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Send correspondence and requests for materials to

Rick Hughes Evangelistic Ministries, Inc. P.O. Box 100

Cropwell, AL 35054-0100 Phone (205) 525-5584 or (800) 831-0718

www.bigrick.org

For additional accurate Bible studies, you may request a free catalog from

R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries 5139 W. Alabama

Houston, Texas 77027 Phone (713) 621-3740

www.rbthieme.org

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many concepts taught in this book are the result of my study under Colonel R. B. Thieme, Jr., pastor of Berachah Church, Houston, Texas. His diligent research and accurate teaching of the Word of God from the original languages have made “the thinking of Christ” understandable to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. I am privileged to have been able to study under Colonel Thieme for over thirty years.

I also wish to thank Donna Coley, Mike McKinnon, and Nancy Northcott for editing my lectures and helping to put them into book form. A very special thanks is extended to Katherine S. Tapping for her editorial insight and cover artwork.

PREPARATION FOR STUDY

Begin your Bible study with a time of silent prayer during which, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can acknowledge any sins to God the Father (Rebound) and, thereby, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to purify us from all wrongdoing. (I John 1:9)

With the filling of the Spirit, you can be confident that God the Holy

Spirit will guide you in your quest for the truth. Now, make sure that you have no unconfessed sin in your life. Ask

God to help you concentrate and be free of distractions as you begin your study. Then under the guidance of God the Holy Spirit, you are ready to learn God’s glorious plan for your life.

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IMPORTANT STUDY NOTICE

This book is a study of the basic principles of Christianity. You may need several weeks of thoughtful study to complete this book, but that time will be well spent. No information is more important than the spiritual truths which you are about to learn. Suggestions for your study:

• For unfamiliar terms, refer to the Directory of Terms in the back of the book.

• Keep your Bible open beside you, and use it as you study. • Write notes. • Read your notes often. • Reread the book several times, concentrating on those sections

that puzzle you. • Continue to study and re-study until all of the information makes

sense to you. • Reread this book periodically to remind yourself of the basic

principles of the Christian life. Remember: I enjoy talking with you and answering your questions.

Don’t hesitate to contact me. I am excited to think of the amazing joy that will be yours as you execute God’s plan and discover God’s purpose for your life.

Study hard and enjoy God’s grace blessings!

Rick Hughes President, Rick Hughes Evangelistic Ministries, Inc.

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Contents Introduction ...........................................................................................v Part One: Salvation Made Simple Jesus Christ as our personal substitute ....................................................1 God’s perfect provision ..........................................................................2 The lost non-Christian ............................................................................3 Believing that God exists ........................................................................4 The time and the place............................................................................5 Salvation by not sinning .........................................................................5 Death for the non-Christian ....................................................................7 Creation of a human spirit in the believer ................................................9 The grace of God..................................................................................10 Salvation in a second............................................................................11 Membership in the Royal Family of God...............................................12 The permanency of salvation ................................................................13 The fairness of God..............................................................................15 Summary: Salvation .............................................................................17 Part Two: God’s Plan for You after Salvation The Protocol Plan of God: A right thing done in a right way ...... 19 System of authority ........................................................................21 System of communication...............................................................21 Administrator.................................................................................22 System of solutions ........................................................................22 Assets ............................................................................................23 System of production and service....................................................23 System of rewards..........................................................................23 The Priorities of the Christian Life ............................................. 25 Rule One of the Spiritual Life: The filling of the Holy Spirit ...........27

Gaining the power of the spiritual life......................................27 Knowing how to be filled with the Holy Spirit .........................28

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Fighting for control of the believer’s soul ................................29 Obeying God’s command to not sin.........................................31 Rejecting human good.............................................................32 Losing fellowship with God ....................................................34 Using God’s solution for sin....................................................36 Being disciplined for unconfessed sin ......................................37 Responding, not reacting, to God’s discipline ..........................38

Rule Two of the Spiritual Life: Daily intake of Bible doctrine .........39 Doing a right thing in a right way............................................39 Limiting future options through bad decisions .........................40 Living the Christian life ..........................................................42 Using Operation Z ..................................................................43 Growing spiritually through God’s Word ................................45 Thinking like Christ ................................................................46 Possessing humility.................................................................47 Using divine solutions to problems ..........................................49 Being obedient to God’s Word ................................................50 Experiencing spiritual freedom................................................51 Glorifying God through Bible doctrine in the soul....................53 Summary: Priorities of the Christian Life .....................................55

Your Performance in God’s Plan.....................................................57 Using your spiritual gift .................................................................57 Being a royal priest ........................................................................58 Being a royal ambassador...............................................................58 Observing the Laws of Divine Establishment ..................................59 Living by the Royal Law................................................................60 Living your life as unto the Lord ....................................................61 Claiming the promises of God ........................................................65 Summary: Your Performance in God’s Plan ..................................67 Suggestions for Fulfilling God’s Mandates.....................................68 Appendix Forty Things We Receive at Salvation ............................................71 Directory of Terms...................................................................... 75

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PRACTICING YOUR CHRISTIANITY A Crash Course in Basic Spirituality

Sudden death overtime at the Super Bowl. Your team lines up for a 15 yard pass to win the game. Who do you want passing the ball? The water boy or the star quarterback? One second left in the final game of the NBA Championship. The series is tied. The score is tied. Who do you want shooting the game winning free throw? The ball boy or the most valuable player? What sets these superstars above other athletes? What do all heroes have in common? For one thing, they do not become heroes overnight! They work harder than anyone. Years of dedication, concentration, and practice—plain hard work—develop the skills that bring them success. We need spiritual superstars as well—not headline grabbers, but quiet heroes who understand God’s will for their lives and who execute that will. They study Bible doctrine1 diligently, and they commit to executing God’s plan. Theirs, too, is a life of hard work—as you know, study is hard work—but their reward is much greater than the reward of even the greatest athlete. God will say to them,

Well done, My good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. (Matthew 25:21)

Today’s headlines are more and more shocking—kids killing kids, parents killing their children, children killing their parents, kids committing suicide, chaos in our streets, our schools, our homes. Are you a spiritual hero who can look at the chaos and still maintain a sense of

1 Bible doctrine is the promises, principles, and procedures taught in the Word of God—the Bible—that give the Christian the knowledge and power to execute the Christian life. Bible doctrine is eternal truth.

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stability, tranquillity, and hope? One thing is certain: just as with the athlete, such inner strength and peace of mind does not happen overnight. Spiritual skills must be “practiced” throughout our lives if we are to reach spiritual maturity.

The source of our peace of mind and of our happiness is simple: Belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior followed by the daily study of His Word and its application to our lives so we can attain spiritual maturity and glorify Him.

This book will wrap up the Christian life in simple, practical terms so that you can know with confidence God’s plan for your life; however, this book is only an introduction, not an in-depth study. Consider this book an “easy practice” which will give you basic start-up skills. Your study of the Christian2 life will continue for the rest of your life. Your blessings because of that study will continue throughout eternity.

2 A Christian is any person who has believed in Christ as his personal Savior. The word “believer” denotes a Christian.

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Part One:

Salvation Made Simple

If you have already believed in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you must understand the mechanics of your salvation so you can accurately spread the “good news”3 and so you can begin “practicing” your way toward spiritual maturity. If you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, this information can change your eternal destiny and begin you on the path to true happiness both now and forever. 1. God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, Who died as our personal substitute on the Cross. Believing in Christ means that we accept that fact.

He (Jesus Christ) Who knew no sin was made sin for us in order that we might be made the righteousness of God through Him. (II Corinthians 5:21)

In other words, Jesus Christ never sinned, and yet He was judged for every sin that has ever or will ever be committed. He took our punishment in His own body. Jesus Christ Himself

bore our sins in His own body on the tree (the Cross) in order that we, being dead in sins, should live unto righteousness. (I Peter 2:24)

This concept of ultimate sacrifice has been illustrated in thousands of different ways. One of the neatest stories tells about a criminal who committed horrendous crimes and was sentenced to death. Just as the hangman was tightening the noose around his neck, a stranger walked forward and said, “I am willing to die in your place. I will be your substitute. You will not have to die. I will die for you.” 3 The Gospel of Jesus Christ is called the “good news” because it teaches salvation as a free gift through faith alone in Christ alone.

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The guilty fellow was astounded and said, “But I am the one who committed the crimes. I am going to die for them. I deserve to die. You cannot be serious!” The man nodded. “I understand that you are guilty and that you deserve to die, but I am willing to take your place. I will die so that you can live.” With that he took the noose from around the criminal’s neck and put it around his own. The innocent man willingly died in place of the guilty man. The guilty man was still guilty, but he was alive and free!

In the same way, Jesus Christ took our place. We are the guilty ones, but He died as a substitute for us so that we do not have to face the death penalty that we deserve, spending eternity in the Lake of Fire. This does not mean that He actually went to the Lake of Fire as our substitute. It means that on the Cross He was punished and died spiritually and then physically as our substitute. We are the ones who should have been on the Cross being punished for our own sins. Instead, Jesus Christ, the perfect Man-God, took our place.

Now once in the end of the world He (Jesus Christ) has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. (Hebrews 9:26b)

2. We do nothing in salvation except choose to believe in Christ as our Savior.

When God created the human race, He gave each of us the freedom to make our own decisions. God never forces anyone to do His will. We can choose for Him, which is called positive volition,4 or we can choose against Him, which is called negative volition. We must choose to believe in Christ as our Savior.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. (Acts 16:31a)

Billions of years ago, in His wonderful omniscience, God the Father

4 Positive volition is a term used by Colonel R. B. Thieme, Jr., pastor of Berachah Church, Houston, Texas. When God created the human race, He gave each of us volition, the freedom to make decisions. We must choose of our own positive volition to believe in Christ as our Savior. After salvation, we must use positive volition to choose to study Bible doctrine daily.

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looked down through the future, and He saw your positive volition. He knew that you would respond positively to the Gospel and that you would believe in Christ as your Savior. He knew billions of years ago that because of your positive choice, you will spend eternity with Him in Heaven where you will share His happiness forever.

The eternal and perfect happiness of Heaven is indescribable. In Heaven,

there will be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. There will be no more pain. Old things are passed away… All things have become new. (Revelation 21:4-5) The eye has never seen, the ear has never heard, and the heart has never felt the wonderful things that God has for those who love Him. (I Corinthians 2:9)

3. A non-Christian5 has to realize that he is lost before he can see his need for a Savior.

While on a hunting trip in the wilds, I came upon a man who was lost but did not realize it. He thought he was walking toward the base camp. I informed him that the camp was in the other direction. His reply was, “I guess I’m lost.” He was lost, but he had not realized it until I told him.

When you talk to a non-Christian about accepting Christ as his personal Savior, he has to realize right off that he is lost; otherwise, he cannot understand that he needs to be saved.

For the Son of Man (Jesus Christ) is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)

And He (Jesus Christ) spoke this parable to them saying, ‘What man of you, if you have one hundred sheep and lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing, and when he comes

5 A non-Christian is anyone who has never made the decision to believe in Jesus Christ as his Savior and, therefore, anyone who is not saved, not born again. The non-Christian will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.

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home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ I say to you that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety and nine just persons, who need no repentance.6’ (Luke 15:3-7)

Every one of us—every human being—is born in a lost state because we are all born spiritually dead and, therefore, separated from God.

For you were like sheep going astray. (I Peter 2:25) Sadly, too many people today are lost to God. They have placed total confidence in false securities such as their bank accounts or their families’ positions in the community. They rely on their own skills or talents or beauty. They do not recognize that one catastrophe could take everything from them. They do not know that they are lost and need to be saved.

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. (Psalm 118:8-9)

4. You can believe in God and not be saved.

According to the Bible, the issue for salvation is

What do you think about Christ? (Matthew 22:42a) Do you believe in Him? Many people say, “Well, I believe in God.” But make note of this: Do you accept that Christ died as a substitute for you? Do you realize that you can do nothing to save yourself? Do you understand that you are under the wrath of God? The Bible says,

He who believes on the Son has everlasting life. He who does not believe on the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)

6 Repentance means a change of mind. For example, at salvation you change your mind and realize that you do need Christ as your Savior, that on your own you cannot do anything good enough to gain entrance into Heaven with perfect God. Repentance does not mean feeling sorry for your sins.

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The question is not “Do you believe that God exists?” The question is “Do you accept that Christ’s death was a substitute for yours?” If you do not accept that Christ died as a substitute for you, you are not saved. You will not go to Heaven. It is that simple. 5. You can be saved at any age and in any place.

Being born again7 has nothing to do with age. You can be born again when you are seven, forty-seven or seventy years old. My birthday is on August 22, but it is also on August 17. My first birthday is the day that I was born physically. My second birthday, my spiritual birthday, is the day I was born again. I am privileged to know the exact date of my second birth because it happened when I was twenty-two years of age, old enough to remember the moment vividly. Do you know if you have a second birthday? You may not know the exact date—and you do not need to know because God knows—but you must be born again if you want to spend eternity in Heaven.

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. (I John 5:1)

I know a man who was born again in a bathtub! That is right! He was in a bathtub when he believed in Christ as his Savior. It does not make any difference where you are when you are saved. What matters is that you obey God’s command to believe that Christ died as a substitute for you. Because Jesus Christ did all of the work on the Cross, salvation is simple: Faith alone in Christ alone.

Neither is there salvation in any other because there is none other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

6. You cannot be saved by not sinning. 7 Born again is another way of describing salvation. When we talk about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, we mean that we must be born again spiritually.

Salvation: Faith alone in Christ alone.

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Everyone sins! Christians sin. Non-Christians sin.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

Even if everyone in the world stopped sinning right now—today—this very instant—and no one ever sinned again—impossible, but pretend it could happen—even then nobody would be any closer to Heaven. Sin is not the issue. Salvation has nothing to do with sin or with being “good” or “bad.” The only issue for salvation is

What do you think about Christ? (Matthew 22:42a) God does not care how morally good the non-Christian is. He can go to Sunday School every week, read the Bible every day, help little old ladies across the street, never cheat on tests, never steal even a penny, never tell a lie—even a little one. None of these good works can save him. Being good is a noble thing. You should be good, but being good is not a ticket to Heaven. Being good cannot save you because non-Christians are dead in trespasses and sin.

And you (the Christian) has He (Jesus Christ) made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1) I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

Take notice that the Scripture clearly states the way, not a way. No one will ever go to Heaven unless he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only source of eternal life. No other way will work.

He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (I John 5:12)

Salvation is not religion. Salvation is not a religious ritual such as

Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.

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baptism. (I Corinthians 1:17) Salvation is not an effort of personal sacrifice or commitment. Salvation is not trying to live without sinning. Salvation is nothing but faith in Christ.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said,

Come to Me all of you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

The word “rest” is the Greek word anapauo.8 Because this verb is in the future tense, active voice and indicative mood, it means that at the moment you accept Christ as your Savior, you can relax. In that very moment! Anapauo means to be given intermission from labor. Think of it as being set free from the slave market of sin!9 7. Death for the non-Christian means separation from God.

Many people misunderstand death because they do not understand the difference between the two types of death mentioned most often in God’s Word: Spiritual death and physical death. Spiritual death: Everyone is born physically alive but spiritually dead. Because our Lord Jesus Christ was born perfect—of a virgin and, therefore, without an Old Sin Nature—He was born with a body, soul and spirit. Because we are born with an Old Sin Nature, we are born with a body and soul but without a human spirit. (I Corinthians 15:22)

8 The Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages; the New Testament, in the Greek language. The original manuscripts of the Bible, written in these languages, were divinely inspired. English translations are not divinely inspired and have frequent mistakes. Therefore, I always refer to the original languages in order to give you the accurate interpretation of God’s Word. Verses quoted in this book may be different from the translations in your Bible. That is because the verses used here are corrected translations by R. B. Thieme, Jr., from the original languages. 9 Colonel R. B. Thieme, Jr., explains the slave market of sin in his book, The Slave Market of Sin.

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Physical death: If a person remains spiritually dead without ever being born again, when he dies physically, his soul leaves his body and goes to Hell to await judgment at the Great White Throne.10

Every member of the human race chooses either to be born twice or to die twice.

To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other we are the aroma of life leading to life. (II Corinthians 2:16)

The Bible describes two deaths for non-Christians. The first is natural death. People die in various ways—of heart attacks or in accidents or of cancer. Some even commit suicide. This is natural death, the first death.

It is appointed for men to die once but after this the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

For the non-Christian, the second death is eternal condemnation in

the everlasting flames of judgment prepared for Satan11 and the fallen angels and shared with non-Christians. (Revelation 20:10; Matthew 25:41) The Bible says that non-Christians will die this second death after Jesus Christ judges them at the Great White Throne judgment. Here also death will be destroyed, thus making it impossible for the soul of the non-Christian to die and thereby end his agony. (Revelation 20:11-15) Having no hope of dying, the non-Christian faces a never-ending burning with no

10 The Great White Throne is the final judgment for all non-Christians. Here non-Christians are evaluated on the basis of two things: Is their name in the Lamb’s Book of Life? (Philippians 4:3, Revelation 3:5) If not, does their righteousness as found in the Book of Works measure up to the righteousness of God? (Isaiah 64:6) Because their righteousness is not perfect, they must be condemned to the Lake of Fire forever. Revelation 20:11. 11 Satan, also known as the devil, is the most beautiful creature God ever created. His original name was Lucifer, son of the morning. In arrogance, Satan turned against God, convincing many other angels to defy God as well. Satan and these angels now try to convince mankind to turn from God and follow them.

