Come Out from Among Them and Touch Not the Unclean Teachings

Most Christians feel like they have had an epiphany. God has shown them something that has convinced them that God is real and that He is their Father. And they know that it is through His Son Jesus Christ [in English speaking realms] that our salvation is possible. All of this is a good beginning.

But that is about it in most denominations concerning spiritual growth. Oh, we have the charismatics and Pentecostals who try to experience what the early apostles had. Some of them, however, are soon shipwrecked by storms of sin and lack of His knowledge.

And we have those who are the legalistic brethren, whose leaders provide hoops to jump through for the laity–pay your ties and offerings, come to church regularly. However, they fail to see that they are “buying a stairway to heaven.” And then, there are those who fall for the scam of the prosperity doctrine, as if God’s physical blessings can be bought with a hundred dollar bill. And many more.

So, there some sit. Frustrated and alone in a religious crowd. Stilted and stunted. Not knowing what God wants them to do. They are stymied because their pastors, priests and preachers have led them astray–because they do not know the way themselves. “If the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch,” Christ said. They do not see God’s purpose nor his plan to accomplish his purpose. They know that Christ and His love plays a big part in life’s story, but they are blind to the bigger picture–the vision that God has for his world. This does not surprise God; He is the Author of the book.

It is all written down in the scriptures of truth, the Holy Bible, the best seller of all time. This sacred book says that Christians all over who seek God will find Him. And He will break the chains of sin that holds their hearts in frustration and captivity. And He will reveal Himself to certain seekers. But they will not be reached in cavernous church buildings that reverberate with “Christian rock music” [oxymoron of the year]. Nor will they be reached in the hushed tombs of Catholic cathedrals nor Protestantism’s church houses.

No, the true seekers will be reached by the quiet words spoken and written down by His teachers, pastors, evangelists, prophets, and apostles. Not the Sunday school teachers who sincerely endeavor to please God but are stifled by doctrinal errors.

Yah’s teachers know His purpose. They know His plan to accomplish His purpose. They are sent by Him to explain that purpose and plan; that is their job. And His purpose is this: He is Love, and He is reproducing Himself—in us, His chosen ones [His elect].

Teaching truth is a thankless task. Just ask Peter, James, John, and Paul. I remember an early truism taught us at the beginning of our missionary days: “There is nothing in this for you.” Meaning: “You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.” That was some heavy words for a “babe in Christ” some fifty years ago. But “I can see clearly now.”

May we all continue to seek Yah’s face. His face is the Anointed One’s face. The prophet Daniel saw His face. It was “as the appearance of lightning, and His eyes as lamps of fire” (Daniel 10:6, 5-9).  The apostle John saw His face, also. “His eyes were as a flame of fire” (Revelation 1:14, 13-16). If we seek Him, we will find Him, and He will change us in a mighty way.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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

Endurance Needed to Reach the Heavenly Goal

As we have seen, patience is the fourth addition to the faith. To mature spiritually, we need patience working in our lives. It is the patience that God alone possesses. Patience is endurance, the ability to outlast the hardships. It is in the fiery crucible that coal is transformed into diamonds.

But it is not the puny patience that we humans try to use when the going gets tough. No, we need the endurance that is part of God’s very own divine nature. God is the standard for patience.

But God’s patience is to endure for a cause. To endure, we must first have a goal. But it must be a finer goal than just self-preservation. It must be a heavenly goal, one that agrees with our Maker’s goal. He sets our goal in this life if we are open to it. And that goal is this: You and I are to grow into full spiritual maturity–to be just like the apostles and Christ.

We have learned that God’s patience is part of His divine nature that He wishes to share with us. This attribute is vital for our ability to get through the fiery furnace of trials and tribulations that will befall all of God’s “born from above” children. If Christ and His apostles went through it, then is it any wonder that God would have us go through trials, also?

Why do new Christians stumble and fall away? Because they have not added patience/endurance in their hearts and minds. The cause goes much deeper. Modern churchianity has concocted doctrines that preclude the need for endurance for Christians. False teachers, preachers, and priests say that we will not go through the Great Tribulation. They say that we will be raptured out of the earth before the tribulation begins. This is false. The scripture teaches just the opposite, for “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus (Yahshua) will suffer persecution” (II Tim. 3:12 NKJV).

