1. 1 Last week we saw the essential character of interpreting everything that is going on around us in the light of God’s truth. If we are going to pursue the concept of “knowing God” then clearly we are going to have to do it according to the truth, and not according to our fleshly expectations and interpretations. You cannot imagine the mess that is created in the human heart when we attempt to know God on our own terms and not according to the truth.

2. 2 Think about it. Are there ways that we seek out God on our own terms rather than as God desires to reveal Himself? The greatest way that we are susceptible to doing this is to begin with what we want or need, and then looking for ways to attract God into those events. When I start with “ME” I will always strive to end with “ME”. Can you think of ways that we have done this in Christian perspctives today?

3. 3 The Christian faith is plagued with this concept of knowing God as the One who wants to make you happy, rich and prosperous. We want to know Him as the God who takes His orders from those who believe He will do whatever they ask Him to do in faith. We want to know the God who will provide the desires of those who live mostly, or somewhat obediently. Now think about how those predispositions might impact what we learn or discover about God.

4. 4 It’s really very simple if you think about it. Predispositions are very powerful and influential, and if we look for God under the influence of our predispositions, how do you suppose they will influence what we discover about God? It is like the “scientist” who believes that man descended from the ape. Is his predisposition going to influence his objective analysis of the data he discovers?

5. 5 “Despite highly touted “missing links” between primates and humans, no undisputed examples have ever been produced (Gish, EFSN, chapter 6). Some instances have turned out to be frauds, like Piltdown Man. The evidence for Nebraska Man was later discovered to be nothing but an extinct pig’s tooth! Neanderthal Man was as upright and human as we are; his bent-over posture was found to be the result of arthritis. The Peking-Man evidence has mysteriously disappeared, but since he died from sharp blows on the head, it is clear that he was not the ancestor of tool-making primates. Australopithecus is believed by many scientists to be an orangutan.” Geisler, N. L. (2003). Systematic theology, volume two: God, creation (p. 669)

6. 6 Predispositions can make you want to see things so badly that you end up seeing things that aren’t really there. And the greatest tragedy is that when we, with our inclinations, are finding things that don’t exist, we are not finding the reality of what actually does. We need to get serious about how we are seeing the God who loves us so much. Now let’s look at the completion of how TRUTH really does make the mind RIGHT.

7. 7 Here is the fleshly system impacted by Truth! EVENT Bad Experience Choice My husband was unfaithful to me! I feel worthless Emotional Triggers Truth My dad cheated on my mom and she never did anything. She was silent. It demeaned and destroyed her as a woman and there will be a blizzard in Hell before I let that happen to me! Once a cheater always a cheater – I’m going to file for divorce just as soon as the court house opens! Experience Sometimes it takes a while to back away from our choices because there was so much emotional energy in their formulation, but God will remove them when we stop supporting them. Notice that “Bad Experience” is expelled by the truth and is replaced by “Experience” that ends in our conformation to Christ, which makes it ALL “Good”. And last but not least, Truth even corrects our interpretation of events which is the root where perceptions first went wrong and caused chaos.

8. 8 EVENT Experience Choice My husband was unfaithful to me! Emotional Triggers Truth Your husband was unfaithful to you but I allowed it for GOOD! God used the unfaithfulness of my father to make my heart sensitive to the fail-safe love and nature of my Father in Heaven and I am entirely secure in Him. Here is the fleshly system impacted by Truth! Be sure to consider how God uses the failures of people we should have been able to trust, to make our hearts hungry and insatiable for a God who has no capacity for failure. Can you imagine how it feels after years of questioning why your earthly father didn’t care enough about you to make child support payments, or to call you on your birthday, and suddenly your hunger for the love of a father is met by the insane love of your Heavenly Father?

9. 9 EVENT Experience Choice Emotional Triggers Truth Your husband was unfaithful to you but I allowed it for GOOD! God used the unfaithfulness of my father to make my heart sensitive to the fail-safe love and nature of my Father in Heaven and I am entirely secure in Him. Here is the fleshly system impacted by Truth! Do you realize how powerful it is for us when our emotional triggers are responding to truth rather than self-protective panic? Once Truth corrects our perception of EVENTS, and our Emotional Triggers begin to reflect and respond to Truth, it continues to our Choices.

10. 10 EVENT Experience Choice Emotional Triggers Truth Your husband was unfaithful to you but I allowed it for GOOD! God used the unfaithfulness of my father to make my heart sensitive to the fail-safe love and nature of my Father in Heaven and I am entirely secure in Him. My husband cheated because he is not abiding in the Vine. I will show him Jesus’ love and pray that God will draw him into dependence on Jesus instead of himself until we have a marriage that honors God. I have the most amazing love for him and don’t know how! I have an internal peace that completely satisfies even though there is no change in my husband. Here is the fleshly system impacted by Truth!

11. 11 EVENT Experience Choice Emotional Triggers Truth Your husband was unfaithful to you but I allowed it for GOOD! God used the unfaithfulness of my father to make my heart sensitive to the fail-safe love and nature of my Father in Heaven and I am entirely secure in Him. My husband cheated because he is not abiding in the Vine. I will show him Jesus’ love and pray that God will draw him into dependence on Jesus instead of himself until we have a marriage that honors God. I have the most amazing love for him and don’t know how! I have an internal peace that completely satisfies even though there is no change in my husband. Here is the fleshly system impacted by Truth! So deeply rooted emotional triggers for fear are ready to become deeply committed cravings for truth that produce faith, peace and life! They just need to be reassigned to Jesus.