Tag Archives: transformation

September 3, 2009 · 2:52 pm

Spiritual Transformation Comes Through the Renewing of Our Minds

Our transformation as the sons and daughters of God comes through the “renewing of our minds” (1).  Our new heart that we receive from God through faith is that fountain of new thoughts based in truth that feeds our minds.  Believing that we have been given a new heart makes our transformation possible.  This process in the Christian walk is called putting “on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (2).

“In the image of its Creator.”  We, His sons and daughters, are being transformed into the image of our Creator!  That is the true walk of the Christian.  As we look at our Savior’s glorious image, and walk in His way by believing Him,  we are changed into that same image through His Spirit in us!  “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (3).

This Is Difficult for Some to Believe

Some will gainsay and resist this truth and say, “No, no one can be changed into the image of God.”  They are speaking for themselves, for those doubt-filled words have sealed their fate.  And “the fearful and unbelieving” will have no place in His kingdom (4). 

But those who believe the report of the true prophets and apostles of God will be changed into His image.  That is the belief and the promise of the Savior and His apostles.  “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (I Cor. 15: 49).  This is the truth that renews our minds, thereby changing us. 

We Are Led by Our Thoughts

Our change starts with our thinking.  We are led by our thoughts.  We started out our earthly walk by thinking naturally, which is thinking derived from the input of our five senses.  Natural thinking says, If I can’t hear it, see it, taste it, touch it, or smell it, then fit must not be real or worth anything.

This empirical thinking would be absolutely correct if that was all life was made up of.  But think on this a minute.  This belief–if I can’t observe it, then it must not exist–this thinking is so prideful, as if they are the supremest of beings, and the whole world revolves around them and their wee little minds.  That is the wisdom of the world, the wisdom from beneath.  It tries to put the invisible God in a black box, stuffed way back in a dank warehouse for the politically-incorrect. 

But millions of lives that He has touched are rising from the graves of their doubts and are putting on their new self, created by His Spirit through belief in His resurrection–in them!  They will rise up and expose the natural thinkers as the liars that they are.  As Ezekiel saw into our day, the bones of His chosen ones are rising up, and they shall come together into one body with one Spirit leading them.  And they will be grateful for their new start, created in His image, transformed by a transfusion of life-giving truth.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

  1. Rom 12: 2
  2. Col. 3: 10
  3. 2 Cor. 3: 18
  4. Rev. 21: 8
  5. I Cor. 15: 49

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April 17, 2008 · 3:24 pm

Baptism: Empty Ritual or Symbol of “Death of Self”?

     “Why were you baptized?”  a survey taker asks, cornering us with his microphone and camera.  Most of us would have to say, “Because they told me I should do it.” 

     Question 2: “What does baptism mean exactly?”   Here most of us would scratch our heads and say, “Well, I’m not sure.  The minister and congregation were very supportive, and I feel that it was the right thing to do.”

     But the right thing for us to do is to “dig deep and build our house on the rock,” as Christ admonished us to do.  We dig deep by digging into the letter that He has left us, the scriptures of truth. 

     Baptism is an outward symbolic action of an inward, spiritual, and transformational happening.     The meaning of baptism is laid out in Romans 6:3-11.  “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death” (v. 3).  We are immersed into His death.

     Water baptism is a symbol of us identifying our old self dying with Christ, being buried with Christ, and being raised up with Christ.  It is where we identify our old sinful self with the Lamb of God, our sin sacrifice.  “He was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 

     When He died, my old self died.  When He was buried, my old evil nature was buried.  When He was raised from the dead, I  was raised from the dead!  Hey, this is not just my testimony; it is all of His children’s testimony. 

     And baptism in water is a symbol showing the world and God how we are regenerated. 

     How is this transformation done?  By faith, which is having assurance of its reality before we actually see it with our own eyes.  We have to reckon it so through God’s power.  “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God” (v. 11).  God has already reckoned the death of our old self and our resurrection with Him.  Why shouldn’t we reckon it so?

     Baptism is a symbol of our transformation into being right with Him.  We are now free from sin.  “For he that is dead is freed from sin.  We are now the children of the light, having escaped darkness.

     God’s sons and daughters, His princes and princesses, shall see through the empty rituals of Churchianity.  They will shine forth as lights “in the midst of a wicked and perverse nation.”  Their clarity of vision will help them sift through the barren sands of man’s traditions to ultimately find the “one pearl of great price.”     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{If this has been helpful, make a comment and/or pass it on to someone you care about.  I would love to hear from you.  You can read more about this in Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality, Ch. 28.  Click the Blogroll “Yahweh Is the Savior” link to your right]

 

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