Husbands, Be Not Bitter Against Your Wives–Conversations With the Seer

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer.  I Samuel 9: 9)

I barely had enough time to sit down, and before I had spoken a word, the Seer asked, “Troubles with the wife?”

“Yes.  How did you know?”

“The Spirit, if your heart is attuned, picks up on these things.  It’s really not difficult to discern because ‘all things come alike to all.’  We all come up the same way” [1].

“My wife is always bringing me down.  It’s frustrating.  I’ll get a wonderful revelation about God, and I am so enthused, and I try to share it with her, and all she has to say is, ‘Yeah, that’s great, but would you help me, please?  Could you do something around here?  Help straighten up the house.   Check on the kids.’   Things like that.”

The Seer just looked at me as if looking through a window at the wind blowing through a white oak tree.  “We on our spiritual walk back to the Father’s heart must not get too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.”

I looked at him as if he were speaking Chinese.  “What?  What do you mean?”

“It is all about taking the heavenly things like love and mercy, and putting them into action here on earth.  Christ did it and then taught it” [2].

“She makes me mad,” I continued.  “It’s like she deliberately throws on me all this negativity, like a wet blanket.  Instead of rejoicing with me, she just smothers me.  I try to correct her and get her to stop, but that just sets her off and we start fussing and fighting.”

“Oh, you mustn’t try to stop her,” the Seer said.  “Goodness, no.  Never try to prevent someone from doing God’s will.”

“God’s will?”  I asked.  “A wife so earthly minded that she can’t get past the pots and pans and diapers is doing God’s will?”

“They are your pots and pans and your children’s clothes.  Let me explain what is spiritually happening.  God Himself has created your wife exactly the way she is in every respect.  He has made her to be your absolute complement.  She, with all her faults and all her many unappreciated virtues , is exactly what the Great Physician ordered–for you and your perfection.”

“My perfection?” I asked.

“She’s your help meet, isn’t she?” [3].

“Yes.”

“Well, then, she is being a good help meet because she’s helping you meet God.  Look.  She is merely speaking what is in the script written by God–as if He had with a thoughtful quill inked upon her DNA the lines she speaks to help you mature spiritually.  And her reactions to you and her ‘negative’ comments to you about your ways are all ordained, scribed, and orchestrated by God to get a rise out of you.”

“It does that,” I said.  “But she should be honoring her husband and not putting him down all the time.”

“You don’t need a wife that praises your every word or whim.  That would not bring you to perfection.  In fact, it would ruin you for God’s purposes.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“You see,” the Seer continued, “You have many faults that must be purged out of your life before full spiritual maturity comes.  God uses wives to help us grow from a babe in Christ to a young man.  A ‘woman shall be saved in child bearing’ [4].  She not only rears your earthly children, but also helps to rear the spiritual child of God in her life–you, her husband.  She cannot change the way she has been created.  She is saying exactly what the Father has entrusted her to say to you.”

“It just makes me mad,” I said.

“There.  Right there in that thought–that unjust anger is an example of the kind of things that God desires to erase out of your life.  And your wife will continue to bring it out–not to be mean, as you suppose.  She has to.  She doesn’t even realize that God is using her for the purpose of burning out the dross that lurks around your new faith.  Yet, she will continue saying her lines as a faithful player on the stage of life–until you get it.”

“Get what?” I asked, still not understanding the depth of the matter.

“When you finally understand these words I’ve spoken and believed them–then you will have gained several precious life lessons.  Number one.  That God is totally sovereign and in complete control.  He uses anyone and anything He desires to effect a change in one of His chosen ones–one of His elect sons of God.  Two.  God’s ways are not our ways.  We would not perfect us the way He does.  We would much rather sit in the sunshine munching Oreos as the way to make big changes in our life.  Third.  We need to be grateful for God’s love to us.  He has chosen us as His offspring.  He did not have to pick us to reveal Himself in us.  So, just be grateful for your wife and don’t be bitter towards her [5].  God is using her to do a great work in you.”

“It doesn’t seem so great right now,” I said.

