Called, Chosen, and Predestined–Who Can Be Against Us?

It’s funny how we can read a verse of scripture for decades, thinking we understand it, and then one day, when it is pointed out, we “get the revelation.” We stared at it with open eyes, and we did not get it until it was time.

So it is with what Paul the apostle called “the manifestation of the sons of God.” “Manifestation” means “unveiling or revealing.” This unveiling, this making known of God’s sons for these last days is what this book is about. Certain people, in all likelihood living right now on the earth, have been chosen by their Creator to “overcome all things.”

These are the “elect” of the title of this volume. These have been elected or chosen by their Maker to sit with Him on His throne at the end of this age. They have a royal destiny to become kings sitting alongside Christ when He returns and sets up His kingdom.

They are described at length in Romans 8. They are “free from the law of sin and death” (v. 2). The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them because they walk in accordance with the Spirit of God (v. 1, 4). They are spiritually minded and have the Spirit of God dwelling in them (vs. 5-9). They have received the Spirit of Christ, which is the Spirit of the Father; the Spirit has promised them that He will make alive their mortal bodies. They are “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” if they endure the sufferings that will come because of this commitment. If they suffer with Christ, then they “will be glorified together” (vs. 10-17).

Paul continues to say that “the sufferings” that we endure “are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us” (v. 18). The Spirit of God in Paul is telling these future chosen ones that God will reveal His glory in them! Furthermore, the whole creation is eagerly waiting for them to be revealed during these latter days. “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God” (v. 19 NKJV).

Every living thing in the creation is dying or will die. We all have bodies made of earth that will give up the ghost and melt back to clay. We are all slaves and are in bondage to this mortal fate. Why is the whole creation waiting for the revealing of the immortal sons of God? “Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of decay into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (vs. 20-21).

In a harvest, there are always first fruits. A few human beings will be glorified first, thus showing the way for the rest of the creation. Paul likens it to the whole creation groaning in birth pains, how we are all groaning and travailing, waiting, waiting for somebody to transcend death and decay. We do not want to die, and we certainly do not desire our loved ones to wax cold as the ground that receives them. Impending death is so horrid, that we refuse to think on it. If only we had a  champion to show us the way to immortality. Even we who have the down payment of the Spirit are groaning right along with the whole creation, “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (v. 22-23). We are waiting for the antidote.

We now live and walk around in these aging, decaying bodies, but some of us can take comfort in that we have a measure of His Spirit within. But we “are saved by hope”—hope that though we do not yet see the immortal bodies that God has promised us, “we with patience wait for it.” It is a tough and sometimes lonely road, but the Spirit helps us to pray, and Christ our High Priest makes intercession for us (v. 24-27).

In the last few verses of Romans 8, we get to the meaning of the title of this book, The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. We see that those that love God are the ones He has “called according to His purpose.” He has a definite purpose (v. 28). He foreknew these; He knew them from the beginning, and He gave them a destiny beforehand; He “also predestined them to be conformed to the image of His Son” so that Christ would be the firstborn among many sons and daughters (v. 29). The remainder of the chapter insures us of God’s love for us in seeing us through to the end. After all, it is His plan and purpose.

The premise of this book is that the future sons and daughters of God must go through a rigorous unlearning and learning. The false teachings fed to us by the world must be purged, and the thoughts of God, the mind of Christ, must be learned in their stead. For the wide highways of the world are paved with poisoned stones, smooth for the tread of the bygone masses. The way of the elect is a narrow path that winds its way up the mountain of God. It is rocky and rough, and few are able to finish the race. Those that do will overcome all the sufferings and sacrifices and will be the forerunners for the whole creation. They already are chosen and predestined to win. Their confidence is in their Father who created them for the fulfilling of His purpose. They will have a hunger for God’s purpose; they will long to get the truth about why we are here, and why we are dodging death during our earthly sojourn. They will learn of His plan and purpose, His thoughts, His ways. And the old teachings about God they will gladly shed, and they will marvel at how small and suffocating churchianity’s dogmas were.

