From Death to Everlasting Life—From Earthly Bodies to Heavenly Bodies

(from Kenneth Wayne Hancock, Journal entry, 9-20-21)

Mankind’s trouble is traced from his realization that the earthly body that he walks around in will one day die. It is dissolving even now in a slow march to the grave. Ashes are its destiny. Unless he is a child or a fool, man knows that his body will melt back into the earth.

Our “days are consumed, like smoke” (Psalm 102:3). When the dawn of death’s reality shrouds are minds, we groan under its weight. For we know that in a few short years our earthly body will succumb to our Creator’s will. For He has subjected all humans to the “bondage of corruption (decay unto death)” in hope that we will see the futility of living only for ourselves in this earthly life (Rom. 8:20-23).

The aging visage we see in our mirror is a witness to these things. But then we see Him! High and lifted up, waiting for the few, the remnant, the first fruits to realize the Answer to all their trepidations.

In Adam, all will wither and fade to dust and ash, but “You, Yahweh, shall endure forever” (Psalm 102:12). And because of your great mercy, You see our plight of impending doom, and you reach down and help us live.

“Yahweh looked down from His sanctuary on high; from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.” And why does He save us? “So the name of Yahweh will be declared in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem, when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship Yahweh” (102:19-22).  

But now the whole of creation groans with us, waiting for “the manifestation of the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:19). We all wait for the unveiling of the sons and daughters of God. This body of humans will have received their new, spiritual bodies, like the body that the Son of God resides in now. That kind of spiritual body is an everlasting body.

These 100-fold fruit bearing followers of the Lamb will come on the scene at the appointed time of the end. God’s Spirit through them will govern the earth. God will “restore all things” that He prophesied through His prophets. He will establish his kingdom and all peoples and nations will praise his name. But now, He humbles us as we learn that only He will endure. The heavens and the earth “shall perish, but You shall endure” (Psm. 102: 26-27). As we await the appointed time when our earthly body will be “swallowed up” with our new celestial body, we have joy knowing that He will deliver. This vision is the “law [the instruction] and the testimony,” which is “the spirit of prophecy” (Isa. 8:20; Rev. 19:10).   Kenneth Wayne Hancock 

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

“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

Knowing God Is Knowing His Word–Because He Is the Word

Because God is the Word, we cannot know Him if we do not know His words about Him being the Word. We find these words in the written word of God. The “word” found in John 1 is “Logos” in the Greek. It means “the plan,” basically. Everything in God’s far reaching excellent Plan is encapsulated in the word “word.”

God makes a big thing out of his word. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God.” His word is our life. Many scriptures come to mind about the word. “In the beginning was the word.” Since Christ is the beginning [“I am the beginning and the end”].  In Him was the word/logos or the plan. Since Christ is the beginning, then in Him was the word/logos/plan. Christ is the “Word made flesh” that dwelt among us.

And He was this word/logos/plan. And the Word was God. And this word, this explanation of God’s purpose and plan was at first passed on from generation to generation orally. Then his prophets wrote it down, and the word became the scriptures of truth. And the scriptures were passed down by faithful men, preserved for us today in the Bible.

This procurement by man of God’s word was done through men and women being the word. In other words, their lives became the word as their actions and interactions with God became the word, made flesh in a way.

Moreover, God’s chosen people’s history, the history of the Adamites, became our Bible. Comprehending their story, capped by the New Testament story of Yahshua the Christ the Anointed One and his apostles, is the journey we have set out on.

Thy Word Is Truth

His word is the truth about what is happening in heaven and earth. Therefore, it becomes the standard that we must go to, to settle all controversies. There will be times when we have doubts as to the veracity of certain doctrinal assumptions. He said that we are to prove all things to see if they be good or bad.

A grave mistake happens here on our walk into more growth in Him. It is believing that every thought that pops into our head is of God. We must know that God has allowed Satan to communicate with the inhabitants of the earth. He will speak to us in the thoughts of our mind. God does the same thing. The mistake is not discerning properly which voice is which.

