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

By Promises We Partake of His Divinity

I write to my courageous brothers and sisters today. I share with the souls who have braved the turbulent oceans of man’s fickle and false claims of knowing Divinity. When quizzed about the “divine nature,” they will salute the greatness of God perhaps. But when asked how do we “partake of the divine nature,” very few will know the answer. Go ahead. Choose out a pastor/preacher. Ask them. Chances are that you will be disappointed, for they will not know the apostle Peter’s mind, which is the mind of Christ.

The Spirit dwelling in the apostle repeatedly taught the early church that they had “obtained like precious faith with us,” the early apostles (II Peter 1:1). First rattle out of the box, the Spirit says now to us, You all have received the very same faith that was delivered to the apostles. There is only one faith, the faith of the Son of God. The one faith is His faith, His belief system, what He believes.

The early church had access to the same power. They were not powerless. In fact, “His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” And through all of this, God has given us “great and precious promises.”

Great and Precious Promises

What are these promises? Christ promised us that He would send the Spirit to us and that through His spiritual presence in you, “He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). Christ promised that if we asked anything in his name that he would do it (John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23). [“In His name” is the key phrase that opens the door to answered prayer. What is His name? And what does it mean? You need to order my book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality.   It is free with free shipping. Details here:  Ordering My Free Books in Paperback | Immortality Road (wordpress.com) ]

Christ also made this astounding promise: “He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father” (14:12). What works did He do? He healed the sick and raised the dead for starters. He has promised us that we will do greater miracles than He did!

The preachers don’t believe that, for they will say that this Christlike power comes later for us, after we “go to heaven.” One thing is wrong with that theory. In heaven there are no sick people to heal, nor earthly dead to raise. So, His promises are for us who are alive on the earth. Just look at our examples Peter, John and Paul. The Spirit in them healed the sick and raised the dead.

He also promised that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  He promised to return to set up the Kingdom of God, with Christ our King on the throne. He also promised to give us eternal life and a place in His Government.

These are just some of the “exceeding great and precious promises.” We are still talking about a spiritual growth—growing into apostleship. These promises encourage us and spur us on to the finish line. And it is through these promises that we “might be partakers of the divine nature…” (II Peter 1:4).

To secure these precious promises, the apostle continues, we need to diligently “add to your faith” seven attributes of God’s nature. “If these things 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  5-8).

These additions make our calling and election sure, where we will never fall (v. 10). Adding them opens the door into His Kingdom (v. 11). They are virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity/agape love (I Peter 1:5-8).

Knowledge about what these additions are, their importance in helping us spiritually grow, and how we are to add them to our faith is the thesis of my new book, The Additions to the Faith, due out in the spring of 2023.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Adding Agape Love Produces the Abiding

I am working on my next book. The working title is The Additions to the Faith. Longtime readers have seen several articles here on the Additions.

When writing a book, hitting a roadblock to the flow is the greatest frustration. But there is no greater joy than to have God connect the dots for you. I was lying awake at 2 a.m. a few weeks back. Couldn’t sleep at all. But my eyes were closed. And then, in a moment of clarity seldom experienced, a missing ingredient, needed to advance the book, flew like an arrow of light into my brain. It concerned the additions and the abiding.

The Premise of the New Book

The Spirit through Peter commands us to “add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness agape love” (II Peter 1:5-7). This is one of Christ’s “new commandments.” [For more on this, be sure to order my current book; it’s free with free shipping. Here’s the link: Free Copy of The Eleventh Commandment | Immortality Road (wordpress.com) ]

As I have reported before, these additions are facets or aspects of God’s “divine nature” (v. 4). When added, these will insure that you will bear “much fruit” as a manifested son or daughter of God, and that you will “make…your election sure.” Also, the additions are the key unlocking the “entrance…into the everlasting kingdom of our Savior” (v. 10-11). They are extremely important and are the thesis of the upcoming book due out late 2022 or early 2023.

I knew that the Abiding that Christ speaks of in many places has a place in the Additions to the Faith. But how to explain it?  

This morning God whispered in my ear the revelation. The last addition is to add agape love. “God is agape love” (I John 4:8). The Abiding is when the Spirit comes into us and abides/remains/stays/continues in us.

When God—the Spirit of Truth—makes His home in us, that is the addition of agape love into our being. For He is agape love.

When we incorporate the Spirit and have Him abide in us, then this abiding is the addition of agape love in our hearts. The abiding of the Spirit within us is the seventh addition to the faith. The seventh addition is fulfilled by the abiding of His Spirit within us.

Visually it looks like this:

The Holy Spirit Abides in us

The Abiding = The 7^th addition

The 7^th Addition = Agape Love

 Therefore,

The Abiding = Agape Love

Connecting dots…

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Seed, Repentance, and the Cross

You are a page out of “the book of life.” God is the author of this book. He wrote it eons ago, long before your mom and dad brought you into the world. For God knew you before you were born. You were in His heart before the earth was ever formed and before the stars began to burn (Jer. 1:5).

This book of life is the record of the who, what, when, where, how and why of God’s plan and purpose. His purpose is to reproduce Himself. His plan to fulfill His purpose will be witnessed here on earth. When you walk by faith in Christ’s life, you are a part of the witness of the record in heaven. It bears repeating: The book of life is the record of what God has done/is doing/and will do to accomplish His purpose of reproducing Himself (Love).

It all begins with a seed. And “the seed is the word of God.” And the word of God is truth. When error is found in preachers’ mouths, the seed is blighted and will not reproduce.

But His seed is “the incorruptible seed.” It takes root in our hearts through the sacrifice of the Lamb, our Savior. Only it must be our own spiritual death with Christ. The seed must die before it springs to life in a heart. At the time of any harvest, the original seed brings forth and bears more seed just like the original.  

We members of Christ’s body today are living in the day of harvest, the time of the end. There is and will always be seed time and harvest. Seed time is seen in the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. The “harvest is the end of the world,” as seen in the book of Revelation.

The word is made up from the words of the plan on how God will reproduce himself in us. In fact, the “book of life” is made up of the word, which gives us clues on how to proceed in God’s reproduction process.

The book of life mentioned in the scriptures is the plan on how he will use us to divinely love through us. This reproduces agape love, which is God. That is why you are a page out of the book of life.

The Cross Experience

Christ said, “Except a seed fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit.” Christ is that seed. “Christ is the seed, the word of God.” He is the Word made flesh.

God’s elect is the “good ground.” To get this growth process moving within us, His word, the seed, must germinate in our hearts. We surrender to him by submitting our old self to his spiritual growth process. Christ surrendered his body to death. God placed our sinful hearts on that sacrificial body, and when He died, our old sinful heart died with Him. When He was buried, our sinful self was buried. And when He was raised from the dead, we too were raised to walk in a newness of life.

This is the true cross experience. To lead someone to repentance is the first of the apostles’ doctrine. It is where you lead them to the mirror of their soul. And you tell them to look way past the simple facial skin tones and to peer into hearts. And ask them if they can see the dark place of their existence, the selfish and careless way they are. If they can and want to change, then you teach Romans 6 to them. It is the truth that will make them free. If they won’t look into that mirror, then they cannot receive the truth at that time. Maybe another day.

The Quiz

I gave you a one question quiz on August 5. It asks, “Can you explain in detail how one repents from sin?” It is about how to lead someone to true repentance, which is the first apostles’ doctrine. Christ’s death on the cross, His burial, and His resurrection is where we found our freedom from sin and sinning. It is here at the resurrection in our own hearts that the growth of the Seed in us will begin. And each seed bears its own kind.

When he perished, our old sinful selves died with him. When he was buried, our old selves were buried. And when he was resurrected—Hallelujah!—we “were raised to walk in a newness of life.” He that is dead is freed from sin. Free! But this freedom is only for those who know that they are in bondage to sin and know that they have a need to be freed. Those righteous in their own eyes will think that all of this is nonsense.

Repentance, Romans 6, and the Cross

Paul opens that chapter of his letter to the Romans with this thought: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” In another translation we read, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?” Immersed into His death. Water baptism is only a symbol of the baptism into Christ’s death. Which preacher/pastor/priest/or prophet teaches these thoughts of the apostle Paul? They pontificate on most every passage except Romans 6.

This is where true repentance starts; it’s at and after the cross. Christ is not our substitute; he is our example. He laid it on the line through His death, and we need to die with him. And then through belief/faith in the operation of God, we also can walk in a newness of life (Col. 2:12).

This truth will make a huge difference in people’s lives. But you won’t find Romans 6 preached in many churches. Just go ask the pastors their take on it.  I wish they would teach this truth because it is the gateway to all truth. Unless we repent, we’ll “all likewise perish” and be forgotten in the dusty tombs of the earth. This is paramount in being saved from the sea of death, where nobody remembers your name.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

“O, Father, Where Art Thou?”

“O, Father, where art thou?” We have all wondered it, especially during trials of our faith. Where is our spiritual Father—really? He is not where we just think He may be. He is not where the preacher thinks He is. He is not where we hope he is. He is not where we imagine Him to be. He is not where we feel He is. No. No. The answer to this question does not come from a feeling. Feelings will let you down. So, how can we really know where He is?

“O, Father, where art Thou?” We will find the answer to this question in God’s words that have been written down. He is where He said he is. The word says that the Father is in His Son. Christ said that the Father is inside the Son. In fact, Christ commands us, “Believe me that the Father is in Me.”

The Son of God is the head of the spiritual body of Christ, which is the church. We are “members in particular” of His body. He is the head; we are His body. Because the Father dwells inside the Son, and because we are a part of the Son’s spiritual body, the Father dwells inside of us, too. That is if we have received His Spirit within our hearts.

“O, Father, where art thou?” The Father lives within the hearts of His children. We need only look in the mirror to see the Father’s dwelling place. He is in His temple—you and me. I wrote a song right after my conversion to Christ some 50 years ago called “He’s Living Here.” He is living here, deep inside, and it’s so clear this love I can’t hide because with Christ my old man is crucified…

His sweet presence can only be enjoyed when the Spirit of Truth is in our hearts. For the Father is the Spirit of Truth. If we have error within us, we are blocked from the Father. Because He is Truth. 

How Our Father Communicates with and through Us

Hearing from our Father is through words that the Spirit of Truth speaks. These words are from the Word. The words from the Word comes to us through thoughts. Our thoughts come from primarily two sources–our Father and the adversary Satan, who oversees dispensing evil thoughts and confusion into the earth (see Job 1). Remember Satan’s lies in the garden of Eden? “Has God really said that? God didn’t mean that. God just does not want you to know the best things.”

Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He accuses through negative thoughts running through our minds. Consequently, not every thought is from God. How can we discern? How can we tell which thought is from God and which is from Satan? For the answer, we must go back to the written word of God, for His thoughts will coincide with His written word. So, let’s not be waiting for audible words spoken to us by God in order to receive His words to us. We waste time doing that. No doubt that is what the five foolish virgins were doing. They did not study the written word, and they wound up with no oil in their lamps (Matt. 25:1-13). Go to the written word; these are His thoughts which outlines His plan and purpose. By studying His written words, we will have a library of His thoughts that the Spirit within can draw from. But do not go down every rabbit hole that Churchianity provides. They are in error; I didn’t say it; He did.

Christ said, The words I speak, they are spirit, and they are life. Our thoughts, no matter how lovely they sound to us, must agree with the written word of God. Dreams and visions do not always come from God. That is why we must “study to show ourselves approved unto God.” That is why we are told to “bring into captivity every thought unto obedience to Christ.” It helps to have the Teacher, the Spirit of Truth, teach us.

“O, Father, where art Thou?” His word says that the Father, the Holy Spirit, resides in the Son, of which Christ is the head, and we are the Son’s body. The Father dwells in us if we have indeed His Spirit residing within our hearts. But the Spirit will not dwell in unclean temples filled with error. It will not happen. Why? Because His word says so.

Where is the Father, the invisible Holy Ghost/Holy Spirit? I leave you with this quote. We will let the Spirit in Paul answer: “There is one body, and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in you all” (Eph. 4:4-6). Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Forgiving Small Sleights

Forgive. This second New Commandment predicts that there will be things in your new life to forgive. Someone in your life is irritating you. How do I know? It’s built into the human experience.

