Class Notes: 11/30/2011

Christ is glorified in the body of the believer who uses the lifestyle of wisdom to deploy the mind of Christ

In our continuing study of the lifestyle of wisdom, last time we saw that when there is a conflict between what the Bible reveals and what empiricism or rationalism concludes, Bible doctrine takes precedence.

This is because doctrine is to be applied to experience but experience is never to be applied to doctrine. Doctrine is absolute truth. John 17:17;

If your experience is in conflict with what the Bible says, the Bible is always right because the Bible reveals absolute unchanging truth. Matt 24:35;

Wisdom recognizes that experience must always be subordinated to doctrine because the tests in life are based on the lie that the cosmic system is permitted to assert for a brief time in order for the believer's doctrine to be tested. 1Pet 1:6-7; Rev 2:10;

The cognitive self-confidence of spiritual autonomy is the basis for passing momentum testing and advancing to spiritual maturity and cognitive independence of spiritual maturity is the basis for meeting and passing evidence testing.

The highest honor God can give to the believer while on this earth is the opportunity to be a witness for the prosecution against Satan in the appeal trial.

This only happens to believers who are totally oriented to the truth revealed in the Word of God and who have subordinated their emotions to that truth.

Cognitive independence is wisdom from the maximum metabolization of doctrine and independence from counseling, advice, or encouragement from others.

The doctrine or truth that is resident in your own soul is the source of your own counseling and encouragement. This is the basis of the believer's spiritual autonomy.

This cognitive independence comes from the application of doctrine as the believer advances through the momentum tests that include people, system, thought, and disaster testing.

Spiritual maturity is characterized by maximum grace orientation to life. This means that the wisdom of grace thinking, grace motivation, grace decisions, and grace actions become the basis of the believer's orientation to life in both adversity and prosperity.

Grace orientation avoids the arrogance of legalism, emotionalism, self-effacement and asceticism because it is properly adjusted to absolute truth. 1Cor 15:10; Rom 12:3;

Spiritual maturity is characterized by doctrinal orientation to reality. This includes maximum capacity for prosperity that is conveyed by the distribution of the believer's escrow blessings for time and with it the maximum ability for application of doctrine to experience and spiritual common sense and stability.

Spiritual maturity has the capacity to handle every problem in life from the application of the word of God.

The greatest decisions in life are made from a position of maximum strength. The mature believer has established the right priorities in life and is therefore able to consistently make good decisions from a position of strength from their recall of principles that are established from Bible doctrine.

The secret of the wisdom of grace orientation is to recognize that this strength is not from ourselves but rather comes from God when we are weak and unable. 2Cor 12:9-10;

God's system operates on the basis of grace not the basis of merit. This is what makes the spiritual life of the mature believer an enigma that the natural man cannot understand. 1Cor 2:14-15; Isa 55:8-9;

The mature believer has a complete understanding of the priorities and the mechanics of the protocol plan of God, resulting in consistent accurate application of doctrine to experience under the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit resulting in maximum control of life.

This means the maximum use of the privacy of the priesthood to the glory of God. It means maximum effectiveness in prayer. It means the maximum function of virtue-love as a problem-solving device.

There is finally the elimination of all the areas of arrogance that we are so prone to including but not limited to arrogant competitiveness, subjective comparativeness, and inordinate ambition.

This means that the mature believer has learned how to life as unto the Lord rather than as unto man. 1Pet 2:16-19;

Mature believers always take responsibility for their own decisions because they understand that their choices are what comprise their testimony before God and the angels. 2Cor 13:5-8;

The mature believer does not seek to control or interfere in the lives of others because he is free from power lust. He will not tamper with others' lives, nor will he seek to coerce them because his sufficiency is in the Lord and he knows it. 2Cor 9:8;

Spiritual maturity results in maximum capacity for life that comes from the use of virtue-love as a problem-solving device, through the execution of the protocol plan of God.

This results in having the maximum awareness of one's personal sense of destiny and how to fulfill it. Mature believers know that their destiny is in God's hands all the way through to their death. Psa 31:15; NET note 27

This means that under the doctrine of dying grace the mature believer always dies well no matter what the circumstances. Mature believers recognize that dying is a part of living, and that both living and dying are a part of God's perfect plan for life on this earth.

If the mature believer's dying is prolonged and painful. He demonstrates spiritual maturity to those in his periphery, for he still has all the characteristics of maturity and maximum capacity to deal with all adversities of life in a positive way to the glory of God.

Dying grace is the ultimate escrow blessing for time. It is the direct result of the lifestyle of wisdom that results in the unique life of the mature believer.

Spiritual maturity is characterized by that phase of the unique life known as "Christ being glorified in the body."

Phil 1:20-21; "According to my intense concentration and resultant hope that in nothing shall I be disgraced (by failing suffering for blessing), but with all integrity, even now as always, Christ shall be glorified in my body (the experience of spiritual maturity) whether by life or by death; for me living is Christ; dying is profit."

Eph 1:17; "in order that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a lifestyle of wisdom, even revelation about Him through metabolized doctrine about him."

God uses the tests of suffering for blessing to provide momentum for the lifestyle of wisdom.

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