Some Have a Royal Destiny in Christ’s Kingdom

God loves all of us His children. All of us are precious in His sight. The Spirit operates in some degree in all of us. But there are “differences of administrations.”
There are “diversities of operations” but the same Spirit “working through all of [us]” (I Cor. 12: 4-13). Responsibilities differ for each member of His body.

Some may pastor small congregations, and others may teach at church. And some write articles and letters of edification and instruction to many throughout the world. Such was Paul’s calling.

The point is that we are His one body, and we all have our place in His body. And we are all being “transformed by the renewing of [our] mind” as we serve him in the capacity that He has called us.

We all have our gift from Him to the other members of His body, the church. How and why are there differences? Each differs “according to the grace that is given to us” (Rom. 12: 6). “Grace” is God favoring us in some way.

God shines His grace, His favor, on individuals in His body in different amounts and at different times in their lives. Some will have a problem with this, so let me explain.

Two Parables Reveal Wonderful Secrets

Consider the parable of the talents: “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey” (Matt. 25: 14-29).

Parables reveal secrets about God’s literal kingdom soon to come to this earth. Christ is in the “far country.” And He gave talents to His followers. The amounts differed according to their ability.” Some could handle more responsibility than others. The one with five gained five more. The one with a lesser amount of two did gain two more. And the Lord praised both of them and rewarded them with rulership over many things.  But the servant with only one talent was afraid and had no faith in his master, and he was banished and shamed for his error.

The one with two talents did not complain, but with a good heart did his best out of love for his Lord. As did the one with five. The fact remains here that grace/favor was given in different amounts according to the particular abilities of each servant.

We should tie this in with the different spiritual fruit production rates as seen in “The Parable of the Sower” (Matt. 13: 3-9). Christ reveals a secret when He tells us in this parable that some Christians will bring forth thirty fold fruit, some sixty fold, and some will bear one hundred fold fruit.

We see in these two parables that in His kingdom, He gives grace in different amounts, and this grace yields different amounts of spiritual fruit production.

Some Will Become Like Peter, James, John, and Paul in Our Day

Here it is. Some members of Christ’s body are predestined to be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8: 29-33). Some will be the first to be glorified and transformed into an immortal state. Some will bear this 100 fold fruit and be like the Son of God. In fact, Christ will be formed fully in them. This is God’s choosing. We cannot work to be awarded this honor. These are His chosen ones for this honor. These are His first fruits, and they will overcome all things and will sit with Him on His throne (Rev. 3: 21).

Not all Christians are chosen for this. Some will spiritually mature later. They have their part to play that is very important. It’s like this. At Boeing Corporation, engineers design a new jet airliner. Machinists actualize their blueprints into real parts, and workers put the parts together to make the plane.  And the executives procure the financing, personnel, and materials to make the big picture happen. Everyone is important and indispensable in the process. All are needed to fulfill the plan and purpose.

And we all in the body of Christ are needed to fulfill God’s plan and purpose. We have His Spirit operating in us according to His grace and direction.

A Greater Need We Share

Look, we all need each other. But there is a greater need that we all share. It is to know in detail God’s Master Plan as seen in the scriptures of truth. God’s plan is not born from the imaginations of TV evangelists or their clones on every corner.

If God reveals to us that He is bringing some in the body to sit with Him on His throne and to rule and reign with Him for 1,000 years–should we not all hunger and thirst for more knowledge about their rise in these last days before the King’s return?

Should we not all aspire to become one of those who will reign with Christ? Should we not at least help them fulfill their calling–at least be supportive by first studying and praying for their arrival on the world’s stage?

For the whole creation is waiting “for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8: 19). Should not all of us then have that same “earnest expectation” of this glorious event?

God’s elect are the ones God has chosen to be the first to completely come to maturity in God’s spiritual life cycle. They are destined to come to full fruition in these latter days. Their arrival on the scene is a surprise event that the world will not be ready for.

The question is–will we be ready? Will we embrace this light and help and edify them in their calling and election. If we do, then we will have passed the “selflessness test.” We will have proven that it is all for God and His plan. For we should all seek first His kingdom, which includes the King and kings who will be the “rulers over many cities” that He speaks about in the parables. We should all seek His will concerning this. And we should embrace His plan and purpose–even if we are not to be one of those who will bear 100 fold fruit. We should want to help them get there. In this we will show our love for God.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

Everyone Wants to Be Loved

Everyone wants to be loved–to be cared for, thought of kindly, smiled upon, approved of, praised as worthy.

Everyone wants to be loved. It is the universal spiritual need that stares us all in the face. When our eyes meet, we witness simultaneously the same longing ache that we see when we peer into a looking glass and see the loneliness reflected in our own two wells of tears.

Everyone wants to be loved. We spend much of our lives searching for “the one”–the one who can fill that longing. A cosmic vacuum exists in the human heart, and no one is there to fill its aching need for love.

And there is only one earthly organism on the planet that is specifically designed to channel the kind of love that we all need. Only one being on earth that is capable of loving another the exact way that they want to be loved. And that is the human being.

We are all human. So then, why can’t we simply meet the need and fill the vacuum and just love everyone?

Someone will say, Well, I love people. Yet, Christ tells us, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.” Whoa. You mean we are to love everyone? He continues, “But love your enemies, and do good…and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of the Highest” [1].

Everyone wants to be loved. But natural man has an irrational fear of rejection. It is irrational because  even a two year old teaches us its folly as they unconditionally embrace us and drown us with wet kisses. They have no fear of rejection, for innately they know that everyone wants to be loved.

So what happens to us? After our brief taste of the victory of fearless love as toddlers, what prevents us from giving what everyone wants?

If we can agree that the Creator made us this way–both with the need for love and the capacity to selflessly channel it–then we must realize that He has made a way for us to do it–to be the riverbeds of the living waters of the love from above that will fill the vacuum.

God is this love–this agape love. He through His Spirit will flow this selfless love and help us fulfill our destiny as His conduits, channeling His love to those who need it. For everyone wants to be loved.

The Price

But to be one of the “children of the Highest” who will love everyone like their Father does, there is a price to be paid. It costs something. And we should “count the cost,” as He admonished us to do [2].

It costs us our old life and all of our allegiances to the people and things we deemed important. And to pay the cost, we must bear our own cross and follow Him.

How do we do that? We must let our old spiritual heart die with the Son of God on His cross. We must die with Him, be buried with Him, and be resurrected with Him. This happens when we believe that God raised up Christ from the grave. We, too, now are resurrected “to walk in a newness of life” [3].

It all starts at the cross–now our cross. We, like Christ, show the greatest love when we lay down our lives for another [4]. There is no greater love. He did it, and now as the “children of the Highest,” we do it. And then God’s love will flow through us. Then we will be used by our Creator to be His fountain of fearless love, His essence, agape love. For “God is love” [5].

Then we will conquer the fear of being rejected. For “perfect love casts out fear” [6]. With our old selves dead and gone, we will be able to channel Christ’s Spirit of love back to God by loving others.

And then great joy will be ours, for we will have the capacity to fulfill everyone’s desire. For everyone wants to be loved.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[For more:  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2015/01/17/what-the-world-needs-now-is-agape-love/ ]

 

1.  Luke 6: 27-35     2.  Luke 14: 27-33     3.  Col. 2: 11-12; Rom. 6: 1-12               4.  John 15: 13     5.  I John 4: 8             6.  I John 4: 18

 

 

“The Vision of the Almighty”–His Plan and Purpose

“The vision of the Almighty”–isn’t that what we Christians want? That our eyes be open? That we could see clearly as God sees? That we could with childlike wonder behold the things He has already projected onto His prophetical screen? For until now, “eye has not seen…the things that God has prepared for those who love Him” (I Cor. 2: 9).

“The vision of the Almighty,” God’s vision, only comes when a person has their  eyes opened by God Himself. To fully comprehend our calling and election and to make it sure, we must see what our Father sees concerning this earth.

Where can we find the vision of the Almighty? It has all been written in a book. It is all there. Yet few have read it. But why can’t it be read? Because Yahweh “has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes; the prophets, rulers and seers has He covered” in this deep slumber (Isa. 29: 10-13). Both the multitude and their clergy are asleep.

And His vision is like a sealed book that nobody can read because it is closed to them. Why is this so? Because “with their mouth…they do honor Me, but [they] have removed their heart far from Me…”

The vision of the Almighty is contained in a sealed book. And only He can open a person’s eyes, thus opening it to the reader’s understanding.

But the vision is all there if “we have eyes to see and ears to hear.” It is just like when the Spirit signs off each message to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3: “He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit says unto the churches.” Certain humans at certain times have eyes and ears that are capable at that moment to see and hear.

God’s vision, which is His plan and purpose, is vital for us His offspring to know. For “where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov. 29: 18). And, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” What knowledge exactly? The knowledge of the Almighty’s vision, His plan, His purpose. Without it, masses of humanity will fall into the dusty tombs of hopelessness.

And so, as always, He is revealing His vision to a few. It has been written in His book long before man’s creation. It is unchanged from the beginning of time. And it is rare to be able to glimpse into God’s mind, to see what He sees and what He will accomplish in the near future.

That notwithstanding, God has revealed His vision, plan, and purpose through a very curious character in the scriptures. His name is Balaam, a sorcerer, hired by Balak king of Moab to curse the children of Israel. But Yahweh directly intervened in their plot, appearing to Balaam, and directing him to bless Moses and the Israelites and not curse them (Num. 24: 2-9).

Ironically, it is through Balaam’s words of blessing that God reveals “the vision of the Almighty.”

First, the “Spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his parable.” A parable is not a nice little story to make it easier to understand something. To the contrary, it is a dark saying, mysterious to the hearers. The same Hebrew word for “parable” is used in Psalm 78: 2: “I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old.” This is quoted in Matthew 13: 35.  Jesus/Yahshua spoke exclusively to the multitude in parables, “that it might be fulfilled by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.” Secrets. God’s secrets, found in the parables. And one of the parables that unlocks the secret of God’s vision is found coming through Balaam’s lips.

And Balaam continued, “Balaam…the man whose eyes are open has said…which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty…” And then he begins to describe what he witnessed in the trance. He saw the Holy Land in a blessed state, both physically and spiritually–fruitful valleys, trees planted by Yahweh Himself lining the waterways. Obviously, this is not today’s Israeli state, a state of paranoia and danger, with walls separating the haves from the have-nots.  To the contrary, Balaam saw the twelve lost tribes of Israel thriving, strong as a lion in their dealing with other nations. He saw them blessed.

This vision is synonymous with the New Jerusalem with its tree of life planted on either side of “the river of water of life,” bearing “twelve manner of fruits” (Rev. 22: 1-5). And most importantly, Balaam saw the “vision of the Almighty…there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel” (24: 15-25).

Here he sees Jesus/Yahshua, the King of kings, coming to earth to rule and reign in the kingdom of God. And He shall rule with a rod of iron. This is the same picture we see in Revelation upon Christ’s return.

In essence, the “vision of the Almighty” concerns the establishment of the kingdom of God in this earth. A kingdom is a form of government that has a monarch. His name is Yahshua, called Jesus by most English speakers. He will sit on His throne that He will share with the overcomers of all things in this last church age. God’s vision concerns the restoration of the rule of God through His Son and the other Christians who will bear the royal mantle of rulership in His kingdom. His vision includes their growth and spiritual rise to kingship with Him. When god gives you His vision, “the vision of the Almighty,” you will sing of His kingdom in all of its glorious ramifications.

But before one can aspire to sonship and kingship with Christ, one must have knowledge about it. Got to know about it first. When our eyes are truly opened to see all this, then all of the exasperated strugglings with God, all the anxieties experienced through the months, years, and decades are answered by Him when He gives a person the knowledge of “the vision of the Almighty.” With this knowledge we can prepare our hearts for the reality that lies before us, to be one of His chosen ones, one of the firstfruits unto God.

The Royal Priests

The Spirit through Peter called us, the sons of God, “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.” We have been chosen or elected by God in this age to be kings and priests. Our destiny is to “rule and reign with Christ” and to be mediators and priests, carrying His vision to the masses of humanity during the 1,000 year reign of Christ here on earth.

But how can we help the multitudes if we do not have God’s vision, plan and purpose–which is this: He is all about reproducing Himself in us in the environment of His kingdom. And for those who follow Him in His vision, unimaginable blessings await–right here on earth.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock