[This is Chapter 44 of my new book The Apostles’ Doctrine, due out late this fall.]

The elect, the remnant in the last days, repented of their sins. They forsook their selfish ways. And they walked in God’s faith like the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles of old. And the elect for these latter days became particular members of the body of Christ. And they grew to become the hands of God—God’s very own hands—hands that are destined to be laid upon a sick and dying earth.

To fully grasp the depth of this the doctrine of the laying on of hands, we first must see things through God’s eyes, the way He sees them. For He sees it through the lens of His purpose, which He has embedded in the pages of the Scriptures of Truth. Knowledge of His purpose is the key that unlocks every good door that He desires us to open. Believing in His purpose casts light on the incomparable calling of the “hands of God.”

It Is All About the Creator’s Purpose

All spiritual roads lead us back to God’s purpose. For His purpose is the glue that holds the meanderings of men’s feet steadfast on the paths of righteousness. Believing in His purpose gives our lives meaning. And when life goes sideways, as it will do, we can rest in the knowledge that it is all part of the plan to fulfill His purpose.

And this is His eternal purpose: God is reproducing Himself in human beings. He is in the process of multiplying Himself and planting His Spirit of Love throughout the universe. It is the reproduction of agape love, pure and simple. And He will do it through the body of Christ—you and I—if so be that we have surrendered to His plan and purpose. Nothing else can give our lives true meaning. He is Love and His desire to reproduce Himself in and through us is incomprehensible grace. There is really nothing else of any value in heaven or earth to compare to this kind of Love. For God-Love is the seed of all things and the harvest of all things.

And God has poured it all into His Son. It is all there. The Son is our chance to shine as we have given up our desires for vain self- glory and have put on the mind of Christ, who is the Seed-Son. We are created for His pleasure, and it pleases Him to expand His nature of Love using us as the medium. This is the theme of my 2017 book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect [1]. He is sovereign; He calls the shots. He works all things out according to His plan and purpose.

When we see things through the eyes of His purpose, then we will comprehend how such a grand Spirit of Love needs us His people, as we need Him. He needs us to be the channels of His love to those in need. And we need His agape love flowing down and through us to give our lives fulfillment and meaning. “We love God because He first loved us and gave Himself for us.” God is that Spirit of Love who needs a body of people to love through. And yes, He wants to be loved and appreciated just like we do.

Why He Created an Elect

 Consequently, to fulfill His purpose, He has created and fore-ordained certain individuals, who are predestined to respond fully to the calling and election He has placed on them. He has left nothing to chance. He will make it happen. He cannot fail. If He has called and chosen you, you will respond, even when it looks to natural man’s eyes like you are resisting Him, for your names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. It is a done deal; we just have to be Hit witness through acting on knowledge of His plan.

He calls these people His elect, His chosen ones, His remnant. They are alive today, but dead to themselves, and the new life inside their hearts is the life of Christ reproduced again, a brilliant seedling bursting through the sullen earth, growing and living by the faith of the Son of God (Rom. 8: 18-33; II Cor. 3: 18; Col. 1: 27).

The Creator has given to His chosen ones the heart and ability to see these things of which we speak—to realize that they are His corporate body, His literal torso, legs, arms, and His hands. For He needs hands to show mercy and love to those entering into His Kingdom. He needs hands to bless and guide others out of the pervading darkness. Without hands it is difficult to lay foundations to physical as well as spiritual buildings—skills needed during the reconstruction of this world after Great Tribulation and His return to His throne.

When we begin to see things through God’s eyes, we will see that we, the body of Christ, hold a special place in the King’s heart. For He will choose certain members of His body to be His hands, chosen for a special calling. For He will place His hands upon people to heal them and bless them, much the same way that Christ sent forth His disciples out two by two.

He said to them, “He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do…” (John 14: 12). How could we ever do anything greater than raising the dead? Their deeds will be greater, for they will be more numerous. Because it is the time of the harvest, thousands of the sons of God will do the same works that Christ did. For at that time their hands will be Christ’s hands. They will do the acts of Christ because Christ’s Spirit will be fully formed in them.

It is through this promise of the “manifestation of the sons of God” that the purpose of God will be fulfilled (Rom. 8: 19). His Life, Love and Essence will be multiplied, for He will have reproduced Himself in His elect for the last days. They will come right on time. That time is now.

Thousands of His elect will lay the “hands of God” on the peoples of this world, and by the Spirit of Christ within them, they will heal the nations as they herald the coming of the Kingdom of God. God will lay His hands on this sick world, and He will heal it on an international level.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[1] A trade paperback copy of The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect is available—free with free shipping. Just send your mailing address in the USA to wayneman5@hotmail.com  Please mention the book by name.

[The following are two chapters from my new book in progress]

42

 The Common Concept of the Laying on of Hands

 “In Christianity, the laying on of hands (Greek: cheirotonia – χειροτονία, literally, “laying-on of hands”) is both a symbolic and formal method of invoking the Holy Spirit primarily during baptisms and confirmations, healing services, blessings, and ordination of priests, ministers, elders, deacons, and other church officers, along with a variety of other church sacraments and holy ceremonies.

In the New Testament the laying on of hands was associated with Christ healing the sick (Luke 4:40) and after his ascension, the receiving of the Holy Spirit (See Acts 8:14–19). Initially the Apostles laid hands on new believers as well as believers. (See Acts 6:5–6). In  the early church, the practice continued and is  still used  in  a wide variety of church ceremo nies, such as during confirmation” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_laying_on_of_hands).

This is a typical encyclopedia rendering of this doctrine. They all say about the same thing. But, really, is that all there is? Surely not. It has always been my experience that whatever churchianity teaches on a biblical subject, the whole truth is not in it. They clothed their half-truths in sheep’s clothing, warm, white and self-assured. But inwardly, those half-truths lead His people astray. This is not to say that all of the clergy nor all of the laity are guilty of this. For many are very sincere and are searching for the truth.

Nevertheless, now that man’s understanding of this topic has been broached, let us see where the Spirit of Truth wants to take us concerning the laying on of hands. Do we really think that the early apostles went for all of the formalized mumbo-jumbo of Pharisaical Judaism? And since there is nothing new under the sun, and since Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, should we His followers today acquiesce to what mainstream churchianity says about the laying on of hands? Do we honestly believe that the Holy Spirit can be conjured up at will by our words and our hands—hands, defiled by formalized religious practices (Isa. 1: 11-18). The sin-soiled hands of the clergy are laid upon the heads of the little lambs. May God lift us up to see this teaching as He sees it, according to His word.

43

 Isaiah’s Prescient Preface to the Doctrine of Laying on of Hands

Before we can get to the deeper levels of understanding concerning the “laying on of hands,” we must examine why man’s attempt to employ this teaching falls woefully short. We look to Isaiah 1 for answers. It goes to the root of the problem.

First, as with all of the prophets, it is the Spirit of our Savior who speaks through Isaiah. Understanding this is paramount to receiving more revelatory truth. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (II Pet. 1: 21; I Pet. 1: 11). And because it is the Spirit of Christ ministering through the words that the prophet Isaiah penned down, we His body  can receive understanding from Christ Himself.

Isaiah 1 is a vision in which Yahweh laments for His people who had rebelled against Him. He says that even dumb animals know who feeds them and where to go to get that feed. “But Israel does not know, My people do not consider (1: 1-3).

Isaiah 1 is a cautionary tale that glimpses into the heart of a people and presciently instructs you and me to not do what they did. It speaks down through the centuries to us “upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

The Sickness

The Spirit likens their rebellion to a physical sickness. The whole nation is sick because “they have forsaken Yahweh.” And the Spirit describes this sickness: “The whole head is sick.” The mind of the leaders and the people is eaten up with corrupt thoughts. “The whole heart is faint.” The very core and center of the people is weakened and puny because of self-centeredness. “The sole of the foot even to the head, there is not soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores…” And they have not been given medical aid to bind up those wounds (vs. 4-6). This extended metaphor tells us that the sickness of His people is complete. The whole nation has contracted this illness. What illness could infect the entire nation?

He reveals the grave spiritual sickness in one statement: “Ah sinful nation” (v. 4). The sin nature was contracted at birth. It is the root and core of why His people have rebelled against Him. The Spirit is saying, “Because of your sin, ‘your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence’ [sound familiar?] (v. 7). And if it were not for ‘a very small remnant, we should have been Sodom…’ (v. 9).

Lifeless Religious Liturgies

The whole nation is sick in sin. And then in the very next breath, the Spirit of Christ lays it out there, exposing the phony, lifeless, futile religious liturgies that both the clergy and laity participated in under the old testament law: animal sacrifice, the vain oblations, the incense, the burnt offerings, the Sabbaths, and the solemn assemblies. He calls all of these actions of 760 B.C. temple worship “iniquity.” It troubles Him. He hates all of this (vs. 11-14).

And echoing down through the centuries, His Spirit still calls the religious liturgies practiced today “iniquity.” That would include the laying on of hands as seen in the encyclopedia article above.

Why does He call it iniquity? Because the priests and people are still sinning. The pastors tell the flock of churchgoers that they cannot live without sinning. Therefore, their worship is soiled and tainted and unacceptable because their hearts are soiled with sin. “Ah sinful nation” still applies. Only the remnant in Isaiah’s day had changed their ways and repented and walked in the faith, believing that His Spirit can and does live in them. In Isaiah’s day, the names and exploits of the remnant were immortalized in the pages of the Bible. Today His remnant will fulfill and dramatize those illustrious pages of scripture.

Christ Gets Angry

And so it is today. The Spirit of Christ that spoke through Isaiah continues to speak to us because our nation has provoked Him to anger (v. 4). Christ gets angry? Yes. Just think: money changers at the temple, tables turned over, sharp rebukes flying through the air. I can see Him rebuking today’s televangelists, who preach the prosperity doctrine. Send us your money, they say, and God will multiply more money coming back to you. Sow the seed of faith by giving us your money and you will harvest 100 fold. What a lie! What an abomination! They are nothing more than modern day money changers. Where is the outcry from the pulpits? Why do the sheep get sheared so blatantly without even a word of protest?

