No Spiritual Growth Without Knowledge

To grow in God, first, we have got to know things—His things. “Knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Prov. 9: 10). If you want to take a look at a human being without this kind of knowledge, then observe the young man in Proverbs 7. He does not know of His plan to perfect us. He hasn’t a clue about the spiritual maturity that can transform us into righteous powerhouses. He has no knowledge of God and His thoughts and ways, and he is left as prey for the lion Satan who “goes about seeking whom he may devour” (I Pet. 5: 8).

The young man is a type of all young men who are “void of understanding” and who lack true knowledge of the holy. He easily falls prey to the “woman with the attire of a harlot.” This loose woman in Proverbs is a symbol of the false religious system; she is exposed later as “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Rev. 17: 5). She through flattery and empty promises of love and peace seduces the young man, and he goes down “as an ox goes to the slaughter.” The Spirit concludes with this warning: “She has cast down many wounded; yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.”

So we see that the young man was indeed destroyed for lack of true knowledge of God. False knowledge taught by the mother church and her daughters about God will ruin us. This is the lesson of Proverbs 7. Without much extrapolation, we see that, yes, we must have His knowledge; without it we are a complete spiritual failure in our Maker’s eyes.

After attaining His knowledge of His plan and purpose, we must begin  to do what we now know to do. “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Free from what? Free from thinking that you have to sin. For that is exactly what the churches keep pounding into you.

But God has it all lined out. To grow to full maturity/perfection, to be like the apostles and prophets, He’s got a grid of requirements that we are to do. These are not works to get salvation or stay saved. No. We do what He’s asked us to do because we love and appreciate Him. Yahweh desires for us to grow to be like Him, so that we can be a channel of His love to the world. That is why we do the knowledge. We are to be “doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving [our] own selves” (James 1: 22).

The word says that we can do all things through Christ. The harlot church teaches that we will be sinners right down to the bitter end of this mortal existence. The churches teach that we can never grow to maturity/perfection in this life, that we will always be sinners.

But the apostle John did not believe that. Here’s some knowledge for us. “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin. Whosoever abides in Him sins not; whosoever sins has not seen Him, neither known Him. Little children, let no man deceive you…” (I John 3: 5-7). These have got to be the least quoted verses in the Bible.

And as for the argument that we cannot be like the early apostles, that it was just for their time, the word says that grace teaches us “to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” The “present age” is our time, too, for Christ does not change (Titus 2: 12). We know that it is possible; just look at the early apostles and their doctrine that took them to maturity/perfection. And nowhere does it say that we cannot be like them–“in this present age.”    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

God’s Warning to the Pastors

It is sad, really, to see the pastors, preachers and priests go through the liturgical motions of laying on of hands when their heart is still in a state of sin. I know that many are merely trusting their denominational mentors who taught them in their seminaries and bible colleges. Being made free from sin is not in their curricula.

Many of them are sincere, which makes it even sadder to see them trapped in the false doctrines. They have the remnant’s teachings collected in the Holy Bible, but they lack a witness today.

What is the problem with their laying on of hands? By thinking it is their hands and not God’s hands, they think that their dutifulness and their soberness and their righteousness will touch God, and surely He will hear from heaven. And surely He will keep His word and heal this poor person or grant a baptism in the Holy Spirit to this one.

Yes, He will answer the prayers of His remnant, those whose sinful old natures are dead, buried, and risen with Christ to walk in a newness of life. He said that He will answer the prayers of those who have become His body now—where it is not their body with their hands, but it is now holy men [and women] of God, moved by the Holy Ghost, laying His hands on the sick.

For His remnant “is dead and [their] life now is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3: 3). One of the remnant who communed with the risen Christ said that it is no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives inside. (Gal. 2: 20).

Somebody will say, “But I quote that verse in Galatians 2: 20.” Yes, people can quote scripture all day long, but one will know that it is real if “all things have become new” with a new heart, and a new life, a new Master. You say that you go by every word of God. But the word is clear and succinct: “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” How is it a new life in Christ if sin is still plaguing you as your slave master? “For he that sins is a slave to sin” and “no one can serve two masters” (II Cor. 5: 17; John 8: 34).

He wants repentance from sin not everlasting penance. When repentance from sin is accomplished in a person’s life, it is over and done with. That person is free, “for he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom. 6: 7). Coming into Christ is not joining a benevolent social club; it is a renunciation of a sinful life and a dying, a burial, and a resurrection with Christ.

To the Pastors, the Shepherds of His Flock

With much respect of God’s plan to have pastors feeding the word of God to the people of His pasture, I write this. We who endeavor to feed the flock of God must get it right. We must dig deep and take no teaching for granted. For Yahweh has pronounced a woe upon the pastors of His flock who teach false doctrines and precepts (Ezk. 34; Jer. 50: 6). Prove out the above paragraphs. If you still break the Ten Commandments, turn to Him now from that path. Go to the cross once and for all and let that old sin nature expire with Him and be buried with Him, and, praise God, be raised to walk in a newness of life. For we who feed the flock of God will receive the greater condemnation at His judgement seat if we do not get it right with the Chief Shepherd. We must never forget how austere our Master is, for He will say to some very devout and well-meaning shepherds, “Depart from Me; I never knew you.” And they will say, “But, Lord, we preached in your name and did good things for you…”

I get nothing material for writing these words—no money, no recognition, no laurels. And that is fine. If I can help one person to become a manifested son or daughter of God, my reward is secure. After the smoke of tribulation clears, just to be able to see each other be a part of His Kingdom here on earth, to be able to stand side by side as members of His cadre, to witness Christ in His glorious spiritual body come forth through the portals and address His people there in Jerusalem. Wow! And in that first year of His Thousand Year Reign, as we look at each other and smile, it is enough that we can be present at that holy convocation. That is our reward. Just to look upon Him, and who knows, perhaps to speak to Him, He who made the worlds and everything in them. To see His plan and purpose come to fruition—that is enough. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[This is an excerpt out of Chapter 46 of my new book, The Apostles’ Doctrine.]

Spiritual Hands of a Spiritual Body

To understand the apostles’ doctrine of the “laying on of hands,” we must first see how “hands” are members of the body of Christ. But what is the body of Christ? “Hands” are members of a body. Therefore, holy hands must of necessity be members of the body of Christ. Our search is leading us into the “unsearchable riches of Christ.”

Consequently, we must always in our search “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (II Cor. 4: 18). The answers will not be found in the things we can literally see with our eyes. The answers will be gained through contemplating the invisible, eternal things.

The Body of Christ

Therefore, the body of Christ is invisible. For years I thought that your earthly body and my earthly body, cleaned up spiritually by God, was the body of Christ. I thought that the members of the body of Christ were the humans who gathered together in a building of some kind and wor-shipped God. Later I saw the church as a body of humans called out from the world, not necessarily “members in good standing” of some manmade religious organization. But I still thought that the church was the body of Christ and the church were the humans in that group of Christians.

But now I am realizing that there is a revelation waiting for us concern-ing the body of Christ. We have been “looking after the flesh” when dealing with the body of Christ.

Oh, we have had wonderful dreams of our hands doing great things. Totally understandable to have them. We looked at our hands and we imagined them being guided by the Spirit to heal, and, yes, even raise someone from the dead. We’ve seen our literal hands as being used by God to do special things as members of His body, doing His works in the earth.

Stop the daydream. This is looking after the flesh, however well inten-tioned. It is what Paul called “not discerning the Lord’s body.” For the body of Christ is a body of Spirit. It is a spiritual entity. The body of Christ is not a “form of matter.” It is not a “material substance” [“body” Webster’s].  It is not made of human flesh like your earthly body and mine. The body of Christ is not that which is gathered together in a church building, where humans sit in pews, or any other manmade structure.

What is the body of Christ then? It is a body of spiritual righteous actions that the Holy Spirit does. We must stop looking after the flesh! We have known Christ after the flesh; we have seen Him as a human who suffered bodily on the cross. That marred body, ironically, is not the “body of Christ,” for the body of Christ is spiritual and invisible.

“Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer” (II Cor. 5: 16). We must rather fully awake to the fact that Christ now is a Spirit that can and does enter into our natural earthly bodies. The aforementioned “unsearchable riches” are found in the glorious mystery, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” And it takes born-from-above eyes to see the Kingdom of God established in everyone who receives Christ, the Spirit, into their heart (Col. 1: 26-27).

We are talking about the Spirit of God—Christ—the Anointed One—the Anointing—the Truth—the Spirit of Truth. His Spirit will take up residence in us. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3: 17). How can Christ the man from Galilee dwell in our hearts? By receiving His Spirit, which is the Father, for Christ and His Father are one—one Spirit.

So now, the body of Christ is a spiritual body of actions and attributes of the Spirit. And when we get out of the way and let Christ’s Spirit take over and love through us, then Christ will have reproduced Himself. This takes us back to His purpose—to reproduce Himself.

But, alas, that is the initial problem. We spent many years existing on the planet, nourished only on the imaginations of men. And habits of thinking and living have entrenched themselves into our grey matter. But God calls us out of the matrix-like soup of deception, and He saves us and gives us wonderful experiences that we cleave unto. But the habit of thinking ourselves to be part of the “other”—other than God—this thinking prevents us from making room for the Spirit Himself to dwell in our bodies fully.

This is why Christ provides a way for us to once and for all dispose of the blockage that prevents us from manifesting agape love. For our egos are the exact opposite of God’s nature of selfless love.

This is why Christ, as our example, died on the cross and now has required all of us to die in revelation with Him. The Spirit says, “You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

Once again, let us look at our hands. They as a part of our current physical bodies are alive. But we are dead. The old selfish sinful nature of born-from-above children of God has perished with Him on the cross. And the life that we now live, we live by the faith of Christ, for He has given us of His Spirit, by believing in His resurrection. We are the second man, a quickening spirit, a righteous spirit now, hidden in the Spirit called Christ. We are no longer bound by the belief that we are members of the animal kingdom, human beings calling ourselves the church, the body of Christ. We are not. We are a spirit that makes alive, a righteous action, and a force of truth, wisdom, and mercy. All things have become new. Old ways of looking at ourselves have passed away. We are now “members in particular” of the mystical, spiritual body of Christ.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock