Why Christ Said, “Love Your Enemies”

We all have enemies.  We all have people who have wronged us, and it is so easy to be bitter against them.  But I never could understand until now why God admonishes us to pray for our enemies. 

    Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matthew 5:44).  That is a tough assignment.  That stretches the abilities of our humanity.  It is too difficult for our earthly passions to do.  We in all our human frailties are being asked by the Master to do the impossible: Love, bless, and pray for those who hurt us.

     Why would He put that on us? It’s in the very next verse: That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.  His spiritual offspring, His sons and daughters, His princes and princesses–they will overcome and do just that.  Because each seed bears its own kind, we, born of His seed, will become just like Him.  For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  He loves the whole world and knows that they “know not what they do.”  We, too, will realize that our calling is to be just like Him, and with His Spirit abiding within, we will overcome.

     Vengeance will be taken, but not by His sons and daughters.  We were created by Him as vessels of mercy.  He will show His mercy through us.  That’s why He emphasized, “Vengeance is mine, saith the LORD (Yahweh); I will repay.”

     Why did He want us to not rail on our enemies?  Because He knew that the moment we do, we will have given into a dark spirit, which entering into our heart and mind, will poison us spiritually.  Bitterness as gall will well up and sully our complete being.  He does not want this for us because we are not built by Him for revenge, hatred, and cursings.  We are not “wired” that way by the Creator.  We self-destruct if we hate others.  We are created to be channels of love, His love.

     So, we are told to “pray for them that persecute you.”  By doing this, the dark, spiritual acid of bitterness is neutralized, and then His love and peace begins to once again flow down and through us to others.               Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Renewing Our Minds Changes Us

To renew our mind—how do we do it? We do it by adding Christ’s divine thoughts to our faith.

Peter tells us to “gird up the loins of your mind” (I Peter 1:13). The first item of the armor of God is to stand, “having your loins girt about with truth” (Eph. 6:14). Every Christian knows that the truth is in Christ. But the young Christian [and the old as well] has thoughts and concepts about Christ that are not Christ’s thoughts.

The apostles were writing to Christians who evidently needed to have their concepts of Christ’s gospel straightened out. Or they would not have been receiving those letters to the churches. It is the same today. The spiritual battleground is in the mind. We are led by our thoughts.

And God has given us the power to chase negative thoughts away and banish false concepts out of our minds. When our thinking has been purged and cleansed, then we will have been transformed, or changed. How is one transformed? “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove [discern, reckon as genuine] what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:2). We will be able to know what God’s perfect will is and how to walk in it. But our minds must be free from false doctrines. That is how the renewal begins.

Definition of Renew

To renew means “to make new again.” You mean, our minds were new once upon a time, and then they got sullied, and now they await a cleansing and a restoration to the purity they once held?

Could this “renewing of our minds” entail us thinking what Christ thought? We are admonished to let Christ’s mind be in us (Phil. 2:5). Think like Christ thinks. Let Christ’s mind be in you. You mean we must allow it to reside in us? We do this by moving out our old thoughts to make room for the new thoughts, which are Christ’s thoughts, thoughts that require faith/belief.

So what did he think about?  He thought of the invisible heavenly things, not the things consumed by the five senses. “Take no thought for your life,” your visible earthly life (Matt. 6:25-31). He was submissive to the father in all things and taught us to do the same. In so doing, he was humble, giving glory and praise to the Father.

We must “let” His mind take over our mind. To do this we must know the plan and purpose of God. Christ always said, “I must be about my Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). He always did those things that pleased the Father.

Knowing the true plan and purpose of God is a big chore, but what is bigger is eliminating the old desires we had for our lives– our plans and schemes, our dreams for our own little futures. And they are little “compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.”  Our old lives are but “dung” compared to eternally being at His side.

The Cross

Christ always taught His followers to repent from sin. This is the first step in getting rid of the false concepts about Christ. It is the cross that puts to death our old sinful selves, along with its desires, and enables us to “be raised to walk in a newness of life.” This shows us where our old thoughts were leading us and where the thoughts of God now bid us come.

First, we must get to that place of submission. We must leave the old life at the cross and take on Christ’s mission, which is establishing His Kingdom of love and righteousness throughout the earth and sharing his throne with his elect. That takes much study and prayer.

All this is for those human beings who renew their minds with Christ’s thoughts and are changed from selfish sinners into compassionate monarchs, soon ruling with Christ in His Kingdom right here upon earth. “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne…” (Rev. 3:21).

The Vision of How God Fulfills His Purpose of Reproducing Himself

To walk in Jerusalem just like John, to speak the thoughts of God as the prophets and apostles did–that is our destiny, after all. But to do what they did, you and I must learn of God’s vision of His plan in establishing His government that will fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself. And His purpose is composed of the Thoughts of His Mind, and they are poured into the Word and transformed into the Seed. And the Seed is the Word.

And the Seed was made flesh and dwelt among us. And the Seed was God, and the Seed was Love. For Love is the very nature of God; it is God. His purpose has always been to reproduce Love, which is Himself. He does  this by sowing the Seed of Love, His Son, into the earth. For the earth is the only place that a seed will grow. Faith in His resurrection germinates in the fertile soil of good and honest hearts, where it will grow and grow and grow until it fills the whole earth with Love.  “Until Christ (Love Incarnate) be all in all,” said the apostle Paul. And this is all contained in the Mind of the Son of God. And you and I are told to “let this mind be in you that was in Christ…”

Comprehending and understanding just how God will do this reproduction of Himself is  seeing the vision of God; it is being privy to the very secrets of God Almighty.  However, to be a “seer” of the  vision, an initiation of sorts must first be accomplished by the seeker of truth.

The Initiation

Natural man, the first Adam, cannot see the spiritual vision of God’s plan to fulfill His purpose. It can stare him right in the face. In fact, it is written in plain English and sits on a shelf in half the homes of this world, and yet, the Bible remains a dusty tome, mostly unintelligible. To understand what God is all about first takes a new heart and with it a new way of thinking and living.

The Word says that we must first be “born again,” which in the original says “born from above” before we can even “see” or “enter” the kingdom of God (John 3: 3, 5). The kingdom of God is the spiritual and physical environment in which God animates and enacts His plan to fulfill His purpose. Moreover, until the seeker experiences this spiritual rebirth, he remains blind to what God is doing and how He is doing it.

Being “born from above” begins with one experiencing his own spiritual death, burial, and resurrection in revelation on the cross with Christ. For we know that our old nature was crucified with Christ and then was buried with Him. And then by believing He was raised from the dead after three days and three nights in the tomb, we, also, are “raised to walk in a newness of life.” Our old selfish sinful heart spiritually dies with Christ, and that seed of faith, provided by His Love for us when we were down, begins to grow. And with this small step of faith, we begin to see and enter His kingdom. God is leading His children into these greener pastures, and He will send them a teacher with the vision who will explain to them the vision. We need only to seek with a hungry sincere heart, and God will not give us a stone, but the bread of life.

The cross experience must happen first. This is what the true “come to Jesus” moment is all about. This is the only place where we may strip ourselves of petty ego and let the old self die–with Christ (Romans 6). The only place. It is the only sacrifice now that God will accept from us. It is the only way to get right with Him. It is the crucible of true repentance from sin and faith toward God. This is the initiation that separates the sheep from the goats, the pretenders from the contenders. This is where a Christian must put his hands to the plow and not look back. This is where one sells all that they have, especially the delusions of self-glorification.

Once this has been done, the following pages explaining the vision of His plan to fulfill His purpose will begin to make sense. His true doctrine will enlighten our sojourn through the “valley of the shadow of death.” But Christ holds the key that unlocks death’s inevitability. And He will help our eyes to see and help our feet to walk on by faith in this invisible Spirit of Love.

Contemplating His Love

After these opening first steps of repentance from sin and faith toward God takes hold, we then can begin to comprehend His love for us. For we cannot help but wonder about why He loved us–warts and all–even before we met Him at the cross.

And then we realize that He is Love. He is agape, selfless Love, and all Love can do is love. And Love’s nature is giving and sharing with no ulterior motives.

And if He gives us insight to go all the way back to the beginning with God, we will see that Love is like a seed. Love gives itself, and the receiver of that love then begins to love. It is like planting a seed in a garden; it germinates and grows into a plant that will produce its own seed.

And so God in the beginning, of course, knew all this. In the infinite essence of His Love, He knew that He needed something to express His Love to. It would not be a beautiful planet, star, or galaxy, for they could not respond to the Love. To the contrary, it would be  a living being capable of receiving and feeling the love. Moreover, He would create a being especially designed to be touched and moved by Love, with a heart that could serve as the matrix for the further reproduction of agape Love. That being would be the human being, a being wonderfully made by his Creator, made to be the “glory of God.” The human being was created for this purpose of duplicating and multiplying God.

And so, in the beginning, because His nature was Love, God arrived at His purpose, which is to share this love and to multiply His nature of love. In a word, His purpose is to reproduce Himself.

