The Word

Vol. 9 No. 28

July 11, 2010

 

Upper Room Discourse

John 15:12-13

Doctrine of a Relaxed Mental Attitude

 

 

 

 

 

 

In John 15:12-13 we have, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

 

Jesus’ love is greater than any human love and He wants us to have this type of soul love, which comes as a result of the RMA from Bible doctrine in your soul. He also wants to show us how far a RMA can carry us. Therefore we are noting the Doctrine of a Relaxed Mental Attitude (RMA).

 

We have already noted the first point: A. Definition and description. So we continue with the second point.

 

B. Having a Relaxed Mental Attitude is a major building block in the Edification Complex of the Soul (ECS).

1. The ECS consists of 5 floors.

1st floor – Doctrinal/Grace Orientation

2nd floor - Mastery of the Details of Life

3rd floor - Relaxed Mental Attitude

4th floor - Capacity to Love

          a. Love towards God.

          b. Love towards a spouse.

          c. Love towards friends (believers)

5th floor - Inner Happiness (the Joy of Jesus Christ)

2. With your Human Spirit in place coupled with Doctrinal Orientation and Mastering the Detail of Life you are primed to exercise peace within your soul having a RMA. Therefore, having a Relaxed Mental Attitude (RMA) means that:

              a. you overcome fear in your soul,

              b. you love yourself,

              c. you have a mental attitude love towards others, and

              d. You are content in all areas of your life.

 

We continue with sub point b.

 

b. You must Love Yourself: Before you can have a Relaxed Mental Attitude and love someone else you have to have Spiritual Self Esteem (SSE) and love yourself. Love for yourself is not arrogant. God loves Himself based on His perfection and righteousness. You should love yourself based on God’s perfection and righteousness which is inside of you from the moment of your salvation. Love for your self then is maximized as you grow spiritually and reach Spiritual Self Esteem (SSE).

1) Self-Esteem can mean respect for self, satisfaction with one's self, or a good opinion of one's self. But those are superficial definitions. 

2) Spiritual Self-Esteem (SSE) is;                                         

a) Confidence in what you know, and how to put it into operation.

b) Maximum humility and minimum arrogance.

c) Confidence in God, confidence in the Word of God metabolized in your soul and circulating in your thought pattern.

d) It is not confidence in the energy of the flesh. 

 

Psa 118:8-9, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to have confidence in mankind. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to have confidence in princes.”

 

3) SSE is related to the Problem Solving Devices. Since SSE is Doctrinal and Grace Orientation, it is the embodiment of humility rather than any form of arrogance. For this reason, SSE is consistency in being filled with the Spirit, consistency in cognition and inculcation of Bible doctrine, consistency resulting in the execution of the Plan of God and leads us to having a Relaxed Mental Attitude.

 

Prov 19:8, “He who gets wisdom, keeps loving his own soul; He who guards understanding shall find the absolute good (spiritual prosperity).”

 

Heb 13:5, “Let your lifestyle be free from the love for money and be content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’.”

 

Eph 6:23, “Peace (harmony) be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

a) Harmony is the RMA related to the thinking function of the spiritual life.  Harmony among believers demands humility, grace orientation, and love.

b) Believers with SSE do not feel threatened by enmity, antagonism, vilification, ostracism, rejection, or any form of hostility. Therefore, believers with SSE are in a position to fulfill this mandate to have harmony among the believers.

c) This type of Love is associated with metabolized Bible doctrine circulating in the soul's right lobe and is the basis for attainment of SSE.

 

c. You have a mental attitude love towards others.  Mental Attitude Love leads to a RMA: The Greek word for this type of love is AGAPE as we just saw in Eph 6:23. With AGAPE – Love we overcome fear and gain a RMA. God is AGAPE. He possesses AGAPE love, 1 John 4:8, 16. With AGAPE love God solves all of His people problems. God uses His AGAPE love to solve the problems of man. AGAPE love is His Problem-Solving Device. 

1) AGAPE type love is found only in the mentality of the soul. It is the capacity to love which comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit and knowledge of Bible doctrine. It is the Relaxed Mental Attitude of the Edification Complex and reflects freedom from mental attitude sins toward God and toward people. It is impossible to sustain a relationship with the Lord or with any human being and be filled with mental attitude sins. In John 15:12-13 and elsewhere, the command to love other believers is not an order to demonstrate your love in an overt manner, nor even to love everyone with the same intensity of love. It is strictly an order to maintain a Relaxed Mental Attitude, although mental attitude love often prompts overt manifestations or expressions toward the object loved, (e.g., John 3:16).

2) Capacity for love begins with mental attitude AGAPE. Through the function of the Grace Apparatus for Perception (GAP), it spreads throughout the soul and becomes PHILOS, a total soul love. PHILOS-type love directed toward God can exist only through the Edification Complex and the super-grace life.

3) Having a RMA is based on you having the mind of God, Jesus Christ, in your soul which leads to spiritual growth and the capacity to AGAPE. AGAPE is love expressed through your mental attitude, your thinking and thoughts. AGAPE love can lead to actions like Christian service but it begins with thinking in love. AGAPE love is produced by the Balance of Residency, linked with the mentality of the soul.

a) The Balance of Residency is Maximum Bible Doctrine in your Soul Ready for Application plus the Filling of God the Holy Spirit. Balance of Residency is a combination of the 1st and 2nd floors of your ECS, (Doctrinal Orientation and Mastery of the Details of Life). Due to your spiritual growth in the first two floors it results in your ability to have a RMA. The stronger your base of Doctrinal Orientation and application of Mastery of the Details of Life the greater your opportunity to have a Relax Mental Attitude towards life's situations.

4) When you have AGAPE love, there is an absence of the Mental Attitude Sins and instead you have a relaxed attitude towards people and events, Rom 5:1-5; Gal 5:22-23; 1 John 4:7-12.

 

Rom 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

a) Notice in 1 John 4 that God loved us first. Therefore, if we are to have a Relaxed Mental Attitude and love one another as Christ loved us, we must be the ones to initiate love towards our brethren rather than waiting for them to love us and then respond in love.

5) AGAPE love gives the believer a Relaxed Mental Attitude. AGAPE does not think with evil thoughts, 1 Cor 13:4-13. The human race can be obnoxious or attractive, beautiful or ugly, someone who hates or loves you; but to the believer with SSE it makes no difference because the virtue of the subject (the one loving) is stronger than any handicap in the object (the one loved). It is the most tranquil and marvelous system in the world, reaching its peak as you grow spiritually, Eph 4:1-6.

 

1 Cor 13:4, “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. … 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

 

Eph 4:2, “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each others faults because of your love.” (NLT)

 

6) Nearly every sin that man can commit expresses some form of arrogance, whereas the Relaxed Mental Attitude of Impersonal Love demonstrates humility.

 

d. You are content in all situations of life, (the results of having a RMA):

 

Heb 13:5, “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” 6so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?”” 

 

Luke 3:14, “Some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.””

 

1 Tim 6:8, “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. 9But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.”

 

2 Cor 12:10, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

 

Phil 4:11, “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

 

With Bible Doctrine in your soul and the filling of God the Holy Spirit you are always relaxed around other people because you are not worried about what they will say; what they will do; are they better than you; are you better than them, etc. Rom 12:9-21, 13:8-10

 

Phil 4:7, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

 

Peace (spiritual prosperity) is thought as well as possession. It is a system of thought you carry regardless of circumstances. It is the same consistency of thinking that provides true capacity for life, so that when you face undeserved suffering you are just as happy as when you are in fantastic prosperity.

 

It is impossible for the unbeliever and the ignorant believer to understand prosperity from God; it’s beyond human comprehension! They simply cannot begin to appreciate what God has done for us through logistical grace, prospering both winners and losers, and what God has done in phenomenally blessing those winners who execute His plan and will.

 

One of the great factors in the believer who is advancing spiritually is a phenomenal Relaxed Mental Attitude. This mental attitude is reflected by using the Problem-Solving Devices of the Plan of God.

 

So having a Relaxed Mental Attitude is being in a place of spiritual growth where you:

 

1) Are Free from Fear.

 

2) Love yourself because of what is inside of you (+R, B.D., F.H.S., etc).

 

3) Have a mental attitude of AGAPE - love for others.

 

4) Are Content in all situations.

 

 

If you would like more information on this subject,

you may listen to lessons 10-076 and 10-077.

 

 

 

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Grace Fellowship Church, Pastor James H. Rickard

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