glory [of the Hypostatic Union], so that your faith and confidence [hope] are in God.”
14. The rest of the concept of doctrinal orientation is found in the Doctrine of Operation Z.
K. Problem Solving Device Nubmer Six: Personal Love for God the Father. (See the Doctrine of Divine Love.)
1. Personal Love for God the Father.
a. Personal love for God the Father must be distinguished from occupation with the person of Jesus Christ.
b. In the transitional verse of 1 Jn 4:19, the corrected translation is, “We love because He first loved us.” This establishes the precedence that God loved us first. This precedence is important in defining the three virtue-love problem solving devices.
c. Personal love is only a virtue when it is directed toward God.
(1) Personal love for God the Father is motivational virtue of the protocol plan of God.
(2) The virtue of personal love is always found in the object of love; i.e., the object of love actually possesses a virtue that makes the object worthy of love.
(3) Here, the object of personal love is God the Father as the author of the protocol plan and of our portfolio of invisible assets. He is infinitely worthy.
d. Problem solving device number ten is occupation with Christ as the priority solution to life and is not the same as personal love for God.
e. Fellowship with the Holy Spirit is the means of loving God the Father, executing the protocol plan, and glorifying God.
(1) Having fellowship with the Spirit is also a means of loving God the Father, because the Holy Spirit is the teacher of doctrine, and no one ever comes to a true love of God the Father or God the Son apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit in teaching the Word of God under postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation.
(2) Fellowship with the Spirit is the only means of loving God the Father according to Rom 5:5. “Hope does not disappoint us, because the love for God has been poured out in our right lobe by means of the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
(3) So the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit in our perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine is the means by which we come to love invisible God.
(4) The Holy Spirit is the teacher of doctrine according to Jn 14:26, 16:12-14; 1 Cor 2:9-16. See the Doctrine of Operation Z.
f. Therefore, personal love for God can only exist through perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine.
g. Since God is invisible, He cannot be loved through visual or emotional attraction. He cannot be loved by human affection. Only through learning Bible doctrine and subsequent spiritual growth can there be any personal love for God the Father.
h. Personal love for God the Father becomes a reality in spiritual adulthood. It begins with cognitive self-confidence in spiritual self-esteem, continues in cognitive independence in spiritual autonomy, and reaches its peak in cognitive invincibility in spiritual maturity.
(1) Rom 8:28, “We know, therefore, that to those who love God, He works all things together for good to those who are elected according to a predetermined plan.”
(2) 1 Cor 2:9, “But just as it stands written, `Things which the eye has not seen, and it has not entered into the right lobe of mankind all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’” The fantastic things provided for those who attain personal love for God are absolutely beyond description.
i. Personal love always emphasizes the object of love. For this reason, there is no virtue in personal love directed toward human beings, whether in friendship, romance, or marriage.
(1) The only way for virtue to exist in such human relationships is for the believer himself to acquire virtue through consistent postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation.
(2) In all three of these categories, personal love is virtue-dependent for its validity and perpetuation.
(3) There are two ways of inserting virtue into personal love for mankind.
(a) The limited way for the unbeliever is by adherence to the laws of divine establishment, resulting in enforced and genuine humility. This provides some capacity for personal love in friendship, romance, and marriage. From the base of humility and authority orientation, great capacity for love can be developed among unbelievers.
(b) For the believer, the only way is to advance to spiritual adulthood, where virtue-love provides greater capacity for personal love in friendship, romance, and marriage.
2. Virtue-Love.
a. Therefore, virtue-love is a problem solving device in three separate categories.
(1) Personal love for God the Father is problem solving device number six.
(2) Impersonal love for all mankind is problem solving device number seven.
(3) Occupation with Christ is problem solving device number ten.
(4) Personal love for God the Father as a motivational virtue emphasizes the integrity of the object, God the Father.
(5) Impersonal love for all mankind as a functional virtue emphasizes the integrity of the subject.