Christians choose life. Non-Christians choose death.

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escape. This is horrible! Stark terror with no way out, no release! Non-Christians endure this torment because they rejected the redemption and forgiveness provided by the Lord Jesus Christ! This eternal horror is called the second death because there is no hope of deliverance—even through physical death. 8. At salvation, God the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit in the believer. Today, you may have spoken to someone who is physically alive but spiritually dead. You do so every time you speak to a non-Christian! I was saved when a man with whom I was speaking unexpectedly said, “Son, do you know that you are dead?” His words astonished me. “I am not dead!” I told him. “I am alive. Look at me! I am flesh and blood.” And he said, “No, you are dead—spiritually dead.”

We are born spiritually dead. When we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, God the Holy Spirit fills our souls and makes our dead human spirits alive. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:5,

Even when we were dead in sin (spiritually dead), He (God) has made us alive together with Christ; by grace are we saved.

In John 3, God tells us about Nicodemus, one of the greatest Jewish

leaders of his time. Nicodemus was proud of himself because he prayed many times a day, studied the Old Testament scriptures religiously, and performed all of the Jewish rituals precisely. He believed that since he was as righteous12 as he could possibly be, he did not need a Savior. But if that were true, he could not figure out who Christ was, this Man who performed miracles. Nicodemus was puzzled, and he wanted to meet Jesus so that he could understand. He came to Jesus Christ at night and said,

Master, no one could do the miracles you do unless God sent him or God is with him. (John 3:2)

12 God is perfect, both in His person and in His character. He possesses eternal, unchangeable and absolute righteousness (+R). Regardless of how good a person is, his best is only relative righteousness (-R). Unless the absolute, perfect righteousness (+R) of God has been given to him through faith in Christ as Savior, the scales of justice are tipped toward eternal divine judgment, and he will be cast into the Lake of Fire forever.

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Jesus did not argue with Nicodemus or try to convince him that He

truly was the Messiah promised to the Jews. Jesus came right to the point, to the only issue that mattered.

Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ (John 3:3)

Nicodemus asked Jesus,

‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born again?’ (John 3:4)

Jesus answered, “Nicodemus, this is not a physical birth. It is a

spiritual birth.” Nicodemus may have been the smartest Jewish leader of his time, but

he did not have a particle of sense. Of course, he could not go back into his mother’s womb! He could only be born again if his spirit were made alive because he trusted in Christ as his Savior.

9. We are saved by the grace of God..

So by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of (human) works so that no one can brag. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Are you familiar with the word “grace” in the Bible? The Greek word

charis means that we can do nothing to earn salvation. We can do nothing to buy it. We can do nothing to deserve it. Grace is the absence of works. Salvation is a grace gift from God and has nothing to do with our good works. We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone.

When Jesus Christ hung on the Cross, He took our sins on Himself—every sin ever committed by anyone—from the smallest white lie to mass murders. Equally amazing, at the moment we believe in Christ as our

Human life is fleeting. Eternal life is forever.

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Savior, God the Father gives us His perfect righteousness (II Corinthians 5:21) as well as His eternal life.

God does it all. That is grace!

But to each one of us grace is given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. (Ephesians 4:7)

No one can explain God’s grace because it is too amazing for our

human intellect to understand. We can only appreciate it. No matter how wonderful we think we are, no matter how many good works we do, we can never earn or deserve the blessings that we receive from God. He gives them to us because He loves us. And because His love never changes no matter how horribly we sin, He will always continue to bless us.

All things are for your sakes in order that, through the thanksgiving of many, abundant grace might result to the glory of God. (II Corinthians 4:15)

10. Salvation only takes a second, and in that second we are given eternal life.

The moment each of us decides that we need a Savior, that Christ is the one true Savior, and that He died for us personally, in that moment of faith we receive Christ as our personal Savior. Salvation takes place in just a second, in an instant, in a moment of faith. How can it be so quick? Because Jesus Christ on the Cross already did all of the work! Nothing remains to be done except for us to believe. The instant that we do believe, God brings us into an eternal relationship with Him. In that single, simple moment of belief, we pass from spiritual death to eternal life.

He who hears My (Jesus Christ’s) word and believes on Him (God the Father) Who sent Me has eternal life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life. (John 5:24)

Imagine that the greatest cook in the world prepares an unbelievably delicious meal for you. You walk in, and there it is, set out before you! Every one of your favorite foods is arrayed on gold platters on cloths of

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woven silver. You close your eyes to better enjoy the mouth-watering aroma. You open them, dazed to realized that every perfectly prepared morsel is for you alone. You did nothing to help prepare the food, but it is there waiting for you. Free, too! You know you could never prepare such food. You would not even know how to begin preparing it. But you know that the cook cared enough for you to give you his gift of love. You begin eating, and instantly you become a participant in the feast. You do not deserve it. All you can do is thank the cook and enjoy his grace gift.

God has prepared for each of us in Heaven a feast more spectacular than anything we can imagine. All we have to do is choose to accept it. All we have to do is believe in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. Christ knows that we can do nothing to gain admittance to Heaven; therefore, He gladly did all of the work for us. He desires that every one of us enjoy the benefits of His work. Just as we cannot make the best meal ever prepared, even more so we cannot work our way into Heaven. But we can accept Jesus Christ’s gift of admission into His perfect and eternal kingdom. He did the work. Through faith, we enjoy the benefits of His work for eternity. In the instant that we believe—that very instant!—the glorious blessings of Heaven and of eternal life are forever ours.

11. When we believe in Christ, He enters us into a new, personal relationship with God as members of His Royal Family.

Our new birth by faith in Christ makes us acceptable for adoption by God since Christ has already paid the adoption price for us.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become the children of God, even to those who believe on His name. (John 1:12)

God adopts us into His family, but our position as children of God is just as certain as if we had been born physically into His family.

For you are all Sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)

Children of God—Royal Family of God—Heirs to all that Christ inherits: This is our legacy as Christians, our inheritance through Christ Jesus. Because we are sons of God through Christ Jesus, we receive many wonderful blessings both on earth and in Heaven!

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Therefore you are no longer a servant but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Galatians 4:7)

We have an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away,13 reserved in Heaven for us. (I Peter 1:4)

12. No matter how often we as Christians fail, we can never lose our salvation. We will always be sons of God and members of God’s Royal Family.

Did you ever get an F on a report card? I got a few of them. I was

always shocked to see them. I felt even worse when my high school football coach found out about them! On report card day, he would line up the whole team after practice and order us to hold our report cards in front of us. Slowly, he would walk the line. Slowly, he would examine each card. When he would come to me, he would look at my report card, and then he would look at me and shake his head. The other guys—the ones with no F’s—would start chuckling. I would have to bend over and hold onto my knees as he administered three lashes for every F. It was horrible! Remember that old song, “Love Lifted Me?” Well, I got a lift out of the lashes all right! Even worse, if I got too many F’s, I was off the team.

But when we as Christians fail God, when we get an F for our spiritual life because we have unconfessed sin in our lives (we have not rebounded), we are still saved! We can do nothing to be thrown off of God’s team! We are always members of His family! No matter how often or how badly we fail, we have a secure position with God in Christ. Once we are saved, we are always saved. God says,

I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.

13 “Incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away” means that our inheritance as Christians comes from God and, therefore, is perfect. We receive that inheritance at the moment of salvation, and nothing and no one can take away any part of it.

We can never lose our salvation.

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(John 10:28)

Just as our physical father will always be our physical father even if we are adopted at birth and never see him, just so our spiritual Father will always be our Father from the moment of salvation through eternity regardless of what we do—even if we deny ever having been saved! Our salvation depends on our perfect Savior, Jesus Christ, not on us.

Too many Christians blaspheme God by thinking that they can cause the loss of their salvation. We did nothing to earn salvation, and we can do nothing to lose it. Salvation is a grace gift from God. God does not take back His gifts!

For by grace are you saved through faith… It is the free gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

I have had people tell me, “Big Rick, if you ask the Lord to save you,

He will save you. So if you ask Him to leave you, He will leave you. All you have to do is ask Him, and He will leave you.” Well, my friends, that is wrong! Totally, completely, 100% wrong! The Lord says in Hebrews 13:5b,

I will never leave you or forsake you.

But, you say, what if I have stopped believing? Or what if I doubt

that I was ever saved? Or what if I have done something so terrible that I do not think I can still be saved? Our salvation depends on God, not on us, and God says that He “will never leave you nor forsake you.” Never means never! We cannot do anything to lose our salvation.

God’s faithfulness is so complete that even if we deny that He exists, even if we deny that we are saved,

even if we (Christians) become faithless, yet God remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself. (II Timothy 2:13)

For God the Father to deny us—members of His Royal Family, He

would have to deny Christ. He cannot do it! He will not do it! The minute God places us in His Royal Family through faith in Jesus Christ, our position is secure and eternal based on His faithfulness.

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For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption. (Romans 8:14-15)

As members of God’s family, we will spend eternity in Heaven. That is God’s promise. 13. God is fair. He gives everyone every opportunity to be saved. Omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent14 God does not make mistakes. He is incapable of being unfair.

There is no injustice with God, is there? Emphatically not! (Romans 9:14)

Every person who has ever lived has been given equal opportunity to

accept Christ as his Savior. The exceptions are those who are mentally handicapped or those who die too young to understand the concept of salvation. Because God is fair and always treats us in grace, these people automatically go to Heaven when they die. For all of the rest of us who have the mental ability to understand salvation, God always makes us aware that He exists so that we can choose to be saved if we wish.

The point at which we recognize that God may exist is called the point of God consciousness. One non-Christian may reach the point of God consciousness while lying on the ground in a jungle in Africa, gazing at the shimmering stars and shining moon and realizing that someone may be out there greater than he is.

The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. (Psalm 19:1)

14 These words refer to three of the ten attributes which form the essence of God. Omniscient means that God knows everything. Omnipresent means that God is everywhere at the same time. Omnipotent means that God is all-powerful. He has the power to do anything.

God always keeps His promises.

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Another non-Christian may be studying evolution in science class and realize that something is wrong, that no half-man/half-ape is running around his neighborhood, that someone greater than himself may have created him.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works. (Psalm 139:14)

Or maybe a non-Christian, who lives in a village in China, falls from

a mountainside, and as he hovers near death, he realizes that someone greater than himself may exist.

What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his life from the power of the grave? (Psalm 89:48)

If we reject God at the point of God consciousness, God knows that

getting the Gospel to us would do no good; however, if we are positive toward God, if we want to learn more about Him, God will make sure that the Gospel is presented to us—and in our own language so that we can understand it perfectly! Even the inhabitants of the remotest jungles have equal opportunity to learn about God and to be saved. God wants everyone to spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

The Lord is not slow about His promise (to judge non-Christians), as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (II Peter 3:9)

God wants non-Christians to change their minds (repent) about

believing in Christ as Savior; therefore, He is patient in judging their unbelief, giving them every opportunity to change their minds about Christ. However, the choice is theirs.

God did the work of salvation for everyone, but the gift of salvation is ours only if we accept it.

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Summary: Salvation 1. God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, Who died as your

personal substitute on the Cross. Believing in Christ means that you believe that even though He never sinned, He was judged for every sin that has ever or will ever be committed. He was judged in your place so that you do not have to be judged.

2. You do nothing in salvation except choose to believe in Christ as your Savior.

3. You have to know that you are lost before you can see your need for a Savior. Every one is born in a lost state and, therefore, separated from God.

4. You can believe in God and not be saved. 5. You can be saved at any age and in any place. 6. You cannot be saved by not sinning. Salvation has nothing to do

with sin or with being “good.” Salvation is faith alone in Christ alone.

7. Death for the non-Christian means separation from God. Every member of the human race is born physically alive but spiritually dead. If a person remains spiritually dead without ever being born again, when he dies physically, his soul leaves his body and goes to Hell to await judgment at the Great White Throne.

8. When you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior, God the Holy Spirit fills your soul and makes your dead human spirit alive. You must be born again to spend eternity in Heaven with God.

9. You are saved by the grace of God. You can do nothing to earn, buy or deserve salvation.

10. Salvation only takes a second, and in that second God gives you eternal life. Salvation is so quick because Jesus Christ already did all of the work on the Cross. Believing only takes a second.

11. When you believe in Christ, you enter into a new, personal relationship with God as a member of His Royal Family. Your new birth by faith in Christ makes you acceptable for adoption by God since Christ has already paid the adoption price for you.

12. No matter how often you as a Christian fail, you can never lose your salvation. You will always be a son of God and a member of God’s Royal Family. Your position is secure and eternal based on God’s faithfulness. God’s love for you never diminishes.

13. God is fair. He is incapable of being unfair. He gives everyone every opportunity to be saved. God did the work of salvation for everyone, but the gift of salvation is ours only if we accept it.

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Part Two: God’s Plan for You

God’s plan for you is divided into three stages:

STAGE ONE: To believe in Jesus Christ as Savior. STAGE TWO: To execute the spiritual life while living on this earth. STAGE THREE: To spend eternity with God in Heaven. Simply put, the three stages of the Christian’s life are salvation,

temporary time on earth, and eternal time in Heaven. Now that you understand Stage One, salvation, we will focus on

Stage Two: Your time on earth. I am sure you have been asking yourself—maybe asking others—“Now that I have believed in Christ, now that I have been born again, what does God expect of me?”

The Protocol Plan of God

Before you begin your study of the Christian life, you must understand an important word: PROTOCOL. Protocol means to do the right thing in the right way. God has a marvelous system for living the spiritual life called the Protocol Plan of God.

I like to compare God’s Protocol Plan to a football team. Every Christian—but no non-Christian—is a member of God’s team. However, only certain Christians are able to suit up and to play: • only those Christians who fulfill God’s mandate

to grow by means of grace and by means of the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, (II Peter 3:18)

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• only those Christians who study God’s Word consistently under the ministry of a pastor who teaches from the original languages,

• only those Christians who stay in fellowship with God by use of rebound15 (I John 1:9—acknowledging their sins to God).

Wear for yourself the whole armor of God in order that you may be able to hold your ground (defend) against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Therefore, pick up and put on the full armor from God in order that you might have the ability to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth (Bible doctrine in the soul, the first necessity for the Christian warrior), having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having put combat boots on your feet, with the equipment of the Gospel, even peace, and in addition to all these, having picked up and carried the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all of the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword from the Spirit, which is the Word from God. (Ephesians 6:11-17)

Christians who do not wear the whole armor of God sit in the bleachers, members of the team but not dressed out. Because they have not followed God’s perfect Protocol Plan for their lives, they receive the bad consequences of their bad decisions.

God takes the strengths and weaknesses, the talents and gifts of every mature Christian, and He molds them together to form a playing unit that glorifies Him. Each team member has the responsibility to learn the plays and to practice diligently. Together, the members of the team are much stronger than each member individually. This collective strength is one of the reasons for local churches.

15 Rebound—Problem Solving Device #1—is explained in detail by Colonel Robert B. Thieme, Jr., in his book, Rebound Revisited.

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And He (God the Holy Spirit) gave spiritual gifts:…some to be evangelists, others to be pastor-teachers for the purpose of training and equipping (through Bible doctrine) the saints (believers) for spiritual combat and Christian service and for the edification of the body of Christ16 until we all attain the objective (execution of the spiritual life) because of the system from doctrine, even by means of the full knowledge (epignosis) of the Son of God, resulting in a mature believer who has reached the standard of maturity that belongs to the fullness of Christ in order that we are no longer immature, being tossed here and there by waves of false doctrine and being blown here and there by every wind of (false) doctrine, face to face with cunning methods of deception. But by teaching doctrine, you (the pastor-teacher) might cause them (believers in the congregation) to grow up by means of the all things (of Bible doctrine) with respect to Him Who is the absolute Authority, even Christ. (Ephesians 4:11b-15)

God coordinates the efforts of all participating team members to

generate momentum—divine good production—to secure victory for the team as a whole.

Thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Corinthians 15:57)

1. The Protocol Plan of God has a system of authority.

Just as a football team must have a coach to coordinate the talents of all of the players, so in the spiritual life God Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit is our Coach. We must be filled with God the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill the Protocol Plan of God for our lives. 2. The Protocol Plan of God has a system of communication. 16 The body of Christ refers to the Church, to every believer. We are under the authority of the Head, Who is Christ Jesus. All members of the body have different spiritual gifts, and those gifts work together for the benefit of the whole Church.

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God the Holy Spirit as our mentor17 must be able to communicate His system to us. God’s system of communication, His playbook for our spiritual life, is the Bible in the divinely inspired original languages. We must study the Word of God every day, not once a week, not twice on Sunday, but every day. The reason is simple: The Word of God is nutrition for our souls. Occasionally, we may have to miss our study, but our goal should be to develop a pattern of consistency, a habit of daily study that will strengthen our spiritual muscles. 3. The Protocol Plan of God has an administrator.

That administrator is the pastor, who functions as our assistant coach. Just as the assistant coach relays the plays from the head coach, so the pastor, under the authority of God the Holy Spirit, communicates God’s Word to those under his authority. I am often asked which pastor is the right one. I cannot give you the name of your right pastor, but I can tell you that he must present the Word clearly and accurately from the original languages. If no such pastor exists in your area, tapes and books are available free of charge from doctrinal pastors around the country. 4. The Protocol Plan of God must have a system of solutions.

