Tag Archives: faith

July 18, 2018 · 5:42 pm

Apostles’ Doctrine Explains How God Reproduces Himself—In Us

God is reproducing Himself. This is His eternal purpose that has been “kept secret from the foundation of the world.” He revealed His purpose to His holy apostles and prophets in the early rain era, and now He is revealing His plan to us in the latter rain era. The seven teachings of Christ that became the apostles’ doctrine explain how the Father will accomplish His purpose—in us. [For much more on this, order your free copy with free shipping of my latest book, The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. Send your snail mail address to my email wayneman5@hotmail.com  No gimmicks, no follow up, just love from above, down and through. You need this book].

Yes, His purpose is to multiply Himself. He likens the process to the law of harvest where a man plants a grain of corn in his garden. After harvesting that lone seed, hundreds of seeds—just like the original—are ready to be either eaten or replanted. Quite elementary are these teachings of Christ, and yet they are profound. Christ’s doctrine spoke of the growth cycle in nature, a metaphor of the spiritual growth that transforms natural man into the “manifestation of the sons of God.” In fact, it is through viewing nature’s “seed time and harvest” cycle that we get our first glimpse of Christ’s doctrine of “the resurrection of the dead.”

In nature, a tiny seed loses its identity by being buried in the earth, and then the resurrection power from God surges into that seed, causing it to spring to life. It is a rebirth, a classic type of life out of death. It is from this matrix that we may extrapolate the spiritual life cycle of man. It is all about life out of death.

God is Love, and He is reproducing Himself through you and me. We have seen that “the seed is the word of God.” And seeds are created by God to grow. And they grow until harvest, when His word in our hearts comes to full fruition. This is when His word is magnified, and through it He is glorified when He sees Love expressed one to another through us. Our destiny is the harvest of many sons and daughters just like Christ.

Christ’s Doctrines Explain How God Is Reproducing Himself

Using this truth as a jumping off point, we look to Christ’s doctrine that He taught His early apostles. They learned from the Chief Apostle and High Priest Yahshua. His doctrine became His apostles’ doctrine. These seven specific teachings are extremely important, for they explain how God reproduces Himself. Each one of the seven sheds light on a facet of how He produces light out of darkness. Through the apostles’ doctrine, Christ shows us how He takes the dark heart of a selfish wretch and transforms him into a shining minister of light. “Let there be light,” is the seed/word from God in Genesis. And sure enough, that scripture is fulfilled in our hearts. He earnestly wants this for us all. But, if we do not have thorough knowledge of His doctrine, then it is doubtful that He will use us to fully reproduce Himself. I.e., we will lose our opportunity to become a member of God’s first fruits, the first to have Christ fully formed in us.

It was asked, “I understand, but what if we follow this way and die before Christ returns, and Christ is still not fully formed in us?” Then we join the other apostles and prophets awaiting Christ’s return to earth. He has promised that He will resurrect His followers upon His return. Those who are alive when He returns to earth will be changed “in a twinkling of an eye.” So whether we live, we are living His plan, and whether we die, we expire having lived and worked for His plan to come to fruition.

It All Begins with the Seed

It starts with the Seed, the word of God, being planted in our hearts. The sower sows the seed by telling others about Christ’s love for us all. The Seed is the Word, and in that word is a promise of a new clean life, free from the sin that has darkened our actions toward others. When we believe in Christ’s resurrection, He energizes that very word, and like a seed, it begins to grow. Seeds grow. That is their destiny. And now that the Seed of God in the form of Christ has taken root in our hearts, we begin to grow.

But like any seed, the new spiritual man inside of us needs good soil, water and sunshine to grow to its potential. Good soil is earth that is free from contaminants. The problem with quick spiritual growth is that our new man sits in a mind that has been contaminated. What are the contaminants? Erroneous concepts concerning God’s purpose and plan and kingdom, salvation. You name it. Almost anything you have heard about God needs some straightening out. All of the apostles and prophets of the Bible warn us incessantly about false prophets, false teachers, and false pastors.

But you rarely hear a word on Sunday morning about it. The people in the pews are told to accept Jesus, go to church, pay your tithes and offerings, pray, support your local communities, and just be a better you. All of which sounds so correct and good.

Especially the last one. Be a better you. What’s wrong with that one? You may ask. Christ did not tell you to be better. He said that there was no one righteous, no not one. He said, Take up your cross and follow Me. Back in the day, that meant only one thing. You would be dying very soon on that cross. Be a better you? No. In fact, He says that “you” must spiritually die with Him in revelation on the cross, the place where your sinful nature finally expires. There is no “cleaning up your old self.” No. For He says that “our righteousness is as filthy rags.” To be better, we must submit to death on the cross and then receive His Spirit into the new heart that He gives us. Our vessel gets “better” when we are no longer there [we must decrease] and when He is growing in us [He must increase] (John 3: 30). That is the message. Everything else is just smoke and mirrors and falls woefully short of what the Master requires.

Nevertheless, “Be a better you” sounds so right to the natural man. However, we must get rid of the old concepts about Christ. The truth found in the apostles’ doctrine contains the nutrients that we need to grow spiritually into Him.

For we see that Christ is the Seed, the Word that was made flesh and that walked among us (John 1: 14). And He fell into the ground and was raised up the third day. His resurrection power now courses through our mortal flesh. “God is a Spirit,” and He now lives in us, and through Him we are raised up with Him and now walk in a brand new life (John 4: 24; Rom. 6: 4).

