Adding to the Son’s Faith that Has Become Our Faith

As we dig deep and lay our house upon the Rock, we have uncovered a vein of gold. We are adding to the Son’s faith inside of us. Part of the Son’s belief system is this new commandment found in Christ’s words: “He that has seen Me has seen the Father…It is the Father that dwells in Me that does the miracles…Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me…He that believes in Me [that the Father dwells within Him] will do the same miracles that I do and greater works…” (John 14:9-12).  The words “believe” and “faith” are translated from the same Greek word.

Clues to Performing Miracles

Christ is promising us that we will do greater works than what He had done! His promise is with this stipulation: “Believe that the Father is in Him.” In the very next breath, Christ gives us cryptic clues on how to turn His promise into the power to do these miracles.

On first glance they seem incongruous with the previous flow.  “And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (14:13-14). He is saying, He who believes on Me the way I just explained in 14:11, they will do what I have been doing. What a promise!  His thoughts go from “believing that the Father is in Him” to “asking in His name.” So we have got to ask Him for the power—after we get all of the concepts lined up correctly and in a row.

First, we must ask Him for the power to do a miracle, not command or demand of Him. We must humbly ask Him, and we must ask in His name.

To “ask in His name” we must know what His Hebrew name means. The Son of God’s Hebrew name is Yahshua. Some spell it Yehoshua. It is the identical name of the patriarch Joshua the son of Nun. In two obvious references to Joshua, the KJV translators put the name “Jesus,” from the Latin Iesus (Acts 7:45; ­­Heb. 4:8). “Yahshua” means “YAH IS SAVIOR.” This agrees with the prophets: “I, even I am the LORD [Yahweh]; and beside Me there is no savior” (Isa. 43:11; Hos. 13:4). The meaning of His name testifies that the Father Yahweh was and is in the Son. Christ did say that He came in His Father’s name and that it was Yahweh doing all of the mighty works by his hands.

Three Concepts to Get Straightened Out

Consequently, we must get three things cleared up—the Oneness of the Godhead, Christ’s Hebrew Name, and asking in that name.

It all starts with one of Christ’s New Commandments. He commands us to believe that He is in the Father and that the Father is in Him. That is a command. If we obey this command, then He will give us the Spirit of Truth to dwell/abide/remain in us. Also, He promises that we will do the same works and miracles that He did—and even greater works.

And then He tells us how to do it. Ask in my name, which is Yahshua, which means the same thing that I am commanding you to believe: that Yahweh, the Father, dwells within the Son, and that He, in the Spirit of Truth, now dwells and remains in you! Wow!

We are to ask in Christ’s Hebrew name Yahshua, with the understanding of its meaning. And  He promised that “whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (Jn. 14:13).

How Do We Ask in His Name?

If we ask anything that comes under what His name means; if we ask anything that glorifies His name; if we ask anything that trusts in the promises contained in the meaning of His name; if we ask anything that honors the meaning of the Savior’s name—then He “will do it” (John 14:14). It is all about Him. When we grow to the point of not besmirching the purity of His love for us and others, then His love will flow down and through us to others.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[For more on His Name, send for my book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality. It is free with free shipping. Just send me an email requesting it with your name and mailing address. Send to wayneman5@hotmail.com]

 

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Key to Understanding the “Additions to the Faith”

As Christians, we’ve often wondered, God, why me? And later we find out more about His purpose for us. And we see that it is all His doing. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” Why? For what purpose?  “…and have appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (John 15:16).

In the grand order of things, He has ordained us to bear fruit. That is our reason-to-be as God’s people. It is important to Christ, for He speaks of “fruit” in thirty seven verses in the gospels. Bearing spiritual fruit is why we are here on earth.

Full fruit bearing happens from a mature plant. As His plants, we must mature or reach “perfection,” in the fruit bearing sense of the word. We are destined by God to grow up through a spiritual life cycle. And when we reach spiritual maturity, God will visit us, expecting to find fruit.

What kind of fruit will He expect to see us bearing? “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…” (Gal. 5:22-23). The Spirit enters into our hearts through belief in His resurrection, and we begin to grow, bearing at first thirty fold, which is the amount of fruit that a child of God can bear. And we continue to grow and bear more fruit (sixty fold). And then at final maturity, we bear one hundred fold fruit like the prophets and apostles did (Matt. 13:18-23; John 15:2-5).

The Abiding Brings “Much Fruit”

Who is it that will fully mature in Christ? Who will bring forth “much fruit”? Christ said, “He  that abides in Me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit” (15:5).

But how do we reach this state of “abiding in Him”? “Abide” is translated “remain or stay” in other passages. When we have Christ’s mind and think His thoughts and stay in them, then we are abiding in Him. But His thoughts do not cohabit with error-filled thoughts about Him. Before we can add more of His divine nature, we must purge out the errors. If we do not do this, then He will. “Every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit,” Christ said (15:2). He will refine our faith in Him and purify it through trials.

How do we abide in Him and He in us? The apostle Peter, who knew Christ well, tells us that if we add seven attributes of Christ’s divine nature to faith, then we will abide in Him and be spiritually fruitful. The seven additions will “make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge…” of Christ and His purpose and plan. You will be fruitful, bearing much fruit.

These seven additions are parts of the Godhead and have transformative power to bring us to full maturity and spiritual fruit bearing, just like the early apostles. You will know God, for His mature heart will be your heart. For the Spirit of Truth, which is God Himself, will “abide with you forever” (John 14:16). How will we know? The Spirit of Truth will abide with us and shall be in us (v. 17).

But we first are to add them to His faith, His belief system. He has commanded us, “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me…” (John 14: 11). Christ said that it was the Father in Him that was doing everything. He also said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). His faith that we now live by is us believing what He believes about Himself: The invisible Father, the Spirit, lived in the Son. They are One.

Isaiah wrote down the following often quoted prophecy concerning the Son of God. “…Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…and his name shall be called…The everlasting Father…” You will call Him “The everlasting Father” (Isa. 9:6). That is straight from the Spirit of truth. These seven additions must be added to a Oneness belief system, not the one found in most denominations.

Christ, Yahweh in human form, makes a great promise to those who get this straightened out in their minds and hearts. “He that believes on Me, the works I do shall he do also” (Jn. 14:12).    Believes on Him how? Believe that the Father is in Him. Christ pleads with us and gives us a new commandment, “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me” (14:11).

That is astounding, but the promises become even greater. “And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (14:13). The meaning of Christ’s Hebrew name “Yahshua” confirms the Oneness concept of the Godhead discussed above [More on this next time].    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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My First Encounter with the Resurrection in 1971

I remember when I was twenty-four, I went through a life-changing experience, and Christ’s resurrection was at the center of it all. As a child I had heard many times the story of the Savior and how He rose from the dead. I had walked the aisle at ten, being swiftly baptized into that Baptist church. But later as a teen I left the church after my parents’ divorce. I surmised then that something was terribly amiss; there was no love and peace in Big D. In my tortured teenage angst, I figured that the message the church was teaching was not strong enough to hold my parents together, so I moved on.

Yet, everyone at the church had said that I was “born again,” but booze and cigarettes and Playboy magazines became my cheap little gods. I realized later that I had never risen with Him from the state of being dead in sin. By 1971 my old nature had grabbed the steering wheel of my life and was drunkenly crashing into everything. It was then that I first heard that my old sinful nature “is crucified with Christ.”  And that I am buried with Him, and by believing in His resurrection, I, too, am raised from the dead (in sin). I was raised to “walk in a newness of life.”

I had skin in the game this time. I was presenting my body as a “living sacrifice,” trusting in the power of His resurrection to sustain me in this new sinless walk of life. I had a great teacher who told me that “he that is dead is freed from sin…and in Him is no sin.”

Powerful truth is found in His word. But, first, someone’s got to stand on the wall and proclaim it in the face of the gainsayers. And then it must be believed. It is by faith in His resurrection that the surge of new life comes into our mortal bodies.

So, I went home and tried to think upon these things. But the first thought that came piercing into my mind like a sharp arrow was this: “You don’t really believe that Christ was actually raised from the dead, do you?” This thought shattered me. My existence fell like shards of glass to the floor. I felt the terror of one who was hopelessly lost, rudderless, and adrift in an empty sea of nihilism.

The next day I related all this to my mentor. He told me that the voice was Satan’s and that Satan knows that belief in the resurrection is the crux of the whole matter. If he gets you to doubt the resurrection, he wins, and you lose. I have not forgotten that day so many years ago. I was blessed; I had someone to help me overcome Satan’s assault.

The early apostles continued in the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. They had Christ as their mentor. He taught them that the resurrection has many levels, from the personal level on up to the universal level. Christ’s resurrection power is shown when a humble little garden seed sacrifices its identity and yields to that invisible creative power that is God, and then life bursts from that seed. Such is the word of the Spirit; such is the Seed, the Word of God, when it springs forth in our heart. We are “raised to walk in a newness of life” when we believe in Christ’s resurrection.

Later I would learn that there are many resurrections in His teachings.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[This is an excerpt from my book The Apostles’ Doctrine. It is taken from the chapter on the fifth teaching that the apostles’ taught: “The Resurrection of the Dead.” The book expounds on the seven teachings and examines the importance of being grounded in the seven doctrines of Christ. Send for your free copy with free shipping in the USA. Just send your mailing address to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com  Be sure to include your name and the name of the book. If you live overseas or desire a pdf of the book, I can do that, too.]

 

 

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Additions to Faith Insures Spiritual Growth

The Spirit of Christ through the apostle Peter has given us one of the “New Commandments” that Christ spoke about. When obeyed, it will insure our mature spiritual growth in God. Christ’s desire for us is that we bear much fruit. “Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, Christ said. The commandment that Peter is talking about is this: “Add to your faith” seven attributes of God’s very own “divine nature” (II Peter 1:4-7).

We will grow spiritually if we add them. But in Chapter Two he tells us why very few Christians obey this commandment. He warns us of the false teachings spewed by false prophets and false teachers whose doctrines wilt the young plantings of God. Instead of the latter rain from heaven watering young Christians, false concepts about God stunt their growth. You can see the effects on well-meaning church goers every Sunday morning, sitting there in the same pew that they have sat in for decades, still singing “Just As I Am,” stunted now, unable to grow to full spiritual maturity because of the drought of His word. The maturity that Christ and the apostles talk about is becoming just like Peter, James, John, and Paul. Church goers have been told that it is impossible. But “with God all things are possible.”

But Christ’s elect are scattered out there. Some will hear that faint sound of the ancient trumpet, and their heads will turn up to the sky from whence the call was made.

