The Cross, Repentance from Sin, and the New Birth

You are a Christian. You want to win souls to Christ. But what is the exact message that you need to deliver? Christ is our example. What did He say to them?

Christ did not mince words. The first words out of His mouth were these: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Abrupt, perhaps. Straight to the point. Yet that short message is packed with meaning. He is saying, You must repent of your sins because God’s kingdom is right here, right now, waiting for you to enter. But you must make a spiritual entrance. If you do not change your old ways, you will miss this opportunity to be with Me in My kingdom, for I am its King.

The Spirit of Christ in the apostle John continues explaining what He is talking about. Unless you are born from above—born again—you cannot see nor enter the spiritual kingdom of God. This is being born of the Spirit. Except a man be born again [born from above], he cannot see the kingdom of God…Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3: 3-5.

Everybody has heard that, but few know what it means. In order to be born of the Spirit, thereby guaranteeing your entrance into His kingdom, there must be a dying of the old seed within us. And that old seed is the old heart, the old Adamic sinful nature. “Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12: 24).

Our old sin nature is like a bad seed that keeps producing sinful actions. And there is only one way to rid ourselves of it, and that is to surrender it to the death of the cross with Christ. That will bring the change of heart when we believe that He plants a new righteous seed in our hearts. This new seed germinates by faith in His resurrection. It sprouts forth love, joy, and peace. This is the born again experience. It comes out of repentance from sin. When a man gets this right, then he will have seen and entered the kingdom of God.

The Cross Experience

Many preachers speak about Christ suffering and dying on the cross for us. They say that He was our substitute; they say to just believe in His death and resurrection and you are saved. Many speak of this, but few explain what God requires of us concerning the cross. Just acknowledging Christ’s death is not enough to get rid of the old sinful nature. The old nature that we are born with has to die, or it will keep sprouting up. That’s why so many people back slide into sin. They back slide because their old sin nature is still there.

What the preachers fail to realize is that when Christ died on the cross, mankind’s old sinful nature died with Him. We are to examine ourselves. God is now asking, Has your old sin nature died on the cross with Christ? As professing Christians, have you laid down willingly your old sinful life, letting it die with Christ? Or have you just felt sorry for your sinful ways and “walked the aisle” like they encouraged you to do? Most mistake this experience as being “born again.” It is good to feel sorrow for the sinful way we have lived. “Godly sorrow leads us to repentance.” However, it is not repentance from sin (II Cor. 7: 10).

To the Cross

Godly sorrow leads you to the cross, the spiritual place of your repentance, which is the first of the apostles’ doctrine. Next, you must realize that Christ took upon Himself the sins of all mankind, and He died as a lost man. For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. II Cor. 5: 21.

When Christ died on the cross, the sin of all mankind died with Him. In God’s eyes, everyone’s  old sinful self died when He died. He could take all the sins of the whole world on Himself because He is the only man in history who was perfect–a perfectly sinless human being. He was the only One pure enough to be the sacrificial “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29). He was the only One pure enough to wash away your sin and mine.

This is how the shedding of His blood cleanses us of all sin. The life is in the blood. When Christ bled out on the cross, the life of sin, the strength of sin, the force of sin died. That is the power of the blood of Christ—because sin’s life force, sin’s blood, drained out, leaving sin lifeless within us. God just requires us to believe it, to believe His word about it. It is through belief that we become new creatures whose life force is restored by the power of His resurrection.

Our old nature died with Him on the cross. It is a spiritual death, not a physical one. Our old selves are already dead in God’s eyes. Why would any one knowing this continue to go on sinning? “Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And they won’t come to the light lest their “deeds should be discovered” (John 3: 19-20).

But I Am Baptized

Yet, some believe that after they are baptized in water, somehow mystically they are okay. But baptism is an outward symbol of a spiritual event called the cross experience. Do you not know that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? We are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Romans 6: 3-6.

Our sin nature died on the cross. We are free! Free from the guilt, the shame, the mental torture, the indignity, the pain, and the fear. Free!

