Tag Archives: Christ

Are You Suffering from a Betrayal by Someone You Love?

Betrayal causes severe anguish and pain. What is our reaction to this? We cry out to God. These five words are the answer to some of life’s great questions: Why do we have to physically or mentally suffer? Why do our old earthly bodies break down? Why must we “walk through the valley of the shadow of death”?

God allows “bad things” for us to suffer, so that we will turn to him. Though it is difficult for us to comprehend, it is Yahweh’s great love for us that He subjects us to excruciating misery at times in our earthly lives.

These “bad” times are designed for us to overcome. When we overcome the trials, our spiritual muscles are strengthened. This is how we grow in His infinite grace.

This is one of the great mysteries that the Spirit is now revealing to us. Why do we suffer from things that are not seemingly even our fault? Because it is part of God’s plan. His plan fulfills His purpose. He is reproducing Himself in the form of agape love in our vessels.

Those that overcome all things will sit with him on His throne, even as Christ has overcome all things.

But how do we overcome? First, we must get over the shock that Yahweh uses “evil” to produce righteous spiritual growth in us. This growth comes from understanding and knowing the hidden mysteries concealed in His plan as stated above. And we can only understand through experiencing the suffering that spiritual growth requires. This engenders forgiveness; agape love grows as we forgive each other. That includes forgiving God for putting us through the pain and anguish.

Part of this knowledge concerns the Hebrew God’s implementation of trials on us His creation. This is when many of the called fall away. They will say, “This cannot be true. How can God, who is love, allow bad things to happen?”

The apostle Paul knew the answer. The Spirit through him wrote this down: “For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Yahweh had mercy on the Israelites, but He hardened Pharoah’s heart, all to fulfill His plan and purpose. The unenlightened will protest and begin to blame God. To which the Spirit replies, “But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” (Romans 9:19-20 NIV).

Crying out to God would not happen without pain. All I ever wanted as a child was a loving peaceful home. My parents were always fighting. They finally divorced when I was eleven. My world was beginning to shatter. Nine years later I worked as a lab tech in a MASH hospital fifteen miles south of the DMZ near Quang Tri. The blood and death every day completed the shattering. But the divorce and the war God used to instill in me an unquenchable desire to know the truth. Not just the truth about the war, but the truth about why we are here on this planet? And if there is a God, then, Who is He?

Yahweh used these two heartbreaks—the divorce and the war—to send me on a quest for knowledge even till today some fifty-five years later. I have forgiven my parents and Uncle Sam. And now through God’s mercy, I have slaked the bitterness I once endured. I died with Christ and now have a new heart that praises Him for His love and forgiveness.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

4 Comments

Filed under cross

How to Wait on God’s Timing Without Anxiety

We expect what we believe shall be. To expect is waiting for what we believe He has promised will come. But waiting is difficult for human beings.

But what shall be is what Christ, the Seed, the Word, said will be. We believe that He will grow in us unto perfect maturity. We, consequently, expect to grow. We expect to happen in our lives, what Christ said will happen: That after many trials, we shall overcome all things. For it is these very trials of our faith that trigger our spiritual growth. They make us stronger, even though we disdain them. But then, His ways are not our ways.

For example, when I go to my desk, I expect that God will give me the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. I have no doubts that He will meet me there and deliver inspiration and understanding of His word. It has been twenty-seven years now, and the meal barrel has not run dry.

Yet, a question arises. Can we not have the same expectations when it comes to healing? Healing someone is a gift of the Spirit to us and then through us to another. But when will the Spirit give that gift through us, that He would heal through us? We all are waiting for more of His power to be manifested in and through us.

The Ultimate Wielding of His Power

Of course, we are talking about wielding game-changing power in the earth. Miracles are not just about knowledge. They are about doing. Miraculous actions will go viral in the 21st Century’s social media. We must be strong enough spiritually to survive the onslaught.

