OCTOBER 2006

OCTOBER 2006 lessons from our Philippians series with our continuation of SECRET OF THE MYSTERY , as well as other subjects in order by date, (0190) 1485 -1489 with notes and links attached below.
PHILIPPIANS-1485
Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin  •  0190-1485
PHILIPPIANS-1486
Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin  •  0190-1486
PHILIPPIANS-1487
Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin  •  0190-1487
PHILIPPIANS-1488
Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin  •  0190-1488
PHILIPPIANS-1489
Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin  •  0190-1489
*Some MP3 lessons are not available for the notes. If the link does not bring you to a direct message, it will take you to the related series.

THE SECRET OF THE MYSTERY, PART 155. THE PORTFOLIO OF INVISIBLE ASSETS: MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR PRIMARY ASSETS. 1CO 1:18-31; JOH 12:24-25; 15:5; MAT 23:13-28

0190-1485
Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The secret of the mystery. Part 155. The portfolio of invisible assets: making the most of your primary assets.

Sunday, October 15, 2006


Point 6. The introduction to the four categories of invisible assets.

a. Primary assets
b. Secondary assets.
c. Personnel assets: spiritual gifts.
d. Unique assets: the indwelling of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

a. The primary assets.
“Primary” = first or highest in rank, quality, or importance.

The primary assets are election and predestination.
All believers start out with equal privilege and equal opportunity because of election and predestination.

Through utilization of the invisible assets, the believer understands his election and fulfills the pre-designed plan of God.

He learns day by day more and more about who and what God is and what these invisible assets are.

b. The secondary assets.
Here is where your volitional decisions really matter.

You make doctrine #1 priority. You do not let anything interfere with learning doctrine, and you do not let anything interfere with your application of the doctrine you know in your soul.

Your volitional assets use election and predestination to attain your escrow assets.
That is what a portfolio is supposed to do: Use assets to create assets.

From the primary assets, provided for you by the sovereignty of God the Father in eternity past, come the secondary assets.

1. If we are going to take advantage of our primary assets, election and predestination, and multiply them into secondary assets, it all begins by admitting that we are powerless and need divine power without which our lives become unmanageable.

Admission of our powerlessness is the first step in true liberation.
There is a direct relation of humility to dignity.

When you hit bottom, there is no where to go but up.
PRO 24:16 For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked stumble in {time of} calamity.

1. It all begins by admitting that we are powerless and we need divine power without which our lives become unmanageable.

2. If we are going to take advantage of our primary assets, election and predestination, and multiply them into secondary assets, we have to come to believe that there is a power greater than ourselves that can restore us to spiritual reality.

Substitution of faith over sight -
2CO 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight -

The dilemma of being disillusioned at times will drive us to faith.

JOB 13:15 “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.”

There will be roadblocks of indifference and prejudice.
There will also be problems of intellectuality and self-sufficiency.

There will be negative and positive thinking.

GAL 6:3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
PRO 26:12 Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Another hindrance to taking advantage of our primary assets, election and predestination, and multiplying them into secondary assets, is self-righteousness.

Then there is defiance which is an outstanding characteristic of the flesh.

The solution and the rallying point to spiritual sanity is having a right relationship with God.

EST 4:16 - “and if I perish, I perish.”
PSA 56:3 When I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee.

2. We have to come to believe that there is a power greater than ourselves that can restore us to sanity.

3. If we are going to take advantage of our primary assets, election and predestination, and multiply them into secondary assets, we must make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.

Willingness is the key. Dependence is the means to independence.

LUK 22:42 “Yet not My will, but Thine be done.”
MAT 11:30 “The yoke is easy, and the load is light.”
JOH 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

4. We must make a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves.

Our instincts can exceed their proper function.

Point four is an effort to discover our liabilities.

The danger is to be misguided by moral inventory which can result in guilt, pretentiousness, or blaming others.
Assets can be multiplied even through our liabilities.

There must be a willingness to take inventory within ourselves.
Through the grace of God, it brings light and new confidence.

Common symptoms of emotional insecurity are worry, anger, self-pity, and depression.