(6) Occupation with Christ as the priority virtue emphasizes the integrity of your scale of values. In occupation with Christ, Bible doctrine must always have number one priority in your life.
b. The protocol plan of God can only be executed through the perception of the mystery doctrine for the Church Age. Therefore, the insertion of virtue-love into your life demands consistent function of postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation.
c. Virtue-love as a problem solving device begins with the attainment of spiritual adulthood.
(1) In spiritual self-esteem, it begins with cognitive self- confidence. No one can be a lover of God or a lover or people without cognitive self-confidence. Cognitive self-confidence comes from Bible doctrine perceived, resulting in grace orientation.
(2) In spiritual autonomy, you have virtue-love in cognitive independence. At this point, you handle your life magnificently.
(3) In spiritual maturity, the invisible hero has the virtue-love in cognitive invincibility.
3. Personal Love for God the Father is Motivation.
a. In the sixth problem solving device, personal love for God the Father is the motivation for the protocol plan of God.
b. Without that motivation, you cannot advance through the three categories of suffering for blessing which God has designed for you.
c. Virtue-love emphasizes God the Father as the object of personal love, for He has the virtue.
d. This means that when you begin to face the four parts of providential preventative suffering, i.e., people testing, system testing, thought testing, and disaster testing, you cannot advance in these tests without personal love for God the Father as a problem solving device. The simultaneous development of occupation with Christ will also carry you through providential preventative suffering and momentum testing.
4. Distinction between Personal and Impersonal Love.
a. Personal love always emphasizes the object of love. Impersonal love always emphasizes the greatness and virtue of the subject.
b. Personal love in the human race is always conditional; there are always strings attached. But impersonal love is unconditional.
(1) You will never be relaxed in human relationships until you acquire impersonal love which is unconditional. This means you will accept and tolerate people as you find them. You will stop being critical, looking down your nose, and being legalistic.
(2) The only love that solves the problems of human interaction is unconditional love whereby the object can be acceptable or unacceptable, attractive or unattractive, obnoxious or pleasant. That is the only way you will properly interact with people.
c. Personal love is directed toward a few people in friendship, romance, and marriage. This personal love is not commanded by the Word of God. Impersonal love is directed toward all mankind. Therefore, impersonal love calls for the highest professional standards.
d. Personal love toward human beings has no built-in virtue, and it has no virtue guarantee. Impersonal love contains built-in virtue and therefore has capacity for true love in friendship, romance, marriage, and all other human interaction.
e. Personal love is based on attractiveness and rapport with the object. However, impersonal loved is based on the virtue of the subject.
f. Personal love is a possessive and subjective attitude toward a few. Impersonal love is an objective and relaxed attitude toward the human race.
g. Personal love is the expression of man’s ego. Impersonal love is the expression of man’s virtue.
h. Personal love is vulnerable to arrogance and hypersensitivity. Impersonal love is free from arrogance, including jealousy, hatred, bitterness, vindictiveness, guilt, self-pity, implacability, revenge motivation and revenge modus operandi.
i. So personal love only has virtue as it relates to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Impersonal love is the great problem solving device toward people. Personal love in the human race has no built-in virtue. Personal love in friendship, romance, or marriage must depend on something outside of that love for its virtue. And there is no capacity for love apart from virtue.
j. The instability of personal love is a source of many problems, often self-induced.
(1) There are problems of (personality) conflict and antagonism.
(2) There are problems of arrogance, jealousy, guilt, self- pity, hypersensitivity, and disorientation.
(3) There are social problems, marital problems, and all kinds of interaction problems.
(4) For example, falling in love with a member of the opposite sex is often simply a matter of libido and nothing else.
(5) Being attracted to someone or being motivated by libido is devoid of virtue. Libido has no conscience. Libido is all too often not only devoid of conscience, but also minus virtue and stability, without a sense of responsibility, selfish, and self-serving. This is no basis for a permanent relationship between a man and a woman.
(6) For this reason, personal love in romance or in marriage has no stability and no perpetuity.
(7) Personal love minus the virtue of impersonal love to provide capacity often reaches its peak at the altar or shortly thereafter, and it makes a mockery of marriage. One of the signs that we are in the third or fourth cycle of discipline is the number of broken marriages in the U.S.