For these overcomers, soon to be glorified and revealed to the world, will return and “build the old waste places.” They shall be “the trees of righteousness” and the “planting of the LORD.” They shall bring great glory to God through their humble service to Him.

This book speaks of the beginnings of the mind of Christ, the thoughts of God, which are some of the first lessons about God that these future sons and daughters must have “to make their calling and election sure.” They will ask, What is this purpose of God that Paul speaks of? What is His plan to implement His purpose? What are His thoughts that are not our thoughts? Why are we really here? What’s really happening?

[This article will serve as part of the Preface of the above mentioned book that I am finishing at present. Hopefully, it will be published next summer. Kenneth Wayne Hancock]

 

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Belief–The Key to Growing into the Manifestation of the Sons of God

Life is all about love and belief. It is all about believing the love that God showed to us when He had His Son give up His life to ransom us from the darkness of sin.

The “Life” we speak of is not the selfish little mortal life we first knew here on earth. No, we speak now about the life that  is in the Son of God. We speak of life without end, eternal life, life everlasting. Eternal life is the only true life, for life is not really life if it can die.

In order to exchange our first natural, mortal life for the eternal life that God is and wants for us, He merely requires us to just believe Him and have faith in His word concerning all this.

Our belief in His death [the death of our old life], His burial [the burial of our old life], and His resurrection [our being “raised to walk in a newness of life“] is the key. God has ordained belief to be the spark of spiritual energy that surges into our hearts, igniting the fire of life, causing us to begin to grow spiritually.

Like sunshine in spring upon the moist earth energizes the seed to awaken to its potential, even so we now spring to life in the garden of the King. In believing Him, we become His plants, flourishing in watered terraces, bearing the fruits of love, compassion, and justice for all to enjoy. For we are those trees He speaks of, trees planted by the river of life. Oh, how we should thank Him! And the sincerest form of thanks is belief.

Belief of God Is Elemental

We humans are created beings. Our origin, therefore, comes not from our own volition, but from the mind of a Superior Being who wanted us to be, to have life. Consequently, our sole responsibility is to believe the One who says that He is the Word. We are to believe His words. Belief is elemental and seminal in this walk on earth.

Belief, rendered “faith” in many verses, is profound, yet simple. In fact, the profound things of God, the mysteries, riddles, parables, precepts, and the puzzling enigmas that have perplexed prophets and wise men, and beggars and kings–they remain profoundly simple.

Remember the simplicity of the innocence of a little child that Christ spoke about? Unencumbered by the adult mind, the child believes simply. But man’s wisdom blunts the human mind like the granite rock dulls the sword that dares to strike it. The rock and the sword are not for each other. They are out of place, out of time. Such is the mind of old man Adam when endeavoring to comprehend the things of God.

Such are the mysteries of the mind of God. But childlike belief opens them up to our understanding. It is like when a child of three years plucks the petals of his first daisy or smells his first red rose. He does not need the botanist to analyze their parts. He needs no chart or graph depicting how to cultivate them. As the flower’s fragrance enters the child’s nostrils, he understands, yea, believes in the beauty and simplicity of the rose. He inhales its grace and its love. Of such belief, is the kingdom of heaven.

In like manner, let us savor the truth about how the Spirit grows within us to the point of God reproducing Himself. But it will take a childlike belief of God’s word, free from all doubt.

The “Greater Works”

As Christians we have wondered how it would be to have the same power to do good as the apostles of the early church. Through the Spirit, they raised the dead and healed the sick and did many astounding miracles. Whole denominations today have as their main purpose a return to the power of those early days.

Did Christ ever speak about this kind of growth? Did He ever promise us that we could grow to this point in Him? to do what He and His disciples did?

Yes, He did. He said, “He that believes on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do…” (John 14: 12). There it is. “Belief” is right there. The person that believes on Him shall do not only the works of Christ, but “greater works” than what He did. It’s there in irrefutable black and white.

