The Abiding Comes with the Mind of Christ

From Journal entry, 6-3-19

The seventh addition of agape love is a direct result of abiding in Christ, which is having the mind of Christ.

Christ commands us, “Abide in me” (John 15:4).  This “abiding” comes from staying and remaining in Him and His mind. “Staying” and “remaining” are translated from the same Greek word as “abide or abiding.”

This is accomplished when we continually have Christ’s thoughts, plan, and purpose [More on His plan and purpose found here: Walking in the Spirit Comes from Knowledge of God’s Purpose of Reproducing Himself–Being About Our Father’s Business | Immortality Road (wordpress.com). This “abiding” yields much fruit. This spiritual fruit is agape love, which is the seventh addition to the faith.

We are to stay in His mind, walking in His thoughts. This is knowing Him. This knowledge of Him and His thoughts is the second addition to the faith.

To fully know Him we must know that He is sovereign. He created everything–both the good and the evil (Isa. 45:7). And He has subjected us to evil to accomplish His purpose of reproducing Himself—in us. We must remember how Christ suffered, how He endured the betrayals and the lies told against Him and even His crucifixion on false charges. He suffered, and He is our example, “that we should follow his steps” (I Peter 2:21). His armor will protect us from the onslaught of evil thought-arrows. And then once the trials are over, His love grows in us more and more until Christ is “all in all” (Eph. 1:23).

To abide in Him, we must think His thoughts. Part of Christ’s thinking is understanding death (the evil). To fully appreciate the resurrection unto eternal life (good), we must understand death. For you cannot partake in His resurrection without first partaking in His death. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[Get your free copy of The Eleventh Commandment found here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/free-copy-of-the-eleventh-commandment/  Also, order your free copy of The Additions to the Faith. Just send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com]

Reconciliation and the Abiding/Continuing

We must continue to believe that Christ through His death has reconciled everyone and has made peace between God and mankind.

That is the truth. The Father is the Spirit of truth. There is one Spirit, and He dwelled in the Son and did miraculous works (Eph. 4:4; John 14:10). Christ promises that the Father “shall be in you,” also (14: 17).

This promise is astounding! But what is the catch? What activates this promise of the Father taking up residence in us? What knowledge brings the promise into a reality in our Christian lives?

We need to know that it is a conditional promise; it sets up like this: If you do this and this, then He will abide in you. The promise is that the Father, who is this invisible Spirit, will come and dwell in us—if we continue in the faith. If we abide in the faith. If we dwell in the faith. If we remain in the faith. If we continue in the faith.

Faith. Belief. In what exactly? There is a whole lot of invisible action going on here. It takes faith to believe that the invisible Creator Spirit God would take up residence inside our bodies. But this is what He is asking us to do—trust Him. To maintain the Father’s presence in our hearts in a powerful reality, we must “continue in the faith.”

We see “continue in the faith” in Colossians 1:23. “If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard…” The thing we must continue to believe is that Christ through His death has reconciled everyone and has made peace between God and mankind (Col. 2:20-22).

That sounds wonderful, but Christ’s death and the reconciliation involves so much more. The question becomes: How does His death bring about reconciliation with God? Reconciliation comes through our old sinful self dying on the cross with Christ. Then we are buried with Christ, and then by faith in His resurrection “we are raised to walk in a newness of life.”  Our sin has died with Him. “The soul that sins must die,” the law says. We fulfill that at the cross.

The Spirit through the apostle Paul lines this out clearly. “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin–because anyone who has died has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:3-7 NIV).

Christ the Lamb of God took on the sins of everyone. “He was made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Our sins died with the sacrificial Lamb, for He carried our guilt and sin to the cross, and when He died, our old sinful self died, was buried, and—Praise Yah—was resurrected with Him!

[Someone reading this will say, “I knew that about the cross.” Yes, many have experienced the cross, but can they teach it to others? Is your belief of Romans 6 strong enough to weather the storms and trials both past and future?]

Back to the beginning of this article: Reconciliation with God is when we are at peace with Him, when there are no doubts and worries about our relationship with Him. For it was the sin nature that separated us from Him. When we realize that our sinful old self has already died on the cross with Him, things begin to clear up. The scriptures open to us. Things make sense.

This clarity He honors and reveals more of His truth. Reconciliation with God happens if we “continue/abide in the faith.” If we continue believing what He did for you and me at the cross and walking in that truth as seen in Romans 6: 3-12, then we will be ready through reconciliation to go deeper by adding His “divine nature” to the faith. [The Additions to the Faith is my latest book. Peter talks of seven additions that are vital to our growth in Christ (II Peter 1:1-12). If you have read this far, I know that this book is for you. The book is free with free shipping. It is my offering to God. Instead of money in an offering plate, I give a book to you…Please share your testimony in the comments section. It is very edifying to hear how God has touched your life.  Be sure and share this and give us a “like,” if we have edified you].    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Father Abiding in Us

God wants to inhabit us and abide and dwell in us. This is how He fulfills His purpose: To reproduce and multiply Himself, which is agape love. We know that we are His temple. He made us for Him to dwell in. Many times, we see Yahweh meeting Moses and Joshua [Yahshua the Savior, same name]. They met in the tabernacle in the wilderness. They carried on conversations there. This is His will, His desire that all God’s people be prophets (Numbers 11:29).

It is first the Father who dwells/abides in Christ; the Father speaks the words and does the works through the Son (John 14:10). [Newsflash! We are “members in particular” of the Son’s body; we are the “body of Christ.” Since we are a part of Christ’s body, then the Father, the Spirit of truth, is in us, too!

Can we believe this? Christ believes it. He has faith in the word of the Father. And, of course, we can believe it! It is His faith in operation here. We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God, (Col. 3:3). Our life is Him now. And that Him is the Spirit of truth that has come into you and me.

If anyone knew God this way, it was the apostle John, “the man whom Jesus [Yahshua] loved.” For John leaned on His chest and was literally comforted by Christ. Let us now lean on Him as John did. He is right there by you and me in spirit. Lean into Him and be encouraged that we all have this opportunity to draw close to Him. For the Holy Spirit through the apostle James said, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8).

Nevertheless, some of us have thought, “If only we had the Father dwelling in us, then He would speak and work through us.” If. There are no if’s nor but’s. It is all “Yes!” The power is there at hand. “The works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Heb. 4:3). We are not talking about the Father being way out there somewhere, but rather, closer than close.  He is inside of us.

[All these things written down by Christ’s apostles are maddeningly difficult to grasp while held hostage by a trinitarian three-God conception of the godhead. Yahweh dwelt in His Son; Yahweh is the Father and is an invisible Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Once that is straightened out in one’s heart and mind, then eyes see more clearly as to what God desires and how He wants to make it happen. ]

The Comforter, the Spirit of Truth

He has given to us another Comforter, which is the Spirit of truth “that He may abide/dwell” with us forever” (John 14:16). His presence is already promised and prepared.

The Comforter is the Spirit of truth. And the Spirit of truth is the Father who has promised to dwell/abide with us. Now, since we have that promise—that the Father will be in us—then by the Father’s presence within us, He will do the same works as He did through the Son of God. It is all in His timing, of course.

Final thought: Faith is the key. For His spiritual offspring, the Father abides in us when we believe that the Father dwells in us. We have to reckon it so by faith in His word. It is already done in His mind. He is waiting on us with great patience/endurance. He now wants us to be a witness here on earth of His magnificent glory. That is not just to witness His glory, but to be the witness. Remember this enigmatic concept? Man is the glory of God (I Cor. 11:7). And the good man will be humbled by this love that His Creator has bestowed upon him. And he will realize that he is only a speck of dust floating in a brilliant ray of light that is God’s mercy.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Ebb and Flow of the Abiding

I have noticed that there is an ebb and flow of the Spirit’s presence in my life. I say this not as a criticism of our merciful Savior, for He does all things well.

But I have observed that after a wonderful welling up of His presence within me, His Spirit subsides. Of course, it is I that backs out of the light that He shines. The rays of understanding engulf me, and then, I must back away a bit. I realize that it is “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.”

It is as if this old wine skin of my mind and body cannot stand the constant pressure of the new wine, so I recede a bit. It’s like being in the heavenlies for a while, and then needing to return to the earth’s atmosphere where I may breathe again the accustomed mixture of gases suitable for my current mortal tabernacle. I ponder this ebb and flow of His Spirit, or rather, my drifting away from His rarefied heavenly atmosphere.

I recall passages of scriptures describing what happens to his children who abide in him and not ebb and flow, but rather stay in him.

Our Savior said much about the abiding that we are to maintain. He believes that it is possible and necessary for us to have His Spirit remain, stay, dwell, and continue in our vessels.

Oh, how we need our new spiritual bodies that He has promised us! He knows our frailties, our weaknesses, and our faults. But He has promised us that He would raise us up at the end of this earth age. If we are alive upon His return, He will change us, as “mortality is swallowed up” by  our new spiritual body. If we expire before He returns, He will change us when He sweeps down to earth. We are coming back with Him, our Captain and leader. The ebb and flow will be no more, for we will be full of His Spirit. A glorious time is coming. Now we must wait until our time. “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come” (Job 14:14).     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

(From a Journal entry, 3-29-19)

God’s Will Is His Desire

“I just want to do His will…Only if the Lord wills…Seek His will…The will of God…” The use of “God’s will” is ubiquitous. Christians speak of His will all the time; they know that it is important. But it is used so much that the original meaning of “will” gets lost in the shuffle. The meaning of the word “will” has been shrunk down to a feeble, man-derived concept.  

God’s “will,” however, cannot be understood by squeezing it out of man’s wisdom. God’s will is vast; it is like going from a grain of sand to the cosmic energy of a billion suns. God’s will is galactic. Nevertheless, He has predestinated some of us “to be filled with the knowledge of His will.” How does He fill us? “Through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (Col. 1:9). That should be our prayer for each other: That you “be filled with the knowledge of His will.”

The Greek Word Translated “Will”

This “knowledge of His will” starts with this question: What does the word translated “will” mean in the Greek? The Greek word is thelema. It means “what one wishes” or desires. Simply put, His will is His desire. It is what God desires to do in heaven and earth (Blue Letter Bible – Lexicon (blbclassic.org).

What’s special about exactly doing His desires? Only those who do the will/desire of the Father will enter the kingdom of heaven. “Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will [desire] of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). Doing the Father’s will, then, is extremely important. Our standing with Christ—our growth, our service—is determined by how much of His desires we do. I am not referring to working for salvation; that is a gift from Him. But to grow spiritually, we must work because He has saved us.

But first, we must know His will/desire before we can do it.

On our search, of this we can be sure; whatever the Father desires, He will bring it to pass. So, we should ask ourselves, “What does God desire?” Most will say that it is something about salvation. Yes, salvation is the first step, and He desires to save us (Gal. 1:4). The Father’s desire/will is that Christ will lose none of His disciples, but will resurrect them in a new spiritual body (John 6:39-40).   

But the scriptures expound more deeply things concerning His “will.” First, His desire/will is a mystery. But God has revealed it to us. God has “made known to us the mystery of His will…  which he purposed in Christ.” God’s will/desire is to “gather together in one all things in Christ” in heaven and in earth (Eph. 1:9-10). That bears repeating. God desires to “gather together in one all things in Christ.” 2,200 different denominations is not bringing all things into one in Christ.

God’s desire/will is to have our hearts filled with His presence—that we grow to full maturity and bring our exiled King back to earth. We do this by preparing for His arrival. How? By feeding His lambs and sheep. By obeying His commands. By doing and teaching His doctrine. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God or not” (John 7:17). Do you know of His doctrine? His doctrine teaches us of His will, His desire. [Send for my book, The Apostles’ Doctrine. It is free with free shipping because Christ took “money” off the table. To order, go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/donate/ ] More on His will coming soon.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

How Christ Abides in Us

(from journal entry, 11-8-14)

Seekers of God must believe that God wants them to grow. If they do not believe that, they will remain immature in the body of Christ, spiritually floundering like children being tossed like leaves on a windy winter’s night. Yahshua has lined out how to grow in a series of commandments. Christ commands us: “Abide in Me and I in you” and “Add to your faith” seven attributes of His divine nature.

[These and other commandments are explored in my book The Eleventh Commandment; it isfree with free shipping to all who ask: Ordering My Free Books in Paperback | Immortality Road (wordpress.com)] [John 15:4-6; II Peter 1:1-11.  Also, I have just published online my latest book, The Additions to the Faith, found here: The Additions to the Faith | Immortality Road (wordpress.com)]. The additions are seven attributes of Christ’s “divine nature” that is possible for us all to accomplish. If Peter, Paul, and John can do it, we can, too.]

Some of you may be thinking, Wayne, here you go again with “how to become like Christ.” Some may not even believe that it is possible. Well, I would be remiss if I did not remind you again. It is my job. Teachers are His gifts to the church, His body. They are for “the perfecting [the maturing] of the saints…and the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come to the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect/mature man” unto the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-13). We are to grow “unto the fulness of Christ.”

This is the abiding of His heart and Spirit. The abiding of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” comes after the knowledge and then the doing of the seventh addition, which is Agape/Love.

It is one thing to recognize a command, but it is another to find out how to obey it. The point: First, we abide/remain/continue in Christ by believing His words concerning His promised presence within the Spirit of truth. Christ said that He is the vine, and we are the branches. When we abide or remain in Him, then we will “bring forth much fruit.”

This corresponds to the additions to the faith. When all seven are added, we will never be “barren nor unfruitful.” “Nor unfruitful” means “full of fruit.” “Full of fruit” means “much fruit.” And these additions will help us to make “our calling and election sure” (II Peter 1:4-10). When tied together, “the abiding” and the “additions” help us to be fruitful. If we abide in Him, then we bring forth “much fruit.”

The abiding is the sustained presence of the Spirit within us. This happens because of the seven additions, the seven qualities or attributes of the Spirit, leading to the seventh—agape love.

But how is all this done? How do we abide in Christ and He in us? How do we add to our faith? What is the formula, the steps, the way to do it?

Christlike Prayer

We abide in Christ and He in us through prayer. It is about the content of our communications with God. But it is not any old prayer. It must be like Christ’s prayers. It must not be asking Him and commanding Him for things for self. Prayer is worship, and “they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

So, the words that we speak to Him must be in accordance with what is important to God. Our prayers must agree with how Christ prayed and what he prayed for. We see this in the model prayer, called the Lord’s Prayer, given to His disciples when they asked him how to pray [page 28-60 in The Eleventh Commandment].

I remember back when I was teaching English, I was looking to glean some Nuggets for my high school juniors who desperately needed help in interpersonal relations. Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People, gave us this point: “Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.” You will not only get their attention, but you will get them to like you and sincerely win their friendship.

Let us extrapolate. What if we talked to God in terms of His interests? What if we talked to Him about the things that He is interested in. Would that not be better communication? Would we get his ear by discussing with Him His plan and what He is interested in? Do you think that He listens to self-centered prayers like “Bless us, dear Lord. Help me get this new job”? I doubt it. If we talked to Him about His plan and purpose and asked Him to learn more of His ways, do you think He would turn a deaf ear to you?

After all, Christ said, “If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” We must ask Him, not tell Him what to do. It is He that gives the commands. If we are abiding/continuing/remaining in Christ’s words of His plan, praying, and communicating in accordance with His will—then when we ask Him for more of His Spirit, He will abide in us.

Where do we find a description of what God is interested in? It is found in the words of the Savior, the prophets, and the apostles. Their words show us that God is interested in His Kingdom and his way of right living. He thinks about His Kingdom.

Why not talk to him about His Kingdom? After all, Christ did say, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.” We could ask Him about how He will govern the sheep and the goat nations (Matt. 25:31-46). Our Father would surely take notice of us; we would gain His ear, for not too many ask Him about His governance over the nations.

When we think His thoughts, we are abiding and remaining in Him. As we abide in Christ, we continue in the things He taught. We think and act on the thoughts of His mind. The world system pulls us away from His thoughts. If we could think His thoughts exactly like He thinks, then we would be abiding in Him. We would literally have “the mind of Christ.” The apostle Paul admonishes us, “Let this mind be in you.”

And how do we attain His thoughts? Through knowledge emanating from His mind, explained by His teachers. And how do we sustain His thoughts to the point that our mind is full of his thinking? Through prayer and study of his plan and purpose.

Praying the way He wants us to is the rudder that steers our minds back onto the charted course and on toward the city of the living God, the New Jerusalem, and to countless angels, and to our fellow brethren and to God our Savior Yahshua.

Abiding in Him

Loving Christ comes from the gratefulness that we feel toward Him for our deliverance from sin. “We love Him because He first loved us and gave Himself for us…” And now, because we love Him, we will keep his words to us. “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14: 23).

We see here a progression: Initial gratefulness grows into loving Christ. Because we love Him, we will value and obey His words. And then He promises to come into our hearts with a lasting relationship. He promises to abide/continue/remain in us, thus, fulfilling His sentiment: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”

And one of his words to us is “pray.” Christ talks about its necessity in scores of passages. So do His apostles. It must be extremely important. In fact, prayer is of the essence. Praying according to his plan and purpose keeps us abiding in Him. And in so doing, it makes us bear much spiritual fruit, which in turn fulfils our Father’s plan and purpose of reproducing Himself in us.

He said that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we shall ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us (John 15:7). That is the power that He wants us to wield. Abiding in Him yields much spiritual fruit in and through us. This would include the fruit of the Spirit, which is  “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal. 5: 22 ).

Spiritual Growth  Abiding in Him and He in us insures spiritual growth for us. There is a growth; just look at Peter and Paul before and after the resurrection. Again—if they can grow into spiritual powerhouses, then we can, too. We just need to study and incorporate their teachings. And the teachings of Christ and His apostles speak of The Abiding.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Abiding—Christ in You and You in Him

The Abiding is the most precious spiritual pose that we could ever be in. The Abiding is a two way street. Yes, He has promised that He would abide/stay/remain/continue in us. He has commanded us to abide in Him. But first we must abide/stay/remain/continue in Him (John 15:4-5).

How does one abide in Him and Him in us? First, we must be free from error about Him. He is the Truth [“I am the way, the truth and the life…”]. We cannot cling to any false conceptions about Christ and expect Christ the Truth to abide in us. This means that we must tune out the distractions of the world. We must turn a deaf ear to the tired erroneous platitudes of the false church and its teachings. We must abide in His thoughts and teachings and continue in His concepts and precepts. In order to abide and continue in Him, we must get rid of false teachings and concepts about Him.

If we do not, then these false concepts, like yeast, will spread all through the lump of dough that is destined to become the bread that feeds the minds of His followers. Tainted bread. Not good. Christ warns us about the old leaven. “Purge out the old leaven,” we are commanded, “that the lump may be holy.” The Spirit of Truth cannot come and abide in us if our thoughts about Him are tainted with the false concepts of man’s wisdom. The Spirit of Truth will not share a body with false doctrines. They do not mix.

It’s a War

Getting rid of the false doctrines is a real battle. It is an all-out war as we struggle face to face with our enemy, the devil. But it is all so deceptive. How are we to know which teachings are true and which are false? The answer, of course, is in the Scriptures of Truth.

But knowing that the truth is found in the Bible is obviously not enough to not be deceived. It takes studying the word of God. But that is not enough. It takes studying for the right reasons. Studying just for knowledge’s sake is not it. We need to examine ourselves according to the written word in order to purge out the old leaven teachings. It is the only way of getting rid of false teachings.

But it takes a heaven-sent strength to look in the mirror and tell yourself that you have been wrong about God and His plan. Ferreting out falsehoods in our belief system is like when you as a kid first began to see that Santa Claus was not real. You had to either renounce the whole idea or play along with the adults who had perpetuated the myth. As a child that lacked strength to swim against the stream of falsehoods, you for a time played their game. But now that you have become a spiritual adult, you have put away the myths of childhood. It is the same scenario with all of the false doctrines.

It is a war, and we need to arm ourselves with the thoughts of the mind of Christ. We must “put on the whole armor of God” if we are to survive this war. Those who continue to “play church” will be left out in the cold as the five foolish virgins were (Matthew 25:1-13). We must study out the old leaven false doctrines and the armor of God that protects us from their deception. [For more on this, order my latest book The Eleventh Commandment. It is free with free shipping Free Copy of The Eleventh Commandment | Immortality Road (wordpress.com) .

