Tag Archives: kingdom of God

The Secret Purpose: “The Seed Is the Word of God”

You are seeking God. You would not be reading this if you were not. You want to dig deeper and find more understanding of God and His plan and purpose.

You love the people, but you realize that organized churchianity will not take you to where the Spirit is leading you. It is not delivering that depth that you know you need. You want to build on the rock of His word, and you wonder, “But what is the word exactly? Is it just the written word in the Holy Bible? What is the spiritual secret hidden in the lines of The Book?

Understanding God’s Purpose

We learn from the inspired written word of God that His purpose is to reproduce Himself. And to understand God’s plan and purpose of reproducing Himself, we must understand the Law of Harvest. “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6: 7). Since the beginning, man has sown seed and has harvested that very seed.

This law was enacted by God Himself in the beginning. It is a law that governs both the celestial and terrestrial realms. God reassured Noah and all of mankind, “While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8: 22).

Seed time and harvest. There is a “a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted” (Ecc. 3: 2). A time to plant the seed, and a time to harvest that seed.

The Son of God referred to Himself as a seed, the grain of wheat that must be buried in the earth before it germinates and springs up out of the ground. Thus that seed begins its life cycle that culminates in much fruit, the many grains of wheat at harvest time. “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified…Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12: 23-24).

The much fruit is the “many sons unto glory” (Heb 2: 10). Just like the harvest of wheat yields many grains of that same wheat, identical to the seed, so shall it be in the harvest of this present world age. The sons of God will be the harvest that will “make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb 2: 10). Their destiny as kings sitting on the throne with Christ is the fulfillment of Christ’s own life cycle–just like that solitary wheat seed finds its fulfillment when it multiplies itself at harvest time.

The Secret

“Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God” (Luke 8: 11). The parables reveal “things that have been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Mat. 13: 35). The seed is the Word, and “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). And that Seed, the Son of man, died, was buried, and sprang up from the dead. And that Seed germinates in the ground of our hearts when we believe the Savior rose from the dead.

This spiritual life cycle begins anew in us when we believe. And the Spirit within us now grows, and it will end in a harvest of many sons and daughters with the same  spiritual DNA that Christ has. That is us that I am talking about! Not some heavenly apple pie in the sky by and by. Not floating around heaven all day. No. I am talking about being like Christ. Okay. If you are not quite ready to go that far, then how about Peter, James, John, and Paul.

The Seed is the Word. The Word is the logos, which is the whole plan and purpose of God written out and spoken and wrapped up into it. And this logos/purpose/plan/kingdom/vision is all in the mind of God, in His thoughts, which are comprised of words.

And this Word/Logos was made flesh, the Son of God, our Savior. This is the Seed. Inside any seed is contained the whole life cycle of the plant-to-be, from the time of its germination, resurrection, and new life to its full harvest when the seed has reproduced itself. The seed’s destiny is foreordained inside the husk of that seed. With the proper nourishment and moisture, the seed will reproduce to its potential.

Now Christ is the Seed, the Word made flesh. And we, the children of God, are inside that Seed! We are in that Word; we are in that Seed. We are in that purpose, that plan, that kingdom, that vision. We originated in the very thoughts of God; we are in His mind, and He has poured all into His Son, the Seed. We are all in the Seed’s DNA. We who get it are part and parcel of God’s heart and mind. We are inside the mind of Christ, inside the Word, the Seed of God. For “He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1: 4).

The Word/Seed contains us. We are in His mind, thoughts, and plan. And inside this Word/Seed is the complete plan, including the pre-destiny of those who will be used in God’s plan–those who will be exactly like Him. That is us, “for in Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17: 28). And “we are in Him that is true, even in His Son” (I John 5: 20).

That’s the long and short of it. God believes all this about Himself and us. Now we just need to stretch our small minds and hearts to believe like He believes. When we believe in Him, we are believing in our personal destiny that He has written down about us, written in the Logos/Word/Seed, written in the Son, the Word made flesh.  The Word becomes light, for it makes His purpose and plan manifest; light reveals and makes known God’s secrets.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[This is an excerpt from my book, The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It is free with free shipping. Just send your name and mailing address and title of the book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com . And I will get it right out to you. Thank you for strolling with me down Immortality Road.]

