Answering the Biggie: “What’s the Purpose in Life”

As God’s sons and daughters, we search, and we receive from Him insights as to what He has done, is doing, and shall do.

Man’s most often asked question is “What’s the purpose in life?” To understand what the Father is doing, we must begin with His purpose. What is He up to? He has written the answer in the pulsing vibrancy of nature. We can look at the natural created world and see what is going on in the spiritual invisible world. “For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Rom. 1: 20 NIV).

Nature is not God; it is not to be worshipped. But we can gain understanding about what nature’s Creator is doing by observing nature. The living things in both animal and vegetable kingdoms are reproducing themselves. It is in their drive, their DNA, their instincts to reproduce; it is their purpose. Look outside and you’ll see squirrels in trees with insects crawling and flying by. And their actions are derived from one purpose: to reproduce themselves.

God’s purpose? He is reproducing Himself. And that is where you and I come in. He is using you and me. That is what distinguishes humans from nature. God created us as a medium to be used to reproduce Love, for “God is love.” Agape love. That is our purpose.

It Starts with a Seed

In the natural world, it all starts with a seed. You bury a seed in the earth; it dies, and then it springs to life. It is the same with God and how He is reproducing Himself. The man Christ was the Seed. He was chosen by the invisible Father to be the Seed that through the Son, we humans could be used by God to reproduce Himself. The Seed, the Son of God, had to be sacrificed and buried in the earth, and be resurrected after three days and three nights.

He gave up His life so that those who followed His example might be resurrected with Him. To be used by God to reproduce Himself in us, we, like Christ, must choose to give up our old selfish life by letting it die on the cross in revelation with Christ. Then we are “buried with Him in baptism, and “by faith in the operation of God” who raised Him from the dead, we, too, have been “quickened together with Him” (Col. 2: 12; Rom. 6: 1-12).

We rise with Him and become new creatures that can mature like that little blade of corn in springtime’s field. He gives us of His Spirit, and He leads us into paths of growth all the way to His throneroom.

But God is sovereign and will use both “good things” and “bad things” to achieve our spiritual growth. It is like a gentle rain upon an early crop of corn. A good thing. And then a storm smashes down those tender blades with strong winds and hail. And yet the next morning the sun comes out, and its rays caress the stalks and blades of corn, and the crop raises up and dances with the joy of summer’s warmth. So it is spiritually with us.

Those whom He has called and chosen to reproduce Himself will embrace this message. They will be guided by the Spirit of truth, as He leads us into all truth—the truth as to why we are here and where we are to go and what we are to be.

The Son of God is the Great Teacher and has outlined in John 14-17 how the Father will hasten our growth. Christ has given us a series of New Commandments, that when followed, will pave the way to the door of His difficult to see Kingdom. Obeying them produces agape love growing inside our hearts. This is the Abiding. And His Spirit within will enable us to bear “much fruit.”

We are on the ultimate treasure hunt. “Its price is far above rubies.” Gold and silver cannot touch this treasure. For this treasure is what all of the civilizations that have ever populated this planet have wanted. This treasure is nothing less than Everlasting Life, nothing less than being complete Love Incarnate, with joy radiating out from the pure heart of God within us. It is nothing less than fulfilling what all of us humans have longed for—to be loved and appreciated. And those who answer this “high calling” will be in God’s family, and He will move over and let us sit with Him on His throne.

Sound farfetched? As a competent teacher, I am merely relating now what is in the text concerning sitting on God’s throne. I am not extrapolating. I am getting this knowledge from Christ’s own lips, written down by the apostle John on the isle of Patmos. “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne…” (Rev. 3: 19-21 NIV).

Several articles on the New Commandments, the Abiding, and the Spirit of truth have been published here over the past several months. It is my wish that this overview will increase understanding as to God’s purpose and how He will use us to fulfill it.

{Links to Articles: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/?s=new+commandment+commandments

https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/?s=abiding }

[Ordering My Free Books in Paperback

I am now able to send you a copy of my books absolutely free with free shipping.  Please specify which one.

Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality explores the deeper meaning of our Savior’s Hebrew name Yahshua, which means Yahweh is the Savior.

