[OBW]

Originally Posted by Igzy

That's the point. There is really not much wrong with most LC inner life verbiage. A case can be made for "exercise the spirit," "the mingled spirit," "the law of life," "the sense of life," all this stuff. It's not bad in itself. That wasn't the problem with the LC, although the vague subjective nature of the inner life talk served what was wrong with the LC. But, let's face it, the inner life is mysterious. It's mysterious because it's about us approaching and even touching God, so of course at some point it's going to be over our heads. Like John Ingalls once said, we talk about saving souls and we don't even know what a soul is. But that's okay. We don't need to know everything.

No, what was really wrong with the LC when you get right down to it was the abuse of authority. All the possibly good things were used not to serve God and people, but to serve "the ministry, "the work," "the Recovery," and were abused to control people who should have been honored with the freedom to decide for themselves whether they should submit themselves to LC leaders.

They weren't. That was and is the problem. The debate about whether "exercise the spirit" is appropriate language can go on forever because in the end what one thinks it means is so subjective that it can vary from person to person.

Take away the evil controlling aspect of the LC and "exercise the spirit" is a benign phrase. That's true for a lot of things we debate here.

Igzy,

Everything you have said I agree with. But in the case of this thread, we have been wandering farther and farther from the question, and what do/did we think "exercised in my spirit" meant. (or "exercise my spirit" or "exercise of the spirit" etc.) In other words, what did we think the term meant that then allowed men to come along with additional rules about other things and convince us that if we were "exercised in our spirit" we would understand and follow (whatever you want to fill in here).

Yes, it was a tool for those who abused authority. And the meaning is at least somewhat subjective. But we had to tack some meaning to it by itself to then become ensnared in subjugation to the abuse of leaders due to it. This particular phrase may not have been that much of a problem. But when it was written here on the forum, it suddenly looked naked to me, especially since it seemed clear that another phrase was accurate concerning what was being said. But I could not really get "exercised in my spirit" to fit that case other than remotely.

At some level, saying things like that was reinforcement of our special position among Christians. We used special words and phrases because common words were not good enough. We even looked our own LRC brethren funny when they incorrectly used some of the "old" terminology that regular Christians did.

Yes, "exercised in my spirit" may simply mean whatever the user wanted it to mean at the time, even if not much of anything other than to be in sync with LRC ways. Then again, it was also used at times in such a manner that it was a tool to reinforce the edicts of the leadership. "If you are exercised in your spirit you wil . . ." or "you won't . . . ." So when I declare myself to be exercised in my spirit, I am forcing what I am doing to fit inside of what I think is the LRC way.

And then, I could just be doing what a lot of people do when they say that something is "biblical" or "scriptural." What they mean is that according to me, or the group that I run with, this is what we interpret the Bible to say and mean. So any suggestion that it might mean something else is "unbiblical."

Teachings like deputy authority, Lee's overlay use of "God's economy," the ground of the church, and much more, are built upon something that comes before those teachings. We might be able to point to the problem that deputy authority creates, but if you are convinced that the teaching is sound, what do you do about it? Suck it up and stay in line. The fact that the teaching allows for so much abuse by leadership is not the reason that the teaching is bad if you think that it is a correct teaching.

So let's try to dismantle the structure that supports deputy authority. If the reasons that Nee could get there are removed, then the emperor will be seen in his nakedness. Men like BP and RK will no longer have the authority granted to them by some of their current followers who come to see the error in the teachings that seemed to give them such authority.

A lot to say "Let's stick with 'exercised in my spirit'" and leave deputy authority for another thread.

On the other hand, if there are other "spiritual" clichés that we even find ourselves still using, add them in as an item to think about. What does it mean and what did it do to/for us?