In football, team members choose among play options, depending on how the defense or offense lines up. Team members must read the other team and select the option that will work best. God gives us, as members of His spiritual team, a list of ten play options called the Ten Problem Solving Devices.18 We must understand and use these Ten Problem Solving Devices if we are to experience victory in our Christian life.

17 A mentor is a trusted counselor or guide, a tutor or coach. 18 The Ten Problem Solving Devices, first explained by Colonel R. B. Thieme, Jr., , are discussed in detail in my workbook, Christian Problem Solving.

1. Rebound 2. The Filling of the Holy Spirit 3. The Faith-Rest Drill 4. Grace Orientation 5. Doctrinal Orientation 6. A Personal Sense of Destiny 7. A Personal Love for God the Father 8. An Impersonal Love for All Mankind 9. Sharing the Happiness (+H) of God 10. Occupation with Christ

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Without God’s solutions, our enemies, Satan and the Old Sin Nature, will always defeat us. 5. The Protocol Plan of God has assets.

A football team has helmets, pads, uniforms, water bottles and water boys, whirlpools and trainers, a practice field, a stadium—the list of assets is long. God’s list of assets for the Christian is permanent and eternal! The moment that we are saved, God gives us 39 irrevocable assets19 that nothing and no one—including Satan—can ever take from us. These assets include eternal life, the righteousness of God, and the indwelling of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God also gives us one revocable asset, the filling of God the Holy Spirit, which we lose when we sin. But God’s plan is perfect, so regaining the filling of the Holy Spirit is simple: We simply rebound, which means that we acknowledge our sin to God, and He forgives us that sin and purifies us from all wrongdoing. (I John 1:9) 6. The Protocol Plan of God has a system of production and service.

A football player who sits on the sideline can be the best tackle in the world, but if he is not in the game, his tackles do no good. They do not help win any games. In the same way, a Christian must be filled with the Holy Spirit for his production and service to glorify God. Prayer, giving, and other production in the spiritual life are divine good20 only when they are done while the believer is filled with the Holy Spirit. 7. The Protocol Plan of God has a system of rewards.

When a football team wins the Super Bowl, they have the immediate reward of a celebration and of national celebrity, but they also receive a ring that they can keep for the rest of their lives. In the spiritual life, God blesses the mature Christian with more gifts on earth than he can possibly

19 See the APPENDIX on page 79 for a complete listing of the assets every Christian receives at the moment of salvation. 20 Divine good is that which we do while filled with the Holy Spirit. Service, including giving, witnessing, helping, and studying Bible doctrine are all divine good only if we do them while we are filled with the Holy Spirit. They are dead works or human good if we do them while we have unconfessed sin in our lives.

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imagine. In eternity, God’s rewards for the mature Christian are phenomenal. Only a few Christians in eternity will be given trophies as the most outstanding players on God’s team. Their consistent commitment to God’s Word and their diligent practice of the spiritual life will make them exalted in Heaven for eternity.

Those Christians who sit on the bench during life will still be in Heaven, but as others receive eternal blessings, they will be left out and left to watch. In life, God could not use them because they failed to study and grow in His Word. In eternity, they will receive perfect peace and happiness in the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, even our Savior Jesus Christ, but they will be without rewards. “Well done, My good and faithful servant” will be God’s words of victory for the mature Christian. Too many Christians will hear, “Sorry. Sit down because you never learned the plays. You never got into the game. I gave you every chance to succeed, but you rejected My coaching.” All Christians will be in Heaven, where there is no more pain, no more tears, no more sorrow. We all will enjoy perfect peace. But far too many Christians will be losers because they rejected God’s plan for their lives. Far too many will fail to learn God’s way, God’s protocol, and God’s priorities.

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The Priorities of the Christian Life

The top priorities in your life must be to retain the filling of the Holy Spirit and to learn Bible doctrine daily. Hearing doctrine, applying doctrine, living doctrine—this is the highest form of worship. Someone once asked me how long it takes to become a mature Christian. That question does not have an exact answer, but one thing is certain. Spiritual maturity does not take a lifetime nor does it require knowledge of every doctrinal concept of the Bible. Spiritual maturity takes consistency and routine. Remember: the football player becomes a star only after years of hard work, study, and practice—but before he becomes an old man! God gives every Christian the same opportunities to learn His Word and to execute His plan. And God gives every Christian the free will to decide if he wants to be the Most Valuable Player or a bench warmer. Many Christians never grow spiritually. They are spiritual babies when they are born again, and twenty years later, they are still spiritual babies. They have refused to study God’s playbook and to practice His plays. The Bible often compares basic Bible doctrine to baby’s milk and compares deeper spiritual doctrines to meat. Any man whose only nourishment is milk will be anemic and puny—physically or spiritually.

As newborn babes, you should desire the pure milk of the Word in order that you may grow through it. (I Peter 2:2)

Everyone who uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to those who are of full age (mature Christians, those who have been consistently learning Bible doctrine), even those who by reason of use (of the Bible doctrine in their souls) are able to discern both (human) good and evil. (Hebrews 5:13-14)

Only the mature Christian has enough doctrine to recognize human good

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and evil and, thereby, to avoid them.

Beware that Satan will take shots at you, just as he does at every Christian. He will try to knock you out of the game and onto the bench. He will give you plenty of excuses to miss Bible class and to neglect reviewing your notes on past lessons. If he cannot tempt you to miss Bible class, He will try to distract you while you are there.

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (II Corinthians 11:3)

You—and you alone—have the responsibility to move up from a teknon (a baby Christian) to become a huios (an adult Christian). The Bible commands all Christians to learn the Word of God so that they can reach the highest status of spiritual maturity.

Grow up in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (II Peter 3:18)

You are studying this book because you have the desire to obey this

mandate from God. You want to learn His plan for your life. You would not have read this far if you did not. You have taken the first step in your advance to spiritual maturity. Now keep going! Find your right pastor and study Bible doctrine daily.

The objectives of the spiritual life are simple:

• Keep being filled with the Holy Spirit. • Constantly pursue Bible doctrine. • Reach spiritual maturity and keep growing spiritually.

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Rule One of the Spiritual Life: You must be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to execute God’s plan for your life. 1. You are not left to face the world alone. God has made His divine power available to assist in your daily life. That power comes through the filling of God the Holy Spirit.

Believe the Lord Jesus Christ Himself when He said,

I will pray to the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter in order that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. (John 14:16-17a)

Your Comforter is God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth; and He is given only to members of the family of God. No non-Christian can have the power of the Holy Spirit.

The world (non-Christians) cannot receive Him because the world does not see Him. The world does not know Him, but you will know Him because He dwells in you and shall be with you. (John 14:17)

What a tremendous promise from God! You have the divine power of God the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you from the moment you are saved!

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you at the moment of salvation. (Acts 1:8) When the Comforter has come, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, Who comes from the Father, He will testify of Me. (John 15:26)

God the Holy Spirit is the power that makes the thinking of Christ understandable to you.

In Ephesians 1:13, Paul wrote about the Holy Spirit,

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In Whom you also trusted after you heard the Word of truth, that is the Gospel of your salvation, in Whom also after you believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

When you were saved, God the Holy Spirit immediately indwelled

you as proof that you are His. You are sealed forever through the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells you and will never leave you.

I Corinthians 6:19 states plainly,

Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have from God?

God the Holy Spirit resides in you to make a temple for the indwelling of God the Father and God the Son. Every Christian is permanently indwelt by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit! 2. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is a simple process.

Even though the Holy Spirit indwells you forever, the Holy Spirit fills you only when you have no unconfessed sin in your life. When you sin, the Old Sin Nature rather than the Holy Spirit controls your soul, and you are incapable of having fellowship with God or of learning Bible doctrine, no matter how hard you try. God the Holy Spirit must control (fill) your soul for you to serve God. He can do so only if you have acknowledged your known sins to God the Father (Rebound) and have not tried to hide any sins.

If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us those sins and to purify us from all wrongdoing. (I John 1:9)

Engrave this verse on your heart because without it you will be a failure in God’s eyes. As soon as you realize that you have sinned, you should acknowledge or name that sin to God (Rebound), admitting to Him that you know that you sinned. You confess to God alone in the privacy of

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your royal priesthood.21 Notice that I said that you acknowledge (confess) your sins only to God. Your sins are nobody else’s business!

Why do you judge other people? You are going to be judged yourself. You have a log sticking out of your eye so why are you worried about a piece of sawdust in someone else’s eye? If you want to get under discipline from God, open your mouth and start judging other people. (Matthew 7:1-5)

Just as another person’s sins are none of your business, so your sins

and your discipline are between you and God alone. Your acknowledgment of your sins to God is called rebound. As

David said to God,

I acknowledged my sin to you. My iniquity22 I did not hide. I said, ‘I will confess my transgression to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. (Psalm 32:5)

At the moment you rebound, you are back in fellowship with God. In that very moment! The Holy Spirit fills your soul once more; therefore, you are able to have fellowship with God and to understand His Word.

Rebound is your most important function as a Christian! Never allow unconfessed sin to remain in your life. Confess each sin to God as soon as you realize that what you have done or thought or said is a sin!

3. A war rages inside every Christian. The Old Sin Nature and the Holy Spirit are fighting for control of your soul and, therefore, for control of your thoughts and actions.

21 At salvation every Christian becomes his own priest and is able to approach God’s throne of grace in prayer. He needs no priest to intercede for him with God. He is his own priest with his own royal priesthood. 22 Iniquity and transgression are other words that mean sin.

Once you are saved, you are always saved!

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The flesh23 wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit wars against the flesh. These are contrary one to the other so that you do not do the things that you should. (Galatians 5:17)

Every Christian is the center of a constant battle between the Holy

Spirit and the Old Sin Nature (the flesh). If you have paid attention while you have been reading this book, you know the desire of God the Holy Spirit for your life: That you learn Bible doctrine and apply it to your life. But the Old Sin Nature says, “Forget learning Bible doctrine! Boring! Wouldn’t you rather watch TV or go to the mall?” After a long, hard day, the Old Sin Nature may suggest, “Why don’t you just take it easy tonight? Missing one day of studying Bible doctrine won’t matter, not when you are too tired to concentrate anyway.”

Or your Old Sin Nature may suggest that you do not need to go to church tonight because you have probably heard it all before anyway. I am sure you have seen plenty of reruns on TV. You may have seen Andy Griffith episodes so many times that you can repeat the dialogue along with Opie, Barney, and Aunt Bea. You do not fall asleep while you watch those reruns. Do not fall asleep mentally while you are hearing the accurate presentation of the Word of God! Do not insult God by daydreaming while your pastor teaches His Word! God Himself is speaking to you through His Word! Pay attention! Listen and learn!

The apostle Paul, the greatest Christian who has ever lived, recognized this battle in his soul; and, no, he did not always make the right decisions, especially as a new Christian with little doctrine in his soul.

I do not understand myself at all because the things I want to do, I do not do. The things I hate, I do. I keep doing the wrong things. What is wrong with me? (Romans 7:15)

What was wrong? The Old Sin Nature was fighting for control of Paul’s life, and sometimes it won. But when he sinned, Paul rebounded24 and moved on to learn more doctrine. You, too, must rebound every time you sin and then keep moving in the study of doctrine. 23 Flesh is another term used for the Old Sin Nature. 24 I John 1:9, Psalm 32:5

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Our weapons come from the filling of the Holy Spirit and from our knowledge of Bible doctrine, the thinking of Christ.

For the weapons we use in our warfare are not of the flesh but powerful before God…bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. (II Corinthians 10:4-5)

4. God does not request that you not sin; He commands you!

You must obey God’s command:

Do not let sin reign in your body so that you obey it. (Romans 6:12)

What does letting “sin reign in your body” mean? It means that the Old Sin Nature rules your soul, that it controls your thoughts and actions. It means that sometimes you resist the temptations to sin, but eventually you give in. It means that the Old Sin Nature is winning the war for control of your soul!

Do not be unwise, but understand the will of the Lord and be not drunk with wine—which can be done to excess, but be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:17-18)

In other words, “Wake up! Stop letting the Old Sin Nature control your life. Instead, be filled with the Spirit so that you can learn My Word. You can never be over-filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Stop grieving the Holy Spirit25 of God in Whom you were sealed until the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)

25 To grieve the Holy Spirit means to sin and not rebound. Continued sinning without rebound leads to severe punishment from God.

Our weapons in our spiritual warfare: The filling of the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine in our souls.

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Stop quenching the Spirit of God.26 (I Thessalonians 5:19)

God clearly states His desires for your life:

• STOP letting sin reign in your life! • STOP being unwise! • STOP grieving the Holy Spirit! • STOP quenching the Holy Spirit!

Is that plain enough? God demands that you be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

As long as sin is in control of your life, you will do the wrong thing. You will sin again and again and again. But when the Holy Spirit is in control, you have His power keeping you from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. You are able to stop chain-sinning.

But I say, ‘Keep on walking by means of the Spirit, and you will not carry out the lusts of the Old Sin Nature. For, you see, the flesh (the Old Sin Nature) rises up in protest against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; because these are constantly opposed to each other with the result that you do not continue doing those things (your advance to spiritual maturity) that you want to do.’ (Galatians 5:16-17)

5. When you try to live your life by yourself outside of the filling of the Holy Spirit, you produce energy of the flesh, called human good. When you allow God the Holy Spirit to control your life, you produce divine good.

All our works are as filthy rags. There are none righteous, no, not one. (Isaiah 64:6)

26 To quench the Holy Spirit means to not allow the Holy Spirit to control your soul. Instead, through unconfessed sin, you allow the Old Sin Nature to rule your soul.

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Only a Christian who is filled with God the Holy Spirit can produce divine good and glorify God.

For no man can lay any other foundation than that which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on this foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones, (divine good) or with wood, hay, and stubble, (human good) every man’s work shall be made known because…it shall be revealed by fire. And the fire shall test every man’s work to discover what sort it is. (I Corinthians 3:11-13)

We can easily see that the fire of divine judgment will completely burn the wood, hay, and stubble of human good. The gold, silver and precious stones of divine good will not burn and, therefore, God will reward us for them in eternity.

You must choose the gold, silver, and precious stones of divine good for your inheritance, and you can do so only by being filled with the Holy Spirit. In order to glorify God through your actions—to perform divine good, you must rebound every time you sin. You must find your right pastor and listen as he consistently and faithfully teaches you directly from the original languages of God’s Word.

How much more the blood of Christ…will purify our consciences from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14)

As a Christian, you should hate sin, but sin is not the problem that should fill your thinking. Preoccupation with sin can produce a type of arrogance called crusader arrogance, a vicious form of religious intimidation that leads to human good—wood, hay and stubble. God’s commission to you is not to straighten out the world by pointing out the sins of others. Instead, God has called you to bring the world to Him through Christ, the highest form of divine good. When you get involved in straightening out sin, you forget to bring the world to God through Christ. You get arrogant about your crusade against a particular sin that bothers you particularly, and you lose sight of God’s plan for your life. Do not be drawn into any crusade to save the world from sin. Instead, do divine good by quietly and diligently studying the Word of God under the teaching of your pastor and under the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit.

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In Philippians 1:21a, the apostle Paul says,

For me, to live is Christ. Paul knew that he could fulfill God’s plan for his life only when he represented Christ by being filled with the Holy Spirit. He could not operate on his own resources and power. Only if he allowed the Holy Spirit to fill and control his life could he produce divine good for the glory of God.

Our divine good production will be richly blessed by God both on earth and in Heaven for all eternity.

The production of the righteous (the mature Christian) is a tree of life. (Proverbs 11:30)

6. When you sin, your fellowship with God is broken.

Notice I said fellowship, not relationship. When you sin, you do not and cannot lose your relationship with God.

Once you believe in Christ as your Saviour, you are a member of God’s Royal Family forever. When you sin, however, you lose the filling of the Holy Spirit and, therefore, get out of fellowship with God.

No one has fellowship with God who keeps advancing out of bounds and does not remain (on the playing field) through the doctrine of Christ. (II John 9a) We declare to you that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. (I John 1:5)

The key word in this passage is “darkness.” You are in darkness when you

Arrogance and ignorance go hand in hand.

Spiritual blessings—Perpetual Temporal blessings—Transient

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are in sin and, therefore, out of fellowship with God, Who is Light. Verse 6 continues,

If we say we have fellowship with God but we walk in darkness, we lie, and we do not live in the truth. (I John 1:6)

If you are sinning and not rebounding but claiming to be in fellowship with God, you are a liar! You are out of fellowship with God when you have any unconfessed sin in your life.

If we walk in the light, we will have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son keeps on cleansing us from all sin. (I John 1:7)

“Walk in the light” is synonymous with being filled with the Holy

Spirit. When you sin and acknowledge that sin to God (Rebound—I John 1:9), God forgives you that sin, but He also purifies you from all unknown sins and wrongdoing as well. The Holy Spirit immediately fills your soul, and you are back in fellowship with God.

He (Jesus Christ) delivered us from the authority of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His (God the Father’s) love. (Colossians 1:13)

Sins occur in three categories: Mental attitude sins (what we think),

sins of the tongue (what we say), and overt sins (what we do). • Mental attitude sins include worry, pride, jealousy, fear,

hatred, guilt, envy, bitterness, self-pity and many others. • Sins of the tongue include criticizing, judging, maligning,

bullying, lying, gossiping, slandering,27 and many others. • Overt sins include robbery, shoplifting, drunkenness, sex

outside of marriage, vandalism, violence, murder, and many others.

Everyone sins, including Christians!

27 Slander is saying something harmful that is untrue. Gossip is repeating information that is true but could be harmful or unkind. Both are sins! We are never to discuss anyone in an unfavorable way even if it is true.

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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (I John 1:8)

7. You recover from sin without having to be saved all over again.

Why do you not lose your salvation when you sin? Because when Christ saved you, He saved you forever. God says in I John 2:1a,

My little children (children of God, meaning Christians), these things I write to you in order that you do not sin.

In other words, God knows that even though you are a Christian who desires not to sin, you will inevitably sin. He does not want you to sin, but even when you do sin, you are still His children.

And if any man sins—and I know he will—then we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous One. (I John 2:1b)

The word “advocate” actually means defense attorney. Jesus Christ is your attorney, and He personally represents you before God the Father!

Satan and the fallen angels watch everything you do, hoping to catch you sinning. Satan loves to be your accuser in Heaven. He stands before God the Father and declares, “Your servant is sinning! You cannot deny it! He is not saved!”

Then Jesus Christ, your Advocate, speaks as your personal, loving Defender. “Yes,” Christ says, “you are right, Satan, that he is sinning, but you are wrong that he is not saved. He has believed in Me. He is one of Mine. He is a member of My family. He can do nothing to lose his salvation or to lose My love.” In such a way, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself defeats Satan’s continued attacks against God’s plan.

Christ’s work is perfect and permanent.

Recovery from sin demands Rebound.

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Besides being your Advocate, Jesus Christ is your propitiation.28 He is the One Who satisfied God the Father on your behalf. I John 2:2 continues,

And He Himself is the propitiation as a substitute for our sins and not for our sins only but also as a substitute for the sins of the entire world.

Christ died as a substitute for the sins of the entire world. He died

for everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike! Do not let anyone tell you that God selects who can be saved and who cannot be saved. Do not buy into the thinking that God pre-ordains certain people to go to Heaven and certain people not to go to Heaven. Jesus Christ died for the entire world. Anyone who believes is saved once and for all because Christ did the work, and His work is perfect and permanent. 8. Unconfessed sin is disciplined by God.

He who does wrong will receive the consequences of that wrong. (Colossians 3:25)

If you sin and do not confess that sin, you will be disciplined by God. His discipline comes in three stages:

• Warning Discipline in which God warns you that you have missed the mark;29

• Intensive Discipline in which God adds more suffering because you have not responded to warning discipline;

• Dying Discipline in which God removes the terminally carnal Christian30 from this life because he is walking in darkness

28 Propitiation means that God the Father, because He is perfect, is satisfied with only one sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice of perfect Jesus Christ on the Cross. Through the sacrifice of Christ, God the Father has so dealt with sin that He can show mercy to the believing sinner in the removal of his guilt and the pardon of his sins. Christ’s humanity had to be judged for our sins in order to propitiate (satisfy) divine righteousness (+R). 29 Miss the mark is the literal translation of the Greek word for sin. When we sin, we miss the bullseye. We fall outside of God’s will for our lives. 30 A terminally carnal Christian is one who sins many sins without ever rebounding, one whose end is destruction (sin unto death), whose god is his

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and refuses to respond to His discipline through rebound. Dying discipline is called the sin unto death in many scriptures.

The apostle Paul vividly illustrated the principle of dying discipline when he pronounced the sin unto death to a Christian in Corinth and said

to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh in order that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (I Corinthians 5:5)

This Christian had lived in terminal carnality, allowing his Old Sin Nature to fill his soul and to control his flesh. He had sinned and sinned and sinned and never rebounded. Yes, he was still saved because he had believed in Christ as his Savior, but he was perpetually out of fellowship. By staying out of fellowship, God could not use him.

If I have sin in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. (Psalm 66:18) Discipline is grievous to him who forsakes the way, and he who hates punishment shall die. (Proverbs 15:10)

God will not tolerate continued insubordination by the members of

His family. If you do not learn from God’s punishment and if you refuse to admit to Him that what you are doing is wrong, God has no choice but to administer the sin unto death. However, because you are a member of His family, the moment you die you will be with Him in Heaven. 9. You should respond, not react, to God’s discipline.

God punishes you because He loves you, and you should respond positively to His punishment because you love Him.

My son, despise not the discipline of the Lord, and do not faint when you are rebuked of Him because whom the Lord loves, He also disciplines and He punishes every son whom He receives.

emotions, whose glory (earthly fame) is his shame (at the Judgment Seat of Christ), and who keeps on thinking about only earthly things. Philippians 3:19

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(Hebrews 12:5-6) You are God’s son. God commands you to respond to His love and not to react to the circumstances of your suffering. Reaction is wrong and leads to bitterness, one of the worst of all sins. Response leads to rebound, which is acknowledgment of your sins to God. (I John 1:9) Reacting to discipline will get you into big trouble with God. Remember, God is your Father. If your father decides that you deserve to be spanked, you do not react by shouting, “If you lay a hand on me, I will leave you forever. You had better not discipline me!” Such a reaction to deserved discipline would get you into deeper trouble. The same is true with God. When you sin and do not rebound, you take yourself away from God and move into terminal carnality.

Learn from your discipline. Allow it to lead you back into fellowship with God through rebound. Do not allow your discipline from a just God to turn you away from Him into resentment and rebellion. Rule Two of the Spiritual Life: In order to love God, you must know Him. In order to know Him, you must study Bible doctrine every day. 1. The Protocol Plan of God says that a right thing must be done in a right way. The right thing is Bible doctrine. The right way is to study it every day.

Only through the daily study of Bible doctrine can you learn the spiritual skills that make it possible for you to love God and to lead the spiritual life.

The world has the Bible. Indeed, many Bible owners are non-Christians. However, they do not understand the Bible because they do not have the power of the Holy Spirit to make it clear to them. Think of it as having a car but no gas to power it.

Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have available to them both the Bible and the power of God the Holy Spirit to understand it. Not all Christians avail themselves of that power.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers

Arrogance reacts to pressure. Humility responds to pressure.

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yourselves, you need someone to teach you again the first principles…of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (Hebrews 5:12)

Paul was writing to Christians who had been saved for a long time! Something was wrong! They should have been spiritual adults, taking in the meat of advanced doctrines, but they still needed a bottle! These Christians had been distracted from the Word. They had dozed during Bible class. They had made excuses to miss Bible class. The things of the world had lured them from the Word. They could not fulfill God’s plan for their lives because they did not know His plan. They did not have Bible doctrine in their souls where they could use it.

As Christians, we should follow Christ’s example. As Man,

Jesus Christ increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:52)

How did Christ grow in spiritual knowledge? Through the consistent, daily study of His Father’s Word! He stayed filled with the Holy Spirit, and He used eight of the Ten Problem Solving Devices.31 Remember how Jesus responded each time Satan tempted Him? He quoted scripture after scripture after scripture. His replies to Satan’s temptations always began in the same way: “As it is written in the Scriptures…” 2. Bad decisions limit future options.

As a new Christian, you have what can be called “lag time,” the time between when you first accepted Christ as your Savior and the time when you connect with your pastor and start growing spiritually through the daily intake of Bible doctrine. When I was first saved, I was in lag time for at least a year before I understood that God had a plan for my life. I was so ignorant of Bible doctrine that I actually told a friend that because I was saved, I would never sin again! He laughed and called me an idiot! He was right. I did not want to sin, but within a few weeks after I was saved, I did sin, and my Old Sin Nature regained control of my soul. (I am sure I had committed other sins before then, but I did not know enough Bible doctrine to 31 Christ did not use rebound, the first problem solving device, because He never sinned. Obviously, He did not need to be Occupied with Christ, the tenth problem solving device.

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recognize any but the most obvious sins!) During my year of lag time, I began to realize that I needed to learn about God and about His directive will32 for my life. I had made bad decisions before I was saved, especially in not studying in high school and in dropping out of college. Now that I was a Christian, I wanted to do better. Already I realized that my bad decisions had resulted in bad consequences and that those consequences had limited my options. God opened new doors for me, but I could never bring back the time I had wasted in high school and in those four years after high school. I could never bring back the missed opportunities. I learned the truth of

Sow to the wind. Reap the whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7) Because I sowed bad decisions, I reaped disappointment and heartache.

My decision to believe in Christ as my Savior changed my life and guaranteed that I will spend eternity with Him in Heaven. Faith in Christ’s work on the Cross is the most important decision that I ever made. It is the most important decision that you will ever make.

However, the decisions you make after salvation are extremely important as well. They determine your blessings in time and your rewards in eternity. Moses asked God to

teach us to organize our day so that we can attain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

You, too, must organize your day carefully if you hope to gain the wisdom of God. That means rebounding—acknowledging your sins to God as mandated in I John 1:9—so that you are filled with the Holy Spirit. That means finding your right pastor, a man who teaches from the original languages. That means making the daily study of Bible doctrine the number one priority in your life.

32 We follow the directive will of God when we are filled with the Holy Spirit (we have rebounded and have no unconfessed sin in our life) and, therefore, are glorifying Him. God desires that we always be filled with the Holy Spirit and, therefore, always be in His directive will.

Bad Decisions = Wasted Opportunities Good Decisions = Wonderful Blessings

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Imagine the heat beating down on you as you work on a chain gang in south Georgia. Sweat drips from you, soaking your clothes. Gnats and flies swarm around you. Imagine someone walking up and offering you a tall glass of ice cold water. How refreshing that would be! That is the way the Word of God is for your soul. As a new Christian, you are thirsty for truth. Through the absolute truth of God’s Word, that thirst is quenched. If you are obedient in taking in the Word daily, your thirst is continually quenched, and your soul is at peace. With Bible doctrine in your soul, you can apply God’s principles to your decisions. You are able to make good decisions from a position of strength, from God’s viewpoint. As a Christian, your goal in life is simple: To learn God’s Word and to use that knowledge in every decision. The Christian life is simply making good decisions every day based on the principles you have learned from studying Bible doctrine. 3. Living the Christian life means taking in God’s Word every day.

Remember when you were in first grade? If you had gone to school only one and a half hours a week, you would not have been promoted. You would still be struggling to learn basic reading and arithmetic. If you go to church for only an hour and a half a week, twenty years from now you will still be struggling in the first grade spiritually.

You have to have more than a meal and a half each week in order to metabolize the nutrients and nourishment your physical body needs to grow and function properly. How can you grow spiritually on only a meal and a half of spiritual nourishment a week? You cannot! Growth toward spiritual maturity demands the consistent daily intake of the Word of God. Only then can you develop a divine vocabulary, a divine viewpoint, and a personal understanding of God’s will for your life. Metabolized spiritual food is your protection from becoming a slave to the details of life or a victim of worry and fear.

Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

Perpetual carnality or consistent spirituality: The choice is yours.

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Through the consistent exposure to doctrinal teaching, you learn how to apply God’s Ten Problem Solving Devices to the problems in your life. God uniquely designed these techniques to keep adversity from crashing into your life and causing stress or other mental attitude sins. You will have problems, but you do not have to let them distract, discourage or disillusion you.

Happy is the person who has staying power under testing because when he has passed the test he will receive the Crown of Life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. (James 1:12)

Even in death, adversity does not have to become stress.

I do not fear adversity in dying because you are with me. (Psalm 23:4)

4. The manner in which we learn doctrine can be described as Operation Z.33

33 Operation Z is explained in detail by Colonel R. B. Thieme, Jr., in his book, Rebound Revisited.

Adversity is inevitable. Stress is optional.

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Operation Z requires four things: A pastor who presents the Word of

God accurately, the filling of God the Holy Spirit, comprehension of the Word of God, and application of the Word. The Christian begins at the top of the Z by hearing the Word of God presented accurately by a pastor.

The Word that he hears comes across the top of the Z where the Holy Spirit picks it up and sends it to the Christian’s spirit.

Gnosis is the Greek word for information that has not gone beyond basic understanding (academic understanding only).34

And come to know the love for Christ that goes beyond gnosis in order that you may be filled with all the fullness from God. (Ephesians 3:19)

Now, if the Christian is in fellowship with God, meaning he has rebounded and, therefore, has no unconfessed sin in his life, God the Holy Spirit carries that academic information (gnosis) to the Christian’s soul and helps him understand it, represented by the slope of the Z.

Once the believer comprehends that information, then it is cycled across the base of the Z and becomes epignosis, information that has been metabolized into the soul. Epignosis is full knowledge, understood, believed, and applied. The Bible says that we must

all come in the same understanding of the faith and of the complete knowledge (epignosis knowledge) of the Son of God unto the measure of the stature (until we reach spiritual maturity) of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13)

At the point of epignosis, the Christian’s positive volition plus his

faith metabolize the information. Just as food on the pantry shelf does the starving man no good, so information in the mind is useless without understanding and application. This understanding shows in the actions of the Christian. He knows God’s will, and he does it.

34 Academic understanding means that you have memorized that 2 + 2 = 4, but you do not understand what that means. You are able to add two pennies to two pennies and know that you have four pennies—but you do not know how much they will buy!

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God commands you to

grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. (II Peter 3:18)

You must metabolize the Word of God, practice His teachings, and

follow His mandates. You will find it hard to establish a consistent routine for the study of the Word of God—a consistent daily routine! But you must do it if you love God. (I John 5:3) 5. God’s system of spiritual growth demands that the pastor accurately communicate His Word and that the Christian understand these teachings and then apply them.

Choosing a pastor is an important decision. Because most of your time is spent eating, sleeping, working, attending school, studying, playing sports or music, and being with your family and friends, you only have a limited number of free hours to dedicate to your daily study of Bible doctrine. Which do you think would be wiser? To study under a man who gives you a dime’s worth of instruction in an hour or one who gives you $100 worth in an hour? Obviously, the wise man would choose the $100 man. The decision is simple: Choose the pastor who will provide the best possible instruction for your spiritual growth.

Do not be unwise. Understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:17)

The Greek word for “unwise” is aphron, which means to be without reason, to lack spiritual common sense. The Greek word for “understand” is suiemi, which means to bring together all of the pieces of a puzzle. Putting the pieces of the spiritual life together accurately is an important responsibility for every Christian. We gain the pieces through our study of Bible doctrine; we put them together when we use these doctrines in our lives. We must understand what God expects of us, and then we must do it.

Only your right pastor can teach you God’s Word—the pieces of the puzzle—and then instruct you in the correct application of God’s Word—the only right way to put those pieces together. Once you have found your right pastor, you have the responsibility to pay attention and take notes—to be an active learner. What an insult to

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God to sit in the back and take a nap! Sit up front where you can hear without distraction. Listen attentively! Learn! 6. God does not think like you think. You must learn to think like Christ if you want to live the spiritual life.

‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and neither are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and so are My thoughts higher than your thoughts.’ (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Man thinks human viewpoint. God thinks divine viewpoint. Human

viewpoint says, “Be good and go to Heaven.” Divine viewpoint says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, and you will go to Heaven.” Our thoughts reflect our Old Sin Nature. God’s thoughts reflect His perfect essence.35 “My ways are not your ways.” Divine good is God’s way. Human good is man’s way. The only good that God can bless, the only good that God can use is called divine good. Divine good is doing a right thing in a right way. Giving money to the church, missionaries and evangelists, praying, witnessing, helping those in need: These are all good things; however, unless you do them while you are filled with the Holy Spirit, they are human good and unacceptable to God. “For My thoughts are higher than your thoughts, and My ways are higher than your ways.” As long as you continue thinking “your thoughts,” you will never measure up to God’s plan for you. You must change your way of thinking now that you are a Christian. You must learn God’s directive will for your life, and you must do it.

Keep on having this thinking in you which also resided in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:5)

God wants you to think the thoughts that Christ had in His humanity

on earth. That is what the Bible is—the thinking of Christ! The New 35 The essence of God is His love, perfect righteousness (+R), justice, eternal life, omniscience (God knows everything), omnipotence (God is all-powerful), omnipresence (God is everywhere), veracity (God is perfect truth), immutability (God never changes), and sovereignty (everything is under God’s control).

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Testament epistles36 give a pattern of Christ’s thinking for you to copy in your life.

We have the thinking of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:16)

In His humanity, Jesus Christ deprived Himself of the power of His deity, voluntarily limiting Himself to His human attributes in order to execute God the Father’s plan.37 Christ willingly set aside His power and privilege as God in order to die for us on the Cross. What an astounding decision Christ made because He loves us!

In fact, although He was found in outward appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, that is, the death of the Cross. (Philippians 2:8)

Focus on two words in this verse, two words that describe Jesus Christ as man—humility and obedience—so that you can learn to be like Christ.

7. Learning the thinking of Christ leads to Christian growth. To think like Christ, we must possess humility.

Humility is respect for authority and the absence of arrogance. Humility is a relaxed mental attitude that produces rest.

Arrogance is an attitude that produces turmoil and discontent. Arrogance sentenced Satan to the Lake of Fire forever. Arrogance removed Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Arrogance will lead you toward trouble with God as well.

God expects you as His child and as a member of His Royal Family to have humility. He promises to promote you through your humility.

But He gives more grace; therefore, He says, ‘God 36 An epistle is a letter and refers to the books of the New Testament beginning with Romans and ending with Jude. 37 The Doctrine of Kenosis states that Jesus Christ voluntarily restricted the use of His divine attributes in order to live among men with their limitations. He gave up the outward appearance and the power of His deity. Philippians 2:6-9.

Man thinks human viewpoint. God thinks divine viewpoint.

