Category Archives: faith

July 11, 2025 · 3:05 pm

The Longing That Leads to Love—and the King Who Calls

Humanity’s endless quest for love is no accident. Beneath every poem, song, and search for human connection lies a deeper yearning—for God Himself. For “God is love” (I John 4:16). We seek echoes of Him in others, because we were made in His image, wired to respond to His divine presence. The search ends when He is found.

The Hebrew prophets and apostles testified of this love. The Son of God didn’t merely speak of it—He lived it out. By laying down His life for His friends, He offered the greatest love known to mankind (John 15:13). But the Cross was not the end. It was the invitation. For those who believe, Christ calls us to present our lives as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1)—not as martyrs for heaven’s reward, but as vessels of love to a love-starved world.

Dying to Self, Rising in Love

To walk as He walked begins at Calvary. Spiritually joining Him on the cross means our old nature dies with Him: “He that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6:7). This rebirth isn’t mere symbolism. It’s a transformation—freedom from the selfish life, entering into resurrection power fueled by agape love. Believing we are buried and raised with Him enables us to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4–5).

Yet many falter. Not because His power is lacking, but because corrupted doctrines and traditions stunt growth. Like children fed on spiritual junk food, many resist the sincere truth of the Word. They cling to old wine, declaring it better—unwilling to taste the new, pure doctrine (Luke 5:39).

The Overcomers…and the Tragedy of the Refusers

Thankfully, some will awaken. God has called a remnant, foreknown and chosen to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). They’ll answer the high calling, decreasing so Christ can increase within them, becoming the vessels through which divine love touches all people.

But not everyone will respond. Scripture warns of those who recoil from the truth, buried in comfort, traditions, or fear. Consider the five foolish virgins—shut out from the wedding feast, unprepared for the Bridegroom (Matthew 25:1–13). Or the servant who hid his talent in the ground, scolded as “slothful and unprofitable” by the returning Master (Matthew 25:26). These are not mere metaphors; they are solemn realities.

Those who reject the call to spiritual growth will not mature into love. They will not reign. They will remain infants—content, perhaps, but barren of the fruit that restores righteousness to a broken world. What Christ seeks is a people who will reflect Him fully, expressing divine love that heals, redeems, and incarnates God once again on earth.

Answering the Highest Call

We are living in the days of the latter rain—His Spirit is being poured out. Will we remain near the nursery, or rise to sit with Him on His throne? (Revelation 3:21). Agape love is the bond of perfectness, the final attribute that completes us in Christ. Those who cultivate it will reign. Those who resist it, according to scripture, will be left behind—not out of spite, but because they rejected the very path that leads to transformation.

I believe that we will grow to be His sons and daughters, His lights shining into the deepest, darkest dungeons of the earth: To “bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” [Think spiritually. Isaiah 61:1].

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June 29, 2025 · 8:40 am

Eyes on the Harvest

  1. The Sower’s Longing

God’s eyes are ever on His harvest. This is not simply a season—it is His will unfolding across time. He sows with the end in mind: a mature people, ready to be gathered. Are our eyes aligned with His?

Just as the farmer treasures the yield of his field, God watches with divine patience for the maturity of His Word within hearts. The Bible is a record of this great sowing—the planting of promises, prophecies, and purpose.

Be patient… until it receives the early and latter rain (James 5:7).

2. Maturity Marks the Time

The harvest is not about numbers—it’s about readiness. Maturity. Fruit that bears the nature of the Seed. In this “time of the end,” we are witnessing the crop coming to full ripeness.

The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels (Matthew 13:39).

These aren’t ominous words. They’re hopeful. They point to transformation—souls shaped in the image of Christ.

3. The First Fruits Rise

Like ears of corn ripening early, some sons and daughters awaken to maturity ahead of the field. These are the first fruits—the ones formed not just to arrive but to labor. To reap.

From the prophets of old to the hundredfold elect of today, these forerunners bear the burden and the glory of calling others in.

They without us should not be made perfect (Hebrews 11:40).

4. The Call to Labor

Christ’s command echoes now more than ever:

Pray ye therefore the Lord… that He would send forth laborers into His harvest (Luke 10:2).

The time of the latter rain is not only about power—it is about purpose. God is activating His mature ones to gather the rest. Millions will come. And the world, weary as it is, will see the glory of ripened faith.

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April 4, 2025 · 8:49 am

Spiritual Fasting from Lukewarmness

Abstaining from being lukewarm

In the previous post, we explored God’s chosen fast—a spiritual fast where we abstain from false teachings about Christ and His plan and purpose. But you might ask, “What exactly do we abstain from?”

One significant fault prevalent among Christians is lukewarmness in our search for God. It is believing that we can please Christ with a lukewarm heart. Being lukewarm separates us from Him. As Christ sternly warned, “I will spew you out of My mouth.” Christ said that Christians in the last church age—that’s us—will be lukewarm, being neither hot nor cold.

The concept of being “lukewarm” in Revelation 3:15–16 is a metaphor used by Christ in His message to the church in Laodicea. He rebukes them for their spiritual complacency, saying they are neither “hot” (passionate, on fire for God) nor “cold” (completely rejecting God). Instead, they are indifferent, stagnant, and lacking zeal, which displeases Him to the point of threatening to “spit them out of His mouth” (Rev. 3:15-22).

Gold, White Raiment, Eye Salve

Christ goes on to give us the remedy for being in the dangerous state of lukewarmness. He counsels us to repent from lukewarmness by buying from Him three things: “Gold tried in the fire,” “white raiment,” and “eye salve.”

“Gold tried in the fire” is partaking of Christ’s sufferings. This is the trying of your faith, which purifies our belief in God (James 1:3). Lukewarm Christians do not want to suffer. But “beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (I Peter 4:12-13; I Peter 1:6-7; Job 23:10). Those who overcome will share in His “praise, honor, and glory at His appearing.” Suffering for Christ’s sake is fasting from lukewarmness. “If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.”

Furthermore, we are to seek “white raiment” to clothe our spiritual nakedness (Rev. 3:18; 19:8).  And finally, we are to seek “eye salve” so that we have eyes to see the secret things.

[You will notice the brevity of the previous paragraph. Instead of explaining “white raiment” and “eye salve,” I have left them as your “homework.” From the Scriptures, explain what they mean, and for an “A” on the assignment, explain how they help us repent from lukewarmness. Share your study in the comment section.]

Spiritual fasting is abstaining from false doctrines

 I saw a shop window this morning. It displayed different size eggs and bunny rabbits. They were made of pottery, plastic, and white fur. And I thought, Christ has nothing to do with these vestiges of fertility rites that pagans esteemed millennia ago. The person responsible for the display probably does not know the gravity of this practice. Then I thought, We have been fasting from the pagan holidays for decades. [For more, check out this excellent video: A Very PAGAN EASTER | FULL DOCUMENTARY].

I can hear Yahweh’s voice crying through Jeremiah’s lips: “Learn not the way of the heathen…for one cuts a tree out of the forest…They deck it with silver and gold…They fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not…” While they fiddle with earthly ornaments, they forget that “He has made the earth by his power, and He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion” (Jer. 10:1-12).

To become His manifested sons and daughters, to achieve this growth, we must repent of the faults learned in our early years. God knows our hearts; He sees the sincerity in our efforts to do what is right. He has reached out to us in deeply personal ways, enabling us to know Him as our Savior. We were often told that attending church, paying tithes, making donations, and reading the Bible would secure our acceptance by Him. Yet, despite these practices, our growth has been limited—nothing resembling the profound transformation experienced by the early apostles.

God desires more for us. He has ordained spiritual fasting to foster our growth. This involves rejecting false doctrines and allowing His Spirit of truth to guide us, revealing the areas in our lives that require repentance. He has already cleansed us from all sin, which is defined as breaking the Ten Commandments. However, He seeks to purify us further by purging the “old leaven”—the faults rooted in false beliefs. These faults hinder the Spirit’s flow, much like clogged sap prevents the vine’s nourishment from reaching its branches (John 15:1-10).

Some may feel overwhelmed and exclaim, “I can’t do this! I don’t know how!” But that is the very point. It is not by our own strength that we succeed. After the cross experience, it is no longer “I that lives, but Christ that lives in me.” We have the Spirit of truth dwelling within us. We need only ask Him, and He will show us the way.

Let us read Christ’s comforting promise: “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall show you things to come” (John 16:13). Those fasting from lukewarmness will be shone the treasures of wisdom. [Don’t forget to do your homework. May Yah show you His secrets. Kenneth Wayne Hancock]

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March 11, 2025 · 11:59 am

Thinking God’s Thoughts–The Additions and the Abiding

Thinking God’s Thoughts–The Additions and the Abiding

(from a Journal entry dated 7-30-14)

If you want to hear from God today, soften your heart by believing. Believing what exactly? Believe that God exists and is there, very near to you. And that He reveals Himself to those who search for Him with all their heart. We need to believe Him, like a little child believes—with all our heart (Heb. 11:6).

That is why it is so important to tell children the truth. For they will believe you. They’ll believe you, for instance, about Santa Claus and the flying reindeer, until the day they discover their first betrayal, until the day when they trade their faith in for a plastic phony world.

Nevertheless, God promises true things to His children. He promises everlasting life and power that overcomes obstacles in our lives—starting today—if we do not doubt Him. He has promised us that if we believe Him, then He, the Spirit of truth, will come and dwell/abide in us!

But, first, we must abide in Him. We must dwell in Him by getting rid of untruths and, frankly, the doctrinal errors that we all have been subjected to. He calls this “purging out the old leaven” (I Cor. 5:7; see Purge Out the Old Leaven = Getting Rid of False Concepts | Immortality Road).

This is “abiding in Him.” When this is done, then He will abide in us. This is how spiritual growth works. For it is when His Spirit dwells fully in us that we will show forth Him! This is the fulfilling of His purpose: God’s will is for Him to reproduce Himself, and “God is agape Love.”

We abide in Him when we think His thoughts. It is when we “get our minds right” and “get with His program” that we can abide in Christ. This leads to Christ fully dwelling/abiding in us.

Again, to abide in Him and He in us is to think His thoughts. This is having the same mind that Christ has. “Let this mind be in you” (Phil. 2:5).

How to Think His Thoughts

Two spiritual tools exist to help us train our minds to think His thoughts. For Yahweh’s thoughts are not our thoughts (Isa. 55:8). So then, our minds must be re-educated. We are born from a matrix of doubt and disbelief. We have been misled about what the truth is. So, the Master Teacher has prescribed prayer and fasting to cast out the unbelief.

Put another way, the two increase belief. They add to our faith. In fact, the seven additions to the faith are added by faith/belief, and God has ordained that prayer and fasting come into our spiritual life. He not only desires this for us, but He also makes it happen (II Peter 1:5-12).

Adding the seven additions is the only way in scripture to “make our calling and election sure (v. 10).” These seven “things make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Him. Adding them ensures that we will bear much spiritual fruit (v. 8). By adding them to our faith, we are ensured “an entrance…into the everlasting kingdom…” (v. 11). [See Additions to the Faith to Make Our Calling and Election Sure–To Be Like Peter, James, John, and Paul | Immortality Road

For His elect have their destiny pre-determined by God. And He will restore what we had with Him in the beginning—which are the seven additions to the faith.

Peter is imploring us to take heed. Take the additions to heart. If you want to be in His elect cadre, we must add the attributes of His divine nature. The Spirit is telling us to add them. We must do this. We do not work for salvation; it is a gift. But we must work to spiritually grow through study and prayer. We work because He has saved us for a purpose: To be laborers in His last day vineyard.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock [For more on this, send for my new book, The Additions to the Faith. It is free with free shipping. Send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book to my e-mail: wayneman5@hotmail.com].

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March 6, 2025 · 3:22 pm

Winning the Battles in Our Mind Field

The abiding comes after we win the mind-battles. We abide in Christ, and His Spirit dwells within us when our minds have won the thought-wars.

But it is a battle in our minds. Satan attacks our thinking. He tries to occupy our minds with trivial, physical pursuits. Christ said to not think on food, clothing, and other physical things, but look on the invisible, spiritual things.

Our spiritual growth level is determined by how much or how little of His Spirit is manifested through thinking the things that He thinks about.

Where do we get His thoughts? From studying His Word. His Word is made known in Christ. For Christ is “the Word made flesh.” He has left us a treasure trove of the Father’s thoughts. These thoughts from above make up the “whole armor of God [Spirit].” When we think on these things, we are protected from all the “fiery darts of the wicked.” We are speaking about the “mind of Christ.”

Through prayer we conquer the thoughts of the world and replace them with the King’s thoughts. This is what the spiritual war is all about. Yahweh has allowed Satan to be the “god of this world.” Satan is the “power of the air.” This “air” is the invisible highway that transports Satan’s thoughts into the minds of human beings. Worldly thoughts arise in our minds. We are at spiritual war with these.

