December 26, 2023 · 3:54 pm

God’s Will Is His Desire

“I just want to do His will…Only if the Lord wills…Seek His will…The will of God…” The use of “God’s will” is ubiquitous. Christians speak of His will all the time; they know that it is important. But it is used so much that the original meaning of “will” gets lost in the shuffle. The meaning of the word “will” has been shrunk down to a feeble, man-derived concept.  

God’s “will,” however, cannot be understood by squeezing it out of man’s wisdom. God’s will is vast; it is like going from a grain of sand to the cosmic energy of a billion suns. God’s will is galactic. Nevertheless, He has predestinated some of us “to be filled with the knowledge of His will.” How does He fill us? “Through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (Col. 1:9). That should be our prayer for each other: That you “be filled with the knowledge of His will.”

The Greek Word Translated “Will”

This “knowledge of His will” starts with this question: What does the word translated “will” mean in the Greek? The Greek word is thelema. It means “what one wishes” or desires. Simply put, His will is His desire. It is what God desires to do in heaven and earth (Blue Letter Bible – Lexicon (blbclassic.org).

What’s special about exactly doing His desires? Only those who do the will/desire of the Father will enter the kingdom of heaven. “Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will [desire] of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). Doing the Father’s will, then, is extremely important. Our standing with Christ—our growth, our service—is determined by how much of His desires we do. I am not referring to working for salvation; that is a gift from Him. But to grow spiritually, we must work because He has saved us.

But first, we must know His will/desire before we can do it.

On our search, of this we can be sure; whatever the Father desires, He will bring it to pass. So, we should ask ourselves, “What does God desire?” Most will say that it is something about salvation. Yes, salvation is the first step, and He desires to save us (Gal. 1:4). The Father’s desire/will is that Christ will lose none of His disciples, but will resurrect them in a new spiritual body (John 6:39-40).   

But the scriptures expound more deeply things concerning His “will.” First, His desire/will is a mystery. But God has revealed it to us. God has “made known to us the mystery of His will…  which he purposed in Christ.” God’s will/desire is to “gather together in one all things in Christ” in heaven and in earth (Eph. 1:9-10). That bears repeating. God desires to “gather together in one all things in Christ.” 2,200 different denominations is not bringing all things into one in Christ.

God’s desire/will is to have our hearts filled with His presence—that we grow to full maturity and bring our exiled King back to earth. We do this by preparing for His arrival. How? By feeding His lambs and sheep. By obeying His commands. By doing and teaching His doctrine. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God or not” (John 7:17). Do you know of His doctrine? His doctrine teaches us of His will, His desire. [Send for my book, The Apostles’ Doctrine. It is free with free shipping because Christ took “money” off the table. To order, go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/donate/ ] More on His will coming soon.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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December 21, 2023 · 9:13 am

Origins of Christmas Season Found in “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT”

Origins of Christmas Season Found in “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT”

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December 14, 2023 · 11:47 am

Thoughts on Death and Life–He Is Trustworthy

(From a journal entry, 5-30-19)

Humans are the only beings that contemplate their fate after death. Even the self-described atheist fears death. If it is not a door to another destination, why fear death?

Of all the living, it is mankind that wonders about eternity and their place in it. Where do I fit in, he asks himself. Why did I as a youth believe I would live forever and never die? Why did I act like I was an immortal one—only to splash down into the mud of mediocrity?  This dethrones our high thoughts—thoughts of a Christless immortality, which come from the good/bad cycle and the wretched throes of war and peace and abundance and famine.

Of all the living, only humans ponder eternity. The human is the only species that is wired with waves of eternity’s thoughts. The singsong cadence of the lives of mortals—living today, dying tomorrow—confuses them when clothed in their first earthen body. They do not know when mortality’s final trip is scheduled.

But we who have died and have risen with Christ have taken the first step on the way to immortality. He has promised us passage into His immortal kingdom. He has promised us a new spiritual body, free from the physical decay of our weakening “mortal coil.” HalleluYah! Praise Yah for His “way, truth and life.” He is the answer to all questions.

The Father plans to “gather together in one all things in Christ.” That means things in the heavens and earth. He has predestinated you and me to fulfill His purpose of spreading His love in a sublime oneness. He is working it all out through His will (Eph. 1:10-11).

It is all Him, brothers and sisters. Christ is the head; He is running the whole shebang. It is His feast and festival; we are the invitees. He is “the feature; we are just the trailer.”

All Human Beings Should Trust Him

The earth we stand comfortably on is hurling through space around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour. We are spinning at about 1,000 miles per hour (How fast is Earth moving? | Space). Yet we do not feel it; we do not see nor hear anything about these astronomical speeds. It is a well-planned miracle that our Creator has done for life on earth. He has provided the perfect amount of gravity to counterbalance the speeds we travel. We trust Him to continue providing for us.

Death and eternal life. There is no death without first a life being taken. And there is no eternal life without death being conquered. Christ is the “resurrection and the life.” He is trustworthy. It is our honor to serve Him. 

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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December 5, 2023 · 9:30 am

Eating Christ’s Flesh—Pre-requisite to the Abiding

Eating Christ’s flesh? Uh, that is some heavy stuff, Wayneman. Especially when you use the verb “eat.” That word triggers my mouth into getting involved with ingesting food. But eating Christ’s flesh? And drinking His blood? Really? How are we supposed to do that?

Well, Christ does say, “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). It is this everlasting life that defines Christ’s abiding in us. He promised that He would abide and dwell in us if we ate His flesh and drank His blood.

Some people today will react to this statement the way many did 2,000 years ago. It was this very teaching that separated the sheep from the goats. “From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with Him” (6:66). How serious was this situation? After witnessing many miracles and just being with Him, they could not handle the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood. They thought that He had gone too far with His mysterious sayings.

What was their problem? Christ said that it was their unbelief (6:64). But unbelief of what exactly? It was unbelief in anything that their eyes could not see. All they saw was the flesh of His body. They were looking after the flesh and not after the spirit. To understand this enigmatic passage, we must look on his “flesh” and “blood” after the spirit. Christ said as much: it is the spirit that quickens” (6:63). We must catch the “spirit of the thing” to understand it.

What spiritual action is taking place with His earthly body and blood? Ironically, we must look at Christ’s flesh body and blood after the spirit. The spirit makes His teachings come alive. Eating His flesh and drinking his blood are metaphors, not literal, material things to do. We must look to the spiritual applications of what His flesh and blood did on the cross.

The Flesh and the Blood—What Did They Do at the Cross?

Christ made an extremely important statement. “Except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.” Obviously, we cannot consume the flesh of His physical body cannibalistically. What then does his “flesh” signify? It is a metaphor for the final act that His physical body performed. That act was Christ laying down his physical body unto death. The eating of his flesh is us believing what the sacrifice of His body did for us all. It is believing that His death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection of that physical body, served to take our sins totally away. His flesh dying as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world is the bread of life. It is what we are to take in/eat/and digest—spiritually.

Christ is called the Lamb of God for this very reason. All our sins were laid upon His body. Our sins were placed upon the Lamb. He was our scapegoat offering. When His flesh body died, our sins died with Him. When His blood was shed, the life of sin died that day on the cross.

“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22). “He was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21). He was our pure Passover Lamb, crucified, and with his crucifixion, sin died that day. All we must do is just believe it. When His flesh body died, our old sinful selves died with Him. And “he that is dead is freed from sin.” The lifeblood of our sin is drained away with Christ’s blood.

When we were baptized in water, “we were baptized into His death.” When Christ’s sacrificial flesh and blood died, our old sinful self died with Him, “that the body of sin might be destroyed.” We are free! We are new creatures in Christ (Romans 6:1-12).

When we believe what the death of His flesh body and the shedding of His blood did for us, then we will have eaten and drunk His blood. These figures of speech mean that we have taken into our hearts the love that He expressed to us. We must not corrupt the “simplicity that is in Christ” (II Cor. 11:3). Beware of those who would beguile you to follow the path of transubstantiation. God is Spirit, not material and physical. He does not live in a lifeless wafer and a sip of wine.

[What are your thoughts on this subject? Please leave them in the comment section. Subscribe and give us a “like” if we have helped you. May Yah continue to enlighten your steps.] Kenneth Wayne Hancock  

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November 28, 2023 · 1:13 pm

Enduring the Dark Night of the Soul

(from Journal entry, 10-3-22)

At our weakest moment, God will allow Satan to present a panorama of memories and recollections of our sordid past sins, weaknesses, and spiritual failures. This is our passage through the valley of the dark night of the soul.