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resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ (James 4:6)

Humility is teachability.

You realize in your humility that you are helpless to succeed apart from God’s provisions. You realize in your confident understanding of Bible doctrine that God has done everything to insure your happiness.

You will always have troubles and problems. Man is born to trouble. (Job 5:7) Man…is of few days and full of trouble. (Job 14:1)

Trouble will follow you all of your days, but God has Problem Solving Devices for every one of your troubles.

In humility you recognize God’s perfection and your own imperfections; and, therefore, you no longer try to solve your own problems. Further, you recognize that you cannot solve them and that God not only can but will take care of them perfectly, in wondrous ways you could not have imagined. You believe His promise that He

shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

Life is hectic for non-Christians. They are in a rat race because they

always try to do unto others before they get it done to themselves. As a Christian, however, you do not have to live life in a constant state of turmoil. Once you understand that your salvation has freed you from the slave market of sin, you are able to rest in God’s provisions in Christ and free yourself from the worries of tomorrow.

Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow. (Matthew 6:34)

You are the one who makes the Christian life difficult. There is

nothing difficult in the simple mandate to learn humility; however, if you do not develop the spiritual skills that lead to humility, you will allow

Humility = the absence of arrogance + respect for authority.

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arrogance to grow, and your life will become complicated once again. If your life is complicated, if you feel as if you continually beat your brains out, then I dare say you do not understand the principle of the faith-rest drill, Problem Solving Device #3. 8. When you allow arrogance to replace humility in your life, you begin searching for human solutions rather than divine solutions. Arrogance decides that there must be an easier solution than the daily study of Bible doctrine.

Arrogance presents itself in many ways, including in rebellion against authority. Even the greatest believers of all time suffered from lapses into the sin of arrogance.

• Using great faith, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. He trusted in the Lord even when the Red Sea was in front of them and the Egyptian army was behind them. He commanded the frightened Israelites to not panic but instead to

stand still and see the deliverance of the Lord. The Lord will fight for you today. (Exodus 14:13)

God parted the Red Sea and saved them. Many years later at Meribah, however, Moses arrogantly defied God’s direct command to speak to a rock to bring forth water for the thirsty Jews. Instead, Moses hit the rock in anger. (Exodus 17) Moses reaped the consequences of that bad decision by not being allowed to enter the Promised Land.

• The apostle Paul, the writer of the greatest doctrinal epistles in the Bible, had a problem with arrogance when he defied God by going to Jerusalem instead of to Rome as God had commanded. Acts 18. Paul reaped the consequences of that bad decision when he was taken prisoner and sent to Rome in chains.

God makes war against the arrogant believer but gives grace to the humble believer. Therefore, humble yourselves under the powerful hand of God in order that He may promote you at the proper time.

Arrogance focuses on the problem. Humility focuses on the solution—God’s solution.

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(I Peter 5:5-6)

Many times every day we must choose for or against God. If we act in arrogance, we choose our solution and the darkness of no solution. If we act in humility, we choose God’s perfect solution (the filling of the Holy Spirit, the use of doctrine in our soul, the Ten Problem Solving Devices, etc.) and put ourselves in His hands.

Now in conclusion, everyone must be harmonious, sympathetic in brotherly love, compassionate, and above all humble, not giving back evil for evil or insult for insult, but on the contrary blessing instead; because for this purpose you were called that you might inherit blessing. (I Peter 3:8-9)

9. Just as God commands you to possess humility, so also He commands you to be obedient to His Word.

This is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not difficult. (I John 5:3)

God in His grace makes it easy for you to be obedient to Him and, thereby, to live the spiritual life. He gives you the power of the Holy Spirit, the very same power that enabled Christ to remain on the Cross as He endured the horrible punishment for every sin in human history.

Jesus Christ said,

Learn of Me, because I am meek and lowly in heart,38

38 “Meek and lowly at heart” describe humility.

Arrogance demands entitlement. Humility seeks enlightenment.

Human solutions are no solutions. Divine solutions are the only solutions.

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and you shall find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:29-30)

Jesus Christ is saying to you, “I have humility. I was willing to deprive Myself of My deity and become a man. Learn from Me humility and obedience, and the spiritual life will be easy.”

Your personal love for God the Father motivates your obedience to Him. If you do not love God, you can never obey Him. But you cannot love Him if you do not know Him. You can know Him only through the daily study of Bible doctrine. Every Christian has the responsibility to learn Bible doctrine and to reach his divinely ordained objective: To grow to spiritual maturity and glorify God. In John 14:23-24,

Jesus said, ‘If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.…He that loves Me not keeps not My words.’

God tells you plainly that if you do not love Him, you will not obey Him. Personal love for God is your motivator to live the spiritual life. If you do not desire to know God so that you can love Him and obey His plan for your life, you will never make an effort to learn Bible doctrine, and you will peel off and crash into failure. Be assured, however, that even if you never learn a word of Bible doctrine, because you have believed in Christ as your Savior, you will go to Heaven. Sadly, though, you will miss the magnificent and abundant blessings that God has prepared for you as a mature Christian both on earth and in Heaven. God will bless you if you are obedient to His Word. 10. When you combine humility and obedience, you have freedom in your life: freedom from the details of life, freedom from stress, and freedom from lust related sins.

Freedom from the details of life: The details of life are those things that trap you into thinking, “I cannot be happy if I do not have a new home or a new car or a boyfriend or a hit in the next baseball game or the latest fashions or a date for the prom.” When you learn humility and obedience to the Word of God, you realize that lasting happiness does not come from these details.

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Happiness belongs to the man who finds wisdom and to the man who gains understanding. (Proverbs 3:13)

Further, you learn that adverse circumstances, such as the death of a loved one or an accident or social rejection, cannot take away your happiness. You know that you do not have to react to pressure or fall into stress. Instead, you rest on the Lord and have perfect inner peace even in the midst of disaster.

Freedom from stress: You know that you are under stress and not

living the plan of God when you feel agitation, worry, fear, or guilt.

The Lord is for me; I will not fear. What can man do to me? (Psalm 118:6)

You must never react to pressure; instead, you must respond by faith to the Word of God, knowing that His plan for your life is sufficient to overcome any adversity.

If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31b)

Freedom from lust related sins: Many lusts are mentioned in the

Bible: • sexual lust—a lust for sexual pleasure with someone to whom

you are not married; • material lust—a lust for material things such as clothes and

cars, money and wealth; • criminal lust—a lust to commit crimes; • chemical lust—a lust for drugs and alcohol; • approbation lust—a lust for praise; • power lust—a lust to control others; • ego lust—a lust to be number one.

Do not think that because you have no sexual lust, you have no lust in

Worry is a symptom of assuming unassigned responsibilities.

Happy people take their happiness with them wherever they go.

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your life. That is as wrong as thinking that a “little white lie” is not a sin. The power for the Christian to operate under humility and obedience

comes from the filling of God the Holy Spirit. In Philippians Paul says,

I can do all things through Christ Who gives me the strength, (Philippians 4:13)

he is talking about the strength and the power that comes from God the Holy Spirit. This is the same power that Jesus Christ used while on earth in a human body! You have available to you the same power that Jesus Christ had! 11. The Christian who consistently studies and applies Bible doctrine glorifies God. First, the mature Christian becomes an invisible hero through the dynamic power that he accumulates from his study of the Word. Because of his faithfulness to the Word, God blesses him, his family, those with whom he works or goes to school or plays sports, and even his nation. All those associated with him, no matter how casually, are blessed! The mature Christian who is the source of all these blessings is unknown except by God and His angels. Imagine: a janitor who is a mature Christian can cause the corporation for which he works to be successful! Spiritual blessings overflow from the mature Christian to everyone around him.

My cup overflows. Certainly goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.(Psalm 23:5-6) And without doctrine resident in the soul, it is impossible to please God because when one is occupied with God, he must be convinced that He is (that God exists in His essence) and that He becomes a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Second, the mature believer becomes part of a pivot39 with other

39 A pivot is a group of mature Christians who provide the prosperity of the client nation through the principle of blessing by association. The pivot establishes client nation status and guarantees its perpetuation in every generation.

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mature believers. In Judges 7:5, Gideon grouped together 300 men and defeated a Midianite Army of over 60,000 soldiers. These three hundred mature—prepared—believers defeated a huge army!

In the United States today, a pivot of Christians keeps our country

free in spite of the apostasy40 and disbelief of most of our citizens. Even though God desires every American to be saved and to live the spiritual life, through a few mature Christians, He can deliver this nation from our spiraling fall to depravity and destruction. All He needs is a pivot, a group of mature Christians who act as salt to preserve the nation. The mature Christian is

the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor (has lost spiritual maturity through abandoning the daily intake of Bible doctrine) how shall it be seasoned? After that it is good for nothing but to be thrown away and to be trodden under the feet of men. (Matthew 5:13)

If the United States no longer has a pivot of mature Christians, God has no choice but to discipline our nation and destroy it.

Exactly how many people does it take for God to preserve an

apostate nation? I cannot tell you, but I know one thing for absolute fact: I intend to be part of that pivot! If the United States of America does collapse into chaos, I can promise you this: God will always deliver the pivot. Always. Be sure that you study Bible doctrine daily so that you, too, are part of that pivot.

40 Apostasy means to have turned away from God, to have forsaken Him. An apostate nation no longer relies on God.

Be a Hero, Not a Zero.

Growing old is inevitable. Growing up is optional.

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Summary: The Priorities of the Christian Life

Rule One of the Spiritual Life: You must be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to execute God’s plan for your life. 1. You are not left to face the world alone. God has made His divine

power available to assist you in your daily life. That power comes through the filling of God the Holy Spirit and is the same power used by Jesus Christ in His humanity to resist human temptations and to endure the punishment for our sins on the Cross.

2. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is a simple process. When you sin and acknowledge that sin to God (Rebound), you immediately regain the filling of the Holy Spirit.

3. A war rages inside you; the Old Sin Nature and the Holy Spirit are fighting for control of your soul and, therefore, for control of your thoughts and actions. Your weapons come from the filling of the Holy Spirit and from your knowledge of Bible doctrine, the thinking of Christ.

4. God does not request that you not sin. He commands you to not sin. 5. When you try to live your life by yourself outside of the filling of the

Holy Spirit, you produce energy of the flesh, called human good. When you allow God the Holy Spirit to control your life, you produce divine good. Only a Christian who is filled with God the Holy Spirit can produce divine good and glorify God.

6. When you sin, your fellowship with God is broken. Every Christian sins, but when you rebound, you are back in fellowship with God.

7. You recover from sin without having to be saved all over again. Anyone who believes in Christ is saved once and for all because Christ did the work, and His work is perfect and permanent.

8. Unconfessed sin is disciplined by God. 9. You should respond, not react, to God’s discipline. God punishes

you because He loves you, and you should respond positively to His punishment because you love Him. Learn from your discipline. Allow it to lead you back into fellowship with God through rebound..

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Rule Two of the Spiritual Life: In order to love God, you must know Him. In order to know Him, you must study Bible doctrine every day. 1. The Protocol Plan of God says that a right thing must be done in a

right way. The right thing is Bible doctrine. The right way is to study it every day. Only through the daily study of Bible doctrine can you learn the spiritual skills that make it possible for you to love God and to lead the spiritual life.

2. Any bad decisions limit your future options. As a Christian, your goal in life is simple: To learn God’s Word and to use that knowledge in every decision.

3. The Christian life demands the consistent daily intake of God’s Word. 4. The manner in which we learn doctrine is called Operation Z.

Operation Z requires a pastor who presents the Word of God accurately, the filling of the Holy Spirit, comprehension of the Word of God by the believer, and application of the Word.

5. God’s system of spiritual growth demands that your pastor accurately communicate God’s Word and that you understand these teachings and then apply them.

6. God does not think like you think. You must learn to think like Christ in order to live the spiritual life. His thinking is found in the Bible.

7. Learning the thinking of Christ leads to spiritual growth. To think like Christ, you must possess humility.

8. When you allow arrogance to replace humility in your life, you begin searching for human solutions rather than divine solutions. Arrogance decides there must be an easier solution than the daily study of Bible doctrine. Arrogance focuses on the problem. Humility focuses on the solution—God’s solution.

9. God also commands that you be obedient to Him. God in His grace makes it easy for you to be obedient to Him and, thereby, to live the spiritual life. You can obey Him only if you know His thoughts.

10. When you combine humility and obedience, you have freedom in your life: freedom from the details of life, freedom from stress, and freedom from lust related sins.

11. The Christian who consistently studies and applies Bible doctrine glorifies God. The mature Christian becomes an invisible hero through the dynamic power he accumulates from his study of the Word.

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Your Performance in God’s Plan You have learned the Protocol Plan of God: Doing a right thing in a right way. You cannot do right if you do not know right. Therefore, studying Bible doctrine is the first requirement for executing God’s plan for your life. Doing that right thing in the right way is the second. Unless you use your knowledge of Bible doctrine, you are not doing God’s will for your life. You are on God’s team, but you are not playing in the game.

Once you begin to stay filled with the Holy Spirit, to sit under the ministry of your right pastor, and to use the Ten Problem Solving Devices, then you will exhibit effective Christian service.41 Then you will begin making plays that lead to victory in God’s plan. 1. At the moment of salvation, God the Holy Spirit gives each Christian his own spiritual gift. We must use that special gift as God intends.

My gift is evangelism. Pastor and evangelist are two gifts restricted by God to men only. Paul writes of his gift,

I became a minister according to the stewardship from God given to me for your benefit to fulfill the Word of God. (Colossians 1:25)

The gift of helps—going to hospitals, visiting in homes, helping the sick and elderly, etc.—is a special gift. You may have the gift of giving, of mercy, of exhortation, of hospitality, or one of many other gifts. All gifts are important, and because you are a member of God’s family, your gift is essential to the whole “team” effort. Some gifts put the Christian up front

41 Christian service is your spiritual life in operation. It is what you do while you are filled with the Holy Spirit. (Romans 12:9-15) Divine good is the production of Christian service.

Losers emote. Winners execute.

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(e.g. the pastor or the administrator of church funds). Other gifts, such as the gift of giving, are down in the trenches and seldom recognized.

You do have a gift. If you remain in fellowship, God will reveal your gift to you. Consistent study of Bible doctrine will prepare you to use your gift wisely for the glorification of God. 2. At the moment of salvation, every Christian becomes a royal priest, able to bring his petitions,42 intercessions,43 praise of God, and thanksgiving directly to the throne of God the Father.

Because you are a priest, God the Father allows you to pray directly to Him. As long as you confess your sins to God before you pray and, therefore, are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, God the Father will hear and answer your prayers.

Paul encouraged Christians to pray for each other.

I do not cease to give thanks for you and to make mention of you in my prayers in order that God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a lifestyle of wisdom and revelation about Him through Bible doctrine. (Ephesians 1:16-17)

If we are in fellowship when we pray (if we are filled with the Holy Spirit), God hears our prayers.

And this is the confidence that we have face to face with Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (I John 5:14)

3. Every Christian is a royal ambassador, representing Christ.

How shall they call on Him in Whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of Whom

42 Petitions are those requests we make to God for ourselves. 43 Intercessions are those requests we make to God about others.

We ask. God answers.

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they have not heard? (Romans 10:14) Someone has to give the message of salvation. That someone is you.

The preaching of the Gospel is the gift of communication given to evangelists and pastors, but the giving of the Gospel is the responsibility of every Christian. Paul called himself an ambassador on behalf of the Gospel (Ephesians 6:20) and said,

I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. (Romans 1:16)

Your pastor has the responsibility to teach you so that you can witness effectively, but you have the responsibility to accurately witness the good news of Jesus Christ. You can win your friends and your acquaintances to Christ and then bring them to church through your witness. Do not expect the pastor to do your witnessing for you. God has given you that special privilege and mandate. 4. Every Christian must fulfill the Laws of Divine Establishment, given by God to Christians and non-Christians equally. The Laws of Divine Establishment are volition, marriage, family, and government.

Respect for authority is essential if civilization is to function—the authority of mankind over his soul, of the husband over his wife, of parents over their children, of elected officials and law enforcement officers over the citizens of a nation. When authority is not respected, we have anarchy (freedom without authority) or tyranny (authority without freedom).

Volition—the right to make our own decisions—is a divine institution and, therefore, must have authority. In volition, we have authority over our souls in deciding if the Old Sin Nature or God the Holy Spirit will control us. The non-Christian has used his negative volition to decide against God and, thus, for the Old Sin Nature to always control his soul. The Christian who is filled with the Spirit has decided through positive volition to give the Holy Spirit authority over his life. The Christian who has unconfessed sin in his life has decided through negative volition to give authority to his Old Sin Nature.

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Marriage is a divine institution and, therefore, must have authority. The husband is that authority.

Just as the Church is subordinate to Christ so also wives are under the authority of their own husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:24)

Family is a divine institution and, therefore, must have authority. Parents are that authority.

For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and mother.’ And, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him die the death.’ (Matthew 15:4)

The government of a nation is a divine institution and, therefore, must have authority. Our elected officials as well as those who enforce the laws have that authority.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. (Psalm 33:12)

Humility and obedience, the same traits that are necessary to live the spiritual life, are also necessary to successfully fulfill God’s Laws of Divine Establishment. Without humility and obedience, we are unwilling to submit to rightful authority.

5. Every Christian must live the Royal Law, which says that you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.

By fulfilling the Royal Law, you also fulfill the Protocol Plan of God for your life.

