Today, topics include decision-making, rebirth, and the operations of will within mankind. Our abilities and behaviors that derive from properties of the flesh include appetite, the processing of sense data (hearing, seeing, touching, etc.), and the functions of heart and mind (e.g., emotion, imagination, recall, thought). The choice by sinners to return to GOD (we say, repentance) is a choice to allow divinity to make multiple, permanent changes in the full pattern of our makeup and personhood. Through rebirth, sinners are to become vessels of divine spirit, and to continue as the offspring of GOD on the earth. The fighter in the “Yahoo! Answers” forum using the ID “john” (Level 2 with 307 points, a member since March 26, 2016) posted the following:
Beliefs and opinions are created outside of will , so How can you choose to believe something ?
My opinions are influenced by outside forces . So I don't understand the saying you can choose what to believe .
THE GOLDEN ARROW: 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. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. (Romans 12: 1-3, King James Version, KJV)
THE DOUBLE DAGGER: There Must Be Rebirth (01/21/2018); Flesh As Divine Vessels? (01/14/2018); Convinced/Convicted? (05/16/2017); His Birth Signals Rebirth (01/03/2017); No Repentance Without Rebirth? (12/14/2016); Choice, Duty, and Obligation? (11/17/2016); Judgment Focused On Content? (08/30/2016)
“john”, in the “analysis” many Christian believers are willing to make, the differences between the faculties of our mind and the operations by our spirit content from GOD must be accounted for. Conviction, decisions, and opinions are products of finite tools for human survival such as awareness, intellect, logic, philosophy, carnal reason, science, secular knowledge, and self-will (we also say, willpower). For the sinner who seeks a correct relationship to the Creator, a divinely provided process must be entered upon wherein ones inborn life essence put forth by GOD at Creation (we say, the breath; spirit; Word) undergoes permanent changes; and the sinner becomes a “developing believer” who will begin to operate on the basis of their own fresh endowment of sacred substance imparted from the makeup of divinity.
Those who are “born-again” do not choose “to believe” so much as they choose to make commitment to new experiences of discovery, gradual growth, fellowship with other believers, and regular practices that will nourish themselves as sons and daughters of GOD (e.g., praise, prayer, study of the Bible, unselfish service, regular worship). Those born-again also must “grow up again” and encounter “growing pains” and life challenges on the earth that include bereavement, disappointments, hardship, and suffering. As developing believers, all are supplied with inseparable spirit content from the makeup of GOD (e.g., faith, forbearance, forgiveness, longsuffering, lovingkindness, meekness, wisdom, and wrath against sin). Even so, there are differences in their levels of ability, insight, maturity, etc.
The operations of sin may dominate consciousness and self-will in created beings and living creatures; yet, sin is contrary to human and divine nature. Sin opposes the continued existence of divine law and promotes chaos, non-existence and the elimination of the divine order that maintains the universe. Where believers will welcome and perform in agreement with the sovereign will of GOD they become more capable of recognizing, rejecting, and resisting sin through their lifestyle and daily routines. With these points in mind, consider the following that uses language from the Bible:
(1.) John 4: 24, King James Version (KJV): 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
(2.) 1st Corinthians 2: 1-5, KJV: 1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
(3.) 1st Corinthians 2: 12-14, KJV: 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
There is far more to be said, correctly examined, and spiritually apprehended. (For example, (4.) Romans 8: 5-9, KJV: 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.) Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful. Be it unto you according to your faith.
THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC
Washington, DC
No comments:
Post a Comment