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Let’s call this one “Coffee With Carl” \u00a0 My dear brother Carl Turner is a wonderful writer and more importantly driven by his relience on the Holy Spirit. \u00a0I believe this piece he has written is important or all of us attmepting to follow Christ, I offer it with his permission, to inspire and encourage you!<\/p>\n
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Brain vs Spirit<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t require faith if our intellect can logically figure something out – it is called \u201cbrain power\u201d. \u00a0If the brain controls our bodies\/thoughts\/direction\/speech then our intellect is in control of our daily tasks\/function\/routine. \u00a0This is a real issue \u00a0 in our Christian walk. \u00a0In \u201cnormal\u201d life, faith is not required as all decisions are under the control of our brains\/intellect. \u00a0 \u00a0Yet, the bible teaches that without faith it is impossible to please God. \u00a0.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n When we are converted and our spirits are rejuvenated to align with God\u2019s Spirit – His Holy Spirit comes to reside in\/with our spirits. \u00a0This rejuvenation causes God to live inside us in the form of Holy Spirit. \u00a0So the \u201cwar\u201d that Paul talks about (IMHO) is the war that goes on inside of us – in our brains\/intellect. \u00a0The war is whether we are going to continue to let our brains be in control of our decisions (carnal or old nature) or are we going to allow the Spirit of God control our lives via HS (the new nature). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n So to me the question boils down to – Is our brains over the Spirit (inside of us)? Or, is the Spirit over our intellect? \u00a0If our brains (logical thought pattern) control our every action then there is no need for Holy Spirit to reside in us. \u00a0But if Holy Spirit is over our brains then we are subject to God being able to use us far beyond what we can figure out logically. \u00a0I think this is what Paul is saying in verse 14 of our discussion last night, \u00a0“For all who are\u00a0allowing themselves to\u00a0be led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.\u201d (AMP). \u00a0If we do not allow ourselves to be lead by HS (Spirit over intellect), but by our intellect (intellect\u00a0over Spirit), then I really don\u2019t think we are \u201csons of God\u201d. \u00a0That is the way I read\/interpret that scripture (and others). \u00a0When we come to this conclusion it changes one’s whole viewpoint of Christianity!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n So the question in my mind is\u00a0\u201cwho is leading me\u201d? \u00a0My brain or Holy Spirit? \u00a0Which is servant to the other? \u00a0I\u00a0think this is what Jesus is saying when he simply said \u201cI do only what I see My Father doing\u201d. \u00a0He didn\u2019t have<\/span> to go into a long discussion of brain vs spirit! \u00a0 His Father is Spirit! \u00a0He was following the Spirit inside of him.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now, do we throw away our brains? \u00a0Of course not! \u00a0We have been given a logical means of deciphering things – billions of cells that can interact with each other in billions of ways to come to logical conclusions\/behavior. \u00a0 But the question for a Christian is, does the brain rule our spirits or does Holy Spirit rule our brains? \u00a0If HS is dominate over our brains then we will hear\/do many things that we do not understand – some things people might call \u201cweird\u201d or \u201cuncouth\u201d. \u00a0As we learn to \u201chear\u201d HS speak to us (inside us) and then do what we hear, we gain confidence in our ability to distinguish between our brains talking, demonic talking, or HS talking to us. \u00a0We gain this confidence over time to follow HS first and then our brains second – this is called \u201cfaith\u201d – doing things we can not \u201csee” (definition of faith) or logically figure out.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of my biggest problems with going back to Evangel University, to many non-pentecostal churches, and my Jewish friends is that they must be able explain things in a logical manner – even God\u2019s word. \u00a0It must be logical. \u00a0And I guess that is why is it called \u201chigher education\u201d. \u00a0But somehow in the spiritual world, our trying to always logically figure out things hinders\/blinds us. \u00a0Truly, it is the brain ruling over the spirit. \u00a0Paul (in the verse above) is trying to tell us to let the Spirit rule over our brains.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Finally, do not come to the conclusion that I feel our brains are useless once we are converted. \u00a0Never! \u00a0I have a double minor and double major in college with two advanced degrees. \u00a0I do not walk up to my car door and ask God to unlock it!!! \u00a0I am all for learning. \u00a0But I am concerned that we as Christians are no different than non-Christians. \u00a0We eat, sleep, talk, go to places just as our brains tell us to – no different than other ordinary people. \u00a0THAT is not what Christianity is all about. \u00a0It is about leading an extraordinary life because we are being constantly talked to and lead by the maker of the world – the all knowledge – the all power – whose way is infinity beyond ours. \u00a0Christianity is about learning how to submit our minds to the HS that lives inside of us – not trying to figure something out – just do it and do it immediately! \u00a0Somehow it seems to me that Christians are all doing what Paul tells Timothy (2 Tim 3:7) – “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth\u201d. \u00a0Somehow we are always learning but\u00a0never coming to the truth that God is inside of us, talking to us constantly. \u00a0He is above all the knowledge we can ever get. \u00a0We must come to the truth that we must listen to Him first – our brains second! \u00a0It is a scary thought! \u00a0Faith is scary! \u00a0But only when we walk out into the \u201cscary\u201d can God use us to speak to people and do things that are not \u201clogical\u201d to our intellect – but is impactful to the ones we are with or those that are coming later. \u00a0We ourselves must be willing to step out of the boat – follow God when HS tells us something to say\/do to others – no matter the cost of looking foolish\/weird. \u00a0That is our calling. \u00a0It may be strangle looking – it may be scary to step out and say something contrary to our natural thinking – but it is truly what God has called us to do in order to be His servant!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I hope this blesses you as much as it did me!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Him,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n the pilgrim<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let’s call this one “Coffee With Carl” \u00a0 My dear brother Carl Turner is a wonderful writer and more importantly driven by his relience on the Holy Spirit. \u00a0I believe this piece he has written is important or all of us attmepting to follow Christ, I offer it with his permission, to inspire and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26008,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26007\/revisions\/26008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}