Spir Dynamics 505-510 10/30/94

DOCTRINE OF THE GREAT CONNECTION

A. Introduction.

1. The great connection is a system of hermeneutics (the interpretations of the word of God). This law of hermeneutics says that comparing scripture with scripture causes you to come to certain conclusions about the parallel scriptures that are found throughout the word of God.

2. Three passages of Scripture form a panorama of how the adult Church Age believer in the status of spiritual self-esteem can become a loser believer in a short period of time. Spiritual self-esteem is the greatest base of operations for advance to maximum glorification of God. It is also the greatest vulnerability to complete and total failure.

a. The emotional attack on the advancing believer is dramatized in the battle of rebound. Paul, as an adult believer was out of fellowship in 2 Cor 2:12-13. It extended all the way to 2 Cor 7:5-10, where he finally rebounded. God opened a door for him in Troy and he deserted his post and retreated to Macedonia. (See the Doctrine of the Evil Obsession.)

b. 2 Cor 12:7-10.

c. Phil 3:15-16.

3. There are two categories of decisions the believer makes at the point of spiritual self-esteem or having a personal sense of destiny. The big decision is to keep on advancing in ranks by the same system. This is the strategic decision which leads to a lot of tactical decisions. Your volition and values will be tested as never before. On the other hand, this is the time when more believers become losers than at any other phase of the spiritual life. You are the most vulnerable when you least expect it.

4. More believers fail when they reach spiritual adulthood than in any other part of the spiritual life. At spiritual self-esteem we have a choice to make—to advance in ranks by the same system which got us to spiritual adulthood or to peel off and become a loser or ineptazoid believer.

B. 2 Cor 7:5-10 compared with 2 Cor 2:12-13 deals with the problem of emotion.

1. Paul emphasizes the attack of emotion, reducing an adult believer to the status of a loser believer. The emotional attack on the advancing believer is dramatized in the battle of rebound.

2. There are two parts to the battle of rebound.

a. Understanding rebound thoroughly.

b. Adding things to rebound that are not a part of the divine solution (such as emotion). When you think you have to put emotion into any divine solution, you are on the road to being a self-made loser believer. All loser believers are self-made.

3. Paul, as an adult believer, was out of fellowship in the status of carnality through emotional sins with the result that he deserted his post at the open door that God gave him in Troy. You do not walk out on an open door when you are in the Lord’s service.

a. 2 Cor 2:12-13, “Now when I came to Troy for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia.”

b. Paul broke ranks and fled to Macedonia, where he finally rebounded before Titus arrived. When Titus arrived with the Corinthian report, Paul was delighted that their evil obsession (which included unrealistic expectation, role model arrogance, and iconoclastic arrogance) was in the process of being resolved.

4. In 2 Cor 7:8-10, Paul, restored to fellowship through rebound, deals with the Corinthian problem of adding emotion to the divine solution of rebound. “Because if I also offended you by my letter [and I did], I do not regret it; even though I did regret it (for I see that the letter offended you, but only for a while), now I rejoice, not because you were distressed, but because you were distressed resulting in a decision; for you were distressed as God would have it, so that you might not suffer loss of anything because of us. For distress as God would have it [divine discipline] produces a decision resulting in deliverance [rebound] devoid of emotion; but the distress of the world brings about death [the sin unto death].”

a. The phrase “distressed as God would have it” describes two categories of divine punishment from the supreme court of heaven by adding emotion as a part of a divine solution. Emotion is not a divine emotion. There is no strength in emotion.

b. Emotion as a human work in rebound compromises God’s righteousness. How you feel about your sins is not important.It is how God’s feels about your sins that is important. God excludes emotion as the solution to the problem of sin.

5. No one ever maintains the status of spiritual adulthood when emotion becomes a divine solution. No believer represents the Lord Jesus Christ through emotion.

C. 2 Cor 12:7-10 deals with the problem of arrogance.

1. This passage deals with the problem of arrogance destroying the spiritual life. Arrogance attacks the adult believer and seeks to convert spiritual self-esteem into the status of a loser believer.

2. Paul approaches the context through a dissertation on his arrogance. Paul had the experience of traveling to the third heaven, the very throne room of God, 2 Cor 12:1-6. God showed him some doctrines by way of encouragement that it was necessary for him to know. He heard inexpressible words which a person is not permitted to speak, 2 Cor 12:4.

3. His experience was so filled with emotion that the temptation toward arrogance was almost overwhelming. There were three temptations in his life:

a. The temptation to give a testimony about his experience, which would be tantamount to boasting.

b. The temptation to incorporate the emotional response to his experience into the spiritual life and to reverse problem solving by the application of an experience to doctrine.

(1) This is what Peter, James, and John wanted to do on the Mount of Transfiguration. By the end of his life, Peter wrote that the doctrine about the second Advent was far greater than his experience.

(2) The problem solving devices protect you from doctrinal distortion. All Satanic attacks against doctrine are directed toward the problem solving devices. This is the place where good emotional experiences can be distorted into false doctrine by the application of experience to doctrine.

c. The temptation to become involved in the arrogance skills and locked-in legalism.

4. 2 Cor 12:7-10, “And for this reason, that I should not become arrogant, because of the extraordinary quality of revelations, there was given me for my benefit a thorn in the flesh, an angel from Satan that he might torment me that I should not become arrogant! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might go away from me. And He has said to me, “My grace has been and still is sufficient for you. For My power is made operational in the status of helplessness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my helplessnesses, that the power of Christ may reside in me. Therefore as a substitute for Christ, I am content with my helplessnesses, with mistreatment, with adversities, with persecutions, with troubles; for when I am weak [devoid of human emotion and human solution], then I am strong.”

a. Paul, as an adult believer with a personal sense of destiny or spiritual self-esteem, is now qualified through cognitive self-confidence and personal love for God the Father to face the test of providential preventative suffering for the elimination of arrogance.

b. This testing did not sneak up on Paul as if he could not pass it. 1 Cor 10:13, “No testing has overtaken you but such as is common to mankind, but God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tested beyond your capability, but with the testing He will also provide the solution [a way of escape], so that you will be able to bear up under it.”

(1) Testing overtakes you as you advance in ranks, as you attain the problem solving devices. God gives you first the means of passing the test.

(2) Providential preventative suffering never occurs until you have cognitive self-confidence and personal love for God the Father and impersonal love for all mankind deployed on the FLOT line of your soul.

(3) The purpose of providential preventative suffering is to eliminate arrogance, emotion as having anything to do with divine solutions, and problem solving incompetence.

c. Paul tried to solve the problem by a non-problem solving device—prayer. His problem is arrogance. His false solution is prayer. By this he brings emotion back into his life. Three times he prayed “Make it go away.” Paul now has arrogance, emotion, and incompetent problem solving. Paul had become a inept believer, an ineptazoid. The great apostle of grace had forgotten grace. Prayer is not a divine solution and not a system of coercion. Arrogance wants to manipulate others through prayer.

(1) Paul failed because he was preoccupied with the problem rather than focusing on the solution. Arrogance plus emotion results in the irrational dilemma of trying to solve a problem with a problem (inept problem solving). When a believer becomes engrossed with the problem, he ignores the solution. Therefore, he is vulnerable to failure.

(2) When a believer is so absorbed with the problem that he fails to see the solution, he continues to function under the three arrogance skills with emphasis on self-absorption.

(3) To become occupied with the problem is to reject the divine solution that you know is the divine solution. To reject the divine solution not only intensifies the function of the three arrogance skills but adds the emotional reaction to the problem, which becomes a catalyst for problem solving incompetence.

(4) Solving a problem with a problem causes the rapid decline of the adult believer into the loser believer status. The loser believer sees the problem; the winner believer sees the solution. The loser believer becomes absorbed with the problem; the winner believer is engrossed with the solution. Preoccupation results in human solutions, which are no solutions. If you rationalize the problem, you will rationalize the solution. A rationalized solution is no solution.

