A Sense of Security and Acceptance – Part 1

Old Testament heroes like Abraham, David and Joseph had powerful, intimate relationships with God. God cut a special covenant with Abram and made powerful promises to him. Abraham was blessed abundantly by God and this, I believe, gave him a great sense of security and right-standing with God.

I personally believe that it is a sense of security, a lack of fear (unbelief), which subdues the sinful nature and allows God to move freely in a person’s life, resulting in divine blessing and favour.

This sense of security and acceptance can be produced by hearing the message of God’s unconditional love for us through Christ. We are to labour to enter into rest (Hebrews 4:11). This rest that the Bible speaks of is a sense of overwhelming peace that can only come about as the result of knowing that we are accepted and loved by God, just the way we are, not because of anything that we have done, but because of what Christ has already done for us. The only condition for righteousness is that we believe in the finished work of the cross and no longer look to our works and rule-keeping for our justification.

It is this sense of security that God wants each and every person to develop by hearing and meditating upon the message of the Gospel, which is His Word for us today who believe in Christ. If we do not have this sense of security – we will be anxiously driven to seek an elusive something that will satisfy us and make us feel a sense of security, significance and self-worth.

Life Induced Security

A sense of security can also be instilled in a person when life seems to go well for them. People can become conditioned to trust in life, their own ability and other people. This is not the kind of security that God wants His children to have. I have noticed that there are some Christians who have a love for others and may even serve in the church enthusiastically – but I get the feeling that their sense of security has been instilled in them through positive life experiences, including the encouragement and acceptance of others.

God wants His people to have a sense of security that comes about as the result of truly knowing in their heart, who they are in Christ. So when the disappointments of life do come – they are able to overcome them because of the overwhelming sense of God’s love for them and an indefatigable hope in Him.

Accumulated disappointments, dashed hopes and calamities can eventually wear-down a person’s resolve and leave them heart-broken and afraid. Proverbs 13:12 says: Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. The Message translation renders it: Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around. Life can literally make a person desperate and afraid or it can fill them with peace of mind, confidence and hope – it all depends on how a person reacts to their environment.

Conditioning

One of the greatest things I have learned in life is the concept of conditioning.

Conditioning falls into two categories:

• Classical Conditioning, is a type of associative learning.
• Operant Conditioning, a psychological phenomenon involving voluntary behaviour.

The conscious mind is just like a window into the vastly more powerful subconscious mind (subconscious means “below consciousness”). Everything that we experience from the five senses gets fed into the mind, where each thought is classified and filed into what could be described as a massive filing system. Then, when we have a thought which is in some way related to a previous thought we have had, that thought is then strengthened and diversified so that it has more control and influence over us through our emotions. Related thoughts become grouped together in clusters which are known as complexes. Complexes become larger and more diverse as clusters of thought become related to each other, often through the most trivial means.

This is a phenomenon which is exploited by people who use advanced memory techniques for the recall of information. One such example is remembering the French word for cabbage which is chou (pronounced “shoe”) – so you would imagine a cabbage growing out of a shoe.

Our lives are literally the product of all the thoughts that we have ever thought. It seems that overriding all of our negative thoughts is the hardest thing in the world to do.

Questioning the Role of the Institutional Church – Part 2

The Church as a Christian Youth Club

The church that I go to at the moment reminds me of a Christian youth club; it makes me wonder how much they actually study the Word for themselves and how much they pray. But I hesitate in saying that this is wrong or bad because:

• Firstly, it is just speculation on my part – perhaps they do fit in time to study the Word in their crammed social schedule?
• Secondly, I am glad that they are saved and they are around other Christians – even if it does not look like what I think it should – it is, after all, a starting point.
• Thirdly, who says that these people should study the Word as much as I do? I will admit that my anxiety, depression and frustration have driven me to go somewhat over-the-top in my Bible studies – learning all sorts of Greek words and pursuing all sorts of useless Christian fads.

What is the goal in our pursuit of Christ? Surely it is to be transformed into His image? In my church, the main goal is to get people to raise their hand at the altar call. This is a wonderful goal and I can’t argue with that. Secure Christians can certainly make that their goal as their focus shifts from their own pursuits and onto serving others. But personally, I don’t think I’m there yet as I still feel somewhat bogged down with my own issues. I have tried to serve on team but I was doing it for the wrong reasons, just to please God and other people, and therefore, it was a struggle and I have to give it up after several months.

I often think to myself, "When I'm less negative, then I'll..." I think to myself that when I'm happy and I've "got it all together" - then I'll serve in church and make great friendships in the church - but will I? Now that my focus has shifted away from the I.C. and more onto a personal relationship with Jesus - I'm more inclined to love those people in my immediate sphere of experience and just get on with everyday life, rather than seeing an a religious institution as the be-all-and-end-all of my Christian experience. Perhaps my earnest desire to "serve God" in the church is one of the various factors that still keeping me locked into negative thinking, guilt and frustration?

I suppose I feel somewhat envious of these people that they are happy, positive-minded and sociable, they are able to focus their attention on serving others; and they don’t seem to have the need to spend endless hours in prayer and Bible study in order to live a life of love of happiness.

A Case of Security versus Insecurity

I think it really comes down to how secure a person is when they give their life to Christ. If a person is insecure, they need to focus their efforts on establishing a foundation of security in Christ. This is the very area in which I feel I have been let down time and again. Rather than being given teaching that would bring me out of my anxiety and depression, I have found myself plied with motivational messages, demands for performance, guilt trips and unrealistic promises of success and prosperity. This preaching has been intended to make me a better Christian, but has completely failed to change me on the inside.

