Category Archives: eternal purpose

September 8, 2013 · 5:19 pm

The Father’s Name Guards Us from the Evil–Do We Know It?

In Christ’s prayer recorded in John 17, the Father’s name takes center stage as to our relationship with the Father.

He said, “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world…” (v. 6). I have shown clearly thy name; I have made it apparent; I have made it known to them. And they have believed that You have sent Me; they have kept My word, and they believe that it is You, Father, who is doing the works. And they know that I came out of You, and that it is You who has sent Me (vs. 6-8).

Christ goes on to say that it is His followers that He is praying for and not the world because they are the Father’s, who has given them to Christ. And the time has come, He is saying, for Him to depart out of the earth, leaving His followers. So how will they remain in one mind and one accord with the Savior. How will God keep them spiritually safe and sound after Christ departs?

The answer is through the knowledge of the Father’s name. “Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given Me…” There is keeping power in the name of Yahweh. The Greek word for “keep” means “to attend to carefully, to attend, to guard,” and is translated in other places as “to preserve.” So, He is guarding us from the evil for this purpose—“that they may be one, as we are one” (vs. 9-11). One could then say that we are never be fully one with God without knowing His name.

He goes on to say that while He was walking with them here on earth, He “kept them in thy name,” and none of them is lost except Judas Iscariot. He “kept” them; He guarded them. How? By teaching them and showing them and revealing to them the Father’s name. For in His name is the whole plan of God (v. 12).

Christ goes on to ask the Father to not give them an escape hatch “out of the world,” but rather guard and keep them from the evil. “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (v. 15, NKJV) {Side note: That speaks against the rapture theory}.

Now some will say that this prayer is only for His twelve disciples, His followers of that era. But it is for all of us down through the ages. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word” (v. 20). That’s us. He was praying for you and me, so we can take these concepts to heart.

Consequently, if Christ is going “keep” and guard you and me from the evil by manifesting the Father’s name to us that we all may be one with Him, then how can that happen when very few Christians know that the Father’s name is Yahweh?

Christ’s desire is that all of us His followers “would be with Me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which You have given Me” (vs. 24). He desires that we all “may be made perfect in one” (v. 23). But we have to ask ourselves, How can this happen if a Christian doesn’t know the Father’s name Yahweh, which God uses to guard us from the evil?

And lastly in this prayer in John 17, Christ repeats, “And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it…” For this specific reason: “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Let’s savor this. He is saying, I have made known, shown clearly, Your name, Father, and I will continue to make it known, for this reason: That the same love You have loved Me with may be in My followers. And that My very essence and Spirit of love may be in them!

Here the very love and presence of God is tied into the knowledge of God’s name. His name means “The Self-Existent One” and Yahweh is the Savior, which is what the Son of God’s Hebrew name means—Yahshua.

Inside, God’s name contains and reveals the very nature of Himself. God is Love. Him being the Savior of His creation reveals or unveils His essence, which is Love. For “greater love hath no man than this than to lay down his life for his friends.” This essence of the greatest love on earth, giving your life to save someone else is implicit in the name of the Savior. This is the reason that our hearts are touched and moved when we hear of someone giving up their own lives to save someone else. It touches us because it is the heart of God and shows us what He has done, whether we realize it or not.

He guards us from the selfishness of the evil one, when we think on His name and how He gave His life for us.

For the great invisible Spirit Yahweh poured Himself into a human form so that He could express fully the love that is His essence. It is through realizing this knowledge of His love contained in His name that we can receive that same love—that God, who is Love, may dwell in our hearts, and that He and His love would thrive and grow in our hearts, so that we could make known who God is by the love exhibited through us to others.

And thus fulfill Christ’s prayer. “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under agape, elect, eternal purpose, God's desire, knowledge, love, Love from Above, Sacred Names, Yahshua, Yahweh

Tagged as agape, Christ, love, prayer, Sacred Names

August 24, 2013 · 7:39 pm

The Elect–The Key to Understanding Christian Growth

These words I write, though now published and available to all everywhere, are really intended for a certain few. Those are the few who are able to perceive the things of the Spirit, for not all can. The Master spoke “to him that has ears to hear, let him hear…” He was speaking to those who had ears that could understand His sayings. For it is given to them “to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them–the vast majority of mankind–it is not given at this time (Matt. 13: 11).

The Savior talks a lot about “the few.” He said that “few” would find life (Matt. 7: 14), that the laborers for the final harvest are “few” (Matt. 9; 37), and that “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22: 14). Interestingly, here we have both the “few” and “the chosen” in the same passage.

These few that He speaks of are the elect, His chosen ones. Some take offense at Christ’s words. They don’t like it when He says, You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bear much fruit (John 15: 16). The chosen ones will bear “much fruit.” The scriptures speak of Christians bearing three amounts of fruit: fruit, more fruit, and much fruit (John 15: 1-8).

To the worldly ear, trained up in the all-inclusive ways of our post-modern politically correct society, the Master’s message about His elect falls like another tired stone in the unenlightened pond of prejudice. But God says that “my ways are not your ways.”

God has revealed His way in the “scriptures of truth,” and a few will without pre-conceived ideas and pre-judged beliefs about what the Bible actually says in black and white–those few will walk with Him in white during the last go round, the time of the end.

So these words are about those few, in all probability many who are reading this now.