The early apostles stayed in Christ’s doctrine, making it their own. They continued in His teachings because they knew that they contained the secrets of sonship. Christ’s teachings explain how God will reproduce Himself in us. If we are serious about going all the way and being like the early apostles, then we must do what they did. They studied Christ’s seven doctrines and got rid of false teachings. That is the bottom line.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{Brothers and sisters, you made it through the 1,300 words to this short addendum, proving that you, like me, are hungry for the meat and are tired of playing church house games. The Spirit is going deeper and deeper, explaining His plan and guiding us into all truth. The above is a chapter in the new book The Apostles’ Doctrine. I am writing it to leave to you, that you would have a guidebook that will afford you comfort and instruction for the long journey to the end of this age. It is for you who desire to overcome all things and sit down with Christ on His throne. This calling of manifested sonship (and daughtership) is a rare spiritual commodity, and it takes a rare breed of cat (a Lion, perhaps) to enter through its doors into the Father’s good graces. I have great respect for the future manifested sons and daughters who will “rule and reign with Christ” right here on earth upon His return. It is my privilege to be able to share with you a little milk and meat of the word to strengthen you on your quest. Keep studying. Dig deep, for only those who do will be approved by God to do great things in the earth. Can you hear Him knocking? Can you hear His voice?}

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February 14, 2018 · 4:11 pm

Repentance from Sin and Faults–But What’s the Difference?

If we were to outline the apostles’ doctrine “Repentance from dead works,” it would roughly look like this:

I. Repentance from Dead Works

A. Repentance from sin

B. Repentance from faults

We see that this teaching of repentance is divided into two distinct categories that are very different in meaning. Most people do not know the scriptural difference. The denominations have their own definitions. There is much confusion.

Especially when it comes to sin. Some say that shuffling your feet on a sawdust floor is sin. Some say that sipping a glass of wine is a sin. Some say losing your patience and yelling at someone is a sin.

God looks at the intent of the heart and not the outward appearance of things like natural man does. Sin is the state of spiritual being that we are born with. It is based on the love of self and the ego’s unquenchable drive for self-aggrandizement. In essence, sins are the actions one does in the worship of one’s self.  Sin is selfishness incarnate. It is a spiritual state of self-worship and all that it entails. The scriptures say that “Sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3: 4). That “law” is the Ten Commandments.

“Thou shalt not steal” is a pretty plain commandment. One steals from another for selfish reasons. It is not to help the victim of the theft. “Thou shalt not covet.” This is desiring things that another has, including wives or husbands. This is sin. As you go down the list of the Ten Commandments, you see how the worship of the self dominates and thereby breaks every one of them. Self-worship is the root cause of sinning.

Love Fulfills the Ten Commandment Law

The law must be taken as a whole to be understood. Breaking the Ten Commandments is a state of spiritual being alienated from God, who is Love. The state of Love keeps or obeys the law.  The old nature of man wants and takes for himself. The new nature of Love gives to others. “Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13: 9-10). There is no law against loving others. But there are laws on God’s book against selfishness and the sin that comes out of it.

The old original Adamic nature that man is born with cannot keep the law, try as he will. But “love fulfills the law.” God’s Spirit of love does keep the law—inside us! The old nature we are born with cannot obey the law, for its nature is opposite of loving God and others. This is why the old nature must die on the cross with Christ. “The wages of sin is death,” so for the lost person, it is best to just die now (spiritually) and avoid the rush. Death is coming for all who have sinned, for all who have broken the Ten Commandment Law. Christ’s sacrifice as our sin offering has given us an opportunity to let our sinful selfish nature die with Him, be buried with Him, and to be resurrected with Him—by believing God’s word about Him.

The old nature is a sin nature that must die in revelation with Christ. This is how we repent from sin. By faith we receive an earnest of His Spirit in a new life in Him by faith in His resurrection.  God has given us a portion of His Spirit that is sufficient to change our lives from sin to righteousness. It is now that we can begin to grow in this new life He has given us. At this beginning stage we are spiritual newborn babes in Christ. And there are things to digest in the milk of the word given by God’s five offices. We learn how to do certain new things in our new walk, and we learn of old things that need to be gotten rid of.

These are called faults. These actions are not breaking the Ten Commandments; they are not sin. Children of God have them. These shortcomings must be repented of as they are revealed to us—if we desire to grow in God. Many followers of Christ confuse faults with sins. Faults are habits of thoughts and actions generated by a lack of knowledge of God’s plan and purpose. Faults in Christians are things in our lives that show our lack of spiritual maturity. [More on “faults” next time.]  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

****[Be sure to order your free copy of my latest book, The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It explores our rich destiny as the princes and princesses of God. It is free with free shipping. Just send me your mailing address to my email:  wayneman5@hotmail.com   I will get it right out to you. You need this book if you are serious about growing up to be like Peter, John, James, and Paul and the rest of the apostles.]

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November 5, 2017 · 4:29 pm

Knowing Christ as He Was in the Beginning

We now realize that God wants to glorify a certain group of Christians for the last days. They will have grown into full maturity; they will no longer act like little children of God who are mostly alive for what they can receive from the Father. They are His first fruits. They are called the manifested sons of God; they are the ones for these last days that will fulfill the Father’s purpose of reproducing Himself.

They are the over comers in the church ages of Revelation 2 and 3. They will bear 100 fold spiritual fruit. They will rule with Christ in the Kingdom of God upon His return to earth. They are the “kings” in the phrase “King of kings.”

John refers to spiritual Christian growth levels when he writes to “children, young men, and fathers.” These mature Christians are the fathers. And John writes to the fathers “because you have known Him from the beginning” (I John 2: 13-14).

Knowing Christ as He Was in the Beginning

Brethren, if the Father has laid on our hearts to answer this high heavenly calling and election to be His sons, then we need to know Him that is “from the beginning.” In the gospels, we see the Son of God, the Father clothed in human flesh, loving the people, healing them and teaching them.

But to know Christ “from the beginning,” we must know of His actions and deeds in the beginning. We must go back to that primeval epoch, when on the earth everything “was good” in the Garden of Eden. We must see Him during the Exodus, communing with Moses and sitting on the mercy seat in the old tabernacle. We must see Him in the fiery furnace of Babylon with the Hebrew children and in so many other scenes.

When we know of Christ’s literal exploits on earth in OT times, we are one step closer in being what He wants us to be—one step closer in being His friend like Abraham—one step closer in knowing Him that is from the beginning—one step closer in being a spiritual father—one necessary step closer in becoming a vessel God will use to reproduce Himself in. That is what it is all about. We must decrease so that He can increase in us.

And just who was this Holy Entity that appeared and communed with the prophets and patriarchs hundreds of years before the Son would be born in a manger? That Holy One that was from the beginning, that we believe was made flesh and dwelt among us, we call God.

The Hebrew scriptures declare Him to be Yahweh. Over 6,700 times His name Yahweh appears in the Old Testament. He came to this earth many times bodily, taking a personal interest in His eternal purpose and plan in reproducing Love.  This God, this great Spirit of Love, who poured Himself into a human body and laid down that life willingly, has proven by His resurrection that He is worthy of our praise.

The First and the Last

Christ said that He is the first and the last. The Father Yahweh also said that He is the first and the last (Rev. 1: 11; Isaiah 48: 12). This is the great mystery of the Godhead. This is the one that we must get right in order to grow to full maturity. We must get this in order to “know Him that is from the beginning.”

The Son said that He is the first and the last, and the Father said the same thing. They both cannot be the first and the last. A father by definition is first and then the son is last. How do we solve this mystery? The answer is that the Father and the Son are one. The Son said that they were one.   “I and my Father are one.” The Father is the invisible Spirit, who inhabits His body, the Son. It is Yahweh, the Spirit, the Father, speaking through Isaiah, and it is the invisible Father speaking through the Son in Revelation.

God spoke to us through His prophets in times past, but has in these last days spoken to us by His Son (Hebrews 1:1). God spoke to His people through the old prophets with the same Spirit that He spoke to the Israelites through Christ. There is only one God; there is only one Spirit. And God, who is a Spirit, is invisible. Yet, He resides in a spiritual body, His Son.

On the road to Emmaus, Christ after His resurrection appeared unto two men with little faith. They talked to Him, and “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24: 27).  These scriptures are the Old Testament, and Christ says that they speak of Him! This proves that the OT scriptures speak of Yahweh-in-human-form—in other words–Christ.

Christ delivered His people many times in the Old Testament; His mercy endures forever. His love carries the same power to heal in every era of time–past, present, and future. Christ’s deeds give universal comfort to all who just believe His report. When we believe that He is the Word made flesh, and contained the Father Yahweh inside His vessel, when we really see Him as He is—then we have seen the Father. We then will know Him that is from the beginning.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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July 16, 2016 · 5:16 pm

What Do We Do Now to Grow Spiritually? Part Two–Additions to the Faith and the Armor of God

We cannot do things to achieve salvation from God, but we must do certain things in order to grow His Spirit within us after we receive a new heart, after we are “born from above.”

Because our Creator has a purpose of reproducing Himself (Love) in us, He, of course, has a definite plan to fulfill His purpose. He has thought it all through and lined it all out in His written word. And in His scriptures of truth is contained the thoughts of the Son of God, the “Word made flesh.” And these thoughts contain admonishments, and when done by us Christians, we will grow up to be like Him, which fulfills His purpose.

In Part One we explored the apostles’ doctrine as the first thing we need to be learning and doing. We also saw that we are to “purge out the old leaven,” which are the false concepts and teachings about God that we learned coming up.

The Additions to the True Faith

The apostle Peter admonishes us to add to our faith certain spiritual qualities of the King. In order that we may “partake of the divine nature,” we are to add virtue to our faith, and “to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness charity (agape love).” He goes on to say that we will be blind without them. But with them we will “make [our] calling and election sure, and that will ensure our entrance “into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (II Peter 1: 3-11).

These additions are not little romper room words to be pasted on a bulletin board. Rather they are facets of a jewel of great price, and that jewel is His very character. These additions are aspects of God’s divine nature. A shallow perusal will not do. They must be studied and prayed over and sought with a whole heart in reverential awe.

Peter sums it up by saying, You better take heed to what I am saying to you. I have a “more sure word of prophecy.” I know what  I am talking about because I was there with our Savior on the Mount of Transfiguration, and I beheld His glory. I am speaking to you now as “a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts” (1: 16-19).

God has miraculously preserved Peter’s words to us for all these 2,000 years. The Spirit still speaks through him to us. We need to study this out thoroughly, or we are going to miss something very big in God’s plan.

[For more on the additions to the faith go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/category/additions-to-our-faith/ ]

The Whole Armor of God

The fourth thing we are admonished to do is put on the armor of God (Eph. 6: 11-18). Since “God is a Spirit,” Paul is talking about spiritual things. He uses earthly military metaphors that a combat soldier of his time might wear to elucidate the spiritual. For we are in a spiritual war “against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” It is spiritual wickedness that we battle, not literal things.

The battlefield is in our minds. So it is the replacing of erroneous thoughts with thoughts about godly truth that will shield our minds from succumbing to the adversary, the devil. We are told to “arm yourselves with the same mind” as Christ (I Pet. 4: 1).

So the whole armor of God is thinking the thoughts that Christ and His apostles thought. Peter also tells us to “girt up the loins of your mind” (I Pet. 1: 13). The first piece of armor is to have “your loins girt abut with truth.” Think on the truth; get rid of the false concepts that we know to be in error.

Then we are to put on the “breastplate of righteousness.” We need to study out the word “righteousness” to take to heart its real scriptural meaning. It has to do with the purging of sin out of our lives.

The we are to have our “feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” The gospel of the good news of God’s kingdom coming to this earth along with the King’s return (Mark 1: 14-15). We should study it out and think God’s thoughts about it. We should be prepared to share these thoughts about the “gospel of the kingdom of God.” For His kingdom is the good news.

We are to take the “shield of faith.” Knowing and believing in His faith, which has been “once delivered to the saints,” will protects us from attacks of the wicked one. And then we must take the “helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God.”

All these are portions of the armor of God. But it would not be the whole armor without “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.”

Prayer is the last but not the least of the armor. For it is the most difficult to exercise, it would seem. For we all must be taught to pray, as the disciples asked the Savior to teach them to pray.

It was then that He gave them a prayer to model their prayers after. It is called The Lord’s Prayer. And it has been used and abused so often that the deep meaning has been lost. We are not to mouth vain repetitions of this very prayer, but rather pray according to its precepts. It is not a poll parrot incantation to mindlessly repeat; it is a blue print of how to literally touch God in heaven.

But the old leaven about this prayer is so thick that few can get through it to the truth the Savior was trying to teach us.

[For more on what the Lord’s Prayer means go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/the-lords-prayer-is-not-an-incantation-chant-or-ritual/                                        https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/the-lords-prayer-blueprint-for-building-gods-temple-us/ ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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July 9, 2016 · 3:20 pm

What Do We Do Now to Grow Spiritually? Part One

Okay. We understand now that God is Love and that His purpose is to reproduce Himself in us. We were created as a house for God to dwell in, for Love to dwell in.

And we understand now that God has a plan to carry out this purpose of reproducing Himself. We see that this plan entails His kingdom, first established in our hearts, and then it is to be set up as a literal worldwide government headed by our King, the Son of God upon His return to earth.

And we see that an integral part of God’s plan is the law of harvest. God is the Seed, the Word of God. And this Seed/Word “was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Christ is that Seed that germinates in our hearts and starts to grow as a grain of corn is planted, dies, and resurrects and grows in our gardens. We, too, begin to grow spiritually.

But then something bad happens to young Christians. The weeds spring up and begin to choke the word/seed. Babes in Christ are fed tainted milk, which are false concepts about God. Materialism with its many temptations subvert God’s plan from coming to fruition. Tough decisions arise for the babe in Christ for which Christ says to “count the cost.” The way grows narrow and difficult to navigate, where one finds few fellow travellers. And then the world extends a very wide and welcoming road where many go and seem to have wonderful fellowship, and the pilgrim is tempted to take that avenue.

What We Are to Do

But if God is calling us to the “higher calling” of being used for Him to reproduce Himself through, then we must ask ourselves, What do we do now to grow spiritually? Not what man’s traditions say to do, but what do the scriptures say for us to do. Tradition tells us, Go to church and give your tithes and offerings, confess your sins, do the best you can, and you will go to heaven when you die. But, is that all there is? Will God really be pleased with that? Is that all there is to it?

Surely not. For I do not see much growth in the lives in Christian circles. People do get cleaned up and start living a better life, but many backslide into their past actions. Many just remain regular attendees of their church services, content to be a part of a Christian social fabric. Is that what the prophets and apostles of old prescribed for our growth? Is that what the church in the book of Acts did?

First Thing to Do

No. We are given at least seven general “things to do” as Christians to effect proper spiritual growth. First, the early church “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine” (Acts 2: 42). The apostles had a doctrine, and it was the same that Christ had. “Doctrine” means “teachings,” and they were delivering those teachings to the new converts. Some preachers asininely say, “We do not want doctrine; we just want Jesus.” They must not know that “whosoever transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ has not God” (II John 1: 9).

What were the apostles’ teachings? They are concisely found in Hebrews 6: 1-2. They are the foundation that when done, will help us grow unto “perfection,” or complete spiritual maturity. They are repentance from dead works, faith toward God, the doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, eternal judgement, and perfection. How many Christians would be able to list these vital concepts that the apostles taught? Not many even know about them. Whose fault is that? God says it is their pastor’s fault. God pronouces a woe unto the shepherds for not feeding the flock of God with proper teachings (Ezk 34: 1-10).

[For more on the apostles’ doctrine go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/category/apostles-doctrine/ ; https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2016/02/13/life-comes-out-of-death-of-old-nature/ ; https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/faith-how-to-walk-in-the-newness-of-life/  These are just a few of the articles on this site that addresses the apostles’ doctrine]

Second Thing to Do to Grow

We are admonished to purge out the “old leaven.” Old leaven is the false concepts about God, the traditions of men, the imaginations of false teachers and preachers. We all come to Christ with them, and they must be gotten rid of.

[For more go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/purging-out-the-old-leaven-to-become-the-sons-and-daughters-of-god/ ;  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2015/01/31/warning-beware-of-mans-traditions-about-christ/ ; https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/purge-out-the-old-leaven-in-order-to-become-the-sons-of-god/ ].   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

To Be Continued…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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March 3, 2016 · 8:26 pm

In the Beginning Was the Seed, the Word

Faith is likened to a small seed that germinates and grows into a large tree. Because the words “faith” and “belief” come from the same Greek word, we see then, that “belief” is like a seed (Matt. 13: 31).

Belief can only happen when the thing to be believed is put into words. “In the beginning was the Word,” the Logos. God formulated and then spoke words in the beginning outlining just what His eternal purpose and plan entailed. This is the Logos; this is the Thought-of-God. This is the Mind of God, and these words detailing His plan in all phases is the Word. And this Word, expressed in words and actions is what is believed.

These words of God include His promise to His people, who are the human beings that He created for His pleasure. The Word is the Son of God, who is the Seed, who first fell into the ground and died and then was raised up 72 hours later (John 12: 24).

The Son of God is the living Word. He is the embodiment of the Plan and Purpose that was created as thought in the mind of God and later written and spoken millennia ago. He is the “express image of the invisible God, the Father, His Father, and our Father.

When We Believe

When we really believe the words of the Word, who is the Logos, then that Seed, which is the Word, germinates in our hearts. It springs forth in our inner spirit and in our heart, and this belief of the Truth/Word/Seed engenders a light that is switched on in us.

Through believing, we at once become one with the Author and Writer of the Play. We find ourselves on the same page with our Creator, who is the Word, and the Word is comprised of a detailed description of what the Son of God has done, is doing, and shall do in the future.

When we believe the words of the Logos, the Word, we cease fr0m our own works for our own little selves and rest in Him. We are not fighting against the truth anymore; we are engendered by the words of truth about Him and His Plan, and we are begotten from above. The Word through His words about Himself and us–that Word begets us with that creative power that was in the beginning. By believing the Word’s words, we are “born again,” which in the Greek means “born from above,” or engendered from heaven or born from the beginning. It is only in this state or spiritual transformation that we can “see” and “enter” the kingdom of heaven, which is the environment of His Plan.

The Seed Reproducing Himself

The word of God is the incorruptible seed (I Pet. 1: 23). “Logos” means “Word” in Greek. So, the Logos = the Son = the Seed = the Word = the Eternal Plan and Purpose = God Reproducing Himself. That is His Plan. Always has been.

If there are any doubts about this, we need to ask ourselves one question: What is a seed for, except to reproduce itself? Christ is the Seed Son. He said, “Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit.” Reproduction of Himself. Just look at Peter, James, John and Paul in Acts.

In order to reproduce Himself, God would have to decree just what He wanted to do. He outlined His Plan that would enact and realize His Purpose of Reproduction. Since He cannot fail, He set it in motion.

He created the worlds as the setting for His grand plan of Self-reproduction. He established Laws to rule the environment and milieu we find in our present dimension. He laid it all out and manifested it in His Son, who is the Seed, the Word, the Logos made flesh.

The Father then created the earthy medium for the Seed/Word to grow in, which, of course, is the human being. He created us with just the right amount of nutrients and intelligence in order for us to believe the Word-made-flesh and the testimony Christ would give us.

But He also allowed us first to fall into a wretchedly sinful condition so that we would recognize that we have need of a Savior. Then He called out other humans to tell us about the Savior and His love for us in promising us that if we would just believe the Word-Logos-Plan-Purpose of God that is encapsulated in His Son, then we could not only be delivered from our sinful state, but be able to grow up to spiritually be like Him. We could receive immortality and become just like the Son Himself. In fact, He would actually call us “His body” with Him living His life through us by His invisible Spirit of Love. Hence, God reproducing Himself.

He just asks us to believe the witness of the Word-made-flesh, which is the Logos, which is the Plan and Purpose of God.

These are His thoughts out of His mind. This is His Plan to fulfill His Eternal Purpose. His  thoughts on how He will accomplish all of this is the Word (the Logos, the logical plan He has to do it). All of this is a mystery to most, but it is now being revealed to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. These are the mysteries of God that many prophets and kings have longed to see and hear but it was not time. These are the mysteries of the kingdom of God, encrypted in the parables of Christ and contained in His Wonderful Heart and Mind.

And these things above shall come to pass, according to His word, written down by His prophet Isaiah: “The LORD of hosts (Yahweh) has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand” (14: 24).     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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November 21, 2015 · 2:58 pm

Beware of Man’s Traditions

The early apostles constantly warned of false doctrines being taught to the new Christians. Since past is prologue and since there is nothing new under the sun, their warnings are valid for us in these last days.

A great deception was already sweeping through the little congregations scattered over the Mediterranean world. Paul is warning the Colossians. Walk in Christ the way you have been taught by His true teachers. And don’t be spoiled by men “through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ” (Col. 2: 6-8).

What were they teaching? What were these “traditions of men” that were obviously false and spiritually injurious to young Christians? What was this worldly thinking that is so deceiving?

