Category Archives: Spiritual Life Cycle

December 28, 2024 · 2:30 pm

The Abiding and the Additions Bear Much Fruit

“He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit.”

Lots to unpack in Christ’s words. First, we must understand that spiritual growth, like natural growth, is a process from seed to harvest. Spiritual maturity does not happen overnight. The spiritual seed grows first into “the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear (Mark 4:28).  

You then have levels of spiritual fruit [30-fold] and then more fruit [60-fold],and then much fruit [100-fold]. Christ said, “Every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2). Many spiritually young Christians fall away at this point because to bear more and more fruit, we the branches must be pruned or purged. This purging by the Father can be painful. This is where He corrects and chastens us, trimming off unproductive concepts and beliefs. Nobody likes the purging of the Father. But those who endure with patience will eventually grow to bear “much fruit” (John 15:5).

“Much fruit” is the 100-fold growth. This is full spiritual maturity. It is the same growth that Peter, Paul, and John demonstrated in the Acts of the Apostles and in their Spirit-led writings. These apostles and Christ Himself said that this growth is possible for us, too. Christ learned “obedience by the things that He suffered” (Heb. 5:8). We will do the same. We will reign with Christ if we suffer with Him (2 Tim. 2:12; Matt. 13:3-9, 18-23).

Spiritual Growth Comes through the Abiding

The word “abide” is translated as “continue, stay, remain” in many verses. The ability to continue walking through the stormy trials of a Christian’s sojourn, adds endurance/patience. We can endure the process of becoming God’s son or daughter here on earth by His presence abiding in us. It is the Spirit of truth that abides in us. The Spirit of truth remains in us by faith, by believing Christ’s words and promises. He said that he would “never leave you nor forsake you.” He fulfills this through adding facets of his divine nature–especially patience/endurance.

We add patience/endurance by faith, by believing his word when he says, in essence, I will remain in you by my Spirit’s presence in you; I will grow in you. This adding is activated by your belief in his words. Endurance/ patience is a part of the abiding. And the abiding of His Spirit in our hearts is a part of patience. There are seven additions to the faith. The seventh is agape love. When agape is added, our spiritual maturity has arrived. [Order my book The Additions to the Faith. It is free with free shipping. Order here: Ordering My Free Books in Paperback | Immortality Road

We are given the strength to abide in him when we by faith add endurance/patience. We can endure hardships and sufferings by having his Spirit abide in our hearts. They will come, but so will his Spirit be guiding us into all truth. “For you have need of endurance [patience], so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise (Heb. 10:36).  

And that promise is God sending down the Holy Spirit and filling us with power to complete His mission. He will in His own sweet time baptize us in fire which cleanses all false doctrines and concepts. He desires for us to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice,” putting to death our old desires and surrendering to his greater and far more glorious destiny for us.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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June 16, 2024 · 3:27 pm

Catching Bigger Fish for Christ

Christ has invited us to become fishermen. He does not want us necessarily to catch fish in the sea; He wants us to catch men. Christ likens men to fish. In this analogy, He has some followers as fishermen and some as fish. He said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19).

In Christ’s kingdom, there are three levels of spiritual growth attainable with God’s grace and mercy—children, young men, and fathers (I John 1:12-14). The spiritual fathers have “known Him that is from the beginning.” Those who will become fathers like Paul, Peter, James, and John—they are the big fish. We need these future sons of God who will arise in power and do the “greater works” than even what Christ did.

So, How Do You Catch the Bigger Fish for Christ?

You use bigger bait.

Continuing the analogy, more questions surface. What bait should we choose to catch a “big fish”? And how much of that bait should we use?

In fact, what is the bait? The bait is Christ’s words of truth. The amount of truth [the bait] depends upon the person’s spiritual growth. He wants us to feed them with spiritual food that meets their need. You feed a kitten milk; you feed its mother meat. Spiritual discernment is needed. Remember how He admonished them: “Don’t cast your pearls before swine…” It is difficult for novices in the word to handle the heavier truths, much less Satan’s thugs who are always around to mug you.

To “fish for men,” we need to know where someone is spiritually. Throwing big bait into a pool of tiny perch will not do. As we know from previous studies, Christians will grow and bear fruit in three levels: Thirty-fold, Sixty-fold, and 100-fold fruit bearing (Matt. 13:3-23). 30-fold fruit is borne by babes in Christ and little children of God. They believe God for personal salvation. This is a good start, but most little children of God stay on this level where they are mostly alive for what they can receive from God. You can hear it in their prayers; they want to be blessed by Him. This is categorized as “Knowing.” These are the children.

I have said it many times. We are to keep growing “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  That we henceforth be no more children…” And who are the children who are not yet mature in the spiritual growth cycle? It is those who are “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine…” Deceivers have sowed seeds of false teachings; children cannot discern the good from the bad. But many shall grow into the maturity that the apostle Paul is referring to (Ephesians 4:13-14).

Doing

60-fold Christians are those who have been taught more truth about the Son of God and His Kingdom. The truth is that God wants them to be the channel of His blessings and not the object. They begin to awaken to His desire for them to be “doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving themselves…” (James 1:22). The truth about Christ’s purpose and plan is the bigger bait that is offered to them by the fishers of men, who are the teachers sent by Yahweh.

Those foreordained by God to grow into 60-fold fruit bearing will accept and desire and latch on to the bigger bait. They will begin to see the deeper teachings of truth, and they will be drawn to it. They will see that by doing the deeper truths they will grow spiritually. This is part of fishing for men. And these doers of the word will grow into the 60-fold level of growth known as “Doing.”

The bigger bait is the deeper truth which solves the “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” The big fish are those foreordained by God to respond to Him. They may grab the line and get hooked and try to run away from God like Jonah did for a season, but after God reels them in, they will do grand and glorious works as a testimony that the Father is real.

Some May Think This Is “Out There”

Some may not like this fish analogy. But they are Christ’s words, not mine. He wants us to fish for men, not minnows. This notwithstanding, He wants us to win souls for His sake. So how do you win someone who is destined to bear 100-fold fruit. Some will reach maturity and be like Paul, Peter and John? The answer: You cast out the biggest baits, the deepest truths. You cast before them the big truth that Christ has a plan to fulfill His purpose. And His purpose is to reproduce Himself in and through us. The “us” being those chosen by Him to become His manifested sons and daughters who will rule with Him on His throne during the 1,000-year reign of Christ. These will bear 100-fold fruit. This is “Being.”

Fishers of Men

Once landed, the big fish analogy is transposed into another extended metaphor: To become fishers of men. These future 100-folders “are the called according to His purpose.” These that He knew before, “He also did predestinate.” He gave them a destiny “to be conformed to the image of His Son” They will be just like Christ: that He might be the “first born among many brethren.” Those bearing 100-fold fruit believe that they have been predestinated, then called by Him and then justified, and then He glorified them. This has already happened in the mind of God (Romans 8: 28-30; Ephesians 1:4-5).

This vision of manifested sonship, 100-fold growth, is the “big bait.” Fully grown sons and daughters of God are His body with power. This vision contains the deep truths that the “big fish” are hungry for. When you arrive in these deeper waters, humility is needed, for this is heady stuff.

Christ sees us as already mature, for He “calls those things that be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17). Therefore, Christ’s big fish are the Christians who have passed the stage and growth where they are not in this race to receive something for themselves. Rather they want to not just attain knowledge and things, but they desire to do and obey Christ’s new commandments. One of them is this: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” {Send for my book The Eleventh Commandment. Free with free shipping. Send your name, mailing address and name of the book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com}

Obeying this commandment—“Follow me”—brings us closer to Him, for Christ said, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love” (John 15:10). [There’s The Abiding—the new book that the Spirit is writing through this vessel.]

Abiding/continuing/staying in His love! What a promise our Head has given us! To stay in the kind of incomparable love that Christ is! We can abide in Him and He in us! And then His love will flow through us to His people, and He will show Himself that He is alive by the movement of His Spirit—through us! Those whom He has chosen will think on these things, for they are His thoughts, not our thoughts.

When we think on His purpose, when our thoughts about His kingdom are first and foremost in our meditations, when we give His testimony—from the cross to the Throne with us seated with Him—This Is the Spirit of prophecy! These are the things in the future that His true prophets speak of. “The testimony of Jesus/Yahshua is the spirit of prophecy.” God’s prophets today speak of Christ’s testimony as to the fulfilling of His purpose and plan. In the meantime, we will follow Him, and He will help us become “fishers of men.”   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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February 26, 2024 · 9:26 am

From Death to Everlasting Life—From Earthly Bodies to Heavenly Bodies

(from Kenneth Wayne Hancock, Journal entry, 9-20-21)

Mankind’s trouble is traced from his realization that the earthly body that he walks around in will one day die. It is dissolving even now in a slow march to the grave. Ashes are its destiny. Unless he is a child or a fool, man knows that his body will melt back into the earth.

Our “days are consumed, like smoke” (Psalm 102:3). When the dawn of death’s reality shrouds are minds, we groan under its weight. For we know that in a few short years our earthly body will succumb to our Creator’s will. For He has subjected all humans to the “bondage of corruption (decay unto death)” in hope that we will see the futility of living only for ourselves in this earthly life (Rom. 8:20-23).

The aging visage we see in our mirror is a witness to these things. But then we see Him! High and lifted up, waiting for the few, the remnant, the first fruits to realize the Answer to all their trepidations.

In Adam, all will wither and fade to dust and ash, but “You, Yahweh, shall endure forever” (Psalm 102:12). And because of your great mercy, You see our plight of impending doom, and you reach down and help us live.

“Yahweh looked down from His sanctuary on high; from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.” And why does He save us? “So the name of Yahweh will be declared in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem, when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship Yahweh” (102:19-22).  

But now the whole of creation groans with us, waiting for “the manifestation of the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:19). We all wait for the unveiling of the sons and daughters of God. This body of humans will have received their new, spiritual bodies, like the body that the Son of God resides in now. That kind of spiritual body is an everlasting body.

These 100-fold fruit bearing followers of the Lamb will come on the scene at the appointed time of the end. God’s Spirit through them will govern the earth. God will “restore all things” that He prophesied through His prophets. He will establish his kingdom and all peoples and nations will praise his name. But now, He humbles us as we learn that only He will endure. The heavens and the earth “shall perish, but You shall endure” (Psm. 102: 26-27). As we await the appointed time when our earthly body will be “swallowed up” with our new celestial body, we have joy knowing that He will deliver. This vision is the “law [the instruction] and the testimony,” which is “the spirit of prophecy” (Isa. 8:20; Rev. 19:10).   Kenneth Wayne Hancock 

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July 4, 2023 · 10:32 am

Pouring Out His Spirit on All Flesh–A Dream

[From Journal entry, 9-18-2020]

“I will pour my Spirit upon all flesh.” Last night God gave me this word in a dream. As I lay in bed praying, waiting to fall asleep, I asked Him, “Please, Father, will you give me a word from You, a dream from you?”

I went on to sleep, and then this voice found its way into me, and I began to be its vocal cords. And it resounded, and the voice blasted these words: “I will pour My Spirit upon all flesh. UPON ALL FLESH!!” It was hair-raising from neck to lower back. The voice seemed like it was loud enough to rattle the windows.

That is when my wife Linda shook me and said, “Wake up! You are dreaming!” She said that I had bolted upright in bed and was shouting unintelligible words.

And as I woke up, I knew that the voice was not my voice that came through my mouth. I did not originate the voice or the volume. It was not my will or desire that it spoke using my vocal cords.

I got up out of bed. It was 2:00 o’clock in the morning. I stumbled to my desk, turned on the lamp, and penned these very words into my journal. I did not want to forget any of this experience.

I wanted to share it immediately, but I was not ready to make sense of it. It was unsettling and unnerving. It was not the joyous upper room experience. It had a blanket of dread draped over the words. It was ominous and foreboding. I knew that there was much more to it, but I would have to wait on Him to help me understand its profundity.

Consequently, I put the experience on the back burner to let it simmer for a while. Other work kept me busy. I was in the middle of writing my fifth book, The Eleventh Commandment, at the time.  And then the sixth came, The Additions to the Faith, which I have just published online on Immortality Road [The Additions to the Faith | Immortality Road (wordpress.com).

These books have an uncanny connection to the dream. They show us how to grow into “mighty men and women of valor,” to borrow Gideon’s heavenly accolade. These books are primers, teaching us His Law of Harvest and showing us how to grow to be His apostles, prophets, and teachers. They prepare us for the “time of the end,” the great catastrophe, and the cataclysm coming to this earth just before Christ returns.

Making Sense of the Dream

But what does this dream-message mean? “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” My first thought was that joyous time at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down and filled the disciples. It was a time of great joy. Peter is quoting the prophet Joel 2:28. We have read it and marveled at the scene of Christ’s disciples receiving power, as found in Acts 2:17: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, sayeth God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”

Peter spoke of the Holy Spirit being received, changing lives, and turning many to Christ through the apostles’ spiritual exploits. It was glorious stuff that we would all like to experience. Speaking in a language that you have never heard before! Having a voice taking over your tongue and vocal cords, witnessing God’s glory to strangers in their own language! “They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance” (2: 4).

And so, I went to Joel 2:28 to see the words Peter was quoting. “And it shall come to pass afterward, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh…” Wait a minute. Before God pours the Holy Spirit out like that at Pentecost for our day, His word says, “And it shall come to pass afterward…” After what, exactly? It is a moment of putting things in perspective and in context. The passage in Joel that Peter quoted says that things will be happening before the Pentecost experience and the obtaining of 100-fold power through the pouring out of His Spirit.  

In our study of His words, especially prophetic words, we must widen our myopic lenses to see things big-picture, and not be quasi-blind, “unable to see afar off.”

We are keying in on what is to take place before our upper room experience. The Spirit through Joel shows us the state of the earth and its corrupt world system at the time of the end. And then we see a massive divine intervention—different pouring out—this time of His wrath. [To be continued in Part Two] Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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October 22, 2022 · 8:23 am

Know Where Your Spiritual Growth Is–30-fold, 60-fold, or 100-Fold

All about the Fruit

The Spirit admonishes us: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” (II Cor. 13: 5). We test ourselves by answering this question: Do we know and believe that it is the Spirit of Christ that dwells within us by the love that is shed abroad to all? I.e., we are examining how much of Christ’s Spirit is flowing through us.

Someone will ask, “How do we know how much of the Spirit of Christ is in us?” The short answer: If we are in the “knowing” stage of most things, then it is 30-fold growth. To distinguish 30-fold from 60-fold growth, one must look at 30-fold fruit from a childlike perspective. Just like natural children accumulate knowledge of their surroundings and nature and other people, children of God are doing the same in the spiritual realm.

A 30-fold fruit bearing child of God is attaining truth and how it relates to them personally. They are “knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him” (Rom. 6: 6). And they will “know the truth and the truth shall make you free…Whosoever commits sin is a slave to sin…” (John 8: 32-36). That’s the knowledge that the child of God is gaining. A natural child is mostly alive for what he can receive from his father. So, it is with the spiritual. A child of God is interested in receiving from his Father—receiving peace, contentment, joy, and love. And this only comes when our old self is crucified with the Lamb of God.

A Christian, bearing 60-fold fruit, has matured to the point where he or she desires to not just receive the fruit of the Spirit, but rather channel to others of those fruits. It is the developing of interpersonal relationships. One bearing 60-fold fruit is mostly alive for what they can do for the Father.

The 100-fold Christian is like Paul and Peter and John. They have Christ’s Spirit of agape love being manifested to others. They are agape love, insomuch as Christ is manifested through their vessels. They have the mind of Christ, and the will of their Father, foremost in their thinking. And the Father’s thoughts are rarified. Only a few will attain this position with Him. And they are those who are doing the will of the Father. They will be spiritually seated at His round table. They will know His purpose and His plan to accomplish it. They are His cadre who He will use to implement His government. Their thoughts are His thoughts, for their vision is His vision—a vision that subsumes and transcends national, international, worldwide, galactic and universal concerns. Christ is the exiled King, and “of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end” (Isa. 9: 6-7).

Those who grow spiritually into 100-fold fruit bearers will be in His inner circle. And don’t tell me that Christ does not have an inner circle. Think about the twelve disciples. And now there are positions to be filled. They will be leaders and administrators and ambassadors of the King as He establishes righteousness and judgment throughout the earth after the tribulation subsides. You will know that you are on the right track to become one of these princes or princesses of God if you are thinking His thoughts—His kingdom thoughts.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[Order my new book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It discusses these things and will be a help to you and your spiritual growth. It is free with free shipping. Just send to my email with name, mailing address and the title of the book, and I will get it right out to you.   wayneman5@hotmail.com

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April 20, 2022 · 1:30 pm

Two Outpourings of the Spirit—One “Good,” One “Bad”

[Continued from 4-5-22]

In the dream, the Voice coming through my mouth shouted, “I will pour My Spirit upon all flesh! UPON ALL FLESH! Through study, I discovered that the Spirit at Pentecost was not poured out on “all flesh” present that day in Jerusalem. It was only poured out on His servants and handmaidens, the disciples of that era. Here the scene is painted (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:17-21).

Both renditions contain two different and distinct visions of how the Spirit will be poured out. In Joel 2:28-29 and Acts 2:17-18 we see the blessed outpouring on His servants. Reading on in the very next verses, we see another kind of outpouring. Yahweh says, “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD [Yahweh] come” (Joel 2:30-31).

That day will not be nice day for many. In both prophetic passages, there are two vastly different outpourings. The first section reveals the baptism of the Holy Spirit that will take place during the “time of the end.” The second part of that prophetical flow reveals a pouring out of natural disasters and “acts of God,” a day of gloom and terror (Joel 2: 30- 31). This day of terror is when Yahweh has His angel pour out the vials of wrath. This shows us that both the latter day pouring forth of the Spirit and the pouring out of the vials of wrath happen at basically the same time in history—our time. The Upper Room pouring out of the Spirit was a type and shadow of what will take place on the earth at the beginning of “the time of the end” (Dan. 12:1). We are living in that time.

Christ warns us of that time (Matthew 24:15, 21- 22, 29). The pouring out of His Spirit that brings power from on high happens first. But not every human being will be so blessed.

But Joel, right after the first outpouring of His Spirit, speaks of a universal scourge. Christ calls it the pouring forth of the vials of wrath. How ghastly that will be for all the inhabitants of the earth. For all will see the sun “turned to darkness before the great and terrible day of the LORD  come.”

Some will say that the outpouring can only mean the baptism of the Holy Spirit like on the day of Pentecost. However, the scriptures are very clear that “all things are of God” (2 Cor. 5:18). And because “God is a Spirit,” then “all things are of the Spirit” (John 4:24). Even the pouring forth of the wrath of God upon all flesh [except those spared for the elect’s sake]. Yes, the elect, the sons and daughters of God will be on earth during tribulation.

He says, “Pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.” After all seven vials are poured out, “a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne [said], It is done” (Rev. 16:1. 17). This pouring out of God’s wrath is heavy stuff. It is the destruction of the world system, including the Battle of Armageddon (v. 16). This is major end time misery for mankind and runs parallel with the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon His chosen ones.

The Former and Latter Rains

The pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost partially fulfilled the prophecy spoken by Joel and it was confirmed by the apostle Peter. We have seen that the Spirit was poured on “all flesh” that were prepared for this happening. It did not fall on everyone in Jerusalem that day.

This partial outpouring of the Spirit has been called the “former rain.” The Hebrew word translated “former rain” means “teacher of righteousness.” The Spirit moved them to teach this gospel throughout the Mediterranean world. Christ did promise us that the Spirit “shall be in you” (John 14: 17). He also promised that the Holy Spirit “shall teach you all things…” (John 14: 26). Furthermore, the Spirit “will guide you into all truth” (John 16: 13).

The Holy Spirit, teaching righteousness through the apostles, was that former rain. This has gone on for the past 2000 years. You and I know Christ because of the early apostles’ work. The beauty of this event is captured in the poetry of Hosea:

“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know Yahweh: His going forth is prepared as the morning;        And He shall come unto us as the rain, As the latter and the former rain unto the earth” (6:3).

He shall come to us as the former rain, as the teachings of righteousness. He is pouring His Spirit over our minds and hearts, and it will teach us and prepare us for the latter rain. The latter rain will fall on us at or near the “time of the end.” It will fall upon those who are prepared to bear 100-fold spiritual growth (Matt. 13:3-9; 18-23).

For the righteousness shared by the “former rain” apostles will engender growth in us to be sustained in these latter days. For they spoke of our time, the time when our exiled King returns to this earth to establish righteousness and peace and judgment in the earth. Brothers and sisters, that’s what we’re working for. We do not believe anything into existence. We just believe what Christ believes.

The latter rain will fall through the teaching of apostles and prophets that God is raising up. They will teach righteousness and the truth about our King. They will raise up many princes and princesses and Yahweh will wipe the slate of the earth clean. It is all there in the book, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, our King.

This shows that God pours from His mind His plan according to the record in heaven. He pours forth out of his Spirit, what we would call the “good” and the “bad.” We need only think about Pentecost and Him pouring out the vials of wrath. Yahweh spoke in the dream: “I will pour My Spirit upon all flesh. UPON ALL FLESH!” We see that these words are not only precious promises of personal spiritual growth, but also a dire warning of His displeasure and a subsequent cleansing of evil from the earth. [Share with us your thoughts about these things in the comments.] Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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January 3, 2022 · 3:42 pm

Adding Godliness to Patience

To bear the spiritual fruit that we are to bear in these last days, to be found worthy to sit with Christ on His throne, we must add to our faith certain spiritual attributes (II Pet. 1).

We are to add patience to temperance. And patience is endurance, as seen in the Greek text. We must “endure unto the end,” enduring persecution and tribulations, enduring “hardness as a good soldier” of Christ (Matthew 24:13; II Thes. 1:4; II Tim. 2:3). We must “endure all things for the elect’s sake,” especially “sound doctrine,” which are those Christ-borne teachings that attack man’s traditions that we have all been taught since childhood (II Tim. 2:10; 4:3).

And perhaps the most difficult thing to endure is the chastening of God. We must endure His correction when He begins to purge out the false teachings about Him and the immature ways we carry ourselves.

God will scourge us and prove us. He forewarns us: “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by Him.” For He chastens those He loves. “If we endure [this is the adding of patience/endurance] chastening [correction, disciplining], then God deals with us as sons and not bastards. When we have passed the tests, He receives us as his heirs, “that we might be partakers of His Holiness” (Heb. 12:5-10).

God endures our immaturity and our weakness and we, in turn, endure the maturing process. Understanding, accepting, and finally, welcoming these things that we must overcome—this brings spiritual maturity.

The Beginning of Godliness

Adding patience/endurance to our faith is the maturing process. Going through this maturing process brings about a reverence for God. We begin to revere Him for what He is doing and how He is including us in his plan of reproducing himself. Revering Him is adding godliness to patience/endurance.

Many say that “godliness” means “God-like-ness. It sounds good, but the word “godliness” is translated from the Greek word eusebeia (G2150), meaning reverence or respect. This Greek word is derived from eusebes (G2152), which comes from sebo (G4576), a verb meaning “to revere, to worship” (Strong’s).

We now are living by the faith of the Son of God (Gal. 2:20). There’s only one faith—Christ’s (Eph. 4:5). We are now building on His faith as we endeavor to add to it. Belief first, yes. But faith/belief alone is not enough. For “even the devils believe in one God and tremble.” Virtue and then knowledge must be added, then tempered, and then endurance is added as we overcome hardships.

As we begin to comprehend the magnitude of this heaven-directed spiritual life cycle that God has called us to, then love, devotion, awe, and reverence begin to grow in our hearts toward our Father. This is the beginning of us adding godliness/reverence to our faith. We do love Him because He first loved us. And the love of God is “shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”

This reverence for God comes when we first know about his plan. And then, as we walk in it, we endure the tribulations and chastening on the road to sonship and daughtership. Then we begin to see that we [are] receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved.” He is favoring us with this knowledge that “we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” [reverential awe] (Heb. 12:28).