We are talking about the “high calling of God in Christ.” We are referring to the ultimate wielding of power and strength from the Spirit of God. We’re talking about bearing 100-fold fruit of the Spirit. This is when the Spirit is fully matured in us. Knowing, Doing, and Being. You must have knowledge before you can do. And it is by doing that we become our destiny.

Some of us now are turning our heads and hearts toward this calling. You and I are “waiting for the adoption… the redemption of our body.” While we wait on Him, we walk in this new knowledge by first studying and proving it from the scriptures.      

Evidently, we are not quite ready for 100-fold prime time just yet. But this we should know that “there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.” That especially includes the season and time for His purpose (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

We are at present the “called according to His purpose.” And we now know that His purpose is to reproduce Himself. He is Agape love, and He plants His love as a Seed in those He has called (Romans 8:23, 28). There is a season and a time for this planting and reaping. And the harvest is “the manifestation of the sons [and daughters] of God” (Romans 8:19).

Someone hearing this perhaps, is saying in their heart, “You said that we can be like Peter, James, John, and Paul, and even Jesus. That is impossible to do.”

To which I say, “You’re wrong. I’m not saying this; the word of God is saying this. The scriptures say that Yahweh knew us before we were born. He foreknew us and predestinated us “to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first born among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). That is where we are heading. But there is a season and time which only the Father knows, when we will join the ranks of the manifested sons and daughters of God.

Moses Waiting on His Calling

We must “judge nothing before the time.” God revealed to Moses that the Hebrew slaves should follow him. But it was not the season nor the time for God to lead His people out of Egypt. Moses waited 40 years in exile in the Sinai desert before the call came from the burning bush. It just was not the time until then.   

Yet, Yahweh foreknew Moses and you and me. And He has given us a glorious destiny before our earthly slog began. And then, he called us. He gave us a sign that He is real. He met us where we were in the mire of sin and lifted us out of degradation into his marvelous light. Thus, we were called and justified. “And whom He justified, them He also glorified.”

Glorified! That is how Yahweh sees it. He sees us already “conformed to the image of his Son.” He sees us as joint heirs with Him. To Him it’s a done deal. Yet, for us, we wait for the season and the time. (verse 30).

Yahweh declares the end from the beginning. In the beginning we were with Him in His heart. Before we were deposited from the womb of our dear earthly mothers, He believed that we would respond. That’s His faith at work.

Consequently, God is for us! Who can withstand God and be against us? But there’s one thing we must realize before we receive our immortal spiritual bodies upon His return. We must understand that there is a certain season and time for everything—especially during the “time of the end.” That includes the time when He will work miracles of healing through us.        Kenneth Wayne Hancock

5 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Are You Longing to Know Christ’s Secret to a Joyful Walk?

If we listen to His “still small voice,” we may hear Him share a secret that few ever hear. It is a challenge to our present belief system. Our joy issues from His joy, which rejoices at the truth.

Right now, as we speak through these earthly bodies, we have another body. Yes, another body. It is a body that is celestial in nature. It is, in the pure sense of the word, extraterrestrial, for it is outside the scope of the earth. In fact, mortal eyes have not seen it, nor has its reality even entered into the hearts of mortals. What has not entered into our thinking? “The things that God has prepared for them that love Him (I Cor. 2: 9).

And what are those “things” that God has already provided for us? They are our heavenly bodies. And as we gaze into the mirror at our earthly bodies and lament their descent into mortality’s final sad scene, we cannot help but groan under the burden of our bodies’ betrayal of us. And we yearn for our other body to come and clothed us with immortality.

This present mortal state in which we live is the perfect environment, however, to nurture the Spirit within us. As we overcome in battle the devil’s onslaught, the Spirit within us grows with every victory. As we vanquish our enemy, who is designed by our Creator to dispense just the right amount of resistance each day, we grow according to the loving hand of our Master. Knowing about our heavenly immortal body is our ace in the hole and gives us great confidence that He has our backs. It is His ball game; He will win. He has already won in heaven, and now we are a part of the witness here on earth.

