I know I have answered this more than once, perhaps one was Urs??? Suffice it to say, if U didn't like the answers U got before U won't like them now!!! As there is no "URL" for this Doctrine I will post from my Personal Source. John
DOCTRINE OF SUFFERING
A. Introduction.
1. Suffering acts as a guardian or parent in life.
a. Suffering plays an important role in the life of
adult homo sapien whether he's a believer or an unbeliever. What
our parents did for us in childhood, suffering does for us as
adults in the school of hard knocks. God has given us suffering
as a parent for the rest of our lives.
b. The disciplines and restraints of childhood imposed
by our parents are now replaced by the disciplines and restraints
of suffering, replacing the role of parents in our lives.
c. Suffering is a warning that we're doing it wrong,
or it is a means of greater blessing. Parents don't always
spank; they also give us things. They both discipline and give
blessing. So also, God has provided for the entire human race
the parent of suffering after we leave home. The only restraint
some people have after they leave home is the suffering that
results from their bad decisions.
d. Therefore, suffering is a guardian, a parent, a
referee that always makes good calls. Suffering is not a blind
umpire! Suffering is an authority designed to challenge the
believer to grow in grace by the proper utilization of his
portfolio of invisible assets in the fulfillment of the protocol
plan of God.
e. While suffering is a restrainer in life, as in
punitive preventative suffering, it plays a major role in
accelerating our momentum to spiritual adulthood.
f. Suffering for blessing is another guarantee from
God that the believer can and does fulfill the protocol plan of
God by advancing to spiritual maturity.
g. Suffering for blessing becomes a major system for
good and for the glorification of God.
h. As a guardian in our life, suffering is designed by
God for our good because it does two things.
(1) It restrains us from sin, human good, and
evil, just as our parents restrained us.
(2) It challenges us to advance in the plan of
God, just as our parents challenged us to grow up when we were
under their control.
2. Suffering is used as a measurement of life.
a. Suffering never leaves the Christian as it found
him. As a result of suffering, we are either the better or the
worse for it. When you suffer, you will never be the same again.
b. If, during suffering, the believer reacts through
arrogance, bitterness, vindictiveness, self-pity, or
implacability, he becomes a loser and starts to go backward. He
is set back in his spiritual life and in his life in general. In
other words, you cannot afford to react to suffering. Respond,
don't react! This requires doctrine.
c. If, during suffering, the believer responds through
the application of metabolized doctrine and occupation with the
person of Christ, he eventually advances to the point of becoming
a winner. We forget what is behind (our failures) and convert
our sufferings into blessings through rebound, the three stages
of the faith-rest drill, hope 2 and hope 3, and spiritual
self-esteem. Then we will be the better for it and will advance
to maturity. We'll be oriented to reality. The greatest
converter of suffering into blessing is spiritual self-esteem.
d. No one stands still under pressure. You either
move forward or retrogress.
3. Suffering for Blessing Rationale.
a. For the believer who is living inside the palace,
his own operational divine dynasphere, under the enabling power
of the Holy Spirit and with momentum from metabolized doctrine,
all suffering is designed for blessing. In other words, if
you're in your palace functioning in its gates when the suffering
hits, it is designed for your blessing. So while in fellowship
in your palace, any suffering that comes to you is designed for
your blessing, for your wisdom, for the function of your common
sense, and for the correct application of doctrine to a
situation.
b. Outside the divine dynasphere, all suffering is
designed for blessing on a limited scale; i.e., to bring you back
to reality, to bring you to the point of rebound, to bring you to
the point of recovery, and to show you that your scale of values
is wrong and you must change your priorities.
c. So whatever suffering comes into your life, it is
designed for blessing. Whether blessing is accrued or not
depends on certain factors in your life.
d. Punitive suffering originates from the believer's
negative volition toward doctrine and his accumulated bad
decisions related to sin and evil. But punitive suffering is
resolved by the rebound technique. All suffering left over after
rebound is designed for blessing. This is why God adjusts the
suffering for you after rebound. The suffering may be cut down
since what you brought on yourself was more than you could
handle. But God reduces the suffering so you can handle it, for
God never puts on you more suffering than you can bear.
Sometimes the suffering may be eliminated altogether.
e. There are two doctrinal applications from punitive
suffering.
(1) The resistance of temptation; often the
restraint of punishment from punitive preventative suffering.
(2) Rebound when the sin occurs.
(3) These are the two major motivations for
blessing in either avoiding or recovering from sin under the
principle that all suffering is designed for blessing.
f. Unchecked by rebound, self-induced misery from the
law of volitional responsibility is parlayed into divine
discipline under three categories: warning, intensive, and
dying.
g. All suffering designed for blessing in spiritual
adulthood falls into three categories to match the three stages
of spiritual adulthood.
(1) Providential preventative suffering for the
believer in spiritual self-esteem.
(2) Momentum testing for the believer in
spiritual autonomy.
(3) Evidence testing for the believer in
spiritual maturity.
h. Furthermore, all suffering for blessing is designed
by God for the believer's advance to spiritual maturity and the
glorification of God. Suffering for blessing is always designed
to advance you by putting muscle on your spiritual life.
i. God never gives the believer more suffering than he
can bear.
1 Cor 10:13, "No testing has overtaken you but such as is common
to mankind. Moreover, God is faithful, who will not permit you
to be tested beyond what you are able [capable of handling], but
with the testing, He will also provide a way out, so that you may
be able to endure it."
j. When your suffering is more than you can bear, the
origin is your own volition, never the sovereignty of God.
k. The believer, through bad decisions from a position
of weakness, piles on himself more suffering than he can bear.
No one else can do this to us except ourselves.
l. God never gives us more suffering than we can
handle. So what God does not remove He intends for us to bear,
to endure, to handle, and to solve with doctrine.
m. This means that only the believer who resists,
rejects, or reacts to doctrine puts himself through the law of
volitional responsibility to the point where he cannot bear the
suffering.
n. Since there is no suffering for the believer in the
eternal state (Rev 21:4), God can only bless the believer through
suffering now in time.
o. There is no suffering too great for the plan of God
to resolve.
p. Therefore, all problems of suffering are resolved
in the mechanics of the protocol plan of God with its problem
solving devices and its solutions accumulated from Bible
doctrine.
q. Cognition of divine provision in our portfolio of
invisible assets plus the mechanics built into the protocol plan
of God are far greater than any suffering, pressure, or disaster
in life.
B. There are five categories of suffering in the spiritual life.
1. Punitive Suffering
a. The law of volitional responsibility.
b. Divine discipline.
2. Suffering for Blessing
a. Providential preventative suffering.
b. Momentum testing.
c. Evidence testing.
C. The Law of Volitional Responsibility.
1. Introduction
a. This is the most common and the first cause for
human suffering in general, and it is a specific cause of
suffering for believers. Our emphasis here is on believers only.
b. Every human being must take the responsibility for
his own decisions and his own actions in life. You must
understand that you can never blame others for your misery, your
unhappiness, and your suffering. You take full responsibility
yourself, based on your own wrong decisions related to your
associations, activities, motives, and functions in life.
c. Human volition is the source of personal sins,
human good, and evil. In God's plan for your life, sin, human
good, and evil are all verboten and absolutely rejected. But it
is inevitable that throughout all our life as a Christian we will
sin, perform human good, and fail in evil. Volition is the cause
for sin even in insanity, neurosis, psychosis and sociopathic
behavior.
d. Therefore, this category of suffering deals with
the natural consequences of sin, human good, evil, and bad
judgment in our lives.
e. At salvation all sins were judged at the cross.
Yet all our sins have natural consequences in life, for which the
individual who commits them must take full responsibility. We
must always link consequences with bad decisions rather than
blaming someone else. A short trip to unhappiness is to always
blame others for your problems, not seeing them as a result of
your bad decisions.
f. The innocent often suffer with the guilty, being
associated with someone else who made a bad decision.
g. Gal 6:7 states the law of volitional
responsibility: "Be not deceived; God cannot be mocked.
Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap."
h. Volition and decision are the source of both sins
of ignorance and sins of cognizance. Therefore each person must
be held responsible for his own decisions, whether he understands
their category or their consequences.
i. The consequences are generally classified as
self-induced misery, self-imposed misery, and self-indulged
misery.
j Under the law of volitional responsibility, the
believer inflicts on himself unbearable suffering from the
following categories:
(1) Personal sins.
(2) Function of human good.
(3) Function of evil.
(4) Function of moral or immoral degeneracy.
(5) Living in cosmic one, "grieving the Spirit."
(6) Living in cosmic two, "quenching the Spirit."
(7) Lack of common sense and bad judgment.
(8) Subjective arrogance, the overestimation of
your own abilities, or failing to see yourself in the light of
reality.
k. Both believer and unbeliever function under the law
of volitional responsibility not only from sin, but also from the
violation of the laws of divine establishment, which are the
operational laws for the entire human race within the framework
of a national entity. There is intense suffering from violating
the sacredness of life, property, and privacy in criminal acts.
There is also suffering from rejection of responsibilities
related to your nation; e.g., being a draft dodger.
l. A lot of suffering comes to Christians because they
are confused, lack Bible doctrine, and are ignorant about many
true principles in life. If you are suffering from your wrong
decisions, no prayer in the world can help you. You must go to
the solutions found in the Word of God.
m. Many wrong decisions come from arrogance. To
protect us from this, God has provided parents, pastor-teachers,
coaches, bosses, and all other forms of authority.
n. Many wrong decisions result in mental illnesses
such as psychosis, neurosis, and sociopathic behavior among
believers.
o. Man is naturally a fool since the Fall. This is
proved by the tremendous amount of suffering experienced
throughout all generations of human history. We've all born with
genetic handicaps and flaws; we acquire environmental and
volitional handicaps and flaws. This all adds up to the first
cause for suffering.
p. Although genetical and environmental flaws are
often blamed for mental illnesses, all too often the cause is
locked-in arrogance which can cause a tremendous amount of
self-induced misery and trouble.
q. Many wrong decisions from a position of weakness
result in mental illness, which is acquired from arrogance,
self-centeredness, selfishness, self-righteousness, and the
practice of making thousands of wrong decisions.
r. Man manufactures his own problems and resultant
suffering. God manufactures solutions and blessings in the midst
of suffering. Only God has provided three systems to turn
cursing into blessing.
2. Ways to Make Yourself Miserable under the Law of
Volitional Responsibility.
a. The law of volitional responsibility applies to
four categories of your life: thinking, motivation, decision,
and action.
b. Negative or wrong thinking is self-imposed misery.
Negative thinking includes all wrong mental attitudes, all forms
of arrogance, everything by which you react to life in your
thinking.
c. Negative or wrong motivation is also self-imposed
misery. So by wrong thinking and wrong motivation, we enter into
self-imposed misery long before we make any decisions that cause
self-induced misery.
d. Negative or wrong decisions is self-induced misery.
e. Negative or wrong actions is classified in two
ways.
(1) Deliberate wrong actions which bring
self-induced misery.
(2) Impulsive wrong actions which is
self-gratification or self-indulged misery.
f. Since deliberate wrong actions originate from wrong
motives and wrong decisions, these cause self-induced misery.
Whereas impulsive actions are spontaneous and impetuous; hence,
they circumvent motives and decisions and generally fall back to
thinking related to lust and self-gratification or related to a
locked-in system of arrogance.
g. Self-imposed misery is suffering caused by bad
thinking and wrong motivation. It is also suffering caused by
ignorance of doctrine and resultant self-deception.
h. Hosea 8:7, "They who sow to the wind shall also
reap the whirlwind."
i. Col 3:25, "For he who does wrong will receive the
consequences of that wrong which he has done, and there is no
partiality [from God]."
j. Suffering originating from self obviously follows
the policy of wrong thinking, wrong motives, wrong decisions, and
wrong actions in life. Sometimes it's a matter of lack of common
sense, bad judgment, or not knowing your limitations.
k. Good decisions result in blessing from God; bad
decisions result in suffering from self: self-imposed,
self-induced, and self-indulged.
l. So there are four ways to make yourself miserable
and to manufacture your own suffering:
(1) Negative or wrong thinking: self-imposed
misery.
(2) Negative or wrong motivation: self-imposed
misery.
(3) Negative or wrong decisions: self-induced
misery.
(4) Negative or deliberately wrong actions:
self-induced misery.
(5) Impulsive wrong actions: self-indulged
misery.
m. There are at least seven categories of wrong
decisions which produce self-induced misery under the law of
volitional responsibility.
(1) Wrong decisions based on sin.
(2) Wrong decisions based on human good.
(3) Wrong decisions resulting in evil.
(4) Wrong decisions based on erroneous emotions.
This is one of the worst reasons to make a decision. For
emotions cannot think, cannot rationalize, and have no common
sense.
(5) Wrong decisions based on bad judgment. This
is a very common cause and is due to lack of common sense, total
disorientation to life, and not knowing your limitations.
(6) Wrong decisions based on lust.
(7) Wrong decisions based on false teaching.
n. So you see, you can't rebound all these categories.
You can't rebound bad judgment. Most who have bad judgment don't
even know it anyway.
3. Scriptural Illustrations from Proverbs.
a. The Book of Proverbs is a composition of good and
bad thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions in life. Proverbs
teaches the believer how to live without learning the hard way,
i.e., from mistakes and from suffering which is self-induced,
self-imposed, and self-indulged.
b. Most wrong decisions reflect indifference or
negative volition toward Bible doctrine, as mentioned in many
verses in Prov 1 and 8.
c. Self-induced misery and divine discipline is
illustrated by Prov 22:8, "He who sows wickedness reaps trouble,
and the rod of His punishment will surely come." Gal 6:7 says
the same thing.
d. Proverbs 2:10-17 teaches good decisions always
result from metabolized doctrine, called CHAKMAH or wisdom (the
equivalent of the Greek word EPIGNOSIS in the New Testament).
e. Bad decisions that cause self-induced misery are
related to sin; the seven worst sins are stated in Proverbs
6:16-19.
f. Prov 11:22, "As a golden ring in a pig's snout, so
is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion." A woman can get so
carried away with her beauty that she makes a lot of bad
decisions in her mental attitude, and so brings on herself
self-imposed misery. An ugly woman can do the same thing, but
this illustration is more obvious.
g. Prov 12:13, "In the transgression of the lips [the
sins of your big mouth] is an evil snare [triple-compound
discipline], but the righteous will escape this trouble
[misery]." Every time you judge, malign, gossip, or run down
someone, you have manufactured misery for yourself. The
righteous here isn't someone who is perfect, but someone who does
not gossip, malign, or judge others.
h. Prov 13:20, "He who walks with the wise men will be
wise, but the companion of fools will suffer misery." We make
good and bad decisions with regard to the people with whom we
associate. If you associate with the wrong crowd, you're making
a decision that will cause you a tremendous amount of
unhappiness!
i. Prov 15:17, "Better is a dish of cabbage where love
is than a chateau-brian and hatred with it." In other words, you
not only choose your food, but you choose your associations.
j. Prov 15:33, "Occupation with the Lord [gate #5] is
the instruction for wisdom, and before honor comes humility."
Good decisions based on humility will eventually lead to honor,
to include virtue-love as a problem solving device.
k. Prov 16:18, 17:1, 13, 20, 19:8, 15, 16, 19, 23, 25,
20:19, 21:9, 19, 21, 22:8, 23:9, 27-30, 24:17-18, 25:16, 29:1.
D. Suffering from Divine Discipline. See the Doctrine of Divine
Discipline. Also see the Doctrine of Preventative Suffering,
Point B, Punitive Preventative Suffering.
1. If the believer, through the function of his own
negative volition, persists in the three categories of the law of
volitional responsibility, it is obvious that God will add to it
in the three categories of discipline: warning, intensive, and
the sin unto death.