Already-Secure Christians

But what if a person is already secure from a mental perspective? I would say that they are more able to live from that established sense of security more than seeking to re-establish it. But this sense of security that positive minded people have is, more often than not, established by positive life experiences and the affirmation of other people. But where is a sense of security in Christ alone in this picture? This sense of security is established by what the Bible terms “the world” more than it is of faith: it is established by spoken words, experiences and achievements – those things which are gained through the physical senses.

You see, this is what I’m trying to explain here: many people who come to establish a sense of security in Christ, tend to suffer and struggle in life up to, and beyond, the point at which they give their life to Christ. It would seem that a sense of insecurity is a vital factor in drawing a person away from their own efforts and the affirmation of other people, towards seeking the Father’s love for them in Christ. Otherwise, what is there to distinguish an already secure, positive minded Christian from other people in the world? Where is the passion for the Word of God and its ability to transform, deliver and renew?

When I compare my beliefs with those of other Christians, I am astonished as to how secular they are a lot of the time in the way they think. It is for this reason that the typical Christian motivational message appeals to them so much: they honestly believe that they have perfect, conscious control over their actions; these people believe it when the preacher says, “It is all up to you. Will you go all out for God?” I have been brought to a place in which I am convinced that I can do nothing without Christ in me. For me, the importance lies with understanding that it is the Father who does the works, and therefore, it is my submission to the Holy Spirit that is more important than my trying to merit God’s favour though my own efforts. But I realise that my beliefs have been established in me through years and years of painful struggle, confusion, apathy, lethargy and frustration.

Perhaps then for these already-secure Christians it is a slow journey towards developing the realisation that this sense of security they have was founded on experiences, rather than revelation knowledge? Who knows?

As I said before, it all comes down to the sense of security that a person has been conditioned to believe they have, up to this moment in time. I am beginning to see the whole subject of conditioning and security as being fundamental factors in Christianity and life in general. For me, these concepts explain so much about what I am experiencing in my life and the hardships and struggles I have been though. It is for this reason that I intend to write a great deal more on these subjects.

Security and Insecurity Comparison Chart

I made a note of a chart that was displayed during a sermon at Hillsong London, which compared attributes of security with that of insecurity. I feel that this comparison perfectly sums-up the contrast between a disposition of security with that of insecurity.

Security	Insecurity
At rest & at peace	Driven & anxious
Accepting of self, confident of one's value to God	Striving to get acclaim, to prove one's value
Content with one's lot in life	Constantly comparing, envying, coveting
Able to bless, affirm and serve others	Jealous, controlling, manipulative & demanding of others

The Illusion of Self-Control – Part 1

There’s been a great deal of teaching about how it is up to us to “make an effort” and to “just do something”. It all sounds very encouraging and “challenging” – but it is a misnomer. I remember Kenneth E. Hagin saying that we should not wait for a “special feeling”; if it is written in the Word, then we should act upon it. Perhaps this is simply a lack of confidence or the wrong belief that in order for a person to do something – X, Y or Z must first take place?

But I have found in my own life that there have been innumerable times when I’ve wanted to do something, or tried to do something that was expected of me – but was completely unable to do it. It could be the simplest thing like go to the local store or put the washing machine on.

But then there were times when all of a sudden, I would just get up and do something. It could have been a demanding task or just something simple. The conclusion that I’ve come to is that our conscious mind, or willpower, does not control us. If anything, the conscious mind, or willpower, is simply the window into what we are experiencing at that moment. It is through the subconscious mind, via the senses, that our subconscious mind is conditioned or programmed. It is the subconscious mind which controls our actions. That is why it says in scripture to “Guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.” Proverbs 4:23 NLT.

I realise that I have been conditioned to believe what I do because of my personal experiences. This has come at a great cost to me as it has brought a lot of pain, struggle, fear, disappointment and embarrassment. Most people experience a thought in their mind followed by unction to do something. They might struggle mentally with that unction for a moment, but it then wins over and they just simply experience themselves doing something. They then tell the story that it was them that performed the action. They had the conscious awareness of what they did, but I would say that it was their subconscious mind which caused them to act – either for good (divine nature) or for bad (flesh nature). I would say that their mental coercions on a conscious level, did very little to influence the outcome of what they did.

When I try to tell people what I believe – they think I’m barking mad. Thankfully, people like Norman Grubb and Major Ian Thomas, and a growing number of Christians, agree with me.

The idea that we control our lives gives us a sense of empowerment. It is a frightening thing indeed to come to the conclusion that you are not in complete conscious control of your actions. But I think for Christians and non-Christians alike, the fear is likely to be rooted more in a lifelong distrust in God, more than anything else. After all, we are told that God is good, but He allows, or some would say that He is powerless to prevent, all sorts of atrocities that gone on around the world.

I don’t have all the answers to these questions, but what I do know, is that the best means of protection and assurance of a good quality of life, is to be found in trusting God in the finished work of the cross – with the aim of surrendering all control to Him. Even mature Christians, I believe, are fearful of surrendering all control to Him, unconvinced that He truly loves us and has no favourites. It is this clinging-on to personal power which is to their detriment.

I wonder what the law courts would do if they began to adopt this way of thinking? “My subconscious mind made me do it!” This is a refreshing change from the cliché, “The devil made me do it!” It is not an excuse to avoid being accused of being lazy, if we see things in this light. No, it is no longer a notion of being right or wrong, good or bad, passive or active or whatever – it has much more to do with being in right-standing with God through faith in Christ, which comprises beliefs such as:

• The Father who dwells in me does the works (John 14:10).
• My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in me, whom I have from God, and I am not my own (1 Cor. 6:19).
• I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

The notion of self-empowerment gives religious leaders the power of control over a person: they will say that if a person fails to be blessed or bad things happen – it is because they failed to take action. Christian “motivational” speakers will say that if a Christian fails to succeed in life then it is because they failed to apply their seven “keys” or six “steps”. I would rather believe that it was because they were not fully persuaded of the message of the Gospel, the Father’s love for them, and therefore, failed to enter into that rest which allows God to take control.

Depression in Relation to Grace

I recently became a friend of Fred Pruitt on Facebook. I have been reading some of his articles, some of which cover the subject of depression. This subject is dear to my heart because I have suffered from depression for as long as I have known now. But having read through some of the articles on Fred’s website, the Single Eye, in the section on Miscellaneous Articles on Union - I have been finding confirmation of some concepts which I have been contemplating for a while now.

I am going to make it my objective now to continue to read through these excellent articles by Fred Pruitt and some other mutual grace-believing friends. I feel that this could be the catalyst to my growth in grace and ascension to another level of understanding.

The irony of all of this is that it has probably been my desire to figure things out, the reason why things happen the way they do, which has caused my depression in the first place.

Self-Control in the Church

My struggle with depression has set me on a life-long quest for answers and self-discovery. I found that I was disappointed with the teaching in church for quite a while as it just seemed to give people rules and platitudes that did not empower them in any way at all. Despite this, Christians seemed to merrily go their way, “applying” the teaching they received in church and keeping themselves busy with church routines and duties. During this transition time in my life – I felt like I was going crazy, because I did not know about what had come to be known as the Grace Message. I honestly thought that I was the only one who had doubts about the accepted church system

I feel what really annoyed me with the church was that there seemed to be some people who could keep a subset of rules or works to an extent whereby they praised themselves, and others praised them, for being spiritual, holy, dedicated and all those other labels that Christians love so much.

I have come to experience that to a great extent, things just tend to happen. We just like to think that we had something to do with it. I would say that this comes down to a establishing a sense of self-security and self-reliance. If a person loses that dependence on self – they are likely to be thrown into a state of panic.

Sure, Christians love to go to church on a Sunday and go through the typical routine of telling everyone how they sacrifice their lives to Jesus and that they’re going all out for God and so on. But the truth of the matter is: to a great extent, they have been subconsciously conditioned to depend on what they have and what they do. It comes back to the concept of the Sunday worshipper Christian who goes through the motions on a Sunday, but in every other way, lives their lives just like anyone else.

It is only when that safety-net of security has been taken away, that we can really enter into an intimate relationship with God, knowing that He is the source of our life and strength. Perhaps this concept of self-reliance is what Jesus meant when He referred to believers, in the Parable of the Sower, not having a “root” in them? See Matthew 13:21.

I would say that I have been living the Romans 7:15 scenario in my life for as long as I have known. Time and again, I would hold a sentiment in my mind, telling myself what I should, or must, do – only to find that I end-up doing something completely different! I can tell you – it is extremely frustrating when this happens. If this happens a consistently over time – is destroys a person’s sense of self-reliance and self-control – leading to a sense of powerlessness and hopelessness.

Despite this, even though Christians know they cannot keep the rules imposed on them by people in and out of the church – they still subject themselves to guilt, shame and rules they cannot keep. The idea is that one day they will eventually make it – if they just turn up to church and get shamed enough from the pulpit, or if they read the right book or pray the right prayer or whatever.

Church and the Want for Approval

The want for approval is a key factor in the behaviour of people. People can be subconsciously motivated to do things they don’t really want to do, but feel they ought to do – if they believe that doing those things will make them accepted by other people.

I see this concept playing itself out in the church over and over again. This is why the message of no-condemnation and justification by faith, not works, is so vital to personal freedom. If believers are always doing works to be accepted by God and others people – it contradicts the concept of righteousness by faith alone. It seems that the ability to do works and keep rules is something of a safety net which some believers still rely on in order to feel accepted by God. If a person knows they are accepted by God, then they at once feel assured that their life will go well for them and that they are reserved a place in Heaven when they die.

I suppose some pastors are reluctant to share the message of grace, because they feel their congregation would cease from their efforts to modify their behaviour, suppress their negative feelings and would probably quit most of the routines and duties which they perform in the church. But it is essential that people live their lives in freedom without the threat of condemnation from God and ex-communication from the church. Otherwise, what these people do in the name of “serving God” – will be nothing more than desperate attempts to be accepted.

Powerlessness Leads to Anxiety

I think it has been my sense of powerlessness to control my environment, which led to anxiety. Anxiety occurs when a person strives to figure things out – but fails to establish a solution or a reason why things have happened as they have. Depression, being a sense of heaviness and deadness, seems to be the inevitable result of anxiety.

