Category Archives: elect

Adding Agape Love Produces the Abiding

I am working on my next book. The working title is The Additions to the Faith. Longtime readers have seen several articles here on the Additions.

When writing a book, hitting a roadblock to the flow is the greatest frustration. But there is no greater joy than to have God connect the dots for you. I was lying awake at 2 a.m. a few weeks back. Couldn’t sleep at all. But my eyes were closed. And then, in a moment of clarity seldom experienced, a missing ingredient, needed to advance the book, flew like an arrow of light into my brain. It concerned the additions and the abiding.

The Premise of the New Book

The Spirit through Peter commands us to “add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness agape love” (II Peter 1:5-7). This is one of Christ’s “new commandments.” [For more on this, be sure to order my current book; it’s free with free shipping. Here’s the link: Free Copy of The Eleventh Commandment | Immortality Road (wordpress.com) ]

As I have reported before, these additions are facets or aspects of God’s “divine nature” (v. 4). When added, these will insure that you will bear “much fruit” as a manifested son or daughter of God, and that you will “make…your election sure.” Also, the additions are the key unlocking the “entrance…into the everlasting kingdom of our Savior” (v. 10-11). They are extremely important and are the thesis of the upcoming book due out late 2022 or early 2023.

I knew that the Abiding that Christ speaks of in many places has a place in the Additions to the Faith. But how to explain it?  

This morning God whispered in my ear the revelation. The last addition is to add agape love. “God is agape love” (I John 4:8). The Abiding is when the Spirit comes into us and abides/remains/stays/continues in us.

When God—the Spirit of Truth—makes His home in us, that is the addition of agape love into our being. For He is agape love.

When we incorporate the Spirit and have Him abide in us, then this abiding is the addition of agape love in our hearts. The abiding of the Spirit within us is the seventh addition to the faith. The seventh addition is fulfilled by the abiding of His Spirit within us.

Visually it looks like this:

The Holy Spirit Abides in us

The Abiding = The 7th addition

The 7th Addition = Agape Love

 Therefore,

The Abiding = Agape Love

Connecting dots…

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under additions to our faith, agape, elect, love

Predestination Versus “Free Moral Agency”

Many are clamoring to know the secrets of the universe. They want to know the deep mysteries of life. Questions arise in the hearts of seekers and non-seekers alike: “What’s it all about? Why am I here? Is it just to live, die, and go to heaven? Is that all there is?

The answers to these questions are written down in a book found in hundreds of millions of homes around the world. But few crack the Holy Book. When they do open it, they try to understand it, but they get discouraged when comprehension does not come. It is as if God is saying: You do not realize that I “have poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and have closed your eyes…And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed” (Isa. 29:10-11). [There is your sealed book, the same one found in Revelation 5 and 6. Only Christ can loose the seals.]

The writings in the Bible are the words of the Spirit of God. Their purpose is to teach us the answers to the questions above. They explain God’s plan to accomplish His purpose to reproduce Himself in certain human beings.

God Is Sovereign

First, we must understand that there is a Creator/Supreme Being, and He is sovereign. He has created everything as it has pleased Him. We exist according to His pleasure. “You have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created” (Rev. 4:11). This earth and its inhabitants are not here by accident. We exist to please Him, whether we know Him or not.

He has a plan, and it pleases Him to use us to fulfill it. His plan to reproduce Himself (Love) in us will come to pass, whether we, mere specks of dust, believe it or not.

It pleased Him, the Scriptures of Truth say, to use certain humans in our dispensation to complete His purpose. It is like a movie director casting actors and extras for a film. He has a vision of what he is looking for in an actor. In fact, he has an actor in mind. Another actor may audition for the role, and may be accomplished, but the director has already chosen an actor since the conception of the film project. He makes his choice according to his pleasure. We get it; he is the director.

Chosen Ones

Likewise, God has known those whom He has chosen, before they were ever conceived in their mother’s womb. He has “foreordained them to be conformed to the image of His Son.” They are “predestinated” for this glory. He knew of us before we were born (Jer. 1:5). He knew we would respond to His pulling us out of the quagmire of sin and degradation. He foreknew us and gave us a destiny before time on earth began. And that destiny is to be just like His Son—same glorious likeness. Christ is the firstborn, and those whom He has chosen will be like Him (Rom. 8:29-30).

