Participants: David Sedlacek, Kathy Matthews
Series Code: TAH
Program Code: TAH000129
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00:31 Hello I'm Kathy Matthews and this is
00:32 Thinking About Home. You know today we are gonna 00:35 be talking about one of the most favorite subjects 00:37 I have ever run across. And that is the will, 00:39 the right use of the will. Most people don't even 00:43 understand what their will can do or some don't even 00:47 realize that their will is there. I remember talking to 00:50 a child one time in a children's story at church 00:53 and I said something about their will and they popped 00:56 up and said I don't have one. 00:57 And it was reminded me sometimes of adults 01:03 that might not realize what they can do with theirs. 01:05 We are going to have quite a discussion on this about 01:09 the mind of man and what God's plan is. 01:12 Our guest today is Dr. David Scdlacck from Weimar 01:15 Institute and I want to thank him for being 01:17 with us again. Thank you Kathy for inviting me, 01:19 yes, I like the subject. What did God have in mind 01:24 for the human mind and especially the will of man 01:28 at creation? Well at creation, 01:33 man was created in perfect harmony with God. 01:36 It was perfect oneness with God and God's mind. 01:41 There was no sin, there was no discord and so there 01:45 was a perfect harmony and we might graph it something 01:49 like this, that there was God and then there was 01:54 the will of man and there were all other mind faculties 01:58 of man and the will was in perfect submission to the 02:02 will of God. In another words, the will of man and 02:04 the will of God were one. That's what God's plan was, 02:08 perfect harmony, no conflict. And that's exactly the 02:12 way it was in our unfallen state. 02:14 Well, help me to understand now then what more 02:18 specifically the will and its function in the life of man. 02:22 Well, the will is like a gatekeeper in many ways, 02:26 it's the faculty of the mind that makes decisions. 02:32 And when decisions are made, everything else 02:34 follows from that decision making process, 02:38 so the will is the deciding power it's almost like 02:42 the king of all of the mind faculties in many respects. 02:46 The king, yes, well if it's the king, 02:49 there is got to be other powers; 02:51 that's right there are. It's the king, so there has 02:53 to be other subjects or a king has subjects so 02:56 it's got to be the other abilities of the mind, 02:59 but the will, the will has so much going 03:03 for it or could, well that's right you know. 03:05 The other mind faculties and there are many, 03:07 many other mind faculties were meant to be 03:10 subservient to the king, yes. That's why I said that, 03:14 when you name it the king, that's right, 03:16 every other one is. Can you be more specific 03:23 about how the brain works when a decision is made, 03:26 you know because the will has to do with the decision. 03:29 So when a decision is made is got to bring that will 03:35 into harmony, right? That's right, but you just, 03:39 just tell me more about how the brain works. 03:42 Well it's interesting, every time a choice is made 03:46 to think something, to say something, 03:49 to do something, to feel something there are 03:53 corresponding neurochemical pathways that are formed 03:59 in the brain. And they form these pathways 04:03 connected to habits of thinking, habits of doing, 04:07 habits of feeling, these are all connected to choices 04:10 that we make, and the choices that we make 04:13 result in the formation of these pathways in the brain. 04:17 And these pathways interestingly enough 04:20 are not just neurological, but they are biochemical 04:24 and it's important to understand that every time 04:26 you make a decision for better or for worse, 04:29 what you are doing is you are either reinforcing 04:32 a pathway to make it stronger or you are weakening 04:36 that pathway and building a different pathway. 04:38 It's an extremely important thing to understand 04:41 that our brains are actively at work every time 04:47 we think, feel, choose, anytime the mind works, 04:51 right. So what happened to the will when man sinned? 04:57 Well when man sinned something happened that 05:02 debilitated the process. You see when man sinned 05:09 Satan got involved and when Satan got involved 05:12 he insinuated himself into the process. 05:16 No longer was the will subservient only to God, 05:19 but we had a new master when we sinned. 05:23 You see originally our master was God, 05:27 but when we chose to sin, we chose to follow Satan. 05:32 And so we are gonna see here how Satan insinuated 05:35 himself into this process. And so we wanna take 05:40 a look at that in our next graphic and so if we can look 05:45 at what happened to the mind of man. 05:49 What happened is heart's desire came into play 05:51 and when heart's desire came into play heart's desire 05:58 is that part of us that deals with appetites and 06:02 passions, flesh. Well in a sense, 06:05 what is the difference in that? But I don't want 06:06 unnecessarily put an evil spin on it because originally, 06:12 yeah, heart's desire was a faculty of man that God 06:15 gave us that God gave, yes and it was good. 06:18 God says he delights to give us the desires of our hearts 06:21 and so that must mean it's okay to have desires, right. 