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The Wide Gate Leads to Destruction

God provides an “entrance into the everlasting kingdom” of Christ our King. This happens after we have added the seven attributes of his “divine nature” to our faith (II Peter 1:10-11).

But there are two gates—the narrow one and the wide one. The small and narrow gate leads to life, and “only a few find it” (Mat. 7: 14). The other gate is wide and broad. Many enter through it, but it leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13).

Two gates, two entrances, one choice. The elect are those who will bear 100 fold fruit, who will become like the early apostles. They will enter through the narrow gate. But most professing Christians do not realize that they are trying to enter God’s Kingdom dimension through the wide gate.

The Wide Gate

Two billion souls consider themselves to be Christians. Two billion is not a “few.” They have entered the easy wide gate. Why does this happen? In the next breath, Christ warns us of false prophets. “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (v. 15). Paul warns us of these “grievous wolves” (Acts 20:29). Who are they? They are pastors who look like good devout Christians, but they lead their flocks into danger. Christ likens them to voracious wolves. They take money from the congregation, but they do not feed Christ’s sheep and lambs. They teach falsehoods about Christ. And they entice others to follow them through the wide gate.

So, what is the “wide gate” that leads to destruction? The wide gate symbolizes the easy way. It is a wide gate that can accommodate the baggage, bundles, and boxes that each soul is carrying in this life. They teach many erroneous doctrines. A few are addressed here: false doctrines | Immortality Road (wordpress.com).

This baggage is full of false teachings and corrupt doctrines that will not fit through the narrow gate. We are to study to show that we are approved by God to be able to discern both good and evil. To get through the narrow gate, one must lose the false teachings. It is only then that we may enter the heavenly spiritual dimension where the king resides.

The Narrow Gate

Entering the narrow gate is not the easy way. To lay all of your ambitions on the altar is not child’s play. To willingly let your ego, self, and pride die with Christ is entering into His sufferings. No wonder He said that few would enter through the narrow gate that leads to life. Why? Because man’s old nature wants to walk a path of least resistance. He wants an easy life, free from pain and suffering; it’s natural—not spiritual. To suffer for the King Christ is missing in his makeup. The old selfish nature will take the painless and easy-to-follow Christ, where not much is asked of him. Just read a little Bible; come to church; pay your tithes and offerings. [Interesting concept: pay your tithes. Like you owe God money. Giving God money He already owns everything. He “owns the cattle on a thousand hills.” So, He doesn’t want our money. He wants our hearts.

Take the apostle Paul. He was near the pinnacle of the Pharisee [denomination] world. Pharisees were the chief Jewish religionists. Paul was up there with the leaders and high priests. He was so entrenched in their false doctrines that Paul was sent to kill followers of Christ, thinking that he was doing God a great service.

But to be used mightily by God—to get through the narrow gate—he had to get rid of all the false teachings. Paul was struck down on the road to Damascus. The heavenly dimension of which we speak intersected his life. All the baggage that was stuffed with falseness was emptied from his mind and heart when he encountered Christ on that road. Paul was then prepared to enter the heavenly dimension.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Enter Through the Narrow Gate

How do you and I enter the spiritual dimension that Moses, Elijah, Peter, John, and Paul walked in? Being freed from sin and being born from above is peeking into this dimension, but walking in it is a much more powerful glory. They performed the impossible with God’s help. And yet, they were human beings like you and me. They walked and talked on this earth as you and I do. Yet, they entered the Dimension of Miracles, where “all things are possible.”

I do not speak of every day small miracles of life on this planet—the complex, intricate beauty of a butterfly, the perfect mix of atmospheric gases that we breathe, a Big Sur sunset, a baby’s smile. Those are beautiful things, but I speak of God’s spiritual dimension, with its stupendous, dumbfoundingly impossible miracles like raising the dead and healing cerebral palsy and leprosy—the kinds of miracles that tax incredulous eyes.

Again, how do we enter this realm? We enter it through the “narrow gate.” To get through it, we must repent of false teachings about Christ.  And then as we incorporate the seven additions to the faith, “an entrance shall be ministered unto [us] abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior…” (2 Peter 1:11). Christ has promised us that by adding the seven attributes of His divine nature, we walk through the entrance into the spiritual dimension, the dimension of miracles that is called the Kingdom of God.

The Narrow Gate

How do we enter the spiritual realm that Moses, Elijah, and Peter and John walked in?   Christ said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it” (Matt. 7:13). “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7:13-4). “Few,” not many.

The Narrow Gate does not allow for baggage. There is just enough room for a Christian to barely squeeze in. “Baggage” is a symbol of the false doctrines that are stored throughout the old life and the false teachings about Christ attained after we first come to Him.

Take Moses for example. He lost everything. He was raised in the courts of Pharaoh as an Egyptian prince. He was educated in the pagan religion of Egypt. But God was calling him to “a better country,” a heavenly country (Heb. 11:16). But to get into the Dimension of Miracles he would have to totally lose his old life and position. Banished from Egypt, he went from a prince to a peasant in the desert, herding sheep and goats for forty years. He was learning to wait on Yahweh. He waited forty years and purged out the old false doctrines while learning of God’s ways. Then in his 80th year, Yahweh appeared to him in the burning bush. There he received his marching orders to fulfill his heavenly calling.

During those forty years in the desert, Moses had to get rid of old concepts about God. He had to repent and turn from the wisdom of the world and the religions of the world. He had to repent of anything that was in error concerning God’s plan [The book of Jasher].

Moses was entering God’s miraculous dimension through a process of repentance and faith toward God. Moses was entering by the narrow gate. It was difficult. Moses was one of the few to find it. He grew spiritually into a vessel that God could use to free and to lead His people.

Strive to Enter

But it took toughness. Christ commands us: “Strive to enter in at the narrow gate.” To strive is to struggle and fight to enter the Kingdom [the Dimension of the Spirit]. It’s not easy. Just ask Moses or any of the prophets and apostles. They were rejected by the world as their concepts of God were purified.

We also must struggle, “For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able.” At the last moment, many will be trying to get through the narrow gate, but they won’t be able to. Time has run out because the master of the house has closed the door. They will knock, but He will not open the door, the narrow gate. He will say, I don’t know who you are, and then they will say, “We’ve eaten and drunk in your presence and you’ve taught in our streets.” And we have taught in your name. But the master will say, I don’t know you. “Depart from Me all you workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out” (Luke 13:24-28). That will be a sad day.

To approach the narrow gate, we must repent of false teachings and false doctrines. Then by adding the seven additions to the faith—by faith—we will enter through the narrow gate.  Then He will bid us to come and learn of Him.

When we add these seven attributes to our faith, “an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom” (II Pet. 1:11). God will teach us His way into the full orbed shekinah glory of His very presence within us. Hallelujah! Praise Yah!

Kenneth Wayne Hancock  [Order your free copy of one of my books with free shipping: Ordering My Free Books in Paperback | Immortality Road (wordpress.com)

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The Invisible Dimension–How Do We Enter?

Christ turned the water into wine at the marriage at Cana. That is another dimension. Christ raised up Lazarus from the dead after four days.  That is a different dimension than the one we wake up in every morning.

Peter and John healing “a certain man lame from his mother’s womb”—that miracle came out of a dimension that the public had never seen nor experienced before. The apostles took no credit, for they had crossed over into that new, heavenly dimension. They said that the miracle was from “the Holy One and the Just.”

How, then, did they do it? They said, “His name through faith in His name has made this man strong.” Faith/Belief had allowed them to enter this new, invisible, powerful, and spiritual dimension (Acts 3:1-16).

[Faith/Belief in His name? What does that mean exactly? Christ’s Hebrew name is Yahshua, which means  Yahweh is the Savior. That is the message encrypted into His name. We believe in His name by believing the message in His name. “I, even I, am Yahweh; and beside Me there is no savior” (Isa. 43:11; 45:21)].

So, we see that Peter and John crossed over into the spiritual dimension through “faith in His name.”  Or, believing in the message contained in His name. The miracles came from an invisible dimension. One of faith/belief, not sight. In fact, show me a miracle, and we will see it ushering forth from this invisible dimension. A few humans have walked in that spiritual dimension where miracles were on the menu. Think of Elijah, Moses and all the apostles and prophets whose walks on earth intersected with the heavenly dimension. The Holy Bible is record of their spiritual journeys into the heavenly dimension.

But how do you and I enter this dimension? That is the question.

[Share your thoughts on this by leaving a comment. I would love to hear your take on “dimensions.”]

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Filed under belief, Bible, faith, oneness, Spirit of God, Yahshua, Yahweh

The Theme of Yahweh’s Prophets—The Kingdom

Yahweh’s prophets wrote about His Kingdom coming to earth. They spoke of a time when the righteous King would replace all of man’s governments. Christ and the early apostles heralded the same message.

They warned us about the corruption in man’s attempt to rule himself—how the rich exploited the poor, how justice had left town, how judgment languished, how evil clothed in shiny black robes ravaged the land, how all governments, “legal” and illegal, would be reduced to a crust of bread.

The prophets showed us how the rich wax richer, how the wealthy pass laws that insured their plans of piracy, how the rich suck men into a vat of promises that will not come true because they are false.

The prophets wrote about the King returning to earth to cleanse it from all evil and to make things right, thus bringing in everlasting righteousness.

They wrote of a time when the Messiah would bring back His love. But this time He comes with a fiery hand, a hand to deliver us from the evil that permeates the earth. And all we need to do is stop what we are doing for a moment. We need to stop all selfish, worldly thoughts. And let the mind of Christ enter our minds and hearts. Let us think on His things, His Kingdom, His government, His peace that passes all understanding. We must make a conscious effort to bathe our minds with his thoughts about our future on planet earth. This is all spelled out in the writings of Yahweh’s prophets.

Bathing Our Minds

To bathe our minds with His thoughts, we first must know what He is thinking about. He is thinking about His Spirit in us sowing His word like seed into a field. When it comes to harvest, He will have fulfilled His master plan and purpose: To reproduce Himself and us. And thus, you will become the word made flesh, dwelling among the inhabitants of the earth like Christ and His apostles. For “each seed bears its own kind.” Love is the answer. God is love, and He will with great irony decimate the evil on this earth, which will create a fertile plain for Him to sow His seed. His Kingdom is the gospel, the good news. And He will eventually “plant the heavens with a righteous seed.” And so the cycle continues on and on throughout all eternity.

The onus is on us, those whom He has called. His chosen are scattered throughout the earth, in every province. They will answer the call. They may be poor in this world’s goods; they may travel by foot or burro through jungles and mountains, but they will get to their brethren and share this very vision of Christ our King, our exiled King. They will take these writings and read it to others who are hungry for truth.

[If you enjoy these writings, help me get them to more people by hitting that “Like” button and making comments and sharing posts. Sow the seed. Thank you.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock]

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Perspective on the Degradation of Our Society

Seventy-five years on the planet gives me perspective on the nation’s decline into darkness. I have seen the degrading of almost everything in our society.

Take music. Secular love songs from 60-70 years ago were about the pains and joys of the heart. Now they are of the “lusts of the flesh.”

Economics? Our dollar is worthless. The dollar used to be a 90% silver coin containing about an ounce of silver. It was real money. That same silver dollar is worth $30 in today’s paper currency. That silver dollar would buy 20 candy bars or 20 bottles of Coca-Cola. For my dad a silver dollar would buy three gallons of gasoline with a silver dime in change. My dad paid me one silver dollar for sweeping up hair at his barber shop on Saturdays back in 1955 when I was eight years old. Imagine a little kid running around with precious metal in his pocket and an American dream in his heart.

Now things look grim as the Federal Reserve Bank has absolutely ruined our economy. I share this to give you some perspective on how low we have been brought and how serious our current financial disaster is.

Back in the 1950’s, we Americans were still living by the standards of Protestant, Puritan values. But the darker influences had by then been let out of Pandora’s box. The lustful rhythms of the nations stirred a specter of passion. Most young women were chaste, held in check by the fear of society’s shunning of them for having babies out of wedlock. When a girl got pregnant out of wedlock, she simply disappeared, hurried off in shame to a willing aunt hundreds of miles away. There the girl would have her baby in seclusion and often give it up for adoption. Today she will parade her new fatherless baby up and down the high school halls. Dating was going to the movies back then. And if a boy got too fresh, he would have to face her World War II veteran father. [We were truly scared of those fathers]. But now, dating is a euphemism for having sex.

Today, the world has lost all restraints to bad behavior. Decorum is dead. Dignity is an orphan under a bridge. We see a society where thieves boldly ransack and steal armloads of merchandise while “security guards” passively look on. In the 50’s the thief would have been wrestled to the ground, arrested and prosecuted for grand larceny.

But age gives us perspective. I remember as a lad, I heard old-timers talking about how society was going downhill because of the federal government’s policies. They were right.

“Something wicked this way comes,” said the poet. No, it is already here. Conservatives on the right say that we can rise up and change this scary downward slide, that we can restore our society to what the Founding Fathers envisioned. That is a nice dream. But that ship has sailed. The cat is out of the bag, and no one will be able to put him back in again.

Why do I say that? I know that it sounds pessimistic. It is because of this: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves [not God], covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers… (I Tim. 3:1-7; II Pet. 2; Jude 1). The apostles warn us of our day, a day of spiritual darkness, “perilous times.” Spoiler alert: It is going to get much worse, a la the Great Tribulation. And we Christians are going to be in the big middle of it. But that’s another story that I have written at length about [rapture | Search Results | Immortality Road (wordpress.com)].

The leaders of the countries of this world have caused this denigration of which we speak. “For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed” (Isa. 9:16).

But that is not true of God’s offspring. We have been restored, for we have “been with Him from the beginning.” Consequently, we know that “all things are of God.” We know that He is in charge. His law of harvest is in effect and cannot be broken. Whatever a nation sows, that shall it also reap. Pride goes before a fall. Through much hubris nations are brought to their knees. And so it is with the USA and all the other nations of the world.

Our Father’s Plan

The time of the end is upon us. And it is all part of the plan–that we would become so frustrated with the ways of the world, that we would finally seek our Creator. “For the creation [us] was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21 NIV).

It is God who has subjected us to frustration. It is His doing. He allowed us to be bound in the chains of sin. We were held captive by our dark and selfish actions that brought the demise of our earthly bodies. And we were frustrated by having to live in clay vessels that grow old, die, and decay. But now we realize that we have returned to Him and have embraced His hope for us. His hope is that we will receive everlasting life. And now we see that all of creation is waiting for Christ’s return to this earth, when He will bestow upon us a new, glorious, spiritual body, which will enable us to serve the King throughout all ages (8:19).

It is our great and glorious privilege, therefore, to serve Him in His government, the Kingdom of God, which is coming very soon to fill the earth with his righteous judgment. For He is the Answer to all questions, the Solver of all problems, and the Teacher of all parables. He is Yahshua, the King of kings, our Creator (Col. 1:16). And “of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end…” (Isa. 9:2-7).

We are blessed to serve Him together. Spread the word.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock 


 

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Patience, Godliness, and Wisdom—Their Relationship

Our spiritual growth in God does not happen accidentally. We have a part to play. A seedling plant must strive to break free from the clutches of the clods of hardened earth to get to the light.

So it is with God’s offspring, you and I. To grow and to fulfill God’s purpose for each of us, we must first gain knowledge of his plan, and then execute it. He is “bringing many sons [and daughters] unto glory.”

How is he doing this? He has several spiritual programs to accomplish His will. They are laid out in black and white in the Holy Bible. The programs for our growth are hiding in plain sight. But you won’t hear about them in the church houses, even though the early apostles wrote glowingly about their secrets. Their pastors, priests and preachers have closed their eyes and ears to anything new. Yet God’s programs are full of “new creatures, new testament, new hearts, new lives, where all things are become new.”

Some of the Programs

We should not think that once we profess Christ, it is all done. The Apostles’ Doctrine, the title of my 2019 book, expounds on one of God’s programs that shows us how to become like the early church. The apostles walked in the seven teachings that Christ taught them. Their doctrine was Christ’s doctrine/teachings. To be like the early apostles, we need to do what they did; they “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine,” and then power was given to do mighty works in the land.

Another of Christ’s programs to help us grow spiritually is what I am writing now–The Additions to the Faith. We must add, through much study and prayer, certain facets of God’s divine nature to His faith that now resides in us. But we cannot add them if we have no knowledge about these attributes of God.

We have seen that in order to fulfill God’s purpose of fully walking in his divine nature, we need to add to our faith certain attributes of that very divine nature. We see that we are to add patience to temperance. The problem has always been understanding these English words. We are dealing with three words: patience, godliness, and wisdom.

They are all scriptural, taken from the King James Version. All three are difficult to comprehend because of man’s traditional definitions and connotations placed on them. To get a clearer picture of their meaning, we go to the Greek texts.  “Patience” means endurance. “Godliness” means to love and revere God. Wisdom is to fear Him, or to be in reverential awe of Him.

We can all agree that we need more wisdom. “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom…” (Proverbs 4:7). God has made it seemingly simple for us to get wisdom. Just ask Him for it, the apostle James tells us (1:5). But we cannot waver in unbelief (verse 6).

Why would we waver? Those that waver will not get wisdom (verse 7). I always thought that the wavering happened because of our weak faith in not believing at the outset that God would give us wisdom. But now I see that we waver when we don’t understand how overcoming trials produce wisdom. God tests our faith; going through these trials shows us just how awesome our great Creator is. We will see his great love for us in correcting us, getting us ready to sit with him on his throne. We have a lot of changing to do. Trials bring those changes about.

We still are talking about adding patience, and to patience godliness. Many early Christians had, no doubt, complained to James about the trials that they were going through. He gets straight to the point. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (1: 2 NIV). Joy? The heathen are hunting us Christians down like dogs. How do we see this as bringing happiness? At first glance, it is difficult to see, but a profound revelation hides in the shadows of our disbelief.

How Trials Bring Joy

How do trials bring joy? These trials test our faith. This testing of our faith “develops perseverance” (verse 2, NIV). It “works patience.” Trials of the faith develops endurance/patience/perseverance (verse 3). Overcoming trials develops spiritual muscle needed for us to endure all things thrown our way.

When our Father tests, chastens, and corrects us, we tend to not understand just how blessed we are. That is why we are admonished to “let patience have her perfect work.” In other words, we must allow endurance and perseverance do the job of bringing us to spiritual maturity. This is what the additions to the faith is all about: The spiritual maturity of becoming like Christ and his apostles. “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete” (verse 4 NIV).

It is here at verse five that we receive an astounding revelation. The previous four verses show us  how  God gives us wisdom. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God who gives liberally…”

But we must ask, “What does wisdom have to do with patience/endurance? What’s the tie-in?” First, we are admonished to ask for wisdom, not knowing how or from where it comes to us. God then gives us wisdom through orchestrating trials for us to overcome in our lives. These trials, as we have seen, produce endurance/patience. Then, on the other side of the testings and trials, we see that it produces in us a love and reverence for God in all His marvelous ways of creating us in His image. Love and reverence for Him is the very definition of wisdom. “The fear of the LORD, that is wisdom.” “Fear” in the Hebrew means “reverential awe.” Reverential awe of Yahweh, that is wisdom. Wisdom and patience/endurance combine to bring godliness to be added to patience. And the kicker is this: Godliness in the Greek means “a love and reverence for God.”

[See https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/donate/ to order one of my books}

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Banishing the Ghosts of Egos Past

In a moment of weakness, Christians will say that their “flesh” just took over, and, well, they sinned. This is not the whole spiritual story. It is old leaven teaching that is false and contradicts what the scriptures say. The Word says, “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh….” Crucified flesh is dead flesh. Let’s look a bit deeper into “flesh” because it is not our epidermis.

Sarx is the Greek word that is translated “flesh.” Thayer’s says that sarx is “the animal nature of old man Adam. It is the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence and, therefore, prone to sin…” It is the whole lost Adamic man, body and soul, that St. Paul refers to [See Gal. 5:16-19 and Rom. 6 & 8].

After we come to Christ and give our heart to Him, vestiges of the old nature, or rather ghostly memories of the old life come into our new life. It often is through a thought or an imagination or a reaction to certain stimuli that reminds us of what we used to be. These negative thoughts are whispered into our ears by a dark angel. Instead of standing on the word that says we have a new life where “all things have become new,” the spirits of egos past come back to haunt us to see if we really believe His word. They come by our adversary, the devil.