I feel that my depression and anxiety have enabled me to come to the realisation that I simply cannot control my life. I have noticed that most happy individuals still hold on to the notion that they are actually in control of their lives. If people would just come to realise that they are not in control of their lives – it would refute, once and for all, the ridiculous idea that people only need to know what is right, wrong, good or bad – in order to live right and achieve great things in life.

As soon as a Christian begins to pride himself on his ability to keep rules – it is the start of a slippery slope into the abyss known as human pride. The Pharisees were the religious elite of Jesus’ day. The Pharisees were just like some of the Christians we see in the church today: they kept the rules (well, they appeared to), they observed the traditions and the rituals – they appeared to be what we would think Jesus wants Christians to be like. Despite these facts – Jesus was always at odds with the Pharisees – He called them a “brood of vipers” in Matthew 12:34. Jesus told the Pharisees that they were full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. We tend to forget that these were the people who seemed to be keeping all the rules – just like some Christians today.

²⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. ²⁷ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Matthew 23:25-28 NKJV

Control through Word of Faith

When a depressed and frustrated individual comes accept Christ as Lord of their life, they are eager to learn of ways in which they can control their lives in relation to their behaviour, circumstances and perhaps even – other people. It is for this reason why Word of Faith and prosperity teaching is so enticing: Christians love the idea that they can name-it-and-claim-it in relation to something they believe they must have or do in order to be happy and to be accepted by God and other people.

Christians eagerly look for verses of scripture that they can “stand on” in order to hold God to some sort of promise. What we tend to do is to bring all of our insecurities and fantasies to God in a vain attempt to get Him to agree with us and to rubber-stamp our deluded wishes.

Not all of our desires are fantasies and many of us have dreams that are in fact a part of the vision of a great life that God has for us. Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that not everything that we feel we must have which comes to mind – is from God, and is therefore, a legitimate goal.

Tithes and offerings are another area where we tend to try to control God. Word of Faith holds to the concept of sowing and reaping: meaning that the more money you give to the church – the more God will return to you. This belief has been exploited by church pastors, some of whom have created mega-churches and become rich as a result of confused and desperate Christian giving away money they cannot afford, with the belief that God will bless them as a result.

The truth of the matter is that the curse of the law has been done away with – Christ having become a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So the concept that God will curse Christian if they do not tithe – is not scripturally accurate in relation to the New Testament. Tithing, just like the curse of the law, is an Old Testament concept which has now been done away with. Well, to be exact: Jesus did not come to destroy the Old Testament Law – but to fulfil it (Matthew 5:17).

We must consider the fact that when we attempt to get back into keeping rules and doing works in order to gain God’s favour – we are in essence bringing ourselves back under the Old Covenant; it is as if we have switched covenants when we mistakenly believe that we must keep rules. No-one can be justified by the law. Therefore, when a Christian believes they have to do works and keep rules to be accepted by God – they risk bringing the curse of the law upon themselves.

Conditioning and Control

What I think has really helped me to understand something about myself in relation to human behaviour, circumstances and beliefs – is the concept of conditioning. I wrote about this in my recent blog entries, under the titles:

• Covetousness and Conditioning
• Conditioning and Superstition
• Derren Brown on Conditioning and Superstition

Conditioning is the Psychological study into the way in which behaviour is established in humans and animals. These modes of behaviour are established through the creation of sets of beliefs, in relation to their experience and interpretation of, and perhaps interaction with, the environment around them.

As I wrote in my previous blog entries on the subject of conditioning: what determines our behaviour and belief system to a large extent – is our perception of what happens around us and how we correlate that to our behaviour.

But a lot of what happens in our lives is actually random. Alright, I would actually say that God knows exactly what happens to us and what will happen in the future. I suppose that God knows exactly how we will react to a given set of circumstances and how that will effect us physically, mentally and emotionally. God knows whether a set of circumstances will weaken or strengthen certain beliefs that we hold onto. God knows what circumstances are required in order to make us become the person He wants, or allows, us to become.

God knows if the things that happen in our lives will contribute towards us become secure or insecure people. See my previous blog post entitled Security versus Insecurity for a comparison between the attributes of a secure person and insecure person.

When something happens in our lives that we think is “bad” or “wrong” – if we are insecure, we can become anxious about it as we try to determine why that thing happened, what it means and how we can overcome it and percent it happening again. But this response to other circumstances of our environment simply gets us into wanting to be in control of our lives. God is in control of our lives.

We can begin to doubt God’s love for us, our right-standing with Him or even our salvation – according to what happens to us or doesn’t happen to us; or what we do or don’t do in relation to a particular situation. This, I believe, is what leads to depression and anxiety. The likelihood is that the things that make people anxious in life – have very little to do with their rule-keeping, works, sin and behaviour.

Something good might happen in our life and we then convince ourselves and other people how that good thing occurred as a result of our prayer, hard-work, morality, intelligence, kindness, good personality, church offerings and so on.

Something bad might happen in our life and we tell the story about how it happened because we sinned, did not give enough money to the church, aren’t good enough, did not work hard enough, did not pray enough and so on.

The truth of the matter is that these things actually have very little bearing on what happens to us in life. But I suppose we still attach to these beliefs because it gives us a sense of control over our lives.

The Power of Prayer

“What?”, I hear you cry, “Don’t you believe in the power of prayer?”  I do believe in the power of prayer.  Actually, this may be a shocker for some – but the power is not in our prayer, neither is it in our faith – the power is to be found in the precious blood of Jesus Christ which is what gives us access to the presence of God.  Prayer is what takes our focus away from ourselves and our weaknesses, and onto God and His grace:

⁵ "And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat? ⁶ "Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace. ⁷ "The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. ⁸ Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need.