For God calls whomsoever He will. No man through his own willpower will become His elect, His chosen ones. He does the choosing. He places the hunger for truth in them. They don’t know at first how it all works. They just know that they need to find the truth. They need to get to the bottom of this thing called life-on-planet-earth. And somehow they finally realize that it was God all along who arranged all the serendipitous coincidences, all the failures and victories, and all of the, well, miraculous turning points in our lives.

In my case, the miracle was when Mortality was rearing its desperate head–my head, actually, which was going down for the seventh time. And there with me God had Larry Golden pull me out of that South China Sea undertow at Da Nang Beach in Vietnam. The LORD gives life, and the LORD takes away life. Blessed be His Name.

Such is the calling and election that God makes upon us. He has a plan and a timetable for everything. And He will put a hook in the jaw of those He is angling for, if that is what it takes. He has a purpose to reproduce Himself in us. He is omnipotent and will bring it to pass. He has created all things, and all things are in His repertoire. And He uses both “good things” and “bad things” to bring His plan and purpose to full fruition. Full fruit production is bearing “much fruit.”

Which takes us back full circle to the “additions to the faith.” They are virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and agape love. These attributes of the “divine nature” are powerful. They are like the finest fertilizer for God’s young plants.

They hold many promises for those who want to grow. “For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ [Yahshua]” (II Peter 1:5-8). With these seven added, you will be full of fruit. With them you will “make your calling and election sure.” With these seven added, “You shall never fall.” With them added, “an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom” of Christ, our “Everlasting Father” (II Peter 1:10-11; Isaiah 9:6). Such promises are breathtaking!

Those that have an ear to hear, let them hear what the Spirit is saying (Matt. 11: 15; 13:9; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29, 3:6, 13, 22). In other words, God gives understanding to whomever He desires to give it. He opens the ears of the spiritually deaf. If He is doing that for us, then we need to hear and listen closely to what the Spirit of God is saying through Peter about the additions to the faith. Those with an ear to hear will understand.        Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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2029 Asteroid Coming–Sign of Christ’s Return?

In a few short years, the sons of God will appear on the scene at the end of this age.  There are many signs that have already taken place, but many have not happened as of yet.  The rebuilding of the Temple, for example, is a huge sign.  Also, the destruction prophesied in the book of Revelation must come, for it will be the setting of the manifestation of the sons of God.  Most everyone thinks that the rapture will occur taking all the saints out of the earth.  This is not true because several righteous individuals mentioned in Revelation are still on the scene during the Tribulation Period.

These righteous ones are the sons of God who will rise like a phoenix out of the ashes of Mystery Babylon the Great, the present world system.  They will come forth in the midst of terrible turmoil and trouble.

As to exactly how these events will come to pass, many mysteries remain.  This we do know: they will be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye.  Their mortal bodies will be swallowed up by their immortal bodies that are reserved for them in heaven, as seen in II Corinthians 4 and 5.  Their resurrection will take place, and they will receive a new spiritual body as outlined in I Corinthians 15.  And they will stride forth upon this earth as immortal heralds and ambassadors of the soon to fully arrive Kingdom of God.  They will do the “greater works.”

When will these things be? The year 2000 on the Roman calendar is here.  According to the genealogies in the Bible, it has been roughly 2,000 years since the Savior was born and 4,000 more since Adam was created.  That is 6,000 years.  We know in our hearts that the time of the Savior’s return is soon.  We want to ask, Why hasn’t He come back?  6,000 years of recorded history has elapsed.  What is happening?

And some of us think back to 10, 15, 20, and even 30 or more years ago when our flesh was young and soft and our teeth were sound and our hope was strong, and we think, Oh, how our hearts yearned for His kingdom to come to this earth!  We did everything in our power to make it happen when we thought it would happen—and yet, it did not come in then.  The thousand year reign did not start when the numbers and figures and calculations said that it would.

And this has been a supreme trial for some of us, as it evidently was for the early apostles.  They just knew  that their time was the time!   The Messiah was walking upon this earth!  He was doing miracles daily, incredible spiritual feats.  They were thinking, Would it not be just a few days when Christ would set up His kingdom by destroying the evil Roman world system and setting us up, along with the Master, as the rulers during His 1,000 year reign of peace?

But they did not savor the things of God.  It was not for them to know in their then present spiritual condition “the time or seasons which the Father has put in his own power.  But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”  They did not understand the timing, as we have not understood the timing for the time of the end.  But like a faithful sentinel gives warning in advance, we were given knowledge of impending events to come upon the earth.

Still, the “day is  as a 1,000 years” passage just won’t go away.  It has been approximately 6,000 years, and still He has not come back.  Some say that He could come back  tonight.   Some  say  that He has already come back, and we are living in the 1,000 year reign of peace already.  The scriptures say that we will not know the day or the hour of His return.  It did not say, however, that we could not know the year. {Come to think of it, Noah knew exactly when the flood would come, for God told him, “Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights…” (Gen 7: 4). And Christ said, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24: 37). Noah knew!}

I am proposing the following, not as a prophecy, but as something to ponder.  The 6,000 year reign of natural man has always been figured from Adam’s creation in 4,004 B.C.  What if in God’s eyes the 6,000 year period starts with Adam’s fall instead of Adam’s creation?  Where in the Bible does it say that we should calculate every date from Adam’s creation?  Should we presume that Adam sinned in his very first year of existence?  We do not know for sure when he sinned in the garden, but what if that year was a few years after his creation.  What if the year of Adam’s fall is the starting point of sinful man’s 6,000 year span of time on earth.  A day is as a thousand years.  Six days shall God work with Adam—in Adam’s sinful lost state!  There is a 1,000 year sabbath day period of rest coming to this earth.  It is prophesied.  But when does the six day 6,000 year period end?  What if the starting point of the 6,000 year period begins with Adam’s sin?

