Thinking Divine Viewpoint, Prayer, and the Belt of Truth

RV19-02

Furthermore, He commended them for the fact that their minds were controlled by mental attitude "agape" love. Their minds were, therefore, free from bitterness and ill will. This is a non-emotional love which is produced again in the spiritual Christian by the Holy Spirit. It's part of the fruit of the Spirit. In the spiritual maturity structure of the believer, it's the relaxed mental attitude.

They also are characterized by a spirit of faith rest in God. They understood that they were to do what they could in meeting the issues of life. But there was a certain point beyond which they had to leave the matter with the Lord and recognize that the battle is the Lord's. These were matters that were beyond their control, and they had to, by faith, rest in the Lord to handle them. They were full of confidence and full of trust in the Scriptures and in their promises. When they mixed their faith with those promises, they found peace in their souls.

Christian Service

We have indicated that this training program centers on the techniques of the Christian life. These include: the technique of confessing known sins; the technique of Bible study (living in the Word); and, the technique of spirituality, which has to do with maintaining a position in the inner circle of temporal fellowship.

Thinking Divine Viewpoint

The first thing that Romans 12:2 calls upon us to do is not to be cut in the outward pattern of that world system. Instead, Romans 12:2 says that we are to be transformed. The word "conformed," in the first part of verse 2, refers to an external relationship. The word "transformed" refers to an internal quality, so there is an internal mental change. He explains to us how that is to be done – by the renewing of your mind. This is by a mental change that is brought about by the Word of God – by the intake of Bible doctrine and knowledge into the soul. The result is a mind which is functioning on divine viewpoint principles in the angelic conflict. That's what a Christian soldier has to be trained to do. He has to be trained not to pattern himself after Satan's world system. He has to be trained in his thinking to possess divine viewpoint outlook and principles upon which to function.

Inward divine viewpoint thinking produces outward divine viewpoint actions which result in successful living. That is the goal. Divine viewpoint thinking then is a mind which is occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ and with His thoughts. And we secure His thoughts through the Word of God. Divine viewpoint thinking functions on the four basic divine institutions as the essential pattern for human society in the midst of the angelic warfare. It is very important for us as Christian soldiers to understand that God has structured human society on these four divine institutions. These are the institutions which are regularly being violated in our day and which have resulted in the United States becoming a declining nation on its way out of the effective picture of world power and world influence, which is compatible with the picture we see in the book of Revelation, where the power center of the world shifts to Western Europe.

The Four Divine Institutions

1. Volition

   These institutions, as you know, are, first of all, personal responsibility, which is expressed as volition – free use of your will, and being responsible for the decisions you make. That is inherently built into the human race in order to protect us from the inroads of Satan. Any system of government and any system of social organizations, such as communism and socialism, which violate personal free choice, are automatically marked as a system devised by Satan.

2. Marriage

   Then we have the institution of marriage, which is a monogamous life relationship between male and female.

3. Family

   Then we have the divine institution of the family. The children which are born in that marriage become the inheritors of the wealth of those parents (the produce of their parents). Those parents, particularly the father, are responsible, as per the Genesis directive, to conquer the world of nature, and to subdue it, and to benefit by it. The results of those benefits and those efforts are to be passed on to the family unit. The family unit is the unit of producing wealth, and the family unit is the unit of distributing wealth. It is never the government that produces wealth. It is never the government that is authorized to distribute wealth.

   Of course, you can see how far we have come from that in our day (in our government), because our government is characterized by confiscation of the productivity of its people – the working, productive part of our society. It is also committed to redistributing that productivity. That is a pure cold-blooded violation of the Word of God, and no nation can expect to be blessed under that condition.

4. Human Government

   Then the fourth divine institution is the institution of human government – the civil authority with the ultimate right of capital punishment. Nations are the way that God expects society to be divided so that there can be no one-world government which can bring about the conquest of all the world dominated by Satan, and thus to clamp off access to God's point of view to divine viewpoint instruction in the Word of God. Again, this is violated in a monumental way by our nation. Our nation is dominated by men who are in policymaking positions and in positions of authority, who are members of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. The Trilateral Commission is sort of a subsidiary of the Council on Foreign Relations. The Trilateral Commission was sponsored and is controlled by David Rockefeller with the flagship of the structure at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.

   The purpose of the Trilateral Commission is to unite Japan, Western Europe, and the United States in economic efforts to bring about a coordinated one-world structure, which is the goal of the Council on Foreign Relations. These have been secret organizations. They have had a very low profile, and the average American, if you mentioned the Council on Foreign Relations up to recent times, didn't know what C.F.R stood for at all. If you mentioned the Trilateral Commission, he was really puzzled. He wasn't quite sure he had ever heard of a thing like that, and he probably hadn't. But suddenly the news has broken out, and the connection with the Rockefeller and the international bankers' power structure has come to the public attention. Americans, because of their past spiritual heritage and their biblical frame of reference, realize that the one world concept is anti-God. They know that the Tower of Babel tried that stunt. The United Nations has tried that stunt. They have seen that God's blessing has not rested upon that concept. That's a violation of the divine institution of government.

For that reason, I think that we can have very little hopes of seeing a person elected to the presidency of the United States who is really a divine viewpoint oriented person. We are in the last stages; Satan is on his last legs; and, he is moving things into high gear. The one thing he cannot afford, for example, is to put a man in charge of the leading nation of the world (our country) who will suddenly reverse all these disastrous courses that we have been following, and the United States turns around, and instead of becoming a declining nation, now rises to ascendancy once more. That would certainly push back all of the prophetic picture that seems to be unfolding before our eyes. While we may hope for that, it is seemingly unlikely that it will come about.

So spiritual combat based on human viewpoint always ends in defeat for the Christian soldier. Any operating on that viewpoint in the form of violating the divine institution of human government is going to end in disaster, and we are seeing that taking place. Divine viewpoint recognizes authority. That's why it's important for a Christian soldier to be trained in divine viewpoint thinking. A person who has divine viewpoint thinking understands lines of authority. Children who are trained in divine viewpoint thinking understand lines of authority. They understand what "no" means, and they understand what "yes" means. They understand how to be told once, and to act accordingly. That is very critical. Lines of authority are certainly essential in a combat situation. That is why soldiers go through all kinds of drills and military maneuvers that seem rather pointless and repetitive. Well, the purpose is to get ingrained in a man that he is to respond immediately to constituted authority, because that is essential for victory on the battlefield.

Human viewpoint decisions, of course, do secure certain advantages from the world. I cannot deny that. The politicians know this. They make human viewpoint decisions because they give advantage to them at the moment. But this results in eternal loss for the individual with God. It is not worth it.

Divine viewpoint basically functions on the wonderful principle that David enunciated in 1 Samuel 17:47, and that is that, "The battle is the Lord's." Divine viewpoint thinking – grasp that. When you realize that the battle is the Lord's, that's even true in earthly military combat. A soldier who can move into battle with that kind of divine viewpoint thinking (the battle is the Lord's) becomes a tiger and a terror on the battlefield. That is certainly a thing that we Christian soldiers need in the angelic conflict – to know that the battle is the Lord's.

We have very distinctive weapons that we're talking about in terms of divine viewpoint thinking. These are referred to for us in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, where Paul says, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war. (We do not do battle after the flesh.) For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly human weapons), but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds." Our weapons, of course, are spiritual weapons. Our protective battle gear is spiritually provided, and it is designed for pulling down the strongholds of Satan. The objective is listed for us in verses 5 and 6. This is the objective of divine viewpoint thinking: "Casting down imaginations (human viewpoint thinking), and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." That's human viewpoint thinking – exalting itself against God's divine viewpoint knowledge. "And bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." That's divine viewpoint that he's talking about. Every thought is brought into captivity to Jesus Christ. "And having in a readiness to punish all disobedience, when your disobedience is fulfilled."

The purpose of divine viewpoint thinking is for Christ to possess our mind, and for us to have the mind of Christ. The objective of divine viewpoint thinking is to be obedient to Christ, and to pull down every consequence of human viewpoint thinking.

It is divine viewpoint that enables the Christian soldier to make an accurate evaluation of the political, economic, social, and moral ideas of our society. That is why it is so tragic to have people in political office and in power-making, decision-making positions who do not have divine viewpoint by which to evaluate political, economic, social, and moral ideas of our society. Divine viewpoint thinking produces peace and stability in the soul of the Christian soldier on the field of battle. Divine viewpoint is not impressed with mere appearances and methods of operation. This is why it is so important again for the soldier to have divine viewpoint, because he is in the Lord's work.

We have so many Christians who are impressed with appearances. They are impressed with the outward accouterments of a church, and of the people in the pulpits. That's nonsense. That's worthless. That doesn't mean anything. Christian Education likes to make a great deal of methods of operation, and methods of operation are not the issue. When you have the divine viewpoint orientation frame of reference, you realize that that is not the thing that should impress you. As Samuel pointed out, man looks on the outward appearances, but God looks on the heart. Divine viewpoint thinking is able to look at the reality, and is not fooled by outward appearances.

Divine viewpoint thinking, of course, depends on the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit for victory in the angelic warfare.

Prayer

How successful we have been in training you to pray, only you can answer, and only you should answer, between you and the Lord, because it isn't too hard for us to think back this week and refresh our minds as to how much we prayed, and how much we have met our problems and the things that concern us, and the things that we want, through prayer. We can look back and say, "The Lord has answer this and this and this," and how much we've gone back and said, "Thank you, Lord. We've met this barrier. We've met this problem. The next thing I'd like to talk to you about is the next objective I'd like to pursue." That is simply a life that is immersed in living in prayer. That's how you do spiritual combat.

Prayer is directed to the Father. Don't teach your children to pray, "Dear Jesus..." That's charismatic stuff. Prayer is directed to the Father. It's directed on the authority of the Son. It is expressed in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's a very simple formula. But if you botch it up, you've blown the whole thing. That's why soldiers of the Lord need training in prayer. They need to know that they pray to the Father, in the authority of Jesus (that is, in His name), and on the power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is the Christian soldier's means for bringing down the resources and the power of God into the battle which is taking place on earth.

Asking

Prayer is the vital battlefield tactic for achieving victory in the angelic conflict. We'll look at that little more later. It is the tactic on the battlefield. Prayer is the way that you fight the devil's world.

Praying in the name of Jesus means, of course, according to His will and by His authority. But you must be in the inner circle of temporal fellowship to pray effectively. The status of spirituality is essential for prayers to be granted. Praying thus means to be praying by means of the Holy Spirit. A lot of Christians view prayers as soap bubbles that they blow that are going to simply pop in the air with nothing left to show for it. That is not prayer. Prayer is indeed a very effective, powerful instrument for moving heaven in your behalf. But if you are not in the center of God's blessing, and the place of temporal fellowship in that inner circle, your praying goes up to the ceiling and bounces right back... It is foolish and useless for you to think that you're going to get anywhere praying in that condition.

Unbelievers, of course, have no access to God in prayer whatsoever. You can stand at your football games in your public schools, and pray before the game and whatever, but it's just a religious ritual you may go through. But don't think that God is at all interested or at all listening to those prayers. But when you as a Christian (you as a child of God) approach Him, He has to listen. He is obligated to listen. He is obligated to grant you your wishes as they are compatible with His integrity; with His will; and, with His plans for you.

Thanksgiving

Well, why does He do it that way? He knows, doesn't He? He's got omniscience. He knows what you need. Of course, He does. But the point is that He has structured this as the means of our working relationship with Him. It does certainly point up our dependence upon Him. It certainly does point up what our resources are, and what our source of provision is when we have to get it through prayer. Whatever all the reasons that God's mind has for this is beside the point. This is the way He set it up. If you do not use it, you are in serious danger as a Christian soldier.

Prayer is designed to bring glory to God, so requests which are contrary to His will and to His integrity are not honored. So your praying should always be in looking to the Holy Spirit to give you the guidance that what you are asking is to the Lord's glory.

One of the ways you can help ensure that is through the knowledge of Bible doctrine. Doctrine gives you content for prayer. Bible doctrine gives you content for what you should pray for. If you know doctrine, you know that there are certain things you don't pray for. If you know doctrine, there are certain things you just don't ask God to provide for you because you know they're wrong. You know that He has condemned them.

Praying is, of course, not a magical practice where you simply repeat formalized prayers. Neither is some practice such as the Oriental religions do, where they simply build a wheel; put it on an axle; paste prayers to it; and, then spin the wheel. And every time it comes up to the top, you've said a prayer. But that is no more foolish than a lot of Christians who are getting up there and praying in some formalized prayer. The Roman Catholics, of course, are very notorious for this. This is their way of gaining entrance to heaven. They memorize certain prayers. One of their favorites is Hail Mary, and all that goes with that: "Hail Mary, mother of God..." They might just as well say, "Hail Mary, you old son of a gun, I'll meet you out in the alley for a game of elephant dominoes," because they're not listening to what they're saying. They're just running the words over. I've watched Roman Catholics kneeling at the deathbed of loved ones, and saying to them, "Now we're going to say six Hail Marys for you." Then all of them chime in together. There they are, kneeling beside that deathbed, sounding off the formalized repetition of Hail Mary. They think that God is up there in heaven saying, "Now, one, two, three," and marking all these down so that this person has this much going for him to get out of purgatory a little sooner. Of course, there's nothing of that kind. That is paganism and blasphemy in the extreme degree.

Nor is prayer to be used merely as a crisis instrument. Prayer is a daily and a moment-by-moment instrument for us to use. That's one of the hardest things to train Christian soldiers in. This technique of praying is the hardest thing to get across to Christians who are completely sold on prayer, and they're all for it, and they believe in it, and they're confident in it. And they've had great returns from it, but it's difficult to learn to do it on a moment-by-moment basis. It's only when you're backed in a corner – then you go to prayer. If you do that, you don't begin to understand the technique of prayer, and you have denied yourself powerful forces from God Himself in your behalf in whatever it is that you're out there seeking to do, and that He can honor.

Prayer is really a hotline direct to heaven, and the Christian soldier's secret weapon in the angelic conflict.

Paul says, in Ephesians 4:12 that the purpose of the pastor-teacher gift is to equip the Christian soldier for the spiritual battle of the angelic conflict: "For the equipping of the saints." We have shown that the training program that he is engaged in, which constitutes this program of preparation for spiritual combat, includes training in these five basic techniques of the Christian life.

The Full Armor of God

If you, as a Christian soldier, try to live your life without these items of battle gear in place, you are asking for a lot of trouble. Those are listed for us in Ephesians 6:11-18. This lists the believer soldier's combat gear. Beginning at verse 11, Paul says, "Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." A Christian soldier is commanded to put on the items that God has provided for him in the way of combat gear for the spiritual warfare in which he is engaged. The purpose of this battle equipment is for him to be able to stand: "Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand." It is not so that you may be beaten to the ground and so you may be defeated, but so that "You may stand." What that means is to be victorious.

So the purpose of the battle equipment is to stand victoriously against Satan's hosts. The battle gear is designed for spiritual combat against Satan in his various cunning strategies. And that's what he means by the wiles of the devil – the cunning strategies of the devil. Each one of you here is a different kind of individual with a different quality of spiritual life, and with a different level of spiritual development. You had different strong points and different weak points. I'll guarantee you that when the devil looks at you, and the orders are issued (the orders are cut) for the activity of his demonic hosts in their attack upon you, they are tailor-made to your particular point of vulnerability. That is the cunning strategy of Satan. He will primarily seek to attack you through a blindside – through where you don't expect him.