But wait. There’s a problem here. Hundreds of millions of believers of Christ are out there. Why aren’t we all raising the dead and healing the sick and doing these “greater works” that He promised? We believe that He not only existed as an historical figure, but that He also is the Son of God and that He arose from the dead. Why don’t we have the power of the early apostles?

To find out what the words “he that believes on Me” mean, we must back up to John 14: 1. Christ tells his disciples, You believe in God; believe in Me, also. In our Father’s house are many abodes, many dwelling places. I am going now to prepare a place for you to dwell. I’ll return and you will be with Me. You know where I am going. And you know the way (1-4).

Thomas then asks Him the famous question. We do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way to the Father (v. 5). Christ replies, “I am the way.” I am the way; I am the traveled road, that will get you to the Father. “I am the truth.” I won’t steer you wrong with bad directions on your road to the Father. I am full of grace and truth for all seekers of the divine. “I am the life.” Life dwells in Me. That is the truth. That is the way to the Father. In fact, “no man comes to the Father but by Me” (v. 6).

How to Believe on Christ

In John 14, Christ is, no less, telling us how to believe on Him so that we can do the “greater works”!

He is saying, You can’t get to the Father without Me. Besides, If you really knew Me, you would know My Father also. And from now on, after this teaching that I am giving you, you know the Father and you have seen Him (v. 7).

Christ is saying, Right now you are seeing the Father, who is an invisible Spirit, dwelling in the abode of His Son. Then Philip says to Him, If You will just show us the Father, we’ll be satisfied and contented (v. 8).

I am persuaded that Christ just shook his head and said, I have been with you for a long time and you don’t know Me? If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The Father dwells inside of Me, and He speaks the words through Me and does the works (vs. 9-10).

Christ in v. 11 is pleading with us, imploring us, commanding us: “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.” Christ is “in the Father” because He is doing His will perfectly. The Son is a vessel, then, that is in the Father, in the Spirit. And the Father, in turn, is also in the Son as that same one invisible Spirit. Christ is saying, The miracles that I have been performing, only the Father can do, so believe what I am saying to you about the Father being now present with you in Me.

The above is the prologue to Christ’s promise to us that we will do greater miracles than what He and His disciples did (John 14: 12). This is an astounding promise that is predicated on our understanding of the following: “He that believes on Me, the works I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall He do.”

“Believes on Me…” With the promise of growing up to become like–I am going to say it–like Christ, what do these three words mean? What kind of belief in Christ are we talking about here? We must believe that Christ is in the Father, and the Father is in Him. The invisible Spirit of Love, the Creator Himself, “dwelt bodily” in Christ. They are not sitting on two thrones; they are not a Twinity. Christ sits right now with the Father still inside of His vessel. The Father is invisible. The scriptures tell us this (Col. 1: 15; I Tim. 1: 17).

The question is this. Can we smell this rose as a little child? Can we simply believe, not my words, but Christ’s very own words: “The Father is in Me.” If we can believe on Christ this way, in child like faith, then our growth in Him is limitless.The great Yahweh, walking around in human form, left us with this commandment: Believe Me that I am in My Son. If we keep this commandment, nothing shall be impossible for us.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Word of God–Spirit, Life, Light, and Wisdom

When we hear the phrase, “the word of God,” most of us think of the book, the Holy Bible. The  Bible is our precious library of books inspired by the Spirit of God, written down by certain foreordained men of God. That is true. All of us seekers of truth have benefited greatly by the efforts of those who made the Bible happen.

However, the Holy Bible is but a repository of the inspired spiritual words that God spoke originally out of His heart.

The future manifested sons and daughters of God must get back, back, back to the beginning, before the word of God ever appeared on the printed page, back before it was committed as ink stains on fragile scrolls, back even before the word of God was transmitted orally, when Noah told of God’s plan and purpose to Shem, and so on down orally to his offspring like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

For the Word of God is alive; it contains the very thoughts and longings of the Father’s heart. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6: 63). These words were spoken by the Word Himself, who “was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” (John 1: 14). He spoke words comprised of His thoughts; He spoke truth because He is the truth (1: 17). He spoke words explaining His plan for us and all the earth. And these words that He speaks now enter our ears and seep down into our encrusted hearts, and they bring life to the spiritually dead.

For His words are life itself. They are the very breath of everlasting life. They are a spirit that makes us alive unto Him; they are spirit and life for us mortals. And this life is  contained in His words, which are spirit; they are our light. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” And this light now shines on into the darkness of men’s hearts, and they do not comprehend Him, for He is the “true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” He is the Light, for He reveals God’s purpose and plan (John 1: 4-9).

His Words Are Spirit

The words that came out of the mouth of the Son of God are spirit and life. A God given curiosity compels me to ask, How are spoken words spirit? Fair question. Going to the Greek in Strong’s, “spirit” is translated from “pneuma” meaning “wind, breeze, breath.” It is from a root word meaning “to blow, to breathe.”

How are audible words formed? We literally create the spoken word by breathing air over the voice box, thus producing sound through the vibration of our vocal cords. We humans speak all kinds of words this way. But when we speak God’s words, divine words, holy words, His thoughts–then we breathe His Spirit. For His words are spirit and they are life.

We are admonished to speak the word of God, His words. “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Mt. 10: 20). The prophet Ezekiel is told by God several times to speak to the children of Israel, and what comes out of his mouth? The word of God.

The Word of Wisdom

If we study His word with true knowledge, then He will give us words to speak. The very first “gift of the Spirit” happens to be the “word of wisdom” (I Cor. 12: 8). It enables us to speak His thoughts about being in reverential awe of not only His majesty, but of His purpose and plan of reproducing Himself. He will reveal in a word to us  His great heart in sharing Himself with us.

But the time grows short. People sit like orphans in the dark streets of despair, hungering and thirsting for the truth. We must all share the portion of the truth that we have. We must not let His knowledge expire with our last breath in human flesh.

For our appointed time for the death of our old corruptible, decaying, earthly bodies fast approaches. We His children must share what we have while the sands of time still flow through the hourglass. We are channels and not the objects of His blessings. For knowledge of the holy things is the richest blessing our ears can hear.

Wisdom. Ask one thousand people what it is and you will receive one thousand different definitions. Philosophy cannot tell you what wisdom is, for it prattles on vainly about how much it loves (philos) wisdom (sophia), but it has never met her. Imagination cannot tell you, for it only projects images conjured up by the faux genius of earthly man’s mind.

And yet, the word of wisdom is the very first “gift of the Spirit” that God gives us to give to others. But it is not a mystical unction bestowed upon us from on high. We must seek to know what wisdom is–according to what the word of God says it is. Most do not know that wisdom is being in reverential awe of God. I repeat: Wisdom is being in reverential awe of God ( https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/book-yah-is-savior-the-road-to-immortality-chapter-2/ ).

Most professing Christians have one of three thoughts about the gifts of the Spirit. Some just don’t know that they exist. Others say that the “gifts of the Spirit” are not for modern times, thus limiting God’s power through unbelief. Another group are just the opposite; they “catch on fire” for God and immediately clamor for the power to perform miracles and healings.

The reality is that the gifts of the Spirit are real and are being given to His people. But they are given to us “decently and in order.” The first two gifts that God gives us is the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. Without them the new Christian will not grow spiritually. They will be stunted children, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness” (Eph. 4: 14).

We must be rooted and grounded in His word. We must dig deep and put our spiritual house on the Rock. We must seek deeply “that we may be filled with all the fulness of God.” We must see and believe the Word, our Savior, savoring just where His words of glory came from–the Beginning. “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1: 1).   Kenneth Wayne Hancock