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

God’s Gift of Power

When we begin to believe what Christ believes, we are ready to add virtue, which is moral goodness that leads to moral vigor or power. We begin to feel it in our bones. That is a good thing, but that feeling does not know how to come in or go out.

True knowledge about God’s plan to fulfill His purpose must be added to give direction to our newfound desire to do the Father’s will. We know that He wants us to walk in power and strength. But how? Where does the power come from? What is the key?

The answer is found in the second addition, knowledge. We are to add knowledge to the virtue, which has been added to the one faith. This knowledge is holy and divine, yet it is attainable with the study of the scriptures of truth. If we seek knowledge as we would for hidden treasures of gold and silver, we will “find the knowledge of God” (Prov. 2:3-6).

But we cannot know Him until we know what He knows, at least in part. Can we really know somebody if we do not know their thoughts, goals, plans, and aspirations?

The Spirit of Yahweh speaks of His knowledge frequently. Knowledge is His gift to us and constitutes an attribute of his “divine nature.”

Where does knowledge come from? It comes from the Holy Spirit as a manifestation of His love. For we are “to know Him and the power of his resurrection” (Phil. 3:10).

Knowledge Is Like…

Knowledge is like being on a 100-mile pilgrimage. You stop halfway to have a nourishing meal that will get you to the finish line. The food and drink are wonderful. But the meal is not your goal; it is not the end of your journey. It serves to help get you to the end of your goal. Knowledge of the holy things is the meal. Knowledge is the spiritual food that will sustain you on your pilgrimage.

Knowledge is not the end-all, be-all. Knowledge helps you get to the goal of being a mature manifested son and daughter of God. “Knowledge shall vanish away” (I Cor. 13:8). But the agape love that knowledge helps us to attain—it lasts forever.

Knowledge—A Gift of the Spirit

I will give you power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19).

This power that He speaks of is a heavenly gift, for “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). The power begins with the gifts of the Spirit—the word of wisdom and knowledge. Without these first two gifts, the other seven linger, waiting for the wise and knowledgeable to appear on the scene (I Cor. 12:7-11).

Many aspire to receive the fourth and fifth gifts—healing and miracle working. But few know the scriptural definition of wisdom and knowledge. Most have not been taught this knowledge. Their leaders have “caused them to err.” The pastors have not clothed the laity with wisdom and knowledge, that they might “not be found naked” (II Cor. 5:3).

I will give you power over all the power of the enemy. Healing is the fourth gift which is brought on by the exercise of the first gifts.

Wisdom is being in reverential awe of Yahweh. The word of knowledge illuminates the way of understanding, which is “to “depart from evil” (Job 28:28). It is then that we are armed with the Spirit, ready to war with the evil spirits that will come our way. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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It’s All About the Fruit

God’s greatest desire is for us to spiritually grow to be able to bear “much fruit.” Christ calls this “the perfecting of the saints.” This is the work of His five offices (Eph. 4:14). He calls this bearing 100 fold fruit, as in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. He calls the three states of growth other things: Children, young men, and fathers…fruit, more fruit, and much fruit… faith, hope and agape love…30, 60, and 100 fold fruit bearing (I John 2:13-14; John 15; I Cor. 13).

Christ has mapped out the way for us to get to these growths. You can find much more information on this in my books (free with free shipping…see end of this article).

The fruit God is talking about is not the number of souls you and I win to Christ. That is important, but at this stage, He is concerned with the spiritual fruit production that is happening in you and me, His elect. The fruit is about the growth of the Spirit of God within us.

The Timetable

God has a timetable for each of us, and He’s right on time. It is you and I that must seek His timetable for the events during “the time of the end.” And the nearest to God’s heart of all of the astounding happenings during this time is the nurture and growth of His sons and daughters. God is right on time to bring to pass His purpose.

And His purpose is to reproduce love, which is Himself. I will keep on sharing His purpose with you. It is the key revelation that opens up everything else in His “book of life.” It all starts there, and he’s using us. We must, at the beginning, receive His seed (the Word) and help it grow through our prayer and study. Because to Him, it’s all about the fruit. He loves us, yes, but He both coaxes and spurs us on to come to full fruit production—in other words, to be like Him.

Christ is sending disciples once again in our era to help make this happen. He uses and sets in his body apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These are for the perfecting or the maturing of the saints. God’s offices are His gift to mankind. He gives gifts to men; the first one is the word of wisdom. The second one is the word of knowledge. Little spiritual children of God in Christ make the mistake of wanting to go out and heal all manner of sickness and work miracles without first learning the apostles’ doctrine. The early church continued in Christ’s teachings, and they became theirs. Reading the book of the Acts of the Apostles shows us the much fruit that they bore.

Many say that they want what they had. They walked in the knowledge of the apostles’ doctrine, and then they performed great works. They were right on time. Many well-meaning Christians do not realize that their timing is off. There is much to learn before our time to do wonders. It is like the best high school pitcher in the country believing that he can pitch at the Major League level right away. Not going to happen.

So, all of us must know His word. Really know it. And to do that one needs a teacher sent to explain His plan and purpose. Christ has already sent His offices out there to share the deeper things with His body. That’s His directive in His timeing for you and me (Eph. 4:11-15).

God puts special emphasis on the importance of learning the basics. It is the solid rock foundation. We cannot bask and sit still in the belief that we are a child of God and expect God to mystically help us grow. The child of God cannot keep circling the same old mountain of experiences used by God to call us out of the world many years ago. “Many are called, but few are chosen.

We are told to “make our calling and election sure.” The information in these articles and books will help us do that. Yesterday’s beautiful experiences will not give enough nourishment to us for the journey to the Promised Land that bears 100 fold “much fruit.” And it is all about the spiritual fruit. God has given us clues all the way through the scriptures concerning the growth cycle in nature as a type of the growth cycle of the Spirit within us.

What We Must Do to Bear Much Fruit

We must acquire the passion for his plan in order to grow to the 60 fold level, which is “more fruit.” There are many things to accomplish in preparation for that time when Christ will invite us to come up and sit with Him on his throne (the 100 fold fruit).

We need to “humble ourselves under his mighty hand,” for God “gives grace to the humble.” This grace, this unmerited favor, comes to us from Him in the form of new commandments. One is “Search the scriptures.” Another is “Study to show yourself approved unto God.” But if one does not obey them, the sap, the Spirit of truth, will cease to flow through that individual, and they will wither into a dry twig (John 15:6).

But those who do study God’s desires, his thoughts, his mind, his plan and purpose, will have obeyed his commandments. And those who obey his commandments prove to him several things. First, they will show that we love Christ. “If you love Me, keep my commandments” (John 14: 15). He is saying, If you love me, then you will study my words and My plan. Second, to him who keeps his commandments, Christ will love him. He does this by the Spirit of truth taking up residence in our hearts. He promises this: Christ’s Spirit will abide in him when he keeps the new commandments. “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14: 21). Finally, he promises us that if we use the measure of his Spirit within us to keep his new commandments, then he will abide in us (John 14: 23).

The abiding is when the Holy Spirit of truth remains and stays in us. He is anchored in our hearts in this growth. The Spirit shepherds us, guides us, and comforts us on the down days, and He laughs with us on the days of overcoming.

And when the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of truth, comes and makes his abode in us, then “He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you,” Christ said. (John 14: 26). Until that time, we must “occupy till He comes.” This takes patience and endurance.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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The Word of God–Spirit, Life, Light, and Wisdom

When we hear the phrase, “the word of God,” most of us think of the book, the Holy Bible. The  Bible is our precious library of books inspired by the Spirit of God, written down by certain foreordained men of God. That is true. All of us seekers of truth have benefited greatly by the efforts of those who made the Bible happen.

However, the Holy Bible is but a repository of the inspired spiritual words that God spoke originally out of His heart.

The future manifested sons and daughters of God must get back, back, back to the beginning, before the word of God ever appeared on the printed page, back before it was committed as ink stains on fragile scrolls, back even before the word of God was transmitted orally, when Noah told of God’s plan and purpose to Shem, and so on down orally to his offspring like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

For the Word of God is alive; it contains the very thoughts and longings of the Father’s heart. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6: 63). These words were spoken by the Word Himself, who “was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” (John 1: 14). He spoke words comprised of His thoughts; He spoke truth because He is the truth (1: 17). He spoke words explaining His plan for us and all the earth. And these words that He speaks now enter our ears and seep down into our encrusted hearts, and they bring life to the spiritually dead.

