Category Archives: Christ

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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Need to Get Closer to God? Here’s How

We are to “come before His presence with thanksgiving” (Psa. 95:2)

Since “God is a Spirit,” He is not impressed with material things used in a “worship service.” Candles, money, offering trays, cups, wine, wafers, incense, bulletins, et al…All these material things God does not want. What He desires is a grateful and thankful heart. As we thank Him, we seem to meld into Him; the portion of His Spirit, the “earnest of our inheritance,” merges with His Spirit. This is approaching and coming to Him.

“Come before His presence.” How? With thanksgiving. We are to offer “the calves of our lips,” giving thanks to his name (Hosea 14:2; Hebrews 13:15).

The simple expression of giving thanks and is what God longs to hear. Thanking Him for His great mercy and love in saving us from a disastrously selfish life and redeeming us by His blood on the cross, wherein we were cleansed from all unrighteousness.

Since God is omnipresent, he is right by our side—touchable, close at hand. His presence is immediate. Nothing separates us from His love. He is profoundly near, approachable, a door whose key is a thank you. For thankfulness is a spiritual thing. To thank the invisible God is a spiritual offering. It is how we come to him. It is an act of humility. It recognizes Christ as Supreme, the One who makes it all happen in our personal lives–the “good” and “bad,” and the ups and the downs of life.

Yes, this is the One we are thanking. It is He who has commandeered our earthly ship, leading us  through both calm and chaotic seas. It was always our Father, with such patience to have endured our obdurate hearts.

We will thank Him for His delivering love, the One who loves us all. And, thusly, we receive what most people say that they want—to feel God’s presence. As we thank Him, we begin to perceive that He is getting nearer. Thank You for everything. HalleluYah! Praise Yah!

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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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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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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God’s Will/Desire Is to Bring His Kingdom to Earth–Christ to Share His Throne with Us

We have seen that God’s will is His desire. God’s desire springs from His purpose, which is to reproduce Himself, Agape Love, in us. God has a plan that will fulfill His desire for you, me, and the rest of the inhabitants of earth. His desire will come to pass. It will supersede all of man’s self-centered yearnings. His desire is to have His government here on earth, a kingdom so full of wonder that it will erase the memory of mankind’s miserably failed epochs and eras.

The border of Christ’s Kingdom will not be entered illegally. He will bring order, His divine order. To help the interlopers, Christ will send ambassadors to the far-flung territories of the earth. These ambassadors will institute God’s righteous government, helping the people build a life of loving the King by loving and helping each other. After the Tribulation period, He will have rulers, judges, and officers carry out in love His desire for the people of this world. For all the citizens of earth will be taught about our righteous King’s wishes. We will teach them God’s will, desire, and intention.

Our King Yahshua is not a chump. He does not come this time as a Lamb sacrificed for the world’s sins. He comes back as the “Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David,” ruling with a “rod of iron” (Rev. 5:5; 2:27).

There are many openings right now in the King’s royal army who carry neither sword nor shield. He has a promise for those who answer His call to overcome all deceptions and delusions thrown their way. Here is His promise to His elect: “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in my throne…” (Rev. 3:21). It is the Spirit speaking to us. Are we able to hear and comprehend the vastness of His promise that He, in His infinite love, has given us a chance to really know Christ, to be loved by Him like the disciple John was loved by Him. To know Him as a real friend, as well as our Captain.

I just take my cap off now as I write this and bow my head in the presence of One so kind and humble. He is so gracious that He would offer this vessel a chance to be with Him, a chance to repent from diving into rabbit holes, and an opportunity to become like King David, a man after God’s own heart. To have one heart—Christ’s heart. To be one with Him, thus fulfilling His will/desire.

We are not talking about being saved. We are talking unabashedly about being used by Christ to rule the earth! Becoming a governor in His kingdom, a “ruler over ten cities,” is the big bait that I am casting out into the sea of mankind. He did say that He would make us “fishers of men.” So, no more casting the minnows of just-walking-the-aisle-and-accepting-Jesus. No. That will not fulfill Christ’s will/desire, which is this: You and I are to be the “big fish” that His Spirit is angling for. Big fish like King David.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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God’s Will Is His Desire

“I just want to do His will…Only if the Lord wills…Seek His will…The will of God…” The use of “God’s will” is ubiquitous. Christians speak of His will all the time; they know that it is important. But it is used so much that the original meaning of “will” gets lost in the shuffle. The meaning of the word “will” has been shrunk down to a feeble, man-derived concept.  

