TEEN TREE OF LIFE
THE FOUR SPIRITUAL MECHANICS
August 27, 2017
Part 2
BEFORE we begin, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, take a moment to name your sins to God the Father. This will allow you to be filled with the power of The Holy Spirit as you read this booklet (EPH 5:18 & 1JO 1:9). IF YOU HAVE never believed in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have that opportunity right now. Simply tell God the Father that you are believing on His Son Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you make that decision, you are now a believer and will always be a child of God! When you die, you will spend eternity with Him forever in heaven! (JOH 3:16 & ACT 16:31).
This is our second week studying The Four Spiritual Mechanics. We are now at the second Spiritual Mechanic which is the Function of Three Spiritual Skills. A skill is the ability to do something well, as a result of perception, application, and practice. The Filling of The Holy Spirit is one of the three spiritual skills. It is the energy and the power for The Spiritual life. We’ll continue to use our analogy from last week in which we compared The Spiritual life to a car. God has provided you with a chassis (car frame); it is your body – which is made up of many parts. And like a chassis, the body alone cannot operate and perform the functions that God has designed for you without the addition of other parts. The Bible doctrine you learn is the gas and the Filling of The Spirit is the charge which makes the gas work. With a car, you need to know how to turn the key to start it. It’s the same for the Spiritual life. Starting the car is equal to naming and citing your sins in order to be filled with The Spirit. It’s a practiced skill. And it’s one you should become very familiar with.
Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness of your soul is the second Spiritual skill. It’s also a power option. You need to know how to pull up to the gas pump and how to pump the gas. Knowing how to take in the Word of God is equivalent to knowing how to take the gas pump, press the button for the grade you want, insert the pump into your car and squeeze to get gas.
The Filling of The Spirit and metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness work together in the third Spiritual skill which is learning and applying the Problem-Solving Devices (Tools). (In our car analogy, this would be the fuel and air filters.) The Problem-Solving Devices, simply put, are the application of God’s Word and promises. When you use a filter, it prevents garbage and gunk from entering into your engine. But you need to learn God’s Word in order to use God’s Word. In other words, you need to buy the filters and use them in your car. If you don’t buy and use them, the garbage and gunk of the World flows right through to your soul!!
Now we’re at the third Spiritual Mechanic which is the Deployment of the Ten Problem-Solving Devices (Tools) in YOUR SOUL and then using them. Deployment means to arrange in a position of readiness. By learning the Problem Devices and getting them circulating in your soul, they are ready to use in your daily life. This is similar to taking the filters out of the box, placing them in the appropriate places in the car so air or fuel to pass through them.
Once we have learned God’s Word, the next obvious step is to apply God’s Word. The Ten Problem-Solving Devices are: Rebound; The Filling of The Holy Spirit; The Faith-Rest Drill; Grace Orientation; Doctrinal Orientation; A Personal Sense of Destiny; Personal Love for God the Father; Unconditional Love for All Mankind; Sharing the Happiness of God; and Occupation with Christ. (To learn about each of these tools in detail, please refer to The Junior Trees of Life – January 9-30, 2011 which can be found on Grace Bible Church’s Legacy Website.)
The Ten Problem-Solving Devices only become operational when we utilize the Filling of The Holy Spirit and the intake of the Word of God and function under the three Spiritual skills – the Filling of The Holy Spirit, the Word circulating in our soul and the deployment of the Ten Problem-Solving Devices.
The Fourth Spiritual Mechanic is the execution of the Plan of God. This is driving your car!! There are four Spiritual objectives in the execution of the Plan of God. The first Spiritual objective is reaching Spiritual Self-Esteem. This is having a personal sense of destiny for your life. When you have spiritual self-esteem, you’re aware of your own self-confidence. Having Spiritual Self-Esteem is the beginning of the effective function of the Ten Problem-Solving Devices. Spiritual Self-Esteem is the believer’s dependence on God’s Grace Provision for stabilizing self and integrating self into God’s Plan for the Church-age believer: in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. (EPH 3:12) Spiritual Self-Esteem is the first stage of spiritual adulthood.
Once you have Spiritual Self-Esteem, you can be one hundred percent sure that you have doctrine in your soul! It’s how you get Spiritual Self-Esteem. And this is how you reach the point of having Personal Love for God The Father and Unconditional Love for all Mankind.
The second spiritual objective is Spiritual maturity. It is accomplished by the believer who has advanced in the spiritual life by executing the Pre-Designed Plan of God. Spiritual maturity is attained after the believer passes many tests of undeserved suffering. Spiritual maturity has nothing to do with sinless perfection. This can never be realized in this life. It is characterized by virtue developed by an attitude of perseverance despite many failures. The mature believer has attained to the measure of the fullness of Christ: until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (EPH 4:13)
The third spiritual objective is Occupation with Christ. Having a Personal Sense of Destiny, along with growing to Spiritual maturity, results in Occupation with Christ. This requires maximum Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness. Occupation with Christ is the maximum function of learning doctrine on a daily basis so that you advance to spiritual adulthood, becoming conformed to the image of Christ.
The fourth and final spiritual objective is maximum glorification of God. Glorification of God is ultimately the execution of the Pre-Designed Plan of God (which must be done under the Filling of the Holy Spirit). It includes the fulfillment of your personal sense of destiny through the advancement to spiritual maturity. Now, every believer who attains spiritual maturity is a witness for the Prosecution against Satan. This is called evidence testing and it is Satan’s cross-examination of every witness presented by God in the historical trial of all fallen angels. Only mature believers have the capacity to be presented as witnesses. Look at JOB 1:6-12: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” 12 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your [f]power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord. Job is our shining example of a witness for the Prosecution against Satan. Job had attained spiritual maturity and so God could allow Satan to work him over! In human history, man’s thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions are entered as evidence, exhibits, precedents, and arguments in Satan’s appeal trial just as they were with Job.
A mature believer is an invisible hero, a winner believer, a witness for the Prosecution that declares the doom of Satan and millions of fallen angels. The greatest people in all of history are the ordinary believers of the Church-Age who learn and use the Power of God. You have the greatest opportunity for greatness in history!