Category Archives: Spirit of God

August 20, 2016 · 5:39 pm

“Forgive Them”–In Training to Be a Royal Priest

I asked God, How do I love other people–people that I meet that I don’t even know?

I did not get an answer immediately, but in two or three days this thought just “popped” into my mind: “You’ve got to forgive them.”

“Forgive them?

“That’s how I loved you unconditionally. Forgive.” And with that our thought-conversation was over.

So, this person that I have never seen before crosses my path, and just like that, I am to forgive him. But how do I forgive someone I don’t even know? The answer is we are God’s priests and ambassadors. We intercede for them. We are in Christ’s stead now. We are His face and hands and mouth. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (II Cor. 5: 20).

Be reconciled because God has already through the shedding of His blood caused all of our sins to depart. They are already gone. When we believe this, then we manifest the witness of this grace in us.

We are to recognize this in each other: that God has forgiven them and has caused their sinful self to pass away. We forgive them because God has already forgiven them. Their sins are washed away; they need only to “bring forth fruit worthy of repentance” to witness the record of our common salvation from sin.

We forgive another by enlightening them as to God’s forgiveness if they walk in darkness. Your sins are forgiven you; they have departed through God’s mercy and you have been absolved of all guilt and shame. You are clean now. The Savior has given Himself as a ransom for us all. The darkness of your soul and the evil that your heart did once conceive is no more. You are washed clean. Repent now, and walk in this new life.

God has forgiven us all, and in essence, we recognize this as we also forgive each other (Matt. 18: 21-22, 35).

In Training to Sit on the Mercy Seat

For us who are running the race to be a part of the “manifestation of the sons of God” in these last days, we are in training to be kings. We are, after all, a “royal priesthood” and a “chosen generation.” We are to be those kingly intercessors for all of God’s people.

Right now we are in training for this position. To be those future manifested sons and daughters, we must first carry inside through the Spirit this belief that the stranger we meet is not a stranger at all. He is rather one of the human beings that God loves and has forgiven. God loves them just as much as we believe that He loves us.

When we see the stranger in this light, then the Love (God) will shine through us to them. We will then have become messengers of mercy, for we will be in sync with Him.

For mercy is what we are talking about. It is God’s great mercy that forgives, that loves us so much that He would send our sins away for good, freeing us from the guilt and shame.

For mercy is a kingly attribute. Mercy comes from the throne. It is the mercy seat that is the fount of forgiveness and compassion. We the sons and daughters of God are called to grow spiritually to the point that we will be invited to sit with Him on His throne–the seat of mercy.

Mercy. To be able to love the unlovable. To free the ungrateful. To forgive the unrepentant and obstinate. To cleanse the souls of spiritual lepers, “to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,” to open the prison doors, “to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” And why will He enable us to do this? “That they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD (Yahweh), that He might be glorified” (Isa. 61: 1-4).

The small minded say this is only about Christ. But I say that all this is about us, too, for we are His body. He is the head, and we are the body of this spiritual entity called the King of Righteousness. Without Him we can do nothing; He is the head, the brains and the heart of our organism. But we are to have the mind of Christ, and when we do, He will invite us to sit with Him on His throne [It sounds incredible, but it is right there in His word]. “All things are possible to him that believes.” Amazing God, our God.

When we are filled with His agape love–Him, in other words–we will treat the penniless wretch the same as the mayor and bank president. The one thing that puts everyone on the same playing field is a sinful past. Both pauper and the prince are in need of mercy and love and forgiveness.

But mercy and truth come as a package. Having mercy is showing His true kind of mercy, not man’s kind. Mercy without truth–well, as Christ said, Even the Pharisees love those that love them. And truth given without mercy is harsh and cold and seldom penetrates the human heart because of a lack of compassion. Christ’s Spirit is the whole package–merciful and truthful.       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed under additions to our faith, agape, body of Christ, elect, love, Love from Above, manifestation of the sons of God, sin, sons and daughters of God, Spirit of God, spiritual growth, truth, Yahweh

July 2, 2016 · 3:31 pm

God Is Love and Is the Light of the World

“You can fight against hatred and sadness and chaos, but you cannot fight love, joy, and peace. If you do, you will lose. For light vanquishes darkness, even as the morning conquers the night.” [Jan. 7, 2016, spoken to some  of my negative thinking students.]

Christ said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8: 12). How is He the light of the world? The apostle Paul said that light makes things known (Eph. 5: 13). We enter a dark room; we switch on the light. Now we know what is around us, what is coming at us. With the light we can see what the future holds for us.

Darkness is the opposite and is the absence of light. And people are sitting in darkness at present, just like they did as Christ was beginning His ministry in Galilee (Matt. 4: 16; Isa. 8: 22). And then they saw a great Light, just like the masses in our age will see at His second coming. Yet, a remnant will see that Light before His return, and they will respond to God’s plan and purpose to reproduce Himself through Christ in them.

Spiritual darkness has descended upon the people, and they know that they are in darkness. They realize their sinful state because they do not want their deeds brought to light. They know innately that what they do is not done in agape love but in selfishness. For this reason those eaten up with darkness hate the light because the light exposes their evil actions. Their death warrant is already signed; their rejection of Light’s pardon seals it (John 3: 19-21). But some will come to the light.

How, then, is Christ the Light of the world? His life illuminates God’s purpose. He is the plan to carry out that purpose. For the Father has poured it all out, written it all down, and has enacted His whole plan to reproduce Love, which is God Himself–it is all in the Son of God. Knowing Christ is knowing the Father’s plan, for “He has declared” the Father (John 1: 18). Christ has “unfolded in a teaching” God’s plan; He has laid it all out for us to see. For He is the Logos, the Word made flesh.

God is love. His purpose is to reproduce Himself (Love) in the earth. This love is His life. And His life of love is the light that illumines our path here on earth. It is the ray of light that overcomes the darkness of hatred and despair. And this Love/Light/Life is poured into Love’s Son, the Logos/Word that declares all this, which is the Father’s heart and mind.

How Love Is the Light

We know that God is love and God is light. Therefore, Love is Light. Since Light makes things known, then Love makes manifest as well. Love sheds light on what and who God is. Where love is present, the Spirit of Love makes God known. We see God when we see love–true selfless love from above, as we see in Christ’s laying down His life for His friends. Thus, Christ saying, “I am the light of the world.”

John’s Letter to Fully Matured Christians

John wrote to Christians of all spiritual growths about these matters. “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning” (I John 2: 12-14).  It is as if John is speaking to us now: “You fathers have settled the sin question that plagues little children of God; sin is eradicated out of your lives. And you as ‘young men’ have conquered the devil and his temptations. And now you are fully matured spiritually and have known God that is from the beginning. As one of God’s friends, you not only know, but have  His mind and heart that existed from the very beginning. You know His purpose of reproducing Himself. You know His plan to implement that purpose–a plan to create a kingdom, a government with His Son as the King, who will rule and reign for 1,000 years here on earth. You know that some of us humans will rule with Him, as His Spirit will inhabit them fully, thus fulfilling His purpose.

“You fathers have known Him from the beginning, how the Father shaped His purpose and plan into thoughts expressed in words, which comprises the Logos, the Word of God. And you know now how the Father poured the Word into His Son, ‘made of a woman, made under the law.’ And you know that the Son was the Seed of Love, giving up His life a ransom for many. And you know that the harvest of that Seed in our hearts is the ultimate realization  of the fulfillment of God’s Purpose of reproducing Himself. This harvest is called ‘the manifestation of the sons of God,’ or the unveiling of the sons of God. Fathers, you now, like Paul and Peter and John among others 2,000 years ago, are privy to the mind of God and His Son, thoughts so precious and ancient, that little finite minds fizzle into the ether of the spiritual world, that heavenly paradise that was in the beginning before the earth ever existed.”

Now We Know

It has all been written down in the scriptures of truth. It is there for the spiritually hungry, for the thirsty, for the famished. For only a few will find this way of truth (Matt. 7: 14). Christ is the way, the path to God’s heart. Only those desperate enough to want to change their current life will find this path in the wilderness of sin. Only those who are willing to go through Christ’s sufferings will be exalted in that day.

Christ’s life illuminates man’s path to comprehending just who God is and what He is accomplishing in the earth. We can only see God and His purpose and plan when we see the love shown in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, which is the greatest love. When we believe in His resurrection–in us–then we enter into this hidden realm of which we speak.

Christ is the Light that makes known the Father’s purpose. And we all should take heed to the “more sure word of prophecy…as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in [our] hearts” (II Pet. 1: 19). And that “day star” is the Spirit of truth that is the Word which is a “light unto our path” (Psm 119: 105).

And this light will speak “to the law and to the testimony” (Isa. 8: 20).

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

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June 11, 2016 · 4:08 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When We Have Another Purpose

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

Understanding His Purpose

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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May 28, 2016 · 10:39 pm

Connecting the Dots–Starting With Agape Love

Revelation comes from the Spirit of Truth connecting dots–in us. The  “dots” are statements of truth found in the written word.

Anyone who has a Bible can memorize passages of scripture. But it is only the Holy Spirit that leads us into all truth (John 16: 13). And He leads us into more and more revelatory truth by tying things together–“…line upon line…precept upon precept.”

It has been said before and we all should take heed: If we are not receiving more and more truth and light in our Christian walk, then one of two things is happening. Either we have all the truth already or the Holy Spirit is not guiding us “into all truth.” I believe that it is the latter.

Only God can make the light bulbs come on, and He does it by connecting the dots of truth together into a bright wall of meaningful light, a light of Love.

Take the divine council of Yahweh that we see in the book of Job 1 and 1 Kings 18: 20-23. Upon seeing this we ask, What is the significance of this for my life right now?

Then other scriptures come to mind, tying in with them. We remember Peter miraculously being broken out of jail by an angel of God (Acts 12: 5-17). Peter was imprisoned by Herod. The church prayed for him, and God sent an angel that delivered him. Peter goes to the house where the body of Christ is praying for him. He knocks on the door. A young woman named Rhoda goes to the door, hears Peter’s voice, and turns and goes back and tells everyone that Peter is at the door. They, knowing the severity of Herod’s prison say, You are crazy. That could not be Peter; it is his angel (v. 15).

Connecting the Dots

Peter’s angel? There is deep truth here in Acts 12; we need to connect the dots. They did not believe that Peter could escape Herod’s prison. So in their minds there was only one explanation: The personage at the door had to be Peter’s angel. I mean, if it walks like Peter and sounds like Peter, and if Peter, who was with Christ for 3 1/2 years, is in Herod’s prison, then it must be Peter’s angel.

Why would they say that? There must have been a current teaching in the  early church that we don’t have today, saying that members of Christ’s church have a heavenly counterpart that can visit the earth. Each member has a heavenly spiritual body that looks and sounds like them and that can visit earth–an angel, if you will. [Wow. That just gave me a shiver.]

If this is not the case, then why did they think it and say it? They thought it and said it because they were taught it by the apostles and teachers in the body right after the resurrection. I know of no denominations that teach that. So either the early church was in error or today’s churchianity is. Very few Christians are going to take that leap. Why won’t they? Because their church don’t teach it.

Yet the apostle Paul confirms the above by speaking  about the two bodies that we have–an earthly one and an eternal heavenly one (II Cor. 5: 1). He calls it our “house which is from heaven.” The Spirit through him also writes that “there are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial” (I Cor. 15: 40).

Most preachers won’t touch this for fear of being ostracized by their denomination and congregation. They just won’t connect the dots–not on this one.

Can’t Help But Wonder

The question arises: If it be so that our spiritual body was in heaven with God before our life on earth began, then why should we have this earthly experience? Why go through all the pain and suffering? What is the point? Why could we not have just lived in our heavenly bodies, happy ever after?

This is an age-old question. Knowing His purpose gives us the answer. He desires to reproduce Himself–agape Love. Knowing this is the starting gate of all understanding and knowledge. To duplicate, to multiply, to reproduce Himself, sufferings must come to the vessels He is using for His reproduction. That’s us. We need to get over it; we are being used by Him. We must endure human sufferings, for they are the only experience that will shape and mold us into vessels of agape Love and mercy.

God cannot reproduce Love (Himself) without suffering. Suffering with Him is the crucible that forges us into becoming His kings and queens, vessels fit to reign. The scriptures declare as much. You have read them: “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him…Joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together…Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice as you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings…” (II Tim 2: 12; Rom. 8: 17; I Pet. 4: 12-13). Paul welcomed sufferings knowing that they were his calling card to God’s throne room.

But human sufferings make no sense without the knowledge of His eternal purpose of reproducing Himself (Love). When we believe that they are a necessary to fulfill His purpose, then the sufferings become more comprehensible.

The only reason that Christianity has worked in the hearts of men for the past 2000 years is because of Christ’s love shown to human beings through Him sacrificing Himself for others. He said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15: 13). He did not just say it; he did it.

That kind of love breaks up a hard heart. In our first earthly Adamic sinful state, we got beat up by others, betrayed and abused. And as a defense mechanism, we hardened ourselves and grew cynical. If we ever thought of God, we more than likely blamed Him for our spiritually destitute condition.

It was only the greatest love–the love that lays down his life for another–that will melt a cold bitter heart. That kind of Love is God, and He wants to sow it as a seed into the earth–through us. As we lay down our lives for others in following Him, the seed of agape love is sown into the hearts of other human beings. And that love for Him and His people will grow and grow, and it will become a great harvest of love in the earth at the end of the age. It will grow until Love “is all in all.”

God’s unselfish love in laying down His life is the first dot that we need to connect from. And the second is us laying down our lives for others. We are the offspring of Love and Light. In Him we are the light of the world, making manifest His Love to the world by letting love shine selflessly.

The Seed is the Love that we find in Christ, our example. And that Seed of Love is now within us, and we now have become the sower of that seed in the parable of the sower (Mt. 13). He now through us His body is sowing His love abundantly for the abundant harvest coming soon.

{Don’t sit on this article; share it.}

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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April 23, 2016 · 4:45 pm

“Walking in the Spirit”…of Truth

Simple, really, isn’t it? Understanding the plan of God. Yes, simple to comprehend once He opens our eyes and anoints them with His eye salve.

Anoints. That word is so abused in today’s Christian circles. Preachers boasting about “having the anointing” while being eaten up inside by false doctrines and concepts. It is  enough to make the angels around the throne of God weep and say, “How much longer, O Lord?”

Do they not know that the “anointing is truth”? We are anointed with the truth when the Spirit of truth comes into our lives. Question: Does someone have the “Spirit of truth, the Comforter” when they are still practicing false concepts and false teachings about God? “Truth” and “false” (I John 2: 27).

How can a Christian have the Spirit of truth and still walk in false teachings? Christ said that a good tree does not bear corrupt fruit (Luke 6: 43). We are told to “examine ourselves” and to “purge out the old leaven” of false teachings. It is only then that we will be anointed with the Spirit of truth, who will lead us into all truth.

This takes courage to start with “the man in the mirror,” and to be brutally honest with ourselves about purifying our walk with God.

The “simplicity of Christ.” We are admonished to not corrupt it (2 Cor. 11: 3). “Simplicity” is from a Greek word meaning “free from pretense” and hypocrisy; sincerity, single minded and not double minded. How can it be corrupted? Through the same deceit that Satan used to beguile Eve, the apostle Paul says (v. 4). Satan taught falsehoods about God in the Garden, and we know how that ended. Paul goes on to warn us to beware of those who preach another Jesus (Yahshua), and those who receive another spirit, and those who teach another gospel than the one that Paul taught.

The Masses and Their Teachers Are Asleep

So, how can we corrupt the simplicity of Christ? By interpreting God’s precepts using the worldly wisdom of the sleeping blind.

“For the LORD has poured out on you
The spirit of deep sleep,
And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers” (Isa. 29: 10).

The religious teachers of the people today–today–are in a deep sleep and cannot see what God is doing in the earth. The blind are leading the blind, and the people, incredibly, are asking to be deceived.

“The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule by their own power;
And My people love to have it so.
But what will you do in the end?” He’s talking about our time, the “latter days” (Jer. 5: 31; Jer. 23: 20).

In our day, brothers and sisters, the people will be so deceived that they will be demanding of their preachers, pastors, priests, and prophets to teach them false teachings about God and not the truth. The Spirit of Christ in Isaiah says the people will “say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (30: 8-10).

There is a deep sleep of deceit that covers the people, according to Isaiah and Jeremiah. And until God awakens His people out of the darkness of their first natural life, they stammer, unable to read the book that contains the vision of God. Most of the masses sincerely speak words trying to get closer to God, but they “have removed their heart far from” [Him]. They teach and learn about God, but it is taught by the precept of man (Isa. 29: 9-14).

The book that details the vision of God’s plan to carry out His purpose of reproducing Himself is sealed and closed and cannot be read without the Spirit of Truth really operating in one’s life. And to have the Spirit of God operating in one’s life, one has to “walk in the Spirit”–the Spirit of Truth. If a person is still walking in falsehoods about God and His plan, how, pray tell, can they be walking in the Spirit of Truth?

Walking in the Spirit

How do we do it? When we answer this question: “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” (Amos 3: 3). We will walk with God when our hearts agree with Him.

Before we can agree with anyone, we first must know what they are about, what they stand for, what their purpose is, what their goals and philosophy of life are, and what their thoughts are. It is the same with God. We must not only know these things about Him, but we must change our thinking to match His thoughts. That’s the difficult part.

We must have a deeper knowledge of God and His mind to be able to agree with Him.  We must change our thinking to agree with His thoughts. We must submit to Him. And when we do this, He will meet us there in that spiritual neighborhood. And He will walk with us because we went to where He is. When we repent of the false teachings and agree with His thoughts about what He is doing in the earth, then He will meet us there and will walk with us in Spirit and in truth.

And with the agreement comes the walking in the Spirit, which yields many benefits. Abraham walked with God, and he was called the “Friend of God” (James 2: 23).

Friends with God. God’s friends. That is what is ahead for us. Christ said that a mere servant does not know what  their Master is really doing. “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15: 15).

Christ’s Spirit will give us the knowledge of what the Father wants us to agree with Him on. When we agree with our whole hearts, then we will walk in the Spirit and become the friends of God.

But let us all be forewarned.  If we do not purge out the things that don’t agree with God’s thoughts and truth, then we will not be His friend. For example, what will we tell Him on Judgement Day when He asks, “What about the green tree that you have brought into your home during the winter solstice?” How would we answer? (Jer. 10).

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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April 16, 2016 · 3:11 pm

Exploring the Mind of God–His Love, Purpose, and Plan

Distilling the mind of God into the ink of a single page is like trying to put a cloud burst into a coffee cup. After the torrent, we see a bit of the water of heaven captured in a small finite vessel, a symbol of the moisture poured forth on the thirsty land.

That cup of truth may satisfy the parched souls of only a few pilgrims who stop for refreshment. Hopefully this cup of rain reminds them of the firmament from which it fell.

The mind of God. How do we begin to consider and relate such ethereal thoughts? Perhaps when our finite minds decrease and His infinite wisdom increases in them.

The Hebrew God has left us a record of His thoughts that emanates from His mind as revealed to His prophets of old. This record of His thoughts were written down and miraculously preserved through the millenia for us in the last days. They are called the “scriptures of truth,” or the writings of truth.

Thousands of years ago, God spoke His mind to His people using the prophets, who wrote it down. Now God speaks to us by His Son, the heir of all things, the King of God’s Kingdom (Heb. 1: 1-2). The prophets knew the mind of God because the “Spirit of Christ…was in them” (I Pet. 1: 11). These prophets “spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (II Pet. 1: 21). They had the Spirit of Christ in them and were longing for our day, the day when the Spirit of Christ is multiplied and reproduced into a body of “many sons [and daughters] unto glory”–right here on earth!

The Spirit of Christ in the prophets of old longed for that time about 2,000 years ago for the Father Yahweh’s Son to come on the scene. For with His arrival, the Seed Son then could be planted in the earth. They knew that there could be no great harvest without the planting of the Seed Son into the earth. Christ, reflecting on His date with death, said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12: 24 NKJV).

Without Christ’s death and resurrection, there would be no harvest of “grain,” no reproduction of seed. By definition, grain is reproducible seed. And in this case, Christ is teaching us that by believing Him, we become just like the original Seed that was planted. The harvest is not a harvest of little immature seedlings. No. It is a harvest of seeds, like the original, ready to be planted for their own harvest.

With Christ’s planting of Himself literally in the tomb in the earth, we have the inevitable harvest of Seed just like Him! That is what He said. And He is speaking the mind of God. He is speaking the thoughts of God about His purpose, which is this: God is reproducing Himself in a group of people called and chosen for this purpose.

That is worthy of repeating over and over in our finite minds. God is reproducing Himself in a body of people from all over the earth. He is calling them and choosing them. It is all His doing. It is all Him. They did not work for this honor. To the contrary. He has chosen the weak, the foolish, the low, and the despised of the earth to bring to nothing the world and its thinking (I Cor. 1: 27).

The Plan Is Found in the Scriptures

If you peel back all the layers of the Seed, you will find the seminal heart to be Unselfish Love. God is Love, and Love cannot by its very nature do anything but share. God is sharing Himself.

And in the very beginning, God, of course, realized this about Himself. He knew that the wonderful thing that He is is Love, and Love shares and magnifies and expresses and ultimately reproduces itself. That is what unselfish love, the love from above, is.

So this reproduction of Himself, which is Love, became His Purpose and Life. In His Mind of Love He created thoughts comprised of words. And with these words and thoughts He created the Plan to make His Purpose happen.

Using His thoughts, comprised of words, He created the  concept of “seed time and harvest.” And He made the original Seed His Word, and He made it incorruptible (I Pet. 1: 23).

We must pause a moment and realize that this whereof we speak was in the beginning before this dimension in which we breathe existed.

God created the Plan to carry out His Purpose of Reproducing Himself (Love). And this Plan is laid out in the scriptures of truth. To the prophets and apostles He revealed a precept here and a precept there, but we now have the privelege of seeing all the pieces to the puzzle spread before us. And with the Spirit of Christ within us, we through His help can comprehend the mysteries of God’s Plan.

His Plan, which is expressed in words, becomes the Word, the Logos. And this entire Plan of His Purpose of Reproducing Love is all poured into the Son of God. “And the Word (Logos) was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory…” (John 1: 14).

The Plan and Purpose is all in the Seed, who is the Word, who is the Son of God. The Father, whose thoughts we have endeavored to explore, poured His everything into His Son–His very nature, His purpose, His plan. It is all there in Him. That’s the reason the apostle Paul says, “He is before all things, and by Him all things consist (Col. 1: 17-18).

And Christ is our Head, and we are His body. He now needs His body to agree with His Mind, the Mind of God. And God’s Mind becomes our mind when we agree with His thoughts.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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February 6, 2016 · 6:45 pm

The Difference Between 1st and 21st Century Christianity

The difference between 1st and 21st Century Christianity is vast. The God worshiped is the same, of course. But it is a question of focus.

The central point of the early church teachings was to introduce to both the followers of Judaism and to the pagan masses the Savior and His Passion. Neither of the two audiences believed the story of the Savior and His death, burial, and resurrection upon first hearing.

In the early disciples’ writings preserved for us in the New Testament, we find the “apostles’ doctrine,” which is the teachings of Christ concerning His kingdom and our place in it. To the Jews they taught that Christ was the Messiah prophesied of old and that He is the Son of Yahweh of the Old Testament writings. To the Gentiles they taught that Christ is the true God and Savior of the whole world. They were powerful advocates with His Spirit confirming with many signs and wonders.