Temperance, then, is that aspect of the divine nature where we overcome these thoughts through cleaving to the truth of His word. The self-control that it brings is a result of the presence of the Spirit in our hearts. Temperance is the addition to the faith that dispels the vestiges of our old life. The truth as to what is taking place makes us free of the confusion.

If we “walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” The Spirit and the sarx, which is represented in vestiges of our old life, are opposites. The flesh is rooted in appeasing the old self. The Spirit is rooted in selflessness.

Many people teach that after receiving Christ, these two natures are at war in the Christian. This is not true. Again, many say that this old carnal nature still lives in a Christian. But the Bible says  just the opposite. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lust.” (Gal. 5: 24). Furthermore, Christ said, “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit” (Matt. 12:33).

The old carnal sinful nature has been put to death in Christ. We may not feel like it at times, but in God’s eyes our old nature is dead with Christ on the cross–whether we feel it or not. There are still some habits and faults, to be sure, that must be dealt with as we add temperance to the seedling of faith now planted in our hearts. These spiritual attributes come with maturity in Christ “till Christ be formed in us.”

The Spirit of God says that our “old man is crucified with Christ.” Just like the subjects of a natural king did in the days of old, we rather have surrendered to the truth expounded to us by the apostles and prophets of God–that God has in these last days “spoken to us by his Son,” the “Prince of peace.” God’s Son, the Christ, is “the heir of all things,” and by him God made the worlds (Heb. 1:2). Christ is the “King of kings.” He is the Logos, “the Word,” the Plan and Purpose of God. If we get in line with the King and His thoughts, then we will be right with God. It is His sovereign word that has spoken: Our old life has died on the cross with Christ. Period. Whether we accept the fact or not. Lost man becomes found when he believes it.

The Modern Ego

The angst of the modern ego erupts from this molten thought: There is Someone else who is over us, in charge of us, more powerful than us, more knowledgeable, wiser. In a word, we humans must come off our high horse and surrender to the King of the universe, known in English as Jesus Christ, but whose Hebrew name more closely resembles the Hebrew name Yahshua.

If you could boil down man’s spiritual problems, you would scrape off the bottom of the pot a spoonful of humility. Humility comes when we realize that there is a Supreme being who is immortal, and we are mere human beings, frail and, oh, so mortal. He knows all things, and it is our privilege to be privy to some of His secrets and mysteries. When He says that our old sinful nature, with all its selfish, egotistical carelessness, is dead, then it is gone. We need to believe Him! He says that our old nature died with Christ. In His eyes and in His mind, we have obtained from Him a new life. He has spoken His word about the matter. It has come to pass. Since He believes that we have a new life, then our new life in Him is the truth. Believing Him transforms us into the answer to all our problems. We start there in what His word says. Our feelings and imaginations must conform with what He says about our spiritual condition. Always remember this: Our feelings and emotions will let us down.

Our spiritual walk must show that we believe Him–that He is all powerful and is everything good in this world, and we are but “a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away” (James 4:14). Without Him we are doomed to wander in our lowly estate, destined to inhabit the dusty chambers where no cry escapes. This should change mankind’s direction.

But what do most humans do? We strut and preen the feathers of our pride which has deluded us into thinking that our mean and insignificant thoughts surge from an intelligent mind. We believe that we are in control, that we are the captains of our own fates…until we first peer directly into Death’s empty eyes and realize that the time of our departure is imminent. This crushes and grinds our thoughts to powder, now mixed with tears, which makes a merciful balm-of-Gilead that anoints our eyes that we may finally see another face, the royal countenance of our King.

And what will we encounter? We will see Him as the sovereign King, first in all things, but humble and merciful to us His people. When our hearts truly look at Him this way as our King, then we will have come home like the prodigal son did, and He will deal with us as family. And He will say to us, “Well done thou good and faithful servant…”    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[From Journal entry dated 12-9-12. This will be used in a chapter in my new book that I am working on now entitled The Additions to the Faith, to be published in 2023]

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God’s Promise to Dwell in Us Is Conditional: The Abiding

God has promised His people to take up residence in them. Yahweh gave His word through Jeremiah. He promised that He would dwell in us with His Spirit abiding in us. “Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel (10 lost tribes), and with the House of Judah (two tribes)…I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God and they shall be my people…for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:31-35).