“When you receive this truth that I’ve shared with you, you won’t get angry and frustrated with her.  You’ll know the truth that it is all God’s doing, flowing out from His heart of love.  Right now you are buffeted for your own faults [6].  What will you do when you are persecuted unjustly?”

“I don’t know.”

“When it happens, just know that it is still God doing His work of perfection in you.”  The Seer paused.  “But, enough of this now.  Tell me.  What is you wife’s favorite candy bar?”

“Almond Hershey.”

“Tell you what.  Go buy her one.  And with no fanfare, hand it to her and tell her that you love her.”

I did what He said.  And that little gesture generated a smile on her face that said, “He understands.”  But all I understood that day was the magic of chocolate.  She would receive several Almond Hersheys throughout the years.  But it would take decades for me to finally understand and appreciate the message he gave me that day.       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. Eccle. 9: 2
2. Acts 1: 1
3. Gen. 2: 18
4. I Tim. 2: 15
5. Col. 3: 19
6. I Peter 2: 20

The Armor of God–Conversations With the Seer

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer.  I Samuel 9: 9)

“The last time we talked, you mentioned the armour of God.  I have been thinking about it a lot lately.  And I’ve been studying it out.  But I’m really having difficulty grasping what it means, ‘to put on the whole armor of God.'” 

The Seer smiled at me and said, “It is difficult to grasp the heavenly things with a mind that is thinking on an earthly plane, and next to impossible to comprehend spiritual things with a finite mind.  It is difficult to understand because of unbelief.”

“But I believe,” I blurted out.

“You want to believe desperately,” the Seer said.  “I will grant you that, and that is good.  But wanting to believe and actually believing are two different matters.  Belief in the armor’s efficacy brings the ability to grasp its power.  It all goes back to trusting in His word.”

I was really confused now.  “Well, what is the armor of God exactly?”

“First, the armor is spiritual.  The apostle likens it to literal devices like shields, armor, a breastplate, a helmet, and a sword.   Through this extended metaphor, we take away the idea of a spiritual, protective layer.  It is the armor of God (Eph.6: 11-18).  And God is Spirit [1].  He is also truth.  Therefore, it is the armor of the Spirit and truth and light.  And we are to ‘put on the armor of light [2].'”

“And what is light?” I asked.

“Light is the life of God.  If you want to see light, then look at the Light in action by studying Christ.  Because ‘in Him was life; and the life was the light of men’ [3].  God dwelt in the Son of God fully [4].  God is life and ‘this life is in His Son.  He that has the Son has life'” [5].  When we truly receive this truth in our hearts, then we receive the secret to answered prayers [6].”

“Wait a minute.  I didn’t get all of that.  Let me see if I got this right.  God is the Spirit of Truth, which is light and life.  And the fullness of life and light dwelt in the Son of God.  And if we believe that, then we receive the same light and life of God, too.”

“That’s right,” the Seer said.  I don’t know if I was seeing things or not, but his smile radiated a glow of inner light.  He continued, “For, you see, since God dwelt fully in Christ, if we reject the Son of God, we reject the Father, as well, because the Father was inside the Son” [7].

“But how does all this tie in with the armor of God?”

“The armor of God is not some equipment that God possesses that He wants to give to us.  No. 

“The armor of God is God Himself!  It is a spiritual protective covering comprised of the invisible Spirit of God Himself.  Since His Spirit is truth, when we know and then believe the truth, we are believing God.  And by believing, God comes down into us.  When you believe the truth, the truth (God, Spirit) takes up His abode in us, and we become one with Him.  In other words, by believing all this truth how that the Father dwelt fully in the Son, giving light and life to the world–this truth is God, and through faith or belief of this truth, the Spirit of God comes into our hearts and minds.  This is the armour of God–God’s Spirit in our hearts and minds.”

We just sat there for what seemed an hour.  Finally I said, “I understand it now, but why haven’t the preachers told us about all this?”

“The only part of the apostle John’s writings they quote is John 3: 16.  They stay clear of the rest of his gospel and his three letters to the churches.”

“But why?  Why don’t they preach it?”

“Either they don’t know what is in John’s writings or they don’t have it in their hearts because they don’t believe it.  Either way, they will have to give an account to God about it.  I would like to think that the vast majority have not been taught these truths.  They have been taught old leaven from a hundred years ago.  There is no new light in them.  They are still preaching what their grandfathers did in the 1950’s, and they are proud of that fact.  Spiritual stagnancy is equal to spiritual bankruptcy.  However, ‘when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth’ [8].  But there I go quoting more of John’s gospel–the part they don’t like to read or quote.”

“He will guide you into all truth?” I asked.

“It is the ‘unsearchable riches of Christ’ [9].  ‘All truth’ are these unsearchable riches.  And if those  preachers are not leading their flocks into more and more astounding and fresh truth, then it is safe to say that the Spirit of truth does not reside in them.  Because that is the sign that a person has the Spirit of truth.  At least that is what John said.  And I’m sticking with him.”

“This is a lot to take in,” I said.

“We will save some for later,” the Seer said.

“There’s more about the armour?”

“It’s the unsearchable riches.  Remember?”

1. John 4: 24
2. Romans 13: 12
3. John 1: 4
4. Colossians 2: 9
5. I John 5: 11-12
6. I John 5: 14-15
7. I John 2 23
8. John 16: 13
9. Ephesians 3: 8

The Fall of Tiger Woods–From a Biblical Perspective

Tiger Woods and his fall from grace has been a shocking revelation to everyone.  How does one go from demi-god to goat in a few days?  From a squeaky clean cultural icon to the butt of late night jokes?

Many are asking, Why?  Why, Tiger, did you do it?  You are worth a billion dollars.  You have a beautiful wife and gorgeous kids.  You own mansions in every corner of the world.  You who are so high up on the pedestal of man’s adoration–what could have possessed you to do such things?

Many excuses have been offered by the press.  He had lived a sheltered life.  Golf was his only world, and he didn’t have a normal childhood.  His “dating life” growing up was skewered because of his early celebrity.

Please.  Enough of man’s sappy wisdom.  What is the raw straight truth as to why he did it?

The Scriptures of truth speak of a corrupt spiritual condition we are all born with [1].  We are born with an old sinful nature.  And this old heart is incorrigible.  You can dress it up nice every Sunday morning, change  the music that it listens to and the books that it reads, but if still alive and given the chance, it will sin.  It cannot change itself.  Try as we might, we cannot effect a lasting change for our old sinful nature.  It has to be stopped, but we in our own power cannot change ourselves [2].

And when you add riches to this old nature, self-deception increases dramatically.  In the mind of man, riches give power, and power gives license to do, they think, whatever they want to do.  They think, “I have money and power and fame.  I’m somebody special, and I am above the law”, especially the moral law of the universe placed there by the Creator.  The “deceitfulness of riches” has tainted the rich man’s mind, deceiving him into thinking that he alone decides what is right or wrong personally for himself [ 3 ].

Like the kings of old, who did whatever came into their mind because they had the power, Tiger Woods has succumbed to the same temptations.  Like a classic tragedy worthy of the name, Tiger’s tragic flaw has been exposed, and it is his downfall, even as we speak.  And so we all can fall, if we are not sober and vigilant, always on guard against our formidable adversary, the devil [4].  And this enemy does not have a forked tail and horns; he has a forked tongue that lies to us in our thoughts and will lead us away from everything that we love or should love–especially our Maker.

Tiger’s sin?  He confessed already his “infidelity,”  which is a cleaned-up synonym for adultery.  Committing adultery is breaking one of the Ten Commandments, and breaking those is sin [5].   And there is a reason why God commanded us to not do this act.  For sin will bring reproach and eventually destroy a person.  “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” [6].

Sin is a spiritual condition that we are born in, but we are not destined to remain in it!  That’s the good news.  Christ’s whole message for us in the personal realm is that He came to eradicate sin out of our lives [7 ].  He did this at the cross by taking our sin upon Himself as the sacrificial Lamb of God, and dying.  And when He died that day roughly 2,000 years ago, our sins, along with our old sinful nature, died with Him!

