Category Archives: sons and daughters of God

February 9, 2013 · 6:12 pm

Adding the Patience of God–Why Christians Must Go Through Trials

Peter tells us to add patience, which is endurance, to our faith.  This is an attribute of the Holy Spirit, a part of God’s “divine nature.”  Patience/endurance is part of God’s nature, but questions arise.   So, what has He endured?  What sufferings did He endure?  What is it about His divine nature that is patient and enduring?

We all have a good idea of what the Son of God endured.  We know painfully of His physical and mental torture on the cross.  But it is the spiritual sufferings He endured that were the worst.  Nothing is worse than to be betrayed by those you love.  The betrayal and conspiracy against Him brought much grief and pain, enduring sinners against Himself.  “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not” (John 1: 10).

But God’s sufferings go back beyond the Son’s time of anguish.  If we go back to the beginning, we begin to see that the Father Himself endured with much longsuffering the forces of the very adversary that He positioned as such.  God created and, yes, commissioned the devil to be the “accuser of the brethren.”  That was Satan’s job–to create havoc, doubt, and despair–as God ordained it.

Now some will hold me to task on this point.  So I will point us to the book of Job, the first chapter.  The sons of God are assembled in a meeting, and Satan appears with them.  God asked him what he had been doing.  Satan responded that he was just doing his job, going about his business, going to and fro in the earth.  And what business was that?  God tells us in His next breath.  “Have you considered my servant Job?”  Then Satan tells God that You won’t let me touch Him because You have blessed him and have protected him.  Then God gives Satan permission to bring on much persecution and sufferings onto Job (1: 6-12).

Inexplicable as it seems to our little finite minds, God has Satan creating sufferings for His righteous children!  God says, “I change not” and that He is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

So we can deduce that God has ordained a certain amount of  sufferings, tribulations, trials, and temptations for each of us [Boy, that was difficult to write down, but I told God that I would publish what He gives me from His word].

So God ordains sufferings, “for whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12: 6).  There it is by two witnesses; there are many more.  But He is enduring those very sufferings that come down on us.  Remember our parents about to use the rod of correction on us saying, This hurts me more than it hurts you.

But God ordained and ordered His own sufferings to be endured down through the ages.  If we understand this about our Creator, we get into His mind a little more deeply, moving us closer to comprehending why we must suffer and why we must endure trials and tribulations–the very sufferings which bring about the adding of patience/endurance, which is a crucial part of God’s divine nature.

Betrayal–The Suffering Most Dreaded

If a person is called and chosen by God to be His son or daughter, they will suffer a crippling betrayal at the hands of someone they love or trusted.  Betrayal is the thing we most fear in human relationships.  It is a heartbreaking, senseless infliction of utmost spiritual pain that the natural thinking human being finds absolutely no use for.  Some never fully get over it.  Some are hampered from ever giving their heart to someone’s trust again.  But some go through the fiery trial stronger and purer.  Their hearts are the right stuff as God deals with them to pardon and forgive, thus molding them into His image, the image of selfless love.

God Himself went through sufferings of unrequited love.  He took as His wife a special chosen people Israel (12 tribes, true offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel).  They betrayed Him, whoring after false gods, after He had lavished His goodness upon them.

God endured with much longsuffering these things.  To be like Him, His spiritual sons and daughters must go through these sufferings, also.  It is called “suffering for righteousness sake.”

We all must grow up into Him and leave the “little children of God” behavior behind.  Little children are mostly alive for what they can receive from the Father.  We must grow up; we must spiritually mature.  If we are chosen by Him as one of His elect, we will mature as we endure the trials He has planned for us [I know; that’s a tough one].  May He bless you all with more of His presence–patience’s big payoff.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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January 26, 2013 · 8:09 pm

Patience–Enduring the “Sufferings of This Present Time”

As the sons and daughters of God, we are to add certain spiritual attributes of God’s “divine nature.”  This is how we become “partakers of His divine nature” (II Peter 1: 4-7).  This assures our inheritance as His sons and daughters. These attributes are added in sequence–in layers, if you will.  To our faith we add virtue, and then knowledge onto it.  Then we add temperance to that knowledge.  Then we add patience onto the temperance.

Patience.  Patience.  Oh, how we all need patience in this hurry-scurry world!  This world that careens through our conscious hours robs us of this important godly essence–patience.  The swirling, rushing pace of our 21st Century lives conspire against us in our search for truth.  Patience is needed to even read this simple article on patience.

For all that we see and hear is temporary.  We will be able to temper the appetites of our earthly bodies more easily when we realize how transitory–how utterly perishable our bodies are.  When we believe this and wholeheartedly acknowledge the need for God’s promise of our immortal house from heaven, we will more easily shift our focus from the temporary to the eternal.

The Next Step in Adding the Divine Nature

And that next step is adding patience to the temperance.  But in order to add patience, which is the ability to endure the sufferings of Christ, we must understand just what those sufferings are.  Paul speaks of them when he writes, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8: 18).  This “glory” is, of course, that destiny of God’s elect after they have grown spiritually to full maturity, which is the evidence of them partaking of the divine nature.

But those “sufferings” spoken of by the apostle is the sojourn we are experiencing in these mortal earthly bodies.  For “we have this treasure [of the Spirit] in earthen vessels” (II Cor. 4:7).  And that is the root of our current spiritual problem.  Our bodies are, alas, mere temporary bottles holding the water of the Spirit.

“This present time” in which these sufferings are being endured is our time now  in our earthly bodies.  Our perishable fragile mortal bodies will too soon return to dust.  Now is our time of waiting with long patience, trusting God will deliver us from the long sleep that awaits us, tucked in dust in the tomb of the earth.

Temporarily housed in our earthly tabernacles at “this present time,” we have a universal thirst that yearns to be quenched.  And that desire is to live on.  And whether cognizant of it or not, we are waiting in “earnest expectation…for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8: 19).

And so we who have a portion of His Spirit, for a dry season at present, find ourselves trapped in a shell that will die soon.  And so we wait for our forerunners, the sons of God to be unveiled first, for they are the firstfruits.  And so we are waiting for these offspring of the Almighty to come onto the scene.

For they will give His other children great hope when they are seen striding this earth–a hope that they, too, can be “delivered from the bondage of corruption,” which is the cruel slavery that our present mortal bodies inflict on us in our new spiritual journey.

Slaves to Our Own Mortality

Our earthly bodies are decaying as they grow older each day, and we are not free to ascend and descend at will.  We are on a timetable, slated to expire, most likely before the age of 80–whether we want to or not.  That’s slavery; that’s being in bondage to our own mortality.  That is the “bondage of corruption.”  In the earthly sense, we are slaves to our own decay and impending death.

In our youth we were not aware of this impending decay of our earthly body.  Hence, we thought ourselves invincible and immortal.  But as we get older and see our bodies deteriorate, we see that we become the slaves to our own bodily limitations.  We begin to admit that we cannot do what we once did.  Our age, brought on by the ravages of time, becomes our master and limits us and dictates to us what we can and cannot do.  This is the “bondage of corruption.”

Aging is the accumulation of many miles and years on the human body.  Aging is that onerous sign announcing our impending physical passing.  But this daily physical decay of our bodies does not work on our spirits.  We can take heart in this, that “though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day” (II Cor. 4: 16).  And this renewing is the “partaking of the divine nature,” the adding to our faith of which we speak.

So why death?

And so we ask God, Why do we have to die?  Why give us a mortal body, God?  Why subject us to all this suffering?  The short answer: God created us “subject to vanity.”  He deliberately subjected us to mortality in hope that we would be delivered into immortality.  He made us to suffer this mortal existence in hope that we would seek Him, who is Life Himself, and in so doing find eternal life, which is the fulfillment of His promise to them who seek Him and love Him.

God has dangled death ever before us so that we would seek Him.  He reasoned that our looming demise would spur us to seek Him for answers to our dilemma.  Surely we would call on Him, the Giver of Life, to help us solve this problem of mortality if we were confronted with the sadness of first, the loss of loved ones and then, finally, ourselves.

God provided a law ingrained into the universe, as sure as gravity, that if we seek Him for the truth, we would find it.  “Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you,” Christ promised (Matt. 7: 7).

And so, confronted by the sufferings of our mortal worries, we turn to God.  And His words resound through the ages to our hearts and tell us the answer to the riddle of our faint existence.  He tells us that He is the Fount from which the blessing of immortality flows.  And it starts with believing in the resurrection of His Son.  And latching onto that faith in Him begins our own new life, ending in the complete inheritance of a new spiritual body that will swallow up this old earthly one (I Cor. 15).

He seems to be saying, Surely when they see my Son arise from the dead, they will turn to Me in great hope that My resurrection power will one day raise them up as well.

His resurrection is our hope to escape the dusty tombs of death.  And yet, the sufferings continue.  And as He teaches us and helps us to endure all things, we add patience.  For patience is that part of God’s nature that endures.  It lasts.  And as we continue our sojourn in these earthly vessels, He grants to us patience by infusing us with experiences that helps us endure, that gives us rather things to endure.

Yes, “tribulation worketh patience” or “suffering produces endurance” (Rom. 5: 3).  Earthly wisdom shuns all sufferings.  The wisdom from above prescribes it.  That is why He allows us to suffer–so that we can become like Him.  For He planned those very steps of suffering for Himself, and if we want to be His sons and daughters, we must suffer with Him.  That’s a tough one.  That is why “few are chosen” (Matt. 22: 14).  Those chosen are the elect, and they will submit to the plan along with its sufferings, much like those chosen for our Special Forces endure the sufferings that the training entails.  It all comes with the territory.  To reign with Him we must suffer with Him (II Tim. 2: 12).   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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January 5, 2013 · 7:47 pm

The Faith of God in Himself Now in Us

Faith is extremely important but often misunderstood.  It is not us believing in something.  That is not the true faith of God.   No.  The true faith of God comes from Him to us, not from us about Him.  It is His belief in Himself that He gives to us.

Faith Is Not Something We Have to Muster Up

It is the “faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).  Faith is a spiritual commodity from God that has been delivered to the people of God.  Who delivered it?  The Creator Yahweh did.  Faith is not something that has to be mustered up by His people.  We rather must receive it from Him.  It is something that originates from out of His nature and is given to us.  “For every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.” That includes faith.

It is His faith that is transplanted into our hearts.  It is not something we muster up and finally believe about Him.  His faith in us is the first part of His divine nature to enter into the human heart.  But what is it exactly?  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.

God Has Assurance in the Things that He Hopes For

“Things hoped for…”  Because we are naturally egocentric, we think that it is the things we hope for.  No.  What does God hope for?  What are the desires of His heart?  What has He purposed?   Long  before  we were ever born, He saw us in our down-trodden state of sin and misery.  He also saw us rise with Him by His Spirit to vanquish sin and death in our lives.  He believed that this was a reality—that this was substance—having not yet seen it come to pass.  He believed and so therefore spoke and said that it was so.  He believed the best about us and His plan—not having seen the evidence yet of its fruition.  We as changed individuals are evidence that the invisible Supreme Being is real.  We are His witnesses that He is God.  And if He believes in His work in us before it comes to full fruition, then we should, too.  He is our example.

His divine nature is positive, full of faith and power.  All of His promises are “yes.”  Nothing negative flows from His heart.  He is positive; His attitude is positive.  In fact, He calls those things that are not, that do not exist as yet, as though they did exist.  He said that He will be all in all eventually.  We should then, right now, begin to walk around as if He already is all in you and me.  This will take belief that “it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.”

He is positive, giving “life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing.”  This is He.  This is how He thinks.  He is positive about His capabilities.  He has absolutely no doubt about His reserves and His resolve to get done what He wants done.  And what He wants done is the multiplication, the reproduction of Himself, within His creation.  He is an invisible Spirit; He wants to see Himself in action in human form.  This is the witness that He talks about in Isaiah.  We are to be His witnesses that He is the invisible Spirit/God.  His faith believes that not only we can change, but that we will change—that we are changed!  He seeks people to worship Him in this spirit and attitude and in this truth.  He needs people to worship Him in this way—to believe the way He believes.

And it is to this faith, His faith, that we are to add several more  spiritual qualities as outlined by the apostle Peter (II Peter 1: 5-8).  These are the more advanced facets that the Holy Spirit gives to those going “unto perfection,” which is full maturity in Christ.                Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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{This is an excerpt from my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God, which you can read at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook: The Unveiling…”}

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December 15, 2012 · 3:39 pm

Add to Knowledge Temperance–On Being Puffed Up

Someone on this earth will sit down on the throne of God alongside our Savior and will be a ruler in the government that the King will establish in all the earth.  In fact, a whole company of over comers have been “predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8: 29).  Fully matured, they will stride this crippled earth after the Great Tribulation.  In God’s stead as His ambassadors of the literal Kingdom of Heaven will they rule with Him, for they will have His Spirit fully developed within them.  These are the “partakers of the divine nature” who will do the King’s business after the disasters that will smite the earth.

“No man takes this honour unto himself” (Heb. 5: 4).  It is God’s doing.  He has a plan and He is quite capable of helping them carry out His own plan.  And that plan and purpose is to share Himself with His creation.  He is Love, and all Love can do is love and share and give.

Those of us who have been called to this “high calling of God in Christ” have been left a textbook explaining how to receive immortality.  We now are in the process of studying it and taking it to heart.  We need this instruction in order to receive the proper training and education to be an effective ruler with Christ in the soon coming Kingdom of Heaven right here on earth.  That textbook is found in the “scriptures of truth,” the Holy Bible, which is God’s letter to us, a guidebook He showed to His prophets and apostles.  And He is now showing it to us who believe, who have faith.

Adding to our faith

The apostle Peter instructs those of us who have been called to “partake of the divine nature” (II Peter 1: 3-4).  He relates that God  promised us immortality, and it is by these promises, that we can get rid of our old sinful nature and receive His divine nature.   And God’s nature grows and matures in us to the point that in the end, it will be all Him.  The divine nature grows in us through receiving more true knowledge of Him and His plan.  And part of that is the additions to our faith.

“Add to knowledge temperance”

The apostle Paul wrote that “knowledge puffs up, but charity (agape love) edifies” (I Cor. 8: 1).  This puffing up is the sound of an inflated ego that has no place to go with the knowledge; there is no desire to flow the knowledge on out to others.  Agape love, conversely, flows out of its heart of love and shares and builds up fellow Christians, helping them in their walk with God.

The novice in Christ will get the bighead after gaining some of the true knowledge of God.  There is an innate tendency in the old nature of man and spiritual babes in Christ to have one’s pride inflated upon receiving this knowledge, which has “been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 13: 35).

This knowledge flows out of the mind and heart of God and sheds light on the very mysteries of the acquisition of immortality.  This information is precious–so rare and fine a treasure, in fact, that “few there be that find it” (Matt. 7: 14).  A beautiful four lane highway is leading many to destruction.  “But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it” (v. 14 NLT).

Knowledge of these things will puff a person up.  Why?  Because they are still thinking that they are the object of God’s blessing and not the channel of it.

Therefore, knowledge of the holy things must have temperance added to it.  Self control must be added.  And the major lesson we must learn is that our little powerless self did not come up with this knowledge on its own.  It was not delivered to us for any great thing that we are or have done.  No.  It is pure grace flowing out of God’s heart to us.  It is all Him, favoring and having “mercy on whom He will have mercy” (Rom. 9: 15).  It is all Him.  It is our privilege to be a channel of this knowledge on out to His people.

Beware of False Teachers

Paul warns in another place about getting “puffed up” by knowledge.  He warns new Christians not to get entangled by men who teach a  “philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ (Col. 2: 8).

He is saying that men will deceive young Christians through all kinds of worldly earthly thoughts.  But Christ is all you need, which is knowledge about who He is and what He has done for His people.

“You are complete in Him” (v. 10).  You don’t need mumbo jumbo bells and whistles and gimmicks of worship, as it were.  “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily.”  And through His sacrifice of Himself, you have been circumcised spiritually.  His Spirit invisibly cuts out your old sinful Adamic nature, and He gives you a new heart.  “Buried with Him by baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through the  faith of the operation of of God, who has raised Him from the dead (v. 11-12).

False teachers are “puffed up”

One who teaches false doctrines tries to “beguile you,” and is “vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind” (Col. 2: 18).  Remember that they “come to you in sheep’s clothing.”  They appear as “messengers of light.”  They have a little smidgeon of truth, and it has puffed them up as they imagine vain things about God and ways to worship Him.

How does a false teacher or preacher first go astray?  He gets all “puffed up by his fleshly mind.”  “Fleshly” here is from the Greek word sarx.  It is a mind controlled by the “flesh” (sarx).  This denotes the old nature, natural thinking man, unregenerate man.  He has an earthly mind.  “He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaks of the earth; he that comes from heaven is above all…for He whom God hath sent speaks the words of God” (John 3: 31, 34).

The phrase “of the earth” points to the same origins as Adam in the garden, made of the dust of the earth, clueless as to the heavenly destiny for mankind.  These false teachers are puffed up with a bit of God’s knowledge, yet remain Spirit-less when it comes to the truth of God.

So, yes, temperance must be added to knowledge.  This entails, of course, self-control in all areas of a Christian’s life.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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December 2, 2012 · 12:16 am

Add to Your Faith Virtue–God’s Strength and Power (2 Peter 1: 5)

We must add certain spiritual qualities to our faith in God if we are to grow up into the manifested sons and daughters of God.  We found that out in II Peter 1.  Our faith in God needs to be shored up; it needs to become stronger in order to conquer and “quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”  We will only “partake of the divine nature” if we add these things.  And the first to be added to our faith is virtue.

But what exactly does this word “virtue” really mean?  It is an English word, after all.  We could look it up in Webster’s Dictionary, but we would only find what it means to the English speaking mind, distilled down through the centuries.  We would see that it is from the Old French virtu, which came from the Latin virtus, meaning “strength, courage, virtue.”  It has come down to us meaning “moral excellence…active quality or power…manly strength or courage; valor.”

And so we dig still deeper, believing that this study is important and expedient, for we simply must know what “virtue” means.  We are trying to “study to show ourselves approved unto God,” as we are admonished to do.  Without study, we will not be approved.

The English word “virtue” was translated, of course, not from Latin, but from the Greek.  So what was that Greek word that the King James scholars translated “virtue”?  The Strong’s Concordance shows us that it was arete, #703 [http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G703&t=KJV].  Consulting Thayer’s Lexicon on that page, we see that arete denotes power stemming from moral excellence and goodness.  It relates to God’s power, perfection, and excellence.

We get a further picture of “virtue” by looking up “virtuous” and “valor” in the Hebrew [http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H2428&t=KJV].  We see “strength, power, might.”  The Hebrew word #2428 is used many times in the phrase “mighty man of valour.”  Also, it is translated as “host” as in a large army of mighty warriors.  It is rendered “strength” in David’s prayer to God, “For Thou hast girded me with strength to battle” (II Samuel 22: 40).

We need to stop and reflect here and not pass over this lightly.  These words in  II Samuel are inspired.  They are the Scriptures of truth that Paul studied, and he said by the Spirit: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…”  Why?  To what purpose do we need those old books back there in the “Old Testament”?  “That the man of God may be perfect…”

Perfect.  Complete spiritual maturity.  These passages, like this one in Samuel, teach us lessons that will help us add the “divine nature” to our faith in God.  It is for the same purpose of perfection and glorification, which is the fulfillment of His promise to us  of immortality.

Looking at the Picture that “Virtue” is Painting for Us

We see “virtue” as not just power.  No.  It is the strength and power of God, emanating right out of His very heart through His Spirit into ours.  It is He; it is a part of His divine nature; it is all about His strength and power stemming from His excellent goodness.  This then is His power, which gives us now the strength and ability to go on the offensive against the devil and his tricks that block our road to immortality.

Let’s go back to David speaking to Yahweh.  In this song of praise, David thanks God for His strength and power in overcoming mightily all of his enemies.  He thanks God for His goodness, and then details in much “war” imagery his exploits over the enemy.  This picture of a warlike attitude  is a real key for us in understanding just what virtue is.  David’s inspired prayer shows us the spiritual application through his physical earthly accomplishments.

The First Step

First, David declares his complete trust in Yahweh, recalling how he called on Him in his despair and how God answered (verses 1-17).  David says that God did deliver him, but it was “according to my righteousness…and cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me” (v. 21).  David first had to be right with God, on the same spiritual page, “a man after God’s own heart.”  “I kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God” (v. 22).  That is the first step that we need.  Walk on in His faith.  Trust in Him.  And then get ready to go on the offense like King David does in the following verses.

And now the war imagery looms as David spiritually attacks his enemies.  “God is my strength and power…I have run through a troop…He teaches my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.  Thou hast given me a shield of thy salvation…I have pursued mine enemies [read: doubt, fear, unbelief, impatience, et al], and destroyed them (v. 31-38).

Wait.  Let’s savor this.  “Pursued mine enemies.”  He went on the offensive!  He did not just sit on the couch waiting for fear and doubt and unbelief to maybe take a holiday.  Would you please leave me alone, guys?  I don’t appreciate these ugly thoughts I have been having lately.”  No!

David “pursued” those negative thoughts and “destroyed them”!  Furthermore, David “consumed them, and wounded them, that  they could not arise…”  Wouldn’t that be wonderful–to have all negativity consumed and wounded so that it just was not able to rear its ugly head up in our minds ever again?

That’s adding virtue to your faith.

But David’s not through.  He knows where the strength and power is coming from.  “They are fallen under my feet.  For thou hast girded me with strength to battle.”  It was Yahweh that subdued his enemies under him (v. 39-40).

And finally, David says, “Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O Yahweh…and I will sing praises to thy name” (v. 50).

Our Spiritual Application

This song of David is so rich, reaching even unto prophetic strains that depict a vision of the Kingdom Age in all its glory.  And yes, we are in that vision.  But we see here now for our present edification a picture of just what virtue does when added to our faith.  “Faith without works is dead.”  Without virtue added, faith/belief/assurance just sits passively on the couch “waiting for the world to change.”  To the contrary, we His sons and daughters must “put on the whole armor of God” (Eph. 6: 11-18).  This same war imagery is used by Paul in Ephesians, that we “may be able to withstand all the wiles of the devil.”  We must put the armor of the Spirit of God on and take the fight to our adversary.

“Add to your faith virtue…”  This first addition to the faith, then, is an offensive weapon given to us by God to go with our trust-faith-assurance in Him.  “Virtue” then is that quality of valor, that makes us like the mighty men of war as David was.  They were men of strength.  Mighty men.  Strong men and women in the Spirit, pro-active in their attacks on the enemy.  This all comes in realizing that it is God Almighty who does all this conquering–not only for us, but also in and through us.

Yet, the question will arise in hearts: But how do you add it to your faith?  Answer: You add virtue to your faith–by faith.  The Master said it simply.  “Ask and it shall be given…When you pray, believe that you receive, and you shall have whatsoever you ask.”  Now that we know what “virtue” is, we “reckon it done,” for in God’s mind, He already sees us having it.                          Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{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.}

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June 30, 2012 · 9:35 pm

The Elect of God–Gifts of the Spirit Are the Identifying Signs

Recently a reader of this blog asked, “But while the sons of God  will know who they are, how will others  know who they are?”

I responded by saying that the manifested, 100 fold fruit bearing sons of God will be the culmination of the Law of Harvest spoken of in Scripture: “first the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear,” able to reproduce out of itself–some “thirty fold, some sixty, and some  one hundred fold” [1].   These are the levels of growth of the Holy Spirit within the sons and daughters of God.  John refers to these degrees of growth as “children, young men, and fathers” [2].

When “Christ be formed” in them, signs will follow [3].  Gifts of the Spirit will flow, which includes healings, miracles.  Right now God’s timing calls for the first of the gifts of the Spirit to be given through the elect to others: “the word of wisdom” and “the word of knowledge” [4]  Without the truth contained in those first two gifts,  a brother or sister cannot “come out from among them and be separate” [5].  This foundational truth helps to purge the “old leaven” teachings  (contained in the parable of the woman putting leaven in three measures of meal or flour–leaven meaning the hypocrisy and insincerity of the Pharisees and their ilk [6].

I have wrestled with this question: God, why aren’t there more legitimate healings and miracles being done like what happened in the first few chapters of the book of Acts of the Apostles.  Answer:  We need some true men of God like them who have all their ducks in a row spiritually speaking and have “purged out the old leaven from their thinking, which includes all of the old false concepts and teachings and doctrines we all grew up with.  Then I realized how important it is to let the word of wisdom and knowledge flow unrestrained.

When the time comes, God will do something special in their lives–something absolutely astounding in the power-giving category.  All the way through the Bible He did just that.  There is no reason to believe that it will be any other way in these latter days.  After all, He said, “I am the same yesterday, today, and forever…I change not…” [7].

The sons-of-God-to-be, the elect, which means “the chosen ones,” may not at present know their destiny that has been pre-ordained by God.  Right now they may only know that there is this pull to know the truth.  There is this longing for justice and truth that won’t let them go.  Other things of this present world system may tug at them, but a hook is in their jaw, and they are being reeled in by the Great Fisherman, who right now is teaching some how to be “fishers of men” [8].

And they do look just like everyone else.  But to themselves, they are learning to look “after the Spirit” and not the “outward appearance” [9].  By faith they are looking upon the “things that are not seen,”  which is the Spirit [10].  And yes, they will be transformed, but they will go through a spiritual growth cycle as referenced above.

Knowledge of this growth process is lacking in Churchianity today.  The people in the pews want “It” right now.  They are used to instant pudding and mashed potatoes, instant messaging and internet input.  But growth in Him is His growth in us.  It takes time for the seed “to fall into the ground and die” and germinate, and pop through the ground as a perfect little blade of grass, a perfect little “babe in Christ” [11].  And this babe in Christ needs the “sincere milk of the word” that it may grow [12].  But this takes humility in giving up the old life and thoughts and habits.

That is why the Master told us, If you are going to follow Me, you better “count the cost.”  For it costs everything.  It is easier to sell your earthly possessions; it is much more difficult to sell or get rid of your self with its personal materialism, which is idolatry [13].    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. Matt. 13: 23; Mark 4: 8; 4: 28

2.  I John 2: 13

3.  Gal. 4: 19

4.  I Cor. 12: 4-11

5.  II Cor. 6: 17

6. I Cor. 5: 7; Matt. 13: 33; Luke 12: 1

7. Heb. 13: 8; Mal. 3: 6

8. Matt. 4: 19

9. I Sam. 16: 7; Rom. 8: 1-4

10. II Cor. 4: 18; Heb. 11:1

11.  John 12: 24

12.  I Pet. 2: 2

13. Col. 3: 5; Luke 14: 27-33

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June 23, 2012 · 6:08 pm

Partakers of the Divine Nature–The Holy Calling to Be the Sons of God

True Christianity is not about a person striving to attain a collection of good deeds and contributions like regularly praying, attending church, paying tithes and offerings, or volunteering time.  The true walk with Christ is not an accumulation of good deeds in hopes of having a better relationship with God.  It is rather a remembering what we already had with Him before our time on earth began.

Our salvation and deliverance from sin and the evil in our old life was given us by God before we were ever born here on earth!

We were called by God to walk with Him on this earth in our earthly bodies before we were ever born here on earth!

Sounds crazy, I know, and you are probably thinking, Wayne, you are going too far now.  Come back to us.  You are drifting up too far into the stratosphere.

But bear with me a minute.  God has called us with a holy calling in accordance with His own plan and purpose, and we were in His plan and purpose and grace before our mothers gave birth to us here on earth!

Some may be asking, Where did you get this idea from?  It’s right there in the Bible–the same one grandma and momma had.  And this is what it says: “God who has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (II Tim. 1: 9) [Compare this to my paraphrasing of it in the above paragraphs].

This “holy calling” to be God’s son or daughter does not come down to us “according to our works.”  We do not attain it because of anything we have done or could do, but because we were already included in His purpose–His plan to favor us that way.  It is called grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ before time began on earth.  Remember what Christ said: “You have been with me from the beginning” (John 15: 27).  The word “beginning” in the Greek is the same one used in John 1: 1: “In the beginning was the Word…” denoting the timelessness of the origin of all things.

We must remember how the LORD (YAHWEH) questioned Job intensely about the creation: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?…Who laid the cornerstone thereof when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38: 4-7).

The “sons of God” rejoicing at the creation of the earth?  Yes.  Isn’t that kind of like before the world came into being?  Yes.  And who are these sons of God?  The word of God says that we are the sons of God!  “Beloved, now are we the sons of God…and when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3: 2).

Also, we know that “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8: 14).  That’s us, brethren!  Things are going to work out great for us that love God.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  For “we are the called according to His purpose.”  He knew us before!  He gave us this destiny before!  This destiny “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8: 28-29).   Hey, I know I’m not the only one getting this right now because it says “many brethren” are going to be just like Him!

And let’s just say it out loud: We who He has “predestinated” to be like Christ–He has called us, “and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified”! (v. 30).

Glorified us!  Notice this is in the past tense.  Already done in God’s way of reckoning and doing things.

Wow!  It is truly difficult sometimes for us to wrap our sometimes doubting little minds around these astounding promises, but there it is.  His words, not mine.  The “exceeding great and precious promises that Peter spoke of.  That we “might be partakers of the divine nature” (II Pet. 1: 4).

And this is all in Christ.  When we believe and trust in Him, then our inheritance manifests itself.  Let us walk on in faith and assurance of these promises, not letting worldly man-thoughts hinder us from achieving what God already has spoken into existence for us.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

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May 5, 2012 · 8:10 pm

You Cannot Put New Wine into Old Wineskins–Holy Spirit Only Goes into a New Heart

Many followers of Christ lightly throw around the idea of “getting the Holy Spirit.”  We are talking about the very essence of God here and who He is, and they are wanting “It” right now–even making a spectacle of themselves, splayed out in front of the whole church house, with some preacher “slaying them in the Spirit” with a magical slap of his hand on their forehead.

Do they really think that God can be manufactured like that with a few tawdry carnival tricks?  Besides, pagan societies have been “slaying in the spirit” for thousands of years in their heathen rites.  The anthropologist Sir James Frazer lines it all out in his classic 1922 volume The Golden Bough, one of the Great Books of the Western World (http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/frazer/index.htm).