06:24 And isn't that what he wants to restore to us? 06:26 Exactly right, that our desires would be brought 06:29 into harmony with him, that's right. 06:33 Not perverted and controlled by the enemy, that's right. 06:36 But what happens is heart's desire in its perverted 06:40 sense in the fallen human nature scenario gets 06:44 you into following appetite that may be perverted 06:49 appetite or passions that are not sanctified passions 06:52 and what has happened is that, is that those 06:56 things have become such a powerful drive now 06:59 in man in their perverted state that the will gets 07:05 filtered and decisions get filtered then through 07:08 heart's desire rather than heart's desire 07:11 subservient to will. That's what's happened 07:14 in the perverted condition of man and so now 07:18 that's what Satan knows that he can cater to if 07:23 he can make things appealing to us. 07:25 If he can make them look good or feel good 07:28 then we are gonna make our decisions based upon 07:30 that rather than based upon sound principle. 07:33 It seems like it would be kind of hopeless if Satan 07:37 is in control wouldn't it be? Well, how can we make 07:40 a change? Well the reality is that alone, 07:43 it is hopeless for us. There is no hope we are 07:47 literally slaves of our human nature and slaves 07:51 to the enemy. I don't think people, 07:53 I don't think even we in the church understand 07:55 this very much, do you, do you think we understand 07:59 as the way we should? Because it seems 08:01 to be like if we did, we might be able to make 08:08 a change more readily? I totally agree with you 08:12 about that Kathy, do you think so? I do, 08:14 because you see when we don't know what our 08:19 behavior is saying then we do certain things, 08:22 we think certain things is giving evidence of who 08:25 our master is and Jesus said you are either 08:28 gonna serve Me or you are gonna serve Mammon, 08:30 you can't serve us both. And when what 08:33 we do gives evidence that we are serving Mammon 08:37 really our master is still Satan even though 08:40 we are in the church. There are many of us 08:43 in the church unfortunately who have a profession 08:46 of Christianity or profession of Godliness, 08:49 but it doesn't get translated into our daily life, 08:53 our thought processes our feeling realities and our 08:57 behavior. Right. And so true Godliness gets translated 09:02 that way and so the way to get that is through 09:06 a true conversion experience, yes of course. 09:08 So then, a true surrender of the will if you will, 09:12 I guess that way. Okay, so we are in bondage 09:15 so how do we make that change, 09:16 how do we get out of bondage to sin? Okay, 09:20 well the first way is to know that in Christ 09:25 I already am free, yes. You see Satan doesn't 09:28 want us to know that we are already free, 09:30 so we could act like we are not, behave 09:33 as if we are not, if don't know that, exactly. 09:37 You know as Christians our heritage is one of freedom 09:40 not bondage, but Satan works by lies and deceptions. 09:43 And so most of us, he has succeeded in having 09:48 us believe that we are not free, but in fact we are. 09:51 So first of all is coming to realize that I have 09:53 freedom in Jesus already, okay then secondly 09:57 it's making a conscious decision to surrender my will, 10:03 okay. First of all, and what that implies is that 10:08 I know that I have the capacity to do that, to 10:12 surrender. Yeah most of us, some of us don't even 10:15 know that surrender has to be a conscious 10:17 decision that I make. You see Jesus doesn't 10:21 wave a magic one over us and say poof you know 10:24 you are changed now, right, okay. 10:28 The Christian life especially this part of the Christian 10:31 life that we are talking about which is really in 10:33 the realm of sanctification. It's a workable lifetime 10:36 and it's a work of daily surrender of the will 10:38 to God. And lot of us don't know that we have 10:42 that capacity to choose that that's a right we have, 10:46 it's a responsibility we have, 10:47 and that when we make that decision to surrender 10:51 the will we are making the decision to have Jesus 10:55 as our master rather than Satan as our master, okay. 10:59 Now that's, that is extremely important, 11:02 but do you know that there are many people 11:04 who have even what we call disabilities of the will. 11:08 There are things that Satan has done to destroy 11:11 our capacity to even make those choices, 11:13 now we can dwell. Yes, we are gonna be talking 11:15 about that in some of our future sessions, okay. 11:19 Yes because I wanted you to talk about this most 11:22 especially because in the home we want to do this, 11:26 we want to recognize this as parents or whoever 11:29 is the guardian or caregiver even to a child because 11:34 I wanted you to talk about this to lead us to how 11:38 to train our children and if we can train our children 11:41 to learn to choose properly and to set their will. 11:45 That's right. If we don't know how to do it and 11:51 so we have to understand how to get out of bondage 11:53 to make those choices that we need to make 11:55 under true conversion, that's right. 