2. God in His grace provides divine discipline. His divine
discipline is motivated by love. When we, through our wrong
decisions, put ourselves into a jam, there is no grace or love
involved. We hate ourselves whether we know it or not.
3. The principle of both warning and intensive discipline
is found in Heb 12:6, "Whom the Lord loves He disciplines
[warning discipline], and He skins alive with a whip every son
whom He receives [intensive discipline]." Job 5:17-18, "Behold,
happy is the man whom the Lord reproves [warning discipline], and
does not despise the discipline [intensive discipline] from EL
SHADDAI. He inflicts pain [warning discipline]. He bandages the
wound [rebound]. He wounds [intensive discipline], and His hands
heal."
4. Warning discipline is taught in Rev 3:20. The purpose
of warning discipline is to remember 1 Jn 1:9 and use rebound.
Warning discipline motivates rebound.
5. Punitive preventative suffering is the same as warning
discipline and intensive discipline in restraining sin and
motivating rebound.
6. Intensive discipline is found in Rev 3:19, "Those who I
love I reprimand [warning discipline] and I punish [intensive
discipline]. Therefore be zealous [motivation from warning
discipline or intensive discipline to rebound] and rebound."
Also see Ps 38:1-14.
7. The third category is dying discipline, the sin unto
death. This is when God has no more use for you on earth. 1 Jn
5:16. Ps 118:17-18, "The Lord has disciplined me severely
[intensive discipline], but He has not given me over to death
[sin unto death]." Cf Phil 3:19, "Whose end of life is ruin
[dying discipline], whose god is his emotions." Rev 3:16,
"Therefore, because you are lukewarm [in the cosmic system],
neither cold or hot, I am about to vomit you out of My mouth."
8. All three categories of divine discipline are found in 1
Cor 11:30-31, "For this cause many are weak [warning discipline],
and sick [intensive discipline], and many sleep [sin unto death].
But if we would judge ourselves [rebound], we should not be
judged."
E. National Suffering and the Four Generation Curse. See the
Doctrine of the Four Generation Curse.
F. The Prerequisite Grace Principle.
1. God never gives the believer more suffering than he can
bear, 1 Cor 10:13.
2. Only the believer making wrong decisions from a position
of weakness piles on himself more suffering than he can bear. We
are all self-destructive in this sense. This is how the law of
volitional responsibility works in the life. Most believers out
of fellowship manufacture self-induced misery apart from instant
rebound.
3. Any suffering left over after rebound is designed for
your blessing. Therefore, God must often reduce that suffering
to what you can bear.
4. What God does not remove in suffering He intends for us
to bear under the principle that all suffering is designed for
blessing.
5. Therefore, the believer chooses the educational
institution from which he will learn in life. In the school of
hard knocks, the believer learns only from punitive suffering and
very little doctrine. His learning efficiency is at best 30%.
In the university of Bible doctrine, the believer inside the
divine dynasphere under perception, metabolization, and
application of doctrine, can advance to spiritual maturity, using
up to 100% doctrine.
6. The prerequisite principle is that no believer can pass
a specific category of suffering for blessing until he has first
of all attained the prerequisite stage of spiritual adulthood.
That means that all three stages of spiritual adulthood are
prerequisite to something else. Each stage must function as the
prerequisite to passing its matching category of suffering for
blessing.
7. Suffering for blessing from God is not arbitrary. He
doesn't administer it to us in an arbitrary manner. We must have
the prerequisite first.
8. No believer can pass the prerequisite test of
providential preventative suffering until he has attained
spiritual self-esteem. No believer can pass momentum testing
until he has attained spiritual autonomy. No believer can pass
evidence testing until he has attained spiritual maturity. Only
spiritual self-esteem is qualified for providential preventative
suffering. Only spiritual autonomy is qualified for momentum
testing. Only spiritual maturity is qualified for evidence
testing.
G. Suffering and Spiritual Self-Esteem.
1. Spiritual self-esteem is the assertion of metabolized
doctrine in the right lobe and the use of it by living in your
own mind. For you cannot reach the point of consistent suffering
for blessing until you reach the point where you live by your own
mind from your metabolized doctrine, making application of that
doctrine under three categories of suffering for blessing:
providential preventative suffering, momentum testing, and
evidence testing as an extension of the angelic conflict in
history.
2. Spiritual self-esteem leads to spiritual autonomy.
Spiritual autonomy must be tested through suffering for blessing.
Suffering for blessing is designed by God under three categories:
a. Suffering for blessing which gives power and
strength to spiritual self-esteem. Spiritual self-esteem without
this power is vulnerable to arrogant self-confidence. This is
where many believers lose out. This is called providential
preventative suffering.
b. Suffering for blessing which provides momentum
testing for spiritual autonomy under the privacy of the
believer's royal priesthood. No one can handle momentum testing
without spiritual autonomy. Therefore, God does not give us the
four momentum tests until we have attained spiritual autonomy.
Spiritual autonomy is based upon spiritual self-esteem plus
providential preventative suffering.
c. Suffering for blessing which provides evidence
testing for spiritual maturity. Once we reach spiritual
maturity, we'll receive unexplained suffering in our lives. This
third category is suffering for blessing which only comes to
mature believers as the extension of the angelic conflict. Here
is where we are entered as evidence for the Prosecution in the
rebuttal phase of Satan's appeal trial. So this category is
called evidence testing. The cause of the suffering is unknown,
as in the case of Job, but the power to deal with the suffering
has been provided through preventative suffering plus momentum
testing. This is suffering for mature believers only.
3. Suffering for blessing does not occur on a regular basis
until the believer has attained spiritual self-esteem.
4. Every category of suffering for blessing means an
advance in your spiritual life, and means you are one step nearer
to fulfilling the protocol plan of God for the Church Age. Each
category of suffering for blessing is provided by the sovereignty
of God under His grace policy so that the Church Age believer, as
royal family, can fulfill the protocol plan of God.
5. With the exception of suffering left over after rebound,
there is no suffering for blessing until the believer attains
spiritual self-esteem through residence, function, and momentum
inside the divine dynasphere. There is a limited suffering for
blessing in whatever is left over for you to bear after rebound.
But this is of short duration and has no great significance.
6. Therefore, spiritual self-esteem is the dividing line
between punitive suffering and suffering for blessing.
7. Application: No believer should ever pray for the
removal of any suffering for blessing which is the means of
fulfilling the protocol plan of God.
8. See the Doctrine of Spiritual Self-Esteem.
H. Providential Preventative Suffering.
1. Introduction.
a. Preventative suffering is a single category having
two subcategories: punitive preventative suffering and
providential preventative suffering.
b. Punitive preventative suffering is related to the
believer's spiritual childhood, while providential preventative
suffering is related to the believer in spiritual adulthood. But
actually they both do something of the same thing. Punitive
preventative suffering does one thing for the believer out of
fellowship, while providential preventative suffering does
something else for the believer in fellowship as a spiritual
adult.
c. Punitive preventative suffering punishes a guilty
believer and motivates his rebound, and at the same time it
restrains a tempted believer. Therefore punitive preventative
suffering is synonymous with warning and intensive discipline,
while providential preventative suffering is the first category
of suffering for blessing related to spiritual adulthood.
d. Punitive preventative suffering is designed by God
as part of warning and intensive discipline to accomplish three
things: to punish sin, to motivate rebound, and to restrain when
tempted.
e. Punitive preventative suffering also effects the
future restraint of the believer being punished. Therefore it
restrains future repetition of any sin or failure.
f. Punitive preventative suffering then is analogous
to children being disciplined by their parents. Parental
discipline teaches the child self-restraint, respect for
authority, and how to live in a society under the laws of divine
establishment as a civilized person.
g. Hence, punitive preventative suffering restrains
and motivates function in two categories: warning and intensive
discipline. Punitive preventative suffering punishes the guilty
and motivates his rebound. It restrains the tempted believer,
and motivates his self-restraint in the face of temptation.
h. Therefore, punitive preventative suffering, as part
of warning and intensive discipline, limits and restrains the
believer's excursions into the cosmic system.
i. The results of punitive preventative suffering are
found in Ps 119:67-72. Punitive preventative suffering motivates
positive volition to doctrine.
j. There are three stages of spiritual adulthood and
three categories of suffering for blessing, and each stage of
spiritual adulthood has a comparable category of suffering for
blessing.
