In a recent cycle of growth, I was laying in bed and trying to call to mind the portion of the Chinese Wall and the Plagiarism of the Mind lesson which reads, Now lets go through our 4 prompts: the suggestion, the emotion, the appetite, and the provocation. I struggled to remember the words prompt, emotion, and appetite. As this happened I became frustrated with myself. I could see how this frustration was an emotional response to a suggestion which I had not identified. The suggestion was that I couldnt progress with my reflection. This led to suggestions of being slow and forgetful. I saw how this feeling of frustration was leading me to want to simply forget about it and go back to sleep. I thought of how this was in opposition to my prayer for grace in preparation for class. I had begun reflecting and was expecting the Spirit to assist me and the suggestion was being made that I was on my own and not going to get anywhere with this. I chose instead to reflect upon my petition and upon every other prayer for grace having been answered by God. While I had seen my self reflection resulting in frailty, I was now beholding the reflection of Christ in the consistency of God in answering my petitions for His wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. I decided to reflect upon the words that did come to mind. I knew there were 4 somethings which began with a suggestion and ended with a provocation. I considered the word provocation and remembered looking this word up in the dictionary and seeing that a provocation incites a reaction. I could see that a reaction to the suggestion of the enemy would be reciprocating for increase of false knowledge. As I considered how the words suggestion and provocation worked together, the word emotion came to mind. I thanked God for this and recognized the Spirit assisting me in answer to my prayer and as a reward to my choice to labor in faith for this reward. Instead of reacting to the feeling of frustration with despondency and despair, I had chosen to build with what I could remember and reflected with confidence upon the promise of the assisted ability of the Spirit. This drew faith from my heart and I experienced a quickening. There was a clarifying of my thoughts which had felt slow and muddled but were beginning to flow more freely as when a cold engine begins to warm up after starting up and having time for the oil to soften. As I considered how the suggestion evokes an emotion which demands a response (provocation) I remembered the word prompts. I was able to remember that these are the 4 prompts which assist us in identifying the challenge for what it really is; a standing opposition against the sufficiency of grace and an active defense strategy for self. I began to consider how God designs the scenario of testing... to address that which the Spirit had identified for healing. The word appetite came to mind. God is addressing an appetite which is fed by the witness provided by the emotion evoked by the suggestion. The appetite being addressed can see an avenue for fulfillment in the course of action formed in the mind (imagination.) This was the final missing piece and I again thanked God for the active involvement of the Spirit assisting me in my labor of faith in the face of the challenge. So while I was initially only wanting to remember a single sentence from the lesson, I ended up with much more. This proved to be a very fruitful experience which drew upon past experiences while increasing my confidence in the sufficiency of grace while diminishing the value seen in the original suggestion which had evoked the feelings of frustration, doubt, and despair. #s8w #apostlestoday
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 12:11:31 +0000
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