And so, He calls those whom He has predestinated. Then He justifies them, making them righteous in His sight. Those whom He has justified He then glorifies. Through believing this, we realize that God is for us! And with God for us, “who can be against us (v. 30-31)?

It is to us that He shall reveal the great mysteries of God. His chosen ones He calls His “elect.” He will crown them, and they will take a seat upon His throne at the establishment of His soon coming kingdom/government (Rev. 3:20). These are His elect, the first fruits, the remnant. Their destiny is to be His cadre of rulers who will have overcome all things—“after they have suffered a while.”

They Have No Choice

God is sovereign. His word is law. He says that He has chosen certain people to fulfill His purpose. Their destiny to be like Christ is sealed. It is pre-determined. They do not have a choice. It may seem to them that they have a choice when they are first called. But they do not. God’s will is stronger than the waves and currents in the sea of man. His desires for His elect are irrefutable. His goals for us are pre-destined to be ours. He is omnipotent.

If we are chosen for the 100 fold fruit bearing role, He will call us, making Himself real to us. If we become lazy and stay too long at the fair, He will create material and physical challenges that will make us industrious for His things.

Free Moral Agents?

But many followers of Christ have declared themselves to be “free moral agents.” Free? The Scriptures only speak of “being made free from sin” (Rom. 6:18). Christ said, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). But in Christ we are free from sin and sinning because “we are buried with him by baptism into death.” We then believe that Christ was raised from the dead and rose the third day. Through this belief, our sin nature dies on the cross with our sin sacrifice Christ, thus freeing us from sin. Then through His grace, we become “the slaves of righteousness.” We willingly lay down the old life and take on us the form of a servant [“slave” in the Greek and most English translations].

But, I agree that it seems like we humans are “free moral agents.” We have been told that we are “the captains of our fate,” that we choose our own destinies, that we call the shots. They have trained us to be good little existentialists, thrashing out our own destinies. They tell us that everything hinges on you. They say that your destiny remains to be seen, that it is still to be determined—by you.

There is one major problem with this existentialist philosophy. A Supreme Being does not enter the picture. Humans are left to flounder around trying to be their own god that can solve life’s bitter trials. But that is not what the Good Book declares. Not at all. Just the opposite, in fact.

“Free moral agency” has you being your own god, your own savior. But the written word of God declares Him to be omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and omnipresent. Most of us Christians will agree that He has these qualities. If these qualities faithfully describe Him, then is it a big stretch to believe that He can and does choose whomsoever He wills, to bring them into His great house, making them vessels of honor?

Since He is all knowing of future things, His foreknowledge of our destinies secures them in His book of life. If we are predestined to be His elect, the ones that He has chosen to reveal His Son in—then He will put it in our hearts to seek Him out.

If you are still reading this and wanting more, then you have come to a clear pure stream, where God does not want your money, but rather your heart. It is a spiritual place far from material things and away from phony philosophies, theories and fears. It’s a place cradled in the bosom of Omnipotence and sheltered in His unfathomable omniscient Love.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under Bible, crucified with Christ, elect, eternal purpose, glorification, spiritual growth

Small House Churches—Not Big Church Houses

We need two or three or four disciples meeting in homes, learning how to follow Christ all the way to manifested sonship. That will do the job. God always works that way–in small gatherings in homes, not in huge state of the art auditoriums.

It is a mistake to expect thousands, hundreds, or even scores of people to respond to these truths. Why? Because as Christ said, “Few there be to find this way of truth” And, because “many are called, but few are chosen.” In other words, few will be elected for the 100 fold walk. And “where two or three are gathered together, there I am in the midst.” It will be small groups in hundreds of places throughout the earth who will eventually communicate with each other, as they get on the same page with Christ.

Are you saying that there won’t be other Christians in the big churches. There will be others, but they will have not aspired to be like the apostles and prophets of old. It is because their leaders have told them that they cannot be like the Savior. Consequently, their spiritual growth will be stunted.

Why a Small Group?  

Why? We are admonished by what happened to the tribes of Jacob/Israel. It was always a small group that really knew God and His will for their time. Look at the patriarchs, Moses, Elijah and all the prophets. They were not pastors of large congregations. They even sometimes walked alone with God. We must not think it strange to be in that condition.

After fleeing Egypt at forty, Moses tended flocks with Jethro, his father-in-law. He waited forty years on Yahweh’s visitation and direction. He like other prophets chosen by God walked on practically alone.

