Self-Control and Freedom

Josh & Nicole

The fruit of the Spirit is... self-control...

- Galatians 5:22-23

While working out on the elliptical machine I listened to the Philosophy Bites interview with neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland on self-control. 

Churchland says a good working definition of "self-control" has four things in mind:

1. 1.       Ability to defer self-gratification. That is, deferring a smaller value now for something greater later.
2. 2.       Ability to maintain a goal despite distraction.
3. 3.       Ability to suppress impulses that are inappropriate.
4. 4.       Ability to cancel an action once started when you see that following through with an action would be a disaster.

The opposite of self-control would be things like impulsivity and addiction. The impulsive person and the addict are, in their impulsivity and addiction, neurally enslaved.

“Addiction is where there are structural changes to the reinforcement learning system which actually change the behavior with respect to the drug in question.” But notice that even drug addicts can be careful and organized when it comes to exercising self-control that is needed to obtain more drugs. 

If we can’t control ourselves, if we lack the four abilities given above, then in what sense are we free? How can we gain the ability to freely control our actions and choices? The biblical  answer is this:

• As I connect, like a branch connects to the tree, I receive the resources of the tree. They get into me.
• My life will then "bear much fruit" (Jesus, in John 15:5, 8).
• One fruit of the Spirit-abiding life is self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
• So, as we maintain our connectedness to Jesus, self-control grows in the soil of our heart and mind.

(Note: Churchland is an eliminative materialist, which I am not. "Eliminative materialism" is the idea that all mental states are states of the physical brain.)

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My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

"Out of Control" Is NOT the Sign that God is Moving

Monroe

I have seen, in some Christian contexts, "out-of-controlness" valued as a sign that the Spirit is really moving. To be "overcome" by the Spirit so much that one can no longer say 'Yes' or 'No'. Mostly, I do not think that is a good thing, if ever. 

I like what Mike Bickle counsels in his book Growing In the Prophetic. Few people have witnessed more genuine and fake Spirit-manifestations than Mike. There is no doubt that he values the authentic moving of the Spirit. So, I listen when he writes things like this.

“Over the years, I have witnessed prophetic people being asked to stop speaking or behaving in a certain way. Some prophetic people claim that they are unable to stop because they are “overwhelmed” by the Holy Spirit. However, the Scriptures are clear that people operating in the power of the Holy Spirit are governed by love and self-control. (Gal. 5:22-23)” (Bickle, Growing In the Prophetic, 163) 

Paul “would not let prophetic people in the New Testament church claim that they could not help what they were doing in a meeting… [A]nyone claiming that they cannot control what they say or do because they are “overcome” by the Holy Spirit is naïve… Paul admonished and required each believer to contribute what he had in an orderly way by using self-control (1 Cor. 14:28-40).” (Ib.)

“One aspect of self-control is the ability to rule our spirits or to control our words and actions. ‘He who rules his spirit [is mightier] than he who takes a city.’ (Proverbs 16:32) ‘Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls.’ (Proverbs 25:28)

This is not about trying to quench or take control over the Holy Spirit. It is to say that, when the Spirit moves, one does not lose their self-control, but actually experiences it as one of the manifestations of the Spirit. 

There is a Spirit-given self-control and a fleshly, Spirit quenching self-control. Desire the former.

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My two books are:

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Access to the Trinitarian Being of God

Sunrise over Lake Erie, Monroe

In John 17 Jesus prays for for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one,Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:21-22)

"May they be in us." This is trinitarian language. The door into the trinitarian being of God is open, not closed. 

This is our destiny and our present reality. Stephen Seamnds writes:

"Someday what Jesus prayed for and what we already know now in part will be known in full. At the consummation there will be, as John Wesley describes it, "a deep, an intimate, an uninterrupted union with God; a constant communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, through the Spirit; a continual enjoyment of the Three-One God, and of all creatures in him." Such is God's desire for us, that we become, as the apostle Peter says, "participants of the divine nature." (2 Peter 1:4)." (Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service, Kindle Locations 74-76)

We are invited to dwell and live our lives in him, now and forevermore, presently and eternally.

As I think of this, my soul does a full stop, like the great pause at the end of Handel's Hallelujah chorus. I can live in constant communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I experience this relational intimacy as I move towards God, as I attach myself to him.

Today is a day of great promise, bringing me much hope, because it is a day of knowing God more deeply by experience. 

"What a rich, joyous union 

with the triune God 

is offered to us."

Stephen Seamands

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My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Pastors: Don't Become "A Quivering Mass of Availability"

Green Lake Conference Center, Wisconsin

When people from outside my church family call for counseling, I tell them:

"I'm glad you called. Do you have a church family?"

If the answer is "Yes," then,

"Please contact your pastor and ask them for help." (You want a pastor who can shepherd you when you are struggling.)

If the answer is "No," then,

"I'm only available for persons who are part of my Jesus community." (I cannot become available to outsiders at the expense of the people in my church. Increasingly, I am discerning how God wants me to spend my time.)

I may, on occasion, meet once to set the person on a path to healing. I will refer them to the two Christian counseling clinics within driving distance of Monroe. (Here, and here.)

If they want to check out our church, and be part of us, then of course we will help. They are family!

Stephen Seamands writes:

"Confronted by a sea of human need and the insatiable demands of people, those in ministry can become, in Stanley Hauerwas's phrase, "a quivering mass of availability." In earnestly seeking to do God's will, we can be tempted to do too much of it. In his spiritual counsel to a group of nuns, John of the Cross wisely cautions, "Without the command of obedience, you never take upon yourself any work - apart from the obligations of your state - however good and full of charity it may seem."" (Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service, Kindle Locations 212-215)

***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Presence-Driven Churches Cannot Have Multiple Stacked Services

Detroit Institute of Art

You couldn't have a Presence-Driven Church that had multiple services stacked like pancakes one after the other, timed and choreographed to begin and end on time, shuttling people in and out.

This is because the Presence-Driven Church is kairos-driven rather than chronos-driven. The Greek word chronos refers to clock time (as in, "The service begins at eleven and ends at noon"). Kairos is event-time. Kairos is the word used biblically to refer to God's timing (as in, "At the appointed time God sent his Son").

Those first church gatherings in the upper room in Jerusalem were kairos happenings in an a-chronos culture. Thank God Acts chapter 2 doesn't read like this:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. Unfortunately, it was noon and time for the service to be over and another one to begin.

I experienced kairos culture while teaching in India. I was to preach in an isolated village located on the Deccan Plateau. I was being driven in an all-terrain vehicle on deeply rutted dirt roads, and we were late. I looked at my watch. My host told me, "Don't worry. Even if we are hours late the people will still be there. They are waiting for you to come." How different, I thought, from American culture! In an event-oriented culture it is the event that is important, not the time.

The presence of God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, is unpredictable and nonprogrammable. The Holy Spirit cannot be choreographed and orchestrated. God's presence operates by kairos time. It will not be contained by pre-set temporal parameters. We are digitized fools to box God into sixty-minute containers.

This is why multiple, stacked services cannot work in a church family that wants to encounter God's presence. God is a God who loves relationship, who likes to hang around doing what God does. God is a dwelling being. God-events are slow-cookers. What kind of Christian would really be looking at their clocks if the living God was in their midst? Unfortunately, American Christians are more concerned about what chronos it is, than absorbed in timeless kairotic experiences when God manifests his nonprogrammable presence.

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See also - 

More On Presence-Driven Churches and Multiple, Stacked Services

Still More on Multiple Stacked Services and the Presence-Driven Church

Must a Presence-Driven Church Have Marathon Meetings?

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My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

The Presence-Driven Church Abandons Man-made Organizational Structures

Leaves on my porch

In The Purpose-Driven Church Rick Warren got a lot of things right. I think Warren would agree with me that "presence" precedes "purpose" ("purpose" comes out of "presence"). In my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church I explain and develop this idea.

Here is one of Warren's insights, relevant to the Presence-Driven Church.

 "Let me ask you to consider this question: What do the words committees, elections, majority rule, boards, board members, parliamentary procedures, voting, and vote have in common? None of these words are found in the New Testament! We have imposed an American form of government on the church and, as a result, most churches are as bogged down in bureaucracy as our government is. It takes forever to get anything done. Man-made organizational structures have prevented more churches from healthy growth than any of us could imagine."

- Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Church, p. 377

I meet pastors who are in the man-made System, operating according to its rules while oblivious to its existence. (Think of Kierkegaard's critique of Hegel, and the Danish Church.)

Other pastors love The System, and their place in The Hierarchy. They cherish power and control, and are threatened should others begin rising to the top.

In interactions with many pastor-leaders, I have heard the frustration, even despair, of some who came to lead churches that were captive to man-made organizational structures, and the pain and difficulty of escaping this systemic disaster. In my book I show a way out of this.

The Bible Is Not an End In Itself

Detroit Institute of Arts

I keep reading the Bible. Currently I am revisiting the gospels. My life focus is on Jesus. 

