I am currently delving into a deeper understanding of the true meaning of the cross of Christ, how it relates to salvation and how it reveals God's heart.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Co-perception

Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake. (Romans 13:5)

I know that I am jumping around in these verses a little bit, but I find that to be very helpful to perceive and grasp more of the important connections that make up the context for these instructions. It is only in properly understanding the context and carefully examining the fabric and its composition that I can come to a correct view of what this passage is really teaching. Of course it is also important to keep my spirit open to the impressions from God who is the one that inspired this to be written in the first place.

I just looked up the Greek for this word conscience and got a real surprise. I found this word quite different than what I had expected and actually very exciting. It literally means co-perception with lots of subtle nuances underlying that. The implications of this are stunning and enlightening.

First of all I discovered this means that conscience is a part of me that accesses another perception not of my own to join with mine to make it more complete. In fact, as I went deeper into the roots of this word I found that it is a combination of two things. First is coming to understand something with the assistance of the other consciousness that makes up the co part. Conscience is the uniting of my perception with God's perception. Then the word includes the idea of receiving clandestine information or to be privy to important missing information that makes my perceptions much more complete.

This act of uniting is also an important aspect of the meaning of this word. The union is a very close union that denotes companionship, resemblance, possession, becoming an instrumentality and all of this to create completeness. This apparently is primarily for the purpose of having a more perfect understanding or perception that would be impossible of myself.

This is a rather different view of conscience than what I am used to hearing. And in this verse Paul is saying that we need to be motivated by much more than just fear which is often one of the first emotions to get us to act or be motivated to change something in our life. It seems evident that fear is certainly one of the primary motivations used by earthly authorities to induce compliance, but that is not really the relationship that God desires to have with us. Just as we crave a much deeper relationship of love and companionship with our children that goes far beyond outward conformance to our rules out of fear of punishment, so God intensely desires us to move past the simplistic, cowering motivations of fear that is sometimes needed to get our attention initially, and move far beyond that into a relationship of co-perception with Him.

This is rather interesting when placed together with the declaration in verse 1, there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. What Paul is really describing in these verses is our proper relationship to God, not just to the poor demonstrations of authority that we see here on earth. When we perceive, or better yet co-perceive, that any and all true authority is in some essence an demonstration of God, albeit very confusing or distorted at times, then we will be able to enter into the position of having no fear of authority. (v. 3) Given this thought, maybe fear is an indicator or symptom of how much I do not yet have heaven's perspective merged with my perspective.

This ability to be free of fear is not dependent on the inferior authorities we have to deal with being proper demonstrations of God's authority. They may be very corrupt and abusive and unjust; the authorities in Jesus day certainly fit that description. But Jesus was never afraid of authorities and that is because He demonstrated this principle of co-perception with His Father just as we are invited to do. Jesus was the ultimate demonstration of how to be in subjection to authorities while not surrendering His integrity or rupturing His relationship with His Father in the slightest degree. He was continuously perceiving everything through the vantage point of Heaven's perspective using the co-perception of the Holy Spirit so that He would even say about those abusive authorities, Father, forgive them for they don't really know what they are doing.

It is very often the case that authorities do not really know what they are doing. We are all living with the severe mental handicap of sin and separation from God's perspective. But anyone alive has the option of listening to the inner voice of a greater Mind who can see what we can never see with our own perceptive abilities. And if we will choose to submit our perceptions to be corrected and enhanced supernaturally by the mind of the Holy Spirit, especially in our dealings with authority according to this passage, then we will finally be able to become free of fear and will be able to move far beyond that into a much deeper relationship of intimacy and co-perception with the perfect Source behind all authority. And when we do this we can then be empowered to experience the very presence of God in new dimensions never before imagined.

God, this is very fascinating and intriguing to me, but I want it to go much deeper than that and become a reality in my heart. I don't want to just know about this wonderful insight but far more importantly I want it to be a description of my own experience. I ask You to mentor me in how to have co-perception with Your mind and heart. Help me to listen more carefully and accurately and willingly to the perceptions that Your Spirit is offering me all through the day and not lean on my own understanding. Dwell in my heart today and bring me into right relationship and attitudes toward authorities so that my life can be completely free of all fear of them. Do this for Your glory and for Your reputation.

(next in series)

9 comments:

  1. Dear Clay Feet
    Thank you so very much for this insight. To be brief, reading in Hebrews 9:14 'how much more shall the blood of Christ...purge your conscience from dead works', also noticed that 'conscience' includes the wonderful concept 'co-perception'.

    Your writing has ignited a spark of awareness that our God given conscience is not our accuser, as tradtionally seen, but much, much more!

    Bless you!

    Kallie

    ReplyDelete
  2. came to the same definition of conscience, and was curious to see if anyone else online had. That's good stuff.

    George

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very insightful, or shall i say, co-perceptioned. I came to the sight to see if I was hearing God correctly on the use of our consciemce. And ypur explanation is exactly what God gave me

      Delete
  3. Praise God. I stumbled upon this concept this morning for the first time and in searching for a definition of co-perception ran across your blog. I believe this is a biblical understanding taught throughout Scripture. Praise God for the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth. Here is a little note of what got me going on this.

    1 Peter 3:21 "corresponding to that , baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience (gr-co-perception) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

    Co- perception stood out in bold relief to me today. If baptism is a seeking, demanding, desiring from God a co-perception then it must be having perception from God's point of view. This is a thinking together about situations and people. And the thinking comes from God's point of view. This would be a submission to the way that God thinks about these things. This is an essential part of salvation and restoring the image of God in humanity. It is made possible by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. According to Romans 6 this is a new and different way of living surrendered to God. Romans 6:11-13. This must be the renewing of the mind that Paul wrote about repeatedly. Romans 12:2 , Ephesians 4:23, 24.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is interesting to come back over 8 years later to look at this written so long ago in the context of what I have been learning recently. Your comment has caused me to be reminded of this topic I had forgotten about and I am excited now to integrate it into what I have been learning now to see how it amplifies it even more.
    I am always encouraged when I hear others blessed and excited by what God shares with me at times. Thanks for leaving your comments.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I was just trying to find some info on this today and I came across this article. Very informative.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1 Corinthians 6:17 (KJV) But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
    Co-perception of one spirit. Thanks for the article, very encouraging.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for sharing your study!

    I had been reading Hebrews 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience G4893, and our bodies washed with pure water.

    I went to the Greek original word and saw the 'new' word "co-perception", looked it up on the internet, thinking will it appear? Refreshing to find it's explanation, then I found your blog!

    I could understand the Christians co- perception being based on Holy Spirit dwelling in us:2 Timothy 1:14 "Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.", but I wondered about non-believers, He doesn't "dwell in" the non-believer, but they still have a conscience (co-perception).
    I found the answer is given in Romans 2:15 "Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience G4893 also bearing witness, and their thoughts G3053 the mean while accusing or else excusing one another."

    So the co-perception is complete by the law which God has written in their hearts.
    Notice that the word pertaining to their thoughts G3053, is Transliteration: logismos
    Phonetic: log-is-mos'
    Thayer Definition:

    1. reckoning, computation
    2. reasoning: such as is hostile to the Christian faith
    3. a judgment, decision: such as conscience passes.

    Application #2 stands as very relevant in this non-believer application of response to co-perception, as any reasoning that is opposed to God, is identified as evil, the verse Hebrews 10:22 states the Christians salvation from being a slave to that evil conscience..."having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience G4893,". The "sprinkling" being sanctifying (made suitable for Holy purposes) by Christ's blood.
    1 Peter 1:2 ...according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

    Thank you sharing your encouraging study!
    The last part of the above verse is so fitting, I will end on this note to both yourself and all readers:

    Grace and peace be yours in abundance!!!

    ReplyDelete

Thank-you for leaving a comment. Let me know how you feel about what you are reading. This is where I share my personal thoughts and feelings about whatever I am studying in the Word at this time and I relish your input.