And when we believe that He rose from the grave, we then receive a new heart, a sinless heart, a new spiritual nature, a new life–in Him.  And He then gives us His Spirit, and by faith in His power, He keeps us from falling.  We are now “raised to walk in a newness of life”.  The old sinful life is gone, “for he that is dead is freed from sin” [8].

But this will only happen when a person is sick and tired of the sinful life they have been living.  And this usually happens when they hit rock bottom.  When a person gets to the putrid bottom of the spiritual gutter, and they have had enough of the swine-pens of sin, then they can finally hit the Rock of our salvation.

Riches, however, prevent one from hitting rock bottom.  That’s why Christ said, “How difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” [9].  Why?  Because his riches tell him that it really isn’t that bad.  Yeah, you made some mistakes, but nobody’s perfect, right?  Look at me.  I’ve still got my money.  I’ll patch it up.  Hey, life is good.  Minor bump in the road.  That’s all.

And so,to the rich, this truth about how to really repent from sin and sinning becomes so much nonsense and foolishness.  Yet Tiger needs this message today.  I’m sending it out into the blogosphere.  Do you think he’ll ever get it?

Do you think anyone will get it?  I do.  Because of our destiny in Him.              Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. Romans 5: 12
2. Romans 7: 17-20
3. Matt. 13: 22
4. I Peter 5: 8
5. I John 3: 4-5
6. Proverbs 14: 34
7. Romans 6: 6
8. Romans 6: 4-18
9. Matt. 19: 23

The Greatest Hit of the Ages–The Called According to His Purpose*

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer.”  I Samuel 9: 9)

One time I asked the Seer, “What is life all about?  What’s really going on?  Why are we here?”

And then the Seer answered in a sweeping monologue.

First of all, there is a Creator, a Supreme Being with a plan and purpose.  Modern man will just have to get over it and accept that there is Someone higher in the food chain.  Just look around.  Things that are alive come from living things.  If anything ever lived, it owes its existence to something else that was living–of its own kind.  Every living thing reproduces itself.  Since every living thing gets its life from another living being, then an Initial living being, a Supreme Being, had to have given life to all the living.

It is only logical.  Two pieces of granite cannot reproduce.  Only the living things of creation are reproducing, and their pro-creating drive has been ignited by the Creator, the Life Giver. 

But the kicker, though, is that the Creator has put in motion all this reproduction as a type or metaphor of what He is doing with Himself.  The Creator’s plan and purpose is written into the quintessential  action of every living thing–procreation.  His plan and purpose is written into nature, and it is just waiting there to be deciphered.

So what does the secret writing of both nature and the scriptures reveal as to what God is saying?  Answer:  Hey, creation, I’m reproducing Myself, too!  You didn’t think I was going to let you have all the fun of raising a family, did you?  I have a family, too.

And this is how I am going to do it.  My essence is Love.  And I desire to magnify and reproduce Love.  So, in order to reproduce the real Spirit of Love, which is Me, I will create a special being that can contain Me. 

I’ll create this special creature, the human being, male and female.  And I will place within them both a desire to procreate.  I will make them capable of loving with a heart that longs for love.  And their lives will be like a play, lived out on the stage of this earth.

But this play will seem like a tragedy in the first few acts, for the human beings will have tragic flaws.   As my crowning creation, humans will be extremely complex characters.  In their inner being, they will want to do good, but their innate selfishness will thwart their intents to do that good and right thing.

Some humans will eventually come to their wit’s end.  They will do craven acts of unkindness, driven by the first nature I have given them.  Their foolish and selfish heart will drive them to cheat on their spouses, steal from their fellow humans, and tell falsehoods to further their own selfish desires.  And other sins they will do.

But some will feel horrible about their actions.  Their consciences will torture them.  They will long to do good, despite succumbing to the temptations of the old nature.  It is from these who feel the need to repent that I will choose to reproduce Myself in.  They will know that they have done wrong and will search for a place of repentance and redemption as desperately as a lost man in the desert seeks water. 

And they will find forgiveness of all their past evil deeds and thoughts.  Then I will give them of My Spirit, which is their new seed beginning in the garden of their hearts.  And through this new spirit within, they will blossom in love.  And this love will be shed abroad, by them forgiving their fellow human beings–especially those who are still using them for their own selfish desires. 

They will learn to bless those who hurt them and persecute them.  They will love their enemies and do good to all unenlightened human beings.  They will forgive everyone in their old Adamic past, and they will reach out and love any and all.  And they will love Me who gave them a new chance–an opportunity to become one of My children, one of My princes or princesses.

And they will walk on this earth, shining forth this spiritual light of My own reproductive perfectness.  For I will multiply Love, which is my nature, through their realization of the great deliverance I have brought them through.  They will be fountains of forgiveness, shedding forth the refreshing water of life to all so called.

And in due time, I will change these redeemed ones into my immortal offspring.  For they will be those human beings who have believed My word.  In the face of all the gainsayers, they will have persevered despite the doubts of those who persisted in pernicious ways.

And then I said, “So this is what the Bible is all about.”

“Exactly.  It is not about sanctimonious ceremonies in “castles midst the poverty” once or twice a week.  It is about Life, an abundant Life, a life that will last forever.  It is all about God sharing Himself with His creation.  And this Life is the play foreseen and written by God and revealed to a few.  It is a real play produced and directed by God.  He wrote it eons ago, and we as the principal players in this drama should submit to the Director.  The sooner we do, the sooner we will be a part of the Greatest Hit of the Ages.”     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

*Romans 8: 28-30; Ephesians 3: 11-19

The Battle in the Mind–The Weapons of Our Warfare Are Not Carnal [Conversations With the Seer]

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer.  I Samuel 9: 9)

I didn’t have to say anything.  I’m sure that my countenance said it all.   The Seer once told me that my face telegraphed quite clearly what was in my heart.  And yet he asked, “What is troubling you?”

I said, “I’m not sure.  I think some doubts are creeping in about God and things.”

“Doubtful thoughts are a formidable weapon that our enemy uses.  They are like mortars hurled at us during those long blackouts that we must endure.”

“It is worse at night.”

“Yes, under the cover of darkness, the doubtful thoughts charge onto the battlefield of our mind.  And the battle insufferably rages on.  Two opposing armies of thought are clashing.  Each is establishing a beachhead in our mind.  Both are digging in for the long haul.  Both are vying for the spoils of our souls.  They do it, first, by controlling our thoughts.  And then our thoughts grow wings and fly past our lips as utterances.  And finally, our words materialize into actions that either justify us or condemn us [1] .  You must know that there is a battle raging.  Make no mistake about it,” the Seer said.

“It’s good to know about the particulars of a war.  When I was in Vietnam, I asked many fellow soldiers and officers, ‘Why are we here?’  And, you know, not one of them could tell me why we were killing and being killed in that hot, muggy hellhole.  Not one.”

“Of course, that is a different kind of battle.  This battle in your mind that I speak of, however, is over our very existence, both present and future.  The outcome of our own personal battle will answer one of two questions.  Will we finally realize that we are created by God, who has a definite will and purpose guiding every human being, which culminates in our surrender to Him?  Or, will we remain adamant, ruled by a secular humanistic delusion, and persist in pretending that we are our own god, serving our own selves, and thereby forgetting the ‘Rock from whence we are hewn’?”

“No wonder I feel torn up inside.  Thoughts and doubts are whirling and churning inside of me.”  I heard a rooster crow and looked out the window at the golden red mist of light in the east.  I hadn’t slept all night and had waited until his lights had come on to come over and get some help.

The Seer continued.  “Yes.  A war is being fought inside of you.  It is the War of the Wills.  God’s will is fighting your own will.  And your own will for your life is being fed and reinforced by the enemy of God.  The “prince and power of the air” [2] supports your determination to hang on to your own purpose for your life.  And our old man’s purpose looks at everything through this prism–what’s in it for me?  You see, God’s thoughts for His creation is opposed to man’s thoughts about himself and his purpose on earth.”

“What are man’s thoughts about himself?”

“In general, the prevailing wind blowing in the politically correct arena is that we are just animals with higher intelligence, that there really is no personal Creator who has a will and purpose for us.  God’s thoughts toward us are that mankind is a special creation, formed and shaped in every way by the Creator for a highly specialized purpose: to be the dwelling place, the temple for God to reside in.  He grants to some eternal life, so that they can house the Eternal One.”

“How does this tie in with the battle?”

“This great destiny of eternal life will be given to those who win the battle staged in the theater of our minds.  For the Creator does not just go, Poof!, and we all are miraculously transposed into gentle, smiling, sweet little humanoid robots who go about saying, ‘Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord!’  Oh, no.”

“How does He do it then?”

“First, God has given us everything needed for victory–weapons, armor, food.  Yet He has allowed a sly and cunning spiritual enemy to be able to speak to us anonymously by injecting thoughts right into our own brains. It is so deceptive that humans think that these thoughts are coming out of the ether of their own minds.  Because, after all, they reason, I don’t believe in a world of spirits, where a diabolical spirit would do that to me!  And, anyway, if a God of love existed, He would not put those He loved through all this mental anguish and suffering.”

The Seer stopped to emphasize the point.  “That right there.  That thought is an example of the ‘cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive’ [3].  And yet, there is a great paradox at work in this battle.  In the world of man’s wisdom, when you surrender, you lose.  But in this battle, when we surrender to God and His plan, we win!  And through our victory, we realize that when we surrender to Him and His will and purpose for us, then we enlist in His army and begin to march forward helping others in the battle they are fighting for their very souls.”

The truth is that, although of course we lead normal human lives, the battle we are fighting is on the spiritual level.  The very weapons we use are not those of human warfare but powerful in God’s warfare for the destruction of the enemy’s strongholds.  Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God.  We even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ [4].           Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. Matthew 12: 37
2. Ephesians 2: 2
3. Eph. 4: 14
4. II Corinthians 10: 4, Phillips

The Cure for Depression

I have found a surefire cure for depression.  It is simple, natural–well, it is really spiritual–and it is free.  No money, clinics, or doctors needed.  The only physician involved in this cure  is the Great Physician.

The cure?  Depression is cured when the sufferer just sits down and thanks God for his blessings.  For a state of depression and a grateful heart cannot co-exist.  There is no such thing as a depressed praiser of God.

As the Savior taught, at the bottom of most maladies we will find a spiritual cause.  Think about it.  When was the last time you saw someone depressed, sitting there on their couch and saying to you, “My friend.  Thank you for coming to visit.  I was just thinking about you.  You know, I thank God for the wonderful friends and family I have.”  That grateful heart cannot utter a depression-filled negative thought.  A depressed grateful person is an oxymoron.  Those two cannot go together.  Impossible.

Depression, sadness, and worry spring from self-centered  thinking.  A depressed person only thinks of themselves.  It all centers on self.  Woe is me! they will say.  Self-pity, fear of what others think, and selfish thoughts cannot exist in a mind and heart that is thankful to God.  It is impossible.

So what can the depressed do?  They simply must stop the negative thinking, just for a moment.  Then think about God and say, “Thank you, God, for _________________.”  Everyone can fill in the blank with one thing.  Sunshine, air, food, a son, a daughter, a wife that has stuck with them through thick and thin, a husband who works and brings home bread and milk.  Hey, fill in the blank with something, and in that very instant of thanksgiving, the depression begins to lift.

The darker the hour, the more need to thank Him.  “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus (Yahshua) concerning you” [1].  Everything.  The “good” and the “bad.” 

For we must realize that God has diliberately built in hardships and sufferings, so that our belief in Him may be purified [2], and that joy may abound within us.  But most people get down, blame others, or blame themselves, instead of seeing this truth: “Acknowledge Him in all our ways, and He shall direct our paths” [3].

We then, should realize that when negativity attacks our minds through self-centered thoughts bringing on depression,  we should simply thank God.  For depression is caused by a spiritual thought that cannot co-inhabit a grateful mind.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. I Thess. 5: 18
2. I Peter 1: 6-7
3. Proverbs 3: 6