God in His goodness toward us, in that He wants us to grow spiritually, has provided in each life an irritant to help develop His nature in us. These irritants are people and situations in our lives that frustrate us.

We need someone to forgive. So it starts with the family. God puts initial love for them so much so that we “cannot live without them.” And then their weaknesses come to the forefront, forcing us to come to grips with the irritation their selfishness provides.

There is no way to get rid of it. The answer to this problem comes from a spiritual change in our own heart. This is how God foments a correction and growth in our makeup. Overcoming the irritants is how we grow from “one degree of glory to another.”

Ironically, we think that those who “bum us out” and “bring us down” are the culprits, but God uses them to fulfill His purpose of multiplying Himself in and through us. When we forgive those who irritate us, His nature of agape love grows in us, thus fulfilling His purpose.

Not As Easy As All That

As you know, that is more difficult than it looks. It is difficult to forgive completely and openheartedly. Most human failure is caused by not forgiving simple sleights. Human nature does not want to forgive.

God says that the key is to realize that it is not us that does the forgiving. It is the Spirit of God in us that forgives. Remember? As Christians we are dead on the cross with Christ and buried with Him and now “raised to walk in a newness of life.” It is now Christ’s Spirit within us that forgives, by faith in His resurrection. He has already forgiven everyone of everything.

Our great King has already done it all. When we believe this, we walk in His faith, His belief system. He has already forgiven that person. That is the record in heaven. When we let Him forgive another through us, then we are His witness here on earth of His love to mankind. The Father is localized in our vessel, and it is Him that is doing the wonderful works.

By obeying this New Commandment, “Forgive,” His love grows in and through us.

{Please hit that “like” button to boost readership of this blog. Thank you. This article is chapter 19 of the brand new book that is now off to the printers. It is called The Eleventh Commandment. To receive a free copy with free shipping just send your name and mailing address, and name of book to my email address: wayneman5@hotmail.com It should be available in May sometime. God bless you and yours.}

The Light of Love from Above–Ch. 7 of The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect

7  The Light of Love from Above 

Light is that ephemeral miracle we take for granted. It physically exposes the dark corners of our rooms, and it spiritually makes known the hidden recesses of our hearts and minds. 

Light is that essence of the divine that heals our blindness and ends our vain groping to make meaning of the hopeless darkness of our carnal earthly estate. 

Of course, God is Light, and He is Love which casts out the fear of remaining in the dungeon of despair. God’s Son is the way out of that calamitous corridor of personal corruption. Through Christ’s Spirit we no longer inflict collateral damage on all who cross our path. We now shine the light of love. 

We who are called and chosen by the Redeemer to escape this dungeon of darkness have laid hold of His outstretched hand. He has snatched us up out of that selfish march to death that we were on and has shined the truth of His words into our hearts. His thoughts are like the early morning rays of the sun that sharpens our perception of just what our world can be. Instead of the coarse commonality of our selfish old nature, our Creator has now enlightened our eyes as to His desire to use us in reproducing Himself. Astounding as it may seem, He is now shedding more light onto His plan to “bring many sons (and daughters) unto glory.” And this glory is the unearned privilege to sit with Christ on His throne when He returns to set up on earth the 1,000 year reign of His kingdom. He is, after all, the “King of kings” (Rom. 8: 18-19, 28-31; Rev. 3: 20-21; I Tim. 6: 15). 

In a word, His purpose is to reproduce, like a seed, His Love in us. Since God is Love, when we love others with His Spirit of Love, God is reproducing Himself (I John 4: 8-12). 

God has a plan to make all this happen. He has written it down on how to walk in the light of His love. He has left us instructions as to how people will act when God’s Spirit of love is leading them. 

These instructions are called “the law.” The “testimony” is the witness of one who through God’s Spirit follows the instructions as to what Love looks like walking around in a human being. 

Love–agape love–the love from above–this love is God. And this love, when poured into the heart and mind of man, fulfills all the descriptions of what love is. We look to our example, the Son of God. He is Love incarnate. And the Love that He is, now resides in His children’s hearts. And we are growing in His plan and purpose as He grows in us. 

