Lam 3:21-25; I recall this (doctrine) to my mind, and it gives me confidence. Because The Lord's mercy never fails; His grace provisions never cease, they are renewed every morning; Great is Your faithfulness... Therefore I have hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait silently on Him.
In our study of the doctrine of the winner believer. Heb 12:2; Rev 2:7; Winner believers are the unknown, unsung heroes of history. 2Cor 6:9; who are the targets of God's grace imputations and the reason that God continues to support the human race.
We have been discussing the doctrine of church age spirituality that is based on the indwelling and filling ministries of God the Holy Spirit.
We noted that since God's plan of grace and human works are mutually exclusive when human power and divine power are mixed the result is legalism that becomes the basis of some system of fake spirituality that some people accept but God does not.
The major reason for the decline in the client nation is that too many pastors are failing to teach the principles of true spirituality which leaves believers with nothing but fake spirituality as the basis for their spiritual life.
This places the client nation in at risk under the principle of as goes the believer so goes the client nation. When the believer fails the client nation fails.
When we stopped last time we had noted that the spiritual life of the believer is based on what the Bible calls the "heart" or the right lobe of the soul that circulates metabolized doctrine in the seven compartments of the stream of consciousness.
In the Bible the Greek word translated "heart" is kardia, the Hebrew word translated heart is "labe."
The two concepts of the spiritual life are related to the "heart." The absolute concept of the spiritual life is the function of the filling and mentorship of God the Holy Spirit for the spiritual perception or understanding of doctrine.
The relative concept of the spiritual life is the amount of doctrine that is actually circulating in the stream of consciousness that is available for application through the problem solving devices as wisdom. The "heart" is the location where this metabolized doctrine is stored.
God's Word refers to doctrine in the left lobe of the soul or "nous" as "gnosis." Gnosis is academic understanding of doctrine that has no spiritual connotation or potential for application until it is transferred to the heart (into the stream of consciousness) where it becomes what God Word refers to in the Greek as "epignosis" and in the Hebrew as "chokmah."
Gnosis without epignosis has no spiritual connotation. The filling and mentorship of God the Holy Spirit are required for the transfer from gnosis to epignosis. If you do not metabolize doctrine, under the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit you cannot and therefore will not have a spiritual life.
This means the only believers who are filled by means of God the Holy Spirit can actually have a spiritual life. Everyone else who is not functioning under the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit is by default functioning under some system of fake spirituality.
A major function of the spiritual life is the use of the problem solving devices. The problem solving devices are developed and arrayed in the believer's soul from the extrapolation of metabolized doctrine under the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit.
The unbelieving cannot understand or deploy this system because it only operates on the basis of faith and grace. God's grace targets God's Word in the person who believes. The advancing spiritual believer is therefore an enigma to those who do not believe. 1Cor 2:10-16;
You are the only one who can use your spiritual life. You cannot function on the spiritual life of another person. One of the greatest failures believers make is to try to make role models out of other people. God intends for your unique personality to function in your unique spiritual life with the result that you are who you are and no one else.
This means that whatever benefits may accrue as the result of counseling or being counseled are not part of your spiritual life. Whatever benefits are derived from psychotherapy or psychoanalysis are not the function of the spiritual life. Many people benefit from these things but they are not the spiritual life.