11:57 So that we can train our children so that our homes 12:00 can be being prepared for a heavenly home, 12:04 that's right. And I want you to help us help the 12:07 viewers to know more about the subject that's right. 12:10 Well I wanted to go little bit more technically 12:12 now into how the brain functions because I think 12:16 it would be useful for people to get a real clear 12:19 picture of this, okay. Whenever we make 12:24 a decision as I mentioned earlier there is a pathway 12:27 formed and it's a pathway that is a nervous 12:30 system pathway as well as a biochemical pathway. 12:35 When I make a decision the nerve cells are 12:39 stimulated and the electrical energy flows 12:43 down the nerve cells flows through the dendrites 12:45 down the axon to the end of the nerve cell. 12:48 And on the end of the nerve cell our little buttons, 12:52 our French word for button, a French word for button. 12:58 And so each of those buttons has little 13:01 neurotransmitters or chemicals in them and when 13:07 that nerve energy flows down the nerve cell, 13:11 it triggers the buttons to release what we call 13:14 neurotransmitters to go across a little gap, 13:18 a little space and that goes on to trigger the next 13:21 nerve cell. And then the chemicals are released 13:24 and that goes on to trigger the next nerve cell and then 13:27 ultimately the thought, the action, the feeling, 13:31 the moment of the muscle whatever it may be takes 13:35 place because of this happening, because of that 13:37 happening. Now what we need to understand 13:40 is that a decision triggers this neuro-biochemical 13:45 response. Now the normal chemical that flows across 13:50 this little synaptic gap is called ACH, 13:53 which has an abbreviation for acetylcholine, okay. 13:57 Now why that significant is this; that God has built 14:02 into the normal human brain a mechanism to 14:05 counteract pathways that have already been formed. 14:10 For example have you ever run into a situation, 14:13 where you found yourself doing something 14:15 you are developed a habit already and you thought, 14:17 oh yak I don't like this, I want to change it, right. 14:20 And so you made a New Year's resolution or you 14:23 decided I'm gonna change this thing, okay. 14:27 And you make promises that you are gonna do it, 14:30 we've done a lot. Now what God has 14:33 done is he built a mechanism into counteract this 14:38 habit pattern that has been established. 14:42 And that mechanism is another neurotransmitter 14:47 that's called GABA, that's stands for 14:49 gamma-aminobutyric acid. And when I say no I am 14:53 not gonna do it, in another words I'm just gonna 14:56 use my own will power to try and counteract 14:59 on an habit that I formed. What happens is 15:03 gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA is released to 15:07 weaken or to counteract the normal mechanisms 15:10 of the ACH and other neurotransmitters that are 15:13 used in the development of habit pattern. 15:16 God in His great love and mercy built this mechanism 15:19 into the normal brain function isn't that wonderful? 15:21 It is wonderful that God has given us that ability 15:24 to do it. Well I'm fascinated with hearing about it 15:28 and hearing about it is like hearing about how 15:31 He did something with the Red Sea, 15:32 it gives me the understanding of, 15:39 well it just seems like a miracle and when I hear 15:42 about it, it gives me more faith in God that he 15:44 placed it there. Well that's true, 15:46 but you know there are lot of people who are not 15:49 Christians Kathy, who let's say they try to stop 15:53 drinking after they are an alcoholic and they, 15:56 I am just gonna do this thing and how many times 15:59 did I try to do it and this mechanism is in place 16:02 of GABA that work and responds to their will, 16:07 but they just cannot follow through it what 16:08 they've done. Their promises are like robes of sand, 16:11 nothing, nothing. So, is that mean that we are 16:14 hopeless even with this mechanism that God has 16:16 given us? No, no. There is got to be more, 16:19 there is got to be more, isn't there? That's surely is, 16:22 because it would seem like that would be a very 16:23 unhappy person who was going through that 16:25 and yet there are people who can set their will 16:28 and manage, that's right, but are they converted 16:31 people just because they can do that? 16:32 No, no they are not. The Philippians 2:13 tells us 16:36 something very interesting, it says it is God in us 16:40 that works both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 16:47 And so God gives us both the capacity to choose 16:50 and then to do to follow through with that which 16:54 he desires of us. Now it's real fascinating that 16:59 when we look at that scripture and we take a look 17:01 at other scriptures like that were a new creature 17:05 and old things have passed away. 17:09 And what that old things means in this context 17:11 is some of our old ways of thinking, 17:13 some of our old ways behaving, 17:15 some of the old habits that we've developed. 