This love from above follows the instructions of the law as to our actions. In a nutshell, the ten commandment law requires that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Therefore, the Spirit of Love within us fulfills the law (Rom. 13:9-10). God’s Love is the Light that now shines into and through our hearts and minds to others. 

How Love Fulfills the Law 

Life is all about love. The poets and prophets and songwriters got that much right. But it is the higher love, the agape divine love that we should concern ourselves with as His sons and daughters. 

Love fulfills the whole law when we do the greatest love. When we lay down our old earthly lives with its selfish sins and pursuits, and take up our new life in Christ and His Spirit in us—then the Love that is from above comes down into us in the form of a new heart. This agape love fulfills the Ten Commandment Law and all the Mosaic Law of the Old Covenant. 

For Love is God, and God is this agape love. And He does fulfill His own law. No amount of working for this will be effectual. This love does not come by being a regular church goer, tither, or prayer warrior. No amount of good works, charity donations, or pious acts will bring Love down into us. Only self-sacrifice on the cross and our own death, burial, and resurrection with Christ will do it.  

Doing the greatest love, which is laying down our lives for others just like Christ did, is the only sacrifice God will accept. Letting our old lives die on the cross is the only avenue open to us in our original seat in the mire. It is only this that will bring His nature of Love down, supplanting the old sinful nature. Only laying down our lives will fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself. When we do this and continue to walk in His Spirit, Love has been multiplied and reproduced.   

It all starts with Love, and it all ends with Love. God is Love and He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. Love is the beginning and the end of all things. 

How do we, the church of God, fit into all this? We are His body; we are the members of Love’s body, “the fullness of Him that fills all in all” (Eph. 1: 23). God sees us as the vessels that will contain Himself. He created us for this purpose—to house Himself and the mercy and Love that He is. Bold statement: Without us God could not express the fullness of Himself. 

In the end, God will fill us with His Love and mercy. And He will use us to do it. His essence of love will spread throughout every crevice of His universe through the presence of His ambassadors, His princes and princesses, His family and friends. Children of God think that they are objects of His love. The mature know that they are channels of His love. 

[Be sure to order your free copy (with free shipping) of The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. This excerpt is from Ch. 7 and 8. Just send your name, mailing address, and name of book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com]

Adding the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Once we understand that the angels are spirits and that 1/3 of them have been sent here to earth to do a job under an arch-angel named Lucifer, later named Satan—once we comprehend that this evil cabal of hurtful spirits are sent to wreak havoc upon mankind for (and this is a hard one) our perfection—and once we realize that the evil angels are really only spirits sent to actually help us become manifested sons and daughters of God [Concerning the angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Heb. 1: 14.]—once we see that all this is an integral part of His plan, then the vista begins to clear as we see that our Father does all things well.

Our Father/Creator/Savior is sovereign. He has a purpose and a plan to carry out His purpose, which is this: He is reproducing Himself, and He is Love. And that plan includes both good and evil. Good and evil do not just exist; rather they are tools to use on us “lively stones.” They are used to chip away at our imperfections, preparing us to be laid near Christ the “Cornerstone” of the temple of God. He uses both good and evil to accomplish His plan to fulfill His purpose.

Some of you right now are having to endure unspeakable heartbreak as you see loved ones around you spiritually disintegrate before your eyes. To your understanding, this is a tragedy. Think of that thing that happened unjustly to you, that incident that is really too painful still to think about. It was a trial that, like a tidal wave, sweeps your little ship of peace to the sandy bottom, leaving you thrashing and gasping for air.

And all you were doing was enjoying the sun and surf, enjoying the peace and joy of God, enjoying a new found desire to serve Him. And then the betrayal came. It came through the only ones who could hurt you. It came and locked you into a lonely room of despair with no way to escape, leaving you in shock, wondering why you been forsaken and slandered, perhaps your reputation destroyed, your life uprooted.

Think of that painful situation, and then know that the same God who had blessed you with love and joy is the same One who dispenses evil into our lives, delivering hurtful sufferings that usher us into a deeper walk with Him, a walk we cannot comprehend the why. As Job told his wife, “What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

Understanding Why Evil Comes into Our New Lives

God arranges for evil to come into our new lives to give us opportunities to forgive others, and to even forgive Him. For it is forgiving others that generates agape love in our hearts. The suffering that we endure is an opportunity for us to forgive those who trespass against us. This shows His power and love through us.

So, we should not think that it is a strange thing that God is the instigator of unbearable trials in our lives, “as though some strange thing has happened” unto us, but realize that it is needed for our growth (I Pet. 4: 12-13). Agape love grows out of forgiveness, which reproduces God, thus fulfilling His purpose.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Man Dies, Talks to God, and Comes Back to Life

Man Dies, Talks to God, and Comes Back to Life

Maybe you have seen on youtube where this man dies. His heart stops beating, and he is gone for ten minutes. But he says that the passage into God’s presence is peaceful. God does not show His face; the man only sees His form from the back.

And God asks him, “Do you have any questions?”

The man gets embarrassed because he can’t come up with an interesting question. The only thing that he can think of to ask seems rather trite. “What is the meaning of life?”

“Oh, that’s easy. It is Love.”

And the man says, “I thought that was it.” And then right after that, the man came back to life.

Love. “God is love.” God is this divine, selfless agape love. God is invisible, for He is like the wind. You only know that the wind exists when you see its effects upon things in the five-senses-realm. We feel the wind’s effects on the trees and on our face, yet we cannot see it. Such is the Spirit of God (John 3: 5-8; 4: 24).

We know God is real and exists, for we see His effects on people. We see those addicted to drugs freed from hellish bondage. We see families restored, lives changed overnight. We see hands that stole, steal no more. We see eyes that lusted after women look up to the heavens and give thanks to this great Spirit of love for deliverance.

It is through the love that God showed to us when He “gave His only begotten Son” that we see God. For love sacrifices itself for another. “Greater love has no man than this that he would lay down his life for his friends” (John 15: 13).

And because God is this invisible Spirit of Love, we must approach Him through faith—believing having not yet seen. And through faith we begin to understand His plan to fulfill His purpose, which is this: God is multiplying Himself; He will reproduce Love—Himself—and He will do it in us (Matt. 13: 3-23). That is our calling. “Many are called, but few are chosen” by Him to be a part of this glorious vision of God reproducing Himself (Matt. 20: 16).

A Word about Faith

Again, it is not our puny little faith that we need to muster up. No. The scriptures speak about God’s faith, God’s belief [“faith” and “belief” are translated from the same Greek word]. It is all about His belief and His faith in Himself and His power to accomplish whatever He has spoken. It is His ballgame in His ballpark. The bats, balls and gloves are all His. The rules are His; He wrote them. And, oh, yes. He owns us the players. For we do not belong to ourselves any longer (I Cor. 6: 19-20). It is not about us trying to believe the word of God. We are to “put on Christ.” This means we are to believe like He believes, which is how the Father believes.

The problem that Christians have is that they still believe that they are alive and well. But He said that we are a “new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Cor. 5: 17). He sees us as such. Therefore, we need to believe it; that is walking in faith—His faith. He said that you and I are dead with Christ, that we “are crucified with Christ” (Rom. 6: 6; Gal. 2: 20). That is the Father’s belief. You and I need to believe what God believes. When we do, we are walking in faith and in the light. He said that we no longer live but that it is Christ that lives in us. And the “life [we] now live in the flesh we live by the faith of the Son of God…” (2: 20).   He has faith in Himself and belief in Himself. And He now believes that He lives in us! Believe it. Walk in it. Believing what He believes is walking in faith. It is walking in the Spirit and walking in truth.

Because God is invisible, it takes belief; it takes faith to please our Father, the Spirit of Love. After we believe that He exists, we begin to grow spiritually. We believe in His goodness and that goodness grows in us and heals our body, soul, and spirit. This is virtue—this awareness of God’s goodness now transported into our hearts, now changing us first and then growing to the point where His goodness and righteousness overflows out to others.

But there are bumps in the road to immortality. Trials come to test our mettle. Our knowledge of God’s good is seemingly thwarted by evil at times. We must not be dismayed (I Pet. 4: 12). It is all part of His plan. Our hearts are purified in the forge of God’s plan for our life in Him. The result is the gold of pure love, the divine Love that He is and will use through us to rule with Him in His Kingdom of peace, coming to this planet shortly.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock