Fear of failure and fear of succumbing to the devil is not an excuse to avoid necessary battle
J. wrote in a comment:
What I'm wondering is if maybe some of the "Churchianity" folks are so afraid of the misery of spiritual failure and guilt--"I DO believe in Christ; WHY, oh, WHY do I keep doing these miserable things over and over again?"--and are afraid in some sense that they will lose their faith if they "try" to hard, instead of leaving it all in God's hands... I've met people like this, it seems to me--one very nice Lutheran man comes to mind...
Fear and fear of the paralyzing power of guilt...do you think these might play any role in causing these guys to rally round like a bunch of musk oxen in a circle with their horns outward whenever you prod them to remember that Christianity is an active Way?
An interesting observation. I'd have to respond by saying that a Christian who is fearful of their own nature is a Christian who has yet to enter the Way. I.e. if you've yet to give battle to your carnal nature you've yet to enter the way. If you are fearful of taking on your 'old man' or body of sin you are just as fearful of taking on the devil and the world.
This fear is not to be excused in a self-identified Christian.
Once again: it's the fear of man that causes it. When you fear man you don't pursue the influences and activities you have to pursue to get the wisdom and understanding you need to begin to do real battle with your carnal self and the world and the devil.
It is MOST DEFINITELY NOT a virtue in a Christian to avoid battle out of fear of failure (or fear of actually succumbing to the devil).
This is all Village of Morality weakness and fear and ignorance. When a person begins to fear only God the Holy Spirit guides you into influences and understanding you need to do real battle as a Christian must do to actually be on the Way...
1 Comments:
Part of real separation (and sanctification, my A. A. Hodge Outlines of Theology says, means, foundtionally separation) is beginning to observe yourself from a more interiour point-of-reference, so that you aren't totally identified with your 'carnal self' and the 'old man', but you are literally separate from 'it' and in conflict with it (or you try to be). So you really don't even identify anymore with all that that 'old man' and body of sin does (though you realize it's you still and you're responsible of course), so you're not destroyed as you observe how you fail and fall in this battle. You're amused at your weakness, really (and the main thing is to not do anything illegal or that actually harms you or others; in fact this is a legitimate fear for some people who may sense they have so little self-command in some areas, but all this has to happens by degree anyway)...
To provoke the battle you have to be filled with the Holy Spirit because It wars with the carnal spirit. And you accumulate the Holy Spirit by prayer and watching, in all the ways I've written out on this blog. Being unusually present in the moment and holding that 'I am here' presence. It's difficult.
Muslims are a good example of how prayer beings higher energy into a person. Muslims pray five times a day, then they explode in anger the rest of the day. They don't see the connection. They accumulate higher energy during prayer, then they allow their carnal nature (lower emotions, resentment, etc.) to burn up that higher energy (like a crude engine burning a refined fuel made for a more refined engine). One can say that Muslims have the spirit of the devil in them, but that's true of us all, really. We all will react the same way when we get some of the Holy Spirit into us. Until we extend our limits to be able to contain and use that higher energy (I use 'energy' for just practical description, the Holy Spirit is God, but the Bible does speak of being filled with the Holy Spirit after prayer, and Grudem is good on this subect, he gives a separates chapter to the subject in his Systematic Theology, sorting out the terminology and what the Bible says on the subject).
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