Tag Archives: christianity

April 10, 2008 · 4:57 pm

“All Is Vanity” Without the Holy Spirit

     Without God’s Spirit dwelling within us, we are only a member of the walking dead who spend a few nightly whispers with loved ones and then bury our dead and wait to be buried in turn.   

     Without the Spirit of God that makes alive whatever it touches and lives in, we are just as good as dead.  Without His Spirit, we walk around breathing borrowed air into the lungs of an incredibly delicate and fragile shell.  And our  shell  will in a few moments, comparatively speaking, go back to dust from where it came, and our brief stint at self-glory here on earth will not be  remembered anymore.  Every thing that man says and does without the Spirit of God is vain and of no profit in the final analysis.

     But, if we ask Him, He will grant us a portion, an earnest, a down payment of His Spirit.  And that Spirit will come into us to replace that old heart and spirit, and it will grow like a tiny seed in a large garden, and we will come alive.  We must water it with our prayers and feed it with our study.  And that little portion of His Spirit will grow up into a full-fledged son or daughter of the King.  And we, the sons and daughters of God, will someday be transformed in a twinkling of an eye, and we “will be changed” when immortality will come down out of heaven to swallow up our shell that can die.

     Without His Spirit, we are the walking dead doomed to dust, unremembered, in the tombs of time.  But with His Spirit dwelling within us, we are destined to be His sons and daughters, sitting with Him on His throne–immortals whose legacy is neverending.              Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{If this has been helpful to you, please leave a comment and/or pass it on to someone who would appreciate it}

 

 

    

    

 

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April 7, 2008 · 1:48 pm

The Lord’s Supper: Empty Ritual or Metaphor for Christ’s Spiritual Body?

     Denominations have come up with a lot of hocus-pocus, mumbo jumbo, and smoke and mirrors in trying to “do the right thing” when it comes to the Lord’s Supper and Holy Communion.  The bread and wine/grape juice are consumed by church goers who cannot comprehend what is really going on in the ritual.  I say this not disparagingly of the flock or the pastors who care for them.  The problem stems from early church teachers who looked at this “after the flesh” and not “after the Spirit.”

     Christ instituted this breaking of bread and having a bit of wine or grape juice amongst His followers as a way to remember Him and what He did for us.  But the key to understanding this is to know that the “bread” and the “wine” are metaphors.  Metaphors compare one thing to something else without using “like” or “as.”

     When Christ takes the bread and says, “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matt. 26:26), He is saying that the bread they are sharing is like His body.  But not His physical fleshy body that would soon go to cross.  He’s talking about His spiritual body–us, the church!  All the members of His spiritual body, the true church, is likened to unleavened bread.  And His spiritual body, is “the fulness of Him that fills all in all” (Ephesians 1-23).

     There is no leaven in His true body of believers; it is humble and not puffed up.  It is the “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”  Beware, Christ warned, “of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1).  His bread, His spiritual body, will not have any hypocrites or false doctrines in it because they will have the Spirit of God abiding within.  And just like the unleavened bread comes out of one lump or piece, we, being many, are one spiritual body.  “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of the one bread” (I Cor. 10:17).  

     But as long as a person is looking after the flesh through a carnal mind and not looking at this memorial “after the Spirit,” confusion reigns.

     And Christ took a cup of wine and gave thanks and gave it to them and said, “Drink all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”  The wine is not His blood; it is like His shed blood.  He is saying, All of you in my spiritual body have been washed in my blood.  Your sins have been totally forgiven.  You are clean now and able to walk in “a  newness of life,”  where “all things are become new.”   You are changed and are now walking in accordance with My Spirit which dwells in you now.  And I am setting up this memorial supper that when you get together and break bread and have a bit of wine or grape juice, remember these things.  Remember that you all are my temple and body.  Remember that my blood cleansed all of you equally, so you are equal.  Remember Me.

     And then He looks to the future: “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”  He’s saying, when I come back, we’ll all sit down and drink a cup and toast to the destruction of the evil world system and rejoice together that the My Government is now with men, right here on earth.  

     And the “bread” is us, His spiritual body, the sons and daughters of God.  And the “wine” represents His blood that cleansed us all and put us on His kingdom road.                          Kenneth Wayne Hancock 

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March 27, 2008 · 3:32 pm

Let This Mind Be in You

     What determines me having a good day or a bad day?  What controls my actions and  feelings on any given day?  It’s the thoughts of my mind.

      We are “led by our thoughts.”  We’ve heard that all our lives, yet thoughts pour through our minds like a creek out of its banks.  But what kind of water is gushing forth?  We clean up our creeks and rivers, but we neglect the stream of thoughts that flood our minds daily.

     We get up groggy in the morning.  Our minds have been swimming in those dark mysterious waters of the unconscious all night.  We have been awash in dreams and wild thoughts from which we have little defense.  And so we slowly awake from the jet lag left in the wake of our “good night’s sleep,” and we stumble into the kitchen for our favorite go-juice and begin to try order our day.

     If we are not careful, thoughts from who knows where pop into our minds–thoughts of the earth and earthbound people.  Doubts, frustrations, regrets, revenge, desires for material things we can’t or shouldn’t have, and trivialities all race like speedboats through our mind.  And though we are awake and smelling the toast and spreading the jelly, we can unconsciously think these types of thoughts, most unaware of their origin.  And their origin is not from above, but from beneath.

      What are we to do?  The early Christians were admonished by the apostle Paul to “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”  We have to let it.  But it order to let Christ’s mind be in us, we have to know what His thoughts were.  “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”  Yet, he humbled himself and served others by loving them and laying down His life for them.  He was all about helping the future sons and daughters of God get to where they need to go.  His mind was full of the purpose and plan of God, which is God reproducing Himself in a body of many children (Phillipians 2:5-8).  He later says to think on the true, honest, just, pure, and lovely things, and “the God of peace shall be with you” (4:8-9).  We are to think this way.

     I find that I must immediately in the morning “get my mind right.”  I do it by thanking God for saving me out of the depths of depravity.  I thank Him for the truth and for His purpose in bringing forth many sons and daughters.  And then I read about His wishes and desires for us, and then the fog lifts, the waters of my thoughts clear, things come into focus and joy rushes in and I pick up my pen and write these very words you are reading right now.  And, somehow, I know that someone will read them and be helped along this  road to immortality.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock                                                                          

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March 17, 2008 · 10:59 pm

New Jerusalem: Not of This Earth

     In part one we saw that the offspring of God have their origins from above and not from this world.  They are the sons and daughters of God; they are princes and princesses whose Father is the King.  They are true Christians.

     They will realize that they are put here by a Being that is not of this earth.  They see that reality is not earth-based.  They realize that they cannot see true reality by looking through earthly eyes. 

     They see that it is a heavenly vision, a heavenly faith, a heavenly destiny, a heavenly plan, a heavenly purpose, a heavenly blueprint, a heavenly design, a heavenly way, a heavenly thought of a heavenly Father, who is above all this on earth and is in us whom He has called.

      To think earthly is to be in darkness.  He has called us out of darkness into the heavenly light.  To be earthly minded is sure death in the darkness, for what seems to be our earthly life is really only a walking death.  Remember when Christ told them to “let the dead bury the dead”? 

     To even get out of the old and to get into the new life, we must believe in an invisible,  Supreme Spiritual Being who does the saving, who is not of this earth, who calls us with a heavenly calling, and urges us in mysterious ways to appear to choose His heavenly way against the “better judgement” of our unbelieving earthly sensess.

     An enlightened individual takes in this light–light that nothing earthly is as it seems.  For everything in and of the world is tricky, slippery, treacherous, and deceiving.  Earthly man is crooked, undependable, self-centered, and prideful.

     But there are human beings who are beginning to realize that this walk here is a spiritual thing and not an earthly thing.   They see that their bodies are in the world but their spirit is not of this earth.  For they are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth,”  seeking a “better country, that is, a heavenly” country (Hebrews 11:13-15).

     They realize that they are looking for their home which is a four square city full of light that has 12 foundations where it never gets dark.  That city, the New Jerusalem, is their home, which one day will come down out of heaven and set down right here on earth.  And they believe this having never seen this city with their earthly eyes, a city that is not of this earth.               Kenneth Wayne Hancock                                                                                {If this article has been helpful, please leave a comment and/or send this to someone who may benefit from it}

     

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March 14, 2008 · 2:55 pm

The Heavenly Vision of Sonship–Not of This Earth

     The origin of the sons and daughters of God transcends any place here on earth.  These soon to be revealed princes and princesses of God are actually strangers to earth.  Earth is not their home.  They are sojourners and pilgrims during their earthbound travels.  Their roots go back to the beginning, locked deep down in their Father’s heart.  They are not earthlings.  They are not of this earth.

