Dear Friend,
I recently had a
conversation with one of my old friends, via
email, over the core of this letter. She wrote,
“These words thrill my spirit. I appreciate the
expression of your stand re these common
terminologies, and I agree with you 100%.”
(Missionary Yvonne Smith, EAC-Slipe
Rd)
The reason being, after I
was complimented for the internet ministry I
said, “sorry to sound corny, but there is really
no such thing as 'my ministry', though it is
used widely. The ministry is Jesus' we are just
co-labors together with him. And all laborers
will sit and eat with him on that glorious day
as one. Frankly, I like how Paul puts it, "it's
not him that willeth or him that runneth but God
that showeth mercy." No one can do anything
except God graces his or her. You and I are
graced to do whatever we do.”
Before and after that the
Lord has been dealing with me about instinct and
intelligence, a topic that is so uniquely geared
to them that seek to know God intimately and
seek peace to the situations in their lives and
around them.
Dictionary.com had these to
mean intelligence: - “The capacity to acquire
and apply knowledge.” “The act or state of
knowing; the exercise of the understanding.”
“The ability to comprehend; to understand and
profit from experience.”
Dictionary.com also defines
instinct as: - “An inborn pattern of behavior
that is characteristic of a species and is often
a response to specific environmental stimuli.”
Or, “Natural inward impulse; unconscious,
involuntary, or unreasoning prompting to any
mode of action, whether bodily, or mental,
without a distinct apprehension of the end or
object to be accomplished.” The scripture that
could back this up is written in Rom 8:20, “For
the creature was made subject to vanity, not
willingly, but by reason of him who hath
subjected the same in hope.” I looked up the
Greek meaning of the word ‘subject’ in that
context and it means ‘to submit to one's
control’. Therefore, the creature (animals/us)
were made instinctively to be compelled by
earthly things - vanity. However, the scripture
didn’t stop there, it said he subject the same
in hope. He didn’t just make us love vanity for
the purpose of casting us to hell, no! He did it
to fulfill his will in us through his son. Much
like frying something (dumplings) will baking
powder; you know when you put it in the pot its
not going to burn out or stay saggy, but because
the baking powder (Holy Ghost) is in it, it will
expand and become eatable.
I like what Sir Hamilton
said, extremely scholarly, “An instinct is an
agent which performs blindly and ignorantly a
work of intelligence and knowledge.”
For instance, take the wasp.
The wasp conquers a grasshopper and stings the
grasshopper in exactly the right spot, so that
the grasshopper becomes unconscious but does not
die. Then the wasp lays her eggs at just the
right distance from the unconscious grasshopper
so that her young can nibble the preserved meat
without quite killing the grasshopper. Putrid
meat would be fatal to them. The mother,
however, knows that everything is all right. She
flies off and dies. It all had to be done right
the very first time, or there would be no wasps
in the world at all. Adaptation, says Dr.
Morrison, cannot explain such techniques. The
only explanation is that they were bestowed by a
Divine Intelligence.
If I’m boring you just hold
on a moment while these preliminaries get out of
the way.
It is without a fact that
humans are blessed with intelligence and this
gives us dominance over every animal. However, a
great deal of human make up is moved by
instinct. That’s the reason we are driven to cry
when it hurts, smile when pleased, laugh when
hilarity is evoked, have platonic relationships,
have sex, progress, build houses, and other
things we consider as ‘basic
instinct.’
What is instinct
good for?
Have you ever seen one of
those “draw back” cars in ‘Toys-r-us’? The ones
you drawback and let go and it chases forward?
Instinct is much like that with God. When he
created the earth and rest from all his work on
the 7th day, he purposefully placed instinct in
all his living creatures, so that his purpose
must be fulfilled. No wonder he could have
declared that he knew the end from the beginning
– because he fixed it that way. He drew back
everything and let it fly. He placed purpose and
will into his servants and utilizes instinct to
maneuver it. In other words, God doesn’t have to
speak to you for his will to be done, he already
spoke it in eternity and it is so; regardless
of…
No wonder he could have said
to the prophet that before he was in his
mother’s womb he knew him. In other words,
everyone was born with a purpose and have it
innate. The only reason he gives you glimpses of
it is so that you know where to put your mind
while it comes to pass – so as to avoid abuse,
misuse and waste of time; and his desire to have
a relationship with his children!
When God sent Elijah to the
widow woman, he said something very peculiar. He
said, “I have commanded a widow woman there to
sustain thee.” (1 Kings 17:9). Now, when I read
that I thought the Lord had spoken to her
audibly, but surprisingly he hadn’t. Then I
wondered, how could he have commanded her to
take care of the prophet? He had instinctively
placed it in her. She could have eat the last
meal and died, but God fashioned her heart to do
his will. Just like how he fashioned Pharaoh’s
heart to be hardened. Pharaoh probably wanted to
let the people go after the first miracle, but
God made his heart tough so that his will may be
done and his name glorified.
No wonder the apostle Paul
finally concluded, “It’s not him that willeth,
nor him that runneth, but God that sheweth
mercy”. He went further to say, “Nay but, O man,
who art thou that repliest against God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why
hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter
power over the clay, of the same lump to make
one vessel unto honour, and another unto
dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his
wrath, and to make his power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted
to destruction” (Rom 9:20-22). “For who hath
resisted his will?”(Rom 9:19).
And while writing I’m kind
of ‘preachy-singing’ to myself the words (a G.E
Patterson style); I can hear the Lord saying, ?
and what if God chooses you to be a vessel of
dishonor and what if he chooses you to be wicked
and what if he chooses you to be evil, do you
know that in a “good house” they are vessels of
honor and vessels of dishonor!? Not in any
house, but a good house. You betta ? start
giving God thanks that he didn’t make you of the
other vessels – man that singing type preaching
is still in my head while I’m writing; might I
add yeah, yeah, ?YEAH! Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Yeaaaheheheheaaaaaaaah! ?
Back to earth – We can
clearly see this being displayed when God sent a
lying spirit in the mouth of not one, but a
large number of prophets, to prophesy a lie to
Ahab (1 Kings 22:22-23). In whose mouth? To do
what? Some of us fail to realize who we are
dealing with. The God I know is my loving
father, yes, but he is also Creator of heaven
and earth and can do any and everything he
pleases – that’s why everyone should fear
him!
He created you and I and he
made no mistake about it, he put in us his will
and it must come to pass; whether we realize it
or not. It was instinctively placed in us;
that’s why you do the things you do. It’s not a
mistake; God placed that thing in you. You
didn’t learn to be great, God just put it there.
Who told you that it’s because you went to
theology school you became a preacher, teacher
or bishop; or, because you know so-and-so why
you became so-and-so? God put it there before
you were born. No wonder the writer of
Ecclesiastes 9:10 could have said, “whatsoever,
thy hands findeth to do, do it with thy might.”
God spoke it and it was placed in you, therefore
it must come to pass and naturally (instinct).
Let say, if going to school would make you a law
abiding wealthy citizens, then all America would
be a crime and poverty free area. But we know
better than that. Training is good, learning is
good but it won’t bring your purpose to pass.
Your purpose is you and you are your purpose.
“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to
the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor
yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet
favour to men of skill; but time and chance
happeneth to them all” (Ecc 9:11). And the last
time I checked, God still controls “time and
chance,” and therefore still controls your
destiny.
Look at
Israel…
Despite the constant
chastening of the Lord, Israel continued to have
an affinity with the occult, non-mosaic
literature, Babylonian and Egyptian customs and
all violations of God’s Law. But this chastening
or suffering Israel received was not only meant
to punish them and cause them to turn, but also
the surrounding nations would have gotten a
first hand experience of who Yahweh really is
and so come to fear him as well.
Moses told us this before
hand, “Even all nations shall say, Wherefore
hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what
meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men
shall say, Because they have forsaken the
covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which
he made with them when he brought them forth out
of the land of Egypt: For they went and served
other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they
knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:
And the anger of the LORD was kindled against
this land, to bring upon it all the curses that
are written in this book: And the LORD rooted
them out of their land in anger, and in wrath,
and in great indignation, and cast them into
another land, as it is this day” (Due 29:24-25).
Therefore, all this wasn’t
really Israel’s fault, remember God is sovereign
and through this nation’s obedience and
disobedience all the earth might get to know who
God is. For instance, when Israel was first
taken captive by Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar finally
came to recognize and lift up the God of the
Jews after the three Hebrew boys stood in the
fire unburnt and also when the prophet Daniel
was not eaten by the Lions in the
den.
God knew that Israel would
stray. After he outlaid the blessings and
cursing he told Moses, “Behold, thou shalt sleep
with thy fathers; and this people will rise up,
and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers
of the land, whither they go to be among them
and will forsake me, and break my covenant which
I have made with them” (Due 31:16). God knew
that Israel would disobey him by transgressing
the Laws and thereby bringing curses upon
themselves.
Why
did God know?
Because he is sovereign and
according to Moses, “the Lord hath not given you
[Israel] a heart to perceive and eyes to see,
and ears to hear” (Duet 29:4).
Why didn’t God fashion their
hearts to follow him fully?
The same reason
he hardened Pharaoh’s heart - to show forth his
power and might to the world. God is sovereign
and who can resist his will?
Nevertheless, Moses didn’t stop
there, he began to prophesy in Chapter 30 of
Deuteronomy, verses 1-6;
“And it shall come to pass,
when all these things are come upon thee, the
blessing and the curse, which I have set before
thee, and thou shalt call [them] to mind among
all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath
driven thee … And the LORD thy God will
circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy
seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest
live.”
The only way the heart can
be circumcised is through the New Covenant,
which the Messiah (Jesus) should bring in, or in
essence, being born again; “This is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them”
(Heb 10:6). In other words, from day 1 it was
all God’s plan! You better start fearing God
more, because if he doesn’t give you a heart to
follow him, you cannot! We should better stop
boasting about our flawless save life without
sin, how often we can attend church and quit the
‘my ministry’ mentality, for if God doesn’t give
us a heart to do his will, we simply cannot.
Paul again confirms this, “For it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure” (Phi 2:13). Both to want to do it
and to do it. My God, how frail is man and how
great is God!
One might exclaim,
“don’t God give us free will, don’t we have
choices?”
Yes and No.
This is where intelligence
comes in. Based on knowledge, intelligence will
tell you that what you are doing instinctively
is wrong. Though you’re out there having unwed
sex, drinking brews, lying, stealing and all
ungodliness, intelligence will reckon in your
mind that this is wrong; but it unfortunately
cannot stop the instinct. That’s why you have
good people doing bad things. Not that something
instinctive like sex, in and of itself is wrong,
but with another man’s wife it is, for example.
Instinctively you want to get ahead, but the
only thing you see is to stomp on the little
man. Instinctively, you’re taking the company’s
money, but by intelligence you know it’s wrong.
By this knowledge of wrong, your intelligence
gives you an option (choice) not to take it, but
it fails to override the instinct to pay the
bills, buy fancy clothes and vacation every
weekend.
Therefore, even if you are
the worst of sinners, you heart will be
condemning you for the wrong. That’s why the new
age movement is trying so hard to infiltrate a
new religion based on Hinduism. Because in this
new world religion they claim there is no sin,
no heaven and no hell. Thereby, unknowingly
trying to override the built in intelligence,
which condemns their behavior. But even if the
Law is taken away, there is still a law of the
mind (conscience) which cannot be removed. Paul
spoke of this in his letter to the Romans
7:23-24:
“But I see another law in my
members, warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin
which is in my members. O wretched man that I
am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?”
If we are superior
to animals with the gift of intelligence, yet
captivated by instinct, what is the intelligence
for and why are we then superior to
animals?
Firstly, intelligence is
given for the ultimate reason God created us –
fellowship with him in dialogue and
worship.
Secondly, When someone is
drowning, instinctively he/she knows they are
going to die. But by intelligence he/she cries
out for help in an effort to prevent their
death. Similarly, when we are on earth and we
are feeling the after effects of sins, by
intelligence we should cry out to God who is
able to save us. And today through his spirit we
are able to override instinct and not sin. How?
He promised it and it was first realized on the
day of Pentecost; he said, “I will put my spirit
within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do
them” (Eze 36:27). No wonder the Apostle John
writes, “Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and
he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1
John 3:9).
If we can then
override instinct by not sinning, can we then
control our destiny since instinct is
defeated?
Again, yes and no. However,
to be continued...
But let me leave you with a
must listen sermon by Elder Herrol Sadler as he
keys into a few aspect concerning this two week
study.
Click here to listen "Sin is the Cause" by Elder
Herrol Sadler
Grace be unto
you,
Oneil
http://www.threeq.com/
P.s: To best listen audio click here and please, I dearly
need your prayers.
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