Our Victory Is Believing the Unseen

Our victories begin in believing that we have His Spirit within us, that He is guiding us, and that He loves us and wants us to grow to be like Him. He is our treasure that we now have in these weak, fragile earthly bodies. Our bodies seem to be hurdling back into earth. It seems that they want to return to the soil. Our bodies are not us, for they careen in an opposite direction than what our hearts would dictate. Our earthly bodies want to dissipate, but we want to live vibrantly in love and harmony.

Our “outward man” may be perishing, but our “inward man” is being renewed each day. Compared to the glorious future that He desires to shower upon us, our current afflictions pale in importance. Our afflictions are “the sufferings of this present time,” the sufferings we must endure that we may reign with Him (II Tim. 2: 12; II Cor. 4: 16-17).

We must not look at our mortal bodies thinking that this is all there is. There is no hope in seeing our flesh wrinkle and get old, our muscles failing of the strength of youth. Looking at our earthly bodies and pondering their demise is not faith. For faith is being assured of “things not seen,” not things which we do see.

We should not see those “things” in the mirror that stare back at us. We should rather look at “the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporary; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (4: 18). When we walk in the Spirit, we behold as in a mirror the glory of Yahweh, and we are changed thereby “into that same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit…” (II Cor. 3: 18). We will not experience this by looking at our earthly body, but by looking at those things that are not seen.

So, what are these things? These things are bodies, for it is bodies that the Spirit through Paul has been talking about all throughout the whole letter.

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Most have interpreted that to mean that we are going to heaven. It actually says, however, that we have another house in heaven waiting for us. We have another body, a celestial one, a glorified one prepared for us by our Creator (II Cor. 5: 1-4).

Our earthly bodies that we see are temporary dwelling places for the Spirit of God to grow in. They are important and indispensable, but disposable. He made them that way, of course. And as the painful treachery of our bodies increases, “we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.” Our burden is not to be “unclothed,” as in a lightening of our load, but rather “clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”

Thus, the Spirit speaks of our heavenly body as clothing. As we ponder the word “clothing,” we see where He has promised the over comers clothing called “white raiment.” We see a picture of this in the transfiguration of the Son of God when “his face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light.” We see a picture of us after being clothed with our heavenly body. We look to that time when we “are changed into the same image from glory to glory.”

Faith is being assured that we have this heavenly body prepared for us, even though we cannot see the evidence of it right now with mortal eyes. This is the secret that His still, small voice is conveying to us (Rev. 3:4-5; Mt. 17: 2; II Cor. 3:18; Heb. 11: l).

[This is Chapter 16 of my latest book, The Additions to the Faith. To order your free copy with free shipping, email your name, address and title of the book to wayneman5@hotmail.com If this chapter has helped you, please help me get this to more people by you hitting the like button, commenting, and subscribing. Thank you.]

7 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

We Are Sent by God to Do What?

[Please don’t rush through this. “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” Slow down and savor the secrets of the Word. Matthew 13:11, 35]

To answer the question in the title: We are sent to teach the nations the truth of Christ. The Great Commission gives a sweeping panorama of what our sending is about. We are to “go and teach all nations…teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

What are these “all things” that we are to teach the world? Christ said to His disciples [that’s us, too], “All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44).

In other words, the prophets’ writings, the psalms, and Moses’ writings—all were written about Christ. This does not fully compute when we are first taught this truth. The vast quarry of knowledge found in these sacred writings can be overwhelming. But since the Supreme Being has called you into His service, He will in due time clarify your vision of what will be fulfilled in you. We receive the revelation that the Son of God walks in unity with the great Spirit Father Yahweh [“I and my Father are One”].

And now, we are bidden to abide within His glorified spirit body. Later we will realize that all things are about Him, His purpose, and His plan to fulfill His purpose, which is God reproducing Himself in us. We will realize that “God [Yahweh] was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.”