That's why the apostle Paul on another occasion said, "Please, believers, you who think you stand, take heed lest you fall." The devil is going around as a pussy-footing lion. And the minute he sees you very confident that you have a position of strength, and you are very confident in the fact that you have arrived at a position of strength, he's going to come around and outmaneuver you on your blindside. He's going to pussy-foot up, and he's going to snarl and grab and bite and claw you right down. You must not fall into that trap. Satan has personally designed strategies to get at you.

We are also told here in Ephesians 6:12 that the Christian soldier's warfare is never against human beings. A lot of Christians don't understand that. Your warfare as a Christian soldier is never against human beings: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood." That's literal language, and all of you can understand that. "But it is against," and then he gives a series of words which, in the Greek language, relate to categories of angelic rank: principalities; powers; rulers of the darkness of this world; and, against spiritual wickedness in high places," or, literally, "in the heavenlies," because Satan's realm of operations is the second heaven. That is his area of domination – the area through which he moves, as well as the first heaven in which we live (the earth heaven). The air heavens is the area of his authority. So he's called "the prince of the power of the air."

You and I, as Christian soldiers, never fight against human beings. We always are doing battle ultimately against Satan and his demonic beings in these various ranks of power that they hold within his world system. These demonic creatures are what are moving human beings that we come into contact with. While on the surface, you are doing the Lord's battle in spiritual conflict with human beings that you're actually dealing with, always remember, as the Lord's soldier, that that human being is simply an agent. He is simply a vehicle for the demonic spirit which is conducting this battle. You are fighting against a demon power. If you will remember that, you won't be so cocky, and you won't get so careless. You could look at some people, and, because of their limitations of one way or another (their personality), you hold them in contempt; you're quite sure you can deal with them; you're quite sure you can do combat with them; you're quite sure you can handle them; and, you're quite you can cut them down. And all the while, the demon who is actually motivating that poor slob ends up conquering you to your great discredit, and your discomfort and disgrace, and to your disappointment. You never fight against human beings. It is against demonic spirits.

Then verse 13 points out that the Christian soldier is given certain battle orders. Verse 13 says, "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." The evil day is the age in which we live. The apostle Paul describes it as "this evil age." And we are commanded here. Here are our battle orders, and we are to utilize all parts of the divinely provided battle equipment for the angelic warfare. The purpose of this equipment is, again, our protection in the angelic warfare, and our capacity for an offensive movement. This armor is both for defensive purposes and for offensive purposes. God's goal, of course, again here, is for us "to stand." That is victory. But there is no other way in which you and I as Christian soldiers will have victory, except that we utilize the parts of the armor which God has provided.

The Belt of Truth

The Grace System of Perception

Briefly, number one in the working of that system is receiving instruction from the pastor-teacher in the local church meetings. Number two is, as you listen to the truth that you receive from the pastor-teacher who has spoken the truth from Scripture, it hits your mind. You listen to what you have heard, and your mentality is divided into the perceptive quality and the directive quality – the perceptive mind, and the directive mind. With the perceptive mind, you have learned this divine viewpoint truth. You are simply learning it. You're not for it, and you're not against it. You're simply receiving it. Under the filling of the Holy Spirit, you are able to learn spiritual phenomena. The unbeliever cannot learn spiritual phenomena. He can learn the basic facts of Scripture, but he cannot learn the qualities of the spiritual phenomena that are involved in the words of Scripture. He cannot learn what the truth signifies. That takes the filling of the Holy Spirit. A Christian who listens in situations such as we are in right now, who is filled with the Spirit, will be able to learn. We call that "gnosis" knowledge. That's simply the word "knowledge." That's how we translate the word "gnosis." That shoots information here in the perceptive mind. Now you have learned it. Now you must do something with it. You must say, "Yes, I believe it," or "I reject that. I don't accept that at all." You will go one way or another. Some people try to be neutral. That is, in effect, rejection.

However, at the point that you have learned it, and you go positive, then something else happens. When you go positive (positive volition toward that truth in the perceptive mind), that truth is then transferred by God the Holy Spirit into your human spirit, which is a depository and a reservoir of various categories of doctrinal truth. That's why the Bible says that God the Holy Spirit teaches our spirit that we are the children of God. This is what God is teaching. His viewpoint is stored in our human spirits. Divine viewpoint of doctrine in the human spirit is then cycled back up again under the filling of the Holy Spirit. It is cycled back up to the directive mind. Out of the directive mind come decisions. This is the area of your actions. A Christian soldier has to understand this system of combat gear – the belt of truth. The belt of truth is divine viewpoint doctrine stored in the human spirit. When he has that, that viewpoint will cycle up to his directive mine. That, in turn, will affect his thinking; his emotions; and, his will. He will then have his emotions under control of God's viewpoint. He will have his will under control of God's viewpoint. He will have his thinking under control of God's viewpoint.

This is a marvelous system. The grace system of perception is fantastic. It is called a grace system because it is not dependent on human IQ. No matter what your human IQ is, all you have to do is to be positive. All you have to do is not be AWOL from the training sessions on Sunday, and develop enough personal discipline to be able to sit and listen and think about the instruction that is being given, and to receive it. So the result of all this system is that you have stored God's viewpoint in your human spirit, which goes up to your directive mind, which then controls and governs the facets of your soul: your thinking; your emotions; and, your will. People who are emotionally disoriented and people who fluctuate wildly emotionally are Christian soldiers who do not have doctrine in their human spirit. They lack the belt of truth. If you try to go into spiritual combat without the belt of truth, I can guarantee you that you're going to be a spiritual casualty.

It takes time for you to put on the belt of truth. You have been ordered indeed to put on all of this armor. But it takes time, you can obviously see, to put on the belt of truth. I cannot close the service tonight, and invite you to walk down the aisle if you would like to have the balance of truth. If I was a charismatic, I could, and I'd probably have some belts here to sell you, for a special discount tonight only. I could tell you to just go home; put that around you; walk out; and, Satan will never be able to hit you. That's a good idea. I should have thought about that sooner. But anyhow, that isn't the way it works. You cannot make a decision. You cannot decide, "I'm going to have the belt of truth. Yes, I'm going to put the belt of truth on." It takes time. It's probably takes a couple of years if you go from scratch, and you're in the Word daily. It'll take a couple of years for you to get enough basic categories down here that you can say, "Well, I've got the belt of truth now around my waist. I've got something to hang my weapons on, and I've got something to hang my gear and my equipment on. I've got the basic item of combat battle gear that I need." Without it, you will not be stable in battle. You will not have good morale. You will certainly not enjoy the victories.

That's the first item of the battle here. Think it through. Draw yourself a diagram. Be sure you understand how the grace system functions from the Word of God to the pastor-teacher; to you in your thinking; to God the Holy Spirit; and, the status of your filling. You take "gnosis" knowledge and, when you believe it, it becomes "epignosis" knowledge. Epignosis" means simply "full knowledge." That is full knowledge. That is workable knowledge. You can't do anything with "gnosis" knowledge. Whatever is in your perceptive mind, that does not help you in your Christian life. That's just information that you have not processed. But information that you have processed with a positive faith response to it, that is stored in your directive mind – this is where the action is. It's that quality of your mentality that enables you to take full knowledge and to affect your soul. Without that affecting your soul, you're a doomed, pathetic, helpless creature on the field of battle, and you're going to get shot down. The belt of truth is the first item of the Christian soldier's equipment. You not only need to put it on; it not only takes time to put it on; but, you need to maintain it. Some Christians slip up at that point. They do not maintain it. They do not continue their attendance at the training program so that the belt of truth is constantly strengthened by further expansion with doctrinal viewpoint in that human spirit.

Next time, we shall proceed to the other items of this combat gear.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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