As believers, we are born again into a new life, meant to be a very different life. When we are crossing the street and a vehicle comes toward us, our first reaction is to dodge the vehicle. That is what life with ELB is like; we react to it as it comes at us. How we respond to ELB is what reveals who we are.
We can embrace ELB, fight it, or escape it in us and minimize its effect overall. We cannot be in this world and stop it from coming at us, ELB is about the material world, and there is only one escape for us, the divine spirit world of our Abba Father and his Family.
ELB is so overwhelming it minimizes the kingdom of our Abba Father for most people, even though he created the world and everything in it. I spend a lot of time revealing ELB in life so we can escape it because much of it touches the church. We must begin by getting our reactions to ELB life under control.
One benefit of not seeing the enemy is that it keeps our minds off him, which leads me to two questions. If we could see the enemy, wouldn’t we try harder to protect ourselves from it? The truth is, we can see it work. But we only really know the enemy when we see the entire divine spirit world around us. Please pray on that.
Second, having seen the enemy’s work, what is our Abba Father doing to free us from the enemy? The second question has an easy but unsatisfying answer; Ephesians 6, “the full armor of God.” We are supposed to armor up for the freedom fight in this world with our Abba Father’s armor design.
When David took on Goliath (1 Samuel 17), he took off the physical armor given to him. When I look at that fight, I see David praying to his Abba Father, “Father, if you will just guide this stone a little, we got this.” That is how our Family relationship looks to me in defeating ELB in our lives. It is a partnership.
In ELB, we “put on the armor” (Ephesians 6) and feel protected. But we might not be protected because the armor is homemade. It is a “DIY” project with directions from our Abba Father; we construct it ourselves. We achieve complete protection only when we understand that we must work on our armor to have peace and joy in the ELB world.
With Jesus as our savior, even with poorly made armor, we can still count on him to pick up our unconscious, beaten bodies and deliver us to Heaven. But that life seems very painful, even as a believer. We must do better because we have a job to do in the Family business, and we need all our strength.
In our Abba Father’s armor plan, our helmet is our redemption. Our breastplate is our righteousness. Our shield is our faith. These are only as good as we build them. We must stand in our Abba Father’s Gospel of peace to fight back. His Belt of Truth guides us. Our sword is the Word of our Abba Father. In other words, to avoid a beatdown, we need to know how to make the armor and use the tools. Not to avoid the fiery pit but to avoid the beating the enemy has for us to keep us from the full peace, joy, and glory of our Abba Father.
The enemy knows all this and counters with his gift, sinful pleasure. When I was young, “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll” was the church’s warning of sin. Preachers said we would go to hell if we engaged in any of it. They never told me that our Abba Father’s plan for sanctified marriage and intimacy was far better than any physical satisfaction like we were animals. Healthy families have an intuitive love for their family members and a willingness to help each other. Our Abba Father’s Family model contains activation energy for us, his love.
The Scripture guides our response to everything that life sends our way. When we embrace the Scripture, we feel confident about everything in our faith, life, and relationships. When we don’t embrace it, we suffer from weak faith. Our Abba Father’s design for responding to this life’s ELB offerings is “one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father, above all, in all and through all” (Ephesians 4) to help us armor up until the end of this season of life.
Using Our GCS
Our primary difficulty in using our GCS is that the spirit enemy can also message our GCS through our divine spirit receivers, which makes him in ELB so dangerous. We must filter out all conversations with the enemy or his soldiers in ELB. We then make our choices in our free will.
Understanding our “mind/soul/spirit/heart” (GCS} system created by our Abba Father is a life changer. It determines how we respond to the Scripture, everyone, and everything we experience. Believers must use our GCS for everything because that is how our helper, our advocate, our comforter, i.e., the Holy Spirit works in us.
Prayer is a mighty tool but too simplistic to understand with many believers. As I said before, we are not doing it right if we can’t tell the difference between our prayer to our Abba Father and our letter to Santa Claus. The result is that too many believers miss out on the joy and glory of our Abba Father, which is found only in a full relationship with him. The act of redemption is just our starting point, and worship is nowhere near enough to take on a life that comes at us with ELB.