It issues from many sources. Betrayals and the pain that may linger from them may come. Or our thoughts may take a journey once again into the night’s memories of yesteryear’s shortcomings.

In this weakened state, spiritual trouble comes with our thoughts about how destitute of love we were. We begin to see our selfish naked egos, stained with pride, justifying our use of others, of those who our Savior died for. It is as if we are peering into the screen of a time machine, a mirror that reflects just how we really were. We peer into the fruitless past, and that same panic of being lost in the maze of life, grips us as we look back and long and lament our adolescent idiocy and our selfish egoism.

We must fearlessly look at the images and believe that they are mere relics of our past life. Remember how Christ was tempted? Satan offered up full control of his kingdom to Christ if He would play ball with him. Christ resisted all the temptations. Now Christ in us resists them as well.

Christ with great mercy has promised that He would “never leave us nor forsake us.” Especially when Satan thrusts in our face our sins and faults of yesteryear. He is the “accuser of the brethren.” But it is the great mercy of our King that reigns supreme. He has our backs. He allows us to think these fleeting thoughts to show us more clearly the magnificent deliverance from sin that He has wrought in our lives. For that is what it was—not is! We remember that we are His, bought with His blood. And He leads us through this moonless trek, this suffocating remembrance of what we once were.

Through this experience, however, we learn that we have been forgiven much. Therefore, we will love much, which fulfills His purpose of reproducing Himself (Agape love) in us. Christ said, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little” (Luke 7:47 NKJV). These trials whereof we speak shows us that we have been forgiven much. A painful trudge down the “valley of the shadow of death” during our “dark night of the soul” shows us that. Those of us who see the reality of our shameful pasts and receive His forgiveness will love much. Those who do not see that they have been forgiven all that much—they will love only a little. “Her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

Finally, Satan tries to use these memories to condemn us, but God uses them to show us a clearer picture of just how evil our old nature was. Through this trial, we see more clearly just how much we have been forgiven—how much selfish ungodliness we have been delivered from.

For in the end, only those who see and realize how much sin they have been forgiven will love much. Only those will bear much fruit, thus becoming more like Christ and His apostles. That is His goal and purpose: our maturity, which fulfills His purpose of multiplying Agape Love, which is Him.

The “dark night of the soul” experience is part of His plan to fulfill His purpose: to reproduce Agape love in us, thus reproducing Himself till Love be “all in all” (I Cor. 15:28). His plan is to keep on perfecting until all that is left is Love.     [Would you share your “dark night of the soul” in the comments section? The testimonies of the Father’s sons and daughters are so important. “Likes” are nice and appreciated, but a comment fashioned by the Spirit with words from the heart—that is what moves us. That is what edifies and helps us mature. That we may grow “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12-13). For it is the “power that works in us” (Eph. 3:20). Your comments will be read all over the globe. Reach out and share your story?]      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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November 21, 2023 · 3:57 pm

Seeking and Finding God Is Not from a Magical “Poof!”

Seeking and finding God is not about one day falling into a glorious cavern of His spiritual treasures, where you look all around, overwhelmed with the power and glory, and you begin to run around with your hair on fire, seeking other humans to share this vision with.

Sounds nice. Whatever it takes to get your attention. But that is not the way things will happen based on this precept: “That which has been is now, and that which is to be has already been. And God requires the past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15).

“God will call the past to account” it says in the NIV. The past is important to our Father. For example, He inspired His prophets to write His exploits down for the generations to come. For us—especially for us destined to be a factor in “the time of the end.” The things that happened to the twelve tribes of Israel back in the day is “written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come” (I Cor. 10:11). We must look to the past to secure our steps on our current spiritual walk. How did the prophets and apostles of old seek Him? What happened to the true seekers of Yah? What did He reveal about Himself to them? God requires once again that we seek and find Him the way they did in the past. We must remember what He said: “I change not.”

To find out more, let us go to the apostles. They had 3 1/2 years of everyday hands-on instruction. 3 1/2 years Christ taught them. Christ’s teachings recorded in the Bible would take just a few hours to read. They had a thousand days with Him. Think about the things He taught them that are not recorded!

They were prepared vessels, taught by their Master and chosen by Him to be in the upper room at Pentecost. It was not a magical “Poof!” that transformed them into the powerhouses we see in the book of Acts.

