Tag Archives: abiding in Christ

March 11, 2025 · 11:59 am

Thinking God’s Thoughts–The Additions and the Abiding

Thinking God’s Thoughts–The Additions and the Abiding

(from a Journal entry dated 7-30-14)

If you want to hear from God today, soften your heart by believing. Believing what exactly? Believe that God exists and is there, very near to you. And that He reveals Himself to those who search for Him with all their heart. We need to believe Him, like a little child believes—with all our heart (Heb. 11:6).

That is why it is so important to tell children the truth. For they will believe you. They’ll believe you, for instance, about Santa Claus and the flying reindeer, until the day they discover their first betrayal, until the day when they trade their faith in for a plastic phony world.

Nevertheless, God promises true things to His children. He promises everlasting life and power that overcomes obstacles in our lives—starting today—if we do not doubt Him. He has promised us that if we believe Him, then He, the Spirit of truth, will come and dwell/abide in us!

But, first, we must abide in Him. We must dwell in Him by getting rid of untruths and, frankly, the doctrinal errors that we all have been subjected to. He calls this “purging out the old leaven” (I Cor. 5:7; see Purge Out the Old Leaven = Getting Rid of False Concepts | Immortality Road).

This is “abiding in Him.” When this is done, then He will abide in us. This is how spiritual growth works. For it is when His Spirit dwells fully in us that we will show forth Him! This is the fulfilling of His purpose: God’s will is for Him to reproduce Himself, and “God is agape Love.”

We abide in Him when we think His thoughts. It is when we “get our minds right” and “get with His program” that we can abide in Christ. This leads to Christ fully dwelling/abiding in us.

Again, to abide in Him and He in us is to think His thoughts. This is having the same mind that Christ has. “Let this mind be in you” (Phil. 2:5).

How to Think His Thoughts

Two spiritual tools exist to help us train our minds to think His thoughts. For Yahweh’s thoughts are not our thoughts (Isa. 55:8). So then, our minds must be re-educated. We are born from a matrix of doubt and disbelief. We have been misled about what the truth is. So, the Master Teacher has prescribed prayer and fasting to cast out the unbelief.

Put another way, the two increase belief. They add to our faith. In fact, the seven additions to the faith are added by faith/belief, and God has ordained that prayer and fasting come into our spiritual life. He not only desires this for us, but He also makes it happen (II Peter 1:5-12).

Adding the seven additions is the only way in scripture to “make our calling and election sure (v. 10).” These seven “things make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Him. Adding them ensures that we will bear much spiritual fruit (v. 8). By adding them to our faith, we are ensured “an entrance…into the everlasting kingdom…” (v. 11). [See Additions to the Faith to Make Our Calling and Election Sure–To Be Like Peter, James, John, and Paul | Immortality Road

For His elect have their destiny pre-determined by God. And He will restore what we had with Him in the beginning—which are the seven additions to the faith.

Peter is imploring us to take heed. Take the additions to heart. If you want to be in His elect cadre, we must add the attributes of His divine nature. The Spirit is telling us to add them. We must do this. We do not work for salvation; it is a gift. But we must work to spiritually grow through study and prayer. We work because He has saved us for a purpose: To be laborers in His last day vineyard.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock [For more on this, send for my new book, The Additions to the Faith. It is free with free shipping. Send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book to my e-mail: wayneman5@hotmail.com].

5 Comments

Filed under abide, additions to our faith, armour of God, children of God, Christ, elect, eternal purpose, faith, kingdom of God, knowledge, love, mind of Christ, Spirit of God, spiritual growth, Spiritual Life Cycle, will of God, Yahshua, Yahweh

Tagged as , , , , ,

July 12, 2023 · 11:53 am

How Christ Abides in Us

(from journal entry, 11-8-14)

Seekers of God must believe that God wants them to grow. If they do not believe that, they will remain immature in the body of Christ, spiritually floundering like children being tossed like leaves on a windy winter’s night. Yahshua has lined out how to grow in a series of commandments. Christ commands us: “Abide in Me and I in you” and “Add to your faith” seven attributes of His divine nature.

[These and other commandments are explored in my book The Eleventh Commandment; it isfree with free shipping to all who ask: Ordering My Free Books in Paperback | Immortality Road (wordpress.com)] [John 15:4-6; II Peter 1:1-11.  Also, I have just published online my latest book, The Additions to the Faith, found here: The Additions to the Faith | Immortality Road (wordpress.com)]. The additions are seven attributes of Christ’s “divine nature” that is possible for us all to accomplish. If Peter, Paul, and John can do it, we can, too.]

Some of you may be thinking, Wayne, here you go again with “how to become like Christ.” Some may not even believe that it is possible. Well, I would be remiss if I did not remind you again. It is my job. Teachers are His gifts to the church, His body. They are for “the perfecting [the maturing] of the saints…and the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come to the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect/mature man” unto the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-13). We are to grow “unto the fulness of Christ.”

This is the abiding of His heart and Spirit. The abiding of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” comes after the knowledge and then the doing of the seventh addition, which is Agape/Love.

It is one thing to recognize a command, but it is another to find out how to obey it. The point: First, we abide/remain/continue in Christ by believing His words concerning His promised presence within the Spirit of truth. Christ said that He is the vine, and we are the branches. When we abide or remain in Him, then we will “bring forth much fruit.”

This corresponds to the additions to the faith. When all seven are added, we will never be “barren nor unfruitful.” “Nor unfruitful” means “full of fruit.” “Full of fruit” means “much fruit.” And these additions will help us to make “our calling and election sure” (II Peter 1:4-10). When tied together, “the abiding” and the “additions” help us to be fruitful. If we abide in Him, then we bring forth “much fruit.”

The abiding is the sustained presence of the Spirit within us. This happens because of the seven additions, the seven qualities or attributes of the Spirit, leading to the seventh—agape love.

But how is all this done? How do we abide in Christ and He in us? How do we add to our faith? What is the formula, the steps, the way to do it?

Christlike Prayer

We abide in Christ and He in us through prayer. It is about the content of our communications with God. But it is not any old prayer. It must be like Christ’s prayers. It must not be asking Him and commanding Him for things for self. Prayer is worship, and “they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

So, the words that we speak to Him must be in accordance with what is important to God. Our prayers must agree with how Christ prayed and what he prayed for. We see this in the model prayer, called the Lord’s Prayer, given to His disciples when they asked him how to pray [page 28-60 in The Eleventh Commandment].

I remember back when I was teaching English, I was looking to glean some Nuggets for my high school juniors who desperately needed help in interpersonal relations. Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People, gave us this point: “Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.” You will not only get their attention, but you will get them to like you and sincerely win their friendship.

Let us extrapolate. What if we talked to God in terms of His interests? What if we talked to Him about the things that He is interested in. Would that not be better communication? Would we get his ear by discussing with Him His plan and what He is interested in? Do you think that He listens to self-centered prayers like “Bless us, dear Lord. Help me get this new job”? I doubt it. If we talked to Him about His plan and purpose and asked Him to learn more of His ways, do you think He would turn a deaf ear to you?

After all, Christ said, “If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” We must ask Him, not tell Him what to do. It is He that gives the commands. If we are abiding/continuing/remaining in Christ’s words of His plan, praying, and communicating in accordance with His will—then when we ask Him for more of His Spirit, He will abide in us.

Where do we find a description of what God is interested in? It is found in the words of the Savior, the prophets, and the apostles. Their words show us that God is interested in His Kingdom and his way of right living. He thinks about His Kingdom.

Why not talk to him about His Kingdom? After all, Christ did say, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.” We could ask Him about how He will govern the sheep and the goat nations (Matt. 25:31-46). Our Father would surely take notice of us; we would gain His ear, for not too many ask Him about His governance over the nations.

When we think His thoughts, we are abiding and remaining in Him. As we abide in Christ, we continue in the things He taught. We think and act on the thoughts of His mind. The world system pulls us away from His thoughts. If we could think His thoughts exactly like He thinks, then we would be abiding in Him. We would literally have “the mind of Christ.” The apostle Paul admonishes us, “Let this mind be in you.”

And how do we attain His thoughts? Through knowledge emanating from His mind, explained by His teachers. And how do we sustain His thoughts to the point that our mind is full of his thinking? Through prayer and study of his plan and purpose.

Praying the way He wants us to is the rudder that steers our minds back onto the charted course and on toward the city of the living God, the New Jerusalem, and to countless angels, and to our fellow brethren and to God our Savior Yahshua.

Abiding in Him

Loving Christ comes from the gratefulness that we feel toward Him for our deliverance from sin. “We love Him because He first loved us and gave Himself for us…” And now, because we love Him, we will keep his words to us. “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14: 23).

We see here a progression: Initial gratefulness grows into loving Christ. Because we love Him, we will value and obey His words. And then He promises to come into our hearts with a lasting relationship. He promises to abide/continue/remain in us, thus, fulfilling His sentiment: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”

And one of his words to us is “pray.” Christ talks about its necessity in scores of passages. So do His apostles. It must be extremely important. In fact, prayer is of the essence. Praying according to his plan and purpose keeps us abiding in Him. And in so doing, it makes us bear much spiritual fruit, which in turn fulfils our Father’s plan and purpose of reproducing Himself in us.

He said that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we shall ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us (John 15:7). That is the power that He wants us to wield. Abiding in Him yields much spiritual fruit in and through us. This would include the fruit of the Spirit, which is  “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal. 5: 22 ).

Spiritual Growth  Abiding in Him and He in us insures spiritual growth for us. There is a growth; just look at Peter and Paul before and after the resurrection. Again—if they can grow into spiritual powerhouses, then we can, too. We just need to study and incorporate their teachings. And the teachings of Christ and His apostles speak of The Abiding.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1 Comment

Filed under abide, additions to our faith, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , ,

November 3, 2021 · 9:55 am

The Abiding—Christ in You and You in Him

The Abiding is the most precious spiritual pose that we could ever be in. The Abiding is a two way street. Yes, He has promised that He would abide/stay/remain/continue in us. He has commanded us to abide in Him. But first we must abide/stay/remain/continue in Him (John 15:4-5).

How does one abide in Him and Him in us? First, we must be free from error about Him. He is the Truth [“I am the way, the truth and the life…”]. We cannot cling to any false conceptions about Christ and expect Christ the Truth to abide in us. This means that we must tune out the distractions of the world. We must turn a deaf ear to the tired erroneous platitudes of the false church and its teachings. We must abide in His thoughts and teachings and continue in His concepts and precepts. In order to abide and continue in Him, we must get rid of false teachings and concepts about Him.

If we do not, then these false concepts, like yeast, will spread all through the lump of dough that is destined to become the bread that feeds the minds of His followers. Tainted bread. Not good. Christ warns us about the old leaven. “Purge out the old leaven,” we are commanded, “that the lump may be holy.” The Spirit of Truth cannot come and abide in us if our thoughts about Him are tainted with the false concepts of man’s wisdom. The Spirit of Truth will not share a body with false doctrines. They do not mix.

It’s a War

Getting rid of the false doctrines is a real battle. It is an all-out war as we struggle face to face with our enemy, the devil. But it is all so deceptive. How are we to know which teachings are true and which are false? The answer, of course, is in the Scriptures of Truth.

But knowing that the truth is found in the Bible is obviously not enough to not be deceived. It takes studying the word of God. But that is not enough. It takes studying for the right reasons. Studying just for knowledge’s sake is not it. We need to examine ourselves according to the written word in order to purge out the old leaven teachings. It is the only way of getting rid of false teachings.

But it takes a heaven-sent strength to look in the mirror and tell yourself that you have been wrong about God and His plan. Ferreting out falsehoods in our belief system is like when you as a kid first began to see that Santa Claus was not real. You had to either renounce the whole idea or play along with the adults who had perpetuated the myth. As a child that lacked strength to swim against the stream of falsehoods, you for a time played their game. But now that you have become a spiritual adult, you have put away the myths of childhood. It is the same scenario with all of the false doctrines.

It is a war, and we need to arm ourselves with the thoughts of the mind of Christ. We must “put on the whole armor of God” if we are to survive this war. Those who continue to “play church” will be left out in the cold as the five foolish virgins were (Matthew 25:1-13). We must study out the old leaven false doctrines and the armor of God that protects us from their deception. [For more on this, order my latest book The Eleventh Commandment. It is free with free shipping Free Copy of The Eleventh Commandment | Immortality Road (wordpress.com) .

What Stunts the Growth of the Overcomers?

And when we get rid of old leaven doctrines and arm our minds with His thoughts, Christ takes note and has promised to abide in us! He has promised in that same holy word that He would come down and inhabit us with His Spirit! He has promised to live in us and walk in us, and use our mouths to speak to those out there struggling. I know that you long for power to do apostolic works like healing the sick and standing for righteous justice for all the world. This must take place first.

Many readers of this blog have already made stupendous strides of spiritual growth. You have already had several experiences that have proven to you that God is your loving Father. You have grown, but perhaps lately some have hit a plateau where they feel they are just not getting closer to the “mark of the prize of the high calling…” Something is stunting their growth. I submit that it could be the old leaven concepts that need to be repented of [See Chapter 44, p. 166 in The Eleventh Commandment]. 

The Overcomers

Christ’s elect are chosen to be the overcomers who will sit with Christ on His throne (Rev. 3:21). That is the top of the mountain, the fulfillment of the highest calling. They will know firsthand of Christ’s precious love for them.

But to get to Christ’s throne, the elect will have to repent of several faults. Christ says that these Christians in this last Church Age of Laodicea are lukewarm in their works, neither cold nor hot. It is so distasteful to Him that He will spue them out of His mouth (3:15-16).

Those whom He has called during the time of the end, have hit a plateau of growth and have become half-hearted. They are not on fire for Christ like they use to be. They have tapered off. The vision has grown cold.

Christ explains why are they are lukewarm. “Because you say, ‘I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.’ And you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (3:17). What a rebuke to the future overcomers who may—if they pass the test—enter Christ’s throne room four verses later. What’s their problem? “I am rich,” they say. This is not worldly riches. Christ said that His words are “spirit and they are life.” Lukewarm Christians think that they already know all they need to know about Christ. They are saying they have the truth and the others need to listen to them. They are like the Pharisees. It is religious pride; every denomination thinks that they are the true church.

Christ then gives the answer on how to repent of lukewarmness. “I counsel you to buy of Me  gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich, and white raiment that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that you may see” (3:18).

[Many Christians will stop right here and say to themselves that they don’t know what this is all about. Some are not willing to dig deep for the knowledge. Here is where studying should engage with a white hot desire to seek His wisdom and to know Him and His thoughts. Yes, ask Him to reveal what these terms mean: “gold tried in the fire.” Look at I Pet. 1:17 for a dot to connect to. “White raiment.” Study out “white” and “raiment” and “white raiment.” Look up these terms in the Greek and cross reference them with other Greek words. The English translators sometimes used three or four different English words taken from one Greek word. And “eye salve.” The blind are those who have not added the seven additions to the faith (I Peter 1:5-9). Look up blind and blindness. As you study hard, you will show Him that you mean business—His business.

Brothers and sisters, His government and kingdom is real, and it is coming, and He has planned to share with us His administration. We are auditioning for a job as a helper, an administrator, a prince or princess, an ambassador, a governor—you get the idea. This is real! He will not promote us to be His officers under Him if we do not study all of this out. Any other way borders on lukewarm child’s play.

If we are aspiring to the throne to sit with Him ruling this earth, we better “prove all things.” Do not take my word for any thing that I write. Do not take your preacher’s word for it. Ask Him to inhabit your mind; take His word and eat it, all of it, and do not look back. Make it yours. Prove it out to yourself.

If Christ’s rebuke seems a little too harsh, remember this: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent” (Rev. 3:19). We are here and have been rebuked by Christ for our religious pride. And because some have not studied out their shortcomings, He has issued this rebuke. But the rebuke proves His love for us. Only the ones He has chosen to come to His throne will get this rebuke. The others will not be able to see, for they are blind and need the eye salve. If you have hit rough times and you are feeling His lash, smile and know that He loves you.

He is looking for a few people who will answer the challenge to become just like our Creator, to have the same purpose, plan and power to make it all happen. Who among us will receive with humility His rebuke? Who will study out their faults as per His direction? Who will repent and praise Him for His love?

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

5 Comments

Filed under abide

Tagged as , ,