In other words, those who believe man’s traditions about Christ will try to deceive you concerning the Savior. Beware of them, Paul is saying. All these seemingly innocuous platitudes about Christ will have “grand” intentions, but they will hurt the hearers. Beware.

Then in the next verse,  Paul counters the deceptive traditions that they were teaching. “For in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (v. 9). Huh? At first glance, this does not seem to go with the previous three verses, but it has everything to do with them. For man’s philosophy and traditions are the opposite of the truth found in this verse.

First, the man Christ Jesus (Yahshua) had dwelling in Him the fullness of the Godhead. That means that the Father Yahweh dwelt fully in Christ. The Spirit dwelt fully in Christ. But man’s tradition teaches that Christ was only one person out of the three of the Tri-une God. They do not teach that Yahweh dwelt and walked around in the man Christ, even though He constantly told bystanders that it was the Father within Him that was doing the miracles.

“And you are complete in Christ, which is the head of all principality and power” (v. 10). Man’s tradition teaches that we need a priest to intercede for us and saints to pray to, that we need a church house and elders and a pastor and ceremonies and candles and tithes and offerings, et al.

And man’s traditions don’t teach that baptism is more than an outward show that you are joining the church. They don’t teach you that he that is “baptized into Christ is baptized into His death. “We are buried with Christ by baptism” so that our old sinful heart and spirit “might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Col. 2: 11-12; Rom. 6: 1-12).

The churches say you have to be baptized to show obedience to Christ. But they don’t have the spiritual depth to explain that the old sinful self is cut out without man’s hands by faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The old sin guilt and desire to sin is cut out of our spirit and is replaced by a portion of His Spirit, resulting in a miracle heart transplant!

Sadly, in fact, man’s traditions teach just the opposite. They teach, You are a sinner saved by grace, and you will always be a sinner. And they say this with pride. But the apostles taught that you can in Him be free from sin (I John 3: 9).
Man’s teachings say that you cannot grow spiritually to eventually be like Christ. Their teachings, in a word, stunt a Christian’s growth like a seedling in the garden wilts under a sunless sky and brackish water.

These are some of the traditions of men that Paul warns us of. We must beware in order to grow up unto Him. For they will deceive and beguile and spoil the wonderful future that God has for those who believe His promises to us.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

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September 26, 2015 · 4:35 pm

The Law and the Testimony of Love That Fulfills It–How to Prevent Backsliding

“Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Which law? The Ten Commandments, the breaking of which constitutes the definition of sin (I John 3: 4; Rom. 13: 8-10).

Which “love” is it then? It is the love from above–agape love. It is only through agape love that the law can be kept. Natural man without this love cannot keep the law, no matter how hard he works to keep it. It is spiritual, and it takes a new spirit from a brand new heart to keep it.

This divine law is the standard that man can and must attain unto, but it will be only through God’s Spirit helping him. In fact, that is precisely the point. The only way that a man stops breaking the Ten Commandments–stops sinning, in other words– is by receiving a new spirit from God.

The Greatest Love

In order for this to happen, one must visit the source of agape love. The source is God Himself and what He did for us. He gave us His Son. Yahweh was in Christ, “reconciling the world unto Himself” (II Cor. 5: 19). It is the laying down of His life on the cross that is the greatest love. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15: 13).

When we believe this love that Christ showed, when we are grateful and appreciative for this selfless act, and when we do what Christ did, then this great agape love that He exhibited in dying for us is transferred into and through us to others. We then become a channel of God’s love, which is His essence, for “God is love” (I John 4: 16).

This agape love is the essence of His Spirit, which He gives to us. And this love inside our new hearts in the form of His Spirit, now courses through us.

We must see that Christ “was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5: 21). And we must identify our old sinful law-breaking selfish nature with Christ on the cross. We must believe that when He died, our old sinful nature died with Him. Same goes with His burial. And–HalleluYah!–when we believe that He rose from the dead, we rise, also, to walk in a newness of life! He is not our substitute; He is our example.

It is all lined out in Romans 6. Our old sinful Adamic nature must die with Christ on the cross. And be buried with Him. And through belief that He arose from the dead, God will raise us up with a new heart! For which is easier for God to perform–raising Christ from a three day death or giving us a new heart that is free from sin and sinning?

This is the crux of the matter. This is the rock solid foundation that will never be shaken. Just feeling guilty about the sin in one’s life and walking down to the front of a church building will not sustain a young convert to Christ. How many have we seen “back slide” into the slop and vomit of their old lives?

The crux? Do we believe that Christ was raised from the dead? Not just the historical resurrection some 2,000 years ago. It is believing that Christ, when He arose then, now arises IN US. Do we believe that? For that is the crux of the matter. Even the devils believe in one God and tremble (James 2: 19). So believing that Christ’s historical resurrection is not enough. It is believing that His Spirit is resurrected in us–that is the important thing. That is the solid Rock in us that cannot be moved. That is what prevents backsliding into the old life of sin.

When this Spirit of agape love, now in us, begins to flow through us to others, then the law is fulfilled in us. Love fulfills the law in us. This is the testimony of God’s Spirit incarnate once again in us.

And now the old scripture passage becomes clear. “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8: 20). Those that speak of this law and the testimony that keeps the law through divine love, have the light of God. If they don’t speak in agreement with the law and this testimony of what fulfills it, then beware of them, for there is no light in them.     [For much more on this visit here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/category/light/ ]

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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September 19, 2015 · 3:21 pm

Additions to the Faith to Make Our Calling and Election Sure–To Be Like Peter, James, John, and Paul

We are admonished by the apostle Peter to “make our calling and election sure.” You mean that we have to do something? I thought it was all God and His grace that helps us to be what He wants us to be. It is, but there remains things we must do in order for the spiritual growth to take place.