Spiritual Adulthood Suffering for Blessing
Spiritual Self Esteem Providential Preventative
Suffering
Spiritual Autonomy Momentum Testing
Spiritual Maturity Evidence Testing
k. Spiritual self-esteem plus providential
preventative suffering equals spiritual autonomy plus momentum
testing equals spiritual maturity plus evidence testing equals
glorification of God. Spiritual self-esteem is the prerequisite
to handling providential preventative suffering, just as
spiritual autonomy is the prerequisite to handling momentum
testing. God will never give you more than you can bear.
l. 2 Cor 12:9, "Then He assured me, `My grace has been
and still is sufficient for you. For the power [spiritual
adulthood] is achieved with weakness. When I am weak, then I am
strong.'"
m. Phil 4:11-13, "Not that I speak with reference to
want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances
I am. In fact I have come to know how to be humble, and I have
come to know how to live in prosperity. And in every
circumstance I have been initiated in both how to be filled and
how to be hungry, both how to be prosperous and how to suffer
need. I have the power to attain all things through Him who
makes me strong."
2. What is providential preventative suffering?
a. Providential preventative suffering is the first
category of suffering for blessing. From the context of 2 Cor
12:7-8, it can be called thorn testing.
b. Providential preventative suffering performs
numerous functions.
(1) It insulates against the arrogance complex.
This means you begin to eliminate jealous, self-pity, bitterness,
vindictiveness, hatred, inordinate ambition, inordinate
competition, and all the other mental attitude sins in the
arrogance complex.
(2) It is preliminary testing or warm-up testing.
2 Cor 12:10 lists four tests which match the four momentum tests.
There is a warm-up for people testing, for system testing, for
thought testing, and for disaster testing.
c. So providential preventative suffering not only
insulates you against arrogance, but it prepares you for momentum
testing. For momentum testing is the major hurdle in reaching
spiritual maturity.
d. Providential preventative suffering is the
provision of the sovereignty of God in compatibility with His
grace policy to provide the power for spiritual self-esteem to
advance to spiritual maturity; i.e., the power to advance through
the valley of momentum testing.
e. For when spiritual self-esteem combines with
providential preventative suffering, it forms spiritual autonomy,
which is spiritual self-esteem with muscle minus arrogance.
Spiritual self-esteem cannot function apart from humility.
Therefore, providential preventative suffering provides both
muscle and humility.
f. Spiritual self-esteem can only function on humility
and orientation to authority. To the extent that you reject any
authority in life, to that extent your spiritual self-esteem is
parlayed into a system of arrogance.
g. Spiritual self-esteem is vulnerable to arrogance
without providential preventative suffering which God graciously
provides. The most vulnerable point in the believer's advance is
when he reaches spiritual self-esteem. Here he is extremely
vulnerable to the temptations related to the arrogance complex.
h. Providential preventative suffering prevents,
restrains, intercepts, and insulates against sin and evil in the
life while challenging your spiritual self-esteem to suffer for
blessing and profit.
i. Illustration: a woman falls in love with a man who
walks out on her just before the marriage. She is miserable
temporarily, but this is better than a lifetime of misery with
the wrong man.
j. Therefore, when spiritual self-esteem combines with
providential preventative suffering, it forms spiritual autonomy.
There are five results or signs of spiritual autonomy.
(1) Impersonal love for all mankind is the first
sign of spiritual autonomy.
(2) Authority orientation or enforced humility.
(3) Genuine humility insulates against arrogance
during momentum testing.
(4) Self-discipline.
(5) Obedience to the Word of God.
k. Prov 19:8, "He who gets wisdom loves his own soul
[spiritual self-esteem]; he who cherishes understanding prospers
[spiritual autonomy]."
3. Preventative suffering develops problem solving devices.
a. Providential preventative suffering is a vehicle
for the advance to spiritual maturity because it is a system of
problem solving.
b. 1 Pet 1:6-8, "In this [inheritance] you greatly
rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you
have distresses from various testings [providential preventative
suffering]; that the proof of your doctrine [use of Bible
doctrine from spiritual self-esteem], being more precious than
gold which is losable, even though tested by fire [providential
preventative suffering], may be found to result in praise, glory,
and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
(1) "Tested by fire" is used because when you put
gold in fire, the gold melts. Fire changes the nature of the
gold. So also, providential preventative suffering changes the
nature of the believer. So the little bit of providential
preventative suffering you have today may result in the praise,
honor and glory at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
(2) Verse 8, "And though you have not seen Him,
you love Him; and though you do not see Him now but believe in
Him, you greatly rejoice with inexpressible happiness and full of
glory [spiritual maturity]."
c. Phil 1:29, "For to you it has been given on behalf
of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His
sake." This is important. You don't suffer for His sake when
you make your own problems, reaping what you have sowed from your
own bad decisions and bad judgment. Suffering for His sake is
when you finally reach spiritual self-esteem.
d. Providential preventative suffering is described as
various testings producing steadfastness or spiritual autonomy.
Jas 1:2-4, "Consider it all happiness, my brethren [royal
family], when you encounter various testings [of many kinds in
providential preventative suffering], knowing that the testing of
your doctrine [spiritual self-esteem applies metabolized doctrine
to providential preventative suffering to attain spiritual
autonomy] produces steadfastness [spiritual autonomy]. And let
steadfastness [spiritual autonomy] have its perfect result
[spiritual autonomy plus momentum testing equals spiritual
maturity], that you may be mature [spiritual maturity] and
complete [spiritual maturity plus evidence testing equals
glorification of God to the maximum in the angelic conflict],
lacking nothing [no escrow blessing lost from evidence testing]."
This passage describes providential preventative suffering as
the category that prevents sin and challenges spiritual self-
esteem to suffer for blessing in the midst of trials.
e. Metabolized doctrine results in virtue love as a
problem solving device which includes spiritual self-esteem.
Spiritual self-esteem meets the challenge of providential
preventative suffering resulting in giving #1 priority to Bible
doctrine.
f. Hence, providential preventative suffering is the
means of establishing right priorities in the spiritual life of
the believer.
4. Providential preventative suffering is the preliminary
warm-up for momentum testing, 2 Cor 12:7-10.
a. Verse 7, "And for this reason [Paul in spiritual
self-esteem], lest I should become arrogant because of the
extraordinary quality of revelation [mystery doctrine], I was
given for my blessing and benefit a thorn in the flesh
[providential preventative suffering], an angel from Satan [thorn
demon], that he might torment me lest I should become arrogant
[providential preventative suffering insulates against
arrogance]."
b. No one can attain spiritual self-esteem apart from
gate #5, personal love for God. Until the believer has personal
love for God from metabolized doctrine, he cannot have personal
love for self as a legitimate, spiritual function in the first
stage of spiritual adulthood. Without providential preventative
suffering, spiritual self-esteem can easily slip into a state of
arrogance.
c. Verse 8, "Concerning this [thorn in the flesh], I
appealed to the Lord three times [three wrong, intensive
prayers], that it [thorn demon] might depart from me."
d. Providential preventative suffering, like all
suffering for blessing, is not designed to be removed by prayer.
It is administered by God, and what God does not remove He
intends for us to bear. You do not pray for the removal of any
suffering, whether for blessing or punitive. Such a prayer is
blasphemous, for without suffering the believer cannot fulfill
the protocol plan of God.
e. Prayer is antithetical to the purpose for suffering
for blessing.
(1) We must understand the role and significance
of spiritual self-esteem in order to appreciate Paul's false
application of doctrine in praying for the removal of the thorn
in the flesh.
(2) You do not pray for the removal of the very
means of advancing you to spiritual maturity.
