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Mark 11:22-25; Consistent Faith-Rest results in cognitive invincibility. Doctrine of Faith Rest part 6

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.

Last time we were discussing the believer as the plaintiff in the supreme court of heaven and the principle that once you are the plaintiff and have put the situation in the Lord's hands, you must leave your case before the supreme court of heaven and forget about it.

It is imperative that you avoid discussing it with others or taking matters into your own hands in any way.

This requires is the virtue of patience because any reaction on your part cancels your case in heaven and results in divine discipline and punitive action from God toward you.

As believers wait on the Lord to come through for them they must "believe all things, hope all things and endure all things because virtue integrity love never stops loving (fails in the NASB). 1Cor 13:7-8;

You cannot be a legitimate plaintiff in the supreme court of heaven if you react in arrogance or emotional sins, irrational self-fragmentation or the lust pattern of the sin nature from garbage in the stream of consciousness.

This means that to fulfill stage two of faith rest the believer must have acquired enough of God's Word in their thinking to understand the essence of God rationale and enough humility, patience, and objectivity to be sure that he himself has not been the cause of the alleged injustice or unfairness that he is making accusation about.

These complaints must be made from the privacy of your priesthood because if you have complained to others don't expect success with your complaint to God.

The plan of God rationale includes a thorough understanding of God's plan for mankind and His purpose and timeline for different groups of people within that plan to glorify Him.

It makes such applications such as a wrong thing done in a wrong way is wrong, a right thing done in a wrong way is wrong, a wrong thing done in a right way is wrong, and a right thing must always be done in a right way.

The policy of God rationale understands and believes that the policy of God is grace. The rationale is that God always deals with us in grace. Our relationship with God is always non-meritorious all we supply is positive volition God provides everything else.

The theological basis for the a fortiori rationale is in Rom 8:31-32; "Therefore, with reference to these things, to what conclusion are we forced? If God for us (and he is), who against us? The missing verbs in the original language emphasize Paul's statement.

v32 The God (God the Father) who did not even spare His own Son but delivered Him over to judgment as a substitute for all of us, how shall He not also graciously give to us the all things."

"A fortiori" is a Latin prepositional phrase that means "with stronger reason." A fortiori is a system of logic that uses inference and comparison. A fortiori is a comparison of a greater with a lesser. It is a debater's technique that takes an accepted fact and by comparison produces an irrefutable conclusion based on that fact.

If God did the most for us at salvation (and He did), it follows with stronger reason that He will not withhold the lesser (so He will). The accepted fact is that God the Father judged Jesus Christ as our substitute on the Cross. Rom 5:8;

The irrefutable conclusion is that God will graciously give us all things. These "all things 'are a lesser difficulty for God.

The "all things" that He has given us include re our portfolio of invisible assets and the ten problem solving devices that enable you solve every problem you will ever have.

The format of this a fortiori takes a fact of Bible doctrine (the greater difficulty of the Cross) and compares it with the lesser difficulty (of graciously giving us all things).

This results in an inescapable conclusion. If God accomplished the greater at the Cross, it is obvious that He can accomplish the lesser in the provision for the believer in time and in eternity.

If the greater benefit of God's judgment of the Son in our place has been given at salvation, God will not withhold the lesser benefit of grace to the believer in time and eternity.

If the most difficult was accomplished at the Cross, then it follows with stronger reason that the less difficult can be accomplished for believers after salvation.

The doctrinal rationales result in not only sharing the perfect happiness of God, a personal sense of destiny, and occupation with the person of Christ, but also establishes the spiritual strength to handle any adversity with absolute tranquility and stability.

Doctrinal rationales begin to circulate in the stream of consciousness as a result of the believer being positive and consistent in the intake of doctrine, which results in spiritual development. 2Pet 3:18;

The metabolization and application of doctrine requires an accurate scale of values and Bible doctrine has highest priority in your life.

The three stages of spiritual maturity are related to the use of doctrinal rationales.

Spiritual self-esteem is the product of cognitive self- confidence from doctrinal rationales. Spiritual autonomy is the product of cognitive independence from doctrinal rationales. Spiritual maturity is the product of cognitive invincibility from doctrinal rationales.

Some of the verses that describe claiming the doctrinal rationales by faith or having a strong enough faith to apply doctrine to your experience include:

Rom 10:17; "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ."
1Cor 2:16; "We have the thinking of Christ."
2Cor 5:7; "Therefore, we walk by faith and not be sight."
1Cor 2:5; "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man but in the power of God."

There is no system of counseling in this world that has the power to replace the function of the faith-rest with its recall and application of doctrinal rationales to life.

Faith-rest works in two directions. It recognizes the reality of the suffering. But it also recognizes the reality of what God has provided to deal with the suffering.

Without faith-rest the believer's greater reality becomes the adversity from circumstances that enters your soul and becomes stress and at that point the sin nature controls your soul and you begin to fragment emotionally.

When there is any contradiction between what God's Word says and what we see faith perception is to dominate so that our perception of reality is established from God's Word rather than what we see.

This results in divine viewpoint from God's Word overruling and overriding human viewpoint from what we see.

 

© Copyright 2007, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.  This document was created on 8/13/2014