I study Jesus. One of my doctoral comprehensive exams was on ancient Christology. This is the study of Christ in the first few centuries of Christianity. I love studying Jesus. I want to know more about him. So that I might know him more.

The purpose of the Bible is not to know the Bible. It's not to quote the Bible. It's not to use the Bible on people. 

The purpose of the Bible is not to read the Bible. 

Reading the Bible is only good if it brings us into relationship with the living God. Because the purpose of the Bible is to bring us into experiential knowledge of God. To know him more, better, closer.

A. W. Tozer knew this. He writes:

"It is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience, they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts."  (Tozer, A.W., The Pursuit of God, Kindle Locations 53-56 - today only $0.99 for Kindle!)

As Jesus said in John 17:3, this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 
I write extensively about this in my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

Occupy the Higher Ground

Detroit

This Thursday at Redeemer I am going to do my part in combating the epidemic of un-Jesuslike uncivility, with a seminar on "How to Discuss with Someone You Disagree With."

The Gospels and letters of Paul give us clear direction on this. Plus, I'll throw in some logic, looking at what are called informal logical fallacies, which should never be used by people who seek understanding and truth.

I may throw some Mr Rogers in (Linda and I saw "Won't You Be My Neighbor" and loved it. Rogers, you may know, was a Christian. I hear it in his words and voice. Emulate.)

Jim Wallis writes, in a book that greatly influenced me: "The religious community could help a divided nation find common ground by moving to higher ground." (- Jim Wallis, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It)

Followers of Jesus: Shall we, in these days, identify the higher ground and occupy it? 

How to Talk with People Who Disagree with You (11/8/18)

How, as a follower of Jesus, do you talk with someone who disagrees with you? You won't find many good answers in the media or in politics.

I invite you to join me this coming Thursday night, Nov. 8, 6:30 PM, at Redeemer. Using Scripture and logic, I will share how I have learned to have civil discourse even when there is disagreement.

Who Is a Christian?

I believe all the manifestations of the Holy Spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians are for the Church today. So, I am not a cessationist.

I believe in believer's baptist (credobaptism). So, I am not paedobaptist (infant baptism).

I believe God is present with me as I take communion. I do not believe the bread and wine are the literal, physical body of Christ.

And I believe someone who disagrees with me on these three things (and more) can be a Christian, a Jesus-follower, just as I am.

Why?

Because as important as these and other issues are, they are non-essentials when it comes to salvation.

I believe God exists. So, I am not an atheist.

I believe Jesus is Lord. I reject other candidates for lordship.

I believe Christ died on a cross and was raised from death to everlasting life. So, when it comes to the cross and resurrection, I am not a mythicist.

What if someone disagrees with me, on any or all of these? Then they are not a Christian, as the Scriptures present this.  These three things (and perhaps some more) are essential to Christianity. Not just as intellectual beliefs, but lived-out realities (be careful of judging here!).

I play card games. Linda and I sometimes slow dance at weddings. I like long hair. I like wearing jeans and t-shirts. None of these things have anything to do with Christianity (read the New Testament). They are unimportant, being matters of personal taste. (Some of them might be important to a particular Jesus-follower, which does not mean it's important for everyone who loves Jesus.)

Who, then, is a follower of Jesus? 

Someone who affirms, in word and deed, Romans 10:9: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I declared this at age twenty-one. I was saved! Yet, I knew nothing about how to interpret the Scriptures, how and when the earth was formed, what to think about the gift of tongues, or dating, or dancing, or drinking, or gambling, or card-playing, or gluttony, or abortion, or denominations, or Judaism, the authority of the Scriptures, and so on and on and on. I was a biblical and theological ignoramus, alive in God's beautiful Kingdom! I was a child of the King, albeit not the most astute. I was following Jesus as my Lord and my God, though far from perfectly.

Some of these issues are very important. But "Jesus is Lord" and "God raised Jesus from the dead" make it into what C.S. Lewis called "mere Christianity." This is one-thing Christianity, as Paul wrote: For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Christ and him crucified.

Do you know Christ and him crucified? If this is your life and passion, then I think you are good to go further and deeper.

When I was in campus ministry in the 1980s I developed a visual for understanding this. Anyone who affirms the essentials is my brother or sister in Christ. This is why, years ago, when invited by a local Roman Catholic priest to be the speaker at their annual unity service, I accepted. We disagree on some of the items in the second circle, but were in full agreement on the center circle.

A suggestion: be serious, but lighten up when discussing important but non-essential matters.