To carry out His purpose, God formulated a plan to reproduce Himself. He would create a human being, and He would make them male and female. They would serve as a crucible for each other, forging through the fires of the human condition a purification, thus implementing His plan for their perfection in His love.

Furthermore, He would choose Him a family of people, picked from Adam’s lineage, to be a living metaphor and symbol of His plan in action. He would call out Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons and their families to literally act out in a reality the past, present and future of His plan, thereby unfolding His eternal purpose for all His creation to see.

The above is rarefied knowledge and constitutes the vision of God. This is the vision that He shared with a few Hebrew prophets, offspring all of the aforementioned patriarchs. We have their writings in the Holy Bible. They tell us of God’s vision in small doses and scenes and insights and revelations, fashioned from the lives of historical persons.

The words of the vision given to them have been “closed up and  sealed till the time of the end.” The time of the end is now upon us. Their words of truth are dots that are now being connected by the Spirit of truth. “None of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand” (Daniel 12: 9-10).

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The LORD Is My Shepherd”–How Does He Shepherd Us?

God is not only our Savior, but also our Great Shepherd. “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” is famously recited by almost all. We know Him to be our shepherd holistically, however. Most believe that He leads, guides and watches over us, the whole person.

But how does God actually shepherd us? Is it not through our thoughts proceeding from our minds? For example, the act of going to the store begins as a thought. “We are out of milk. Better go get some.” Spurred by this thought, we get up, grab the keys, jump in the car, drive to the store and buy the milk. Where we go begins with a thought. Where we go as the sheep of His pasture begins with a thought, also. It will be either one of our thoughts or one of His thoughts.

The scriptures have much to say spiritually about the mind and its thoughts. In fact, we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Rom. 12: 2). Our minds in the Christian walk are to be renewed. This is how we are changed into His image. And we must make no mistake here. We are to be changed so much in our spiritual growth, that eventually we are to become like our Savior. “We all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory…by the Spirit…” (II Cor. 3: 18 NKJV).

Christ is to be formed in us (Gal. 4: 19). That is God’s thought on the matter. If we don’t believe that this is possible, then we must bring “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10: 5).

“We are led by our thoughts,” goes the old true adage. Man thinks a lot, and most men cherish their own thoughts. Yet God says, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts,” and God will forgive him (Isa. 55: 7). Here we see that thoughts lead to the way a person will go. Thoughts dictate the path traveled.

Consequently, we are to forsake our thoughts, for God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways (55: 8).

What  then are His thoughts? What is God thinking about? His thoughts are contained in the “mind of Christ,” which we are to have (Phil. 2: 5; 1 Cor. 2: 16). But does His mind and thoughts just come willy-nilly, by just “trusting in the Lord”? No. His mind will come through studying His thoughts, which are the contents of the mind of God.

There it is. So, what is keeping us from receiving the mind of Christ, and along with it His power? It is the old leaven that Christ and His apostles warned us of. We are told to “purge out the old leaven, that the lump may be holy.” But few will do this. Most won’t even look up “old leaven” in the concordance to see what it is. Those that do will see that it is the false teachings about Christ and His gospel. But most Christians do not believe that they have any erroneous concepts to be repented of. And so they go on, stunted in their spiritual growth. Their thoughts about
Christ are, well, their thoughts, and not God’s thoughts. We all must get rid of the false doctrines about Christ and then begin to believe the true knowledge of His thoughts.

How does one know which teacher to trust, which evangelist to believe? God will lead to the fountain of truth the sheep who cry and cry for the living waters.

And what are the living waters but His thoughts. He says as much in the remainder of Isaiah 55. His thoughts are “higher” than human thinking (v. 9).  Man thinks shallow and self-centered thoughts, small thoughts, wasted thoughts that are unremembered specks of dust in the vaults of time. But God’s thoughts traverse mountains and valleys, crossing all borders as the rain from heaven caresses the earth, and makes it “bring forth and bud [giving] seed to the sower and bread to the eater.” So is His word, born of His thoughts toward us the sheep of His pasture.

These poetically prophetic thoughts speak of Christ’s kingdom age, a thousand years of peace ruled by the Prince of Peace and God’s sons and daughters. As the whole earth and all of its tribes and nations “break into singing” as they think the King’s thoughts, contemplating His merciful ways to all on earth. Everyone shall rejoice that His thoughts will have come to full fruition (55: 9-13).

