Lesson 6/ 3) Mechanics of Learning Doctrine

Before you begin this or any study of the Word of God, because you are ultimately taught by God the Holy Spirit, make sure you are in fellowship with Him.  When you are in fellowship with Him, He empowers you to both learn and apply Bible Doctrine.  To regain His filling, apply 1 John 1:9, by naming your sins to God the Father.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

For more information on this, read this article.

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      3)      Mechanics of Learning Doctrine

This is what Bob Thieme calls GAP, the grace apparatus for perception or Operation Z.  The following diagrams illustrate the means by which we learn the word of God.  I want you to pay particular attention to the role your volition plays in all of this.  God is a gentleman and never forces anything on you.  Your volition is the major factor in playing the out of the Angelic Conflict.  In the first step, the Pastor teaches Bible doctrine, the Word of God from the pulpit of a local church.  In order for him to teach without violating your volition or anyone’s volition, there must be at least two people in the congregation.  In a one-on-one situation, you risk shoving doctrine down someone’s throat.  That violates the principle of volition.The pastor is teaching what the Bible calls LOGOS, the Word of God, the thinking of Jesus Christ.   Who wrote the Word? Man is the instrument of recording the Word, but not the author of the Word of God.:

 Knowing this first, that all Scripture does not originate from one’s own explanation; for no prophecy was ever made by the design [will or purpose] of mankind, but men communicated from God, being carried along by means of the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20-21

God’s Attitude toward His Word: This is David’s testimony:

 I myself will worship toward Your holy temple [the temple in heaven], and I will give thanks to Your person because of Your grace and because of Your doctrine; because You have magnified Your word together with Your person. Psalm 138:2

God’s wrote His Word.

 All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the person from God may be proficient [capable, complete, able to meet all demands of the spiritual life], having been equipped for every good of intrinsic value action.  2 Timothy 3:16-17

God has designed specific mechanics for the pastor as he studies, learns and prepares his sermons.  He must ensure that he is filled with the Spirit, availing himself to the teaching ministry of the Spirit. He teaches what he learns then what he teaches goes to the ear of the motivated believer.

This is the first place where your volition comes into play. Are you, as a believer, motivated to expose yourself to the teaching of the Word of God.?  You have a choice here!  If you choose not to, you will not grow up spiritually and fulfill God’s plan for your life.This diagram illustrates the believer objectively listening to the teaching of the Word.  This believer is filled, therefore, empowered by the Holy Spirit so the Holy Spirit teaches his human spirit The Word goes into his human spirit, called in the Greek, PNEUMA.By empowering the believer to understand it, the Holy Spirit converts this doctrine into spiritual phenomenon or PNEUMATIKOS. God the Holy Spirit then transfers this PNEUMATIKOS to the NOUS, the left lobe of the soul, where it becomes GNOSIS. One real important issue here is to recognize one bottle neck in the formation of gnosis doctrine.  You need to understand the doctrine before you move on to the next stage of this provision.  If you do not understand something, I recommend that you ask your pastor!  While he is teaching you, look confused!! Once you arrive at the point of understanding the doctrine, you need to make a decision about the doctrine you understand.  Should you believe it or reject it?  So, this is the second time your volition comes into play.  God the Holy Spirit cannot make you believe it.  It is up to you.

If you believe this doctrine, that is, your volition is positive, then God the Holy Spirit converts this doctrine into EPIGNOSIS doctrine and sends it on into your KARDIA or your stream of consciousness.  Your belief, faith perception or positive volition permits God the Holy Spirit to transfer spiritual information to the right lobe of your soul as epignosis doctrine.  Extrapolation from epignosis doctrine circulating in the soul’s stream of consciousness produces ten problem solving devices by which you, in the privacy of your priesthood, can resolve your own problems and make good decisions from a position of strength.  With ten problem solving devices on the defensive line of your soul, you defensively prevent adversity from being converted into stress in the soul.  Offensively you remove stress from the soul.  Metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness produces cohesion of soul–a soul that is healthy and normal under the concepts of the word of God.

The conversion of gnosis doctrine to epignosis doctrine, that is, doctrine you understand into doctrine you believe, through faith perception, prevents the conversion of the outside pressures of adversity into the inside pressures of stress in the soul, which is tantamount to sin nature control of the soul.  Extrapolation from believed doctrine circulating in your soul’s stream of consciousness produces ten problem solving devices by which you, in the privacy of your priesthood, can resolve your own problems and make good decisions from a position of strength.  With ten problem solving devices on the defensive line of your soul, you defensively prevent adversity from being converted into stress in the soul.  Offensively you remove stress from the soul by learning and applying doctrine.  Metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness produces cohesion of soul–a soul that is healthy and normal under the concepts of the Word of God.

