Category Archives: manifestation of the sons of God

May 17, 2014 · 4:50 pm

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

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

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

This is God’s purpose and His great promise and our hope–that Christ “might be the firstborn among many brethren.” For God gave some of us this destiny long before our earth home was ever created. And so as we arrived here on earth in these mortal vessels, He called us.

Now He calls us in dreams, reveries, visions, epiphanies, and experiences in life, creating a hunger for more of His light. And He has spoken to you and me because we are reading and writing this at this moment. And those that He has called out of the mist of darkness into His light, He has justified. He has provided a way to cleanse our hearts of the sinfulness we first fell into, growing up on earth. And once cleansed by the blood of the Lamb of God, He is now in the process of glorifying us (Rom. 8: 29-30). These soon to be glorified ones will be immortal rulers with Christ–nothing less. The context of these passages makes this meaning clear.

These are the elect of God. God is for them. They have been in His heart, preordained and predestined for this high calling. It is an immutable calling, for “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” He will bring His vision of the “manifestation of the sons of God” to pass whether you the reader or I the very writer of these words begin to balk at this or not.

The “elect” are His chosen ones for this honor. He’s doing it; this is His vision of what He will bring to pass. It is our privilege to glimpse with mortal eyes this precious ethereal plan, the same plan seen by the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles whose names are remembered because they wrote this vision of sonship down for us in these last days (v. 31-33).

Moreover, God leads His chosen ones to immortality, ironically, through a series of sufferings that He allows us to go through. These are called the sufferings of Christ. These are spiritual chastenings that we must endure to be accepted of Him for this honor.

These sufferings are like the hardships in training that future military officers must endure before they are to wear the gold and silver insignias of rank and leadership. If they cannot endure the physical and mental trials in training, then they are not fit for commanding men. The same is true for the elect. He said that if we suffer with Him we will also reign with Him (II Tim. 2: 12; Rom. 8; 17).

Fiery trials are ahead for the elect; make no mistake (I Pet. 4: 13). But by God’s grace and mercy we shall make it to the other side and be found worthy to walk with Him in white (Rev. 3: 4).    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[For more on this topic go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/category/manifestation-of-the-sons-of-god/ ]

 

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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 21st 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…}

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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

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January 18, 2014 · 4:24 pm

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

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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

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December 14, 2013 · 3:55 pm

The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect

King David is looking up at the dancing diamond lights in the heavens and writes, “What is man that Thou art mindful of him?” [1]

You, God, who created this vast expanse of stardust whose beauty causes us to gasp when we take time to look up—how incomprehensible is Your love for us! You, the Master of the Universe, who controls the destinies of a billion stars and their planets, why would You even think about us down here in the clay pits of the earth? And yet, You think about us all the time.

Your mind is full of us; we occupy your thoughts. And You have “crowned us with glory and honor.” Really?

Really? Glory for homo ignoramus? Honor for man who frets and struts his petty little ego around the yard of his mind? God has crowned man with glory and honor? Man, who grasps at vainglory all the days of his life, earnestly desiring to be the center of attention, does not realize that he is the center of God’s attention. But man wants the glory on his own terms and not his Creator’s terms. And therein lies the problem.

For man in his natural state will die, for God has “made him a little lower than the angels” for the suffering of death in hope that man would turn to Him for life, the crown of life.

Some Will Literally Wear a Crown

For those who can believe it, God has crowned us with glory and honor. God speaks here as though things already were fully actualized. A select few will wear a crown placed upon their heads by God Himself! A crown is made for and is only worn by royalty.

And this is no “hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king” [2]. No, these crowns placed upon God’s elect sons will be their immortal reward for their humble service to their King.

For in the Kingdom of God soon to literally come to this earth, no one will “tell sad stories of the death of kings.” For these kings will be immortal, ruling in their “house which is from heaven,” their new spiritual bodies. Immune from death, they will “rule and reign with Christ” for a millennium, and they “will be strong and do exploits in the land.” They will be like the patriarch Joseph in Egypt, their type and shadow. They will be the administrators and judges and rulers filled with the Spirit of God.

These are God’s elect, His chosen ones in this last generation before He returns to earth. They are the 100 fold spiritual fruit bearers, spoken of by the Master in Matthew 13’s “Parable of the Sower.”

They are the “five wise virgins” who had oil in their lamps and knew the times and were prepared for the Master’s return, unlike the five foolish virgins [3]. The ten were Christians all, but only the former group were accepted for the high calling.

The Overcomers Are Coming

“Many are called, but few are chosen” [4]. What distinguishes the elect from Christians who don’t mature? They will have overcome all things and endured all things and will have added to their faith those attributes of the divine nature that the apostle spoke of (II Peter 1: 4-7).

They are coming. Thousands will break through the suffocating conventions of churchianity and armed with the knowledge of their destiny and how to arrive at it, they will overcome all of the roadblocks and purify themselves with the cleansing power of the Spirit.

These overcomers have a stupendous destiny to fulfill. It is a future forged in the fires of Yahweh’s creative energy, fired like fine pottery to make vessels of quality, vessels worthy to contain the fruit of God’s ultimate vintage, His Spirit.

And these elect chosen ones will walk humbly with their God and with mortal men. For God requires the utmost humility, and only a few thousand humans in this age will be counted worthy to “go on to perfection” [5].

These are the elect of God—His princes and the future monarchs of His kingdom. To these God will delegate authority during His 1,000 reign of peace, for they will have proven themselves worthy of this glory and honor. Just like King David said earlier, they have been crowned “with glory and honor.” For “they were redeemed from among men” [6].

The Plot of a Fantasy Novel

These few words about them serve as a preface to a book being written now, a book whose working title is The Destiny of the Chosen Ones. In its pages the plan of God reads like the plot of a 1,000 page fantasy novel. It is fantastic if you look at the Bible story with fresh eyes and take it at face literary value.

Picture it. The Supreme Being in another dimension/world desires to reproduce Himself. But He happens to be an Invisible Spirit/Force of Love. And the greatest love in the universe is laying down your life for another.

But the Supreme Being, this wonderful Force of Love, cannot show His great love because, well, He is invisible, and He is immortal. He can’t be seen, and He can’t die for another.

So He first creates a prototype vessel, composed of Spirit, that looks like what will become a human being. He creates a world, a planet called earth, and He forms Adam’s body out of the dust of this planet. And Adam and His offspring are mortal.

The plan is that these mortal men are to be redeemed by their Creator from a life of bondage to an evil spirit being. This fiendish adversary has seduced these mortals into committing selfish dishonorable acts all their lifetime. And they are mired in a pit of degradation until they are lifted up and saved by their Creator. He does this by incarnating Himself in a body, a son of Adam, that can die. He then suffers death for their ransom, thus demonstrating the greatest Love—to die for another. He raises from the dead, and He buys them back and delivers them out of the pit of despair, and they remember no more their guilt for past iniquities.

And He cleans them up and trains them in the wise ways of the prophets of old who were placed in the earth to preserve the path that leads from death to everlasting life.

And these redeemed ones apply themselves to the teachings of the apostles and prophets who were sent in earlier ages to light the way to immortality. And they now believe with grateful hearts what their Master has prepared for them, and they grow in this newfound belief.

And they set their sights on this new vision and quest of becoming one of the Master’s princes. They humble themselves and learn the true teachings, enrolling in the School of the Prophets, and it transforms them. Old petty thoughts and desires melt away like tired and dirty snowbanks in the afternoon sun.

And that same sunlight begins to shine through their lives, and love and care for those still in the chains of darkness begins to grow until one day they hear a knock on the door. And they ask, Who is it? And the voice says, I am come to speak with you. And they recognize the voice as their Master’s, and they open the door, and their Master comes in, and He breaks bread with them, granting them His ultimate stamp of approval. He grants that they sit with Him on His throne [7].