If, however, you are fulfilling the Royal Law on the

The Old Sin Nature ensures failure. The filling of the Holy Spirit empowers victory.

Humility is teachability.

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basis of the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing the right thing in the right way. (James 2:8)

The Royal Law is named after the royalty of Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ, the righteous One, was willing to die for us, the unrighteous ones. In this way, He expressed His impersonal love44 for us, sinners, and His personal love for God the Father. By obeying the Royal Law ourselves, we recognize the power of Christ’s love for all mankind.

When you are wronged or think you are wronged, put the matter in God’s hands and leave the outcome to the integrity of God. Never seek revenge. Never bear a grudge.

Beloved, stop avenging yourselves but leave room for the punishment from the justice of God. For it stands written, ‘Punishment belongs to Me,' says the Lord. (Romans 12:19)

6. Every Christian must live his life as unto the Lord.

How does the Lord expect us to behave?

The production of the Spirit (the filling of the Holy Spirit) is virtue love, joy, peace, steadfastness, integrity, generosity, faith, humility, self-discipline. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Virtue love. Virtue love, also called impersonal love, is the greatest

love of all. It occurs in the soul and allows the Christian to be at peace with everyone, even those who hate him or treat him unfairly.

Keep on loving your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those

44 Impersonal love, also called virtue love, is the love we feel for those who dislike or hate us. We are able to feel relaxed toward them (impersonal love) because of the love for God which lives in our soul.

Arrogance reacts with bitterness. Humility responds with forgiveness.

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who abuse you. (Luke 6:27-28) Just as Jesus Christ expressed His love for all mankind by suffering and dying as a substitute for us, so we treat all men with grace, even those who treat us unfairly.

We love because He first loved us. (I John 4:19) As members of God’s family, we want to behave as Christ in His humanity behaved.

You will be sons of the most High because He Himself is loving to the ungrateful and to the evil. Be merciful as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will never be judged. Stop condemning others, and you will never be condemned; therefore, be forgiving; and you will be forgiven. (Luke 6:35-37)

Your personal love for God makes it possible for you to have virtue love for all mankind. Joy. Joy is the perfect happiness in the soul that comes from loving God and knowing with certainty His will for your life; therefore, joy is the reality of thinking doctrine, resulting in a unique happiness related to God.

Although you have never seen Jesus Christ, you continue loving Him with reference to Whom now at the present time, not seeing Him, you continue believing and you rejoice to the maximum with joy inexpressible and full of glory. (I Peter 1:8)

Joy means sharing the happiness of God and using the strength of His spiritual life as your strength.

The joy of the Lord is our strength. (Nehemiah 8:10b) Peace. The Christian knows that he has peace, which is tranquillity of soul, when things that used to get him down do not bother him any more. He has put all of his problems in the Lord’s hands.

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Stop worrying about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall protect your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

Steadfastness. Steadfastness is consistency and faithfulness in taking in the Word of God.

Especially to the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace will be given to you for your benefit and prosperity from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Worthy of praise and glorification is the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. (Ephesians 1:2-3)

In the steadfastness of spiritual maturity, the Christian is faithful in his study of the Word of God. Just as the Lord is faithful to us, so we also must be faithful to Him.

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease because His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Integrity. When we have the integrity of God, we do a right thing in a right way. Integrity is perfect wisdom without emotion.

For the Word of the Lord is upright, and all His work is in fidelity.45 (Psalm 33:4)

Generosity. We follow Christ’s example of giving the most to everyone.

Furthermore, from a man who takes your coat, do not keep back your shirt. Give to everyone who asks you. And stop demanding the return of your goods from him who takes them. And just as you desire that

45 The words “upright” and “fidelity” refer to God’s perfect integrity.

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people do to you, treat them in the same way. (Luke 6:29-31)

Do good and lend without expecting to get anything in return, and your reward will be great. (Luke 6:35)

Christ died for everyone; therefore, our generosity must extend even to our enemies.

So if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. (Romans 12:20)

Faith. After we are saved, by faith we hear Bible doctrine; we learn

it; we believe it; and we apply that knowledge to our lives.

Although you have never seen Him, you continue loving Him. (I Peter 1:8)

Humility. Because of humility, we recognize our own limitations in relationship to perfect God as well as in relationship to other people, who are as imperfect as ourselves.

Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be thinking the same things toward each other. Do not be thinking in terms of arrogance but associate with humble people. Stop being wise in your own estimation. (Romans 12:15-16)

We can attain the spiritual life only through humility. We can easily become self-centered so that we think that we are really important, that we can do everything ourselves. Remember—God was in business long before we got here, and God will be in business long after we are gone! He does not need imperfect mankind, but do we ever need Him!

Self-discipline. Self-discipline is the willingness to expose ourselves to the accurate teaching of the Word of God every day.

Whoever guards His words, truly in him the love for God has been brought to completion. (I John 2:5)

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7. Learn the promises of God and then use them. The Bible contains over 7000 promises from God! However, if you do not know God’s promises, you cannot claim them. Study Bible doctrine to learn them. Then apply them to your life. The following are just a few of God’s promises to you: Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or tremble at them because

the Lord your God is the One who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)

The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. (Deuteronomy 33:27)

The battle is the Lord’s. (I Samuel 17:47) In peace I will both lie down and sleep because You alone, O Lord, do

make me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4:8) I have set the Lord continually before me. Because He is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken. (Psalm 16:8) Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I

will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23:6) Wait for the Lord. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait

for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14) The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in Him, and I am

helped. (Psalm 28:7) Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your

heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He will do it. (Psalm 37:4-5)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe. (Proverbs 18:10)

You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever because the Lord God is an everlasting rock. (Isaiah 26:3-4)

Do not fear because I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you because I am your God. I will strengthen you. Surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

And it will come to pass that before you pray, I will answer; and while you are still speaking, I will respond. (Isaiah 65:24)

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Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them shall fall to the ground (death) apart from your Father (God the Father’s will). Now the very hairs of your head are numbered...Therefore stop being afraid (of living or dying); you are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31)

Everything you ask in prayer, believing you will receive. (Matthew 21:22)

With God nothing shall be impossible. (Luke 1:37) If you abide in Me and My doctrines reside in you, ask whatever you wish

and it shall come to pass for you. (John 15:7) If God be for us, who can be against us? He who spared not His own Son

but delivered Him over to judgment for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)

There is no testing you will experience except that which is common to humanity; and God is faithful, Who will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able, but with the testing will provide a way of escape in order that you may be able to endure it. (I Corinthians 10:13)

He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20a)

Stop worrying about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

But my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (II Timothy 1:7)

Let your way of life be free from the love of money, being content with what you have because He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.’ (Hebrews 13:5)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

Happiness to the man who perseveres under testing; he will receive the wreath of life which God has promised to those constantly loving Him. (James 1:12)

Casting all your cares on Him because He cares for you. (I Peter 5:7)

Claim a promise. Use that promise according to the doctrines you have learned.

Reach doctrinal conclusions.

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Summary: Your Performance in God’s Plan 1. At the moment of salvation, God the Holy Spirit gives you your own

spiritual gift. You must use that special gift as God intends. All gifts are important, and each gift is essential to the whole “team” effort. Consistent study of Bible doctrine will prepare you to use your gift to glorify God.

2. At the moment of salvation, you become a royal priest, able to bring your petitions, intercessions, praise of God, and thanksgiving directly to the throne of God the Father. As long as you confess your sins to God before you pray and, therefore, are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, God the Father will hear and answer your prayers. You must pray to the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and through Jesus Christ, the Son.

3. You are a royal ambassador, representing Christ to a lost and dying world. God has given you the special privilege and mandate to witness for Him.

4. You must fulfill the Laws of Divine Establishment, which were given by God to Christians and non-Christians equally. The Laws of Divine Establishment are volition, marriage, family, and nation. Respect for authority is essential if our world is to function—the authority of mankind over his soul, of the husband over his wife, of parents over their children, of elected officials and law enforcement officers over the citizens of a nation.

5. You must live the Royal Law: You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. When you are wronged or think you are wronged, put the matter in God’s hands and leave the outcome of your unjust treatment to the integrity of God. Never seek revenge. Never bear a grudge. Treat everyone as Christ treated you when He took your place on the Cross—in virtue love.

6. You must live your life as unto the Lord. “The production of the spirit is virtue love (impersonal love for all mankind and personal love for God the Father), joy (sharing the happiness of God), peace (tranquillity of soul), steadfastness (consistency and faithfulness in taking in God’s Word), integrity (doing a right thing in a right way), generosity (giving the most to everyone), faith (believing without seeing), humility (absence of arrogance plus respect for authority), self-discipline (willingness to learn Bible doctrine every day).”

7. Learn the promises of God and then apply them according to the doctrines you have learned. God always keeps His promises.

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Suggestions for Fulfilling God’s Mandates

You and you alone have responsibility for your own life. No one can take that responsibility for you. You are the only one who can make decisions, and you will be a product of your decisions. You are the only one who can learn and follow the plan of God for your life. Paul says,

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (I Corinthians 15:58)

God commands you to be steadfast, to be grounded in doctrine until

you cannot be distracted or disillusioned. You must be immovable; you cannot let anyone sway you from the course of Bible doctrine. God expects you to use your spiritual gift, to be a royal ambassador, to pray to Him directly, to love your enemies as yourself, and to do divine good in everything. REMEMBER:

• YOU are responsible for rebounding when you sin. • YOU are responsible for finding a pastor who presents God’s

Word accurately. • YOU are responsible for listening to him attentively. • YOU are responsible for studying God’s Word daily.

1. Do not be intimidated. Never be threatened by people or

circumstances. Never succumb to fear or worry.

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to Whom be the glory for ever and ever. (Romans 11:36)

2. Always be determined. I Thessalonians 4:11-12 says that you

should study

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to be quiet and do your own business and work with your hands as we commanded you in order that you will walk honestly toward them that are outside and that you may lack nothing.

Be determined to grow up spiritually, and you will behave honorably toward those who hate you. And God’s blessings will be yours. You will lack nothing.

3. Be resilient. Be flexible. If you cannot find a local church that presents accurate biblical instruction from the original languages, you are still without excuse. Remember: You are responsible for your life. Instead of wasting time making up excuses for not learning Bible doctrine, be resilient. Get doctrine through books and tapes. You must find a source of accurate Bible teaching and then use it.

4. Do not quit. It is a struggle to keep going in your study of Bible

doctrine, and many times all of us think about giving up. Do not do it! You cannot afford to take a break from God. Pressures and battles surround you, but as you grow in your understanding of doctrine, you will develop the strength to fight the temptations to quit. The power of His strength begins to guide you, help you, and carry you through. Getting momentum in your study life is the beginning, but the real test is keeping your momentum moving toward the goal of spiritual maturity.

5. Be wise. Remember that bad decisions limit future options. Consider all of the options, and make decisions based on your knowledge of Bible doctrine. How sad to get to Heaven and hear God say, “Come over here and let me show you what you could have had if only…” Loser Christians forfeit all of the blessings that God has waiting for them! If you are going to be on God’s team, He is going to test your abilities. He is going to push you to your limits to bring out the best in you. Some of you will respond. Some of you will quit! You can always come back out for God’s team. God has not given up on you. He knows that you have talent. He waits on you to get over your arrogance and suit back up. Ephesians 6 teaches us to

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stand, therefore, having your loins girded about with truth. Put around your waist the belt of truth, the Word of God. Wear the breastplate of righteousness.

Take the Bible doctrine you have learned from the ministry of your pastor and metabolize it through daily intake and practice. Establish integrity, honor, and virtue in your life, and you will realize strength in growing as a wonderful Christian.

As a mature Christian, you—yes, you!—will impact the world. When you enter Heaven, you will hear the sweetest words of all, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”

And now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever more. Amen. (Jude 24-25)

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APPENDIX

Forty Things God Provides Every Believer at Salvation (Thirty-nine Irrevocable Assets Plus One Revocable Asset)

Compiled by Lewis Sperry Chafer

Revised by R. B. Thieme, Jr.

1. The Christian resides in the eternal plan of God, sharing the destiny of Christ. • Foreknown by God—Acts 2:23; Romans 8:29; I Peter 1:2 • Elected—Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:12; I Thessalonians 1:4;

Titus 1:1; I Peter 1:2 • Predestined in Christ—Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:5, 11 • Chosen—Matthew 22:14; I Peter 2:4 • Called—I Thessalonians 5:24

2. The Christian is reconciled by God to God. The sin barrier that separates man from God is removed. • By God—II Corinthians 5:18-19; Colossians 1:20 • To God—Romans 5:10; II Corinthians 5:20; Ephesians 2:14-17

3. The Christian is redeemed (purchased from the slave market of sin). Romans 3:24; Colossians 1:14; I Peter 1:18

4. The Christian’s condemnation (eternal judgment) is removed. John 3:18; 5:24; Romans 8:1

5. All sins are judged by the substitutionary spiritual death of Christ on the Cross. Romans 4:25; Ephesians 1:7; I Peter 2:24

6. Under grace, every Christian receives propitiation for sins instead of judgment. God is satisfied with the death of His Son on the Cross. Romans 3:25-26; I John 2:2; 4:10

7. The Christian is dead to the old life (Old Sin Nature) but alive to God (retroactive positional truth). He is • Crucified with Christ—Romans 6:8; Galatians 2:20 • Dead with Christ—Romans 6:8; Colossians 3:3; I Peter 2:24 • Buried with Christ—Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12 • Raised with Christ—Romans 6:4; 7:4; Colossians 2:12; 3:1

8. The Christian is free from the Mosaic Law. He is • Dead to the Law—Romans 7:4 • Delivered—Romans 6:14; 7:6; II Corinthians 3:6-11; Galatians

3:25 9. The Christian is regenerated. John 12:10; I Corinthians 6:11; Titus

3:5 • Born again—John 3:7; I Peter 1:23

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• A child of God—Romans 8:16; Galatians 3:26 • A son of God—John 1:12; II Corinthians 6:18; I John 3:2 • A new creation—II Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Ephesians

2:10 10. The Christian is adopted by God (placed as an adult son through

positional truth). Romans 8:15; Ephesians 1:5 11. The Christian is made acceptable to God. Ephesians 1:6; I Pet 2:5.

He is • Made righteous (imputation)—Romans 3:22; I Corinthians 1:30;

II Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9 • Sanctified positionally—I Corinthians 1:30, 6:11 • Perfected forever—Hebrews 10:14 • Qualified for inheritance—Colossians 1:12

12. The Christian is justified (vindicated, declared righteous). Romans 3:24, 5:1; 8:30; I Corinthians 6:11; Titus 3:7

13. The Christian receives the unique availability of divine power. II Peter 1:3

14. The Christian is guaranteed heavenly citizenship based on reconciliation. Luke 10:20; Ephesians 2:14-19; Philippians 3:20

15. The Christian is delivered from the kingdom of Satan. Colossians 1:13a; 2:15

16. The Christian is transferred into God’s kingdom. Colossians 1:13b 17. The Christian is placed on a secure foundation. I Corinthians 3:11;

10:4; Ephesians 2:20 18. Every Christian is a gift from God the Father to Christ.

John 10:29; 17:2, 6, 9, 11-12, 24 19. The Christian is positionally delivered from the power of the Old Sin

Nature. Romans 8:2; Philippians 3:3; Colossians 2:11 20. Every Christian is appointed a priest unto God. He is

• A holy priesthood—I Peter 2:5, 9 • A royal priesthood—I Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6

21. The Christian receives eternal security. John 10:28-29; Romans 8:32, 38-39; Galatians 3:26; II Timothy 2:13

22. The Christian is given access to God. Romans 5:2; Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 4:16; 10:19-20

23. The Christian is within the “much more” grace care of God. Romans 5:9-10. He is the • Object of His love—Ephesians 2:4; 5:2 • Object of His grace

o For salvation—Ephesians 2:8-9 o For keeping—Romans 5:2; I Peter 1:5 o For service—John 17:18; Ephesians 4:7

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o For instruction—Titus 2:12 • Object of His power—Ephesians 1:19; Philippians 2:13 • Object of His faithfulness—Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 13:5b • Object of His peace—John 14:27 • Object of His consolation—II Thessalonians 2:16 • Object of His intercession—Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 9:24

24. The Christian is beneficiary of an inheritance as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. Romans 8:17; Ephesians 1:14, 18; Colossians 3:24; Hebrews 9:15; I Peter 1:4

25. The Christian has a new position in Christ. Ephesians 2:6. He is a • Partner with Christ in life—Colossians 3:4 • Partner with Christ in service—I Corinthians 1:9

o Worker together with God—I Corinthians 3:9; II Corinthians 6:1

o Servant of the New Covenant—II Corinthians 3:6 o Ambassador—II Corinthians 5:20 o Living epistle—II Corinthians 3:3 o Servant of God—II Corinthians 6:4

26. The Christian is the recipient of eternal life. John 3:15; 10:28; 20:31; I John 5:11-12

27. The Christian is created a new spiritual species. II Corinthians 5:17 28. The Christian is a light in the Lord (part of the angelic conflict).

Ephesians 5:8; I Thessalonians. 5:4-5 29. The Christian is united with the Father, Son. and Holy Spirit. He is

• In God—I Thessalonians 1:1 (cf. “God in you,” Ephesians 4:6) • In Christ—John 14:20 (cf. “Christ in you,” Colossians 1:27)

o A member of His Body—I Corinthians 12:13 o A branch in the Vine—John 15:5 o A stone in the Building—Ephesians 2:21-22; I Peter 2:5 o A sheep in the Flock—John 10:27-29 o A portion of His Bride—Ephesians 5:25-27;

Revelation 19:6-8, 21:9 o A priest of the kingdom of priests—I Peter 2:9 o A new spiritual species—II Corinthians 5:17

• In the Holy Spirit—Romans 8:9 (“The Spirit in you”) 30. The Christian is the recipients of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. He

is • Born of the Spirit—John 3:5-8 • Baptized with the Spirit—Acts 1:5; I Corinthians 12:13 • Indwelt by the Spirit—John 7:39; Romans 5:5; 8:9;

I Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; Galatians 4:6; I John 3:24 • Sealed by the Spirit—II Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 4:30

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• Given spiritual gifts by the Spirit—I Corinthians 12:11, 27-31; 13:1-2

31. The Christian is glorified. Romans 8:30 32. The Christian is complete in Christ. Colossians 2:12 33. The Christian is the possessor of every spiritual blessing granted in

eternity past. Ephesians 1:3 34. The Christian receives a human spirit (an integral component of

Operation Z, along with the Holy Spirit). I Thessalonians 5:23 35. The Christian has all sins and transgressions blotted out.

Isaiah 43:25, 44:22 36. The Christian is the recipient of efficacious grace. Ephesians 1:13 37. The Christian is guaranteed a resurrection body forever.

I Corinthians 15:40-54 38. The Christian is the beneficiary of unlimited atonement. II

Corinthians 5:14-15, 19; I Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Titus 2:11; Hebrews 2:9; II Peter 2:1; I John 2:2

39. The Christian has equal privilege and equal opportunity under election and predestination. Romans 12:3; Ephesians 3:16-19

The One Revocable Asset

40. The Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. Galatians 3:3. The filling of the Holy Spirit received at salvation is revoked when the Christian sins. The filling of the Holy Spirit is recovered when the Christian rebounds by acknowledging his sins to God.

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DIRECTORY OF TERMS Anarchy is freedom without authority. People behave lawlessly. Angelic Conflict: This invisible warfare between God and Satan was ignited

by the prehistoric revolt of Satan and one-third of the angels. The angelic conflict was resolved by the star Witness, Jesus Christ, Who died on the Cross as our perfect substitute. Every member of the human race is a participant in the angelic conflict either as a witness for God or for Satan.

Anthropomorphism means to ascribe to God portions of the human anatomy to describe an otherwise indescribable divine truth (e.g. “the everlasting arms”). God does not have human anatomy.

Anthropopathism is designed to explain to mankind in human language a divine policy based on a sovereign decision of God related to the integrity of God with emphasis on divine righteousness, justice, and love. Malachi 1:2-3.

Apostasy means to have forsaken God. An apostate nation no longer relies on God.

Area of Strength is the area of the Old Sin Nature which generates human good (dead works).

Area of Weakness is the area of the Old Sin Nature which tempts the Christian to personal sin. Temptation becomes sin only when the believer’s volition gives in to the temptation.

Bible is the Word of God and the thinking of Christ. The Bible is divided into two parts, the Old Testament, which looks to the coming of Christ, and the New Testament, which records Christ’s life on earth as well as His provisions for time and eternity.

Birth, Virgin: Jesus Christ was born of a human mother, but He had no human father. Therefore, He is the only human being born without the Old Sin Nature, which is imputed to mankind through the father. Because He was born of a virgin, Christ had a body, soul and spirit. Because mankind is born of a father and mother, we have a body and a soul but no spirit. The virgin birth was essential in order that Christ be born perfect, without an Old Sin Nature. Only a perfect Man could die for the sins of imperfect mankind.

Body of Christ refers to the Church, to every believer. We are under the authority of the Head, Who is Christ Jesus. All members of the body have different spiritual gifts, and those gifts work together for the benefit of the whole Church.

Born again is another way of describing salvation (being saved by belief in

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Jesus Christ as Savior). Carnality is the absolute status of being out of fellowship with God because of

unconfessed sin. In carnality, the Christian loses the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the Old Sin Nature controls his life.

Chain-sinning is the result of allowing a past sin to generate further sins. As one or more sins build on previous sins, a destructive sequence unfolds.

Childhood, Spiritual, is the beginning stage of growth for a Christian and is marked by a lack of knowledge of the promises of God and a lack of understanding of the procedures necessary to live the spiritual life. All Christians start as spiritual children and have the potential to become spiritual adults.

Christian is any person who has believed in Jesus Christ as his Savior. Christian, Terminally (continually) carnal, is one who sins many sins without

ever rebounding, one “whose end is destruction (sin unto death), whose god is his emotions, whose glory (earthly fame) is his shame (at the Judgment Seat of Christ), and who keeps on thinking about only earthly things.” Philippians 3:19

Christianity is God seeking man through the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Christianity is not religion. Christianity is a relationship.

Circumstances are the things that go on around us, the good things and the bad, that can distract us from the study of God’s Word. We must keep our eyes on God, not on our circumstances, the things of this world.

Confess is the mandate to every Christian to simply name, cite, admit, or acknowledge sins in privacy to God the Father. I John 1:9.

Death of Christ on the Cross, Substitutionary Death: We are the guilty ones, but Christ died as a substitute for us so that we do not have to face the death penalty that we deserve, spending eternity in the Lake of Fire. This does not mean that Christ went to the Lake of Fire as our substitute. Instead, the humanity of Christ was punished and died spiritually as our substitute. We are the ones who should have been on the Cross being punished for our own sins. Instead, Jesus Christ, the perfect Man-God, took our place.

Death, Physical: Man may die physically of a heart attack or in an accident or of cancer. Some even commit suicide. This is the first death, physical death. When the non-Christian dies, his soul leaves his body and is placed in Hell to await judgment at the Great White Throne. The Christian goes to Heaven to spend eternity with God. Death is God’s victory for every Christian.

Death, Second, is for the non-Christian only. Every non-Christian will live

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forever and ever in the Lake of Fire, stark terror living with him as his body physically burns for eternity. This is the second death and is without hope and without end.

Death, Spiritual, is separation from God. Because of Adam’s original sin, every human being is born separated from God and incapable of satisfying His perfect righteousness. Only through faith in Christ can a person be born again and become spiritually alive. Because our Lord Jesus Christ was born perfect—of a virgin and, therefore, without an Old Sin Nature—He was born with a body, soul and spirit. Because we are born with an Old Sin Nature, we are born with a body and soul but without a human spirit.

Details of Life are those things which we cannot take with us when we die (e.g. cars, girlfriends, money and wealth, health, entertainment) Preoccupation with the details of life keeps the Christian from concentrating on God’s grace blessings and on the spiritual life.

Discipline, Dying, is the third stage of divine discipline in which God removes the terminally carnal Christian from this life because he is walking in darkness and refuses to respond to His warning and intensive discipline through rebound. Dying discipline is called the sin unto death. I John 5:16-17.

Discipline, Fifth Cycle of, is the destruction of a client-nation by God due to maximum rejection of Biblical principles. Leviticus 26:14-41.

Discipline, Intensive, is the second stage of divine discipline in which God adds more severe suffering to the perpetually carnal believer who has not responded to warning discipline.

Discipline, Warning, is the first stage of divine discipline in which God warns the carnal believer that he must rebound and be filled with the Spirit.

Dispensation is a period of human history expressed in terms of divine revelation. History is a sequence of divine administrations. These consecutive eras reflect the unfolding of God’s plan for mankind. They constitute the divine viewpoint and the theological interpretation of history.

Doctrine, Bible, is the promises, principles, and procedures that give the Christian the knowledge and power to execute the Christian life. Bible doctrine is eternal truth and is found only in the Word of God—the Bible in the original divinely inspired languages.

Epignosis is the Greek word for information that has been metabolized into the soul. It is full knowledge, understood, believed, and applied. Epignosis is the highest form of thinking.

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Epistle: An epistle is a letter and specifically refers to the books of the New Testament, beginning with Romans and ending with Jude.

Essence of God is His perfect character and is composed of His love, perfect righteousness (+R), justice, eternal life, omniscience (God knows everything), omnipotence (God is all-powerful), omnipresence (God is everywhere), veracity (God is perfect truth), immutability (God never changes), and sovereignty (everything is under God’s control).

Faith alone in Christ alone is the only way to be saved. After salvation, by faith, we hear Bible doctrine; we learn it; we believe it; and we apply that knowledge to our lives. Faith is a nonmeritorious system of perception based on confidence and trust in the authority, veracity, and ability of God.

Faith-Rest (Problem Solving Device #3) is the Christian’s basic problem-solving device for claiming promises of God and mixing them with faith through the filling of the Holy Spirit to generate tranquillity of soul in the midst of the adversities of life. We should cling to God’s promises until they become more real to us than our emotions, our experiences, our circumstances, or our problems.

Family of God: The moment we believe in Christ as our Savior, we become members of the Royal Family of God. We remain his children throughout eternity. Nothing we do can take us out of God’s family. As members of His family, we receive the same inheritance as Christ.

Filling of the Holy Spirit (Problem Solving Device #2): God gives us the filling of the Holy Spirit the moment we are saved; however, the Holy Spirit fills our souls only until we sin. Because sin grieves and quenches the Holy Spirit, His control is terminated when we sin. To regain the filling of the Holy Spirit, we must rebound, which means to acknowledge our sins to God. I John 1:9. Immediately upon rebounding, we are again filled with the Holy Spirit. We retain the filling of the Spirit until we sin once more. The biblical mandate to be filled with the Spirit is not an order to undergo emotional ecstatics or to raise our consciousness to mystically commune with God. The filling of the Holy Spirit empowers us to reject the Old Sin Nature’s control of our lives, to metabolize the Word of God, and to grow in the unique spiritual life.

Generosity: We must follow Christ’s example of giving the most to everyone. We must do good for others without expecting to get anything in return. Christ died for everyone; therefore, our generosity must extend even to our enemies.

Gnosis is the Greek word for academic understanding. Academic

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understanding means that we have memorized that 2 + 2 = 4 but do not understand what that means. We are able to add two pennies to two pennies and know that we have four pennies—but we do not know how much they will buy!

God Consciousness is the point at which a person becomes aware that God may exist and becomes accountable for his choice for or against God.

God the Father, the Designer of the entire plan and the One Who judged our sins on the Cross, gives us 39 permanent gifts—irrevocable assets—as well as the filling of God the Holy Spirit when we accept Christ as our Savior. We pray to God the Father.

God the Holy Spirit provided Jesus Christ with the power to withstand the horrible punishment on the Cross from God the Father. The Holy Spirit provides non-Christians the power to understand the Gospel. He gives all Christians the same power of Jesus Christ on the Cross so that we may successfully execute the spiritual life.

God the Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is perfect humanity and perfect God in one person forever. On earth, Jesus Christ lived the same life we live, enduring the same types of temptations, only much greater. At salvation, we are given His same life—the spiritual life—and that same power He had a Man so that if we use it, we can glorify God the Father as Christ glorified Him. In His humanity, Jesus Christ did the work on the Cross. Every sin ever committed by mankind was given to Him and judged. He died that we might live eternally.

Good, Divine, is Christian service or deeds performed by a Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit. Giving, witnessing, helping, and studying Bible doctrine are all divine good if they are done while we are filled with the Holy Spirit. They are dead works—human good—if they are done with unconfessed sin in our lives.

Good, Human, is good deeds produced under the control of the Old Sin Nature. The Christian with unconfessed sin in his life is not spiritual but carnal (controlled by the Old Sin Nature). The good deeds of a carnal Christian are indistinguishable from good deeds performed by a non-Christian. Human good has no spiritual value.

Gospel of Jesus Christ is called the “good news” because it teaches salvation as a free gift through faith alone in Christ alone.

Grace is the absence of works. It is all that God is free to do for mankind on the basis of the Cross, the free gifts that God gives to mankind, including salvation and, for the Christian, tremendous blessings both on earth and in Heaven. These grace gifts become ours only if we accept them.

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Grace, Common, is the grace of God given to all humanity which allows a non-Christian to hear and understand the Gospel.

Grace, Efficacious: Through efficacious grace our belief in Christ as our Savior is made effective for our salvation. After salvation, efficacious grace is given to us through God the Holy Spirit, allowing us to understand and metabolize Bible doctrine for the benefit of spiritual growth and the attainment of spiritual maturity.

Great White Throne Judgment is the judgment of all non-Christians in eternity future. Their judgment is based on having their names in the Lamb’s Book of Life and having their righteousness equal to God’s perfect righteousness as found in the Book of Works. In both accounts, they will be found lacking, and the justice of God will sentence them to the Lake of Fire forever. Revelation 20:11-15.

Grieve the Holy Spirit means to sin and not rebound. Continued sinning without rebound leads to severe punishment from God.

Happiness (+H) is possible only through the filling of the Holy Spirit. This happiness brings “enduring worth to life. It is not the superficial happiness that depends on circumstances but rather the happiness that fills the soul in the middle of the most distressing of circumstances and the most bitter environment.”46 Satan’s myth is that people or circumstances can make us happy. This is not true. We can be truly happy only by having a relationship with God through the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Humility is understanding that we are nothing and can do nothing apart from the grace of God. It is a relaxed mental attitude that produces rest. It is the absence of arrogance coupled with respect for authority.

Image of God is the immaterial, invisible essence of mankind. The pattern of God used to create mankind was Himself. Our essence includes mentality, emotion, volition, conscience, and self-consciousness.

Imputation is the judicial act of crediting a debit or credit to someone’s account. The condemnation of Adam’s original sin is given to each person at birth. God’s eternal life is credited to each person at the moment of faith in Jesus Christ.

Indwelling of God the Holy Spirit: As soon as we believe in Christ as our Savior, we are given our own human spirit, which is immediately indwelled—energized—by God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit resides and lives in every Christian in order to make a temple for the indwelling of God the Father and God the Son. God the Holy Spirit

46 Billy Graham

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indwells our spirit forever. Inheritance: Our inheritance as Christians comes from God and, therefore, is

perfect. We receive that inheritance at the moment of salvation, and nothing and no one can take away any part of it. Part of our inheritance is the 39 irrevocable gifts that we receive at salvation as well as the one revocable asset, the filling of the Holy Spirit, which we lose each time we sin and do not rebound. We receive our inheritance because we are members of the Royal Family of God.

Inspiration is a translation of the Greek word theopneustos, meaning “God-breathed.” God the Holy Spirit so supernaturally directed the human writers of Scripture, that without waiving their human intelligence, vocabulary, individuality, literary style, personality, personal feelings, or any other human factor, His complete and coherent message to mankind was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of Scripture, the very words bearing the authority of divine authorship.

Integrity is perfect wisdom without emotion. When we have the integrity of God, we do a right thing in a right way.

Joy is the perfect happiness in the soul that comes from loving God and knowing with certainty His will for our lives; therefore, joy is the reality of thinking doctrine, resulting in a unique happiness related to God.

Justice is the attribute of God that describes His infinite fairness in blessing, reward, judgment, and condemnation. What the righteousness (+R) of God rejects, the justice of God judges. What the righteousness (+R) of God approves, the justice of God blesses.

Justification is the judicial act of God whereby He imputes His righteousness (+R) to the new Christian at the point of salvation, thereby vindicating or justifying him.

Kenosis is the doctrine that states that Jesus Christ voluntarily restricted the use of His divine attributes in order to live among men with their limitations. He gave up the outward appearance and the power of His deity.

Lake of Fire is the final abode for non-Christians and fallen angels who are eternally condemned and separated from God. At the Last Judgment, non-Christians are sentenced to the Lake of Fire by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Languages of the Bible: The Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages; the New Testament, in the Greek language. The original manuscripts of the Bible, written in these languages, were divinely inspired. The English translations are not

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divinely inspired. Laws of Divine Establishment are principles ordained by God for the blessing,

perpetuation, protection, orderly function, and stability of the human race during the angelic conflict. They were given by God to Christian and non-Christian equally: Volition, marriage, family, and government. Respect for authority—the authority of mankind over his soul, of the husband over his wife, of parents over their children, of elected officials and law enforcement officers over the citizens of a nation—is essential if our world is to function.

Legalism is man’s futile attempts to gain salvation, spirituality, or the approbation of God through human good.

Life, Eternal: Everyone will exist forever, but only Christians will spend eternity in Heaven, a place of perfect peace and happiness. Non-Christians will live forever in the Lake of Fire, suffering horribly. Eternal life in Heaven is a gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.

Love is expressed in three categories: toward God, toward right man or right woman, toward friends.

Love, Impersonal, also called virtue love, (Problem Solving Device #8) is the love we feel for those who dislike or disappoint us. We are able to feel relaxed toward them (impersonal love) because of the love for God which lives in our soul. Impersonal love for all mankind, our functional virtue, is only possible for mature Christians. God had impersonal love toward us in that while we were spiritually dead Christ died for us. When we imitate the impersonal love of the Lord Jesus Christ, we repay insults with patience and humility, antagonism with compassion and kindness and at the same time retain tranquillity in our own souls.

Love, Personal, demands a target—someone to love. Impersonal love does not because we love everyone as Christ loved us. Personal love, our motivational virtue, depends on our virtue, not on the virtue of the one we love. We have personal love for a few friends and for family. Marriage is the ultimate expression of personal love for another human being and is unlike the personal love we feel for anyone else. God likens love in marriage to Christ’s personal love for the Church.