Elijah was so alone that he thought he was the only prophet in all of Israel. But God told him, “I have 7,000 tiny groups scattered around this world who will do My will in surrendering to Me that I may reproduce Myself in them.

Look at Gideon’s 300. 10,000 showed up to fight, but God chose out 300. He did not want them to get the big head thinking that it was their great big army that had won the day. And the 300 did it God’s way, not the way of the world, not like the megachurches. They have their audience and followers. But so do I, saith Yahweh.

The way of the prophets of Yahweh is a lonely path. It’s going to be small groups to start out. That is His way as seen throughout the scriptures. But they will go out and find others to love and help and hopefully bring into the deeper calling.

We are talking about the fulfilling of God’s purpose of reproducing Himself. Very few, if any, of the denominations believe that human beings can be used to do this. They do not believe that Christ can be formed in us.

But this message of being His son or daughter is a fire. And who can stand close to the fire? For it will burn out all the impurities and assumptions about God and will light the path for the completion of God’s plan.

The first fruit elect company of which we speak will be small in each field of grain.  Those ordained by Him to bear 100 fold fruit will have their little flocks to love and care for and nurture for God’s sake. They will be meeting in house churches after turning their backs on big church houses. They will be teaching little flocks. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Free Copy of New Book “The Eleventh Commandment”

I am offering a free copy with free shipping of my latest book. Just send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book to my Email: wayneman5@hotmail.com

It usually takes a week or so to get it to you.

Those living outside the U.S. will receive a pdf. Let me know what you think of the book.

All the best. kwh

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Filed under body of Christ, children of God, church, elect, eternal purpose, manifestation of the sons of God, sons and daughters of God, Yahweh

God’s Promise to Dwell in Us Is Conditional: The Abiding

God has promised His people to take up residence in them. Yahweh gave His word through Jeremiah. He promised that He would dwell in us with His Spirit abiding in us. “Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel (10 lost tribes), and with the House of Judah (two tribes)…I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God and they shall be my people…for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:31-35).

Here the Spirit promises to come into us writing in our hearts His law. “Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?…For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (I Cor. 3:16). When you are born of the Spirit, “you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people…” (II Cor. 6:16).

But There Is a Condition

God has promised us that He would dwell in us. He has given us “exceeding great and precious promises, that by these [we] might be partakers of his divine nature.” The way that we partake of His “divine nature” is by receiving the Spirit of truth. But He won’t stay in a heart and mind filled with error. That is why it is necessary to purge out the old leaven. He has promised us the gift of His Spirit of truth that dwells in us (II Pet. 1:4). This is what gives us everlasting life, for He is life.

We know that promises are presented through words, whether uttered or written down. God’s word to us is the Word/Logos. He says that we are partakers of his Spirit by faith and that we can grow up into Him by adding to our faith. Our faith is the “faith of the Son of God.” Our faith can grow by adding certain aspects of his very “divine nature.” And through these additions, we grow into his witnesses, laden with the same power that the early church possessed (II Peter 1). But we must obey one of Christ’s New Commandments: Purge the old false teachings.

 His abiding presence does not happen overnight.

God’s promise to abide in us is not fulfilled through a magical Poof!  He does not just appear all at once in us. To the contrary, God has a special step-by-step program in order to accomplish His purpose dwelling in us fully. That is one of the problems with modern day churchianity. People are so used to instant mashed potatoes and instant everything that they want God’s “baptism in the Holy Spirit” without the true knowledge of just what God is doing and how He does it.

Very few know His purpose and plan. Most are wanting something from God which is what little children do. But they are wanting the gifts of God that are way above their pay grade. They want to feel good and be closer to God. But there is much more to it than that.

The abiding presence that the apostles spoke of is the Father Himself, the great Spirit Yahweh, dwelling in his temple. And that temple is us. But He will not reside in unclean temples. When God fully abides in us and fully lives in us and fully walks in us, then He will have reproduced Himself in us. This is nothing less than the fulfillment of not only His eternal purpose, but also His promise to dwell in us. He has promised us immortality. When He fully abides in us, then everlasting life will be ours in a reality. This is the fulfillment of His eternal purpose based on His promise to dwell in us. This is the knowledge that is lacking in churchianity.   

What are the obstacles that block this process?

The chief obstacle that thwarts human beings is the clinging to false concepts about God and His plan. The abiding is when the Father, the Spirit of truth, resides in us. But for Him to abide/stay/ remain in us, we must obey one of Christ’s new commandments: “Purge out the old leaven (I Cor. 5:7). This means to get rid of false concepts and false doctrines, for they like leaven will take over a person’s mind like leaven does to a lump of dough.

One piece of old leaven that blocks Christians is that they still think that they are alive and doing the struggling. But the Spirit says that “you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Our new life is hidden. In this new life, we are in Him, and He is in us. We are abiding in Him, and His Spirit of truth is abiding in us, reaching out and forgiving everyone in the world.

Yet, the minds of people are rife with old leaven/false concepts about God, about who He is and how He works. We didn’t know any better at the time. We were children. Unfortunately, those false doctrines that we were taught stick with us. But God is requiring that we repent of them.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under additions to our faith, death of self, elect, eternal purpose, false doctrines

It’s All About the Fruit

God’s greatest desire is for us to spiritually grow to be able to bear “much fruit.” Christ calls this “the perfecting of the saints.” This is the work of His five offices (Eph. 4:14). He calls this bearing 100 fold fruit, as in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. He calls the three states of growth other things: Children, young men, and fathers…fruit, more fruit, and much fruit… faith, hope and agape love…30, 60, and 100 fold fruit bearing (I John 2:13-14; John 15; I Cor. 13).

Christ has mapped out the way for us to get to these growths. You can find much more information on this in my books (free with free shipping…see end of this article).

The fruit God is talking about is not the number of souls you and I win to Christ. That is important, but at this stage, He is concerned with the spiritual fruit production that is happening in you and me, His elect. The fruit is about the growth of the Spirit of God within us.

The Timetable

God has a timetable for each of us, and He’s right on time. It is you and I that must seek His timetable for the events during “the time of the end.” And the nearest to God’s heart of all of the astounding happenings during this time is the nurture and growth of His sons and daughters. God is right on time to bring to pass His purpose.

And His purpose is to reproduce love, which is Himself. I will keep on sharing His purpose with you. It is the key revelation that opens up everything else in His “book of life.” It all starts there, and he’s using us. We must, at the beginning, receive His seed (the Word) and help it grow through our prayer and study. Because to Him, it’s all about the fruit. He loves us, yes, but He both coaxes and spurs us on to come to full fruit production—in other words, to be like Him.

Christ is sending disciples once again in our era to help make this happen. He uses and sets in his body apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These are for the perfecting or the maturing of the saints. God’s offices are His gift to mankind. He gives gifts to men; the first one is the word of wisdom. The second one is the word of knowledge. Little spiritual children of God in Christ make the mistake of wanting to go out and heal all manner of sickness and work miracles without first learning the apostles’ doctrine. The early church continued in Christ’s teachings, and they became theirs. Reading the book of the Acts of the Apostles shows us the much fruit that they bore.

Many say that they want what they had. They walked in the knowledge of the apostles’ doctrine, and then they performed great works. They were right on time. Many well-meaning Christians do not realize that their timing is off. There is much to learn before our time to do wonders. It is like the best high school pitcher in the country believing that he can pitch at the Major League level right away. Not going to happen.

So, all of us must know His word. Really know it. And to do that one needs a teacher sent to explain His plan and purpose. Christ has already sent His offices out there to share the deeper things with His body. That’s His directive in His timeing for you and me (Eph. 4:11-15).

God puts special emphasis on the importance of learning the basics. It is the solid rock foundation. We cannot bask and sit still in the belief that we are a child of God and expect God to mystically help us grow. The child of God cannot keep circling the same old mountain of experiences used by God to call us out of the world many years ago. “Many are called, but few are chosen.

We are told to “make our calling and election sure.” The information in these articles and books will help us do that. Yesterday’s beautiful experiences will not give enough nourishment to us for the journey to the Promised Land that bears 100 fold “much fruit.” And it is all about the spiritual fruit. God has given us clues all the way through the scriptures concerning the growth cycle in nature as a type of the growth cycle of the Spirit within us.

What We Must Do to Bear Much Fruit

We must acquire the passion for his plan in order to grow to the 60 fold level, which is “more fruit.” There are many things to accomplish in preparation for that time when Christ will invite us to come up and sit with Him on his throne (the 100 fold fruit).

We need to “humble ourselves under his mighty hand,” for God “gives grace to the humble.” This grace, this unmerited favor, comes to us from Him in the form of new commandments. One is “Search the scriptures.” Another is “Study to show yourself approved unto God.” But if one does not obey them, the sap, the Spirit of truth, will cease to flow through that individual, and they will wither into a dry twig (John 15:6).

But those who do study God’s desires, his thoughts, his mind, his plan and purpose, will have obeyed his commandments. And those who obey his commandments prove to him several things. First, they will show that we love Christ. “If you love Me, keep my commandments” (John 14: 15). He is saying, If you love me, then you will study my words and My plan. Second, to him who keeps his commandments, Christ will love him. He does this by the Spirit of truth taking up residence in our hearts. He promises this: Christ’s Spirit will abide in him when he keeps the new commandments. “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14: 21). Finally, he promises us that if we use the measure of his Spirit within us to keep his new commandments, then he will abide in us (John 14: 23).

The abiding is when the Holy Spirit of truth remains and stays in us. He is anchored in our hearts in this growth. The Spirit shepherds us, guides us, and comforts us on the down days, and He laughs with us on the days of overcoming.

And when the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of truth, comes and makes his abode in us, then “He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you,” Christ said. (John 14: 26). Until that time, we must “occupy till He comes.” This takes patience and endurance.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[To order your free book with free shipping, go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/donate/ ]

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Filed under additions to our faith, apostles' doctrine, body of Christ, elect, eternal purpose, gifts of the Spirit, spiritual growth, Spiritual Life Cycle

The Seed, Repentance, and the Cross

You are a page out of “the book of life.” God is the author of this book. He wrote it eons ago, long before your mom and dad brought you into the world. For God knew you before you were born. You were in His heart before the earth was ever formed and before the stars began to burn (Jer. 1:5).

This book of life is the record of the who, what, when, where, how and why of God’s plan and purpose. His purpose is to reproduce Himself. His plan to fulfill His purpose will be witnessed here on earth. When you walk by faith in Christ’s life, you are a part of the witness of the record in heaven. It bears repeating: The book of life is the record of what God has done/is doing/and will do to accomplish His purpose of reproducing Himself (Love).

It all begins with a seed. And “the seed is the word of God.” And the word of God is truth. When error is found in preachers’ mouths, the seed is blighted and will not reproduce.

But His seed is “the incorruptible seed.” It takes root in our hearts through the sacrifice of the Lamb, our Savior. Only it must be our own spiritual death with Christ. The seed must die before it springs to life in a heart. At the time of any harvest, the original seed brings forth and bears more seed just like the original.  

We members of Christ’s body today are living in the day of harvest, the time of the end. There is and will always be seed time and harvest. Seed time is seen in the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. The “harvest is the end of the world,” as seen in the book of Revelation.

The word is made up from the words of the plan on how God will reproduce himself in us. In fact, the “book of life” is made up of the word, which gives us clues on how to proceed in God’s reproduction process.

The book of life mentioned in the scriptures is the plan on how he will use us to divinely love through us. This reproduces agape love, which is God. That is why you are a page out of the book of life.

The Cross Experience

Christ said, “Except a seed fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit.” Christ is that seed. “Christ is the seed, the word of God.” He is the Word made flesh.

God’s elect is the “good ground.” To get this growth process moving within us, His word, the seed, must germinate in our hearts. We surrender to him by submitting our old self to his spiritual growth process. Christ surrendered his body to death. God placed our sinful hearts on that sacrificial body, and when He died, our old sinful heart died with Him. When He was buried, our sinful self was buried. And when He was raised from the dead, we too were raised to walk in a newness of life.

This is the true cross experience. To lead someone to repentance is the first of the apostles’ doctrine. It is where you lead them to the mirror of their soul. And you tell them to look way past the simple facial skin tones and to peer into hearts. And ask them if they can see the dark place of their existence, the selfish and careless way they are. If they can and want to change, then you teach Romans 6 to them. It is the truth that will make them free. If they won’t look into that mirror, then they cannot receive the truth at that time. Maybe another day.

The Quiz

I gave you a one question quiz on August 5. It asks, “Can you explain in detail how one repents from sin?” It is about how to lead someone to true repentance, which is the first apostles’ doctrine. Christ’s death on the cross, His burial, and His resurrection is where we found our freedom from sin and sinning. It is here at the resurrection in our own hearts that the growth of the Seed in us will begin. And each seed bears its own kind.

When he perished, our old sinful selves died with him. When he was buried, our old selves were buried. And when he was resurrected—Hallelujah!—we “were raised to walk in a newness of life.” He that is dead is freed from sin. Free! But this freedom is only for those who know that they are in bondage to sin and know that they have a need to be freed. Those righteous in their own eyes will think that all of this is nonsense.

Repentance, Romans 6, and the Cross

Paul opens that chapter of his letter to the Romans with this thought: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” In another translation we read, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?” Immersed into His death. Water baptism is only a symbol of the baptism into Christ’s death. Which preacher/pastor/priest/or prophet teaches these thoughts of the apostle Paul? They pontificate on most every passage except Romans 6.

This is where true repentance starts; it’s at and after the cross. Christ is not our substitute; he is our example. He laid it on the line through His death, and we need to die with him. And then through belief/faith in the operation of God, we also can walk in a newness of life (Col. 2:12).

This truth will make a huge difference in people’s lives. But you won’t find Romans 6 preached in many churches. Just go ask the pastors their take on it.  I wish they would teach this truth because it is the gateway to all truth. Unless we repent, we’ll “all likewise perish” and be forgotten in the dusty tombs of the earth. This is paramount in being saved from the sea of death, where nobody remembers your name.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under church, cross, crucified with Christ, death of self, elect, eternal purpose, love, old self, resurrection

Covid Pandemic a Curse from the Hebrew God?

If we are to ever understand why this pandemic has swept the globe, we must see it through God’s eyes. The word “pandemic” is not in the Bible, but “pestilence” and “plague” are. We Christians must search out the causes and effects of our current pandemic. As we dig deep, we discover that Yahweh, the Hebrew God uses pestilences and plagues in His plan. Why?

As I ponder this viral crisis, other questions arise. Where are the overcomers for these last days?    Where are the Jeremiahs and Daniels of today? Where are the latter rain apostles who will do the “greater works” that Christ promised they would do, even greater miracles than what Christ did (John 14:12)?

And then I thought of the pandemic that we have all been going through, how it has robbed our joy by spreading fear of death and fear of the other. Our shared experience with the virus has opened a door of understanding, however. It is quite a paradox. The very pain and suffering caused by the virus is part of the answer to the questions above. Our response to the negative stimuli determines our spiritual growth. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him” (II Tim. 2:12).

God’s Tough Love—Why?

“All things are of God.” Therefore, suffering comes from Him. For example, He allowed national suffering to come to the twelve tribes of Jacob/Israel in the form of fierce, merciless Assyrian and Babylonian captivities and displacements.  This national suffering, however, was the crucible that produced the purified golden faith precious metal of prophets like Isaiah, Daniel, and Jeremiah.

And why are we suffering as a nation with this plague? Because of our national sins. God’s babies, taken and slaughtered in their mothers’ wombs, cry out to us. And the sanctity of Holy Matrimony ordained by the Creator between a man and a woman is trampled upon by “men, leaving the natural use of the woman, [burning] in their lust one toward another.” The little latchkey children sit confused, wondering who their irresponsible dad is. And then you have the blasphemy of the international bankers, who have squandered the vast potential of our homeland, and have destroyed the dollar’s value.

All these things and more have we condoned by our collective silence. We people of the USA stood by and allowed the politicians, judges, and bankers to take over our country. This fecklessness has caused our ruin. Why did we stand by and do nothing to prevent this? Because we had turned from our God and had set up idols in our hearts.

The USA has become fat, bloated and spoiled. As a nation we have turned from the Hebrew God to worship the god of self—secular humanism. But God warned us that our disobedience would be punished. He loves us and through His love, He will allow plagues to chasten us that we might return to Him, repent, and be finally clothed with the robe of righteousness as the prodigal son was.

Yahweh lined it all out. Blessings will abound if we are obedient (Deut. 28:1-15), and curses will come on the disobedient (28:16-42). And one of these curses is pestilence and plague, which today is called a pandemic (28:21; Lev. 26:25).

Those of us who have been called out of the crushing tyranny of this world system, must understand why this pandemic has hit us, individually and nationally. The sufferings have come now because of treacherous behavior both personally and nationally. These sufferings, in turn, grind His elect into flour from which He makes spiritual unleavened bread.  

For God is raising up new Daniels, Jeremiahs, and Isaiahs. These will fulfill all things written about His elect, the spiritual body of Christ. They will respond to the high calling by learning what befell fleshly Israel. They will understand why the calamities of the time of the end must come. And their response to their God will thrill His heart as His family coalesces around their Father and King, the great God of heaven.

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Believing the Meaning of Christ’s Name Yields Power

Believing in Christ’s name is believing the meaning of His name.

Every Christian will tell you that God’s name is important. When asked if they believe in Christ’s name, they will say, “Yes. Of course.” Believing in His name to them means believing the gospel story: Christ died for us on the cross, was buried, and was resurrected to give us eternal life, which is true. But they equate this with “believing in His name.”

But as we drill down, we see deeper layers of knowledge about His name. First, the Son of God was given a Hebrew name—Yahshua. Most who hear this will reject it because they have always been taught that the Savior’s name is “Jesus.” Granted, in the English speaking world, that is the name that we English speakers have given Him down through the centuries. But our Savior was not born in an English speaking world; it was an Aramaic speaking world closely akin to Hebrew, which was the language spoken by the Savior.  

And names in the Hebrew tradition have meanings that point to the person’s destiny. God changed Jacob’s name to match his new destiny. His new name would be “Israel,” which means “prince or power with God.” When Christ was born, the angel of the Lord gave Him a name whose meaning would herald the destiny that He would fulfill. “Thou shalt call His name _______, for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).

Christ’s Hebrew name has a meaning. And it has to do with saving His people from their sins.  Find the word in Hebrew that means “save or Savior,” and you will know His name. As per the angel’s direction, they named Son of God Yahshua. It means “Yah is the Savior, or Yah saves.” It means that the Father–Yah, or Yahweh, dwells inside the Son and does the saving. At least that is what the Spirit in Isaiah said:. “I, even I, am the LORD [Yahweh]; and beside Me there is no saviour (43:11; 45:21). Christ told His disciples that it was the Father Yahweh inside of Him that was doing the miracles (John 14:10-12). The name Yahshua witnesses this.

May I make a crude analogy to illustrate this crucial point? Going from the sublime to the ridiculous, we hear of a new professional wrestler named “Monster Mann.” He is a German hulk. We wonder if he can live up to his name. We go see him in action one night. He destroys his opponent.  We go away believing that his name accurately describes him. He is a monster in the ring, so we believe in his name. We believe in the meaning of his name—Monster Mann. Christ’s name means “Yahweh [His Father] is the Savior.” And the Father dwelt inside the Son.

The patriarch Joshua had the same name and was a type of Christ as the Savior of His people. Joshua’s destiny was to take them into the Promised Land. So, “Savior” is the meaning of His name. Now, to believe in His name is to believe in the meaning of His name: That the Father Yahweh dwelt in the Son and is the Savior.

To believe in or on His name is important in our spiritual growth. It is rare knowledge—the “word of knowledge,” one of the “gifts of the Spirit.” This is our ticket into being God’s elect, His chosen and called, His sons and daughters. Getting this is the proof that we are in His family.

“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” Receiving Christ = Believing the meaning of His name. God gives power to become His sons and daughters to those who do this. He gives this power to us in a systematic way. He likens it to a garden. One plants the seed, the word of God, and another waters and nurtures the new plant. But it is the Spirit of God that gives the increase (I Cor. 3:6-7).

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under angels, belief, children of God, elect, eternal purpose, God, manifestation of the sons of God, Parables, Spirit of God, Yahshua, Yahweh

The False Vision and the True Vision

wayneman's avatarImmortality Road

Two visions are given in the scriptures concerning this earth today. One is true and is from the Hebrew God Yahweh. And one is false. And both of these visions concerning God and His plan are out there on the airwaves, in cyberspace, and in the pulpits.

Since “there is nothing new under the sun,” and since “that which has been is now,” we look back to the prophet Jeremiah’s day. Then there were prophets speaking lies in God’s name to the people of Jerusalem. The Babylonian army was sweeping across the Middle East, and yet, they said that God was saying, “You will not see the sword, neither shall you have famine. But I will give you assured peace in this place” (Jer. 14: 13).

These “men of God” told the people what they wanted to hear–how God was going to spare them from Nebuchadnezzar’s army and how their…

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Nothing in It for You and Me–All for Him

There was an old saying at the mission that rings true now some 40 years later.  “There’s nothing in it for you.”

I didn’t really understand then just how profound that simple statement was.  But Time is a faithful teacher.  And as I look now in the mirror and see a much more wrinkled image with a head laden with a heavy hoary frost, I take more time to contemplate the increasing fragility of my physical state.  It seems that the reality of my own mortality crowds daily into my thoughts.

In that mirror I also see in my own eyes how the years have neutralized the “piss and vinegar” that I was so full of back then in my 20’s and 30’s.

As my earthly frame grows weaker, that old saying–how that there’s nothing in this walk with God for you–rings truer.  It is making so much more sense now as I am staring down the time when I just may have to depart this old earthly body before Christ returns to this earth to set up His kingdom.

For, you see, in those younger years I thought that surely I would be alive when the LORD would come back.  Christ did say that “whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11: 26).  And, that “there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Mt. 16: 28).  Those destined not to taste death would have to be the generation of believers alive when He returned to earth.  Anyway, I always thought that I would be one of them.

But now, as the years tick on, and my body creaks with age more every day, I must take this into real consideration–this “falling asleep,” this “shuffling off of this mortal coil.”

And, yet, I now realize that God has this death of the physical body hanging over us for a reason.  We know that He gives life and He takes life.  Our very breath is in His hand.  And it is this impending destiny with dust that helps us understand the futility of living for one’s self.  The self just cannot see us through, for our earthly bodies must betray us, for that is the very nature  of the physical body formed of the dust of this planet.  The house of dirt was made for us by God on purpose not to last.  It is temporary housing.

God fashioned our bodies to be as ephemeral as butterfly wings.  He deliberately formed them to be fragile in hope that we might sense someday our own vanity before death came knocking.  As we see our bodies decay and crumble with age, He hopes that we will see the futility of living for the self.

Our fragility betrays our pretentious egos that always seem to shout, “Hey, everybody, seriously, I really am something!”  But that self-centered imagination breeds the ultimate deception, for “when a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Gal. 6: 3).

And we have all been guilty of that thought; it is in the spiritual genes of old man Adam and his offspring.  Yes, we are initially made that way by the Creator in hopes that we would see the purposelessness of selfish thinking and be humbled so that we could all realize one truth: Every man is created for only one thing, and it is not for self-glorification; it is for God-glorification.

And if we are blessed to be chosen by Him to reveal this truth to, then we are coming much closer to where we need to be in our walk on earth before our Creator.

There’s nothing in it for you.  For everything in the vastness of the universe and here on earth is for God and His pleasure.  This is the great sticking point with natural-minded man, who earnestly believes that he is the center of the cosmos.  Secular humanism is the new many-headed false god.  “Thou shalt not have any other gods before Me.”  Especially our self.

“For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things” (Rom. 11: 36).  Breaking it down, all things are of Him; they came from Him, and through His creative power all things (including us) exist.  And in the end, all things are created by Him for His pleasure and glory.

For instance, Him delivering us from utter degradation and destruction, and us returning and thanking Him and telling others about His saving love and power–He loves that and gets glory out of it.

“All things were created by Him, and for Him” (Col. 1: 16).  But God does not become a pompous little jerk like natural man when he gets power.  No.  God is LOVE.  He created us so that He could bring us to a place spiritually, where His essence and nature (which is Love) could be multiplied–eventually to fill the whole universe with LOVE!  Our gratitude toward Him for our deliverance from sin is the fertile soil where the seed of Love can grow.

And God-in-human-form is our example and showed us the way.  Jesus (Yahshua) tasted death for us all so that we would not be banished to the dusty tombs of oblivion.  “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory” (Hebr. 2: 9-10).

That’s the plan.  It is all for Him, so that He may glorify those who realize that it is all for Him.  He will share Himself and all His glory with the overcomers, even to the point of sharing His throne with them (Rev. 3: 21).

It is all for the Creator.  When we turn that page in the book of our minds, then joy and serenity will overtake us, for we will have embraced the heart of God with arms of humility, born of His true nature, Love.

{For more on this subject, check out this article:  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/gods-endgame-where-this-life-on-earth-is-leading-us/ }

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under agape, calling of God, death of self, elect, eternal purpose, glorification, Love from Above