Though many millions are destined to believe on Him and bear fruit in these last days, only a few thousand will be chosen by God to bear “much fruit.” These are the 100 fold fruit-bearing elect. The elect are chosen by God for a special calling: “to not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom” (Matt. 16: 28; Mark 9: 1; Luke 9: 27).

The elect’s calling is not only unintelligible to the masses; they just will not believe that it is possible. They will not be able to believe it because they have swallowed the insidious error-filled teachings of the false prophets and false teachers “who have brought in damnable heresies” that have subverted the faith of the many (II Pet. 2: 1).

But the elect will be led by the Spirit into all truth (John 16: 13). And a big part of the truth is this concept of the elect, who are forming His company of many sons and daughters to be manifested in these latter days.

The key that unlocks this mystery, thus enabling us to believe these truths about His chosen ones, is understanding the Parable of the Sower and the different levels of Christian growth found therein (Matt. 13). Some Christians will remain “babes in Christ,” little children in their spiritual growth, bearing only what Christ calls “30 fold fruit. Some will grow to be stronger spiritually; these He calls “young men,” bearing “60 fold fruit” (I John 2: 13). And then a few Christians are called and chosen to bear “100 fold fruit.” They are the ones that the whole creation is “groaning and travailing” for. They will do the “greater works,” greater even than the Son of God [His words, not mine], for there will be a few thousand of them raising the dead and healing the sick, and preaching the kingdom of God. Understanding this is the key, Christ said, to unlocking all the mysteries contained in the parables of God (Matt. 13).

The elect, the future manifested sons of God, those who will do the greater works, they are forming right now. God is speaking to their hearts, calling them out, preparing them through the joys of revelation and the despair of heartbreak and betrayal. For “all things work together for good to them that love God, and who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8: 28).

They can’t help it. The mighty hand of God is moving upon them just like He moved on Moses, David, Gideon, and all the patriarchs and prophets and apostles. “No man takes this honor unto himself,” as Paul said. “It is God’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.” The elect will not be the mighty men of this earth according to the flesh, for “He has chosen the weak things to confound the mighty” (I Cor. 1: 27). We will be powerless, and yet possessing the reins of the very seat of the Power of the Universe. It’s all Him.

And the elect, the chosen few, will “make their calling and election sure” through the study and prayer of a grateful heart (2 Peter 1: 10).

We may not fully realize it yet, but the stage is being set for the exciting climax of the Book of Life, poised to begin as we write this. For the elect, the chosen ones of God, are its protagonists. They are the living word of God, incarnate and living out what the Author and Finisher of the Book has written of them. The stage is set; the curtain will rise shortly on the last act. The players are learning their lines–Satan and his men, and God and His sons.

It is going to be good, for we have already read the script. We win–in Him.

May God bless you all, that we might be used to bring Him glory during this final act. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under belief, calling of God, children of God, elect, end time prophecy, eternal purpose, false doctrines, false prophets, false teachers, immortality, kingdom of God, manifestation of the sons of God, sons and daughters of God, sons of God, spiritual growth, truth

Tagged as Christ, Last days, Son of God, the elect, time of the end

July 27, 2013 · 4:17 pm

Who Hath Believed Our Report? How long, O Lord?

A few weeks ago I put a couple of my books on consignment in a local discount grocery store that had a rack of Christian books. It was a self-described Christian establishment sitting in the middle of the Bible Belt, and I figured a local author with a Christian book–what’s not to like?

So I came back to the store a month later to see if the books had moved and noticed that they were not on the rack. So I asked the assistant manager who made the deal with me about stocking the books, “Did they sell? I don’t see them on the rack.”

He looked at me real funny and being the diplomat/merchant that he is, he began to hem-haw around, saying, “Well, the manager hasn’t had time to look them over and approve them yet.”

I said, “Your racks contain scores of books that I doubt he spent any time pouring over to approve.”

“Do you want them?”

“Of course, I want them if you are not going to try to sell them.”

“I’ll go get them.” In a moment he returned with my books.

And then I realized what had happened. They had put them on the rack because they had a price sticker on them. But a shopper had perused them and did not approve of the teachings found in them and complained to the manager. Probably my Yah Is Savior book insulted someone’s churchianity quotient; perhaps they read the back cover which has summary of its contents. And so they stopped right there and got indignant. If they had read on, they would have found out much about how Christ, the Son of God, came in His Father’s name, Yahweh and what that really means.

The more truth He gives you, the less likely it will be received by the masses

But what did I expect? That everyone really wants the truth about God and everything else? How naïve of me. How presumptuous, like Moses, who “supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not” (Acts 7: 25). God had showed Moses a glimpse of the plan but not the power; that would come forty years later at the burning bush (v. 30-36).

After my little incident, Isaiah’s question kept coming to mind: “Who hath believed our report? (Isa. 53: 1). Why is there so much rampant unbelief? Why can’t people just believe?

It is the age old dilemma for men and women of God. The more truth He gives you, the less likely it will be received by the masses. You and I have had several revelations of truth and, excited about it, we share it immediately with probably the first person we meet, and it falls disappointedly on deaf ears. The kicker is that we honestly believe that they at this time ought to believe the truth we are sharing. But the vast majority don’t, and we wonder why.

But the scriptures state that most will not believe. In fact, if everything you share garners a huge following and acceptance by the masses, you don’t have the right message.

The Wide Gate and the Narrow Gate

That’s a bold statement, I know. But, we are to “enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7: 13-14). The masses are fooled and led to destruction through a wide gate; the few will find the true way. These are the Savior’s very own words.

And how are the masses led astray by the tens and hundreds of millions? Christ answers this in the very next verse: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (v. 15). Sheep’s clothing. They look like they are a Christian; they appear to be a bona fide spokesman for God, God’s helper, but Christ says they are ferocious wolves! That’s how the masses are herded into the wide gate and destroyed. By deceivers with their false teachings and old leaven concepts about God and not the true word of God.

In fact, Christ implores us to “strive to enter in at the narrow gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13: 24-30). The word translated “strive” is rendered “fight” in many passages. We must fight to enter through the narrow gate into the kingdom of God. It is a fight, a struggle. Fight against what? Against the false doctrines and concepts taught by the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Because there will be many who went the easy way through the wide gate and they will “seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” Upon realizing that they messed up, they will knock on the Master’s door, but He will say, I don’t know you. And they will be in anguish when they are rejected by Him. Those that went in through the wide gate taught by the false prophets will be in big trouble.

But why won’t the masses believe this message?

So, the question remains. Did I really expect when I committed my writing to God–did I expect to be believed? Especially since what God keeps showing me is so different to the doctrines that organized churchianity teaches.

But why won’t the masses believe this message?

I found the answer, which lies in the fact that they did not believe the Savior Himself! Very few “got Him” then, and very few get Him now.

“But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him” (John 12: 37). It would be the same today if we had the same power to heal the sick and raise the dead. Oh, the masses would clamor after a miracle for themselves, but they would not really take the truth in and believe it.

Nothing has changed. But why? Why at this present time in history won’t the people believe?

Verse 38 answers the question. “That the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: Lord, who has believed our report…Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them” (Jn 12: 38-41).

Why can’t the people just believe when truth comes their way? Because the multitudes are unable to at this time in history. What? And why can’t they believe? Because God–yes, God Himself–has “blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts” (Isa. 6: 9-10). He has blinded the vast majority of fleshly Israel and the Gentile nations. That is what the sacred writings of the prophets Isaiah and John tell us.

The masses are blinded by Him, but “the few” that Christ spoke about above are entering in by the narrow gate. These are His elect, His chosen ones. To Christ’s disciples He said, “It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the masses] it is not given” (Matt. 13: 11-16). And then He quotes Isaiah 6: 9-10 to them. Although not politically correct to say it, Christ is revealing precious mysteries at present as the masses remain blind and hardened to His truth (Rom. 11: 7).

How Long, O Lord?

But when? God, how long will it be before You open the people’s eyes and soften their hearts so that they can believe You? When will their vision be restored and their hearts softened? Isaiah asked, “Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land” (6: 10-11).

When the cities are wiped out, when the earth lies totally ruined and desolate, and when this world system is forever shattered and lying in rubble on the ground, then the masses will turn to God. These are the disasters of biblical proportions. This is the realization of all the disaster movies we’ve ever seen. This is the great tribulation period that everyone alive on earth will go through, just before Christ’s return to earth to establish His kingdom.

When God unleashes His trumpets and vials of wrath upon the earth, then the masses will begin to awaken and believe. They are asleep and deceived and “poor, wretched, miserable, blind and naked.”

God, please help us. Spare thy people, oh God. I am grateful for this knowledge, but it is a heavy burden to bear–knowing the sufferings that await the inhabitants of the earth.

The tribulation will come, and then more of the masses will have a softened heart to believe and love Him and they will repent and follow Him.

Of course, the false prophets and false teachers say that you won’t have to go through the tribulation period. Of course, they would teach that. How else are they going to get the massive numbers of souls through the wide gate that “leads to destruction”? God, help us. KWH

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Filed under catching away of the saints, Christ, elect, eternal purpose, false doctrines, false prophets, false teachers, great tribulation period, kingdom of God, manifestation of the sons of God, old leaven

Tagged as faith, false prophets, tribulation

June 24, 2013 · 1:22 pm

Be Still and Know that I Am God–After the Heartbreak

It has been a bumpy ride for most of us who have been called by God to be His children in these last days. Most of us have been a part of a church, fellowship, or Christian organization that did not end well.

On our trek to the Celestial City, we stop at way stations until sometimes we are forced to move on to our next ordained experience. Through much anguish and tears we often leave the fellowship of Christian brethren. So many congregations have split and fractured, along with our own hearts, and we are left wondering why.

Why, God?

Why, God? Why did it end the way it did? Disillusioned and hurt some thirty years ago, my family and I stumbled into the next phase of our life. I could not understand how the Christian brother that had helped me find Christ and His deliverance from drug addition was the one who ran me off fourteen years later. My world was shattered and torn, and I wandered aimlessly, listlessly, not seeking succor from God at all.

After five years in which my wife Linda and I finished our Bachelor degrees and teaching certificates (for we knew we were called to be teachers), a kind of a spiritual renewal of sorts began in my heart.

Any of us who have gone through a rocky spiritual transition have horror stories, and I wince for all who endure these disillusioning changes. God is not forgetful, however, of our sufferings; He knows that betrayal by those you love is the sharpest knife. Of course, few of us know at the time that “all things are of God”—even the betrayal of His loved ones, us.

And yet our initial question persists: Why, God, did it have to end? Five years after the breakup, I started to get an answer to this question. It is God and what He’s doing in the earth, and it has not ended.

For me, that initial phase of spiritual boot camp had ended, but God was not through. Then, as a babe in Christ, I needed a drill instructor to prod and push me to serve God the way they thought He should be served.

No, His love for us was not expended. That good thing that He started in us all shall be performed with His help. He’s not finished; us trying to serve Him by constraint is.

Maybe that’s why it took me five years to start to put some things together. No one was prodding me anymore to seek God. The mentor, tutor and governor was gone. The words of the old song came to mind: “You gotta walk that lonesome valley. You gotta walk it by yourself. Nobody else can walk it for you. You gotta walk it by yourself” [chorus of “The Reverend Mr. Black” sung by the Kingston Trio].

It was up to me and God. Only now it was better because of the knowledge base we had been taught. And I was taught among many things, these two things: “If it is a plan of men, it will come to naught.” And, “Prove all things.” Don’t take anyone’s word for it. Prove it out in the word with two or three witnesses.

It had been five years of wandering (at least it wasn’t forty), and it was now time to reprove everything. I had to find out what went wrong at the “mission,” that way station that we served in for fourteen years as everyday missionaries during half of our twenties and most of our thirties.

So where does one start to pick up the spiritual pieces and examine every one of those pieces? I decided to begin my meditations at the beginning: God, His plan, and His purpose.

Be Still and Know that I Am God

That very winter night in January 1990 I laid out under the stars and marveled at Orion and Cassiopeia and the Little Dipper and witnessed the evening star bright in the west. And realized that every star was just where it was five years ago. They had all hung there like dazzling pinpoint paintings on the walls of heaven, immutable, constant, symbols of God Himself.

And my dog Zack, my faithful “chopped ’57 German Shepherd,” was there, seeing only me. He couldn’t appreciate and take in the stars in all their orderly glory. It wasn’t for him to know anything about the heavenly realms and who created them. That was my domain. His was to know and love me, and he was content to accompany me into the field and lay with me in the grass while I mused about the Creator and His creation.

And it was then that I realized the very special place in the creation that man has—the thing about us that makes us so special above all other beings on the face of the earth: man is the only creature specifically made to not only appreciate God, but also be like Him. I had known that, but hadn’t thought about it in years.

The utter simplicity of it. Lay down, look up, be still and know that I am God. Do not corrupt the simplicity of Christ.

The simplicity. “God is a Spirit,” and “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

And there I had found my starting point in reproving the teachings and doctrine of Christ. I would no longer blindly take the word of someone without proving it out first. His word speaks of a time that you would have no need that a man teach you, for the Spirit of truth shall be with you and dwell in you.

God is an invisible Spirit of love and those born out of this spiritual essence are spirit. I would now study the scriptures with no preconceived dogma, doctrine, or ideas. I would study it much like I did as an English major–reading the literary works as they are and telling it like it is without prejudice or preconceptions. I would dig deep and build it on the Rock, looking unto the eternal things and not the physical, temporary things. The quest in earnest had begun.

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Filed under church, eternal purpose, immortality, spiritual growth

Tagged as church, fellowship, heartbreak

May 25, 2013 · 8:58 pm

“The Just Shall Live by Faith”–But Who Are “the Just”? and Which Faith?

“The just shall live by faith,” says the prophet Habbakuk (2: 4). It is a very important passage quoted by Paul the apostle and made famous by Martin Luther. But who are the just? And which faith was the prophet talking about?

The Hebrew word translated “just” is rendered “righteous” in scores of passages. So how “righteous” and “just” are we talking about here? Godlike righteous. We see this same word used to describe God Himself. He “is a God of truth…just and right is He” (Deut. 32: 4). We are talking about a godlike righteousness that some will have. Not a self-righteousness, but a godly rightness. The just, the righteous ones will be living their days on earth by faith.

Who are the just? Who are the righteous? They will carry in their hearts that righteous state of God Himself. And they will receive this happy state with the Hebrew God because of their faith, having believed first without seeing.

The “just” in God’s eyes are those who are right with Him because He is right in them. They are the righteous and in good standing with their Maker.

They, like their spiritual father Abraham, walk by faith and not by the sight of their eyes (II Cor. 5: 7). Faith is the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11: 1).

So the just are the righteous humans like God is righteous here on the earth, who believe having not seen nor received the promises of the kingdom of God. They shall live their days on earth by faith. Believing God’s word and plan is the way they will live. And because God can only be pleased by this walk of faith, they become just in His sight. He imputes righteousness to them, which is being in a right state with God. And that is all we really need.

Which Faith?

So the true faith is extremely important. And this faith spoken of in the scriptures of truth is not the same “faith” spoken of in news casts on TV, when the news-reading talking head says about someone who displays some religious activity: “He is a person of faith.” Meaning that he believes in a higher power. They acknowledge that somebody up there is bigger that they are. No, this is not the faith that Paul, Peter, and John spoke of.

Think about it. The Hindus believe in thousands of somebodies up there swimming in a mystical nirvanic goo. That is indeed a belief and a faith. And many Hindus are very spiritual and religious, and TV personalities may say that they are people of faith, but that is not the faith of the Hebrew God of the Holy Bible.

Not picking on Hindus here, for the same can be said of most of the denominations and sects of Churchianity. 2,200 and counting, and they disagree with each other. That is why there are so many of them. But the Spirit says there is only one body (church) and one Spirit (one God) and one faith (Eph. 4: 4-6). So all of these denominations cannot be exactly what the apostles practiced and wrote about.

Depart from Me…

Moreover, Christ speaks disparagingly of some very sincere Christians in these last days. He says to them, “Not everyone that says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. [We sincerely called You Lord] But he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven [You mean confessing that Christ is our Lord won’t do the trick?] Many will say to Me in that day [Which day? The time of the end?] Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? [Come on, now, we preached in your name!] and in thy name have cast out devils? [Lord, I saw many slain in the Spirit in your name. It had to be You!] and in thy name done many wonderful works? [We set up food kitchens and sent out missionaries and gave away bibles in far away lands, and You were with us, weren’t You?] And then I will profess to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matt. 7: 21-23). Since there is no idle words of God, these words will be spoken to some well-meaning people in that day.

That last paragraph was tough to write, but there it is in black in white. Of course, some will say that His words are harsh treatment. But why will these sincere Christians, who are “people of faith,” why will they be rejected? Because their faith was based on a vision of Christ and His plan that was in error.

Because denominations have hundreds of different interpretations of what the Bible is saying, and because they all cannot be right and just, then somebody has to be wrong. Sincere, maybe, but wrong as to what the faith of Christ and its vision is about.

So, yes, “the just shall live by faith.” Those who God sees as His offspring walking with Him in His truth at the time of the end–they “shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12: 3). Righteousness—there’s that word we started out with again. The just, the righteous, those upon whom God has imputed righteousness because of their faith toward Him—they will shine.

In fact those “just” ones, they will rule over men during the kingdom age. They will sit with Christ on His throne, full of His righteousness, and they will sit as princes ruling the world. Nothing less. “He that rules over men, he must be just, ruling in the fear of God, and he shall be as the light of the morning sun after the rain, after the rain” (II Sam. 23: 3; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiJlJgd9x1s ).

And because God has chosen “not many mighty and not many noble,” His true elect will appear as no one very special. They are the “filth and off-scouring of the world…For God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the mighty (I Cor. 1: 26).

So the question comes full circle to each of us who is a “person of faith.” Which faith is it, for there are many faiths in Christendom that will be rejected by Christ upon His return? Which vision of the Bible do we believe? For many followers will come up short and they will weep and gnash their teeth at Him when they realize that the version taught in their churches was the wrong one. For “wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” And few will find the narrow way that leads to life (Matt. 7: 13-14).

We must then believe on Him the actual way that the scriptures have said. Those who do are the just and righteous, and they will rule and reign with Him in His kingdom. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under apostles' doctrine, belief, Bible, body of Christ, Christ, christianity, church, elect, end time prophecy, eternal purpose, false doctrines, false teachers, kingdom of God, princes and princesses of God, religion, righteousness, world system

Tagged as Christ, faith, righteousness

May 11, 2013 · 4:40 pm

Why Young Christians Fall Away

Why do Christians wilt and fall away when adversity comes?

The major reason is that they lose hope. They can’t see the promises immediately and so their hope wanes. Why does hope fade? Because the young Christian stops believing what they have been told about God and His plan.

The Master was adamant about His followers getting rid of erroneous teachings and doctrines. He called it “purging out the old leaven, that the lump may be holy.”

And that is what it boils down to. Organized churchianity just does not realize that they have been weighed in the scales and have been found wanting. Christ is crying through the prophet Isaiah, “Ah sinful nation…a seed of evildoers…children that are corrupters…the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint…” And despite all of your “sacrifices, vain oblations, incense, new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies and feast days, and though you make many prayers, I will not hear,” says the LORD (Yahweh) [Isa. 1: 4-15].

Why won’t God hear the prayers of our nation? Because “your hands are full of blood” (v. 15). He has a big problem with our nation right now. He is addressing a “sinful nation.” A nation full of sin, whose pastors tell their flocks that God is powerful but not powerful enough to get rid of sin in their lives. In fact, the preachers won’t tell them exactly what sin is in God’s eyes; they leave the flock to their own imaginations instead of telling them the truth: “Sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3: 4).

What can be done? He continues, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil” (v. 16). Wait a minute. God is speaking to very religious people, who are doing every thing their pastors are telling them. They are doing all of their denominational doctrines outlined just before in verses 4-15.

And yet, they are sinful people, a sinful nation. But that is not good enough for God and the plan He is implementing.

So He tells us to wash away our sins and be “willing and obedient” (v. 18-19). Obey what? Obey the law, the ten commandments. But the new Christian, armed with the erroneous teachings that “no one can successfully keep them” and “you will sin, but just ask God to forgive you,” is immediately stunted, and like a young seedling, is stomped out of ever bearing any real fruit of the Spirit.

For, fed with ruinous words, their initial love, joy and peace fades, and when temptation comes, their strength fails. All because of a poor foundation.

But some will say, That was Old Testament stuff there in Isaiah. They were under the Mosaic Law and their sacrifices and oblations and doctrines just weren’t efficacious. But they were for the patriarchs and prophets. It was good enough for them at that time. For they were the remnant, those God was referring to in Isa. 1: 9: “Except the LORD (Yahweh) of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom and Gomorrah.”

A very small number of Israelites “got it,” became truly righteous, and they became our examples for our day. Because “that which has been is now,” a very small remnant in the latter days will “get it.”

[So I suppose that answers the question that arises occasionally in my heart: Why don’t more people see these things? A: It’s all in the timing. Just keep publishing the truth; that is all you can do, and trust Me and know this: Few there be to find this way of tru and Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Matt. 7: 14; Luke 12: 32). Thank you for the encouraging words. KWH]

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May 4, 2013 · 6:16 pm

The Power of God–Why It Does Not Flow Through Us

God, where is the power that You promised? Why aren’t my prayers being answered? God, You said that we are “more than conquerors in Christ,” but I am not feeling it right now. Why aren’t we walking in power like the early apostles did?

Many Christians have had these questions over the centuries, not realizing this one bedrock truth: The power from God was always there when it was needed because it was His time in His plan for His power to be manifested.

It is all about timing–God’s timing in the implementation of His plan and purpose. And in this, young Christians do err. For children are by their nature self-centered and impatient for their plans to be implemented.

Children of God will not understand why the Father does not answer a prayer the way they want it answered. For they are mostly alive for what they can receive from the Father. They do not comprehend that their prayers twist God’s arm as they try to bend God’s will to suit their current desires. God, I need a new car to get me to work so I can pay my bills. God, I need a better job; I need this; I need that. I, I, I…

These supplications never seek to find out what God is doing this year, what He needs done, what He wills at this present time in the earth. The Savior told us to not seek earthly things like food, drink, and clothing, but rather seek the Kingdom of God. We are not to ask Him for earthly necessities, for He already knows what we need in the earthly realm. But He wants us to ask Him for the true riches, the heavenly truths of His will, His plan, His purpose, His literal kingdom/government that will soon be established fully on earth.

These are the things we should seek for because they will only come into our lives if we consciously ask Him for them. He will give us the earthly things that we need without us asking Him for them. But we have to ask Him for the true riches, the heavenly riches. “Ask and it shall be given,” He said. Ask Him, and He will give us the Holy Spirit, which is the ultimate riches (Luke 12: 29-32; Luke 11: 9, 13).

God’s Agenda

For as self-willed humans have an agenda, even so does God have an agenda. And as we surrender to His will, His agenda through much study and prayer comes into focus.

Those who grow up spiritually into young men and women in God will realize what the Savior meant when He said, “Not my will but thine be done” (Luke 22: 42). We are to walk in His steps by this same surrender to God’s will or agenda.

The Bible is full of stories of men and women who surrendered to God’s agenda. Take Moses for an example. He “supposed his brethren [the Israelites in bondage] would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not” (Act 7: 25). Moses knew God had called him to deliver them out of bondage, but the timing was wrong. Forty long years would transpire in which God would prepare Moses spiritually to fulfill his calling. God had a plan and purpose in delivering the Israelites from bondage, but there was a precise time He would make it happen. And when that time came, there was no doubt, for God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and gave Moses power to get it done!

And so it was with all the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. They waited on Yahweh, on His timing, resting in the fact that He has an agenda, a plan, a divine purpose, and that He is in control. We, His sons and daughters, now must wait as our forefathers waited on Him and His perfect timing. If we do, He will infuse us with the power from on high to be His witnesses in the earth in due time.

While waiting, like Moses, for that power from on high to do the greater works, we should seek Him to help us “purge out the old leaven,” thus preparing us for that time. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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April 12, 2013 · 5:33 pm

Forgetting Those Things Which Are Behind–Answering the High Calling

Life is a paradox. We must forget our past before we can fully remember what we had with God before the world began. The future manifested sons and daughters of God will have to do just that.

For us there is only one thing left to do in this old world. Once we have seen through the confusion and subterfuge and lies put forth by the powers of this world, what else is there to do but put all our energy into becoming God’s offspring. What prevents us from growing up into Him are the memories of the past life that intrude into our minds every day.

Consequently, to answer our calling, it takes a forgetting, a conscious determined effort on our part to see our past carnal lives as mere childish attempts at chasing the wind. We must realize that God designed it all to happen. Our selfish first lives on earth are futile attempts at happiness, and they are fruitless and vain.”

Why design it that way?

God designed it that way in hopes that we would turn to Him to fill the void. Many have experienced this already. We finally became weary of fighting the constant bombardment that the enemy dropped on us. And so we began looking for something more substantial than the usual band aids of alcohol and drugs, churches and civic organizations, clubs and hobbies. The elect, the ones God has called and chosen for a deeper walk, will tire of these way stations in life, for they will not give them the peace that they long for.

God has designed this scenario to draw His chosen ones. And make no mistake; He does the choosing. Remember Christ’s words: ‘You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you’ (1). This is personal to Him. And He should be very personal to us, for He is very much a part of our lives. And someday we all will realize that He is our life. That is what we are striving for, and that is why we are to forget the old life we once led–the old haunts, the old memories, the old doubts, the old misgivings. He has forgotten those things about us; now He is waiting for us to forget them. “Their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more, ” (Heb. 10: 17).

How do we forget the old life?

We’ll learn to forget from the apostles of old who are our teachers, for they saw and listened to the risen Christ. Even the apostle Paul, as he said, “And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” (2). These apostles heard Christ speak

about the kingdom of God (3). We must realize that it is all about the kingdom of God. We in our new lives in Christ as His elect chosen ones in our day–we are about the kingdom of God. Or should I say, the kingdom of God is about us its future kings! In fact, because the Spirit of the King of the Kingdom lives in us, we are a part of the Government of God that will soon come to this earth in a fullness.

The future kings?