His thoughts are His gospel, and there is only one gospel, which is His literal kingdom soon to fill the whole earth! This is what an exiled King thinks on! We must corral and expel every thought that is not in agreement with His thoughts and vision. Those who do will have a wonderful future with Him right here on earth in His kingdom (Mark 1: 14).

As we keep on thinking His thoughts, eventually they become our very own thoughts. This is how He shepherds us into His greener pastures.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having the Mind of Christ–Key to Staying Focused

We know as Christians that we should have our thoughts on the things of God. For “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee,” the Spirit of Christ in Isaiah tells us (26: 3). But, let’s face it, our minds wander to things of this earth, trivial things, things that do not matter in God’s big picture.

How then do we get our minds to think on the things of God? How do we prevent them from wandering? Is there a focal point that will help us?

He admonished us to “let this mind be in you.” And that is the mind of Christ. But what was in His mind? What does He think about? Paul tells us to think on the things that are lovely, just and of a good report (Phil. 4: 8).

Of course, it all starts with grateful thoughts toward our Savior for delivering us from our decadent old lives. What love our God has for us! Beyond our finite thoughts to comprehend such care for us!

Things That Are Just

But does His mind stop with His interaction with us in His love for us in saving us, as wonderful as that is? Or is there more in His mind? Do His thoughts transcend the personal and enter into the geo-political–even into galactic concerns?

We know that He is a just God, a righteous Judge. Justice is His hallmark; fairness is His eternal standard.

As the righteous King, could Christ be thinking about His soon coming return when He will “rule all nations with a rod of iron”? Do not most every earthly king in exile prepare his heart and mind for his return to the throne, his seat of justice for his people?

Of course, they do. Christ tells us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” The very first thing that we Christians should be seeking is God’s kingdom. First, we should be studying His word to see just what the kingdom of God is–to see if what we have been taught by the churches about the kingdom is correct. For Christ has much to say about His kingdom.

But we Americans and most people of the world have been too long removed from being a king’s subject. We are individualistic, self-willed, and self-centered. A monarchy is foreign to us after 225 years with our present government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Of course, our republic is a definite improvement on the despotic king George. However, our experiment in governing ourselves is not the kingdom/government of God that the scriptures speak of.

Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, is returning to earth and will rule and reign right here on earth for 1,000 years, according to the scriptures. That is the kingdom/government that we are admonished by Him to seek after.

We must simply stop thinking about God’s kingdom as some mystical ethereal heavenly realm that we are going to escape to. No. Christ is coming back to earth for 1,000 years, and sitting on the throne with Him will be God’s royal offspring, the over-comers. He promised, “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I overcame and am set down with My Father in His throne (Rev. 3: 21).  Somebody will fulfill this His promise, for He does not speak idle words.

Help us, God, to let this vision of rulership with Christ permeate our hard hearts. Help us believe and cleave to your promises, for they are your thoughts; they are the creative seeds that emanate from Your mind to us.

We simply must begin thinking in terms of Christ as this regal sovereign Monarch and how He will completely change the geo-political dynamic.

His kingdom is the good news. Personal salvation provided us by Him, though precious, is but a first step that enable us to first “see” and then “enter into the kingdom of God (John 3: 3-5).

Personal salvation enables us to become a “babe in Christ,” but like an earthly baby, a young Christian needs to grow up spiritually into full maturity. Some of His followers will mature into kingship and will sit with Him on His throne.

This is what our exiled King is thinking about. He is all about preparing and then sharing His throne with His elect. Read His words now with all this in mind, and you will see into His wondrous thinking. We should be filling our minds with these thoughts about His return and rule. These are the things that are true and honest and just and pure and lovely and of a good report. And we are to think on these things, as Christ does at this very moment, and “the God of peace shall be with you.” For He is the living Word. And His words to us are the very Essence that comprises His thoughts. And these thoughts of His will keep us focused.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

“Let This Mind Be in You”–Thinking About the Lost Sheep

We are told to “let this mind be in you”–the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5).  We are to have His thoughts, to think the way He does, to meditate on subjects that fill His mind.  After all, He is the King, and if He is truly our Master, then we will strive to think His thoughts and to have His mind.

     So, then, how can we know His thoughts?  What is He thinking right now?  He is the “same yesterday, today, and forever,” so His thoughts 2,000 years ago are still in His mind today.  What are they?

The answer lies in the words He spoke.  Whatever thoughts were in His heart and mind, that is what came out of His mouth.  And one of those things was His concern for “the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”

A Canaanite woman, who was not of Israelite stock, came to Him and wanted Him to heal her daughter.  But He said nothing.  She cried for mercy.  And kept on so much so that His disciples said to Him, “Send her away for she keeps crying out after us.”  Instead of sending her away, Christ says something very curious.  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  He was saying, First, I’ve got my people who need Me, and they don’t know who they are.  They are like sheep without a shepherd, and I need to help them.

Then “the woman came and knelt before Him.  Lord, help me!”

And then He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”  This bread is for the children, the children of Israel, He was saying.  These spiritual gifts are for them primarily.

Then she said, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  This touched Him, and so He praised her faith and healed her daughter (Mt. 15:22-28, NIV).

The point: Christ made it very clear who He was thinking about.  It was the lost sheep first.  That was His primary mission.  He was compassionate and honored the faith of the Gentile woman and blessed her.  But His main mission was to gather “the outcasts of Israel.”

To solve this mystery of who they are, we must keep an open mind.  Hopefully we now have a reason to study a bit of Biblical history in order to unravel the strands.  These “lost sheep of the House of Israel” are extremely important to Christ, and now to us.  “Finding” these “lost sheep” will uncover one of the secrets of the ages.  More later.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

“Let This Mind Be in You”–Thinking the Way Christ Thinks

We are to have God’s purpose in mind.  But therein lies the problem.  How do we know what God’s purpose, plan and priorities are?  The answer is found in the writings of the apostles and prophets.  And they speak of “the elect,” “the sons of God,” and of the wonderful works that God will do through them at the time of the end.

God Will Make It Happen

Because it is His plan and He is all-sovereign and all-powerful, He will make it all happen and come together.  He will call out His sons and daughters, bidding them to come away a while and learn of Him.  He will draw them away from the cacophony of man’s thoughts and rumblings and the vain trappings of the Spirit-less life and feed them with wholesome spiritual food.

Putting on the Mind of Christ

Shouldn’t we be thinking on the things that God is thinking about, too?  We are admonished to do this.  “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus/Yahshua.”  We have to allow His mind to come into us and take over.

What was in His mind?  He knew that He was in God’s form, that His body was the temple of God, the place for God to dwell in.  Christ knew that His Father Yahweh meant all along to come fully into Him and dwell in Him.  He knew that He was the heir, that He would inherit the Spirit of God Himself!  This was in His thoughts and mind.  And we should have the same mind and thoughts as Christ did.

But Christ humbled Himself, knowing that humility is the way a human should walk on earth.  He submitted Himself unto death.  Now we are asked to follow Him in a “baptism into His death,” where sin and its sin nature dies with Christ.

Doing this, we will the become “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2: 5-15).

Christ is our example, and He was always “about His Father’s business,” which is bringing forth His sons and daughters.  We now should make the “Father’s business” our business.  If we do, you know that He will be pleased.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Purge Out the Old Leaven = Getting Rid of False Concepts

     We have become the princes and princesses of God the King by our new spiritual birth.  We are in training to assume royal duties with Him upon His return to earth.

      What should we be doing to get ready for this great responsibility?  We are admonished to “purge out the old leaven that the lump may be holy” (I Corinthians 5:7).  

     Leaven?  What does that mean?  Look.  Christ is the “bread of life.”  We have received His Spirit and it is “no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.”  Therefore, we as His body are the “bread of life,” too, because of His presence within us.  But we come into this new life with some old concepts about God and the affairs of this world system that must be gotten rid of.  We have carried over in our thinking old doctrines, beliefs, traditions, and concepts.

     Unleavened bread is “sincerity and truth” (I Cor. 5:8).  So, “leaven” must be insincerity and falsehoods.  Christ Himself told us to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1).  Yes, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.”  The Pharisees were the religious leaders, and Herod was the political leader back in that day.  They are symbols of religious and political leaders today.  “There is no new thing under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).  So, Christ is telling us to beware of them in our day, too.

     To “purge out” the old leaven, we must be brutally honest with ourselves and “examine ourselves.”  We must be open to new truth; if we are not open, then we must believe that we have all truth already.  And if we think that way, then it will be very difficult for the Spirit to “guide us into all truth.”

     No one except Him can help us get ready to rule with Him.  It is our responsibility to study and search out true concepts and get rid of false concepts about Him and His plan and purpose.  Like the “Reverend Mr. Black” said in song, “You gotta walk that lonesome valley; you gotta walk it by yourself.  Nobody else can walk it for you.  You gotta walk it by yourself.” 

     We must rid our minds of false religious and political concepts and take on the “mind of Christ” in order to “make our calling and election sure” as His princes and princesses.