God’s “will,” however, cannot be understood by squeezing it out of man’s wisdom. God’s will is vast; it is like going from a grain of sand to the cosmic energy of a billion suns. God’s will is galactic. Nevertheless, He has predestinated some of us “to be filled with the knowledge of His will.” How does He fill us? “Through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (Col. 1:9). That should be our prayer for each other: That you “be filled with the knowledge of His will.”

The Greek Word Translated “Will”

This “knowledge of His will” starts with this question: What does the word translated “will” mean in the Greek? The Greek word is thelema. It means “what one wishes” or desires. Simply put, His will is His desire. It is what God desires to do in heaven and earth (Blue Letter Bible – Lexicon (blbclassic.org).

What’s special about exactly doing His desires? Only those who do the will/desire of the Father will enter the kingdom of heaven. “Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will [desire] of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). Doing the Father’s will, then, is extremely important. Our standing with Christ—our growth, our service—is determined by how much of His desires we do. I am not referring to working for salvation; that is a gift from Him. But to grow spiritually, we must work because He has saved us.

But first, we must know His will/desire before we can do it.

On our search, of this we can be sure; whatever the Father desires, He will bring it to pass. So, we should ask ourselves, “What does God desire?” Most will say that it is something about salvation. Yes, salvation is the first step, and He desires to save us (Gal. 1:4). The Father’s desire/will is that Christ will lose none of His disciples, but will resurrect them in a new spiritual body (John 6:39-40).   

But the scriptures expound more deeply things concerning His “will.” First, His desire/will is a mystery. But God has revealed it to us. God has “made known to us the mystery of His will…  which he purposed in Christ.” God’s will/desire is to “gather together in one all things in Christ” in heaven and in earth (Eph. 1:9-10). That bears repeating. God desires to “gather together in one all things in Christ.” 2,200 different denominations is not bringing all things into one in Christ.

God’s desire/will is to have our hearts filled with His presence—that we grow to full maturity and bring our exiled King back to earth. We do this by preparing for His arrival. How? By feeding His lambs and sheep. By obeying His commands. By doing and teaching His doctrine. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God or not” (John 7:17). Do you know of His doctrine? His doctrine teaches us of His will, His desire. [Send for my book, The Apostles’ Doctrine. It is free with free shipping because Christ took “money” off the table. To order, go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/donate/ ] More on His will coming soon.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Enduring the Dark Night of the Soul

(from Journal entry, 10-3-22)

At our weakest moment, God will allow Satan to present a panorama of memories and recollections of our sordid past sins, weaknesses, and spiritual failures. This is our passage through the valley of the dark night of the soul.

It issues from many sources. Betrayals and the pain that may linger from them may come. Or our thoughts may take a journey once again into the night’s memories of yesteryear’s shortcomings.

In this weakened state, spiritual trouble comes with our thoughts about how destitute of love we were. We begin to see our selfish naked egos, stained with pride, justifying our use of others, of those who our Savior died for. It is as if we are peering into the screen of a time machine, a mirror that reflects just how we really were. We peer into the fruitless past, and that same panic of being lost in the maze of life, grips us as we look back and long and lament our adolescent idiocy and our selfish egoism.

We must fearlessly look at the images and believe that they are mere relics of our past life. Remember how Christ was tempted? Satan offered up full control of his kingdom to Christ if He would play ball with him. Christ resisted all the temptations. Now Christ in us resists them as well.

Christ with great mercy has promised that He would “never leave us nor forsake us.” Especially when Satan thrusts in our face our sins and faults of yesteryear. He is the “accuser of the brethren.” But it is the great mercy of our King that reigns supreme. He has our backs. He allows us to think these fleeting thoughts to show us more clearly the magnificent deliverance from sin that He has wrought in our lives. For that is what it was—not is! We remember that we are His, bought with His blood. And He leads us through this moonless trek, this suffocating remembrance of what we once were.

Through this experience, however, we learn that we have been forgiven much. Therefore, we will love much, which fulfills His purpose of reproducing Himself (Agape love) in us. Christ said, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little” (Luke 7:47 NKJV). These trials whereof we speak shows us that we have been forgiven much. A painful trudge down the “valley of the shadow of death” during our “dark night of the soul” shows us that. Those of us who see the reality of our shameful pasts and receive His forgiveness will love much. Those who do not see that they have been forgiven all that much—they will love only a little. “Her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

Finally, Satan tries to use these memories to condemn us, but God uses them to show us a clearer picture of just how evil our old nature was. Through this trial, we see more clearly just how much we have been forgiven—how much selfish ungodliness we have been delivered from.

For in the end, only those who see and realize how much sin they have been forgiven will love much. Only those will bear much fruit, thus becoming more like Christ and His apostles. That is His goal and purpose: our maturity, which fulfills His purpose of multiplying Agape Love, which is Him.

The “dark night of the soul” experience is part of His plan to fulfill His purpose: to reproduce Agape love in us, thus reproducing Himself till Love be “all in all” (I Cor. 15:28). His plan is to keep on perfecting until all that is left is Love.     [Would you share your “dark night of the soul” in the comments section? The testimonies of the Father’s sons and daughters are so important. “Likes” are nice and appreciated, but a comment fashioned by the Spirit with words from the heart—that is what moves us. That is what edifies and helps us mature. That we may grow “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12-13). For it is the “power that works in us” (Eph. 3:20). Your comments will be read all over the globe. Reach out and share your story?]      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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…With Me from the Beginning

(from journal entry, 12-8-21)

It was early morning, and I was still in bed. I opened my eyes, and the first thought that crystalized out of the foggy dream mind was – “The Beginning.” The “beginning?” Why was I thinking that? Then another thought came that answered the question: “… with Me from the beginning.” With ME. I was with Christ. I knew that it was the Spirit speaking to me through thoughts. I began then to ponder these cryptic words. What did the Spirit mean?

So, I looked the word “beginning” up in the Greek. The “beginning” comes from the word arche, #G746 in Strong’s. It means “the origin, the active cause, used absolutely of the beginning of all things.”

Christ said, “I am the beginning and the end.” Christ is the “active cause.” He is our origin (Revelation 1:8-11,17-18). “In the beginning was the Word.” Christ is the beginning. Therefore, in Christ was the Word. Word = Logos [the purpose and plan of God]. Christ is the “active cause” in the creation of heaven and earth. “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3).

Our Savior, the “Word made flesh,” came to earth to bear witness to the truth, that He is the truth. And we, too, are to bear witness to the truth because we were with Him in the beginning. Christ said, “And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:27). This is not speaking of the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry. The Greek word arche is used for the beginning of all things. It is used as such in this verse: “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1:1).

 We are a part of the record in heaven of the things that will occur on earth. We were with him in the beginning. He knew us before because He created us as a member of His body in heaven before the earth was formed. Then He dipped us into the earth as we slid out of the matrix of our mothers’ wombs, and then we were cast out into the sea of lost mankind.

We, who had once basked in the glorious light of our Father in heaven, were now left to grow up, barely afloat in the treacherous rip tides of sin. Sin was our task master, and we obeyed his desires. The bondage to sin weighed heavily to the point of us drowning, and then we cried out in anguish and disillusionment, and then a hand reached down, a strong hand of love, and He pulled us up out of the quagmire.

He cleaned us up at the cross. He allowed us to identify our sinful selves with the Lamb, the sin sacrifice, and we died with Him. With the death of our old man, we believe that we are now buried with Him and raised with Him, now to walk in a “newness of life.” We now know and believe that “he that is dead is freed from sin.” We now spiritually step out on the water and walk in the Spirit (Rom. 6:1-11).

And then our earthly past died, and we began to grow as a seedling, tasting its first rays of light. Through study and communication with the Spirit, we grew and grew until He showed us that we had a special calling to fulfill, a special job to do. We are to share the love that saved us, by telling others the story of deliverance through His great love.

As we grow, we become a part of the witness in the earth of the record in heaven. God already knew that we would respond to His voice. He knew us and knew what we were made of. He made us, before the things we can see with our earthly eyes were made. For we were with Him in the beginning. And He has chosen us and given us a destiny way back there at the “Beginning.”

“…God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Rom. 8:28-30). Yahweh predestined us, not to just be saved, but to be “conformed to the image of his Son.” At Christ’s return to earth, He will change our weak, earthly body, “that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).

We are talking about being like Christ and His apostles! Nothing less. But before this greatest of honors is bestowed upon us, we must “arm ourselves with the same mind.” We must know and do the apostles’ doctrine and add to our faith seven spiritual attributes of Christ.

We have so much knowledge to receive. Knowing His mind will finally drive out every thought that is contrary to His purpose and plan. The mind is the battlefield where we conquer the enemy’s errant desires for us. Amid the battle, it is easy to forget that we have already won, for “we are more than conquerors through Christ.” In Him lies our power, strength, and will.

O, let us shower Him with thanks for granting us the exit visa at the cross. Repentance from sin comes when we realize that we “are dead and our life is hid with Christ…” We are a part of His body now, unencumbered by that spiritually corrupt old life. We now believe that we are a part of Christ, and the Father’s heart of love dwells within us. All this happens because He mercifully allowed us to be with Him in the beginning.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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“The Sure Mercies of David”

(from journal entry, 9-11-16 and 9-13-16)

Yahweh through His prophet Nathan spoke to David. “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” What promises! What enduring love and steadfastness Yahweh showed to David, and by extension, 1000 years later, to Christ.

It is by God’s mercy that He saves us from sin and sinning. In so doing, He saves us from sin’s major consequence—death. We enter oneness with Christ, encouraged by His promise of immortality through Him.

In Acts 13:34 we see the “sure mercies of David” equated with the granting to us of eternal life—the opposite of death. He speaks of the resurrection of Christ and how Christ’s body did not see corruption [decay]. Believing in Christ’s resurrection will bring to us that same incorruptibility of the body when we receive our new spiritual body at the end of this age. Christ’s body not falling into decay insures for us that same future in Christ, to wit: We will receive from Him the “sure mercies of David,” mercies that He has promised us, also.

It is God’s mercy to extend to us and provide the way from utter destruction caused by sin in our lives to the eradication of sin on into the immortality of our spiritual body.

This promise of immortality in our new spiritual bodies that we receive at the end of this age is called the “sure mercies of David.” We are assured the same spiritual grace and mercy that was given to David. Hence—the “sure mercies of David.” God is inviting us to hear His words and to come to Him, to draw near to Him, trusting Him. We hear these same words from the Savior. “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28). The rest comes to us when we believe in the “sure mercies of David,” when we believe we shall be blessed with a new spiritual body.  

He continues in Isaiah 55:3 by stressing the importance of listening to His words. “Hear and your soul shall live.” Take in the truth that I am saying, and your soul will live and not die. “And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”

Only those with immortality can partake in an everlasting agreement. God is saying, I am making this agreement with you that if you hear my words and believe Me, that you will live forever. It is an everlasting covenant, for you will be around forever to enjoy the life I give you.

This is the “sure mercies of David,” when Christ, David’s son, makes all this possible. It is for this reason: Yahshua is “the root and the offspring of David” (Rev. 22:16). The “root of David” is Yahweh; the “offspring of David” is the Son of God incarnate, with the Father residing within Him. The Son of God is “the image of the invisible God [the Father] …for by Him was all things created…all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” And now, through Him and his mercies toward us His body, we have everlasting life in Him (Col. 1:15-17).

The Key of David

The promise of immortality granted to believers is at the root of God’s mercies. I believe that these mercies correlate with the “key of David” in Revelation 3:7. It also goes with the “open door” given to overcomers—”doors of the shadow of death” (Job 38:17). Yahshua the Anointed frees the prisoners who are locked up behind the doors of death. I believe that it is the key [the sure mercies] of David that unlocks them.

The door was shut at the marriage feast. Those not ready were locked out. They obviously did not have the key to unlock the door; they did not have the key of David, a “man after God’s own heart.” Yahshua is the door. Enter through Him and you shall be saved (John 10:7,9; Acts 16:26-27).

After Receiving the Mercies and the Key of David

When you receive from Him the Key of David, you receive David’s power as an anointed king—the power to open doors and to shut doors.

Power. But the power that God will give to His “kings and priests” will be awarded to the sons and daughters on their merit according to their study and prayer and seeking His perfect will for their era.

At the beginning of the 1,000-year reign of Christ, the earth will lay desolate. Even a casual reading of Revelation of the events of the Tribulation Period confirms this. He will send out His spiritual offspring, resplendent in their new spiritual bodies. They will go out to the furthest reaches of the globe to help the survivors, to heal them, to feed them, to get them on their feet. They will comfort them, for most will have lost everything dear.

This is a new age, for these sons and daughters sent forth by the “King of kings” will have received their spiritual bodies. They will stride forth as immortals amongst the needy. They will walk in the full authority of the King Yahshua; they will serve their King as His viceroys and heralds, ministering in His stead.

They will attain this position, not through hubris, but through humility and brokenness and mercy and love for the unfortunate and needy. They will bring peace to the ravaged land and joy to the saddened faces. They will grant strength to the feeble and righteousness and justice to all those who long for them. They will be touched by the feelings of their infirmities.

They will, consequently, share with them the “sure mercies of David.”

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Yahweh’s “New Thing”

[from journal entry, 7/20/2003]

“I will do a new thing,” says the Spirit (Isa. 43:19). At the beginning of every new major movement of God in this earth, God has appeared to a person or persons, chosen only by God Himself. All through scripture, God has literally come down in His human form and has stood and spoken to man.

He has appeared unto one of His elect and has manifested Himself to him; He has revealed himself intimately to chosen vessels. We call them prophets and apostles. God has used these elect, these chosen ones, to speak through down through history. He would fill them with the sight and sound of Him and detail it in a vision to them.

At these appearances, the patriarchs and prophets at first were dumbfounded. In many instances.  they thought that they had died–so great was the glory of God manifested to them. They would be struck dumb, blind, and, in general, they would experience a life-changing event. They had seen and heard Him! These revelations propelled them on to fulfill their ministry for that time. First, God got their attention by the revelation of his glory to them. Then He would relate to them what He wanted done or said.

Yahweh Always Does It This Way

Should we believe that He would do His end time movement any other way? He said that He was the same “yesterday, today and forever” and “I change not…” (Heb. 13:8; Mal. 3:6). He will move the same way as He did through thousands of years; He will appear to those He chooses to do His work in the earth.

From the Garden of Eden to this very day, Yahweh has made a special visitation to the remnant of His people. He gives them power and encouragement through His presence in their lives. All the major players in the Bible have received a supernatural visit from Him. I believe that this is the reason that they and their stories grace the pages of the Bible. His appearances bolstered their faith to accomplish the tasks that He would have them do.

Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob/Israel, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, and David, and all the prophets—all were visited by our Creator. They heard His voice and saw His form. The apostles walked with Him daily for three and one-half years, and He appeared to Paul several times (I Cor. 15:3-8; Gal. 1:11-12).

Moses

Take Moses, for example. He waited in the desert tending flocks, waiting and waiting for forty years after His expulsion from Egypt [see the Book of Jasher]. And then it happened—the burning bush and the voice of God calling him to the work ahead. Later, Yahweh spoke with Moses “face to face” along with seventy elders of Israel who “saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself” (Ex. 24:10 NIV; Ex. 33:11). Who was this form? Who was this God that came down and visited the men of the nation of Israel/Twelve Tribes? The Father is an invisible Spirit, so the form that appeared to them must be who? [Tell me your thoughts in the comment section.]   

All these men and women in the past laid up spiritual treasures of wisdom and knowledge for us.  Even greater exploits are awaiting our slumbering faith as we begin to open our eyes and see that “that which has been is now, and that which is to be has already been, and God requires that which is past” (Ecc. 3:15).

Yahweh is doing a “new thing” in the earth. Appearing to one person is not new. The new thing is this: He will appear to thousands of His followers, thus, empowering them to preach the everlasting gospel of the Kingdom of God before the Great Tribulation begins in earnest. He always sent a warning to the people through His prophets/mouthpieces. He will come to His first-fruit company of thousands of sons and daughters.

Christ said that we would do “greater works” than what He and the apostles did. I believe that Yah will make appearances to His elect, not just one or two at a time, but thousands during our era of the “latter rain.” How else are we to get on the same page? How else will we be loosed from the sullen chains of doubt? Yahweh is coming to His elect.

Yet the doubters say that no one can be like the early apostles, much less like Christ. Doubt is sown from the pulpits. This unbelief stymies spiritual growth. Don’t listen to them. They will harm you in your walk with God.

The Spirit is still crying, “Come out from among them” and purge out the old leaven teachings soaked with falsehoods about Yahshua, the Anointed One—if we desire to be visited by our Maker and be a part of the greatest move in the history of this blood-soaked earth. Yes, Yahweh is doing a “new thing.” That we all may be one…

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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