For His words are life itself. They are the very breath of everlasting life. They are a spirit that makes us alive unto Him; they are spirit and life for us mortals. And this life is  contained in His words, which are spirit; they are our light. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” And this light now shines on into the darkness of men’s hearts, and they do not comprehend Him, for He is the “true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” He is the Light, for He reveals God’s purpose and plan (John 1: 4-9).

His Words Are Spirit

The words that came out of the mouth of the Son of God are spirit and life. A God given curiosity compels me to ask, How are spoken words spirit? Fair question. Going to the Greek in Strong’s, “spirit” is translated from “pneuma” meaning “wind, breeze, breath.” It is from a root word meaning “to blow, to breathe.”

How are audible words formed? We literally create the spoken word by breathing air over the voice box, thus producing sound through the vibration of our vocal cords. We humans speak all kinds of words this way. But when we speak God’s words, divine words, holy words, His thoughts–then we breathe His Spirit. For His words are spirit and they are life.

We are admonished to speak the word of God, His words. “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Mt. 10: 20). The prophet Ezekiel is told by God several times to speak to the children of Israel, and what comes out of his mouth? The word of God.

The Word of Wisdom

If we study His word with true knowledge, then He will give us words to speak. The very first “gift of the Spirit” happens to be the “word of wisdom” (I Cor. 12: 8). It enables us to speak His thoughts about being in reverential awe of not only His majesty, but of His purpose and plan of reproducing Himself. He will reveal in a word to us  His great heart in sharing Himself with us.

But the time grows short. People sit like orphans in the dark streets of despair, hungering and thirsting for the truth. We must all share the portion of the truth that we have. We must not let His knowledge expire with our last breath in human flesh.

For our appointed time for the death of our old corruptible, decaying, earthly bodies fast approaches. We His children must share what we have while the sands of time still flow through the hourglass. We are channels and not the objects of His blessings. For knowledge of the holy things is the richest blessing our ears can hear.

Wisdom. Ask one thousand people what it is and you will receive one thousand different definitions. Philosophy cannot tell you what wisdom is, for it prattles on vainly about how much it loves (philos) wisdom (sophia), but it has never met her. Imagination cannot tell you, for it only projects images conjured up by the faux genius of earthly man’s mind.

And yet, the word of wisdom is the very first “gift of the Spirit” that God gives us to give to others. But it is not a mystical unction bestowed upon us from on high. We must seek to know what wisdom is–according to what the word of God says it is. Most do not know that wisdom is being in reverential awe of God. I repeat: Wisdom is being in reverential awe of God ( https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/book-yah-is-savior-the-road-to-immortality-chapter-2/ ).

Most professing Christians have one of three thoughts about the gifts of the Spirit. Some just don’t know that they exist. Others say that the “gifts of the Spirit” are not for modern times, thus limiting God’s power through unbelief. Another group are just the opposite; they “catch on fire” for God and immediately clamor for the power to perform miracles and healings.

The reality is that the gifts of the Spirit are real and are being given to His people. But they are given to us “decently and in order.” The first two gifts that God gives us is the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. Without them the new Christian will not grow spiritually. They will be stunted children, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness” (Eph. 4: 14).

We must be rooted and grounded in His word. We must dig deep and put our spiritual house on the Rock. We must seek deeply “that we may be filled with all the fulness of God.” We must see and believe the Word, our Savior, savoring just where His words of glory came from–the Beginning. “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1: 1).   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking in the Spirit Comes from Knowledge of God’s Purpose of Reproducing Himself–Being About Our Father’s Business

We are admonished in God’s word to “walk in the Spirit” and to “abide in [Christ]” (Gal. 5: 16, 25; John 15: 4). But in order to get in step with the Spirit, we need to not only know the Spirit’s destination, but also the why and the how of God’s intentions. In order to abide in the Spirit, we need to know what the abiding entails and how to get there.

Simply put, in order for us to walk in the Spirit, we must first know what God is doing and where He is going. “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” (Amos 3: 3). We must agree with Him as to the where and when of His Spirit. He said that we are to have the mind of Christ and to think the way He does (Phil. 2: 5). Christ is doing His Father’s business (Luke 2: 49).

And the Father’s business is God reproducing Himself. This is His purpose, and He has a plan to finish His work.

God has given us many clues as to His purpose. Every living thing in both the vegetable and animal kingdom is striving to reproduce itself. Just look around. It is what it is all about. You striving in your life to find “the one,” that special one to mate with–the drive  has been put in your DNA by your Maker, and it is another clue as to His purpose: God is reproducing Himself, His Love, and His life. And He has the plan to make it happen. And we humans are the spiritual environment in which He is doing this reproducing of Himself.

Only when we understand His purpose and then believe it, will we be able to walk in the Spirit or abide in Him. If we are operating on a different spiritual wavelength in our worship, then we are not staying, remaining, nor abiding in Him and His purpose and His plan to achieve His purpose of reproducing Himself.

People of God, we say that we want a closer walk, a closer relationship with Him! This is our opportunity. Oh, to cease to be Christ’s servants and to become His friends! To hear Him say to us, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his lord does: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” To be His friend! To be given this rare knowledge of what the Father is doing. To have Christ trust us so much that He with His great loving heart would include us in these secrets and mysteries of what the Father’s purpose is! To be trusted as a friend that knows what His Lord is doing! To be a part of His inner circle (John 15: 15).

And don’t tell me that it is not for us. That is a cop out. Two chapters later in that same flow of truth, Christ prayed for you and me: “Neither pray I for these alone [seated around the Last Supper table], but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one…and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them…” (John 17: 20). That’s us, brothers and sisters, if we can believe it.

He has promised us that if we abide in Him, whatever we ask, He will do. If we are walking and abiding with Him then what we ask will further His purpose. Those are the prayers that will get through–those that are asked by us to further His purpose and plan.

When We Have Another Purpose

But if we have an agenda and purpose and plan other than His, then we do not have true worship of the Father, for we will be following our own imaginations as to what will please God. God does not need another church building on another corner. He does not need another minister preaching the same sermons spoken a hundred years ago because those sermons, though they may be sincere, smack of stale incense wafting up into God’s nostrils. Small-hearted prayers for ourselves won’t get through the brass heavens to His ears.

Understanding His Purpose

However, when we do get His purpose and take it to heart and begin to work to help bring it to pass, then our power increases by His Spirit, and we become co-workers with Christ in doing the “Father’s business.”

Christ is all about doing the business of the Father. He is doing His will and finishing His work. The Father’s work? Reproducing Himself.

And what are we to do? We as members of Christ’s body need to be doing what Christ is doing, which is the same work. To do the works of God, we need to believe upon Him whom God has sent, and to finish His work. We are to bear witness to the truth about how God is reproducing Himself through the Seed Son. The works that God will do through us will be a witness that Christ the Seed has resurrected in us. The Seed Son will have germinated in us as we show forth the resurrection power through many signs and wonders done very shortly on this earth.

But it all starts with wisdom and knowledge, which happens to be the main ingredients of the first two “gifts of the Spirit.” Yes, as we get on the right road, God the Spirit begins to give us gifts to help us help Him fulfill His purpose. The first is “the word of wisdom,” and the second is “the word of knowledge” (I Cor. 12: 8).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five Fold Ministry Offices and Growth of the Elect

There is a growth in the Christian walk. As the Spirit in us brings us to more mature attitudes and capabilities, we, of course, with His help grow in grace and in His Spirit.

“First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear,” the Master Christ said (Mark 4: 26-28). This is like how the kingdom of God grows here on earth at present. The seed, the word of God, is sown into some hearts and it grows. For “the kingdom of God is within you.” Like the growth of any seed, a progression of growth develops in His governance in us.

We start out as babes in Christ, then we grow into youth, and then into fatherhood (I John 2: 13-14). And we are “under tutors and governors” as children of God (Gal. 4: 2).

And God has set some members in His body to shepherd and teach and inspire the others until we all grow spiritually to the place the Father has purposed. These are the “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.”