We must study and pray and eventually fast that the culprit Unbelief might skulk away out of our spiritual lives. For it is unbelief that hinders our growth. But the Spirit has left us a roadmap, a way of cutting through the haze of phony doctrines about God.

Peter tells us in his second letter the steps we should take. He explains that to grow to full maturity, we must add seven attributes to our faith.

Peter writes to those who “have obtained like precious faith with us” (2 Peter 1: 1). The elect, God’s chosen ones for this high calling, have received the same exact precious faith that the early apostles received.

Now this comes about in our lives “through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ (Yahshua)” (v. 1). After we were convicted of our sin-guiltiness, and after we stepped out and laid down our old sinful self on the cross and died in revelation with the sacrificial Lamb of God, we, by believing that Christ was raised from the dead, receive a newly resurrected life by faith.

It is His faith that we have received. God believed in His own power to raise up the Lamb of God, and when we believed that, then we obtained that very same belief in the form of a “new heart” and a new spirit. By believing in His resurrection, we also believe that we were raised from the dead, for we were definitely dead in our sins—the walking dead, as it were. But now we are  alive from the dead, and we bear God’s very own faith in our bosom. As Paul said, “Old things are passed away,” and all things “are become new.” It is no longer the old Adamic man, writhing in the guilt of sin, that now lives, but rather the new man Christ, who has now begun His growth within our new hearts.

This is the faith we have obtained with Peter, Paul, James, and John. Faith is the foundation that must be added to, just like a builder adds walls, a roof, windows and doors to the foundation of the new house he is building. And it is this faith—God’s faith now in us, not our faith in Him—that must be added unto.

Adding Seven Spiritual Attributes Insures Three Things

We are to add to our faith “virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity [agape love]” (1: 5-7).

Peter writes that adding these seven spiritual attributes to His faith in us yields three major things in God’s plan for these latter days. First, they insure that we will not “be barren nor unfruitful” (1: 8). God wants us to bear “much fruit” and is glorified when we do (John 15: 8).

Second, the additions to our faith are how we solidify our standing as one of God’s elect; it is how we “make our calling and election sure.” Walking in these seven attributes of God’s nature insures our place in the elect. Or better put, those destined to be part of the elect will build their spiritual house with these attributes (1: 10).

Furthermore, it is through them that “an entrance shall be ministered unto [us] abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior” (1: 11).

Adding them is how we “partake of His divine nature” (1: 4). It is how we make our calling and election sure, how we never fall, how we will be full of spiritual fruit, how we will receive an entrance into His kingdom, and how we will “partake of His divine nature.” That sums up what spiritual growth is about. That is how important these things are as outlined by Peter in his Second Epistle, Chapter 1.

A Serious Assignment

Adding these attributes is a serious assignment that only the Spirit of truth can teach, for it is He that leads us into all truth. Truth being the key word.

“Truth is fallen in the streets,” says the prophet. And there is a famine in the land, a famine of the word of God. Because of this dearth, adding these seven attributes is a formidable task. Why? Peter in the very next chapter forewarns us of how the devil will hinder our growth in becoming God’s elect. He warns us to beware of false prophets and false teachers who “shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.” And many will follow these hypocrites, who will “speak great swelling words of vanity” and will “promise them liberty” while they are “the servants of corruption” (II Peter 2:1-19).

And how does this second chapter tie into the first? These false “Christian” teachers will spew out false teachings that will hinder a young Christian’s spiritual growth. Peter gives his stark warning to us so that we would not be hijacked and taken away by the enemy, thus prohibiting us from making our calling and election sure. Bluntly put, false teachings will thwart the children of God from growing into fully matured Christians, fit to sit on the throne with Christ. Getting rid of these false concepts about God is where the study and prayer come in after true knowledge comes to us.

Isaiah wonders, “Who hath believed our report?” Who will answer the call to go all the way to the throne of God? Only the adventurous. Only the unafraid. Only the rebels who refuse to come under the yoke of the god of this world. Only those who trust in the Spirit of God within themselves, as He helps them separate the good teachings from the bad.

But man’s wisdom cannot teach this truth to the elect. Old Adamic man just cannot teach it to us, nor the well-meaning manna-gatherers of yesteryear, who fed the flock of God with the spiritual bread that they had one hundred, five hundred, or one thousand or more years ago. That cannot sustain the elect of God for these latter days. For these elect must have the “present truth”—food convenient for them.

God is doing a new thing; He is pouring out new light as to His plan and purpose. The Spirit is pouring out His truth today all over the earth. He has seven thousand unbowed to Baal, and they are like river bed conduits of His living water. Those who thirst will drink. The rest will with parched throats persist in scratching moisture out of broken cisterns of the waters of the past, repositories of the damp shadows of truth.

For God is doing a new thing in the earth, a thing that men will not believe though God Himself tells them. For He has already, even though He has blinded all but the remnant, the elect. But they will prepare and do and put on these additions to the “faith once delivered to the saints.”   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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August 1, 2015 · 2:44 pm

How to Repent from Sin–Once and for All

Most Christians are taught that they are sinners. They have never heard this verse preached: “He that is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (I John 3: 9). They will be browbeaten about their sinful state but they will never hear this verse taught.

When one hears this verse for the first time, it is shocking.  And yet, there it is, the Spirit of Christ Himself writing through His apostle this astonishing doctrine. It was there all the time, but man’s traditions have been smeared over it, so much so that few have eyes have ever seen it.

This righteous message thrusts us to a crossroads–whether to believe it or not. Someone is thinking…Well, nobody at church has ever brought this out. Not straightforward like this. The preacher never quoted or preached on this verse. If he ever said anything about sin, it was that we are all “sinners saved by grace.” But we already knew that. He said that we would definitely keep on sinning, but the good news is that now we have a Savior to pray to, and He would forgive us. Just confess your sins–confess them. It kind of sounds like the same set up the Catholics have except they confess their sins to a priest, but we Protestants confess them direct to the Savior. But we are still going to sin. No getting around that, according to the preacher. You just got to confess them to get rid of the guilt. It’s like we have sin hanging over our heads just waiting to jump on you and make you do things you really don’t want to do. Bad things. Hurtful things to others. Selfish things that are lurking there in the back rooms of your heart. Just waiting to jump out and take over for a spell, and then, they recede after you confess them. You are going to sin; you just have to confess them. At least, that’s what they teach…

And that is the doctrine concerning sin that we have been taught. This teaching is not astonishing! It is frustrating and depressing. It does not make you want to shout, HalleluYah! There is nothing astonishing about it. It is just old and unenlightened and powerless. There is no liberty and freedom there. No deliverance. No saving them from their sins. No freedom from being a slave to sin. Christ did say, He who commits sin is a slave to sin. And no man can serve two masters.

But Christ also taught that we are more than conquerors through Him. He came to save us from our sins (Matt. 1: 21). He is not the minister of sin. When our old sinful nature dies with Christ on the cross, sin within our hearts is “destroyed, that we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.”

How to Repent from Sin

When our old sinful nature dies with Christ on the cross, sin within our hearts is “destroyed, that we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.”So we reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God through Him (Rom. 6: 1-11). Freed from the slavery and bondage to sin. Free! Now that is astonishing!

The key is just believing this. God said it; I didn’t. It is all in His written word. We must study it out and believe it. Here is some more on this from my book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality: 

Chapter 28  How the Old Self Dies–Baptism into His Death

     We may not realize it yet, but we are blessed, for we have seen that our old self needs to go.  Many try to redirect or re-channel its activities.  Sometimes we try to clean it up, but He wants it to die.

     He said to repent and be baptized in water.  Yes, water baptism is a symbol of something else, yet we should still do it.  But few know what the real baptism is.  Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Messiah Yahshua were baptized into His death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Rom. 6:3-4. NIV.

     Going down into the water is a symbol of the mortal life we now live in this flesh.  Coming up out of the water is a symbol of the new spirit-being life we shall live, which is the immortal life that we are called to.

Water is a symbol of our mortality.  Our first physical birth is an immersion in a bag of water.  We are born of water.  We mortals are about 75% water.  We  begin  in  our  mother’s  womb in water.  During water baptism we are baptized into His death.  To live in this mortal body is to die.  This watery entombment we call a body is really a deathtrap.  It by its very nature has to die.  The Messiah’s body was composed of the same watery stuff that our bodies are.  And He died.  He had to die by reason of the nature of his shell during His earthly tenure.  This watery, flesh and blood body cannot inherit immortality and go into the kingdom of the Eternal One.  To be made of water is to be mortal, to be awaiting death, for water is extremely unstable, subject to every whim of nature’s forces.

To sin is to die.  Mortality is to be able to die.  Therefore, our mortality is to sin. Sinning insures a human of not receiving a new spiritual heavenly body.  But now He has enabled us to live a life where we do not have to sin, if we receive His Spirit.  “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust (desires) of the flesh (this old mortal body)” Gal. 5:16 NKJV.

He was made to be sin for us

We, then, when we go under in water, are symbolically being immersed into this watery mortal state of sin with Him.  We “are buried with him by baptism into death.” Rom.6:4. God calls those things that are not,  as though they were.  We are dead already (Yahshua told the disciples, “Let the dead bury their dead”).  He calls it before its actual physical death when we consent to and experience it (in revelation).  The water is the symbol of our earthly mortal bodily state.  This spiritual death of our old self comes now in this revelation before the fruit of death comes to our earthly bodies.

     In conjunction with this, few know that the Messiah, the day of His death, actually became sin for us—he who had never sinned.  He was the sacrificial  Lamb who was set to be sacrificed  before the world ever came into existence.  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. II Cor. 5:21. NIV. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev. 13: 8.

     The levitical priest, in types and shadows, laid his hands on the sacrificial goat, thereby transferring Israel’s sins upon it.  So did the Father place all of mankind’s sins upon the body of Messiah.  When He died, the body of sin died; our sin died that day.  To whom is the arm of Yahweh revealed?…Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all…It pleased Yahweh to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see His seed. Isa. 53:1,6,10.

     We make the Lamb’s soul an offering for our own sins by realizing that it was us in our sinful state hanging on the tree that day.  We must be immersed in this knowledge.  We must believe that our old self—that old monkey on our back, that old demon that we were, that selfish, egotistical, self-absorbed, sorry excuse for a human being—that old thing that we were is now, in God’s eyes dead.  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. Rom. 6: 6.
[You can read more of this book on line or order a free hard copy found here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/book-yah-is-savior-the-road-to-immortality/  and https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/donate/ ]

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