The Unveiling of the Sons of God explains how the whole creation is waiting and longing for the manifestation (the unveiling) of the sons of God for these latter days. Christ will be totally formed in His elect as they will have grown and matured spiritually into His likeness and power.

The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It explores God’s vision for us, to be kings with Christ and how He will use us to reproduce His nature of Love.

My latest book is The Apostles’ Doctrine. Their doctrine was Christ’s teachings. And the early church walked in those teachings. This book reveals just what they are and how to walk in them.

Send your request, specifying which one of my books you desire, to my email address:  wayneman5@hotmail.com Include your name and mailing address. For those outside the United States, or who may prefer a pdf copy of the last two books mentioned, please specify.  Also, you may read the first two books online at my website Immortality Road found here:   https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com

God bless you and your family, and thank you for taking a stroll with me on Immortality Road.]

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Agape Love and the New Commandment

Would Christ give us a commandment that is impossible to keep? He tells us this: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13: 34).

We have seen that God’s eternal purpose is to reproduce Himself, to reproduce and multiply Agape Love, for He is Love. And now Christ has commanded us to love each other the same way that He has loved us.

We are to love each other with the Christ-like love, the love from above. But how do we begin to obey this commandment—to love each other like Christ loved us? We need help from God to obey this one. We need His presence within us, for only God, who is agape love, can love with the love from above.

He knows our frailties. He knows that we need His help to keep the new commandment to love each other with Christ-love. So He has promised to send the “Spirit of truth” to those who believe. That is a promise, the most precious promise that we could ever receive from God—His very Spirit coming down from above and dwelling in us!

We have been called to be recipients of the glory of His presence within us. After our conversion to Christ, God has “given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” These “things” are His promises—“exceeding great and precious promises.” And it is through these promises contained in the presence of His Spirit within us now, that we can be “be partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1: 3-4). He has promised; we have to believe His promises to actualize them.

The Promise

Christ’s promise to us is to give us the Spirit of truth so that we may love each other. In that general promise are several other promises. First, the Spirit of truth will abide with us forever (John 14: 16). “Abide” is the key word here. It is translated from the Greek word meaning “continue, dwell, stay, remain,” and is translated in other places as such. He did say, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Second, the Spirit “dwells with you, and shall be in you” (v. 17). Here He promises us that the Spirit will stay with us and reside in us.

Third, He will not abandon us. “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (v. 18 NKJV). His presence in us will comfort us; we will not feel alone, “for Thou art with me.”

Fourth, through His resurrection, we obtain everlasting life. He promised, “Because I live, you shall live also” (v. 19). We will live eternally because of His Spirit residing and staying in us.

Fifth, He tells us, “You shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in you” (v. 20).

Sixth, to all those who keep His new commandments and thereby prove their love for Him: “He that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him” (v. 21). Here Christ is promising us that He will make Himself known to those who keep the  new commandments.

Seventh promise: He will make Himself known to those who love Him and keep His words. “And my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14: 23). Here He promises that the Father, who is the Spirit of truth, will come and take up residence within us. And He will stay and remain within us. This only happens to those of us who keep His sayings, who obey His new commandments. Knowing and doing these new commandments of Christ is of the utmost importance to fulfill our calling and election of being His sons and daughters.

Eighth, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Father—they are all the same Entity—“He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (v. 26). Teachings will come; revelations of truth will come from the very Spirit of God and not from the false imaginations of man.

Ninth, “My peace I give unto you.” His peace insures that our hearts will not be troubled nor afraid (v. 27).

Tenth, we have the promise of answered prayer. But it is prayer in accordance with His teachings on the new commandments. “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15: 9-10).

Qualities of the Spirit of Truth

These promises are staggering, although they are contingent on the presence of the Spirit in us. With these qualities of the Spirit of truth in mind, Christ commands us to “continue ye in my love.” In essence, He is saying, I have loved you with the same love that the Father has loved me. With the Spirit of truth that will abide in you, you can continue or remain or abide in this agape love (John 15: 9).

