Category Archives: body of Christ

October 28, 2017 · 5:34 pm

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

*****[BE SURE TO ORDER YOUR FREE COPY OF MY NEW BOOK THE ROYAL DESTINY OF GOD’S ELECT. JUST SEND YOUR MAILING ADDRESS TO MY EMAIL wayneman5@hotmail.com for your free promotional copy with free shipping in the USA. If outside the USA, email me and we will see that you get a copy. Put “New Book” on the subject line. It discusses God’s purpose of reproducing Himself in us! He is Love and He has a plan to be Love Incarnate in us. And all this has royal implications for us, the over comers! Don’t miss this book. It is my love gift to God and to you.]*****

God has not promised to fill us with His Spirit to make us feel good. He loves us, yes, but He created us for His pleasure. If He fills us with His Spirit, it will be for His own purpose. And that purpose is to fulfill His promise to Abraham and to his seed.

He promised Abraham that he would become the “heir of the world.” To inherit the world, one must have eternal life in order to be around for the inheritance. Abraham, the father of our faith, the believer of God’s promises, walked that faithful walk, never doubting God’s reasons for doing what He did. He knew of New Jerusalem and God’s plan to bring it to earth. He understood that it would be home to a “peculiar people, a royal priesthood, a chosen generation,” a people immortal, thanks to God’s granting them everlasting life.

Abraham realized this and searched for this great spiritual city, “whose builder and maker was God.” For he knew the King of this Kingdom and spoke with Him on several occasions. And so Abraham did not doubt the promises made to him by Yahweh-in-His-human-form.

We now, with the same faith of Abraham through Christ, must realize that nothing has changed. The promises are still valid, immutable. Though ancient, heroic edifices crumble under the sand-swept assault of time, and though very few humans are remembered forty years after their demise, God’s promise of filling His children with His Spirit remains a clean, shiny hope in the hearts of his people. For this hope is our silent prayer that we would be spared the indignity of a dark, black future where no one remembers our smile, our tears, our name.

Those who love Him will be spared, for He has promised them that He would shower them with Love and immerse them in His light. His promise to fill us is not to help us escape our lonely trials of these fleshly bodies, but rather to fulfill His purpose. This purpose is to reproduce Himself in us, thus multiplying Love, Joy, and Peace throughout eternity. He will grant the faithful like Abraham a new spiritual body and fill it with His Spirit of Love. That’s us, brethren. We are the children of Abraham.

And Yahweh will, with His residence within our new body, grant us everlasting life, a life that will endure forever, an immortal existence with Him in His kingdom. It is an eternal life, a life that is in His Son.

There we go, getting into the meat of the word again. Unfortunately, as a body of believers, we are not ready for all this just yet. God gives grace to the humble. He favors those with humility. We exercise a desire for humility when we without reservation humble ourselves by deliberately purging out the false teachings that we cling to. That is the humbling that we must endure for His sake. That’s part of the fellowship of His sufferings. We allow (or suffer) sometimes the wrenching pain of parting with doctrines that have been our “buddies” for a long time. It is a trial of our faith. It is in His plan. Only the pure of heart will see God’s way in this. Only those who are contenders and not pretenders will stay the course. It’s the parable of the sower in all three levels of growth.

But the attention span of many in the body of Christ is short. Most are lukewarm when it comes to their studies in His word. When you dig deep, you get blisters on  your hands and aches and pains in your shoulders. For this age of Laodicea, the seventh church age, this lukewarmness will not be welcomed by our King. He said that He would spue them out of His mouth.

And these are lukewarm for they are full of themselves, either because of physical riches or spiritual riches. God has blessed them materially. And, the many spiritual experiences that they have had over the years assure them that God is on their side and that they “have need of nothing.” And they do not know that they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.” And so Christ counsels these Christians to buy from Him “gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich,” and white raiment that you be not naked, and eye salve to cure the spiritual blindness. Then in verse 19 tells them, “Repent” (Rev. 3: 14-19). We can’t escape the first apostles’ doctrine: Repentance.

Question: Who reading this will get the concordances out and Strong’s and dig these things out? Those who do will show the King that they are for real and not just pretenders…

Nevertheless, some will continue on their weary way, the grains of time slipping through their fingers. And with death’s smirk lurking just around the corner of their fears, the treachery of the mirror betrays their trust in these fragile, fleshly bodies.

God has promised us His Spirit, which will fulfill His purpose of having righteous inhabitants in His Heavenly City. We are those citizens with everlasting life, His life, and we will once again walk those halls of New Jerusalem. But there I go getting into the meat of the word again.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

4 Comments

Filed under apostles' doctrine, belief, body of Christ, church, elect, end time prophecy, eternal life, eternal purpose, faith, grace, hope, humility, immortality, integrity, kingdom of God, old leaven, repentance, sons of God, Spirit of God, sufferings of Christians

July 8, 2017 · 8:04 pm

Dateline: New Jerusalem–Children, Have Ye Any Meat?

Natural man is shallow. His pretensions are petty; his plans are seeped with selfish thoughts. His heart is haunted by a covert lust that lingers in his intentions. Natural man is self-centered and shallow. He is a mere depression on the surface of life’s landscape, a wallow that cannot contain the latter rain. When he hears the floods of heaven coming, He will sit up in the mud, lost and alone—but not abandoned. For God wants to take him to the land of the deep things of God (Gal. 5: 19-21).

But before that can happen, old man Adam must be born from above, or else he “cannot see” the deep things of God. Unless he is “born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into” the deep things. And those deep things are all the blessed things that pertain unto the kingdom of God.

We saw earlier that the deep mysteries of God concern His kingdom and government here on earth. The things that God has prepared for those of us who love Him are things about His kingdom and how He will rule through Christ.

So there it is—the deep things, the mysteries that are revealed to us by His Spirit. It’s the kingdom of God. The literal government coming to this earth, headed by the glorious Monarch Christ, worthy of all praise.

This worldwide kingdom is what all the patriarchs and prophets looked for. And because of their faithfulness, “God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He has prepared for them [and us] a city.” This is New Jerusalem (Heb. 11: 14-16; 12: 22). Of which deep things the apostles have much to share, but can’t because most Christians are still babes in Christ, little children mostly alive for what they can receive from their spiritual Father. They are like natural man. They need the milk of the word and not the strong meat of the “deep things.” The milk is the apostles’ doctrine (Heb. 5: 10-14; 6: 1-2). The strong meat concerns the weightier matters of the kingdom.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Kingdom

When we speak of the Kingdom of God, many have been conditioned to think of the Jehovah Witnesses and have been turned off. You see their church houses everywhere: The Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Don’t be fooled. Just because they speak of it does not mean it is a false doctrine. I disagree with most of their doctrines, but I concur with their belief in the kingdom of God coming to earth. Study it out for yourselves in the word. Christ said to seek the kingdom first. All the parables of Christ was about the kingdom. The prophet Daniel said that the “God of heaven shall set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed” (2: 44). Being born again allows you to enter the kingdom of God. There are many more passages about the kingdom and its importance to God.

The whole shooting match is all about Him preparing a people to inhabit His heavenly city already prepared for them. And that people is us who believe.

It is not totally about “getting saved,” avoiding hell, going to church, and “going to heaven.” It is all about getting prepared to live in the heavenly city of New Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven to this earth! Heaven on earth. Right here. Rather, it is setting down on the real estate that stretches from the Nile to the Euphrates. That’s the reason that the Holy Land is so important in the Holy Bible; it is the center of the magnificent 12,000 furlong cubed city whose capital is where Old Jerusalem now sits. Abraham spoke with Yahweh-in-human-form about the city, no doubt. For it was of the ultimate importance in God’s plan (Rev. 21).

Even the preachers, pastors, and priests of churchianity will tell you to walk in faith like Abraham, to have his same faith. Well and good. He looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. This city no human eye has seen, nor ear has heard. Somewhere in this mind-blowing universe that has not been touched by human hands, New Jerusalem is waiting to come down.

A City Built by God

New Jerusalem is a city built by the Creator Himself. He is the Architect and the Builder. And He built it especially for us His children. It is the “city of the great King” (Psm. 48). It is a royal city built for those with a royal destiny. Peter said that we believers are a “royal priesthood.” A body of kingly priests is our destiny; to intercede for those who are in need will be our occupation in the kingdom.

New Jerusalem is built for those of the same faith as Abraham, who left his home, obeying God’s voice. And he left his home there where all his kinfolk lived, there near Haran in Padan-Aram in northern Mesopotamia. God wanted him nearer to the place where God’s throne room would be when the city set down. God went ahead and gave that real estate to Abraham and his seed as an inheritance. We are his seed, his offspring in Christ. Therefore, we own the earth where the New Jerusalem will set down [the last two sentences were not in my rough draft journal…it just came now…].

This real estate is the “land of promise.” The promise is God’s declared word that if we walk by faith like Abraham and the other patriarchs and prophets and apostles, that we will live in this great heavenly city with our King Yahshua the Anointed One. And “God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He has prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11: 16).

But, my brothers and sisters, before we can go more deeply, before we can digest the meat of the word [for many choke on it], we must have the sure foundation of Christ’s doctrine. If we do not, then when the wolf blows on our spiritual house, it will sadly come crashing down. This is why so many Christians backslide. They are “tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine,” and their house is spoiled by the enemy.

Without the apostles’ doctrine as our sure foundation, even these few thoughts shared out of the meat of the word today will with time fade in our memory as a lovely song heard many moons ago, forgotten like bird song in a southern wind. The enemy will steal it from one’s mind and replace it with shallow thoughts about one’s self—because, alas, the self is still there.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{Order your free copy of my new 220 page book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. The book is free; the shipping in the USA is free. Send me your mailing address to my email:  wayneman5@hotmail.com This is my tithe and offering to God…On international orders I ask you to pay your own shipping. Email me for details}

8 Comments

Filed under apostles' doctrine, belief, body of Christ, Christ, elect, end time prophecy, faith, kingdom of God

April 1, 2017 · 3:55 pm

God’s Five Offices Are for Your Perfection

{This is another excerpt from my new book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It will be out this spring. I want to get this book into as many interested hands as I can, so I am offering it totally free to my readers. The book is free; the shipping is free in the USA. All I need is your prayers and your mailing address. Don’t worry. Your mailing address is safe with me. Please send it to my email address: wayneman5@hotmail.com   On subject line write “New Book.”}

The notion that all Christians are God’s little lambs and will remain as such is a false concept. For God has set some members in the body as “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.” These five offices are God’s gifts to His church, and they are not lambs nor little children.

Moreover, they are given to us by God to accomplish three certain things: “the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4: 11-15). Perfecting? One may ask. It means here “maturing.” When we come to Christ, we receive the seed, the word of God into our hearts. Through proper watering and nourishment the seed will grow and finally mature. The five offices of God help the members of the body of Christ grow spiritually and mature unto perfection. They show us the way of how to minister God’s light and truth to this world. And they build us up spiritually, feeding us with the truth of God’s purpose for this walk.

Now all of God’s children are important to Him. But He knows that some will mature faster in His plan than others. So He sends those who have matured first—by His grace—back to the others to nourish and help them on their walk with the Father.

Yet some Christians reject the idea of the manifested sons of God. They think that we are all equal and that there should not be one stone above another in the temple of God. The thought of having “super-Christians” walking the earth does not set well with some. But the fact that God has set these five offices in His body to help the church members achieve perfection and maturity shows that some Christians mature spiritually faster than others. And we are equally loved by our Father.

The five offices are a gift from God to us, and they will help the members of God’s body “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (4: 13). They will be with us, helping us, “till we all come…unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” All of us true Christians will grow into the fullness of Christ, that we all “may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ.” Don’t be shaken just because some Christians will mature faster than others. Just love them and help them because we all are going to make it.

These five offices help us become one with the Father’s vision. They will teach us how the Father is using His incarnation in the Son to work out His plan of deliverance for the inhabitants of the world. And they will teach us how to grow spiritually to the point that we become like Peter, James, John, and Paul. These four matured earlier than others. In our day some will do the same, but we are all growing up into Him.

That is what these five offices in the body of Christ will do and continue to do till we all get there. They are powered by God, who has that much faith in His own power to change us into dynamos of spiritual energy so that we like Christ can do the same works—greater works even—than what the Master Himself did. God’s faith is not in our old selves, but in the Spirit of Christ now in us—to do the growing and maturing.

How Will We Know If We’ve Found One of These Five Offices of God?

How will you know? Do they speak of you being like the Savior? Are you being edified and built up with the grand vision that the apostles and prophets spoke of? Do you feel like you are starving for the meat of the word? Do they speak about growing up to be like Christ?

If they are not doing this, then you need to ask God to lead you to a place that will feed your heart and soul. “You will know them by their fruit.” “Fruit” is that which is produced by your spiritual leader. If what they speak about is themselves, then run, for they can only take you to where they are. Run. Get out.

“Seek and ye shall find.” Seek God for His five offices to be a part of your life. You will know you have found one when their teachings line up with these criteria:

  • They will teach that God’s righteousness enters into us along with our new heart that sin in our life died on the cross when Christ died there. And with His resurrection, we too enter a new life of righteousness.
  • They will teach that we can grow to be just like the apostles and Christ.
  • They will speak often of the kingdom of God being a real kingdom with Christ as King, coming back to this earth, replacing the evil of the world system.
  • They will build you up with truth, pulling no punches.
  • They will call out the old leaven doctrines of the denominations, showing their fallacies in light of His word.
  • They will show the way, lighting the path for us.
  • They will share the knowledge of God’s secrets of His purpose and plan of reproducing Love.

And when you find one who teaches the truth, by faith step out there and follow them and pray for them, and help them through your spiritual support. And remember: You’ll know them by their fruit.

3 Comments

Filed under body of Christ, church, cross, crucified with Christ, elect, false doctrines, false teachers, kingdom of God, Love from Above, old leaven, One World Government, perfection, sin, spiritual growth, Spiritual Life Cycle

October 29, 2016 · 6:16 pm

Beware of a Spiritual Cancer in the Body of Christ

A cancer is growing in the body of Christ, the church. It is a heresy that is spreading throughout the land. Many are being bewitched by a rather “righteous and holy” appearing doctrine. It is a false doctrine that seems true to the uninitiated and unlearned. It is the very same doctrine that was running wild throughout the era of the early church during the first and second century A.D.

This doctrine deceives people into thinking that by their own might and will they can keep the Ten Commandment Law–that by working to keep the law, they can be righteous in the Savior’s eyes. In fact, they are led to believe that by keeping the law, they will be justified by God; God will see that they are righteousness.

Someone will say, What’s wrong with that? Why are you putting them down? Keeping the Commandments is a good thing, isn’t it? Yes, the law is holy and good; it is the perfect law of liberty. The catch is that the old carnal nature cannot successfully keep it on its own strength. Only through the Spirit of God dwelling in us can we keep the law.

Paul writes about such matters. And because the apostle’s writings are diametrically opposed to this cancerous doctrine of trying-to-keep-the-law-on-our-own-strength-and-not-by-His-Spirit-dwelling-within, some people are rejecting Paul’s teachings! I have heard people say that Paul is in error! They reason that he could not be correct because he does not agree with their interpretation of scripture.

Well, God has news for them. Paul has a direct revelation from God, and the world would do well to take heed to what the Spirit through Paul is saying.

If You Throw Out Paul, You Must Throw Out the Rest of the NT Writings

If you get rid of his letters to us, then you will have to finally reject the rest of the New Testament. Peter will be the next one that the cancer consumes, for Peter believed that Paul was a prophet and an apostle of God (II Peter 3: 14-15). Peter said that Paul was a beloved brother, had wisdom from God, and that Paul was writing things that agreed with Peter’s thoughts. Peter did say that Paul wrote things that were hard to understand for the “unlearned and unstable,” who wrestle with his writings, “as they do the other scriptures.” Peter considered Paul’s writings of the same caliber and quality as the other inspired writings of the prophets and patriarchs.

Consequently, if you throw out Peter, you will eventually have to throw out James and John and Matthew and the other original disciples because they were all “in one mind and one accord” on the day of Pentecost in the upper room. They all saw eye to eye spiritually. And they all received the same immersion in the Holy Spirit and fire (Acts 2: 1-4).

