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The whole of the gospel of Jesus Christ can be comprehended in the 12 Elements of the Gospel and is very simple to understand. They are the spiritual foundation of your faith. (1 Corinthians 3:10-11)
A spiritual foundation is necessary to build faith in Jesus Christ. You need a basis of knowledge to be established in the faith and to assist you to serve God in the name of Jesus Christ. You need a basis of knowledge to build faith in the image of Jesus Christ and to express Him. The 12 Elements of the Gospel is that basis. They are the essentials of the faith. They are the principles of the doctrine of Christ (Hebrews 6:1)
God Wants to Put Your Mind in a New Frame of Thinking
Knowledge is to faith as pruning is to a tree. Like the pruning of a tree, your cycles of growth must begin. The things you nurtured in Satan's kingdom have to be removed. God removes you from Satan's kingdom and then removes Satan's kingdom from you. Whether you know it or not, Satan's knowledge had a profound influence over your perception of life. You began to weigh reality by his lies called wiles of the devil.
Know this...If you weigh reality by lies you will only find inequity and Satan will force you on a journey of self discovery. You do not want to be on the highway of that knowledge because you don't know where it is taking you and in the end it will destroy you. But if you weigh reality on the scale of truth then God will unfold Jesus Christ to you. The Spirit unfolds the knowledge as a flower releases its fragrance.
Always remember...Satan confirms reality through the imagination, but God confirms reality through Jesus Christ. In order for God to do His work in you, He needs to put your mind in a new frame of thinking. He needs to give you new knowledge for faith. As the apostle Paul said, "Until Christ be formed in you."
Your New Frame of Mind - The 12 Elements of the Gospel
The whole of the gospel of Jesus Christ can be comprehended in the 12 Elements of the Gospel and is very simple to understand. You may be asking, "If the 12 Elements of the Gospel are so simple to understand and they are the spiritual foundation of my faith, why haven't I heard of them before?"
The reason why you may not have heard about the Elements of the Gospel is that the church became brutish in knowledge, even as the Lord spoke through Jeremiah saying:
"Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them." (Jeremiah 51:17)
The word "brutish" describes a mindset that resembles that of an animal, stupid in nature and unintelligent. This mindset is the result of Satan defining the elements for the church. We can easily understand how "brutish" relates to "false knowledge". It is the lack of knowledge then that leaves you ignorant of Christ. This is why God is shaking the foundation of the church today. He is challenging the knowledge the current Christian culture has been building with which is recycling its leprosy.
God's Word is a two-edged sword. At the same time that God is rebuilding the correct foundation of truth in the heart, He is challenging and tearing down the false foundation. So there is going to be an undoing of things done wrongly as well as instruction for you to do things correctly.
How Do I Know If My Foundation is Built With False Knowledge?
The knowledge of the gospel is not merely made of words drawn from scripture, but it is the knowledge of the 12 Elements. These things represent Jesus Christ. Each element gives value and distinction to Christ so that your faith will mirror Him.
As a result, you are able to define the substance of Christ by each element and thus relate to your faith by showing the relationship between the power of Christ and the Element. The Elements describe our relationship with Jesus Christ. This process is part of the present church reform God is doing through apostles today.
However, when you are not instructed in this foundation of knowledge that means you took other knowledge to heart and began to build faith in that image. This other knowledge is false, it kept you ignorant of the things you needed to know about Jesus Christ and therefore when you heard about the Elements you are not sure of what to do and how to apply them.
Do you remember what the 12 Elements are?
1. GRACE
2. FAITH
3. RIGHTEOUSNESS
4. JUSTIFICATION
5. SANCTIFICATION
6. HOLINESS
7. PEACE
8. REST
9. CHARITY
10. TRUTH
11. REGENERATION
12. RENEWING OF THE MIND
It is exciting to see how God breaks open the Elements for our understanding. When we understand the meaning of each Element and how to apply them, we begin to see what atonement means. Our history changes, our thinking changes, our perspective changes. You stop practicing faith by your imagination. Your heart and mind were plundered by false knowledge and God is now restoring you to Christ.
How Does God Define the Elements?