Who Will Add Godliness/Reverence to the Faith?

So, all of this creates questions: Who is going to step up? Who are these people who will do the seven additions that the apostle Peter wrote to us about? They are out there. These articles are a tiny light flashing faintly in the ocean of mankind. I believe that “this little light of mine” is shining. Its rays will reach whomsoever He directs them to. Who are they? How will we know them? We will know them by their fruits. More next time.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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September 2, 2021 · 12:40 pm

It’s All About the Fruit

God’s greatest desire is for us to spiritually grow to be able to bear “much fruit.” Christ calls this “the perfecting of the saints.” This is the work of His five offices (Eph. 4:14). He calls this bearing 100 fold fruit, as in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. He calls the three states of growth other things: Children, young men, and fathers…fruit, more fruit, and much fruit… faith, hope and agape love…30, 60, and 100 fold fruit bearing (I John 2:13-14; John 15; I Cor. 13).

Christ has mapped out the way for us to get to these growths. You can find much more information on this in my books (free with free shipping…see end of this article).

The fruit God is talking about is not the number of souls you and I win to Christ. That is important, but at this stage, He is concerned with the spiritual fruit production that is happening in you and me, His elect. The fruit is about the growth of the Spirit of God within us.

The Timetable

God has a timetable for each of us, and He’s right on time. It is you and I that must seek His timetable for the events during “the time of the end.” And the nearest to God’s heart of all of the astounding happenings during this time is the nurture and growth of His sons and daughters. God is right on time to bring to pass His purpose.

And His purpose is to reproduce love, which is Himself. I will keep on sharing His purpose with you. It is the key revelation that opens up everything else in His “book of life.” It all starts there, and he’s using us. We must, at the beginning, receive His seed (the Word) and help it grow through our prayer and study. Because to Him, it’s all about the fruit. He loves us, yes, but He both coaxes and spurs us on to come to full fruit production—in other words, to be like Him.

Christ is sending disciples once again in our era to help make this happen. He uses and sets in his body apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These are for the perfecting or the maturing of the saints. God’s offices are His gift to mankind. He gives gifts to men; the first one is the word of wisdom. The second one is the word of knowledge. Little spiritual children of God in Christ make the mistake of wanting to go out and heal all manner of sickness and work miracles without first learning the apostles’ doctrine. The early church continued in Christ’s teachings, and they became theirs. Reading the book of the Acts of the Apostles shows us the much fruit that they bore.

Many say that they want what they had. They walked in the knowledge of the apostles’ doctrine, and then they performed great works. They were right on time. Many well-meaning Christians do not realize that their timing is off. There is much to learn before our time to do wonders. It is like the best high school pitcher in the country believing that he can pitch at the Major League level right away. Not going to happen.

So, all of us must know His word. Really know it. And to do that one needs a teacher sent to explain His plan and purpose. Christ has already sent His offices out there to share the deeper things with His body. That’s His directive in His timeing for you and me (Eph. 4:11-15).

God puts special emphasis on the importance of learning the basics. It is the solid rock foundation. We cannot bask and sit still in the belief that we are a child of God and expect God to mystically help us grow. The child of God cannot keep circling the same old mountain of experiences used by God to call us out of the world many years ago. “Many are called, but few are chosen.

We are told to “make our calling and election sure.” The information in these articles and books will help us do that. Yesterday’s beautiful experiences will not give enough nourishment to us for the journey to the Promised Land that bears 100 fold “much fruit.” And it is all about the spiritual fruit. God has given us clues all the way through the scriptures concerning the growth cycle in nature as a type of the growth cycle of the Spirit within us.

What We Must Do to Bear Much Fruit

We must acquire the passion for his plan in order to grow to the 60 fold level, which is “more fruit.” There are many things to accomplish in preparation for that time when Christ will invite us to come up and sit with Him on his throne (the 100 fold fruit).

We need to “humble ourselves under his mighty hand,” for God “gives grace to the humble.” This grace, this unmerited favor, comes to us from Him in the form of new commandments. One is “Search the scriptures.” Another is “Study to show yourself approved unto God.” But if one does not obey them, the sap, the Spirit of truth, will cease to flow through that individual, and they will wither into a dry twig (John 15:6).

But those who do study God’s desires, his thoughts, his mind, his plan and purpose, will have obeyed his commandments. And those who obey his commandments prove to him several things. First, they will show that we love Christ. “If you love Me, keep my commandments” (John 14: 15). He is saying, If you love me, then you will study my words and My plan. Second, to him who keeps his commandments, Christ will love him. He does this by the Spirit of truth taking up residence in our hearts. He promises this: Christ’s Spirit will abide in him when he keeps the new commandments. “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14: 21). Finally, he promises us that if we use the measure of his Spirit within us to keep his new commandments, then he will abide in us (John 14: 23).

The abiding is when the Holy Spirit of truth remains and stays in us. He is anchored in our hearts in this growth. The Spirit shepherds us, guides us, and comforts us on the down days, and He laughs with us on the days of overcoming.

And when the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of truth, comes and makes his abode in us, then “He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you,” Christ said. (John 14: 26). Until that time, we must “occupy till He comes.” This takes patience and endurance.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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July 17, 2021 · 2:27 pm

“O, Father, Where Art Thou?”

“O, Father, where art thou?” We have all wondered it, especially during trials of our faith. Where is our spiritual Father—really? He is not where we just think He may be. He is not where the preacher thinks He is. He is not where we hope he is. He is not where we imagine Him to be. He is not where we feel He is. No. No. The answer to this question does not come from a feeling. Feelings will let you down. So, how can we really know where He is?

“O, Father, where art Thou?” We will find the answer to this question in God’s words that have been written down. He is where He said he is. The word says that the Father is in His Son. Christ said that the Father is inside the Son. In fact, Christ commands us, “Believe me that the Father is in Me.”

The Son of God is the head of the spiritual body of Christ, which is the church. We are “members in particular” of His body. He is the head; we are His body. Because the Father dwells inside the Son, and because we are a part of the Son’s spiritual body, the Father dwells inside of us, too. That is if we have received His Spirit within our hearts.

“O, Father, where art thou?” The Father lives within the hearts of His children. We need only look in the mirror to see the Father’s dwelling place. He is in His temple—you and me. I wrote a song right after my conversion to Christ some 50 years ago called “He’s Living Here.” He is living here, deep inside, and it’s so clear this love I can’t hide because with Christ my old man is crucified…

His sweet presence can only be enjoyed when the Spirit of Truth is in our hearts. For the Father is the Spirit of Truth. If we have error within us, we are blocked from the Father. Because He is Truth. 

How Our Father Communicates with and through Us

Hearing from our Father is through words that the Spirit of Truth speaks. These words are from the Word. The words from the Word comes to us through thoughts. Our thoughts come from primarily two sources–our Father and the adversary Satan, who oversees dispensing evil thoughts and confusion into the earth (see Job 1). Remember Satan’s lies in the garden of Eden? “Has God really said that? God didn’t mean that. God just does not want you to know the best things.”

Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He accuses through negative thoughts running through our minds. Consequently, not every thought is from God. How can we discern? How can we tell which thought is from God and which is from Satan? For the answer, we must go back to the written word of God, for His thoughts will coincide with His written word. So, let’s not be waiting for audible words spoken to us by God in order to receive His words to us. We waste time doing that. No doubt that is what the five foolish virgins were doing. They did not study the written word, and they wound up with no oil in their lamps (Matt. 25:1-13). Go to the written word; these are His thoughts which outlines His plan and purpose. By studying His written words, we will have a library of His thoughts that the Spirit within can draw from. But do not go down every rabbit hole that Churchianity provides. They are in error; I didn’t say it; He did.

Christ said, The words I speak, they are spirit, and they are life. Our thoughts, no matter how lovely they sound to us, must agree with the written word of God. Dreams and visions do not always come from God. That is why we must “study to show ourselves approved unto God.” That is why we are told to “bring into captivity every thought unto obedience to Christ.” It helps to have the Teacher, the Spirit of Truth, teach us.

“O, Father, where art Thou?” His word says that the Father, the Holy Spirit, resides in the Son, of which Christ is the head, and we are the Son’s body. The Father dwells in us if we have indeed His Spirit residing within our hearts. But the Spirit will not dwell in unclean temples filled with error. It will not happen. Why? Because His word says so.

Where is the Father, the invisible Holy Ghost/Holy Spirit? I leave you with this quote. We will let the Spirit in Paul answer: “There is one body, and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in you all” (Eph. 4:4-6). Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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April 18, 2020 · 6:54 pm

The Symbiotic Relationship of God and Mankind

Life is a growing and a maturing. Just look out your window at the living things. They are growing into maturity that they might reproduce themselves. We not only are growing physically, but also mentally and spiritually. And we are created in His image and likeness. So why is the thought that God grows so unbelievable?

Yahweh, translated “the LORD,” grew into His perfect maturity when He manifested Himself in the Son. Some will take offense, so let me explain. “God is Love,” agape love. The universal law of love states: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15: 13). In order to fulfill this law, the Father would have to lay down His life for others. But the Father is an immortal Spirit and cannot die.  He could not fulfill this law and thereby express the greatest love while in His first spiritual estate.

So in His brilliant plan, He would pour out His Spirit into a specially prepared mortal man who would then submit to the death of the cross to save down fallen mankind, who were before prepared for this purpose. In a word, the sacrifice of Christ, the Son of God, would fulfill the greatest love explained in the above quote.

“God was manifest in the flesh” (I Tim. 3: 16). “God was in Christ…” (II Cor. 5: 19). Christ said that it was the Father in him that was doing all the miracles. And Christ has given us this new commandment: “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me…” (Jn 14: 11).

Symbiosis

The Father Yahweh is Love. He completed the first leg of His own everlasting life cycle, by demonstrating the greatest and most perfect/mature love in the history of the Creator and the Created. The Immortal One had to create a mortal being—the human being—in order to be able to show that He is the greatest Love through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It was through Christ “laying down His life” for others that proved God is the greatest Love.

So death is an instrumental part of the Creator’s plan. For the Creator Yahweh cannot be the Creator without the Created. And in like manner, neither can Yahweh fully become the Savior without someone who needs saving. And that someone that needs to be saved cannot exist without sin entering into his heart. The evilness of sin must be a reality in fallen man in order for God to have someone to save and thereby show His great love and mercy to us. And make no mistake; Yahweh, and only Yahweh is the savior.

That is what His Spirit spoke through the prophets Isaiah and Hosea. “I, even I, am Yahweh; and beside me there is no savior…” (Isa. 43: 11; 45: 21; Hos. 13: 4). Christ’s words confirm this. “The word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me…The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works…” The Father does the miracle of salvation (John 14: 10, 24).

How important is believing this true knowledge about the Father and the Son? Christ answers: “He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do…” He has just promised us that if we believe on Him according to the above, then the Father in us will perform the same miracles that He did through Christ and His apostles and prophets. Furthermore, He states that “whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14: 12-13). Asking in His name. His Hebrew name. {I am going to put this in capital letters because it is so important} CHRIST’S HEBREW NAME MEANS “YAHWEH IS THE SAVIOR!” Christ came in His Father’s name Yah. “Yahshua” is the same name as the patriarch Joshua. {I wrote a whole book about this entitled Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality. Free copies are still available with free shipping. Details here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/donate/}.

The symbiotic relationship of God and mankind is thus: God needs man to fulfill His own destiny as the glorious wise and loving Creator and Savior. And man certainly needs God to escape a certain trip to dark oblivion. We need Him more than He needs us, but nevertheless, He does need us to fulfill His plan and purpose of reproducing Himself, agape Love.

The Plan in Making Adam Weak

Our omniscient Creator moved on this by creating Adam and Eve weak—on purpose. It was not an experiment in the Garden of Eden that accidently ran amuck. No. He who knows the number of hairs on our heads, and He who sewed together our sinews, and spun and wove the exquisite optic nerves into our brains—no, He did not make a mistake. It was all planned. And “it was very good” (Gen. 1: 31).

In Adam God did not build a robot-like tower of strength. He could have, but that kind of creation would not serve His purpose of revealing Himself as the Savior. In His infinite wisdom and fore thought, He chose us long before He ever created the worlds. And He chose us to be with Him, with His purpose in mind.

And through this grace, He secured our destiny, before ordaining our steps here on earth. For this reason: We are to be earmarked to be used by Him for His purposes. When we surrender completely to Him, then He will have our backs. Many try to manipulate the Creator, trying to get Him to do their bidding. But that never works out well. Just look at the unanswered prayers that we all have flung heavenward. Just look how the plans of well-intentioned men “have come to naught.”

But He has His hand on us, long before our entrance as infants into this world. He has “predestinated us” for this purpose: that we could be placed as His spiritual offspring through Christ, who is the saving Son and who is the Creator/Father. That is not a misprint. Everyone will quote the following passage as a distinct prophecy of the coming Son of God. But somehow this part of the quote just doesn’t click. I know that you have read it.  “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…and His name shall be called…The everlasting Father…” (Isa. 9: 6).

Once we understand and believe why we were created in the first place, then we will realize that this present life upon this planet is all about God—Agape Love—reproducing Himself. And it can only happen through God saving a human being who sits humbled in the chains of sin.

We were made for God. God created us humans as His future dwelling place. In His eyes it is already a done deal. God sees us already sitting next to Him on His throne. After all, He created us to be overcomers. He has faith in His plan, purpose, and His word that explains all this. And, oh, yes. He has faith in us, His creation. The faith that the Bible keeps referring to is God’s faith and belief in His own genius and power to make it all happen. When we believe what and how He believes, then we are walking in faith. It is not our feeble little belief system. It is the faith of the Son of God, the Creator.

The few overcomers, the elect, the remnant, will answer the call. Because He fashioned us to do this. For in the end, we will see that it is all Him. He is the One, so merciful, so kind, so loving, that He would choose us to sit with Him on His throne. This is how He said it, “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne…” (Rev. 3:21).

Many are called to this honor, but only a few are chosen. It is like seed being sown in a field. Some will come up and some won’t. May we all who read these words come up and rise up to be what He wants us to be.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under Adam and Eve, agape, children of God, elect, eternal purpose, faith, manifestation of the sons of God, sin, Spirit of God, spiritual growth, Spiritual Life Cycle