People are wanting the Spirit of God, however, and that is a good thing.  But “you cannot put new wine into old wineskins.”  This is the crux of a parable that Christ was teaching.  And we must remember that a parable reveals “a mystery kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 13: 10-11).

The “new wine into old wineskins” parable is found in Luke 5: 36-39:

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved” (NKJV).

The mystery revealed here is that the new wine is the Holy Spirit of God that He desires to place within us.  But first the old wineskin, which is the old heart or old Adamic nature that we are born with–it must be replaced with a new heart, a new nature.  This new heart is the new wineskin.

People must realize that God will not  place His Spirit into an old heart.  Through the prophet Ezekiel, God promised us a new heart:  “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit…I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (18: 31; 36: 26).  Notice that before He gives us a new heart, we must first get rid of all our transgressions.  This means the new heart will come only after a full and final repentance from sin.

This repentance from sin is done at the cross.  We  must experience the cross in a spiritual way in our own hearts.  We must deliberately place our old sinful self on the cross with Christ, acknowledging that this is the only way that God has provided for us to rid ourselves of the sin “that so easily besets us.”  We are immersed into His death, for our sins were placed upon Him as the Sin Sacrifice for us, and when He died, our sins died.  And when He arose from the dead, we arose with Him.  This all, of course, is done by faith in His resurrection.  This is when He grants our new heart (https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/conversations-with-the-seer-heirs-of-god-and-joint-heirs-with-christ/).

It is ironic that this cross experience is the first thing out of the mouth of Christ and His apostles, and it is never taught in the churches.  Oh, the preachers will mention the cross and how He suffered, but they will never encourage their flock to identify with the Sin Sacrifice and give up their lives of sin.  Christ came preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  His apostles taught the same thing (Romans 6: 6; Hebrews 6: 1; Rev 2: 5, just to name a few).

Getting rid of the old heart through the cross experience is essential in putting to death the old heart, which is the old wineskin.  It must go, once and for all time, never to be resurrected again.

Expounding on this experience is “the preaching of the cross,” which is the power of God (I Cor. 1: 18).  But teaching a man that he has to die is not a welcomed message.

But that is exactly what the early apostles taught.  Some would call this teaching absolute “foolishness.”  You can’t just go up to some unsuspecting person and tell them that their old spirit and way of doing things has to die.  That is foolishness, they would say.  But “it pleased God that by the foolishness of preaching [the cross experience] to save them that believe (1: 20).

Paul went on to say that he preached “Christ crucified,” which is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1: 23).

The power of God?  The power of God for what–to do what?  The power from God to grow!  To grow up into His sons and daughters.  “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to becoome the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1: 12).

First, we have to receive Him, His Spirit.  But He will not give us His Spirit to co-exist in the old wineskin of the old sinful heart.  It first must die on the cross with Christ.  Then we can receive His Spirit, and then He will give us the power to become the sons of God.

Paul continually taught this (Col. 2: 12-13).  He knew that this was the key to unlock future growth in His Spirit.

So, what happened to the great start 2, 000 years ago?  Satan, of course, knows the plan and began right away to insure that Christ’s followers believe the lie that God is not able to change them from sinners to saints.  And through this deception, many cannot grow spiritually, for they cannot receive Him and then receive power to be His children.

No wonder Christ said, “O ye of little faith.”  Is anything too hard for Him that created billions of galaxies?  That’s galaxies–not stars!

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{One other thought: The new wineskin will in its ultimate fulfillment be our new spiritual bodies promised us upon Christ’s return (I Cor. 15: 42-55) }

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April 28, 2012 · 2:06 pm

“There’s Nothing in It for You”–It Is All for God, Who Is Love

There was an old saying at the mission that rings true now some 40 years later.  “There’s nothing in it for you.”

I didn’t really understand then just how profound that simple statement was.  But Time is a faithful teacher.  And as I look now in the mirror and see a much more wrinkled image with a head laden with a heavy hoary frost, I take more time to contemplate the increasing fragility of my physical state.  It seems that the reality of my own mortality crowds daily into my thoughts.

In that mirror I also see in my own eyes how the years have neutralized the piss and vinegar that I was so full of back then in my 20’s and 30’s.

As my earthly frame grows weaker, that old saying–how that there’s nothing in this walk with God for you–rings truer.  It is making so much more sense now as I am staring down the time when I just may have to depart this old earthly body before Christ returns to this earth to set up His kingdom.

For, you see, in those younger years I thought that surely I would be alive when the LORD would come back.  Christ did say that “whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11: 26).  And, that “there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Mt. 16: 28).  Those destined not to taste death would have to be the generation of believers alive when He returned to earth.  Anyway, I always thought that I would be one of them.

But now, as the years tick on, and my body creaks with age more every day, I must take this into real consideration–this “falling asleep,” this “shuffling off of this mortal coil.”

And, yet, I now realize that God has this death of the physical body hanging over us for a reason.  We know that He gives life and He takes life.  Our very breath is in His hand.  And it is this impending destiny with dust that helps us understand the futility of living for one’s self.  The self just cannot see us through, for our earthly bodies must betray us, for that is the very nature  of the physical body formed of the dust of this planet.  The house of dirt was made for us by God on purpose not to last.  It is temporary housing.

God fashioned our bodies to be as ephemeral as butterfly wings.  He deliberately formed them to be fragile in hope that we might sense someday our own vanity before death came knocking.  As we see our bodies decay and crumble with age, He hopes that we will see the futility of living for the self.

Our fragility betrays our pretentious egos that always seem to shout, “Hey, everybody, seriously, I really am something!”  But that self-centered imagination breeds the ultimate deception, for “when a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Gal. 6: 3).

And we have all been guilty of that thought; it is in the spiritual genes of old man Adam and his offspring.  Yes, we are initially made that way by the Creator in hopes that we would see the purposelessness of selfish thinking and be humbled so that we could all realize one truth: Every man is created for only one thing, and it is not for self-glorification; it is for God-glorification.

And if we are blessed to be chosen by Him to reveal this truth to, then we are coming much closer to where we need to be in our walk on earth before our Creator.

There’s nothing in it for you.  For everything in the vastness of the universe and here on earth is for God and His pleasure.  This is the great sticking point with natural-minded man, who earnestly believes that he is the center of the cosmos.  Secular humanism is the new many-headed false god.  “Thou shalt not have any other gods before Me.”  Especially our self.

“For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things” (Rom. 11: 36).  Breaking it down, all things are of Him; they came from Him, and through His creative power all things (including us) exist.  And in the end, all things are created by Him for His pleasure and glory.

For instance, Him delivering us from utter degradation and destruction, and us returning and thanking Him and telling others about His saving love and power–He loves that and gets glory out of it.

“All things were created by Him, and for Him” (Col. 1: 16).  But God does not become a pompous little jerk like natural man when he gets power.  No.  God is LOVE.  He created us so that He could bring us to a place spiritually, where His essence and nature (which is Love) could be multiplied–eventually to fill the whole universe with LOVE!  Our gratitude toward Him for our deliverance from sin is the fertile soil where the seed of Love can grow.

And God-in-human-form is our example and showed us the way.  Jesus (Yahshua) tasted death for us all so that we would not be banished to the dusty tombs of oblivion.  “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory” (Hebr. 2: 9-10).

That’s the plan.  It is all for Him, so that He may glorify those who realize that it is all for Him.  He will share Himself and all His glory with the overcomers, even to the point of sharing His throne with them (Rev. 3: 21).

It is all for the Creator.  When we turn that page in the book of our minds, then joy and serenity will overtake us, for we will have embraced the heart of God with arms of humility, born of His true nature, Love.

{For more on this subject, check out this article:  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/gods-endgame-where-this-life-on-earth-is-leading-us/ }

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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March 28, 2012 · 6:36 pm

Speak the WORD

The world system has conditioned us Christians to not talk about God.  I remember when I taught public school, the teachers rarely spoke of God, and that was in a conservative small school in the middle of the Biblebelt!  Maybe once or twice in fifteen years did I hear a fellow teacher openly talk of Christ.  The secular setting had done its browbeating.

But I was fortunate, for I taught English and American Literature all those years.  The writers in our culture spoke and wrote about God and the Bible until the 20th Century began .  Scriptural allusions and metaphors ran constantly through Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, our Puritan writers. Even our Founding Fathers spoke and wrote openly of the Supreme Being, mixing freely religious and political ideas.

So I was able to talk about God in the secular classroom all the time using the literature books that they provided me. But Satan has done a thorough job in squelching God’s voice coming through His children.  We have almost quenched the Spirit in our reluctance to speak.

But Christ and His early apostles did not play that game.

They had a very important job to do, and they were not about to let another spirit dominate them and what they had to do–which was to lay the foundation for the building of the LORD’s temple (us).  It was also, to use another of His metaphors, to let the early rain of His Spirit fall freely on the thirsty gr0und, the hearts of men.  And this was the former rain; now is the time for the latter rain, His Spirit now falling in our era.

So, Jesus (Yahshua) and His apostles labored mightily.  They spoke the Word, the Logos, which is the eternal purpose and plan of God.  And they wrote His vision for this earth down for us to be able to study and prepare ourselves for the end times.

Now we, the sons and daughters of the latter rain must follow our example–Christ.  “For herein He has left us an example that we should follow His steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth” (I Pet 2: 21-22).  We are to follow our Example. 

We are to be like Him.  “For we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him…” (I John 3: 2).  Don’t let any gainsayer try to tell you differently–not your mom or dad, brother or sister, wife or husband, best friend or feared enemy.  We should be like Christ, and with His Spirit within us, we can and will be like Him.  In fact we are to live “godly in this present world”! (Titus 2: 12).

This is our hope–and His hope.  This is our vision–and His vision.  This is our destiny–and His destiny for us (1).

There–I’ve said it.  Now that the cat’s out of the bag, we are free to speak this vision of manifested sonship throughout the entire planet earth–wherever you are.

Speak the word.  Speak the truth.  For when you speak this truth, you are speaking the WORD.  You are speaking Him, for He is the WORD, and the WORD is thereby becoming flesh one more time–in you and in me and now through us! Speak the Word.        KWH

1.  I John 3: 3; Rom. 8: 18-30

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