If, for instance, Adam fell, say, 33 years after his creation by God, then the first 4,000 years ends in the year 29 A. D., which is the time when Adam’s sin was placed upon the Lamb of God’s shoulders on the tree.  It was at the death, burial and resurrection that the curse was lifted, empowering Christ, the last Adam, to rise in us.  Since that time, only 1,971 years would have elapsed (as of the year 2,000, the year this book was published). In this scenario, we would lack 29 years till the 1,000 -year reign, or 22 years before the Tribulation Period starts. So that would make the date the year 2029.

This is, of course, a supposition at best.  No one knows for sure.  In fact, it may not be for us to know the year when He is coming back, but He puts that wondering in our hearts.  And another thing—it may not be for us all to be alive when He comes back to set up His reign.

The point is this: We need to lay up for His sons that are coming.  He said that they are coming, and they shall come forth.  We may just have a role to play like the prophets and apostles who saw these things from far off and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims here on this earth.  And they laid up for their children and grandchildren the truth of this heavenly city populated by us.  They laid up this truth for you and me.

WE are the “heavenly things” that were purified by a greater sacrifice than the blood of animals (Hebrews 9:23).  Yes, we are those “heavenly things,” His prodigal sons and daughters.  And some of us will be last and some will be first to be revealed to the world.

All this notwithstanding, it is going to be a while yet before He comes back.  All the signs are pointing to the prophecies being fulfilled, but there are many things that has to take place, which to expound upon is beyond the scope and space of this book.  Nevertheless, we need to occupy till He comes, walking in the vision that He has revealed unto us through the writings of the prophets and apostles—the vision of the soon unveiling of the sons of God.

{To see more about the killer asteroid Apophis predicted by scientists to come perilously close to earth in 2029, just go to youtube and type in “2029.” Scientists discovered this asteroid in 2004, four years after this chapter was written and published.}

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[This is the last chapter of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God. Free copies with free shipping are still available to you. Get yours while supplies last. Just email your name and mailing address to wayneman5@hotmail.com. Be sure to mention the book by name.]

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Sexual Mores of a Lost GI–Saigon, 1967  

A lawless invincibility permeated the atmosphere.  It was like being out in a Wild West town like Tombstone, Arizona, in 1880. That’s the feeling I got. But it was a Tombstone that was  stoned and fully armed. We were the cowboys in town, where even a medical lab technician like myself was locked and loaded. Only thing was, we had M-14’s and M-16’s instead of Colt 45’s and Winchester 30-30’s.

And many of us relished the freedom at first. Most of us were a year or so out of high school, thrown out of those rigid classrooms taught by Victorian spinsters, their long hair severely pulled into a bun. We were extracted from high schools and homes that thoroughly supported corporal punishment. “You get swats at school, you get swats from me,” said most every father to their sons.

The discipline was demanding and yielded an artificially quiet classroom, despite the internal rumblings in the groins of those red-blooded American teenagers. Teens who yearned for freedom to explore, teens who could not “get no satisfaction” from the plastic play they were asked to audition for by their teachers, parents, sheriffs, and mayors.

They wanted freedom.  In thousands of classrooms across America, they were demanding freedom. But they were just too young and inexperienced to know this truth: Better be careful what you ask for.

Because your Uncle Sam has just the answer. You want freedom?  Okay.  How about I send you to a place where you can do just about anything you want to do. No fathers leaning on you to be someone you don’t want to be. No sheriffs poking a flashlight into your car, breaking up a nice session with your girlfriend. No society dictating how you should look, walk, or talk. Yes, you’ll miss your mom, but you’ll get over it in a little while because you’ll be free.

I mean total liberty to drink all the beer and whiskey you want to drink without fear of getting caught; all the marijuana you want to smoke. What? Never seen a joint before? That’ll come soon enough. And you will have all the human beings you want to kill. And you’ll have all the girls you want to copulate with. What if I send you to a place where no one in authority will correct you about your morals, about what is right or wrong for you.

You just do a good job, and then you will have a license to do just about anything you desire. You want to run naked through a house of ill repute at two in the afternoon, chasing oriental girls clothed only in sheer pink lingerie? That can be arranged.  You want to be able to buy a pack of Kent cigarettes, seemingly straight out of the carton, shipped directly from the States, except after pulling the red cellophane ribbon and opening the pack, you realize that they have a funny texture to them and instead of being clipped straight across at the end you light, they are tapered, twisted at the end.  The filter end is intact.  You light it up, and then you will smile because for two dollars, you have just purchased twenty filtered marijuana cigarettes.

Never fear. As your Uncle Sam, I’ll make it that you will never run out of these sophisticated joints because I will pay you $240 a month, enough to buy 120 packs of them.  How is that for freedom?  Nobody is going to bust you here because nobody really gives a damn about you here.  Just as long as you do your job.

And don’t worry about the sex.  You’ll get plenty where I am sending you.  You see, these wars take a toll economically on people.  To eat and get by they will sell their daughters. They will work in bars and clubs, which are fronts for whorehouses, and they will be waiting for young men with money, and they will lie in wait for you young bucks panting after the scent of easy virtue–young bucks who think that they are now finally free. I’ll make it real easy for all who want to be free from the constraints of society’s codes of conduct.

How easy will I make it?  How about this little dream.  They let you and your buddy out on the corner, and you light up a “Kent,” and you saunter down to the middle of the block, and you go into this large, smoke filled dance hall.  Scores of pretty Vietnamese girls are all over the place.  And when I say “girls,” I mean girls–not women.  Don’t worry.  They’ll get prettier each month you stay in country.  It’s amazing how that happens.  In fact, the girls will actually begin to morph into Anglo-Asian beauties by the time your year is up.  Their eyes will begin to look sympathetically upon your angst. In fact they will begin to look like the girls from your very own home town. Don’t worry about it; it’s just a little trick that a lonely brain plays on you the longer you stay here. Very magical, indeed.

And so, you slide over to the bar and get a beer.  Three girls approach you, smiling demurely at you. You think you hear one ask, “Dance?” as she reaches, yes, she reaches out to you.  You don’t even have to speak first and come up with some stupid pick up line, as if you really knew what you were doing.  Is that easy enough for you?  You like this kind of freedom?  And then you follow her to the dance floor.  “Chain of Fools” is screaming and rumbling out the corners of the building, the bass and Aretha trading primordial moans.

Then you notice that the girl has a name tag pinned to her blouse.  “Suzy,” it says.  Right.  And then you notice a curious stamp confirming that she has actually been inspected by a physician and is cleared to work there.  You think, Grade A, and at first you’ll think it’s pretty cool, except it’s not very romantic and you can’t really communicate with her as you begin to realize that sex is a great goal, but romance and companionship and someone to kid and laugh with–that’s what really meets your need.

And so it kind of turns you off, but it’s too late now.  You are going through with it.  The song ends, and I’m sorry to say, so does your little secret dream of having, shall we say, a more substantial romantic tete a tete, as sentimental as that sounds (for you are very old fashioned still).  For she now, with a whisper of her porcelain fingers, leads you, much like a calf to the killing floor, to what you have longed for, when you sat there in those boring biology and chemistry classes as you stared at the virgins back home who would not let you be–well, free!  Free to do with them whatever you wanted, when you wanted it.

But this oriental princess (I hope I’m not making this too easy; I thought that this was what you wanted), this little Asian girl of leisure, now leads you past the lines of vertical beads and out of the dance hall, down a hall way and into her nest, a windowless room, a bit bigger than the  bed, and proceeds easily without moral ambiguity to disrobe. Oh, yes. I know. Too easy. But this is what you wanted.  Freedom.  Freedom from morals, from laws, from the chains of protocol. You want more freedom?  I got more for you here in the land of freedom, Vietnam.  After all–isn’t freedom what we are fighting for?

Freedom. Yes, how about those anger issues that have been seething in your heart that you could not express in the States, where you could not actually strike out and smite your fellow man, like those bastards in school that picked on you, that treated you with so much disrespect that you yearned to wreak vengeance on them but couldn’t.  Well, just wait, my little nephew, you will get your chance, yes, even you lab techs pull guard duty during Tet, where you’ll be overrun. You won’t be in one of those candy-striped hospitals at Da Nang or Cam Rahn Bay.  No, no, no.  That would be too sheltered from the fruit of anger, too cloistered by protective squadrons of Air Force jets and semi-permanent installations that would shield and prevent you from the ravishes of war and the revenge that seeps up in your craw as you tend to the fresh, wild wounds of once angry young men.  Now sedated, defeated, resigned to their fate, staring off into the distance, vacant-eyed, cold and shivering now, looking into your eyes, wanting you to comfort them, knowing that you probably can’t save them, but maybe you could just…well, love them in the hour of their call to the other side.

Death, the fruit of anger, you’ll see plenty of it. But you will be still too young to realize that the root of murder is hate and its cousin anger.  You’ll find out all about it this year though.

During your twelve month baptism of fire, you’ll have plenty of time to freely “run the gamut” and “plumb the depths,” as they say, the depths of the dark emotions of the heart.  You’ll be able to see revenge creep up into the upper chest of a medic, making him crazy with hate for the NVA soldier, lying peacefully there with three holes in his chest.  You’ll get to see this medic look around and then start pounding that NVA soldier’s face with his fist. Before you judge him, though, keep in mind that the medic lost three patients this morning. In his mind, he’s reeking a justified vengeful justice upon his enemy. Sometimes un-corralled liberty does that to you. Don’t be concerned. You’ll be okay.

Yes, we wanted freedom from the mundane. We got it in a place where all that mattered is surviving one more day. Funny how raw freedom negates civility. And it’s funny how mortars make agnostics cry out to God. And it’s funny how war seldom makes a saint. Well, except that handful who died saving others.

But for most of us who made it back home, we are left with memories that only we can share. Some memories are scenes from a macabre comedy, despite our uncle’s dark sarcasm. But they are for another day, even though you probably wouldn’t believe me if I shared them with you.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[The above is a my portrait of the young man in Proverbs 7.]

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The Need for the Additions to the Faith

When the Spirit of Christ says through Peter, “Add to your faith” certain attributes, He is not saying that we must add them in order to be saved. Personal salvation is not the issue, though it is the first important step on our spiritual quest. The additions are the key to our spiritual growth after salvation. They are the key that unlocks the door to our spiritual perfection.

Like Jeremiah, Yahweh has known us by name before our earthly mothers brought us out into the light of day. We add these heavenly attributes of God’s “divine nature” because we are called and chosen by Him to do just that. Our names are written down in the book of life before the worlds were ever spoken into existence by our God and Savior Yahshua, the Son of God.

Consequently, we have no choice in the matter. My readers are a rare group of humans who have seen through the plastic façade of churchianity and have “come out of her.” He has predestined a vanguard who will be the first fruits that will show their brethren the way to the glory land. They have been “called according to His purpose [the reproduction of Himself—Love].”

“For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified” (Rom. 8:28-30). He knew us before we were born into mortality. He gave us our destiny to be like the Son before we came here. Because of our pre-destiny, He called us; He “got our attention” that He is real. He showed us the phoniness of human society and culture and began to teach us His way. He saved us out of the quagmire of sin by justifying us. And in His mind, He has already glorified us. For He declares the end from the beginning.

All I can do is shake my head and go, “Wow!” For the Spirit is speaking to me as I write this down. What a precious privilege—to join the ranks of our brethren like David, Jacob, Daniel, Paul, John, and so many more. Their fame lives on because they answered His call upon their lives, just like we are doing. He is working the same way today as He did two, three, and four thousand years ago. He said, “I change not.” There is not one single scripture that says the miracles ceased being performed by His followers 1,900 years ago.

Our Lives Now Are His Doing

It is His ball game now since our surrender to Christ. When we really believe Romans 6:6, we enter into His rest. How do we enter into rest? When we die with Christ on the cross and are raised up from the dead with Him, we have ceased doing our own works for our old self. It is because our old man Adam is dead. And so we begin our Sabbath rest when we cease working for our old selves. This is what brings the love, joy, and peace and the other fruit of the Spirit. This is what casts out fear. There is nothing to be afraid of now. What are they going to do, send me to Vietnam? Once our old ego dies with Christ, what are they going to do? Kill our body? “Death has no more dominion over us.”

So we wait on the Spirit of truth to lead us into all truth. And He shows us that we are to grow spiritually, that we are to finally mature by bringing forth “much fruit.” And then the Spirit through Peter tells us that in order to bear “much fruit,” we need to “add to your faith” seven additions, seven facets of His divine nature. These seven things are crucial in order to come to full maturity/perfection. With them we will be able “to make our calling and election sure.” What calling? God has called us “to be conformed to the image of His Son.” In other words {Oh, words that will get you thrown out of churches} to be like the Son of God!

“Nobody can be like Jesus! That’s blasphemy!”

“Well, if you won’t let me be like Jesus, will you let me be like Peter, John, and Paul? They performed miracles like Christ. They bore much fruit.”

Bearing Much Fruit

To become a mature Christian, we have to add these seven attributes of His divine nature. If these seven things are pulsating and abounding in us, then they will enable us to bear much fruit   of the Spirit, never to be barren of love, joy, and peace (II Peter 1:8).

Those Christians who do not add them to the faith will be blind to the vision of our true destiny, for they will have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins (v. 9-10). Old sins are like blighted branches that are lopped off at the cross. Belief/faith in His resurrection gets them started in Christ, but they need the additions. If they don’t add them, then blindness overtakes them. They will get stagnant, which stops spiritual growth.

Such is the state of most church houses. Every gathering in them is a cookie cutter copy of the last meeting. Because no new light is being shared, the manna becomes stale and spoils, and most of the clergy and laity languish in the stalls of forgetfulness.

It is sad really. I still want to reach out and touch them like I have endeavored to do, but they say that they are “increased with goods and have need of nothing” (Rev. 3:18). I am learning to not be dismayed nor frustrated. For one who speaks God’s message is honored, but not “in his own country and in his own house.” (Mt. 13: 57). This explains why we can’t get any respect from those in our own home. [Perhaps you have experienced this. Please share in a comment].

The Need to Add to the Faith

Finally, those foreordained and predestined will feel the need to add the seven additions to the faith. God will reveal the need to them. No man with man’s wisdom will do it. “It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (Rom. 9:16). But those who are called and chosen will soldier on to complete the quest. That quest is “to be conformed to the image of His Son.” The gainsayers will tell them that it can’t be done, that they are crazy for thinking such a thing. But the elect will hear His voice. The others will just hear a rumble off in the distance, shrug their shoulders, and ask for seconds on the apple pie.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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“This One Thing I Do”—Bearing “Much Fruit”

We are living in the “time of the end” spoken by Daniel the prophet. Things are getting bad as prophesied. For the masses, their Babylon based hopes and dreams will be consumed in the fires of God’s displeasure. However, out of the ashes will rise God’s body of sons and daughters who will do the “greater works” that Christ spoke of—greater miracles and signs than even what He did! Those are His words, not mine.

These sons and daughters are His elect, those that He has chosen out of the multitudes of His people scattered all over the planet. They are the first fruits unto the Father, the first to bear “much fruit.”

“Much fruit” of the Spirit is the goal and destiny that the Father Yahweh has set for them. They are to be the “saviors” that God will send as ambassadors to the furthest ends of the earth during the 1000 Year Reign of Christ. “And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S [Yahweh’s]” (Obad. 1:21). They will be emissaries of Christ the King. They will be strong and do exploits in the land (Dan. 11:32).

At present, very few know about these things, much less believe them. The eyes of the masses are held from perceiving. They sleep, but their eyes are open. They walk yet know not to where.  They speak, yet no one is listening. They cry with desert tears. For most, this vision of sonship is like a pretty melody at first hearing, but it soon fades away, dissipating into the breezes of forgetfulness.

Nevertheless, right now, a few of the elect chosen ones are crying in the wilderness. They are announcing their King’s soon arrival. They are sharing this vision of sonship, Christ’s vision of us bearing 100 fold fruit, which is the “much fruit” aforementioned (Matt. 13: 18-23). Bearing “much fruit” can only take place after first bearing “fruit” and then “more fruit” (John 15:1-5). It is a growth from a tiny seed of faith.

The High Calling

The sons and daughters are at this present time answering the “high calling.” They today are following the Spirit’s bidding. They follow the Lamb by walking in the Spirit (Phil. 3:12). Christ has chosen them; He has “apprehended” them for His purpose of magnifying the Spirit of Christ within them (Phil. 1:20).

Thus they must surrender to His will and lay down the natural burdens that plague them—the fears, the insecurities, the doubts as to the validity of their earthly dreams for their own little “lives of quiet desperation.” They must now lay aside all worldly acclaim and count it but loss, thus trading their pasts for an opportunity to know their Creator in all His glory.

They now must take on a singular view in this new life in Christ. “Old things are passed away…all things are become new” (II Cor. 5:17). To attain the spiritual growth of manifested sonship, they must forget the things of the past—both good and bad—and reach out to embrace the magnificent adventure of sonship and daughtership that awaits them.

The apostle Paul was clear on this. This reaching out, this stretching forth of our new hearts, is a surrendering to His pull. We are iron filings, and He is the magnet that draws us to Him. Our focal point is a burning desire to “know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings…” (Phil. 3:10).

Knowing Him has to be real to us. When we communicate with Him, it is like if Christ were in a hidden locale and we are talking to Him on the phone. And while we speak with Him, thanking Him for all He does for us and the rest of His body, we remember that He was dead for three days and three nights. Dead. And we are talking to Him in prayer because the power of the Almighty raised Him from the dead. He suffered and died and was resurrected. And through His sufferings and triumph over death, we have followed Him by baptism into His death. Our old sinful life is now dead, and His Spirit now dwells within our hearts (Rom. 6:3-11).

Notice how the Spirit through Paul writes, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him…” (6:6). We’ve got to experience this in order to “know Him and the power of His resurrection.” [Brothers and sisters, you won’t hear this from preachers in pulpits. It is rare knowledge that the Spirit of truth is sharing with us.]

Those so drawn to “know Him” will begin to set priorities in their lives. And as they do, they will realize that everything on today’s to-do list is flimsy, non-consequential and superfluous. Then one day, “one thing” will rise to the top of the list. Again Paul was clear on this: “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling” (Phil. 3:13-14). In another version it reads, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me…”

That One Thing

That one thing is a focused striving for spiritual growth, a yearning and pulsing forth to bear “much fruit.” It is a total leap of faith to grab ahold of the plow and not look back like Lot’s wife did. We are like that tiny blade of corn that has only one thing on its mind. It is striving and pushing up and up into the light. And to do this, the tiny blade of corn shoots down roots to assimilate necessary nutrients in order to grow and bear fruit. The one thing that it does is to fulfill its destiny, to bear grains of corn to be shared as food and to be planted in God’s garden. We are those grains of corn. “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rom. 6: 5).

To do this “one thing,” we must forget the past and then strive ahead to learn and grow toward this goal: Somebody is going to sit with Christ on His throne. That is the high calling. That is the prize. Christ has put it out there. It is not some figment of somebody’s imagination. It is going to happen to a few. The question is this: Will it be you and me?

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Disband the Police? Have Y’all Gone Mad?

What are you, nuts? Defund the police? That’s insanity! We saw what happened in Minneapolis when the police were ordered to flee the scene and not arrest the rioters. They burned down the precinct headquarters and scores of other buildings and businesses. With no police presence, complete chaos ensued—rioting, looting, arson, assaults, vandalism.

Disband the police? Are you crazy? If they ban the police, this is what will happen. Social tribes will form. On the left and right. In order to protect their homes, conservatives will become vigilantes. Somebody’s got to patrol the streets to protect our children and property.

With no law enforcement, existing gangs will become stronger and bolder. For an example, just look at El Salvador, and you will get a glimpse at what life would be like if you allow lawlessness to go unchecked. The citizens there are terrorized by the gangs. They cannot defend themselves because they do not have firearms. In the USA, we still have the right to bear arms. But that is next on their agenda—confiscating our guns.

The Answer

Getting rid of the police is utter madness. The question is this: Where did this insanity come from? Who put these insane thoughts into the radical left’s minds? The Bible is the source of truth. So I went there seeking an answer. The answer is surprising. The God of the Bible, the one true God of heaven, on many occasions sent madness upon the people. Yes, the LORD sent insanity. We don’t like to think that our Creator would do that. We wouldn’t. But then, our thoughts are not His thoughts, nor are our ways His.

So, why does He send insanity into the minds of people? He set before the people blessings and cursings. Blessings if they obeyed Him and cursings if they rejected Him. He promised blessings that would set us “on high above all nations of the earth…if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God” (Deut. 28:1-2). Great Britain and the USA once held that position with God. America use to be chaste and God fearing and polite and morally strong. But it has allowed the revolutionaries to take over our education system, our courts, and our culture. Yet, through it all, I know that there is a remnant, a small portion of we the people who lament the takeover of our Christian values as a nation. You know who you are. I salute you.

But as a nation, however, we have failed our Founder. We as a nation allowed international bankers and one world enthusiasts to commandeer our economic system. Now our currency is almost worthless compared to the true silver dollar that was in circulation until 1965.

