Enduring the Dark Night of the Soul

(from Journal entry, 10-3-22)

At our weakest moment, God will allow Satan to present a panorama of memories and recollections of our sordid past sins, weaknesses, and spiritual failures. This is our passage through the valley of the dark night of the soul.

It issues from many sources. Betrayals and the pain that may linger from them may come. Or our thoughts may take a journey once again into the night’s memories of yesteryear’s shortcomings.

In this weakened state, spiritual trouble comes with our thoughts about how destitute of love we were. We begin to see our selfish naked egos, stained with pride, justifying our use of others, of those who our Savior died for. It is as if we are peering into the screen of a time machine, a mirror that reflects just how we really were. We peer into the fruitless past, and that same panic of being lost in the maze of life, grips us as we look back and long and lament our adolescent idiocy and our selfish egoism.

We must fearlessly look at the images and believe that they are mere relics of our past life. Remember how Christ was tempted? Satan offered up full control of his kingdom to Christ if He would play ball with him. Christ resisted all the temptations. Now Christ in us resists them as well.

Christ with great mercy has promised that He would “never leave us nor forsake us.” Especially when Satan thrusts in our face our sins and faults of yesteryear. He is the “accuser of the brethren.” But it is the great mercy of our King that reigns supreme. He has our backs. He allows us to think these fleeting thoughts to show us more clearly the magnificent deliverance from sin that He has wrought in our lives. For that is what it was—not is! We remember that we are His, bought with His blood. And He leads us through this moonless trek, this suffocating remembrance of what we once were.

Through this experience, however, we learn that we have been forgiven much. Therefore, we will love much, which fulfills His purpose of reproducing Himself (Agape love) in us. Christ said, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little” (Luke 7:47 NKJV). These trials whereof we speak shows us that we have been forgiven much. A painful trudge down the “valley of the shadow of death” during our “dark night of the soul” shows us that. Those of us who see the reality of our shameful pasts and receive His forgiveness will love much. Those who do not see that they have been forgiven all that much—they will love only a little. “Her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

Finally, Satan tries to use these memories to condemn us, but God uses them to show us a clearer picture of just how evil our old nature was. Through this trial, we see more clearly just how much we have been forgiven—how much selfish ungodliness we have been delivered from.

For in the end, only those who see and realize how much sin they have been forgiven will love much. Only those will bear much fruit, thus becoming more like Christ and His apostles. That is His goal and purpose: our maturity, which fulfills His purpose of multiplying Agape Love, which is Him.

The “dark night of the soul” experience is part of His plan to fulfill His purpose: to reproduce Agape love in us, thus reproducing Himself till Love be “all in all” (I Cor. 15:28). His plan is to keep on perfecting until all that is left is Love.     [Would you share your “dark night of the soul” in the comments section? The testimonies of the Father’s sons and daughters are so important. “Likes” are nice and appreciated, but a comment fashioned by the Spirit with words from the heart—that is what moves us. That is what edifies and helps us mature. That we may grow “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12-13). For it is the “power that works in us” (Eph. 3:20). Your comments will be read all over the globe. Reach out and share your story?]      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Seeking and Finding God Is Not from a Magical “Poof!”

Seeking and finding God is not about one day falling into a glorious cavern of His spiritual treasures, where you look all around, overwhelmed with the power and glory, and you begin to run around with your hair on fire, seeking other humans to share this vision with.

Sounds nice. Whatever it takes to get your attention. But that is not the way things will happen based on this precept: “That which has been is now, and that which is to be has already been. And God requires the past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15).

“God will call the past to account” it says in the NIV. The past is important to our Father. For example, He inspired His prophets to write His exploits down for the generations to come. For us—especially for us destined to be a factor in “the time of the end.” The things that happened to the twelve tribes of Israel back in the day is “written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come” (I Cor. 10:11). We must look to the past to secure our steps on our current spiritual walk. How did the prophets and apostles of old seek Him? What happened to the true seekers of Yah? What did He reveal about Himself to them? God requires once again that we seek and find Him the way they did in the past. We must remember what He said: “I change not.”

To find out more, let us go to the apostles. They had 3 1/2 years of everyday hands-on instruction. 3 1/2 years Christ taught them. Christ’s teachings recorded in the Bible would take just a few hours to read. They had a thousand days with Him. Think about the things He taught them that are not recorded!

They were prepared vessels, taught by their Master and chosen by Him to be in the upper room at Pentecost. It was not a magical “Poof!” that transformed them into the powerhouses we see in the book of Acts.

What They Were Taught

Brothers and sisters, we can be taught the Master’s doctrine right now. His teachings are His doctrine. And Christ taught his disciples well. It was first the book learning, and then the on-the-job training as seen in Matthew 10.

The point is this: His apostles have left us His teachings, that when followed, will prepare us for not just a Pentecostal experience but how to be the saviors of this sick planet.

Since today God requires the things of the past, then we must study how He operated in the past. For example, Christ walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection. They could not recognize Him until He “expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Christ had upbraided them. “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25-32). This again shows how studying the scriptures (both Old and New Testaments) are so important.

But someone we’ll speak up and say, “But I already am walking with Christ!” Not if you are espousing false doctrines. Not when you still confess that you are a sinner. Not when your old selfish heart raises its ugly head. Not when you still don’t realize that we have been baptized into Christ’s death (Romans 6). We are dead with Him, buried with Him, and resurrected with Him, to walk in a “newness of life.”

People of God, this is repentance from sin, the very first of the apostles’ doctrine. The apostles got His teachings directly from Christ. And now they have given it to us. There are six more of his doctrines/teachings. These will prepare us for our appointment with Christ when he empowers us to be just like his apostles after the baptism of fire.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit and the baptism in fire are not the end goal for the elect. They are stages of spiritual growth to enable us to be used by Him to work in His harvest of souls. Those two baptisms are not the end, but rather they are means to the end. And that end is the fulfillment of all the prophecies “spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began.” Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Birth Adventure of Our Daughter Sara

[A joyous yet cautionary tale]

Sara was born in Linares, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She was almost born on the road to Linares. She came rather rapidly once her time had come to enter this world. That was February 1, 1974. Sara’s first adventure was almost being born on the side of a mountain.

We were living 62 kilometers up the mountain from Linares on Hwy. 60–due west in the Sierra Madre mountains. It took one hour to travel those 37 miles, no matter if you were going uphill or downhill. The road was steep, so steep and curvy that going 20 miles an hour sometimes would throw you against the side of the van.  

It was a beautiful drive most of the time. Kilometer 62 was our address and was exactly a mile high, cool and dry in the winter. But just one hour away lay the sultry tropics of Linares. The city was surrounded by enormous orange and grapefruit orchards for as far as the eye could see.

The week before Sara was born, my wife Linda had false labor. She thought it was time. “Hurry, Wayne! It is time to go to the hospital!” So, we ran to the van and drove like crazy to get there in  time, only to find out that the baby was not ready. Disappointed, we drove on back to the mission and resumed our day-to-day activities.

The days clicked on. Linda got bigger and bigger and still no baby. She would have some twinges and pains here and there, but nothing serious seemed to be happening. Or at least she thought that.

Linda kept waiting and waiting, thinking it was just false labor again. Things got serious on February 1^st. The contractions were getting harder. At first, they were four minutes apart, and then two minutes apart.

“Hurry! This must be the time!” Linda moaned. We sped down the mountain faster than usual. I know I was jostling her way too much. The extreme rocking motion probably helped to bring it on even faster. Down, down, and round and round we sped down that mountain, and all the while Linda was crying out in pain, “It’s coming! It’s coming! Hurry! Oh, God, it’s coming!”

We pulled into the hospital driveway in front of the receiving ward. Thank goodness that it was on the near side of the city on our highway. The side doors flew open. I called out for help. Medics rushed over. We got Linda onto a gurney, and they wheeled her swiftly down the hallway to the maternity delivery room. All the while, she was moaning in a wild-eyed blonde frenzy.

It was not five minutes after we got there that Sara came into this world. It happened so fast that they did not even have enough time to take Linda’s dress off and put her into a gown. I shouted to the nun nurses, “I want to come into the delivery room!”

“No, you cannot come in here. You must stay outside the doors.” The double doors had glass windows about eight inches above my eye level. So, I had to jump up and take a split-second glimpse of my first daughter being born. I didn’t have time to jump too much because the baby came quickly.

Usually, Linda had a difficult time because our babies had such large craniums. But, thank God, not Sara. She came so quickly that she just popped out, and there it was, the miracle of procreation once again gracing the stage we call earth. Hello, crazy daddy, jumping up and down to catch a glimpse of the precious little miracle. And finally, there it was!