True spiritual inventory reviews relationships and the importance of thoroughness.

5. We must admit to God, and to ourselves, the exact nature of our wrongs.

PRO 28:13 He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes {them} will find compassion.

Without fearless admission of defects, believers cannot grow in God’s grace and knowledge.

You lose a sense of isolation; you receive forgiveness and you give it.

There is a necessity implanted in all of us for complete and total honesty, without guilt and condemnation.

There is how to choose the person or persons in whom to confide.

If you succeed, the results are tranquility and consciousness of God.

6. We must be entirely ready to have God remove all the defects of character in our lives.

There is also the recognition of the difference between striving for an objective -- and perfection.
Delay is dangerous. PRO 19:15 Laziness casts into a deep sleep, And a slothful person will suffer hunger.

7. We must humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

Humility is the avenue to true freedom in the spiritual life, not the flesh.
Failure and misery is transformed by humility.
Pain is the admission price to this new life.

Self-centered fear is the chief activator of our defects.
There is a reluctance to forgive; nonadmission of wrongs to others; purposeful forgetting.

8. We must make direct amends with some people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

A tranquil mind is the first requisite for good judgment.
Good timing is important in making amends.

What is courage? It is wisdom and prudence taking calculated chances.

When your past is settled with, present challenges can be met.

There must be a varieties of inventory, such as anger, resentments, jealousy, envy, self-pity, hurt, and most of all pride.

Look at the credits as well as the debits in people.

10. We must seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God.

What is a spiritual awakening?
It is a new state of consciousness being received as a free gift.

Dependence upon God is necessary to recovery.

Understanding is the key to right attitudes.
And right action is the key to good living.



THE SECRET OF THE MYSTERY. PART 156. THE PORTFOLIO OF INVISIBLE ASSETS: THE TEN PRINCIPLES THAT MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR PRIMARY ASSETS

0190-1486
Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The secret of the mystery. Part 156. The portfolio of invisible assets: the ten principles that make the most of your primary assets.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006


Point 6. Introduction to the four categories of invisible assets.

a. Primary assets.
b. Secondary assets.
c. Personnel assets: spiritual gifts.
d. Unique assets: the indwelling of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The primary assets are election and predestination.
Through utilization of the invisible assets, the believer understands his election and fulfills the pre-designed plan of God.

There are four secondary assets related to the believer’s persistence inside the PPOG with positive volition toward doctrine: volitional assets, production assets, undeserved suffering assets, and invisible impact assets.

The secondary assets are based on the function of human volition.
All secondary assets result from perception and utilization of our primary assets, that is, the assets of both equal privilege and equal opportunity in election and predestination.

The believer’s use of his election and predestination through positive volition toward doctrine result in the increase of his portfolio.

From the primary assets, provided for you by the sovereignty of God the Father in eternity past, come the secondary assets.

1. If we are going to take advantage of our primary assets, election and predestination, and multiply them into secondary assets, it all begins by admitting that we are powerless and need divine power, without which our lives become unmanageable.

We don’t like admitting complete defeat and that we are nothing without God.

JOH 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
JOH 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

GAL 6:3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Admission of our powerlessness is the first step in true liberation.

1. It all begins by admitting that we are powerless and need divine power without which our lives become unmanageable.

2. We have to come to believe that there is a power greater than ourselves that can restore us to spiritual reality.

3. We must make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.

Willingness is the key.

Dependence is the means to independence.

All of us face the dangers of self-sufficiency.

LUK 22:42 “Yet not My will, but Thine be done.”

4. We must make a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves.

1CO 11:31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged.
2CO 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you - unless indeed you fail the test?

JER 3:13 “Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the Lord your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,” declares the Lord.

Point four is an effort to discover our liabilities and our basic problems of extremes and instinctive desires.

5. We must also admit to God, and to ourselves, the exact nature of our wrongs.

This is the beginning of true rapport with humanity and God.

6. We must be entirely ready to have God remove the defects in our lives that are hindering our relationship with Him.

7. We also must humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.

Humility is a necessary aid to survival.
Failure and misery are transformed by humility.

2CO 12:9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

2CO 12:10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Pain, suffering, and humbling experiences are the admission price to this new life.

Here is where a tremendous change in attitude permits us to move out of ourselves toward God.

8. We must make direct amends with some people wherever possible.

9. You function in grace and do not retaliate while the Supreme Court of Heaven handles your case.

This refers to a desperate need that an individual has and the believer who operates in the Royal Family honor code fulfills that need when possible.

“You will pile coals on his head” - can either refer to an ancient custom of giving coals to keep a fire going, or the mental pain and shame that takes place from being treated with integrity by another.

10. We must seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God.
Meditation and prayer are main channels to taking advantage of our primary assets, election and predestination, and multiplying them into secondary assets.

There are four secondary assets related to the believer’s persistence inside the PPOG with positive volition toward doctrine: volitional assets, production assets, undeserved suffering assets, and invisible impact assets.

All secondary assets result from perception and utilization of our primary assets - equal privilege and equal opportunity in election and predestination. The believer’s use of his election and predestination through positive volition toward doctrine result in the increase of his portfolio.

Primary assets, election and predestination, originate from the sovereignty of God, and they express God’s will for our lives. Secondary assets originate from the volition of the believer, and they express our attitude toward doctrine and the grace of God.

There are certain blessings that God has ordained to take place in your life because His omniscience saw the positive volitional decisions you would make in time.

The issue in the execution of God’s will and plan for your life is advancing to spiritual maturity.
This requires daily residence inside your very own plan designed by God for you in eternity past.

Glorifying God comes from many good decisions from a position of strength.

The accumulated good decisions result in the believer becoming a winner and being the recipient of many blessings for time and the eternal state.

The believer’s volition is the basis for establishing priorities in life and consolidating the divine viewpoint scale of values. In each stage of spiritual adulthood, your positive volition and your scale of values is tested.

You have already used positive volition to reach the first stage of growth, spiritual self-esteem; therefore, at spiritual self esteem you are tested or evaluated concerning your positive volition.

Persistent positive volition toward doctrine inside the PPOG results in the attainment of spiritual self-esteem.

In spiritual self-esteem, your persistence in positive volition toward doctrine is tested by that category of suffering for blessing called providential preventative suffering.

He quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift.


THE SECRET OF THE MYSTERY. PART 157. THE PORTFOLIO OF INVISIBLE ASSETS: THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SPIRITUAL SELF-ESTEEM

0190-1487
Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The secret of the mystery. Part 157. The portfolio of invisible assets: the characteristics of Spiritual Self-Esteem.

Thursday, October 19, 2006


There are four secondary assets related to the believer’s persistence inside the PPOG with positive volition toward doctrine: volitional assets, production assets, undeserved suffering assets, and invisible impact assets.

Between the primary assets you receive at salvation and the escrow assets you receive at maturity are these four secondary assets.

Primary assets, election and predestination, originate from the sovereignty of God, and they express God’s will for our lives.
Secondary assets originate from the volition of the believer, and they express our attitude toward doctrine and the grace of God.

The issue in the execution of God’s will and plan for your life is advancing to spiritual adulthood.

Spiritual self-esteem, which is cognitive self-confidence, the beginning of effective function of the ten problem-solving devices of the PPOG for the Church.

There is spiritual autonomy, which is cognitive independence and the continuation of effective function of the ten problem-solving devices of the PPOG.

There is spiritual maturity, which is cognitive invincibility and maximum effective function of the problem-solving devices for the PPOG.

As a member of the Royal Family of God, your perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine determines your ability to deal with every stress, every problem, every adversity, every area of prosperity in life.

Self-esteem might be defined as respect for self, satisfaction with one’s self, or a good opinion of one’s self.

Spiritual self-esteem is that virtue of the PPOG whereby the believer’s confidence is based on Bible doctrine; and the believer’s respect for self is linked to grace-orientation.

Spiritual self-esteem is the believer’s dependence on God’s grace provision for stabilizing self and integrating self into the PPOG.

The application goes toward God, toward self, and toward others.

Being alive as a Christian does not imply that you understand the PPOG or even how to live the Christian way of life; this comes with spiritual self-esteem.

Spiritual self-esteem is the solution to the problems related to self, the I to me relationship, the ego to self relationship.

1) Elpis = confidence with regard to the future, never the present.
2) Parresia = courage and confidence.
Pepoithesis = self-confidence or spiritual self-esteem.

EPH 3:12 in whom we have boldness and confident access [Pepoithesis, SSE] through faith in Him.

1. Self-confidence.
2. Self-realization. Self-realization is the process of learning, thinking, and solving.

3. Self-direction.
4. Self-identity = grace-orientation combined with doctrinal orientation to produce a personal sense of destiny.

5. Self-motivation = combines personal love for God the Father and occupation with Christ, plus cognition and inculcation of the unique characteristics of the Church-age.

6. Self-vindication = tantamount to execution of the PPOG.
a. Self-vindication means becoming an invisible hero.
b. Self-vindication means becoming a member of the pivot of the client nation.
c. Self-vindication means distribution of escrow blessings for time.
d. Self-vindication means glorifying God in the angelic conflict.

Virtue-love is personal love based upon impersonal love.
Virtue-love is necessary for the function of the husband’s authority in marriage.

You must have a sense of responsibility regarding those over whom you have authority, just as Christ takes responsibility over the Church.

1. Tranquility of soul.
2. Stability of mental attitude including never feeling threatened by others and avoiding inordinate ambition and competition.

3. Composure marked by self-assurance, which is the correct and accurate application of doctrine to life.
4. Grace-orientation to life.

5. Doctrinal-orientation to reality, which is based upon genuine humility, objectivity, teachability, spiritual common sense, and the avoidance of inordinate ambition and competition or inordinate self-esteem.

6. Good decisions from a position of strength, which includes motivation from personal love for God the Father plus divine viewpoint thinking.

7. Personal control of your life through doctrinal conceptualism, which is understanding the spiritual life even as a part of rationalism and empiricism.

8. A personal sense of destiny, which includes solving the problems related to God, self, others, and things.

9. Self-confidence from wisdom, which means the function of doctrinal conceptualism or the application of metabolized doctrine to experience.

10. Poise. This is the believer under spiritual self-command.

He is a winner who overcomes self.

Aristotle - “I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.”

Health enough to make work a pleasure.
Wealth enough to support your needs.
Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them.
Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them.
Patience enough to labor until some good is accomplished.

Compassion enough to see some good in your neighbor.
Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others.
Faith enough to make real the things of God.
Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.

Be grateful for all your problems because after each one is overcome, you become stronger and more able to meet those that are still to come.

Some people see mistakes as failure in life while others see it as gaining experience for handling what they will have to overcome tomorrow.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life, but by the obstacles which they have overcome while trying to succeed.

2CO 5:17 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
GAL 6:15 For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
1CO 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it.
The greater the obstacle, the more the glory in overcoming it.

Never bow down to obstacles; conquer them and enjoy the fruit of your courage and your SSE!


THE SECRET OF THE MYSTERY. PART 158. THE PORTFOLIO OF INVISIBLE ASSETS: THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING PROVIDENTIAL PREVENTATIVE SUFFERING

0190-1488
Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The secret of the mystery. Part 158. The portfolio of invisible assets: the importance of understanding providential preventative suffering.

Friday, October 20, 2006


The secondary assets which bring blessings in the believer’s portfolio and result in the believer reaching the different stages of spiritual adulthood from his perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine.

1. Tranquility of soul.
2. Stability of mental attitude.
3. Composure marked by self-assurance.
4. Grace-orientation to life.
5. Doctrinal-orientation to reality.

6. Good decisions from a position of strength.
7. Personal control of your life.
8. A personal sense of destiny.
9. Self-confidence from wisdom.
10. Poise.

Spiritual self-esteem is when we begin to have momentum in the spiritual life.

A major part of each spiritual advance is overcoming obstacles under suffering and disaster.

The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.

Spiritual self-esteem plus providential preventative suffering equals spiritual autonomy.