We as a nation stood by and allowed Congress to legalize the killing of our unborn children. This killing of His own children is a stain that deeply blackens our national heart. We as a nation did not take to the streets by the millions over the abortion issue. They took away praying to the God of heaven at school. We as a nation did not protest en masse over that.

Our government’s armed forces have killed millions of people in unnecessary foreign wars. I saw gallons of blood in Vietnam. While there I asked everyone from the colonel on down why we were there. Nobody knew.

We as a nation have turned to pleasure as our guide and companion. We seek after the rush that our new god provides—Technology. The “whole world wondered after the beast”—the beast of technology and those who control it. What other movement in the earth has such a profound hold on the human imagination?

Because of these national sins against God and man, God promised to send curses upon His people. “However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you… The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind.  The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to…because of the evil you have done in forsaking him…(Deut. 28: 15, 28, 20; [really the whole chapter].

Wait a Minute

I know what some of you are thinking. That’s the Old Testament that’s been done away with. That is a wrong thought. They are the scriptures that the apostles and prophets and Christ Himself read and lived by. And these scriptures are quoted abundantly in the New Testament by the apostles and Christ. Furthermore, it was “the Spirit of Christ which was in them” (I Peter 1:11). Christ’s Spirit, living in the old prophets, did the writing. That is why the Old Testament is so important.

But some may ask, “What was done away with then?” After Christ’s shed blood, there was no need for the blood of animal sacrifices, which is only a type and shadow of the reality in Christ. All of the accouterments of old covenant worship has been done away. The Spirit of Christ’s love now writes our bylaws.

Don’t Think It Strange

Make no mistake. These people on the left who want to disband the police and bring in nihilistic anarchy are insane. But now we know what is happening. God’s hand is in it, since “we live, move and have our being in Him” (Acts 17: 28). Because of the sins of our nation, He has sent insanity into the minds of the powerful ruling class and those who follow them.

According to the Spirit of Christ coursing through the pen of Moses, God has smitten them with insanity and confusion. Why? Because they have turned their backs on our great King and Savior.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

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Riots, Looting, and Terror on the Streets–A Christian Perspective

Millions are asking, “What is happening to our cities? Why all the destruction?

Thousands of rioters bashed in thousands of targeted windows and looted upscale neighborhoods with impunity. They terrorized the owners with violent assaults. They killed several law abiding citizens. They struck fear into hearts as they destroyed shops across the nation, and the police were nowhere to be found. They subdued the weak by destroying their livelihood. Thousands of businesses were looted and torched by anarchists.

Did you think I was talking about what happened to the cities of America last week? I was not.  These are notes taken from encyclopedias concerning Crystal Night 1938 in Germany. It was “crystal” because of the shards of broken glass from over 7500 destroyed establishments. The SA brownshirts, a large paramilitary group, destroyed those businesses in Germany.

Sound familiar? America has its own paramilitary group that did so much damage to America. They call themselves Antifa, which stands for anti-fascism, they say. That is a misnomer, for their deeds are just like the fascists. They are very sneaky; they infiltrated the thousands of peaceful protestors in order to further their goals.

They want a revolution. They want to destroy the American way of life through wanton destruction of our values and culture. They are nihilists.  They proved that last week. [“Nihilism” from two dictionaries: “An approach to philosophy that holds that human life is meaningless and that all religions, laws, moral codes, and political systems are thoroughly empty and false”… “total rejection of established laws and institutions; anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity; total and absolute destructiveness, especially toward the world at large and including oneself”…  https://www.dictionary.com/browse/nihilism]

We need to understand that every revolution has a vanguard, a paramilitary branch of ruffians who bludgeon the peace loving citizenry into submission. They terrorize the populace by killing, looting, maiming and destroying the existing system.

That is what happened on Crystal Night in 1938 and last week here in America. The same thing happened with Mussolini’s blackshirt thugs in Italy in the 1920’s and the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1918. It all turns out the same, be it national socialism in Germany and fascist Italy, or communist socialism of the USSR, Cuba, and N. Korea.

The Question

The question is this: Will we allow history to repeat itself? Will we fail our children and grandchildren by losing their rights through a collective lukewarmness? Will we surrender our dreams through our inability to summon the courage to make them come true through hard work and faith? Or will we be like our ancestors, who came against those “dark designing knaves” that President Washington spoke about? It is time to look inward, you mighty men and women of valor.

For it is like what happened to Gideon in the Old Testament. The angel appeared to him and said, “The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.”

And Gideon said, in essence: “I am the poorest of the poor. I got only one little flatbread left; that is it. If the LORD is with us, then why are we a conquered nation? And where are all the miracles like when Moses brought us up out of Egypt?

And God replied, in essence: So you want to see that kind of power? Fine. I have chosen you. “Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent you?” (Judges 6: 12-14).

He has given us the power to overcome all of the petty little tyrants who stand in the way of righteousness, peace, and joy. All we got to do is ask Him for the power. And then we must believe that He is answering, and we will receive that power. And “if you are down and out, feeling small,” it is okay to ask God for signs along the way. Gideon, that “mighty man of valor” did. And God gave him a flat out miracle of a sign that He is super real. But I won’t tell you about that now. You can read about it (Judges 6: 15-23).

The giants are not too big.  All the great men and women of God believed that. They are great because of their walk of faith. We still remember their names, even sometimes naming our children after them. We recount their deeds from two, three, and four thousand years ago. God wants us to be like them. That is what it is going to take to stand against the evil.      Wayneman

 

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