The apostles knew of this battle. They knew it was worldly thoughts versus thoughts that are based on His Word. They knew that the armor of God would spiritually protect us, but we must put it on. We are to “put on the whole armor of God” (Eph. 6:11-18).

War Imagery

Brothers and sisters, we are at war with a clever, deceitful adversary, whose job it is to negate the plan and purpose of Yahweh. He thinks he can win this war by attacking the minds of God’s people. That’s why we desperately need God’s armor.

Notice the war imagery used by the apostles concerning the resistance we fight. We are commanded by Christ: “Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:5). Here thoughts are likened to prisoners of war. Thoughts not for Christ are taken captive by His Spirit of truth within us. Thoughts are captured and replaced with a thought from the mind of Christ. We have an adversary that needs to be conquered and sequestered.

God’s armor is His thoughts on these things: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the Spirit, the word of God, and prayer. Study these out and think on these things, and you will “arm yourself” with Christ’s mind. When we think the thoughts that Christ thinks then all is won, and we are secure in Him.

When we do this, then He will abide, dwell and remain in us. The battle is in our minds. And we shall soon know that the mind of Christ is armor of God. We are told to “arm yourselves with the same mind of Christ. It is in the thoughts. When we think His thoughts and not what the denominations teach, then we have armed ourselves spiritually.

What is God up to?

To understand God’s vision for His creation, we must understand His law of harvest. We must comprehend His desire to reproduce Himself. We need to see that His harvest includes His Spirit totally reproduced in the humans He has chosen for this honor. It is all His doing. “Many are called, but few are chosen” by Him for the honor of fully showing forth His glory, for fully being like Him.” We need to see that Satan is attacking God’s plan when He attacks us with wayward thoughts that do not further His plan and purpose.

[If you liked this article, please share this, or any of the articles on this website. Send it in an email. Help me spread the word. I need you. Thanks]

He has promised us that if we put on the armor, that He will be our Protector. He “will never leave us nor forsake us.”

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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February 24, 2025 · 9:06 am

Introduction of “The Abiding”—The In-dwelling Spirit of Love

The abiding of the Holy Spirit in us is a definition of God’s ultimate growth within a believer. The abiding is when He, the Spirit of Love, comes to dwell in us and remain in us, thus fulfilling His purpose. And God does have a purpose and a plan to fulfill that purpose. He created human beings to carry out His plan.

“God is love.” Agape love. His purpose is to multiply or reproduce Himself—Love—in man and woman. That is where you and I come into focus. This happens when we spiritually grow the agape Love He has planted in our hearts (I John 4:16). We show the greatest love in the universe, like Christ did by laying down our selfish lives for Him. We show our love for Him when we give up our old life and take on His life.

 [This is the Major Leagues. Christ is assembling His team. Game time is at hand.  The denominational churches contain many who are called, but sadly, they will not hear this message about dying with Christ on the cross and resurrecting with Him. Once this truth sinks in, it burns a hole in your heart. The fire of God’s reality will consume you. Romans 6 is not preached or taught in 99% of church houses.

I love all of you; With each post that He shares with me, I give it my best to bring light to the road you are travelling. I know. It is a thankless vocation, marching on in the Savior’s army. But we thank Him for everything, and He thanks all of us with the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, and peace.

Being Called and Chosen

God calls many to be a part of His plan. It is an invitation to be adopted into His royal spiritual family. “Many are called, but few are chosen.” The chosen are called His elect.

Since “God is a Spirit,” it takes faith to enter His Spiritual realm (John 4:24). It takes belief. It takes belief that the sin in our life is dead. And it takes belief that we have now a new, sinless heart. Belief. “For they that come to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

We are born into this old 3-D life with a selfish, sinful heart. To be a part of God’s plan, mankind must surrender to God. He then will give them an escape from the earthy, sinful life.  

The old heart must go. But how does one get rid of it? God has provided passage into a new life! First, we must learn about and then believe in the sin sacrifice that the Father has provided. Our sacrificial Lamb is known as Jesus Christ in English speaking countries, but His Hebrew name is Yahshua. He is the Son of God, our Savior.

How does he save us? Christ took all of mankind’s sins upon Himself. When He died on the cross, our old sinful heart died with Him! Then we were buried with Him. Then the Father raised Him from the dead. When He was raised, then we were “raised to walk in a newness of life,” too.    

The Apostle Paul Explains

“Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin” (Romans 6:3-7 NLT).

This is how sin is conquered. It has already been defeated! This is true repentance from sin. This is our testimony. We need only to believe it and walk in it.

When you believe, you are walking in the doctrine of Christ. Repentance and Belief are the first two doctrines that the apostles walked in. Through believing this, you now are continuing in the truth that the apostles had.

But this is only the beginning of spiritual growth. This is only 30-fold fruit bearing. Our destiny is to sit with Christ on His throne. It is to bear 100-fold fruit. To see what 100-fold fruit bearing looks like, look at the lives of the early apostles. They healed the sick and raised the dead, and they taught righteousness.

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine…” (Acts 2:42). Christ’s seven doctrines are His major teachings. We will continue in Part Two next time. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[Order your free copy, with free shipping, of my book The Apostles’ Doctrine. Send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com Yes, it is free. Christ took money off the table.]

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January 20, 2025 · 9:13 am

Sitting on Christ’s Throne–The Second Conditional Promise

The first conditional promise brings on the abiding of God within us, with the power that Christ and his apostles had. This enables us to receive the second promise: to rule with Him in His soon-coming Kingdom.

When conditions are met, the second promise takes us to the throne of God. Not to just view it, which would be enough for me, to just see Christ in His glory. But to be invited to sit on Christ’s throne! Next to Him! He has promised us to be seated as a monarch with living authority, working with the King Himself! He has promised us a seat on His throne upon His return to earth. He sees us as benevolent viceroys, a “royal priesthood,” (I Peter 2:9).

This is what Christ is offering to His elect—if the conditions are met. He has promised this royal seat with Him if we meet the conditions. But do we, the ones He has chosen, believe this? Very few, if any, speak about it. With this conditional promise, He has forced us to make a choice—to dwell in the 3-D world as little vulnerable babies in Christ or walk down the royal road to immortality, just like the apostles and prophets did.  

So, what are the conditions for receiving the second promise?

The body of Christ in this last church age of Laodicea has got some repenting to do. Sitting with Christ on His throne is promised to those who overcome. They must overcome being lukewarm (Rev. 3:15-16). They act like they don’t need God’s plan and purpose.      

Here are Christ’s words: “You are neither cold nor hot…because you are lukewarm…I will spue you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16). These are self-proclaimed Christians He is talking to.

Christ does not like His followers lukewarm. And what makes them lukewarm? Christ explains: “Because you say, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” We as a nation have become fat. Both spiritual pride and materialism permeate everything in this last age of the church. “The deceitfulness of riches” deceives the church into thinking that they do not need God’s deeper walk.  

Christ will tell us what to overcome, and how to do it. “So, I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also, buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see” (Rev. 3:18 NLT). He is the only One who sells these spiritual commodities. The world does not have them. They are selling a different gospel.

God’s Rebuke

To do these things, one must endure His rebuke and chastening. We must be “zealous and repent.” Repent from what exactly in this context? We must repent from laissez-faire lukewarmness of desiring the earthly things and turn to the spiritual by buying from Christ the gold, the white raiment, and the eye salve. “Gold” is faith purified by trials; “white raiment” is the righteousness of the cleansed ones; the eye salve is the unction of truth so that we may see into His heavenly spiritual dimension, where everything is possible. The elect will study these out. [See Gold Tried in the Fire–Overcomers and the Time of the End | Immortality Road.]

The Promise: To sit on the throne with Christ! Many are called to this honor of becoming a son or daughter, manifested in power and glory as Christ is. Sadly, few will answer the call.

The Conditions: Repent of lukewarmness. Buy from Christ the spiritual gold, white raiment, and eye salve. It is called “buying the truth with sacrifice.” And it starts with study and prayer. The hungry will get on fire to learn of Him and make the spiritual changes He desires for us. Lukewarmness will evaporate in His fire. To sit on Christ’s throne with Him is a stupendous future that He has promised us. We can meet the conditions. We must meet them—for His sake and the Kingdom’s sake.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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January 12, 2025 · 3:01 pm

Two Promises from God—Conditional, but Powerful (Part 1)

Christ made two great promises. But they are conditional. If the condition is met, then we are catapulted into the 60-fold and 100-fold spiritual growth (Matt. 13:3-23). This is the growth that Christ and His apostles walked in. Yes, this is the ticket for entry into His inner circle, the Round Table, if you will. {Please take a moment and hit the “Subscribe” button.}

Some of you may not believe me about being like Christ and attaining Christlike growth. Yet it was the King Himself who said, “He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I go to the Father” (John 14:12). What “greater works”? The miracles! This is the spiritual growth that the early apostles had: The power to raise the dead and heal the impossibly and terribly sick.

[This is what you have prayed and asked God for. You’ve asked Him for a great move, that He would fill you with His Holy Spirit, that His church would awaken. He is showing us how He is doing it. He is coming back for “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27). To be ready for His coming, we must stand faultless, cleansed of all spiritual spots and moral blemishes. We must be holy and worthy to be immersed into the Holy Ghost and fire (Acts 2:1-4).

The First “If…”

Christ said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). “If a man love Me…” Here is the first condition. The person that loves Christ will “keep His words.” If we love Christ by keeping His words, then the Father will love us. And the godhead will come and stay and dwell within us. This is the abiding!

This is a powerful promise. The Father Himself has promised to live in us—if we keep Christ’s words! We want this relationship, to have the Father living in us and doing His works (Acts 2:33).

So, how do we “keep Christ’s words”? As we have seen before, the word “keep” is translated from the Greek word meaning “to guard, to preserve, to protect.” And the word “words” comes from the Greek word logos, which is the plan and purpose of God spelled out from the beginning. We know that Christ is the Logos, the Word “made flesh” that dwelt among us and still does in the Spirit. Christ is the Purpose enacted for us all to see. [For more on this, see links at the end of this article.]

A Higher Love

Someone will say, “The Father already loves us.” Yes, He does. But now He is talking about a higher love. The depth of this love for us comes after we love Christ by keeping His words.

For, you see, the Father loves us in our spiritual infancy. But the Father’s love for us in this context is a deeper kind of love. It is like in the natural world. Our love for an infant is on a certain beginning level. Our love for a baby is not based on the same criteria as for a mature human being walking in the Spirit, making their “calling and election sure.”

The Father’s love for us as seen in John 14:23 is deeper, based on our hunger for His knowledge and our performance of His desires. God’s love at this stage of growth is a profound appreciation of our walk of faith, trusting Him, even though the trials are daunting. We are spiritually talking about young men and women in spiritual growth.

John wrote to “young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one” (I John 2:14). John is not writing to a “babe in Christ.” He is writing to the spiritually strong, to those with the word of God dwelling in them, having overcome Satan’s tricky ploys. This is 60-fold fruit bearing. They know God’s plan and purpose of reproducing Himself in a body of sons and daughters. They are strong with the Spirit abiding in them. They have overcome the devil.

The trouble is this: Most children of God want to remain spiritual baby Christians. They are content to bask in the Father’s love. They are mostly alive for what they can receive from the Father. But He wants them to grow in wisdom and understanding that they might learn how to love Him like He loves them. But most really don’t want to grow; they want to be happy and not face any trials and problems. God sees this as being “lukewarm.”

To show that we love Him more deeply, He tells us to guard, protect, cherish, and preserve His words, the Logos. We are to watch and guard His eternal purpose, which was with God in the beginning. And His purpose is this: God is reproducing Himself in us. When we guard the Logos, the Father will love us, and God will feel welcome to abide, stay, and remain in us. This process brings the abiding.

Why isn’t this happening much more often in the world? Because before you can guard and preserve His eternal plan and purpose, you must know what His plan and purpose is. We are talking about “knowledge of the holy.” Those that love Christ will learn of the Logos (November | 2024 | Immortality Road; Guarding the Logos | Immortality Road).

God loves those who guard, cherish, and protect the logos, the mind of Christ. He promised that He would dwell and abide in us! A wonderful promise!     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[For more: “Love Makes Known the Plan of God” | Immortality Road; abide | Immortality Road ]

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January 8, 2025 · 9:35 am

AI Confirms Our Deliverance at the Cross

Although artificial and a machine, AI can explain from the Bible how to repent of our sins and become righteous followers of Christ. Even AI knows that our old sinful self is dead. The following is Co-Pilot’s response to this prompt: “Explain Romans 6:1-12”

“Romans 6:1-12 addresses the transformative power of grace and the believer’s new identity in Christ. Here’s a clear and concise explanation:

1. Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? (Verse 1): Paul begins with a rhetorical question, challenging the idea that believers should continue to sin to experience more of God’s grace.

2. By no means! We died to sin (Verse 2): Paul emphatically rejects this notion, stating that believers have died to sin and should no longer live in it.

3-4. Baptism into Christ’s death (Verses 3-4): Paul explains that through baptism, believers are united with Christ in His death. This signifies the death of the old, sinful self and the beginning of a new life.

5-7. United in His resurrection (Verses 5-7): Just as believers are united with Christ in His death, they are also united with Him in His resurrection. This means that the power of sin is broken, and they are no longer slaves to sin.

8-10. Alive with Christ (Verses 8-10): Paul emphasizes that if believers have died with Christ, they will also live with Him. Christ’s resurrection ensures that death has no mastery over Him, and similarly, believers are freed from the power of sin.

11. Consider yourselves dead to sin (Verse 11): Paul urges believers to view themselves as dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. This perspective is essential for living a righteous life.

12. Do not let sin reign (Verse 12): Finally, Paul exhorts believers not to let sin control their lives or obey its desires. Instead, they should live in the freedom and righteousness granted through their new life in Christ.

In essence, Romans 6:1-12 calls believers to embrace their new identity in Christ, rejecting sin and living in the transformative power of grace.”

There it is—what I have been saying for decades. Even AI understood Romans 6. For AI did not base its response on denominational dogma. It just read the text and revealed what it said.   Christ’s followers should be able to share these major points to the lost. But the vast majority of pastors will never teach Romans 6:1-12. You cannot teach what you do not know, I suppose. A pity, for these verses form the bedrock foundation of the temple of God—us. We must have the cross experience—and be able to explain it.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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December 28, 2024 · 2:30 pm

The Abiding and the Additions Bear Much Fruit

“He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit.”

Lots to unpack in Christ’s words. First, we must understand that spiritual growth, like natural growth, is a process from seed to harvest. Spiritual maturity does not happen overnight. The spiritual seed grows first into “the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear (Mark 4:28).  

You then have levels of spiritual fruit [30-fold] and then more fruit [60-fold],and then much fruit [100-fold]. Christ said, “Every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2). Many spiritually young Christians fall away at this point because to bear more and more fruit, we the branches must be pruned or purged. This purging by the Father can be painful. This is where He corrects and chastens us, trimming off unproductive concepts and beliefs. Nobody likes the purging of the Father. But those who endure with patience will eventually grow to bear “much fruit” (John 15:5).

“Much fruit” is the 100-fold growth. This is full spiritual maturity. It is the same growth that Peter, Paul, and John demonstrated in the Acts of the Apostles and in their Spirit-led writings. These apostles and Christ Himself said that this growth is possible for us, too. Christ learned “obedience by the things that He suffered” (Heb. 5:8). We will do the same. We will reign with Christ if we suffer with Him (2 Tim. 2:12; Matt. 13:3-9, 18-23).

Spiritual Growth Comes through the Abiding

The word “abide” is translated as “continue, stay, remain” in many verses. The ability to continue walking through the stormy trials of a Christian’s sojourn, adds endurance/patience. We can endure the process of becoming God’s son or daughter here on earth by His presence abiding in us. It is the Spirit of truth that abides in us. The Spirit of truth remains in us by faith, by believing Christ’s words and promises. He said that he would “never leave you nor forsake you.” He fulfills this through adding facets of his divine nature–especially patience/endurance.

We add patience/endurance by faith, by believing his word when he says, in essence, I will remain in you by my Spirit’s presence in you; I will grow in you. This adding is activated by your belief in his words. Endurance/ patience is a part of the abiding. And the abiding of His Spirit in our hearts is a part of patience. There are seven additions to the faith. The seventh is agape love. When agape is added, our spiritual maturity has arrived. [Order my book The Additions to the Faith. It is free with free shipping. Order here: Ordering My Free Books in Paperback | Immortality Road

We are given the strength to abide in him when we by faith add endurance/patience. We can endure hardships and sufferings by having his Spirit abide in our hearts. They will come, but so will his Spirit be guiding us into all truth. “For you have need of endurance [patience], so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise (Heb. 10:36).  

And that promise is God sending down the Holy Spirit and filling us with power to complete His mission. He will in His own sweet time baptize us in fire which cleanses all false doctrines and concepts. He desires for us to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice,” putting to death our old desires and surrendering to his greater and far more glorious destiny for us.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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