So, yes, I believe that Christ would be rebuking the religious leaders of today the way He rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees 2,000 years ago. He said to them, “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do.” Remember that these are the most powerful religious leaders of that time and place. They were the chief priests and rabbis with the power of life and death over the laity. And Christ said that they are the sons of the devil. The devil “was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8: 44). Wow. You talking about fearless.

And so, the Spirit still is speaking: The prosperity doctrine is a false doctrine from the devil. It cheapens the beauty of God’s grace in giving us the true law of harvest—but they pervert it, saying that you can receive financial blessings by “sowing” seed money into their ministry. That is a lie from the father of all lies! And it is a horrible deception that has gone out all over the world. And these false teachers will turn right around and lay their hands on the lambs of God and pronounce great things for them as they become “partners” in the deception. Can we now see how the devil perverts things like the laying on of hands? No wonder God is angry. There is no justice in the land while deceit and lies run rampant.

It Is Always about the Sin

It is sin that we are talking about. Christ always brought up sin in the conversation. And He would today, just like He did in Isaiah’s day. He changes not. He would ask our sinful nation today, Why are you still in sin? Why are you still sinning? I am manifested to take away your sins, and in Me there is no sin (I John 3: 5). ]

Because Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, He would say to the sinful nation today: “You say that you are washed in My blood. And yet you still break My Ten Commandments. You say that you are following Me, and yet you hide secret desires that will destroy you. You say you are born again, and have been baptized, and have joined a church, but you are still struggling with sins that yield guilty thoughts and a troubled conscience.

“Something is wrong in your thinking. For you say that the Bible is the word of God and that you believe every word of it, and yet you do the opposite of what my word says to do. And you say, Well, my pastor says that no one can keep the law. Nobody’s perfect; everyone sins.

“But you do err, for you neither know the scriptures nor the power of God. Either My blood is powerful enough to cleanse you from all sins along with your sin nature, or it is not. And you have forgotten that with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. All things.

“So bring no more of those solemn ceremonies and ecstatic praises and rituals and traditions and baptisms and laying on of hands, for sin still stains the hearts of both the pastors and their flocks. ‘When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you…when you make many prayers, I will not hear…’ But My hand is still stretched out. ‘Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” (1: 16-18).

“If you repent, you may join My remnant, My elect, My chosen. They will walk in the light of Love. I am the Seed and they are the harvest. They will restore all things and help usher in the kingdom of God. And they will rule and reign with Me. They repented of their sins and walked in faith, and as the body of Christ, they became the hands of God—hands destined to be laid upon a sick and dying earth.

[These are the opening chapters of the “Laying on of Hands” doctrine. It is not what we have been lead to believe it is. It is far more elevated, created in the heart of God for astounding results. These chapters are excerpts from my new book coming out, hopefully this fall. We wait on the Spirit, for without Him I cannot write this. It is called The Apostles’ Doctrine. Its contents illuminate our path to nothing less than perfection, which is spiritual maturity. Like the other books that I have written for the elect, this book is seminal for the harvest of His manifested sons and daughters. I highly recommend that you first read The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect, available to you free with free shipping. All I need is your mailing address sent to my email… wayneman5@hotmail.com  I will advise as to when The Apostles’ Doctrine is finished and published. It is free with free shipping, as well.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock ]

The first principles of Christ’s teachings is the milk of the word of God. But that does not mean that its precepts are not ground-breaking and earth shattering. And heart-rending, too.

These Foundational Principles of His Teachings Are Powerful

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit…and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4: 12 NKJV). Christ’s doctrine about repentance will cut us to our very spiritual core, exposing what we are really thinking about God and what our intentions are on the stage of life.

Just because these first principles are the milk and not the meat of the word and are to become our very foundation upon which to build the temple of God, we should not take them lightly. For “repentance from sin” will shake us to our core. It will break our hearts, minds, and our wills. It will evoke a complete upheaval of the human heart.

It will provoke us to question whether we really can follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Christ admonishes us to “count the cost” of discipleship. And He asks us this question, “Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Matt. 20: 22). This was not the water baptism of John but rather the baptism into His death that Paul speaks of in Romans 6: 3-6. And, yes, Christ answers His own questions to us with a resounding prophecy: “You shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with” (v. 23).

For repentance from sin is a complete reversal of the old  life’s ways and means. Instead of depending on our own wits and talents to gain advantage in the game of this earthly existence, we now depend on the Creator’s sustenance from the new Spirit He has ignited in us.

Of course, our new life in Him is really His creation. He restores us day by day back into His heart. We are His clay as He exhales the fire of His lungs into our breathing moments, thus transforming us into a new creation, created in true righteousness and holiness.