The exploits of the early church are set forth in Luke’s book of the Acts of the Apostles. Luke, who had “perfect understanding of all things from the very first” (Luke 1: 3), vindicates Paul’s ministry, devoting 2/3 of Acts to it.

So let’s take an inventory. Those who throw out Paul must throw out also the gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, James, the letters of Peter, John, Jude, and Revelation. Not much left of the Savior’s first coming and of His death, burial, and resurrection. All that is left is a looking forward to a first coming of the Messiah. This cancerous doctrine will leave you hopelessly  wandering to the nearest synagogue in search of others who are hopelessly trying to keep the 10 Commandments on their own strength.

This cancer is devouring the faith of many who have discovered the Sacred Names of Yahweh and Yahshua. Since they are names in the Hebrew tongue, the unlearned think that all things Hebrew is the answer, including getting into the Law of the Old Testament. The cancerous teaching is called “the works of the law” being our way to be justified, as if we could keep them in our own strength. The law leads us to Christ and His Spirit. After receiving His Spirit, His Spirit keeps the commandments by faith in the Christ of the New Testament.

As you explore the beauty of the sacred names of the Father and Son, beware of this cancer that is a “cunningly devised fable” that would deceive the very elect if it were possible. Oh, by the way, Paul and Peter warned us of it.                    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Comments

Filed under body of Christ, church, false doctrines, false prophets, false teachers, law, old leaven, Sacred Names, Yahshua, Yahweh

August 27, 2016 · 5:03 pm

Love Makes Known the Plan of God

We know that God is love and God is light. Therefore, Love is Light. Since light makes things known, then Love makes manifest as well. Love sheds light on what and who God is. Where agape love is present, the Spirit of Love makes God known. We see God when we see love–true selfless love from above, as we see in Christ’s laying down His life for His friend [1].

Christ said, “I am the light of the world.” In this He was saying, Through my life, death, and life-after-death, I make known the Father’s purpose and plan of reproducing Love. If you believe in Me and the love that I showed when I laid my life down for you, then that same Spirit of Love will engender in you a new life that will, in turn, enlighten others who now sit in darkness. He will give us His own Spirit of love. Consequently, we will become  the light of the world because He will be living His life through us, His body  [2].

In a word, in a seed thought, God is Love. He is the greatest thing in the universe. Everyone will agree. All the poets and writers of song down through the ages confirm that Love–selfless love–is a divine thing and that it should be emulated by mankind.

Man knows this, even down into his DNA. He knows that he should love his fellow man. The truth is that God created him to be the “glory of God.” Man is designed to contain the Spirit of Love, which is God. Man was created as a temple for the Spirit of Love (God) to dwell in. Man knows that this kind of love is what we should strive for [3].

We are moved by the soldier who fell on a grenade to save the lives of his buddies, or the stranger who died in a house fire saving a little child. And millions are touched by the selfless love shown by our Savior on the cross.

God is Love and is the greatest and most powerful thing in the universe. And because Love by its very nature shares with others and gives, God could not but create a plan to share Himself with His creation.

He purposed it and being all-powerful was able to implement His purpose and plan of duplicating and reproducing Himself. He planned this all out in His mind. He thought it into existence. Thoughts are comprised of words that occupy first His mind. And He has given us the power to think His very same thoughts. First we must have the knowledge of the thoughts about His purpose and plan. Then we must choose to surrender our restless minds to His thoughts. When we start thinking His thoughts, then “the peace that passes all understanding” will come upon us.

His purpose is to reproduce Himself, to reproduce Love throughout His entire creation. He is the Seed of Love that will reproduce itself. He became the Seed, which is the Word, which is the Logos, which is comprised of the thoughts of His Mind. And this “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” His plan was to pour this reproductive energy into a human vessel that could “fall into the ground and die” and through the resurrection, would “bring forth much fruit” at the harvest.  The much fruit is the thousands of manifested sons that will sit as kings with Him on His throne upon His return to this earth.

Those that overcome all things in this era have a royal destiny. They are chosen; they are elected by God for this honor. They do respond; they do study and pray that they be counted worthy for this honor, but it is all through His grace. For it is God that gives them the strength and power to continue against the gainsayers, the unbelievers, the worldly, and the ones with precious little faith. God gives them the determination to get up and face the spiritual enemy who lurks in the halls of minds. God helps their unbelief and sees them through to the finish line.

For they serve their great invisible Father Yahweh, who resides in His Son, who is the Head of the body of an organism called the church. And when this vision becomes as crystal in their hearts and minds, they will realize that all scriptures that pertain unto Christ pertain unto them, for they are His body. When we abide in Him, the scriptures speak of us.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

  1.   I John 1: 5; I John 4: 8; Eph. 5: 13
  2.  John 8: 12; John 15: 13; Matt. 5: 14; Col. 1: 18
  3. I Cor. 11: 7; I Cor. 3: 16, 6: 19

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 Comments

Filed under agape, armour of God, body of Christ, church, death, elect, eternal purpose, knowledge, light, love, Love from Above, manifestation of the sons of God, mind of Christ, resurrection, sons and daughters of God, Spirit of God, vision, Yahweh

August 20, 2016 · 5:39 pm

“Forgive Them”–In Training to Be a Royal Priest

I asked God, How do I love other people–people that I meet that I don’t even know?

I did not get an answer immediately, but in two or three days this thought just “popped” into my mind: “You’ve got to forgive them.”

“Forgive them?

“That’s how I loved you unconditionally. Forgive.” And with that our thought-conversation was over.

So, this person that I have never seen before crosses my path, and just like that, I am to forgive him. But how do I forgive someone I don’t even know? The answer is we are God’s priests and ambassadors. We intercede for them. We are in Christ’s stead now. We are His face and hands and mouth. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (II Cor. 5: 20).

Be reconciled because God has already through the shedding of His blood caused all of our sins to depart. They are already gone. When we believe this, then we manifest the witness of this grace in us.

We are to recognize this in each other: that God has forgiven them and has caused their sinful self to pass away. We forgive them because God has already forgiven them. Their sins are washed away; they need only to “bring forth fruit worthy of repentance” to witness the record of our common salvation from sin.

We forgive another by enlightening them as to God’s forgiveness if they walk in darkness. Your sins are forgiven you; they have departed through God’s mercy and you have been absolved of all guilt and shame. You are clean now. The Savior has given Himself as a ransom for us all. The darkness of your soul and the evil that your heart did once conceive is no more. You are washed clean. Repent now, and walk in this new life.

God has forgiven us all, and in essence, we recognize this as we also forgive each other (Matt. 18: 21-22, 35).

In Training to Sit on the Mercy Seat

For us who are running the race to be a part of the “manifestation of the sons of God” in these last days, we are in training to be kings. We are, after all, a “royal priesthood” and a “chosen generation.” We are to be those kingly intercessors for all of God’s people.

Right now we are in training for this position. To be those future manifested sons and daughters, we must first carry inside through the Spirit this belief that the stranger we meet is not a stranger at all. He is rather one of the human beings that God loves and has forgiven. God loves them just as much as we believe that He loves us.

When we see the stranger in this light, then the Love (God) will shine through us to them. We will then have become messengers of mercy, for we will be in sync with Him.

For mercy is what we are talking about. It is God’s great mercy that forgives, that loves us so much that He would send our sins away for good, freeing us from the guilt and shame.

For mercy is a kingly attribute. Mercy comes from the throne. It is the mercy seat that is the fount of forgiveness and compassion. We the sons and daughters of God are called to grow spiritually to the point that we will be invited to sit with Him on His throne–the seat of mercy.

Mercy. To be able to love the unlovable. To free the ungrateful. To forgive the unrepentant and obstinate. To cleanse the souls of spiritual lepers, “to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,” to open the prison doors, “to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” And why will He enable us to do this? “That they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD (Yahweh), that He might be glorified” (Isa. 61: 1-4).

The small minded say this is only about Christ. But I say that all this is about us, too, for we are His body. He is the head, and we are the body of this spiritual entity called the King of Righteousness. Without Him we can do nothing; He is the head, the brains and the heart of our organism. But we are to have the mind of Christ, and when we do, He will invite us to sit with Him on His throne [It sounds incredible, but it is right there in His word]. “All things are possible to him that believes.” Amazing God, our God.

When we are filled with His agape love–Him, in other words–we will treat the penniless wretch the same as the mayor and bank president. The one thing that puts everyone on the same playing field is a sinful past. Both pauper and the prince are in need of mercy and love and forgiveness.

But mercy and truth come as a package. Having mercy is showing His true kind of mercy, not man’s kind. Mercy without truth–well, as Christ said, Even the Pharisees love those that love them. And truth given without mercy is harsh and cold and seldom penetrates the human heart because of a lack of compassion. Christ’s Spirit is the whole package–merciful and truthful.       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 Comments

Filed under additions to our faith, agape, body of Christ, elect, love, Love from Above, manifestation of the sons of God, sin, sons and daughters of God, Spirit of God, spiritual growth, truth, Yahweh

June 25, 2016 · 4:20 pm

Spiritual Gifts Given to Fulfill God’s Purpose

The truth is this: God has a purpose to reproduce Himself. And He has a plan to implement His purpose; He will use certain human beings to accomplish it. He has thought it all out and He has written it all down for us in the written word of God.

To those whom He has prepared and shown this vision, He has promised to send the Spirit of truth, who will lead us into all truth–the truth about His purpose and plan. Once we get on the road to helping Him accomplish His purpose and plan, He has promised to help us help Him. He has promised us gifts–the “gifts of the Spirit.”

The first of these gifts is guiding my hand this very moment. This pen is writing by the Spirit the logos-sophia–the “word of wisdom.” This is the “hidden wisdom” that only comes out of the heart of God, whose heart is in His Son. It is a mystery, this hidden wisdom, so rare to the senses of natural man, that it can be written openly now and uploaded by the miracle of the internet to all eyes, and only be understood by those who should understand. And yet, this hidden wisdom will come with a clarity that  sits in the minds of His people chosen and predisposed by God to understand, though thousands of miles away from my hilly hamlet.

For it is His word that is the seed, that is the truth. It is the seed, the word, the logos, that is cast out over the entire field of the world (Matt. 13: 24-30; 37-43). God’s seed goes out over the entire world, and yet, “none of the princes knew” of this hidden wisdom at work, for had they had known, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (I Cor. 2: 6-8). Their evil heart blinded them from the wisdom of God.

And none of the rulers of our own age will see this hidden wisdom, for it “is not of this world” (John 18: 36). Even as we, brothers and sisters, are not of this world. We are other-worldly.

And the gifts of the Spirit we receive to accomplish His purpose are not from this world system. They are from above, even as we are.

A Word from Wisdom, Not a Word about Wisdom

And the very first gift that the Spirit of truth gives us is the logos-sophia, the word of wisdom (I Cor. 12: 8). It is the necessary first gift, for it will open the door to the other gifts.

The “word of wisdom” is not a word about wisdom, but a word from wisdom. Wisdom is crying out to us, pleading with us to seek after her, but few hear her cries (Prov. 1: 20-23).  Wisdom even promises us this: “I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.”

Yet, very few know what wisdom is. Even fewer care to know. Some say that no one can know. The prophet Job asked the question: “Where shall wisdom be found?” He then relates that it is not in earthly things–gold, silver, jewels; they cannot buy wisdom. He then looks at all the inexplainable–the “acts of God,” the overturning of the mountains, the rivers cutting through the rocks, the secrets of the universe, and the binding of “floods from overflowing; the thing that is hid brings He forth to light.” Where does wisdom come from? It comes from God, of course. God declared it and “unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom” (Job 28: 9-28).

But what exactly is “the fear of the Lord”? Having reverential awe of God and His power. If we don’t have it, we ask for it. He’ll give it to us. He wants to give it to us. And once we receive it, we can receive of its words. Wisdom will teach us of His word through the “word of wisdom.”

For the “word of wisdom” speaks of the mystery of “the divine plan” (Thayer’s G4680, sophia wisdom). And this divine plan is how the Father will use Christ His Son to reproduce Himself, until we His body “be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3: 19). If we are filled with all the fulness of God, then God will have reproduced Himself in us, the body of Christ!

For our destiny is just that: Christ is the head and we the church are His body, “the fulness of Him that fills all in all” (Eph. 1: 22-23).

This the hidden wisdom and knowledge for our day, and the rulers and the masses will not believe it. Just go tell them that God will someday fill us up with His Spirit; He will be all in all. And see what they say. They don’t believe that. If they did, they would teach it. But the unbelief is thick and suffocating to the young child of God.

Natural man “receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned…But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit” (I Cor. 2: 14, 10).

And this is what He has revealed to us: God is reproducing Himself through His Son and the Son’s body of believers, the church. And He is revealing the knowledge of His plan to get this done. And He is doing it all by His Spirit, working through His gifts to us. That is the importance of the “word of wisdom.”   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Comments

Filed under body of Christ, church, elect, eternal purpose, gifts of the Spirit, manifestation of the sons of God, world system

June 11, 2016 · 4:08 pm

Walking in the Spirit Comes from Knowledge of God’s Purpose of Reproducing Himself–Being About Our Father’s Business

We are admonished in God’s word to “walk in the Spirit” and to “abide in [Christ]” (Gal. 5: 16, 25; John 15: 4). But in order to get in step with the Spirit, we need to not only know the Spirit’s destination, but also the why and the how of God’s intentions. In order to abide in the Spirit, we need to know what the abiding entails and how to get there.

Simply put, in order for us to walk in the Spirit, we must first know what God is doing and where He is going. “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” (Amos 3: 3). We must agree with Him as to the where and when of His Spirit. He said that we are to have the mind of Christ and to think the way He does (Phil. 2: 5). Christ is doing His Father’s business (Luke 2: 49).

And the Father’s business is God reproducing Himself. This is His purpose, and He has a plan to finish His work.

God has given us many clues as to His purpose. Every living thing in both the vegetable and animal kingdom is striving to reproduce itself. Just look around. It is what it is all about. You striving in your life to find “the one,” that special one to mate with–the drive  has been put in your DNA by your Maker, and it is another clue as to His purpose: God is reproducing Himself, His Love, and His life. And He has the plan to make it happen. And we humans are the spiritual environment in which He is doing this reproducing of Himself.

Only when we understand His purpose and then believe it, will we be able to walk in the Spirit or abide in Him. If we are operating on a different spiritual wavelength in our worship, then we are not staying, remaining, nor abiding in Him and His purpose and His plan to achieve His purpose of reproducing Himself.

People of God, we say that we want a closer walk, a closer relationship with Him! This is our opportunity. Oh, to cease to be Christ’s servants and to become His friends! To hear Him say to us, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his lord does: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” To be His friend! To be given this rare knowledge of what the Father is doing. To have Christ trust us so much that He with His great loving heart would include us in these secrets and mysteries of what the Father’s purpose is! To be trusted as a friend that knows what His Lord is doing! To be a part of His inner circle (John 15: 15).

And don’t tell me that it is not for us. That is a cop out. Two chapters later in that same flow of truth, Christ prayed for you and me: “Neither pray I for these alone [seated around the Last Supper table], but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one…and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them…” (John 17: 20). That’s us, brothers and sisters, if we can believe it.

He has promised us that if we abide in Him, whatever we ask, He will do. If we are walking and abiding with Him then what we ask will further His purpose. Those are the prayers that will get through–those that are asked by us to further His purpose and plan.

When We Have Another Purpose

But if we have an agenda and purpose and plan other than His, then we do not have true worship of the Father, for we will be following our own imaginations as to what will please God. God does not need another church building on another corner. He does not need another minister preaching the same sermons spoken a hundred years ago because those sermons, though they may be sincere, smack of stale incense wafting up into God’s nostrils. Small-hearted prayers for ourselves won’t get through the brass heavens to His ears.

Understanding His Purpose

However, when we do get His purpose and take it to heart and begin to work to help bring it to pass, then our power increases by His Spirit, and we become co-workers with Christ in doing the “Father’s business.”

Christ is all about doing the business of the Father. He is doing His will and finishing His work. The Father’s work? Reproducing Himself.

And what are we to do? We as members of Christ’s body need to be doing what Christ is doing, which is the same work. To do the works of God, we need to believe upon Him whom God has sent, and to finish His work. We are to bear witness to the truth about how God is reproducing Himself through the Seed Son. The works that God will do through us will be a witness that Christ the Seed has resurrected in us. The Seed Son will have germinated in us as we show forth the resurrection power through many signs and wonders done very shortly on this earth.

But it all starts with wisdom and knowledge, which happens to be the main ingredients of the first two “gifts of the Spirit.” Yes, as we get on the right road, God the Spirit begins to give us gifts to help us help Him fulfill His purpose. The first is “the word of wisdom,” and the second is “the word of knowledge” (I Cor. 12: 8).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Comments

Filed under body of Christ, church, eternal purpose, gifts of the Spirit, knowledge, mind of Christ, resurrection, Spirit of God, wisdom

Tagged as , , , ,

May 28, 2016 · 10:39 pm

Connecting the Dots–Starting With Agape Love

Revelation comes from the Spirit of Truth connecting dots–in us. The  “dots” are statements of truth found in the written word.

Anyone who has a Bible can memorize passages of scripture. But it is only the Holy Spirit that leads us into all truth (John 16: 13). And He leads us into more and more revelatory truth by tying things together–“…line upon line…precept upon precept.”

It has been said before and we all should take heed: If we are not receiving more and more truth and light in our Christian walk, then one of two things is happening. Either we have all the truth already or the Holy Spirit is not guiding us “into all truth.” I believe that it is the latter.

Only God can make the light bulbs come on, and He does it by connecting the dots of truth together into a bright wall of meaningful light, a light of Love.

Take the divine council of Yahweh that we see in the book of Job 1 and 1 Kings 18: 20-23. Upon seeing this we ask, What is the significance of this for my life right now?

Then other scriptures come to mind, tying in with them. We remember Peter miraculously being broken out of jail by an angel of God (Acts 12: 5-17). Peter was imprisoned by Herod. The church prayed for him, and God sent an angel that delivered him. Peter goes to the house where the body of Christ is praying for him. He knocks on the door. A young woman named Rhoda goes to the door, hears Peter’s voice, and turns and goes back and tells everyone that Peter is at the door. They, knowing the severity of Herod’s prison say, You are crazy. That could not be Peter; it is his angel (v. 15).

Connecting the Dots

Peter’s angel? There is deep truth here in Acts 12; we need to connect the dots. They did not believe that Peter could escape Herod’s prison. So in their minds there was only one explanation: The personage at the door had to be Peter’s angel. I mean, if it walks like Peter and sounds like Peter, and if Peter, who was with Christ for 3 1/2 years, is in Herod’s prison, then it must be Peter’s angel.

Why would they say that? There must have been a current teaching in the  early church that we don’t have today, saying that members of Christ’s church have a heavenly counterpart that can visit the earth. Each member has a heavenly spiritual body that looks and sounds like them and that can visit earth–an angel, if you will. [Wow. That just gave me a shiver.]

If this is not the case, then why did they think it and say it? They thought it and said it because they were taught it by the apostles and teachers in the body right after the resurrection. I know of no denominations that teach that. So either the early church was in error or today’s churchianity is. Very few Christians are going to take that leap. Why won’t they? Because their church don’t teach it.

Yet the apostle Paul confirms the above by speaking  about the two bodies that we have–an earthly one and an eternal heavenly one (II Cor. 5: 1). He calls it our “house which is from heaven.” The Spirit through him also writes that “there are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial” (I Cor. 15: 40).

Most preachers won’t touch this for fear of being ostracized by their denomination and congregation. They just won’t connect the dots–not on this one.

Can’t Help But Wonder

The question arises: If it be so that our spiritual body was in heaven with God before our life on earth began, then why should we have this earthly experience? Why go through all the pain and suffering? What is the point? Why could we not have just lived in our heavenly bodies, happy ever after?

This is an age-old question. Knowing His purpose gives us the answer. He desires to reproduce Himself–agape Love. Knowing this is the starting gate of all understanding and knowledge. To duplicate, to multiply, to reproduce Himself, sufferings must come to the vessels He is using for His reproduction. That’s us. We need to get over it; we are being used by Him. We must endure human sufferings, for they are the only experience that will shape and mold us into vessels of agape Love and mercy.

God cannot reproduce Love (Himself) without suffering. Suffering with Him is the crucible that forges us into becoming His kings and queens, vessels fit to reign. The scriptures declare as much. You have read them: “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him…Joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together…Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice as you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings…” (II Tim 2: 12; Rom. 8: 17; I Pet. 4: 12-13). Paul welcomed sufferings knowing that they were his calling card to God’s throne room.

But human sufferings make no sense without the knowledge of His eternal purpose of reproducing Himself (Love). When we believe that they are a necessary to fulfill His purpose, then the sufferings become more comprehensible.

The only reason that Christianity has worked in the hearts of men for the past 2000 years is because of Christ’s love shown to human beings through Him sacrificing Himself for others. He said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15: 13). He did not just say it; he did it.

That kind of love breaks up a hard heart. In our first earthly Adamic sinful state, we got beat up by others, betrayed and abused. And as a defense mechanism, we hardened ourselves and grew cynical. If we ever thought of God, we more than likely blamed Him for our spiritually destitute condition.

It was only the greatest love–the love that lays down his life for another–that will melt a cold bitter heart. That kind of Love is God, and He wants to sow it as a seed into the earth–through us. As we lay down our lives for others in following Him, the seed of agape love is sown into the hearts of other human beings. And that love for Him and His people will grow and grow, and it will become a great harvest of love in the earth at the end of the age. It will grow until Love “is all in all.”

God’s unselfish love in laying down His life is the first dot that we need to connect from. And the second is us laying down our lives for others. We are the offspring of Love and Light. In Him we are the light of the world, making manifest His Love to the world by letting love shine selflessly.

The Seed is the Love that we find in Christ, our example. And that Seed of Love is now within us, and we now have become the sower of that seed in the parable of the sower (Mt. 13). He now through us His body is sowing His love abundantly for the abundant harvest coming soon.

{Don’t sit on this article; share it.}

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Comments

Filed under body of Christ, children of God, christianity, church, eternal purpose, glorification, light, love, Love from Above, mercy, resurrection, sons and daughters of God, Spirit of God, sufferings of Christians, truth

Tagged as , , , ,

April 16, 2016 · 3:11 pm

Exploring the Mind of God–His Love, Purpose, and Plan

Distilling the mind of God into the ink of a single page is like trying to put a cloud burst into a coffee cup. After the torrent, we see a bit of the water of heaven captured in a small finite vessel, a symbol of the moisture poured forth on the thirsty land.

That cup of truth may satisfy the parched souls of only a few pilgrims who stop for refreshment. Hopefully this cup of rain reminds them of the firmament from which it fell.

The mind of God. How do we begin to consider and relate such ethereal thoughts? Perhaps when our finite minds decrease and His infinite wisdom increases in them.

The Hebrew God has left us a record of His thoughts that emanates from His mind as revealed to His prophets of old. This record of His thoughts were written down and miraculously preserved through the millenia for us in the last days. They are called the “scriptures of truth,” or the writings of truth.

Thousands of years ago, God spoke His mind to His people using the prophets, who wrote it down. Now God speaks to us by His Son, the heir of all things, the King of God’s Kingdom (Heb. 1: 1-2). The prophets knew the mind of God because the “Spirit of Christ…was in them” (I Pet. 1: 11). These prophets “spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (II Pet. 1: 21). They had the Spirit of Christ in them and were longing for our day, the day when the Spirit of Christ is multiplied and reproduced into a body of “many sons [and daughters] unto glory”–right here on earth!

The Spirit of Christ in the prophets of old longed for that time about 2,000 years ago for the Father Yahweh’s Son to come on the scene. For with His arrival, the Seed Son then could be planted in the earth. They knew that there could be no great harvest without the planting of the Seed Son into the earth. Christ, reflecting on His date with death, said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12: 24 NKJV).

Without Christ’s death and resurrection, there would be no harvest of “grain,” no reproduction of seed. By definition, grain is reproducible seed. And in this case, Christ is teaching us that by believing Him, we become just like the original Seed that was planted. The harvest is not a harvest of little immature seedlings. No. It is a harvest of seeds, like the original, ready to be planted for their own harvest.

With Christ’s planting of Himself literally in the tomb in the earth, we have the inevitable harvest of Seed just like Him! That is what He said. And He is speaking the mind of God. He is speaking the thoughts of God about His purpose, which is this: God is reproducing Himself in a group of people called and chosen for this purpose.

That is worthy of repeating over and over in our finite minds. God is reproducing Himself in a body of people from all over the earth. He is calling them and choosing them. It is all His doing. It is all Him. They did not work for this honor. To the contrary. He has chosen the weak, the foolish, the low, and the despised of the earth to bring to nothing the world and its thinking (I Cor. 1: 27).

The Plan Is Found in the Scriptures

If you peel back all the layers of the Seed, you will find the seminal heart to be Unselfish Love. God is Love, and Love cannot by its very nature do anything but share. God is sharing Himself.

And in the very beginning, God, of course, realized this about Himself. He knew that the wonderful thing that He is is Love, and Love shares and magnifies and expresses and ultimately reproduces itself. That is what unselfish love, the love from above, is.

So this reproduction of Himself, which is Love, became His Purpose and Life. In His Mind of Love He created thoughts comprised of words. And with these words and thoughts He created the Plan to make His Purpose happen.

Using His thoughts, comprised of words, He created the  concept of “seed time and harvest.” And He made the original Seed His Word, and He made it incorruptible (I Pet. 1: 23).

We must pause a moment and realize that this whereof we speak was in the beginning before this dimension in which we breathe existed.

God created the Plan to carry out His Purpose of Reproducing Himself (Love). And this Plan is laid out in the scriptures of truth. To the prophets and apostles He revealed a precept here and a precept there, but we now have the privelege of seeing all the pieces to the puzzle spread before us. And with the Spirit of Christ within us, we through His help can comprehend the mysteries of God’s Plan.

His Plan, which is expressed in words, becomes the Word, the Logos. And this entire Plan of His Purpose of Reproducing Love is all poured into the Son of God. “And the Word (Logos) was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory…” (John 1: 14).

The Plan and Purpose is all in the Seed, who is the Word, who is the Son of God. The Father, whose thoughts we have endeavored to explore, poured His everything into His Son–His very nature, His purpose, His plan. It is all there in Him. That’s the reason the apostle Paul says, “He is before all things, and by Him all things consist (Col. 1: 17-18).

And Christ is our Head, and we are His body. He now needs His body to agree with His Mind, the Mind of God. And God’s Mind becomes our mind when we agree with His thoughts.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Comments

Filed under agape, belief, Bible, body of Christ, Christ, church, death, elect, kingdom of God, love, Love from Above, manifestation of the sons of God, mind of Christ, resurrection, sons and daughters of God, sons of God, Spirit of God, spiritual growth

Tagged as , , , ,