Continuing in our study of the mandates of the PPOG we are presently looking at the mandate to be diligent in the study of the word of God found in 2Tim 2:15; where the word translated "diligent" is the aorist active imperative of the Greek word "spoudazo'.
Last time our study took us to a discussion of the spiritual system known as GASP that God the Holy Spirit uses to teach the believer.
We looked at GASP Stage 1 where the pastor studies the Word under the ministry of the Holy Spirit and is able to arrive at a clear understanding of a passage by utilizing the ICE procedures we have previously noted.
Today we will start our discussion with Stage 2:
Stage 2: The Holy Spirit teaches the believer's human spirit the content of what is communicated by the pastor. He is referred to by our Lord in John 14:26 as the "Comforter" (KJV), "Helper" (NASB), or "Counselor" (NIV).
The Greek word is," Parakletos", which means one who goes along side in order to communicate. What is communicated is truth from which comes encouragement, orientation to grace, objectivity, and discernment.
As Parakletos the Holy Spirit teaches the positive volition believer. The word for "teach" is the future active indicative of the Greek verb, "didasko", the act of instructing and refers to the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The future tense indicates that when this was spoken, this ministry was yet future and will follow the DUHC. This statement by our Lord is therefore a prophecy pertaining to the future dispensation of the church, is an example of progressive revelation.
As each dispensation occurs on the time line of human history some aspects of the preceding period are retained such as salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ alone, some are rescinded such as the ritual plan of God including the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and new ones are revealed such as the mystery doctrines of the Church Age.
In this case, TLJC reveals a unique aspect of the coming dispensation of the mystery that is one of the mystery doctrines of the New Testament.
When the Holy Spirit indwells and fills the Church Age believer He provides the spiritual IQ necessary for the spiritual growth that is attained through Bible study.
With spiritual IQ the believer is prepared to be taught by the Holy Spirit, indicated by the Greek verb" didasko","He will teach you all things."
The target of this supernatural instruction is the human spirit which is a divinely provided asset that enables the human mind to comprehend divine thought.
When this comprehension occurs it is called pneumatikos: "spiritual phenomena."
You will recall that in 1Cor 2:13; that this word is repeated at the end of the verse. The first use is pneumatikois and refers to "spiritual things," or the content of what is communicated by the pastor and taught by the Holy Spirit to the human spirit.
The second use is pneumatika and refers to the spiritual system or the entire process that we have identified as the Grace Apparatus for Spiritual Perception.
This is the sequence of events that must occur for the believer to acquire academic understanding of Bible doctrine.
When this understanding is accomplished, the Holy Spirit then transfers the information from the believer's human spirit to their human soul.
Stage 3 of GASP occurs when the "spiritual phenomena" arrives from the human spirit, the Holy Spirit directs it to the area of the soul called the "nous". Here the soul is linked up with the cortex of the brain.
This may be referred to as "receptive comprehension" where believers consider whether they will accept or reject the information that they now understood academically.
The knowledge now being considered by the believer is strictly academic and is referred to by the Greek word "gnosis".
At this point the volition is challenged: "Do you believe the information that you now understand academically to be true, or do you not believe?"
If the information is rejected then, since it is considered only in the short-term memory, it is quickly forgotten and the current belief system is retained unaltered.
However, if the information is accepted, the Holy Spirit transfers the information to the kardia as epignosis: human cognizance and retention of divine thought.
We have studied epignosis and understand it to refer to human cognizance of divine thought or Spirit taught Bible Doctrine.
The word kardia is translated "heart" in the common English translations but we understand it to be the stream of consciousness of the soul.
This is the area where retention of divine thought occurs in seven compartments of the soul.
As doctrine is learned one's inventory of ideas is increased in: (1) the frame of reference, (2) memory center, (3) vocabulary, (4) doctrinal categories, and (5) the conscience.
These are increased by the consistent inculcation of epignosis or spirit taught knowledge.
This increase in spirit taught knowledge develops the (6) momentum compartment and becomes one of the believer's sources of motivation for their advance.
