Simple Keys to Heal Rejection by Dr. Dennis Clark

Author:Dr. Dennis Clark [Dennis Clark, Jen Clark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7684-0478-4
Publisher: Destiny Image, Inc.

No, poor “rock,” you are sadly deluded. Hiding in your room just trades one pain for another. Books and poetry won’t protect you. And you still feel your pain anyway. Emotions don’t die; we just bury them alive! The truth is that there are no true rocks or islands here. Just ordinary people— some of whom are hiding, some who are in denial, and others who desperately want help but don’t know how to deal effectively with their wounds and walls.

Self-Control and the Will

The nine fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23 include the fruit called “temperance” in the King James Version of the Bible. This same word is called “self-control” in the New King James Version.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23).

This particular fruit, “self-control,” is God’s antidote for the force behind rebellion, stubbornness, manipulation, human control, and stress. And what is the culprit? Willpower. The force of our human will. Our will pushes, pulls, tries harder, and controls. It is a product of the flesh, not Spirit, although the Scriptures indicate that it is dangerously close to witchcraft and idolatry. Witchcraft and idolatry are flesh and willpower, with spiritual hitchhikers attached.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery [witchcraft], hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry… (1 Samuel 15:23).

The Greek word for self-control is enkrateia, which means mastery over oneself, or self-governance. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words says that enkrateia is “the controlling power of the [human] will under the operation of the Spirit of God.”3 Self-control, therefore, is human will submitted to God’s divine will.

Overcoming our appetites, passions, and impulsive whims is more desirable than an army winning a great battle. That is a victory only God can accomplish. Have you ever been successful at keeping your New Year’s resolutions? That is why we need enkrateia. We need God’s empowerment in our lives.

Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than to conquer a city (Proverbs 16:32 NLT).

His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

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