Overcoming our problems in life
By Prof. Mario Velez TH.M.
Table of Contents
Understanding
the Problem-Solving Methods
Problems
to a Believer’s Method of Operation in their Spiritual Life
Emphasizing
your Relationship with People over your Relationship with God
Using
Human Power is not Part of God’s Plan.
The
Consequence of Staying Ignorant or Rejecting God’s Word
The
Problems Associated in a Life of Biblical Ignorance
Understanding
God’s Methods for Solving Our Problems.
The
Problems-Solving Methods of Spiritual Childhood
The
Filling of the Holy Spirit
The Problem Solving Methods of
the Christian Life
By
Prof. Mario Velez TH.M.
Every problem in
life has a solution that is stated in the Word of God; thus, Scripture
establishes the fact that God can solve all problems in the human race. Yet,
today God reveals Himself and His teachings through the written pages of the
Bible, which we call the Word of God, the mind of Christ, and the voice of the
Holy Spirit. The definition of inspiration is that God so supernaturally
directed the human writers of Scripture that without waiving their personal
feelings, human intelligence, literary style, or any human factor, His complete
and accurate message toward mankind was recorded. The original languages of
Scripture are the very words that bear the authority of God’s divine
authorship.
God
never left us with biblical truth sitting in our souls and only human power to
apply it. Your doctrinal truth is not applied through human functions but
through the divine functions that the Lord has provided. Therefore, there is no
such thing as a problem in life that does not have a solution in the Word of
God. For the unbeliever, on the other hand, solutions are always related to
establishment principles, for only in establishment principles can the
unbeliever derive virtue and make it a part of his life. Thus, solutions for
the unbeliever are limited because he does not have a relationship with God in
time or in eternity. As a result, problem solving is restricted to the person
who is not a believer in the saving work of Jesus Christ. Although unbelievers
may be able to solve some of their problems, due to their lack of relationship
with the Lord, unbelievers do not have answers to all their problems.
Consequently,
the subject of problems and solutions are always directed toward the believer
in Jesus Christ. I am specifically speaking about the Church Age believer who
possesses the mystery guidelines of the Church Age, as they are found in our
New Testament Scriptures. The Church Age believer has been given a collection
of invisible spiritual assets such as the problem-solving methods we are now
studying. In addition, we have available the unique divine power of God the
Holy Spirit and extraordinary privileges that are related to being a royal
child of the living God. In other words, beyond worldly knowledge there is the
most marvelous system of solving your own problems from your own thinking since
each one of our lives are basically what our thoughts make them. So unless you
put biblical truth first in your life, you will always have unsolvable problems
in your life. For any believer to have
unsolvable problems in their lives simply means they have failed to execute
God's plan, will, and purpose for their life in this great power experiment of
the Church Age. The malfunction of the renovating of the mind through biblical
truth is a testimony that the Christian has failed to learn the Word of God as
it relates to the doctrinal New Testament truth of the Church Age.
Subsequently, the spiritual causalities of believers are because they have
failed to advance to spiritual maturity and failed to learn God’s most
fantastic system whereby you can actually solve every problem in your own life
totally apart from counseling or help from another human being.
There are two
general causes for a believer not achieving the mental renovation through God’s
Word that Paul exhorts every believer to maintain in Romans 12:1-2. Either a believer simply rejects the
doctrinal truth of the Church Age when they hear it or they are simply
indifferent to that same doctrinal truth.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.(KJV Rom. 12:1-2)
As an overview,
the problem solving methods begin with the confession technique that is
taught in 1 John 1:9. As a result, we become filled by power of God the Holy
Spirit, which is the second method for the Christian. The remaining steps
in progressive order continue with the practice of resting in faith,
being oriented to God’s grace and being oriented to God’s Word.
Staying consistent in using these first five methods allows the Christian to
develop a personal love for God the Father, which in turn will give us
the ability to have an impersonal or unconditional love for all mankind.
The progression continues by also sharing God’s happiness and a true
personal sense of destiny and ultimately we reach the state of having a complete
occupation with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The first three
methods of confession, being filled with the Spirit and resting
in faith are part of our spiritual childhood. The fourth and fifth steps of
being oriented to God’s grace and Word are part of our spiritual
adolescence. The last five problem solvers for Christians constitute our
spiritual adulthood and consist of having personal love for God the Father,
impersonal or unconditional love for all mankind, sharing the
happiness of God, having a personal sense of destiny and being occupied
with Jesus Christ.
The
problem-solving methods positioned within the stream of consciousness of our
soul provide an accurate and objective application of those learned methods to
our experience as believers. Doctrinal truth is applied to experience by
learning and using the problem-solving methods. The problem-solving methods are
the only means of applying biblical truth in our mind to the outside pressures
of adversity or to prosperity. When you apply God’s Word apart from any one of
the problem-solving methods, it is inaccurate, it is distorted, and inevitably
it leads to false doctrinal conclusions.
The
problem-solving methods are how you relate doctrinal truth to your experience
and this is how sharing the happiness of God is developed. The application of
doctrinal truth to experience establishes spiritual values that are not shaken
by anything you see or hear in your experience. Spiritual values are
established through the application of doctrinal truth to your reality. This
same truth circulating in our stream of consciousness of our soul is the mirror
into which we can look and see ourselves as we really are or what could be
referred to as having an objective self-evaluation. God’s methods for solving
problems provide the basis for our decisions and values. God’s biblical truth
changes your values in life that are related to your decisions. Having God’s
methods in our stream of consciousness of our soul establishes right priorities
and true spiritual values, which causes us to be able to fulfill the protocol
plan of God. Protocol is a reference, a set of rules or code of behavior. There
is a precise set of rules within God’s perfect plan that we are not to deviate
from at all. These rules are the code of behavior mandated for every born-again
child of God.
The problem-solving
methods actually provide the means of winning four great battles in our soul
since God’s divine solutions are the only solutions, and not human solutions.
Paul certainly learned the lesson of the four great battles that we are
mandated to win in our Christian race. These four battles pertain to stress,
sin, false doctrinal teaching and wrong solutions in our
soul. The last battle of wrong solutions would include having defense
mechanisms. (2 Cor. 12:9)
And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee:
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I
rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (KJV
2 Cor. 12:9)
The
problem-solving methods are designed to provide self-motivation in order to
persevere in our spiritual life.
Motivation is based on the spiritual values that are created by our
spiritual skills, and that is the only true motivation for the spiritual life.
We are called to persevere by deploying the problem-solving methods as we grow
spirituality. It is only when we position these problem-solving methods in the
stream of consciousness of our mind when we are able to withstand the outside
pressure of adversity from becoming an internal stress pressure within our
soul. A failure for a Christian to deploy these problem solvers within their
mind will result in being under the control of our sin nature.
Adversity is an
inevitable part of everybody’s life, yet stress does not have to be, as we
always have the option of allowing adversity in our lives to become stress
within our soul or not. The external
circumstances that constitute adversity in our lives do not actually hurt us,
yet the stress that we allow those circumstances to create within our soul can
be detrimental. Stress in our soul
neutralizes our spiritual life because it is nothing more than being under the
control of our sin nature and this is a contradiction to the plan of God for
our lives. As a result, the instructions for us to confess our sins privately
to the Lord, as instructed in First John 1:9 becomes vital in maintaining our
fellowship with the Lord. Confession is the method by which we restore our
fellowship with God the Holy Spirit and it is imperative for the born-again
believer to consistently walk under the power of Spirit.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (KJV 1 John
1:9)
Thus, the problem-solving methods of the Christian
life function to provide the God-given spiritual environment for our soul. This soul environment is not only the best,
but also the only perfect environment in all of human history. So, the issue is
not actually our outside environment but the environment of our soul. The
environment of our soul completely depends on us knowing and applying the ten
problem solving methods of the Christian life. Not only did mankind fall at the
beginning of history with Adam and Eve, but at the end of history as well.
Therefore, the issue should not be our overt environment, but our inner soul
environment.
These problem
solvers that the Lord has graciously provided for us are based on us learning,
retaining and applying all aspects of God’s Word. These methods should go
beyond mere academic knowledge, but should be part of our frame of reference so
that we can master and apply them to every area of our life. This is the
ultimate objective for every born-again believer in Jesus Christ that is
referred to as attaining the fullness of God that Paul brings out in Ephesians
3:19.
And to
know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. (KJV Eph. 3:19)
Achieving the
fullness of God is a tremendous beneficial victory because it is at this stage
of our spiritual race that we understand that all these problem-solving methods
are infinitely more than what we could ever ask or think (Eph. 3:20). We
glorify the Lord when we make these methods part of our mode of operation
consistently and become a testimony that the Lord’s power system does indeed
work (Eph. 3:21). Yet, all these devices are always dependant
upon learning all the biblical truth that is connected with each one, they are
not mere isolated devices, but are dependant on a
full understanding of the different categories of doctrinal New Testament truth
that is found in God’s Word. The born-again believer in Jesus Christ was
designed to perceive, understand and apply the problem-solving methods under
the privacy of their priesthood[1]
through a qualified and humble pastor-teacher. The Lord never designed the
Christian to grumble and get emotional about any of our sins and failures that
might invade our lives. To do so means that we have not yet reached the
fullness of God that we are commanded to obtain. Sharing our problems with
others is a contradiction to God’s power system for the Church Age, which is
designed so that we can solve our own problems from our thinking, and there is
absolutely no benefit in trying to solve problems from the thinking of someone
else.
The mastering of
God’s problem-solving methods will result in us having a relaxed mental
attitude powered with God’s happiness regardless of whether we find ourselves
in a moment of prosperity or difficulty. The key to our spiritual growth is to
face every circumstance in life from the viewpoint of God's problem-solving
methods as we apply them to all of our circumstance and advance in our
spiritual growth. Our problem-solvers from God are designed to defuse the
mental anguish that might invade our mind. These problem-solvers from the Lord
are designed to take priority in our life since they are all based on God’s
Word, and without them being prioritized appropriately, they will never be able
to be used effectively. Without the benefit of their effectiveness, a Christian
will never be consistent, and regress to things that will cause malfunction
within their spiritual life, causing them to function in a crisis as an
unbeliever.
Let’s take a look at why there is so much confusion
when it comes to the life of a born-again believer in Jesus Christ and the
problems that cause believers to malfunction when it comes to their method of
operation in their spiritual life.
Afterwards we will study each problem-solving method individually and in
more detail.
A believer’s problems begin with them having a higher
emphasis in regards to their relationship with people as opposed to their
relationship with God. In addition,
believers also encounter problems when they attempt to execute the Christian
way of life for the Church Age through their own human power instead of through
the divine power available through being under the power of God the Holy
Spirit. Another problem for believers is that they lack understanding about
what the Bible teaches in regards to such subjects as love. Most believers
associate the love that the Bible teaches with some particular concept of what
it means to them and they never truly grasp the understanding of the command to
love God and to love all people.
Therefore, the basis for believers having such
problems in their lives all begin from having a malfunction in regards to
learning and applying accurately what the Bible teaches on a consistent basis.
As a result, many believers are confused about what constitutes the precise
method of operation in regards to their spiritual life and they do not allow
that method of operation to take precedence over the Old Testament and the
Mosaic Law. This results in a failure to
understand that true spirituality is an absolute.
There is also a lack of understanding of our
collection of invisible assets that God the Father prepared for us in eternity
past. It also means that there is a
total lack of understanding of the mystery doctrines of the New Testament
Church Age. Needless to say, Christians today have failed to understand the
unique assets we have in this dispensation of the Church Age. Above all, it
means that there is a failure to understand the problem-solving methods of the
Christian way of life and how each one works and what each one does.
Not only is
there a present trend today, but also in past generations in Christianity to
emphasis a relationship with people over a relationship with God. There is a
prevailing assumption in every generation that a good relationship with people
means that you automatically have a good relationship with God, which is not
the case. In actuality, a truly good relationship with people only occurs from
first having a good relationship with God. This erroneous assumption is one of
the signs of our spiritual death, which is seen in our original parents in the
garden.
Immediately upon
committing the original sin, both Adam and Eve assigned first priority to their
relationship with one another in covering themselves with fig leaves. They did
not give consideration to the Lord until He came in the garden, and they hid
from Him. Adam and Eve were naked after their original sin of disobedience, and
proceeded to resolve their problem of nakedness by covering themselves. In
fact, their first function in spiritual death was one of self-righteousness.
They made the erroneous assumption that by covering their naked bodies with fig
leaves and adjusting to each other that they would be adjusted to God, which
was not the case at all. When the Lord came to visit in the garden, they
discovered the true meaning of spiritual death, which is total helplessness to
have fellowship with God on the basis of their own merits, and as a result they
hid from our Lord.
Of course, this
trend has continued throughout the history of mankind so that even today, many
believers in ignorance and/or rejection of biblical truth allow their emphasis
on people to take precedence over an emphasis on the Lord. This by far would
have to be a major obstacle as to why the majority of born-again believers
never come to understand these marvelous problem-solving methods. This problem
can only be resolved by consistent perception of biblical truth. Specifically,
this involves the learning, believing and applying God’s biblical principles to
every situation in life on a consistent basis. This will require that our
number one priority in the Christian way of life be our relationship with the
Lord.
Thus, all the
problem-solving methods are tied to having our relationship with the Lord as
our number one priority, which we will see as we begin to examine each
problem-solving method individually. It is no coincidence that every Church Age
believer is a royal priest and as such is able to represents himself before
God. In actuality, our royal priesthood is the basis for the function of all
ten problem-solving methods of our Christian life. Therefore, it is imperative
to understand that there can be no solution to our human relationships until we
first understand accurately our relationship with God, which begins to occur
when we reach the high ground of Spiritual adulthood.
Many believers
make the mistake of attempting to execute the plan of God through their own
human power or what could also be referred to as the energy of the flesh. Yet,
God is perfect and He can only design a perfect plan for us. The problem does
not reside in God’s plan but instead with us since we are clearly not perfect.
Therefore, our perfect Lord designed His plan for the Church Age so that we as
believers can have a relationship with Him first as we make Him our number one
priority. We have to keep in mind that although we may be born-again believers
in Jesus Christ, we still have a sin nature and will still sin and fail as
First John chapter one teaches. Throughout the New Testament Epistles we find
examples of problems that believers experienced due to their sin nature and
their failure to use the problem-solving method of confession.
The perfect plan
of God was designed by Him to be performed by perfect power, and we have it
available by staying in fellowship, under the power of God the Holy Spirit
combined with the power of His Word circulating in the stream of consciousness
of our soul. The problem occurs when we continue to intrude with our own
ability in all forms of self-righteous legalism. God has provided His power for
the execution of His plan and nothing else will compare. Each eternal,
immutable, infinite, omnipotent, sovereign person of the Trinity indwells every
believer in Jesus Christ and we are all guaranteed divine power through the
indwelling of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
It is certainly sad that never before in human history has so much power
been made available to each individual believer, as we have in our present
Church Age, yet so many squander it because of ignorance or indifference. The
key of the matter is that God’s problem-solving methods all function on the
thinking of Christ, which is nothing more or less in what we know as the Bible
or the thinking of our Lord. With that in mind, our life on this earth is
basically what our thoughts make it.
Therefore, the
key to the perfect plan of God is the fact that divine power is guaranteed to
each one of us, as believers in Jesus Christ, and is available to each one of
us for the taking. God’s divine power is delegated to each one of us through
the learning, believing and applying the mystery doctrines of the Church Age.
This utilization comes to us through the use of the problem-solving methods.
Therefore, these problem-solving methods become the real key to successful
experiential Christianity.
The consequence
of believers rejecting God’s Word is a guarantee that they will be ignorant of
every subject that is related to solving problems from their own base of
thinking, making it impossible for them to execute God’s perfect protocol plan.
The alternative to not using God’s perfect plan will mean that we will find a
very inadequate substitute. In fact, the
use of inferior methods that are not based on God’s Word is the reason that so
many Christian marriages fail.
It is an
absolute impossibility for a believer to fulfill the will, plan and purpose of
God for his life apart from learning, believing and applying the mystery New
Testament doctrinal principles for the Church Age. Therefore, the root problem
for believers failing is simply that they are ignorant of what the Bible
teaches for the Church Age and end up having shoddy and erroneous
thinking. As I have mentioned, the key
to our success is to understand that each one of our lives is what our thoughts
make them (Prov. 23:7).
For as he thinketh in his heart,
so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his
heart is not with thee. (KJV Prov. 23:7)
Yet, there is no
excuse for any believer to remain ignorant because God always provides prepared
pastor-teachers for every generation of the Church Age to communication all the
necessary doctrinal truth that is required for any Church Age believer to
succeed. The success of every believer is based on the mystery doctrinal truth
for the Church Age. Simply put, understanding of the doctrinal New Testament
truth for the Church Age will result in a believer becoming an invisible hero,
but ignorance will result in a tremendous amount of problems for a
believer.
As we have
already seen, emphasizing your relationship with people over a relationship
with God can certainly put our priorities out of order. Believers can also get
absorbed in such emotional sins as being fearful, worrying and having
anxiety. Emotional sins strengthen when
we reside in Satan’s world system of arrogance, of which would include such
things as striving for human wealth and success as appose to striving for
divine wealth and success, which will transcend this life.
Professing
Christians can also have a misunderstanding when it comes to the problems of
substituting emotion for spirituality, or making emotion the criteria for their
life. There is certainly nothing wrong with emotions since God did give them to
us, but as appreciators to what is in our frame of thinking. Making emotions
the criteria for our life can make for an unstable individual.
Another
prevailing problem for professing Christians is related to security, such as
ignorance of our eternal security as of the moment of our salvation, or
confusion about our temporal security, which means we do not understand God’s
logistical grace.
The tendency for
us to create panaceas or universal cure-alls for our lives can also range from
marriage, a social life, pleasure-seeking, health, achievement, sex to material
things and possessions as a panacea or status symbols for happiness. The
achievement syndrome can make an individual a workaholic when they attempt to
derive their happiness from this condition.
Therefore, it is
vital for the born-again Christian to avoid all these problems by not being
ignorant of what the Bible teaches. Our mental health depends on us having
God’s doctrinal viewpoint; otherwise, we will be deceived by what Satan’s world
system has to offer us as an alternative to what God’s divine system has for
each believer. Let us examine the thinking skills that we will need to execute
in order to operate effectively within God’s wonderful power system and then we
will breakdown the actual methods for solving our problems.
Before
studying each problem-solving method individually, let us look briefly at what
constitutes the thinking skills of our mind that God the Holy Spirit will use
to allow us to be able to learn, retain and apply the Biblical principles that
pertain to each problem-solving method. Of course, it will always start with
getting under a qualified pastor-teacher on a consistent basis.
The first
thinking skill that we will explore is comprehension, which
is simply the capability of the mind to be able to perceive and understand.
God the Holy Spirit is He who provides the divine power that we need to
understand God’s Word. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches our spirit in order
for us to grasp the doctrinal truth that is taught by the qualified
pastor-teacher. Of course, it does no good to understand God’s Word unless we
retain it, so the thinking skill of memory is used by the Holy Spirit to retain
or recall what has previously been comprehended. We will also need our thinking skill of problem solving,
which is useless if we lack common sense and allow our sin nature to be in
control. We will also need our thinking
skill of decision-making. Our decision-making will be as
good or bad as the facts that we have available to base those decisions on.
Therefore, good decisions will be based on having good and accurate
information. This is why it is so important that believers base their
information on all aspects of God’s Word. The last two thinking skills that
will need to be developed in order to use the problem-solving methods
effectively will be that of creativity and awareness. Creativity is
referring to our state of being creative or having the ability to have original
thoughts, expressions, impressions or designs. In order for us to be able to be
original in communicating or expressing God’s Word, we will have to maximize
our understanding of what the Bible teaches by being under a qualified
pastor-teacher and being consistent in staying under the power of the Holy
Spirit. Awareness is having an understanding of the things that
make us alert to such things as dangerous situations or repercussions of
certain decisions. Awareness is also part of knowing that application of
God’s truth to our experiences is important. Thus, there is no accurate
application of God’s truth to our experiences unless we have all the
problem-solving methods operating in our soul through the means of all our
thinking skills that I have just mentioned.
I know we talk
about equality as far as the world is concerned, but only the Lord has provided
true equality for every believer to have a chance to reach the high ground of
maturity. Every born-again believer in Jesus Christ has a completely equal
chance and privilege to execute God’s plan for their life. The basis for a
believer reaching maturity in Christ does not depend on intelligence, height,
nationality or gender, but on the maximization of the problem-solving methods
that the Lord has graciously provided to each one of us. The only mental
handicaps that may hinder us from maximizing the fullness of Christ in our
lives are the ones that we create by being negative or indifferent to what the
Bible teaches. The Lord is the only person who can solve our problems and has
given us His problem-solving methods for each one of us to use, not maximizing
these methods in our lives only hinders us. We are the only ones who can choose
to learn and maximize these methods in our spiritual life. No one can learn and
apply these methods for you except you! Therefore, any weak links in our
spiritual life will be because we choose to be ignorant or have failed to form
these methods within our stream of consciousness of our mind and having them
ready to apply to our experiences. These methods are not operational until we
put them to use in our life. Without application we have failed to follow
through in our spiritual life and this will result in confusion and
instability.
With all this in
view, let us begin our examination of each of God’s problem-solving methods in
more detail so that we can learn and apply them to our experiences.
Again, the procedure to confess our sins
is given to us in 1 John 1:9 and is extremely important because this is the
only means for a believer in Jesus Christ to recover the filling of the Spirit.[2]
All of the other methods for solving problems are dependent on confession
because without the filling of the Holy Spirit we are helpless to have a
spiritual life.
If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. (KJV 1 John 1:9)
By no means should this verse be taken
to be a means of acquiring eternal life for an unbeliever, which is always
conditioned on faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross (John
3:36; 10:28). The mandate to confess sin is the means of recovering fellowship
for the born-again child of God who already possesses eternal life. The Apostle
John emphasizes fellowship in verse 3, 6 and 7 of this same chapter and begins
by calling his readers children of God in 1 John 2:1. The Apostle also included
himself in the mandate of confession by the words ‘we’ and ‘us’. Therefore, it
should be clear that 1 John 1:9 is a mandate for believers and should not be
taken out of context to refer to unbeliever
Confession is
the only problem solver that we have available that functions when we are in a
state of sin and out of fellowship. As we have seen, every believer is a royal
priest and as such we are mandated to use confession to recover the filling of
the Spirit, which is lost when we sin and are under the power of our sin
nature. Confession is the key to our spiritual life because without the filling
of the Spirit we will not be able to learn the rest of God’s problem-solving
methods, much less apply them correctly. It is unfortunate that confession is
one of the spiritual assets that believers neglect the most and the reason
there is so much confusion among believers as to what constitutes the Christian
way of life for our present Church Age.
God’s power
system for the Christian can only be executed under the filling of the Holy
Spirit and using confession on a consistent basis is how we succeed in using
God’s system. Any sin contradicts God’s power system and hinders us from ever
advancing to the high ground of spiritual maturity. Scripture is quite direct
about believers who neglect confession and remain in a state of carnality as a
result of it (1 Cor. 3:3). We are told that such a believer is a double-minded
enemy and hater of God and the cross (Phil. 3:18; Jas. 4:4,8;
Jn. 15:23). Such a believer is also called a disciple of the devil who is
either grieving or quenching the Spirit (1 Jn. 3:8,10;
Eph. 4:30; 1 Thess. 5:19). Thus, confessing consistently to God the Father
through 1 John 1:9 is extremely important because without it no Christian will
ever fulfill God’s purpose and plan for their life.
We
should never lose touch of the reality that we will have a sin nature as long
as we are living in our present body of flesh. Confession is the only way we
solve the problem of sin in our everyday experiences and we will always have
need of it. As we progress in our spiritual growth we will use confession less
frequently; although, there will never be a time when we will have no need of
it entirely. Even in spiritual maturity we will still sin sporadically.
The word
‘confess’ in 1 John 1:9 is translated from the Greek verb homologomen
from homologeo meaning, ‘admit, acknowledge,
cite’. The word refers to citing a case in a courtroom that confirms your
argument. It is acknowledging a case that has gone to court and judged. In the
case of believers, we are acknowledging our sins that the Lord was judged for
on the cross. The fact that this verb in the present tense
lets us know that it will be a continual action on our part. As a result
of continually acknowledging our sins, God is faithful in forgiving us and
cleansing us of all unrighteousness; thus, recovering our fellowship with God
the Holy Spirit.
As royal priest,
it is vital for believers to name, or acknowledges our sins privately and
directly to God because our sins will destroy our spiritual life. As all of
God’s grace provisions to us, acknowledging our sins does not carry any merit
on our part. How we feel about our sins is not the issue, but simply
acknowledging them as we are instructed to do, God is the one who is faithful
each time in cleansing us from all unrighteousness. The sins that are to be cited before the Lord
are those that we commit after being saved. The sins that we committed before
becoming born-again saved children of God were all forgiven and canceled out at
the moment of faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior (Eph. 1:7; Col.
1:14). It is because of our justified position in Christ that gives us the
right as royal priest to acknowledge our sins before God and be instantly
forgiven.
In whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: (KJV Col. 1:14)
Therefore, the
instruction to confess in 1 John 1:9 is specifically for the born-again
believer in Jesus Christ who is in sin and in need of recovering the filling of
the Spirit. The fact that believers will sin is brought out by John in the
previous and following verse that tells us that if we say we don’t sin we only
deceive ourselves and are not abiding in the truth and making God a liar (1
John 1:8, 10)
If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a
liar, and his word is not in us. (KJV 1 John 1:8-10)
It is an
arrogant self-righteous legalistic mindset that tries to insert some sort of
system of atonement through our own means by feeling sorry or making a
commitment to never do a sin again. This type of mindset disregards God’s grace
policy, which means that it was God who did all the work in salvation. The
saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross is the basis for the forgiveness of
our past, present and future sins. There is absolutely no type of atonement
that we can do on our part when it comes to the forgiveness of our sins,
whether before or after being saved. Forgiveness of sins is a work of God!
There is nothing we can add to faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation and
there is also nothing we can add to the citing of our sins through confession
for recovering our fellowship with God and being filled with the Spirit.
So, the method is
very simple when we understand God’s grace policy. We are forgiven for our sins
as believers as soon as we acknowledge those sins before the Lord in the
privacy of our priesthood. As a result, we recover our fellowship with God and
are once again under the power of God the Holy Spirit; thus, avoiding the
problem of living in carnality. We hinder our spiritual life completely when we
fail to use confession to recover our fellowship. We shatter our spiritual life
in regards to our relationship with God and people as well as having emotional
malfunctions.
Again,
it is God who is righteous and just to forgive us because whatever sin we
acknowledge has already been judged on the cross. Not only does God forgive the
sin that we acknowledge, but also any other sins that we may not even be aware
about, which is what is being referred to in 1 John 1:9 when it is declared
that He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. These sins of ignorance are the
sins we commit when we are out of fellowship, which only perpetuate when we
neglect using the confession technique. Not only do we have to understand the
method of confession but we also have to put it to use in our lives. For a
believer not to use confession in their life means that they are not aware
about this problem-solving method or they do not accept the authority of God’s
Word to use it for the recovery of their fellowship with God. We will either believe the mandate of 1 John 1:9 and use it
consistently or we will not believe it and reject using it in our life. The
only proof of knowing that through confession we are forgiven of sins and
cleansed of all unrighteousness and filled with the Holy Spirit is because the
Bible declares this. Through faith or confidence in this message we put this
method to use in our life because we understand that the consequence is being
in carnality and out of fellowship.
God’s
provisional method of confession is the number one basic method for our
spiritual life. We have to realize that it is utterly impossible to recover the
filling of the Spirit and execute God’s plan for our life without using
confession. Without the filling of the Spirit we cannot advance to spiritual
maturity because none of us are able to execute the Christian way of life
without the power of God the Holy Spirit. The Christian way of life is
supernatural and only God the Holy Spirit provides this power for us. Not
understanding the filling of the Spirit will result in us creating a set of
self-righteous legalistic superficial set of dos and don’ts that we will use to
measure our spirituality. By far, not understanding the confession method to
recover the filling of the Spirit would probably be the biggest obstacle for so
many professing Christian and the reason they are stagnant in their spiritual
life.
It is also
imperative to know what constitutes sin so that we can either reject it in the
temptation stage or we can confess if we do succumb to it. The more
understanding we have about sin the shorter account we will have before God and
we will be able to build up a resistance against it. There are a tremendous
amount of Christians that are committing sins that they do not realize are sin.
As a result, even though they may confess, they end up getting out of
fellowship very quickly and this makes for an unstable condition that is not
conducive to our spiritual growth.
In
conclusion, as royal priests, we must understand what constitutes sin so that
we can resolve the issue before the Lord through the
confession method that He has so graciously provided. Using confession on a
consistent basis is extremely important for the simple fact that our entire
spiritual life is depending on its proper use of it in our lives. Without the
use of confession we will not be able to progress to using the other
problem-solving methods, of which the filling of the Spirit is next.
Through the use of the recovery method of confession we
are put in fellowship or what could be considered as being filled with the
Spirit. It is only when we are under the power of the Holy Spirit that we can
produce any works that are acceptable before God. In 1 Corinthians Paul used
the metaphor of a master builder when describing the works done under the power
of the Spirit and works done under the power of our flesh (1 Cor. 3:1-17). The
works done under the power of the Spirit are considered gold, silver and
precious stones, while those done when we are out of fellowship and under the
power of the flesh are considered wood, hay and straw. Of course, Jesus Christ
is the foundation whereby we stand saved and it is on this foundation that we
build on.
Only the works done
under the power of the Spirit will stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ and
will receive rewards. Therefore, it is imperative that we are filled with the Spirit
before anything we do for God is counted as gold, silver, and precious stones!
All genuine production by a believer is a result of spirituality and spiritual
growth as well. By no means is spirituality the result of our works, but it is
spirituality that is the means of achieving legitimate Christian production.
Spirituality is not achieved through any good works that we might do or any
sacrifice we might make, nor any type of system of giving we
might adhere to. Spirituality, as is salvation, is a work of God alone!
Through His provision of confession we obtain spirituality by being put under
the filling of the Holy Spirit and under His control.
At
the moment of salvation when we accepted our Lord Jesus Christ as our personal
Savior, God the Holy Spirit indwelt our body in order to create, not only a
temple, but also a place of residence for the indwelling of Christ as the
Shekinah Glory (1 Cor. 6:19). Yet, at the same time the Holy Spirit indwells
our body, we also continue to be indwelled by our sin nature that we inherited
from Adam. Thus, the issue for every born-again believer in Jesus Christ is
what power is each of us going to be controlled by, that of the Spirit or that
of the sin nature. We will always make the choice in this matter because we
always have the freewill to make that conscience decision for one or the other.
When we exercise our freewill to give into temptation and sin, then the Holy
Spirit will be either grieved or quenched and no longer in control of our soul
(1 Thess. 5:19; Eph. 4:30). As a result, the sin nature will then be in control
of our soul and sin nature control is very destructive to our spiritual life.
The
filling of the Spirit is also an absolute state of being filled with the Spirit
whereby the omnipotence or divine power of the Holy Spirit enables us along
with the momentum we get from learning and applying God’s Word. So, although
the manifestation of the filling of the Spirit is expressed through our stages
of spiritual growth, the sphere of the Spirit’s control is in itself an
absolute status quo. In other words, we are filled with the power of the Spirit
or we are not, since there are no degrees when it comes to spirituality. We are
either 100% spiritual when we are filled with the Spirit or we are 0% spiritual
and 100% carnal when we commit any kind of sin, whether known or unknown.
Therefore, it is imperative that we make the distinction between the relative
concept of spiritual growth, which is a gradual process and the absolute
concept of spirituality. It is unfortunate that there are many Christians who
are confused in these areas and cannot make the distinction between these two
concepts. We simply have to divide these two concepts into separate categories.
The first category is the concept that we are either spiritual or carnal. The
second category would be that we are either growing spiritually or we are
digressing spiritually. These two categories are certainly related, but they
are not the same. Again, spirituality is an absolute, whereby we are either
filled with the Spirit and in fellowship with God, or we are grieving and/or
quenching the Spirit and out of fellowship with God. This is the concept that
the word spirituality encompasses.
It
is only through the filling of the Spirit that we have the divine power
available to execute the plan of God for our life. We do not have the potential
to even learn God’s Word under a qualified pastor/teacher unless we are filled
with the Spirit, and of course, it is only through the filling of the Spirit that
the remaining problem-solving methods are learned and utilized. It is the
filling of the Spirit in conjunction with the power of learning and applying
God’s Word that are the power sources we are mandated to maximize in our lives
in order to reach the high-ground of maturity (Eph. 5:18; Gal 5:16; 2 Tim.
2:15).
And be not drunk
with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; (KJV Eph. 5:18)
This I say
then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (KJV
Gal 5:16)
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth. (KJV 2 Tim. 2:15)
In
conclusion, you‘re not spiritual because of the way you are dressed or because
you follow certain taboos, which are not Biblical at all, but are simply based
on some cultural influence. Having seen what is meant to be filled with the
Spirit, it is also imperative to understand exactly what the filling of the
Spirit is not. There are several false systems of spirituality that are
confused as legitimate spirituality, but in fact arise from some form of
legalism self-righteousness.
Legalism
actually has our sin nature as its source and is simply referring to having a
strict conformation to a code of deeds, observances, and dead works that we try
to use as a means of self-justifying or promoting ourselves. The origin of
legalism is based on self-righteous arrogance and being subjected with a
self-justifying mindset.
· True spirituality, by no means, is imitating
the personality of some individual who you have designated a role model.
According to Scripture, the only role model the born-again believer is mandated
to imitate is the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph.5:1-2). We’re to avoid
associating with the superficial mannerisms of some believer you have
designated spiritual. The superficialities involved in such imitations would
include such things as wearing certain types of dress or colors. Women not
wearing make-up or using some particular stereotypical way of speaking that is
associated as spiritual actually has nothing to do with being spiritual. Having
a sweet pious personality and using words like ‘thou’ or ‘thee’ also does not
mean someone is spiritual.
· Another
form of false spirituality is the assumption that a believer is somehow
spiritual by yielding themselves to God through some open act of dedication as
in the case of coming forward at the end of a church service. Legitimate
spirituality is the filling of the Holy Spirit as we place ourselves at the
disposal of the Lord every day through the function of our spiritual skills. Of
course, we have to learn our spiritual skills before we can function in them.
The accurate application of presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice to God
is by being filled with the Spirit and learning and applying Biblical truth on
a consistent basis is what constitutes proper yielding.
· Also an erroneous form of spiritualism that
is passed as legitimate spirituality is avoiding certain taboos. A taboo is
simply something that is considered by society as improper and unacceptable and
is forbidden by either culture or tradition. It is unfortunate that these
taboos are made into a false system of spirituality by being prohibited by some
legalistic self-righteous Christian. Although a taboo may be defined as an
activity that is forbidden by a religious group or a Christian who doesn’t know
any better, it is an activity that is not actually forbidden by God’s Word.
Yet, it is superimposed on the Christian community as if it was a command from
God. In actuality, the majority of taboos are mandated on the basis of human
arrogance and prejudice. Thus, taboos are not the real issue when it comes to
the method of operation of the Christian life.
Self-righteous legalistic taboos would
include such things as observing the Sabbath, which involved that you could not
do anything that was fun on Sunday. Such taboos as this one originated from
professing Christians failing to distinguish between God’s plan
as it pertains to Israel and God’s plan as it pertains to the Church Age. Other
legalistic taboos would also include such prohibitions as not drinking or
smoking, not going to movies or dancing, not wearing makeup for women, to not
gambling. Indeed, some of these actions may cause eventual health risks or
maybe socially unacceptable, however these actions do not indicate that a
believer is not filled with the Spirit. In regard to taboos, a believer must
exercise a certain amount of self-restraint when filled with the Spirit and
consider certain principles of Christian behavior, which would include:
1.
We must not violate our liberty by causing the
weaker brother to stumble because of our actions. According to 1 Corinthians
8:4, 9, we have the right to do certain things which will not cause us to sin
or enter into carnality, but we have to be cautious of being around someone who
might be corrupted by our actions.
As concerning
therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols,
we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God
but one. (KJV 1 Cor. 8:4)
But take heed
lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that
are weak. (KJV 1 Cor. 8:9)
2.
We must also be cautions of offending the weaker
believer and causing them to be distracted from the objective of growing to
spiritual maturity. (1 Cor. 8:13)
Wherefore, if meat
makes my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. (KJV 1 Cor.
8:13)
3.
The believer has to be considerate of the
unbeliever in regards to avoiding or doing certain things that may prevent an
unbeliever from seeing that accepting Christ as their personal Savior is the
issue for their salvation.
What is my reward
then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ
without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. (KJV 1 Cor. 9:18)
Sometimes
the self-righteous unbeliever may superimpose his or her own legalistic
standards on believers and expect believers to comply with those standards.
Thus, maintaining their interest in witnessing for Christ, a believer should
refrains from doing anything that might prevent the unbeliever from seeing that
the real issue is to believe in Christ for their salvation.
In
conclusion, the problem of taboos is that they reject the enabling power of the
Holy Spirit as well as the fact that the Christian way of life is supernatural
and demands the supernatural means of executing it. Following certain taboos
does not require learning the spiritual skills of God’s power system and can be
accomplished even by an unbeliever through self-determination. Taboos do
nothing more than produce legalistic bullying, which hinders a believer from
ever developing any of the spiritual skills that are required to advance in the
Christian life because they are distracted from accurately leaning God’s Word.
Responding to this type of self-righteous legalism only converts other weak
believers into the same self-righteous legalistic practices. Getting involved
in taboos only weakens our volition and causes believers to judge and invade
the privacy of others. Adhering to taboos is simply trying to legislate our sin nature and only glorifies legalism and the
function of human power to do something about the problem. This type of
arrogant behavior hinders our spiritual growth and blurs the uniqueness of the
Church age as well as what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is and all of the
spiritual assets that we have in Christ’s, such as God’s completed Word and the
indwelling of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
To Be Continued
[1] Scripture teaches that all
believers in Jesus Christ are royal priests and have no need of a mediator
other than Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6). As royal priests we
are now privileged to be able to come boldly before God’s throne (Heb.
4:16).
[2] The indwelling of the Spirit
is permanent because the believer is the Temple of God and is related to our
new regenerate state as children of God. The filling of the Spirit, on the
other hand, can be lost through sin and is related to our Christian
experiential power and service as we grow to maturity (Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor.
6:19; Eph. 5:18). The filling of the Spirit can only be recovered by the
confession method that is taught in 1 John 1:9.