Spiritual Autonomy or Spiritual Independence

From spiritual self-esteem, let’s move onward to spiritual autonomy, or spiritual independence! Spiritual independence is when we have enough spiritual self-confidence* and impersonal love** in our souls so that we don’t depend on others for strength and support. We depend on Bible doctrine, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the ten problem-solving devices! Therefore, learning, believing, and using Bible doctrine must still be our #1 priority! Then our personal love for God and our impersonal love for all mankind will increase. God will throw in some undeserved suffering to prevent us from getting off course; it is called providential preventative suffering. With all of these things in place, we will reach spiritual autonomy, or spiritual independence! *Spiritual self-confidence is confidence in God and His plan for our lives. **Impersonal love is how we treat others because of the Bible doctrine in our souls; it does not depend on how others act or treat us.

Proverbs 8:10-11 Choose my instruction [Bible doctrine] rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her [doctrine].

By loving Bible doctrine, we will be loving the thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will be growing in personal love for God.   Our impersonal love for all mankind will grow. Remember, impersonal love depends on what is in our souls; it doesn’t depend on what other people do or say. We can be content with other people or without other people. We will be able to act the same whether faced with obnoxious people or loving people. This will make us spiritually independent of others. We’ll even be independent of ourselves, our human viewpoint. We will depend on Bible doctrine, divine viewpoint, in our souls! We’ll be thinking like the Lord Jesus Christ!!

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher then your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

God is always gracious to us. He treats us with grace; we don’t earn or deserve what He gives us. He has taught us to be gracious to others by our attitudes formed from His thinking in our souls, even if they don’t deserve it. He has taught us how to have impersonal love. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can use impersonal love; we can be courteous, thoughtful, sensitive to others’ feelings, and tolerant. Before personal love can work in our lives, we have to have impersonal love. The person we love with personal love is not always loveable! Therefore, we have to switch to impersonal love and treat that person with grace and mercy, just like God always treats us!

John 13:34 “A new command I [Jesus Christ] give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love [impersonal love] one another.

Sometimes we will have to switch from personal love to impersonal love very quickly! Someone might say something that hurts us. Another might do something that hurts us. We may be treated unfairly. These will be good tests to see if we respond to the doctrine in our souls or if we react to our old sin natures!

Luke 6:27-28 “But I tell you who hear Me; Love [impersonal love] your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

Bible doctrine in our souls along with the filling of the Holy Spirit will give us wisdom and strength to live our lives according to God’s plan. We won’t be so quick to react to bad situations. It will be easier for us to respond to the situations with the thinking of Jesus Christ. We won’t be controlled by what others think, say, or do. People won’t be able to make us do what they want by complimenting us or patting us on the back. We won’t depend on the advice of others. However, at times we will share certain situations with a friend who has lots of Bible doctrine in his or her thinking. God will know when we need this, and He will supply the friend. This friend will give us the thinking of Jesus Christ. This will help us to go on in God’s plan, using God’s wisdom and strength!

Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right [just, fair], whatever is pure, whatever is lovely [worthy of personal love], whatever is admirable [virtue] – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Now during this time of spiritual growth from spiritual self-esteem to spiritual independence, God will put in suffering. It is called providential (meaning from God) preventative (meaning to prevent us from becoming arrogant) suffering. Wowa! That’s a mouthful! In reaching spiritual self-esteem, we used lots of positive volition. Now our positive volition will be tested by our suffering. What’s interesting is that everyone in life suffers. What’s important is how we handle that suffering: do we use human viewpoint or divine viewpoint? To get to spiritual independence, we must use divine viewpoint or divine thinking.

Romans 5:3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

God uses providential preventative suffering to speed up the believer’s spiritual momentum from spiritual self-esteem to spiritual autonomy, or spiritual independence. He also uses it to prevent us from being arrogant. In spiritual self-esteem, we are likely to start thinking that our strength comes from ourselves rather than from the Word of God and His plan. Providential preventative suffering reminds us of our dependence on the predesigned plan of God. It reminds us to use divine assets rather than human ability. God gives us the ten problem-solving devices to change all suffering into blessing! In grace, God gets us moving forward in His plan!

James 4:6 But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Trials, temptations, disappointments – sufferings of any kind- are helpful to us if we use divine viewpoint while going through them. We can see how weak we are without God’s power. The victories in overcoming these sufferings will give us new spiritual strength. God has given us everything we need to overcome sufferings; He has given us the ten problem-solving devices, the power of the Holy Spirit, and His predesigned plan for our lives. Every triumph over suffering represents a new supply of God’s energy! We’ll be depending more and more on God’s power. We can boast in our weaknesses and God’s grace!

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”

If we learn from our sufferings the lessons God tries to teach us, we will be able to help others who may be going through the same experiences. In our pain, God gives us grace and mercy. Because of this, we will be more compassionate toward others. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can give grace and mercy to others. Our impersonal love for others will be stronger. We will use the ten problem-solving devices to move along in the plan of God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

Spiritual self-esteem + providential preventative suffering (undeserved suffering) = spiritual autonomy      We can have complete confidence in God’s plan for our lives. We know that in grace, God takes preventative action by sending us suffering for blessing, or providential preventative suffering. On our way to spiritual autonomy, or spiritual independence, trials and sufferings will come to us. They are all for our benefit. We just have to rely on our confidence in God, His plan, and use the problem-solving devices. Daily, we have to learn, believe, and use Bible doctrine. God will do the rest!

Isaiah 64:8 Yet, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

Spiritual Autonomy or Spiritual Independence References used:                     Robert R.McLaughlin Bible Ministries   www.gbible.org                                         Lessons: 10-20-06, 10-22-06, 11-15-06, 11-16-06, 11-19-06                     Christian Integrity, by R.B. Thieme, Jr.

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