In our study of Mark we are in Mark 11:22-25; where Jesus explains to His disciples the principles for the function of faith-rest and based on this we have taken up a study of faith-rest where we have seen that faith rest is essentially understanding, believing and resting in what God's Word tells us and allowing God to come through in his time.
Last time we noted the principle that when we take matters into our own hands God waits on us Isa 30:17; because we are disobeying God's mandate to wait on Him Isa 40:31;
This means that the great mistake when taking your case to the supreme court of heaven is if because of self-righteousness you simultaneously try to do something about it yourself you actually take the case out of God's hands.
When we take matters into our own hands we also become liable for triple compound discipline.
(1) The supreme court of heaven judges you for taking matters into your own hands.
(2) If you malign others and then appeal to the supreme court of heaven, the other person's discipline is placed on you because judging belongs exclusively to the supreme court of heaven, not to you.
(3) If the things that you are judging the other party about are true, then the Supreme Court cancels their discipline. If these things are not true, then they receive blessing and you receive the discipline for everything you accuse them of.
Faith rest also correlates and coordinates the other problem solving devices such as sharing the happiness of God and occupation with Christ.
When you depend on the circumstances of life for your happiness, it is inevitable that you will fail because happiness only comes from application of God's Word.
People who can make you happy can also make you unhappy. If circumstances can make you happy, then adverse circumstances can make you unhappy.
If you succeed in competing with others and are happy because of your success then you have a false happiness that will be lost very quickly when events turn against you.
No form of pseudo-happiness in this life will ever be satisfying to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, God has provided a happiness of soul that is far greater than the pseudo-happiness that is obtained in this life.
Sharing the happiness of God is not only a problem solving device but it is God's grace provision for a true and sustaining happiness on the earth in the midst of the greatest amount of adversity or prosperity in life.
God's perfect happiness includes: tranquility of soul, contentment of soul, capacity for life, stimulation that includes exhilaration, enthusiasm, and the invigoration of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, and the ability to meet changing circumstances with problem solving devices and overcome them.
If you are in revisionism from negative volition, nothing will make you happy because you are involved in a frantic search for happiness. Once believers have tranquility and contentment of soul from waiting on God to solve their problems they will cease from all crusader arrogance, from trying to interfere with the lives of others, and from any kind of Christian activism from the energy of the OSN. James 1:20;
Believers with God's happiness understand that it is not their job to clean up the devil's world even if it was possible and it isn't. The only one who can clean up the devil's world is Jesus Christ and He will do that by deposing satan and replacing his world. Rev 12:10;
Happiness is not a matter of race, gender, class distinction, being rich or poor, or having the admiration of others. Good relationships with people we care about are not the secret to happiness .
The only source of happiness is God's Word Luke 11:28; and that happiness is completely independent of people or circumstances. John 14:27; it is based exclusively God's Word in your thinking. Phil 4:6-7;
People can stimulate you and that might make you happy for a short time, but they can also make you unhappy unless you have entered into the second stage of faith-rest.
Human power can make you happy but it can also make you unhappy. True happiness is only acquired through consistent cognition and inculcation of Bible doctrine. Jer 15:16; Net note 38
God's perfect happiness in the soul is developed from metabolized Bible doctrine and it is stationed on the FLOT line of the soul to defend against stress in the soul and to deal with the problems of the soul.
God is perfect and eternal righteousness; therefore, His happiness is related to His perfect and eternal virtue and integrity. This explains why true happiness cannot be separated from the virtue absolute truth.
God's happiness is not built upon making His creatures unhappy so your happiness cannot be built on making others unhappy. In His grace policy, God has found a way to share His very own happiness with believers.
This happiness is not dependent on others but on thinking with the mind of Christ, that is Bible doctrine a happiness that prevents the conversion of adversity into stress in the soul and removes any stress that penetrated the soul. Isa 26:3;KJV
This happiness does not change with circumstances. In His wisdom, God does not give this happiness, until there is the capacity to enjoy it. Capacity comes from maximum metabolized Bible doctrine that establishes virtue from the truth of divine viewpoint thinking.
Eph 6:16; "With all these (the military equipment for spiritual warfare), pick up and carry the shield of faith whereby you are able to intercept all the flaming missiles of the evil one."
God's Word can make you truly happy because it forms a shield that protects the soul.
Here we see the relationship between the function of the shield of faith and happiness. Faith-rest coordinates and deploys the happiness of God as a problem-solving device.
Faith rest is the actual mechanics of deploying the shield of faith (doctrine). Tranquility of soul and happiness develop as you deploy it because happiness is thinking God's Word. It is the result of doctrine being resident and circulating in the soul.
Psa 16:11; "You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of happiness; At Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore." See Net notes 22-25
Prov 3:13; "Happiness to the believer who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding."
John 15:11; "I have taught you these things, in order that My happiness may be in you, and that your happiness may be complete."
Happiness is never complete apart from maximum metabolized doctrine circulating in your thinking. This is the heritage of those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who choose to learn to think like He thinks.
1Thes 1:6; "You also have become imitators of us and our Lord, having received the word in much adversity (outside pressure) with happiness from the Holy Spirit."
Word is translated from the Greek word Logos that refers to Bible doctrine or the identity and thinking of Jesus Christ. John 1:1;
God's perfect happiness is the spiritual power from contentment and tranquility in the soul to resist the conversion of the outside pressures of adversity in life into the inside pressures of stress in the soul.
This tranquility and contentment of soul has developed capacity from confidence in God's Word (hope) to resist temptation from the devil, the cosmic system and the sin nature.
Phil 4:11; "Not that I speak with reference to need; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am."
1Tim 6:6-8; "But your spiritual life is a means of great profit, when accompanied by contentment.
v7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is obvious that we can take nothing out.
v8 so that having food and shelter in this we will have enough."