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

In the Beginning Was the Seed—Part One

(Every garden begins with a seed. The Spirit is saying, Come with Me and dig deep in the garden of God)

We must “dig deep” because the garden holds a secret. But the garden gate is locked; we need the key. Christ is the key to the mystery of the locked garden gate. Christ’s words enfold this truth: “The parable is this: the seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11).

Seed = Word. Word = Seed. Therefore, “In the beginning was the Word [Seed]…And the Word [Seed] was God” (John 1:1). And the Seed was God. In the beginning of all things was the Seed. And those that are His have been “born of that incorruptible seed, the word of God” (I Peter 1:23).

We now believe that the Seed, the Son of God, died, was buried, and was raised from the dead. Our belief in Him generates a new birth of that same Seed/Word in our hearts. We have that same seed in us. We are created in His image–both physical and spiritual. Like a garden seed is programmed to die, be buried, and spring to life, so it is in the spiritual realm.

What do seeds do? They grow. They are designed to spring to life and grow. Be it animal, vegetable, or spiritual, we are all designed to grow from a seed. In the Holy Bible, Christ and his apostles have commanded us to do certain things to spur on this growth.

The book The Additions to the Faith deals primarily with one of His commandments: “Add to your faith” the seven additions of the divine nature (I Peter1:5). Your faith is really His faith. There is only one faith (Eph. 4:5). Faith is the seed-beginning of all potential spiritual growth. It takes believing the word/seed faith, having not seen the physical evidence.

We should pause before exploring the seven additions to our faith. We must hold this truth tightly. The faith we have now from God is Christ’s actual faith/belief system. Christ believes  His own plan to spread agape love all over the earth in human beings.

God’s purpose is the reproduction of Himself, which is Love. He does this by using the age-old Law of Harvest: Each seed bears its own kind. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7 NASB). Spiritually speaking, we reap what we sow. But this sowing and reaping has nothing to do with Christians giving money to evangelists and believing that they will gain a return of money “one hundred-fold.” This prosperity doctrine is insidious. It preys on desperate people who fall into the trap of always looking after the flesh, thereby missing the Holy Spirit.

The Law of Harvest has to do with spiritual growth, as well as physical. Christ said, “The words I speak they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). There is no spiritual growth except through a germinated seed. The seed is the word of God. Then the word, like Christ, is made flesh in our mortal bodies. But the seed must be sown in good ground, in a “good and honest heart.”

Spiritual growth is how much of God’s Spirit of love grows in our hearts. He wants us to bear the peaceable fruit of righteousness in a fully mature growth which Christ calls bearing 100-fold fruit. To bear this amount of spiritual fruit, we must “know him that is from the beginning,” the beginning of all things. “Beginning” is from the Greek word arche. This “arche/beginning is not a recent, little beginning. It is big and deep and goes back before the worlds were framed by the word of God. The same word is used in John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word.” Or, we can now say, “In the beginning was the Seed.”

This study gives us the key to the garden gate. This study about the Seed/Son opens it. And it gives us knowledge on how to enter the 100-fold fruit bearing growth. For knowing Christ from the beginning is the key.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[Order your free copy of The Additions to the Faith, with free shipping. Just send your name, the name of the book, and your mailing address to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com ]

Admonishment about the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit”

Delivering an admonishment is seldom joyous. Receiving one can be grievous. Yet we are told to admonish each other. And so, the time “to warn of a fault and reprove kindly, but seriously” is now.

First, allow me to set the scene. Yesterday I sat down and waited at my desk for inspiration from Yahweh. I had prayed for words for your edification. I thought of the Pentecostals and charismatics, whose defining characteristic is the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” experience. And I wondered why I never hear them share any of what the Spirit is showing this vessel from the scriptures of truth.

And then, as it were, a silent voice spoke to me. “Hey, Wayneman, why don’t you just tell your readers to get baptized in the Holy Spirit? All these things you are telling them—the additions to the faith, purge out the old leaven, continue steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine, the using the sacred names of Yahshua and Yahweh, obeying all of Christ’s commandments, and putting on the armor of God. Look. We just want Jesus. We don’t want doctrine.”

I replied with a question. “Are these teachings I share scriptural? Are they in the Holy Bible? The answer is ‘yes.’ But you are saying that basically all you need is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that that is the ultimate prize. Boom! Just receive it! But the Holy Spirit is not an ‘it.’ The Spirit is the Father Himself, the eternal invisible One. That is also in the scriptures (1Tim. 1:17; John 4:24; II Cor. 3:17-18).

