Illustrated Bible For Children
Managing Your weaknessess and strengths by IKECHUKWU JOSEPH
DISCOVERING AND MANAGING YOUR WEAKNESSES AND STRENGTHS
By
IKECHUKWU JOSEPH
For every strength there is a delimiter or a limiting force called weakness
and for every weakness there is a remedial mechanism called strength.
Everyone is curious mixture of weaknesses and strengths -Tim Lahaye
The idea of this blog is to identify your strengths and weaknesses and manage
them towards harnessing your potentials. Strength for every weakness.
DEFINITIONS:
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WEAKNESS is a negative compelling force controlling you, a short fall,
involving a deficiency in character. You are born with it or you acquired it, so
you can also change it. St Paul in Romans 7:18-20,24 sounding defeated,
confessed that the good he wanted to do he could not and the bad he does not
want to do he found himself doing. He blamed it on sin in his flesh but he
however cried out for help- who shall deliver me? The ‘I’ of Paul is his total
being – body, soul and spirit. Examples of such temperament weakness include
fear, indecision anger, emotional instability, weak-will, sadness, revenge,
self-centeredness, ego, restlessness etc.
However as a Pastor or someone who have worked with people for a long time, I
have seen the Holy Spirit take a weak trait in someone and transform it into a
living power of great strength.
STRENGTH: It is a positive compelling and propelling force. In Greek it
is rendered as same word as power (dunamis) ability, force, might, to make
strong, increase. Some temperament strengths include strong will, sensitivity,
enjoying, practical, compassionate, optimism, friendliness, leadership
tendencies, dependability, self sacrifices etc.
INHERITANCE: It is a natural weakness or strength received from parents.
It could be genotypic (not seen physically) or phenotypic (seen physically). The
Greek for inheritance (Kleronomeo) strictly means to receive by lot (kleros=a
lot, nemomai= to posses’) i.e. to possess oneself of or to receive as ones own.
The Bible renders natural weakness as the natural mans, the old nature or old
man.
TEMPERAMENT: It is an inherited mixture of inborn strengths and
weaknesses that subconsciously control our actions and reactions. It is passed
on genetically and from generation to generation.
CHARACTER: This is the real you that makes you, the you, you are. Your
natural temperament modified by childhood training, education and experiences.
What happens in your soul realm-your mind, emotions and volition (will)
PERSONALITY: This is the outward show or expression of oneself-your
phenotypic representation that might be true or false of your real identity or
who you are inside, which is character. Here you can decide to be yourself or
pretend be true or false, cover-ups or exposure. Personality is the outward
manifestation, behavioral characteristic, expressed mood, attitudes, opinions,
both inherited and acquired.
2. PSYCHOLOGISTS AND TEMPERAMENT
Psychologist classified temperament into two – The introvert and the extrovert
AN INTROVERT: It is simply defined as a person who is interested in his/her own
thoughts and feelings than that of others. Reserved, withdrawn person, loner
inner directed person.
AN EXTROVERT: It is a person who enjoys being with others; outspoken persons,
sociable person. Hardly keep secrets. Shows off.
3. FOUR BASIC TEMPERAMENTS
I must warn at this onset that we should avoid the temptation of trying to group
people according to a temperament type. A person is a mixture of these types.
Hippocrates, the Greek philosopher who is also regarded as Father of
medicine, erroneously classified temperaments or human nature as a balance of
four hum ours or body liquids – blood (sanguine-warm pleasant), yellow
bile (choleric- quick to act), black bile (melancholy-depressed, sad)
and phlegm (phlegmatic – slow moving, apathetic). This idea has long been
discarded but these four temperaments have still been in us.
4. BIBLICAL NATURE OF MAN (1 Thess.5:23; Heb.4:12 – Some call it
Tri-unity, or Tripartite or triune nature )
And the very God of peace sanctify you Wholly (completely) and I pray God
you whole SPIRIT and SOUL and BODY be preserved blameless. 1 Thess. 5:23.
Your Spirit makes contact with the spiritual world (invisible)
Your Soul makes contact with the mental & intellectual world (invisible)
Your Body makes contact with the physical world (visible)
THE SPIRIT MAN: There is need for your spirit (small letter ‘s’) to yield
to the Spirit of God (capital letter ‘S`’). Rom 8:16 says that the Spirit of God
bears witness with our spirit (small letter ‘s’) that we are the children of
God. The Holy Spirit occupies our spirit but for any unsaved person Satan
occupies that position. The two spirits must agree for God to touch your
circumstances.
The concentric diagram below illustrates this
Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16-171 Cor 3:13
Soul 1 Cor. 3: 1-3
Body 1 Cor. 3:13
Man (Spirit, Soul and Body): 1 Cor. 3:1-3
The illustration is a concentric circle
- The innermost represent the spirit of man (God’s contact point with man)
- The middle circle is the soul realm (natural man, flesh battle, spiritual
battle ground)
- The outermost is the body (carnal, fleshly and appetite realm)
Demonstrate it yourself with three vessels or cups with different sizes, putting
each smaller one into the bigger.
The spirit (Innermost Vessel) For a Christian when you receive Jesus
Christ into your life, He comes like the Holy Spirit into your spirit (not soul
or body) as light, life and love and begin to transform you into a new creation.
He is at the center but for unbeliever darkness and Satan occupies there.
The Soul: (Middle Vessel) represent the seat of your emotions (feelings,
anger, crying, laughing etc.), Will (volition, decision making, judgment) and
the Mind (intellect, reasoning). Important aspect of man but you cannot contact
God through this level (Luke. 10:21). Rom 12:2 enjoins us to transform this
level by renewing our mind. How? The word of God imbibed and applied through the
spirit will do.
The Body (outermost vessel) makes contact with the physical environment.
The 5 senses – the eye (sight), the ear (hearing), the nose (smelling),
skin(touch) and tongue (taste) are the gateways of the body through which the
Holy Spirit in your spirit speaks to you. This part is the mechanical part of
man and again we cannot directly reach God through this realm-mechanical
prayers, evangelism or deeds? Romans 12:1 enjoin us to present our bodies
(plural) a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.
In the spiritual and with God the spirit of Man is the most important. What
level of life are you living? A spiritual man, ‘soulish’ or ‘soulical’ man or a
physical or natural man. The natural man cannot understand the things of the
Spirit. What percentage of each level are you? The levels that have greater
influence on the other determine your life. We must grow and develop our minds,
mortify our bodies and control our spirit.
Allow a Holy Spirit controlled spirit to rule over your soul and body for you to
understand God better. Are you now set to go?
I will now try to bring out these weaknesses and strengths and we shall see how
the Holy Spirit can transform these weaknesses to great strength. The
Spirit-controlled temperament.
OVERCOMING YOUR WEAKNESSES AND MAXIMIZING YOUR STRENGTHS
Someone summarily depicted the strength of the four temperaments like this:
“The hard-driving Choleric produces the inventions of the genius-prone
Melancholy, which are sold by the personable Sanguine and enjoyed by the
easy-going Phlegmatic”
Dr Hallesby expressed the shortcomings of the four temperaments in this way:
<font color=”#FF0000″>The Sanguine type enjoys people and then forgets them.
The Melancholy is annoyed with people but lets them go their own crooked ways.
The choleric makes use of people for his own benefit; afterwards, he ignores
them. The Phlegmatic studies people with supercilious indifference.
But the Spirit filled and/or Spirit modified or controlled temperaments modifies
the strengths to useful profitability and in such a way as to eliminate the
interfering, reoccurring weaknesses.</font>
DISCOVER YOURSELF:Who are you? What are you made up of? Sincerely
answering these questions and dealing with the resultant effects in the Holy
Spirit will prepare you internally to exploit your environment
References:
1. Encyclopedia Britannica 2002 Deluxe Edition
2. Spirit Controlled Temperament by TIM LAHAYE – copyright 1966 by Post
Inc.Lamesa, California, Tyndale House publishers
3. Microsoft Encarta Premium Suite 2004
4. Bible and Bible Dictionaries
About the Author
A webmaster,internet marketer
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