In our doctrine of Spiritual Self Esteem last time we left off with the principle that believers in spiritual self-esteem subordinate emotion to intellect, so that objectivity and doctrinal perspective rule the believer's soul.
As a result, believers in spiritual self-esteem do not feel threatened by gossip, slander, maligning, and all forms of human antagonism: vituperation, vilification, jealousy, bitterness, implacability, anger, hatred, malice, revenge or any other circumstance of life.
This is because spiritual self-esteem functions inside the integrity envelope with self-confidence based only on Bible doctrine. This is the inevitable result of consistent post-salvation renovation of the thinking through the PMA of Bible doctrine.
This is how confidence in God and his Word becomes your self-confidence. This is not confidence that is based in one's natural ability, personality or situation in life.
Spiritual self-esteem develops a self-realization that is exclusively based on Bible doctrine that comes from the application of the doctrine that has been learned to experience. This is called wisdom.
This self-realization is the process of learning, thinking, and solving with the word of God that is the mind of Christ by using the spiritual assets that are conveyed when one is born- again.
Spiritual self-esteem has self-direction based exclusively on Bible doctrine. This is spiritual momentum from residence and function inside of God's power system under the enabling power of the Holy Spirit with momentum from the persistent and consistent application of metabolized doctrine.
Spiritual self-esteem establishes a self-identification that is based on only on Bible doctrine. This is comprised of grace orientation combined with doctrinal orientation and authority orientation and produces a personal sense of destiny.
There is no self-identity until there is self-confidence, self-realization, and self-direction in terms of God's grace policy and provision.
The motivation of spiritual self-esteem is based only on Bible doctrine. This combines motivation from personal love for God the Father and occupation with Christ with cognition, inculcation and function of the problem solving devices.
Spiritual self-esteem makes full use of the problem solving devices to break up the arrogance skills of self-justification, self-deception, and self-absorption that lead to the believer's function in crusader arrogance, Christian activism, and the arrogance of always having to be right.
Spiritual self-esteem is the status of being humble and teachable that results in being willing and able to learn and understand the spiritual mechanics of the spiritual life, and as a result advance to occupation with Christ and maximum glorification of God the two strategic objectives for Church Age believers.
One of the primary venues for the function of spiritual self-esteem is Christian marriage. Eph 5:28; "So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."
We see here that the husband is mandated to love his wife with virtue-love. This virtue-love is defined by the phrase "as Christ loved the Church" in Eph 5:25.
This virtue-love is personal love inside the integrity envelope of impersonal love. Virtue-love is not effective without spiritual self- esteem. Virtue-love is necessary for the proper function of the husband's authority in marriage.
The husband cannot properly execute the mandate to love his wife without spiritual self-esteem. This is why many Christian husbands fail in marriage.
This verse is an analogy to responsibility. You must have a sense of responsibility regarding those over whom you have authority, just as Christ functions in his responsibility over the Church.
The second half of this verse is a definition of spiritual self-esteem. Here we see that virtue-love precedes spiritual self-esteem.
We see here that spiritual self-esteem is the effective function of virtue- love. First there is the subjective function of spiritual self-esteem is directed toward virtue in self; the appreciation of one's own virtue that is followed by the objective function of spiritual self-esteem that is directed toward others.
Spiritual self-esteem gives stability to personal love inside the integrity envelope of impersonal love. Therefore, spiritual self-esteem of the husband never feels threatened by the failures of his wife. The husband is commanded to have spiritual self-esteem, and the wife is not, because the husband has the authority in the marriage.
Spiritual self-esteem is the effective function of the husband's impersonal love toward self and toward his wife. Spiritual self-esteem is the basis for the husband's effective exercise of his authority in marriage because spiritual self-esteem and virtue-love add the function of leadership to authority.
The husband cannot love his wife or exercise authority properly without spiritual self-esteem. The personal love of the husband is unsustainable without spiritual self-esteem.
This means that spiritual self-esteem is the effective function of virtue-love in marriage. "Effective" means that it produces the intended result.
Spiritual autonomy is the optimum function of virtue-love in marriage. "Optimum" means the most favorable condition for obtaining the intended result.
Spiritual maturity is the maximum function of virtue-love in marriage. "Maximum" means the greatest that can be attained.
The husband cannot properly execute this divine mandate to love his wife without the virtue-love that comes from functioning in one of the three stages of spiritual adulthood.
Virtue-love only becomes effective on the attainment of spiritual self-esteem. If the Christian husband lacks spiritual self-esteem, there is no way he can properly execute the command to love his wife and it is likely that the wife will react to his failure.
Without virtue-love in marriage, the husband becomes an arrogant bully, and a tyrant in the exercise of his authority.
Spiritual self-esteem is evident when you have tranquility of soul. This means that there is stability of mental attitude that includes not feeling threatened by others and avoiding unrealistic expectation and inordinate ambition and competition.
This results in composure marked by self-assurance, that is the correct and accurate application of doctrine to life. It includes grace-orientation to life that means being forgiving toward yourself and others. Eph 4:31-32;
It has a doctrinal-orientation to reality based upon genuine humility, objectivity, teachability and spiritual common sense. 2Tim 2:8-10;
It makes good decisions from a position of strength with motivation from personal love for God the Father and divine viewpoint thinking. This gives the believer personal control of their life through doctrinal viewpoint and a personal sense of destiny that includes solving the problems related to God, self, others, and circumstances.
The believer with spiritual self-esteem has self-confidence from wisdom, that includes the function of their doctrinal viewpoint that consists of the application of metabolized doctrine to life's experiences.
With spiritual self-esteem the believer has the qualifications to develop momentum from suffering for blessing so it is the point when God provides suffering for blessing, whereby we can advance spiritually.
The advance through each stage of spiritual adulthood includes suffering for blessing. A major part of each spiritual advance is overcoming obstacles under suffering and disaster. Each stage of spiritual advance has increased capacity from increased momentum for greater suffering for blessing.
Spiritual self-esteem plus providential preventative suffering equals spiritual autonomy. Before one can reach spiritual autonomy providential preventative suffering must be passed. The testing categories of providential preventative suffering include people, system, thought, and disaster testing.
Spiritual autonomy plus momentum testing equals spiritual maturity and again there are the same four categories of testing, but they are intensified.
Spiritual maturity plus evidence testing results in the maximum glorification of God from the application of his Word to one's relationship to God or to one's life and death.
We know that God is perfect; therefore, His plan is perfect. It is impossible for perfect God to create an imperfect plan. However, the perfect plan of God for us, the protocol plan, is created for imperfect people.
Because God is the author of the perfect protocol plan, contradictions cannot exist in the plan. The fact that there sometimes seem to be contradictions means that in that area we have failed to properly execute God's plan.
When a believer is without doctrine, his thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions contradict the protocol plan of God. This contradiction is marked by ignorance of Bible doctrine and resultant lack of spiritual self-esteem.
Lack of spiritual self-esteem destroys all interpersonal relationships in life especially marriage.
Spiritual self-esteem recognizes that no believer can think, apply doctrine, or solve problems through the thinking or personality of another.