I continued. “You say, Just receive it, and then you will be right with God. That’s all there is to it. The irony is this: You say that you want the same experience that the early apostles received at Pentecost, and yet, these very apostles taught all the things that you think is unnecessary for a 21^st Century walk with God.

There are no shortcuts. There is a “strong delusion” happening in Christendom. Many have been deceived into thinking that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a be-all end-all. But it is not. To grow into the “manifestation of the sons of God,” it will take much more than a singular experience with God. The experience may be a wake-up call. But there is so much more knowledge needed to do His will “in earth as it is in heaven.”

Peter and the Additions (I Peter 1:1-10)

It is none other than the apostle Peter who tells us to “add to your faith” seven facets of God’s nature. This is the disciple who had seen it all. As one of the original twelve, he was an eyewitness of countless miracles done by Christ. He was there at the Mount of Transfiguration. He spoke with Christ after His resurrection. And most importantly for the Pentecostals and charismatics, he was definitely “baptized in the Holy Spirit.”

And Peter is the one who tells us to add to the faith. Through studying out the seven additions, we receive “exceeding great and precious promises that “by these [promises] you might be partakers of the divine nature” (v. 4).

There is something more profound than having an experience with God. God uses those experiences to help call us to His service. They get our attention. I never argue with a person’s experience. For they will say, But I know the baptism in the Holy Spirit is real!

I am not refuting that. But did God show you through that experience the meaning of Christ’s parables? Did the experience give you knowledge of how to grow into spiritual maturity? Did it prepare you to sit with Christ on his throne? Did it take you through the cross experience where your old nature has died? Did your experience give you all the knowledge of God–knowledge that the Spirit through Peter told us to have?

Peter was a major recipient of the baptism of the Spirit and fire. Fire. Since we today did not get to walk with Yahshua for three and a half years, we need to study out the teachings that they were privy to. After all, where did Peter get this knowledge about the seven additions? It was from Christ’s teachings during those three and a half years.

Peter says that if those seven additions “be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (Yahshua)” (verses 3-10). The Spirit through Peter says that if you have added these seven divine attributes, then you will be fruitful in the knowledge of Christ. But if you don’t add them, you “are blind and cannot see afar off.” The same God who gave you your experience is the same God who’s now telling you that you must add more of his divine nature to the faith that he’s given you. And that takes study.  

I could go on and on. In fact, I have published six books on these subjects. They are a distillation of 50 years of study. It was the Spirit in the apostle Paul who admonished us to “study to show yourself approved unto God” so that you won’t be ashamed when you appear before Him (II Tim. 2:15). What to study? Start with the additions. They are in my latest book, The Additions to the Faith.

The admonishment comes to us from Peter and Paul: Don’t be deceived by the “strong delusion” of a spiritual shortcut via a “baptism in the Holy Spirit” experience where one gets a wonderful feeling that, alas, does not last. Like an electric car, the feeling must be recharged every Sunday. For the charismatic experience just does not cover what the Holy Spirit in the early apostles has told us to do.

There is so much more than what the churches teach. The banquet table is set. He has given us six books now. They contain much on these subjects and have your name on them. “Come. Buy without money” (Isa. 55:1). [The books are free to you with free shipping. Just ask through my email, wayneman5@hotmail.com Include the name of the book, your name, and your mailing address.

But most do not want these books. They must feel that they have no need for this knowledge.  This reality places an aching in my heart, for I know that the knowledge contained in those books will help you grow spiritually, which in turn will glorify the Father.

But first, one must believe that they need more truth. And then they must believe in the source of the truth. The source is the Spirit of truth who has come and is guiding us into all truth (John 16:13).

Christ’s Admonishment

Christ Himself, gives us this huge admonishment: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot… so, because you are lukewarm… I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth [spiritual riches] and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; And white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent” (Rev. 3:14-19 NIV). The Spirit is speaking to us in this last church age.

To those who overcome—to those who heed this warning from the lips of Christ—Christ has incomprehensible promises of power and glory awaiting them when He establishes His government here on earth.

Question: Has the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” experience shown you how to buy from Christ “gold tried in the fire”? or how to obtain the white raiment that covers spiritual nakedness? Or how to get the eye salve that will cure spiritual blindness? Remember Peter’s warning: “But he that lacks these things [the seven additions to the faith] is blind…” (II Peter 1:9). But adding them confirms your calling and election.

Christ is knocking on the door of our hearts. If we open the door, He will come in and break bread with us. To those of us who overcome, He will invite them to sit with Him on His throne. The caveat? We must have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to us (Rev. 3:20-22).

Delivering an admonishment is at times not joyous. Receiving one is sometimes grievous. He admonishes us because He loves us and is helping us take a deeper walk with Him.      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 Father’s Name Guards the Way for Agape Love

Christ said to dig deep. To find the vein of gold we must study thoroughly. The gold here is putting on Christ in the form of divine love. Christ’s prayer recorded in John 17 comes from the depths of the Father’s heart. It reveals how we will receive the seventh addition—agape love. And it is the Father’s name that takes center stage in our relationship with the Father.

At first, we flinch and say, “Huh? What does the Father’s name have to do with adding agape love in our spiritual walk?

Christ did say, “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world…” (v. 6).  I have clearly shown thy name; I have made it apparent; I have made it known to them.  And they have believed that You have sent Me; they have kept My word, and they believe that it is You, Father, who is doing the works.  And they know that I came out of You, and that it is You who has sent Me (vs. 6-8).

Christ goes on to say that it is His followers that He is praying for and not the world because they are the Father’s, who has given them to Christ.  And the time has come, He is saying, for Him to depart out of the earth, leaving His followers. So how will they remain in one mind and one accord with the Savior?  How will God keep them spiritually safe and sound after Christ departs?

Love and the Knowledge of His Name

He said to continue in His love. We continue in it through the knowledge of the Father’s name. “Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given Me…” There is keeping power in the name of Yahweh.  The Greek word for “keep” means “to attend to carefully, to attend, to guard,” and is translated in other places as “to preserve.”  So, He is guarding us from the evil for this purpose: “That they may be one, as we are one” (vs. 9-11). We could then say that we will never be fully one with God without knowing His name.

He is the fountain of love. He wants us to be one with Him. It happens through the knowledge of His name. He goes on to say that while He was walking with them here on earth, He “kept them in thy name,” and none of them is lost except Judas Iscariot.  He “kept” them; He guarded them.  How?  By teaching them and showing them and revealing to them the Father’s name.  For in His name is the whole plan of God (v. 12).

Christ goes on to ask the Father to not give them an escape hatch “out of the world,” but rather guard and keep them from the evil.  “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (v. 15, NKJV) {Side note: That speaks against the rapture theory}.

Now some will say that this prayer is only for His twelve disciples, His followers of that era.  But it is for all of us down through the ages. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word” (v. 20). That’s us. He was praying for you and me, so we can take these concepts to heart.

Consequently, if Christ is going to “keep” and guard us from the evil by manifesting the Father’s name to us that we all may be one with Him, then how can that happen when very few Christians know that the Father’s name is Yahweh?

Christ’s desire is that all of us His followers “would be with Me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which You have given Me” (vs. 24).  He desires that we all “may be made perfect in one” (v. 23).  But we have to ask ourselves, How can this happen if a Christian doesn’t know the Father’s name Yahweh, which God uses to guard us from the evil?

And lastly in this prayer in John 17, Christ repeats, “And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it…”  For this specific reason: “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”  Let’s savor this.  He is saying, I have made known, shown clearly, Your name, Father, and I will continue to make it known, for this reason: That the same love You have loved Me with may be in My followers.  And that My very essence and Spirit of love may be in them!

What His Name Means

Here the very love and presence of God is tied into the knowledge of God’s name.  His name means “The Self-Existent One” and Yahweh is the Savior, which is what the Son of God’s Hebrew name means—Yahshua.

Inside, God’s name contains and reveals the very nature of Himself.  God is Love. Him being the Savior of His creation reveals or unveils His essence, which is Love. For “greater love hath no man than this than to lay down his life for his friends.”  This essence of the greatest love on earth–giving your life to save someone else–is implicit in the name of the Savior.  This is the reason that our hearts are touched and moved when we hear of someone giving up their own lives to save someone else.  It touches us because it is the heart of God and shows us what He has done, whether we realize it or not.

