WEEK TWO—THE LIFE with Dr. Bill and Anabel Gillham

We watched the second half of Lesson One from “The Life” Series by Dr. Bill and Anabel Gillham this week. Dr. Gillham went into more detail about the human design. Humans are made up of three components: body, soul, and spirit (according to 1 Thess. 5:23).

The Spirit is that dimension of your being through which you relate to God. At the time of your physical birth, your spirit is dead to God. This condition is inherited from Adam, the first man, and this is why you need to be “born again.” (See John 3: 1-15)

The Soul is your unique personality and is comprised of three parts:

(1) The mind—Dr. Bill calls this your “thinker.”

(2) The emotions—Dr. Bill calls this your “feeler.”

(3) The will—makes decisions. It is like a light switch; it is either on or off. According to Dr. Bill, you don’t actually make up your mind about anything; you make up your will.

The body is referred to by Dr. Bill as your “earth suit.” It is the part of your being which houses your soul and spirit while you are here on earth. It is the vehicle through which you relate to people and the environment while you are on earth. Keep in mind that you are a spiritual being with a soul in a body, NOT a physical being with a spirit.

Bill points out that both the mind and the emotions are quick to respond to stimuli, but the emotions are much slower to recover. When one is chronically exposed to harmful stimuli (e.g. unhealthy relationships), your emotions can become “stuck.”

As the brain repeatedly receives the same type of information and interacts with the mind, will, and emotions in the same ways, those programs become deeply ingrained. Bill refers to these programs as “green highways.” After you are born again, these “green highways” become your unique version of the flesh. “Walking in the flesh most often requires you to choose to walk by what God’s word says rather than by what you feel.” (Gillham, p. 10).
Bill points out that before we can blame our parents for the way our self-perception (programming) developed, we must look to see how they were raised, and how their parents were raised, and how their parents were raised, etc. He says that if we look back far enough, we will find the enemy of God, Satan, who originally deceived Adam into thinking independence from God was a good plan. The battle we face is not against our parents or any other human being. Our battle is against the power of the enemy and his principalities (See Eph. 6:12).

Bill also points out in this lesson that PBA (performance-based acceptance) is the most common influence in the programming of the flesh. “If you perform well, I will accept you. If you don’t, I won’t.” Bill states, “Schools are a major source of PBA.” (Gillham, p. 12)

Dr. Tracey has promised to bring copies of the Flesh Inventory for class members to review next week. If you do not have access to the Gillham book, I hope you will take time to study this inventory that is included in the book.
Come join us next week as we begin Lesson # 2: “Bill and Anabel’s Flesh.” See you next Sunday.