Yes. Its future kings! For Christ is the ‘King of kings and Lord of lords.” And we are the offspring of the King of glory, which makes us princes and princesses (4). We are to think on these things. That will help us to forget the past.

For it’s all in the mind. That is the battleground. That’s why Paul the apostle said, “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (5). We forget the past and all of its futile implications when we pursue the goal of sonship and daughtership. No greater calling. That is the pinnacle of human development–being the manifested sons and daughters of God. We simply must fill our minds with these thoughts, which are the steps along the way to sitting with Him on His throne” (6). For He said, “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”

“To him that overcomes…“ Overcomes what? We must overcome being lukewarm toward God, of being smug and self-assured, thinking that what our “works” in service toward God and men is sufficient. Many in the end time generation believe both spiritually and materially that they are “rich and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and they are not aware that they “are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev. 3: 15-17).

This lukewarm spiritual state must be overcome before Christ will grant us to literally sit with Him on His throne. Many people who consider themselves Christians will be left out in the cold. For they did not buy the “gold tried in the fire…and white raiment and the eye salve” to cure their spiritual blindness (3: 18). Yes, it costs to obtain these things needed to prepare us to rule with Him in His kingdom. It costs our old lives. And only a few will make it. Very precious few will pay the price to arrive at the inner circle throne room of God. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it”(7).

In short, we forget the past by remembering the future–our future: the reign of Christ, the immortality He promised us, the throne that is there to pursue for His sake, the destruction of all evil, buying the spiritual gold, white raiment, and the eye salve–these things and more–thinking on these things will help us forget the past and “press on for the prize of the high calling.” Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. John 15: 16

2. I Cor. 15: 8

3. Acts 1: 2-3

4. Rev. 17: 14; I Tim 6: 15; Psm. 24: 8-10

5. Phil. 3: 13-14

6. Rev. 3: 21

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Tagged as election, immortality, kingdom of God, the manifestation of the sons of God

March 23, 2013 · 4:41 pm

Not of This Earth

The origin of the sons of God transcends any location on earth. They are strangers to earth. Earth is not their home. They are sojourners and pilgrims during their earthbound travels. Their roots go back to the beginning, locked deep down in their Father’s heart. They are not earthlings. They are not of this earth.

For God’s true offspring, life on earth is not really about earthly things. Invisible heavenly things, spiritual things, are driving what is happening for the sons of God while here on earth. But most of God’s sons and daughters do not know their destiny as of now. Their main problem is that they do not know how to walk in the heavenly calling that they are called to. Their problem is that they are thinking from a fleshly, earthly, natural point of view.

Man sees everything this way. He sees it all through the eyes of his own carnal senses. If it cannot be seen with the eyes or heard with the ears, or touched with the fingertips, or tasted with the tongue, or smelled with the nose, then it must not exist! That is natural man’s thinking. But, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for those who love Him.”

Natural minded man does not realize that this earth is not just about earthly things! The truth is that the things that are happening here on earth have been put in motion by things that cannot be seen from earth, nor seen by earthlings. This earth is about heavenly things! This earth is not really about earthly things. This earth is about spiritual things. This earth is about invisible things.

This earth is not about things that can be seen right now by the naked eye, nor with telescopes, for that matter. All earthly things, including man, are only temporary things. There is nothing lasting or enduring about them. Nothing of this earth lasts. Everything based on earthly vistas—what can be experienced by the senses—not only will not last, but cannot endure!

Of course, man proves this everyday, for men, women, boys, girls, and infants die daily. They do not endure. Their bodies daily return to dust from whence they came. And their spirits return to Him that passed them out at the first.

Earthly Things Cannot Fulfill a Spiritual Being

This is the reason that the Preacher said in Ecclesiastes, “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Everything here on earth vexes a spiritual entity’s being. Earthly things cannot fulfil a spiritual being. Man, a spiritual being, created by God to house Him fully, in vain tries to live a fulfilling life by the acquisition of earthly things, when earthly things cannot suffice a human being, a being designed to be the glory of God, who is an invisible Spirit.

Yet, unregenerate man slugs on in the slop of misguided desires and lusts. These passions are for things that will not satisfy nor endure.

The sons and daughters of God realize that they were put here by a Being that is not of this earth. They see that reality is not earth-based. They realize that they cannot see true reality by looking through earthly eyes. Man can only endure by seeing things other than earthly things.

It is a heavenly vision, a heavenly faith, a heavenly destiny, a heavenly plan, a heavenly purpose, a heavenly blueprint, a heavenly design, a heavenly way, a heavenly thought of a heavenly Father, who is above all this on earth and is in us whom He has called.

To think earthly is to be in darkness. He has called us out of darkness into the heavenly light. To be earthly-minded is sure death in the darkness, for what seems to be our earthly life is really only a walking death. Remember when the Savior told them to let the dead bury their dead?

To continue to think in an earthly way is a recipe for death. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires” (Romans 8:5, NIV).

As long as our earthly bodies dictate what we do or say, we walk in death. That hold on our minds by the fleshly desires of our earthly bodies only will pass when we believe that our old carnal heart at its core is crucified with the Savior. When He died, we died. When He rose, we rose. But that is very difficult to believe because we cannot sense it with our five senses. It takes a spiritual sixth sense to see from whence the miracle is derived. It is something that must be believed without seeing the evidence before hand.