He guards us from the selfishness of the evil one, when we think on His name and how He gave His life for us. For the great invisible Spirit Yahweh poured Himself into a human form so that He could express fully the love that is His essence.  It is through realizing this knowledge of His love contained in His name that we can receive that same love—that God, who is Love, may dwell in our hearts, and that He and His love would thrive and grow in our hearts, so that we could make known who God is by the love exhibited through us to others. And thus fulfill Christ’s prayer.  “I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”  The addition of His love into us is realized through the remembrance of the meaning of His name. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

“Love Makes Known the Plan of God”

[Please read the whole article. It’s just four minutes. “Mysteries of the Kingdom” await you, “things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world,” things that will change your life (Matt. 13:35).]

We know that God is Love and God is Light. Therefore, Love is Light. Since light makes things known, then Love makes manifest as well. Love sheds light on what and who God is. Where agape love is present, the Spirit of Love makes God known. We see God when we see love–true selfless love from above, as we see in Christ’s laying down His life for His friend [1].

Christ said, “I am the light of the world.” In this He was saying, Through my life, death, and life-after-death, I make known the Father’s purpose and plan of reproducing Love. If you believe in Me and the love that I showed when I laid my life down for you, then that same Spirit of Love will engender in you a new life that will, in turn, enlighten others who now sit in darkness. He will give us His own Spirit of love. Consequently, we will become the light of the world because He will be living His life through us, His body [2].

In a word, in a seed thought, God is Love. He is the greatest thing in the universe. Everyone will agree. All the poets and writers of song down through the ages confirm that Love–selfless love–is a divine thing and that it should be emulated by mankind.

Man knows this, even down into his DNA. He knows that he should love his fellow man. The truth is that God created him to be the “glory of God.” Man is designed to contain the Spirit of Love, which is God. Man was created as a temple for the Spirit of Love (God) to dwell in. Man knows that this kind of love is what we should strive for [3].

We are moved by the soldier who fell on a grenade to save the lives of his buddies, or the stranger who died in a house fire saving a little child. And millions are touched by the selfless love shown by our Savior on the cross.

God is Love and is the greatest and most powerful thing in the universe. And because Love by its very nature shares with others and gives, God could not but create a plan to share Himself with His creation.

He purposed it and being all-powerful was able to implement His purpose and plan of duplicating and reproducing Himself. He planned this all out in His mind. He thought it into existence. Thoughts are comprised of words that occupy first His mind. And He has given us the power to think His very same thoughts. First we must have the knowledge of the thoughts about His purpose and plan. Then we must choose to surrender our restless minds to His thoughts. When we start thinking His thoughts, then “the peace that passes all understanding” will come upon us.

His purpose is to reproduce Himself, to reproduce Love throughout His entire creation. He is the Seed of Love that will reproduce itself. He became the Seed, which is the Word, which is the Logos, which is comprised of the thoughts of His Mind. And this “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” His plan was to pour this reproductive energy into a human vessel that could “fall into the ground and die” and through the resurrection, would “bring forth much fruit” at the harvest.  The much fruit is the thousands of manifested sons that will sit as kings with Him on His throne upon His return to this earth.

Those that overcome all things in this era have a royal destiny. They are chosen; they are elected by God for this honor. They do respond; they do study and pray that they be counted worthy for this honor, but it is all through His grace. For it is God that gives them the strength and power to continue against the gainsayers, the unbelievers, the worldly, and the ones with precious little faith. God gives them the determination to get up and face the spiritual enemy who lurks in the halls of minds. God helps their unbelief and sees them through to the finish line.

For they serve their great invisible Father Yahweh, who resides in His Son, who is the Head of the body of an organism called the church. And when this vision becomes as crystal in their hearts and minds, they will realize that all scriptures that pertain unto Christ pertain unto them, for they are His body. When we abide in Him, the scriptures speak of us.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1.   I John 1: 5; I John 4: 8; Eph. 5: 13
2.  John 8: 12; John 15: 13; Matt. 5: 14; Col. 1: 18
3. I Cor. 11: 7; I Cor. 3: 16, 6: 19

God’s Gift of Power

When we begin to believe what Christ believes, we are ready to add virtue, which is moral goodness that leads to moral vigor or power. We begin to feel it in our bones. That is a good thing, but that feeling does not know how to come in or go out.

True knowledge about God’s plan to fulfill His purpose must be added to give direction to our newfound desire to do the Father’s will. We know that He wants us to walk in power and strength. But how? Where does the power come from? What is the key?