Sin is the breaking of the Ten Commandments, and it is the written record of what the old sinful nature can and will do (I John 3: 4). Sinning is the old nature still manifesting itself through actions that break the law. “And we know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin” (I John 3: 5). By dying with Him, we are freed from the bondage of sinning!

Free! Free from sin and sinning! Free now to grow spiritually to the point where we will bear much fruit like Peter, James, John and Paul. Free! Are you kidding me? Believe this truth in Christ, and you’ll be walking in a new life, freed from sin, for He has given us a new heart (Ezek. 18: 31).

This is true repentance. This is being born again of His incorruptible seed, the word of God (I Peter 1: 23). By faith we have to reckon our old self dead and gone with Christ on the cross, and also reckon ourselves alive unto God by faith in Christ’s resurrection. He said it; we believe it, and now we walk in its light. He gave His word on this. He is way ahead of us. He already sees us as righteous before Him. He is just waiting on His elect to believe His word, to believe like He believes. He with great patience waits for His chosen ones to awake unto righteousness, thus fulfilling His purpose of reproducing Himself.

This freedom from sin and sinning is the fruit of repentance wrought at the cross. It is the key to being born again and entering into His kingdom. This is why, to win souls, Christ spoke these words: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{If this article helped you, hit the “like” button. Comment, share if the Spirit moves you. And be sure to send for my book The Apostles’ Doctrine. It is free with free shipping. Just send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book you desire to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com }

Oneness, the Abiding, and God’s Gift of Healing

(From a journal entry, 1-12-18)

Healings are a gift from God. God is that Spirit in the phrase “gifts of the Spirit.” Or we could say, “The Spirit’s gifts to us.” One of them is the gift of healing. It is God giving health to a person. It is a miracle-gift from the Father to a human being.

We usually envision God, the Spirit in heaven, shining down this gift upon mankind. But we must ask, Where is the Spirit when He gives the gift of healing to someone? The Spirit is in us, His body. He is in us, flowing through us on out to the sick by the laying on of His hands–our hands now being His hands. That is the way it goes down.

For the gift of healing to flow, we must realize that we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God. We must see that He lives in us in the form of His Holy Spirit, which is the Father. The Father resides in us!

A Call to Oneness–One, One, One

We must get past the “us and Him” duality and begin walking in the Oneness that Christ prayed for. “Neither pray I for these alone [the twelve disciples], but for them also which shall believe on me through their word [that is us!]; that they all may be one [That includes us!]; as you, Father, are in me and I in you that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that you have sent me, and the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one even as we are one” (John 17:20-22). Christ has already given to us the glory that the Father bestowed upon Christ. In His thinking, it has already happened.

We must have the sensation that it is the Father, the Spirit, looking out through our eyes with compassion and love upon the sick. This is the reason why we must Get a clear picture of the godhead. It is not us running around, being still in the picture, laying our hands on the sick. It must be His love, His mercy, His Spirit, His compassion, moving through His hands that are laid upon the sick. This is the gift. The gift is Him! Soundness and wellness are anywhere He is.

Just ask the poor demoniac who was naked and tearing himself, torturing himself, crying out for someone to help him. After Christ gave him the gift of healing, he sat there in utter tranquility at the feet of his Savior in his right mind.

Someone will ask, Why aren’t more real healings being done by Christians today? The answer has to do with not seeing ourselves as God sees us. Most Christians see themselves as recipients of God’s blessings, instead of channels. They think that God is up there; we’re down here, and we need that blessing.

But that’s not the way God’s apostles saw us. They saw us as “more than conquerors through Christ.” They saw us the way that God sees us–spiritual powerhouses that by faith in Christ can move the mountains of doubt. And through His Spirit, our eyes will witness the crushing of the kingdoms of this world. And by His Spirit, He will establish His righteousness throughout the earth.

God sees us having overcome all things; He sees us having secured a seat upon His very throne (Rev. 3:21). That’s His faith that He has given us. With that gift we will be used to bring healing to the nations (Rev. 22:2).

