Tag Archives: sons of God

April 21, 2008 · 1:56 pm

Purge Out the Old Leaven = Getting Rid of False Concepts

     We have become the princes and princesses of God the King by our new spiritual birth.  We are in training to assume royal duties with Him upon His return to earth.

      What should we be doing to get ready for this great responsibility?  We are admonished to “purge out the old leaven that the lump may be holy” (I Corinthians 5:7).  

     Leaven?  What does that mean?  Look.  Christ is the “bread of life.”  We have received His Spirit and it is “no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.”  Therefore, we as His body are the “bread of life,” too, because of His presence within us.  But we come into this new life with some old concepts about God and the affairs of this world system that must be gotten rid of.  We have carried over in our thinking old doctrines, beliefs, traditions, and concepts.

     Unleavened bread is “sincerity and truth” (I Cor. 5:8).  So, “leaven” must be insincerity and falsehoods.  Christ Himself told us to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1).  Yes, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.”  The Pharisees were the religious leaders, and Herod was the political leader back in that day.  They are symbols of religious and political leaders today.  “There is no new thing under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).  So, Christ is telling us to beware of them in our day, too.

     To “purge out” the old leaven, we must be brutally honest with ourselves and “examine ourselves.”  We must be open to new truth; if we are not open, then we must believe that we have all truth already.  And if we think that way, then it will be very difficult for the Spirit to “guide us into all truth.”

     No one except Him can help us get ready to rule with Him.  It is our responsibility to study and search out true concepts and get rid of false concepts about Him and His plan and purpose.  Like the “Reverend Mr. Black” said in song, “You gotta walk that lonesome valley; you gotta walk it by yourself.  Nobody else can walk it for you.  You gotta walk it by yourself.” 

     We must rid our minds of false religious and political concepts and take on the “mind of Christ” in order to “make our calling and election sure” as His princes and princesses.

    

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April 10, 2008 · 4:57 pm

“All Is Vanity” Without the Holy Spirit

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

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

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

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

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February 28, 2008 · 1:31 am

The Will of God–His Wish, His Desire

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

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

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

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

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

“Christ in you, the hope of glory…”

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

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

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

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

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January 30, 2008 · 5:51 pm

Heirs of God–His Vision for Us

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

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

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

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

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

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

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January 22, 2008 · 12:59 am

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kenneth Wayne Hancock                                                                      

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