RLM TV DEEP STUDY
DO WE STILL VALUE DUNG?
When False Treasure Becomes Worthless in the Ayin
Philippians 3:7–8
“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord… and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” — Philippians 3:7–8 KJV
Opening Intelligence
There comes a point in spiritual maturity when the question is no longer merely:
What have I stopped doing?
The deeper, Spirit-driven question becomes:
WHAT DO I STILL VALUE?
Paul had already encountered Jesus Christ on the Damascus road. Yet in Philippians 3 the Holy Ghost leads him into the treasury of his former identity and begins the great liquidation. He does not throw out only obvious sins, immorality, or wicked behavior. He takes the very things society and religion would have called treasure and names them skubalon—dung.
Pedigree.
Status.
Religious achievement.
Human righteousness.
Reputation.
Zeal.
Accomplishment.
Identity derived from the flesh.
Everything that once made Saul of Tarsus feel rich became impoverished in his sight the moment the glory of Jesus Christ appeared. This is one of the great transformations of the Ayin—the eye, perception, and valuation system of the inner man. The objects themselves did not necessarily change. Paul’s estimation of them changed. What once appeared valuable became worthless. What once appeared insignificant—Christ Himself—became the Treasure exceeding every treasure.
That is wisdom. That is the beginning of true repentance.
First Illumination – The Great Reversal of Value
Paul speaks the language of accounting:
Gain. Loss. Counted.
Before the revelation of Christ, the flesh equaled gain. After the revelation, Christ alone equals gain, and everything competing with Him equals loss. His encounter with glory restructured the entire internal economy of his soul. Things that once purchased admiration suddenly bought him nothing. Things that once produced confidence suddenly appeared bankrupt.
His former righteousness could not purchase resurrection life.
His pedigree could not produce Christ.
His reputation could not impart the Spirit.
His religious knowledge could not generate grace.
His zeal could not conquer death.
Therefore Paul performed the greatest liquidation sale imaginable:
Everything must go that competes with the excellency of knowing Christ.
Skubalon – The Shocking Word
Paul deliberately chose the crude Greek word σκύβαλον (skubalon). It means refuse, garbage, waste, rotting scraps thrown to dogs, or dung. The King James Version translates it with striking directness: DUNG.
Imagine carefully polishing something that belongs in the garbage.
Imagine protecting it, displaying it, comparing it with everyone else’s garbage, becoming jealous because someone appears to possess more garbage, and building an identity around garbage.
Then imagine Christ appearing in glory.
Suddenly the absurdity becomes visible. That is Philippians 3. Paul is saying: I finally saw what everything was worth compared with Christ.
The Question of the Holy Ghost
Therefore the Spirit asks us with piercing clarity:
DO WE STILL VALUE DUNG?
We may have left Egypt physically while Egypt’s treasures remain precious in our imagination. We may confess Christ while still measuring ourselves through Adam’s economy. We may preach grace while secretly deriving significance from things grace has already surpassed.
The issue is not necessarily possessing earthly things. The issue is what value the Ayin assigns to them. Something becomes dangerous the moment the soul begins looking toward it for what only Christ can supply.
PaRDeS Depth – The Inner Throne Transaction
In the Sod, skubalon is the residue of the serpent nature still trying to sit on the Throne of the heart.
The old-covenant self built its identity on what it possessed, performed, and protected. The New Covenant does not renovate that self. It crucifies it.
The Overcomer is the one who agrees with the Spirit’s valuation: whatever once produced confidence in the flesh is now manure. Not because it was never useful in its season, but because the season of self-righteousness is over. The only righteousness that can stand before the Throne is the righteousness of Another—received by union, not achievement.
When the eye of the heart still lingers on the manure pile with nostalgia or quiet pride, it has not yet fully consented to the exchange. The Spirit waits for the final release:
“I count it dung… that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.”
Holy Ghost Inventory – Areas Where Dung Still Competes
- The Dung of Human Approval
How much emotional energy vanishes because someone did not approve of us? A compliment raises us; a criticism crushes us. Why? Because the Ayin has assigned enormous value to human approval. Grace announces divine acceptance in Christ. When that acceptance becomes treasure, the opinions of men lose their purchasing power. - The Dung of Religious Performance
Prayer, worship, fasting, Scripture, and service are beautiful. The moment they become a scoreboard by which we establish superiority, righteousness, or entitlement before God, treasure has become an idol. Grace destroys the scoreboard. Christ Himself is our righteousness. - The Dung of Comparison
Comparison requires false treasure. We envy because we believe another possesses something capable of increasing ultimate worth. You cannot envy another person’s pile of dung once you perceive it as dung. Freedom often comes not by obtaining what someone else has, but when wisdom reveals we never needed it. - The Dung of Status
Paul was “an Hebrew of the Hebrews.” Encountering Christ revealed a superior identity: Christ in you, the hope of glory. Status becomes extraordinarily small beside union with the Son. - The Dung of Possessions
Physical objects are not inherently evil. The danger is valuation. Possessions become spiritual dung when we demand that temporary objects give us permanent identity. Grace restores the proper order: we can possess things without things possessing us. - The Dung of Being Right
We can become addicted to winning arguments, correcting everyone, proving ourselves, and having the final word. Paul surrendered an entire identity constructed around being religiously correct. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated. - The Dung of the Former Self
Perhaps the deepest pile is the identity we constructed apart from Christ—accomplishments, failures, wounds, reputation, victories, mistakes. Adam continuously whispers, “This is who you are.” Paul discovers another identity: “That I may win Christ, and be found in Him.” Found in Him. That is the Treasure.
The Ayin Must Learn Heaven’s Value System
Jesus taught:
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” — Matthew 6:22
When the Ayin becomes single toward Christ, false treasures lose their brilliance. Comparison weakens. Pride weakens. Envy weakens. Fear of man weakens. Self-righteousness weakens. Why? Because Something infinitely more valuable has entered the field of vision.
Grace.
The answer to false treasure is not merely stronger self-denial. It is seeing superior Treasure.
The Divine Exchange
Human approval → Divine acceptance
Self-righteousness → Christ our righteousness
Comparison → Contentment
Status → Sonship
Possession → Communion
Pride → Grace
Adam → Christ
Dung → Glory
This is not behavioral modification. It is the revaluation of reality inside the Ayin.
Paul did not throw everything away and become poor. He discovered he had previously been poor because he did not understand true riches. Then he found Christ—and could say with finality: Everything I thought made me rich is loss compared with Him.
The more clearly we behold Christ, the cheaper false treasure becomes.
The more deeply we drink grace, the less thirsty we become for human approval.
The more glory fills the Ayin, the less glitter can deceive it.
RLM TV Deep Study Declaration
Holy Ghost, open my Ayin to the true value of all things.
Let everything I have falsely treasured become worthless compared with the excellency of knowing Jesus Christ.
Deliver my perception from Adam’s economy.
Teach me the wisdom of Heaven.
Let grace become precious, Christ become magnificent, and glory become my treasure.
I count every counterfeit righteousness, identity, status, achievement, and earthly boast as loss—that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.
Let my whole being agree with Heaven:
Christ is my righteousness,
Christ is my treasure,
Christ is my gain,
and Christ is my life.
Amen.
Counting Dung Worthless in Christ,
Apostle Brandon
RLM TV – Red Letter Ministries
www.RLM.TV
