Class Notes: 11/4/2009

Believers are to be dependant on God not on people


In our continuing study of the mandates of the PPOG for believers we are presently looking at the imperative moods found in Rom 6:11-13. Where we have the second person plural present middle imperative of "logizomai" that is translated "consider",

We are presently discussing the second part of the mandate where believers are commanded to consider themselves "alive to God in Christ Jesus" as members of the Royal Family of God.

We have seen that the baptism of the Spirit is how God forms the royal family in the Church Age, but it is the indwelling of Jesus Christ that is the sign or the insignia of the royal family

The insignia is invisible today because the impact of the believer's life in the devil's world is invisible but it will be very visible after the exit resurrection. Rev 2:17;

The indwelling of Christ is a guarantee of the availability of the omnipotence of God for to every Church Age believer who resides inside of the PPOG.

This power is available from the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit inside the spiritual life and from the omnipotence of God the Father as the believer is made aware of the portfolio of invisible assets through their PMA of Bible Doctrine.

This doctrine is referred to as "the mind of Christ" in 1Cor 2:16b; because it is the thinking of TLJC.

When the power of Jesus Christ, is mentioned in the Scripture it always refers to His humanity inside the prototype divine power system or his spiritual life.

The indwelling of Christ is the guarantee of the believer's eternal security. Col 1:27c;

Since Jesus Christ indwells our bodies, He leaves our body at physical death and guides our soul and spirit to heaven. Psa 23:4; where we are face to face with him. 2Cor 5:8;b

For the Church Age believer, this is the highest honor that can be given. It is useful to note that both winners and losers in the spiritual life receive this honor. All church age believers as members of the royal family receive this honor because they are all spiritual royalty regardless of the choice they made regarding the mandate to advance in the spiritual life.

When we die, the first person we see in heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ, because believers who are "absent from the body" are immediately "face to face with the Lord."

Since Jesus Christ is both the depositary and the escrow officer of our escrow blessings, Eph 1:3; the indwelling of Christ as the Shekinah Glory and escrow officer is a guarantee of the distribution and conveyance of our escrow blessings when we fulfill the conditions of the escrow. Heb 10:35-36;

The conditions for the conveyance of escrow blessings include the execution of the protocol plan of God through advance to spiritual maturity inside the unique spiritual life.

The indwelling of Jesus Christ is perpetual motivation for momentum when facing thought testing, people testing, system testing, and disaster testing as suffering for blessing during the advance in the three stages of spiritual adulthood (spiritual self esteem, spiritual autonomy and spiritual maturity)

Believers have the privilege of being motivated from their understanding the doctrines that they learn that are related to the indwelling of Christ.

When believers reach spiritual self-esteem, their personal love for the Son of God that is exhibited as occupation with Christ becomes the basis of their awareness of His nearness and becomes the motivation for believers to pass the testing of suffering for blessing.

No believer can attain spiritual self-esteem apart from personal love for God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who indwell the body.

This means that the most important factor in the believer's life is to learn about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and their function in and on behalf of the believer.

No believer can attain spiritual autonomy apart from impersonal love for all mankind.

No believer ever attains spiritual maturity without understanding the implications of the indwelling of the person of Christ, and how this becomes the motivator for believers as they pass through the various categories of suffering for blessing.

This is because in the midst of suffering for blessing, it will be necessary to recall the doctrine of the indwelling of Christ and make appropriate application. Phil 1:29; Rom 8:31-39;

When believers are undergoing unjust and unfair treatment through people, system, thought, or disaster testing they must remember while they are suffering, that at the same time Jesus Christ indwells their body in order "that the power of Christ may dwell in them." 2Cor 12:9; and that in effect it is Jesus that is being persecuted. Acts 9:1-5;

The indwelling of Christ establishes the basis for making our relationship with God a higher priority than our relationships with people

A trend in United States today that is leading to disaster is the fact that very few believers leave spiritual childhood. This means that in the future there will be no replacements for the pivot as they are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord, and the nation will come under the cycles of discipline.

Believers remain in spiritual childhood because of wrong priorities and as a result they do not receive the distribution of their escrow blessings even though they do receive wonderful blessings under the unconditional provisions of logistical grace.

This results in their escrow blessings remaining on deposit forever as a memorial to their failure to take advantage of the equal privilege and opportunity of the spiritual life.

The trend today among many believers is to emphasize emotional experience and interaction with people Phil 3:18-19; and set aside the daily PMA of Bible Doctrine that is the basis for one's relationship with God. Rom 10:17; Heb 11:6;

From human viewpoint, this trend is understandable because people are visible and can be related to empirically or rationally while God is invisible and can only be related to through Bible Doctrine. (Faith) Rom 1:17; Heb 11:6;

Without persistent and consistent PMA of Bible Doctrine it is inevitable that believers will be occupied with people who are seen rather than being occupied with God the Father and TLJC who are unseen.

Believers must function under the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit in order to be motivated to make God their first priority. Phil 2:13; Without this motivation believers will not spend some time every day of their life learning the Word of God.

God is invisible, and can only be perceived through the teaching of the Word of God.

It is also easy for believers to emphasize their relationship with people because this was the only thing that was available to them in the status of spiritual death before they were born again.

In spiritual death, the priorities consist of considering one's own interest's first, then the interests of others. These priorities result in a constant build up of erroneous ideas that can never be straightened out as long as one lives under the rule of the old sin nature in the former manner of life.

People with a viewpoint from spiritual or carnal death believe that if they are right with their fellow man, they are right with God and that If they are satisfied with themselves and if they can regard themselves as being good and moral, and maybe a bit better than someone else, then they assume that is sufficient for God to be satisfied.

Of course they are never sure, but they "hope so". The word of God clearly tells us in Rev 20:12-14 that the road to Hell is paved with the good deeds of unbelievers, and for the believer who is eternally secure in their salvation the road to loss at their evaluation is paved with the good deeds they did in the energy of the OSN. 1Cor 3:12-15;

In spiritual death, Adam and the woman gave absolutely no thought to God. Spiritual death is incapable of giving accurate thought to God. They looked at each other and made adjustment to each other by putting on fig leaves. Gen 3:7;

In spiritual death all Adam and the woman could do was adjust to each other, but in the presence of the truth as represented by TLJC walking in the garden in the cool of the day, they hid. Gen 3:8;

This is what spiritual death always does when faced with the truth. This is because spiritual death only perceives God from fear from uncertainty and condemnation it has no cognizance of God's Love and grace and his unilateral provision for reconciliation in the person of TLJC.

Believers are not to live this way, because they have been born again for a new life in Christ Jesus as a member of the new spiritual species.

The believer's relationship with people is not the major issue in the Christian life. The priority is personal love for God.

Since the Trinity indwells the body of the Church Age believer, it follows that each person of the Trinity is closer to every believer than any of the people in their periphery.

If God does not have first emphasis and priority in the believer's life, no other relationship in life works properly because believers become dependent on people and circumstances rather than God and operate from a position of weakness.

Many believers today have very poor relations with the general public, with those in their periphery, and even with their friends and loved ones. The reason for this is that believers have put a priority on their relationships with people rather than with TLJC.

The indwelling of Christ is the basis for assigning top priority to the use of divine power in God's power system rather than the use of human power in Satan's power system.

The choice of the power that the believer is using is always going to be the issue in life.

This unique life is characterized by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Rom 8:11; 1Cor 3:16; 1Cor 6:19-20; 2Cor 6:16;

In order to be "alive to God in Christ Jesus" the believer must understand how the Trinity lives and functions in the believer.

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit must be distinguished from the indwelling of Jesus Christ.. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit must be distinguished from the filling of the Holy Spirit.

The Church Age believer is never mandated to be indwelt by Christ. They already are but they are mandated to glorify Christ who dwells in their body.

The Church Age believer is never mandated to be indwelt by the Spirit. They already are; but they are mandated to be filled with the Spirit and to walk by means of the Spirit.

The filling of the Spirit refers to the indwelling Spirit controlling the believer's life, especially their soul. "Walking by means of the Spirit" is the enabling power of the Holy Spirit inside God's power system.

Therefore, distinction between the indwelling of the Spirit and the experiential functions of the Spirit must be understood.

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is not an experience. It cannot be felt or seen,; it is not an emotion. It is a status provided by God.

The purpose of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is to provide a temple for the indwelling of Christ. Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory cannot directly indwell the body of the believer, because the old sin nature continues to exist in every cell of the body.

The Holy Spirit also provides a base of operations for the experiential ministry of the Spirit, which is related to "glorifying Christ in our bodies," to having "Christ at home in our hearts," and to "Christ being formed in our bodies."

The three stages of experience related to Christ have nothing to do with the indwelling of Jesus Christ which is a status quo and non-experiential, but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, though also a status quo, applies more to these experiences because the Holy Spirit provides a base of operations for the filling of the Spirit and the filling or enabling power of the Spirit that enable the believer's relationship with Christ.

Therefore, it is the filling or enabling power of the Spirit in the perception of Bible doctrine that results in:

"Christ being formed in you," that is the experience of spiritual self-esteem,

"Christ at home in your heart," that is the experience of spiritual autonomy, and

"Christ glorified in your body," that is the experience of spiritual maturity.

The experiential ministry of the Holy Spirit is mandated in Eph 5:18, "Keep on being filled with the Spirit." That means the Holy Spirit controls the believer's body through their human spirit and their soul.

The experiential ministry of the Spirit is also mandated in relationship to the Spirit's residence in God's power system, with the command to "Keep walking by means of the Spirit."

The enabling power of the Holy Spirit results in the metabolization of Bible doctrine, because God the Holy Spirit is the teacher of Bible Doctrine.

Jesus Christ prophesied during His incarnation about the Church Age in John 16:14. "When He (Holy Spirit) comes, He will glorify Me."

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is not an experience. The filling of the Spirit is an experience that results in glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ through the PMA of Bible Doctrine.

In order to fulfill the mandate, believers must also understand what is not the spiritual life.

It is not living in cosmic one, that is called "grieving the Holy Spirit" in Eph 4:30; In cosmic one the believer emphasizes relationship with self over their relationship with God.

It is not living in cosmic two that is called "quenching the Holy Spirit in 1Thes 5:19; In cosmic two the believer emphasizes their relationship with people and their human good achievements over their relationship with God.

It is not the life of the carnal believer that is described in 1Cor 3:1-3; The carnal believer emphasizes sin and human good over their relationship with God.

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