Christ Formed in You–Making Our Calling and Election Sure

You would not be reading these words if God had not been dealing with you in many ways. You feel that there is so much more than what the churches are teaching you. Many of you have already left the denominations in search of deeper truths. When you read in these pages about how Christians can grow to be like the early apostles and even Christ Himself, you rejoice and long for this to truly permeate this earth.

That first rush of excitement and fervor upon hearing these things ignites a fire that soon burns down to embers and for some cools to ash. Two things are the fuel to keep our hearts ablaze for God.

Two major principles that we must add to our walk will help us “make our calling and election sure.” The first one is to “Get the Vision.” This is not just getting a vision for God. Nor is it “getting a leading of the Spirit” for some endeavor. No. It means “Get the Vision that God specifically has for us.

The second major principle that helps us grow up spiritually to eventually become the manifested sons and daughters of God just like the early apostles, is to obey Christ’s admonishments. He told us specific things to do in order to grow. He told us to add certain spiritual qualities to our faith, things that will help us “make our calling and election sure” (II Pet. 1: 5-11). Few know what these additions to the faith are.

He told us to “purge out the old leaven,” which are the false doctrines and teachings about God that we grew up with. Few have done this, mainly for lack of knowledge. Babes in Christ are inadvertently given tainted milk by their caregivers. We need the “sincere milk of the word” so that we can truly grow.

We are to learn and to continue “steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine,” called “the first principles of the oracles of God” (Acts 2: 42; Heb. 5: 12; 6: 1-2). The future manifested sons and daughters of God must not only know these teachings, but do them. But most Christians when asked, do not even know what they are.

We are told to have the mind of Christ and to think like He does. Yet few have explored what is really on His mind. He gave us a model prayer, called the Lord’s Prayer. Instead of analyzing each part of the prayer to mine out the jewels of communication with the Father, man has made it a ritualistic, repetitive incantation. And there are so many more things that we are to know and then do to prepare our vessels to become one of His princes and princesses in His kingdom.

Back to the Beginning

To make sure our calling and election sure, we must go back, back, back to the beginning—back before the earth and the heavens were created. We must travel back to the very heart and mind of God. To be like Him, we must think like Him. We must know His thoughts.

For His chosen ones, His elect, will know Him from the beginning. The apostle John had this intimate knowledge of the Father. He was taken to that rare dimension called “the beginning,” before anything was ever created—back to the Father’s thoughts, back to the very core of who He was and is and will always be.

As God’s manifested sons and daughters to be, we must go there. To “know Him from the beginning,” we must go back to our Father’s first thought. We must boldly go where few dare to go—into the Mind of God. He made our minds, and we use only 10% of the brainpower. So, yes, we can go back to His mind and thoughts before He created anything. We must leave behind the physical trappings of churchianity and get back to the Word that was in the beginning.

John wrote about “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (I John 1: 1). That place is where we are going—back to the beginning. To be His true offspring, we must be as He was and is. We must know His thoughts, His purpose, and His plan that He had in the beginning, in order to fulfill them.

Three Growth Levels for Christians

In His first letter, John wrote to three groups of Christians, categorized according to their spiritual growth. He wrote specific messages to “children” and to “young men” and to “fathers” (2: 12-14).

To the fathers, who are the most mature Christians, he wrote, “I write unto you, fathers, because you have known Him that is from the beginning” (v. 13). You fathers are fully matured followers that know God’s secret thoughts and plans and purpose.

Those chosen by God to overcome all things and to grow unto kingship with Christ are these “fathers.” That standing is what we are called to become. That’s us, brothers and sisters.

But in order to grow to this point, we must get back to the beginning, to the original thoughts of the Father, back to His nature, His plan, and His purpose. It must be crystal clear, clean and dazzling in our hearts and minds. This is “knowing Him that is from the beginning.” This is nothing less than arriving at the Mind of Christ, for His thoughts were only His Father’s. The Spirit is now taking us there.

A Few Notes before Our Pilgrimage Back to the Father’s Heart

As we dive deeper into His wisdom and knowledge, and as we seek what we had with Him in the beginning, we will encounter main ideas and major concepts first created in the Mind of God.

These precepts are the core principles of His faith. Yes, He believed in His own genius first, long before we were created. It is His faith in His own magnificence that we later agreed with when we came to Him initially. We must remember that it is “the faith once delivered to the saints.” The one faith is His faith in His own power and glory and genius. When we begin to believe what He believes, then we have the one faith.

These divine concepts are not separated by vast oceanic mysteries, standing isolated from each other. These things are the thoughts of His mind, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and, beginning with His nature, are the essence of the agape love that He is.

All of these concepts emanating from the Mind of God blend together. Because God is one, it is difficult to speak of just one concept without mentioning others. The Oneness of God permeates all. “There is one body, and one Spirit…one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph. 4: 3-7).

The major concepts we must learn while going back to the beginning with God are these: Love, Purpose, Thoughts/Mind,Word/Logos, Plan, Seed/Son, Planting, Harvest. All these yield The Vision that God has for the universe. When we see these concepts with spiritual eyes and believe them, then we will have seen The Vision.

When we have a working knowledge of these, we will only begin to understand the Mind of Christ. We then can begin to think His thoughts, which are the Father’s. Then we will begin to “know Him that is from the beginning.”

The next few chapters will help us get His Vision.

[This is Chapter 2 of my latest book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. If the above intrigues you, send for your free copy with free shipping. I wrote it specifically for  you. Instead of putting my dollars in some church’s offering tray, I send books to those who are hungering for these things. Just send your mailing address to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com  Kenneth Wayne Hancock]

Apostles’ Doctrine Explains How God Reproduces Himself—In Us

God is reproducing Himself. This is His eternal purpose that has been “kept secret from the foundation of the world.” He revealed His purpose to His holy apostles and prophets in the early rain era, and now He is revealing His plan to us in the latter rain era. The seven teachings of Christ that became the apostles’ doctrine explain how the Father will accomplish His purpose—in us. [For much more on this, order your free copy with free shipping of my latest book, The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. Send your snail mail address to my email wayneman5@hotmail.com  No gimmicks, no follow up, just love from above, down and through. You need this book].

Yes, His purpose is to multiply Himself. He likens the process to the law of harvest where a man plants a grain of corn in his garden. After harvesting that lone seed, hundreds of seeds—just like the original—are ready to be either eaten or replanted. Quite elementary are these teachings of Christ, and yet they are profound. Christ’s doctrine spoke of the growth cycle in nature, a metaphor of the spiritual growth that transforms natural man into the “manifestation of the sons of God.” In fact, it is through viewing nature’s “seed time and harvest” cycle that we get our first glimpse of Christ’s doctrine of “the resurrection of the dead.”

In nature, a tiny seed loses its identity by being buried in the earth, and then the resurrection power from God surges into that seed, causing it to spring to life. It is a rebirth, a classic type of life out of death. It is from this matrix that we may extrapolate the spiritual life cycle of man. It is all about life out of death.

God is Love, and He is reproducing Himself through you and me. We have seen that “the seed is the word of God.” And seeds are created by God to grow. And they grow until harvest, when His word in our hearts comes to full fruition. This is when His word is magnified, and through it He is glorified when He sees Love expressed one to another through us. Our destiny is the harvest of many sons and daughters just like Christ.

Christ’s Doctrines Explain How God Is Reproducing Himself

Using this truth as a jumping off point, we look to Christ’s doctrine that He taught His early apostles. They learned from the Chief Apostle and High Priest Yahshua. His doctrine became His apostles’ doctrine. These seven specific teachings are extremely important, for they explain how God reproduces Himself. Each one of the seven sheds light on a facet of how He produces light out of darkness. Through the apostles’ doctrine, Christ shows us how He takes the dark heart of a selfish wretch and transforms him into a shining minister of light. “Let there be light,” is the seed/word from God in Genesis. And sure enough, that scripture is fulfilled in our hearts. He earnestly wants this for us all. But, if we do not have thorough knowledge of His doctrine, then it is doubtful that He will use us to fully reproduce Himself. I.e., we will lose our opportunity to become a member of God’s first fruits, the first to have Christ fully formed in us.

It was asked, “I understand, but what if we follow this way and die before Christ returns, and Christ is still not fully formed in us?” Then we join the other apostles and prophets awaiting Christ’s return to earth. He has promised that He will resurrect His followers upon His return. Those who are alive when He returns to earth will be changed “in a twinkling of an eye.” So whether we live, we are living His plan, and whether we die, we expire having lived and worked for His plan to come to fruition.

It All Begins with the Seed

It starts with the Seed, the word of God, being planted in our hearts. The sower sows the seed by telling others about Christ’s love for us all. The Seed is the Word, and in that word is a promise of a new clean life, free from the sin that has darkened our actions toward others. When we believe in Christ’s resurrection, He energizes that very word, and like a seed, it begins to grow. Seeds grow. That is their destiny. And now that the Seed of God in the form of Christ has taken root in our hearts, we begin to grow.

But like any seed, the new spiritual man inside of us needs good soil, water and sunshine to grow to its potential. Good soil is earth that is free from contaminants. The problem with quick spiritual growth is that our new man sits in a mind that has been contaminated. What are the contaminants? Erroneous concepts concerning God’s purpose and plan and kingdom, salvation. You name it. Almost anything you have heard about God needs some straightening out. All of the apostles and prophets of the Bible warn us incessantly about false prophets, false teachers, and false pastors.

But you rarely hear a word on Sunday morning about it. The people in the pews are told to accept Jesus, go to church, pay your tithes and offerings, pray, support your local communities, and just be a better you. All of which sounds so correct and good.

Especially the last one. Be a better you. What’s wrong with that one? You may ask. Christ did not tell you to be better. He said that there was no one righteous, no not one. He said, Take up your cross and follow Me. Back in the day, that meant only one thing. You would be dying very soon on that cross. Be a better you? No. In fact, He says that “you” must spiritually die with Him in revelation on the cross, the place where your sinful nature finally expires. There is no “cleaning up your old self.” No. For He says that “our righteousness is as filthy rags.” To be better, we must submit to death on the cross and then receive His Spirit into the new heart that He gives us. Our vessel gets “better” when we are no longer there [we must decrease] and when He is growing in us [He must increase] (John 3: 30). That is the message. Everything else is just smoke and mirrors and falls woefully short of what the Master requires.

Nevertheless, “Be a better you” sounds so right to the natural man. However, we must get rid of the old concepts about Christ. The truth found in the apostles’ doctrine contains the nutrients that we need to grow spiritually into Him.

For we see that Christ is the Seed, the Word that was made flesh and that walked among us (John 1: 14). And He fell into the ground and was raised up the third day. His resurrection power now courses through our mortal flesh. “God is a Spirit,” and He now lives in us, and through Him we are raised up with Him and now walk in a brand new life (John 4: 24; Rom. 6: 4).

The early apostles stayed in Christ’s doctrine, making it their own. They continued in His teachings because they knew that they contained the secrets of sonship. Christ’s teachings explain how God will reproduce Himself in us. If we are serious about going all the way and being like the early apostles, then we must do what they did. They studied Christ’s seven doctrines and got rid of false teachings. That is the bottom line.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{Brothers and sisters, you made it through the 1,300 words to this short addendum, proving that you, like me, are hungry for the meat and are tired of playing church house games. The Spirit is going deeper and deeper, explaining His plan and guiding us into all truth. The above is a chapter in the new book The Apostles’ Doctrine. I am writing it to leave to you, that you would have a guidebook that will afford you comfort and instruction for the long journey to the end of this age. It is for you who desire to overcome all things and sit down with Christ on His throne. This calling of manifested sonship (and daughtership) is a rare spiritual commodity, and it takes a rare breed of cat (a Lion, perhaps) to enter through its doors into the Father’s good graces. I have great respect for the future manifested sons and daughters who will “rule and reign with Christ” right here on earth upon His return. It is my privilege to be able to share with you a little milk and meat of the word to strengthen you on your quest. Keep studying. Dig deep, for only those who do will be approved by God to do great things in the earth. Can you hear Him knocking? Can you hear His voice?}

The Resurrection of the Dead–The Many Levels of the Fifth Doctrine of the Apostles

When someone first hears of the “resurrection of the dead,” they think of Christ’s resurrection. And rightfully so, for without His resurrection from the dead, our faith, our preaching, and our hope of eternal life are all vain and utterly of no profit. And like Paul said, if there is no resurrection, “…we are of all men most miserable.” However, Christ is alive; He is risen, and He is our only hope of immortality (I Cor. 15: 12-19).

And yet, Christ’s doctrine, The Resurrection of the Dead, which became the apostles’ doctrine, encompasses a vast array of miraculous pulsating life, from the smallest garden seed to the new heavens and a new earth that He has promised.

Belief in His resurrection opens the door to the light of His resurrection power. Belief in Him raising from the dead after three days and three nights in the tomb—that is the seed beginning of our yearning “to know Him and the power of His resurrection.” For His power commands light to spring out of darkness, creating a new heart in us where once the darkness of selfishness dwelt.

Back to 1971

I remember when I was twenty-four, I went through a life-changing experience, and Christ’s resurrection was at the center of it all. As a child I had heard many times the story of the Savior and how He rose from the dead. I had walked the aisle at ten, being swiftly baptized into that Baptist church. But later as a teen I left the church after my parents’ divorce. I surmised then that something was terribly amiss; there was no love and peace in Big D. In my tortured teenage angst, I figured that the message the church was teaching was not strong enough to hold my parents together, so I moved on.

Yet, everyone at the church had said that I was “born again,” but booze and cigarettes and Playboy magazines became my cheap little gods. I realized later that I had never risen with Him from the state of being dead in sin. By 1971 my old nature had grabbed the steering wheel of my life and was drunkenly crashing into everything. It was then that I first heard that my old sinful nature “is crucified with Christ.”  And that I am buried with Him, and by believing in His resurrection, I, too, am raised from the dead (in sin). I was raised to “walk in a newness of life.”

I had skin in the game this time. I was presenting my body as a “living sacrifice,” trusting in the power of His resurrection to sustain me in this new sinless walk of life. I had a great teacher who told me that “he that is dead is freed from sin…and in Him is no sin.”

Powerful truth is found in His word. But, first, someone’s got to stand on the wall and proclaim it in the face of the gainsayers. And then it must be believed. It is by faith in His resurrection that the surge of new life comes into our mortal bodies.

So, I went home and tried to think upon these things. But the first thought that came piercing into my mind like a sharp arrow was this: You don’t really believe that Christ was actually raised from the dead, do you?

This thought shattered me. My existence fell like shards of glass to the floor. I felt the terror of one who was hopelessly lost, rudderless, adrift in an empty sea of nihilism.

The next day I related all this to my mentor. He told me that the voice was Satan’s and that Satan knows that belief in the resurrection is the crux of the whole matter. If he gets you to doubt the resurrection, he wins, and you lose. I have not forgotten that day so many years ago. I was blessed; I had someone who loved me and helped me to overcome the first of Satan’s assaults.

From Personal to the Universal

The early apostles continued in the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. They had the ultimate mentor, the “Author and Finisher of our faith,” Christ. He taught them that the resurrection has many levels, from the personal level on up to the universal level. Christ’s resurrection power is shown when a humble little garden seed sacrifices its identity and yields to that invisible creative power that is God, and then life bursts from that seed. Such is the word of the Spirit; such is the Seed, the Word of God, when it springs forth in our hearts.

From the personal the “resurrection of the dead” grows into a national scope. Remember how Christ was always teaching about the “lost sheep of the House of Israel”? For forty days after His resurrection, Christ taught them “the things pertaining to the kingdom of God”?  And the foremost question on their minds was this: “Lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” The national restoration of the lost tribes of Israel was on their minds, and they continued speaking on this theme because it was one of the main doctrines of Christ (Acts 1: 3-6). This restoration of the lost tribes of Israel is a resurrection of their nation spoken by the Spirit through the “mouth of all of His holy prophets since the world began.”

The next level of the apostles’ doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is worldwide. The earth will have gone through the Great Tribulation Period; the world system will be destroyed. The earth will have gone through a devastation that the world has never seen. The earth and its inhabitants are the walking dead by the end of this horrendous seven year period. This is when God will resurrect the whole earth through the establishment of His government and kingdom.

But there is another resurrection that takes place on a galactic scale. The Spirit speaks of a planting of the heavens. “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth…And of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end…We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness” (Isa. 51: 16; 65: 17; Dan. 2: 44; II Pet. 3: 13). God will sow His seed, planting us with life giving power to resurrect cold dead planets, translating them into the gardens of God.

This resurrection of the universe is so grand and glorious, that my small mind struggles to taste it. It brings to mind Paul’s quote of Isaiah: “But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (I Cor. 2: 9-10).            Kenneth Wayne Hancock

If You Ain’t Knowin’, You Ain’t Growin’

A wise voice once spoke to me, “If you ain’t knowin’, you ain’t  growin’.”

And so later I asked myself, “Knowing what exactly?” And then a few scriptures came to me.

“Be still and know that I am God.” First, be still. Get out of the traffic of your life, slow down, and take that country road and pull over, and with a calm mind, know that He is God.

But which God, or rather which version of the God of the Bible? “What is His name?” Moses asked. “I AM THAT I AM” was God’s reply. YHWH in the Hebrew. And it was the same I AM that spoke through Christ when He said, “Before Abraham was I am.” Know that “the fullness of the godhead dwelt bodily in Christ.” “Be still and know that I am God” (Psm. 46: 10) [For much more on this subject, read Chapters 11-14 in Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality found here:  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/book-yah-is-savior-the-road-to-immortality/ ].

Knowing and growing in Him. And then the much quoted passage from Christ’s lips came to mind: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8: 32). But free from what exactly? He answers that two verses later. “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”  I.e., if you are sinning, it is because you are Sin’s slave. Sin is your master. You do Sin’s bidding. You are not free from sin. You don’t know the truth that will free you from sin and sinning (the breaking of the Ten Commandments [I John 3: 4]).

To know the truth that will free us from having to sin. What is that knowledge that will liberate mankind from sin’s slavery? HalleluYah! This is gigantic information!

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom. 6: 6-7). Same verses in the NIV: “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.” We have got to know that our old sinful first nature “was crucified” with Christ on the cross. It is already accomplished! The only thing that we need to do is believe it. That is all. And through believing it, we know that it is done by Him. It just takes faith/belief.

I don’t get it. This is so fundamental. Why aren’t pastors and ministers preaching this in their churches? Oh, I don’t know. Could it be that they just do not believe it? And it is not a very popular message. Hey, people, repent of your sins and die with Christ on His cross! Not real popular. Probably it will get you fired. Hirelings get fired. God’s prophets and apostles and teachers don’t. They are not in it for the salary. And so, the pastors and ministers blather platitudes about Christ and never by His Spirit speak of this knowledge.

Brothers and sisters, we’ve got to know this: God gives us His word that if we submit our old sinful selves to spiritually die with Christ on the cross, that He will free us from sin and sinning. Because “he that is dead is freed from sin.” And now we also know that being spiritually buried with Him, and being raised up with Him secures a brand new life in Him, free from the bondage to sin and its consequences. It is all laid out there in the sixth chapter of Romans. This is where the knowledge of the truth that will free us from sin is crystallized.

Of course, there are many passages of scripture that deal with knowing. But I will close with one that seems to fit nicely here, again from Christ’s lips: “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them” (John 13: 17). And we are growing when we do Christ’s things. Knowing and doing equals growing. “If you ain’t knowin’ you ain’t growin’.”       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[Order your free copy of any of my books—free with free shipping in the USA. Just email me your snail mail address, mentioning which book—the latest being The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect.  wayneman5@hotmail.com ]