(3) You do not pray for the removal of suffering
for blessing by which the protocol plan of God is fulfilled.
What God does not remove by way of suffering He intends for you
to bear.
(4) You do not pray for the removal of the
mechanics of power by which spiritual self-esteem is parlayed
into spiritual autonomy.
(5) Prayer is not a problem solving device in
your life. You can pray for others under suffering, and you
should. You don't judge why they're suffering, but you do pray
for those who suffer. This is a privilege of the royal
priesthood. Prayer is a weapon of power in the hands of the
royal priest.
(6) But you never pray for the removal of
suffering from yourself or from others. All suffering is a
decision from the sovereignty of God.
(7) The Christian does not pray for strength in
time of suffering, because strength in suffering comes in other
ways mechanically. Ignorant and negative believers use prayer
for everything, having no doctrine, no application of doctrine,
and no spiritual growth.
(8) God never puts on you more than you can bear;
only you do that under the law of volitional responsibility. And
before God gives suffering for blessing, He always provides the
means of handling it. So strength in suffering comes from the
application of metabolized doctrine in one of the three stages of
spiritual adulthood.
(a) Spiritual self-esteem combined with
providential preventative suffering produces spiritual autonomy.
(b) Spiritual autonomy combined with
momentum testing produces spiritual maturity.
(c) Spiritual maturity combined with
evidence testing produces maximum glorification of God.
f. Verse 9, "Then He assured me [counsel from God],
`My grace [divine capitalization of every Church Age believer]
has been and still is sufficient for you, for the power [three
stages of spiritual adulthood] is achieved with weakness
[inability to use human assets in three categories of suffering
for blessing]. Therefore, I will boast [esprit de corps, grace
orientation to the provision of suffering for blessing] all the
more gladly about my weaknesses, in order that the power of
Christ [Lord's attainment of spiritual maturity] may reside in me
[mechanics of the divine dynasphere]."
g. Everything necessary to fulfill the protocol plan
of God was provided in eternity past by way of assets in the
portfolio of invisible assets. Then God provides doctrine and
suffering in time. What a marvelous combination!
h. Suffering does not bear its meaning in itself, but
becomes a spotlight focusing on God's power and our concurrent
weakness, weakness brought about by suffering for blessing.
Suffering for blessing focuses on God's grace, and turns boasting
away from self-glorification into worship, love, and appreciation
for God.
i. Paul is boasting because this is not punitive
preventative suffering, but suffering for blessing through which
God is glorified. Hence, this is boasting in a good sense, which
looks away from Paul and toward the grace provision of God. It
is not boasting to glorify self, but the dynamic mental attitude
of spiritual self-esteem facing providential preventative
suffering.
j. Verse 10, "For this reason I find contentment in
weaknesses [providential preventative suffering], in slanders
[preliminary people testing], in pressures [preliminary thought
testing], in persecutions [preliminary system testing], in
stresses [preliminary disaster testing] on behalf of Christ; for
when I am weak, then I am strong."
k. These four preliminary tests are the warm-ups for
what may be expected in momentum testing. Spiritual self-esteem
develops muscle from passing these four warm-up tests, and so
attains spiritual autonomy.
l. Whenever we face suffering for blessing, human
solutions cannot solve or help; only divine solutions can.
Therefore, suffering for blessing causes the believer to be weak
so that he has to depend on the divine provision for problem
solving. Consequently, each stage of spiritual adulthood is a
problem solving device designed to face and pass a suffering for
blessing test.
m. The weakness produced from providential
preventative suffering, when combined with spiritual self-esteem,
produces spiritual autonomy. The weakness produced by momentum
testing gives spiritual autonomy a chance to get stronger to
reach spiritual maturity. In spiritual maturity, the ultimate in
spiritual strength comes from passing evidence testing.
n. "On behalf of Christ" parallels Phil 1:29. "For to
you it has been given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in
Him, but also to suffer for His sake."
5. The Two Schools of Learning.
a. Only in the university of Bible doctrine (as
opposed to the school of hard knocks) does the believer's
suffering have significance in the fulfillment of the protocol
plan of God.
b. In the school of hard knocks, the believer learns
only from punitive preventative suffering, which is obviously not
to his advantage. But in the university of Bible doctrine, he
learns through suffering for blessing.
c. In the school of hard knocks, bad decisions from a
position of weakness include such things as reaction, resistance,
and rejection of Bible doctrine. Only when punitive preventative
suffering is intense does the believer rebound and finally come
back to doctrine, usually only for a short time. For as soon as
he stops hurting, he usually falls back into the same old pattern
of negative volition.
d. In the school of hard knocks, the learning
efficiency level is anywhere from 0% to 30%. That is not even
enough to get you half-way out of spiritual childhood. With a
pattern like the this, the believer in the school of hard knocks
cannot reach spiritual adulthood.
e. Therefore in the school of hard knocks, all
suffering is punitive; it is self-induced from law of volitional
responsibility and the three categories of divine discipline
(punitive preventative suffering).
f. The only suffering for blessing is what is left
over from rebound. That is simply a backlash designed to
encourage.
g. The believer in the school of hard knocks is a
loser and always will be unless he goes to the university of
Bible doctrine.
h. The university of Bible doctrine is the school of
perception, metabolization, and application of doctrine in gate
#4 of the divine dynasphere. To accomplish this, the believer is
consistent in his residence, function, and momentum inside his
palace, the operational divine dynasphere.
i. In the university of Bible doctrine, #1 priority is
always assigned to the Word of God or to doctrine. In this
school, the believer not only advances to spiritual maturity, but
he fulfills the plan of God.
j. As a freshman, he continues his momentum from
salvation through gates 1, 2, 3, and 4, and finally his momentum
carries him to gate 5. As a sophomore, he has attained spiritual
self-esteem between gates 5 and 6. As a junior he attains
spiritual autonomy at gate #6. After passing the momentum
testings at gate 7 and reaching gate 8 of spiritual maturity, he
become a senior. Taking evidence testing is graduate school.
k. In the university of Bible doctrine, the perceptive
pattern is anywhere from 0% to 100%. Consistent residence in the
divine dynasphere, under the enabling power of the Spirit and
momentum from metabolized doctrine results in the attainment of
spiritual self-esteem.
l. Only in the university of Bible doctrine can the
believer experience the three categories of suffering for
blessing necessary for the fulfillment of the protocol plan of
God.
m. The believer in the school of hard knocks piles on
himself more suffering than he can bear, and remains in spiritual
childhood all his spiritual life. Being a loser does not imply
loss of salvation, but the loss of greater blessings deposited in
escrow for both time and eternity.
I. Momentum Testing.
1. The Principle of Momentum Testing.
a. Momentum Testing is designed with two things in
mind:
(1) The opportunity for the application of
doctrine learned at gate #4. You apply different doctrines to
different situations, and some doctrines have a quite different
application in our unseen worship with God.
(2) To accelerate your momentum.
b. No believer attains maturity apart from momentum
testing.
c. Spiritual growth results from perception of Bible
doctrine. But spiritual growth is accelerated from the
application of Bible doctrine to the categories of testing.
d. No believer can fulfill the plan of God and glorify
the Lord apart from momentum testing.
e. Therefore, some of the testing in the divine
dynasphere is suffering, and some of it is prosperity. There are
eight general categories of testing, four of which are for the
purpose of application and acceleration of spiritual growth for
the believer in spiritual autonomy.
f. All categories of testing in the divine dynasphere
are designed for blessing. Therefore, whether adversity or
prosperity, the divine dynasphere is for your good.
g. Human volition plays an important part in testing.
For the believer must make the right decision based on his
application of Bible doctrine, and his residence in the divine
dynasphere.
2. The Categories of Testing.
a. The following three tests listed are not
specifically categorized as momentum testings as given to the
believer in spiritual autonomy advancing to spiritual maturity.
These are general categories of testing which occur in all stages
of spiritual growth.
(1) The old sin nature test.
(2) Cosmic one test.
(3) Cosmic two test.
b. The next five tests are those to be faced by the
believer who reaches spiritual autonomy, a direct contribution to
his attainment of the goal of spiritual maturity.
3. Disaster testing.
a. Before the believer reaches maturity there are one
or two major disasters in the life. How the believer handles
these determines whether he accelerates his spiritual growth or
retreats and goes backward.
b. There are two categories of disaster testing:
(1) Personal disaster testing, which is designed
as suffering for blessing for acceleration of momentum or for
warning of cosmic involvement, in which case divine discipline
becomes involved.
(2) Historical disaster, collective disaster, or
national disaster testing related to the bad decisions of others
in which you are involved by association. For example, a lot of
people suffer unfairly when the president decides to go to war.
c. There are at least six characteristics of disaster
testing:
(1) Physical pain or mental pain and anguish.
(2) Crime where you are the victim.
(3) Persecution (not paranoia).
(4) Privation, meaning hunger, thirst, exposure,
fatigue.
(5) Loss of loved ones, property, success, money,
etc.
(6) Disease and handicaps.
d. There are four characteristics of national
disaster:
(1) Violence, crime, terrorism, dope, murder.
(2) Warfare.
(3) Weather includes heat, cold, storm,
blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes.
(4) Cycles of discipline.
e. Disaster testing always tests our emotions. In
emotionalism you may seek to sue someone who is negligent. This
is only revenge, and you become a loser. The principle is that
you can lose by gaining, and gain by losing.
f. The only wealth worth having is the wealth that God
provides in escrow blessing. In this momentum testing there is
always the temptation to take the easy route of money, security,
fame, and lose forever the conveyance of escrow blessing. There
is always the disaster that will make you prosperous. This is a
test. You could lose the chance of receiving your escrow
blessing.
g. Historical downtrend is a maximum number of people
in a given area living in the cosmic system.
h. There must be maximum faith, maximum spiritual
self-esteem, and maximum spiritual maturity if you are going to
have your escrow blessing and pass the disaster test.
i. For illustration, see the doctrine of Economic
Depression.
4. People testing
a. People testing comes in two categories.
(1) In personal love or admiration, the object of
your love often controls your life or provides for you
unhappiness, unless you have attained spiritual self-esteem,
spiritual autonomy, or spiritual maturity. In wanting to please
the object of your personal love, you find yourself being a
different person and not following your normal function.
(2) In personal hatred or animosity, the object
of your antagonism or irritation often has control of your life
or happiness, unless you have advanced to spiritual adulthood.
b. Under the protocol plan of God, God designed His
plan so that your happiness will always reside in you, and so
that you do not depend on people or things for your happiness.
As a function of your royal priesthood it all comes from within.
You are supposed to have personal control of your life, a
personal sense of destiny, self-confidence from metabolized
doctrine, and therefore poise and command of self. Therefore,
you bring your happiness to others, but you do not lean on others
or circumstances for your happiness.
c. People are easily led away from the protocol plan
of God and doctrine by their friendships, love life, and even
hatred.
d. So unless you attain spiritual adulthood, every
time you fall in love or acquire a friend, the object controls
your life and your happiness.
e. Without impersonal love from spiritual autonomy,
you become a slave to people. When you fall in love, look how
you act, how you change your modus operandi, and how you begin to
think in different terms relating everything you do to that
person.
f. So when you make a friend or fall in love, when you
become jealous, possessive, or hate anyone who has it over you;
you've immediately become a slave. You've manufactured for
yourself many problems, and they're not all the fault of the
object.
g. The solution to people testing is found in the
combination of personal love for God and impersonal love for all
mankind. The function of spiritual autonomy is the use of
virtue-love. Spiritual autonomy is the prerequisite for solving
all problems of human relationship, i.e., of people testing which
is also accompanied by system and thought testing. This
combination only exists in the three stages of spiritual
adulthood.
h. Virtue-love as a problem solving device belongs
primarily to the spiritual adult. Without it, you are constantly
surrendering the control of your life to others. When you become
jealous, angry, bitter, vindictive, or implacable; when you are
dissatisfied, antagonistic toward someone else, friend or
stranger, lover or enemy, you surrender the control of your life
to that person. You become a slave to the object of your
antagonism or love. At the same time, you have no control over
your life, cancelling all the characteristics of spiritual self-
esteem and spiritual autonomy.
i. When someone else has control of your life through
hatred or love, you enter into the law of volitional
responsibility with its self-induced misery.
j. Virtue-love as a problem solving device is the
secret of your relationship with God, mankind, and in human
personal love relationships. There is no built-in virtue in
personal love, which only requires that another person meet your
standards of beauty, attractiveness, and rapport. Therefore, to
make a personal love relationship work, the believer must use a
virtue-base totally outside himself! Otherwise, people will make
him miserable all his life.
5. System testing.
a. A system is an organization composed of people
under the command of other people functioning under a policy
which is designed to fulfill a specific objective.
b. The characteristics of a system are three-fold:
(1) Authority.
(2) Policy.
(3) Objective.
c. The personnel under the authority can face system
testing. The policy of management can also cause system testing.
The objective of the organization can cause system testing as
well.
d. There are seven general categories of different
systems.
(1) Business organization, large or small.
(2) Military services.
(3) Professional organizations, such as medical
organizations, law firms, engineering companies, law enforcement.
(4) Ecclesiastical organizations, such as local
churches, denominations, cults, theological seminaries, Christian
service organizations.
(5) Athletic organizations, such as professional,
college, high school teams.
(6) divine institutions, like marriage and
family.
(7) Government: national, state, or local.
e. There are good and bad organizations, systems,
leadership, policies, and objectives. Your system testing may be
from either category, good or bad.
f. Therefore, there are many areas of system testing
related to the people, policy, and purpose of any organization.
g. Because no one is perfect and because everyone has
an old sin nature, personality, policy, and purpose conflicts
will inevitably exist.
h. Generally, there are three areas of system testing.
(1) In the field of authority: unfair and unjust
treatment from management, the boss, supervisor, senior officer,
coach, professor, government bureaucrat, husband, parents, etc.
Favoritism on the part of management can inevitably lead to
personality conflict in an office.
(2) The policy may be unreasonable, or it may
conflict with normal living or with your own personal norms and
standards, or it may be a stupid though still enforceable policy.
(3) The objectives may be unreasonable or even
impossible because of lack of ability in the personnel trying to
fulfill them. Or there may be a conflict between your personal
life and the objectives.
i. The greatest enemy to any organization is arrogance
in its personnel. Arrogance is the great enemy wherever there
are people. A second enemy is incapability; a third is laziness.
Other enemies include distraction from wrong priorities and
ignorance.
j. Passages regarding system testing.
(1) Prov 24:10, "If you falter in times of
trouble, how small is your strength."
(2) Col 3:12-4:1,12.
(a) Verse 12, "Therefore, as the elected ones
of God, sanctified and having been loved, clothe yourself with
[acquire] compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience
[attributes of spiritual autonomy]. (b) Verse
13, "Bear with [tolerate] one another, and forgive each other; if
anyone has a complaint against someone else, even as the Lord
forgave you, so also you should forgive."
(c) Verse 14, "And over all these virtues
put on virtue-love, which binds them all together in perfect
unity."
(d) Verse 15, "And let the peace of Christ
[spiritual autonomy] act as an umpire in your right lobes, into
which also you were elected into one body; furthermore keep on
becoming thankful."
(e) Verse 16, "Let the doctrine of Christ
indwell you richly with all wisdom [metabolized doctrine],
teaching and warning yourselves by psalms, hymns and spiritual
songs, singing by means of grace in your right lobes to God."
(f) Verse 17, "Whatever you do, in word or
in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to Him through God the Father."
(g) Verse 18, "Wives, submit to the
authority of your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord."
(h) Verse 19, "Husbands, love your wives,
and stop being bitter against them."
(i) Verse 20, "Children, obey your parents
in everything, for this pleases the Lord."
(j) Verse 21, "Parents, do not be embittered
with your children, or they will become discouraged."
(j) Verse 22, "Labor, obey management in
everything, not with eye service as men-pleasers, but with virtue
of right lobe, respecting the Lord."
(k) Verse 23, "Whatever you do, keep
functioning from your own soul as to the Lord and not to man;"
(l) Verse 24, "since you know that you will
receive the reward of your inheritance [escrow blessings]. You
serve the Lord Christ!" (m) Verse 25,
"Anyone who does wrong will receive the consequences of his
wrong, and there is no partiality."
(n) Chapter 4, verse 1, "Management, provide
for your employees what is right and fair, because you too have
an authority in heaven."
k. The principle is that God will promote the person
who passes system testing.
6. Thought testing.
a. Thought testing occurs at all stages of Christian
experience, but its direct application as a part of suffering for
blessing in momentum testing is the subject here. Thought
testing occurs in all three stages of spiritual adulthood. In
spiritual self-esteem, providential preventative suffering
provides some preliminary thought testing, as noted in 2 Cor
12:10. In spiritual autonomy, momentum testing includes thought
testing. In spiritual maturity, evidence testing provides some
definite thought testing.
b. To pass thought testing at any stage of the
Christian life, the believer must have the following.
(1) Pertinent metabolized doctrine to meet
thought testing at a given stage.
(2) The filling of the Spirit at the time of the
thought testing to make the correct application of metabolized
doctrine.
(3) This means the ability not to be distracted
by false issues or to be misled by wrong priorities. These are a
continual distraction in the Christian life. Actually, they
accumulate a tremendous amount of self-induced misery under the
law of volitional responsibility.
c. Mental attitude in the Christian life is the
function of your thinking and the pressure of thought conflict in
your soul. You will always have a lot of questions. If you're
patient, you'll eventually receive the answers.
d. What you really are at any given time is what you
think. All of us are constantly changing in our thinking. This
can mean instability in life. You are not always what you appear
to be on the surface, for mankind can hide his thoughts and
become adept at the practice of hypocrisy.
e. Therefore, the real you is the thought content of
your soul. Prov 23:7, "As he thinks within himself, so he is.
He says to you, `Eat and drink,' but in his right lobe [thinking]
he is not with you." This verse uses hypocrisy as an
illustration of the fact that we are what we think, not what we
do and not necessarily what we say.
f. A thought can make or break you, depending on the
nature of the thought. It's either thinking derived from
metabolized doctrine in your right lobe or thinking derived from
the propaganda of Satan. One will improve you; one will break
you apart.
g. Mental attitude is the function of thought in your
own soul, not what someone else thinks. So as a person, your
ability to cope with life, your happiness in life, and your
attractiveness in life is based upon what you think. Many people
lose the ability to think. In other words, you have to live your
own life. You can't borrow the thoughts of others; you have to
do your own thinking, make your own decisions, and handle your
own problems.
h. Since thinking is such a crucial issue, there are
mandates throughout the Bible with regard to thought testing.
(1) Rom 12:2, "Stop being conformed to this world
[age], but be transformed by the renovation of your thought, that
you may prove what the will of God is, namely, the good
[spiritual self-esteem], the well-pleasing [spiritual autonomy],
the complete [spiritual maturity]." To be able to think, you
must not only develop a vocabulary for life, but you must come to
understand the technical vocabulary of the Word of God for the
"renovation of your thought." You can never prove to yourself
what the "will of God" for your life is without renovation of
thought.
(2) Rom 12:3, "For I say through the grace which
has been given to me to everyone who is among you: stop thinking
of self in terms of arrogance beyond what you ought to think, but
think in terms of sanity for the purpose of being rational
without illusion as God has assigned to each one of us a standard
of thinking from doctrine." You choose to be sane or insane.
(3) The conflict of thought in the soul is
brought out in Isa 55:6-9. Verse 6, "Seek the Lord [positive
volition toward Bible doctrine] while He may be found. Call on
Him while He is near." Verse 7, "Let the evil believer forsake
his way, and the unrighteous believer his thoughts.
Consequently, let him return to the Lord, and He will have
compassion on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon." Verse 8, "`My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are My ways your ways,'" says the Lord. Verse 9, "For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than
your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts."
i. There are pseudo-solutions to life's problems based
on human viewpoint. Five are prominent today.
(1) Rationalization is a pseudo-system for
problem solving in thinking. It's the function of the mentality
of the soul in self-justification. This false solution blames
everyone else for your failures and your sufferings.
(2) The direct attack is the anger solution to
the problems and frustrations of life. This is solving problems
by temper tantrums and being in the total state of
irresponsibility by refusing to take the responsibility for your
own bad decisions. A direct attack has three objectives.
(a) The satisfaction of approbation lust by
focusing attention on self.
(b) The satisfaction of power lust by
controlling the people in your vicinity.
(c) The gratification of inferior feelings
by getting even under revenge modus operandi.
(3) Defense mechanism is a system of mental
attitude designed to divorce the believer from reality and
protect the mind against pressures which are too great for him to
bear. This is the basis for sociopathic function, drug
addiction, lasciviousness, etc.
(4) Denial is the human viewpoint thinking of
ignoring the problem in hopes that it will go away. This is the
pseudo-miracle syndrome. This is illustrated by the classical
attitude of the combat soldier who thinks there's only one bullet
with his name on it; therefore, all other bullets are not
dangerous. Instead, the soldier should use Job 5:20-21.
(5) Sublimation is the human viewpoint of finding
a new outlet, a hobby, a new system of entertainment, a new drive
for frustration. This is for the bored believer who seeks his
happiness only in social life, sexual life, and pleasure. This
believer has no capacity for life, love, or happiness, and
therefore he sublimates by becoming a slave to some detail or
details in life. These include such things as money, success,
pleasure, social life, marriage; things not necessarily wrong,
but distracting. Distracting things become wrong things when
they take precedence over doctrine. This category can also
include the system of trying to build your happiness on the envy
of others; having and wanting things so that others will envy
you. While most of the areas of sublimation are normal and moral
in themselves, it is the mental attitude and priorities which
cause the distraction to the protocol plan of God.
j. There's a Biblical answer to pseudo-solutions
related to thinking. 2 Cor 10:4-6, "For the equipment and the
weapons of our warfare [spiritual] are not human attributes, but
attributes of power [divine dynasphere] by means of God [Father],
against the destruction of fortifications [cosmic thinking],
assaulting and demolishing [with Bible doctrine] speculations
[cosmic thinking, human viewpoint] and every obstacle of
arrogance against the knowledge of God; even making a prisoner of
every thought [contrary to the Word of God] to the obedience of
Christ; holding in readiness [metabolized doctrine as an instant
reaction force] to punish all deviation when your obedience has
been fulfilled."
7. Prosperity testing.
a. There are two categories of prosperity testing.
(1) Individual prosperity testing, in which some
form of success challenges the top priority of doctrine.
(2) Collective prosperity testing, in which a
city, state, nation, or group becomes very prosperous. The
believer sharing in that prosperity can become distracted from
doctrine, lured away from the protocol plan of God.
(3) Collective prosperity testing often results
from combining the three categories of manifest destiny: landed
aristocracy, industrial complex, and the undeveloped frontier.