The Difference

The early church was starting at ground zero. Most Jews rejected the Messiah, and the pagan masses clung to their false gods. So they told them about Jesus Christ of Nazareth and His love for them. This was a message that they had not heard before.

But today it is different. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of professing Christians reside all over this planet. It’s like that commercial: Q: Did you know that Christ is the Savior of the world?  A: Yes. Everyone knows that.

Today billions of Christians don’t need to be introduced to Christ and Him dying for us. What we need to know are the spiritual intricacies of what His death, burial, and resurrection mean in our own lives and how that ties into the greater plan and purpose of God reproducing Himself–in us! We need to know how His plan and purpose will come to pass since we as Christians are smack dab in it; we are, after all “the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23). Oh, we do need to know how to get from being puny and powerless little babes in Christ to being the “fulness of Him.” In other words, to be like Christ.

And the early apostles planted the seeds on how to get there in our spiritual growth. But man’s religious Christian leaders have been stuck in the First Century, continually teaching their flocks today about Christ, seldom mentioning how to ignite the power of the Spirit in a believer’s heart and how to grow to become part of the “manifested sons of the living God.”

Why are the pastors and priests today still preaching sermons about Christ and not about how to become like Christ? Most don’t know, for they were never taught by their mentors. And if they do find out, they become afraid of their jobs, for most are hirelings, and they did not “count the cost” to fully follow Him. They are purveyors of weak pablum, for they have not “purged out the old leaven” of hypocrisy and falseness.

And yet, the early apostles sowed seeds for our growth as Christians in the 21st Century. They told us what would thwart our attempts to grow spiritually. Yes, they gave us the timeless truths of His salvation, but they also warned us of the treacherous times to come. They warned us of the blasphemy of some in the last days who would be selfish, ungrateful, unholy, hateful, and be “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” They warned of evil seducers and how it would get worse and worse in their deceiving of Christians (II Tim. 3: 1-13). They called them “false prophets” and “false teachers” that will definitely “bring in damnable heresies” into the church congregations (2 Pet. 2; Jude 3-12).

And this is the tough one to swallow; they warned us that these deceivers would come to us as Christian pastors and teachers. Even in Paul’s day, the heresy had already begun. “False apostles and deceitful workers” were already “transforming themselves into the apostles of light. And no marvel: for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11: 13-15). I believe that many pastors today are sincere and have been deceived through the false teachings that started way back in the day.

And so these old leaven teachings are passed on down from generation to generation. That is why the deeper things are not taught. Our adversary does not want them taught; he does not desire God’s plan for His body to come to fruition. Satan does not want us to grow. He does not want us to dig deep and grow up into Him.

Some Deeper Things

We all know that through His great love for us, Christ offered up Himself on the cross unto death. However, it is not enough to believe that He died, was buried, and was raised from the dead. We must believe that our old sinful nature died with Christ on the cross. When He died, all the sins of every human being died, also. When He gave up the ghost, our old heart, old spirit, and old nature died along with Him. Then we are buried with Him, and then we are “raised to walk in a newness of life.” It is all right there in Romans 6.

“He that is dead is freed from sin.” When we truly believe in His resurrection, we are believing in our own resurrection. For at the moment of Christ’s death, He took on Himself the sin of us all. He died as a sinner. He was our scapegoat offering for sin. That was us up there on the cross. That’s why the apostle Paul tells us, “You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3: 3).

But this message is not preached very often. Not many anymore want to be told that they have to “reckon themselves dead” on the cross and let their old sinful selves die, and then by faith in Christ’s resurrection, be risen with Him (Col. 2: 12). Not a popular message. Most would rather hear about Christ dying, not them dying.

Now when we really believe this, astounding things happen. The hand that stole, steals no more. The eye that lusted and coveted no longer yearns for things it cannot have. Cursing vanishes. Joy replaces bitterness and despair. We become new creatures in Christ.

This transformation, of course, is provided by our Savior through His great love and mercy. This is wonderful, but it is only the first step in “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” But this puts us on the right track, on the way to growing up and maturing into the full grown sons and daughters of God.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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January 30, 2016 · 4:10 pm

Being Alone on Your Christian Walk–“Look to the Rock”

Don’t think it strange that you feel like you are on a lonely road in your walk with God. So walked the prophets and apostles of old. Actually, those on the right path will feel this way, for “few there be to find this way of truth.”

In this pilgrimage we may take solace, for there trod those men and women of God who serve as our examples. On the one hand, many miracles were wrought through their faith: they “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of fire.” But then many of them were mocked, scourged, tortured, imprisoned, stoned, and many “wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” (Heb. 11: 33-38).

They were “strangers and pilgrims on the earth,” desiring “a better country,” which is a heavenly country. They were looking for the heavenly city (11: 13-16).

They are our heroes; they are our examples as to what this walk on earth is all about. So, yes, we will feel very lonely in the midst of a crowd. But we will endure as “good soldiers.”

Many People, Little Fellowship

I was thinking about how there are so few to fellowship with. Don’t get me wrong; there are many everywhere to love. But to fellowship–to get into the depth of the living waters, to dive in and swim together into the deep things of God. To not be limited to just us floating on top of a chlorined pool with our little plastic flotation devices that preachers have passed down to their people through the centuries. The prophets and apostles of old did not kick back and just float during their sojourn. They dug deep, and the kicker is this: they did it all for us their children (Heb. 11: 39-40).

I crave others to rejoice with me concerning His glorious righteous government soon to come to this troubled earth, and concerning the great deliverance from sin that He has wrought in our lives. My God, thank you. My life now in You is completely different because of Your cleansing power.

Yet, I know that even now, though we “walk that lonesome valley,” the day will come when the few will come together and become His cadre of rulers with Him on His throne, as He promised to those who overcome the present Laodicea church age (Rev. 3: 14-21). Until that time we wait; we endure, as they did of old. Many were shepherds, on a hilltop pasture at night with their flocks, looking up at the wash of stars pulsating across the heavens, and wondering, Oh, God, why me? Me? Me sit with You on Your throne some day?

And God says, Yes, I have chosen you as one of the few to find this way of truth (Matt. 7: 14). Yes, few will find the way because it is a narrow path where all who will hike it must count the cost to see if they have what it takes to make it.

And so we ask, Which way? The way to manifested sonship. The way to become just like Peter, James, John, and Paul. The way to become like God-in-human-form–Jesus/Yahshua. We must remember that “with God all things are possible” (Mark 10: 27).

Waiting on the Burning Bush

Take Moses. Banished from Egypt at forty, he endured with patience much suffering, waiting on God and the power He would give to execute His will. The way entails these sufferings, for they purify our faith as gold tried in the fire. Moses endured the sufferings of Christ for another forty years. He felt alone in the calling he was given and he waited. And then it happened at eighty years of age–the burning bush experience.

Moses waited forty years before God commissioned him to be the deliverer of His people. He learned that until God empowers us to run, we run in vain; we build churches in vain; we huff and puff and burn ourselves out “for God” in vain. For unless He builds the house, it is built in vain. For as He says to us, It is “not by might [your might], not by power [your power], but by My Spirit” (Zec 4: 6).

Carved out of the Same Granite

By the same faith as our spiritual ancestors, we as His children are of the same spiritual stuff that our God is–Spirit. And we are to look to the Rock from which we are hewn (Isa. 51: 1-2) believing this. We are to look to Abraham and all the others, that “great cloud of witnesses” that have gone on before us.

We are hewn from that same rock. Is not that chip of granite at the foot of the boulder, freed by the block by the stonemasons–isn’t that chip of the same substance, the very same molecules as the boulder?

We, then, are a piece of His body as much as Abraham and all the rest in Hebrews 11. We are His body with a spirit within us given directly from Yahweh’s heart. We are a piece of eternity, though at present wrapped in fragile flesh. But one day, we will receive our marching orders as Moses did and we will stride forth throughout the ravaged earth, declaring His righteous kingdom to all who will believe.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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October 10, 2015 · 4:32 pm

Everyone Wants to Be Loved

Everyone wants to be loved–to be cared for, thought of kindly, smiled upon, approved of, praised as worthy.

Everyone wants to be loved. It is the universal spiritual need that stares us all in the face. When our eyes meet, we witness simultaneously the same longing ache that we see when we peer into a looking glass and see the loneliness reflected in our own two wells of tears.

Everyone wants to be loved. We spend much of our lives searching for “the one”–the one who can fill that longing. A cosmic vacuum exists in the human heart, and no one is there to fill its aching need for love.

And there is only one earthly organism on the planet that is specifically designed to channel the kind of love that we all need. Only one being on earth that is capable of loving another the exact way that they want to be loved. And that is the human being.

We are all human. So then, why can’t we simply meet the need and fill the vacuum and just love everyone?

Someone will say, Well, I love people. Yet, Christ tells us, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.” Whoa. You mean we are to love everyone? He continues, “But love your enemies, and do good…and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of the Highest” [1].

Everyone wants to be loved. But natural man has an irrational fear of rejection. It is irrational because  even a two year old teaches us its folly as they unconditionally embrace us and drown us with wet kisses. They have no fear of rejection, for innately they know that everyone wants to be loved.

So what happens to us? After our brief taste of the victory of fearless love as toddlers, what prevents us from giving what everyone wants?

If we can agree that the Creator made us this way–both with the need for love and the capacity to selflessly channel it–then we must realize that He has made a way for us to do it–to be the riverbeds of the living waters of the love from above that will fill the vacuum.

God is this love–this agape love. He through His Spirit will flow this selfless love and help us fulfill our destiny as His conduits, channeling His love to those who need it. For everyone wants to be loved.

The Price

But to be one of the “children of the Highest” who will love everyone like their Father does, there is a price to be paid. It costs something. And we should “count the cost,” as He admonished us to do [2].

It costs us our old life and all of our allegiances to the people and things we deemed important. And to pay the cost, we must bear our own cross and follow Him.

How do we do that? We must let our old spiritual heart die with the Son of God on His cross. We must die with Him, be buried with Him, and be resurrected with Him. This happens when we believe that God raised up Christ from the grave. We, too, now are resurrected “to walk in a newness of life” [3].

It all starts at the cross–now our cross. We, like Christ, show the greatest love when we lay down our lives for another [4]. There is no greater love. He did it, and now as the “children of the Highest,” we do it. And then God’s love will flow through us. Then we will be used by our Creator to be His fountain of fearless love, His essence, agape love. For “God is love” [5].

Then we will conquer the fear of being rejected. For “perfect love casts out fear” [6]. With our old selves dead and gone, we will be able to channel Christ’s Spirit of love back to God by loving others.

And then great joy will be ours, for we will have the capacity to fulfill everyone’s desire. For everyone wants to be loved.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[For more:  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2015/01/17/what-the-world-needs-now-is-agape-love/ ]

 

  1.  Luke 6: 27-35     2.  Luke 14: 27-33     3.  Col. 2: 11-12; Rom. 6: 1-12               4.  John 15: 13     5.  I John 4: 8             6.  I John 4: 18

 

 

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September 26, 2015 · 4:35 pm

The Law and the Testimony of Love That Fulfills It–How to Prevent Backsliding

“Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Which law? The Ten Commandments, the breaking of which constitutes the definition of sin (I John 3: 4; Rom. 13: 8-10).

Which “love” is it then? It is the love from above–agape love. It is only through agape love that the law can be kept. Natural man without this love cannot keep the law, no matter how hard he works to keep it. It is spiritual, and it takes a new spirit from a brand new heart to keep it.

This divine law is the standard that man can and must attain unto, but it will be only through God’s Spirit helping him. In fact, that is precisely the point. The only way that a man stops breaking the Ten Commandments–stops sinning, in other words– is by receiving a new spirit from God.

The Greatest Love

In order for this to happen, one must visit the source of agape love. The source is God Himself and what He did for us. He gave us His Son. Yahweh was in Christ, “reconciling the world unto Himself” (II Cor. 5: 19). It is the laying down of His life on the cross that is the greatest love. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15: 13).

When we believe this love that Christ showed, when we are grateful and appreciative for this selfless act, and when we do what Christ did, then this great agape love that He exhibited in dying for us is transferred into and through us to others. We then become a channel of God’s love, which is His essence, for “God is love” (I John 4: 16).

This agape love is the essence of His Spirit, which He gives to us. And this love inside our new hearts in the form of His Spirit, now courses through us.

We must see that Christ “was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5: 21). And we must identify our old sinful law-breaking selfish nature with Christ on the cross. We must believe that when He died, our old sinful nature died with Him. Same goes with His burial. And–HalleluYah!–when we believe that He rose from the dead, we rise, also, to walk in a newness of life! He is not our substitute; He is our example.

It is all lined out in Romans 6. Our old sinful Adamic nature must die with Christ on the cross. And be buried with Him. And through belief that He arose from the dead, God will raise us up with a new heart! For which is easier for God to perform–raising Christ from a three day death or giving us a new heart that is free from sin and sinning?

This is the crux of the matter. This is the rock solid foundation that will never be shaken. Just feeling guilty about the sin in one’s life and walking down to the front of a church building will not sustain a young convert to Christ. How many have we seen “back slide” into the slop and vomit of their old lives?

The crux? Do we believe that Christ was raised from the dead? Not just the historical resurrection some 2,000 years ago. It is believing that Christ, when He arose then, now arises IN US. Do we believe that? For that is the crux of the matter. Even the devils believe in one God and tremble (James 2: 19). So believing that Christ’s historical resurrection is not enough. It is believing that His Spirit is resurrected in us–that is the important thing. That is the solid Rock in us that cannot be moved. That is what prevents backsliding into the old life of sin.

When this Spirit of agape love, now in us, begins to flow through us to others, then the law is fulfilled in us. Love fulfills the law in us. This is the testimony of God’s Spirit incarnate once again in us.

And now the old scripture passage becomes clear. “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8: 20). Those that speak of this law and the testimony that keeps the law through divine love, have the light of God. If they don’t speak in agreement with the law and this testimony of what fulfills it, then beware of them, for there is no light in them.     [For much more on this visit here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/category/light/ ]

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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