The answer is found in the second addition, knowledge. We are to add knowledge to the virtue, which has been added to the one faith. This knowledge is holy and divine, yet it is attainable with the study of the scriptures of truth. If we seek knowledge as we would for hidden treasures of gold and silver, we will “find the knowledge of God” (Prov. 2:3-6).

But we cannot know Him until we know what He knows, at least in part. Can we really know somebody if we do not know their thoughts, goals, plans, and aspirations?

The Spirit of Yahweh speaks of His knowledge frequently. Knowledge is His gift to us and constitutes an attribute of his “divine nature.”

Where does knowledge come from? It comes from the Holy Spirit as a manifestation of His love. For we are “to know Him and the power of his resurrection” (Phil. 3:10).

Knowledge Is Like…

Knowledge is like being on a 100-mile pilgrimage. You stop halfway to have a nourishing meal that will get you to the finish line. The food and drink are wonderful. But the meal is not your goal; it is not the end of your journey. It serves to help get you to the end of your goal. Knowledge of the holy things is the meal. Knowledge is the spiritual food that will sustain you on your pilgrimage.

Knowledge is not the end-all, be-all. Knowledge helps you get to the goal of being a mature manifested son and daughter of God. “Knowledge shall vanish away” (I Cor. 13:8). But the agape love that knowledge helps us to attain—it lasts forever.

Knowledge—A Gift of the Spirit

I will give you power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19).

This power that He speaks of is a heavenly gift, for “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). The power begins with the gifts of the Spirit—the word of wisdom and knowledge. Without these first two gifts, the other seven linger, waiting for the wise and knowledgeable to appear on the scene (I Cor. 12:7-11).

Many aspire to receive the fourth and fifth gifts—healing and miracle working. But few know the scriptural definition of wisdom and knowledge. Most have not been taught this knowledge. Their leaders have “caused them to err.” The pastors have not clothed the laity with wisdom and knowledge, that they might “not be found naked” (II Cor. 5:3).

I will give you power over all the power of the enemy. Healing is the fourth gift which is brought on by the exercise of the first gifts.

Wisdom is being in reverential awe of Yahweh. The word of knowledge illuminates the way of understanding, which is “to “depart from evil” (Job 28:28). It is then that we are armed with the Spirit, ready to war with the evil spirits that will come our way. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Where Do We Find Virtue to Add to Our Faith?

Chapter 24 of New Book Additions to the Faith Scheduled to Be Published Next June

Christ wants us to bear much fruit. That means spiritual growth. We do that by adding attributes of His “divine nature” to His faith, His belief system. The first element is to add virtue.

But how do we add virtue? How do we add any of the elements of the divine nature? We add them by realizing that it is not something that is coming to us from without, from outside of us. It is coming to us from something that is within us, if so be that we have risen with Christ spiritually [1].

The addition of virtue happens when we understand that it is a component of Christ’s divine nature. He is not adding it to weak flawed characters who still believe that they are sinners. That is not Christ’s belief system that He has given His friends. That is not His faith [2].

We are spiritual members of the body of Christ. And Christ contains all seven attributes already. When we “put on Christ,” we will have added virtue because virtue is part of His nature; it is part of Him [3]. {This in bold is crucial knowledge that He has given us! Prove it out and then believe it with your whole heart. And then you will feel His Spirit grow within you. And if you agree with this teaching, please help me get this to others by just hitting that “like” button.}

We are dead, and our new life is hidden with Christ in God. And His life is full of virtue, moral goodness, vigor, and power. But it takes faith—His faith—to believe it. This is what the Spirit through Peter meant when He said to add to our faith virtue through agape love [4].

We miss the mark when we try to add spiritual components of Christ’s divine nature to flawed and immature concepts of how Christ works. It is only when we believe and recognize that “it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.” And now I live “by the faith (belief system) of our Savior Christ [5].

Christ adds more of his divine nature to us as we judge our old nature dead and our new nature in Christ alive in us. We have the one faith when we believe that Christ lives in us and brings with him the seven additions, the first of which is his moral goodness and power—virtue [6].

[1] John 14:17      

[2] I Peter 1:1-12

[3] I Cor. 12:27  “Now you are the body of Christ and members in particular.”  Col. 2:10: “And ye are
complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

[4] Col. 3:3   “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

[5] Gal. 2:20 [6] Rom. 6:6-12

God’s Plan: Spiritual Growth, the Law of Harvest and the Gifts of the Spirit

How God Fulfills His Purpose

We must always start at God’s purpose when seeking Him. His purpose is to reproduce Himself in a group of human beings. He is Love; He multiplies Himself when we love with the love that He is.

That is a growth! To take the likes of us and turn us into powerful apostles like Peter, James, John, and Paul. But that is the point: To walk like they did after Pentecost, we must grow spiritually from a humble beginning. For God will reproduce Himself in us using the immutable Law of Harvest. His plan to fulfill His eternal purpose is to use the Law of Harvest. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” You reap what you sow.

“He is bringing many sons to glory.” These will have grown through the stages of spiritual growth exhibiting the Law of Harvest. It is “first the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear. It is the Seed within itself–some “thirty-fold, some sixty, and some one hundred-fold” [1]. These are the levels of growth of the Holy Spirit within the sons and daughters of God.  John refers to these degrees of growth as “children, young men, and fathers” [2].

When “Christ be formed” in them, signs will follow [3].  Gifts of the Spirit will flow, which includes healings, miracles.  Right now, God’s timing calls for the first of the gifts of the Spirit to be given through the elect to others: “the word of wisdom” and “the word of knowledge” [4]. Without the truth contained in those first two gifts, a brother or sister cannot “come out from among them and be separate” [5].  This foundational truth helps to purge the “old leaven” teachings (contained in the parable of the woman putting leaven in three measures of meal or flour–leaven meaning the hypocrisy and insincerity of the Pharisees and their ilk [6].

I have wrestled with this question: God, why aren’t there more legitimate healings and miracles being done like what happened in the first few chapters of the book of Acts of the Apostles.  Answer:  We need some true men of God like them who have all their ducks in a row spiritually speaking and have “purged out the old leaven from their thinking, which includes all of the old false concepts and teachings and doctrines we all grew up with. Then I realized how important it is to let the word of wisdom and knowledge flow unrestrained. True knowledge will not live with false doctrines.

When the time comes, God will do something special in the elect’s lives–something absolutely astounding in the power-giving category.  All the way through the Bible He did just that.  There is no reason to believe that it will be any other way in these latter days.  After all, He said, “I am the same yesterday, today, and forever…I change not…” [7].

The sons-of-God-to-be, the elect, which means “the chosen ones,” may not at present know their destiny that has been pre-ordained by God. Right now, they may only know that there is this pull to know the truth.  There is this longing for justice and truth that won’t let them go. Other things of this present world system may tug at them, but a hook is in their jaw, and they are being reeled in by the Great Fisherman, who right now is teaching some, how to be “fishers of men” [8].

And they do look just like everyone else.  But to themselves, they are learning to look “after the Spirit” and not the “outward appearance” [9].  By faith they are looking upon the “things that are not seen,” which is the Spirit [10].  And yes, they will be transformed, but they will go through a spiritual growth cycle as referenced above.

Knowledge of this growth process is lacking in Churchianity today.  The people in the pews want “It” right now.  They are used to instant pudding and mashed potatoes, instant messaging and internet input.  But growth in Him is His growth in us.  It takes time for the seed “to fall into the ground and die” and germinate, and pop through the ground as a perfect little blade of grass, a perfect little “babe in Christ” [11].  And this babe in Christ needs the “sincere milk of the word” that it may grow [12].  But this takes humility in giving up the old life and thoughts and habits.

That is why the Master told us, If you are going to follow Me, you better “count the cost.”  For it costs everything.  It is easier to sell your earthly possessions; it is much more difficult to sell or get rid of your self with its personal materialism, which is idolatry [13].  The gifts of the Spirit will feed us that we may grow into 100-fold fruit bearing for Christ. We all need to embrace His plan for spiritual growth   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[1.] Matt. 13: 23; Mark 4: 8; 4: 28 [ 2.]  I John 2: 13 [3.]  Gal. 4: 19 [4.]  I Cor. 12: 4-11 [5.]  II Cor. 6: 17

[6.] I Cor. 5: 7; Matt. 13: 33; Luke 12: 1 [7.[ Heb. 13: 8; Mal. 3: 6 [8.] Matt. 4: 19 [9.] I Sam. 16: 7; Rom. 8: 1-4

[10.] II Cor. 4: 18; Heb. 11:1 [11.]  John 12: 24 [12.]  I Pet. 2: 2 [13.] Col. 3: 5; Luke 14: 27-33