"the answer is in the Stealth Self"

Whether I am listening to psychologists, anthropologists, epidemiologists. or apologists, I hear explanations of the forces that shape behavior. While experts in these fields do a good job of dealing with behavioral influences from their perspective, their arguments and theories are limited. Any one field of study does not subsume all others. For instance, most psychologists cannot include spiritual influences and most apologists start with assumptions about how people think that ignores individual trait differences and human nature. Here is a comprehensive model I have developed that integrates principles of behavior formation across several mainstream scholarly disciplines.

  
I do not intend to discuss all facets of this model in this blog, but I do want to address the most ignored part, called "the Stealth Self." All social sciences and the Bible make reference to "the self". Rarely does any one approach fully explore both the spiritual and human views of self in a comparative and useful manner.

Try this view of self. The notion of stealth means that these influences that others do not see about us. In fact, often they are usually not on our radar screen either. Yet, they are powerful determinants of what are our more visible top of mind sense of knowledge, truth and faith, which are focused on many topics that affect our life, such as family, work, government, community, religion, education, etc.

I will call these aspects of "the stealth self" core assumptions. These are beliefs that are so normal to us we don't question them and don't feel an urge to prove them to our self. I suggest there are several core assumptions that interact in ways to drive our more thoughtful, conscious activities around knowledge, truth and faith. First, there are core assumptions about our identity that include 3 views of self: natural, personal, and social. The chart below illustrates key ideas about each.

 Notice there are 2 columns representing a 3X2 matrix of identity. The columns denote the carnal mind and the Kingdom mind. I will get back to this in a minute.


The self wants to get feel good and contains what are called "needs" that it wants to satisfy. The self acts to meet its needs. Like scratching an itch, we often do it without thinking.

If you read through narratives in psychology, anthropology, theology, and philosophy you find these six needs as recurring themes. Every reference to needs usually doesn't refer to all six, but all six occur across the whole body of literature in these fields of scholarship. What these needs represent and how they are satisfied can also be viewed in two ways, resulting in the following 6X2 matrix:

Again column A denotes the carnal mind and column B the Kingdom mind. What is the difference common to both matrices that relate to the two columns? The first column, the carnal mind, is an assumption that I rely on interacting with my circumstances in some form of exchange. That is, my core assumption would be that the outcome associated with the particular identity or need occurs as I give my behavior to receive what I get to fulfill the identity or need. The carnal mind is a performance based core assumption.

Column B in contrast assumes that outcomes are bestowed on me by God through my relationship with Jesus. What I receive is an act of Grace and not an exchange. Of course, there is much to discuss to fully grasp what the 3 identity and the 6 needs means if my core assumption is carnal versus Kingdom. too much for this blog, so let me make this point for now.

There are 3 kinds of people. First, there is the person who is not saved, who has not professed Jesus as his or her Savior. It doesn't matter if this person believes God exists or not. It doesn't matter if he or she is a Muslim or a Jew or a cultural Christian, a Buddhist or Hindu, a humanist or a naturalist, their streams of consciousness on any topic is a derivative of the carnal mind. They have no choice. they cannot understand anything about them self and the world from column B.

Then there is the one who has professed Jesus, but has not had their core assumptions transformed. This person is saved, but lives beneath the provisions and privileges of the Heavenlies. This is why Romans 12 says to the believer, "Be not fashioned according to this world (carnal mind), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Kingdom mind)." This person is free to renew their mind, but just has not. This is one reason this believer doesn't look any different than the unbeliever. Both live from the core assumptions of the carnal mind. This may be the person many have written about called "the almost Christian." Paul asks, "why do you pursue the futile elementary principles of this world?"

Then there is the person who is saved and their core assumptions have moved from the carnal to the Kingdom. This person instinctively appropriates their spiritual nature versus their carnal nature. They see their identity as "Christ in me" and see their sense of belonging as "in Christ". Their needs are satisfied regardless of their circumstances, because all they need has been bestowed on them by God through Christ. This is what Paul means when he writes "Bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," This means I give my worship, my affection to God who gave me Jesus. "Who hath blessed us" means that this God has bestowed on me something, but what? Oh, he then says, "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." God has bestowed on me everything He has in his home. Jesus said it this way, "do not fear, you Father has chosen gladly to give you His Kingdom."

What does it take for self to appropriate the Kingdom mind? This gets me to the final core assumptions of "the stealth self", truth and faith. Instinctively we assume that truth is either relative or absolute. Then we have an instinct to rely on faith or visible proof. The carnal assumptions are that truth is relative and faith is a weakness we have when we do not have enough physical evidence.

You can decide for yourself. But you first must be intentional to get in touch with "the stealth self." Its a challenge because the carnal is normal to you until its not. The carnal mind is what you do not question until your mind is renewed. Transformation must occur in "the stealth self" before it occurs in your general topical streams of consciousness and ultimately into your specific actions. Any other attempt at self help is a band aid, and ultimately futile.

Ponder this if you will .....