And these are gifted (from God) to do some specific things for Him. The first thing they will do is help us to be “perfectly joined together in the same mind” (I Cor. 1: 10). Which mind? The mind of Christ. For they will have received the “word of wisdom” and the “word of knowledge,” the first two gifts of the Spirit, from the Father. And with those gifts, they will “mend” that which is broken in our lives spiritually [1]. They will show us “the way” to spiritual completeness “till we all come in the unity of the faith, unto a perfect man.”

And what does this phrase “perfect man” mean? It is the goal of Christ and his five-fold ministry offices that we all come “unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive…” In short that we could “grow up into Him…even Christ” (Eph. 4: 11-15).

There are teachers many and evangelists many, and pastors many. Who can say which ones are true and which ones are false? One thing is certain. All two thousand denominations and organizations can’t be in perfect harmony with God’s plan and purpose. Why? Because of the disharmony amongst them. Divisions abound; schisms prevail in the Christian congregation leading the sheep of His pasture each to his own way. As in “and they all did what was right in their own eyes,” which is what happens when the King’s truth is not present (Judges 17: 6).

In a word, the Holy Spirit will be ministering to the church through these five offices. For it will not be man teaching us how to become like Christ, but Christ’s Spirit teaching us through those very teachers. They will teach us the deeper things, the “strong meat” that is fit for the princes and princesses of God, that they may grow (Hebrews 5: 14).

Being a Child of God Is Not the Goal

We are not to remain children of God! A child is mostly alive to see what they can get from the Father. You hear it in prayers every day. God does not want us to remain children because that kind of self-centeredness produces instability in the spiritual walk. Children of God are lukewarm spiritually–neither all in nor all out.

God warns the little children in Rev. 3: 14-22. These immature Christians are very prevalent in this last church age of Laodecia. If they remain lukewarm, God will reject them and will “spue them” out of His mouth.

And why are these lukewarm? Because they think they are rich both materially and spiritually and “have need of nothing.” They think that they really know all they need to know about God. They are unteachable; pride always is that way. And they do not know that they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

A Cure for the Poor, Blind, and Naked

God prescribes a remedy for the little children who are lukewarm and poor and blind and naked. He counsels them to buy from Him “gold tried in the fire that you may be rich” and “white raiment, that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness do not appear” and “anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see” (Rev. 3: 18). Then He commands them to repent, so there are things to stop doing in order to correct this tepidity.

Purified gold is faith tried in the furnace of afflictions and sufferings. White raiment is God’s righteousness in us and thriving. Eye salve is that anointing that can only come from Him in His sovereignty. And with these things bought from Him and added, the doer will have overcome and will have grown out of spiritual childhood.

But how is the young Christian to obtain the knowledge of these things? They must be taught by the Spirit through one of God’s teachers. But how does one discern which are the true teachings that will lead us to become a manifested son and daughter of God and which are the false teachings?

First, they will teach the “eternal purpose” of God and how He is “bringing many sons unto glory.” And that does not mean “going to heaven.” It means the granting and growth unto immortality–right here on earth! Some will be “conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8: 28-30).

This eternal purpose will be taught by His five fold offices–this eternal purpose of bringing a cadre of believers with Christ fully formed in them to full glory–to be exactly like Jesus Christ!  There. I said it, and I will keep on saying it until we all come into same vision that God has for us. And His vision for us is this: He wants to share His throne with us! (Rev. 3: 21). We must remember that we are “more than conquerors through Christ.”

The Elect

We are speaking now about God’s elect, the ones He has chosen for this “high calling” of becoming fully like Him. For they will share God’s vision of our perfection beginning with the conquering of sin in our lives here on earth.  They will not try to keep you a sinner; they will not limit God and His power.

They will not keep on laying the foundation of God over and over again. For the  scene’s the same as it was 50-100 years ago in denominationland. Small congregation. Everyone knows everyone. They’ve all been saved years ago. And what does the pastor preach on? Christ died for you. Be saved. Same hymns, same format. No change. No growth. And that is it. I appreciate your sincerity, pastor, but the sheep need to be fed so that they can grow! We have got to shake our selves out of the slumber that the shepherds have lulled us into.