“It’s a boy!” I shouted out at the top of my lungs. “It’s a boy!” I was announcing boldly through the cracked door to all the attendant nuns and to the radiant mother herself, now holding her new infant.

“No, it’s not,” said Linda calmly, patiently smiling at the ecstatic father. “It’s a girl.”

“But,” I said, looking down between the baby’s legs.

“That’s the umbilical cord wrapped around her.”

“I thought it was… that’s OK! It’s a beautiful baby girl!”

This is one of the most memorable adventures, not just as missionaries to Mexico, but in our entire life. Sara has been adventurous ever since. I guess it is in her DNA.  

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Heartbreak of Being Human

I have not forgotten the heartbreak of being human. Especially not now when the joy of my existence in Christ is fully engaged within.

I have not forgotten the pain, the pain now witnessed in tears of stone. Most every countenance I see is an exquisite miniature tragedy, played out on a 9 to 5 stage.

The human faces try to lie, but they cannot. For the flash of smiles lasts but a flicker, and then it’s back to a sullen reality.

I have not forgotten the heartbreak of being human, how the droning of the tenacious bells and sirens and buzzers and beeps drag them to maddening mental convulsions.

I have not forgotten the heartbreak of being human. It is captured in every culture’s songs. From the blues to tear jerkers, from opera to the mournful cries of the Portuguese fado, they all moan the loss of love and the loss of purpose for their existence.  

Catharsis remains as mankind walks the tragic path. All this suffering notwithstanding, there is hope for love and joy and peace to reign on this earth headed by the Prince of peace.

I have not forgotten the heartbreak of being human, of being addicted to Big Tech’s latest bread and circus, of being marched into delusional darkness, without “the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.” To those who receive Him, however, “to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:9-12).

And now, as I look out over the land, secure in His love that is witnessed by the works that He has done within, I am grateful. Still, a saddened joy washes my eyes and helps me see the “multitudes in the valley of decision.” It helps me see that I have not forgotten the heartbreak of being human. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Outline for Teaching and Evangelizing

God’s Purpose

1. To reproduce and multiply Himself
2. He is Agape Love
3. Therefore, His purpose is to reproduce Christ’s Love

1. The Plan to fulfill His Purpose [See pp.41-48 in The Royal Destiny].
2. Law of Harvest—You reap what you sow. God does, too.
3. Human beings used as the medium to reproduce Himself in
4. The Word is the seed. Matt. 13, The Parable of the Sower
5. The Word/Seed Son fell into the ground for three days and three nights in the tomb.
6. Christ died on the cross and was raised from the dead.
7. He desires us to spiritually die with Him on the cross. Belief in His resurrection germinates the Seed, the Word of God, in us (Romans 6:1-12).
8. We now become “babes in Christ.” This puts us on the road to growth by His Spirit within.
9. Spiritual growth is measured by three levels—30, 60, 100-fold growth. Knowing, Doing, and Being. “Children, young men, fathers” (I John 2:13-14).

1. What we must do to have the Spirit grow within us. We cannot do anything to earn the salvation of God. But we certainly must do things to grow to be like Christ.
2. “Continue steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine” Do what they did. Their doctrine was Christ’s teachings (Acts 2:42-43) [See book The Apostles’ Doctrine].
3. Add to your faith  (II Peter 1:4-[See book The Additions to the Faith]
4. Obey Christ’s “new commandments.” [See book The Eleventh Commandment]
5. “Purge out the old leaven” so that we can become holy. Repent of false doctrines and concepts about Christ our King.
6. “Put on the whole armor of God.”
7. If we do these things, we will grow, or His Spirit will grow in us, that we “be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine” that the devil throws at us. Doing all these things builds a sure foundation.
8. Study His word, His thoughts, His purpose, His plan. God’s approval is given to those who study, who “accurately handle the word of truth” (II Tim. 2:15).
9. The above are the “first principles of the oracles of God,” the “elementary truths,” the “milk of the word.” Strong meat comes after mastery (Heb. 5:12-14; 6:1-2).
10. “If you do these things, you shall never fall.” This provides “an entrance” into that dimension that Christ and His apostles walked in (II Pet. 1:10).

[See you on Immortality Road blog: immortalityroad.wordpress.com. Use the “Search” tab on the home page to research any of these topics. To order my books, free with free shipping: Send name, address, name of book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com]