Matthew 6:5-8 msg

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 1:3 that God has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing!  Therefore, it is absurd to believe that God rewards our efforts in some way.

¹⁶ For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received [all had a share and we were all supplied with] one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift.

John 1:16 AMP

Conclusion

We are to reach a place, I believe, in which we become non-reactionary; totally accepting ourselves, life and other people – just as they are; we are to avoid seeking to figure out why things happen the way they do and what we can do to change them. We are to accept that we are powerless to control our lives and to stop sinning in our own effort. Rather than becoming frustrated with other people and the circumstances of our lives – we are to accept life as it is. Acceptance is, I believe, the key to happiness in life and the key to an intimate relationship with God.

Faith is actually trust in God through the message of the Gospel of Christ. No matter what happens or does not happen in our lives – we should hold fast to the belief that we are right with God regardless of our behaviour; knowing that Christ is our righteousness; knowing that God is not mad with us; knowing that God loves us the way we are. This assurance of righteousness is what paves the way for our total acceptance of ourselves and other people.

Articles on Depression

Here are a couple of relevant articles regarding depression, a sense of powerlessness and the need for self-acceptance - written by Fred Pruitt:

• Dealing with Depression
• The Great Struggle

I recommend that you read through more of Fred’s articles which can be found here.

Fred Pruitt also contributes to another website called Christ As Us.

I was recently read an article on the Christ As Us website which was written by Watchman Nee, entitled Boasting In Our Weakness. This is a fantastic article which covers the subject of accepting ourselves just as we are, even if we experience weakness and inability to do what we have been told is right.

I recently read a note on Facebook which was taken from an article written by Brian Coatney entitled I Don’t Give a Damn If I’m Depressed. This article focuses on the importance of self-acceptance.

Here is the same article in PDF format.

There is also another link to this note, which has been included in a blog entry by a fellow grace believing friend, which can be found here.

Derren Brown on Conditioning and Superstition

The U.K. mind trickster, illusionist and show-man Derren Brown, in his T.V. series, Trick or Treat, re-created a veritable human Skinner Box, based on experiments by the Psychologist B.F. Skinner. This, he reasoned, was to prove the way in which superstition is established.

The following is a quote from the following website:

http://www.rmjs.co.uk/db/tv02g.htm

• Programme Six Series Finale: Friday 6 June (C4) and Saturday 7 June (E4), 2008

o All of the participants in the series meet to celebrate the end of the series, but DB explains they are to participate in a "sociological experiment designed to unlock the irrational mindset behind superstitious thinking".

o They are told they have to earn 100 points within 30 minutes to open the door and win the named bundles of £500 appear outside the door. The room contains a variety of objects. The participants start moving things around and a display shows their points increasing.

o DB explains that the experiment is based on B F Skinner's experiments into behaviour in the 1960s. He shows footage of Skinner's experiment with pigeons in which they are rewarded with food during the course of the experiment. The pigeons believed that the food was delivered in response to them repeating certain actions when the food was, in fact, delivered at random. This led to the pigeons simply repeating behaviour for no purpose. Skinner explained this as has superstition works where humans make false connections between cause and effect. DB explains the the participants' score is increasing a result of a pair of goldfish's movements in a tank.

o DB discusses superstition with Joey, an applicant for the programme, and during their conversation at DB's instruction she does several superstitious things (walking under ladders, breaking a mirror, opening an umbrella inside, etc.). At their destination they play a game in which she is blindfolded and has to throw a dart at a deck of cards which have been arranged on the wall; if she wins she gets a bottle of champagne. She names a card (QH) and throws the dart. It lands in the QH and she wins the champagne. On the bottle there is a note which tells her she has won £50 if she got the dart in the circle. She removes the QH and it is the only card with writing on the back: there is a circle and the dart has landed in the circle.

o Return to the participants who are still trying to work out, unsuccessfully, what is causing their score to increase.

o The participants are shown again now 15 minutes into the experiment. DB shows that after 5 minutes of the experiment he revealed another sign on the roof telling them that the doors were unlocked and they could walk out and collect £150,000. They, however, are still to intent on trying to work out how to increase their score to see the sign.

Conditioning and Superstition

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning occurs when an observable stimulus does not exist, the absence of such, produces a particular response in an organism in order to acquire something. This is non-reflexive behaviour. In other words, a person or animal will interact with the environment in an effort to establish what it is that it needs to do in order to get its needs met.

B.F. Skinner’s Experiments

The psychologist B.F. Skinner formulated his theory on operant conditioning by creating experiments whereby he could observe the behaviour of laboratory animals. Skinner's work was influenced by Pavlov’s experiments and the ideas of John Watson, father of behaviourism.

One of Skinner’s classic experiments would be to put a rat in a box, called a Skinner Box, in which it eventually accidentally presses a lever which dispenses a food pellet. After repeating this process several times, the rat eventually learns that it can cause a food pellet to be dispensed by pressing the lever. At this point the rat has been operantly conditioned because even after the food dispenser has been disconnected, the rat still presses the lever in anticipation of receiving further food pellets.

Skinner found that once the rat had been operantly conditioned, the behaviour could be reinforced by dispensing a food pellet in response to the lever pressing on an intermittent basis – this is called partial reinforcement. Skinner experimented with different types of partial reinforcement such as dispensing pellets after a fixed interval of say a minute or dispensing a pellet according to a fixed rate such as every twenty presses of the lever.

