The Elect of God–Gifts of the Spirit Are the Identifying Signs

Recently a reader of this blog asked, “But while the sons of God  will know who they are, how will others  know who they are?”

I responded by saying that the manifested, 100 fold fruit bearing sons of God will be the culmination of the Law of Harvest spoken of in Scripture: “first the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear,” able to reproduce out of itself–some “thirty fold, some sixty, and some  one hundred fold” [1].   These are the levels of growth of the Holy Spirit within the sons and daughters of God.  John refers to these degrees of growth as “children, young men, and fathers” [2].

When “Christ be formed” in them, signs will follow [3].  Gifts of the Spirit will flow, which includes healings, miracles.  Right now God’s timing calls for the first of the gifts of the Spirit to be given through the elect to others: “the word of wisdom” and “the word of knowledge” [4]  Without the truth contained in those first two gifts,  a brother or sister cannot “come out from among them and be separate” [5].  This foundational truth helps to purge the “old leaven” teachings  (contained in the parable of the woman putting leaven in three measures of meal or flour–leaven meaning the hypocrisy and insincerity of the Pharisees and their ilk [6].

I have wrestled with this question: God, why aren’t there more legitimate healings and miracles being done like what happened in the first few chapters of the book of Acts of the Apostles.  Answer:  We need some true men of God like them who have all their ducks in a row spiritually speaking and have “purged out the old leaven from their thinking, which includes all of the old false concepts and teachings and doctrines we all grew up with.  Then I realized how important it is to let the word of wisdom and knowledge flow unrestrained.

When the time comes, God will do something special in their lives–something absolutely astounding in the power-giving category.  All the way through the Bible He did just that.  There is no reason to believe that it will be any other way in these latter days.  After all, He said, “I am the same yesterday, today, and forever…I change not…” [7].

The sons-of-God-to-be, the elect, which means “the chosen ones,” may not at present know their destiny that has been pre-ordained by God.  Right now they may only know that there is this pull to know the truth.  There is this longing for justice and truth that won’t let them go.  Other things of this present world system may tug at them, but a hook is in their jaw, and they are being reeled in by the Great Fisherman, who right now is teaching some how to be “fishers of men” [8].

And they do look just like everyone else.  But to themselves, they are learning to look “after the Spirit” and not the “outward appearance” [9].  By faith they are looking upon the “things that are not seen,”  which is the Spirit [10].  And yes, they will be transformed, but they will go through a spiritual growth cycle as referenced above.

Knowledge of this growth process is lacking in Churchianity today.  The people in the pews want “It” right now.  They are used to instant pudding and mashed potatoes, instant messaging and internet input.  But growth in Him is His growth in us.  It takes time for the seed “to fall into the ground and die” and germinate, and pop through the ground as a perfect little blade of grass, a perfect little “babe in Christ” [11].  And this babe in Christ needs the “sincere milk of the word” that it may grow [12].  But this takes humility in giving up the old life and thoughts and habits.

That is why the Master told us, If you are going to follow Me, you better “count the cost.”  For it costs everything.  It is easier to sell your earthly possessions; it is much more difficult to sell or get rid of your self with its personal materialism, which is idolatry [13].    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. Matt. 13: 23; Mark 4: 8; 4: 28

2.  I John 2: 13

3.  Gal. 4: 19

4.  I Cor. 12: 4-11

5.  II Cor. 6: 17

6. I Cor. 5: 7; Matt. 13: 33; Luke 12: 1

7. Heb. 13: 8; Mal. 3: 6

8. Matt. 4: 19

9. I Sam. 16: 7; Rom. 8: 1-4

10. II Cor. 4: 18; Heb. 11:1

11.  John 12: 24

12.  I Pet. 2: 2

13. Col. 3: 5; Luke 14: 27-33

Partakers of the Divine Nature–The Holy Calling to Be the Sons of God

True Christianity is not about a person striving to attain a collection of good deeds and contributions like regularly praying, attending church, paying tithes and offerings, or volunteering time.  The true walk with Christ is not an accumulation of good deeds in hopes of having a better relationship with God.  It is rather a remembering what we already had with Him before our time on earth began.

Our salvation and deliverance from sin and the evil in our old life was given us by God before we were ever born here on earth!