So, where are the relationship messages presented in the Scripture? We have to look for them, which is the point of my exegesis question, “what does this verse say about our relationship with our Abba Father?” It is in every verse.
As earth-centered humans in an ELB world, we are born driven by the “self.” That contrasts with born-again believers, who are a new creation into a Family in Heaven. We are so much greater than mere humans when born again. In S1M4, we spoke of being holy and set apart by our Abba Father. We have something different inside us that other people do not have that we need to embrace because it results in the full joy, peace, and glory of our Abba Father. The first step for a believer in escaping ELB is to realize and embrace our difference as believers. Believers move from mere human dwellers of earth with ELB to holy children of our Abba Father and citizens of Heaven.
Temperament
The classic approach to identifying temperament is the division into four groups or types: sanguine (yellow, fun), choleric (red, power and control), melancholic l(blue, order and perfection), and phlegmatic (green, calm and harmony). The colors make for easy reference; the labels go back to Hippocrates’ four physical body “humors,” authored around 400 BC.
That is the mainstream, others use more categories, but the principle is the same. We are born with some combination of each temperament type; that is where the rubber meets the road with ELB. Psychology in ELB teaches us how a “color A” person should alter their reactions to life to get along better with a “color B” person.
To do that, we must know the temperaments. A church I once attended launched a psychology temperament program based on the theory that our Abba Father made us that way, so it is ok to exit from the Scripture into ELB psychology to learn temperaments and how to use them.
Does that program do a lot of good? For this life, yes, it does help. But it comes at the expense of our born-again life when we exit from the Scripture. Why? Because love is the be-all, end-all of our Abba Father, not our brain untethered from him. Please pray on that.
Let’s take it a step further and add dysfunction to our GCS. Are we children of our Abba Father or children of abusive parents or circumstances? Believers should see themselves as children of our Abba Father, not our circumstances. And, if we are talking about temperaments outside our born-again creation, why not talk about self-esteem, actualization, determination, imagination, etc.?
Once we jump away from our Abba Father for our life lessons, we are heading for a hard landing. That is not a slippery slope; it is a cliff. A song from the movie “Crazy Heart” has a great line, “Funny how falling feels like flying for a little while.”[i] That is ELB. The fact is our GCS determines our life. Do we choose ELB or our Abba Father to guide our life?
Self-Reflection
We may be born the way we are or raised to become the way we are, but when birthed, we are on the way to the fiery pit. Believing and redemption avoid the fiery pit but look at all we leave behind when we stop growing our relationship with our Abba Father.
Our Abba Father has provided solutions in Scripture for all the wrong GCS decisions we make related to ELB and weak faith. I mentioned in the introduction that much of ELB was not necessarily sinful, just not godly. We tend not to see slightly offensive behavior as a sin, but it is not godly. People rarely repent from being annoying, and I want to change that.
Getting Started
When the church finished the program on temperament I mentioned above, I re-wrote it in the context of the Scripture with no exiting. I didn’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, so I just filed it, but I can use it here. For example, I concluded Martha was a “blue” (order and perfection). Martha is one of seven double name calls in the Scripture and, therefore, important. Luke 10:40-42 NKJV, “Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.“
Jesus counseled Martha to live in “what is good,” not how to be ungodly in a nicer way. I believe in learning and am a big fan of it; temperament knowledge can be helpful. But I always try to integrate what I learn with the Scripture. Paul, (a solid green, LOL), is an excellent illustration of how our Abba Father expects us to use our GCS, 1 Cor 9:19-23 NKJV, “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews . . to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.”
Paul is describing love for others. Love drove him to sacrifice his entire life (including staying single), so he may redeem as many as possible. Paul was preaching, not selling tents, and gaining trust for “the close.” Exegeting for the relationship reveals a loving Paul.
Jesus said, “love others as I have loved you.” That is our universal solvent for our temperament, whatever it is. Jesus gives us his solution for all dispositions, love. Nothing else is needed. Our Abba Father’s design is the same whether we might be yellow, red, blue, or green. We all walk like Jesus, in love with each other and life with our Abba Father.
Building our relationship with the Family
That is a description of our relationship and self-control. Three words jump out, called, purpose and example. Notice the relationship this verse creates for us with Jesus in us. Make it personal. 1 John 2:6 NKJV, “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He (Jesus) walked.” S7M2 explains the Scripture meaning of “abide.” The ancient language meanings make a huge difference. Our calling is to “walk in the same manner as He walked.” Paul has it in 1 Corinthians 11:1 NKJV, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”
Let’s look at what comes right before v11:1, 1 Corinthians 10:31-33 NKJV, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.” Paul is creating the New Testament with his letters, and the heart of his teaching is our relationships in love.
Three more examples about how to walk like Jesus, which means transform our GCS to work like Philippians 2:3-8 NKJV says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in your selves which was also in Christ Jesus.” That passage is the directions from our Abba Father to align our GCS with him.
Ephesians 4:32 NKJV, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” Colossians 3:13 NKJV. “bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” S7M7 dives into forgiveness in great detail.
Relationship and Prayer
My bio highlighted that I am a biblical counselor. As one would expect, biblical counseling focuses on using the Scripture to solve the issues ELB life throws at us in our relationships, behavior, and anxieties, all managed by our GCS. I quickly observed that the level of the counselee’s faith determined the results.
The weaker one’s faith, the weaker the response is to the Scripture verses. Weak faith is the root cause of most of our relationship problems, anxieties, and difficulties in the first place. The obvious solution, then, is to grow people’s faith. So I wrote this book to do that. Biblical counseling has done an excellent job identifying the solutions our Abba Father has provided in the Scripture for most of the GCS challenges. But the problems solved are all the symptoms of the same disorder. There is only one disorder, weak faith. (That is where I get off the psychology train, more on that as we go.)
Conventional preaching/teaching presents prayer as the universal response to life’s troubles. And it is, do not get me wrong. But my question for a long time has been if faith is weak, how effective is prayer in weak faith? I use the example of sitting on the couch praying for God to deliver a pizza. I can’t say he won’t, but I advise that a backup plan be ready. Prayer too often becomes a substitute for a relationship with our Abba Father. The “relationship life” resonates with most believers when they hear about it because it changes our view of life and what is essential, especially when “thy will be done” is added.
We find solutions to life’s struggles and dysfunctions in our relationship with our Abba Father. We need to seek his counsel, not just pray that he fix us or do what I call “take two verses and call me in the morning.” I believe just praying for our Abba Father to “fix us” is the product of weak faith and poor teaching about our relationship with him.
The Apostle Paul pleaded to our Abba Father three times to remove a thorn he was experiencing. 2 Corinthians 12:8 NKJV, “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.” Many interpret our Abba Father’s answer as “suck it up, Paul.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV, “But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.“
It is true our Abba Father is refusing to remove the thorn caused by the enemy and ordained by our Abba Father (like Job?), in this case, to make sure Paul stays humble. Remember what a self-righteous tyrant Saul/Paul used to be? Too many people see grace as love and move on in ELB. But what is our Abba Father’s “grace” that is enough? He gives us all the abilities, help, provision, and strength, and Jesus’ yoke is part of grace.
Our relationship radar tells us that prayer should start with asking for revelation, wisdom, and strength in our relationship with our Abba Father to get through a situation together. One might infer from 2 Corinthians 12:9 that Paul still has delusions of grandeur in ELB that need work, providing a reason to keep reminding Paul of the thorn. Remember, Jesus uniquely anointed Paul. ELB works to make this world more important than our Abba Father.
When faith reaches a certain level, lives change. That is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And the way to grow faith is by building our relationship with our Abba Father, and then he teaches us our relationships with each other in the Scripture. Focusing on our relationships is an opportunity to change the world. All it takes is to center our preaching and teaching on it. Everyone in the church becomes involved instantly in a unifying direction. I previously used the example of Martha and Mary. Pastors preach that story often. But it’s preached as, “Mary right, Martha wrong, be like Mary.” That is very simplistic. Mary chose “what is good,” listening to Jesus teach. Martha and Mary also have a relationship with each other; they are sisters. The Martha and Mary scene in Luke 10:38-42 for us today is about our relationship with our Abba Father and each other. We need to bring the Marys and Marthas to our Abba Father and each other to demonstrate the commandment of love. We want to help Martha and Mary love each other with the Scripture.
[i] Crazy Heart, credits seen at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1263670/
