Tag: meditation

10/8/19

Misdirection of Indwelling Sin

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In chapter nine of Indwelling Sin in Believers, John Owen described how the deceit of sin draws our mind from attending to the duties by which our soul is preserved, particularly prayer and meditation. Sin maintains an enmity against all duties of obedience, or rather with God in them. Citing Romans 7:21, “When I want to do right, evil lies close at hand,” he said it is present within us to hinder the spiritually good, the good in reference to God we would do. All duties of obedience are directly opposed to the law of sin; “for as the flesh in all its actings lusteth against the Spirit, so the Spirit in all its actings lusteth against the flesh.”

Every duty performed in the strength and grace of the Spirit is contrary to the law of sin. Romans 8:13 says if you live through the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the flesh. Actions by the Spirit of grace does this work. There are some duties which, in their own nature and by God’s appointment, have a particular influence in weakening and subduing the whole law of sin in its very principles and chief strengths. The mind of a believer ought to principally attend to these; and sin in its deceit strives to draw your mind away from them. Just as some remedies have a specific quality against physical disease, so in this disease of the soul there are some duties that have a special virtue against this sinful distemper.

Owen said there are two duties that have a special inclination by God’s design for the destruction of the whole law of sin, and he intends to “show the ways, methods, and means, which the law of sin useth to divert the mind from a due attendance unto them.” The two duties are prayer, especially private prayer, and meditation. He said these two agree in their general nature and differ only in the manner of their performance. By meditation Owen meant meditating on the word and our own hearts, “that they may be brought into a more exact conformity.”

It is our pondering on the truth as it is in Jesus, to find out the image and representation of it in our own hearts; and so it hath the same intent with prayer, which is to bring our souls into a frame in all things answering the mind and will of God. They are as the blood and spirits in the veins, that have the same life, motion, and use.

There are two or three rules for the right performance of meditation, according to Owen. The first is to Meditate of God with God. By this he meant we should have an attitude of deep humiliation and abasement of our souls before God. This will focus our mind, drawing it from one thing to another, giving glory to God and affecting our soul until it is brought into a state of holy admiration and delight of God. “My meaning is, that it be done in a way of prayer and praise,—speaking unto God.”

We should meditate on the word in the word. That is consider the sense in particular passages. Look to God for help, guidance and direction as you attempt to discover his mind and will in His Word. “Then labour to have our hearts affected by it.” If you come up short in these things, compensate by being more frequent with your prayer and meditation. Some individuals get discouraged because their minds don’t regularly supply them with thoughts to carry on their meditations. “Let this be supplied by frequent returns of the mind unto the subject proposed to be meditated upon, whereby new senses will still be supplied unto it.”

James 1:5 declared the way God appointed to obtain strength and power against sin: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” Prayer is the way we have of obtaining from God through Christ a supply of all our wants, assistance against all opposition, especially that which is made against us by sin. “Faith in prayer countermines all the workings of the deceit of sin; and that because the soul doth therein constantly engage itself unto God to oppose all sin whatsoever.”

If there is a secret lust lurking in the heart, you will discover it either rising up against this or using its artifices to protect itself against it. In Psalm 51:5, as David was confessing his actual sin, he discovered the root of all his miscarriages in his original corruption, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity.” The Spirit acts as the candle of the Lord, enabling it to search all the inward parts of the soul.

It gives a holy, spiritual light into the mind, enabling it to search the deep and dark recesses of the heart, to find out the subtle and deceitful machinations, figments, and imaginations of the law of sin therein. Whatever notion there be of it, whatever power and prevalency in it, it is laid hand on, apprehended, brought into the presence of God, judged, condemned, bewailed. And what can possibly be more effectual for its ruin and destruction? for, together with its discovery, application is made unto all that relief which in Jesus Christ is provided against it, all ways and means whereby it may be ruined.

While your soul is constantly engaged to God in this way, it is certain that no sin can rise to dominate and rule over you. This is a victory over sin, a most considerable victory, where your soul clearly and promptly demonstrates its resolve. And it may be, by the grace of God, that this will be a final conquest—whatever the soul engaged to God is resolved to do will be done. “And this tends to the disappointment, yea, to the ruin of the law of sin.”

If the heart be not deceived by cursed hypocrisy, this engagement unto God will greatly influence it unto a peculiar diligence and watchfulness against all sin. There is no greater evidence of hypocrisy than to have the heart like the whorish woman, Prov. 7:14,—to say, “‘I have paid my vows,’ now I may take myself unto my sin;” or to be negligent about sin, as being satisfied that it hath prayed against it. It is otherwise in a gracious soul. Sense and conscience of engagements against sin made to God, do make it universally watchful against all its motions and operations. On these and sundry other accounts doth faith in this duty exert itself peculiarly to the weakening of the power and stopping of the progress of the law of sin.

If the mind is diligent and watches to keep its soul from the efficacy of sin, it will carefully attend to this duty and its implementation. However, sin attempts to defend itself by diversion, by drawing the mind away from this and similar duties. It does this through three main methods.

It takes advantage of the weariness of the flesh. And out of that fleshly weariness reluctance and weariness of doing your duty emerges. Jesus said to his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:41), “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” There is an amenability between spiritual flesh and natural flesh in this matter; they help each other. If the mind is not diligent and watchful to prevent such insinuations from occurring, it will be drawn away, which is the intended effect.

The deceitfulness of sin also takes advantage of corrupt reasonings, taken from the pressing and urging of the circumstances of life. We say, “If we were to strictly attend to all our spiritual duties, we would neglect pressing matters and be useless to ourselves and others.” God certainly gives us enough time for all He requires of us in this world. No duties need to be in persistent conflict with one another. God does not call or bless us when we take on more than we can tolerably do.

And then there is the deceit of promising a more diligent attendance to a duty when time permits. By this means it brings the soul to justify putting off its duty, as when Felix said to Paul that he would call him to hear more at a future time. The end result is the time never comes.

Like with the beginnings of a bodily sickness, it is a great advantage to immediately direct our attention to heal it. In a similar way, God shows us where the “beginning of sin” is—in drawing the mind away from a due attendance of all things required in the discharge of its spiritual duty. “The principal care and charge of the soul lies on the mind; and if that fail of its duty, the whole is betrayed, either as unto its general frame or as unto particular miscarriages.” The failure of the mind is like the failing of the watchman in Ezekiel (3:16-21); “The whole is lost by his neglect.”

God does not look at how many duties we perform or how challenging they are. Rather, He looks for the intent and spirit He requires in what we do. If you would take a true measure of yourselves, “Consider how it is with you as to the duty of your minds which we have inquired after.” Consider if you have been diverted or drawn away by any of the deceits mentioned. And if you discover failings of any kind, you will find the beginning of deceits there. “By one way or other your minds have been made heedless, regardless, slothful, uncertain, being beguiled and drawn off from their duty.” And this discovery will direct your soul to a suitable way of healing and recovery, which will never be effected by a multiplying of particular duties, but rather by a restoring of your soul (Psalm 23:3).

12/4/15

The Brain and God

© NejroN | 123f.com
© NejroN | 123f.com

Have you ever wondered what happens in your brain when you pray or meditate? Andrew Newberg, who is a neuroscientist did wonder. Working with psychiatrist Eugene d’Aquili in the early 1990s, he began using SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) to photograph brains during religious experiences. They found volunteers from three very different religious groups: Tibetan Buddhist monks, cloistered nuns and Pentecostals who speak in tongues. “If the brain houses such things as souls, they did locate them: Everywhere.”

Newberg first scanned the brains of the monks and the nuns. Their frontal lobes, the part of the brain Newberg referred to as “the attention area” lit up. The thalamus, which is a pea-sized area that sits at the top of the brain stem, also lit up. Among other things, the thalamus sends sensory information to the frontal cortex where “heavy thinking” occurs. “Whatever was happening in meditation, the thalamus was making it feel very real.” But the real surprise was elsewhere in the brain. The parietal lobe, the part of the brain that helps orient us in relation to the things around us, shut down. “The neurological changes were significant and very different from how the human brain normally functions.”

Their sense of time and space was suspended as they entered the peak of their transcendent experiences. The response was almost identical when the nuns prayed and the monks meditated.  An article by John Barry shows a photo of the baseline and meditation states of a praying nun with the parietal lobe showing more yellow, meaning less blood flow activity during meditation. Here is an abstract for the original article in which Newberg published his findings. Here is a later study where Newberg looked at changes in the brain during two different meditation practices done by the same individuals.

This evidence confirmed our hypothesis that the benefits gleaned from prayer and meditation may have less to do with a specific theology than with the ritual techniques of breathings, staying relaxed, and focusing one’s attention upon a concept that evokes comfort, compassion, or a spiritual sense of peace. Of course, the more you believe in what you are meditating or praying about, the stronger the response will be.

However, when Newberg did brain scans on members of a Pentecostal church while they spoke in tongues (glossolalia), there were very different neurological effects. During centering prayer and meditation, there is an increase of frontal lobe activity and a corresponding decrease of parietal lobe activity. Activity in the limbic areas of the brain decreases. This combination generates “a peaceful and serene state of consciousness.” With glossolalia, the frontal lobe activity decreased—the opposite of what happened with the nuns and the monks. Parietal lobe activity increased and frontal lobe activity decreased.

Instead of focusing one’s attention on a specific phrase or ideal [as in centering prayer or meditation], which increases activity in the frontal lobe, the practitioner surrenders voluntary control—and thus a significant degree of ordinary consciousness—by deliberately slowing down frontal lobe activity. This, in turn, allows the limbic areas of the brain to become more active, which neurologically increases the emotional intensity of the experience.

There were changes in several brain structures with the Pentecostal individuals, suggesting there is complex brain activity occurring during glossolalia. Interestingly, both the nuns and the Pentecostals felt the study demonstrated that God could intervene and directly influence the brain.

In an article for the journal Zygon, Newberg said that a number of researchers claim that “because there is a neurological correlate for a religious phenomenon, there is nothing more to that phenomenon.” He observed that the presence of neurobiological activity during a religious phenomenon does not necessarily mean it caused the phenomenon. “That is, if the brain activity changes during a mystical communion with God, it is not clear whether the brain activity caused that experience or responded to that experience.”

In How God Changes Our Brain, Newberg said his research has shown that different parts of the brain produced different experiences of God. These experiences then affect the way we perceive or think about God, the world around us, our minds and even our lives. The frontal lobes “provide us with a logical concept of a rational, deliberate, and loving God.” The limbic system generates an emotionally meaningful experience of God. “If either part of the brain malfunctions, unusual thoughts and perceptions can occur.”

At the other end of the neurological spectrum, if both the frontal cortex and the emotional centers of the brain remain inactive when a person contemplates God, God will hold little meaning or value. This is what we believe happens in the brains of nonreligious individuals, and our preliminary brain-scan studies with atheists points in this direction.

Newberg himself is not religious. He’s Jewish by birth, but does not actively practice Judaism. Nevertheless, his brain research into spiritual and religious practices is fascinating. It is also consistent with a biblical understanding of what’s happening. Newberg himself is helpful here. He commented that a correlation between neurobiological activity and religious phenomenon isn’t necessarily causative. It could be a response to the religious phenomenon. For the biblical Christian, that would be God: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

And here we come up against the first-cause argument for the existence of God by Thomas Aquinas.  But I’ll leave that for another time. For further discussion of this topic by philosopher Peter Kreeft, try here. Scroll to the bottom for a ink to an audio lecture on “Arguments for God’s Existence” that includes the text of Kreeft’s article, “The First Cause Argument.”