     For God’s true offspring, life on earth is not really about earthly things.  Invisible spiritual, heavenly things are driving what is happening for God’s offspring while here on earth.

     But most of God’s sons and daughters do not know their destiny as of now.   Their main problem is that they do not know how to walk in the heavenly calling that they are called to.

     Their problem is that they are thinking from a fleshly, earthly point of view.  We all are first natural and then later some become spiritual creatures.  In our first unregenerated state, we see everything from an earthly point of view.  Everything is seen and judged from what is perceived from the five carnal senses.  If it cannot be seen with the eyes or heard with the ears, or touched with the fingertips, or tasted with the tongue, or smelled with the nose, then it must not exist!  That is how a human with old nature thinks.  But a man much wiser than you or I once wrote: Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for those who love Him.  So then, what is happening on earth from God’s perspective is not just about things on earth.  This earth is about heavenly, spiritual, and invisible things.

     We, then, are created for a higher heavenly purpose.  We humans are created to house God Himself!  To live for any other worldly purpose just does not satisfy us.  “All is vanity and vexation of spirit,” so said the prophet in Ecclesiastes.  Why is everything vain and unprofitable?  Because earthly things cannot fulfill a being designed for a spiritual destiny.  

     The human being, a spiritual being, created by God to house Him fully, in vain tries to live a fulfilling life by the acquisition of earthly things.  But earthly things cannot suffice a human being, a being created in the image of God and for God’s glory.  Yet humans slug on in the slop of misguided desires and lusts.  But these passions are for things that will not satisfy nor endure.

     But God’s offspring will see through this.  They will answer the “heavenly calling.” They will come to realize that they are not of this earth.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock     {This excerpt taken from my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God.  You may read the entire chapter at  www.yahwehisthesavior.com/sonsch8.htm}  If this post has been helpful, leave a comment and/or pass it on to someone}

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March 4, 2008 · 12:57 am

God’s Desire: To Reproduce Himself–in Us

     In the last post we saw that the Creator has a will that will prevail.  His will is His desire or His wish for His creation, humankind.  Humans are strongwilled; most desire things for number one.  And their number one usually is not God, although it should be.  If we have any other desire for what is to happen in our bodies, other than what He wants, we struggle against His wishes.  This is where frustration comes from. 

          What is his desire for us His crown of creation?  He has magnificent plans to actually reproduce Himself in us!  Nothing less.  Let me repeat this important point.  According to the prophets and apostles who wrote the scriptures of truth, what God wants is that He magnify Himself in a “body of many sons” and daughters.  All the other religious catch-words that we have heard like “salvation,” “faith,” “hope”–these are facets of the diamond, but reproducing Himself in His people–this is the precious gemstone of truth as to what God is doing.

     It is up to us to get into the flow of the Creator’s desire and wish.  To do this, we must relinquish our meager little desires, putting our old spiritual nature on the cross and die with Christ (Romans 6:6).  We must spiritually sacrifice our selfish desires and take on His desire, which is to use us as His temple, His dwelling place on this earth.  Then we must bury our old self with Christ in the grave, identifying our sinful core with the sin sacrifice that He made for us.  And then, by believing that He was literally raised bodily from the dead after three days and three nights in the tomb, we, too, “can walk in a newness of life.”  He arose; we arose.  This is first step in becoming a new creature in Christ.

     We, then, “as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word” so that we can grow up into Him until “Christ be formed in you” and I.  Wow!  In His eyes we are already there.  He sees us as His sons and daughters, His princes and princesses, His future kings and queens in His soon-coming kingdom.  That is a big wish, a big desire, a big will, a big heart.

     God’s not messing around.  He is calling out a body of sons and daughters that will lead the way for the rest of humankind.  And “whosoever will may come.” 

     What can we do to be of service to Him and His wishes?  First, we need to surrender to Him and His will, desire, wish.  And in due time He will grow up in us, and He will speak through us as He did in the prophets of old.  His Spirit will flow down and in and through us out to others, and He will multiply Himself by “bringing many sons unto glory.” 

     We just need to get with His program.  If we are on the same page as He, then we can ask what we will, and He will grant it.  Why?  Why wouldn’t He answer the prayer of one of His children who is asking for more of His Spirit so that His wishes can be carried out.

   It’s all in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heaven.”  That’s one prayer that will be answered.  It’s going to be done.  We need to search it out and do it.

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February 28, 2008 · 1:31 am

The Will of God–His Wish, His Desire

     God’s will is His wish, His desire.  And whatever the Creator wants done in His universe, that is exactly what will come to pass.  And we, His royal offspring, should make it our life’s goal to find out what the King’s will is and do it. 

     But it’s a great mystery finding out exactly what God’s will is.  The word, “will,” is an overused word that has as many meanings as there are denominations.  His wish, His desire, His will is like a mighty invisible river that flows from His heart throughout the earth.  He is the cause of all things; His desire causes His vision for His universe to come to pass.  Nothing can stop His will from being done.  Nothing can stop Him from accomplishing what He has set out to do.  The King will make his wishes reality.

     As his royal offspring, we need to study His immutable word to find out just what His will is.  For if we have a purpose or desire or wish in this life on earth that is not His desire or wish or will, then we will feel thwarted and blocked.  Nothing will work out.  Futility will haunt our endeavors.  All the pleasures of this world will seem “cold, stale and unprofitable.”  It will be “all is vanity and  vexation of spirit” if we are out of His will.  It will be as if we are paddling a canoe upstream.  We thrash about in life, working so hard at what we believe is the best direction to take, and yet we are working against the current.  And that current is His will/desire/wish.

     So, what exactly is God’s will–not just for our lives, but for this life here on earth?  God desires to reproduce Himself.  So much so that in the end, “Christ is all in all,” according to the apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians.  In fact, all his letters ring out this truth:

“It’s no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me…”

“Christ in you, the hope of glory…”

“Bringing many sons (and daughters) unto glory…”

“That you might be filled with all the fulness of God…”

“Perfecting of the saints…”  And many other passages too numerous to mention in this article.

     God’s will is to magnify Himself, to multiply Himself into a spiritual body of many sons and daughters.  Everyone and everything is either flowing with the stream of God’s wish and desire or they are struggling in vain against it.   (More later)                                           Kenneth Wayne Hancock

(If this has been helpful please make a comment and/or share it with someone)

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February 3, 2008 · 7:50 pm

“Doubt Not in Your Heart”–Ripping Off the Shroud

     Belief is the distinguishing characteristic of the sons and daughters of God.  They will just flat out believe God and His word.  Period.  They will rip off the shroud of doubt that lays like a suffocating blanket of death over their own hearts, and they will shout, “No!  He’s alive!  In me!  He is risen in me!”  Because that’s what He says.  That’s what He wants us to believe.

   And then they will look around and see that that same shroud of doubt is smothering their brothers and sisters.  And they will realize that through His truth, God is now using them to peel back the doubt and cast it away.  They will simply believe God and His promises.

     When Christ says, “The Father is in Me,” they will believe it.  And in so doing, the promise of His infilling Spirit shall be kept.  “He that believes upon Me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (this He spake of the Spirit)” (John 7:38).

     The princes and princesses of God will believe that their King divested Himself of all heavenly grandeur and actually walked around here in an earthly body just like theirs.  He died, was buried, and rose again for our justification, sanctification, and glorification.  And by faith–just believing having not yet seen–they will be beneficiaries of His promise. 

     And this promise is that the Holy Spirit, the invisible God, will come down and “abide” in them (John 14:15-17).  “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (14:23). 

     And by believing His words, the works that He did we shall do also–and greater works shall we do as His sons and daughters!  Why?  Because He said so.  How?  By His indwelling Spirit.  And that’s all we need.  He that believeth on on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do…(John 14:12).

     That’s our destiny.  To just get out of the way and let Him do His work through us–just let Him channel His light and love down and through us to the rest of His creation.  This is our destiny–if we believe.             Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{If you have a moment, please make a comment below about this post}

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January 30, 2008 · 5:51 pm

Heirs of God–His Vision for Us

     “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”  So goes the wise proverb.  But it is not just any vision for our lives that ultimately rescues us.  It is the vision that our Creator has for us that will serve as the spiritual Rock and Foundation upon which to build our lives.

     His vision for us?  Nothing less than, as His offspring, to be His heirs and beacons of the Light that He is.  His purpose from all eternity is to fully pour Himself out into us His children–that we “might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph 3:19). 

     He sees us having His mind and thinking His thoughts.  We are mere vessels, clay vases and cups, fired through the trials of our stay on earth.  And He the Great Potter at the Wheel of Eternity, fires us, proves us, and eventually through much patience, fills us with Himself–until “Chist be all in all.” 

     But not that we should be a Dead Sea with no outflow.  No.  But so that He can pour Himself out of us.  And that water, His Spirit, will become springs of everlasting love, joy, and peace, poured out on the thirsty ground.  We are to let the “love from above flow down and through” us to others (See post “Love from Above–Down and Through”).

      That is God’s vision for us.  That is a special calling.  And now He waits for us to arouse ourselves out of slumber and arise from the dead–arise from the vanity of thoughts that do not share His vision for us. 

     We here in the USA are greatly blessed.  Our founding fathers carved out a place where we can be free to pursue these heavenly ideals.  We have come historically from a long line of Christians–from the first Pilgrims who landed in 1620 to “establish the kingdom of God on this earth” down through many rekindlings of His Spirit.  It is now our responsibility, as possibly the last generation to walk this earth before He comes back, to awake to His vision for us, knowing that we “are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,” and that we should now “show forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light (I Peter 2:9).          Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{If you have a moment, please make a comment below about this post}

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January 22, 2008 · 12:59 am

“God Is Love”–Agape Love from Above, Down and Through

     “Love from above–down and through” has turned into my motto or credo.  Some may wonder where I got it from. 

     Human beings have one major need: to be loved, especially someone who can give them sincere, pure “love from above.”  The love I’m talking about is agape love, or God’s love.  And so we humans are looking, looking incessantly for someone that can love us with the love from above.

     You take a group of people sitting around over there; they are a microcosm of the entire human race and its condition of “not being loved.”  And so we wait and wait–sometimes impatiently–for someone to love us.  Some wait their whole life for someone to really love them.  And I’m not talking about just romantic love here.  I’m talking about the loneliness and the longing solitude and the sadness it can entail.  I’m referring to the utter frustration of a friendless existence.

         But that is not how it works.  Someone in the circle must break out; they must break the cycle of self-centered-ness.  Someone must step out and stand up and not expect someone else to love them first!  Someone must start reaching out and loving others!   Someone must be that channel of love and appreciation that comes flowing down from above and comes on through them out to others.  Someone must believe and step out on the water and break the currently accepted law that “everyone should wait for someone to love them first before they give love to others.” 

     The old adage is true: “Give and it shall be given.”  In order to really be loved, we must love them first.  Give love to others, and love will be given to you.

     Why is that so universally difficult for humans to do?  Because the “love” we are talking about–the kind of love everyone is craving, is a spiritual thing that is not in a person’s natural state of existence.  Humans cannot love the way they want to be loved because their old nature is selfish.  And herein lies the frustration.  Mankind is subjected to this by their Creator in hopes that they will return to God for an operation (Romans 8:20).

     God is hoping that we will check ourselves into His spiritual hospital and get a heart transplant.  Humans in their original earthly state have an old selfish heart and mind.  It must be taken out and a new heart and a new spirit from must take its place. 

     The Great Physician has a stark operating table for this spiritual procedure.  And just like our hesitance to go “under the knife” in a physical surgery, so we are hesitant to submit to this spiritual procedure.  The operating table is the cross of Christ.  It is there that we die with Him, are buried with Him, and through belief in His resurrection, we receive a new heart and new spirit that keeps His laws. 

     This is how to get that “love from above” flowing on “down and through” us to others.  Every thing that blocks His love from flowing through us–every negative aspect like hatred, bitterness, revenge, fear, selfishness, greed, ungratefulness, desiring other people’s things–all these things must die out and be replaced with His Spirit.  In fact, in God’s eyes they already have died out.  “Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Christ” (Romans 6:6).  And God is raising up His sons and daughters, His princes and princesses, to be the channels of the “Love from above” for these last days–to be the channels of Himself, His very essence.   

Kenneth Wayne Hancock                                                                      

{If you have a moment, please make a comment below if this article was helpful}

                                               

 

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