17:19 That what seems to happen biochemically is this, 17:25 you know that we use only a small percentage 17:27 of our brain, right, let's say about ten percent, 17:30 about ten percent which means we have another 17:32 90 percent available to us. And what seems to happen 17:36 is this, that God did something much more 17:40 wonderful than GABA, as wonderful as that is now. 17:46 He does something much more wonderful, 17:48 when I say Lord I am helpless, 17:54 I've tried all these things myself. 17:57 You see a lot of people who just got it out and make 18:00 these changes by themselves they do it but 18:03 they end up still being miserable people because 18:06 they still have the same unconverted heart. 18:10 And what the Lord does is, he wants to take the 18:13 heart and convert the heart and change and 18:16 empower the will to willing to of his good pleasure. 18:21 When that happens? Here is what we think happens 18:23 actually in that other 90 percent of the brain 18:26 is when we ask God for help that he creates 18:31 a whole new pathway, amen. And this is, 18:35 now this has been discovered, hasn't it? Yes, 18:37 you thought, you've seen the drawings or the 18:41 pictures or whatever of this type of thing happening. 18:44 That's right, that's what the new research 18:47 is tending to show, is that, and this is the miraculous 18:51 part. Is that when I ask God for help, 18:54 he literally does it, not he even overcomes 18:59 the normal ACH, GABA mechanism to create a whole 19:03 new pathway now when he does that it gives 19:05 me new choice that I didn't have before. 19:10 Now when I have new choice, 19:12 when I exercise my will to choose this new thing 19:15 now that I know that God has told me to do, 19:18 is it new choice or new power? Is it either one? 19:23 Well it's certainly is a new power to choose differently, 19:26 yes, which makes it in a sense not the old thing 19:29 I've always done, but something new. 19:31 But in fact the new power come from, 19:33 couldn't that new power come from of course 19:35 from God but working on the hearts of desire 19:39 to make it change puts the new oomph in to making 19:44 the decision. Well that's interesting because 19:48 research have shown that any decision that's made, 19:51 if it's made without the full ascent to the heart 19:57 it's not going to be a decision that's followed 19:59 through it very well. They needs to be that emotional 20:02 component to it and when its there when 20:04 the two are combined then it's very, very strong. 20:07 We are gonna look at that more, 20:08 in more detail in one of our future sessions, 20:11 okay, but those two have to be together. 20:13 But when that happens and God forms us new 20:17 pathway then when a situation comes up 20:22 and I have a decision to make, am I gonna choose 20:25 the old thing or am I gonna choose the new thing? 20:30 Every time I choose the new, 20:33 what happens is that the new pathway gets reinforced 20:35 or deeper you might say. The groove gets deeper, 20:39 if you wanna call it that way, right, but literally 20:42 what happens is this. Remember I talked about 20:44 those little buttons, the buttons on the end 20:46 of each nerve cell. What happens is the stronger 20:50 a habit becomes the more frequent decision 20:54 is made the more, the greater the number of 20:58 buttons at the end of each of those nerve cells. 21:02 So every time I make that decision that new decision 21:05 I strengthen the number of buttons, 21:09 what happens to the old ones. 21:10 Well the old pathway, what happens is, 21:13 to the buttons on the old ones, okay, what happens 21:15 is with disuse they tend to weaken and atrophy 21:20 and ultimately to disappear entirely, 21:21 they can do that, yes they can, yes they can. 21:24 And so therefore eventually with new 21:27 choices, new heart's desire that new path can 21:32 be strengthen the old one can eventually dissipate, 21:36 that's right. Romans 12:2 says be transformed 21:41 by the renewing of your mind. 21:44 And you see this has to be a real Christian experience, 21:48 it has to be something new and different that 21:50 God gives us the ability to do that also wouldn't, 21:54 God just doesn't tell us things in his word to just 21:57 stick in there, right. And he puts them there because 21:59 he wants them to be real part of the human 22:02 experience. And so I think what I want to do 22:06 is I want to go on now to talking about the restored 22:11 picture from a graphic point of view, okay. 22:15 And so if we could take a look at that, 22:18 we see in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17, 22:21 if any man be in Christ he is a new creature. 