Grave errors occur to young Christians for one reason. Christ said it. “You do err. You neither know the scriptures nor the power of God.” Knowing the written word of God  gives more God-thoughts to combat the negative thoughts.

There is much to prove out one way or the other whether thoughts come from God or of the devil. People will come up with suppositions, dreams, and imaginations. They become false doctrines that are clung to. But they must be in one accord with the standard, the word of God. If it does not agree with the written word, then we must throw it out.

His word is a big thing because He is a big thing, for He is the Word. The Word is spirit, and you must “worship God in spirit and in truth…” Without the truth, there is no real worship. So, word = spirit = God = truth. We must know the scriptures of truth in order to know God. For He is the Word of truth.

Receiving Authority to Cast Out Satan and To Heal

We saw in the October 23rd post that when we “resist the devil, he will flee from you.” We resist by thinking God’s thoughts seen in the metaphor of God’s armor (Eph. 6:13-18). The Spirit says to “arm yourselves” with the mind of Christ. Think His thoughts; they are found in the armor of God. God is the armor.

But we Christians have a problem. We are not fully dressed with His armor–His thoughts. And we wade out into the spiritual battlefield to combat our enemy, Satan. And many of us do not believe that we will have the victory over him. Many of us are plagued with the thoughts that the giants are too big. Many of us do not approach the fight like David did facing Goliath. David had no doubts about who would win. His trust was with Yahweh working through him. He defeated Goliath and the Philistines melted in fear and ran.

How did David walk in such authority? God says that we have that same power in the spiritual realm today.  He said that we now have the power to heal, to grow in His Spirit, and basically to become like the early apostles.

Questions come to mind. Why aren’t we Christians using this power more effectively? How does the power to cast out of Satan happen exactly? How does God do it through us? Knowing the truth about this will make us free of spiritual impotency when we come face to face with the enemy. Which piece of knowledge ushers us into this kind of authority over Satan?

Sovereignty

The answers lie in an understanding of God’s sovereignty. We should realize that our thoughts are not God’s thoughts initially. When we study His word, ideally we discipline our minds to think how He thinks. It is a kind of self-sacrifice, an abdicating of our innate human-centered stance in favor of our Creator’s thoughts about us and our position in the universe. And our position as His son or daughter is one with authority.

First, based on His words about Himself, God is sovereign; we are not. Mankind is so humanistic that we actually think that we make the choices that govern our existence. When all the while it was God behind the scenes working His will out on the earth’s stage. He chose us, and with His choices, He has guided our direction back to Him. “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit…” (John 15: 16).

For we in our first state have not the power to say to ourselves, “Live on forever.” Sooner or later we are faced with that disappointing reality called death. God rules in the kingdom of men. It is not our ball game; it is His. And with purposeful precision He has laid out the ground rules for us humans.

He Created Good and Evil

God in His sovereignty, created both good and evil. “I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the LORD [Yahweh] do all these things” (Isa. 45:7). But why the evil? God uses evil to develop and mature the good in those whom He has chosen, which are His elect. He foreknew that mankind would have a precocious predilection for self; He made man that way. He foreknew that the humans He had created would rebel and fall; He was the producer of that tragedy—for a purpose: that mankind would cry out to Him, seeking solace from their Creator. Our tragic fall into the evil of sin would be the very environment that would produce a grateful heart upon our deliverance.

God is sovereign; He does it His own brilliant way. We would not have written the script with evil causing us to suffer. We would write it where we would not have an antagonist to struggle against. God’s thoughts are not ours, but we can make them ours.

He Created Angels To Be Our Servants

He created the angels to be “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Heb. 1:14). “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (NIV).

Lucifer is one of the angels, an angelic spirit created by YHWH to minister to the sons and daughters of God. Lucifer received orders from Yahweh to become the minister of evil here on earth. Lucifer became Satan and is the god of this world. He dispenses the evil under God’s supervision. He and his cohorts are sent to serve and minister sufferings to us. We become stronger in God when we overcome Satan and the sufferings. Therefore, Satan is my servant and minister. Yours, too. The irony is rich; what Satan means for harm, God uses for good. You cannot out-god God. All angels, then, are spirits created by God to help us reach the goals that He has set for us. They exist to help us grow up to be joint-heirs with Christ of the Father’s kingdom.

We Are Satan’s Master

Fifth, even though Satan is the minister of evil, he is an angel, and by definition, he is still serving and ministering to us. Satan is our servant. Therefore, with the Holy Spirit inside, we are Satan’s master. We have power over him. We have power from God to cast him out, “to loose the bands of wickedness and undo the heavy burdens,” and to heal those oppressed of the devil. When we resist Satan, he flees. We are to resist him in others, not just ourselves. We have power over our own servant.

When we really believe this truth, we will walk with authority, knowing the truth about our position and our enemy’s place in God’s plan and purpose. And because we understand now that we are Satan’s master, we will command him to leave and be gone from the people we love, and we will give them “beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning” (Isa. 61:3).

For it is this authority, presented to us through the knowledge of the holy, that generates the power to first cast out the devil and then to heal others. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

Resist the Devil by Thinking God’s Thoughts

On our sojourn to the Eternal City, the New Jerusalem, we are to overcome many road blocks and hazards along the way. These are imposed and green lighted by our Father. He knows that our struggles against our adversary Satan will strengthen and fortify us and prepare us for kingship, which is His plan and purpose, after all.

God has authorized us to overcome Satan. He said, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Before we came to Christ, we were children of selfish darkness. We overcame the sin in our lives by coming to the cross and letting our old sinful self be “crucified with Christ.” And by belief in His literal bodily resurrection, He has raised us up to spiritually walk in “a newness of life.” HalleluYah! A wonderful freedom!

But that is only the first few steps of our walk with God. Satan is still around, trying to invade our minds with improper thoughts. He still “comes against us” by trying to direct our thoughts into retaining false concepts. Therefore, we are encouraged to “bring every thought into captivity unto obedience unto Christ.”

Those called and chosen are locked into a battle of the minds. Will we conquer, defeat and destroy every thought that comes against God’s plan? Will we search and destroy the vestiges of the carnal mind within us? When we receive Christ’s Spirit, we receive a new spiritual beginning. But in the Holy Land of our minds, thought-nations reside; they must be destroyed like Joshua and the Israelites were directed by God.

These are selfish little thought-nations; they are fearful little cowards that say, “The giants are too big. We cannot be like Christ. Nobody can.” These dastardly little beliefs have remained in the Holy Land of our minds, and they must be conquered and annihilated. We are to “bring every thought into captivity.” Studying His word will give us the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, and will enable us to do battle.

There is a fight, a war that is waged against Satan. Much war imagery is used by the early apostles to describe what we are going through. But it is this very struggle with evil that strengthens us spiritually. We grow as we overcome Satan and the negativity that pervades his agenda.

In the parable of the tares, if the workers pulled up the tares, which are the evil ones, it would root up the good wheat and disturb their growth. So the Lord of the harvest told His servants to not gather up the tares. “Let both grow until the time of the harvest.” The children of God need to grow in the presence of the evil ones. Prematurely up-rooting them would impede the spiritual growth of the elect. This is why in God’s plan that evildoers inexplicably prosper while the righteous suffer. It is because the wheat needs the evil ones in order to grow and overcome and become stronger. The children of God have to suffer at the hands of the evil ones. These are the sufferings of Christ—our temptations and over comings (Matt. 13: 24-30, 36-43).

This is what helps us to grow as we overcome. The sons of God, the elect, need things to forgive so that His divine nature can mature within us. We need battles to win. We need the sick to heal and the dead to raise. By overcoming Satan, we grow into the manifested sons and daughters of God.

So how do we overcome the devil and all his wiles? First we have to learn just who and what he is. We need to know his purpose and the source of his power. And through our entire enquiry, let us remember that his power has limits. Why? Since Satan flees from us when we resist him, then he does not have unlimited power. Righteous resistance thwarts his attacks.

And God has provided us a way to resist. It is clear cut and to the point. The Spirit writing through His apostle Paul tells us to put on the armor of God. “Take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” (Eph. 6:13-18 NASB). We resist the devil by arming ourselves with “the same mind that was in Christ” (I Peter 4: 1). When meditated upon, the armor fills our mind with the same thoughts that Christ our example thought upon. The literal armor represents aspects of God’s vision and plan to fulfill His purpose. His armor is spiritual, clothed in thoughts—Christ’s thoughts. As we exercise all aspects of the armor, we will resist the devil by standing against him and for God.

The devil works through our mind. We are, after all, led by our thoughts. We then must repent of our old thoughts and think God’s thoughts. The armor of God is an array of His thoughts, likened to parts of armor, both offensive and defensive. Thinking these thoughts allow us to resist the devil: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and prayer. But they must be free from old leaven teachings in order to be effective.

To more efficiently fight Satan, we need to know just who he is and for what purpose the Creator has loosed him on the earth.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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The Sabbath Rest in God’s Temple

We become the temple of God when the Spirit of God begins to dwell in us. Things happen, and after our initial conversion, we may not feel it sometimes. We might be going through a trial that tells our mind something that is against the truth of His word that said, You are the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit, Yah’s dwelling place.

Speaking of trials—they are for the purification of our faith. Peter says that these “fiery trials” burn out the dross of our faith, which he likens to gold. It operates in a cycle. Revelatory truth comes flooding over us, and we exult in the thrill of getting a little closer to God. But then the thrill is gone for a while. It is like low tide and high tide—ebb and flow. And then the fog lifts, and our hunger for truth returns, and we seek and then find more truth once again. We love the flow, but not the ebb.

Many young Christians are unaware that God’s plan uses this technique for our growth in Him. So, “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you…” It is not strange at all. We should rejoice because we are “partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” These sufferings are prerequisite for ruling with Him (I Pet. 4: 12; Rom. 8: 17).

The Mind of Christ

We are the body of Christ. Why? Because He said we are. Any thought or action or word that supersedes this reality—that we now are God’s house, that He is living inside of us—is against the truth. For it is His thought that places us in Him and Him in us, not our own imagination. Christ thought it and then said it, and His apostles wrote it down. It is His word; we just believed it. And that last four words—that is the faith that He is looking for in us.

Once we believe that our old sinful heart is crucified with Christ, and once we believe that we have “been raised to walk in a newness of life” with our risen Savior, then we are agreeing with God’s thought straight from His mind. I mean straight from the glorious brain of our Creator! Such power! Such glory! And He wants to place this creative power fully in us. But to receive fully we must believe fully. There is a growth in all this.

His thoughts do not change or deviate from the Logos (Word) which comprises the Mind of God. How does God see us? He sees us not as the pathetic selfish sinners we once were, but as His dwelling place.

Through belief, we surrender to Him and His plan. When we do this, we find refuge and enter into His rest. When we believe Him and begin to live for Him and His plan and not for our little plans, then we do enter into His rest because we have ceased from our own labors for ourselves.

This rest is our Sabbath rest. Just by believing Him and walking in the Spirit, we enter into rest and keep His Sabbath. Scurrying around, wondering if we are breaking the Sabbath is not entering into His rest. To many “law keepers,” the Sabbath is treated like a petulant old rich man who demands reverence of his every whim. That is not it, folks.

When we realize that the Sabbath was “made for man and not man for the Sabbath,” then we will rest from our own old-man-Adam-works. I pondered upon these passages in Hebrews 4 for many years, and now they are being revealed. The Sabbath day is part of the Law, and the “Law is not made for a righteous man.” Besides, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes” (Rom. 10: 4).

Entering into His Rest

As we believe His word, we do enter into His rest. And His rest is His confidence and belief that the plan contained in the Seed/Word/Logos has come, is coming, and shall come to pass just like He created the “incorruptible seed, the word of God” in the beginning.

He believes in us more than we believe in Him. Or rather, He believes in His plan working itself out in our lives–even though we don’t even understand it fully as of yet.

