Category Archives: knowledge

May 13, 2018 · 6:36 pm

Thirty Fold Understanding of the Seven Teachings of the Early Apostles

The early church “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine,” which was Christ’s doctrine or teachings (Acts 2: 42). This truth is greatly neglected in the churches because they fail to recognize that the teachings of the early apostles were Christ’s doctrine, found in Hebrews 6: 1-2.

Seven doctrines are mentioned. Each of them are seen in three levels of spiritual growth. This mystery of three levels was inserted in the parables, insuring that only those who were predestined to understand the truths hidden therein, would. The disciples asked Christ why He spoke unto the masses in parables. He replied, “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given” (Matt. 13: 11, 1-10). And now He has given them to you and me.

In the Parable of the Sower, He mentions the three levels of spiritual growth—30 fold, 60 fold, and 100 fold (v. 8).

Tying the two concepts together, we have seven doctrines with three levels of understanding in each. The seven doctrines found there in Hebrews 6 are “repentance from dead works…faith toward God…baptisms…laying on of hands…resurrection of the dead…eternal judgment…perfection.”

In each of these there is a knowing (30 fold), a doing (60 fold) and a being (100 fold). Right now I want to touch on the 30 fold “knowing” in each of these doctrines. I say “touch on” because we are dealing with the unsearchable riches of Christ here.

  1. The first teaching of Christ is repentance from dead works. The 30 fold fruit of that doctrine in one’s life is the crucifixion of the old self on the cross with Christ. It is the getting rid of the sin nature we are born with. Our old self is dead already in God’s eyes. We must reckon it so. This is true repentance from sin and sinning; it frees us. “For He that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom 6: 6-11). This speaks of a spiritual death of our old sinful nature. When we really believe this way down deep in our hearts, then we will experience the chains of sin falling off of us. Before we are slaves to Sin; now we are free. Why? Because our old sins died with Christ the sin sacrifice. This is the cross experience. The early church continued in this teaching. We should be doing the same.
  2. “Faith toward God” is the second apostles’ doctrine. In the 30 fold child-of-God context, we then believe that Christ was raised from the dead, and that we are raised with Him. He had faith that He would be raised. Now we have faith that we are raised up along with Christ—raised from the death that sin had held us in. [For much more on these first two doctrines, read online Chapters 26-32 of Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality found here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/book-yah-is-savior-the-road-to-immortality/  Or better yet, order your free hard copy with free shipping by sending your mailing address to wayneman5@hotmail.com Mention the book]
  3. “Doctrine of Baptisms” is the third teaching that the apostles stayed in. There are several baptisms, but for a 30 fold child of God it is their immersion into Christ’s death. When He died, our sin nature died with Him. “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death” (Rom. 6: 3-4)?
  4. The Laying on of Hands is the fourth doctrine of the early church. There are many instances where hands of the righteous are laid upon people. What would constitute the 30 fold level of growth in this teaching?

To answer this, we must cross connect other things we know about the theme of “being children” in the faith. “Becoming a child of God” is an extremely important milestone in a Christian’s life. It is when Life enters into our hearts. Before, we are one of the “dead” burying our dead.

So 30 fold fruit in this context would tie in with “laying on of hands.” Hands are laid upon a person at the baptism into water, symbolizing being immersed into “Christ’s death.”

There is also the concept of “putting one’s hand to the plow.” In the passage, our Master says, “Follow me.”

The first one said, “Let me go bury my father.”

Christ replied, “Let the dead bury the dead.”

The next man said, I will follow you, but I need to go home and say goodbye to the family.

To which Christ said, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God”  (Luke 9: 57-62).

These two men could have become children of the kingdom. They could have begun their new Christian lives as 30 fold children. But they looked back to their earthly family. To be worthy of our new life in God, we must lay our hands to the plow and not look back to the old earthly life. Christ also said for us to take His yoke upon us. The world is the field in the parables. And this field needs to be plowed up and then planted with the see, the word of God. We are His yokefellows. We are to be equally yoked together with His Spirit intent to do his plan to accomplish His purpose. We need to be working with Him to accomplish Christ’s goal. When we pull together with Christ we will bring in the Kingdom of God (Matt. 11: 29-30).

  1. The Resurrection of the Dead is the fifth teaching. 30 fold understanding is a child of God believing that Christ was raised from the dead and that we also are raised up with Him into a new life with His Spirit now living within our hearts (Rom. 6).
  2. Eternal Judgment is the sixth doctrine that the early church continued in. We need to reckon our new life in Christ as a done deal, secured eternally with Him as our Savior and King. We must judge it so and not look back. “Remember Lot’s Wife.”
  3. And the seventh doctrine is “Perfection.” This word in the Greek is “maturity.” Thirty fold is the knowledge about this maturity concept.

Of course, there is so much more to all of these as the Spirit leads us into the 60 and 100 fold understanding. I know that some of these things are new. I offer these thoughts to you as a jumping off place in your own studies. We all have the responsibility to study Christ’s teachings. A teacher sent from God plants the seed in the  hearts and minds, but to grow, it must be watered through study and prayer.

After doing all that, most importantly, His children will have earned God’s approval and a promotion. He will look upon us no more as spiritual children, but as young men and women. We will have grown to be trustworthy heirs of the King, ready for more responsibility, ready to not just know about his purpose and plan, but to “be strong and do exploits.”

This is our calling and election, brothers and sisters. He has chosen a few to reveal the whole shooting match to. Christ is passing out his goods, His truth, to us. Will we hide it? Or will we use it to become “fishers of men”? Will we hear Him say to us, Well done thou good and faithful servant. You were faithful in a few things; I will make you ruler over many. Or will we hear a doleful and heartbreaking rebuke like the one He gave to him   who was afraid and hid the pound that was given to him? (Matthew 25: 15-30).

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under apostles' doctrine, baptism, children of God, Christ, death, death of self, elect, eternal purpose, faith, kingdom of God, knowledge, Love from Above, old self, Parables, perfection, prayer, resurrection, sons of God, Spirit of God, spiritual growth, Spiritual Life Cycle

December 6, 2017 · 9:58 pm

The Prosperity Doctrine Debunked

[Turn on to any of the televangelists, any time of day or night, and the vast majority will be preaching the prosperity doctrine. Simply put, it goes like this: Support them with your dollars, and God will bless you financially in return.]

As the Spirit of Truth shines more light into the “unsearchable riches of Christ,” it is easy to get sidetracked, wandering down side paths in His glorious garden of knowledge. And then there’s the constant Sirens’ song enticing the pilgrim to believe their false teachings about Christ. By wandering around, we can lose sight of the central purpose of God, which is a compass that leads us north to His throne. And that purpose is, of course, that God is using us to reproduce Himself in. He calls it “the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8: 19). His purpose should be our meditation.

We must keep God’s truths in context. Knowledge of Him must be tempered with decency and  order (I Cor. 14: 40). We are “to know, and by knowledge to lift up the mind from the dungeon of the body to the enjoying his own divine essence” [1].

Hundreds of denominations are born because someone thought that they had received some insight on “faith” or “grace” or some other idea, and they built an organization around that soundbite, and it became a denomination. And the kicker is that most of the time their “revelation” was unscriptural and just plain wrong. One of the most insidious and onerous of these false doctrines is the prosperity doctrine. Exulting over this teaching is against God’s word, and it needs to be repented of.

The Prosperity Doctrine

Christ’s very first warning when He gave prophecy about the time of the end was this: “Take heed that no man deceive you.” And they will speak about Christ, but they will deceive many (Matt. 24: 4-5). The preachers are slick. They concoct convoluted doctrines of how money will pour into your life. The prosperity teaching is pervasive and is a perversion of the law of harvest. They say that your offering or tithe of money is the seed of faith that must be sowed. They say that this is the way to show your faith in God. They say that giving money to keep their church house doors open and their TV airwaves humming is a seed of faith that God will give back many more dollars as a harvest blessing.

The Problem

There is only one problem with this teaching. It is against Christ’s teachings. Let me explain from the scriptures.

Yes, the law of harvest with the word “seed” and “harvest” is in there, but “money” is not the seed. The seed is a spiritual thing that we sow with God—not a material thing like money. The apostle clears this up. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap…For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal. 6: 7-8). God wants spiritual change, not pocket change.

The “seed” in the passage just quoted is a spiritual offering, not a fleshly one like money. And the harvest is eternal life not financial blessings. Besides, our offering should be our very lives. We are to “present [our] bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Rom. 12: 1).

God Warns about Preaching for Money

Moreover, the Spirit of Christ in the prophet Micah makes it very clear what God thinks of pastors, preachers, evangelists, bishops, priests, and prophets who get paid for ministering. Yahweh says, “Concerning the prophets that make my people err.” While they lead the flock into error, they are devouring them. Therefore, God will not give them His vision. “The sun will go down over the prophets.” There will be “no answer from God.” He is also talking to the heads of the house of Jacob and the princes of the house of Israel (Ten tribes), you “that abhor judgement, and pervert all equity” (3: 5-9). He is castigating the political leaders as well as the religious.

Here is the warning about preaching for money. Yahweh continues, “Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for the LORD’s support and say, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us.” Political  leaders are corrupt, taking bribes. Religious leaders preach and pastor for money. Cut their salaries off and see if they are around in a couple of Sundays. And the televangelists today give prophecy for money. The people in the pews are getting fleeced, and they are not being fed the milk of the word (Micah 3: 11).

This false prosperity doctrine is a snare, couched in Christian terminology. Our center should not be on material blessings. Our Savior told us to not be concerned with the physical and material things. “Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat; neither for the body, what you shall put on…neither be of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after… But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Luke 12: 28-31.

This prosperity doctrine is a trap. Giving money to pastors and preachers is a modern day example of the old pagan worship. The people offered their flocks, their grain, and even their children to their pagan idol gods in hopes of a bigger harvest of grain and animal fertility for the next year. We all must take this very seriously and repent from this dead work, which is the first of the apostles’ doctrines.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

  1. Sir Philip Sydney, The Defense of Poesy, “Poetry, Philosophy, History.”

{If you liked this article, hit the “like” button. Please make a comment. I will answer them all. And be sure to send for my latest book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect; it is totally free. Just send me your mailing address to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com If you appreciated this article, you will be thrilled with the new book. I wrote it for you. You need this book if you want to grow spiritually and be like Peter, James, John, and Paul.
“Greater works” we will do with His help and guidance. Order it now, my brothers and sisters.}

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Filed under apostles' doctrine, eternal purpose, false doctrines, false prophets, false teachers, kingdom of God, knowledge, Law of Harvest, old leaven, prosperity doctrine, repentance, vision

August 27, 2016 · 5:03 pm

Love Makes Known the Plan of God

We know that God is love and God is light. Therefore, Love is Light. Since light makes things known, then Love makes manifest as well. Love sheds light on what and who God is. Where agape love is present, the Spirit of Love makes God known. We see God when we see love–true selfless love from above, as we see in Christ’s laying down His life for His friend [1].

Christ said, “I am the light of the world.” In this He was saying, Through my life, death, and life-after-death, I make known the Father’s purpose and plan of reproducing Love. If you believe in Me and the love that I showed when I laid my life down for you, then that same Spirit of Love will engender in you a new life that will, in turn, enlighten others who now sit in darkness. He will give us His own Spirit of love. Consequently, we will become  the light of the world because He will be living His life through us, His body  [2].

In a word, in a seed thought, God is Love. He is the greatest thing in the universe. Everyone will agree. All the poets and writers of song down through the ages confirm that Love–selfless love–is a divine thing and that it should be emulated by mankind.

Man knows this, even down into his DNA. He knows that he should love his fellow man. The truth is that God created him to be the “glory of God.” Man is designed to contain the Spirit of Love, which is God. Man was created as a temple for the Spirit of Love (God) to dwell in. Man knows that this kind of love is what we should strive for [3].

We are moved by the soldier who fell on a grenade to save the lives of his buddies, or the stranger who died in a house fire saving a little child. And millions are touched by the selfless love shown by our Savior on the cross.

God is Love and is the greatest and most powerful thing in the universe. And because Love by its very nature shares with others and gives, God could not but create a plan to share Himself with His creation.

He purposed it and being all-powerful was able to implement His purpose and plan of duplicating and reproducing Himself. He planned this all out in His mind. He thought it into existence. Thoughts are comprised of words that occupy first His mind. And He has given us the power to think His very same thoughts. First we must have the knowledge of the thoughts about His purpose and plan. Then we must choose to surrender our restless minds to His thoughts. When we start thinking His thoughts, then “the peace that passes all understanding” will come upon us.

His purpose is to reproduce Himself, to reproduce Love throughout His entire creation. He is the Seed of Love that will reproduce itself. He became the Seed, which is the Word, which is the Logos, which is comprised of the thoughts of His Mind. And this “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” His plan was to pour this reproductive energy into a human vessel that could “fall into the ground and die” and through the resurrection, would “bring forth much fruit” at the harvest.  The much fruit is the thousands of manifested sons that will sit as kings with Him on His throne upon His return to this earth.

Those that overcome all things in this era have a royal destiny. They are chosen; they are elected by God for this honor. They do respond; they do study and pray that they be counted worthy for this honor, but it is all through His grace. For it is God that gives them the strength and power to continue against the gainsayers, the unbelievers, the worldly, and the ones with precious little faith. God gives them the determination to get up and face the spiritual enemy who lurks in the halls of minds. God helps their unbelief and sees them through to the finish line.

For they serve their great invisible Father Yahweh, who resides in His Son, who is the Head of the body of an organism called the church. And when this vision becomes as crystal in their hearts and minds, they will realize that all scriptures that pertain unto Christ pertain unto them, for they are His body. When we abide in Him, the scriptures speak of us.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

  1.   I John 1: 5; I John 4: 8; Eph. 5: 13
  2.  John 8: 12; John 15: 13; Matt. 5: 14; Col. 1: 18
  3. I Cor. 11: 7; I Cor. 3: 16, 6: 19

 

 

 

 

 

 

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June 11, 2016 · 4:08 pm

Walking in the Spirit Comes from Knowledge of God’s Purpose of Reproducing Himself–Being About Our Father’s Business

We are admonished in God’s word to “walk in the Spirit” and to “abide in [Christ]” (Gal. 5: 16, 25; John 15: 4). But in order to get in step with the Spirit, we need to not only know the Spirit’s destination, but also the why and the how of God’s intentions. In order to abide in the Spirit, we need to know what the abiding entails and how to get there.

Simply put, in order for us to walk in the Spirit, we must first know what God is doing and where He is going. “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” (Amos 3: 3). We must agree with Him as to the where and when of His Spirit. He said that we are to have the mind of Christ and to think the way He does (Phil. 2: 5). Christ is doing His Father’s business (Luke 2: 49).

And the Father’s business is God reproducing Himself. This is His purpose, and He has a plan to finish His work.

God has given us many clues as to His purpose. Every living thing in both the vegetable and animal kingdom is striving to reproduce itself. Just look around. It is what it is all about. You striving in your life to find “the one,” that special one to mate with–the drive  has been put in your DNA by your Maker, and it is another clue as to His purpose: God is reproducing Himself, His Love, and His life. And He has the plan to make it happen. And we humans are the spiritual environment in which He is doing this reproducing of Himself.