But Paul knew that “tribulation works patience” (Rom. 5:3). I.e., trials and hardships produce endurance and perseverance. And endurance/patience is what we will need to come to full spiritual maturity and grow up into the manifested sons and daughters of God (Rom. 8: 18-19).      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[Ordering My Free Books in Paperback]

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

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

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

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The Wide Gate Leads to Destruction

God provides an “entrance into the everlasting kingdom” of Christ our King. This happens after we have added the seven attributes of his “divine nature” to our faith (II Peter 1:10-11).

But there are two gates—the narrow one and the wide one. The small and narrow gate leads to life, and “only a few find it” (Mat. 7: 14). The other gate is wide and broad. Many enter through it, but it leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13).

Two gates, two entrances, one choice. The elect are those who will bear 100 fold fruit, who will become like the early apostles. They will enter through the narrow gate. But most professing Christians do not realize that they are trying to enter God’s Kingdom dimension through the wide gate.

The Wide Gate

Two billion souls consider themselves to be Christians. Two billion is not a “few.” They have entered the easy wide gate. Why does this happen? In the next breath, Christ warns us of false prophets. “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (v. 15). Paul warns us of these “grievous wolves” (Acts 20:29). Who are they? They are pastors who look like good devout Christians, but they lead their flocks into danger. Christ likens them to voracious wolves. They take money from the congregation, but they do not feed Christ’s sheep and lambs. They teach falsehoods about Christ. And they entice others to follow them through the wide gate.

So, what is the “wide gate” that leads to destruction? The wide gate symbolizes the easy way. It is a wide gate that can accommodate the baggage, bundles, and boxes that each soul is carrying in this life. They teach many erroneous doctrines. A few are addressed here: false doctrines | Immortality Road (wordpress.com).

This baggage is full of false teachings and corrupt doctrines that will not fit through the narrow gate. We are to study to show that we are approved by God to be able to discern both good and evil. To get through the narrow gate, one must lose the false teachings. It is only then that we may enter the heavenly spiritual dimension where the king resides.

The Narrow Gate

Entering the narrow gate is not the easy way. To lay all of your ambitions on the altar is not child’s play. To willingly let your ego, self, and pride die with Christ is entering into His sufferings. No wonder He said that few would enter through the narrow gate that leads to life. Why? Because man’s old nature wants to walk a path of least resistance. He wants an easy life, free from pain and suffering; it’s natural—not spiritual. To suffer for the King Christ is missing in his makeup. The old selfish nature will take the painless and easy-to-follow Christ, where not much is asked of him. Just read a little Bible; come to church; pay your tithes and offerings. [Interesting concept: pay your tithes. Like you owe God money. Giving God money He already owns everything. He “owns the cattle on a thousand hills.” So, He doesn’t want our money. He wants our hearts.

Take the apostle Paul. He was near the pinnacle of the Pharisee [denomination] world. Pharisees were the chief Jewish religionists. Paul was up there with the leaders and high priests. He was so entrenched in their false doctrines that Paul was sent to kill followers of Christ, thinking that he was doing God a great service.

But to be used mightily by God—to get through the narrow gate—he had to get rid of all the false teachings. Paul was struck down on the road to Damascus. The heavenly dimension of which we speak intersected his life. All the baggage that was stuffed with falseness was emptied from his mind and heart when he encountered Christ on that road. Paul was then prepared to enter the heavenly dimension.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The “Sure Foundation”–The True Christ

The sons and daughters of God need a “sure foundation” upon which to build their new spiritual life. They need a foundation that is sure and steady. And, of course, we know that the sure foundation is Christ.

But it must be the true Christ and His vision for the world. For many teach a false Christ based on their imaginations as to who Christ is. And therein lies the problem. Many talk about Christ, but few have met Him at His special meeting place–the cross. Few speak of their own cross experience in their testimony. Their pastor would not dare lead them to the old rugged instrument that puts to death their sinful heart. They teach a soft Christ, a feel-good Christ, a different Christ than what the apostles wrote about in the Scriptures.

Dare I say it? The hireling pastors teach false doctrines about the entity they call Christ. They do not know that this meeting place is where their old sinful lives have perished with Him on the cross. Few want to go there. Few speak of their spiritual death with Christ. Few are buried with Him. But a few “are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead.” (Col. 2:11; Romans 6:1-12).

The apostles and Christ Himself warn us about false Christs in many passages of scripture. They teach a rapture and an escape from the tribulation. They say that they have made an agreement, that they will be spared when disaster strikes. They believe that they will be mystically delivered from the horrors coming upon this world (Isaiah 28:15).

But God calls this “believing a lie.” Instead, the Spirit through Isaiah says, “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed” (verse 16).

And then He slams the lid on those who trusted in the erroneous false doctrine of the rapture: “Your agreement with death [that you will be spared] will be annulled…When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it.” The disaster is likened to what God did at Mount Perazim and at the Valley of Gibeon. He rained down meteorites upon them. And he will do it again through the trumpets and vials of wrath in Revelation (I Chronicles 14:10-11; Joshua 10:10). David and Joshua had Christ as their “sure foundation.”

Now we, like them, are “lively stones,” a part of Him, and He in us. A huge part of Christ’s foundation is having the true knowledge of His purpose and His plan to fulfill it. His purpose is to reproduce Himself, for He is agape Love. And He has a plan to do that. His purpose and plan are sure; nothing can prevent Him from carrying out His plan. Our part is to surrender to Him and learn of His purpose and plan.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Enter Through the Narrow Gate

How do you and I enter the spiritual dimension that Moses, Elijah, Peter, John, and Paul walked in? Being freed from sin and being born from above is peeking into this dimension, but walking in it is a much more powerful glory. They performed the impossible with God’s help. And yet, they were human beings like you and me. They walked and talked on this earth as you and I do. Yet, they entered the Dimension of Miracles, where “all things are possible.”

I do not speak of every day small miracles of life on this planet—the complex, intricate beauty of a butterfly, the perfect mix of atmospheric gases that we breathe, a Big Sur sunset, a baby’s smile. Those are beautiful things, but I speak of God’s spiritual dimension, with its stupendous, dumbfoundingly impossible miracles like raising the dead and healing cerebral palsy and leprosy—the kinds of miracles that tax incredulous eyes.

Again, how do we enter this realm? We enter it through the “narrow gate.” To get through it, we must repent of false teachings about Christ.  And then as we incorporate the seven additions to the faith, “an entrance shall be ministered unto [us] abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior…” (2 Peter 1:11). Christ has promised us that by adding the seven attributes of His divine nature, we walk through the entrance into the spiritual dimension, the dimension of miracles that is called the Kingdom of God.

The Narrow Gate

How do we enter the spiritual realm that Moses, Elijah, and Peter and John walked in?   Christ said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it” (Matt. 7:13). “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7:13-4). “Few,” not many.

The Narrow Gate does not allow for baggage. There is just enough room for a Christian to barely squeeze in. “Baggage” is a symbol of the false doctrines that are stored throughout the old life and the false teachings about Christ attained after we first come to Him.

Take Moses for example. He lost everything. He was raised in the courts of Pharaoh as an Egyptian prince. He was educated in the pagan religion of Egypt. But God was calling him to “a better country,” a heavenly country (Heb. 11:16). But to get into the Dimension of Miracles he would have to totally lose his old life and position. Banished from Egypt, he went from a prince to a peasant in the desert, herding sheep and goats for forty years. He was learning to wait on Yahweh. He waited forty years and purged out the old false doctrines while learning of God’s ways. Then in his 80th year, Yahweh appeared to him in the burning bush. There he received his marching orders to fulfill his heavenly calling.

During those forty years in the desert, Moses had to get rid of old concepts about God. He had to repent and turn from the wisdom of the world and the religions of the world. He had to repent of anything that was in error concerning God’s plan [The book of Jasher].

Moses was entering God’s miraculous dimension through a process of repentance and faith toward God. Moses was entering by the narrow gate. It was difficult. Moses was one of the few to find it. He grew spiritually into a vessel that God could use to free and to lead His people.

Strive to Enter

But it took toughness. Christ commands us: “Strive to enter in at the narrow gate.” To strive is to struggle and fight to enter the Kingdom [the Dimension of the Spirit]. It’s not easy. Just ask Moses or any of the prophets and apostles. They were rejected by the world as their concepts of God were purified.

We also must struggle, “For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able.” At the last moment, many will be trying to get through the narrow gate, but they won’t be able to. Time has run out because the master of the house has closed the door. They will knock, but He will not open the door, the narrow gate. He will say, I don’t know who you are, and then they will say, “We’ve eaten and drunk in your presence and you’ve taught in our streets.” And we have taught in your name. But the master will say, I don’t know you. “Depart from Me all you workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out” (Luke 13:24-28). That will be a sad day.

To approach the narrow gate, we must repent of false teachings and false doctrines. Then by adding the seven additions to the faith—by faith—we will enter through the narrow gate.  Then He will bid us to come and learn of Him.

When we add these seven attributes to our faith, “an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom” (II Pet. 1:11). God will teach us His way into the full orbed shekinah glory of His very presence within us. Hallelujah! Praise Yah!

Kenneth Wayne Hancock  [Order your free copy of one of my books with free shipping: Ordering My Free Books in Paperback | Immortality Road (wordpress.com)

Renewing Our Minds Changes Us

To renew our mind—how do we do it? We do it by adding Christ’s divine thoughts to our faith.

Peter tells us to “gird up the loins of your mind” (I Peter 1:13). The first item of the armor of God is to stand, “having your loins girt about with truth” (Eph. 6:14). Every Christian knows that the truth is in Christ. But the young Christian [and the old as well] has thoughts and concepts about Christ that are not Christ’s thoughts.

The apostles were writing to Christians who evidently needed to have their concepts of Christ’s gospel straightened out. Or they would not have been receiving those letters to the churches. It is the same today. The spiritual battleground is in the mind. We are led by our thoughts.

And God has given us the power to chase negative thoughts away and banish false concepts out of our minds. When our thinking has been purged and cleansed, then we will have been transformed, or changed. How is one transformed? “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove [discern, reckon as genuine] what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:2). We will be able to know what God’s perfect will is and how to walk in it. But our minds must be free from false doctrines. That is how the renewal begins.

Definition of Renew

To renew means “to make new again.” You mean, our minds were new once upon a time, and then they got sullied, and now they await a cleansing and a restoration to the purity they once held?

Could this “renewing of our minds” entail us thinking what Christ thought? We are admonished to let Christ’s mind be in us (Phil. 2:5). Think like Christ thinks. Let Christ’s mind be in you. You mean we must allow it to reside in us? We do this by moving out our old thoughts to make room for the new thoughts, which are Christ’s thoughts, thoughts that require faith/belief.

So what did he think about?  He thought of the invisible heavenly things, not the things consumed by the five senses. “Take no thought for your life,” your visible earthly life (Matt. 6:25-31). He was submissive to the father in all things and taught us to do the same. In so doing, he was humble, giving glory and praise to the Father.

We must “let” His mind take over our mind. To do this we must know the plan and purpose of God. Christ always said, “I must be about my Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). He always did those things that pleased the Father.

Knowing the true plan and purpose of God is a big chore, but what is bigger is eliminating the old desires we had for our lives– our plans and schemes, our dreams for our own little futures. And they are little “compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.”  Our old lives are but “dung” compared to eternally being at His side.

The Cross

Christ always taught His followers to repent from sin. This is the first step in getting rid of the false concepts about Christ. It is the cross that puts to death our old sinful selves, along with its desires, and enables us to “be raised to walk in a newness of life.” This shows us where our old thoughts were leading us and where the thoughts of God now bid us come.

First, we must get to that place of submission. We must leave the old life at the cross and take on Christ’s mission, which is establishing His Kingdom of love and righteousness throughout the earth and sharing his throne with his elect. That takes much study and prayer.

All this is for those human beings who renew their minds with Christ’s thoughts and are changed from selfish sinners into compassionate monarchs, soon ruling with Christ in His Kingdom right here upon earth. “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne…” (Rev. 3:21).

The “Deep Things of God”—Knowledge That Will Change Your Life

We are commanded, “Add to your faith.” The seven additions to the faith are “the deep things of God.” Knowledge is one of those deep things.

Man’s wisdom teaches us that knowledge comes as we get to know God better. But knowledge is not us knowing him or us knowing about him. It’s what he alone knows. It is proprietary knowledge—God being the Proprietor. For knowledge is an attribute of God. Knowledge emanates out of Him–not us. Knowledge is part of his “divine nature.”

And God has hidden His knowledge and wisdom from the eyes of natural man. The disciples inquired of Christ about the hidden knowledge. And He responded, “The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them” (Matt. 13:11 NIV).

Example of Hidden Knowledge

The irony is rich. We were drowning in sin, and we reached for the lifeline. But we found that God’s lifeline does not save our old way of living; it puts it to death. His lifeline is the cross. Being crucified with Christ is God’s way of putting to death our old selfish heart. Then we are buried with Him, and then we are resurrected with Him by believing in Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 6:6-12). This is part of the hidden wisdom. It is a secret that natural man’s wisdom does not comprehend.

By this belief, we receive the Spirit of God into our hearts. Our old sinful life is dead and gone, whether we feel it or not. As we seek Him and grow, the Spirit now within us seeks and searches and shares with us the “deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:6-16).

The knowledge to be added to our faith is an attribute of the Spirit of God. It can only be attained through a gift from God to us; only the Spirit can teach us His knowledge. It is in the heart of God. It is the kind of knowledge that only God has. It’s the knowledge that is of Him and by Him and for Him, to be channeled through us out into the world.

The Spiritual World Contains Secrets and Mysteries

His divine nature is painted in secrets and mysteries, to be meted out to those who seek Him with all their heart. Only God can give his own secrets and mysteries and knowledge to us. Therefore, we must ask Him for wisdom and knowledge. It is His to give. He is the Great Giver of His own secrets of hidden wisdom. And He “has freely given us all things” (Rom. 8:32).

To be in reverential awe of Yahweh is the first step in attaining knowledge. “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). Fearing Him, being in awe of Him—that is the start of knowledge and wisdom. When His omnipotence floods the heart and mind, then we begin to know Him and the power that He wields in His universe.

It Is All God’s Doing

Comprehending all this is having “the mind of Christ.” Paul speaks of “the wisdom of God in a mystery,” a “hidden wisdom.” God ordained it so. He ordered His plan to unfold in the very beginning. He planned it that there would be a wisdom and knowledge hidden from the eyes of the unregenerated ones. And God ordained the hidden wisdom, revealed along the way, as steps toward our glorification. “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory” (1 Cor. 2:7).

He planned everything—all the secrets and mysteries—to bring us into a glorified state. He ordered it; it was part of His plan. Our glorification is His way to reproduce Himself. He does it by sharing Himself. That is what agape Love does. It shares His glory with us. After all, He did say that man is the “glory of God” (I Cor. 11:7).

The Crucifixion—Hidden Knowledge

The crucifixion of Christ is an example of this “hidden wisdom,” which leads to our glory, culminating in us sitting with Him on His throne. The rulers of this world system did not know the “hidden wisdom.” Paul wrote, “We declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:7-8).

This is secret knowledge that is only attained by the Spirit revealing it to us. Natural man cannot give us secret wisdom; only God can give it. Millions of souls all over the earth are “destroyed for lack of  knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).

We are talking about knowing the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). This knowledge is indispensable, for we must know His thoughts before the Spirit will enable us to act according to that knowledge. Knowing comes before doing.

There is only one way for us to know the secret, hidden wisdom, and that is for the Spirit to reveal His knowledge to us (v. 10). Natural man’s eye, ear and heart cannot see, hear, nor feel the secret things and blessings that “God has prepared for them that love him (v. 9).

Once we receive the Spirit, then He will begin to “search all things, yea, the deep things God” in and through us! I repeat. The Spirit of God inside of us will search. The Spirit will be the driving force that leads us in our search for His truth. The hidden wisdom was this: God used hate and evil, that led to murder, to accomplish the crucifixion. It was the very thing that had to take place on the very day of Passover. The Pharisees and the Romans were serving God’s purposes, trying to wipe out the Savior through hateful murder. Their sin took the Savior’s human life but enabled the resurrection to become our lifegiving source of power. We will see that the “deep things of God” help us grow into powerhouses that bear much fruit for the King. Being in awe of Him will lead us into much more hidden knowledge and wisdom.

What Prevents Us from Going Deeper?

Later in chapter 3, Paul explains how he could not go further into the deep things of God with them. He could not teach them the “meat of the word” because they were “carnal” or worldly (3:2). And why were they worldly? Because of their “envying, strife, and divisions.” Think denominations and their thoughts of being the only true church. Christ is not divided. But that is for another time…

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

God’s Promise to Dwell in Us Is Conditional: The Abiding

God has promised His people to take up residence in them. Yahweh gave His word through Jeremiah. He promised that He would dwell in us with His Spirit abiding in us. “Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel (10 lost tribes), and with the House of Judah (two tribes)…I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God and they shall be my people…for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:31-35).

Here the Spirit promises to come into us writing in our hearts His law. “Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?…For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (I Cor. 3:16). When you are born of the Spirit, “you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people…” (II Cor. 6:16).

But There Is a Condition

God has promised us that He would dwell in us. He has given us “exceeding great and precious promises, that by these [we] might be partakers of his divine nature.” The way that we partake of His “divine nature” is by receiving the Spirit of truth. But He won’t stay in a heart and mind filled with error. That is why it is necessary to purge out the old leaven. He has promised us the gift of His Spirit of truth that dwells in us (II Pet. 1:4). This is what gives us everlasting life, for He is life.

We know that promises are presented through words, whether uttered or written down. God’s word to us is the Word/Logos. He says that we are partakers of his Spirit by faith and that we can grow up into Him by adding to our faith. Our faith is the “faith of the Son of God.” Our faith can grow by adding certain aspects of his very “divine nature.” And through these additions, we grow into his witnesses, laden with the same power that the early church possessed (II Peter 1). But we must obey one of Christ’s New Commandments: Purge the old false teachings.

 His abiding presence does not happen overnight.

God’s promise to abide in us is not fulfilled through a magical Poof!  He does not just appear all at once in us. To the contrary, God has a special step-by-step program in order to accomplish His purpose dwelling in us fully. That is one of the problems with modern day churchianity. People are so used to instant mashed potatoes and instant everything that they want God’s “baptism in the Holy Spirit” without the true knowledge of just what God is doing and how He does it.

Very few know His purpose and plan. Most are wanting something from God which is what little children do. But they are wanting the gifts of God that are way above their pay grade. They want to feel good and be closer to God. But there is much more to it than that.

The abiding presence that the apostles spoke of is the Father Himself, the great Spirit Yahweh, dwelling in his temple. And that temple is us. But He will not reside in unclean temples. When God fully abides in us and fully lives in us and fully walks in us, then He will have reproduced Himself in us. This is nothing less than the fulfillment of not only His eternal purpose, but also His promise to dwell in us. He has promised us immortality. When He fully abides in us, then everlasting life will be ours in a reality. This is the fulfillment of His eternal purpose based on His promise to dwell in us. This is the knowledge that is lacking in churchianity.   

What are the obstacles that block this process?

The chief obstacle that thwarts human beings is the clinging to false concepts about God and His plan. The abiding is when the Father, the Spirit of truth, resides in us. But for Him to abide/stay/ remain in us, we must obey one of Christ’s new commandments: “Purge out the old leaven (I Cor. 5:7). This means to get rid of false concepts and false doctrines, for they like leaven will take over a person’s mind like leaven does to a lump of dough.

One piece of old leaven that blocks Christians is that they still think that they are alive and doing the struggling. But the Spirit says that “you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Our new life is hidden. In this new life, we are in Him, and He is in us. We are abiding in Him, and His Spirit of truth is abiding in us, reaching out and forgiving everyone in the world.

Yet, the minds of people are rife with old leaven/false concepts about God, about who He is and how He works. We didn’t know any better at the time. We were children. Unfortunately, those false doctrines that we were taught stick with us. But God is requiring that we repent of them.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The False Vision and the True Vision

Immortality Road

Two visions are given in the scriptures concerning this earth today. One is true and is from the Hebrew God Yahweh. And one is false. And both of these visions concerning God and His plan are out there on the airwaves, in cyberspace, and in the pulpits.

Since “there is nothing new under the sun,” and since “that which has been is now,” we look back to the prophet Jeremiah’s day. Then there were prophets speaking lies in God’s name to the people of Jerusalem. The Babylonian army was sweeping across the Middle East, and yet, they said that God was saying, “You will not see the sword, neither shall you have famine. But I will give you assured peace in this place” (Jer. 14: 13).

These “men of God” told the people what they wanted to hear–how God was going to spare them from Nebuchadnezzar’s army and how their…

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