(5) The wrong solution involves three major interacting problems, which constitute adding a problem to a problem—arrogance, emotion, and incompetent problem solving. A problem used to solve a problem is not a solution; it is the intensification of the problem. Every time Paul prayed he intensified the problem.

(6) Self-absorption adds emotional reaction to the problem, so that the emotional complex of sins integrate with the arrogance complex of sins to produce an incompetence in problem solving.

d. “Weakness” here means helplessness and is anti-arrogance, reducing the believer to total dependence on the power of God, and therefore, the mechanics of the spiritual life.

e. God told Paul that the divine solution divine solution is the only solution. The divine solution is the absolute. The absolute excludes every part of the relative. The relative is the human solution. Emotion, arrogance, incompetent problem solving is excluded from the divine solution. God needs absolutely no help in solving our problems. God told Paul that He does not solve the problem by taking the problem away. Only when you are helpless can the grace God provided for you in eternity past help you. Self-absorption tries to help God.

f. Every believer is an ambassador for Christ. We represent the absent humanity of Christ. No believer represents Jesus Christ in arrogance. In verse 10, Paul amplifies the doctrine of ambassadorship for Christ, which he first stated in 2 Cor 5:20-21, “Therefore, as a substitute for Christ we are ambassadors, as though God were entreating through us; we invite you as a substitute for Christ, be reconciled to God. He who knew no sin was made sin as a substitute for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” You are a substitute for Christ. What you have to say, when you give the gospel accurately, carries the power of Jesus Christ and the power of God the Holy Spirit, and it does not require begging or emotion.

g. Paul was never going to get away from arrogance without passing the providential preventative suffering test, and he was praying to God to take it away. When he finally said he was content with the thorns, he advanced in ranks. He fell out of ranks by arrogance, emotion, and incompetent problem solving, and then got right back into ranks by rebound.

5. Principles.

a. No adult believer can represent Jesus Christ in the status quo of emotion.

b. No adult believer can represent Jesus Christ in the status of arrogance.

c. Arrogance plus emotion results in the irrational dilemma of trying to solve a problem with a problem, the modus operandi of the ineptazoid (the inept believer).

d. No adult believer can represent Jesus Christ until he has deployed three advanced problem solving devices—personal love for God the Father, impersonal love for all mankind, and contentment—on the FLOT line of his soul. That is how you come to spiritual maturity.

e. The sin nature always tempts you to reach out and grab some power. This is the basic function of arrogance. Power means influence, and arrogance is assuaged through influence. People want to have power, impact, influence, and be recognized for their influence. Believers want to run the lives of other believers. They testify for Satan in his appeal trial. However, invisible heroes have maximum influence any believer can have totally apart from arrogance.

D. The Risk of Spiritual Incompetence.

1. The most vulnerable period in the life of any believer occurs when he reaches spiritual adulthood. Spiritual adulthood begins with a personal sense of destiny, which is tantamount to spiritual self-esteem. More believers fail when they enter spiritual adulthood than at any other time.

2. Providential preventative suffering is designed to eliminate the greatest dangers to the spiritual life—the greatest area of sinning (arrogance) and the greatest area of irrationality (emotional control of the soul).

3. If we make the wrong decisions and emotion and arrogance combine with problem solving incompetence, we become a loser or ineptazoid believer. An example of this type of believer is the person who adds emotion (like feeling sorry for his sins) to the use of the rebound technique.

4. As believers enter spiritual adulthood and attain a promotion that counts, what happens? Arrogance and emotion take over and they go berserk. They become enemies of the Cross. They lose the most fantastic blessings for time and eternity.

5. Divine solutions come from divine mandates. The believer learns mandates for the modus operandi of the spiritual life. He makes decisions for the spiritual mechanics—the three spiritual skills (the filling of the Spirit, the metabolization of doctrine, and the ten problem solving devices).

6. The believer, who has just reached the first stage of the spiritually adult life, is doomed by his own success. Somewhere along the line he hears false teaching and is attacked by arrogance, emotion, and incompetent problem solving.

7. Phil 3:16 commands the believer to keep advancing, “however, as a result of what we have attained, let us keep advancing in ranks by the same system.”

a. A majority of these believers had attained spiritual adulthood. A personal sense of destiny is entrance into the adult spiritual life. A personal sense of destiny is tantamount to spiritual self-esteem.

b. Advancing in ranks by the same system means persistence in the function of the spiritual mechanics with emphasis on rebound when necessary.

c. Advancing in ranks is a military metaphor that emphasizes staying within the boundaries of the spiritual life as mandated by the word of God. The danger is having some great spiritual experience that results in arrogance, emotional control of the soul, or applying experience to doctrine. Emotion becomes the criterion for the spiritual life, so that the believer becomes incompetent in the function of rebound. The believer minus rebound has persistent carnality. Persistent carnality means the believer becomes a loser.

d. The Road From Victory to Vulnerability.

(1) Arrogance plus emotion results in the irrational dilemma of trying to solve a problem with a problem. This causes the adult believer to become a loser believer. Incompetent problem solving inserts both arrogance and emotion into problem solving, which halts the advance of the believer. The three arrogance skills manifest themselves in all sorts of mental attitude and verbal sins.

(2) Problems must be faced in virtue. The base for dealing with your problems is never to enter into another sin.

(3) The spiritual life is a system of thinking metabolized doctrine through the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit. The adult believer who develops emotional dependency withdraws into a system of pseudo- spirituality which includes: making emotion the criterion for the spiritual life, making emotion a part of problem solving devices including rebound, hence, problem solving incompetency which adds problems to problems to solve problems.

(4) The irrationality of false criterion results in the function of arrogance skills and arrogance sins interacting with emotional sins, bringing ruin to the spiritual life.

(5) The believer who attains spiritual adulthood cannot advance beyond the first stage of sophisticated spiritual life until he passes the test of providential preventative suffering. Providential preventative suffering is designed to eliminate the function of the three arrogance skills, the arrogance complex of sins, and the emotional complex of sins (the three loser believer functions) which hinder any further advance into the adult spiritual life.

(a) A person who feels threatened by someone else will never recognize his own limitations.

(b) A person who knows his limitations never feels threatened by others.

. (d) Contentment is problem solving device number nine (sharing the happiness of God) deployed on the FLOT line of the soul.

(e) Sharing the happiness of God belongs to every believer who fulfills the second stage of the adult spiritual life. The believer who fails to recognize the danger of vulnerability to failure in the first stage of the spiritual skills enters into thinking privation. Thinking privation is characterized by adding philosophy, psychology, human viewpoints of life to the spiritual life, so that the adult believer begins to think only in terms of earthly things.

(f) Not knowing your limitations also leads to inordinate ambition and inordinate competition, which means it is impossible to pass providential preventative suffering. The person who feels threatened by others will never know his limitations or understand his rapid decline from the adult to the loser believer. This is because the believer who feels threatened by people or circumstances lives in the status of the arrogance of unhappiness through perpetual carnality and never knows his own limitations. Therefore, he never relates his limitations to problem solving devices.

(g) Knowing your limitations transfers your dependency on self to dependence on the grace of God. Not knowing your limitations breeds arrogance, inordinate ambition related to the devil’s world and inordinate competition related to legalism and self-absorption. Not knowing your limitations leads to emotional dependency, distraction from the protocol plan of God which becomes the tragic flaw of the adult believer.

(6) The believer who feels threatened by someone else will never know his own limitations or understand his rapid decline from adult spiritual life to loser believer. The adult believer is vulnerable to the most subtle and powerful temptations to become distracted from God’s will, plan, and purpose. The distraction failure of the adult believer becomes the rapid decline to the loser believer.

e. An advancing believer is most threatened when he enters the salient of spiritual advance to the first stage of spiritual adulthood. The road from an adult believer to a loser believer is traveled very rapidly. So great is the danger of becoming a loser believer that Paul trumpets a strong warning to keep advancing in ranks.

f. He is a winner who perseveres in the function of the two power options, perseveres in the modus operandi of the three spiritual skills, perseveres in the deployment of the problem solving devices, perseveres in moving through the three stages of the adult spiritual life. He who does not go forward goes backward.

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