We will pick it up with relationships, which if you will recall are the result of free will, which is endowed with intellect and emotion, glued together by enlightenment and revelation.
When a person understands these 6 points THEN a person can have a rich and exciting life with the Lord - a life of communication and fellowship, of understanding and even friendship with Him. The Lord is healthy in His own free will, intellect, emotions, relationships, obligations, and consequences - within this framework one may commune with Him.
IF a person is not healthy emotionally, He can reach them, but He will attempt to bring them into health in part so that they may correctly and in a healthy way, know Him. IF a person is not healthy in their exercise of free will, intellect, or enlightenment, their ability to draw close to Him is limited - because He is healthy, because He is balanced. He seeks to bring us up to His higher ways and thoughts, but as Isaiah 55 says, we must first forsake our ways and thoughts.
Look at this in your own life - the healthier you are in how you exercise your free will, in how you think, in how you feel, upon what you feed for revelation and enlightenment - is the degree by which you feel that closeness to Him.
By contrast an amoral person ruins relationships by the misuse of their free will, intellect, emotions and enlightenment. An amoral government has the same characteristics, making rules and laws that destroy peaceful relationships, and pervert relationships,
V) Obligations are the requirements of self governance and federal governance of a people.
Following my logic, once these first 3 points are embodied within the frame work of (#4) relationships, it follows there are obligations within those relationships in order to have a godly and peaceful set of relationships throughout one's life. These obligations once again fall into three categories: God, man, creation.
Obligations are intellectual in nature, not emotional. We may not feel like keeping the outside of our house nice, but we have an obligation to our neighbors which compels us to do so. Obligations are things which control us because we are indebted to someone or to a circumstance, and binds us to them or it.
A godly and moral obligation is then a course of action flowing from God through us that is right and proper towards others we are in relationship with. Because we live in nations, each nation having its own set of rules and regulations, we are obligated to be good citizens, to participate as allowed in our governance, and to steer our lives and that of government towards godly obligations.
An amoral government like an amoral person, will pervert relationships, pervert obligations through arbitrary and unilaterally created rules. An amoral government puts burdensome rules on its citizens, seeking to ever move away from free will and individual self-sufficiency, in order to centralize power to a large federal core.
VI) Consequences are the enforcement of self governance and federal governance of a people.
Again follow my logic in that obligations that come about through relationships, which come about through the exercise of free will, intellect, emotion, and enlightenment, must have therefore consequences good and bad.
If a person is to be godly, moral, and walk with God, there must be consequences good and bad as a result of free will. These consequences are according to God's perfect justice, some of which will be revealed later, some of which is seen in this life.
The good consequences of a person living in points 1-5 are a blessed life, healthy relationships, favor, revelation, and a life that gradually moves closer to God and closer to Christ-like character. Godliness, in a word.
The bad consequences of not being a good steward of points 1-5 are the opposite: Unhealthy thoughts and emotions, unhealthy enlightenment and revelation from unhealthy sources, unhealthy and broken relationships, obligations unmet and obligations others fail to fulfill to them, and eventually physical deterioration, even perhaps to eternal separation from God.
An amoral government will move ever closer to controlling every aspect of its citizens with dire punishments for disobeying the letter of the law. An amoral government perverts obligations and consequences, and in many cases because it is void of wisdom and enlightenment it will call good evil, and evil it will call good.
The reason I've thought through these (what turned out to be) six elements flowing from God to mankind is because of all the warring going on between the liberal and conservatives around the world - protect one's borders or have no borders, ever increasing encroachment of government into the lives of private citizens and business, or a smaller government that allows a people and businesses to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, and Christians are often confused for all the voices out there. I hope I've brought some clarity, for by these you can rightly discern and judge righteously - just keep these 6 elements in mind and you'll be amazed how clear things become.
I hope it has been a blessing to you - rather academic I know and I apologize, but I thought it best just to lay it out there point by point. Hope it makes sense to you as it does me.
New subject next week, blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]