(8) Wrong priorities and wrong emphasis in life results in the believer becoming a loser. The loser manufactures his own problems, but has no problem solving devices with which to cope in life.
(9) Almost everyone who gets divorced these days has someone else in mind who will “make them happy.” They fail to realize that just getting a divorce guarantees great unhappiness. Therefore, a second or third selection won’t solve the problem because there is no understanding of impersonal love for all mankind, the seventh problem solving device.
L. Problem Solving Device Number Seven: Impersonal Love. (See the Doctrine of Love.) M. Problem Solving Device Number Eight: Happiness. (See the Doctrine of Happiness.)
1. The concept of God’s perfect happiness (+H), Jn 15:11, “I have taught you these things that My happiness might be in you, and that your happiness might be fulfilled.”
a. Part of the legacy of the Lord for the royal family is that we might have the same happiness that He had in His deity and humanity.
b. His +H comes through the perception of doctrine: “I have taught you these things.”
2. The source of +H is taught in Prov 3:13. “Happiness belongs to the person who finds wisdom, even to the person who gains understanding.”
a. “Wisdom” is the application of metabolized doctrine.
b. “Understanding” refers to perception and metabolization of doctrine.
c. 1 Jn 1:4, “And these things we write so that our state of happiness might be completed.”
3. The mandate for +H, Phil 4:1, “Keep on having happiness in the Lord at all times. Once more I repeat the command: Keep on having happiness.”
4. Happiness is related to grace orientation, Ps 31:7, “I will rejoice and be happy in Your grace.”
5. Jesus Christ has always had +H, 1 Tim 6:15, “He who is the happy and only sovereign, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.”
6. Jesus Christ used +H at the cross, Heb 12:2, “Be concentrating on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our doctrine, who because of His exhibited happiness, He endured the cross, having disregarded the shame, and He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
7. +H reaches its peak in occupation with Christ, Ps 128:1, “How happy is the believer who is occupied with the Lord.”
8. Like occupation with Christ, +H equates adversity with prosperity, and living with dying. Phil 1:21, “For me living is Christ, and dying is profit.” N. Problem Solving Device Number Nine: A Personal Sense of Destiny.
1. Since you already have a destiny as a believer, you might as well have the experience of knowing that you have a destiny. The experience of knowing that you have a destiny is a personal sense of destiny.
2. Every Church Age believer, as a member of the body of Christ and as a member of the royal family of God, has a destiny. The very fact that you have personally believed in Christ is the beginning of a fantastic destiny for you in time as well as in eternity.
3. Mechanically, this destiny is accomplished at the moment you believe in Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit means equal privilege for all members of the royal family of God under the computer asset of predestination. The very fact that you have unique equal privileges with all believers indicates that you have a destiny.
4. The baptism of the Spirit is the basis for eternal security as well, which also means you have a destiny. Eternal life is for both winners and losers in the protocol plan of God.
a. There is no sin you can ever commit, no renunciation you can make, no way you can ever cancel the forty things God did for you at salvation.
b. It is the quintessence of human arrogance for anyone to think he can do something to cancel the work of Christ on the cross. Therefore, there is no way you can lose eternal life. “For whosoever believeth in Him shall never perish, but have everlasting life.” The moment you believe in Christ, God does forty things for you which cannot be canceled.
c. The logical approach is taught in Rom 8:32, “He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?”
d. The approach of God’s hand is stated in Jn 10:23, “I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” Once you’re in the hand of God, you’re in the hand of God forever.
e. The positional approach is found in Eph 1:6. At the moment of salvation, the baptism of the Spirit enters the believer into union with Christ, a permanent status forever.
f. The experiential approach is taught in 2 Tim 2:12, “Even though we deny Him, He cannot deny Himself.” Therefore, there is no way we can lose our salvation.
g. The family of God approach is found in Gal 3:26, “We are the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Once you’re in a family, you’re in that family forever. You can’t change who your parents are.
h. The inheritance approach is found in 1 Pet 1:5, “We have an inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled, which fades not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” There is no way your inheritance can be canceled. You can’t do anything to cancel it; God can’t do anything to cancel it.
i. The body of Christ approach compares 1 Cor 12:21 with Col 1:18. 1 Cor 12:21 says, “The head cannot say to the foot, `I have no need of you.’” The foot is one of the invisible spiritual gifts. The head is the Lord Jesus Christ, as per Col 1:18. Jesus Christ cannot say to any member of the body of Christ, “I don’t need you.”
j. The Greek tense approach is found in Eph 2:8, “For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not from yourselves.” The intensive perfect tense of the Greek verb SOZO means you have been saved in the past with the result that you keep on being saved forever. There’s no way you can cancel it.
5. The point is that once you understand you have eternal security and that there’s no way you can cancel it, and once you understand that God can never renounce you once you have been born into His family, then you should begin to realize that you have a destiny. When you realize it to the point where you can apply it to the situations of life, then it becomes a personal sense of destiny.
6. The baptism of the Spirit has two significant results.
a. The moment we believed in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit entered us into union with Jesus Christ, with two results.
(1) A new spiritual species was created, designed to utilize the unprecedented power of God available to us, the omnipotence of all three members of the Trinity. To understand this means you understand that you have a destiny. It is a personal destiny, for there are only two new species in history: Israel and the Church.
(2) The creation of the royal family of God also provides the Church Age believer with sense of destiny. The dispensation of the Church is designed for the calling out of a royal family to complement our Lord’s third royal patent.
b. Jesus Christ has a destiny. Being in union with Him means we also have a destiny; this is the real meaning of predestination.
c. So as you understand the two significant results of the baptism of the Spirit, you should become aware of the fact that you personally have a destiny. It’s simply a matter of knowing and learning it.
d. Once you know you have a destiny, it completely changes your attitude toward everything in life. It destroys all the boredom, self-pity, and all the problems we manufacture for ourselves.
e. You have an inescapable destiny which neither you nor God can cancel.
f. You have a double destiny. You have a destiny in time under the protocol plan of God. You have a destiny in eternity by having a resurrection body.
g. The more you learn and understand the protocol plan of God, the more you will develop a sense of destiny. Even if you are loser, you are in that plan forever.
h. However, the fact remains that, as a believer growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, you have a destiny. The realization of that fact and its application means you have a personal sense of destiny.
7. A personal sense of destiny is related to the politeuma privileges of the royal family (the privileges of citizenship). Learning about these privileges gives you a personal sense of destiny. You do have a destiny, regardless of whether you have succeeded or failed from the human standpoint, or are known or unknown.
8. So you can say:
a. “Because of the baptism of the Spirit at salvation, I have a personal sense of destiny.”
b. “Because of the unique protocol plan of God and my understanding of it, I have a personal sense of destiny.”
c. “Because of the equality factor in the protocol plan of God, I have a personal sense of destiny.
“ d. “Because I have a portfolio of invisible assets prepared for me by God the Father in eternity past, I have a personal sense of destiny.”
e. “Because I have two royal commissions, as a royal priest and as a royal ambassador, I have a personal sense of destiny. As a royal priest, I represent myself before God; I have a personal sense of destiny. As a royal ambassador, I represent God to a lost and dying world; I have a personal sense of destiny.”
f. “Because of cognition of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, I have a personal sense of destiny.”
9. However, this personal sense of destiny only becomes a reality through consistent and persistent postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation. That means the daily perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine. Every believer has a destiny, but only cognition of doctrine helps you to understand and appreciate that destiny.
10. In other words, awareness of your destiny provides the personal sense of destiny. This begins at spiritual self-esteem, which is cognitive self-confidence. It continues in spiritual autonomy, which is cognitive independence. It reaches its peak in spiritual maturity, which is cognitive invincibility.
11. The Church Age believer learns about his double destiny through motivation from positive volition. The more you learn about doctrine, and the stronger your motivation to learn doctrine, the greater your positive volition. The greater your positive volition, the more you learn about God’s plan, purpose, and will for your life. Therefore, you come to have a personal sense of destiny.
12. Eventually, in the three stages of spiritual adulthood, this personal sense of destiny becomes so great that it outweighs any problem, any disaster, any heartache, and any tragedy that comes your way. No matter what happens to you, you must always remember that you have a destiny. Your awareness of your destiny is a fantastic problem solving device as you face problems. Now your problems may be personal; soon they will be historical. The combination of the two demands you have a personal sense of destiny.
13. There are three occasions in which everyone must grow up.
a. When you are born, you must grow up as human beings. You learn from your parents, school, military training, coaches, and all the authority systems in life. You grow up by understanding the laws of divine establishment. This means you recognize the many categories of authority in life. You eventually grow up when you can take the responsibility for all your decisions, both the bad ones and the good ones.
b. When you are born again as a believer, you grow up through perception of Bible doctrine, understanding the protocol plan of God, the unique characteristics of the Church Age, and the problem solving devices.
c. When you get married, you must grow up in the marriage. However you do marry, it is imperative that you are mature as an individual, and at least positive in the spiritual life. In marriage, you must grow up experientially as a spouse through the use of the problem solving devices.
14. So the believer living inside the divine dynasphere, under the enabling power of the Holy Spirit and momentum from metabolized doctrine, not only grows spiritually but acquires a personal sense of destiny. When you grow up as a believer, as a human being, and as a spouse in marriage, you have a personal sense of destiny.
15. More reasons for a personal sense of destiny.
a. “Because of the indwelling of all three persons of the Trinity, I have a personal sense of destiny.”
b. “Because of maximum availability of divine power to me as a new spiritual species, I have a personal sense of destiny.”
c. “Because I live in a dispensation of no prophecy but historical trends, I have a personal sense of destiny no matter how bad the circumstances of life may become.” As a period of disaster approaches, you need a personal sense of destiny more than ever. Remember that when there is world disaster, there is always a place for the mature believer as an invisible hero. Knowing this is part of your personal sense of destiny.
16. A personal sense of destiny is related to spiritual adulthood. The sooner you grow up spiritually, the better off you are.
a. A personal sense of destiny begins with spiritual self-esteem.
b. A personal sense of destiny continues with spiritual autonomy.
c. A personal sense of destiny reaches its peak in spiritual maturity.
d. Cognitive self-confidence results in the experience of having a personal sense of destiny. Cognitive self-confidence is the characteristic of spiritual self-esteem.
17. While every believer in Jesus Christ has a destiny under the protocol plan, not every believer is aware of his destiny. When believers are arrogant, whining, complaining, and falling apart for all kinds of reasons, that is a sign that they have no personal sense of destiny.
18. Only consistent cognition of Bible doctrine inside your very own palace, the operational-type divine dynasphere, provides the experience of having a personal sense of destiny.
19. Having a destiny alone is not a problem solving device. It is the experience of knowing that you have a destiny that is the problem solving device.
20. Once the believer attains spiritual self-esteem, the state of cognitive self-confidence, he begins to have a personal sense of destiny about three things.
a. He has a personal sense of destiny whether he’s in adversity or prosperity, poor or rich, married or single, in whatever is his circumstance in life.
b. He has a personal sense of destiny in living and in dying. God doesn’t desert you when you’re dying. He handles your dying as well as He handles your living.
(1) The only difference between the two is that while living, you had the full exercise of your free will. But your dying is strictly a matter of the sovereignty of God. The only way you can use your volition while dying is to apply what doctrine you know. God chooses the time, place, and manner of your dying; you have nothing to say about it.
(2) God’s choice for your dying comes from His wisdom, love, and grace; He makes the best choice for you. Therefore, you should die magnificently using all ten of the problem solving devices. Take whatever God gives from His grace while dying, just as He provided so many wonderful things for you in grace while living. Then you can say with Paul (Phil 1:21), “For me living is Christ and dying is profit.” To have the full use of the ten problem solving devices in spiritual adulthood is profit.
(3) Therefore, there’s no excuse for turning into a whimpering loser while dying, or turning bitter, or becoming upset. You already had your “day in court,” in that you had the opportunity to choose doctrine every day of your life. You had the opportunity to learn what it takes to enter into the magnificence of dying grace.
(4) Winners and losers are separated in death. Losers panic and fall apart. But for the winner, dying is magnificent, because he still uses the problem solving devices. If you can still think, you can use the problem solving devices. You have a personal sense of destiny while living, while dying, and regarding the moment of your death when you will leave this earth and go into the presence of the Lord.
(5) How you handle dying is dependent upon your attitude toward Bible doctrine right now, and whether you are using the ten problem solving devices.
c. He has a personal sense of destiny in resurrection and the eternal state. The eternal state is divided into two parts for both believer and unbeliever.
(1) When you die, the soul and spirit leave the body and are face to face with the Lord. Now you’re in the interim state, a time when no distinction is made between winners and losers. There may be an interim body. In this interim state, there is no unhappiness, no regrets, no shame, even if you are a loser.
(2) Then comes the Rapture and Judgment Seat of Christ. Winners receive great rewards and decorations that losers do not.
(3) The unbeliever’s soul leaves his body at his death and enters Torments, a compartment of hades.
(4) After the 1000 years of the Millennium, and the Gog and Magog revolt, there is the last judgment when unbelievers are condemned to the lake of fire for eternity.
21. Momentum in the protocol plan of God results in the experience of having a personal sense of destiny.
22. Conclusion.
a. Through physical birth, God has a purpose for your life. But through regeneration, God has a destiny for your life.
(1) He has a destiny in time: the execution of the protocol plan of God by which the believer becomes an invisible hero.
(2) He has a destiny in eternity by which the invisible hero enjoys the eternal state with God.
b. The principle is that under the protocol plan of God, you have a destiny. Fulfillment of that destiny depends on your perception of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, including your portfolio of invisible assets and your politeuma privileges, classified as the “riches of His glory,” Eph 3:16; Phil 4:19; Rom 9:23.
c. For the believer in Jesus Christ living on earth, his destiny is related to the protocol plan. The unbeliever has no destiny. There is no destiny for anyone apart from the protocol plan of God.
d. So under the protocol plan of God, you have a destiny. This destiny was assigned to you by God the Father in eternity past when He provided for you your very own portfolio of invisible assets.
e. However, this destiny will never be realized apart from the execution of the protocol plan. You cannot fulfill the protocol plan apart from perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine.
f. Only through metabolized doctrine or epignosis in the right lobe does the believer have a personal sense of destiny, which is the experience of spiritual growth and the attainment of spiritual maturity. This demands constant exposure to Bible teaching. A personal sense of destiny comes through learning Bible doctrine.
g. The Church Age believer must learn the content of his portfolio. He must learn the problem solving devices. Then he can apply these principles.
(1) If God doesn’t promote you, you’re not promoted.
(2) God only promotes prepared believers.
(3) Part of being a prepared believer is to have a personal sense of destiny from cognition of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age.
(4) The mystery doctrine of the Church Age orients the from the dead is now available to every Church Age believer for the execution of the protocol plan of God by which we glorify Him. There is no precedence found in the Old Testament or in the dispensation of Israel for the divine power made available to us in the Church Age. The power available to us is:
a. The omnipotence of God the Father related to our portfolio of invisible assets, prayer, and other things.
b. The omnipotence of the Son related to the perpetuation of human history.
c. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit related to life inside the operational divine dynasphere.
6. Documentation.
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 [F] put into operation by means of Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places.” “The working of His superior power” has no counterpart in the Old Testament.
b. Rom 1:4, “Who [Jesus Christ] was demonstrated the Son of God by means of power belonging to the Holy Spirit by means of the resurrection from the dead.” Note the word “demonstrated” is synonymous with our use of the word “experiment” in the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union. An experiment is defined as an operation undertaken to discover some unknown principle or effect. It’s also defined as a demonstration of a known truth or doctrine, or the testing of some suggested truth. So the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is now available for us to execute God’s plan for the Church Age.
c. Rom 8:11, “Now the Spirit from Him [doctrine of procession] who raised Jesus from the dead indwells you. He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will give also spiritual life to your mortal bodies by means of His Spirit who indwells you.”
d. Phil 3:10, “That I may come to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Between the resurrection of Christ and the Church is the greatest opportunity ever given to believers in this dispensation. You have greater opportunity than the greatest Old Testament believers. The “fellowship of His sufferings” refers to a new and unique system of suffering for blessing. “Being conformed to His death” is a reference to the baptism of the Holy Spirit; similar statements are found in Rom 6:4-6 and Col 2:12-14.
7. This was prophesied by our Lord in Acts 1:8, “And when the Holy Spirit comes, you shall be witnesses unto me.” In Acts 1:5 He had said, “John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.”
8. Between the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the Church is the greatest availability of divine power in all of human history.
9. After His resurrection, ascension, and session, our Lord was awarded His third royal patent but was without a royal family. This is the explanation for the extension of the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union to us in the Church Age.
G. Conclusion: All precedence and authorization for the protocol plan of God is taken from the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union.
1. This means that the Mosaic Law is not a part of the Christian way of life. It contains no authorization for the protocol plan of God; it establishes no precedent for the modus operandi of the Church Age believer after salvation. Understanding this principle is the only way you can ever understand what God expects from you after salvation.
2. This implies that all doctrine related to the modus operandi of the Church Age is classified as mystery doctrine. Mystery doctrine means that no characteristics of the protocol plan of God were ever mentioned or prophesied in the Old Testament, Rom 16:25-26; Eph 3:1-6; Col 1:25-26.
3. This means that the Church Age is a blackout dispensation as far as the Old Testament is concerned. Practical applications include such things as: you are not expected to tithe (which wasn’t even related to the spiritual life of Old Testament believers), to observe the Sabbath, etc. 4. Under the concept of the mystery doctrine, God’s game plan for the Church Age is known to the players only, Church Age believers. It is known only through epistemological rehabilitation. There is no substitute for the perception of mystery doctrine. That’s why the last half of Eph 2 and Eph 3 are so important to your Christian life.
5. Therefore, under the doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration, a New Testament Canon had to be written to explain the relationship between the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union and the great power experiment of the Church Age. This explains the divisions in the New Testament.
a. The Gospels focus on the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union.
b. Acts is the historical transition to the Church Age, mostly a pre-Canon history to explain how certain things finally came to pass and how they were consolidated. While Acts contains some mystery doctrine, we get most of it from the epistles.
c. The epistles focus on the great power experiment of the Church Age.
d. The Gospels are very necessary because of two trends throughout them.
(1) Christ is presented as Messiah to Israel (and rejected).
(2) Christ is fulfilling the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union to set precedence for the Church Age. This is why very few people can properly interpret the Gospels.
6. Remember, the protocol plan of God for the Church Age supersedes the ritual plan of God for Israel. The mandates of the Mosaic Law have been countermanded by the mandates for the Church Age. The only thing in the Mosaic Law that has any application to any other age are the establishment principles, because they are for believers and unbelievers alike; they have nothing to do with the spiritual life of the believer.
7. While the Old Testament eschatology anticipated the First Advent and incarnation, it did not reveal the relationship between the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union and the great power experiment of the Church Age.
H. What is the value of the Old Testament to us?
1. The authorization and precedent for the modus operandi of the Church Age believer is taken from the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union and not from the Mosaic Law, as per Galatians and reform or covenant theology.
2. However, the value of the Old Testament is not lost to the Church Age believer, as noted by one of several statements: 1 Cor 10:11-13. This tells us that the Old Testament has benefit for us, but it does not tell us how to live the Christian life. Verse 11, “Now these things [failures] happened to them [Exodus generation] as an example [of law of volitional responsibility, divine discipline]; furthermore, they were written for our instruction, upon whom [Church Age believer as new spiritual species, royal family of God] the accomplishments of the ages have come.”
a. To keep the Mosaic Law, you must have strong volition and a strong sense of self-righteousness. You must be moral to the point of arrogance. In other words, you cannot keep the Mosaic Law; it is impossible because you have an old sin nature. Only Christ fulfilled the Mosaic Law in the power of the Holy Spirit, living continually in the prototype divine dynasphere for thirty-three years, and by sharing God’s happiness.
b. These things were “written for our instruction” as an example of the law of volitional responsibility and divine discipline. 1 Cor 10:1- 10 gives examples of the Jews’ failures.
c. So we can learn from the Old Testament the consequences of suffering under the law of volitional responsibility; i.e., how we make our own misery 98% of the time. God adds the 2% in the three categories of divine discipline.
d. The law of volitional responsibility and divine discipline is a subject in both the Old Testament and New Testament, so it is not specific to the Christian way of life. It is a general principle for all believers in all dispensations.
e. The “accomplishments of the ages” is you! You are why man was created. Every other part of human history is nothing compared to what God has provided for you!
(1) Christianity emphasizes the individual, ordinary believer. You are unique!
(2) “Accomplishments” is plural, referring to all Church Age believers. The accomplishment of the ages is to take the ordinary believer, not the great Old Testament leader, and give him all that God has provided in this Church Age!
(3) The accomplishments have come; they have been here since the Day of Pentecost. Everything points to this great Age. Even the Tribulation is nothing in comparison, for the greatest pressure in all of human history is on the ordinary Church Age believer.
(4) You are a royal priest, a royal ambassador, a new spiritual species, royal family of God, with 100% divine omnipotence, indwelt by the Father, Son and Spirit, in Christ and so on.
3. We can learn many things from the Old Testament about many subjects as a part of doctrine, but the Old Testament cannot teach you anything about the protocol plan of God and the great power experiment of the Church Age.
4. Nor can the Old Testament establish any precedent for the function of the protocol plan of God.
5. 1 Cor 10:12 refers to the majority of Church Age believers who are doing works for their Christian life; they’re keeping the Law, tithing, scoring points in their church program, singing in the choir. Verse 12 warns these ignorant, arrogant, cosmic believers: “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands [arrogant legalist, assuming morality is the Christian way of life] take heed lest he fall [perpetuation of suffering for adversity under law of volitional responsibility and divine dynasphere].”
6. 1 Cor 10:13, “Testing [suffering for blessing] has not caught up with you [not at gate five yet] except the human kind [suffering for cursing, self-induced misery, divine discipline]; moreover, God is faithful [based on great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union] who will not permit you to be tested beyond what you are able [divine power], but with the testing [suffering for blessing] He will provide a way of escape [ten problem solving devices] so that you can endure it [carry the pressure].”
a. “Testing,” the three systems of suffering for blessing are unique to the Church Age. They equate adversity with prosperity; i.e., you are just as happy when under these categories of suffering as you are in the greatest of prosperity.
b. Being provided a way of escape so that you can carry it or endure it refers to the entire system of suffering for blessing which is unique to the protocol plan of God. This system of suffering for blessing without precedent from the Old Testament is based on the fact that we have our very own palace, the divine dynasphere.
c. We have a way of escape at:
(1) Gate 1: Rebound and the filling of the Spirit.
(2) Gate 2: The function of the faith-rest drill.
(3) Gate 3: Grace orientation.
(4) Gate 4: Doctrinal orientation.
(5) Gate 5: Personal love for God as motivational virtue.
(6) Gate 6: Impersonal love for all mankind as functional virtue.
(7) Gate 7: A personal sense of destiny under suffering for blessing.
(8) Gate 8: +H, perfect happiness, and occupation with Christ.
I. Summary.
1. Therefore, the uniqueness of the Church Age is based on the fact that it derives its precedence from the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union rather than from the dispensation of Israel.
2. Eph 3:20-21, “Now to Him [Father] who is able to do infinitely more than all we could ever ask or think on the basis of the power that is working for us, to Him be the glory by means of the Church [tactical victory of the great power experiment of the Church Age] and by Christ Jesus [His strategic victory of the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union] with reference to all generations of this unique age [dispensation] of the ages.”
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c) 1989, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved
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