As I’ve said before. If you are not being led into greater and more profound truths out of His word, one of two things is happening. Either you already have all the truth and there is no more to be learned, or the Spirit of God is not working with you. For He said, “When the Spirit of truth is come, He will lead you into all truth.” He will take us from one truth that, in turn, opens another door into more truth.

Let us pray that He continues to lead us into all truth. He will use His five offices to do just that.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[1] All words and phrases in bold letters are from this same Greek word found here:   http://www.blbclassic.org/lang/lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2675&t=KJV

The Faith of God–Once Delivered to the Saints

We have seen that we are to look upon the invisible things and not on the things that are seen with our earthly eyes. Faith is one of those spiritual things that is invisible. But there are many misconceptions as to what faith really is. Everyone has their own imagination.

Simply put, the faith spoken of in the Bible amounts to answering yes to the following question: Do you believe that God has the power to do what He has promised us in His word?  He has promised us that He would credit the state of being right with Him if we believe that He raised the Son of God from the dead.  Because if we can believe that much, then we, too, are raised to walk in a “newness of life” with God’s Spirit inside of us  controlling our lives.  Faith boils down to believing God has the power to do what He has promised (Romans 4: 21).

But the true faith is sometimes difficult to grasp because we can’t see it.  But faith is an invisible spiritual thing that has already been given to God’s elect. It is a special gift from Him to His future sons and daughters that will help them grow up into Him.

It is the “faith once delivered to the saints.” Jude 3. Faith is a spiritual commodity that has been delivered to the people of God. Who delivered it? The Creator Yahweh did. Faith is not something that has to be mustered up by us His people. We rather must receive it from Him. It is something that originates from out of His nature and is given to us. “For every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.” That includes faith.

It is His faith that is transplanted into our hearts. It is not something we muster up and finally believe about Him. His faith in us is the first part of His divine nature to enter into the human heart. But what is it exactly? Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.

“Things hoped for…” What does Yahweh hope for? What are the desires of His heart? What has He purposed? Long before we were ever born, He saw us in our down-trodden state of sin and misery. He also saw us rise with Him by His Spirit to vanquish sin and death in our lives. He believed that this was a reality—that this was substance—having not yet seen it come to pass. He believed and so therefore spoke and said that it was so. He believed the best about us and His plan—not having seen the evidence yet of its fruition. We as changed individuals are evidence that the invisible Supreme Being is real. We are His witnesses that He is God. And if He believes in His work in us before it comes to full fruition, then we should, too. He is our example.

His divine nature is positive, full of faith and power. All of His promises are “yes.” Nothing negative flows from His heart. He is positive; His attitude is positive. In fact, He calls those things that are not, that do not exist as yet, as though they did exist. He said that He will be all in all eventually. We should then, right now, begin to walk around as if He already is all in you and me. This will take belief that “it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.”

He is positive, giving “life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing.” This is He. This is how He thinks. He is positive about His capabilities. He has absolutely no doubt about His reserves and His resolve to get done what He wants done. And what He wants done is the multiplication, the reproduction of Himself, within His creation. He is an invisible Spirit; He wants to see Himself in action in human form. This is the witness that He talks about in Isaiah. We are to be His witnesses that He is the invisible Spirit/God. His faith believes that not only we can change, but that we will change—that we are changed! He seeks people to worship Him in this spirit and attitude and in this truth. He needs people to worship Him in this way—to believe the way He believes.

A key scripture regarding the nature of His faith is Romans 4: 17. It sometimes is advantageous to read it in several translations. God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. KJV. God, who gives life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing. The Scriptures. God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. NIV. God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist. TEV.

Nothing good exists within us—except His Spirit, if so be that we have received His Spirit. By believing that He is—not only that He exists, but also that He is where He hopes, intends, and expects to be—in us.

Tapping into this faith of His will bring His Spirit down into us. You cannot receive the Spirit by just keeping the law, or trying your best to keep the law. Human effort in trying to keep the law (the ten commandments) will not bring His Spirit down into us. The work of our selves, of our flesh, profits nothing in the end. After all, it would be just us trying to accomplish a spiritual law made for a spirit to keep. It is the spirit that makes alive…the flesh profits nothing. The words I speak, they are spirit and they are life…Does God give you His Spirit because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard? Gal. 3: 2. NIV.

