Spiritual Common Sense by Dr. Frank P. Ferraro - HTML preview

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The written word of God is the voice of God today and he only speaks to us through his written word and never directly. It is not necessary for him to speak to us directly since all that he has to say is found in the scripture. The totality of the Essence of God is behind every blessing, provision and support for spiritual combat in this life, including every protection and form of security and every temporal and spiritual blessing of any kind. However, unless the Justice of God is freed to give blessing, blessing cannot be given. The Primary means of freeing the Justice of God is the believer making Adjustment to the Justice of God and then whatever blessing there is comes from the whole Essence of God through the Justice of God to the believer. The secondary means of freeing the Justice of God is to have ASSOCIATION with a person who has made Adjustment to the Justice of God. The Justice of God can only bless when a person makes Total Adjustment to the Justice of God in what we term Maturity Adjustment to the Justice of God. WHEN THE JUSTICE OF GOD IS NOT FREE TO BLESS THE BELIEVER THEN THE JUSTICE OF GOD MUST PROVIDE Divine Discipline IN PUNITIVE ACTION TO HELP REORIENT THE BELIEVER TO THE Plan of God AND HIS GRACE.

In spiritual momentum and advance to Maturity Adjustment to the Justice of God the Divine Decree is next to the Essence of God in importance and must be understood in small parts due to the complexity and importance of it. All the principles of the Laws of Divine Establishment which protect freedom and make evangelism possible and Positive Volition able to express itself in history are Laws of God. With regard to the divine decree we only have a few glimpses of what it contains in the promises of God, but we have many details of the Laws of Divine Establishment from God. The Laws of God can be and often are broken by the volition of man and angels, BUT, the decree of God cannot be broken nor frustrated by the volition of any rational creature.

Divine Guidance

Divine Guidance is based on 3 principles.

Salvation Adjustment to the Justice of God.

Rebound Adjustment to the Justice of God

Maturity Adjustment to the Justice of God

The Plan of God and the Divine Decree

The Divine Decree is from Eternity Past and it is God’s purpose relating to all events of every kind and constitutes one single all comprehensive intention (it is only one decree) perceiving all events in omniscience, that is, the free as free, necessary as necessary together with all causes conditions and relations as one indivisible system of things, every link of which is essential to the integrity of the whole. The decree of God cannot be understood apart from the Will of God. The decree is the complete and consummated right of the Will of God or Sovereignty of God determining the certain futurition of all events. REMEMBER, ONLY God has rights.

No event is directly effected or caused by the decree but the decree itself provides, in all cases, that all events shall be effected by causes acting in a manner consistent with the nature of the event in question. Therefore in the case of every free will act of a moral agent the decree itself provides at the same time 5 things:

  • The agent shall be a free agent.
  • His antecedent and all antecedents of the acts in question shall be what they are.
  • That all present conditions of the act shall be what they are.
  • That the act shall be perfectly spontaneous and free on the part of the agent.
  • That the act shall be certainly future from the time of the decree in Eternity Past.

Therefore the divine decree ensures that each and every decision of each and every creature in all of creation WILL BE CERTAINLY FUTURE and will be UNAFFECTED by any coercion on the part of GOD therefore being totally a free will decision. Whatever we do each day and every minute of each day God knew in Eternity Past. He knew what we would do by means of his omniscience and knowing what we would do he put this into the divine decree. This part of the decree is our protection and we should focus on the fact that the things we do and all factors in life which had to precede our actions of this time are part of the Divine Decree and known by God since Eternity Past. The Essence of God and attributes of God necessitated his willing the highest and best for all creation and it was necessity because God cannot contradict his own nature. We are not better than angels but we did receive the highest and best BUT we lost much of it d