22:24 All things are passed away behold all things 22:26 become new. And in this new picture what happens 22:31 is that, the human will is now brought under 22:36 submission to God again instead of back under 22:40 submission to Satan, we are no longer under 22:42 that bondage but there are three other faculties 22:46 that are now brought into play. 22:49 One of them is conscience, the other is reason 22:53 or common sense and of course the third is that 22:55 one we've been talking about what is hearts desire. 22:58 These three work in harmony with the will, 23:01 we are gonna talk about that next time, 23:03 good because I was gonna ask you, 23:04 could you explain more about Conscience, 23:07 common sense and heart's desire. 23:08 But if we are gonna talk about it later, 23:10 we will keep on going then. Yes, we are gonna talk 23:13 about those things and what happens is that, 23:17 God's plan now is complete restoration of the mind of 23:22 man and complete restoration means that my will, 23:28 will once again be entirely in harmony with God's will 23:34 that there will be no dissonance that sin will have 23:39 no more power over me. Now Kathy I believe that, 23:43 that's gonna be an experience of God's people 23:45 before Jesus comes again, I do too, 23:47 not only afterwards but that God is right now cleansing 23:51 the hearts of people he is renewing and restoring 23:55 our minds so that we can be brought in complete 24:01 harmony with God's will that there will be no more 24:05 dissonance that we will be entirely submitted to God 24:09 once again, the same way Adam was before sin. 24:12 Now that is something it really excites me. 24:16 It is, it's beautiful. I want to hear more about that 24:19 and I guess we can get into a little bit more about that. 24:24 When I think of what this can do for a person 24:27 in the home and it gives us the power well it gives us 24:33 the power that we need or the understanding that 24:37 we need to keep moving forward in Christ, 24:40 I think it's an exciting concept. Well, 24:43 I think a lot of parents tend to be discouraged 24:45 at times because they try things and they try things 24:48 and they don't end up working and a part 24:53 of it is understanding even in your child, 24:56 the power that the will has in your child. 25:00 You know, we've heard a lot for example about strong 25:03 will children, yes, and how a strong will child seems 25:07 to be a rebellious child. The trick is to take that 25:11 strength of will and to redirect, a channel in a 25:15 direct direction, exactly. Too many parents 25:18 make this mistake, they make the mistake 25:20 of saying well my child has is the strong will child 25:22 and so I have to squash that child's will, 25:25 I have to, if you will beat that rebelliousness out 25:31 of him and that's not really what you want. 25:33 No. You need that will for later when you can 25:36 serve Christ. Exactly and so God does not want us 25:39 as parents to control our children to the point 25:42 where we eliminate their capacity to make 25:46 decisions for themselves rather what he wants us 25:49 to do is to take our children and teach them 25:52 how to use the faculties of the mind and so apart 25:56 of it we need to do is to consciously educate 25:59 our children along these lines. I know I've made 26:02 a conscious decision in my own family to take 26:06 my son and he is 12 now and I am going through 26:10 these studies with him and I am saying, are you, 26:12 Michael this is what God wants to do with your will 26:16 and this is how the conscience works and this 26:20 is how reason works, and this is how heart's desire 26:23 works and this is how Satan tries to bring these things 26:25 against God and this is how God wants to 26:28 restore them, I take him through step by step 26:30 scenarios and apply them in real practical ways 26:34 in his life and help them begin using these as 26:37 tools that can really strengthen him and built him 26:41 up right now and not just in the future, 26:43 right now as he is living his life as a young 26:46 preadolescent body, yes. Can you give us up 26:50 a quick summary now of how Jesus' plan for 26:53 restoring the human mind. Okay, 26:56 Jesus plan for restoring the human mind is number 27:00 one to have us begin studying this area of the 27:04 will and the mind and how it works. 27:07 We are told that one of the things that we should 27:08 study is human nature. And so he wants us to begin 27:12 looking at it, to begin studying it to know how 27:16 it works and then to make a conscience decision 27:20 to make a surrender of my heart and my 27:22 will to His. Now the will surrendered is the will 27:28 in perfect harmony with God, okay. 27:32 That is, that is absolutely the perfect place to 27:36 be and next time we are gonna talk about decision 27:39 making process aren't we? That's right, 27:41 oh good, how it works, yes I want people 27:44 to join us and you will be coming back for not 27:46 only that program but one more on this right 27:50 after that, that's right, oh that will be great. 27:53 When you tune in next time get your pen 27:56 and your paper and you will be 27:58 happy on Thinking About Home. |
Revised 2014-12-17