To even get out of the old and to get into the new life, we must believe in a spiritual being who does the saving. We have to believe in a Being we cannot see with our earthly eyes. We must believe in someone who is invisible, who is not of this earth, someone who calls us somehow with a calling that is not of this earth, calls us with a heavenly calling, and urges us in mysterious ways to appear to choose His heavenly way against the better judgement of our earthly unbelieving senses—a someone who brings us into a place where we will repudiate all that we see here on earth and count it all as dung that we may win an invisible race for an invisible heavenly spiritual Supreme Being.

An enlightened man takes in this light—light that nothing earthly is as it seems. Everything is tricky here, slippery, treacherous, hypocritical, deceiving. Man is crooked, undependable, self-centered and prideful.

There is a group of human beings who are beginning to realize that this walk here is a spiritual thing and not an earthly thing. They realize that they are in the world but their spirit is not of the earth. They realize that they are really strangers here on earth, that they are not really from the earth, that they are heavenly and spiritual, that they have become blind to the earthly desires and temptations.

They realize that they are looking for their home which is a four square city full of light that has 12 foundations where it never gets dark. That city, the New Jerusalem, is their home, which one day will literally come down out of heaven and set down right here on earth. And they believe this having never seen it with their earthly eyes.

[This is Chapter 8 of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God. The original trade paperback version was published in 2001, but now I have published it as an e-book. If you would like to read more, go to the very top of the home page and just click it. Please share this with anyone who you believe is called with this calling–to be a manifested son of God. Kenneth Wayne Hancock]

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February 16, 2013 · 9:44 pm

God’s Patience Seen in the Parable of “The Tares and the Wheat”

So, “patience” is “endurance.” And this enduring of all things by the elect is part of the fruit of the presence of the Spirit of agape love in our hearts because this godlike love endures all things (I Cor. 13: 7). It is the height of godliness, which is the road we are to travel as God’s sons and daughters.

This way to sonship is a lonely road, fraught with danger and made treacherous by its highwaymen. But it is as the Creator planned it. It has all come out of His wisdom-filled mind. He knows it is an arduous path, for He first trod it. Now I am talking about the Father in the beginning, that wonderful illusive invisible Spirit, as well as His Son, the “expressed image of the invisible God.”

The Father knows of the treachery on this earth, for He wrote the play that way. He is the Great Playwright that created characters antagonistic to His offspring’s destiny. They are formed to be foils of His sons and daughters. They withstand the children of God, thus strengthening and forging within these future monarchs the finer spiritual character of their Father.

For His children are destined to rule with Him forever. However, they will acquire the necessary regal attributes by overcoming the struggles imposed on them by their adversaries, the “vessels of wrath. “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:22-23).

The “Vessels of Wrath”

God is enduring with much patience evilness and wickedness right now. He is enduring “vessels of wrath.” And why is it important for us to know about these people? For they will be our antagonists in the play that we have been called to audition for–the play called Sonship. Christ, as its Author, has in its pages outlined the way to become the veritable offspring of God, His princes and princesses. But God in His infinite wisdom knows that to be like Him, we must go through the fire kindled by our enemies.

These antagonists are explained in the “Parable of the Tares in the Field.” This is a secret that God is now handing down to His elect, His chosen “vessels of mercy.” With this information we can understand much better what our parts entail, and how to live and play them.

The parable reads: “Another parable He put forth to them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

“So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’

“He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’

“The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?'”

“But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matthew 13:24-30).

Later Christ explains it: “He answered and said to them: He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked [one]. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

“Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (vs. 37-43 NKJV).

We must remember that the parables are not nice little stories to make it easier for the masses to understand. To the contrary, they are the “dark sayings” of God, spoken to deliberately cloud the secret “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” for those not suppose to know (Mt. 13: 10-15).

Christ says that the “tares” are “the sons of the wicked one.” They are placed in the earth by “the enemy,” which is the devil. The reason that this and other parables don’t make sense to most is because of the old leaven concepts they read into them. Old error-filled doctrines are like a dirty out of focus lens that the script is being read through. Distortion and confusion prevail.

For example, we have the false doctrine that the devil and the fall of man is a great laboratory experiment of God that went wrong. Hogwash. A great lie. God is Sovereign and All Powerful, or He is not. He is, and He created darkness and evil for His own purposes (Isaiah 45: 7).

Now, seen through this truth, we can begin to understand the parable of the tares. God has ordained “sons of the wicked one” (the tares) to not only exist, but also be an active adversarial hindrance to the future sons and daughters of God (the wheat). And they are to “grow together till the time of the harvest.” At God’s word, they continue to live and do what He wants them to do. He could have had the angels rip them up and burn them. But He is telling us that you don’t want to disturb the maturation process of the wheat. For if you pull the tares up, you will adversely affect the growth of the wheat. The root system of the wheat will be disturbed, and the sap will be hindered from coming up.

God is saying, To grow up into Me, you must let the wheat (children of God) grow up, side by side, with the tares (the evil children of Satan). The truth is that we need these tares and the sufferings that they provide for us to become more like God. This is a precursor of adding the next addition–godliness.

God is enduring all this evil in order to reproduce Himself in us. He endures the evil against Him and His plan, for He knows that the enemy will make His offspring stronger. Now, to be like Him, we must endure, as well. He is enduring, and we must endure, which is adding patience. This is God’s fellowship that we are to enter; it is “the fellowship of His sufferings” (Phil. 3: 10). Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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