We were called by God to walk with Him on this earth in our earthly bodies before we were ever born here on earth!

Sounds crazy, I know, and you are probably thinking, Wayne, you are going too far now.  Come back to us.  You are drifting up too far into the stratosphere.

But bear with me a minute.  God has called us with a holy calling in accordance with His own plan and purpose, and we were in His plan and purpose and grace before our mothers gave birth to us here on earth!

Some may be asking, Where did you get this idea from?  It’s right there in the Bible–the same one grandma and momma had.  And this is what it says: “God who has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (II Tim. 1: 9) [Compare this to my paraphrasing of it in the above paragraphs].

This “holy calling” to be God’s son or daughter does not come down to us “according to our works.”  We do not attain it because of anything we have done or could do, but because we were already included in His purpose–His plan to favor us that way.  It is called grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ before time began on earth.  Remember what Christ said: “You have been with me from the beginning” (John 15: 27).  The word “beginning” in the Greek is the same one used in John 1: 1: “In the beginning was the Word…” denoting the timelessness of the origin of all things.

We must remember how the LORD (YAHWEH) questioned Job intensely about the creation: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?…Who laid the cornerstone thereof when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38: 4-7).

The “sons of God” rejoicing at the creation of the earth?  Yes.  Isn’t that kind of like before the world came into being?  Yes.  And who are these sons of God?  The word of God says that we are the sons of God!  “Beloved, now are we the sons of God…and when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3: 2).

Also, we know that “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8: 14).  That’s us, brethren!  Things are going to work out great for us that love God.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  For “we are the called according to His purpose.”  He knew us before!  He gave us this destiny before!  This destiny “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8: 28-29).   Hey, I know I’m not the only one getting this right now because it says “many brethren” are going to be just like Him!

And let’s just say it out loud: We who He has “predestinated” to be like Christ–He has called us, “and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified”! (v. 30).

Glorified us!  Notice this is in the past tense.  Already done in God’s way of reckoning and doing things.

Wow!  It is truly difficult sometimes for us to wrap our sometimes doubting little minds around these astounding promises, but there it is.  His words, not mine.  The “exceeding great and precious promises that Peter spoke of.  That we “might be partakers of the divine nature” (II Pet. 1: 4).

And this is all in Christ.  When we believe and trust in Him, then our inheritance manifests itself.  Let us walk on in faith and assurance of these promises, not letting worldly man-thoughts hinder us from achieving what God already has spoken into existence for us.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

“Let Us Go on to Perfection”–Spiritual Maturity Begins with Repentance from Sin and Faith Toward God

We cannot go on to a maturity of growth in God’s plan until the spiritual foundation is laid and secured in a person’s heart.

We are indeed urged by the apostle Paul to “go on unto perfection.”  But this cannot come to pass until the foundation, or “first principles of the doctrine of Christ” is laid (Heb. 6: 1).

Now Paul’s exhortation begs some questions.  What does “perfection,” or maturity entail?  What are these “first principles” of Christ’s doctrine, and how do they serve as a foundation for the glorification of His body to follow?

If Christ’s teachings outlined in this passage are the very foundation of building this “holy habitation,” this “temple of the Holy Spirit,” then what will the finished spiritual edifice look like?  If the church is “His body” and the very temple of God, and if we are to “grow up into Him,” then what will He have us doing in this spiritually mature state during these latter days?

Your Ways Are Not My Ways

To get to the answers to these questions, we must look at the spiritual things of God though His perspective.  Because His ways are not our ways, we have to see His things through His eyes (Isa. 55: 8).  But there is a “catch–22” here.  We cannot look through God’s eyes while we still have our old sinful nature.

This is the reason that there are thousands of theologians, pastors, priests, and preachers who just cannot see God’s vision of perfection for us because they have not had the foundation of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ–the first two of which are “repentance from dead works (sin) and faith toward God.”

They cannot see through God’s eyes, whose vision He has elucidated in plain language  in the Bible for us.  They don’t get it because they have not repented from works that bring forth death in their own lives.  In other words, they are still in their sins; they haven’t repented from sin in their lives.  In fact, most of them teach that a person cannot be free from sin and sinning.

Repentance from Sin and Sinning a Must for Growth

And why?  Because they will not believe that it is possible to be rid of sin and sinning.  They don’t believe that God can do it in this life.  So they continue to teach and preach that you cannot stop sinning.  They teach that you can be saved and go to heaven if you believe in Jesus, but that He cannot save you from  sin and sinning.  They are called to maturity, but the spiritual temple that they could be cannot “grow up into Him” because of a lack of the righteous foundation that true repentance and faith provides.

This saddens me greatly in writing this, for I know that there are many sincere preachers out there who have not been taught the true doctrine of Christ.  They have run with hand-me-down rags of man’s reasonings about Christ and have not been clothed with the true robe of righteousness found in His truth.  It saddens me that they have been duped into thinking that whatever biblical training they have received is all there is.  In reality they have been fed stale crumbs of doctrine which are unable to nourish them up into full grown men of God!  And so Christ’s question to us resounds: “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?” (Matt. 24: 45).  What will it take for us to wake up and seek the “meat” of the word?

So these preachers, some very well-meaning, have been purveyors of poisoned promises, which can never nourish the children of God into growing up into the mature spiritual temple.  Fed false doctrines, the children of God cannot “grow up into Him,” personally or corporately, because they have not repented from actions that bring forth death–sin, in other words.

Spiritual death hovers over them, and they are lulled to sleep by false promises of “the sweet by and by” on “the beautiful shore” of man’s imaginations of what heaven is.  And they never come to grips with the fact that the soon-coming King Jesus/Yahshua “is an austere man,” who expects to find a “glorious church without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing” (Luke 19: 21; Eph. 5: 27).  Those “spots” are false teachers, false prophets, and false doctrines (Jude 12; II Peter 2: 13).

A Sad Day

And when He returns to set up His kingdom, He is going to deliver to somebody this terrifying retort: “I never knew you; depart from Me” (Matt. 7: 23).   And He will be speaking in that day to people who claim to know Him well.  And they will persist and say to Him in that day, But, Lord, did we not prophesy and teach in your name?  Didn’t we do great things in the ministry?  We built this fine sanctuary and dedicated it to You, and we planted churches and sent missionaries all over the world to help the poor.  We saved many lives feeding the poor people of Africa, and we did it to glorify You!

And then Christ is going to say, Yes, but you ran with the wrong vision.  I did not send you.  You ran with what some natural thinking man said about Me.  You believed a man who had not even died on the cross with Me, who did not have enough faith toward God to receive a new heart after the death of his old sinful heart–who did not experience being  baptized into My death, much less being immersed in My Spirit and fire–who did not dig deep and build his house upon the Rock, who wiped his mouth, content he had done no wrong, and settled into his own house built on the sand of man’s traditions (Jer. 29: 9; Rom. 6: 1-6; Matt. 7: 24-27).

Oh, it will be a sad day when millions, who were called, find out that they were not chosen due to their lack of study and prayer and preparation (Matt. 22: 14; II Tim 2: 15).  Had they studied to “prove all things,” then God could have shown them the deeper walk, away from the crash and crescendo of Sunday morning’s man-musings about God, and into the quiet whisper of God’s “still small voice” that leads His elect down a narrow road that few will trod, for few there be to find this way of truth (Matt. 7: 14).

I personally know preachers today who will not listen to anything “new”–anything that does not agree with their denominational line and pre-conceived concepts–that does not line up with what grandpa and grandma and mom and dad taught.    They just will not “prove all things,” both things that they believe to be true, nor things they already think to be false.  I do not condemned them.  It just saddens me, is all.  For they do not realize that much more light is being shed during these latter days–light that grandma and grandpa did not have.

Without the foundation as outlined in Hebrews 6, a Christian cannot grow spiritually, for they will never be rid of the bondage to sin.  For this concept of sin that is so “incorrect” to talk about in our society today is at the heart of the matter.  Christ and all His apostles and prophets spoke of sin continually.  The apostle John even says that “whosoever sins has not seen Him, neither known Him” (I John 3: 6).

The whole plan has God’s Spirit coming down and taking up residence in us.  But He will not dwell in an unclean temple (I Cor. 3: 16-17).  So He has made a way for us to get rid of the old sinful heart at the cross, and by faith receive a new heart that can receive His Spirit.  Wonderful news.  But that is just the first steps on the road to immortality.  There’s so much more as we learn about how we are to walk in preparation to literally become the kings and queens in God’s soon-coming kingdom to be set up shortly right here on earth.  Remember: He is the King of kings.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[I appreciate your comments.  For more on these topics, be sure to read my two books found at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

The Elect of God and the Latter Rain

I have come to the point where I have stopped asking God questions like,  God, where are your elect in the earth?  And, when and how will they get on the same spiritual page so that they grow to a point to be able to do the 100 fold exploits that You said they would do in these latter days?

I am talking, of course, about His elect, His chosen few, His firstfruits, His princes and princesses, His “little flock,” His 100-fold fruitbearers in this final age before Christ comes back to earth to rule and reign for 1,000 years.

The Latter Rain

They go by many names in the scriptures, but few, sadly, in churchianity, speak about them.  Few know of these who are spoken of in Revelation 7 and 14, and in many books of the Bible.  Few believe that a group could “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes” and “be strong and do exploits in the land.”  But many in churchianity will tell you that you cannot be like Christ.  Such negativity!  To them we must say, Well, if you won’t let me be like Christ, will you let me be like Peter, James, John, and Paul?  They started out just like us, and when infused and filled with the Holy Spirit, they were used mightily to heal the sick, raise the dead, and teach the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  To be like the early apostles–that will be close enough.

Yet Christ’s apostles were a type and a foreshadowing of the “glory that shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 18: 8).  Remember when Christ sent His twelve disciples  out and gave them power to heal and cast out devils?  That was a miniature glimpse of His elect going out all over the earth preaching the kingdom of God just before Christ’s return.  All the healings and miracles done by them were a miniature snapshot of the magnitude that will transpire in our day.  Later, that outpouring of His Spirit at Pentecost was the early rain of His Spirit, which came down moderately.  It came down on just a few 2,000 years ago.  The latter spiritual rain in our day will fall abundantly in order to cover the now seven billion people on our aging planet.  For all will see God’s Spirit moving through His manifested sons and daughters.

So I’ve stopped wondering when and where and how they will come forth.

Awaking Out of the Deep Sleep

The point is that they will come forth, for God will awaken them out of the worldly slumber that has anesthetized them with the drug of forgetfulness.  They at present don’t remember what they already were with Him in ages past (Eph. 1: 4).  But they are now stirring out of their comas, and they are waking up hungry for spiritual milk.  And they will suck the spiritual milk of His doctrine until they “are no longer children, tossed to and fro, and carried by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4: 14).  And they will desire the “stong meat” of the word of God.  And then they will fully realize and believe that God has chosen us “in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”

God is leading His elect into greener pastures of heavenly truth.
And they will long to know and do the truths that they have been called to do.  And in doing so, they will be.  They will become His fully manifested sons and daughters, “prepared unto every good work.”

They are out there.  I know that these words flowing out the tips of my fingers will be read by some of them, for I do believe that His word will not return unto Him void, but will accomplish what He sent it to do (Isa. 55: 11).

His elect are out there, scattered all over the earth.  Some are perhaps reading about themselves right now, their hearts being stirred by the movement of the waters of the Spirit of life, hearing about their destiny and becoming “established in the present truth.”

How do I know that they are growing and developing?  His word says that they are.  For He “opens a door that no man can shut” (Rev. 3: 8).  And no one can enter into that door of sonship except God open it.  It is all Him and His doing; it is His choosing and His favor that He showers on the blessed “few.”   That’s right–a few.  As Christ said, “Narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7: 14).  It is the Father that chooses us.  He’s the Great Fisherman, and when He sets the hook in our jaw, we shall be reeled in.

So knowing all this, it gives me peace to know that God is in charge of getting His body together and imbuing  them with power to get done what He wants done.

So, I’ve stopped agonizing about it all.  Patience is one of the fruits of His Spirit inside us.  It’s going to take patience to wait for His harvest to come.  My job is to write His plan with clarity the best I can and share it with those who are interested, and to rest, knowing that He will bring it all to pass in His own sweet time.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[For much more, visit my other website that contains my two books online which you can find at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]  Also, read “We Were with Him in the Beginning” found here:   https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/we-were-with-him-in-the-beginning/ ]