That’s the destiny of the overcomers. That’s the destiny of the kings of the Kingdom. That is The Destiny of the Chosen Ones.

How Will We Know?

But one will ask, Who of us will these future kings be? Who will He choose? For we know that “few there be to find this way of truth.” The way to mortal mediocrity is broad and wide and many will enter it [8]. And the path to His immortal throne is narrow and fraught with spiritual sufferings that the masses will choose to not go through. These are the very sufferings that are used by God to burn out the dross in the lives of His chosen ones.

So who will they be? And how does one know that they are chosen? One thing is certain; you can’t work for it and earn it. It is a gift from Him. Christ gives us the answer. “He that has ears to hear, let him hear” [9]. Some will have their ears predisposed to be able to understand this high calling that He is speaking about, and some will not. Those that do, He is telling them to take it in and hear it and do it. For “unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them” it is not given.

If all this makes sense to you, then you may be one of those called to His throne. It will take a massive overcoming for us. Part of that overcoming is outlined in the growth levels we are to overcome in the seven church ages. Each of these overcomings are prefaced by this call: “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: To him that overcometh…” (Rev. 2 and 3).

I would like to think that some of us reading this right now may be these future monarchs.

  1. Psalm 8: 1, 4-6
  2. Shakespeare, Richard II
  3. Matt. 25: 1-13
  4. Matt. 22: 14
  5. Hebr. 6: 1; Rev. 14
  6. Rev. 14: 4
  7. Rev. 3: 20-22
  8. Matt. 7: 13-14
  9. Mark 4: 9, 11

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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

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August 24, 2013 · 7:39 pm

The Elect–The Key to Understanding Christian Growth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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July 27, 2013 · 4:17 pm

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

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

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

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

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

“Do you want them?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Wide Gate and the Narrow Gate

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

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

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

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

But why won’t the masses believe this message?

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

But why won’t the masses believe this message?

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Long, O Lord?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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April 27, 2013 · 6:05 pm

Gold Tried in the Fire–Overcomers and the Time of the End

Somebody at the end of this age will sit down with the Savior on His throne.  They will be rulers with Him during the 1,000 year reign right here on earth.  This is promised by Him.

This promise of kingly rulership for some of His followers is conditional.  During the last age of the church just before His return, His followers will be lukewarm in their service to Him.  They will think that because they are affluent in material things, that they are rich in spiritual things.  They will take pride in “knowing God,” and they will say that they spiritually “have need of nothing.”  But they do not know that they are in His eyes “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked” (Rev. 3: 14-17).

They do not know that their faith in Him is a poor approximation, a poor substitute for His vibrant faith.  They do not have the higher richer knowledge of His plan and purpose.  Consequently they are spiritually blind and naked.

And so, He counsels them to  buy from Him three things that will correct their spiritual deficiencies: “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 does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see” (v. 18).

And then He makes an astounding promise to them.  If anyone in this end time age hears His voice concerning these matters, and hears His knock on their door, He will come in and have a feast with them, sharing intimate details of His soon coming kingdom.  And then the promise: “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” (v. 22).  Now you’ve got to have an ear that is attuned for these things.  He says if you do, then hear what the Spirit is saying to you about these things (v. 22).

So, the first thing we need is the “gold tried in the fire” (1).  We know that this gold is our faith and belief in God.  We believe in Him, having never seen Him nor the outcome of His kingdom plan, for faith is the “evidence of things not seen” (2).  It is like the Holy Spirit, which is invisible but is “leading us into all truth” and thereby comforts us as the Comforter” (3).

The “gold tried in the fire” that we are to “buy” from the Savior is the purification of our faith/belief through trials and temptations, “if need be.”  Most of us will need the times of  “chastening” that He will give unto His elect–the ones who He has chosen to sit with Him in His throne (4).  This chastening is in the form of correction.

This fire that purifies our faith is much like the pruning of the vine that Christ speaks about (5).  And what He lops off of us is the old erroneous concepts about Him that we have learned from those who taught us in the past.

“Purge out the old leaven that the lump may be holy” is a similar concept (6). Spiritual leaven is what puffs us up.  He calls leaven hypocrisy, insincerity, falsehoods, and misconceptions.

Those that submit themselves to the Spirit/Teacher and endures this fire, pruning, chastening, and purging–they will be the ones that will overcome in this the Laodicea Church Age.  They will be the ones who “humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (8).  Yes, exalt you.  And there is no greater exaltation than to share in the glory of sitting with Him on His throne!

This glory, this exaltation that some will receive–this honor will only come to those who pass the fire test.  To illustrate this, two scenarios are presented to us.  Which is the more difficult to accept?  A rant that denies that Christ is the Savior or a doctrinal fine point that you’ve never heard before?  It is new to you, but there it is in black and white in the Bible.  Yet, you have never heard it or seen it before.  In fact, to receive this new teaching, you must admit that you did not have the whole truth.  And this takes humility, which is the ability to be taught of Him and His Spirit.

For He did say, “The Spirit of truth will guide us into all truth.”  So, the Spirit, to fulfill this verse, must take us to truth that we do not already have (9).

The elect who will sit with Him on His throne will be the teachable ones, the humble ones, the hungry ones.  For having to humble ourselves is a fire that will purify our faith, our gold, our belief.  It will purge out pride in our prior knowledge about God.  And these overcomers will come out on the other side unto “praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Yahshua the Anointed One” (10).  And this “appearing” is the same word translated “the manifestation of the sons of God,” which is the appearing of Christ in us!  The unveiling of the sons of God.  The whole creation is groaning and travailing for them to come onto the scene, for God will save this planet through them!  If you have an ear that can hear, then hear it and walk in it (Rom. 8: 18-19).

The humility of a child

But it is going to take the humbleness of a little child for us to overcome in the last days.  “Whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” said the Master (Matt. 18: 4).  The greatest in any kingdom is the King and His sons and daughters, the princes and princesses.  But in God’s kingdom it takes humbleness to be the greatest–like a little child.

And why are we to be like a little child?  Because they don’t think that they already know it all.  The wonder of discovery of the earth and its natural beauty fills their eyes and ears.  They know that they don’t know it all, for they are too busy learning. That is why adults are so drawn to them; we are hoping that a bit of that wonderdust that a child collects like bees do pollen might fall on us, that we could experience just one more time that spontaneous burst of uninhibited joy brought by the “splendor in the grass and the glory of the flower.”

So now God is calling us to be “as newborn babes” and little children, to have a newfound wonder of the spiritual realm of our heavenly calling.  He is asking His future overcomers to be open to Him as He shows them new wonders that far eclipse those earthly wonders.

Listen.  Quit thinking our own thoughts for a moment and let us just listen to that “still small voice” that is talking to us.  Can we hear His voice whispering to us?  Can we hear Him faintly knocking?  We won’t be able to hear Him is our thoughts are all we hear.  Listen.  He is calling us.

And if we humble ourselves, He will show us the unglimpsed and unheard wonders that “God has prepared for those who love Him” (11).  He’ll show us His government that will transform this earth, purging it from all evil and hatred and suffering, and creating on it a holy habitation for the Righteous King of kings, our Savior Yahshua.  But He will only show these wonders to the humble ones, to those who listen to Him, to the overcomers.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1.  Rev. 3: 18

2.  Heb. 11: 1

3.  John 16: 13; 14: 16-17

4.  I Peter 1: 6-8; Heb. 12: 5-11

5.  John 15: 1-2

6.  I Cor. 5: 6-7

7.  Verse 8

8.  I Peter 5: 6

9.  John 16: 13; 14: 26

10. I Peter 1: 7

11. I Cor. 2: 9; Isa. 64: 4

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