Class Notes: 4/21/2021

Smyrna, the pivot for SPQR part 32

https://youtu.be/nw_2Bgbhk64

2Cor 4:11-18; For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
12 So death works in us, but life in you.
13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed, therefore I spoke," we also believe, therefore we also speak,

14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

In our study on Smyrna, the base of the pivot power for the first gentile client nation SPQR. We are in Rev 2:10; that starts with the mandate "not to fear what you are about to suffer"

Last time we noted that while adversity from the devil's world is inevitable emotional reaction to the adversity is optional. We create our own emotional stress by reacting to the adversity on the basis of the OSN (flesh). Rom 8:6;

Fear, worry, anxiety, anger, and bitterness are evil thoughts. Phil 4:8-9; NET

Perseverance from patient endurance in dealing with adversity is a virtue that eliminates stress factors. 2Cor 1:6; 1Pet 2:20; Rev 2:2-3; because virtue love rejects stress factors. 1John 4:18;

Human I.Q. is an unequal product of physical birth that is beyond human control, but spiritual I.Q. is equal opportunity and freedom created by spiritual birth that is under the divine control of the filling of God the Holy Spirit and God's Word of truth circulating in the thinking through faith-rest application. Gal 5:1;

God is infinitely greater than His creatures. This means that God's knowledge is infinitely greater than human knowledge.

This fact escapes "woke" people because in their arrogant self absorption are focused on the flesh that is of the earth because it came from their first birth rather than being focused the spirit that comes from heaven at their second birth if they are believers. Rom 8:6; Phil 3:18-19; Gal 5:16;

This ends our study on faith-rest and brings us back to Rev 2:10; in our study about the church at Smyrna that became the foundation of the pivot for client nation SPQR.

In this verse the mandate not to fear is in the passive voice emphasizing the subject as receiving action that is freedom from fear, making it possible to think under pressure.

This freedom from fear comes from God and the working objects of His word of truth because integrity love that comes from the working objects of metabolized doctrine casts out all fear by displacing it with trust in God. 1John 4:18;

Displacement means that something is pushed away (fear) because something is added (love).

Concentration requires the ability to think. Focused thought creates courage because courage is the result of focused concentration under pressure. The object of our focused concentration is Jesus and His Word of truth that provides us with the working objects that are required to overcome any adversity. Heb 12:2; Heb 4:15-16;

Rev 2:10; The imperative mood plus the negative of prohibition forbids the continuation of the fear that is a natural initial reaction to sudden unexpected undeserved suffering, adversity, or disaster.

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