And God does have greatness in store for us His children–things so grand and glorious that, like the apostle Paul said, “it is unlawful for a man to utter” (II Cor. 12: 2-4). These are heavenly things that the human eye has not seen, “nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him” (I Cor. 2: 9). These things will be the meat, the spiritual food that He will feed us when we get the first principles fully operating in our lives. This is one of the major problems in Christianity today. New followers want to jump into the book of Revelation or visions or prophecy or the heavenlies while they are still struggling with repentance from dead works in their lives.

First, we must get strong enough in our walk and get mature enough in order to be able to glimpse those rare, glorious, spiritual things that He has prepared for us. Prepared for whom? “For them that love Him.”

So How Do We Love Him?

Let’s get it from our Savior’s own lips. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14: 15, 23). And one of His commands to us is “Repent of sin.” We show our love for Him by obeying Him. We must hear His sayings and do them. Really do them. And the first thing is to repent from sin, the breaking of the 10 Commandments.

Someone will say, Well, no one can do that. True, because that’s the way God designed it. No human in their earthly strength can keep the law successfully. He made it this way in hope that we would turn to the Savior and seek forgiveness. For left to our own devices, eventually man surely will see the futility of his selfish ways and seek to find a place of repentance, won’t he?

Repentance will be realized when brokenhearted man believes the word concerning God’s sacrifice for sin–His Son. Not just believe that Jesus of Nazareth died for mankind’s sins some 2,000 years ago, but believe that we must be immersed spiritually into Christ’s death and by faith in His resurrection, we now walk in a “newness of life.” This is done by faith, believing that He now lives in our hearts. We rise with Christ by faith (the second principle of Christ’s doctrine). Christ’s Spirit now is living within.

Many of you have experienced this wonderful spiritual reality. Praise God for you. Yet some may wonder, Why all the details about repentance? Why is it necessary to study all this out?

The answer is this. If we love Christ, we will obey His command: “Feed my lambs…Feed My sheep…Feed My sheep (John 21: 15-17). We  need to be rooted and grounded in these teachings in order to be able to teach them to others coming into the church, the body of Christ. That’s it, pure and simple. Can we explain it and teach this miracle of transformation in our lives to others? When we can, then He will feed us with a banquet fit for kings and queens. HalleluYah!       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[This is part of Chapter 10 of my new book The Apostles’ Doctrine due to be published later this fall. I will announce on this blog its arrival and how you can receive your free copy (with free shipping). It is seminal and proper spiritual food for the lambs and sheep of His pasture. Be sure to subscribe and may our Father bless all of you.]

Most Christians will agree that the blood of Christ does have a certain degree of power in it. But how does that power manifest itself? What does it do? How does it work? How does the shedding of His blood “cleanse us from all sin”?

For sin to die out and cease to plague us spiritually, we must submit to the cross and die with Christ. He “was made to be sin” (II Cor. 5: 21). At the moment of His death, sin died. “The life is in the blood.” The life of sin is in the blood. And the ancient law now tolls for all sinners: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. With the shedding of the blood of the sin offering Christ, sin died that day at the cross. We must submit to this truth. As we believe that sin in our hearts died with Christ, we too can be raised up with Him, a sinless creature, a new creature.

The first overcoming, which leads to all of the overcomings, or victories in Christ, is the victory over sin in our lives.  It is a direct victory of the power of the devil in our lives, for “he that commits sin is of the devil.”

But to get rid of sin in our lives was the “purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3: 8). How is this done?  “They overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12: 11).  Our victory over the evil comes through these two things.

Many talk a good Christian ballgame, but few deliver through the lives that they lead.  Many claim to follow Christ, yet they still do secret sins, which emanate from the dark recesses of an un-regenerated heart–a heart that is old and carnal–a heart that has not climbed Calvary’s hill to submit to the death of the cross along with Christ.

By the Blood of Christ the Sacrificial Lamb

He is the sin sacrifice–the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  He takes away the sin of the world. When He gets through, we don’t have it anymore.  But we must identify our old sinful heart with Him that day of the Lamb’s death some 2,000 years ago.  This is how the Lamb’s blood cleanses us.  When it drained out of Him, the life and energy and power of sin died out.  When His blood was all spilled out, then the life force of sin in us drained out as well. This is how we overcame the devil.  It is from this cleansing of sin through the death of our old nature, of our old spirit, of our old heart.

Yet, sadly, chances are very slim that you will hear this in today’s church houses and Sunday schools.  It is “too strong, too harsh.”  It is not politically correct and is a sure fire way for the hired preacher to lose his pastorship.  But the old preachers of past centuries taught these very things I have shared here.  John Wesley taught it, yet you won’t hear this in a modern Methodist church.  Martin Luther taught it, but today’s Lutherans won’t hear it in church.  Spurgeon taught it, but most Baptists won’t hear this stark message in their churches.

But this is how we repent from sin.  The very first apostles’ doctrine was “repentance from dead works.”  Sin, the breaking of the 10 Commandments, is a “dead work,” for it leads to death.  And getting rid of sin in our lives is the very cornerstone in the sure foundation Christ talked about.  Without this start in Christ, the foundation is shaky, and the house will fall when the devil winds blow.

Indeed, it is a major undertaking to get the sin question straight; it can be a real upheaval in a person’s life. But the bottom line is this: God has provided a way to get rid of sin and sinning in our lives. Our old selfish sinful nature dies when we reckon it dead with Christ. When He died on the cross, our old sinful nature died there with Him. When we spiritually make His soul the sacrifice for our sin, then we die with Him. And we are then buried with Him. And then through belief in God’s power that raised Him from the dead, we also are raised up with a new nature and a new spirit from our heavenly Father. Baptism in water symbolizes this act of faith, being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6; 3).

We have to reckon our old selves dead with Christ. It is this spiritual death that frees us from that bondage to keep breaking the 10 command-ments. We are freed from the slavery to sin. But it takes faith to believe it. I am not imagining this teaching. I have lived it. It is in the Holy Bible, although it is seldom, if ever, taught. Just read Romans 6: 1-13 and Colossians 2: 11-12, 20 for starters. It is there.

And this is just the beginning of the “milk of the word.” Just the first two principles—repentance from sin and faith toward God. We have got to get this into our hearts. Be shocked. Be astonished. Study it out thoroughly. Be fed the milk that you may grow up into Christ. That’s in there, too. Later the “meat of the word” will help us grow into full spiritual maturity to become just like Christ. There—I said it.                                            Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[This is Chapter 18 of my new book The Apostles’ Doctrine coming out later this fall.]

 Our spiritual walk as Christians is about finding our way back home. We began our journey in the Mind of God eons ago. We proceeded forth from a thought in His Mind in the beginning. For the Word-made-flesh told us, “For you have been with Me from the beginning.”

We were then deposited onto this terrestrial plain with no initial recollection of our spiritual origins–for a purpose–His purpose.

Our immersion into sin early on in our earthly life sent us on a quest for peace with our Maker. We needed to be free from the guilt and sor-row that our first life provided. That was God’s purpose in allowing us to wallow in sin for a season–to send us on our search for His redemption. We would not have ever sought His solace without the misery and de-basement that sin brought to us.

So we broke down and got real and humbled ourselves to our Maker, and He answered us in giving us a new life in the form of a new seed beginning that when watered, will grow into the same thing we had with Him before the foundations of the world (John 15: 26-27; Isa. 40: 21). And with this new life, we grew to not only appreciate God and His mercy in delivering us from degradation, but also to just plain loving Him.

It is this love that God, who is Love, is after–for us. His desire is to reproduce His nature of love in human beings, which are the only beings capable of reproducing His spirit of unselfish love. We are, after all, created in His image; we are a vessel to contain and to pour out God onto a thirsty land.

And the seed of this love for God grows from that appreciation we exhibit when we acknowledge God’s love to us. His love toward us is all in the plan to use His Son as the sacrificial Lamb that “takes away the sins of the world.” God’s self-sacrifice at the cross showed us the greatest love. There no greater love than that.

When we believe the testimony of the Seed/Son, we receive a new life in a seed, energized by the Spirit, which erases all our past sins along with the guilt. We are made free, and as the ex-slaves of sin, we exalt our new Master who has delivered us from death. We love Him and appreciate Him. His life now through the resurrection affords us that same life inside us. And His Seed of Love is growing and growing, both in our own hearts and in the hearts of our brothers and sisters—by faith.

Christ is the Seed of a new beginning for us. When we believe (have faith in) His testimony, we receive the seed of faith into our hearts. There is no spiritual growth without the true seed being received into the ground of a fertile heart, a heart that’s honest and receptive and in need.

It is this internalization into our hearts of His resurrection power that generates within us the new life. This comes in our belief that He rose from the dead. Since He rose from the dead, we do now believe that we, too, are “raised to walk in a newness of life.” Our past sins are purged, and we now live by His faith and the presence of His Spirit in our hearts—new hearts.

The Father/Creator/Spirit/Love/Light has poured His complete plan, purpose, essence and life into His Son. Consequently, we cannot thrive in our brief moments here on earth if we do not believe God’s testimony of His Son.

When someone rejects the Son, they reject the Truth of the ages, and in so doing, they lose their own souls. If the doubters do not surrender to God’s plan as seen in His Son’s life, then their brief moment of self-aggrandizement will molder in a forgotten shallow grave. But if we walk in the Light, we shall overcome all things and bask in the glory we had with him in the beginning (Heb. 2: 10; 1 Pet. 1: 7; Rom. 8: 18).

Christ taught His disciples these precepts in seven major teachings. His apostles believed them and wrote about them. They are called the apostles’ doctrine. Faith is the key that unlocks them all. It is His faith, His belief in His own plan that is the key.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[An excerpt from my new book, The Apostles’ Doctrine, coming out soon]

What Is Man?

The age old question hangs there in the mind: What is man? What are we supposed to be doing here on earth? Why are we here? What is our purpose?

After looking up into the heavens at the awe-inspiring stardust, King David asked that question. “What is man that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that Thou visitest him?” (Psm 8: 4-5).

A time-lapsed photo was taken of a speck of dark space by the Hubble Space Telescope. Thousands of galaxies with billions of stars were captured from the darkness. Its implications are truly mind-boggling and jaw-dropping. Reflecting on the sheer magnitude of the cosmos, we become insignificant; our Creator has left us in awe and wonder.

With such power and might to create the heavens and all therein, why is He mindful of us? In our first state, in comparison with millions of galaxies, we are as nothing, a mere worm, a puff of air inhabiting a fragile shell soon destined to the dust bin of history, and sadly forgotten after the passing of our children and grandchildren. This is old man Adam–lost, alone, and corrupt.

In lieu of the heavens, why would God have anything to do with us? Why did He create us? For David goes on and says, You have made man mortal, unlike the angels, but You “have crowned him with glory and honor.”

From the Grave to the Throne

Wait a minute. Our first nature has us dying and going back to dust ingloriously. And now the Holy Spirit through the prophet David says that we have been crowned with glory and honor. How does that happen? In another place it says, “Man is the glory of God.” In another, man is nothing, a flower that wilts in the sun’s heat. How do we get from the grave to the throne?

What is our purpose? Why are we here? Here’s the answer: God is using mankind to reproduce Himself. That is why we humans are so special to God. We are the medium in which God’s Seed of love will grow and grow into the reproduction of Himself. God’s purpose is to reproduce Himself in us. He desires to multiply Love, which He is, through us.

Without knowing God’s purpose, solving the mystery of God is like doing a jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box. The pieces are nice and colorful and have names like “faith” and “salvation” and “grace.” But what’s the picture of? How do they connect together?  We need Macro-vision and not Micro-vision of God’s  things. Knowing the big picture helps us manage the many concepts of God’s plan.

God’s purpose is to reproduce Himself in us. He desires to multiply Love, which He is, through us. We need to look at our neighbor and our brothers and sisters in Christ with new eyes. They are important to God, for He wants to reproduce Himself in them. When we see God’s purpose for our neighbor, then we will love them more.

God’s Purpose Is the Reproduction or Multiplication of Himself

Nature teaches us of His purpose of reproducing Himself. Every living thing in nature is endeavoring to reproduce itself. God created nature to teach us about what God is doing and how He is using us in the process. And the written word of God is the record detailing His plan to accomplish His purpose.

Just like a seed in our gardens, our new life comes out of Christ’s death. He was and is the Seed Son. He said, “Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12: 24). Christ is the Seed; we are His harvest of many more seeds ready to be planted into the ground of good and honest hearts (Luke 8: 15).

And we, in turn, will voluntarily give up our old life and allow God’s Spirit to breathe new life into us. We give up our old life that God may reproduce His life and love inside us. Christ also said: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matt. 16: 25). Man’s old nature hangs on to his selfish desires for his own life, and he will only receive death in the end. But if we lay down our own lives and take on God’s desires for us, then we will receive from Him everlasting life in a new spiritual body. That is the choice. Live unto ourselves and die. Or present our bodies a living sacrifice by taking on His life.

How do we lose our life for Christ’s sake?

I knew a young man some 50 years ago. He was lost. He was drafted into the Army and became a medical lab tech. He arrived at a MASH hospital in Viet Nam in Sept. 1967. He could perform 20 different lab tests, but he only cross-matched blood for the patients, 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week. That is how bloody it was; it never stopped. He started using marijuana to ease the stress and became an everyday, all day, user.

But God used the horrifying fruit of war to plant in his heart a yearning for answers. Why were we here? Why all the death and waste of young men’s lives? For they bled and died before him, and he could not stop the carnage. Where is God in all this? What is happening?

He wanted the truth! But first, survival was the key, and by God’s mercy he survived two rocket attacks and was pulled out of an undertow a day before he was to go home.

He made it back home, enrolled in college, studied literature and religions, and continued to lead a depraved, drug-fueled lifestyle—all the while still searching for the truth! You talk about mercy—God patiently waiting for him to awake unto righteousness.

It was then that the epiphany came: The old self had to die. That was his sign. Whoever told him this truth would have his heart.

He went on a three year search for a religion or philosophy that would show him how the old self can die and leave the body alive. He visited the temples of the Eastern religion; they did not know how to get rid of the old self. He searched and searched, growing more cynical each day.

And he had just about given up when the answer came in April 1971. It was a little house-church with 15 people present. And the preacher with his infectious smile and confidence began to teach Romans 6, as if he already knew what the young man’s sign was.

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

The young man stopped the preacher. The silence pounded in his ears. “Is this talking about the death of the old self?”

“That is exactly what it’s talking about, the death of our old sinful nature,” the joyful preacher said. He continued reading, “For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now…” But the young man could not hear the words, for they were just sounds now, faintly flowing down a long hollow tube, bypassing his ears. He had heard enough for one day, for he had found his sign…

That young man was me. It took me a month or so to come to grips with the shock I was in. But when I finally surrendered to the Savior according to that first message in Romans 6, the drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, cursing, infidelities, and all the other sins fell completely away. It was an amazing conversion, and I thank God every day for His mercy on me.

What the joyful preacher shared with me that day was repentance that starts at the cross and is the first apostles’ doctrine. To be like the early apostles, we must do what they did. And “they continued stedfastly” in the doctrine of Christ, and they made it their own (Acts 2: 42; Hebrews 6: 1-2).

This world has one major need right now at the beginning of the 21^st Century.  The world doesn’t need another politician telling the people what they want to hear.  The world doesn’t need a steady robust economy to help it through the hard times that have been prophesied upon it.  No.  The world needs the sons of God to arrive on the scene.  They must come forth for these last days.

The whole creation, the apostle Paul wrote, (whether it knows it or not), is anxiously awaiting the sons of God to come upon the world stage.  For the sons of God will have something that all mortals walking the face of the earth must have.  They will have the key that will set the whole creation free from the chains of a certain physical death.  These children of the Most High are God’s elect, His sons made in His image, and they are what this world needs.  They are the ones who will have cut through all of the deception and vice in this world system.  They alone will see the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit of the living Yahweh.  They will build the old waste places and build the spiritual walls to the heavenly city.

Why the World Needs the Sons of God

The creation has purposely been subjected to mortality by its Creator God. The impending gloom of a certain death is no accident or aberration of God’s  original  plan.  It  has  been  His  will  all  along  for  death  to  come to all living.  If that were not the case, then He would not have created it that way. And then, a few mortals will be brought by Him to an awareness of the abiding power of His spiritual presence and will become His actual spiritual children. He will change them and will engulf them with immortality one day soon.   And it is through them that the whole creation will finally come to know this glorious liberty from a certain physical death. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Romans 8:19-21, NIV. 

     Every living thing on this planet will die; the whole creation will decay and go back to dust.  And we, this earthly creation, are “in bondage of corruption,” as it says in the King James Version.

The word “corruption” is translated from the Greek word phthora, #5356 in Strong’s.  It means “decay.”  Its root comes from #5351 phthio, to waste, shrivel, or wither.  We, the creation, are bound to become decaying matter someday.  And all of us, be we religious or not, are groaning under the impending physical doom that awaits us.

All of us have a built in desire to live forever.  Every ancient culture, without exception, was concerned with this impending gloom of an early exit from life.  All the ancient religions were concerned about how to secure immortality  for  the  mortal.   And  so  it  is  with religions today.  Man keeps on waiting, waiting, waiting for something real that will happen in order to deliver them from a certain death.

The creation is like the wife of the Creator, who is in the  deep  pains  of childbirth.  She is struggling to deliver her  children,  the  sons  of God.  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Romans 8: 22-23, KJV.

The whole creation is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the sons of God because they are the first ones who will be released from mortality’s chains.  They will be the first ones who will not have to taste death.  And then after they are made known, the creation can look forward to its redemption.  That is how important the sons of God are.  When they are adopted or placed as sons, then a new era begins—an era where immortals will stride the earth, showing forth God’s way.

We Who Have Some Truth Also Desperately Need the Sons of God

Just look around us.  What do we see in every corner?  We see lurid trash in political high places, filthy-minded  movies and TV.  There is no shame to the world system.  And it is not getting any better.  So we try to lock in on the word of God.  We endeavor to glimpse a truth here, a truth there.  Some of us are trying to lead a holy life, but we “see through a glass darkly.”  We know, or should know that we are not walking in all truth.  For if we were, we would be bearing the same spiritual fruit as the prophets and apostles of God.  And we can’t seem to get in agreement and one accord with other sincere followers of Christ.

As  a  large  body  of  people,  we  can’t  see  eye  to   eye enough to get together.  Divisions abound.  We, if we are blessed, have a place to meet with a few other people who share some of our own beliefs, but something is drastically missing.  The unity of the Spirit is only a dream, for one group does not see eye to eye with another.  We are to be in one mind and one accord, and yet, who is to say just what that one mind is?  Who has the authority to say for sure anything?  Who has a sure word? There are several thousand Christian denominations, and they are growing exponentially daily.  There is probably a different concept of God and His plan for every one of His professing followers.

And it appears that the enemy is gaining ground, and we, the body of Christ, because of our disagreements and lack of unity, are seemingly losing ground as far as any “great move of truth” is concerned.

So what is the answer to this dilemma?  It is as if Yahweh Himself is needed to come down and just flat appear to His select few, whoever they are!  That would clear up the dim vision of those He has chosen.  They would definitely “get on the same page” after that shared glorious experience.  In the light of His own countenance and glow filling the room each would be in, He would straighten out off-concepts, purge out old leaven, old hypocrisies, and false concepts of Himself.  There would be no self-delusion if the King Himself came down to a handful!

Then a fire would well up from out of their bones!  Then they would cry to His people in His stead.  They would be His voice with his word welling up and out as springs gush out making rivers where dry land once was.

That is what we all need.  We need a sure word.  We need the Captain of our faith Himself to get a cadre of His brothers to catch on fire and, in turn, ignite the world.  We need a group of people baptized with the Spirit and with fire.   We need them!   We groan within ourselves, longing for someone to stand in the gap between God and the world.

That is the only thing that will ever turn this world upside down—if the people of the world were ready and knew they had a need for God in human form, had a need for the sons of the living God.

This whole creation is crying and groaning looking for someone sincere and true to believe in.  The heroes are gone; the people run to their idols of music and movies.  Those are their gods—gods who cannot see or hear them and their longings and needs, for their gods can see no one but themselves.  The whole creation does not know it, but they are groaning and longing for the manifestation of the sons of God.  And these sons will walk with the Lamb wherever He goes, for they shall be like Him.  These are they who will do the greater works that the Master spoke of.

It All Hinges on the Sons, But Do They Know Who They Are?

Yes, the manifestation of the sons of God is of extreme importance in God’s plan, but do they know who they are?  Do they realize their calling that He has placed on them?   Do  they  know  that  He  knew  them  long  before their earthly sojourn began?  Do they at present realize that  He  has  already  given  them  a  glorious   destiny—a destiny that has them justified from sin, set apart for this special work, and also glorified from heaven?  Does God’s elect, His chosen ones, know these things?

Have they called on His name and restored their heart back to Him?  But if they haven’t believed on Him, then how are they to call on Him?  And how can they believe on this God if they have never heard Him, never heard His Spirit, never heard Him who is the Word?  They are going to have to hear Him being spoken out of the mouth of another son in order to believe on Him.  And how shall these prospective sons hear unless there be a preacher?  And who is really going to be effective as a preacher?  The world is full of preachers.  Anyone who thinks they have heard from God calls himself a preacher.  The future sons will be reached by those who proclaim the truth.  And these proclaimers will be sent.  For whosoever shall call upon the name of Yahweh shall be saved.  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach, except they be sent?       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{This is Chapter 1 of my book, The Unveiling of the Sons of God.  I originally published it as a trade paperback book and hard copies are still available. Email me if you are interested in a hard copy at wayneman5@hotmail.com. To read more of this book electronically, just click on the top of this page “The Unveiling.” And be sure to order your free copy with free shipping to the USA of my new book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect.}

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Christ said, “Many are called but few are chosen” (Matt. 22: 14). Many do indeed believe that God has a calling on them. Yet very few wind up in the “chosen” category, which is the “elect” category. For the word “chosen” and the word “elect” are translated from the same Greek word. They are interchangeable in meaning.

It is like Christ has invited many to become rulers with Him in His soon coming kingdom. Ask those who feel called of God, As Christ’s followers, what things are we to seek after? Most will not know that we are to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6: 33). Most will not know how to make sure they are part of the elect.

Making Our Calling and Election Sure

Yet there is His way for us to walk to make sure we become one of His elect. We can “partake of the divine nature.” We are to add certain spiritual attributes to the faith that we have received of Him—not to gain eternal life, but to grow to full spiritual maturity after His gift of salvation, which is only the first step in the Christian walk. Peter writes to us about seven additions to the faith, seven spiritual attributes that are necessary to “make our calling and election sure.”

Those seven additions are virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity/agape love. “For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (Yahshua) …Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things, you shall never fall…” (II Peter 1: 4-10).

Somebody asked me the other day, What do we do now? We do these things. To make sure we are a part of the election, we add these seven additions to our faith. It takes first knowledge of these things coupled with prayer and study. In the very next chapter of II Peter, he immediately warns of the false teachers and false ministers who will not teach chapter one to you. They will “bring in damnable heresies.”

The Called and the Chosen Ones and the “Great Supper”

Christ has called, is calling, and shall call many human beings to be a dynamic part of His plan and purpose to reproduce Himself. It is as if He is inviting the many to a great supper that is coming up in the near future. So says the parable of the great supper (Luke 14: 16-24). It was a great supper, and those who were invited made excuses about why they could not attend. They were too busy with their own worldly cares. So the lord of the feast told his servants to go out and invite the “poor, maimed, the halt, and the blind” and “compel” them to come in. Then the lord said that none of those initially called “shall taste of my supper.”

I believe that this parable has far reaching ramifications for us in the end times. Just six verses before He spoke this parable, Christ mentions “a wedding.” “When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding” be humble and take the lower seat (Luke 14: 8).

And so must his elect be at the end of this age. For this “marriage supper” in Revelation is not a white tie and gown affair. The supper is rather to the “fowls that fly in the midst of heaven.” They are bidden by an angel, “Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men…” (Rev. 19: 17-18).

This is the aftermath of the Battle of Armageddon and the destruction of the kingdom of Satan. This supper is not where we the sons of Light eat, but where the sons of darkness are eaten. This ushers in the Kingdom of God as Christ returns to set the earth in order. This kingdom is what the elect will be seeking along with its corresponding laws that will establish at long last His righteousness and justice and equity.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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