Claiming God’s promises by faith replaces stress in the soul with contentment and tranquility.  No believer can deal with stress and adversity when he comes short of the temporal rest of contentment and tranquility provided through the ten problem solving devices of God’s protocol plan.  The alternative to dealing with pressure and catastrophe in life is the total carnal breakdown of the believer, also known as self-fragmentation.  Self-fragmentation results in both Christian moral and immoral degeneracy and involvement in the cosmic system so that the believer cannot be distinguished from his unbeliever counterpart in mental attitude, sin nature function, and the modus operandi of life.

The faith-rest drill coordinates and correlates by claiming the promises of God and applying the doctrinal rationales with God’s happiness.  When pressure and adversity attacks, you must have a base of contentment and tranquility from which you use the faith-rest drill under the power of the filling of the Holy Spirit, grace orientation, and doctrinal orientation.

Let us continue with Paul’s commentary of the Exodus generation’s failure.

For we also have been evangelized, even as they; but the doctrine of hearing [the word of teaching] did not profit them, because it was not mixed together with faith by those who heard. Hebrews 4:2

The faith-rest drill has been operational since the earliest dispensations.  Living by faith should be the central theme in the life of every believer since Adam!  The mature Old Testament believer was considered mature when he lived by faith.  “They” refers to the Children of Israel who lived centuries ago, while “we” refers to every Church Age believer since Paul wrote this.

Paul differentiates entering into God’s rest from salvation because both groups, those in the Exodus generation and “we” have been evangelized.  So the immediate means of entering in His rest is not salvation by faith but by the function of the faith-rest drill.  After salvation, the believers of the Exodus generation were not able to use the faith-rest drill because they did not believe, did not mix Moses’ words with faith.  Therefore,those in the Exodus generation did not receive God’s promises by faith.  They did not understand, believe or make them apart of their thought pattern.  It is possible to sit in Bible class, as they did and not be profited.  We only profit if we mix the doctrines we hear with faith.  They failed to mix the doctrines Moses taught with faith.

 For we who have believed enter into the place of rest, just as He said [in Psalm 95:11], ‘As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter into My place of rest,’ although His works were finished from before the foundation of the world. Hebrews 4:3

The place of rest was the place of blessing.  For us, believers in the Church Age, this place can be anywhere because the mechanics of Church Age blessing is the appropriation of divine power through thought; thinking the very thoughts of Christ.  No matter where you are, you can learn to depend on God’s promises and doctrinal rationales to handle stress, problems, and adversity in life.  The Exodus generation was to enter a physical place of blessing, Canaan.  But they did not enter into Canaan, the place that God had provided for them, because they did not use the faith-rest drill during their time in the desert.  Since they did not claim the promises of God as taught in Bible class, God gave them the promise that they would never enter into the place of blessing but would die the disciplinary sin unto death in the desert.

God provided for all believers, whether those in the Exodus generation or believers alive today, in eternity past.  Before the foundations of the earth were laid, God provided in grace everything the believer needs in human history to handle every adversity.  God provided the faith rest drill for every generation in human history in order that every believer have the potential to meet any stressful situation in life using God’s power.  Doctrine is always available to meet any stressful situation in life.

Mixing the promises of God with faith is designed to stabilize the mentality of the believer under pressure, confusion, adversity, stress, and disaster.  Claiming promises is the way new believers and young believers who have not yet grown up spiritually can function spiritually.  In time of stress, the believer begins by claiming promises of God and mixing those promises with a weak faith.  As the believer grows spiritually, his faith increases.

As a result of stage one of the faith-rest mechanics, the believer begins to prevent the outside pressures of life from penetrating into his soul.  The believer with even the smallest, simplest faith can claim God’s promises!  By faith this same believer applies the promises of God.  His faith takes control of the situation.  The believer who continually applies the faith-rest drill will increase of control over his soul and spiritual life.

Abraham used the first stage mechanics:

 Yet, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, being fully persuaded that what God had promised, God was able to execute. Romans 4:20-21

Abraham illustrates the concept of faith application.  He believed that what God said He was going to do was absolute truth, so he built his life around what God told him.  When we believe God’s promises, the first stage of faith rest mechanics then we live or walk by faith.  We perceive as absolute reality God’s promises.  Those promise become more real to us than what we read in the newspapers and what we perceive with our senses.  Paul noted this in his second letter to the Corinthian Church:

 We walk by faith [the faith-rest drill] and not by sight [human viewpoint]. 2 Corinthians 5:7

You walk by faith when you believe then apply God’s promises to you.  The mechanics of that walk involve the faith rest drill.  When you walk by faith you relegate your human viewpoint, that is, your sight, to second place.