But how do we stay/remain/continue/abide in this agape love? Christ answers the question in the next breath: “If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love.” Commandments. Plural. Back in John 13: 34, it was a new commandment—singular. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another…”

The secret is this. In order to obey the new commandment of loving others the way that Christ did, we need obey a series of commandments from Christ’s own mouth. Each one sheds light on a facet of agape love. When we obey them, agape love is manifested.

Some of Christ’s “new commandments” are don’t judge, forgive, give, love your enemies, pray for others, do good to your persecutors, turn the other cheek, and others.

He tells us to abide in Him and commands us to forgive others like He forgave us. When we obey this command, His divine nature of agape love is shown and witnessed by others. This is how we continue in His love. His love is agape love, and it is only His love, now shown through us when we forgive each other, that can truly forgive.

When we forgive someone who has hurt us, then a facet of Christ’s love begins to shine through us. This is the abiding of His Spirit inside of our hearts. This is the continuing in His love. He said, “This is my commandment, That you love one another as I have loved you (John 15: 12). This love from above flowed through Him to forgive the world and all in it. Now He has commanded us to love each other as He was moved to love all of us—by first forgiving everything in everyone. Pre-emptive forgiveness. Forgiving people for being human. Forgiving God for dealing us an imperfect hand.

A Word about Human Nature

Everything that humans say or do is driven by the spiritual nature they are of. When we think on this then we see that if someone has the old, sinful nature of selfishness, then they are going to eventually hurt the people that they are with. Under pressure, true colors are manifested. A selfish old heart motivates one to use another. But we now have this knowledge, and we begin to see others with spiritual eyes, after the Spirit, and not just on the outward appearance.

It is only when we take this personally, that we resent these unfortunate ones, those who have not yet been converted from darkness to light. “We who are strong must bear the infirmity of the weak.” We, the sons and daughters of God, must reach out and love them by forgiving them. And in so doing, we will “continue in His love.” This means, Let the love keep flowing down through Christ the Vine and on into us the branches, thereby bearing sweet clusters of loving and peaceful and joyous fruit of the Spirit to be plucked and eaten by passersby.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace, and there is no law against it. Every heart yearns for this fruit. The sons and daughters of the God have the privilege to be the ones to give this fruit to everyone in the world.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Adding Agape Love to Our Faith–The Greatest Love

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” *

Those Christians chosen by God to answer the “high calling” in being His manifested sons and daughters in these last days must add seven things to their faith “obtained” from Him. The apostle Peter clearly lines them out in his second letter. The last one is agape, the divine love that is God Himself [1].

When added, these seven attributes make us “partakers of the divine nature.” They insure that we will never be “barren nor unfruitful” in Him. Adding them is the way to “make [our] calling and election sure.” In other words, they are extremely important to study out and incorporate into our being.

Adding “godliness” is adding an increased love and appreciation of God. Adding “brotherly kindness” is loving your fellow man as God does. Adding agape love to them is when the very essence of God’s divine nature, which is Love, is placed by Him into His temple, you and me.

“Love, Love, Love”

The poets and writers know that “love is all you need,” that “love is the answer,” that “nobody gets too much” of it. They herald love’s necessity  today as they have since mankind first spoke of their inner feelings. They know that “what the world needs now is love, sweet love.” We hum the tunes and whisper the words of this ancient truth, but how do we tap into and receive into our hearts that divine entity, that attribute of the divine nature that eludes us?

We first look to family for love, to our dear mothers who innately gave of themselves to us. Then to friends and acquaintances we go searching for love and acceptance. Then on to our search for “the one,” the one we will marry, the one who will love us surely; surely they will.

Natural mankind is filled with this longing to be loved. But the very people that he wants love, respect, and admiration from do not know how to give it really. Unconditional love is not man’s forte because it is the divine love that mankind is really craving. For only divine love is strong and selfless enough to forgive  mankind’s sins and shortcomings. Besides, the very person that we seek unconditional love from is limited, also, and doesn’t have the capacity to love like that. Most are bogged down in their own pursuit of love for themselves from others in this world.

And so this unrequited love on all sides seethes oftentimes into a bitter bile of dissatisfaction and dismay. The swirl of perceived rejection and angst can begin to flush one’s mind down into the pit of despair.

Consequently, the real need for us all is to forgive those who have not loved us like we thought they should have. But forgiveness only issues from a heart of love.

Alexander Pope, the 18th Century English poet, was right. “To err is human; to forgive divine.” The water of forgiveness can only be drawn from the divine well of Love. Agape love is the fountain of forgiveness. I cannot forgive you unless I love you because forgiveness is fashioned only from a heart of love.

Where Is This Fountain of Love?

But where do we get that divine love? Where is that rarefied pool of love, the “living waters” that we sojourners may drink and fill our hearts for our journey through “the valley of the shadow of death”?

It comes from God, for “God is love” [2]. Everyone knows that; it’s been repeated over and over down through the millennia. Yet, repeating it will still not fill us with this most ethereal of elixirs, agape love.

The Key

The key lies in answering this question: How is it that “God is love”? How is He agape love? Why is He love? We begin to sip this life-giving love when we finally see it in action. But not just see it. We must believe it, believe in it, trust it, breathe it, and live it.

For God, who is Divine Love, poured His essence of love into a man. Agape love is the Word, and the Word was God, and Love “was made flesh and dwelt among us” [3]. This Divine Love was incarnated in Christ and dwelt with mankind in the form of our Savior.

When we believe Christ’s story of God’s great love displayed when Christ laid down His life for the salvation of the world, we begin to add His nature of divine love to our spirit. When we believe in His death, burial, and resurrection, then through faith (belief) in Him and this very action of love, we begin to tap into that flow of the Spirit of love. He begins to love that hard to love person in our life through us. It is God who is loving them through us. He is the actor, we are the medium.”

Our belief in His resurrection in us localizes God, who is love. Our belief in His resurrection raises up His Spirit of love in us, the divine Spirit of love. This is how God magnifies and multiplies Himself. He reproduces Himself through His spiritual nature of love manifested through us, His offspring.

Christ showed the greatest love in the universe when He willingly laid down His life for us. Meditating on this revelation of the greatest love witnessed on earth in Christ is the key to exponential spiritual growth. It is the key to understanding the Holy Bible. It is the key to solving all the mysteries of God.

It is when we follow Him in His baptism, when we willingly lay down our selfish lives on the cross with Him, when we are buried with Him, and when we believe that we are risen with Him–then that very same Love–the greatest Love of all–flows through us from Agape Love Himself. Our belief in the greatest Love of all is believing in Christ’s laying down His life and taking it back up again. When we follow Him in this, we tap into that Spirit of Love and add it to His divine nature in us [4].     Kenneth Wayne Hancock    [For more information on this topic, I invite you to peruse these articles found here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/?s=additions

[Ordering My Free Books in Paperback

I am now able to send you a copy of my books absolutely free with free shipping.  Please specify which one.

Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality explores the deeper meaning of our Savior’s Hebrew name Yahshua, which means Yahweh is the Savior.

The Unveiling of the Sons of God explains how the whole creation is waiting and longing for the manifestation (the unveiling) of the sons of God for these latter days. Christ will be totally formed in His elect as they will have grown and matured spiritually into His likeness and power.

The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It explores God’s vision for us, to be kings with Christ and how He will use us to reproduce His nature of Love.

My latest book is The Apostles’ Doctrine. Their doctrine was Christ’s teachings. And the early church walked in those teachings. This book reveals just what they are and how to walk in them.

Send your request, specifying which one of my books you desire, to my email address:  wayneman5@hotmail.com  Include your name and mailing address. For those outside the United States, or who may prefer a pdf copy of the last two books mentioned, please specify.  Also, you may read the first two books online at my website Immortality Road found here:   https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com

God bless you and your family, and thank you for taking a stroll with me on Immortality Road.]

]

*John 15: 13

1. II Peter 1: 4-11; Eph. 1: 4.  [Agape is the Greek word that is translated in many versions as “charity.” Because of “charity’s” obvious modern connotation, it clouds the true meaning of the passage.]

2. I John 4: 8, 16.

3. John 1: 1, 14.

4. Romans 6: 1-12

*John 15: 13