Counsel to a brother in Christ..TB

5737  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster. on: December 29, 2008, 09:34:51 AM We are having a discussion here i would think whether it is ok to be renewed in the spirit of our minds without giving our whole lives to the means by which we accomplish this" being transformed." Your saying that if i have a new identity that my spirit is perfected so i no longer am required to wrestle at all. If i wrestle with myself then you are saying that i lack faith in His work. Correct me if i have misjudged your position. But i am distinguishing between the idea of letting go and letting God and the proper understanding of having a soul resting in an understanding of who He is .along with experiencing the power in order to not experience the effects of some of these negative things that we experience as a result of sin. Maybe as we encourage each other we will be able to define our position better so that we know where we differ. I do not think it is wise or healthy to trust in a purely mystical rest. That is a rest in the facts of our identity in Him. As TB has said, he struggles with these effects of sin with tremendous courage. Its one thing to take these things for granted or place our trust in what we did yrs ago, and on the other side to be always buffeted as if we were not able to come to a rest in His present power. Our understanding is changing from one day to another, and we have the obligation in resting from our own works to know we are growing in the power to overcome temptation, fear, guilt and worry. I do not think that the level of resting from these three temptations is necessarily related to sin. Letting go and letting God is very dangerous. Its just as dangerous as being overly introspective. Introspective in the since that we cannot gain enough peace of mind from a growing understanding of His grace that our sin drives us away from experiencing His love for us, a love that leads us on a path of protection both physical and spiritual. The means by which we increase our understanding of who Christ is, and we understand HIm not only as a historical figure, but we know Him by His Spirit who first teaches our hearts by the word the increased understanding of just how wide and deep and high is His care for us over our worries about what could happen to us in this most sever trials. These communications to us are His way of using these means to illuminate our steps so that we are confident that He is saving us and will keep us to the end. Now the reason that taking these things for granted are so dangerous is because we may think we have rest when we are just dwelling in presumption. We are not computers or bots that get the program and then we just perform based upon the information that we have. But we are free moral agents of whom we could never find the depths of our desires and experience .....a satisfaction in understanding ourselves by that perfect understanding. We develop patterns of thinking, and we are terribly blind and self deprecating in all of the wrong areas at the wrong times for the wrong reasons. We are pitiful in our present abilities based upon our understanding of the nature of the glory of God and the power we have available. We imagine that we know more than we really understand and we dwell in some of the dark providence's trying to convince ourselves that we must trust in Him based upon what He has said so that we are always infiltrated by a power that seems to gain our attention more than His present power to bring us to dwell above the troubles of this world. Its because we do not battle with the evil ,hatred and distress that we feel that we are always weak in our desires for Him and we are always prone to be led astray in our understanding , that understanding in which deception dwells, those things we are prone to be blinded by as a general philosophy of atheism. This is why He has spoken life into existence. He has implanted the seed of His word into our hearts so that we might grow by it. We are constantly being told that there are answers in propositions, and in the methods of men. We are easily led to trust in paradigms and in other peoples realities of faith. Every person has a fall back position. Its not always evident as they face the general confusions and anxieties of life. But at some point it becomes clear as the pain levels begin to throw them into fits and discouragements. We may have a higher view of man that leads us into a trust that will not be sufficient when the day of evil comes. So we are looking at these origins of personal applications to our hearts through the lens of what we are not naturally made to find our rest. We are not seeking health, or frames, or a means to find some temporary relief. But by the Holy Spirit we are beginning to know Christ in a personal way. When ever we search then our only object is Christ. When ever we are taught the origin of our illumination is Christ. He has reveal the living word to us not just as a proposition but as a divine light to our understanding so that our minds might be formed with Christ. If we are to struggle in our thoughts and those tendencies to be tossed about by our present desires, these inward paradigms of finding our confidence and instant relief from our wanting something that has not the value of its existence, we are only made to dwell in this rest as Christ has reveal Himself to us not only as if He were cause the means and the ends for our desiring in the present but that He has taught us by these illuminations of Himself what the method of finding the rest from the powers that cause us to dwell in these atheistic philosophies. Christ comes to dig deep so that we might be free of the power of these controlling desires.