Christ saw that His disciples were dazed, having seen and heard the risen Christ. We, too, are dazzled when we see the One who conquered death. And, so, to help them, Christ “opened… their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures…and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations…”

He speaks of the big harvest of souls, of which we have spoken before. This is His desire, and this is His will. We must pray that He would open unto us the new wine of the scriptures of truth and learn of Him on a deeper level. We must repent of the old leaven doctrines that we have blindly accepted since our youth. For we must repent before we preach repentance (Luke 24:45-49).

“All Things”

Everything is about Him and for Him. All emotions, all feelings, all dreams, all endeavors that we have lived, all our vain actions and desires—all things are wrapped up in Him. “For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Rom. 11:36).

He has rescued us from the darkness we once wallowed in and has now transferred us into His kingdom. He has redeemed us with His blood and has forgiven our sins. He who forgave us “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” The Son created all things. And all things are for Him. “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Col. 1:13-18). That old song is true: “He’s got the whole world in His hands.”

And it is through His gracious love and mercy that He has included us in His plan of bringing us, His spiritual offspring, to full spiritual maturity—to be just like the Original, who is called Christ, the Anointed One. He has all power invested in His word. Should we not think that He would grant us a portion of His power to fulfill our calling and election in Him? He said, “Ask and it shall be given.” But we must ask with a pure heart, one that is not choked with the smoke of burning falsehoods. “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” Christ will open “their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.”

We are called to be His teachers. But first, we must “purge out the old leaven,” the false doctrines that the enemy has sown into the churches. Rather, we must learn of Him all things that pertain unto His purpose and plan.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{Help me get this to others. Please hit the like button and subscribe and comment. Thank you.}

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Christ Has Sent You and Me–Already

You have been sent by Christ to do the Father’s will (desire)…

Before we get into “being sent,” we should consider this: The deeper we go into the truth, the more we need to repeat its concepts. We need to rehearse it until our restless minds are corralled and come into obedience of the very concepts we are endeavoring to learn.

Such is the case with Christ’s words recorded by the apostle John: “My food is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work” (4:34). Doing the Father’s will and finishing His work is the spiritual food that gives the Son spiritual strength. We will receive the same spiritual sustenance that fueled His walk when we know and do the Father’s will and finish His work.

The next major word in our study of this saying is “sent.” Christ said twenty-six times in the gospel of John that the Father had sent Him. It is obviously very important to him that we understand the concept. Twenty-six times! For example, He said, “He that believes on me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me. And he that sees me sees him that sent me” (12:44-45).

The Father Yahweh has sent the Son, who is the earthly witness of the invisible Father. In our embryonic thinking, we only see Christ the Son, the Savior, being the one sent, and that is true. But modern Christian theology teaches that it is a one-off and was only good for Christ and a few of the early apostles.

But, according to His words, we have been sent, too. Christ is expanding the base by including us as those that are sent. He said, “He that receives whomsoever I send receives me, and he that receives me receives Him [the Father] that sent me” (John 13: 20).

Christ puts an exclamation point on this: “As my Father has sent Me, even so send I you” (John 20:21). In the same manner that the Father has sent Christ, even so, Christ has sent us. What manner did the Father send Christ? He sent him with power.

In John 17, Christ is praying for His disciples. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one… in us…” (17: 20-21). You and I have believed in Christ through the words of the early apostles. In the mind of Christ, we are one with His early apostles and with Christ and with the Father! We are sent in the same way.

Christ is still saying, I am sending you just like the Father sent Me. He sent Him armed with the truth. He sent Him with miracle working power. He sent Him to bear witness to the truth. He sent him to give testimony through the miraculous works—works that can only be done by the Father. He sent Him to give testimony that mankind may believe God. And He sent Christ to those prepared to receive him. KWH

[Please hit that “like” button. It helps us reach more people. Thank you.]

4 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Catching Bigger Fish for Christ

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

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

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

You use bigger bait.

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

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

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

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

Doing

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

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

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

Some May Think This Is “Out There”

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

Fishers of Men

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

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

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

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

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

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

6 Comments

Filed under cross, eternal purpose, false doctrines, false teachers, glorification, humility, kingdom of God, spiritual growth, Spiritual Life Cycle

Being a Breath Away

You know that lonely feeling, when it seems that it is just you out there, paddling in a dinghy on a rough sea? Yes, you have called on the Spirit for comfort. And then you are put in remembrance: He is very near to you.

In fact, He is right beside you. We live in Him. We reside now in His full encompassing presence. He is saying to us now, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

“In” means “inside” in the Greek. We literally are dwelling inside of this great invisible Spirit. He is known by many names: the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, Yahweh, the Father. He is our dwelling place. We are dwelling inside of His watchful love. Christ taught this. “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” At hand. Reach out literally with your hand and you will benevolently pierce His invisibility.

He said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” I have read this verse many times, scratching my head, looking up at the heavens for Him, not realizing that my head and heart are connected to this Spirit who wants us to believe that we “live, move and have our being in Him.”

We move in Him, inside of the Spirit. His love is omnipresent. We need only speak to Him, saying a kind word to our Savior, telling Him how much we appreciate Him for loving us enough to die for us—even for the likes of us.

Before we believed the Truth, we did not know how to come in or go out. We were running about, lost, not knowing Him and His presence. We had no access to that nearness in which we sit now, at rest in the perfect balance of spheres and gravity. We are still now, at peace with our glorious God who is all around us. We breathe Him in; He is our oxygen. We see now that the Spirit is the breath we breathe.

And so, we can only say, “Thank You, for loving us. Thank You, for accepting us and launching us into Your Kingdom by Your tender grace and mercy. We now see that “we have our being in You.

You’re near. Closer than near. And as we breathe in Your Spirit, we resuscitate and escape the deadening grind of the dead-in-sin. The dead groan, waiting to bury their dead. They are still asleep, waiting for their appointment with Your Love. They must keep trudging on in the present world system. You love them, and as we breathe You into our lungs [You are Agape Love], we love them, too. For we are all one in You. And You make it all happen by faith, by us just believing the report.

And so, the spiritual atmosphere begins to clear for this statement: “And He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22).  kwh

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

An Exhortation to Read “Additions to the Faith”

[I am interjecting this exhortation into the middle of the current study of God’s will. We, the future manifested sons and daughters, God’s elect, are told to “search the scriptures.” We are to “dig deep” and “study to show ourselves approved unto God.”

But how does one begin to study out such vastness? Just reading the Bible is not searching, digging, and clawing as after hidden treasure like we are told to do. A child of God soon gets frustrated without a map to that treasure.  Especially when trials come, which is like the sun going down into a darkness of difficulty and dismay. The child of God clings onto the feeble flakes of knowledge that the denominations have provided, but boredom evolves into blind duty, and they lose interest. For some, seeking God has become a weekly chore that one must do.

However, a teacher sent from God, one who is free from error, can part the dark clouds and reveal the path to spiritual growth. Knowledge of truth must be contextualized. “A sure foundation” must be laid. This begins to fulfill our royal destiny on earth.

My latest book, The Additions to the Faith, has two sections. Part One contains foundational principles for spiritual growth. These include getting the vision of becoming like Christ and the apostles, thus fulfilling the harvest. For the Father is grooming His elect for kingship. He promised this: “to him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my father in his throne” (Rev. 3:21-22). Those who can understand this, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to his true church. This is knowledge of the foundation to be built upon.

Part Two reveals the seven additions that the Spirit through Peter shared with us (II Peter 1:4-11). Part Two shines light on these seven specific additions to our faith. They are weighty things. The Holy Spirit through Peter says that adding them will make us fruitful, thereby making our “calling and election sure.” And here’s the heavy, weighty part: He that does not add them “is blind and cannot see afar off” and will miss the Big Show.

Five Wise and Five Foolish

A tearful parable illustrates this sad event. We have ten Christians in the body of Christ. They have an equal start in spiritual growth. Virgins all. All ten were in. But the five wise brought oil [the Spirit]. The foolish brought little and ran out. They did not listen and study. When the five foolish went out to get oil, the bridegroom came. And the foolish pleaded with the Master to open the door. But Christ said to them, “I don’t know you.” I don’t know you for this high calling and honor (Matthew 25: 1-13).

This should send a sickening shiver down into the pit of our hearts. Christ means business. His business. It is sad that most do not know Christ’s business; they were never taught it. But if they had searched with all their hearts, they would have found it.

Someone still dabbling in old leaven doctrines [false teachings] is running the risk of stunting their growth. It is like going to a stadium rally where Christ is about to speak. You are outside with a million people crammed around the venue because you did not send for tickets in time. You are so far away that you cannot even see the stage. And you are kicking yourself because you know that you had a chance to be on the stage with Him, observing His smile and shaking His hand. You had a chance to be in His cadre, in his inner circle. He wanted you to be one of His ambassadors sent out to heal not just individuals, but whole nations. For He will begin to restore the earth after the great tribulation. You “could have been somebody” in Him. If only you had hearkened to His Spirit and studied His truths and not the pablum of putrid teachings.

We have got to shake ourselves, and it starts right here with me. This is what it will take to be one of the overcomers. This is Christ’s vision for you and me. This is why I have said: You need this book. It is free with free shipping. Send your name, mailing address, and title of the book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com   kwh

6 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

God’s Will Is His Harvest

We have seen that Christ’s spiritual meat is spiritual food that gives him strength and power. His spiritual food is “to do the will of Him that sent [Christ] and to finish His work.” Doing the Father’s will is spiritual food for Christ and His body. It is what energizes Him.

 So, what is the Father’s will? “Will” is translated from the Greek word meaning “desire.” What are His desires? And how are we to be used by God to fulfill His desire, which is His will?

His Will, His Desire—The Harvest

Christ’s thoughts are about the harvest of souls that will populate His Kingdom.

We are working with Christ’s operative statement: “My food is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34). Christ in the very next verse tells us what the Father’s will is. It is to make sure that the harvest at the time of the end takes place. To insure it, He needs laborers.

His will is to harvest His seed, His promises, and His word. Christ speaks of the harvest: “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” Then He mentions the sowers and the reapers, which are to be taken spiritually and not literally. “I sent you to reap what you have not worked for.” Christ sends us to be reapers of precious souls in His harvest (4:35-38).

In the mind of Christ, He has sent us to reap what the patriarchs, prophets and apostles sowed in the earth. “One sows and another reaps is true,” He said. They sowed the seed of Yahweh’s creative genius in turning darkness into light. Pre-Adamites were scattered all over the earth. Yahweh then planted the seed of light by creating a new people—Adam and his offspring, about 6,000 years ago. The Bible is the story of how God used Adam and his seed to bring spiritual light to world.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob/Israel, Joseph, Moses, the Judges, the prophets—they all sowed the seed while they looked forward to the promise of His harvest. God promised a new spiritual body upon His return to earth. These sowers labored under the old covenant, looking forward to our day of the new covenant. These sowers did not get to see the harvest. They now await the reapers—the elect, those chosen to serve in our end time era.

God has chosen us to be reapers. “I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor” (Jn. 6:38). [More about being “sent” later.]

God’s will is to bring all things to harvest at the time of the end. He desires to use his elect to be the laborers in that harvest. “Time” is the key to understanding His will. The Father has a timetable for everything. He has a time for the harvest of souls. He has called and now chosen certain people to be used as laborers in his harvest. They are the sons and daughters of God, shining forth as lights, exposing a present, crooked, and dark world.

The old patriarchs and prophets longed for our day. They died in faith but did not receive the promise. And that promise is eternal life in a new spiritual body, living in New Jerusalem. That promise includes living in the Kingdom of God that shall never be destroyed (Heb. 11:39).

End Time Reapers—A Special Relationship

The saints of old were the sowers of Yahweh’s plan; we have been chosen to be the reapers of His harvest. The reapers hold a special place in God’s will. Christ spells it out clearly: “And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given me but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day” (Jn. 6:39-40).

He will raise us up to reap souls for His kingdom. We can look into the future to see what the reaping is about. It is found in Matthew 9:35-38: Christ was teaching and preaching the kingdom of God and healing all who came to Him. “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” It is all about the harvest. Christ’s mind was on the Father’s will, which is praying and asking God to raise up laborers.

The Father’s will is that Christ will lose none of us that the Father has given to Christ. The Father has given to Christ a set, certain amount of reapers for the harvest. God’s will/desire is that none will be lost. He will have His hand on us, leading and guiding us by the Spirit of truth, delivering us from danger, both spiritual and physical. For examples, look to the characters in the Bible and see how God protected them from Satan time and time again. God will do the same for us; He does not change.

This is what election is about. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” He knew us before we ever came onto this mortal plane. He has delivered us, gathering us up with a “strong hand and a stretched-out arm.” He helped our moms and dads, providing a path for us to enter the earth. He forgave our treachery and unbelief time and time again, using each sinful episode as a learning opportunity for us, readying us to be used—after true repentance—as one of His reapers in His long-awaited harvest.

There is much talk about what the will of God is. Here we have it straight out of the mouth of the Master Teacher Christ. Don’t know how or what to pray for? He commands us to pray that the Father will send more laborers into the harvest of souls. That is His thoughts on the matter. This is the truth and the way to have our prayers answered. “If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (I John 5:14). In agreement with His will. Now that we know exactly what His will is, we can confidently communicate with Him about His harvest and how He wants to use us.  

We now know what His will is. Our prayers to Him should be petitions that center in on His harvest. For that is His will; that is His desire. The Father is joyful when we talk to Him about the things He is thinking asbout. He will help us.

But who are these who He will raise up at the last day? Who will be His faithful reapers? Who will walk and labor alongside Christ? Those who have His vision will respond. They will come, for they have been sent to work in the fields of His harvest.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

5 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

The Cross, Repentance from Sin, and the New Birth

You are a Christian. You want to win souls to Christ. But what is the exact message that you need to deliver? Christ is our example. What did He say to them?

Christ did not mince words. The first words out of His mouth were these: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Abrupt, perhaps. Straight to the point. Yet that short message is packed with meaning. He is saying, You must repent of your sins because God’s kingdom is right here, right now, waiting for you to enter. But you must make a spiritual entrance. If you do not change your old ways, you will miss this opportunity to be with Me in My kingdom, for I am its King.

The Spirit of Christ in the apostle John continues explaining what He is talking about. Unless you are born from above—born again—you cannot see nor enter the spiritual kingdom of God. This is being born of the Spirit. Except a man be born again [born from above], he cannot see the kingdom of God…Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3: 3-5.

Everybody has heard that, but few know what it means. In order to be born of the Spirit, thereby guaranteeing your entrance into His kingdom, there must be a dying of the old seed within us. And that old seed is the old heart, the old Adamic sinful nature. “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).

Our old sin nature is like a bad seed that keeps producing sinful actions. And there is only one way to rid ourselves of it, and that is to surrender it to the death of the cross with Christ. That will bring the change of heart when we believe that He plants a new righteous seed in our hearts. This new seed germinates by faith in His resurrection. It sprouts forth love, joy, and peace. This is the born again experience. It comes out of repentance from sin. When a man gets this right, then he will have seen and entered the kingdom of God.

The Cross Experience

Many preachers speak about Christ suffering and dying on the cross for us. They say that He was our substitute; they say to just believe in His death and resurrection and you are saved. Many speak of this, but few explain what God requires of us concerning the cross. Just acknowledging Christ’s death is not enough to get rid of the old sinful nature. The old nature that we are born with has to die, or it will keep sprouting up. That’s why so many people back slide into sin. They back slide because their old sin nature is still there.

What the preachers fail to realize is that when Christ died on the cross, mankind’s old sinful nature died with Him. We are to examine ourselves. God is now asking, Has your old sin nature died on the cross with Christ? As professing Christians, have you laid down willingly your old sinful life, letting it die with Christ? Or have you just felt sorry for your sinful ways and “walked the aisle” like they encouraged you to do? Most mistake this experience as being “born again.” It is good to feel sorrow for the sinful way we have lived. “Godly sorrow leads us to repentance.” However, it is not repentance from sin (II Cor. 7: 10).

To the Cross

Godly sorrow leads you to the cross, the spiritual place of your repentance, which is the first of the apostles’ doctrine. Next, you must realize that Christ took upon Himself the sins of all mankind, and He died as a lost man. For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. II Cor. 5: 21.

When Christ died on the cross, the sin of all mankind died with Him. In God’s eyes, everyone’s  old sinful self died when He died. He could take all the sins of the whole world on Himself because He is the only man in history who was perfect–a perfectly sinless human being. He was the only One pure enough to be the sacrificial “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29). He was the only One pure enough to wash away your sin and mine.

This is how the shedding of His blood cleanses us of all sin. The life is in the blood. When Christ bled out on the cross, the life of sin, the strength of sin, the force of sin died. That is the power of the blood of Christ—because sin’s life force, sin’s blood, drained out, leaving sin lifeless within us. God just requires us to believe it, to believe His word about it. It is through belief that we become new creatures whose life force is restored by the power of His resurrection.

Our old nature died with Him on the cross. It is a spiritual death, not a physical one. Our old selves are already dead in God’s eyes. Why would any one knowing this continue to go on sinning? “Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And they won’t come to the light lest their “deeds should be discovered” (John 3: 19-20).

But I Am Baptized

Yet, some believe that after they are baptized in water, somehow mystically they are okay. But baptism is an outward symbol of a spiritual event called the cross experience. Do you not know that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? We are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 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. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Romans 6: 3-6.

Our sin nature died on the cross. We are free! Free from the guilt, the shame, the mental torture, the indignity, the pain, and the fear. Free!

Sin is the breaking of the Ten Commandments, and it is the written record of what the old sinful nature can and will do (I John 3: 4). Sinning is the old nature still manifesting itself through actions that break the law. “And we know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin” (I John 3: 5). By dying with Him, we are freed from the bondage of sinning!

Free! Free from sin and sinning! Free now to grow spiritually to the point where we will bear much fruit like Peter, James, John and Paul. Free! Are you kidding me? Believe this truth in Christ, and you’ll be walking in a new life, freed from sin, for He has given us a new heart (Ezek. 18: 31).

This is true repentance. This is being born again of His incorruptible seed, the word of God (I Peter 1: 23). By faith we have to reckon our old self dead and gone with Christ on the cross, and also reckon ourselves alive unto God by faith in Christ’s resurrection. He said it; we believe it, and now we walk in its light. He gave His word on this. He is way ahead of us. He already sees us as righteous before Him. He is just waiting on His elect to believe His word, to believe like He believes. He with great patience waits for His chosen ones to awake unto righteousness, thus fulfilling His purpose of reproducing Himself.

This freedom from sin and sinning is the fruit of repentance wrought at the cross. It is the key to being born again and entering into His kingdom. This is why, to win souls, Christ spoke these words: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{If this article helped you, hit the “like” button. Comment, share if the Spirit moves you. And be sure to send for my book The Apostles’ Doctrine. It is free with free shipping. Just send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book you desire to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com }

23 Comments

Filed under baptism, cross, crucified with Christ