Only when we understand His purpose and then believe it, will we be able to walk in the Spirit or abide in Him. If we are operating on a different spiritual wavelength in our worship, then we are not staying, remaining, nor abiding in Him and His purpose and His plan to achieve His purpose of reproducing Himself.

People of God, we say that we want a closer walk, a closer relationship with Him! This is our opportunity. Oh, to cease to be Christ’s servants and to become His friends! To hear Him say to us, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his lord does: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” To be His friend! To be given this rare knowledge of what the Father is doing. To have Christ trust us so much that He with His great loving heart would include us in these secrets and mysteries of what the Father’s purpose is! To be trusted as a friend that knows what His Lord is doing! To be a part of His inner circle (John 15: 15).

And don’t tell me that it is not for us. That is a cop out. Two chapters later in that same flow of truth, Christ prayed for you and me: “Neither pray I for these alone [seated around the Last Supper table], but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one…and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them…” (John 17: 20). That’s us, brothers and sisters, if we can believe it.

He has promised us that if we abide in Him, whatever we ask, He will do. If we are walking and abiding with Him then what we ask will further His purpose. Those are the prayers that will get through–those that are asked by us to further His purpose and plan.

When We Have Another Purpose

But if we have an agenda and purpose and plan other than His, then we do not have true worship of the Father, for we will be following our own imaginations as to what will please God. God does not need another church building on another corner. He does not need another minister preaching the same sermons spoken a hundred years ago because those sermons, though they may be sincere, smack of stale incense wafting up into God’s nostrils. Small-hearted prayers for ourselves won’t get through the brass heavens to His ears.

Understanding His Purpose

However, when we do get His purpose and take it to heart and begin to work to help bring it to pass, then our power increases by His Spirit, and we become co-workers with Christ in doing the “Father’s business.”

Christ is all about doing the business of the Father. He is doing His will and finishing His work. The Father’s work? Reproducing Himself.

And what are we to do? We as members of Christ’s body need to be doing what Christ is doing, which is the same work. To do the works of God, we need to believe upon Him whom God has sent, and to finish His work. We are to bear witness to the truth about how God is reproducing Himself through the Seed Son. The works that God will do through us will be a witness that Christ the Seed has resurrected in us. The Seed Son will have germinated in us as we show forth the resurrection power through many signs and wonders done very shortly on this earth.

But it all starts with wisdom and knowledge, which happens to be the main ingredients of the first two “gifts of the Spirit.” Yes, as we get on the right road, God the Spirit begins to give us gifts to help us help Him fulfill His purpose. The first is “the word of wisdom,” and the second is “the word of knowledge” (I Cor. 12: 8).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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May 21, 2016 · 4:13 pm

Knowledge of God’s Plan Reveals the Bible’s Mysteries

God says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” This is God’s knowledge that was offered to them, but was rejected by them (Hosea 4: 6).

But what knowledge exactly? It is nothing less than the knowledge of His thoughts that comprises the vision of His plan to fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself right here on earth.

Anything biblical is part of this plan. Any biblical concept or precept like “grace” or “testimony” or “salvation” is a piece to the puzzle. “Salvation” is not God’s plan and purpose. It is an important first-step-part of His plan that God is doing, which is reproducing Himself.

The denominational churches are hung up on salvation. You go to a service in a small church. Everybody is saved in the congregation. And yet, the preacher feels compelled to have the organist play “Just As I Am” and invite the people to be saved. Why do they do this? It is because this is all they know. If they knew and believed God’s thoughts about His plan and purpose of becoming just like Him, then they would be seeking and teaching about growing up “into Christ.” They don’t know that Christ is coming back to earth the same way He left, and that He is coming to establish His government, and that the “dead in Christ” are coming with Him in new spiritual bodies.

Oh, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!

But “whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?” (Isa. 28: 9). It is certainly not the pastors and preachers that are drunk on the wine of false doctrines about God. “Wine” is universally recognized to be a symbol of doctrine or teachings. God cannot teach true knowledge to those who follow and teach false doctrines about God. “They also have erred through wine…the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink…they err in vision, they stumble in judgment”  (28: 7).

The old leaven false doctrines cause Christians to “err in vision.” And as long as these are not purged out of one’s thinking, He will not be able to teach them true knowledge.

To whom then can He teach His knowledge about His plan to reproduce Himself? God will teach “them who are weaned from the milk” (28: 9). Thinking spiritually, babes in Christ need the “milk of the word.” They need the fundamental doctrines of repentance from sin and faith toward God. When these teachings, called the “milk,” are solid in their hearts, then they may move on to the meat. Spiritual “babes in Christ” are mostly alive for what they can receive of the the Father. That is the definition of a baby or small child. We need only look at the natural to see the spiritual. We are admonished to grow up and be no more babes and get into the meat of the word [For more on the “milk of the word” https://themilkoftheword.wordpress.com/ ].

Many Christians in the pews of the churches are little children. Their spiritual concerns are revealed in their prayers, which are mostly about themselves and how things affect them and their families. They rarely pray for God’s kingdom to come, populated by “many sons unto glory.” They rarely pray for God’s will to be done, that He would be “all in all,” that His glory would fill the whole earth. Most don’t pray for the “manifestation of the sons of God” to become a reality. Most prayers are burning incense, infused with the acrid fumes of self.

So, God lays it out to the people a little at a time. “For precept must be upon precept…line upon line, line upon line…here a little and there a little” (Isa. 28: 13). God in ancient times  revealed His vision to only a few men who spoon fed small bits to the people, for the time of the fulfillment of His vision was very far away . But now He is sewing these remnants of knowledge together to make a coat of many colors that will cover the sins of countless generations.

Knowledge of His vision of His plan to fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself in the earth is the key that will unlock the mysteries of the Bible. For every precept presented therein is a part of the vision to accomplish His purpose. Once we see it, we can begin to connect the dots, for each biblical concept is a dot to be connected to the others. This knowledge of which we speak connects those dots.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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May 14, 2016 · 4:48 pm

The Vision of How God Fulfills His Purpose of Reproducing Himself

To walk in Jerusalem just like John, to speak the thoughts of God as the prophets and apostles did–that is our destiny, after all. But to do what they did, you and I must learn of God’s vision of His plan in establishing His government that will fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself. And His purpose is composed of the Thoughts of His Mind, and they are poured into the Word and transformed into the Seed. And the Seed is the Word.

And the Seed was made flesh and dwelt among us. And the Seed was God, and the Seed was Love. For Love is the very nature of God; it is God. His purpose has always been to reproduce Love, which is Himself. He does  this by sowing the Seed of Love, His Son, into the earth. For the earth is the only place that a seed will grow. Faith in His resurrection germinates in the fertile soil of good and honest hearts, where it will grow and grow and grow until it fills the whole earth with Love.  “Until Christ (Love Incarnate) be all in all,” said the apostle Paul. And this is all contained in the Mind of the Son of God. And you and I are told to “let this mind be in you that was in Christ…”

Comprehending and understanding just how God will do this reproduction of Himself is  seeing the vision of God; it is being privy to the very secrets of God Almighty.  However, to be a “seer” of the  vision, an initiation of sorts must first be accomplished by the seeker of truth.

The Initiation

Natural man, the first Adam, cannot see the spiritual vision of God’s plan to fulfill His purpose. It can stare him right in the face. In fact, it is written in plain English and sits on a shelf in half the homes of this world, and yet, the Bible remains a dusty tome, mostly unintelligible. To understand what God is all about first takes a new heart and with it a new way of thinking and living.

The Word says that we must first be “born again,” which in the original says “born from above” before we can even “see” or “enter” the kingdom of God (John 3: 3, 5). The kingdom of God is the spiritual and physical environment in which God animates and enacts His plan to fulfill His purpose. Moreover, until the seeker experiences this spiritual rebirth, he remains blind to what God is doing and how He is doing it.

Being “born from above” begins with one experiencing his own spiritual death, burial, and resurrection in revelation on the cross with Christ. For we know that our old nature was crucified with Christ and then was buried with Him. And then by believing He was raised from the dead after three days and three nights in the tomb, we, also, are “raised to walk in a newness of life.” Our old selfish sinful heart spiritually dies with Christ, and that seed of faith, provided by His Love for us when we were down, begins to grow. And with this small step of faith, we begin to see and enter His kingdom. God is leading His children into these greener pastures, and He will send them a teacher with the vision who will explain to them the vision. We need only to seek with a hungry sincere heart, and God will not give us a stone, but the bread of life.

The cross experience must happen first. This is what the true “come to Jesus” moment is all about. This is the only place where we may strip ourselves of petty ego and let the old self die–with Christ (Romans 6). The only place. It is the only sacrifice now that God will accept from us. It is the only way to get right with Him. It is the crucible of true repentance from sin and faith toward God. This is the initiation that separates the sheep from the goats, the pretenders from the contenders. This is where a Christian must put his hands to the plow and not look back. This is where one sells all that they have, especially the delusions of self-glorification.

Once this has been done, the following pages explaining the vision of His plan to fulfill His purpose will begin to make sense. His true doctrine will enlighten our sojourn through the “valley of the shadow of death.” But Christ holds the key that unlocks death’s inevitability. And He will help our eyes to see and help our feet to walk on by faith in this invisible Spirit of Love.

Contemplating His Love

After these opening first steps of repentance from sin and faith toward God takes hold, we then can begin to comprehend His love for us. For we cannot help but wonder about why He loved us–warts and all–even before we met Him at the cross.

And then we realize that He is Love. He is agape, selfless Love, and all Love can do is love. And Love’s nature is giving and sharing with no ulterior motives.

And if He gives us insight to go all the way back to the beginning with God, we will see that Love is like a seed. Love gives itself, and the receiver of that love then begins to love. It is like planting a seed in a garden; it germinates and grows into a plant that will produce its own seed.

And so God in the beginning, of course, knew all this. In the infinite essence of His Love, He knew that He needed something to express His Love to. It would not be a beautiful planet, star, or galaxy, for they could not respond to the Love. To the contrary, it would be  a living being capable of receiving and feeling the love. Moreover, He would create a being especially designed to be touched and moved by Love, with a heart that could serve as the matrix for the further reproduction of agape Love. That being would be the human being, a being wonderfully made by his Creator, made to be the “glory of God.” The human being was created for this purpose of duplicating and multiplying God.

And so, in the beginning, because His nature was Love, God arrived at His purpose, which is to share this love and to multiply His nature of love. In a word, His purpose is to reproduce Himself.

To carry out His purpose, God formulated a plan to reproduce Himself. He would create a human being, and He would make them male and female. They would serve as a crucible for each other, forging through the fires of the human condition a purification, thus implementing His plan for their perfection in His love.

Furthermore, He would choose Him a family of people, picked from Adam’s lineage, to be a living metaphor and symbol of His plan in action. He would call out Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons and their families to literally act out in a reality the past, present and future of His plan, thereby unfolding His eternal purpose for all His creation to see.

The above is rarefied knowledge and constitutes the vision of God. This is the vision that He shared with a few Hebrew prophets, offspring all of the aforementioned patriarchs. We have their writings in the Holy Bible. They tell us of God’s vision in small doses and scenes and insights and revelations, fashioned from the lives of historical persons.

The words of the vision given to them have been “closed up and  sealed till the time of the end.” The time of the end is now upon us. Their words of truth are dots that are now being connected by the Spirit of truth. “None of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand” (Daniel 12: 9-10).

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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April 2, 2016 · 5:09 pm

Christ’s Promise of a Great Destiny for Us

Christ makes an astounding promise to His followers. “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Rev. 3: 21; vs. 14-22). Overcome  what? A whole list of shortcomings that future monarchs must change in their lives to be holy enough to be trusted with the King’s business.

But the point here is that somebody–possibly somebody you know, maybe even yourself–somebody will be sitting on the throne alongside Christ during the Thousand Year Reign! In fact, several overcomers will be granted this precious destiny.

In order to be prepared for this high calling, one must be taught about kingship and how to rule in righteousness as one of God’s kings. He did say that He is the “King of kings” with a little “k.” Did we honestly think that we would just wake up one morning and mystically know how to govern with the Spirit of Christ fully formed in us–us just hitting the ground, magically knowing how to be a king in His kingdom? But then most Christians have never pictured themselves sitting on that throne with Christ. Most have never heard it preached. Most just see themselves going to heaven with no further responsibilities. Really? Is that all there is?

How do I know this to be the case? Because no one ever talks about this destiny of kingship. Once you see it, you will begin to speak excitedly about it.

Much to Learn

There is such a learning curve. We future kings must know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. We must understand His secrets, mysteries that not just anybody can know. He only reveals the secrets of His spiritual governance of the universe to his servants the prophets. “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He reveals His secret unto His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). Prophets? He wants us to be His prophets?

Yes. We are to be His mouth to utter His thoughts, His purpose, and His plan to this last day generation. That is what a prophet of God does. “But the wise shall understand” (Dan. 12: 10). The wise are those in reverential awe of God and His purpose and plan.

We are talking about the deep things of God, the things kept secret from the foundations of the world, even the hidden mystery, hidden from “ages and from generations,” and that mystery is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Matt. 13: 35; Col. 1: 26-27). Christ formed in us. Love fully formed in us (Gal. 4: 19).

There is much to learn to fulfill this destiny–to have the Spirit of Christ fully formed in us, with Him using our bodies to teach, minister, rule, heal, and administer righteousness in His kingdom of righteousness. There is much to learn.

Prince Charles of Great Britain has been preparing to become king for decades. How much more should the future overcomers be educated and prepared to rule with Christ?

We must learn the mysteries of the parables, which contain the aforementioned secrets of how God will reign in His kingdom. And to learn them we need one of the offices of God to instruct us. We need a teacher of God who is specifically trained for imparting this knowledge  (Eph. 4: 11).

After all, we needed our elementary school teachers to teach us the fundamentals of reading, grammar, composition, math, history, and science. How much more do we need a teacher, ordained and sent from God, to teach us the foundational teachings that will prepare us in humility to be elevated to such a high position in His government.

Yet, most people know very little about His kingdom, which happens to be the true gospel (Mark 1: 14). God’s people are “destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4: 6). Most only believe what they have been taught: get saved, escape hell, and go to heaven, and try to tell others the same.

This limited vision of the kingdom of God closes up all the secrets and mysteries of God from entering one’s mind. Vast passages in the Bible are closed to the people because of this narrow conception of God and His rule. It is difficult for them to conceive of this truth elucidated in the scriptures: Jesus Christ (Yahshua), the Son of God, the King of the Kingdom of God, is coming back to rule for 1,000 years–right here on earth. And some of His followers will be ruling alongside Him.

Nevertheless, for some, this message will resonate with hope in becoming one of His rulers sitting on the throne with Christ. Some it will not. Christ did say, “He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says” (Rev. 3: 22). If a person is able to comprehend this message, then let that person do it.

The point is this. No matter what one’s spiritual growth is, no matter how far they are destined to grow spiritually in Christ–God’s plan and purpose is for them. It is bread and meat for the hungry soul. And so let those so inclined eat at the Master’s table and learn of Him. And it all starts with knowing His eternal purpose of reproducing and multiplying Love, which is God, and knowing His plan to implement this purpose.

But His plan is not for just our little life, but for the whole universe. For this is His vision, of His plan, to fulfill His purpose, comprised of His Thoughts from His Mind, and poured into the Word, and translated into the Seed. And the Seed was made flesh and dwelt among us. And the Seed was God, and the Seed was Love. And the Seed germinated in the fertile soil of good and honest hearts, and it grew as a tree and grew and grew until it filled the whole earth with Love.  And this is all contained in the Mind of the Son of God. Hallelujah!           Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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January 3, 2016 · 5:28 pm

“Our Father”–God Is Everyone’s Creator, Not Everyone’s Father

We have learned that the “Lord’s Prayer” is a blueprint for our communication with God. It is not a  chant nor hollow words mouthed in repetitious recital. It is rather the “manner” that we should speak with our Father. In other words, we should pray with the understanding of the concepts presented in this model prayer.

And the first words that we should speak to Him when addressing Him is “Our Father.” Our Father. As we stop and savor these words, we see that God is the closest of our kin. He engendered us. We have His spiritual genes in our spirit. In our spiritual family tree, He is just above us. He is our closest family member.

Our closest family member. We are not an only child of the King. This is the second big take away in our meditation on the first two words of God’s example prayer. We have brothers and sisters that He loves as much as He loves us. It is a pretty big family.

The Father and the Creator

God is “our Father.” God is not everyone’s Father.  He is the Creator of all, but not the Father of all. The Pharisees claimed God as their Father. They said to Christ, “We have one Father, even God.” But Christ told the Pharisees, “If God were your Father, you would love me…You seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth…You are of your father the devil…a murderer from the beginning…a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:40-44).

We see, then, two spiritual fathers at work in the earth: “Our Father”  and “your father the devil.”  And to help the sons and daughters of God, Christ left us the salutation in His Blueprint Prayer, “Our Father” to distinguish our Father from their father.

Describing their father the devil, Christ said that there was no truth in him, that he is the father of all lies. Earlier, Christ told the Pharisees that the truth–not the lies–would make you free. Free from what? they responded. We’ve never been a slave to any man. Then Christ told them that their slavery to sin and sinning was what the truth would free them from. And that truth was Him (Jn 8: 32-36)   To read more on them, see https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/parable-of-the-tares-in-the-field-who-are-these-children-of-the-wicked-one-part-ii-conversations-with-the-seer 

The words, “Our Father,” also signify an engendering by God, begetting several spiritual offspring. The LORD (Yahweh in the Hebrew), told the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee” (Jer. 1:4-5).  God knew Jeremiah before his earthly conception and gestation.  And God chose him and ordained him a prophet before he “came forth out of the womb.”  Jeremiah was “born from above”–begotten by God long before coming to earth.  Jeremiah was in the very heart of God–and so were we, His sons and daughters, before the time of our earthly, fleshly sojourn.

Our Father “has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).  He knew us before and has predestined us “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).   He has given us a destiny to be like Christ before the world was ever founded.  This is nothing less that God’s purpose–reproducing Himself.

And so the cycle goes: seed time and harvest.  God the husbandman has great patience waiting for His children to grow up until they are “conformed to the image of His Son.”  He will endure the “vessels fitted unto destruction” in order to create His “royal priesthood,” His ruling offspring.  This is our destiny, ordered for us by “our Father.”

For make no mistake.  Christ told it like it is.  He warned that in the last days, many will be deceived by false prophets and false teachers who lead the sheep through the wide and broad gate to destruction.  They are wolves in “sheep’s clothing.”  They show themselves as God’s spokesmen, but are really modern day Pharisees, whose father is not “our Father.”

And to the many who are deceived by them Christ warns: “Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:13-23).  Let’s see: God knew Jeremiah–even before he was born. But these He never knew. He knew all things with foreknowledge and knew that they would not believe Him and His words. And yet they mouthed a bunch of half-truths about Him, but they didn’t do the will of our Father “which is in heaven” (v. 21).

There is a lot in the phrase “Our Father.” We must begin to pray with the understanding of His words.  It is a great privilege to call Him “our Father.”  Not everyone truthfully can.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

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September 5, 2015 · 4:43 pm

Living in the “Now”–Having the Mind of Christ

Now is the only sliver of time we have to actually live the life God wants us to live.  Right now is when we really live in the Spirit.

Yesterday is but a memory of a “now” long past, an aging “now” that was already lived. The “past” is a fruitless tree for the hungry pilgrim today.

And tomorrow is a hoped for “now.” It is a dream of what a future “now” might be. But tomorrow’s promise is empty for most, for it rarely delivers our desire of what we would have the future hold. It usually does not work out as anticipated. So when “tomorrow” finally comes, it becomes “today.” It becomes a “now’ that is disappointing, for it rarely measures up to our imaginations of what it should be.

And so today’s “now” does not satisfy individuals who ponder their pasts and futures. Their “now” becomes blah. And because their present moment is not fulfilling, their minds race yet again to the past and future.

Monitor your mind for thirty minutes, and you will see it jump to thoughts of things and situations that have already occurred or things that might occur in the future.

So there is only one thing to do. Right now we should open our eyes and see the sun’s rays reflect light off of the trembling leafy mirrors of the pear tree. We must inhale the song of the boisterous blue jay clothed in myriad shades of azure. We should listen to the bubbling of a toddler’s joy, reaching down to hold their trusting hand. In a word, we should experience our own “now” with its accompanying sights and sounds and tastes and smells and touch.

It is this “now,” which is free from the fears, frustrations, regrets, and anxieties of our pasts and futures, that is the only environment in which we may hear that “still small voice” of God. He will not try to compete with the cacophony of nonsense our thoughts portray. They will drown His voice out every time. It is only the quiet mind, listening in the “now,” that He will speak to.

For prayer is not just us speaking to God, but it is a conversation. He would like to speak a word to us, too. He wants to speak to us right now, but we can’t hear Him if we are thinking about our pasts and futures.

Radio Noise

Our minds are like a radio, receiving thought-signals constantly. If we are listening to the trivial worldly signals, our lives become a worldly broadcast. If we train our minds to block the thoughts of our pasts and futures, then we quiet our minds to live in this very moment. And it is in this very moment, that God can speak to us.

Other voices speak out of our pasts and futures. When we listen to these interior monologues, we cannot hear clearly God’s transmission to us. We cannot hear the “still small voice,” nor can we hear the “voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD (Yahweh).”

As Christians, we are to “let this mind be in you that was in Christ.” He was not thinking about our pasts and futures.” We are to “arm ourselves with the same mind” as His.

Gaining the knowledge of what was in His mind is half the battle. The other half is arming ourselves with His very thoughts about His plan and purpose, free from worldly imaginations and “old leaven.” This is putting “on the whole armor of God.” And this starts with the purging of our old thoughts and replacing them with Christ’s thoughts, which can only be added in the “now.”    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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March 28, 2015 · 6:41 pm

It’s All About the Fruit–Spiritual Fruit, That Is

It really is all about the fruit that we followers of Christ are to bear. This nectar of knowledge concerning fruit-bearing is of utmost importance to Him and should be to us.

In fact, Christ mentions fruit and how to produce it in our lives in an abundant harvest of verses. The understanding centers on the Kingdom of God. And in order to comprehend the mystery of the gospel of the Kingdom, one must understand the parables, chiefest of which is the parable of the sower.

The Sower sows the seed, the word of God about His plan and purpose, the kingdom of God. Some seed falls on careless hearts, some on hard stony hearts of unbelief, and some seed falls among thorns, and these hearts do not bear fruit at all for God. But some seed will fall on a good and honest heart, and that person “understands it, and bears fruit, and brings forth, some an  hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty” (Matt. 13: 18-23). That’s a “hundred, sixty, and some thirty times what was sown” (NIV).

“And He said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?” (Mark 4: 13). This parable is the key that will unlock the mysteries of all the other parables. Yes, the parables are “dark sayings,” deliberately spoken to prevent those who are not suppose to understand. They are not nice little stories to make it easier for everyone to comprehend God’s mysteries, contrary to the current wave of “political correctness” drowning the land.

For the disciples had asked Christ aside, “Why do you speak to the multitudes in parables?”

“He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever has, to him shall be given.” Has what? Has grace given by God to understand the mysteries of God’s government portrayed in Christ’s teachings, predominantly through the parables.

“But whosoever has not [this grace, this favor], from him shall be taken away even that he has” (Matt. 13: 11-15). This is unintelligible through modern man’s thinking, who does not understand that Christ was teaching primarily to the remnant. “For blindness in part is happened” to the twelve tribes of Jacob/Israel “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in,” which will provoke His chosen people to return to Him (Romans 11: 25).

But It’s All About the Fruit Bearing

The big idea from this parable is this. There are three general levels of spiritual fruit production taught by Christ. We see it here in 100, 60, and 30 times what was sown. His apostles taught these levels, also.

John quotes Christ teaching about the different levels. “Every branch in Me [the Vine] that does not bear fruit, My Father takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit…He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit” (15: 2-5). There it is in one passage–the 30, 60, and 100 fold spiritual fruit bearing concept–fruit, more fruit, and much fruit. But what is especially important here is the key teaching on how to increase our spiritual fruit production–abiding in Him and He in us. This abiding is where we are heading in our studies.

The three levels are taught in the way of the growth of the seed: “first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head” (Mark 4: 28). And speaking of spiritual growth the three levels are seen in “children, young men, and fathers” (I John 2: 13-14).

What’s the Importance of the Different Levels?

It is important because those lukewarm Christians will not literally be close to Him during His kingdom reign right here on earth. And we want to serve the King as any good subject would. And who wants to be “taken away” and not be near Him. Bearing spiritual fruit to our potential is of utmost importance. We must learn all about it from the greatest Teacher the world has ever witnessed walking on this planet.

[Note: I know that this information is very new to some of you. There is a strong tendency of the human mind and heart to prefer the old and reject the new; it is common and age-old. His plan is not how we would have done it. God said as much: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways” (Isa. 55: 8). We must prove all things, whether we think they are true or not. These things I have read in 15 different English translations and one Spanish translation, and have consulted the Greek, as well. And they all say the same thing about the Parable of the Sower]

If all this resonates and you understand then I will close with this quote at the end of Christ’s teaching on the matter: “Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.        Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

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