Worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth

“…You shall not worship any other god, for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14). This should bring us to our knees in reverential awe of our Father. How to worship Him and no other is on the top of the list of what we must get straightened out.

Christ, Yahweh-in-human-form, elucidated: “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). God is an invisible Spirit. Therefore, we are to worship Him in the spiritual realm, not in the material realm. The worship must also be according to the truth. His “word is truth.”

In Spirit

To arrive at the kind of worship that Yahweh desires, we must worship “in spirit and in truth.” “In spirit” entails having a “contrite spirit,” a broken spirit, a humble heart, being “poor” in spirit–not rich and fat spiritually (Revelation 3:16-18; Isaiah 66: 2). For it is these that Yahweh will accept. “But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word.” That is what Yahweh is after in our worship of him.

Worshipping in spirit means entering with our hearts in that invisible spirit world of humility and gratefulness to God. Moreover, it leads a humble and grateful heart into communicating to God that gratefulness. In a word, we enter His presence with prayer. In this prayerful state we offer  the sacrifice of the “caves of our lips,” thanking him (Hosea 14:2).

God is not interested in material things scattered within and upon worship—candles, cups, incense, offering trays, et al. These only serve as the traps and snares of the human mind. Is all about the heart of each of us. He is interested in us trusting Him, even though He is this invisible spirit of love. Will we allow His sacrifice on the cross, His ultimate declaration of love, melt our adamant hearts? Will our walls of doubt and belligerence finally crumble and crash down at His feet? Will we gratefully with broken hearts thank Him for having mercy on us? Will we tremble at His Majesty and His word?

In Truth

Those are the questions we must be honest enough to ask ourselves. By answering in the affirmative, we will be entering into true worship—if our concepts of Him are true. God is the “Spirit of truth.” If there are false concepts of Him in our thinking, then our communication with God is at least partially blocked. We must rid ourselves of the untruths about Him, His purpose, and His plan.

We have seen that the worship of the Father must be in spirit and in truth. That we be in the proper spirit and attitude in approaching God–this is having a broken and contrite heart and spirit towards God that leads to communication with God in prayer. But after expressing gratitude to him, what do we say to him? It’s all in the Lord’s prayer. By praying thusly, we get on the same page as our Father in heaven.

It’s all about walking in the truth. And that truth is His word (John 17: 17). “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.” The truth is what sets us apart for His work in the earth. That is what sanctification is. At this point in our growth, we are mostly alive for what we can do for the Father. We are no longer children in this growth but young men and women in the spirit.

However, if we are walking in error, if we are doing (or not doing) things in our attempt to worship God that is against His word—then we will not grow from justification to sanctification and on into glorification. Not obeying his word equals no growth.

The spirit (pneuma) in us breathing out of our mouths the word of God—that is worship. Submitting our bodies to be used by the Spirit of God within to utter His words of life to others—that is worship. Presenting our “bodies as a living sacrifice,” and allowing the Spirit to minister through us—that is worshipping Yahweh.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[All this and much more is in my book The Eleventh Commandment. It shows that the Lord’s prayer is a model prayer that line by line shows us the things Yahweh is thinking about. It is not a magical incantation to be repeated. It is the kind of prayer that God will listen to. It is a blueprint of prayers that will reach God. Everyone needs this book. It is free with free shipping. Just send your name, mailing address, and name of the book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com]

The Bread from Heaven—Doing His Will

(From Journal, 3-11-18)

Christ said, “I have food to eat that you do not know about” (John 4:32 ESV). The disciples knew about earthly food. Therefore, Christ was speaking of a spiritual bread, a bread from heaven. So, we see that food = bread = manna. That food is the “hidden manna,” the invisible heavenly bread.

What is this bread from heaven? Let Christ teach us: “My food/bread/manna is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34). In other words, the heavenly food, the bread of God, is the doing of the Father’s will and finishing His work. This is what will sustain us on our pilgrimage.

Our trek here on earth is to do His will. Christ prays: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” Most speak these words but have no knowledge of what they mean. His will for this earth is for His Kingdom to literally come and for His throne to be established in Jerusalem, the city of the great King. Yahshua is Yahweh in human form; He is the Anointed One. He is the “King of kings.” Most do not know of His will, yet. When this stone Kingdom arrives, and when the King prescribes orders to establish righteousness throughout, then He will have finished the works. The kicker: He is using us to fulfill His will.     

His will is extremely important. “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Those entering the kingdom of heaven are doing His will; they obey Christ’s directives on how His government will spread throughout all the earth.

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (John 4:4). Doing-what-His-word-says is the food we are nourished by.

But many are not being fed, though they go to the church buildings every week. Notwithstanding, a few at present are learning what His will is and the word that explains His plan. The word that God speaks tells of His purpose, and His plan to accomplish it. His will is His intention to fulfill His purpose, which is to reproduce and multiply agape love, which He is. His word is the logical explanation [the logos] of how He will accomplish it. His word through the Spirit of Truth leads us into all truth. His word is the spiritual bread of life that feeds us and gives us overcomers strength to make it to His throne. 

Prayer that Fulfills His Will

Prayer is communing with God, who is our Creator, our Father, the great Spirit of love and truth. We enter His courts with praise and thanksgiving, acknowledging that He is “our Father,” that we are only one member of His royal family.

The loins of our mind must be girded with truth, for He is the Spirit of truth. Prayers uttered in error fail to move Him, but prayers founded in His truth works with Him and His plan and purpose, and those prayers penetrate the brazen dome of heaven and enter into His ears.

Prayers that exalt His will for His creation are answered. And what is His will? It is His intention to bring it all into Christ, that love be multiplied, that He who is love, would be reproduced throughout the universe. If we ask Him with this in mind, He will answer and give us what we need to finish the Father’s work.

(For more on this see purpose | Search Results | Immortality Road (wordpress.com)

The Hidden Manna Versus Yesterday’s Manna

Yesterday’s manna will not feed the hunger of today’s sons and daughters of God. Yesterday’s manna will not sustain them on their spiritual quest to be like Paul, Peter, James, John and—yes, like the Son of God Himself. Yesterday’s bread from heaven that was given hundreds of years ago to the churches will not strengthen the future manifested sons and daughters of God. They have a higher calling than to just receive salvation. They are pressing “toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus/Yahshua” (Phil. 3: 14).

Yesterday’s manna was the perfect food for those who had never heard of Christ back in the early days. Tell them the story of how He died for them. Introduce them to Christ; tell them about His great love for them. Tell them about salvation through faith in Christ. But now God has a people, a chosen remnant, who have heard this story since childhood, and they need something more than an incessant introduction to Christ. They need the meat of the word to satisfy their spiritual growing pains. They need Him, the truth. They need the hidden manna in the form of His full purpose and plan to fulfill it.

His Purpose Is the Bread of God that Is Hidden

But what is the end product of God’s purpose for these who have the “high calling”?  They are  “the called according to His purpose.” They are being called right now to be used by the King to fulfill His purpose. “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son…” (Rom. 8: 28-29).

We see here that God knew these before. Look. He is the Creator—omni-everything, “knowing the end from the beginning.” Of course, He knew beforehand what they would become, much like a novelist creates characters and knows their destinies before the book is published. Furthermore, He gave us a destiny before we were ever born into the human mire.

We have a forerunner and an example. Speaking to Jeremiah, God said, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jer. 1: 5). Somebody is saying, “Well, that was Jeremiah. He was a great personage of God, and I’m just little old insignificant me sitting here…” But that is not how God looks at us. God knew us before we were born; He has given us a destiny before we came to earth. And what is that destiny? “To be conformed to the image of His Son”!

To be like Christ! That is God’s purpose: to reproduce Himself in a body of many sons and daughters through Christ. Christ formed in us! Now before that last line slips unnoticed back into the ether, remember what Christ said, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19: 26).

God foreknew us and gave us this destiny before we were born. That’s why He called us with this high calling. Then He justifies us (gets the sin out of our lives—first step). Then He glorifies us (become like Christ—full reproduction of God in our vessels) (Rom. 8: 30). We are His elect, His chosen ones. And He will “freely give us all things” in order for His purpose to be accomplished (8: 32).

Becoming like Christ–this truth came from heaven. It is the heavenly manna that is hidden from the masses because of their hard heart of unbelief. Believing this manna is spiritually eating it.

When we cease striving to make our own selfish desires a reality—even in our church and worship–and when we embrace God’s purpose and walk in it, the struggles in life subside. We see clearly now that He is for us, that He is helping us do what He has purposed us to do. By faith in His Spirit coming down into us, He takes over and the love, joy and peace flows. And we no longer feel like it is us having to powerlessly fight everything out there. Frustration evaporates. Things become easier because we begin to realize that “it is no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me.” Victory is ours. He has our back because we have His.

The Daily Bread

What do we do right now to get His plan moving in us?  He said to pray that God “give us this day our daily bread.” We are to pray for the spiritual bread from heaven, the spiritual manna that this day and time requires. Right now we need our daily bread, and if we cry out to him for the bread from heaven for our day, will He give us a stone? You know He won’t.

We need the bread of heaven for today, not the doctrines of yesterday that have been tampered with. Yesterday’s manna is full of additives–false doctrines and traditions. It has become another gospel, one that is about Christ and not what He actually taught. It is like the manna in Moses’ day. It physically fed the children of Israel in the wilderness, but it was only good for the day it was collected. It went bad if they tried to eat it at a later date. Yesterday’s manna will not nourish us today. It has gone bad. It has been mixed with pagan motifs and false conceptions and imaginations.

But the true bread from heaven is the Son of God. He is the “hidden manna,” and in Him are His  purpose, plan, thoughts, and desires, which if a man eat, if a man ingest, if a man believe—he will live forever (John 6: 58).

The bread from heaven is hidden from natural eyes; it is the Spirit of Truth that “guides us into all truth.” And the truth is a deep pool that contains one special “pearl of great price” bidding us to swim into the depths until we find it.

Yesterday’s manna cannot help us to grow strong for the end times. Only today’s bread from heaven will suffice us and strengthen us for the arduous quest we are on. Be strong, you mighty men and women of valor!     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

True Prayer–What to Ask For

[This is Chapter 13 of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God, “Prayer—the Portal into Yah’s Spiritual World.” To order your free copy with free shipping, send your mailing address to my email:  wayneman5@hotmail.com ]

How do we make contact with the Great Invisible One?

     We have seen that words are spirit; they are invisible, and they are powerful.  We have seen that God is Spirit; He is an invisible Spirit-Entity that manifests Himself in human beings as He sees fit.

     We are admonished by Yahshua the Master to worship this Invisible One.  In fact, the Father is seeking people to worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23).  He said that we should worship the Father, not just in spirit, but in spirit and in truth.  So how do we worship the Father in spirit and in truth?  How do we enter into His invisible spirit world?  How do we make contact with the Great Invisible One?  We communicate with Him through words.  It is called prayer.

     “Prayer” is a word itself that carries a lot of baggage.  Every religion and every denomination in Churchianity has a different concept of prayer as to what, when, and how to do it.  But stripped of all of its negative connotations, simply put, “prayer” is communication to the Invisible Spirit God.  Prayer is made up of invisible words spoken from the heart, either audibly or silently.  These words are offered up to the Eternal Spirit and are likened to a kind of incense that smells sweet to Yahweh in His spirit domain.

     Prayer demands first that we humans believe.  Prayer exercises belief.  We find it difficult to communicate to an invisible  Spirit  if we don’t believe that He is there or that He is listening.  One-sided conversations are always limited.  Messages left on answering machines rarely shine like live feedback conversations.

     Nevertheless, we are shut up to worshiping God through word communications.  This helps our faith to grow, for when we speak to Him, we must believe that He exists and that He listens, and that He will reward us with answers to our prayers. Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Mt. 7:7.  What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:24.

 And what are we to ask for?  “One thing is needful,” and there is no better thing that we could ask for than His Spirit.  How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13.  We should ask Him for His Spirit.  He expects us to.  He understands that we know how to give good gifts unto our own children when they ask of us.  And He loves us more than we love our own children.  So He wants to give us His Spirit, which is the greatest gift that could ever be given to us.

     In other words, when we communicate with our invisible Spirit Father, we thank Him for His blessings to us; we praise Him and praise His name; we ask Him to grant desires that we have; we then believe that we are receiving those things we ask in prayer; then we receive them.

     It is through prayer, then, that we enter into the Spirit World of Yah. We make contact with our invisible Father.  We start the spiritual processes in motion; we touch eternity.

     This all sounds so simple and good, but why is it so difficult to put prayer into practice?  He has promised us His very nature and Spirit.  But we find it hard to receive. We  either  lack  enough belief, or we do not want to make the sacrifices needed in order to effect it.  You mean that we can partake of His very nature, His divine nature?  That is what the scriptures say.  Passages about prayer are a key part of the knowledge we need in order to receive the Spirit.

     The Messiah was praying.  The disciples saw Him and asked Him to teach them to pray.  It was at this time that He gave them a pattern prayer, whose components outline how we all should approach the Creator.

     First, we are to address Him as “Father.”  This was clearly before the life-changing experience they would have several months later after the Messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection.  Our Father which art in heaven. Luke 11:2.

     Second, we learn in this special prayer that the Father’s name is “holy,” which means “set apart.”  The Father’s name is very special.  Something in that name holds great significance.  His name is not of this sinful world system; it is separate from the fleshly clamoring of this present world.  Carnal man in his death throes comes short of the glory of what the Creator wanted him to be.  Man seethes in his own lusts for himself—desires that can never be fulfilled.  And we are reminded by the Messiah in this special prayer that our Creator, who is our Father, has a name that is above this strife here on earth.  It is hallowed, holy, and set apart from the insanity of mortal man…hallowed be thy name.

    Third, our Father has a kingdom.  A kingdom is a form of government with a king as the ruling executive.  It is a political or territorial unit ruled by a sovereign.  The Father is that King.  He has His own kingdom that shall come to this earth.  The Messiah models this in the prayer, expressing the longing for it…Thy kingdom come.

    Fourth, the King has deliberately chosen and decided upon an exact course of action that will take place here on this earth. Things are going His way in heaven, and they will go His way here on earth.   Nothing takes place by accident.  He is totally in control.  The Messiah is praying here, showing us how to get into one mind, one accord with the Father’s “pre-determinate counsel of his own will.”  What the Father has determined, that is what shall come to pass…Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

    We are to ask Him for our daily spiritual food.  He said for us to not think about the physical necessities that we must have to sustain our lives here on earth.  But we are to ask Him for the spiritual sustenance.  Give us day by day our daily bread…Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.  And we are to forgive, and we will be forgiven by Him  [For much more in depth study on prayer as the portal, read this series of articles https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/?s=lord%27s+prayer ].

      Right after this prayer, in Luke 11:5-13, the Master shows in a parable just what we should ask the Father for.  One thing is needful, and that is what we should be asking for.  The physical, earthly things—He already knows that we need those things to survive.  He knows our temporal fleshly needs, for He put us here in the flesh and has no need that any of us tell Him how it is being human.  For He partook of flesh and blood.

     The story: Your friend next door comes over around midnight, after you have gone to bed.  He pounds on your door.  “What do you want?” you ask, rather perturbed.

     “Could you give me some food.  A friend of mine has come over and I do not have any food in the house to give to him.”

     “Come back in the morning,” you say.  “I’m already in bed, me and all my family.  I’ll get something for you in the morning.”

     But he keeps on pounding on the door.  And keeps on.  And because of the constant knocking, because of the bold  and  shameless, repeated  and  urgent  requests, you will get up finally and give him what he asks for.

     And so it is with us.  We must keep asking.  We must ask like this friend.  We must keep banging boldly, not fearing what the owner of the house, God, thinks.  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened…Your heavenly Father shall give the Holy Spirit to them that asks Him. Luke 11:9-10.  The Master is saying that the Father will give us the Spirit because of our importunity, our urgent and repeated requests, desiring His Spirit in our lives in order to help others.

     We must not be discouraged by delayed answers.  Daniel prayed 21 straight days, expecting an answer.  And finally, Gabriel came and said that he had been hindered and delayed by Satan.  God allows delays to test us, to try us.  So we must persevere and never give up, and He will give us His Spirit.

Why Settle for a Part of the Creation When You Can Have All of the Creator?

     Prayer is the portal through which we enter Yahweh’s spiritual world.  Through prayer we not only make contact with God, but we put forth petitions in order to receive more of His Spirit.  For He is all that we really need.  Why ask for only a part of the creation, when we can have all of the Creator?  We must pray according to His will.  But first we must know the truth about what His will is.  If we ask Him to reveal the secret truths of His will, will He give us a false reading?  We have to believe that He is faithful that promised and will never lead us astray.  All of our concerns can be allayed through true prayer.          Kenneth Wayne Hancock

True Worship and Prayer

True worship, then, is worshiping God in spirit and in truth. “And so it is written: ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.” When we are born into this world, we are a living being, a living soul. But when we are born from above, we become a spirit that gives life; we become a “life-giving spirit.” (I Cor. 15: 45 NIV)

“For that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3: 6). Brothers and sisters, as born again Christians, we are now spirit because we have been born of the Spirit of God. Each seed bears its own kind.

We are new creatures—spirit-creatures now. We are no longer of the earth, although we do dwell in these clay earthen bodies. Now that we are changed into a spirit, He calls us the “last Adam.” Since we are new spiritual creatures, we simply must stop speaking as the first Adam did, as we used to. But someone will say, “Well, it is all I know.” True, but that is why we must study the written word and dig deep and get it into our new hearts. For the word of God is spirit. Christ said, “The words I speak unto you are spirit and they are life.” And He has told us to study His words, and study we must in order to do Him justice. We owe our King that (II Cor. 5: 17-19; John 6: 63).

Now That We Are Spirit

We now may enter into true worship of our Father, for only a spirit being, born of the Spirit, can worship the Spirit of Truth, which is our Father. “God is a Spirit,” a Spirit-Being that gives life to the dead. We know this because we were once dead in our sins, but now we are made “alive unto God” through Christ’s resurrection of the dead. Engendered by the Supreme Spirit-Being, we now have His life-giving seed within our hearts. And this seed is the word that the Father has spoken and now written down in our hearts. We now are a part of His heart, born of His Spirit, and now able to give life like He did for us. We do this by sharing His word with others. This is the bread of life, broken for you and others. His seed becomes bread that will sustain others unto eternal life. His word is the seed, now ground into unleavened flour through our shared sufferings and baked into the bread of life. This is the partaking of the bread; this is communion—the spiritual sharing of His word, plan and purpose. Everything else is window dressing, if it is done without true knowledge in true worship (John 4: 24; Rom. 6: 4-11; I Pet. 1: 23; John 6: 33-35).

We now are a spirit that can make others alive. When we relate the truth of Christ to the lost, and they respond, we are being used by God to raise the dead, for they are dead in their sins. As we share our testimony of how God gave us new life in Him, we are giving new life to others. This is how we are a “life-giving spirit.” This is part of the 30 fold “resurrection of the dead,” the fifth apostles’ doctrine. If we are faithful in giving others a new spiritual life, then the Father will grant us more power to perform Lazarus-like miracles. It is coming for those who can receive it.

Those who have ears that can hear what the Spirit is saying to us—they will stand in reverential awe of this mighty Spirit of Love, who shares Himself. And as our hearts bow before Him, stupefied beyond mere human words at His majestic mercy, a brokenness comes over us as we begin to worship our humble Father and King. For He seeks such who are like Him, who have a broken spirit and a contrite heart. For they are the only ones who may enter into this rareified court. For God’s love has melted our hearts from which gratefulness pours forth. And this gratitude is expressed in communication back to the Father in the form of prayer.

Prayer—What Do We Say after “Thank You”?

We cannot but pray, for it is the foundation of a spirit’s worship of the Great Spirit Yahweh. Prayer is invisible; it ushers forth from the spiritual heart with waves of thanks splashing on heaven’s shores.

No wonder we are told to “pray always.” I could not understand that as a young Christian. It sounded impossible. How many times can we say thank you to God? What else should we express to Him? What other things should we discuss with Him?

In essence the disciples asked these same questions. After seeing Christ pray, they said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” First He told them how not to pray. Don’t pray in public to be seen of men like the hypocrites do. Go into a secret place. Don’t use “vain repetitions, as the heathen do.” Then He taught them what to say by giving them a model prayer.

And then He gives them the key. “After this manner therefore pray ye…”  He then gives them the example prayer. Just mouthing the words of it does nothing. He wants our hearts full of His ideas that are contained in the phrases of the prayer communicated back to Him. When we earnestly speak to Him about the things that are on His heart—wow! We make contact with the Power of the universe, the Power that created it all, the Power whose thoughts and ideas will come to pass. When we get on His page, speaking to Him with details of His plan to carry out His will and purpose—then we will have effective communication, then our prayers will touch His heart and take on a gravity in His heart and mind.

When we pray in accordance with the concepts contained in His model prayer, then we will get His attention. Then He will say, “Wait, I believe that they are getting it. Let’s give them what they need, and have asked for, to get the job done. They asked for the tools to complete My plan. Let’s give them the power to finish the work before us.”

The so-called Lord’s Prayer shows us exactly what to pray for. It lines out His plan. But natural man does not perceive the things of God; he has misused the prayer and cheapened it. He has used it as penance and a good luck spiritual charm to be chanted. Satan has made it so common that many reading this now will not be able at first to see just how important it is, for it has lost its original meaning.

A Blueprint

Christ gave us the model prayer as a blueprint to show us what to pray for. Each phrase has deep meaning pertinent to our one-on-one relationship with our Father. God wants to hear the meaning of the phrases of the prayer come forth out of our mouths. This is a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor to Him. He wants us to be able to elaborate upon His plan and purpose, and share with Him our desire to accomplish His plan for mankind. All this is contained in the model prayer. God wants us on board with what He is doing, which is establishing the Kingdom of God right here on this planet. For He told us, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” He is saying, Don’t ask for material things for you and your family. He already knows all about your wants and needs. What He wants to know is this: Are you in or out? If you are in then speak to Him about His plan and purpose; speak to Him of the spiritual. Show Him that you care for what He cares for. In a word, He wants us to be like Him.

His vision of His plan to fulfill His purpose of multiplying Himself in human beings—it is all there in the concepts and thoughts of His example prayer.

Take the phrase: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” May the Father’s government come to this earth. Let the Father’s will make it happen here. His plan encompasses His kingdom and government. We should be seeking it first.

So much more can be said about His kingdom—the who, the what, the where, the when, the how, and the why. We’ve only just begun. I have written specifically about the model prayer, which gives more information about the meaning of each of its phrases.  [Check out these articles: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/?s=Lord%27s+prayer ].

The bottom line for the future manifested sons and daughters is that we must begin to pray the way He wants us to. His example prayer shows us what to pray for. It reveals the mind of Christ, which we are to have. It shows God that we are serious about His plan. Praying with the mind of Christ forming the words is worshiping in spirit and in truth.

It’s like when Christ asked, If your son asked you for bread, would you give Him a stone? If we ask Him for the spiritual tools to bring in His kingdom, He will have our back.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

What Christ Taught–The Kingdom of God

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We have learned that the anointing is “truth and is no lie.” And we know that Christ, the Anointed One, is the truth, for He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Christ expressed this with words; He is, after all, “the Word made flesh.” And this fact makes these words come alive: “Thy word is truth.” Consequently, to be anointed by God is to have God’s word of truth in one’s heart and pouring through one’s mouth. If preachers are operating in falsehoods, fabrications, and imaginations about God, then they are not anointed by Yahweh. Period. And they are legion. For the anointing is no lie (I Jn. 2: 27; John 14: 6; John 1: 1, 14; Dan. 9: 25-26 NIV).

Christ Is the Truth and the Word

So what did our Master, the greatest Teacher, teach? What words came out of His mouth when He was speaking? He is the Anointed King, so what truths came forth from Him? They were the Father Yahweh’s words. “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, He does the works” (John 14: 10).

And what exactly did Yahweh’s words coming out of Christ’s mouth say? In other words, what exactly did Christ teach? And by extension, what should we all be teaching?

• “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is right here, right now on this earth (Mt. 4: 17). When He began to preach and teach, these were His first words.
• “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” The very first thing in our search should be His kingdom and righteousness (Mt. 6: 33).
• Christ came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.” The good news is the kingdom.
• Christ sent out His twelve disciples to preach, and He had them say, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The kingdom message was multiplied through His disciples (Mt. 10: 7).
• All of the parables that He spoke convey and conceal at the same time secrets and mysteries of His kingdom—what it is like, where it is, when it is to come, etc. Some of the parables are in Matthew 13: 3-52.
• “…Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven…” The Lord’s Prayer is the model prayer that our prayers should emulate. Having His kingdom come to earth is the first thing that we should ask for. His kingdom is the fulfillment of His purpose and plan and will be accomplished in the earth (Luke 11: 2).
• Christ spoke constantly about the kingdom of God during His 3 ½ year ministry.
• The kingdom was so important to Him that He was still teaching it after His death, burial, and resurrection! For forty days He was seen of His apostles. During that time, He was “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1: 1-3).
• After the resurrection, the very first question that the disciples asked was this: “Will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” They wanted His government to come for their time, in which the fleshly children of the Hebrew patriarchs would receive power to rule the nations. They must have been talking about this, for it to be the first thought and question out of their mouths. This question points to not only a religious government, but also a political one. They said, “to Israel.” And Christ had said, “I am sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” Meat to chew on (Acts 1: 6; Mt. 15: 24).
• We could go on and on with quotes about Christ’s government coming to this earth. The word “kingdom” appears over 120 times in the four gospels alone. Christ spoke the Father’s words out of His mouth, leaving us an example. Yet, the vast majority of preachers today do not teach His kingdom. The word “kingdom” seldom escapes their lips. But they insist that they have the anointing, the truth, the word of God. They mention Christ, but they do not teach the same words that He taught. Therefore, the Father is not speaking through them, for they speak not His words. So one must ask, Has God anointed them? Short answer: No.

After they had received the Spirit of Truth, the disciples later realized that the kingdom of God is where the Spirit of God is residing. The kingdom is wherever the Truth is. Wherever the King is, the government of God is there. The kingdom of God was foremost in Christ’s mind. It was all about the kingdom. And we are to have the mind of Christ.

Having the Mind of Christ

In order to have the mind of Christ, we must reprogram our thinking. It does not happen overnight. It takes time and study and prayer.

There is a process. God’s little children, upon receiving a new heart, receive “an earnest of His Spirit,” which is a down payment portion of His Spirit. This allows them to see and enter the kingdom of God (John 3: 3-5). This will take them through the thirty fold realm of spiritual growth. This is a beginning part of the kingdom of God. Or better put, the Spirit begins to guide God’s little children.

And as they begin to grow, they are given trials to overcome, which purifies their walk. Then God begins to execute His plan within them. His Spirit grows in them to fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself, which is multiplying love. We are told, “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” It is all part of His plan and is part of the sufferings of Christ (I Pet. 4: 12-13). It can be difficult. To grow, there must be painful purging out of old leaven at times. Those who overcome all things will be the citizens of the kingdom of God upon the King’s return.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

What Do We Do Now to Grow Spiritually? Part Two–Additions to the Faith and the Armor of God

We cannot do things to achieve salvation from God, but we must do certain things in order to grow His Spirit within us after we receive a new heart, after we are “born from above.”

Because our Creator has a purpose of reproducing Himself (Love) in us, He, of course, has a definite plan to fulfill His purpose. He has thought it all through and lined it all out in His written word. And in His scriptures of truth is contained the thoughts of the Son of God, the “Word made flesh.” And these thoughts contain admonishments, and when done by us Christians, we will grow up to be like Him, which fulfills His purpose.

In Part One we explored the apostles’ doctrine as the first thing we need to be learning and doing. We also saw that we are to “purge out the old leaven,” which are the false concepts and teachings about God that we learned coming up.

The Additions to the True Faith

The apostle Peter admonishes us to add to our faith certain spiritual qualities of the King. In order that we may “partake of the divine nature,” we are to add virtue to our faith, and “to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness charity (agape love).” He goes on to say that we will be blind without them. But with them we will “make [our] calling and election sure, and that will ensure our entrance “into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (II Peter 1: 3-11).

These additions are not little romper room words to be pasted on a bulletin board. Rather they are facets of a jewel of great price, and that jewel is His very character. These additions are aspects of God’s divine nature. A shallow perusal will not do. They must be studied and prayed over and sought with a whole heart in reverential awe.

Peter sums it up by saying, You better take heed to what I am saying to you. I have a “more sure word of prophecy.” I know what  I am talking about because I was there with our Savior on the Mount of Transfiguration, and I beheld His glory. I am speaking to you now as “a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts” (1: 16-19).

God has miraculously preserved Peter’s words to us for all these 2,000 years. The Spirit still speaks through him to us. We need to study this out thoroughly, or we are going to miss something very big in God’s plan.

[For more on the additions to the faith go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/category/additions-to-our-faith/ ]

The Whole Armor of God

The fourth thing we are admonished to do is put on the armor of God (Eph. 6: 11-18). Since “God is a Spirit,” Paul is talking about spiritual things. He uses earthly military metaphors that a combat soldier of his time might wear to elucidate the spiritual. For we are in a spiritual war “against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” It is spiritual wickedness that we battle, not literal things.

The battlefield is in our minds. So it is the replacing of erroneous thoughts with thoughts about godly truth that will shield our minds from succumbing to the adversary, the devil. We are told to “arm yourselves with the same mind” as Christ (I Pet. 4: 1).

So the whole armor of God is thinking the thoughts that Christ and His apostles thought. Peter also tells us to “girt up the loins of your mind” (I Pet. 1: 13). The first piece of armor is to have “your loins girt abut with truth.” Think on the truth; get rid of the false concepts that we know to be in error.

Then we are to put on the “breastplate of righteousness.” We need to study out the word “righteousness” to take to heart its real scriptural meaning. It has to do with the purging of sin out of our lives.

The we are to have our “feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” The gospel of the good news of God’s kingdom coming to this earth along with the King’s return (Mark 1: 14-15). We should study it out and think God’s thoughts about it. We should be prepared to share these thoughts about the “gospel of the kingdom of God.” For His kingdom is the good news.

We are to take the “shield of faith.” Knowing and believing in His faith, which has been “once delivered to the saints,” will protects us from attacks of the wicked one. And then we must take the “helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God.”

All these are portions of the armor of God. But it would not be the whole armor without “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.”

Prayer is the last but not the least of the armor. For it is the most difficult to exercise, it would seem. For we all must be taught to pray, as the disciples asked the Savior to teach them to pray.

It was then that He gave them a prayer to model their prayers after. It is called The Lord’s Prayer. And it has been used and abused so often that the deep meaning has been lost. We are not to mouth vain repetitions of this very prayer, but rather pray according to its precepts. It is not a poll parrot incantation to mindlessly repeat; it is a blue print of how to literally touch God in heaven.

But the old leaven about this prayer is so thick that few can get through it to the truth the Savior was trying to teach us.

[For more on what the Lord’s Prayer means go here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/the-lords-prayer-is-not-an-incantation-chant-or-ritual/                                        https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/the-lords-prayer-blueprint-for-building-gods-temple-us/ ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knowledge of God’s Plan Reveals the Bible’s Mysteries

God says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” This is God’s knowledge that was offered to them, but was rejected by them (Hosea 4: 6).

But what knowledge exactly? It is nothing less than the knowledge of His thoughts that comprises the vision of His plan to fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself right here on earth.

Anything biblical is part of this plan. Any biblical concept or precept like “grace” or “testimony” or “salvation” is a piece to the puzzle. “Salvation” is not God’s plan and purpose. It is an important first-step-part of His plan that God is doing, which is reproducing Himself.

The denominational churches are hung up on salvation. You go to a service in a small church. Everybody is saved in the congregation. And yet, the preacher feels compelled to have the organist play “Just As I Am” and invite the people to be saved. Why do they do this? It is because this is all they know. If they knew and believed God’s thoughts about His plan and purpose of becoming just like Him, then they would be seeking and teaching about growing up “into Christ.” They don’t know that Christ is coming back to earth the same way He left, and that He is coming to establish His government, and that the “dead in Christ” are coming with Him in new spiritual bodies.

Oh, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!

But “whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?” (Isa. 28: 9). It is certainly not the pastors and preachers that are drunk on the wine of false doctrines about God. “Wine” is universally recognized to be a symbol of doctrine or teachings. God cannot teach true knowledge to those who follow and teach false doctrines about God. “They also have erred through wine…the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink…they err in vision, they stumble in judgment”  (28: 7).

The old leaven false doctrines cause Christians to “err in vision.” And as long as these are not purged out of one’s thinking, He will not be able to teach them true knowledge.

To whom then can He teach His knowledge about His plan to reproduce Himself? God will teach “them who are weaned from the milk” (28: 9). Thinking spiritually, babes in Christ need the “milk of the word.” They need the fundamental doctrines of repentance from sin and faith toward God. When these teachings, called the “milk,” are solid in their hearts, then they may move on to the meat. Spiritual “babes in Christ” are mostly alive for what they can receive of the the Father. That is the definition of a baby or small child. We need only look at the natural to see the spiritual. We are admonished to grow up and be no more babes and get into the meat of the word [For more on the “milk of the word” https://themilkoftheword.wordpress.com/ ].

Many Christians in the pews of the churches are little children. Their spiritual concerns are revealed in their prayers, which are mostly about themselves and how things affect them and their families. They rarely pray for God’s kingdom to come, populated by “many sons unto glory.” They rarely pray for God’s will to be done, that He would be “all in all,” that His glory would fill the whole earth. Most don’t pray for the “manifestation of the sons of God” to become a reality. Most prayers are burning incense, infused with the acrid fumes of self.

So, God lays it out to the people a little at a time. “For precept must be upon precept…line upon line, line upon line…here a little and there a little” (Isa. 28: 13). God in ancient times  revealed His vision to only a few men who spoon fed small bits to the people, for the time of the fulfillment of His vision was very far away . But now He is sewing these remnants of knowledge together to make a coat of many colors that will cover the sins of countless generations.

Knowledge of His vision of His plan to fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself in the earth is the key that will unlock the mysteries of the Bible. For every precept presented therein is a part of the vision to accomplish His purpose. Once we see it, we can begin to connect the dots, for each biblical concept is a dot to be connected to the others. This knowledge of which we speak connects those dots.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Thy Kingdom Come”–His Kingdom Is the Gospel

Sometimes we just do not know what we should pray to the Father about. “We know not what we should pray for as we ought,” but the Spirit is there to help us (Rom 8: 26). And He helps us to know through the ideas presented in the “Lord’s Prayer.” Christ’s example prayer presents the thoughts of the Almighty Father. We are to understand its precepts and communicate with God accordingly. We are not to use the “Lord’s Prayer” as an exercise in rote regurgitation–no matter how sincerely it is repeated.

“Thy kingdom come” is the next precept Christ is teaching us from His example prayer. What is the Father’s kingdom? Is it just when we on a personal level are “born again”? Is that the extent of the Father’s governance in the earth? Personal salvation is wonderful and is truly the seed beginning of His kingdom in this earth. But that seed grows.

In fact, “the kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed…which indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof” (Matt 13: 31-32).

The parables reveal the secrets and mysteries of the Father’s kingdom (Matt 13: 11). And the big secret revealed in the mustard seed parable is that the Father’s kingdom grows into a gigantic spiritual and political entity that is so powerful that the other nations (birds of the air) seek shelter in its branches.

This is the same government originating from heaven that Daniel saw in the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The king had a terrifying dream that showed the fall of all the satanic governments of the world, caused by the coming and full fruition of God’s government, the kingdom of heaven. Daniel told him that “there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets and makes known…what shall be in the latter days” (Dan 2: 28).

The latter days. That’s our time. The world Gentile empires are coming down, brought about by the coming of “the kingdom of heaven” to this earth. We know the dream with the great image of gold, silver, brass, and iron, signifying the four world empires in history. And there came the stone kingdom from heaven that smashed into the feet of the image, and it came crashing down. “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (Dan 2: 44). The Father’s kingdom is not just an invisible feel-good-in-the-Spirit kingdom, but it is literal and political, as well as spiritual. It is a government ruled by a benevolent Monarch. It is coming to earth in the latter days–in our time.

So, “thy kingdom come.” The Father in Christ is coming back to this earth to govern, insuring peace throughout the far flung corners of the globe for a thousand years. And He “shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” This is the good news. This government, this kingdom brought here by our Father through His Son–this true gospel is the good news of our Father’s government literally coming to fill the whole earth with His righteous ways.

Christ in this section of the “Lord’s Prayer” teaches us the importance of the Father’s kingdom.  A kingdom is a literal form of government headed by a monarch.  He is the King.  Thy kingdom come…in earth as it is in heaven.  His kingdom already rules in heaven; shortly it will rule completely on earth.

This is the good news proclaimed in the four gospels in the so-called “New Testament” of the Bible.  Many scriptures back this up.  “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15).  Believe what gospel?  The “gospel of the kingdom of God.”  He is saying, God’s government is here.  Because it is at hand, you need to repent from your old selfish life, and believe this good news of God ruling on earth.

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matt. 24:14).  It is this gospel, this true gospel of the kingdom of God that must be proclaimed throughout the whole world before the end of the age will come.  The gospel preached by the vast majority of pastors is “another gospel” about Christ. It is a shallow shadow of the good news. It focuses on “getting saved” and does not mention a peep about the grandeur of His world wide rule. Salvation is precious, but it is just the first step. It is the germination of that mustard seed, but there is so much more after that.

Thy kingdom come. We, then, should pray with this glorious vision that Christ has, when He taught His disciples to pray.  His kingdom is a vision of an earth free from corruption and cruelty–free from addiction and selfishness–free from hunger and desperation–free from greedy leaders who cast the poor in chains of lies and deceit–free from husbands and wives betraying those who love them the most–free from broken-hearted children thrown out like trash by selfish parents–free from the evil that pillages every soul on earth–

This is the gospel of the Kingdom of God.  This is the good news that will fill the earth when Christ comes back and sits down on the throne of our invisible Father.  And His sons and daughters will sit alongside Him in His kingdom right here on earth.  And He will dispatch us His princes and princesses out into the ravished earth to rebuild and restore what the evil ones wasted.

“Thy kingdom come” evokes much about the glorious vision God has for His earth.  We need to pray toward this end.  He told us to not ask for things for ourselves, but rather, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

“Hallowed Be Thy Name, Yahweh”–More from Christ’s Example Prayer

The so called Lord’s Prayer is not an incantation, to be repeated like a chant. It is a model prayer, each phrase having great revelatory truth to be used in our communication with our Father. Our Father’s name is Yahweh–if we consider ourselves children of the Hebrew God of the Bible.

“Hallowed be Thy name.” Christ is saying in the “Lord’s Prayer” that the Father’s name is “hallowed,”which is holy and extremely special.  How can Christians appreciate it and sanctify it if they don’t even know what it is?

Not many know that the Hebrew God of the Bible was known by Moses, Daniel, Isaiah, and all the rest of the prophets and apostles by His name Yahweh.

“The Hebrew national literature centres in the thought of God. It is Yahweh who is all and in all, the father, the leader, the hope, the hero of his people” ( www.1911encyclopedia.org/Christianity ).  This quote is from the article “Christianity” in the Encyclopedia Britannica, entirely on-line at this link.  There are 142 others articles that mention Yahweh (www.1911encyclopedia.org/index.php?q=yahweh&title=LoveToKnow_1911%3ASearch&site=1911&fulltext=LoveToSearch ).

We’ve been told that “God” is His name.  But “God” is a common noun that has been capitalized.  “GOD, the common Teutonic word for a personal object of religious worship. It is thus…applied to all those superhuman beings of the heathen mythologies who exercise power over nature and man…The word “god,” on the conversion of the Teutonic races to Christianity, was adopted as the name of the one Supreme Being, the Creator of the universe” (www.1911encyclopedia.org/God).  It was adopted, but God is not the name of the Father.  Yahweh is His name.  “This is my name forever,” Yahweh said to Moses (Exodus 3:15).

Some think that the Father’s name is “LORD.”  But “LORD” is merely a title of the Father.  This started when the King James translators substituted “the LORD” for the Hebrew name “Yahweh” over 6,700 times.  Only once did they leave “Yah” (the shortened form) in Psalms 68:4: “Sing praises to his name…Jah.”  The editors of the New King James Version corrected “Jah” to “Yah” ( https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/book-yah-is-savior-the-road-to-immortality/ ).

When Christ teaches us how to pray by saying “hallowed be thy name,” He wants us to revere, keep holy, consecrate, and venerate the Father’s name.  That is what the word “to hallow” means.

But first the Father’s name must be restored to our knowledge.  We cannot truly make His name holy and consecrated in our hearts if we don’t know His name.

And the Father’s name is Yahweh.  We must keep this in our minds when we communicate with Him.  For His name is extremely important to Him.  So it should be of extreme importance to us His princes and princesses.  Or how else could we address the King? When we do this, we will join the ranks of the Biblical men and women of God who prayed to Yahweh and spoke His name.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Creator Himself remembered us and wrote down our names and thought of us in a special way? He will do just that for a few. Who will they be? “Then they that feared Yahweh spake often one to another: and Yahweh hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared Yahweh, and that thought upon His name.” That thought upon His name. Those of us who are in reverential awe and that speak and think upon His name–those He will remember (Malachi 3: 16). He is saying, Those that are not ashamed of My name and will remember me by using it, then I’ll remember them. He will set an open door that no man can shut before those who “have kept my word, and have not denied my name” (Rev. 3: 8). But He will shut the door on those who deny His name through unbelief, and great shame will be their reward. Just ask the “five foolish virgins” (Matt. 25: 1-13; verse 10 especially).

Armed with this knowledge, the scriptures about His name will open to us.  It is a key.  But be forewarned.  The knowledge of the Father’s name is a pearl, a gem.  And Christ warns, “Cast not your pearls before swine, for they will turn and rend you with it.”  Be careful who you share this with.  It is dynamite knowledge and needs to be handled carefully.  You will be vilified and derided for sharing this knowledge–usually by those close to you.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock