Category Archives: kingdom of God

August 16, 2014 · 6:42 pm

The Manifestation of the Sons of God–Purging Out the Old Leaven

We have become the princes and princesses of God the King by our new spiritual birth. However, we are in training to assume royal duties with Him upon His return to earth.

What should we be doing to get ready for this great responsibility? We are admonished to “purge out the old leaven that the lump may be holy” (I Corinthians 5:7).

Leaven? What does that mean? Look. Christ is the “bread of life.” We have received His Spirit, and it is “no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.” Therefore, we as His body are the “bread of life,” too, because of His presence within us. But we come into this new life with some old concepts about God and the affairs of this world system that must be gotten rid of. We have carried over in our thinking old doctrines, beliefs, traditions, and concepts.

Unleavened bread is “sincerity and truth” (I Cor. 5:8). So, “leaven” must be insincerity and falsehoods. Christ Himself told us to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1). Yes, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” The Pharisees were the religious leaders, and Herod was the political leader back in that day. They are symbols of religious and political leaders today. “There is no new thing under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). So, Christ is telling us to beware of them in our day, too.

To “purge out” the old leaven, we must be brutally honest with ourselves and “examine ourselves.” We must be open to new truth; if we are not open, then we must believe that we have all truth already. And if we think that way, then it will be very difficult for the Spirit to “guide us into all truth.”

No one except Him can help us get ready to rule with Him. It is our responsibility to study and search out true concepts and get rid of false concepts about Him and His plan and purpose. Like the “Reverend Mr. Black” said in song, “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.”

We must rid our minds of false religious and political concepts and take on the “mind of Christ” in order to “make our calling and election sure” as His princes and princesses.

3 Comments

Filed under calling of God, elect, eternal purpose, false doctrines, kingdom of God, old leaven, repentance

Tagged as false doctrines, falsehoods, kingdom of God, sons of God, truth

July 19, 2014 · 6:09 pm

The Commandment of God We Never Obey

We Christians endeavor to obey what God tells us to do or not do. He says, Do not steal, we don’t steal. We really do try to obey His commands, admonishments, and exhortations.

But there’s one commandment we seldom if ever obey. Very few of us even know about it. And it is this: “Ask Me about My sons, the work of My hands” (Isa. 45: 11). The Spirit of God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah, telling us to ask Him about what He is doing, how He occupies Himself. He is commanding those who sincerely seek Him to literally ask Him about His work.

The work of God’s hands is what He does to forge us into His family of sons and daughters. It is His everyday toil and vocation. And He wants us to inquire of Him concerning what He is doing. It is so important to Him that He is commanding us to ask Him about the work of His hands.

Making Sons

And that work is making sons–sons of the King, the princes and princesses in His Kingdom of God. His children are His heirs, His royal offspring who will rule with Christ the King during His 1,000 year reign here on earth.

God is a worker. He is depicted in the scriptures as a workman working with His hands. He is a “wise master builder” who has laid the foundation of His house. He is the Potter sitting at the wheel, working the clay (us) into vessels of honor or dishonor. He is the Sower of seed; He is the husbandman that labors in His vineyard.

Ask Me About My Sons

Okay, Father. I will ask You. God, what about your sons? What about your work, the work of your hands? Are they the same offspring that the apostle Paul speaks of in Romans 8, where he speaks of “the glory which shall be revealed in us” (v. 18)? Are your sons that entity that the whole creation is waiting for (v. 19)? Are they the “joint-heirs with Christ” (v. 17)? Wait a minute. That’s us, isn’t it? Us Christians? Are Your sons the “remnant according to the election of grace”? Are they the 100 fold fruit bearing over-comers in our end time generation who will do the “greater works”?

I believe that the answer is yes to all of these questions. His sons and daughters are the election, His chosen ones. He says that they will “go on to perfection” in full spiritual maturity, being just like our example Jesus Christ (Yahshua the Anointed One).

With God we can do this; we can walk this higher walk. “And nothing shall be impossible to him that believes.” We are “more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (8: 37).

But we must pray for eye salve that we may see, for “blindness in part is happened to Israel [not the Israeli nation, but rather the “lost sheep of the House of Israel]. Only a small remnant can see right now the plan of God in how He is molding and shaping His offspring. It is this remnant who are the called and chosen and eventually will be glorified (Romans 8-28-33). They will not hollowly display God’s physical image in this world, but they will manifest His glorious presence. This is what any good prince or princess would do–to bear witness to the righteous and holy sovereign reign of their wonderful Father the King.

This is what our Father is working on–us, His elect, His chosen ones. That is what He is all about–us. We are the work of His hands, His workmanship. And He wants us to ask Him about His sons. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[For more on how He works on us and makes us His sons and daughters, go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/believing-the-resurrection-in-us-how-the-holy-spirit-comes-down-into-us/%5D

“Seek First the Kingdom of God,” the Government of the Invisible Spirit

The phrase “kingdom of God” has been used so much by so many people from so many different religious backgrounds that its real meaning may have been lost. Heretofore, most have understood the phrase to mean “God’s kingdom,” or the kingdom that belongs to Him. And this is true, it does belong to Him and His children. However, there is another way to look at that phrase, and that is “the kingdom of the Spirit.”

It says in John 4 that “God is Spirit.” Therefore, “kingdom of God” can be construed as “kingdom of Spirit.” Or, in other words, it means a form of order and government headed by a Sovereign entity that is comprised of Spirit. The Master did say that “the flesh profits nothing; it is the spirit that makes alive.” “All is vanity,” in other words, except the invisible spiritual things.

We are admonished that we should seek first this invisible spirit kingdom. Also, the only true worship of the Father is in spirit and in truth. It is not any old spirit worship, but it must be spiritual and truthful. It won’t be anything remotely having to do with earthly natural things.

True worship is an invisible connection between our spirit in the human heart and the Eternal Creator Spirit. It is the connection you cannot see. You cannot legislate it, tax it, build fine buildings in order to coax true worship into your midst. It is an invisible agreement between the Creator and His special spiritual creation, Adam. “The true worshipers must worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” They must find out the truth about His invisible Spirit reign within, for “the kingdom of God (Spirit) is within you.”

It is a realm of the heart, an inner sanctum full of true thoughts about the true nature of things. “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.” You can’t see it with your fleshly eyes. It is not of this earth. Consequently, when we look out over this earth, anything we see, be it ever so religious, cannot be or have anything to do with the kingdom of Spirit (God).

“Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.” The kingdom of God is a dimension and realm that our five senses don’t pick up on. It is not of this earth. It must first be believed on, and then it will begin to manifest itself to the understanding of our hearts. We will never see it first with our earthly eyes and then believe. Faith must be exercised—believing having not yet seen with the fleshly eyes. The kingdom of God is a government of God, who is Spirit, and who rules in our hearts by His very essence, which is spirit. Kenneth Wayne Hancock {For more on this topic see this earlier article https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/not-of-this-earth/ and the one dated 3/17/08 }

1 Comment

Filed under belief, kingdom of God, Spirit of God, spiritual growth, Spiritual Life Cycle

Tagged as faith, Holy Spirit, kingdom of God, worship

May 3, 2014 · 3:18 pm

The Manifestation of the Sons of God–What the World Needs Now

{Order your free copy of The Unveiling of the Sons of God or my new book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It is totally free with free shipping to my readers. Just send your mailing address to my email address: wayneman5@hotmail.com Specify which one.}

This world has one major need right now at the beginning of the 21^st Century. The world doesn’t need another politician telling the people what they want to hear. The world doesn’t need a steady robust economy to help it through the hard times that have been prophesied upon it. No. The world needs the sons of God to arrive on the scene. They must come forth for these last days.

The whole creation, the apostle Paul wrote, (whether it knows it or not), is anxiously awaiting the sons of God to come upon the world stage. For the sons of God will have something that all mortals walking the face of the earth must have. They will have the key that will set the whole creation free from the chains of a certain physical death. These children of the Most High are God’s elect, His sons made in His image, and they are what this world needs. They are the ones who will have cut through all of the deception and vice in this world system. They alone will see the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit of the living Yahweh. They will build the old waste places and build the spiritual walls to the heavenly city.

Why the World Needs the Sons of God

The creation has purposely been subjected to mortality by its Creator God. The impending gloom of a certain death is no accident or aberration of God’s original plan. It has been His will all along for death to come to all living. And then, a few mortals will be brought by Him to an awareness of the abiding power of His spiritual presence and will become His actual spiritual children. He will change them and will engulf them with immortality one day soon. And it is through them that the whole creation will finally come to know this glorious liberty from a certain physical death. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Romans 8:19-21, NIV.

Every living thing on this planet will die; the whole creation will decay and go back to dust. And we, this earthly creation, are “in bondage of corruption,” as it says in the King James Version.

The word “corruption” is translated from the Greek word phthora, #5356 in Strong’s. It means “decay.” Its root comes from #5351 phthio, to waste, shrivel, or wither. We, the creation, are bound to become decaying matter someday. And all of us, be we religious or not, are groaning under the impending physical doom that awaits us.

All of us have a built in desire to live forever. Every ancient culture, without exception, was concerned with this impending gloom of an early exit from life. All the ancient religions were concerned about how to secure immortality for the mortal. And so it is with religions today. Man keeps on waiting, waiting, waiting for something real that will happen in order to deliver them from a certain death.

The creation is like the wife of the Creator, who is in the deep pains of childbirth. She is struggling to deliver her children, the sons of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Romans 8: 22-23, KJV.

The whole creation is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the sons of God because they are the first ones who will be released from mortality’s chains. They will be the first ones who will not have to taste death. And then after they are made known, the creation can look forward to its redemption. That is how important the sons of God are. When they are adopted or placed as sons, then a new era begins—an era where immortals will stride the earth, showing forth God’s way.

We Who Have Some Truth Also Desperately Need the Sons of God

Just look around us. What do we see in every corner? We see lurid trash in political high places, filthy-minded movies and TV. There is no shame to the world system. And it is not getting any better. So we try to lock in on the word of God. We endeavor to glimpse a truth here, a truth there. Some of us are trying to lead a holy life, but we “see through a glass darkly.” We know, or should know that we are not walking in all truth. For if we were, we would be bearing the same spiritual fruit as the prophets and apostles of God. And we can’t seem to get in agreement and one accord with other sincere followers of Christ.

As a large body of people, we can’t see eye to eye enough to get together. Divisions abound. We, if we are blessed, have a place to meet with a few other people who share some of our own beliefs, but something is dras-tically missing. The unity of the Spirit is only a dream, for one group does not see eye to eye with another. We are to be in one mind and one accord, and yet, who is to say just what that one mind is? Who has the authority to say for sure anything? Who has a sure word? There are several thousand “Christian” denominations, and they are growing exponentially daily. There is probably a different concept of God and His plan for every one of His professing followers.

And it appears that the enemy is gaining ground, and we, the body of Christ, because of our disagreements and lack of unity, are seemingly losing ground as far as any “great move of truth” is concerned.

So what is the answer to this dilemma? It is as if Yahweh Himself is needed to come down and just flat appear to His select few, whoever they are! That would clear up the dim vision of those He has chosen. They would definitely “get on the same page” after that shared glorious experience. In the light of His own countenance and glow filling the room each would be in, He would straighten out off-concepts, purge out old leaven, old hypocrisies, and false concepts of Himself. There would be no self-delusion if the King Himself came down to a handful!

Then a fire would well up from out of their bones! Then they would cry to His people in His stead. They would be His voice with his word welling up and out as springs gush out making rivers where dry land once was.

That is what we all need. We need a sure word. We need the Captain of our faith Himself to get a cadre of His brothers to catch on fire and, in turn, ignite the world. We need a group of people baptized with the Spirit and with fire. We need them! We groan within ourselves, longing for someone to stand in the gap between God and the world.

That is the only thing that will ever turn this world upside down—if the people of the world were ready and knew they had a need for God in human form, had a need for the sons of the living God.

This whole creation is crying and groaning looking for someone sincere and true to believe in. The heroes are gone; the people run to their idols of music and movies. Those are their gods—gods who cannot see or hear them and their longings and needs, for their gods can see no one but themselves. The whole creation does not know it, but they are groaning and longing for the manifestation of the sons of God. And these sons will walk with the Lamb wherever He goes, for they shall be like Him. These are they who will do the greater works that the Master spoke of.

It All Hinges on the Sons, But Do They Know Who They Are?

Yes, the manifestation of the sons of God is of extreme importance in God’s plan, but do they know who they are? Do they realize their calling that He has placed on them? Do they know that He knew them long before their earthly sojourn began? Do they at present realize that He has already given them a glorious destiny—a destiny that has them justified from sin, set apart for this special work, and also glorified from heaven? Does God’s elect, His chosen ones, know these things?

Have they called on His name and restored their heart back to Him? But if they haven’t believed on Him, then how are they to call on Him? And how can they believe on this God if they have never heard Him, never heard His Spirit, never heard Him who is the Word? They are going to have to hear Him being spoken out of the mouth of another son in order to believe on Him. And how shall these prospective sons hear unless there be a preacher? And who is really going to be effective as a preacher? The world is full of preachers. Anyone who thinks they have heard from God calls himself a preacher. The future sons will be reached by those who proclaim the truth. And these proclaimers will be sent. For whosoever shall call upon the name of Yahweh shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{This is Chapter 1 of my book, The Unveiling of the Sons of God. I originally published it as a trade paperback book. Email me to get a copy of it a lot cheaper than amazon.com [wayneman5@hotmail.com ] Or you may read it on-line here on this website by clicking on “E-BOOK the Unveiling” at the top of this page. I would love to hear from you. Please make a comment…}

4 Comments

Filed under agape, body of Christ, church, end time prophecy, eternal purpose, glorification, immortality, kingdom of God, manifestation of the sons of God, princes and princesses of God, sons and daughters of God, Spiritual Life Cycle

Tagged as immortality, manifestation of the sons of God, sons of God, Yahweh

April 19, 2014 · 4:15 pm

Five Fold Ministry Offices and Growth of the Elect

There is a growth in the Christian walk. As the Spirit in us brings us to more mature attitudes and capabilities, we, of course, with His help grow in grace and in His Spirit.

“First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear,” the Master Christ said (Mark 4: 26-28). This is like how the kingdom of God grows here on earth at present. The seed, the word of God, is sown into some hearts and it grows. For “the kingdom of God is within you.” Like the growth of any seed, a progression of growth develops in His governance in us.

We start out as babes in Christ, then we grow into youth, and then into fatherhood (I John 2: 13-14). And we are “under tutors and governors” as children of God (Gal. 4: 2).

And God has set some members in His body to shepherd and teach and inspire the others until we all grow spiritually to the place the Father has purposed. These are the “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.”

And these are gifted (from God) to do some specific things for Him. The first thing they will do is help us to be “perfectly joined together in the same mind” (I Cor. 1: 10). Which mind? The mind of Christ. For they will have received the “word of wisdom” and the “word of knowledge,” the first two gifts of the Spirit, from the Father. And with those gifts, they will “mend” that which is broken in our lives spiritually [1]. They will show us “the way” to spiritual completeness “till we all come in the unity of the faith, unto a perfect man.”

And what does this phrase “perfect man” mean? It is the goal of Christ and his five-fold ministry offices that we all come “unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive…” In short that we could “grow up into Him…even Christ” (Eph. 4: 11-15).

There are teachers many and evangelists many, and pastors many. Who can say which ones are true and which ones are false? One thing is certain. All two thousand denominations and organizations can’t be in perfect harmony with God’s plan and purpose. Why? Because of the disharmony amongst them. Divisions abound; schisms prevail in the Christian congregation leading the sheep of His pasture each to his own way. As in “and they all did what was right in their own eyes,” which is what happens when the King’s truth is not present (Judges 17: 6).

In a word, the Holy Spirit will be ministering to the church through these five offices. For it will not be man teaching us how to become like Christ, but Christ’s Spirit teaching us through those very teachers. They will teach us the deeper things, the “strong meat” that is fit for the princes and princesses of God, that they may grow (Hebrews 5: 14).

Being a Child of God Is Not the Goal

We are not to remain children of God! A child is mostly alive to see what they can get from the Father. You hear it in prayers every day. God does not want us to remain children because that kind of self-centeredness produces instability in the spiritual walk. Children of God are lukewarm spiritually–neither all in nor all out.

God warns the little children in Rev. 3: 14-22. These immature Christians are very prevalent in this last church age of Laodecia. If they remain lukewarm, God will reject them and will “spue them” out of His mouth.

And why are these lukewarm? Because they think they are rich both materially and spiritually and “have need of nothing.” They think that they really know all they need to know about God. They are unteachable; pride always is that way. And they do not know that they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

A Cure for the Poor, Blind, and Naked

God prescribes a remedy for the little children who are lukewarm and poor and blind and naked. He counsels them to buy from Him “gold tried in the fire that you may be rich” and “white raiment, that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness do not appear” and “anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see” (Rev. 3: 18). Then He commands them to repent, so there are things to stop doing in order to correct this tepidity.

Purified gold is faith tried in the furnace of afflictions and sufferings. White raiment is God’s righteousness in us and thriving. Eye salve is that anointing that can only come from Him in His sovereignty. And with these things bought from Him and added, the doer will have overcome and will have grown out of spiritual childhood.

But how is the young Christian to obtain the knowledge of these things? They must be taught by the Spirit through one of God’s teachers. But how does one discern which are the true teachings that will lead us to become a manifested son and daughter of God and which are the false teachings?

First, they will teach the “eternal purpose” of God and how He is “bringing many sons unto glory.” And that does not mean “going to heaven.” It means the granting and growth unto immortality–right here on earth! Some will be “conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8: 28-30).

This eternal purpose will be taught by His five fold offices–this eternal purpose of bringing a cadre of believers with Christ fully formed in them to full glory–to be exactly like Jesus Christ! There. I said it, and I will keep on saying it until we all come into same vision that God has for us. And His vision for us is this: He wants to share His throne with us! (Rev. 3: 21). We must remember that we are “more than conquerors through Christ.”

The Elect

We are speaking now about God’s elect, the ones He has chosen for this “high calling” of becoming fully like Him. For they will share God’s vision of our perfection beginning with the conquering of sin in our lives here on earth. They will not try to keep you a sinner; they will not limit God and His power.

They will not keep on laying the foundation of God over and over again. For the scene’s the same as it was 50-100 years ago in denominationland. Small congregation. Everyone knows everyone. They’ve all been saved years ago. And what does the pastor preach on? Christ died for you. Be saved. Same hymns, same format. No change. No growth. And that is it. I appreciate your sincerity, pastor, but the sheep need to be fed so that they can grow! We have got to shake our selves out of the slumber that the shepherds have lulled us into.

As I’ve said before. If you are not being led into greater and more profound truths out of His word, one of two things is happening. Either you already have all the truth and there is no more to be learned, or the Spirit of God is not working with you. For He said, “When the Spirit of truth is come, He will lead you into all truth.” He will take us from one truth that, in turn, opens another door into more truth.

Let us pray that He continues to lead us into all truth. He will use His five offices to do just that. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[1] All words and phrases in bold letters are from this same Greek word found here: http://www.blbclassic.org/lang/lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2675&t=KJV

2 Comments

Filed under apostles' doctrine, belief, calling of God, Christ, church, elect, eternal purpose, faith, glorification, God's desire, immortality, kingdom of God, knowledge, manifestation of the sons of God, princes and princesses of God, righteousness, sons and daughters of God, sons of God, Spirit of God, truth

Tagged as gifts of the Spirit, Spirit, the elect

April 12, 2014 · 4:26 pm

Having the Mind of Christ–Key to Staying Focused

We know as Christians that we should have our thoughts on the things of God. For “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee,” the Spirit of Christ in Isaiah tells us (26: 3). But, let’s face it, our minds wander to things of this earth, trivial things, things that do not matter in God’s big picture.

How then do we get our minds to think on the things of God? How do we prevent them from wandering? Is there a focal point that will help us?

He admonished us to “let this mind be in you.” And that is the mind of Christ. But what was in His mind? What does He think about? Paul tells us to think on the things that are lovely, just and of a good report (Phil. 4: 8).

Of course, it all starts with grateful thoughts toward our Savior for delivering us from our decadent old lives. What love our God has for us! Beyond our finite thoughts to comprehend such care for us!

Things That Are Just

But does His mind stop with His interaction with us in His love for us in saving us, as wonderful as that is? Or is there more in His mind? Do His thoughts transcend the personal and enter into the geo-political–even into galactic concerns?

We know that He is a just God, a righteous Judge. Justice is His hallmark; fairness is His eternal standard.

As the righteous King, could Christ be thinking about His soon coming return when He will “rule all nations with a rod of iron”? Do not most every earthly king in exile prepare his heart and mind for his return to the throne, his seat of justice for his people?

Of course, they do. Christ tells us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” The very first thing that we Christians should be seeking is God’s kingdom. First, we should be studying His word to see just what the kingdom of God is–to see if what we have been taught by the churches about the kingdom is correct. For Christ has much to say about His kingdom.

But we Americans and most people of the world have been too long removed from being a king’s subject. We are individualistic, self-willed, and self-centered. A monarchy is foreign to us after 225 years with our present government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Of course, our republic is a definite improvement on the despotic king George. However, our experiment in governing ourselves is not the kingdom/government of God that the scriptures speak of.

Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, is returning to earth and will rule and reign right here on earth for 1,000 years, according to the scriptures. That is the kingdom/government that we are admonished by Him to seek after.

We must simply stop thinking about God’s kingdom as some mystical ethereal heavenly realm that we are going to escape to. No. Christ is coming back to earth for 1,000 years, and sitting on the throne with Him will be God’s royal offspring, the over-comers. He promised, “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I overcame and am set down with My Father in His throne (Rev. 3: 21). Somebody will fulfill this His promise, for He does not speak idle words.

Help us, God, to let this vision of rulership with Christ permeate our hard hearts. Help us believe and cleave to your promises, for they are your thoughts; they are the creative seeds that emanate from Your mind to us.

We simply must begin thinking in terms of Christ as this regal sovereign Monarch and how He will completely change the geo-political dynamic.

His kingdom is the good news. Personal salvation provided us by Him, though precious, is but a first step that enable us to first “see” and then “enter into the kingdom of God (John 3: 3-5).

Personal salvation enables us to become a “babe in Christ,” but like an earthly baby, a young Christian needs to grow up spiritually into full maturity. Some of His followers will mature into kingship and will sit with Him on His throne.

This is what our exiled King is thinking about. He is all about preparing and then sharing His throne with His elect. Read His words now with all this in mind, and you will see into His wondrous thinking. We should be filling our minds with these thoughts about His return and rule. These are the things that are true and honest and just and pure and lovely and of a good report. And we are to think on these things, as Christ does at this very moment, and “the God of peace shall be with you.” For He is the living Word. And His words to us are the very Essence that comprises His thoughts. And these thoughts of His will keep us focused. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Five Offices of God–For Our Perfection

Unto man has God “put in subjection the world to come.” Man. That’s us, brethren. In the world to come, the next age, the time in the history of this earth after Christ’s return to rule it for a thousand years—God has ordained that some of us human beings will be rulers with Christ in the government that He will establish (Heb. 2: 5).

To rule and reign with Christ in His kingdom/government—that is the high calling. Brethren, are we ready? Have we grown spiritually that we would be strong and pure enough to take on that mantle of responsibility for the King, to be His administrators, His regents, His arms and hands, His heart and mind in the myriad matters of ruling the King’s earth?

To help us fulfill this “high calling” of God, Christ came “that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (2: 9). And Christ will be made complete and perfect by His act of “bringing many sons unto glory” (v. 10). And this glory is us being glorified, which in turn brings final glory to the King and Master. Christ will be fully glorified when He fulfills His final destiny, which is bringing His chosen ones to full spiritual maturity.

He did say, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12: 24). We are the “much fruit” that He refers to on the road to His glorification (v. 23).

And because we, Christ’s followers, have come out of the matrix of “flesh and blood, He also Himself took part of the same.” Why? So that He could pave the way for our immortality, made possible by the destruction of the devil. Christ destroys the devil when He destroys sin in our life and gives us a new life by faith (Heb. 2: 14). That’s the foundation to build the temple of God on. Since we are His temple,that is where we start.

And Christ brings us to that full mature spiritual growth by sharing His Spirit with His body of believers. He shares His Spirit with His teachers, and they then impart the necessary knowledge to Christ’s brethren, for “He is not ashamed to call [us] brethren (2: 11).

Why God Gave Us the Five Fold Ministry Offices

In fact, Christ set in His spiritual body of believers five offices: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And Christ established these offices “for the perfecting of the saints [the brethren, us], for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4: 11-12).

Let’s savor this a moment. God has chosen out from among all the Christians in the world a few to be in these offices. Why? What is their purpose? First, they are necessary “for the perfecting” of the members of Christ’s church, which is His body of believers. The Greek word (G2675) translated “perfecting” here means “to be fit, prepared, to be mended and repaired, and ethically, to be complete and perfect, and to make one what he ought to be” (http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G2675&t=KJV).

The true offices of God will help us by the Spirit within them to become prepared, ready and fit to assume the duties in Christ’s kingdom—royal duties to be assigned to us of our Father. For this is really the “work of the ministry” that Paul refers to here. The “ministry” of Christ is the administration of His government that will fill the whole earth, according to the prophet Daniel in 2: 44 and 7: 18: “But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.” That’s a long time to be in the presence of the King of kings (that’s us with the little “k”). And we “shall take the kingdom and possess it forever.” We. Us. Ruling with Christ the King.

That’s the gospel, my brothers and sisters. That’s the good news that man needs. Getting rid of the corruption caused by the sinful hearts of the leaders of this present world system and replacing it with righteous rulers who contain the Spirit of Christ in their bosoms. That’s the gospel; that’s the good news. It is the “gospel of kingdom” (Matt. 4: 23; Mark 1: 14-15). But how the gospel has been watered down at best by preaching only a tiny portion of His plan! How it has been poisoned by the preaching of false concepts like the prosperity doctrine! Well did the prophets cry, “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, Saith the LORD.” And, “My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray.” But then He promises finally, “I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jer 23: 1; 50: 6; Ezk 34: 2; Jer 3: 15).

How Long Will They Teach Us?

These Spirit-led apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers in our day will continue to teach “till we all come in the unity of the faith” (Eph. 4: 13). They through the Spirit will teach His pure concepts until we Christians are on the same page, until we have His vision. They will teach by His Spirit until the body has the true “knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man” (4: 11).

They will continue to teach the truth until we are fully grown, walking in the Spirit like Peter, James, John, and Paul did after the Resurrection. “Perfect” here means a completed spiritual life cycle growth. They will teach until we all have the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (v. 11).

But don’t just take my word for it. We must prove all things through study and prayer to see if the things expounded here take root and grow in our hearts—to see if this vision of a royal heritage quickens like a seed in warm rich soil which loses its lonely first state and dies, only to be reborn as a green lively plant nourished by the living waters, alive now to reproduce itself, as the Creator has reproduced Himself in us. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

5 Comments

Filed under apostles' doctrine, calling of God, children of God, church, death of self, elect, end time prophecy, eternal purpose, false doctrines, glorification, immortality, kingdom of God, manifestation of the sons of God, mind of Christ, perfection, prosperity doctrine, resurrection, righteousness, sons of God, Spirit of God, spiritual growth, Spiritual Life Cycle, world system

Tagged as "Kings", Holy Spirit, kingdom of God, perfection, spiritual growth

January 11, 2014 · 1:32 am

With Him in the Beginning–Out of His Treasure Things New and Old

The elect of God were with Christ in the beginning. How can that be seeing that we are encased in flesh walking around this old planet earth in the year of our Lord 2014?

Yet Christ did say and the apostle John did record this, “And you also shall bear witness because you have been with Me from the beginning” (John 15: 27). With Him from the beginning. Which beginning? Some will argue that He meant since the beginning of the Christian walk. But the Greek word arche, #G756 in Strong’s, rendered “beginning” in the above quote, also appears fifteen chapters earlier. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God…and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” (John 1: 1-2, 14). That was before our Christian walk.

The word translated “beginning,” arche, equals in the Greek language “the absolute beginning of all things…” It is that in “which anything begins to be, the origin, the active cause” (http://www.blbclassic.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G746&t=KJV). Arche is that sacred spiritual matrix through which all springs. And so the Holy Scriptures relate an absolutely precious secret in that in this “beginning of all things,” a group of beings–now incarnated, now redeemed and bought back out of the degradation of sin–were actually with Christ in the beginning! That is what it says.

How does that tie in with us, we may ask? When we partake of His Spirit, we are drinking into what we had with Him in the beginning. His Spirit in us transforms us day by day into what we were when we were with Him back then. We are restored by faith, back to that relationship we had with Him before the worlds were ever formed. Before the earth was ever made, before the seven day creation week, before the sabbath day was instituted–we, His children, were there with him in spirit.

For what are we really without Him? Our bodies without His presence within are so much earth and dust. When we receive a portion of His Spirit, we receive into these earthly shells a spark of the divine One.

He who was from the beginning now takes up His abode in our earthly bodies, and the only “I” now is His Anointed One (Christ) in us. For after our own cross experience with Him, it is no longer the old selfish “I” that lives, “but it is Christ that lives in me.”

As we continue to walk this way, we can pray as Christ prayed, “Father, glorify me with the glory I had with You before the world ever began” (John 17:5).

We Must Go Back

But we must go back, back, back into time–before the temporal, before the temporary shackles of our earthen bodies, before the clamor of the flesh’s demands and desires, before the worlds were ever slung into their ethereal pinnings–when we sat around with our Father, rejoicing with Him about the beauty of His plan, “when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38: 7).

We must go back there, before Satan was ever commissioned by the Father to be the “accuser of the brethren.” Before Satan became the prince and power of the air, sent down to try us and force us ultimately back to our Father for deliverance.

For we have all strayed like sheep away from our Shepherd. We have strayed from the spiritual pastures we had with Him before He created the pastures of earth. When we return and let Him gather us and restore us back into His heavenly-minded fold, then we will know what it means to have “our conversation in heaven.”

Passing the Test

When we walk in this truth–that we were with Him in the beginning–then we have passed the test–the test to see if we will believe the lie that we are only animal and not children of God, or believe the truth that we are only temporarily in a mortal state before our change to immortality comes.

This is the crux of the matter. When we are stripped of everything and reduced to our lowest state, do we believe that we are His spiritual children, with all the rights and responsibilities, or do we believe the lie? For this lie must be refuted by our walk on earth. Others must see “our good works and glorify the Father.” They will see that, yes, there is a God, for only God can shine the light of joy and love through a person like that.

Why This is Hard to Believe

The children of God were with their spiritual Father in the beginning, so declares the holy scriptures. This message is difficult to receive when a person, dwelling on the earth and its pulls, is full and fat, and is “doing great,” and is living high-on-the-hog.

He has need of nothing, he thinks. But he does not know that as a selfish earthbound mortal, he is really blind to the heavenly way. He is wretched in his blindness to spiritual matters, for he can never be happy being earthly-minded. He is poor, for he lacks the Spirit that was in the beginning. And he is naked, strutting blindly on the earth, willingly ignorant of the truth about what is really happening “on earth as it is in heaven” (Rev. 3: 17).

And the only thing that will wake up God’s people to Him is that He allows the engineering of an economic fall–one that will strip the toys and gadgets from the lost sheep of the House of Israel. In the Old Testament stories, it was always an economic collapse brought on by crooked politicians that finally pierced through the hard hearts. When they became destitute, “then they cried unto the LORD (Yahweh).”

And He heard them and came down by making His Presence known to a prophet, who in turn, led His people away from the moral and spiritual abyss and led them back “to the beginning”–back to the pastures of the Father’s heart.

How to Get Back to the Beginning with Him

We will be restored back to what we had with Him in the beginning. How? We believe that we receive His Spirit–after we surrender our old self on the cross and let it die with Christ, who was the sin sacrifice (Romans 6: 1-6). This is the first step. Then through just believing God and His love granting us a new life, heart, and spirit, we begin to walk in this new life–His Life now incarnated in us.

We believe that His Spirit within us now cauterizes eventually all connections to our earthly past. And then by faith (belief), we leave the bars and chains of earthly thinking with its negative demands, and we begin to walk in the Spirit, in the spiritual state that we already “had with Him before the world began.” For the truth is that we were with Him in the beginning. The “We” here is the portion of His Spirit that we are now, not our earthly body.

For after receiving Christ, anything we are is “new” to our current earthly reality, but “old” in that our new existence in Christ is one we shared with Him before time as we know it began.

A person instructed in the Kingdom of God will, consequently, “bring forth out of his treasure things new and old” (Matt. 13: 52). The “old” is our spiritual relationship we had with Him before our earthly sojourn began. The “things new” is living now through His Spirit within our hearts–right now here on earth.

This sin-free spiritual walk in Christ is “new” and rare, for few have been priveleged to glimpse this; few have been given the eyesalve to anoint the earthen eyes that they may see. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

4 Comments

Filed under belief, children of God, Christ, elect, eternal life, eternal purpose, faith, kingdom of God, manifestation of the sons of God, sons of God, Spirit of God

Tagged as Christ, heaven, sons of God

October 15, 2013 · 8:41 pm

God Hates Certain Things…AND Certain People

God hates certain things. “These six things the LORD hates; yes seven are an abomination to Him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet swift running to evil, a false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6: 16-19). These are all, of course, attributes of evil people.

The word “hate” in Hebrew is sane, #H 8130. This same word is used when God states, “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his…heritage waste…” (Malachi 1: 2-3).

In John 8: 44, the Savior calls the Pharisees the children of the devil. “Ye are of your father the devil,” Christ told them. Ironically, they were the most religious people in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. They professed God, spoke about Him all the time, yet they were not His children. To the contrary, they had a different origin–different spiritual genes–a different generation from a different progenitor.

This theme of two completely different spiritual seeds is found back in the seed book–Genesis. “Two nations are in thy womb and two manner of people,” Yahweh said to Rebekah, referring to Esau/Edom and Jacob/Israel. God would later say, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Gen. 25: 23; Rom. 9:13). Interestingly, the descendants of Esau/Edom would convert in 125 B.C. to Judaism and become the Pharisees and chief priests and rulers that Christ would encounter a century later. “They were again subdued by John Hyrcanus (c. 125 BC), who forcibly converted them to Judaism and incorporated them into the Jewish nation” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edom).

They took over Jerusalem religiously, politically and economically. They were the ones who Christ rebuked when He told them, “You are of your father the devil.” To this day, Esau strives through his offspring to get back the birthright that he sold in Genesis. Esau’s children today are still masquerading as God’s chosen people, but their end is disastrous (the whole book of the prophet Obadiah).

The Spirit of God spoke of Esau’s demise through the prophet Malachi about 400 B.C., some 1,400 years after Esau and Jacob were born! God has a long memory. He evidently does not forget His own words.

Actually, all of us “spend our years as a tale that is told.” It is all written in the Lamb’s book of life. “Jacob have I loved,” God said of His true chosen people, who would be a company of many nations, the most blessed nations in the earth. The modern day Israeli nation cannot fulfill the prophecies that both Jacob and Moses spoke over the twelve sons of Jacob in Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33. There is no way because they are only one tiny desert nation, totally dependent on the United States of America for their survival, and have been for 65 years. They are interlopers and are destined for a disastrous fall, according to the word of God.

“Ye serpents. Ye generation of vipers!” were the words Christ pronounced upon them during His earthly ministry. Nothing has changed. Past is prologue to the present and the future. They are still in control of this world’s system, and they think that they have it all wrapped up.

But God has a secret weapon up His sleeve. He will do “His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act.” It will be as in Mount Perazim and when God showed His wrath in the valley of Gibeon (Isa. 28: 21). And what happened to their enemies when God did this strange act? “The LORD (Yahweh) cast down great stones from heaven upon them…and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword” (Joshua 10: 11-13). This anticipates the heavenly bodies of Revelation’s trumpets and vials of wrath when God puts an end to the present world system, Babylon the Great, at the end of the Tribulation Period.

And all of the “merchants of the earth” will mourn when that happens [Think international banking families who monopolize the world’s wealth as in Rev. 18: 11-19]. Then our Savior will return to set up His kingdom and rule right here on earth for 1,000 years of peace. That’s the ticket that His followers have purchased through the fellowship of His sufferings, as they “present their bodies a living sacrifice.” Only their ticket into His kingdom is not just as spectators, but rather as His family of rulers in the earth–administrators and ambassadors, ruling with Him. KWH

8 Comments

Filed under end time prophecy, great tribulation period, kingdom of God, One World Government

Tagged as devil, hate, love, Pharisees

October 5, 2013 · 3:45 pm

The Vision of God–Let Us Speak of Eyes

Vision is not man looking through his own eyes at God executing His will on earth. Nor is it us looking through God’s eyes. But rather vision occurs when God looks through our eyes. When our eyes are but His oculars through which, unclouded by the stains of earthly wisdom’s tainted presumptions, He assays His creation, and broken-heartedly sees the need for justice, love, and mercy. And He sees that from these three pools of water must He now use our hands and hearts to minister moisture to a parched and famine infested land.

For “where there is no vision, the people perish.” Where no man gives his eyes that He may peer our sad present world, then the vision is dim and the people suffer. But after He has made His abode in many, then in the presence of choiring angels He at last will stride forth across the domain of His kingdom here on earth, righting wrongs held seething in hearts for ten thousand years.

But first, those called to surrender now the regal aspirations for their selves, their dreams of their own greatness must be abdicated and thrown on the dung heap, as our brother Paul has admonished. For in comparison to their calling to be one of God’s sons, seated fittingly on the throne with Christ, their present vainglorious dreams do futilely fade.

For the dreams of mortals are not worthy thoughts for the immortal children of the Immortal King. Surrendered eyes, directed by allegiant hearts bring vision to the earth. For the King will then see through our unencumbered eyes the needs across the land. The need for love and balm and a gentle touch to heal the sores of many nations and peoples will He bring through the unveiling of His offspring. For they are His princes and princesses, full of His Spirit, soon to be immortalized with their “house from heaven,” their spiritual body.

In preparation for that glorious day, these elect of which we speak must educate and consecrate themselves by holding to John Baptist’s adage. They “must decrease, and He must increase.” The Spirit must increase to a point that it would no longer be them that looked out of their own eyes, but the Spirit of Christ.

To be fruitful and attain this heavenly vision, the elect must add attributes to God’s faith within them. Outlined in II Peter 1, these are not spiritual things about God, but rather are integral aspects of His divine nature that when added, He will then feel welcomed to come into us and make His abode with us and look through our eyes. KWH

6 Comments

Filed under children of God, Christ, elect, glorification, immortality, kingdom of God, love, manifestation of the sons of God, princes and princesses of God, sons of God

Tagged as eternal life, immortality, manifestation of the sons of God, vision of God