He knows that His thoughts, which are formed into words, “will not return unto Him void, but will accomplish” what He sent them to do. And believing this solidly, God now rests and waits with great patience on us to finally believe the same thing.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Christ Formed in You–Making Our Calling and Election Sure

You would not be reading these words if God had not been dealing with you in many ways. You feel that there is so much more than what the churches are teaching you. Many of you have already left the denominations in search of deeper truths. When you read in these pages about how Christians can grow to be like the early apostles and even Christ Himself, you rejoice and long for this to truly permeate this earth.

That first rush of excitement and fervor upon hearing these things ignites a fire that soon burns down to embers and for some cools to ash. Two things are the fuel to keep our hearts ablaze for God.

Two major principles that we must add to our walk will help us “make our calling and election sure.” The first one is to “Get the Vision.” This is not just getting a vision for God. Nor is it “getting a leading of the Spirit” for some endeavor. No. It means “Get the Vision that God specifically has for us.

The second major principle that helps us grow up spiritually to eventually become the manifested sons and daughters of God just like the early apostles, is to obey Christ’s admonishments. He told us specific things to do in order to grow. He told us to add certain spiritual qualities to our faith, things that will help us “make our calling and election sure” (II Pet. 1: 5-11). Few know what these additions to the faith are.

He told us to “purge out the old leaven,” which are the false doctrines and teachings about God that we grew up with. Few have done this, mainly for lack of knowledge. Babes in Christ are inadvertently given tainted milk by their caregivers. We need the “sincere milk of the word” so that we can truly grow.

We are to learn and to continue “steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine,” called “the first principles of the oracles of God” (Acts 2: 42; Heb. 5: 12; 6: 1-2). The future manifested sons and daughters of God must not only know these teachings, but do them. But most Christians when asked, do not even know what they are.

We are told to have the mind of Christ and to think like He does. Yet few have explored what is really on His mind. He gave us a model prayer, called the Lord’s Prayer. Instead of analyzing each part of the prayer to mine out the jewels of communication with the Father, man has made it a ritualistic, repetitive incantation. And there are so many more things that we are to know and then do to prepare our vessels to become one of His princes and princesses in His kingdom.

Back to the Beginning

To make sure our calling and election sure, we must go back, back, back to the beginning—back before the earth and the heavens were created. We must travel back to the very heart and mind of God. To be like Him, we must think like Him. We must know His thoughts.

For His chosen ones, His elect, will know Him from the beginning. The apostle John had this intimate knowledge of the Father. He was taken to that rare dimension called “the beginning,” before anything was ever created—back to the Father’s thoughts, back to the very core of who He was and is and will always be.

As God’s manifested sons and daughters to be, we must go there. To “know Him from the beginning,” we must go back to our Father’s first thought. We must boldly go where few dare to go—into the Mind of God. He made our minds, and we use only 10% of the brainpower. So, yes, we can go back to His mind and thoughts before He created anything. We must leave behind the physical trappings of churchianity and get back to the Word that was in the beginning.

John wrote about “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (I John 1: 1). That place is where we are going—back to the beginning. To be His true offspring, we must be as He was and is. We must know His thoughts, His purpose, and His plan that He had in the beginning, in order to fulfill them.

Three Growth Levels for Christians

In His first letter, John wrote to three groups of Christians, categorized according to their spiritual growth. He wrote specific messages to “children” and to “young men” and to “fathers” (2: 12-14).

To the fathers, who are the most mature Christians, he wrote, “I write unto you, fathers, because you have known Him that is from the beginning” (v. 13). You fathers are fully matured followers that know God’s secret thoughts and plans and purpose.

Those chosen by God to overcome all things and to grow unto kingship with Christ are these “fathers.” That standing is what we are called to become. That’s us, brothers and sisters.

But in order to grow to this point, we must get back to the beginning, to the original thoughts of the Father, back to His nature, His plan, and His purpose. It must be crystal clear, clean and dazzling in our hearts and minds. This is “knowing Him that is from the beginning.” This is nothing less than arriving at the Mind of Christ, for His thoughts were only His Father’s. The Spirit is now taking us there.

A Few Notes before Our Pilgrimage Back to the Father’s Heart

As we dive deeper into His wisdom and knowledge, and as we seek what we had with Him in the beginning, we will encounter main ideas and major concepts first created in the Mind of God.

These precepts are the core principles of His faith. Yes, He believed in His own genius first, long before we were created. It is His faith in His own magnificence that we later agreed with when we came to Him initially. We must remember that it is “the faith once delivered to the saints.” The one faith is His faith in His own power and glory and genius. When we begin to believe what He believes, then we have the one faith.

These divine concepts are not separated by vast oceanic mysteries, standing isolated from each other. These things are the thoughts of His mind, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and, beginning with His nature, are the essence of the agape love that He is.

All of these concepts emanating from the Mind of God blend together. Because God is one, it is difficult to speak of just one concept without mentioning others. The Oneness of God permeates all. “There is one body, and one Spirit…one hope of your calling; 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: 3-7).

The major concepts we must learn while going back to the beginning with God are these: Love, Purpose, Thoughts/Mind,Word/Logos, Plan, Seed/Son, Planting, Harvest. All these yield The Vision that God has for the universe. When we see these concepts with spiritual eyes and believe them, then we will have seen The Vision.

When we have a working knowledge of these, we will only begin to understand the Mind of Christ. We then can begin to think His thoughts, which are the Father’s. Then we will begin to “know Him that is from the beginning.”

The next few chapters will help us get His Vision.

[This is Chapter 2 of my latest book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. If the above intrigues you, send for your free copy with free shipping. I wrote it specifically for  you. Instead of putting my dollars in some church’s offering tray, I send books to those who are hungering for these things. Just send your mailing address to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com  Kenneth Wayne Hancock]

Eating the Hidden Manna

Christ makes an exciting promise to His followers who overcome a specific shortcoming that is hindering their spiritual growth. “To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna” (Rev. 2: 14).

“Manna” appears throughout the scriptures. Manna first fell from heaven miraculously for the children of Israel in the wilderness. They called it “What is it?” because it had never happened before. They also called it the “bread from heaven.”

Christ said that the original manna was not the true bread from heaven. “The bread of God is He which comes down from heaven and gives life unto the world…I am the bread of life: he that comes to Me shall never hunger, and he that believes on Me shall never thirst” (John 6: 30-35). The manna in the wilderness was physical; the heavenly manna is spiritual.

“The Jews murmured at Him” in unbelief. The true bread from heaven was staring them in the face, and they could not see Him. The True Manna was hidden from them. For, you see, the Son of God is the “hidden manna.” He is hidden from those whose eyes only see the outward appearance. Because “seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear neither do they understand” (Matt. 13: 13). Unless God opens a person’s eyes, they will be blind to spiritual things—even though they read the same Bible and go to the same church house. Few realize that He fulfilled this scripture: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.” (Matt. 13: 35 NIV; “kept secret” in KJV).

Christ the Hidden Manna

Brothers and sisters, we are talking about the secrets of the universe being revealed! It is there for us. He has laid it all out. Christ is the hidden manna. But, What is it? The true manna from heaven consists of His purpose, His plan, His thoughts, and His dreams about His kingdom of love and joy and peace. The hidden manna is hidden only to those who cannot see. But those born from above do see and enter into His kingdom and governance (John 3: 3-6).

Christ wants to share it all with us. He wants us to eat the true bread from heaven, which is Himself. But how do we partake of the bread of life? Man’s wisdom cannot teach us these things. Man’s wisdom only sees the physical, such as the magical mystical tour of   transubstantiation. “No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden…None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” [And who are the “rulers of this age” that crucified Christ? Obviously Rome, the 4^th beast world empire, and those “which say they are Judean, of Judah, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2: 9; 3: 9]. Do not trust these two rulers of this age to guide you spiritually. This is part of the overcoming.

Conversely, the “hidden wisdom” looks after the Spirit and teaches us to spiritually ingest His purpose, plan, words, thoughts, teachings, commands, doctrines, and desires. And we partake of them by believing them, which is believing Him. We take His words into our thoughts, and make our thoughts His thoughts. This is having the mind of Christ (Phil. 2: 5). It’s not a physical thing; it is spiritual. He said, “The words I speak, they are spirit and they are life.” When we believe His words and think His thoughts, then we walk in His Spirit of life; we walk as a member of His body. Christ is still asking us, “Believest thou this?” (John 11: 26).

The Overcoming

To eat of the hidden manna, one must overcome a “few things” that Christ has against us. When Christ appeared to the apostle John on the island of Patmos around 96 A.D., He laid out a series of spiritual growth expectations for His body of believers, both on a personal and corporate scale. “The Alpha and Omega” spoke to John and told him to write down these things that have happened, is happening, and will happen in the past, the present and the future (Rev. 1: 19). In chapters two and three, we see the Seven Church Ages and their requirements for each level of spiritual growth.

Whole books are needed to expound fully their content, but let us glimpse at the third one–Pergamos. Christ is speaking to individuals, church bodies, and historical church movements in His words to the overcomers. He always acknowledges the good that we have done. Then He tells us the things we are to overcome in order to grow to the next level. If we repent of that thing, then He rewards us with a spiritual truth that helps us reach the next level. And so on through the seven ages of growth.

In Pergamos Christ appreciates the walk thus far, but…“I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality…Repent…” (Rev. 2: 12-17).

Background: God in the Old Testament had human beings physically live out a life that He directed. Their physical actions in ancient times serve as types, shadows, and examples. Their actions are a spiritual template for us during the “time of the end.” In short, the false prophet Balaam was hired by the Moabite king Balak to curse the children of Israel. He could not curse what Yahweh had blessed, so Balaam taught Balak to bring on the beautiful Moabite women to seduce the Israelites to go after their false gods.

The Pergamos Overcomings for Us Today

We must overcome through repentance these things in the Pergamos growth level:

1. Eating food sacrificed to idols. The original OT story has Israelites eating physical food that had been roasted in sacrifice to literal gods of stone and wood. Interesting. They ate food tainted by a false doctrine of worshipping idols. Spiritual application for today: Repent of false doctrines in our worship of the true God. Do not ingest false teachings about Christ. We must repent of the old leaven, the false teachings of churchianity.
2. They literally “committed sexual immorality” with the Moabite women. To be blunt, they committed fornication with the whorish Moabite women. You may ask, How can this apply to us? The answer is found later in Revelation 17. We see “the judgement of the great whore that sits on many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication” (v. 1-2). She was richly arrayed and on her forehead was this name written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH…And the woman which you saw is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.” We know that city is Rome, whose pope crowned emperors and kings. Even the notes in the Catholic bible say that it describes Rome.

God is warning us and requiring us to repent of the false doctrines taught by the great whore, the Roman Church and her daughters. And we must “come out of her” and not  be in fellowship with others who are saturated with false teachings.

Those who repent and purge out the old false doctrines about Christ will receive a reward. The Spirit is saying this to the churches: To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone” (Rev. 2: 17).

In Summary

Christ is the hidden manna, the bread of life. The word “Christ” means the Anointed One. The Anointing is truth. Therefore, the Anointing is the Spirit of truth. Consequently, the Hidden Manna = the Spirit of Truth. And when the Spirit of Truth comes into your life, “He will guide you into all truth…for He will show you things to come” (John 16: 13).

As we eat the hidden manna, we will find that it tastes very sweet like honey at first, but afterward, it will grow bitter in the belly. The first flush of love, joy and peace is sweet, but as we grow closer to the day of the Lord’s vengeance, the bitter misery of tribulation fills the air.

But right now, let us eat of the hidden manna that He has given us.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[Order your free copy with free shipping to the USA my new book THE ROYAL DESTINY OF GOD’S ELECT. Just send your mailing address to wayneman5@hotmail.com]