What They Were Taught

Brothers and sisters, we can be taught the Master’s doctrine right now. His teachings are His doctrine. And Christ taught his disciples well. It was first the book learning, and then the on-the-job training as seen in Matthew 10.

The point is this: His apostles have left us His teachings, that when followed, will prepare us for not just a Pentecostal experience but how to be the saviors of this sick planet.

Since today God requires the things of the past, then we must study how He operated in the past. For example, Christ walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection. They could not recognize Him until He “expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Christ had upbraided them. “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25-32). This again shows how studying the scriptures (both Old and New Testaments) are so important.

But someone we’ll speak up and say, “But I already am walking with Christ!” Not if you are espousing false doctrines. Not when you still confess that you are a sinner. Not when your old selfish heart raises its ugly head. Not when you still don’t realize that we have been baptized into Christ’s death (Romans 6). We are dead with Him, buried with Him, and resurrected with Him, to walk in a “newness of life.”

People of God, this is repentance from sin, the very first of the apostles’ doctrine. The apostles got His teachings directly from Christ. And now they have given it to us. There are six more of his doctrines/teachings. These will prepare us for our appointment with Christ when he empowers us to be just like his apostles after the baptism of fire.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit and the baptism in fire are not the end goal for the elect. They are stages of spiritual growth to enable us to be used by Him to work in His harvest of souls. Those two baptisms are not the end, but rather they are means to the end. And that end is the fulfillment of all the prophecies “spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began.” Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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November 13, 2023 · 12:31 pm

Birth Adventure of Our Daughter Sara

[A joyous yet cautionary tale]

Sara was born in Linares, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She was almost born on the road to Linares. She came rather rapidly once her time had come to enter this world. That was February 1, 1974. Sara’s first adventure was almost being born on the side of a mountain.

We were living 62 kilometers up the mountain from Linares on Hwy. 60–due west in the Sierra Madre mountains. It took one hour to travel those 37 miles, no matter if you were going uphill or downhill. The road was steep, so steep and curvy that going 20 miles an hour sometimes would throw you against the side of the van.  

It was a beautiful drive most of the time. Kilometer 62 was our address and was exactly a mile high, cool and dry in the winter. But just one hour away lay the sultry tropics of Linares. The city was surrounded by enormous orange and grapefruit orchards for as far as the eye could see.

The week before Sara was born, my wife Linda had false labor. She thought it was time. “Hurry, Wayne! It is time to go to the hospital!” So, we ran to the van and drove like crazy to get there in  time, only to find out that the baby was not ready. Disappointed, we drove on back to the mission and resumed our day-to-day activities.

The days clicked on. Linda got bigger and bigger and still no baby. She would have some twinges and pains here and there, but nothing serious seemed to be happening. Or at least she thought that.

Linda kept waiting and waiting, thinking it was just false labor again. Things got serious on February 1st. The contractions were getting harder. At first, they were four minutes apart, and then two minutes apart.

“Hurry! This must be the time!” Linda moaned. We sped down the mountain faster than usual. I know I was jostling her way too much. The extreme rocking motion probably helped to bring it on even faster. Down, down, and round and round we sped down that mountain, and all the while Linda was crying out in pain, “It’s coming! It’s coming! Hurry! Oh, God, it’s coming!”

We pulled into the hospital driveway in front of the receiving ward. Thank goodness that it was on the near side of the city on our highway. The side doors flew open. I called out for help. Medics rushed over. We got Linda onto a gurney, and they wheeled her swiftly down the hallway to the maternity delivery room. All the while, she was moaning in a wild-eyed blonde frenzy.

It was not five minutes after we got there that Sara came into this world. It happened so fast that they did not even have enough time to take Linda’s dress off and put her into a gown. I shouted to the nun nurses, “I want to come into the delivery room!”

“No, you cannot come in here. You must stay outside the doors.” The double doors had glass windows about eight inches above my eye level. So, I had to jump up and take a split-second glimpse of my first daughter being born. I didn’t have time to jump too much because the baby came quickly.

Usually, Linda had a difficult time because our babies had such large craniums. But, thank God, not Sara. She came so quickly that she just popped out, and there it was, the miracle of procreation once again gracing the stage we call earth. Hello, crazy daddy, jumping up and down to catch a glimpse of the precious little miracle. And finally, there it was!

“It’s a boy!” I shouted out at the top of my lungs. “It’s a boy!” I was announcing boldly through the cracked door to all the attendant nuns and to the radiant mother herself, now holding her new infant.

“No, it’s not,” said Linda calmly, patiently smiling at the ecstatic father. “It’s a girl.”

“But,” I said, looking down between the baby’s legs.

“That’s the umbilical cord wrapped around her.”

“I thought it was… that’s OK! It’s a beautiful baby girl!”

This is one of the most memorable adventures, not just as missionaries to Mexico, but in our entire life. Sara has been adventurous ever since. I guess it is in her DNA.  

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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November 7, 2023 · 12:52 pm

The Heartbreak of Being Human

I have not forgotten the heartbreak of being human. Especially not now when the joy of my existence in Christ is fully engaged within.

I have not forgotten the pain, the pain now witnessed in tears of stone. Most every countenance I see is an exquisite miniature tragedy, played out on a 9 to 5 stage.

The human faces try to lie, but they cannot. For the flash of smiles lasts but a flicker, and then it’s back to a sullen reality.

I have not forgotten the heartbreak of being human, how the droning of the tenacious bells and sirens and buzzers and beeps drag them to maddening mental convulsions.

I have not forgotten the heartbreak of being human. It is captured in every culture’s songs. From the blues to tear jerkers, from opera to the mournful cries of the Portuguese fado, they all moan the loss of love and the loss of purpose for their existence.  

Catharsis remains as mankind walks the tragic path. All this suffering notwithstanding, there is hope for love and joy and peace to reign on this earth headed by the Prince of peace.

I have not forgotten the heartbreak of being human, of being addicted to Big Tech’s latest bread and circus, of being marched into delusional darkness, without “the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.” To those who receive Him, however, “to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:9-12).

And now, as I look out over the land, secure in His love that is witnessed by the works that He has done within, I am grateful. Still, a saddened joy washes my eyes and helps me see the “multitudes in the valley of decision.” It helps me see that I have not forgotten the heartbreak of being human. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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November 2, 2023 · 7:53 pm

Outline for Teaching and Evangelizing

God’s Purpose

  1. To reproduce and multiply Himself
  2. He is Agape Love
  3. Therefore, His purpose is to reproduce Christ’s Love
  1. The Plan to fulfill His Purpose [See pp.41-48 in The Royal Destiny].
  2. Law of Harvest—You reap what you sow. God does, too.
  3. Human beings used as the medium to reproduce Himself in
  4. The Word is the seed. Matt. 13, The Parable of the Sower
  5. The Word/Seed Son fell into the ground for three days and three nights in the tomb.
  6. Christ died on the cross and was raised from the dead.
  7. He desires us to spiritually die with Him on the cross. Belief in His resurrection germinates the Seed, the Word of God, in us (Romans 6:1-12).
  8. We now become “babes in Christ.” This puts us on the road to growth by His Spirit within.
  9. Spiritual growth is measured by three levels—30, 60, 100-fold growth. Knowing, Doing, and Being. “Children, young men, fathers” (I John 2:13-14).
  1. What we must do to have the Spirit grow within us. We cannot do anything to earn the salvation of God. But we certainly must do things to grow to be like Christ.
  2. “Continue steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine” Do what they did. Their doctrine was Christ’s teachings (Acts 2:42-43) [See book The Apostles’ Doctrine].
  3. Add to your faith  (II Peter 1:4-[See book The Additions to the Faith]
  4. Obey Christ’s “new commandments.” [See book The Eleventh Commandment]
  5. “Purge out the old leaven” so that we can become holy. Repent of false doctrines and concepts about Christ our King.
  6. “Put on the whole armor of God.”
  7. If we do these things, we will grow, or His Spirit will grow in us, that we “be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine” that the devil throws at us. Doing all these things builds a sure foundation.
  8. Study His word, His thoughts, His purpose, His plan. God’s approval is given to those who study, who “accurately handle the word of truth” (II Tim. 2:15).
  9. The above are the “first principles of the oracles of God,” the “elementary truths,” the “milk of the word.” Strong meat comes after mastery (Heb. 5:12-14; 6:1-2).
  10. “If you do these things, you shall never fall.” This provides “an entrance” into that dimension that Christ and His apostles walked in (II Pet. 1:10).

[See you on Immortality Road blog: immortalityroad.wordpress.com. Use the “Search” tab on the home page to research any of these topics. To order my books, free with free shipping: Send name, address, name of book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com]

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October 28, 2023 · 11:41 am

…With Me from the Beginning

(from journal entry, 12-8-21)

It was early morning, and I was still in bed. I opened my eyes, and the first thought that crystalized out of the foggy dream mind was – “The Beginning.” The “beginning?” Why was I thinking that? Then another thought came that answered the question: “… with Me from the beginning.” With ME. I was with Christ. I knew that it was the Spirit speaking to me through thoughts. I began then to ponder these cryptic words. What did the Spirit mean?

So, I looked the word “beginning” up in the Greek. The “beginning” comes from the word arche, #G746 in Strong’s. It means “the origin, the active cause, used absolutely of the beginning of all things.”

Christ said, “I am the beginning and the end.” Christ is the “active cause.” He is our origin (Revelation 1:8-11,17-18). “In the beginning was the Word.” Christ is the beginning. Therefore, in Christ was the Word. Word = Logos [the purpose and plan of God]. Christ is the “active cause” in the creation of heaven and earth. “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3).

Our Savior, the “Word made flesh,” came to earth to bear witness to the truth, that He is the truth. And we, too, are to bear witness to the truth because we were with Him in the beginning. Christ said, “And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:27). This is not speaking of the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry. The Greek word arche is used for the beginning of all things. It is used as such in this verse: “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1:1).

 We are a part of the record in heaven of the things that will occur on earth. We were with him in the beginning. He knew us before because He created us as a member of His body in heaven before the earth was formed. Then He dipped us into the earth as we slid out of the matrix of our mothers’ wombs, and then we were cast out into the sea of lost mankind.

We, who had once basked in the glorious light of our Father in heaven, were now left to grow up, barely afloat in the treacherous rip tides of sin. Sin was our task master, and we obeyed his desires. The bondage to sin weighed heavily to the point of us drowning, and then we cried out in anguish and disillusionment, and then a hand reached down, a strong hand of love, and He pulled us up out of the quagmire.

He cleaned us up at the cross. He allowed us to identify our sinful selves with the Lamb, the sin sacrifice, and we died with Him. With the death of our old man, we believe that we are now buried with Him and raised with Him, now to walk in a “newness of life.” We now know and believe that “he that is dead is freed from sin.” We now spiritually step out on the water and walk in the Spirit (Rom. 6:1-11).

And then our earthly past died, and we began to grow as a seedling, tasting its first rays of light. Through study and communication with the Spirit, we grew and grew until He showed us that we had a special calling to fulfill, a special job to do. We are to share the love that saved us, by telling others the story of deliverance through His great love.

As we grow, we become a part of the witness in the earth of the record in heaven. God already knew that we would respond to His voice. He knew us and knew what we were made of. He made us, before the things we can see with our earthly eyes were made. For we were with Him in the beginning. And He has chosen us and given us a destiny way back there at the “Beginning.”

“…God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Rom. 8:28-30). Yahweh predestined us, not to just be saved, but to be “conformed to the image of his Son.” At Christ’s return to earth, He will change our weak, earthly body, “that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).

We are talking about being like Christ and His apostles! Nothing less. But before this greatest of honors is bestowed upon us, we must “arm ourselves with the same mind.” We must know and do the apostles’ doctrine and add to our faith seven spiritual attributes of Christ.

We have so much knowledge to receive. Knowing His mind will finally drive out every thought that is contrary to His purpose and plan. The mind is the battlefield where we conquer the enemy’s errant desires for us. Amid the battle, it is easy to forget that we have already won, for “we are more than conquerors through Christ.” In Him lies our power, strength, and will.

O, let us shower Him with thanks for granting us the exit visa at the cross. Repentance from sin comes when we realize that we “are dead and our life is hid with Christ…” We are a part of His body now, unencumbered by that spiritually corrupt old life. We now believe that we are a part of Christ, and the Father’s heart of love dwells within us. All this happens because He mercifully allowed us to be with Him in the beginning.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under agape, apostles' doctrine, armour of God, calling of God, Christ, cross, crucified with Christ, death of self, elect, end time prophecy, eternal purpose, love, Love from Above, manifestation of the sons of God, mercy, sin, Yahshua, Yahweh

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