Love, Personal, for God the Father (Problem Solving Device #7) brings harmonious rapport with God. Christian love has God for its primary object and expresses itself first of all in implicit obedience to His commandments. When we understand God’s perfect essence and orient to His grace and His Word, we become motivated by an attitude of admiration and reverence toward Him, and we want to study Bible

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doctrine daily so that we can know more about Him. We have absolute confidence in God’s ability to care for us, regardless of the hopelessness of the situation. Our personal love for God allows us to have impersonal love for all mankind, even the most obnoxious and brutal people.

Love, Virtue, also called impersonal love, is the greatest love of all. It occurs in the soul as a result of spiritual growth and allows the Christian to feel at peace with everyone, even those who hate him or treat him unfairly.

Maturity, Spiritual, occurs when the Christian has faithfully studied Bible doctrine daily to the point that he sustains an intense love for God and is occupied with Christ, expressing unconditional love for all mankind and sharing the complete contentment that marked the unique spiritual life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, while He was on earth.

Mentor is a trusted counselor or a guide, a tutor or a coach. Millennium is the last one thousand years of human history in which the Lord

Jesus Christ will reign on earth and will introduce perfect environment to this world.

Nation, Client, is a national entity in which a certain number of spiritually mature Christians have formed a pivot sufficient to sustain the nation and through which God specifically protects this representative nation so that Christians can fulfill the divine mandates of evangelism, communication and custodianship of Bible doctrine, providing a haven for Jews, and sending missionaries abroad. Today, the United States is a client nation to God.

Non-Christian is anyone who has never made the decision to believe in Jesus Christ as his Savior and, therefore, anyone who is not saved, not born again.

Occupation with Christ (Problem Solving Device #10) is maximum personal love for the Lord from Bible doctrine circulating in the right lobe of the soul by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit. It is the ultimate problem-solving device of the mature Christian. We make Jesus Christ our role model and view life through His perfect perspective. We know that during His time on earth, our Lord Jesus Christ displayed impeccable spirituality, faith-rest, grace and doctrinal orientation, fulfillment of His destiny, personal and impersonal love, and the happiness God.

Old Sin Nature, an integral part of every human being which resides in the cell structure of the human body, is the source of human sin and human good. The Old Sin Nature was acquired originally by Adam at his Fall and is subsequently passed down genetically to all mankind by the male in procreation. The result is both spiritual death and total depravity of all

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humanity, except Jesus Christ. Because of the virgin birth, Jesus Christ was born without a sin nature. The Old Sin Nature has an area of weakness which produces personal sins, an area of strength which produces human good, a lust pattern, and trends toward self-denial or self-pursuit.

Omnipotence literally means “all-powerful” and describes God’s attribute of unlimited authority and infinite ability to accomplish anything He wills.

Omnipresence literally means “ever-present” and describes God’s attribute of eternal and simultaneous presence in every place. He is not subject to the limitations of space. He is transcendent and imminent but became local in the humanity of Jesus Christ.

Omniscience literally means “all-knowing” and describes God’s attribute of complete and simultaneous knowledge of all things, including the actual and the possible past, present, and future events.

Operation Z is the divinely ordained mechanics by which Bible doctrine is transferred from the pages of infallible Scripture to become epignosis doctrine which can then be applied to every circumstance in the Christian life. Operation Z requires four things: A pastor who presents the Word accurately, the filling of God the Holy Spirit, comprehension of the Word of God, and application of the Word. (Operation Z is a synonym for the grace apparatus for perception.)

Orientation, Doctrinal, (Problem Solving Device #5) means to learn to think with the “mind of Christ” and apply that thinking to our circumstances. When we learn doctrinal norms and standards, we rely on the Lord, make good decisions from a position of strength—God’s strength, and employ the problem solving devices of spiritual maturity.

Orientation, Grace, (Problem Solving Device #4) occurs when we recognize that everything we have is a grace gift from God which we receive because at the moment of salvation we are given the righteousness of God. We understand that we can do nothing to deserve God’s grace gifts. When we grasp God’s grace policy and how little we deserve the inconceivable bounty He provides, our souls are humbled.

Personal Sense of Destiny (Problem Solving Device #6) is the turning point in the Christian life when we leave spiritual infancy and recognize God’s plan for our lives. We begin living our lives by means of God’s agenda. We understand and live the spiritual life. The things of the Word become more important than the things of the world. It is objective self-evaluation, self-motivation, concentration on the Word, not on past successes or failures. With confidence born from a ripening spiritual

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maturity, we learn to live in the light of an eternally secure future. Adversity fades in proximity to the spiritual self-esteem generated from a limitless relationship with the Lord.

Pivot is a group of mature Christians who provide the prosperity of the client nation through the principle of blessing by association. The pivot establishes the client nation status and guarantees its perpetuation in every generation.

Plan of God, Protocol, is God’s perfect plan for our lives. He desires that we do a right thing in a right way. Only then can we share His happiness and execute the spiritual life.

Prayer: Because we are believer priests, God allows us to communicate with Him directly through prayer. We must pray to God the Father, through the filling of God the Holy Spirit, and in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our prayers may include thanksgiving for the blessings of God, praise for the awesome grace and power of God, intercession for those whose needs we want to bring before God, and petition for our own needs.

Pressures are the hardships and suffering that are inevitable in life. Everyone has pressures. When we trust God to handle our pressures for us, we remain happy. When we do not trust God, those pressures become stress and cause us great unhappiness.

Priest: At salvation every Christian becomes his own priest and is able to approach God’s throne of grace in prayer. He needs no priest to intercede for him with God. He is his own priest with his own royal priesthood.

Problem Solving Devices: 1. Rebound 2. The Filling of the Holy Spirit 3. The Faith-Rest Drill 4. Grace Orientation 5. Doctrinal Orientation 6. A Personal Sense of Destiny 7. A Personal Love for God the Father 8. An Impersonal Love for All Mankind 9. Sharing the Happiness (+H) of God

10. Occupation with Christ Christ perfected the problem solving devices while He was on earth. He did not use rebound, the first problem solving device, because He never sinned. He did not need to be Occupied with Christ. For the Christian, rebound and the subsequent filling of the Holy Spirit are essential in

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order to live the spiritual life. The other problem solving devices are gained through the consistent daily study of Bible doctrine.

Propitiation means that God the Father, because He is perfect, is satisfied with only one sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Through the sacrifice of Christ, God the Father has so dealt with sin that He can show mercy to the believing sinner in the removal of his guilt and the pardon of his sins. Christ’s humanity had to be judged for our sins to propitiate (satisfy) divine righteousness. Propitiation is the Godward side of the Cross.

Protocol means doing the right thing in the right way. Quench the Holy Spirit means to not allow the Holy Spirit to control our

souls. Instead, through unconfessed sin, we allow the Old Sin Nature to rule our souls.

Rapture is the resurrection or removal of all Christians from the earth at the end of the present age, the Church Age, and immediately before the Tribulation begins. All Christians who died during the Church Age and all Christians alive at that time will meet the Lord in the air and receive their resurrection bodies. 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17.

Rebound (Problem Solving Device #1) is the most important function of the spiritual life. When we sin, we can regain the filling of the Holy Spirit in our souls only through rebound, which means to acknowledge our sin to God. If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us those sins and to purify us from all wrongdoing. (I John 1:9) Immediately upon rebounding, we are again filled with the Holy Spirit. We retain the filling of the Spirit until we sin once more. Rebound puts us back into fellowship with God and makes it possible for us to learn Bible doctrine. We should confess each sin to God as soon as we commit it.

Reconciliation is the sum total of all that Christ did on the Cross in removing the barrier of sin that separates sinful man from God. Through Christ’s work on the Cross, God is propitiated; man is reconciled. Reconciliation is the manward side of the Cross.

Redemption is the saving work of Jesus Christ on the Cross whereby every human being is purchased from the slave market of sin (in which he was born) and delivered to the freedom of grace. Redemption is realized when a person is born again by faith alone in Christ alone.

Regeneration, the technical word for salvation, is a supernatural work of God whereby eternal life is imparted by God the Father to the believer in Christ through the agency of God the Holy Spirit. It is the term for

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spiritual birth or being “born again,” the giving of eternal life at the moment of belief in Jesus Christ. A regenerated person has passed from spiritual death into spiritual life.

Religion is the system whereby man, by his own efforts and merits, tries to gain salvation or the praise of God. Religion is the system whereby man is put in bondage to Satan; therefore, religion is a main tool for Satan in trying to win the angelic conflict.

Repentance means a change of mind. For example, at salvation we change our minds and realize that we do need Christ as our Savior. (At this point, the unbeliever immediately becomes a believer.) Repentance does not mean to feel sorry for sins.

Resurrection is a theological term that means to be physically raised from the dead and to receive an immortal body just like the body received by Jesus Christ upon His resurrection. Resurrection is in contrast to resuscitation, in which a dead person is restored alive to his mortal body but subsequently dies. (e.g. Lazarus)

Right man/Right woman is the doctrine that God designed one specific man for one specific woman. Each member of the human race has a right member of the opposite sex, except in special cases where a person has the gift of celibacy. (e.g. Paul)

Righteousness means the character or quality of being right or just. God is perfect, both in His person and in His character. He possesses eternal, unchangeable. and absolute righteousness (+R). Regardless of how good a person might be, his best is only relative righteousness (-R). Unless the absolute, perfect righteousness (+R) of Christ has been given to man through faith in Christ as Savior, the scales of justice are tipped toward eternal divine judgment, and he will be cast in the Lake of Fire forever.

Royal Law: You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. By fulfilling the Royal Law, we also fulfill the Protocol Plan of God for our lives.

Salvation is the eternal and spiritual deliverance granted immediately by God to those who accept His condition of faith in the Lord Jesus, through Whom alone salvation can be obtained. When we believe in Jesus Christ’s substitutionary work for us on the Cross, we are immediately saved.

Satan, also known as the devil, is the most beautiful creature God ever created. Lucifer, son of the morning, was his original name. In arrogance, Satan turned against God, convincing many other angels to defy God as well. Satan and these angels now try to convince mankind to turn from God and follow them.

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Self-discipline in the spiritual life is the willingness to expose ourselves to the accurate teaching of the Word of God every day.

Service, Christian, is our spiritual life in operation and only applies to that which we do while we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Romans 12:9-15. Divine good is the production of Christian service.

Sharing the Happiness of God (Problem Solving Device #9) is supreme happiness in the soul, possible only through maximum Bible doctrine in the soul. When we know the thinking of Christ through studying the Bible, we are able to understand and share His perfect happiness. The Christian has an attitude of optimism, confidence, animation, and joy in the face of adversity and pressure. When our spiritual life takes precedence over circumstances, we carry God’s happiness with us as a constant companion.

Sin means to miss the mark of God’s plan for our lives. Miss the mark is the literal translation of the Greek word for sin. Whenever we sin, we fall outside of God’s will for our lives. Sins can be what we think, what we do, or what we say. We learn to recognize sin by studying God’s Word. Iniquity and transgression are other words for sin.

Sin, Adam’s original, was disobedience to God’s mandate in the Garden of Eden. Adam ate the forbidden fruit, resulting in spiritual death. Consequently, Adam’s corrupt nature—his Old Sin Nature—and spiritual death were passed to all mankind through the male.

Sin of Cognizance means knowing that we are sinning and doing it anyway. Adam knew that he was sinning when he took the fruit from Eve. He chose to take the fruit so that he could be with her, knowing that in doing so he was rejecting God. Therefore, the consequences of his sin are much greater: Spiritual death for all mankind through the Old Sin Nature.

Sin of Ignorance means not realizing that we are sinning; however, we want to do it, and we go ahead and do it. Therefore, we are held accountable for the consequences of that sin. Eve sinned in ignorance, having been tricked by Satan. She received the consequences of that sin, including spiritual death, banishment from the Garden of Eden, and the pain of childbearing.

Sin unto Death is the maximum discipline to the carnal Christian whereby he is removed from this life, before his time, without benefit of dying grace.

Slander is saying something harmful that is untrue. Gossip is repeating information that is true but could be harmful or unkind. Both are sins/ We must never discuss anyone in an unfavorable way even if it is true.

Slave Market of Sin: As members of the human race, we exist in a slave market of sin, helpless—because of our personal sin and Old Sin

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Nature—to redeem ourselves. This is inescapable slavery—spiritual bondage.

Sovereignty is the attribute of God that describes His authority over all that He has created.

Spirit, Human, is the immaterial part of mankind designed by God to convert, to store, and to utilize Bible doctrine or spiritual phenomena. The human spirit is acquired at the moment of salvation and is the home for eternal life.

Spirituality is the absolute status of fellowship with God through the use of rebound and the resulting filling of the Holy Spirit.

Stages of the Spiritual Life are salvation, temporary time on earth, and eternal time in Heaven.

Stage One: To believe in Jesus Christ as Savior. Stage Two: To execute the spiritual life while on this earth. Stage Three: To spend eternity with God in Heaven.

Steadfastness for the Christian is consistency and faithfulness in taking in the Word of God.

Stress occurs when we convert adversity (e.g. illness, the death of a loved one, a natural disaster such as a tornado) or pressure (e.g. a difficult test, no date to the prom, a “must win” game) to the sins of worry, fear, guilt, and agitation.

Testament, New, are the books of the Bible from Matthew to Revelation, which describe Christ’s life on earth as well as His plan for Church Age Christians. The New Testament was written primarily in Greek by men who were either apostles or close friends of apostles under the divine inspiration of God the Holy Spirit.

Testament, Old, are the books of the Bible from Genesis to Malachi, which describe the world before Christ’s birth. The Old Testament books were written primarily in Hebrew and Aramaic. They look forward to and prophesy about the First Advent of Christ.

Tribulation is a seven-year period which begins after the removal of the Church from the earth at the Rapture and lasts until the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

Trinity is a theological word that designates God as one in essence but three co-equal, co-infinite, and co-eternal persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Tyranny is authority without freedom Volition is the decision-maker of the soul. When God created the human race,

He gave each of us volition. God never forces us to do His will. We can

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choose for Him, which is called positive volition, or we can choose against Him, which is called negative volition.. We must choose of our own positive volition to believe in Christ as our Savior. After salvation, we must use positive volition to choose to study Bible doctrine daily. Negative volition means choosing not to believe in Christ as our personal Savior. For the Christian, negative volition means choosing to sin, choosing not to rebound, and choosing not to study Bible doctrine daily.

Will of God, Directive: We follow the directive will of God when we are filled with the Holy Spirit (we have rebounded and have no unconfessed sin in our lives) and, therefore, are glorifying Him. God desires that we always be filled with the Holy Spirit and, therefore, in His directive will.

Word of God is the Bible, which is the thinking of Christ put into written form. The Bible contains the answers to our questions about life on earth and in eternity. God wants us to know His plan for our lives. In His Word, He tells us what that plan is and how He has equipped us to fulfill it.

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FINANCIAL STATEMENT

All of my materials are free. No price is placed on this ministry for two reasons. First, this is a grace ministry, dependent entirely on unsolicited contributions. Grace is a free gift. Second, I want these materials to be available to everyone, regardless of financial status.

I consider it a privilege to send my materials to you. This is grace in action! If you have enjoyed this book and want additional free copies or if you want to move on to other materials, you may contact me at

Rick Hughes Evangelistic Ministries, Inc. P.O. Box 100

Cropwell, AL 35054-0100 Phone (205) 525-5584 or (800) 831-0718

www.bigrick.org

For additional accurate Bible studies, you may request a free catalog from

R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries 5139 W. Alabama

Houston, Texas 77027 Phone (713) 621-3740

www.rbthieme.org

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BIOGRAPHY of RICK HUGHES

Rick Hughes grew up in a federal housing project in Birmingham, Alabama. Because Rick lacked self-discipline and disliked authority, he was a poor high school student; however, because of his size, 6' 3" and 250 pounds, he excelled in sports. In 1964, he set the Alabama high school records in shot put (58’ 6”) and discus (165’). He was chosen to the High School All-American football team, but his college entrance scores were so low that a football scholarship to the University of Florida was withdrawn. Rick’s high school football coach challenged him to be a winner in class as well as on the field. After studying under the mentorship of his teachers, Rick retook and passed his ACTs. He signed a football scholarship with the University of Alabama. As a freshman, he was a member of the 1964 National Championship Team. After his freshman year, he dropped out of college.

The turning point in his life came at age 22 when he believed in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. At this point, Rick returned to college. Here, he learned of the ministry of R. B. Thieme, Jr., pastor of Berachah Church, Houston, Texas. Under Colonel Thieme’s ministry, Rick studied Christian principles that helped him make good decisions and gain confidence about God’s plan for his life. In 1969, he joined the staff of Youth for Christ, International. In 1970, he resigned in order to co-found the youth ministry, Teen Crusades, Inc. In 1984, he joined Operation Grace World Missions as an independent missionary. He founded Rick Hughes Evangelistic Ministries in 1997.

For the last thirty years, he has worked as an independent speaker, conducting more than 5,000 assemblies in over 1,000 schools, hundreds of programs in churches and at retreats, and numerous Bible studies and conferences. His ministry has taken him from Michigan to Mississippi and from Texas to West Virginia. He and his wife, a teacher, have three daughters and a son.

Practicing Your Christianity wraps up the Christian life in simple, practical terms so that you can know with confidence God’s plan for your life. Consider this book an “easy practice” which will give you basic start-up skills. Your study of the Christian life will continue for the rest of your life. Your blessings because of that study will continue throughout eternity.