Unlike Ivan Pavlov's classical conditioning, where an existing behaviour (salivating for food) is shaped by associating it with a new stimulus (ringing of a bell or a metronome), operant conditioning is the rewarding of an act that approaches a new desired behaviour.

Videos of Operant Conditioning Experiments

Short videos of a rat in a Skinner Box, pushing a lever to dispense a food pellet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQtDTdDr8vs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl7jr9EVcjI

A video of a Skinner interview showing operant conditioning with pigeons. Discusses schedules of reinforcement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA

Conditioning and Superstition

B.F. Skinner also formulated a theory about how superstitions are formed. Skinner experimented with dispensing food pellets to pigeons on a random basis. The pigeons, however, were convinced that it was their behaviour which led to the pellet being dispensed. Skinner noted that the pigeons that were conditioned in this way, would exhibit predictable patterns of behaviour as a result of formulating a connection between their behaviour and the dispensation of the food pellet.

This type of conditioning also lends itself to human behaviour. It would seem that human beings are always trying to determine the means by which they can control their environment through their behaviour. So if a person walks under a ladder and something falls on their head, they can relate that unfortunate experience with the “bad luck” that is associated with their behaviour i.e. walking under a ladder. The fact that something bad happened because they walked under a ladder, had a rather obvious and practical reason associated with it because of the safety issue that the ladder presented.

Superstition is also associated with more impractical and random occurrences. For instance, a person might see a black cat and minutes later they find they have lost their purse or wallet. This person might not yet associate that bad experience with the sighting of the black cat. The same person could then see a black cat again and minutes later their mobile phone rings with someone on the end of the line giving them some bad news. After a few such random occurrences, a person could become convinced that black cats are a bad omen.

With this concept of conditioning in mind, we can see the various instances in which people become conditioned to behave in a certain way because of the belief formulated by the occurrence of random events.

I am certain that God also tests us in this manner and this concept certainly has its application in the life of the Christian. Some Christians don’t like the concept of being tested by God, and therefore, we shall say that God allows Christians to go through certain experiences.

Elijah’s Supernatural Experiences

I personally believe that one of the best illustrations of this testing is found in the story of Elijah when he was running away from Jezebel and he saw all sorts of supernatural happenings such as fire, wind and an earthquake – yet he did not get carried away with trying to fathom their symbolic meaning and purpose.

Instead of straining himself to try and work out what God was saying to him through the supernatural occurrences, Elijah just chose to ignore them whilst remaining quiet on the inside, listening for God’s direction.

I think some Christians get carried away with reading into the symbolic meaning behind random events and circumstances. Those who are accustomed to being led by the Spirit of God, such as Elijah, become acutely aware of when God is speaking to them and when He is not. It is only the Christians who are struggling to be led by God who anxiously seek to find the relevance and purpose in almost every little random thing that happens in their life.

Superstition in the Church

A Christian could do something that he knows is sinful like looking at a woman to lust after her or swearing. Then, something bad happens to him – perhaps he has a car accident or misses the bus. Straightaway, the Christian makes the association with the bad thing happening and the sin that he committed. The bad thing that happened, although a random occurrence, was seen as a punishment from God when it was nothing of the sort.

These superstitions are rife in the church and lend themselves to the perpetuation of wrong beliefs and false doctrine, handed down from other Christians, which is nothing more than a paranoid fear in response to random occurrences. When something bad happens, this will be attributed to sin or a lack of prayer, giving, works, etc.

Superstition and the Tithe

Another area, in which Christians can become operantly conditioned, is in the area of tithes and offerings. If a Christian struggles financially, he could be told by other, well-meaning Christians that he is being cursed by God because he does not pay a tithe to the church. The accepted idea is that if a Christian pays a tithe to the church, then God will rebuke the devourer and will pour out a blessing, according to Malachi 3:10-12.

If a Christian is desperate to be blessed, he might end-up paying a tithe, albeit begrudgingly, with the misguided notion that God will open the windows of heaven and pour out such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. Then, if he pays his tithe and still does not get blessed – he will be told to be patient, or will be told he does not have enough faith, or that he must increase his giving, or will be asked if there is hidden sin in his life, etc.

The truth about the tithe is that the tithe was a commandment established in the Old Testament. The modern day church has taken Malachi 3:8-10 and made it into another rule for Christians to keep. The tithe actually related to food, not money, that a person was to bring into the storehouse. The tithe harkens back to the days in which Israel gave a tenth of their yield to the Levitical priests who looked after the priestly duties and were not hunter-gatherers. The concept of the tithe has been transposed in modern times to relate to pastors of churches who require the donations of the congregation to operate effectively and to fund the various programs of expansion that they have.

Punishment from God or Consequences of Resisting God?

Sometimes God does seem to punish Christians for their sin, but it is usually sin in the context of their propensity to do a certain thing rather than the actual sinful action which they commit. It is more about living according to the consequences of their disposition, their disposition being the accumulation of their beliefs, desires, attitudes, motives and patterns of thinking.

If God wants a believer to do something nice for a person who has offended them, then God is likely to be resisted by the pent up feelings of bitterness and resentment that a person has towards another person - If the believer has such an inclination towards being easily offended.

