Category Archives: eternal purpose

May 25, 2021 · 11:34 am

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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March 24, 2021 · 9:59 am

The Light of Love from Above–Ch. 7 of The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect

7  The Light of Love from Above 

Light is that ephemeral miracle we take for granted. It physically exposes the dark corners of our rooms, and it spiritually makes known the hidden recesses of our hearts and minds. 

Light is that essence of the divine that heals our blindness and ends our vain groping to make meaning of the hopeless darkness of our carnal earthly estate. 

Of course, God is Light, and He is Love which casts out the fear of remaining in the dungeon of despair. God’s Son is the way out of that calamitous corridor of personal corruption. Through Christ’s Spirit we no longer inflict collateral damage on all who cross our path. We now shine the light of love. 

We who are called and chosen by the Redeemer to escape this dungeon of darkness have laid hold of His outstretched hand. He has snatched us up out of that selfish march to death that we were on and has shined the truth of His words into our hearts. His thoughts are like the early morning rays of the sun that sharpens our perception of just what our world can be. Instead of the coarse commonality of our selfish old nature, our Creator has now enlightened our eyes as to His desire to use us in reproducing Himself. Astounding as it may seem, He is now shedding more light onto His plan to “bring many sons (and daughters) unto glory.” And this glory is the unearned privilege to sit with Christ on His throne when He returns to set up on earth the 1,000 year reign of His kingdom. He is, after all, the “King of kings” (Rom. 8: 18-19, 28-31; Rev. 3: 20-21; I Tim. 6: 15). 

In a word, His purpose is to reproduce, like a seed, His Love in us. Since God is Love, when we love others with His Spirit of Love, God is reproducing Himself (I John 4: 8-12). 

God has a plan to make all this happen. He has written it down on how to walk in the light of His love. He has left us instructions as to how people will act when God’s Spirit of love is leading them. 

These instructions are called “the law.” The “testimony” is the witness of one who through God’s Spirit follows the instructions as to what Love looks like walking around in a human being. 

Love–agape love–the love from above–this love is God. And this love, when poured into the heart and mind of man, fulfills all the descriptions of what love is. We look to our example, the Son of God. He is Love incarnate. And the Love that He is, now resides in His children’s hearts. And we are growing in His plan and purpose as He grows in us. 

This love from above follows the instructions of the law as to our actions. In a nutshell, the ten commandment law requires that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Therefore, the Spirit of Love within us fulfills the law (Rom. 13:9-10). God’s Love is the Light that now shines into and through our hearts and minds to others. 

How Love Fulfills the Law 

Life is all about love. The poets and prophets and songwriters got that much right. But it is the higher love, the agape divine love that we should concern ourselves with as His sons and daughters. 

Love fulfills the whole law when we do the greatest love. When we lay down our old earthly lives with its selfish sins and pursuits, and take up our new life in Christ and His Spirit in us—then the Love that is from above comes down into us in the form of a new heart. This agape love fulfills the Ten Commandment Law and all the Mosaic Law of the Old Covenant. 

For Love is God, and God is this agape love. And He does fulfill His own law. No amount of working for this will be effectual. This love does not come by being a regular church goer, tither, or prayer warrior. No amount of good works, charity donations, or pious acts will bring Love down into us. Only self-sacrifice on the cross and our own death, burial, and resurrection with Christ will do it.  

Doing the greatest love, which is laying down our lives for others just like Christ did, is the only sacrifice God will accept. Letting our old lives die on the cross is the only avenue open to us in our original seat in the mire. It is only this that will bring His nature of Love down, supplanting the old sinful nature. Only laying down our lives will fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself. When we do this and continue to walk in His Spirit, Love has been multiplied and reproduced.   

It all starts with Love, and it all ends with Love. God is Love and He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. Love is the beginning and the end of all things. 

How do we, the church of God, fit into all this? We are His body; we are the members of Love’s body, “the fullness of Him that fills all in all” (Eph. 1: 23). God sees us as the vessels that will contain Himself. He created us for this purpose—to house Himself and the mercy and Love that He is. Bold statement: Without us God could not express the fullness of Himself. 

In the end, God will fill us with His Love and mercy. And He will use us to do it. His essence of love will spread throughout every crevice of His universe through the presence of His ambassadors, His princes and princesses, His family and friends. Children of God think that they are objects of His love. The mature know that they are channels of His love. 

[Be sure to order your free copy (with free shipping) of The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. This excerpt is from Ch. 7 and 8. Just send your name, mailing address, and name of book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com]

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February 12, 2021 · 1:32 pm

From Death to Immortality–The Manifestation of the Sons of God

wayneman's avatarImmortality Road

The inhabitants of the earth may not know it, but they are groaning and travailing, waiting “for the manifestation of the sons of God.” They are yearning and longing for a hero, for someone to inspire them and comfort them and encourage them that it is going to be all right.

Their heroes are coming, for this is that rare time in history when some of us mortal human beings will be glorified. Some of us will be given a spiritual immortal body to tread this old earth in. For this is not a when-we-all-get-to-heaven immortality that His word speaks of, but a literal transformation into immortal beings just like Christ, right here on earth during these last days!  This is the great hope–to avoid the oppressive crushing corruption of old age on our mortal shells, with all the agony and heartbreak it entails (Romans 8: 18-25).

This is God’s purpose and His great promise…

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January 28, 2021 · 10:09 am

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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July 30, 2020 · 1:49 pm

Additions to Faith Insures Spiritual Growth

The Spirit of Christ through the apostle Peter has given us one of the “New Commandments” that Christ spoke about. When obeyed, it will insure our mature spiritual growth in God. Christ’s desire for us is that we bear much fruit. “Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, Christ said. The commandment that Peter is talking about is this: “Add to your faith” seven attributes of God’s very own “divine nature” (II Peter 1:4-7).

We will grow spiritually if we add them. But in Chapter Two he tells us why very few Christians obey this commandment. He warns us of the false teachings spewed by false prophets and false teachers whose doctrines wilt the young plantings of God. Instead of the latter rain from heaven watering young Christians, false concepts about God stunt their growth. You can see the effects on well-meaning church goers every Sunday morning, sitting there in the same pew that they have sat in for decades, still singing “Just As I Am,” stunted now, unable to grow to full spiritual maturity because of the drought of His word. The maturity that Christ and the apostles talk about is becoming just like Peter, James, John, and Paul. Church goers have been told that it is impossible. But “with God all things are possible.”

But Christ’s elect are scattered out there. Some will hear that faint sound of the ancient trumpet, and their heads will turn up to the sky from whence the call was made.

For God calls whomsoever He will. No man through his own willpower will become His elect, His chosen ones. He does the choosing. He places the hunger for truth in them. They don’t know at first how it all works. They just know that they need to find the truth. They need to get to the bottom of this thing called life-on-planet-earth. And somehow they finally realize that it was God all along who arranged all the serendipitous coincidences, all the failures and victories, and all of the, well, miraculous turning points in our lives.

In my case, the miracle was when Mortality was rearing its desperate head–my head, actually, which was going down for the seventh time. And there with me God had Larry Golden pull me out of that South China Sea undertow at Da Nang Beach in Vietnam. The LORD gives life, and the LORD takes away life. Blessed be His Name.

Such is the calling and election that God makes upon us. He has a plan and a timetable for everything. And He will put a hook in the jaw of those He is angling for, if that is what it takes. He has a purpose to reproduce Himself in us. He is omnipotent and will bring it to pass. He has created all things, and all things are in His repertoire. And He uses both “good things” and “bad things” to bring His plan and purpose to full fruition. Full fruit production is bearing “much fruit.”

Which takes us back full circle to the “additions to the faith.” They are virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and agape love. These attributes of the “divine nature” are powerful. They are like the finest fertilizer for God’s young plants.

They hold many promises for those who want to grow. “For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ [Yahshua]” (II Peter 1:5-8). With these seven added, you will be full of fruit. With them you will “make your calling and election sure.” With these seven added, “You shall never fall.” With them added, “an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom” of Christ, our “Everlasting Father” (II Peter 1:10-11; Isaiah 9:6). Such promises are breathtaking!

Those that have an ear to hear, let them hear what the Spirit is saying (Matt. 11: 15; 13:9; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29, 3:6, 13, 22). In other words, God gives understanding to whomever He desires to give it. He opens the ears of the spiritually deaf. If He is doing that for us, then we need to hear and listen closely to what the Spirit of God is saying through Peter about the additions to the faith. Those with an ear to hear will understand.        Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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July 4, 2020 · 4:48 pm

The Need for the Additions to the Faith

When the Spirit of Christ says through Peter, “Add to your faith” certain attributes, He is not saying that we must add them in order to be saved. Personal salvation is not the issue, though it is the first important step on our spiritual quest. The additions are the key to our spiritual growth after salvation. They are the key that unlocks the door to our spiritual perfection.

Like Jeremiah, Yahweh has known us by name before our earthly mothers brought us out into the light of day. We add these heavenly attributes of God’s “divine nature” because we are called and chosen by Him to do just that. Our names are written down in the book of life before the worlds were ever spoken into existence by our God and Savior Yahshua, the Son of God.

Consequently, we have no choice in the matter. My readers are a rare group of humans who have seen through the plastic façade of churchianity and have “come out of her.” He has predestined a vanguard who will be the first fruits that will show their brethren the way to the glory land. They have been “called according to His purpose [the reproduction of Himself—Love].”

“For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified” (Rom. 8:28-30). He knew us before we were born into mortality. He gave us our destiny to be like the Son before we came here. Because of our pre-destiny, He called us; He “got our attention” that He is real. He showed us the phoniness of human society and culture and began to teach us His way. He saved us out of the quagmire of sin by justifying us. And in His mind, He has already glorified us. For He declares the end from the beginning.

All I can do is shake my head and go, “Wow!” For the Spirit is speaking to me as I write this down. What a precious privilege—to join the ranks of our brethren like David, Jacob, Daniel, Paul, John, and so many more. Their fame lives on because they answered His call upon their lives, just like we are doing. He is working the same way today as He did two, three, and four thousand years ago. He said, “I change not.” There is not one single scripture that says the miracles ceased being performed by His followers 1,900 years ago.

Our Lives Now Are His Doing

It is His ball game now since our surrender to Christ. When we really believe Romans 6:6, we enter into His rest. How do we enter into rest? When we die with Christ on the cross and are raised up from the dead with Him, we have ceased doing our own works for our old self. It is because our old man Adam is dead. And so we begin our Sabbath rest when we cease working for our old selves. This is what brings the love, joy, and peace and the other fruit of the Spirit. This is what casts out fear. There is nothing to be afraid of now. What are they going to do, send me to Vietnam? Once our old ego dies with Christ, what are they going to do? Kill our body? “Death has no more dominion over us.”

So we wait on the Spirit of truth to lead us into all truth. And He shows us that we are to grow spiritually, that we are to finally mature by bringing forth “much fruit.” And then the Spirit through Peter tells us that in order to bear “much fruit,” we need to “add to your faith” seven additions, seven facets of His divine nature. These seven things are crucial in order to come to full maturity/perfection. With them we will be able “to make our calling and election sure.” What calling? God has called us “to be conformed to the image of His Son.” In other words {Oh, words that will get you thrown out of churches} to be like the Son of God!

“Nobody can be like Jesus! That’s blasphemy!”

“Well, if you won’t let me be like Jesus, will you let me be like Peter, John, and Paul? They performed miracles like Christ. They bore much fruit.”

Bearing Much Fruit

To become a mature Christian, we have to add these seven attributes of His divine nature. If these seven things are pulsating and abounding in us, then they will enable us to bear much fruit   of the Spirit, never to be barren of love, joy, and peace (II Peter 1:8).

Those Christians who do not add them to the faith will be blind to the vision of our true destiny, for they will have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins (v. 9-10). Old sins are like blighted branches that are lopped off at the cross. Belief/faith in His resurrection gets them started in Christ, but they need the additions. If they don’t add them, then blindness overtakes them. They will get stagnant, which stops spiritual growth.

Such is the state of most church houses. Every gathering in them is a cookie cutter copy of the last meeting. Because no new light is being shared, the manna becomes stale and spoils, and most of the clergy and laity languish in the stalls of forgetfulness.

It is sad really. I still want to reach out and touch them like I have endeavored to do, but they say that they are “increased with goods and have need of nothing” (Rev. 3:18). I am learning to not be dismayed nor frustrated. For one who speaks God’s message is honored, but not “in his own country and in his own house.” (Mt. 13: 57). This explains why we can’t get any respect from those in our own home. [Perhaps you have experienced this. Please share in a comment].

The Need to Add to the Faith

Finally, those foreordained and predestined will feel the need to add the seven additions to the faith. God will reveal the need to them. No man with man’s wisdom will do it. “It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (Rom. 9:16). But those who are called and chosen will soldier on to complete the quest. That quest is “to be conformed to the image of His Son.” The gainsayers will tell them that it can’t be done, that they are crazy for thinking such a thing. But the elect will hear His voice. The others will just hear a rumble off in the distance, shrug their shoulders, and ask for seconds on the apple pie.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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May 11, 2020 · 5:06 pm

Adding the “Additions to the Faith”—By Faith

To bear “much fruit” and thereby attain to full spiritual maturity, we must add certain qualities of His “divine nature” to our faith (II Pet. 1: 3-10). God has called and chosen us to grow and bear 100 fold fruit (Matthew 13, “The Parable of the Sower”). To walk in His divine nature, knowledge must be added to virtue. And we see that virtue is the initial moral goodness and righteousness that comes with a new heart.

To grow we must understand God’s use of not just what we perceive to be “good” toward us, but also what we perceive to be evil. We will never grow to be like Christ and His apostles if we do not understand how God uses evil to develop the attributes of agape love in our hearts. That is His whole purpose, a mystery hidden from the eyes of man. And that purpose is to reproduce agape love, which is Himself.

The apostle Peter says, “I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things…” So, it goes like this. By faith we have received a new heart and a new spirit from our Father by believing that Christ is raised from the dead—in our hearts. “Old things are passed away, and all things have become new.” We are “new creatures in Christ.” This is the way that God sees His work in us (Rom. 6: 1-11).

To His way of thinking, it is a done deal. God “quickens the dead and calls those things that be not as though they were.” You and I are the “dead” here. He has raised us from the dead through Christ’s Spirit now in us. We, walking in 100 fold spiritual growth, are the “things that be not.” We are not there yet, but Christ has great faith, and He sees us there! We are to walk in His belief system (Rom. 4: 17; I Cor. 1: 27-28).

Our struggle is to believe the same thing that He believes about us. He has chosen us, the weak, to confound the mighty. That is His faith that we have received in our hearts. And to that faith we add virtue. We add it—by faith. And to virtue we add the knowledge of good and evil. And to knowledge we add temperance, and to temperance patience/endurance. And to endurance, we add godliness, which is loving God [forgiving Him for using both “good” and “bad” in our life]. And then adding “brotherly kindness”/loving other people [Forgiving them for being human, and understanding that they have been dealing with some harsh “bad things” in their lives].

And we are to add agape love to all of the above. For His love is the bond of perfectness, of maturity. With this spiritual maturity in us, God will be loving mankind—through us! And that will fulfill His eternal purpose to reproduce Himself.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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April 29, 2020 · 2:44 pm

From My “Beginning” to THE BEGINNING

I say, “In the beginning was the ________________.”

And you say, “Word.”

And I say, “Right. The Word is in the beginning. The Word is the beginning.”

Many confuse God’s initial call on their life as the end all, be all. And they keep going back to those first experiences when God made Himself real to them. I know because God gave me wonderful revelations while I was a stark raving sinner. While others were seeing imaginary pink elephants and purple paisley wall coverings visually melting, I was seeing the oneness of God and how we should all be living together and loving each other. I called these experiences my Jesus trips.

And I held on to them as my life became unbearable because I was unbearable. In fact, one of the revelations became my sign: The old self had to die. This began my search for the truth. And I vowed that I would follow the philosophy or religion that could teach me the death of self.

For I was studying all the religions at the time. And none of them could tell me how the old selfish ego dies—until I heard the answer from this preacher who had just set up a Missionary Training Center in East Texas twenty miles from where I was visiting my mother and stepfather. I had no idea that the Bible would give me my sign. But there it was all along. The preacher taught from Romans 6, where the Spirit through Paul speaks about how our old man is crucified with Christ.

My early experiences were preparing me for the day when I would meet my mentor who would teach me the intricacies of being crucified with Christ. But at first I held on to those original experiences. I wanted to stay at my “beginning.” I did not fully realize that God reveals things to us—wondrous things—as a way to call us out of darkness. But that initial calling is not Him choosing us to be like His Son. Those that are chosen by Him to be in His first fruits company of manifested sons and daughters must go into basic and then advanced training. I learned from my mentor that there was so much more knowledge than those first experiences that God used to call me out of darkness.

Yes, they are wonderful experiences where He shows us a glimpse of what our walk here on earth can be. Those experiences were our alarm clock that woke us up to the fact that God is very real. And it is not that we are to totally forget those experiences. But we are to use them to get to the real purpose that He has for us. They are the first stepping stones that lead us across the creek. If we keep going back to that first stepping stone, we will never get to our destination, our destiny in Him. The objective and purpose of the stones is to get across. We are not to stay on the first stone and admire its attributes.

­­­­Remaining in our past, in the “beginning” of our new existence with God, will never help us to grow to be like Christ and His early apostles. We need to speak what they spoke. They “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine. They spoke the words of Christ’s teachings (Acts 2: 42; Heb. 6: 1-2). They spoke of God’s purpose, and His plan to fulfill His purpose. This purpose of reproducing Himself in us will not be found in our “beginning,” in our initial experiences when God was calling us out of darkness. His purpose will only be found in THE BEGINNING—Him and His words. If we are to ever be counted as one of God’s future kings, sitting alongside the King Himself, we must realize that it is all about “His beginning.” He must take pre-eminence in our thinking.

“In the beginning was the Word.” Our King Yahshua is the Word. In Him are all of the Father’s details and plans to accomplish His purpose. And we can only get to where He desires us to be by studying Him, the Word.

We must study His plan to know it inside and out. What future king worth his salt does not prepare himself through studying his father’s will for the kingdom? The apostle Paul was clear on this: “This one thing I do, 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” (Phil. 3: 13-14).

How do we change our words and speak of His purpose and plan? “We” cannot get it done. It will be the Spirit of Truth abiding in us that will change our speech from our “beginning” to The Beginning. The Spirit of Truth is the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Christ promised to send Him to us. The Spirit of Truth is our guide into all truth. His presence in us insures that we will not speak about ourselves. When He abides/remains/stays in us, He will take over our words that will only speak from the mind of Christ (John 16: 13).

Someone will say, “Well, what should I talk about then?” Study out His vision of sonship and share it with others. Share about His soon coming Kingdom. Learn the apostles’ doctrine and give it to others. Study out true repentance in Romans 6. That is the message for new followers, not our initial experiences. It is not about “us.” It is about Christ and His vision for us all. Study out the armor of God and teach it to others. Study out the Father’s purpose and plan to fulfill His purpose.

Finally, my brothers and sisters, feed His lambs and sheep. Not with old manna that was good for the purpose of calling you out of darkness. Feed them with the hidden manna that the Spirit of truth channels through us to others. Thank Him for those initial experiences and for the change He has made in your life. And then thank Him for the truth, for Christ is the truth, and He is the Word that was from the beginning (I John 1: 1; John 1: 1). kwh

[All these things and more are explained in my books—The Apostles’ Doctrine, The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect, The Unveiling of the Sons of God, and Yah Is Savior. They are free with free shipping. To order one of the books: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/donate/ ]

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April 25, 2020 · 6:25 pm

Adding the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Part Two

Once we get this knowledge of good and evil and believe this knowledge, then we will be entering the mind of Christ—or rather His mind will be entering us.

We must understand that God has ordained both “good” and “bad” things to happen in our lives in order to fulfill His will. And His will is the force that executes His plan to fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself.

“No, God Wouldn’t Do That!”

Some may say, “No way. God would never afflict an innocent person.” This is an understandable position, but spoken in man’s wisdom.

To prove that God will bring afflictions upon us, let me relate a story that happened to the prophet Moses. Moses is eighty years old. He has been shepherding flocks for forty years after being expelled from Egypt. He has been waiting and waiting upon God. He has been seeking God because he has finally found Him in the burning bush on Mt. Horeb. God tells Moses that He plans to deliver His people Israel from Egyptian oppression, and He plans to use him.

But Moses says, “They will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice, for they will say, the LORD has not appeared to thee.”

To prove to Moses that the Egyptians will listen, God asked Moses, “What is that in your hand?”

“A rod.” Now rods have been used for many years as a shepherd’s tool for good, to fend off wild beasts and to generally help both the flock and the shepherd. But Yahweh tells Moses, “Cast it on the ground.” He did, and it changed into a serpent, a symbol for evil. When Moses picked it up by its tail, it changed back into a rod (Ex. 3-4).

We get an incredible picture of our Creator in all His sovereignty. God makes little distinction between the “good” rod and the “bad” serpent. They are merely two sides of the same coin. I say one coin because if He needs “heads” to come up, He gets it. And if He needs “tails” to enter the picture, tails turns up. The rod symbolizes the “good” things that happen to us, and the serpent represents the “bad” things that befall us. God uses both to mold and shape us.

God is showing us through this miracle of the rod turning into a serpent a glimpse into His mind. It is like having a tree with good and evil fruit spread out on the branches above us. We walk “under” this tree and God, as it were, causes to fall the fruit we need in order to grow. Sufferings come; many are caused by our faults; some are not.  Sometimes a rod or staff is needed for our support and comfort, and sometimes the serpent bites or scares us like when “Moses fled from before it” (Ex. 4: 3).

But Moses did not flee the next time the rod became a serpent. He was not afraid of the evil any longer. He knew that the serpent/devil was merely doing his job in the grand scheme of things [1].

The Excuses of Moses Answered by Yahweh

After the rod/serpent miracle, Moses makes an excuse as to why he is not the man for the job. “I am not eloquent…I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.” Moses was implying that God had made a mistake in choosing him because of his stammer.

To which Yahweh profoundly replied, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the dumb, or deaf or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I Yahweh.” God tells us that He makes the dumb, deaf and blind.

It is like when the disciples asked the Son of God concerning the blind people in their midst. “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” And Christ responded, “Neither, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9: 3). And then He healed his blindness. God made the man blind to give His sons opportunity to work miracles and heal them. Let me repeat that. God made the innocent man blind.

This is rare knowledge that needs to be added to virtue, which is moral goodness,  strength, and power. Some would accuse God of being cruel and immoral for making the man blind. They accuse Him because they do not understand that both “good” and “bad” issue forth from the Father. We will only see it His way when we believe this knowledge about God using both good and evil to accomplish His will.

The Father’s sons and daughters will judge it properly. And that judgement is this: The devil and his minions have a job to do. Their recalcitrance is written and choreographed by the Director and Author of our play. As the antagonist is needed to bring out the best of the protagonist, so the devil is serving God’s interests by their resistance to us.

It is said, No pain, no gain. So it is in the spiritual realm. The evil spirits cause much pain by becoming our opposing adversaries. It is like a football game. We are on offense, and they are on defense. God, our coach, has given us the right training and the necessary pep talk and the right plays to beat the devil and his minions. God finally wants us to—just run the plays! If we do, we win.

Better put: Because you and I are part of God’s elect, we not only will win, but we have already won in His sight. This is the faith of the Son of God. You and I “have obtained like precious faith.” His faith now resides in our hearts, and we are adding knowledge to it–the knowledge of good and evil.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[1] http://www.sonplace.com/sonplacing/sp_chp3.htm p. 49

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April 23, 2020 · 8:48 pm

Adding the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Once we understand that the angels are spirits and that 1/3 of them have been sent here to earth to do a job under an arch-angel named Lucifer, later named Satan—once we comprehend that this evil cabal of hurtful spirits are sent to wreak havoc upon mankind for (and this is a hard one) our perfection—and once we realize that the evil angels are really only spirits sent to actually help us become manifested sons and daughters of God [Concerning the angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Heb. 1: 14.]—once we see that all this is an integral part of His plan, then the vista begins to clear as we see that our Father does all things well.

Our Father/Creator/Savior is sovereign. He has a purpose and a plan to carry out His purpose, which is this: He is reproducing Himself, and He is Love. And that plan includes both good and evil. Good and evil do not just exist; rather they are tools to use on us “lively stones.” They are used to chip away at our imperfections, preparing us to be laid near Christ the “Cornerstone” of the temple of God. He uses both good and evil to accomplish His plan to fulfill His purpose.

Some of you right now are having to endure unspeakable heartbreak as you see loved ones around you spiritually disintegrate before your eyes. To your understanding, this is a tragedy. Think of that thing that happened unjustly to you, that incident that is really too painful still to think about. It was a trial that, like a tidal wave, sweeps your little ship of peace to the sandy bottom, leaving you thrashing and gasping for air.

And all you were doing was enjoying the sun and surf, enjoying the peace and joy of God, enjoying a new found desire to serve Him. And then the betrayal came. It came through the only ones who could hurt you. It came and locked you into a lonely room of despair with no way to escape, leaving you in shock, wondering why you been forsaken and slandered, perhaps your reputation destroyed, your life uprooted.

Think of that painful situation, and then know that the same God who had blessed you with love and joy is the same One who dispenses evil into our lives, delivering hurtful sufferings that usher us into a deeper walk with Him, a walk we cannot comprehend the why. As Job told his wife, “What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

Understanding Why Evil Comes into Our New Lives

God arranges for evil to come into our new lives to give us opportunities to forgive others, and to even forgive Him. For it is forgiving others that generates agape love in our hearts. The suffering that we endure is an opportunity for us to forgive those who trespass against us. This shows His power and love through us.

So, we should not think that it is a strange thing that God is the instigator of unbearable trials in our lives, “as though some strange thing has happened” unto us, but realize that it is needed for our growth (I Pet. 4: 12-13). Agape love grows out of forgiveness, which reproduces God, thus fulfilling His purpose.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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