What we have learned so far, is that the spiritual foundation is made of knowledge upon which you build your understanding of Jesus Christ. How sure are you of how God defines the Elements of the Gospel? If I say the word "Grace" to you, you may not be sure of what to do and how to apply that word to your faith, but at the same time, you may not think that is too important. Up to now, no importance was placed on the Elements of the Gospel and the true value and function of grace lay dormant as Satan took over the definition.
So it is understandable that at this point in time, the lack of knowledge might not seem like much of a hindrance to your faith as you may not have thought about the need to do anything with grace. It was a word that seems to have meaning to you because of the hymns that are sung about grace, but it was not a word you could associate with anything on a day-to-day basis. So maybe it is hard for you to put your finger on what I am explaining to you.
If I said the word "blanket", you are most likely familiar with this very common word and know what to do and how to apply it. You use a blanket at night to cover yourself and protect yourself from the cold. You know where a blanket is most commonly used on a bed. You know when a blanket is commonly used at night. Your experience with a blanket has built your understanding.
The same is true for each of the 12 Elements of the Gospel. Each Element has a particular function and value in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, when Christians hear the word "Grace" they are not sure what it means and are not sure what to do. The knowledge they received about grace left them functioning in God's kingdom as a brute beast. They speak of faith without means of any function.
God is shaking the foundations of false knowledge to assist Christians to understand that they are in a season of transition and their mind has to change. When God shakes foundations, some respond in anger, some in disbelief, other in doubt, or suspicion. Suddenly, due to the shaking, what is believed about God is not holding them anymore. It was not a solid foundation. Your faith was never in what it should be.
In the Bible, God uses the words "full" and "substance" in relation to Jesus Christ to bring to your understanding that faith is tangible and faith is cognitive. When each Element is properly defined for you, you will soon realize that you have understanding because there is an action that is being called forth."
The 12 Elements of the Gospel are the Language of the Spirit
When God brings you into covenant with Him, He starts with the basics. He teaches you to speak His language of faith by teaching you the 12 Elements of the Gospel. I want you to think of the 12 Elements of the Gospel as the ABC's of the covenant. Just as you went to school to learn the ABC's of your native tongue to be able to communicate the language, so too God wants to teach you the ABC's of His covenant language to teach you how to communicate with Him.
By giving you these building blocks of knowledge God is;
A. Showing you the pattern of faith that is in Jesus Christ and, B. Teaching you to speak the same language of love that He does.
Scholars try to get at the meaning of Jesus' words by studying the Hebrew language the people spoke in Jesus' time, hoping to learn how Jesus thought and thereby get the mind of Christ. For the same reason, scholars study the Greek language to try to get to the true meaning of the epistles written by the apostle, again hoping to get the mind of Christ.
But it should be obvious by now, after the creation of 33,000 different faith models based on the findings of the Hebrew and Greek language studies, that the mind of Christ cannot be gotten by studying the language of men.
Did you know that Jesus spoke the language of His Father in heaven? This language of faith is a language all its own. (John 17:14)
The ABC's of the covenant (the 12 Elements) help you to learn the language of your Father in heaven and cannot be understood by studying Hebrew or Greek.
God identifies the new language with the new birth by associating being "born again" with the "Word" of God. 1 Peter 1:23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."
To be born again means to take on His virtue. The Word of God is the knowledge of the Spirit. We are born by a new form of knowledge. That is why it is called "Word", which means new form of knowledge.
We are building with new knowledge. It is superior, excellent, and wholesome because it will bring about all the results of God's kingdom. So we are being born again by this expression of charity, which is purifying us.
There is a form of communication that takes place by this tethering of knowledge and by this point of contact with the altar of Christ (where we labor with the knowledge). We are building with new knowledge and by this we have access to the Father who also brings about the results of His kingdom. The more you share the knowledge, the more you grow in it as dining upon the true bread of heaven.
The 12 Elements of the Gospel are the Pure Language of the Spirit
God is bringing the church up to His level by giving them the pure language of His truth (12 Elements) and giving them the true goal of the Spirit and renewing to the church the true definition of each Element. Not the institutional definition, but rather the sanctified definition.
Remember: The word "sanctified" means God separated from the world to Himself; that which the Spirit makes living.
When God spoke to me in mid 1970 about the 12 Elements of the Gospel and His will to restore them to the church as the foundation of faith, He made me to understand the binary and synergistic function, value, and meaning of each Element. Furthermore, God was making a distinction between the institutional definition of grace and the sanctified definition, between the institutional definition of truth and the sanctified definition of truth.
Defining The 12 Elements of the Gospel - Their Name and Function
In order for us to understand the elements of the gospel we need to give them each a name and a function, and we need to think about some simple definitions. When we talk about defining the Elements we are talking about assigning value to the knowledge of Christ.
We understand that in the natural world. Say, for example, we want to define water. We know a great deal about water and how it is essential to life, and define it according to its usefulness to us: water is useful (essential) for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and bathing.
Water is a substance that was deliberately designed so as to sustain life. The human body is about 70% water. It is this knowledge of our need for water that leads us to acknowledge this substance to be the basis of life. Without it we would die. We also know the chemical description of water to be H2O. So we would define water by its essential function for life and by its properties so we can identify and talk about water in meaningful ways.
If we take that to the covenant and ask, how does grace function, how is grace essential to the soul, what are the properties of grace, we are seeking to define its usefulness to God and to us.
The first thing we do is define the element by its design. The design of each element is Jesus Christ. Here we can begin to understand what God's intelligent design for Christ-centered spiritual transformation (IDCCST) is all about.
The 12 Elements of the Gospel Reflect Jesus Christ
Now when I say that the 12 Elements of the Gospel reflect Jesus Christ I am saying that Jesus set pattern for faith to reflect to escape iniquity's condemnation. Let's first look at the table of Elements and their letters and then we'll talk about the pattern.
1. GRACE = G
2. FAITH = F
3. RIGHTEOUSNESS = R
4. JUSTIFICATION = J
5. SANCTIFICATION = S
6. HOLINESS = H
7. PEACE = P
8. REST = r
9. CHARITY = C
10. TRUTH = T
11. REGENERATION = Rg
12. RENEWING OF THE MIND = Rw
God designed the Elements for our reflection. We are first going to talk about how each Element reflect Jesus Christ and then we will talk about how God designed the Elements for our participation.
1. Each Element is Designed to Reflect Jesus Christ. Imagine Jesus saying:
I am your grace.
I am your faith.
I am your righteousness.
I am your justification.
I am your sanctification.
I am your holiness.
I am your peace.
I am your rest.
I am your charity.
I am your truth.
I am your regeneration.
I am your renewing of the mind.
Because Jesus is the design of your faith, He is the record of your faith. He is the pattern your faith must follow. We can understand that better by examining the Old Testament. In the Old Testament all the articles of divine service were to reflect Jesus Christ. For example, the candlesticks represents Jesus as the light of the world and the show bread represents Jesus as the bread of life. Everything God gave the children of Israel to express their faith was for their reflection, that when the Messiah would come they would see Him.
We can imagine that when Jesus entered into the Temple and looked at the candlestick, the bread, and the sacrifice, He said, "This is Me, This is Me, and this is Me." God could see a reflection of Himself in the things of the Temple and He was pleased. Lest we should think that God is vain, let us remember that God, in His mercy, gave man a token of Himself for faith, that God, looking upon the token, would accept man's faith.
God had to give man tokens for faith that brought man into His mercy rather than His wrath. Faith must represent God, not man. The purpose of the Temple and the things of service (the altar, the sacrifices, the candle sticks, the oil, the bread, the priests) were to give man tokens that represented God. This is why God called them articles of "divine" service. Your faith represents Me when you use the tokens I give you.
Now that Jesus died to provide us a New Covenant in His blood, we now have new articles of divine service. Jesus Christ is our living token of faith. The First Covenant things was a reflection of Jesus Christ to show faith in God until Christ should come. The candle stick and bread were like photographs of Jesus they held onto until they could look at Him face to face, till God would come in the form of a man to die for the sins of the world.
When Jesus shed His blood He inaugurated a New Covenant, new knowledge and a new priesthood. We understand that Jesus gave us Himself that we might live by His Word.
His Word to us is contained in the alphabet of the 12 Elements of the Gospel. They tell us all about Jesus. They tell us all about how Jesus is healing, delivering, and saving the soul, how Jesus is returning the soul to the likeness of God, how Jesus is the measure of our faith, how Jesus separates us from the world unto Himself,and how Jesus gives us peace and joy and love.
So now, when you think about grace, that is Jesus Christ, when you think about faith, that is Jesus Christ, when you think about righteousness, that is Jesus Christ, and so on. We can also say that when you think of Jesus Christ, think of grace, faith, and righteousness. God gave these words meaning in Christ to describe the experience we gain by our contact with Him when we reciprocate His likeness. We'll see how that works when we put a picture and definition to each of the elements of the gospel.
We cannot say that we want the life of Christ and then deny the function of the elements of the gospel. God cannot give you what you deny yourself. This will become more clear to you and we will talk about this in detail as each Element is clearly defined.
Each Element is Designed For your Reflection
We are now going to talk about something called the "Binary Law" of the Elements to see how the Elements work in pairs. The importance of this is again tied to our need to reflect Jesus Christ. The Binary Law of the Elements is a vital principle revealed to me by the Holy Spirit in the mid 1970's as the Lord instructed me in the importance of the Elements being restored to the church. You may consider the teaching on the Elements as part of restoration teaching.
Let's now turn our attention to understand why God designed the Elements to work in pairs (Binary Law). Binary means "consisting or composed of two." (Webster). God paired the Elements in binary order to illustrate to us these 3 things:
To illustrate the covenant, that our faith is a reflection of Jesus. To illustrate the Law of Reciprocation, that we reciprocate in kind. To illustrate our participation, that we respond to what God has initiated for our faith.
1. God paired the Elements in binary order to illustrate the covenant
God set the elements in binary order to first of all illustrate to us the covenant. Every time we observe how God initiates towards man through one of the elements we observe God's provision through promise; and when we observe how man is to respond, we see again the terms of the covenant. God is saying, "I want you to know My love so I made it possible by setting these terms for you to experience My love and this is My commandment for you to show your love to Me." This is how charity is born in the heart and spoken.
2. God paired the Elements in binary order to illustrate the Law of Reciprocation
The Binary Law of the elements also illustrate to us the Law of Reciprocation. God's goal in this framework is to show you how He initiates towards you for the purpose of establishing your response. This design shows us God's intentions, that increase comes through this form of contact because the Spirit of God moves upon the pattern as the Spirit of God moved upon the waters to give life. (Genesis 1:1)
For example, the element of grace describes God's initiation to communicate to man, and the element of faith describes our response through yielding, or obedience. It is through this form of contact that the fruit of Christ increases in you. The binary law of the elements teaches us that God designed salvation with our participation in mind. God designed the gospel with our reciprocation in mind. If God's participation was absent, or ours, what would the Spirit work with?
3. God paired the Elements in binary order to illustrate our Participation
The elements of the gospel do not work alone. God designed them to work in pairs. Grace works with faith, righteousness works with justification, sanctification works with holiness, rest works with peace, charity works with truth, and regeneration works with the renewing of the mind.
The Elements Binary Table
Grace -- God initiates Faith -- Man responds Righteousness -- God initiates Justification -- Man responds Sanctification -- God initiates Holiness -- Man Responds Peace - God initiates Rest -- Many responds Charity -- God initiates Truth -- Man responds Regeneration -- God initiates Renewing of the Mind -- Man responds
More About How Our Faith is a Reflection of Jesus
1. God gave your faith Jesus Christ to reflect so that you would not need to project for tomorrow. What Elements do you see called into action? 2. God gave your faith Jesus Christ to reflect so we would not need to reflect the condemnation of iniquity. What Elements do you see called into action? 3. God gave your faith Jesus Christ to reflect so that you would not need to draw from the world to gain substance for your faith.
Gain More Understanding About Why the Church Needs Apostles Today It is Time you Knew the Real Truth Click Here
Author: Apostle Eric vonAnderseck Second 8th Week Ministries