Providential preventative suffering is defined as short-termed suffering from the sovereignty of God for the benefit of the believer.

Providential preventative suffering is that suffering which prevents, restrains, or insulates sin and evil, while challenging spiritual self-esteem to suffer for blessing and profit. Providential preventative suffering is the first category of suffering for blessing related to spiritual adulthood.

Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

From the context of 2CO 12:7-8, it can be called thorn testing.

There is a warm-up for people testing, for system testing, for thought testing, and for disaster testing.

When spiritual self-esteem combines with providential preventative suffering, it forms spiritual autonomy, which is spiritual self-esteem with muscle minus arrogance.

Spiritual self-esteem can only function on humility and orientation to authority. ISA 5:21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And clever in their own sight!

Spiritual self-esteem is vulnerable to arrogance without providential preventative suffering, which God graciously provides.

Providential preventative suffering prevents, restrains, intercepts, insulates against sin and evil in the life while challenging your spiritual self-esteem to suffer for blessing and profit.

“Tested by fire” is used, because when you put gold in fire, the gold melts and the fire changes the nature of the gold.

Providential preventative suffering changes the nature of the believer.

As pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine.

PHI 1:29 For to you it has been given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.

Providential preventative suffering is described as various testings producing steadfastness or spiritual autonomy.

Spiritual autonomy plus momentum testing = spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity plus evidence testing = glorification of God to the maximum in the angelic conflict.

This passage describes providential preventative suffering as the category that prevents sin and challenges spiritual self-esteem to suffer for blessing in the midst of trials.

Suffering does not bear its meaning in itself, but becomes a spotlight, focusing on God’s power and our concurrent weakness, weakness brought about by suffering for blessing.

Suffering for blessing focuses on God’s grace, and turns boasting away from self-glorification into worship, love, and appreciation for God.

Whenever we face suffering for blessing, human solutions cannot solve or help; only divine solutions can.

Doctrine gives us the mechanics of everything: for strength in suffering, for capacity, for how to pray, and for what to pray.

What God does not remove, He intends for us to bear, and He has provided the problem-solving devices to convert all suffering into blessing.

Preventative suffering is a restrainer of sin, a builder of integrity, of honor, of character.

Before He could be qualified to go to the Cross and become our substitute and be the only Savior, the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ had to endure a certain amount of providential preventative suffering which contributed to His impeccability and qualified Him as the sin offering.

Providential preventative suffering was combined with our Lord’s spiritual self-esteem to result in impersonal love or spiritual autonomy.

As a result of spiritual self-esteem plus providential preventative suffering, our Lord had spiritual autonomy, with which He advanced to spiritual maturity.

2CO 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2CO 4:12 Death worked in Him, so that life could work in us.

If you learn from your suffering, and really come to understand the lesson you were taught, you might be able to help someone else who is now in the phase you may have just completed.

The discipline and restraints of childhood imposed by parents are replaced by the discipline and restraints of adult life enforced by suffering.

Suffering depletes our human resources and confronts us with our total dependence upon the grace of God.

The removal of suffering might deny the believer a special blessing available to him only through the suffering.

God will not send suffering for blessing until first the believer is confident in his relationship with God and in his own ability to use the assets that God has given him.

THE SECRET OF THE MYSTERY. PART 159. THE PORTFOLIO OF INVISIBLE ASSETS: THE VALUE OF UNDESERVED SUFFERING

0190-1489
Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The secret of the mystery, Part 159. The portfolio of invisible assets: the value of undeserved suffering.

Sunday, October 22, 2006


The secondary assets are related to your positive volition toward doctrine and your priorities and scale of values in life.
Providential preventative suffering is undeserved suffering directly related to your secondary assets.

a. Volitional assets related to your positive volition toward doctrine, keeping your priorities straight, so that you can reach the different stages of spiritual growth.

What are desirable things?
Money, success, prosperity, pleasure, friends, loved ones, social life, sex, status symbols etc.

The most important love in your life is to love doctrine which is the means or the vehicle of personal love toward God.

Bible doctrine requires some aggression on your part.

Riches speaks of materialistic success.
Honor speaks of character, virtue, and integrity.

a. Volitional assets related to your positive volition toward doctrine, keeping your priorities straight, so that you can reach the different stages of spiritual growth.
b. Production assets.

Christian service is never effective unless it is a result of your spiritual life; it is never the means of your spiritual life.

REV 22:12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”

c. Suffering for blessing assets: providential preventative suffering, momentum testing, and evidence testing.
d. Invisible impact assets.
Your personal impact is blessing by association, historical impact is the pivot influence, and international impact is the function of worldwide missions.

Primary assets, election and predestination, originate from the sovereignty of God, and they express God’s will for our lives.

Secondary assets originate from the volition of the believer, and they express our attitude toward doctrine and the grace of God
There are certain blessings that God has ordained to take place in your life because His omniscience saw the positive volitional decisions you would make in time.

“Diligently seek” - piel participle - shachar = an intensive search for Bible doctrine.

Shachar is an intensive search.
An extreme search.
A fervent search.
A passionate search.
A very strong search.

At this point you have your first encounter with undeserved suffering from God called providential preventative suffering.

This requires your daily residence inside your very own plan designed by God for you in eternity past.

You have already used positive volition to reach the first stage of growth, spiritual self-esteem, therefore, at spiritual self esteem you are tested or evaluated concerning your positive volition.

In spiritual self-esteem, your persistence in positive volition toward doctrine is tested by that category of suffering for blessing called providential preventative suffering.

Providential preventative suffering is defined as short-termed suffering from the sovereignty of God for the benefit of the believer.
Providential preventative suffering is that suffering which prevents, restrains, or insulates sin and evil, while challenging spiritual self-esteem to suffer for blessing and profit.

Providential preventative suffering is the first category of suffering for blessing related to spiritual adulthood, SSE.

Its offensive role is to accelerate the believer’s spiritual momentum beyond spiritual self-esteem into spiritual autonomy.

Its defensive role is to prevent him from falling victim to arrogance.

He may assume that his strength comes from self rather than from God’s Word and the PPOG.

In grace, God takes preventive action by sending suffering for blessing or providential preventative suffering.

Providential preventive suffering reminds the believer of his dependence on the predesigned plan of God and forces him to use divine assets under circumstances that human ability cannot resolve.

In this stage of spiritual growth, affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sound; not to make us sorry but wise.

Trials, temptations, disappointments - all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly.

Every triumph over temptation represents a new supply of spiritual energy.

There are some things that we will not be delivered from until God’s timing is ready.

The only thing Paul will boast about is the grace that made it all possible.

He will boast with regard to his weaknesses -
noun astheneias = weaknesses, frailties, distresses, afflictions.

God’s glory is manifested by God’s grace.
EXO 33:18-19 Then Moses said, “I pray Thee, show me Thy glory!”
EXO 33:19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”

Exalting myself - pres-pass-subj - huperairomai = to become conceited, arrogant, to lift up one’s self above others, and there is the reason for providential preventative suffering.

1. If you learn from your suffering and understand the lesson taught through it, you will be able to help others who may be going through the same experiences as you just completed, 2CO 1:3-7.

1PE 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
1PE 5:9 But resist him, firm in your doctrine, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

2. Painful as it may be, a significant amount of suffering can be the incentive for choosing a direction that serves and those around us more effectively -
2CO 4:12 So death works in us, but life in you.

3. You do not develop courage by being happy in your life; you develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversities.
4. Trials, temptations, and disappointments not only test the fiber of our character but strengthen it.

5. Suffering and adversity is the state in which we become acquainted with ourselves and free of hypocritical acquaintances.
PRO 17:17 A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.

6. Things do not go wrong so we can become bitter and give up; they break us down and build us up so we can be all that God intends for us to be.

7. You will never know your own strength until you are met with adversity.

8. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to grow further spiritually and improve your performance the next time.

9. A Chinese proverb -
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”

10. Just like fire is the test of gold; adversity is the test of the strong believer.


SECRET OF THE MYSTERY
NOVEMBER 2006