This results in doctrine being available in the the (7) wisdom compartment that is the source of the doctrine that is available for the believer to apply to every situation in life under the recall ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
Wisdom is the function of epignosis knowledge in the stream of consciousness plus motivation for the advance from Bible Doctrine and reciprocal Love that results in spiritual growth and the execution of the PPOG or the Christian way of life.
Retention also occurs in the brain which serves as the hard disk of the soul. Doctrine believed is stored along with other knowledge in the brain where it is available for recall and application under the recall ministry of the Holy Spirit.
If the believer continues this advance it ultimately results in the believer attaining "pleroma: or "the fullness of blessing from God".
This process can be documented by noting several passages. First of all, one we have just noted:
John 14:26; - But the Parakletos, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you (future tense of didasko) all things (panta: plural neuter for Bible doctrine), and will cause you to remember (hupomimnesko) everything I said to you."
We are able to remember and then recall information because it is retained in the long term memory traces of the brain's cerebral cortex.
The renovation of the soul results in the renovation of these memory traces in the brain:
Rom12: 1; - I urge you therefore fellow believers by the grace blessings from the justice of God that you place your bodies (the CPU for the body is the brain) under orders as a living, holy sacrifice (status quo spirituality). This is well-pleasing to our Lord-your rational (logikos) and spiritual worship (latria).
Doctrine in the soul coordinates with the brain in the body to produce a mental attitude that motivates acts of worship based on rebound and the filling of the Holy Spirit.
The major expression of this worship is to function under GASP utilizing the three spiritual skills.
When consistently done, this results in transformation of thought as the soul is refurbished. It is characterized by one's inner harmony with the Word of God and one's outer harmony with God and one's fellowman.
Rom 12:2; - Also stop being molded to this age (inculcation of curriculum taught in the Satanic Academy of the Kosmic system) but (alla: conjunction of contrast) be transformed (present passive imperative of the verb "metamorphoo" to undergo spiritual transformation that results in internal and external accord with the plan of God) by the renovation (anakainosis: to take out the old and replace it with the new: inculcation of the doctrinal curriculum taught through GASP) of your thought (nous: your worldview: renovation must begin with the volition making different choices at the point of academic understanding ),in order that you may prove what the will of God is, namely the good ( spiritual maturity ), the well-pleasing ( rewards in time ), and the complete ( rewards in eternity ).
The Holy Spirit stores information in the brain which serves as the hard disk for the soul.
Commands for the believer to reject old behavior patterns, character traits, and lifestyles and to replace them with new ones are found throughout Scripture.
Hebrews 12:13; - Be making straight paths (trochia: behavior patters, character traits, and lifestyle based on biblical principles acquired through the three spiritual skills with emphasis on GASP) by means of your feet (positive volition to consistent daily regimen in the gymnasium of Christianity) in order that the crippled one (the believer in reversion recovery who is susceptible to distractions) might not again be dislocated (volitional treachery from submission to distractions) but rather let it ( the listless and disabled soul ) be healed and restored.
In the transformation and renovation process volition begins to reject old behavior patters, character traits, and lifestyle choices and begins to respond to the divine set of standards which are revealed through Bible study.
One's previous behavior was linked to decision making that had gone on for so long that it had become habitual. The brain is an organ without any moral compass. It responds without question to the dictates of the soul.
Any thought the conscience justifies is what volition will permit. What volition demands of the soul the brain will carry out. Over time these character traits develop into behavior patterns and these define a person's lifestyle and personality.
Such a person can often become predictable because his lifestyle is simply the result of habitual thought, decision, and action. Once behavior patterns are repeated often enough then his lifestyle can be easily discerned by others.
The Word of God changes this but it takes time. As truth under the mentor ministry of God the Holy Spirit convicts, the conscience's frame of reference regarding right and wrong is altered. New standards begin to counsel right thought, decision, and action as opposed to those that defined the person prior to doctrinal inculcation.
This alteration, renovation, and transformation of thought is commanded in Hebrews 12:13; in the clause, "Be making straight paths for your feet."
The words "be making" are the present active imperative of the verb, " poieo" "Be making"
present tendential tense; used for an action that is demanded but not actually taking place at the moment.
Believers who are presently functioning under the guidance and leadership of human viewpoint in the status of reversionism.
active voice: Those who are in reversionism are to produce the action of the verb by beginning the process of reversion recovery.
imperative mood of Command; is a direct positive mandate to begin an action. The type of action that is commanded is described next by the accusative plural direct object from the noun:
trochia "paths"; "wheel-tracks": behavior patterns, character traits, and lifestyle based on biblical principles. This latter application is brought out by the accusative plural adjective: orthos - "straight"
"Be making (or constructing) straight wheel-tracks of righteousness with our feet" is the expanded translation of this clause. Its key word is trochia.
The definition of trochia: The root word is the verb, trecho. It is translated "run" in Matt 27:48; but, metaphorically, in 1Cor 9:24; "to run the race":
1Cor 9:24; Do you not know that those who run (trecho) in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run (trecho) in such a way that you may win (katalambano: to seize, win, attain, make one's own).
The word is used to describe a person who has made some advance in the Christian way of life but then spun off into reversionism:
Gal 5:7; - You were running well (progressive imperfect of duration of trecho). Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
The progressive perfect of duration contemplates what has gone on in the past but without revealing whether or not the process has been completed. When the writer does imply that the process had been completed at a given point in the past it is called the imperfect of duration.
Paul uses the word trecho in a personification expressing his desire that the Gospel would spread rapidly throughout the world:
2Thes 3:1; Pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly (trecho) and be glorified.
The noun, trochos, means "a wheel," "a runner," "a course," James uses it in:
James 3:6; … the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course (trochos) of our life …
The noun, used in Heb 12:13; is trochia and means "wheel-track, way, or path." "Wheel-track" is the primary definition in virtually all the lexicons and dictionaries.
In order to expand on the doctrine of neural coordination with the soul's stream of consciousness it is important to establish this usage and its figurative application.
The following definitions of "trochos "are taken from leading lexicons and dictionaries:
An Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, by W. E. Vine page 839: PATH: TROCHIA, the track of a wheel, hence, a track, path, is used figuratively in Heb.12: 13
A Greek-English Lexicon, by Arndt, William F. and F. Wilber Gingrich, page 828: trochia, wheel-track, course, way (make straight paths upon which one can advance quickly and in the right direction; symbolically of the moral life, Hebrews 12:13).
The Analytical Greek Lexicon, page 409: trochia, a wheel-track; a track, way, path, metaphorically, Hebrews 12:13.
The New Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon, by Joseph Thayer, page 631: trochia, a track of a wheel, a rut; a track, a path: follow the path of rectitude, do right, Heb. 12:13.
A Greek-English Lexicon, by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, page 1828: trochia, wheel-track, rut; the round of a wheel; path.
The Strongest Strong's Exhaustive Concordance by James Strong, page 1537: 5164 trochia, wheel; (figuratively) whole course of life.
The Renaissance New Testament, by Randolph Yeager volume 16: page 444: 5071 trochia. Meaning: a path or rut, made by a wheel. Metaphorically, a way of life; course of action. In Heb 12:13-"follow a Christian way of life."
A. T. Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament, volume 5: page437: Hebr 12:13;. Track of a wheel.
Kenneth Wuest’s., Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Hebrews (et al.), volume 2: page 221: (Hebrews 12:13) The word "paths" is trochia, literally, "a wheel-track."
Vincent, Marvin's Word Studies in the New Testament, volume 4: page 547: Trochia is literally a wheel-track.
These ten references document that the literal translation of "trochia" is "wheel-track". Several indicate that it figuratively refers to behavior patterns, character traits, and lifestyle. This reflects the context of Hebrews 12 as well as the Old Testament passage that it quotes.
Proverbs 4:25; - Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you,
Make level paths (ma’gal) for your feet and take only ways (derek) that are firm.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left; keep your foot from evil.
The words magal and derek are Hebrew equivalents of the Greek word trochia. The definition of derek provides more documentation of the figurative use of these words.
Jenni, Ernst and Claus Westermann in their Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament. Translated by Mark E. Biddle. volume 1: pages 344-346: define derek as:
The concrete meaning "way" evolves imperceptibly into the meaning "movement on the way": A person who travels on a street goes "his way," in order to reach a goal.
In a figurative meaning, the life of a person can be described as the "way" on which one finds oneself; often, then, one may translate "conduct, behavior."
This terminology acquired special significance in wisdom literature. In a rather general manner, derek indicates human life, in the sense of "behavior, condition, practice, manner."
Religious language can also refer to the way or journey of Yahweh. The people should walk in God's way, or, lead their lives in obedience to God, to which end God's commandments serve as guideposts.
To diverge from them is to pervert God's ways and to go in other ways or into one's own, ways the sinner's or strange gods'.
This behavior by Israel's kings, who do not walk in David's, and thus Yahweh's way, but in that of Jeroboam, is especially condemned.
The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament by Harris Laird. volume 1:page 196-97: defines Derek:
Derek. Way, road, journey, manner. It refers to a path worn by constant walking.
More numerous are the metaphorical uses of derek. It often refers to the actions and behavior of men, who either follow the way of the righteous or the way of the wicked:
Psalms 1:6; -For the Lord knows the way (derek) of the righteous, but the way (derek) of the wicked will perish.
The way of the righteous is closely linked with "the way of the Lord." Parents are to command their children "to keep the way (derek) of the Lord (Genesis 18:19), which is found in the statutes and commands of God's law. God's ways are much higher than man's ways, and the wicked is urged to forsake his sinful way:
Isa 55:8; "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways (derek) My ways (derek)," declares the Lord.
It is the figurative use of these words that provides us with the information that the Holy Spirit coordinates the kardia of the soul with the cerebral cortex of the human brain to store, facilitate, and recall spiritual phenomena.
Prior to salvation, the human soul possesses norms and standards that are formed by two sources: (1) human viewpoint and (2) establishment viewpoint.
Once saved, the believer may then learn and apply divine norms and standards as they inculcate them under the filling, teaching, and recall ministries of the Holy Spirit.
Those who choose to emphasize behavior patterns, character traits, and lifestyles based on human viewpoint may be described as "walking in the way of the wicked."
Those who choose to direct their lives based on divine viewpoint may be described as "walking in the way of the righteous."
The challenge for the believer is to renovate his soul by rejecting human viewpoint, human good, and evil and accept divine viewpoint, divine good, and grace.
By picking up on the figurative meaning of trochia, derek, and magal we have developed the terms "wheel-tracks of righteousness" and "wheel-tracks of wickedness."
Those who respond to the directives found in Scripture are said to "walk in the light" while those who reject divine direction are said to "walk in darkness."
1 John 1:5; - And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light (the Greek word phos: righteousness, integrity, truth, perfection) and in Him is no darkness (skotia: wickedness, duplicity, falsehood, error) at all.
It is from this standard that the believer must evaluate his own behavior, character, and lifestyle. John provides us the key checkpoint for this evaluation in the next two verses.
1 John 1:6; - If we say we have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness (peripateo: a way of life based on wheel-tracks of wickedness), we lie (production of the three arrogant skills: self-justification, self-deception, and self-absorption) and do not practice the truth;
v. 7 - but if we walk in the light (phos: a way of life based on wheel-tracks of righteousness characterized by inner harmony with the Word present in one's soul) as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another (production of the three spiritual skills: filling of the Holy Spirit, spiritual growth, & maximum doctrine in the soul characterized by outer harmony with others in one's life).
The transformation of thought from wickedness to righteousness must include the changing of behavior patterns and character traits. This renovation of the soul results in the development of a new disposition which alters one's worldview. This is reflected in the dramatic conversion of one's decision making process, problem-solving techniques, and lifestyle choices.
However, the battle not only involves the renovation of the soul but also of the body. What is called addiction is actually habit.