e saw in the study on the Causes of Problems that
the basic cause of all problems is when a person lives a life that is contrary to
God’s Order. We saw that walking in the Flesh causes a ‘tree’ to grow that
we called the Tree of the Flesh. And we saw that this tree had three roots, which are the
cause of all problems we have in life.
Now in this study I am going to look at the other side of the story. We are going to
see what happens when a person lives a life that is in God’s Order. And when this
happens, a different tree grows. It is the Tree of the Spirit. The picture looks very
similar, only this time the roots and the fruit are completely different.
Tree of the Spirit
The Soil
The soil is of course the Spirit, or more specifically Walking in the Spirit.
Let’s see what Walking in the Spirit means. We saw in our other study that walking in
the Flesh means allowing our bodies to dominate our lives. Obviously then, walking in the
Spirit means allowing our spirits to control our lives. But how does a person come to this
place? Before I can explain that I want to look at what happens when a person is born
again.
Paul describes the condition of a person outside of Christ in Ephesians 2:1-3
1 And you [has he made alive], who were dead in trespasses and
sins;
2 In which in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conduct in times past in the lusts of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of
wrath, even as others.
The first thing he says about a person outside of Christ is that they are dead in
trespasses and sins. He then goes on to describe how such a person lives their life. They
are controlled by the world system and are dominated by Satan. They are also ruled by the
desires of their body and their soul. But there is no spiritual influence at all. Their
spirits have become ineffective towards God and have no control over their soul or body.
In other words, such a person is ‘living in the flesh.’
The way Paul describes things here is quite interesting. When he speaks of people
living ‘according to’ the various influences he mentions, he is using an
expression which actually means ‘under’ or ‘dominated by.’ In other
words people are under or dominated by the World, the Devil and the Flesh. They are not in
control of their lives at all, but are subject to these things. It is as though these
influences are pushing down on them from above and forcing them into a mould.
But then he describes what happens when a person is born again.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he
loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you
are saved;)
6 And has raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in heavenly [places] in
Christ Jesus:
When you are born again you come to life spiritually. In other words, your spirit
starts to function the way it was meant to. And then God takes you and raises you up above
all of the influences that used to push you down and keep you under before. Now instead of
being under these things, you are above them.
I will look at this further in our next study, where we are going to look at the
influence of Satan in the life of a believer. But for now I just want you to see what
actually takes place in a person when they are born again. The change that takes place
happens deep inside a person’s spirit. Their spirit comes to life as far as God is
concerned, and what happens is that God in the form of the Holy Spirit comes to take up
residence inside the human spirit.
This causes the person to enter into a new relationship with God in their spirit. Now
God is no longer someone way up in heaven. He is someone deep inside, closer than
breathing. And He is there to help you become all you can and should be. He is there to
help you live the way He designed you to live. And what happens now is that a new tree is
planted. And as you allow that tree to grow and bear fruit, you will find the solution to
every problem in life.
The Roots
The Tree of the Spirit, like the tree of the Flesh, needs roots to grow, and these
roots are deeply embedded in the soil of the Spirit. Because you don’t see much of
this in the world, however, you might not easily identify these roots. But you will find
them mentioned all over the Bible, especially the New Testament. In fact the writings of
the Apostle Paul are filled with them. He mentioned them with nearly every letter he wrote
and looked for them in the people he was writing to.
They are of course Faith, Hope and Love. You will find that when Paul wrote to the
churches under his control, he praised them when they had these things, and when they
didn’t he prayed that they would experience it. They were always a sign that
God’s people were living the way they should. And if they were not there, then there
were bound to be problems.
Now let’s see what causes these things to rise up when a person lives or walks in
the Spirit. Remember that the spirit also has three main functions as we mentioned in our
last study. When these spiritual functions are permitted to take control in our lives then
these three roots start to show themselves.
The spiritual function of intuition causes faith to arise in our spirit. The function
of conscience gives us hope and the operation of communion or fellowship with God causes
His love to be poured into our hearts. All of these things cause God to take control of
our lives, and we start to live the way He designed us to live.
I am going to deal with each of these roots in a lot more detail and we will cover each
of them in a separate study. Surely if these things are the key to becoming all we should
and will solve all the problems of life, then we should know all about them? But for now I
am only going to look at what happens when they are present in a person’s life.
The Branches
Like the tree of the flesh, this tree also has branches that help us to see that it is
growing in a person’s life. Paul also gave us a list of what to expect when the tree
of the Spirit is growing in a person’s life. He gave us a list of some of the
branches that grow from the Spirit. Let’s look at them and consider how they appear
in our lives.
The list of the fruit of the Spirit shows us the behavior that should be found in
people who are walking in the Spirit. Many of these might seem to be totally absent in the
life of a believer. But that is because the flesh is still dominant. The moment you begin
to walk in the Spirit, you cause some of these things to arise. But like the fruit of any
tree, it may start small and not be obvious. But if you keep feeding it, the fruit will
grow.
You need to realize that while we are still in our bodies, it is always easier for us
to walk in the Flesh. You will be fighting this battle until you die, or Jesus returns. It
is only when we receive our new glorified bodies that we will be totally free from the
tendency to let our bodies dominate.
The Fruits
The fruit of walking in the Spirit is a life that should parallel what Adam and Eve had
in the Garden of Eden. We try to create this kind of thing when we go away on holiday. We
try to leave the stresses of life behind and go to a place that is far removed from
society and all the problems of life. I’m sure most people dream of going off on a
sea cruise to some paradise island, with everything laid on that could make you happy.
Believers dream of going to heaven one day, where there will be no more pain and
suffering and stresses in life. Where life is just one happy existence without any
responsibilities. But God wants us to live lives of victory while we are still down here.
And He has given us the means to enable us to do just that. We will look at what He has
given us and how we can walk in victory, but first let’s see how the world approaches
it. Then we will know how not to do it.
The World’s Approach
We saw in our study on the Cause of Problems how the world
views these things. Now I will like to consider what is being taught in the world concerning
solving problems, and why the Christian should be very careful about accepting help from
the world system.
The Medical Approach
Since the whole world revolves around the desires of the body, it is understandable
that the world’s medical system would concentrate only on the physical aspect to
problems. But how can a system that is designed to keep the body healthy, help a person
whose problem goes deeper than the physical. The best that Medical Science can do is help
the body function more efficiently.
To do this, they supply the body with chemicals that help it to operate better. For
example, disease is something that the body fights naturally. We were designed that way.
You come under attack from disease, and your body immediately starts to fight it. All that
medication can do is help the body in its fight against disease by giving it a few extra
weapons to use.
Most of these substances occur naturally in the world, and in the things we eat. That
means God already put them there for us. Medical science has researched it and made it
easier for us to get to them. And certainly a healthy body causes us to live more
productive lives, but most of the failures that affect us spiritually and psychologically
have nothing to do with our bodies being unhealthy.
Unfortunately man has decided to take his limited knowledge of the soul and spirit and
apply what he knows about the body to the soul. This has caused doctors to think that
inner problems must be treated the same way as physical problems. But because it is
obvious that the problems are a bit different, they created a term that has become
accepted and is used freely by everyone. And that term is "Mental Illness."
If by mental illness they meant a disease that affects the brain or the nervous system
and stops a person from thinking clearly and functioning efficiently, then it would be
acceptable. But actually what they mean is that mental problems are a kind of illness that
is not caused by germs or physical damage. It is a vague disease that is little
understood. Nobody knows what causes it really, and there is no direct treatment for it.
So they approach it like a person who has a bit of knowledge of an electrical device.
You try changing a part of it and see if the problem goes away. It’s like trying to
fix your computer. You replace a board or electronic chip in it and see if the problem
goes away. If it does, then you learn to do that every time a similar problem arises. You
don’t really know what caused the problem, but you found a way to make it go away.
This hit and miss approach has resulted in many different medications being used to
treat psychological problems. They also discovered that they could use a method to bring
results that purposefully causes brain seizures. It is called Shock Treatment, or ECT. In
this treatment a high electrical voltage is passed through a person’s brain, which
causes a reaction similar to what takes place in epilepsy.
This has the effect of damaging the person’s memory and it means that they no
longer think of their problem, or forget it. They cannot explain why this takes away a
person’s symptoms. But hey, it works, so let’s do it. This is the kind of thing
you are subjecting yourself to when you seek help from the world for a problem that is
spiritual and not physical. No believer should even be thinking of this approach.
The Psychological Approach
There are many different approaches to counseling in the field of Psychology today. I
am going to mention some of the more common approaches and how far they fall short of
God’s way of doing things.
Psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud
Considered the founding father of modern Psychology, Freud was preoccupied with sex and
had many problems of his own. He "discovered" what he believed was the basic
cause of all problems in life, and put these forth in his teachings that have been taken
up by others and developed into a large portion of modern psychology and psychiatry. A lot
of what he taught was actually a correct evaluation of the situation in some ways, but his
approach was totally biased and ungodly.
I am not planning to give you a course on Freudian Psychology here, but let me just
give you in a nutshell what Freud taught. He identified that there is in every person, a
part that has strong basic desires. These basic desires in man, he said, were sex and
aggression. As you can see he correctly identified two of the roots we mentioned earlier.
This part of man he named, the "ID."
He also identified that man has a seat of personality, which makes up the conscious
self. This is of course the soul, where the mind, emotions and will lie. But he called
this part the "Ego," the seat of self or the conscious person. He said that the
ID tries to express itself and its basic desires via the Ego. This of course is correct.
The desires of the body try to express themselves via the soul, which is where the will
lies.
Then he said that there was a third part of man, which contained a deep influence that
interfered with the ID expressing itself via the EGO. He called this the SUPEREGO. He
taught that the SUPEREGO was an inner influence that was created in a person during their
life by the things they had been taught. It was the moral code that had been built into
them by preachers, teachers, parents etc.
Of course he was identifying what we call the Conscience. And he said that the problems
in life were caused when the Conscience tried to interfere with the expression of the ID
via the EGO. So Freud’s basic counseling method was to re-educate the SUPEREGO. He
figured that if the Superego stopped interfering with the expression of the Id, then
people would no longer have any inner conflicts.
So if you submit yourself to treatment by a Freudian Psychiatrist, what you have is
someone trying to destroy your conscience and moral values. He will try to get you to
believe that you do not need to feel guilty any more about wanting to do what comes
naturally. In other words, he will be going directly against the Word of God, which
teaches us to be responsible to God’s laws.
Group Therapy - Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers formulated was has become probably the most popular form of
counseling. He
found that people have deep within themselves, the ability to solve some of their own
problems. The key is to get them talking until they stumble onto the solution by
themselves.
So Rogerian counseling never involves giving advice or pointing people to solutions.
It majors on getting the person to talk about their problems. The Rogerian counselor
just
asks questions all the time. He will respond to your questions and statements with another
question. Then as you answer his question, it is possible that something will pop out that
you were not expecting. And suddenly you see the solution yourself.
To enhance this method of getting people to solve their problems, one of the more
popular methods used is what is known as Group Therapy. This involves get a group of
people together to talk about their problems. They are encouraged to open up to each other
and talk about what is bothering them. The emphasis is on expression of feelings, and
there are no holds barred.
That means a person must feel free to share all of their failures, inner motivations
and bitterness. This can often end up in a competition where people try to outdo each
other with personal confessions of their failures or they spew out all the bitterness that
is in their heart. What it does in fact is to encourage a manifestation of the roots of
the Flesh.
It can in some instances be a very valuable and effective method of
counseling, and
where a believer is concerned it can be used effectively. But that is only because the
believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling in their spirit. And as a person talks, they begin
to pour forth from the Spirit within. But the influences that come from within cannot be
understood unless a person has some knowledge of the Scriptures.
The Holy Spirit never works apart from the Word. And when a person taps the inner
wisdom of their spirit, it will usually come out ‘flavoured’ by the Word. So
before a person can fully make use of this method of counseling, they need to have first
fed the Word into their inward man. Unfortunately because of the strong influences from
the world, that bombard us from every side with the media and advertising, most of what
has been fed in is not the Word at all.
So what happens is that what comes out of a person’s inward man often is not the
wisdom of God at all. It is the wisdom of this world. And the ‘solution’ that
you finally arrive at might not be God’s solution at all. It might be the solution
offered by the worldly influences that you have been around.
Behaviourism - B.F. Skinner
The third popular counseling system that is used is that put out by B.F. Skinner. This
method, called Behaviorism, has become very popular in recent years. The basic
presupposition of this method, is that we can train a person in the same way that we can
train an animal. This was based on an experiment where a rat was put into a maze and
taught to go through the maze using a system of rewards and punishments.
The maze is set up so that when the rat goes in the wrong direction, it runs into an
electric shock that causes discomfort. But if it goes the right direction, then it finds a
piece of cheese. It soon learns that going the wrong way brings punishment and going the
right way brings reward. After a few runs like this, you can remove both the shock and the
cheese and when you put the rat into the maze it will automatically go the right way. It
has been ‘trained’ by the rewards and punishments.
The same method is applied to people and they are taught to punish themselves when they
go the wrong way and reward themselves when they go the right way. Eventually a new habit
pattern is formed and the person changes their behavior. But who decides what is the
right way to go? It is usually the counselor. And since the counselor is usually a
non-believer, he has no standard to base his choices on. In other words all he does is
cause you to sin in a different way.
Once again the method has merits, but it is used wrongly by leaving the Word of God out
of the picture. It also fails to recognize the fact that man is a sinner by nature and
unlike an animal that can be tamed or trained, he needs a lot more than training to
change. He needs a new life principle within that will enable him to change. Once a person
has been born again and received the indwelling Holy Spirit, then he has something to work
with.
God’s Way
The Word
Since the Bible is our standard in all things we should be looking there for ways of
dealing with problems. It is God’s handbook for his creation. But it is a lot more
that an operators manual. It covers everything a person could ever need to solve every
problem that we can ever face. No matter what your problem, there is a solution to it. And
that solution can be found in the Word.
Paul told Timothy in 1 Tim 3:16 that all Scripture is inspired by God and suitable for
every need we might have. It does four things.
So why do believers turn to the world for help, when all they will ever need is in
God’s Word? Perhaps because they do not understand God’s Word. But actually it
is far more than that. It is because they do not take the time to fill their hearts and
minds with God’s Word. Usually we only start turning to the Word when things go wrong
and we have nowhere else to turn.
We don’t daily learn from the Word and let it teach us how to live, because we do
not have time. There are too many other responsibilities. So we have to rely on the little
bit we get at church on Sunday. We don’t like it when the Word convicts us of our
sin, so we avoid it when we do wrong. And then when we finally reach out to it in
desperation, we can’t find the parts that tell us how to get out of trouble. So we
never get to the final part about learning to live a correct lifestyle.
We saw earlier that the cause of problems is walking in the flesh. This means that our
souls are being controlled by the desires of our body. If we could just teach our souls to
be stronger and to resist the body it might help. If we could teach our souls to listen
more to our spirit, then it would also help. This is what the Word does when it is fed
into the soul. Paul calls this being transformed by the renewing of the mind.
Romans 12: 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Ephesians 4: 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
When you cause the Word to be fed continually into your heart, it starts changing the
way you think. You start to think God’s thoughts, since that is what the Bible is.
And when you start to think God’s thoughts, your mind is renewed and your life is
transformed. You start recognizing the influence of the Spirit within and find it easier
to listen to and obey God. In other words, you start to Walk in the Spirit.
The Spirit
The Holy Spirit comes to live in every person who is born again. This means that God is
always there in your spirit, talking to you and leading you. It means that your spirit has
been given the power to make you live the way God planned you to live. It means that you
have a power within that can be tapped, that will make you be like Jesus.
All you need to do is change the order from Body, Soul, Spirit to Spirit, Soul, Body.
In other words, God will cause you to live the right way through His Holy Spirit. The
Spirit will tell your spirit which way to go. Your spirit will in turn communicate this
outwards to your soul. That will affect your mind, emotions and will and it will cause you
to bring your body in subjection.
Now to end this study I am going to give you just a little more explanation on the
three roots of the Spirit, and how they cause us to live the life of victory and blessing
the Lord wants us to have.
Faith
Faith means knowing without a doubt. This can only come about when the spiritual
function of intuition is working properly, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. God
reveals things to your spirit by His Holy Spirit, and as this revelation is communicated
outwards via the intuition of your spirit, you KNOW that God’s word is true. You are
able to believe God’s promises without a shadow of doubt.
Love
Love is the very nature of God. It is the sacrificial giving of oneself totally and
without reserve. This kind of love has nothing to do with the emotions. It is not based on
feelings. It is not based on the physical passions. It is the love that caused Jesus to
die for sinners. It always gives. And it can only arise in your heart when you spend time
in the presence of the God through the Holy Spirit. That requires the spiritual function
of communion or fellowship. When you spend time with God, He starts to ‘rub off’
on you.
Hope
Hope always looks to the future. This is not the kind of thing we speak of when we say,
"I sure hope things will work out." This hope is a positive expectation. It is a
peace within that knows God is going to deliver what he promised. And the only way you can
feel this assurance is when your conscience is clear. If your heart is condemning you,
then you cannot approach God with confidence and therefore cannot look forward boldly.
I will be dealing with each of these in detail elsewhere. But a good way to remember
how these three spiritual forces work together in our lives is to think of a rifle. It has
three main parts involved in making it work. The first is the actual bullet that is loaded
and fired. The second is the trigger than causes the bullet to be ignited. And the third
is the gun sight that causes you to hit the target. The three have to always word
together.
Now spiritually, faith is the charge that will fire the bullet. Love is the trigger
that sets it off, and hope is the sight that chooses the target. If you try to use the
weapon without applying all three, then there is little chance of you hitting your target.
So in the same way, faith, love and hope must all be used together to enter into the
abundant life that the Lord has for us.