If a person walks in love towards others he will naturally flow with God according to His will, making himself better able to cooperate with God when it comes to getting his own needs met.

The Bible tells us that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). The Bible also tells us that the law, which brought condemnation, has been nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14). So you see, it is not as if God is punishing believers for their wrong behaviour – it is more a matter of being able to respond correctly to the instructions of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

The Bible tells us that as we sow that shall we reap, this could be seen as being punishment from God, but really, it is simply reaping the consequences of our own actions more than anything else.

If Christians get carried away with the concept of punishment for their sins, it distracts them from the sacrifice that Jesus made for our sins, once and for all on the cross. This idea of sowing and reaping, sin and punishment, can lead the believer to identify all sorts of rather innocent things as being sinful, due to an association with random occurrences.

Galatians 6:8 contrasts sowing to the flesh against sowing to the spirit: one brings corruption (separation from God and self-reliance), whilst the other brings everlasting life (the presence of God). Sowing and reaping really comes down to how much we are able to yield our spirit as a vessel of the Holy Spirit for His use.

When Christians Get Blessed

When believers get blessed they can relate it to something good they have done an act of servanthood in the church or perhaps simply a reward for their diligent efforts to keep rules. This reinforces the notion that a person has to perform in order to be rewarded. We tend to carry that notion into the church with us when we get saved – it is the classic concept of effort-and-reward that exists in all of us.

This idea lends itself to Christians who force themselves to make all sorts of efforts to serve God, with the motive of becoming acceptable to God so that they can get their basic needs met and live a peaceable existence.

Don’t misunderstand me, I believe in the power of prayer. But I also believe that many Christians become encouraged to pray incorrectly. All sorts of prayer methodologies can be formulated in this manner. A believer could pray regularly for something, perhaps the salvation of a loved one, and then months later that person gives their life to the Lord. Convinced that it was their diligent prayer that got the person saved, the believer could then continue to pray in the same manner for someone else to get saved – even though the prayer could be rather unscriptural and fruitless. I have heard believers tell the story of how a loved one has come to faith in Christ, because they prayed for their salvation for eleven years.

If a Christian prays for someone who is admitted to hospital for some reason, then after a period of time the person gets better and is discharged from hospital. The praying Christian could then cite his prayers as being the reason why the person got better - despite the fact that it was simply down to the medical treatment that the person received whilst in hospital.

There is also a more obvious factor to consider: if a person commits to a certain pattern of behaviour, such as cigarette smoking, he will risk facing predictable and unpleasant consequences. The health risks associated with smoking are not punishment from God, as such, but simply the natural consequences of the person’s actions.

But again, behaviour is largely governed by the beliefs, desires and attitudes of a person. We see evidence in scripture of the concept of the sinful nature opposing the divine nature, in Galatians 5:17.

¹⁶ I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Galatians 5:16-17

This tendency is ingrained in human nature. We have become convinced that our life experiences are utterly dependant on the way in which we interact with our environment. Christians then seek to compile lists of do’s and don’ts in an effort to control behaviour. This attitude can lead to people experiencing a sense of guilt for things that were not their fault and outside of their control. Conversely, some people can become puffed-up with pride as the result of something good happening that they had very little, if anything at all, to do with.

Covetousness and Conditioning

¹ Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? ² You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

James 4:1-3

¹⁷ "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

Exodus 20:17

From these verses, it is easy to assume that to covet means to desire something which someone else has. However, that description is more fitting with envy than it is with covetousness.

Covetousness can cause a person to desire what he does not have. But it has more to do with desiring after a created thing with desires of the flesh nature, rather than desiring something with love - which is God’s desire working in us.

Covetousness is the classic wrong belief that the acquisition of more money, a promotion at work, a more expensive car, a younger wife, and so on, will make you happy. Let us get one thing straight - you could get all of those things into your life and yet still be just as dissatisfied with your lot in life.

Fullness of Joy

The Bible says that in the presence of God is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). Joy actually comes from God - it does not come from material goods. Joy is a spiritual power that resonates in our spirits and makes us feel alive. Therefore, the idea that an inanimate object has some sort of mystical power - is absurd.

It is a different matter entirely when you desire a created thing with the love of God. Love brings the very presence of God flooding into your spirit, which in turn, compels you to desire those things that God wants you to desire and to do the will of God.

¹³ For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Philippians 2:13

¹³ For it is God Himself whose power creates within you the desire to do His gracious will and also brings about the accomplishment of the desire.

Philippians 2:13 WNT

The Apostle Paul said that it was the love of God which compelled him to do what he did.

¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;

2 Corinthians 5:14 NKJV

Other versions of the Bible express this verse slightly differently:

The love of Christ constraineth us (KJV); it is the love of Christ which is moving us (BBE); Christ's love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do (MSG); Whatever we do, it is certainly not for our own profit but because Christ's love controls us now (TLB); We are ruled by Christ's love for us (CEV); For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us (AMP); Christ's love guides us (GW).

The Presence of the Invisible God

When the love of God compels a person to desire something and do a certain thing, they often do not attribute that desire and action to the presence of God’s indwelling love. We experience the emotions of love and joy, and yet, God still remains invisible and somewhat unknown to most people. The net effect of this is that people, without the knowledge of God, see the power of God as indwelling created things, people, places, activities and material objects. In this way, people make a god out of something. This is the situation which was addressed by the Apostle Paul in the first chapter of Romans.

¹⁷ For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." ¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. ²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. ²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Romans 1:17-27 NIV

God wants His children to have good gifts, it is therefore His intention that we desire after those things that He wants us to enjoy. If you think about it for a moment: something would not be a good gift for us if we did not enjoy it and if it did not bring us a sense of satisfaction and delight. It is for this reason that we delight in spending time with those people that we love and doing the things that we enjoy. However, the moment that we take our mind off the invisible God for a length of time, we are in danger of misappropriating the power of God and making idols out of created things.

The people of Israel had to be told to remember God in relation to the accumulation of wealth, so that they would be reminded that it was God’s power, not their own, which entitled them to have what they had (See Deuteronomy 8:18).

Classical Conditioning

We are creatures of habit that respond to conditioning. According to psychology, there are two different types of conditioning. There is classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

Classical conditioning is when an observable stimulus exists, which produces a particular response in an organism. This is reflexive behaviour. In other words, a person or animal is trained to naturally respond to something in the environment, which it has associated with some other thing.

The best example of classical conditioning is the experiments of Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist.

Pavlov noticed that when the dogs in his laboratory were given meat, they would salivate. The dog's salivation to meat is an unconditioned reflex: it is something which is within their nature.

Just before the dogs were fed, a bell would be rung. The ringing of the bell in itself did not have the ability to cause the dogs to salivate. After time, the dogs had learned to associate the ringing of the bell with the dispensation of food. Therefore, the dogs would begin to salivate in response to the ringing of the bell alone. When this happened, classical conditioning had occurred and a new, conditioned reflex had occurred.

Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life

People become classically conditioned when they are given the love of God for the purpose of desiring something. A good example of this would be when a man becomes attracted to a particular woman. This is for the purpose of the man becoming conditioned by the love of God in order to desire a close relationship with that woman.

In the absence of a proper apprehension of the role that God plays in a person’s life, a person can become conditioned to believe that it is the presence of an attractive member of the opposite sex which brings him or her the experience that we know as love.

Without the revelation of the existence of God and a reverence for Him – a person is likely to dismiss the belief that it is God’s presence that makes him or her happy when he or she falls in love with a member of the opposite sex. This misappropriation of God’s love will inevitably cause a person to make a god or goddess out of a person. The same concept is true with anything else that a person has learned to associate with feelings of well-being.

In the absence of something which a person has been conditioned to identify as giving him pleasure, he will naturally long for the acquisition of that thing by the quickest and most accessible means. In the absence of the love of God, a person will continue to long for what they identify as bringing them love.

In the absence of God’s love, a person will often desire after something through lust rather than love. Lust in the Biblical sense is not always sexually related: lust can come in the form of the desire for an abundance of material goods.

We all have become conditioned to make idols out of things. I am not laying the blame upon the love of God – not at all. I am simply highlighting the effect that love can have on the mind of the person who does not truly appreciate God. We can therefore see the vital importance of praise in the life of a person. Praise is not simply flattery – it is the acknowledgement of the truth: God is all in all. Christians cry out to God for Him to pour out His power, and yet, it is the very power of God that could lead to the creation of wrong beliefs and the like – if we are not ready to receive that power.

Idolatry can be likened to the creation of icons in the mind which represent something that is vital to human existence. Money is one of the most notorious of these icons which man has made into a god. It is little wonder that the Bible warns us against seeking after the acquisition of money. (See 1 Timothy 6:9-10).

Greed will always cause a person to want more and more of something, with the belief that the more they have of it - the more satisfied they will be. When a person delights in the acquisition of money, they will desire more of it, even when they have acquired more than enough for their own needs.

Selfish Ambition

Once a belief has been established in a person’s mind through conditioning – the mind, in the absence of God’s love, will seek to established ideas and plans which may seem convincing – but are actually nothing more than baseless fantasies. The Bible calls these fantasies, selfish ambition (Philippians 2:3). We see selfish ambition at work in the parable of the man who broke down his barns in Luke 12:15-21.

The first line of this parable is interesting:

¹⁵ And He said to them, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses."

Luke 12:15 nkjv

The Greek word translated “life” in this verse, is zoe (G2222) which means the very life-giving essence of God indwelling man’s spirit. When a person is covetous, he has become deluded into believing that the very source of his joy actually comes from an inanimate object, place, activity or person.  This leads to a fruitless pursuit of happiness through people, power and possessions.

What Is Happiness?

Happiness could be described as the fulfilment of a person’s need for a sense of security, significance and self-worth. Joy could be described as the manifestation of the life-giving presence of God. There seems to be a correlation between the two in that when a person is truly content, feels secure and accepts himself as he is – then he experiences a free-flow of the joy of the Lord.

The Bible says in Romans 14:17 that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This righteousness, peace and joy is found in the Holy Spirit, not in our achievements, the way we look, what other people think about us, our good works or our ability to keep rules.

No wonder Jesus Himself said in Matthew 6:33 that we are to not worry about material provision – but that we were to seek after the kingdom of God and His righteousness. When we do this – all those things, the material provision that we seek – will be added to us.

Contentment is the Key

I believe that contentment and self-acceptance is the key to happiness. 1 Timothy 6:6 says that godliness with contentment is great gain.

God does want His children to have all of their needs met and to live life in abundance. But God also calls us to live simply and to appreciate what we have. When a person succumbs to greed, he loses the ability to be satisfied with what he has; in fact, he cannot be satisfied with anything.