Here the Spirit promises to come into us writing in our hearts His law. “Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?…For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (I Cor. 3:16). When you are born of the Spirit, “you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people…” (II Cor. 6:16).

But There Is a Condition

God has promised us that He would dwell in us. He has given us “exceeding great and precious promises, that by these [we] might be partakers of his divine nature.” The way that we partake of His “divine nature” is by receiving the Spirit of truth. But He won’t stay in a heart and mind filled with error. That is why it is necessary to purge out the old leaven. He has promised us the gift of His Spirit of truth that dwells in us (II Pet. 1:4). This is what gives us everlasting life, for He is life.

We know that promises are presented through words, whether uttered or written down. God’s word to us is the Word/Logos. He says that we are partakers of his Spirit by faith and that we can grow up into Him by adding to our faith. Our faith is the “faith of the Son of God.” Our faith can grow by adding certain aspects of his very “divine nature.” And through these additions, we grow into his witnesses, laden with the same power that the early church possessed (II Peter 1). But we must obey one of Christ’s New Commandments: Purge the old false teachings.

 His abiding presence does not happen overnight.

God’s promise to abide in us is not fulfilled through a magical Poof!  He does not just appear all at once in us. To the contrary, God has a special step-by-step program in order to accomplish His purpose dwelling in us fully. That is one of the problems with modern day churchianity. People are so used to instant mashed potatoes and instant everything that they want God’s “baptism in the Holy Spirit” without the true knowledge of just what God is doing and how He does it.

Very few know His purpose and plan. Most are wanting something from God which is what little children do. But they are wanting the gifts of God that are way above their pay grade. They want to feel good and be closer to God. But there is much more to it than that.

The abiding presence that the apostles spoke of is the Father Himself, the great Spirit Yahweh, dwelling in his temple. And that temple is us. But He will not reside in unclean temples. When God fully abides in us and fully lives in us and fully walks in us, then He will have reproduced Himself in us. This is nothing less than the fulfillment of not only His eternal purpose, but also His promise to dwell in us. He has promised us immortality. When He fully abides in us, then everlasting life will be ours in a reality. This is the fulfillment of His eternal purpose based on His promise to dwell in us. This is the knowledge that is lacking in churchianity.   

What are the obstacles that block this process?

The chief obstacle that thwarts human beings is the clinging to false concepts about God and His plan. The abiding is when the Father, the Spirit of truth, resides in us. But for Him to abide/stay/ remain in us, we must obey one of Christ’s new commandments: “Purge out the old leaven (I Cor. 5:7). This means to get rid of false concepts and false doctrines, for they like leaven will take over a person’s mind like leaven does to a lump of dough.

One piece of old leaven that blocks Christians is that they still think that they are alive and doing the struggling. But the Spirit says that “you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Our new life is hidden. In this new life, we are in Him, and He is in us. We are abiding in Him, and His Spirit of truth is abiding in us, reaching out and forgiving everyone in the world.

Yet, the minds of people are rife with old leaven/false concepts about God, about who He is and how He works. We didn’t know any better at the time. We were children. Unfortunately, those false doctrines that we were taught stick with us. But God is requiring that we repent of them.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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The False Vision and the True Vision

wayneman's avatarImmortality Road

Two visions are given in the scriptures concerning this earth today. One is true and is from the Hebrew God Yahweh. And one is false. And both of these visions concerning God and His plan are out there on the airwaves, in cyberspace, and in the pulpits.

Since “there is nothing new under the sun,” and since “that which has been is now,” we look back to the prophet Jeremiah’s day. Then there were prophets speaking lies in God’s name to the people of Jerusalem. The Babylonian army was sweeping across the Middle East, and yet, they said that God was saying, “You will not see the sword, neither shall you have famine. But I will give you assured peace in this place” (Jer. 14: 13).

These “men of God” told the people what they wanted to hear–how God was going to spare them from Nebuchadnezzar’s army and how their…

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