What Stunts the Growth of the Overcomers?

And when we get rid of old leaven doctrines and arm our minds with His thoughts, Christ takes note and has promised to abide in us! He has promised in that same holy word that He would come down and inhabit us with His Spirit! He has promised to live in us and walk in us, and use our mouths to speak to those out there struggling. I know that you long for power to do apostolic works like healing the sick and standing for righteous justice for all the world. This must take place first.

Many readers of this blog have already made stupendous strides of spiritual growth. You have already had several experiences that have proven to you that God is your loving Father. You have grown, but perhaps lately some have hit a plateau where they feel they are just not getting closer to the “mark of the prize of the high calling…” Something is stunting their growth. I submit that it could be the old leaven concepts that need to be repented of [See Chapter 44, p. 166 in The Eleventh Commandment]. 

The Overcomers

Christ’s elect are chosen to be the overcomers who will sit with Christ on His throne (Rev. 3:21). That is the top of the mountain, the fulfillment of the highest calling. They will know firsthand of Christ’s precious love for them.

But to get to Christ’s throne, the elect will have to repent of several faults. Christ says that these Christians in this last Church Age of Laodicea are lukewarm in their works, neither cold nor hot. It is so distasteful to Him that He will spue them out of His mouth (3:15-16).

Those whom He has called during the time of the end, have hit a plateau of growth and have become half-hearted. They are not on fire for Christ like they use to be. They have tapered off. The vision has grown cold.

Christ explains why are they are lukewarm. “Because you say, ‘I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.’ And you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (3:17). What a rebuke to the future overcomers who may—if they pass the test—enter Christ’s throne room four verses later. What’s their problem? “I am rich,” they say. This is not worldly riches. Christ said that His words are “spirit and they are life.” Lukewarm Christians think that they already know all they need to know about Christ. They are saying they have the truth and the others need to listen to them. They are like the Pharisees. It is religious pride; every denomination thinks that they are the true church.

Christ then gives the answer on how to repent of lukewarmness. “I counsel you to buy of Me  gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich, and white raiment that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that you may see” (3:18).

[Many Christians will stop right here and say to themselves that they don’t know what this is all about. Some are not willing to dig deep for the knowledge. Here is where studying should engage with a white hot desire to seek His wisdom and to know Him and His thoughts. Yes, ask Him to reveal what these terms mean: “gold tried in the fire.” Look at I Pet. 1:17 for a dot to connect to. “White raiment.” Study out “white” and “raiment” and “white raiment.” Look up these terms in the Greek and cross reference them with other Greek words. The English translators sometimes used three or four different English words taken from one Greek word. And “eye salve.” The blind are those who have not added the seven additions to the faith (I Peter 1:5-9). Look up blind and blindness. As you study hard, you will show Him that you mean business—His business.

Brothers and sisters, His government and kingdom is real, and it is coming, and He has planned to share with us His administration. We are auditioning for a job as a helper, an administrator, a prince or princess, an ambassador, a governor—you get the idea. This is real! He will not promote us to be His officers under Him if we do not study all of this out. Any other way borders on lukewarm child’s play.

If we are aspiring to the throne to sit with Him ruling this earth, we better “prove all things.” Do not take my word for any thing that I write. Do not take your preacher’s word for it. Ask Him to inhabit your mind; take His word and eat it, all of it, and do not look back. Make it yours. Prove it out to yourself.

If Christ’s rebuke seems a little too harsh, remember this: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent” (Rev. 3:19). We are here and have been rebuked by Christ for our religious pride. And because some have not studied out their shortcomings, He has issued this rebuke. But the rebuke proves His love for us. Only the ones He has chosen to come to His throne will get this rebuke. The others will not be able to see, for they are blind and need the eye salve. If you have hit rough times and you are feeling His lash, smile and know that He loves you.

He is looking for a few people who will answer the challenge to become just like our Creator, to have the same purpose, plan and power to make it all happen. Who among us will receive with humility His rebuke? Who will study out their faults as per His direction? Who will repent and praise Him for His love?

Kenneth Wayne Hancock