In our study of the lifestyle of wisdom, last time we concluded with the principle that believers must use the problem solving devices that are available to them at their place in the spiritual life in order to fulfill the protocol plan of God and become spiritually self-sustaining.
This means that the lifestyle of wisdom is characterized by freedom from fear. 1John 4:18;
In our previous studies on fear we have seen the principle that the more you surrender to fear, the more things you fear. To the extent that you surrender to fear, you increase the power of fear over your life. The more things that acquire the power to cause you to fear, the greater becomes your submission to fear.
Worry and anxiety are the characteristics of a believer who has not learned the doctrine related to God's provision and his integrity and as a result has not attained the lifestyle of wisdom.
Fear is both a sin and an emotion. This means that fear is totally irrational because emotions are not rational unless doctrinal thinking controls them.
Fear is the result of a lack of capacity to think under pressure. Courage is the ability to think and apply metabolized doctrine not only under pressure, but in any situation of life.
True courage is not some sudden physiological rush that is stimulated by some unusual or dangerous circumstance. True courage is the result of the believer who persistently and systematically thinks and applies doctrine moment-by-moment and day-by-day in every situation of life.
The confidence in God that comes from the motivational virtue of personal love for God, results in having integrity love toward mankind that is exhibited as courage. If you have spiritual self-esteem from personally loving God, then like David, because of your trust in God, you are not afraid of anything. Psa 56:3-4;
When personal love for God and impersonal love for all mankind deployed on the FLOT line of the soul, fear as an emotional sin is eliminated. This means that Bible Doctrine instead of the emotions have become the criteria for life.
The autonomy that comes from the lifestyle of wisdom results in the believer developing their own personality identity and niche orientation.
Believers often try to imitate those they admire and as a result bury their own personality by trying to be someone they are not. This results in some people never finding out who and what they really are.
With the wisdom that develops from metabolized doctrine believers learn to admire people without trying to imitate their personality.
Wisdom understands that what is to be imitated is the wisdom that comes from the application of doctrine not the personality. 1Cor 10:31; -1Cor 11:1;
All three stages of spiritual adulthood are characterized by personality identity and niche orientation to life.
Mature believers function under their own personality and the tranquility that comes from their function within the framework of God's unique provision for that has been on deposit for them from before the foundation of the world. Eph 1:3-4;
When believers understand this they can have the objective viewpoint that comes from the standard of thinking that is revealed in doctrine. Rom 12:3;
This eliminates fantasizing about yourself in the hero image. It also eliminates trying to imitate someone you admire when God intends for you to be something He admires because you are executing His protocol plan.
Personality identity is related to finding one's niche in life; it is also a part of the lifestyle of wisdom.
This prepares the way for you to function from the base of dynamic humility in advancing to maturity as you receive both suffering for blessing and prosperity from logistical grace.
The lifestyle of wisdom attains spiritual maturity in the following sequence:
The motivational virtue of spiritual self-esteem is the beginning of spiritual adulthood. That is followed by the advance to functional virtue of spiritual autonomy and the happiness of God of spiritual maturity that glorifies God.
In each stage, the believer advances by means of the perception of doctrine that creates the momentum of the Christian way of life when it is deployed in the various categories of suffering for blessing.
There is no greater demonstration of wisdom than when the believer in spiritual adulthood deploys the mind of Christ that is the wisdom of God when undergoing suffering for blessing. 1Cor 2:1-16;
Wisdom means you are aware of the wealth that that is contained in the invisible assets that were made available to you when you were saved.
Eph 1:8; "From which riches of grace, He (Father) has made us super-rich (via the portfolio of invisible assets) by means of all wisdom and insight."
This portfolio of invisible assets is divided into three categories.
Primary assets include escrow blessings for time and eternity. God the Father, as the Grantor, deposited greater blessings into escrow for every believer in eternity past. These are conveyed when the believer fulfills the conditions of the escrow by executing the PPOG by deploying the grace of God.
The assets related to the Divine decree include election that provides for the equal privilege and opportunity of the royal priest; the logistical grace blessings, predestination and equal opportunity in union with Christ and equal privilege to live in the operational power of God in the same way that our Lord did.
Secondary assets include one's free volition to have positive volition toward Bible doctrine and toward the mechanics of the protocol plan of God. The production assets that result from spiritual growth that are related to Christian service and the function of one's spiritual gift in the royal ambassadorship.
There are the assets of undeserved suffering including the categories of suffering for blessing and the personnel assets that include the distribution of the spiritual gift at the point of salvation.
Invisible impact assets include the personal impact that results in blessing by association to those in your periphery, the historical impact that comes from being a member of the pivot that preserves the client nation, and the international impact that is a function of the believers support of missionary activity.
The phrase "by means of all wisdom" refers to the lifestyle of wisdom. "insight" refers to one's capacity to perceive from the doctrinal frame of reference that has been created from metabolized doctrine.
This means that the believer has the ability to regulate and discipline their life with Bible doctrine as their highest priority through the exercise of reason and common sense.
This requires consistent residence inside God's power system, under the enabling power of the Spirit, and momentum from metabolized doctrine.
Col 1:9; "For this reason, we also (Paul, Timothy, Titus, Luke), from the day we heard (the Epaphras report), we do not stop praying for you, in fact, asking that you may be filled with the metabolized doctrine of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding."
Paul prayed not only for the believers at Colossae, but also for those who lived in the other parts of the Roman Province of Asia. Colossae was center of the pivot for the Lycus Valley. By praying for the Colossian church, he was also praying for the nearby assemblies at Laodicea and Hierpolis.
Col 2:2-3; "that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together by virtue-love and the attainment of all wealth (the portfolio of invisible assets, escrow blessings) that comes from the full assurance of understanding (the attainment of spiritual adulthood) resulting in true knowledge (metabolized doctrine) of God's mystery, Christ Jesus, in Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
The lifestyle of wisdom cannot be divorced from metabolized doctrine because it is the accumulation of doctrine that opens the believer's eyes to what has been provided and to the mechanics that are used for their acquisition and their application.
Metabolized doctrine cannot be divorced from the function of Operation Z. If you decide doctrine is important, you will expose yourself to the teaching of your right pastor-teacher.
If the teaching is to be beneficial you must be filled with the Spirit. Your part is the non-meritorious function of listening. The Holy Spirit has the merit and He communicates the doctrine that you hear to your human spirit.
The information that you have been taught then becomes spiritual phenomena and goes to your mind where it is academically understood. But it is of no value to you until it becomes metabolized.
This requires the second step of positive volition under "operation Z" that is the understanding and believing the doctrine taught at which point the Holy Spirit carries that doctrine into the heart where it becomes "epignosis" or spirit taught doctrine that is deployed in application as sophia or wisdom.
This is the same lifestyle of wisdom that our Lord pioneered during his first advent in his unglorified humanity. Luke 2:52;
That Peter recommends in 2Pet 3:15; "Just as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him wrote you"; Peter goes on to recommend the Pauline epistles as the ultimate in the lifestyle of wisdom.
This brings to a discussion of the doctrine of the great power experiments of the hypostatic union and the church age that was initiated when our Lord was born.