Paul is trying to tell the foolish Galatians that no amount of us trying to keep the letter of the law will bring His Spirit into us. Trying to keep the law in our own strength will never perfect us. Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 3:3.

No. We shall receive the Spirit by believing what we heard—by faith. We have to be like Abraham, who believed in the promises without wavering. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 3:6. Abraham believed the promises. But what promise? “I will walk in them and will be their God and their sins I will remember no more.” Hebrews 8:12. The promise we are to believe is the promise of God giving us His Spirit.

Some of us are so afraid of being like “them”—the mainstream denominations with their cheap grace. But Yahweh is saying to us that you are not like them. You have respect to my laws and ways and precepts and you know my name. But although your conscious effort to keep my laws and honor my sabbaths are good intentioned, that alone should be the fruit of the state I want you to be in. And that state is a state of your old nature not being there in the temple of your body, but rather my Spirit, my presence. I have promised you my Spirit, my presence. That is all you need. When I am there in you, I’ll keep my laws in you. If any man have not the Spirit of Messiah he is none of His. You do not have to worry about that. My servant Paul kept the feasts and preached law keeping. He forbad sinning. Shall we continue in sin that grace (favor) may abound? God forbid. Romans 6:1-2.

It is absolutely not the way to go to try to keep the torah and 10 commandments without first seeking to receive the promise of His indwelling Spirit. The law, the torah, was given 430 years after the promise to Abraham—the promise that God would live in us and help us live righteously and godly. And the law cannot “set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise…” (Galatians 3:15-18, NIV).

What was the purpose of the torah (the law)? It was added because of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred had come. We are that seed—rather Christ in us is that seed. When we believe, the seed germinates and grows within us. The promise is receiving His Spirit by believing that He has given it to us—as we follow on in His steps.

We do this by faith. We do this by believing His word about His faith, His nature. His faith works both ways. If He has confidence in us before we ever bring forth the fruit, then we should believe in Him even though we have not seen Him in the flesh. This is our trial of the faith. Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:8.

And during the time of our sojourning here on earth, we are to add His divine nature to the faith that He has delivered unto us. His divine nature is built upon His faith. No wonder not many have added it, for they have tried to add it to their own faith in Him instead of adding His divine nature to His faith. Peter says that we are “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

The Word is the seed. And that seed is growing in us by us believing His word that says that His word is growing in us. This is the faith once delivered to the saints. This is the way He thinks about His power to change our lives—by His Spirit. Now we walk in His faith/belief when we believe the same thing about ourselves that He believes about us. That is His faith. That is His faith which was once delivered to the saints.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[This is chapter 19 of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God available from the au

Miracles–When Will the Body of Christ Perform Them?

Miracles.   We’ve all prayed for them.  A sick loved one.  A need that we wanted to see met.  We Christians have all wanted the power to do what the early apostles did after Christ’s resurrection–heal the sick at will, restore limbs, cure cerebral palsy, and raise the dead.

That’s power from on high.  And I’ve wondered, Why not miracles and healings like the early apostles?  God, why not now?

The answer: Timing.  God, the Spirit, will move through us in His own good timing.

We must be aware that the above miracles are just some of the “gifts of the Spirit” that the apostle Paul writes about in I Corinthians 12.  He lists nine of them.  And I cannot help but think that they are listed in order of their intended presentatation to mankind, according to the needs of man coming into the kingdom of God.  Paul is, after all, a “wise master builder” and lays the foundation of the house of God in the right order.

The first gift that God gives to man through His people is the “word of wisdom.”  “Wisdom is the principal thing” (Prov. 4: 7).  It is the first thing that we need, and it is to be in reverential awe of God (Job 28: 28) [for more see my book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality which you can find at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”].

The second gift of the Spirit listed is the “word of knowledge.”  Very important for our day.  It did not say, “My people are destroyed for lack of miracle workers doing wondrous acts.”  They are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge of God’s true word and will.  How can a Christian work miracles when he is eaten up with old leaven and false doctrines.  He first needs wisdom and knowledge, and those that He gives these two things to are the ones that He will use to give them through.

There is a famine of the word of God in the land.  The world is full of false doctrines spewed out by false teachers.  The truth is what is needed first in anyone’s life–true wisdom from above, true knowledge of the holy.  That is understanding; that is departing from evil.

No.  His body is not ready for the reaction to miracles flowing through us right now.  I personally could not handle the reactions of the world.  I am not strong enough physically, mentally, or spiritually to handle the all-invasive eye of the media, which would detract from getting the truth out.  Christ drew thousands on a hillside.  Can you imagine at this moment what satellite TV would do with a true apostle doing the miracles of Christ?

Better to “wait on Yahweh…with patience wait for it…let patience have her perfect work…with much longsuffering” let us serve Him.

God obviously wants more truth to flow to the people.  He is in the process of calling and choosing His “little flock.”  The gifts of the “word of wisdom” and the “word of knowledge” are what the people need right now.  And they are gifts of the Spirit, just like the “working of miracles” is a gift from God to mankind.

Those in the body who have truth must serve as channels of the gifts of the Spirit, starting with the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge.  All Christians are capable of letting these flow through them to others once they have purged themselves of false concepts. The other gifts like healings and miracles will come when He needs and wants them to be presented.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

“Speaking in Tongues” Is Speaking in Other Real Languages–Not Gibberish

Many long for the true Pentecost experience that the early disciples had.  Rightfully so, for we should.  But many long so much that they are receptive to a counterfeit experience, which is part of the “strong delusion” sent out in these latter days.  But is their “speaking in tongues” the same experience that the early apostles had?

Now I know that this may deeply offend many sincere believers who have been swept away in the tide of glossolalia inundating the globe.  How can it be wrong if so many are doing it, some would ask.  “Few there be to find this way of truth,” Christ said.  So beware of what the “many” are doing.

Studying It Out with an Open Mind

Putting aside pre-conceived ideas and traditions, we must go to the scriptures and see what they say in plain English about the subject.  He will reveal His truth to the thirsty and sincere and will pour out His Spirit to them (Isaiah 44: 3).

In Acts 2, the early apostles did not utter syllables that no one could understand.  No!  They spoke in other actual languages.  In fact, the feast goers present in Jerusalem from “every nation under heaven…heard them speak in his own language” (2: 4-6).  These were “devout men,” who were amazed that the Galilean fishermen were speaking in their language.  To emphasize this fact, fifteen different specific languages are listed (v. 9-11).

Filled with the Spirit

So what happened exactly?  Peter explained that this is what the prophet Joel foresaw.  “I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and daughters shall prophesy” (v. 17).

The apostles were not just longing anymore to have an experience with God.  They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and God was speaking through them.  They were vehicles of His words to those without.  God was speaking miraculously, expressing His truth through them in another language!  That is a miracle because Christ’s disciples could not have spoken any of those languages, for they had never even heard them spoken.

A Practical Miracle

The disciples on the day of Pentecost were not in their own little worship world.  Nor were they exulting in a unintelligible form of religious ecstasy.  God was using them to speak to others in their own language.  It was a practical miracle performed by God through His servants.  God needed to convey His truth–through those who knew it–to others who did not speak the same languages as His servants.

So God literally took over their tongues and miraculously spoke through Peter, James, and John and the others.

One of the “Gifts of the Spirit”

This ability to speak in another person’s language is one of the “gifts of the Spirit” outlined in I Corinthians 12: 10.  “Divers kinds of tongues” are different kinds of languages.  Tongues are languages.

And I must be honest.  I do speak English and Spanish.  But I have never been taken over by the Holy Spirit and had my mouth speak other foreign languages to people.  Wow.  That would be something.  Other gifts of the Spirit I have been blessed to have received (or rather, to have been a channel of that gift): “word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith”–but not different languages flowing by His Spirit through my mouth.

But someday God will use this gift again.  Someday His sons and daughters will be sent to foreign lands, and He will need to speak to the people there.  And God will speak through His surrendered servants and will pour out through them comforting words about His soon coming kingdom.  And He will comfort them with words in their own language.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock