The Teaching

Our Foundation of Truth:

As true believers, it is crucial for us to build our foundation on the solid rock of True Truth, instead of building our lives on the shifting sands of relative “truth” and “values” that undermine the cultures that surround us.

To build this foundation, we begin by standing firmly on the following principles of Truth:

• Jesus Christ is the Truth and, as Creator of all there is, He alone is the origin of all Truth, and the integration point for all categories of Truth. He is the only true and exact revelation of the Father, and of the Father’s love and might on our behalf (Matt 11:27; John 14:9-11; Hebrews 1:3).

• No created being has the authority to create Truth; all we are capable of is either discovering or distorting the Truth.
  

• Because it flows out of one Source, True Truth is unified—not compartmentalized or fragmented.

• To the degree that we adopt a fragmented view of Truth, in understanding and practice, to that degree we weaken the power of Truth to heal and liberate.

Our foundation is grounded in the person, character, teachings, and work of Jesus Christ, as revealed by His Spirit and His Word (John 16:13-15), and on the principles of Truth.

Spiritual Resilience:

In human terms, resilience is the ability to bounce back and recover from the adversities of life. But spiritual resilience goes infinitely beyond this. To the human spirit, adversity can become either an opportunity for victory and freedom, or an instrument for defeat and enslavement.

We recognize our Creator as the legitimate and pre-eminent authority on spiritual resilience. The New Testament Greek word for resilience is hypomonē—meaning “perseverance.”  And what needs to persevere is our faith (1Peter 1:6-7).

The life of a truly resilient Christian is a living testament to the infallibility of Jesus’ prescription for resilience, as found in John 14-17.   Such a one knows how to keep his eyes on Jesus—the perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1,2). And in the life of such a believer Jesus Christ becomes the fountain of meaning and purpose in life, and the glue that holds everything together (Colossians 1:15-20; 2:9-10).

Using the true lens of the New Testament, we will delve deeply into God’s purpose for allowing us to go through His “school of resilience”: to strengthen the perseverance of our faith in the face of adversity, and to equip us to help strengthen others, as we walk with them through their own trials (Luke 22:31,32).

But the Adversary’s intent is to neutralize and destroy us.  And, in the teaching, we will also fully expose the strategy and method the Adversary uses to undermine our faith and disrupt of our unity (1 Peter 5:8).   Without this ability to discern and anticipate the enemy, we become easily deceived and trapped.

The teaching will take you to a deeper level of understanding, sharpen your discernment, strengthen your hope and conviction, and equip you to stand firm, in the face of the Adversary’s darts of fears, shame, doubts, and disappointment (Ephesians 6:16), and become decisively instrumental in the lives of others.

Being Spirit-Centered:

Mankind finds itself in a state of ignorance and confusion regarding the true nature of the human spirit as the true essence of each person. Secular science has persistently attempted to reduce to mere biology the unique qualities imparted to man and woman by means of their special creation in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).

Despite the overwhelming and irrefutable evidence to the contrary, those who hold to this worldview continue to give the genetic code sole credit for our humanity. And they persist in their belief that human awareness is the result of the collective functions of our brain, and nothing more.

The basic problem is that organized “science” refuses to avail itself of the only instrument that allows us to understand the true essence and make-up of the human being.  For this reason, secular science fails to recognize the existence and central importance of the human spirit.

We believe that without this spirit-centered approach, essential to the Nikanor teaching and training, one cannot

• Understand the real essence and nature of God,
• Realize our true identity,
• Understand each person as the Creator understands the person,
• Respect and validate the unique spirit in each person,
• Or step fully into our true role, and achieve real victory in the battle inside each of us (Romans 7:15-8:1).

We also believe that the Word of God and the Spirit of Truth in us are the only instruments, or lenses, that allow us to clearly ”see” and to understand the dimension of the spirit—the central dimension of human existence (1Corinthians 2:10-16; Hebrews 4:12).

Identity in Christ:

Like the house built on the rock (Matthew 7:24-27), a solid identity in Christ is at the core of our resilience to adversity. 

Jesus exposed the Adversary as the “father of the Lie,” as well as a thief and a destroyer (John 8:44; 10:10).   And the Adversary’s assault on our identity, as well as on the goodness and character of our Creator, is central to the deception he has perpetrated on all humanity, during the vulnerable years of childhood.

 As Christian believers, our true identity can only be based on the reality of our new spiritual birth (John 3;3-8; 2Corinthians 5:17; 1Peter 1:23).  At the same time, it is based on our resulting, secure relationship with God as His adopted children (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:31-38). 

By fully embracing the miracle of our regeneration (new spiritual birth) we can become immune to the Adversary’s identity deception.  But this indispensable antidote requires that we understand that the miracle of our regeneration is made possible solely through the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross, through His resurrection, and through the gift of His Spirit dwelling in us (Romans 8:15-16). It also requires that we know that salvation is the gift of our God’s abounding grace–a gift that can only be accepted with our faith (trust) in the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ on the cross, a gift that can never be earned by our human efforts or works (Ephesians 2:8,9).

To become truly resilient to adversity, and immune to the assault of the Lie, we must embrace these truths and learn to live daily in the reality of our eternal inheritance–that is, in the reality of our true identity in Christ, and in the reality of our permanent and unconditional relationship with the Father (Ephesians 1:18-29; Colossians 1:12-13). Anything short of this makes us easy targets for the father of the Lie.

When it comes to our true identity in Christ, there is no compromise.

Spiritual Bondage:

Once the Lie has falsified our identity and damaged our perception of the Father’s goodness and character, it sends us into a life-long quest after a false promise (of repair, acceptability, worthiness, and redemption) that excludes God. And as long as we continue to chase this illusion, we remain trapped, and are kept from the life that Jesus came to give each one of us (John 10:10).

 The Nikanor Model represents over 25 years of distillation and biblical integration of truths discovered in the fields of psychology and neuroscience. This allows us to more clearly understand the internal battle that the apostle Paul himself experienced and described in Romans 7:15-8:1.

In the teaching, you will learn how it is possible for the “virus” of the Lie to be programmed into our biologic computers (our brains) in such a way that it is able to set up false images, enslaving goals, and patterns of distorted perceptions, self-defeating behaviors, and negative emotions. Even after our new birth, these distortions, illusions, and programmed patterns have the ability to oppose our new spirits, and affect us physically, mentally and emotionally.

Our teaching exposes how the programmed “virus” of the Lie is able to

• Pervert our appetites and convert them into lusts, thereby trapping us in an enslaving quest for physical pleasure

• Utilize the power of negative emotions to paralyze us and trap us in a downward spiral, in which we can spend a lifetime chasing the “fix” for our painful emotions.

• Take over the brain’s capability of virtual reality (imagination) and give power to the false images of self and God that it has created in our minds.

In our training, you will learn to overcome and dismantle these Lie-based images, illusions and patterns—as we are all admonished to do in Romans 12:1,2.

Overcoming:

Jesus Christ overcame the power of the Lie and the works of the Liar (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8). He is the true Nikanor—the One who overcomes. And none of us could ever hope to be truly victorious and free without Him (John 16:33; 2Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1).

Although, in terms of our eternal destiny, we have already overcome through Jesus Christ (John 8:36; 1John 4:4), we are also called to overcome in our daily, earthly lives (Galatians 5:16).

In our teaching, we emphasize the importance of making a clear distinction between the two:

• Regeneration: the new birth of the spirit, which is a one-time process that cannot be improved upon (Romans 6:4; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Peter 1:23).

• Transformation, a life-time process of demolishing the strongholds of the Lie in the soul or psyche—much like the cleansing of the Promised Land by the children of Israel (Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Ephesians 4:22-24).

Without exception, the road of transformation and liberation leads to the surrender of all that hinders and enslaves our spirits (Hebrews 12:1). The Cross of Jesus is the place of surrender and of endless beginnings—and it is Christ who works in us and through us to make us free (Philippians 1:6; 2:13; 4:13; 2Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1).

Some will find surrender not only very difficult, but also painful and threatening. But the Father, in His loving correction, will use the processes of brokenness and forgiveness to bring each and every one of us to that place, where we will truly find victory and freedom for our spirits (Hebrews 12:7-13).

The teaching is aimed at imparting you with the vision of faith, and the hope and conviction that comes with it, which will make it possible for you to successfully walk the road of transformation and liberation. And the training will offer you the tools, skills, and discernment that will equip you to help others run the Race, and fight the Good Fight, and achieve real and sustainable victory in their lives.

The Master’s Instruments:

“I am just a pencil in God’s hand…” –Mother Teresa

We are all living instruments who are called to willingly and effectively put ourselves in the Master’s hands (Romans 12:1). And in order for us to realize this truth in our lives, we need to begin by asking ourselves the basic questions:

• Should I allow the world to define my role?
• What then is the full role into which I have been called?

The decisive battle in our lives is not fought with armies, but inside us, one life at a time. And all of us are called to this battle (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7)—there is no room for spectators.

Our training will equip you to clearly draw the battle lines and—as the apostle Paul emphasized in this key passage of Romans 7 (see verses 17, 20, 22-23, 25)—to correctly divide between the real you (the “new self” or “inner man”) and the behaviors, lies, and emotions coming from the enemy created by the virus of the Lie-in-us (that which remains of the “old man,” “outer man,” or “flesh”).

In this most decisive battle of all battles, we are called to stand firm (Ephesians 6:13). And to be able to stand firm, we need conviction.

We need to be convinced

• Of the reality and power of Christ’s Spirit in union with our spirits,
• Of who we truly are and what is the enemy in us,
• That the Truth conquers the Lie,
• That the Light always dispels the darkness,
• That the Father is a God of hope and victory, who is always on our side,
• And that we, as well as each and every person, can choose and commit to truth and freedom.

This conviction keeps us from being moved in the face of lies, fears, doubts, discouragement, and resistance from the enemy.

We of the Nikanor Project are committed to equip you to become an equipped and effective living instrument in our Master’s hands—A living instrument who can enter the internal battle effectively, and who can remain standing firm with conviction.