When these three have been fulfilled, the entire society usually
becomes very hedonistic, making pleasure the chief function in
life. Hedonism is self-indulgence; the pursuit of pleasure to
the exclusion of truth and doctrine. It contends that moral duty
is fulfilled in the gratification of pleasure-seeking. The
pursuit of pleasure excludes the priorities of integrity both in
establishment and in the Christian life. Collective prosperity
testing challenges the entire society to choose between truth and
hedonism.
b. Every believer must pass the prosperity test before
he can achieve spiritual maturity.
c. Prosperity cannot bring happiness apart from the
believer's residence function and momentum inside the divine
dynasphere.
d. Prosperity is the most subtle distraction to life
in the divine dynasphere.
e. Our capacity must always precede our prosperity.
f. The only protection you have to pass this test is
spiritual self-esteem. Prosperity cannot be accompanied by
happiness unless the believer has spiritual self-esteem.
g. The cosmic system can offer you success, sex, fame,
wealth, promotion, social and professional prosperity, but all
these are without happiness and you make your own misery.
h. The prosperity test is vitally necessary before
reaching spiritual maturity.
i. Passing this test consolidates the believer's scale
of values, making them consistent with the protocol plan of God,
resulting in stabilizing the right priorities of life, and giving
capacity to enjoy prosperity.
j. Passing this test means that the mature believer
receives God's greatest prosperity, the greater blessings of time
and eternity.
k. If you are unhappy in the midst of prosperity, it
means that you have flunked one of these tests.
l. When you have the same happiness in adversity as
well as prosperity, it means you have passed the test.
8. If you flunk any of these tests, you go backwards. If
you pass any of these tests, you accelerate your spiritual
growth.
I. Evidence Testing. See the Doctrine of Evidence Testing.
J. Suffering Has Solutions.
1. There are two negative solutions that stand out in the
post-Canon period of the Church Age.
a. Miracles are out now. Miracles are easy, involving
only the sovereignty of God. It is easy for the sovereignty of
God to utilize His omnipotence to perform a miracle. Nothing is
easier, since it requires only His own sovereignty. No other
volition is required. Miracles do not require positive volition
or any function of man's free will; only the sovereignty of God.
b. But to provide solutions and answers and blessings
that involve our volition is much more difficult for the
sovereignty of God, for all these require our perception of
doctrine. They require both our understanding of doctrine and
the compliance of our volition with His plan. For God to bless
us requires our fulfillment of certain mechanical functions in
the protocol plan of God, all of which depend upon our perception
of doctrine.
c. Prayer is not a problem solving device for you in
suffering. It is a weapon for the strong to use on behalf of
others who are suffering. As a royal priest, you intercede for
others. The believer does not pray for strength in time of
suffering. In other words, intercessory prayer is a problem
solving device. Petitionary prayer is not.
d. The believer in spiritual childhood derives
strength from the combination of suffering with the faith-rest
drill. The spiritual adult derives strength from providential
preventative suffering combined with spiritual self-esteem. The
only exception is the use of rebound in prayer.
e. It is a wrong solution to pray for the removal of
suffering, especially when the suffering is designed for
blessing, as in providential preventative suffering. It is also
a wrong application of doctrine to pray for strength in
suffering, since that comes mechanically under the protocol plan
of God.
2. There are positive solutions.
a. For suffering caused by sin, there is rebound.
b. For suffering during spiritual childhood, there is
the combination of metabolized doctrine with the faith-rest
drill.
c. For suffering during spiritual adulthood, there is:
(1) Spiritual self-esteem plus providential
preventative suffering equals spiritual autonomy.
(2) Spiritual autonomy plus momentum testing
equals spiritual maturity.
(3) Spiritual maturity plus evidence testing
equals glorification of God.
d. For failure after reaching spiritual self-esteem,
there is a challenge in Phil 3:12-17. "Forgetting those things
which are behind, I press on."
K. Applications of Suffering for Blessing to Living and Dying.
1. There is suffering for blessing on a limited scale for
those believers who use rebound regularly, and when someone
maligns you or gossips against you.
2. Nothing is greater than suffering for blessing, because
it determines your greatness in life. God's plan is for you to
use the grace systems of problem solving and to have blessing and
tranquility in the greatest problems and difficulties in life.
3. Ps 23:4, "Even when I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I cannot fear evil, for You are with me
[occupation with Christ]." Dying is considered to be the
ultimate in suffering. Once you understand that the protocol
plan of God teaches you how to die, you can learn how to live.
If you know how to die, you know how to live. Do you have the
ability to know how to die well? Dying is an index of how well
you lived.
4. So there's no fear of death, because death is not your
problem, but simply a matter of how the sovereignty of God has
decided you will die. God gives every believer enough time in
life to learn how to die.
5. Just as your life can be full of tranquility and
happiness, so can your death be. There is just as much happiness
in dying as in living. There's pain in both, so the issue is not
pain. The issue is your spiritual growth from Bible doctrine.
6. David calls death a shadow because he wasn't actually
dying at that moment; it was something coming in the future.
David knew how to live, for he was a believer with spiritual
class, spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual
maturity. Even when suffering from the Absalom Revolution as his
fourth installment of discipline, David recognized his banishment
to be suffering for blessing.
7. David also had true courage, for he "could not" fear
anything. It wasn't a matter of choosing to not fear and
bolstering up his courage. He couldn't fear! You can't have
that much doctrine in your soul and be frightened because of a
sudden change of circumstances, and David's change of
circumstances was sudden!
8. The believer who doesn't know how to die doesn't know
how to live. He doesn't have the faith-rest drill, hope 2, hope
3, or any doctrinal rationales. Since dying is the ultimate in
suffering, if you have tranquility and happiness at the thought
of dying, you will have tranquility and happiness in living. If
dying can't get to you, living can't get to you. Suffering for
blessing is designed to teach you from the protocol plan of God
how to live and how to die. When you put the two together, it's
an unbeatable combination.
9. There is one category of unbeliever who knows how to
die: the one with courage, which is rare. "The coward dies many
times; the brave man dies but once." (Julius Caesar,
Shakespeare) Caesar was an unbeliever with true courage. True
courage never has to prove courage. Macho people, those who feel
they must prove how tough they are, are cowards and afraid of
others.
10. Phil 1:20-21, "According to my intense concentration and
resultant hope [hope 2] that in nothing shall I be disgraced, but
with all integrity [virtue-love as problem solving device] even
now, as always, Christ shall be glorified in my body [experience
in life] whether by life or by death. For me, living is Christ
[gate #5]; dying is profit [gain, advantage, blessing from
spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual
maturity]."
11. Paul was at this time speaking from spiritual autonomy,
close to spiritual maturity. Paul begins by telling us how to
live: by concentrating on doctrine. A thought can make or break
you! By making doctrine his #1 priority, he advanced to
spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy and spiritual maturity.
12. There comes a point in your spiritual adulthood when you
understand that even though you sin and fail and make mistakes,
you will not be disgraced at the Judgment Seat of Christ. "Even
now as always" means when you learn how to live, there's
continuity in your life based on learning doctrine daily.
13. What do Ps 23:4 and Phil 1:20-21 have in common? While
we live in a world of people, some whom we love, and some whom we
do not, yet there are many things in life which we must do for
ourselves. The most basic of these is that no one can live our
life for us and no one can die for us! In both living and dying,
we have to go it alone.
14. There are certain aspects of living we must do alone,
like suffering, feeling pain, making your own decisions, thinking
your own thoughts, establishing your own priorities, and
eventually doing your own dying.
15. No one can die for you; you must do your own dying. No
one can bear your pain; you must bear your own pain. No one can
make your decisions for you; you must make your own decisions.
You have to live by your own standards. You cannot look to
someone else and copy and emulate. All this requires spiritual
adulthood.
16. In learning how to live and how to die, you will have the
key to happiness. You can have tranquility, great happiness and
blessing in suffering as well as in prosperity. The only way to
be on top of life in both adversity and prosperity is to be a
spiritual adult.
17. Being alive and a Christian does not imply that you have
the slightest idea as to how to live and how to die. This
requires understanding your portfolio of invisible assets, the
mechanics of the protocol plan of God; i.e., everything God has
provided for you to have a fascinating and wonderful life,
"exceedingly abundantly above all we could ever ask or think."
18. Prov 19:8, "He who gets wisdom loves his own soul."
Here is spiritual self-esteem. "He who keeps understanding will
prosper." So you not only have to learn the doctrine, but you
have to keep or guard it. You guard doctrine by hearing doctrine
every day. This verse helps us to understand spiritual self-
esteem, which is the point at which suffering for blessing
begins. No one ever has consistent suffering for blessing until
he has attained spiritual self-esteem.
ohn