Lesson for February 5, 2023
The Victorious Christian Way of Life
Lesson 6
The Lifestyle of Wisdom
Spiritual autonomy is stage two of spiritual adulthood. Spiritual autonomy utilizes the problem-solving device of sharing the happiness of God. Sharing God’s happiness begins in spiritual self-esteem, gains momentum in spiritual autonomy, and reaches its peak in spiritual maturity. Sharing God’s happiness gives us the ability to be content in prosperity or in adversity, and it gives us the solution to the problems people have in constantly becoming slaves to their circumstances. Sharing God’s happiness is victory over your circumstances. Jeremiah 17:7-8, “This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt that is not inhabited. Blessed (happy) is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream and does not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought, nor cease to yield fruit.”
Spiritual autonomy is orientation to God and His Word and rejecting anything that destroys the spiritual life such as fear, worry, or anxiety. Mental stability from spiritual self-esteem and spiritual autonomy is a key issue in the spiritual life, because spirituality is the status of being filled with the Holy Spirit inside God’s power system which produces a relaxed mental attitude.
Mental stability is the ability to think accurate Bible doctrine and divine viewpoint under pressure. It is the ability to make correct and accurate application of doctrine in the midst of testing. It is the God-given ability to make accurate application of Bible doctrine. In spiritual autonomy, when you hear truth, you identify it as truth because you have learned so much Bible doctrine that you can identify truth in any area, wherever it is stated and by whomever it is stated. James 1:12, “Blessed (happy) is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
Spiritual autonomy means the state of being independent. This is not fully accomplished in the life of a believer until they have developed virtue-love as a problem-solving device. A key to contentment in life is impersonal love for everyone. Others’ imperfections and mistakes will not be a source of unhappiness to you with impersonal love.
If you have unconditional love toward all mankind, you have the most fantastic capacity for personal love for others. Personal love for others is based on the attractiveness of the object. Impersonal love is based on the virtue of the subject. Impersonal love is a relaxed, objective mental attitude toward the entire human race. Impersonal love is free from arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, self-pity, hatred, implacability, and guilt.
Spiritual autonomy is spiritual self-confidence. Spiritual self-confidence means you have gained the clear understanding of accurate Bible doctrine, so that you have a tremendous amount of divine viewpoint that can be used in pressure situations as well as non-pressure situations. Having spiritual self-confidence means your hope and your confidence are based on the Word of God and not on other people. Spiritual self-confidence is maximum use of Bible doctrine in facing and overcoming the challenges of life. Spiritual self-confidence is understanding and loving God by means of Bible doctrine.
In spiritual autonomy, you can begin to handle the Word of God accurately in its application, in your thought pattern, and in the pattern of your life. In spiritual autonomy, you can take all the Bible doctrine you’ve learned and apply it to your life effectively. Spiritual self-confidence will be a higher ability than you’ve ever had before, not only to recall doctrine which you’ve learned and believed, but to use it properly. And it’s the only way you will be able to handle the various areas of testing.
Psalm 119:1-2, “Blessed (happy) are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Law (Bible doctrine) of the Lord. Blessed (happy) are those who comply with His testimonies (instructions) and seek Him with all their heart.”
Spiritual self-confidence means when someone hurts you (even those closest to you), you are able to handle it with the doctrine that you have stored in your soul. You are now insulated against the failure, the disappointments, the frustrations, and the disillusionments that come from association with people. With all that doctrine in your soul, you need never again feel threatened, and slip into human viewpoint living.
Spiritual autonomy is grace orientation to life. Under the Protocol Plan of God for the Church Age, grace is all that God is free to do for each one of us from salvation through the eternal state, totally apart from any human merit, human ability, or any system of human planning, human behavior, or human talent. Grace-oriented problem solving in spiritual autonomy under the filling of the Holy Spirit, as a source of strength and power, eliminates human viewpoint solutions. Bible doctrine is the manifestation and revelation of grace to mankind.
While grace orientation to life is a characteristic of spiritual self-esteem, it is enhanced in spiritual autonomy. While spiritual self-esteem understands grace, spiritual autonomy consistently practices grace! With spiritual autonomy, grace orientation has the spiritual power for correct and accurate application of grace principles for passing life’s testing. Furthermore, it does so without distortion of grace like adding human viewpoint or human ability in an attempt to pass the tests in life. Those with grace orientation understand that God makes available to us all His infinite, eternal, divine power, just as He provided to the humanity of Christ.
Spiritual autonomy is making better decisions from a position of strength. Right thinking results in right motivation. Right motivation results in right decisions. Right decisions result in right actions. Spiritual autonomy is characterized by right thinking and right motivation necessary to make a maximum number of good decisions from a position of strength. This fulfills a principle of the Protocol Plan of God that a right thing must be done in a right way to be right.
In each successive stage of spiritual adulthood, the number of good decisions is increased from that position of strength. Although this characteristic exists in spiritual self-esteem, it is now greater in spiritual autonomy. Psalm 1:1-2, “Blessed (happy) is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the Law of the Lord (Bible doctrine), and on His Law (Bible doctrine), he meditates day and night.”
A position of strength is a believer living inside God’s power system, under the enabling power of the Holy Spirit and momentum from Bible doctrine. Having correct thinking and correct motivation means a believer will have correct application. In spiritual autonomy, believers not only have maximum doctrine in their souls but at the same time they consistently make right applications of that doctrine to their circumstances. All the thousands of decisions that advance a believer to the various stages of spiritual adulthood are good decisions from a position of strength, having the right priorities in life, and therefore good decisions are made on a consistent, moment-by-moment basis.
Spiritual autonomy is a personal sense of destiny. Believers in spiritual autonomy are free to concentrate on the function of their own royal priesthood. They have learned to respect the privacy and the freedom of others. They have made the correct application of the principle: “live and let live” within the Protocol Plan of God. Having resolved the problems of relationships to God, to self, and to others in moving from spiritual self-esteem into spiritual autonomy, believers in spiritual autonomy concentrate on the Protocol Plan of God which develops an awareness of their spiritual destiny.
Spiritual autonomy is characterized by the unique life status of “Christ being at home in your heart.” (Ephesians 3:16-17)