However, there is a growth involved in being used by the Father to heal others. Many sincerely long for this power, with less than apostolic results. That’s okay. But before miracles can come through us, we must grow spiritually. It takes time and much patience as we “purge out the old leaven” of false concepts of Christ and His work in the earth. The “healing” is done by the Father’s presence in us. We then must realize that He is the Spirit of truth. We cannot fully have the truth in the form of the Spirit of truth, until the Father makes His abode in us. We must surrender ourselves as a “living sacrifice.” We must decrease; He must increase in us (John 3:30).  

Christ makes it plain about how the Father makes us His dwelling. “If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). This is a major tenet in my soon-coming book, The Abiding. 

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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]

God’s Sovereignty in the 2024 Election

Listen, O Democrats and give ear, O Republicans, and all you Independents who will vote in the presidential election of 2024.  

You agonize in vain because following man’s governments is like chasing the wind; there is no profit in it. Why? Because it is Yahweh who “rules in the kingdom of men, [and] gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” (Daniel 4:11). God determines who will be the next president. At present He has set up flawed candidates, the lowest spiritually of men—Biden and Trump. He has His reasons that are steeped in secrets and mysteries, but He reveals them, as He desires, to those He chooses.

The takeaway? We should not yearn nor fret about politics. Yah is ruling as we speak. He has universal sovereignty, or else He would not be God. God is on the throne; He rules, and He allows unpleasant things to happen to us so that we will cry unto Him. Think about the twelve tribes of Israel in Egypt. God hardened pharaoh’s heart toward Israel. It was Yahweh who hardened his heart—so that His children would cry out to Him (Rom. 9:17-18).

God is in control of our personal lives, for everything that happens to us, God not only knows it, but He orchestrated it. “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus [Yahshua] concerning you” (I Thes. 5:18).  

It is God’s will that we learn what will come very shortly in politics.  “But there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and makes known… what shall be in the latter days,” said the Spirit through Daniel. The literal Kingdom of heaven is coming to this earth upon Christ’s return. It is the stone kingdom that will destroy the present world system as a great stone crashing onto the feet of the world Gentile empires. It will finish it off. And this stone that “smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:28-45). This was the Babylonian king’s dream that Daniel interpreted. The God of heaven shall set up His kingdom with Christ as King.

And here is the icing on the good news of His coming kingdom. He will invite a few thousand of His elect to sit on His throne with Him. They will be judges and will bring justice to the earth. This is the ultimate calling—to be like His Son—to be in a special place where all bitterness, disappointment, envy, and sadness is banished. And to sow this love and peace throughout the Kingdom. For it will be the Kingdom of God, full of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. So, keep this in mind when the weight of man’s political systems start to smother you. They will only come to power if God wills it. He sets over the governments of the world with the lowest of men. He is sovereign that way.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Abiding Comes with the Mind of Christ

From Journal entry, 6-3-19

The seventh addition of agape love is a direct result of abiding in Christ, which is having the mind of Christ.

Christ commands us, “Abide in me” (John 15:4).  This “abiding” comes from staying and remaining in Him and His mind. “Staying” and “remaining” are translated from the same Greek word as “abide or abiding.”

This is accomplished when we continually have Christ’s thoughts, plan, and purpose [More on His plan and purpose found here: Walking in the Spirit Comes from Knowledge of God’s Purpose of Reproducing Himself–Being About Our Father’s Business | Immortality Road (wordpress.com). This “abiding” yields much fruit. This spiritual fruit is agape love, which is the seventh addition to the faith.

We are to stay in His mind, walking in His thoughts. This is knowing Him. This knowledge of Him and His thoughts is the second addition to the faith.

To fully know Him we must know that He is sovereign. He created everything–both the good and the evil (Isa. 45:7). And He has subjected us to evil to accomplish His purpose of reproducing Himself—in us. We must remember how Christ suffered, how He endured the betrayals and the lies told against Him and even His crucifixion on false charges. He suffered, and He is our example, “that we should follow his steps” (I Peter 2:21). His armor will protect us from the onslaught of evil thought-arrows. And then once the trials are over, His love grows in us more and more until Christ is “all in all” (Eph. 1:23).

To abide in Him, we must think His thoughts. Part of Christ’s thinking is understanding death (the evil). To fully appreciate the resurrection unto eternal life (good), we must understand death. For you cannot partake in His resurrection without first partaking in His death. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[Get your free copy of The Eleventh Commandment found here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/free-copy-of-the-eleventh-commandment/  Also, order your free copy of The Additions to the Faith. Just send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com]

Reconciliation and the Abiding/Continuing

We must continue to believe that Christ through His death has reconciled everyone and has made peace between God and mankind.

That is the truth. The Father is the Spirit of truth. There is one Spirit, and He dwelled in the Son and did miraculous works (Eph. 4:4; John 14:10). Christ promises that the Father “shall be in you,” also (14: 17).

This promise is astounding! But what is the catch? What activates this promise of the Father taking up residence in us? What knowledge brings the promise into a reality in our Christian lives?

We need to know that it is a conditional promise; it sets up like this: If you do this and this, then He will abide in you. The promise is that the Father, who is this invisible Spirit, will come and dwell in us—if we continue in the faith. If we abide in the faith. If we dwell in the faith. If we remain in the faith. If we continue in the faith.

Faith. Belief. In what exactly? There is a whole lot of invisible action going on here. It takes faith to believe that the invisible Creator Spirit God would take up residence inside our bodies. But this is what He is asking us to do—trust Him. To maintain the Father’s presence in our hearts in a powerful reality, we must “continue in the faith.”

We see “continue in the faith” in Colossians 1:23. “If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard…” The thing we must continue to believe is that Christ through His death has reconciled everyone and has made peace between God and mankind (Col. 2:20-22).

That sounds wonderful, but Christ’s death and the reconciliation involves so much more. The question becomes: How does His death bring about reconciliation with God? Reconciliation comes through our old sinful self dying on the cross with Christ. Then we are buried with Christ, and then by faith in His resurrection “we are raised to walk in a newness of life.”  Our sin has died with Him. “The soul that sins must die,” the law says. We fulfill that at the cross.

The Spirit through the apostle Paul lines this out clearly. “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin–because anyone who has died has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:3-7 NIV).

Christ the Lamb of God took on the sins of everyone. “He was made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Our sins died with the sacrificial Lamb, for He carried our guilt and sin to the cross, and when He died, our old sinful self died, was buried, and—Praise Yah—was resurrected with Him!

[Someone reading this will say, “I knew that about the cross.” Yes, many have experienced the cross, but can they teach it to others? Is your belief of Romans 6 strong enough to weather the storms and trials both past and future?]

Back to the beginning of this article: Reconciliation with God is when we are at peace with Him, when there are no doubts and worries about our relationship with Him. For it was the sin nature that separated us from Him. When we realize that our sinful old self has already died on the cross with Him, things begin to clear up. The scriptures open to us. Things make sense.

This clarity He honors and reveals more of His truth. Reconciliation with God happens if we “continue/abide in the faith.” If we continue believing what He did for you and me at the cross and walking in that truth as seen in Romans 6: 3-12, then we will be ready through reconciliation to go deeper by adding His “divine nature” to the faith. [The Additions to the Faith is my latest book. Peter talks of seven additions that are vital to our growth in Christ (II Peter 1:1-12). If you have read this far, I know that this book is for you. The book is free with free shipping. It is my offering to God. Instead of money in an offering plate, I give a book to you…Please share your testimony in the comments section. It is very edifying to hear how God has touched your life.  Be sure and share this and give us a “like,” if we have edified you].    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Father Abiding in Us

God wants to inhabit us and abide and dwell in us. This is how He fulfills His purpose: To reproduce and multiply Himself, which is agape love. We know that we are His temple. He made us for Him to dwell in. Many times, we see Yahweh meeting Moses and Joshua [Yahshua the Savior, same name]. They met in the tabernacle in the wilderness. They carried on conversations there. This is His will, His desire that all God’s people be prophets (Numbers 11:29).

It is first the Father who dwells/abides in Christ; the Father speaks the words and does the works through the Son (John 14:10). [Newsflash! We are “members in particular” of the Son’s body; we are the “body of Christ.” Since we are a part of Christ’s body, then the Father, the Spirit of truth, is in us, too!

Can we believe this? Christ believes it. He has faith in the word of the Father. And, of course, we can believe it! It is His faith in operation here. We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God, (Col. 3:3). Our life is Him now. And that Him is the Spirit of truth that has come into you and me.

If anyone knew God this way, it was the apostle John, “the man whom Jesus [Yahshua] loved.” For John leaned on His chest and was literally comforted by Christ. Let us now lean on Him as John did. He is right there by you and me in spirit. Lean into Him and be encouraged that we all have this opportunity to draw close to Him. For the Holy Spirit through the apostle James said, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8).

Nevertheless, some of us have thought, “If only we had the Father dwelling in us, then He would speak and work through us.” If. There are no if’s nor but’s. It is all “Yes!” The power is there at hand. “The works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Heb. 4:3). We are not talking about the Father being way out there somewhere, but rather, closer than close.  He is inside of us.

[All these things written down by Christ’s apostles are maddeningly difficult to grasp while held hostage by a trinitarian three-God conception of the godhead. Yahweh dwelt in His Son; Yahweh is the Father and is an invisible Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Once that is straightened out in one’s heart and mind, then eyes see more clearly as to what God desires and how He wants to make it happen. ]

The Comforter, the Spirit of Truth

He has given to us another Comforter, which is the Spirit of truth “that He may abide/dwell” with us forever” (John 14:16). His presence is already promised and prepared.

The Comforter is the Spirit of truth. And the Spirit of truth is the Father who has promised to dwell/abide with us. Now, since we have that promise—that the Father will be in us—then by the Father’s presence within us, He will do the same works as He did through the Son of God. It is all in His timing, of course.

Final thought: Faith is the key. For His spiritual offspring, the Father abides in us when we believe that the Father dwells in us. We have to reckon it so by faith in His word. It is already done in His mind. He is waiting on us with great patience/endurance. He now wants us to be a witness here on earth of His magnificent glory. That is not just to witness His glory, but to be the witness. Remember this enigmatic concept? Man is the glory of God (I Cor. 11:7). And the good man will be humbled by this love that His Creator has bestowed upon him. And he will realize that he is only a speck of dust floating in a brilliant ray of light that is God’s mercy.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Ebb and Flow of the Abiding

I have noticed that there is an ebb and flow of the Spirit’s presence in my life. I say this not as a criticism of our merciful Savior, for He does all things well.

But I have observed that after a wonderful welling up of His presence within me, His Spirit subsides. Of course, it is I that backs out of the light that He shines. The rays of understanding engulf me, and then, I must back away a bit. I realize that it is “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.”

It is as if this old wine skin of my mind and body cannot stand the constant pressure of the new wine, so I recede a bit. It’s like being in the heavenlies for a while, and then needing to return to the earth’s atmosphere where I may breathe again the accustomed mixture of gases suitable for my current mortal tabernacle. I ponder this ebb and flow of His Spirit, or rather, my drifting away from His rarefied heavenly atmosphere.

I recall passages of scriptures describing what happens to his children who abide in him and not ebb and flow, but rather stay in him.

Our Savior said much about the abiding that we are to maintain. He believes that it is possible and necessary for us to have His Spirit remain, stay, dwell, and continue in our vessels.

Oh, how we need our new spiritual bodies that He has promised us! He knows our frailties, our weaknesses, and our faults. But He has promised us that He would raise us up at the end of this earth age. If we are alive upon His return, He will change us, as “mortality is swallowed up” by  our new spiritual body. If we expire before He returns, He will change us when He sweeps down to earth. We are coming back with Him, our Captain and leader. The ebb and flow will be no more, for we will be full of His Spirit. A glorious time is coming. Now we must wait until our time. “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come” (Job 14:14).     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

(From a Journal entry, 3-29-19)

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 

In the Beginning Was the Seed—Part Two

(Knowing Christ from the beginning is the key to maximum spiritual growth)

Knowing Him from the beginning is so profound that we need to slow down—way down—in our perusal of its meaning. We must not rush past this truth in hot pursuit of more knowledge. Knowing Him from the beginning is deep, though it is taught in the simplest of words: seed, garden, sow, reap, harvest. Our Savior used these very words to bring Light to our eyes. We must slow down and savor His words of inspiration. We must not bolt this food, for this is “strong meat.”

The apostle John writes to little children, young men, and fathers—30, 60 and 100-fold fruit-bearing Christians. “I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning” (I John 2:13). The fathers know that God is the Word in the beginning. “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:13). Fathers know Him who is from the beginning. They know that all those who receive the Word/Seed are regenerated from the Seed/Son, who is the impetus of all life. God/Spirit/Word/Seed was at the beginning of everything. And we are in Him; we are inside the Seed! Therefore, we were in the Seed at the beginning, too!

A Seed, a Promise

A seed is a promise of the fruit to come. We receive the seed, having not seen the future fruit. It is a word of promise, a covenant, a pact, that if you take the Seed and believe the word of promise, then you will bear “fruit, more fruit, and much fruit.” This is 30, 60, and 100-fold growth explained.

Christ is the Seed. His earthly life is an enactment of the spiritual seed reality. Christ, the Son of God, is the Seed that is planted in us humans. We are the spiritual seed bed, that the Seed/Son is planted into. “The seed is the word of God.” Christ is the Sower; He sows the word of His promises into our hearts. When we walk with Christ in a higher growth, we are a part of His spiritual body. We become one with the Sower as we begin to sow the seed, the word of God.

All this is activated by faith–His faith. He believes in this spiritual miracle that changes us. He believes and has faith that what He has instituted will stand forever. When we take the leap of faith, we are really beginning to believe what the Son believes. He has faith that we will change and witness in us His glory.

Look at us! Despite our pitiful weaknesses, Christ believes in His own word of power to change us. We just need to ask Him for the strength to believe what He believes. And this power is not just about our earthen vessels. Upon His return to earth, those who are walking in 100-fold growth will wield power, executing His will for the earth.     

When we bear witness to the testimony of the Seed/Son, we will have explained and walked in 100-fold fruit bearing growth. The caveat is that the closer we get to bearing much fruit, the more persecution we can expect from our adversary the devil. For he does not want this truth out there. The word “testimony” is translated from the Greek word martyria. “Death works in us” (II Cor. 4:12).

The Seed Must Die

But the seed must die when planted. Christ in His earthly ministry did it all. He raised the dead and healed the sick, by the thousands. With His power He could have called down ten thousand angels to take over the world, but He didn’t. Why? Because in His first advent, He was the Seed, not the harvest. He had to die because seeds must die and lose their identity to bear fruit.

“Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12:24 KJV). In another version: “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (NIV).  Christ, the Son of God, is the kernel of wheat that had to die to bring forth “many sons unto glory.”

The harvest of “many sons” is fast approaching. His sons and daughters are rising out of the long-neglected seed beds and are springing forth into the Light. Like blades of corn, they have bent toward the Light. They are expanding their roots into the moist earth, and they are now hungry for the pure spiritual nutrients needed for their growth.

The sons and daughters of God will grow until the time of the harvest, which is fast approaching. The evil seed is planted and grows alongside the wheat. It is careening and stomping through God’s field of wheat, crushing some good fruit in the process.

Satan, the god of this present world system, “knows that he has but a short time” before the harvest. He is marshaling his forces, pushing toward that day when–he thinks–he will be crowned the god of all creation. It is the same spirit that was in the garden of Eden, the same irritant that Yahweh allowed to strut on to the world stage, the same “accuser of the brethren,” who is the deceiver in charge of this world system. But His word promises this: “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed… it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44). That is His word of promise. It’s the Kingdom. That is the “mind of Christ.” It is what the King thinks on. The Kingdom is the gospel, the good news (Matthew 4:23; 24:14; Mark 4:14). It is what we are to seek first. He is asking us to think on these deeper truths, truths that, when obeyed, will make His will our will.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock