Spir Dynamics 348-351, 359-361 2/6/94

DOCTRINE OF THE SOPHISTICATED SPIRITUAL LIFE

A. Definition and Description.

1. The doctrine of the uniqueness of the Church Age demands the most unusual and sophisticated spiritual life in all of human history.

2. By sophisticated is meant technical refinement, the status of being highly developed and complicated. In this study sophistication is used in the sense of altering or changing the believer through a unique system of Bible doctrine pertinent to the dispensation of the Church. It refers to the adult phase of the spiritual life.

3. Etymology. Of the many antithetical and subtle definitions which occur in the English language, the one selected for this doctrine has its roots in an abstract noun in the Attic Greek noun—SOPHIA and in the Ionic Greek—SOPHIE. The Greek word SOPHOS is not the abstract noun. It means skillful in interpretation, learned, wise.

a. The noun SOPHIA denotes quality rather than activity and unusual knowledge rather than ability.

(1) Quality is an absolute; activity or ability is relative. Activity is Christian service which can be dead works or divine good. People think activity or human ability is the function of the Christian life. Eventually this leads to emotion as the criteria for the Christian life, which is erroneous. The sophisticated spiritual life is quality not activity. Activity is the result of quality. Because so much of Christianity is putting activity first, they never have quality. Put the quality first and you will have the activity. But workers without doctrine do not have quality.

(2) Sophistication means quality. Quality produces divine good, because the divine good is produced from divine power. Activity is human power, human talent, human ability, wrapped up in sincerity. The sophisticated spiritual life is unusual knowledge rather than human ability.

(3) There is no quality without thinking.

b. A derivative came from SOPHIA—the word SOPHISTES from which we get the Latin word SOPHISTICUS. SOPHISTES means an expert, a master of one’s craft, adept, skilled, wise, prudent, a statesman like person, a sage, a sophist (a teacher who gave lessons in many subjects). The adjective is applied to a person who has been changed by education, by wisdom, by knowledge, by prudence.

4. The adjective sophisticated is applied to a person who has been changed by cognition, by knowledge of the word of God. The spiritual skills produce thought and the application of thought. People are changed by thought, not by activity, human ability, or dead works.

5. Sophisticated denotes the altering of the believer through the unique system of Bible doctrine pertinent to the Church Age. The doctrine of the sophisticated spiritual life notes that the believer has been changed through the utilization of divine power (the two power options—the filling of the Holy Spirit and the metabolization of doctrine) and the consistent function of the three spiritual skills (the filling of the Holy Spirit, the metabolization of doctrine, and the use of the ten problem solving devices).

6. For the first time in history the function of the spiritual life demands thought before action, cognition before service, metabolized Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness before Christian service becomes valid as the production of divine good. It’s God’s way or it’s no way.

7. The sophisticated spiritual life begins with a personal sense of destiny. A personal sense of destiny separates the adult believer from spiritual childhood and the winner believer from the loser believer. Mastery of the technicalities of the two power options and the three spiritual skills results in attaining a personal sense of destiny and entering into the sophisticated spiritual life. Once you have a personal sense of destiny you are going to move forward in your spiritual life. You will change based on doctrine in your stream of consciousness.

8. Since a personal sense of destiny and entrance into the sophisticated spiritual life is based on the utilization of the power options and the functions of the spiritual skills, it relates to the offensive actions of the spiritual life. The sophisticated spiritual life relates to offensive action in the spiritual life that brings about victory.

a. Offensive action in the Christian way of life is the function of the two power options and the three spiritual skills. Therefore offensive action in the spiritual life begins with thinking, and thinking begins with cognition of Bible doctrine, and cognition of Bible doctrine begins with the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the teaching ministry of the Spirit begins with the filling of the Holy Spirit.

b. Offensive action of the sophisticated spiritual life is quality rather than activity, unusual knowledge of Bible doctrine rather than human ability. The sophisticated spiritual life emphasizes how you think as a believer and begins with a personal sense of destiny. Your human I.Q. has nothing to do with this kind of thinking.

c. Activity without the filling of the Spirit, metabolized doctrine, and the problem solving devices is dead works, Christian activism, and evil.

9. In the sophisticated spiritual life there is a tremendous system of suffering for blessing, testing which advances us through each phase of spiritual growth. There are three categories of testing: providential preventative suffering, momentum testing, and evidence testing. The Lord Jesus Christ established the precedence for one system of evidence testing— relationship with God—in the four great temptations of Mt 4.

B. The Difference Between the Spiritual Life and the Sophisticated Spiritual Life.

1. The spiritual life of the Church Age believer is related to the four dimensions of Eph 3:18, “That you may utilize the divine power to grasp the idea with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth.”

a. The divine power given to you includes two options.

(1) The filling of the Holy Spirit, which is direct power from God.

(2) And metabolized Bible doctrine, which is delegated power from God.

b. Your spiritual life starts with grasping an idea. Not doing, but thinking, learning.

c. The four dimensions are:

(1) Width—the ten problem solving devices deployed on the FLOT line of the soul.

(2) Length—the two power options which combine to form the ten problem solving devices.

(3) Height—the execution of the protocol plan of God resulting in a winner believer or invisible hero.

(4) Depth—the divine initiative of antecedent grace in eternity past providing your very own portfolio of invisible assets.

2. The sophisticated spiritual life.

a. The first five problem solving devices (rebound, the filling of the Holy Spirit, the three stages of the faith-rest drill, grace orientation, and doctrinal orientation) are the basic problem solving devices of spiritual childhood. Using these problem solving devices moves from spiritual childhood to spiritual adolescence. These problem solving devices move you to the sixth problem solving device, a personal sense of destiny, which is the dividing line between spiritual childhood and spiritual adulthood.

b. The sophisticated spiritual life begins with a personal sense of destiny. The sophisticated spiritual life emphasizes cognition.

(1) Focal point means the central or principal point of focus, and it occurs after the attainment of a personal sense of destiny. You come to the focal point of the spiritual life, tantamount to the beginning of the sophisticated spiritual life.

(2) A personal sense of destiny results from the consistent function of the three spiritual skills.

(3) Therefore, the attainment of a personal sense of destiny becomes the landmark of your spiritual life. This problem solving device accomplishes two things.

(a) A personal sense of destiny permanently separates the winner believer from the loser believer.

(b) A personal sense of destiny separates spiritual childhood from spiritual adulthood.

(4) It is the separation of spiritual childhood from spiritual adulthood which adds a focal point and sophistication to the spiritual life of the Church Age believer.

(5) The key to sophistication is cognition. Cognition and spiritual adulthood occurs in three categories.

(a) Spiritual self-esteem, which is cognitive self- confidence and entrance into the sophisticated spiritual life.

(b) Spiritual autonomy, which is cognitive independence and adds greater sophistication from greater cognition.

© Spiritual maturity, which is cognitive invincibility and provides maximum sophistication to the spiritual life, i.e., maximum focal point in concentration. Your focal point changes from your environment and the people around you to true Christian fellowship with God.

(6) The reason for this increased sophistication is the deployment of the advanced problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul. The advanced problem solving devices are personal love for God the Father, impersonal love for all mankind, sharing the happiness of God, and occupation with the person of Christ.

(a) Spiritual self-esteem deploys personal love for God the Father and impersonal love for all mankind FLOT line of the soul. Spiritual self-esteem is personal love for God the Father and impersonal love for all mankind. For the first time in your life you have the capacity to love God and have fellowship with Him. What people call “psychological self-esteem” is arrogance and has nothing to do with spiritual self-esteem. (b) Spiritual autonomy deploys the happiness of God on the FLOT line of the soul. You have moved into a sophisticated sphere of the spiritual life which is exceeding abundantly above all we could ask or think, and you do not need psychological help. You can handle problems you could never handle before.

(7) The sophisticated spiritual life is the quintessence of offensive action. The winner believer and invisible hero emerges to glorify God. The only thing that can save a client nation is the sophisticated spiritual life among a pivot of mature believers.

C. The Focal Point of the Sophisticated Spiritual Life.

1. The focal point means the principal or central point of focus in your spiritual life.

2. Focal point begins with making Bible doctrine number one priority in your life.

3. From this comes an advance in your focal point—the principle of thought before action. Thought before action is the consistent function of the two power options—the filling of the Holy Spirit and metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness.

4. Extrapolated from metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness are the ten problem solving devices provided by God in your portfolio of invisible assets.

5. The deployment of these problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul results in the perpetuated function of the three spiritual skills, so that the filling of the Spirit and continued metabolization of doctrine creates a mirror in your soul. You can look into that mirror and see yourself as you really are spiritually.

a. You can see your relationship to other people and whether or not you truly have fellowship with God. No believer is qualified for fellowship with God until the spiritual skills are in place and functioning.

b. Social life with other Christians is not fellowship with God. There is no fellowship with God until you are using the two power options and the three spiritual skills.

c. When you have fellowship with God, you are solving your problems by what you have in your soul. The basis for solving problems (the spiritual skills in operation) is the same basis for having fellowship with God.

6. The three spiritual skills must be formed and operational before Christian service in any category is effective in the production of divine good in contrast to dead works, human good, and evil.

7. A personal sense of destiny produces a total realization that every aspect of the Christian life must function under divine power. Therefore, entrance into the sophisticated spiritual life, where spiritual skills must precede production skills for the performance of divine good, is a new life, greater than anything you have ever imagined.

8. Maximum effectiveness in Christian service is related to a personal sense of destiny. Divine power comes into Christian service through the use of the two power options. Only Christian service under divine power is legitimate according to the word of God. The three spiritual skills are the source for and the modus vivendi of effective Christian service. The expression of Christian service is the function of problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul. The sophisticated spiritual life activates maximum effectiveness in Christian service. Consequently, the attainment of a personal sense of destiny opens the door for maximum Christian service.

D. The Sophisticated Spiritual Life Chart.

Problem Suffering for Spiritual Doctrinal Solving Blessing Status Status Status Status

Spiritual Cognitive Personal love, Providential Self-Esteem + Self-Confidence + Impersonal love + Preventative Suffering =

Spiritual Cognitive + Sharing the Momentum Testing = Autonomy + Independence Happiness of God +

Spiritual + Cognitive + Occupation with + Evidence Testing = Maturity Invincibility Christ

1. Tactical victory in the angelic conflict.

2. Maximum dynamic impact on both individuals and history in general.

3. Receiving escrow blessing for time.

4. Execution of the protocol plan of God.

5. Becoming an invisible hero and winner believer.

6. Passing evidence testing. 7. Glorification of God. _

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