Category Archives: abide

February 24, 2025 · 9:06 am

Introduction of “The Abiding”—The In-dwelling Spirit of Love

The abiding of the Holy Spirit in us is a definition of God’s ultimate growth within a believer. The abiding is when He, the Spirit of Love, comes to dwell in us and remain in us, thus fulfilling His purpose. And God does have a purpose and a plan to fulfill that purpose. He created human beings to carry out His plan.

“God is love.” Agape love. His purpose is to multiply or reproduce Himself—Love—in man and woman. That is where you and I come into focus. This happens when we spiritually grow the agape Love He has planted in our hearts (I John 4:16). We show the greatest love in the universe, like Christ did by laying down our selfish lives for Him. We show our love for Him when we give up our old life and take on His life.

 [This is the Major Leagues. Christ is assembling His team. Game time is at hand.  The denominational churches contain many who are called, but sadly, they will not hear this message about dying with Christ on the cross and resurrecting with Him. Once this truth sinks in, it burns a hole in your heart. The fire of God’s reality will consume you. Romans 6 is not preached or taught in 99% of church houses.

I love all of you; With each post that He shares with me, I give it my best to bring light to the road you are travelling. I know. It is a thankless vocation, marching on in the Savior’s army. But we thank Him for everything, and He thanks all of us with the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, and peace.

Being Called and Chosen

God calls many to be a part of His plan. It is an invitation to be adopted into His royal spiritual family. “Many are called, but few are chosen.” The chosen are called His elect.

Since “God is a Spirit,” it takes faith to enter His Spiritual realm (John 4:24). It takes belief. It takes belief that the sin in our life is dead. And it takes belief that we have now a new, sinless heart. Belief. “For they that come to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

We are born into this old 3-D life with a selfish, sinful heart. To be a part of God’s plan, mankind must surrender to God. He then will give them an escape from the earthy, sinful life.  

The old heart must go. But how does one get rid of it? God has provided passage into a new life! First, we must learn about and then believe in the sin sacrifice that the Father has provided. Our sacrificial Lamb is known as Jesus Christ in English speaking countries, but His Hebrew name is Yahshua. He is the Son of God, our Savior.

How does he save us? Christ took all of mankind’s sins upon Himself. When He died on the cross, our old sinful heart died with Him! Then we were buried with Him. Then the Father raised Him from the dead. When He was raised, then we were “raised to walk in a newness of life,” too.    

The Apostle Paul Explains

“Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin” (Romans 6:3-7 NLT).

This is how sin is conquered. It has already been defeated! This is true repentance from sin. This is our testimony. We need only to believe it and walk in it.

When you believe, you are walking in the doctrine of Christ. Repentance and Belief are the first two doctrines that the apostles walked in. Through believing this, you now are continuing in the truth that the apostles had.

But this is only the beginning of spiritual growth. This is only 30-fold fruit bearing. Our destiny is to sit with Christ on His throne. It is to bear 100-fold fruit. To see what 100-fold fruit bearing looks like, look at the lives of the early apostles. They healed the sick and raised the dead, and they taught righteousness.

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine…” (Acts 2:42). Christ’s seven doctrines are His major teachings. We will continue in Part Two next time. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[Order your free copy, with free shipping, of my book The Apostles’ Doctrine. Send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com Yes, it is free. Christ took money off the table.]

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January 27, 2025 · 2:13 pm

Heart Preparation for the Abiding of His Spirit

The book I’m working on, The Abiding, will explain to the reader how the great Spirit, our Creator and Savior, will come and live in us—fully, like in the apostles of old. That is the main theme of the book.

But many Christians will say, “We don’t need to study out all these things; we just need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. All we need to do is raise our voices loudly enough with song and praise. We believe that He will hear our cries and answer us with His slaying power. That’s how the disciples did it.”

Not so fast. The disciples had much more preparation than any of us. The Savior taught and walked with them before their experience at Pentecost. They were with Him forty days after the resurrection. Not to mention the 3 1/2 years that they walked with him before the crucifixion. It wasn’t like twelve men wandered up into an upper room and began to pray and—boom!—they’re all filled with God’s Spirit. With no study? Please.

There was much preparation before their experience. The disciples had studied the Word up close and personal. They were taught daily by the Anointed One. They didn’t fully understand His plan and purpose until they were filled with the Holy Spirit and fire. But they studied the Scriptures and the living, spoken words of Christ, who is the “Word made flesh.”

What Christ Taught Them

And what did Christ teach the disciples during the forty days after the resurrection? He spoke of “the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). That’s what the disciples were doing after the resurrection. Christ was teaching them “the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 13:11). Before they gathered in the upper room, before they were “filled with the Holy Ghost,” before they began “to speak with other languages” to those devout Jews who had come to the feast from at least fourteen countries. They all heard the Spirit speak their languages, through the apostles. It was not “unknown” languages. The Spirit was speaking through them in known, living everyday languages (Acts 2:4-12).

Christ’s lambs and sheep earnestly desire the true experience of the Spirit filling their vessels, but all of us must get our ducks in a row first. We must get an answer to this question: What are these “things pertaining to the Kingdom of God” that Christ, the resurrected Savior, was teaching them? If Christ appeared to us tonight in a vision and asked us, “What are these ‘things’ pertaining to my Kingdom?” How would we answer Him?

Christ was teaching them things about spiritual growth.

Christ speaks no idle words. Christ was teaching “things” to his disciples, as the Spirit of truth directed. It seems like a divine mystery, right? But it shouldn’t be. The disciples wrote down the “things” for us, that Christ had spoken to them about.

I submit to you that these “things” are lessons on how we are to grow spiritually. This gets us ready to be “filled with the Holy Spirit,” like the early apostles experienced.

These “things” are about how we are to go through God’s spiritual life cycle of growth. The parables of Christ teach us about growing from a babe in Christ to apostleship. In the “Parable of the Cast Seed,” the man sows; the seed comes up and grows. “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (Mark 4: 26-29). Spiritual growth is also when he likens the Kingdom of God to a grain of mustard seed and how it grows and matures (4:30-32).

“And when they were alone, he expounded all things to His disciples” (4:34). Christ spoke to them “of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.” He explained it to them.

And then there is the Parable of the Sower, who sowed the seed, the word, into four different soils. The birds ate up the seed that fell by the wayside. Some seed fell on stony ground and was scorched by the sun. And some seed fell into thorns and was choked out. But some “fell on good ground, and did yield fruit…some thirty, and some sixty, and some one hundred” (Mark 4:3-8).

This great parable is all about spiritual growth. It is so important to understand, for it unlocks the rest of the parables (4:13). Christ explains the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4:14-20. It is all about growing and bearing fruit.

The Spirit is expounding to us His word about how He grows in us. In retrospect, nearly everything published on this site is a connecting dot concerning spiritual growth, from the sprouting of the seed, the word of God, in our hearts to the harvest of that seed.

The last phase of God’s growth in our vessels is what The Abiding is all about. It is about the “things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.” The complete abiding will come as we do the new commandments, and add to the faith, and put on the armor of God, and continue in the Apostles’ Doctrine.

Christ’s teachings on the Kingdom of God are lessons on spiritual growth, guiding believers from spiritual infancy to apostleship. Parables like “The Cast Seed” and “The Sower” explain sowing God’s word and nurturing it to yield spiritual fruit. Embracing these teachings allows God’s Spirit to flourish within us, helping us partake of the divine nature.

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Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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January 20, 2025 · 9:13 am

Sitting on Christ’s Throne–The Second Conditional Promise

The first conditional promise brings on the abiding of God within us, with the power that Christ and his apostles had. This enables us to receive the second promise: to rule with Him in His soon-coming Kingdom.

When conditions are met, the second promise takes us to the throne of God. Not to just view it, which would be enough for me, to just see Christ in His glory. But to be invited to sit on Christ’s throne! Next to Him! He has promised us to be seated as a monarch with living authority, working with the King Himself! He has promised us a seat on His throne upon His return to earth. He sees us as benevolent viceroys, a “royal priesthood,” (I Peter 2:9).

This is what Christ is offering to His elect—if the conditions are met. He has promised this royal seat with Him if we meet the conditions. But do we, the ones He has chosen, believe this? Very few, if any, speak about it. With this conditional promise, He has forced us to make a choice—to dwell in the 3-D world as little vulnerable babies in Christ or walk down the royal road to immortality, just like the apostles and prophets did.  

So, what are the conditions for receiving the second promise?

The body of Christ in this last church age of Laodicea has got some repenting to do. Sitting with Christ on His throne is promised to those who overcome. They must overcome being lukewarm (Rev. 3:15-16). They act like they don’t need God’s plan and purpose.      

Here are Christ’s words: “You are neither cold nor hot…because you are lukewarm…I will spue you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16). These are self-proclaimed Christians He is talking to.

Christ does not like His followers lukewarm. And what makes them lukewarm? Christ explains: “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.” We as a nation have become fat. Both spiritual pride and materialism permeate everything in this last age of the church. “The deceitfulness of riches” deceives the church into thinking that they do not need God’s deeper walk.  

Christ will tell us what to overcome, and how to do it. “So, I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also, buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see” (Rev. 3:18 NLT). He is the only One who sells these spiritual commodities. The world does not have them. They are selling a different gospel.

God’s Rebuke

To do these things, one must endure His rebuke and chastening. We must be “zealous and repent.” Repent from what exactly in this context? We must repent from laissez-faire lukewarmness of desiring the earthly things and turn to the spiritual by buying from Christ the gold, the white raiment, and the eye salve. “Gold” is faith purified by trials; “white raiment” is the righteousness of the cleansed ones; the eye salve is the unction of truth so that we may see into His heavenly spiritual dimension, where everything is possible. The elect will study these out. [See Gold Tried in the Fire–Overcomers and the Time of the End | Immortality Road.]

The Promise: To sit on the throne with Christ! Many are called to this honor of becoming a son or daughter, manifested in power and glory as Christ is. Sadly, few will answer the call.

The Conditions: Repent of lukewarmness. Buy from Christ the spiritual gold, white raiment, and eye salve. It is called “buying the truth with sacrifice.” And it starts with study and prayer. The hungry will get on fire to learn of Him and make the spiritual changes He desires for us. Lukewarmness will evaporate in His fire. To sit on Christ’s throne with Him is a stupendous future that He has promised us. We can meet the conditions. We must meet them—for His sake and the Kingdom’s sake.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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January 12, 2025 · 3:01 pm

Two Promises from God—Conditional, but Powerful (Part 1)

Christ made two great promises. But they are conditional. If the condition is met, then we are catapulted into the 60-fold and 100-fold spiritual growth (Matt. 13:3-23). This is the growth that Christ and His apostles walked in. Yes, this is the ticket for entry into His inner circle, the Round Table, if you will. {Please take a moment and hit the “Subscribe” button.}

Some of you may not believe me about being like Christ and attaining Christlike growth. Yet it was the King Himself who said, “He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I go to the Father” (John 14:12). What “greater works”? The miracles! This is the spiritual growth that the early apostles had: The power to raise the dead and heal the impossibly and terribly sick.

[This is what you have prayed and asked God for. You’ve asked Him for a great move, that He would fill you with His Holy Spirit, that His church would awaken. He is showing us how He is doing it. He is coming back for “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27). To be ready for His coming, we must stand faultless, cleansed of all spiritual spots and moral blemishes. We must be holy and worthy to be immersed into the Holy Ghost and fire (Acts 2:1-4).

The First “If…”

Christ said, “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). “If a man love Me…” Here is the first condition. The person that loves Christ will “keep His words.” If we love Christ by keeping His words, then the Father will love us. And the godhead will come and stay and dwell within us. This is the abiding!

This is a powerful promise. The Father Himself has promised to live in us—if we keep Christ’s words! We want this relationship, to have the Father living in us and doing His works (Acts 2:33).

So, how do we “keep Christ’s words”? As we have seen before, the word “keep” is translated from the Greek word meaning “to guard, to preserve, to protect.” And the word “words” comes from the Greek word logos, which is the plan and purpose of God spelled out from the beginning. We know that Christ is the Logos, the Word “made flesh” that dwelt among us and still does in the Spirit. Christ is the Purpose enacted for us all to see. [For more on this, see links at the end of this article.]

A Higher Love

Someone will say, “The Father already loves us.” Yes, He does. But now He is talking about a higher love. The depth of this love for us comes after we love Christ by keeping His words.

For, you see, the Father loves us in our spiritual infancy. But the Father’s love for us in this context is a deeper kind of love. It is like in the natural world. Our love for an infant is on a certain beginning level. Our love for a baby is not based on the same criteria as for a mature human being walking in the Spirit, making their “calling and election sure.”

The Father’s love for us as seen in John 14:23 is deeper, based on our hunger for His knowledge and our performance of His desires. God’s love at this stage of growth is a profound appreciation of our walk of faith, trusting Him, even though the trials are daunting. We are spiritually talking about young men and women in spiritual growth.

John wrote to “young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one” (I John 2:14). John is not writing to a “babe in Christ.” He is writing to the spiritually strong, to those with the word of God dwelling in them, having overcome Satan’s tricky ploys. This is 60-fold fruit bearing. They know God’s plan and purpose of reproducing Himself in a body of sons and daughters. They are strong with the Spirit abiding in them. They have overcome the devil.

The trouble is this: Most children of God want to remain spiritual baby Christians. They are content to bask in the Father’s love. They are mostly alive for what they can receive from the Father. But He wants them to grow in wisdom and understanding that they might learn how to love Him like He loves them. But most really don’t want to grow; they want to be happy and not face any trials and problems. God sees this as being “lukewarm.”

To show that we love Him more deeply, He tells us to guard, protect, cherish, and preserve His words, the Logos. We are to watch and guard His eternal purpose, which was with God in the beginning. And His purpose is this: God is reproducing Himself in us. When we guard the Logos, the Father will love us, and God will feel welcome to abide, stay, and remain in us. This process brings the abiding.

Why isn’t this happening much more often in the world? Because before you can guard and preserve His eternal plan and purpose, you must know what His plan and purpose is. We are talking about “knowledge of the holy.” Those that love Christ will learn of the Logos (November | 2024 | Immortality Road; Guarding the Logos | Immortality Road).

God loves those who guard, cherish, and protect the logos, the mind of Christ. He promised that He would dwell and abide in us! A wonderful promise!     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[For more: “Love Makes Known the Plan of God” | Immortality Road; abide | Immortality Road ]

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December 28, 2024 · 2:30 pm

The Abiding and the Additions Bear Much Fruit

“He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit.”

Lots to unpack in Christ’s words. First, we must understand that spiritual growth, like natural growth, is a process from seed to harvest. Spiritual maturity does not happen overnight. The spiritual seed grows first into “the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear (Mark 4:28).  

You then have levels of spiritual fruit [30-fold] and then more fruit [60-fold],and then much fruit [100-fold]. Christ said, “Every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2). Many spiritually young Christians fall away at this point because to bear more and more fruit, we the branches must be pruned or purged. This purging by the Father can be painful. This is where He corrects and chastens us, trimming off unproductive concepts and beliefs. Nobody likes the purging of the Father. But those who endure with patience will eventually grow to bear “much fruit” (John 15:5).

“Much fruit” is the 100-fold growth. This is full spiritual maturity. It is the same growth that Peter, Paul, and John demonstrated in the Acts of the Apostles and in their Spirit-led writings. These apostles and Christ Himself said that this growth is possible for us, too. Christ learned “obedience by the things that He suffered” (Heb. 5:8). We will do the same. We will reign with Christ if we suffer with Him (2 Tim. 2:12; Matt. 13:3-9, 18-23).

Spiritual Growth Comes through the Abiding

The word “abide” is translated as “continue, stay, remain” in many verses. The ability to continue walking through the stormy trials of a Christian’s sojourn, adds endurance/patience. We can endure the process of becoming God’s son or daughter here on earth by His presence abiding in us. It is the Spirit of truth that abides in us. The Spirit of truth remains in us by faith, by believing Christ’s words and promises. He said that he would “never leave you nor forsake you.” He fulfills this through adding facets of his divine nature–especially patience/endurance.

We add patience/endurance by faith, by believing his word when he says, in essence, I will remain in you by my Spirit’s presence in you; I will grow in you. This adding is activated by your belief in his words. Endurance/ patience is a part of the abiding. And the abiding of His Spirit in our hearts is a part of patience. There are seven additions to the faith. The seventh is agape love. When agape is added, our spiritual maturity has arrived. [Order my book The Additions to the Faith. It is free with free shipping. Order here: Ordering My Free Books in Paperback | Immortality Road

We are given the strength to abide in him when we by faith add endurance/patience. We can endure hardships and sufferings by having his Spirit abide in our hearts. They will come, but so will his Spirit be guiding us into all truth. “For you have need of endurance [patience], so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise (Heb. 10:36).  

And that promise is God sending down the Holy Spirit and filling us with power to complete His mission. He will in His own sweet time baptize us in fire which cleanses all false doctrines and concepts. He desires for us to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice,” putting to death our old desires and surrendering to his greater and far more glorious destiny for us.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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November 30, 2024 · 2:54 pm

Two Ways to Prove that You Really Love Christ

Then Comes the Abiding

How does the abiding come into us? God promised that He would abide in us after certain conditions were met. It is a conditional promise. We are not talking about doing something to attain salvation. As a child of the King, we already have salvation. But to grow past spiritual childhood, to have the Spirit grow in us and dwell in us—that is conditional. Christ is saying, “If you really love Me, then you can manifest the agape love that I am. But you must prove to Me that you love Me.”

Two Ways to Prove that We Love Christ

At this growth level, Christ is trying our hearts, to see if He can trust us with His deepest secrets. He desires a clean vessel to pour His Spirit into.

Christ is looking for two criteria. Christ explains the first one: “If a man love Me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come into him and make our abode with him (John 14:23). “If a man love Me…” Here is the first condition. The person that loves Christ will “keep His words.   

If we love Christ by keeping His words, then the Father will love us. And the godhead will come and stay and dwell within us. This is the abiding.

The Father Himself has promised to live in us—if we keep Christ’s words! As we have seen before, the word “keep” is translated from the Greek word meaning “to guard, to preserve.” And the word “words” comes from the Greek word logos, which is the plan and purpose of God spelled out from the beginning. We know that Christ is the Logos, the Word “made flesh” that dwelt among us and still does in the Spirit. Christ is the Purpose enacted for us all to see.

We are told to guard, protect, cherish, and preserve His words, the Logos. We are to watch and guard His eternal purpose, which was with God in the beginning. And His purpose is this: God is reproducing Himself. When we guard the Logos, the Father will love us, and God will abide, stay, and remain in us. That is the abiding.

Why isn’t this happening much more often in the world? Because before you can guard and preserve His eternal plan and purpose, you must know what His plan and purpose is. We are talking about “knowledge of the holy.” Those that love Christ will learn of the Logos.

And that brings us to the second way we show Christ that we love Him. You remember the story. The risen Christ has appeared to the disciples on the shores of Galilee. He asks Peter three times, “Do you love Me?” And Peter says “yes” three times. After each “yes,” Christ says, “Feed my lambs…feed my sheep…feed my sheep.” Christ was saying, “If you love Me, you will be feeding my lambs and sheep” (John 21:15-17).

But feed them what? We are to feed them the truth contained in the Logos. And the Logos is the very “mind of Christ.” From His mind comes His thoughts that reveal His plan and purpose. He wants to use us. Consequently, the Father will prune us like a vine, that we may bear more fruit.

Finally, we love Christ by guarding and protecting the truth, which is the Logos. We must cherish His mind, for it contains the boundless expanse of Love for us His people. He is the hidden treasure that is more precious than gold, diamonds and rubies. We love Him when we feed His lambs and sheep the vision found in His magnanimous heart. It is the vision of hope that He may abide and dwell in us forever.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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November 23, 2024 · 10:17 am

Guarding the Logos

As Christians, we have feelings for Christ. We see His love for us, and it touches our hearts. But do we love Him the way He desires us to? Let us learn from the Master Teacher how to love Him more deeply.

Christ said, “If a man love Me, he will keep my words” (John 14:23). Let’s dive a bit deeper. Let’s focus on the words “keep” and “words.”

“Keep” is translated from the Greek word that means “to guard from attacks.” The word “words” is translated from the word logos. This is the same “logos” used in the famous verse of John 1:1. “In the beginning was the Logos…and the Logos was God.” The logos is the mind of Christ. It is His thoughts and words of His purpose and plan.

Therefore, Christ is saying, If a man loves Me, he will guard the logos; he will guard the Word, the mind of Christ, from any assaults from the enemy. He will stand guard against any attack on His thoughts and His mind. Guarding the logos means not allowing the enemy to sully His purpose and plan.

Starting with Our Own Minds

And it starts with us. First, we must start by guarding our own minds from the attacks of the devil. This entails putting on the “whole armor of God.” We, with the Spirit’s help, must start “casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:5). This is guarding the Logos.

Since we are to have the same mind of Christ, we are to guard His thoughts that are developing within our own mind. We do this through purging and pruning away old false concepts about Him. We then begin to share the truth by the Holy Spirit. This truth is found in His thoughts concerning His kingdom.

The mind of Christ is the Logos. It is the whole plan and purpose of God. We are to guard this truth, this Logos, in our own minds and then protect it as we grow spiritually for His sake. He said, “If a man loves Me, he will keep [guard] my words [logos]…” He is saying, The person who loves Me will watch, guard and protect the Logos. He will stand watch and guard the mind of Christ. By this, we show Him our belief and dedication to His cause. This is us abiding in Him.

When we guard the Logos, then something wonderful happens. Christ says, “And My Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him” (Jn 14:23). This is God abiding in us.

First, it is us abiding in Him. This opens the door to Him abiding in us. Again, this glorious presence happens when Christ sees us guarding His logos, when He sees us “keep His words.”     

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[If you have read this article to the end, you must like the content. Please hit the like button; I’d like to know how many have read these words of truth. Yes, the Spirit is taking us into deeper living water. He did say that the Spirit of truth “will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). This essay will soon become a chapter in the new book that we are working on, called The Abiding. I hope you enjoyed the preview. Meanwhile, get all crazy and make a comment or send me an email. Tell me what you think about it. Ask a question. Start a dialogue. I would love to know better the “few there be to find” life (Mat. 7:14).]

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March 30, 2024 · 11:17 am

The Abiding Comes with the Mind of Christ

From Journal entry, 6-3-19

The seventh addition of agape love is a direct result of abiding in Christ, which is having the mind of Christ.

Christ commands us, “Abide in me” (John 15:4).  This “abiding” comes from staying and remaining in Him and His mind. “Staying” and “remaining” are translated from the same Greek word as “abide or abiding.”

This is accomplished when we continually have Christ’s thoughts, plan, and purpose [More on His plan and purpose found here: Walking in the Spirit Comes from Knowledge of God’s Purpose of Reproducing Himself–Being About Our Father’s Business | Immortality Road (wordpress.com). This “abiding” yields much fruit. This spiritual fruit is agape love, which is the seventh addition to the faith.

We are to stay in His mind, walking in His thoughts. This is knowing Him. This knowledge of Him and His thoughts is the second addition to the faith.

To fully know Him we must know that He is sovereign. He created everything–both the good and the evil (Isa. 45:7). And He has subjected us to evil to accomplish His purpose of reproducing Himself—in us. We must remember how Christ suffered, how He endured the betrayals and the lies told against Him and even His crucifixion on false charges. He suffered, and He is our example, “that we should follow his steps” (I Peter 2:21). His armor will protect us from the onslaught of evil thought-arrows. And then once the trials are over, His love grows in us more and more until Christ is “all in all” (Eph. 1:23).

To abide in Him, we must think His thoughts. Part of Christ’s thinking is understanding death (the evil). To fully appreciate the resurrection unto eternal life (good), we must understand death. For you cannot partake in His resurrection without first partaking in His death. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[Get your free copy of The Eleventh Commandment found here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/free-copy-of-the-eleventh-commandment/  Also, order your free copy of The Additions to the Faith. Just send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com]

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March 28, 2024 · 7:43 am

Reconciliation and the Abiding/Continuing

We must continue to believe that Christ through His death has reconciled everyone and has made peace between God and mankind.

That is the truth. The Father is the Spirit of truth. There is one Spirit, and He dwelled in the Son and did miraculous works (Eph. 4:4; John 14:10). Christ promises that the Father “shall be in you,” also (14: 17).

This promise is astounding! But what is the catch? What activates this promise of the Father taking up residence in us? What knowledge brings the promise into a reality in our Christian lives?

We need to know that it is a conditional promise; it sets up like this: If you do this and this, then He will abide in you. The promise is that the Father, who is this invisible Spirit, will come and dwell in us—if we continue in the faith. If we abide in the faith. If we dwell in the faith. If we remain in the faith. If we continue in the faith.

Faith. Belief. In what exactly? There is a whole lot of invisible action going on here. It takes faith to believe that the invisible Creator Spirit God would take up residence inside our bodies. But this is what He is asking us to do—trust Him. To maintain the Father’s presence in our hearts in a powerful reality, we must “continue in the faith.”

We see “continue in the faith” in Colossians 1:23. “If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard…” The thing we must continue to believe is that Christ through His death has reconciled everyone and has made peace between God and mankind (Col. 2:20-22).

That sounds wonderful, but Christ’s death and the reconciliation involves so much more. The question becomes: How does His death bring about reconciliation with God? Reconciliation comes through our old sinful self dying on the cross with Christ. Then we are buried with Christ, and then by faith in His resurrection “we are raised to walk in a newness of life.”  Our sin has died with Him. “The soul that sins must die,” the law says. We fulfill that at the cross.

The Spirit through the apostle Paul lines this out clearly. “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 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” (Romans 6:3-7 NIV).

Christ the Lamb of God took on the sins of everyone. “He was made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Our sins died with the sacrificial Lamb, for He carried our guilt and sin to the cross, and when He died, our old sinful self died, was buried, and—Praise Yah—was resurrected with Him!

[Someone reading this will say, “I knew that about the cross.” Yes, many have experienced the cross, but can they teach it to others? Is your belief of Romans 6 strong enough to weather the storms and trials both past and future?]

Back to the beginning of this article: Reconciliation with God is when we are at peace with Him, when there are no doubts and worries about our relationship with Him. For it was the sin nature that separated us from Him. When we realize that our sinful old self has already died on the cross with Him, things begin to clear up. The scriptures open to us. Things make sense.

This clarity He honors and reveals more of His truth. Reconciliation with God happens if we “continue/abide in the faith.” If we continue believing what He did for you and me at the cross and walking in that truth as seen in Romans 6: 3-12, then we will be ready through reconciliation to go deeper by adding His “divine nature” to the faith. [The Additions to the Faith is my latest book. Peter talks of seven additions that are vital to our growth in Christ (II Peter 1:1-12). If you have read this far, I know that this book is for you. The book is free with free shipping. It is my offering to God. Instead of money in an offering plate, I give a book to you…Please share your testimony in the comments section. It is very edifying to hear how God has touched your life.  Be sure and share this and give us a “like,” if we have edified you].    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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March 20, 2024 · 8:29 am

The Father Abiding in Us

God wants to inhabit us and abide and dwell in us. This is how He fulfills His purpose: To reproduce and multiply Himself, which is agape love. We know that we are His temple. He made us for Him to dwell in. Many times, we see Yahweh meeting Moses and Joshua [Yahshua the Savior, same name]. They met in the tabernacle in the wilderness. They carried on conversations there. This is His will, His desire that all God’s people be prophets (Numbers 11:29).

It is first the Father who dwells/abides in Christ; the Father speaks the words and does the works through the Son (John 14:10). [Newsflash! We are “members in particular” of the Son’s body; we are the “body of Christ.” Since we are a part of Christ’s body, then the Father, the Spirit of truth, is in us, too!

Can we believe this? Christ believes it. He has faith in the word of the Father. And, of course, we can believe it! It is His faith in operation here. We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God, (Col. 3:3). Our life is Him now. And that Him is the Spirit of truth that has come into you and me.

If anyone knew God this way, it was the apostle John, “the man whom Jesus [Yahshua] loved.” For John leaned on His chest and was literally comforted by Christ. Let us now lean on Him as John did. He is right there by you and me in spirit. Lean into Him and be encouraged that we all have this opportunity to draw close to Him. For the Holy Spirit through the apostle James said, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8).

Nevertheless, some of us have thought, “If only we had the Father dwelling in us, then He would speak and work through us.” If. There are no if’s nor but’s. It is all “Yes!” The power is there at hand. “The works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Heb. 4:3). We are not talking about the Father being way out there somewhere, but rather, closer than close.  He is inside of us.

[All these things written down by Christ’s apostles are maddeningly difficult to grasp while held hostage by a trinitarian three-God conception of the godhead. Yahweh dwelt in His Son; Yahweh is the Father and is an invisible Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Once that is straightened out in one’s heart and mind, then eyes see more clearly as to what God desires and how He wants to make it happen. ]

The Comforter, the Spirit of Truth

He has given to us another Comforter, which is the Spirit of truth “that He may abide/dwell” with us forever” (John 14:16). His presence is already promised and prepared.

The Comforter is the Spirit of truth. And the Spirit of truth is the Father who has promised to dwell/abide with us. Now, since we have that promise—that the Father will be in us—then by the Father’s presence within us, He will do the same works as He did through the Son of God. It is all in His timing, of course.

Final thought: Faith is the key. For His spiritual offspring, the Father abides in us when we believe that the Father dwells in us. We have to reckon it so by faith in His word. It is already done in His mind. He is waiting on us with great patience/endurance. He now wants us to be a witness here on earth of His magnificent glory. That is not just to witness His glory, but to be the witness. Remember this enigmatic concept? Man is the glory of God (I Cor. 11:7). And the good man will be humbled by this love that His Creator has bestowed upon him. And he will realize that he is only a speck of dust floating in a brilliant ray of light that is God’s mercy.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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