Category Archives: apostles’ doctrine

January 5, 2013 · 7:47 pm

The Faith of God in Himself Now in Us

Faith is extremely important but often misunderstood.  It is not us believing in something.  That is not the true faith of God.   No.  The true faith of God comes from Him to us, not from us about Him.  It is His belief in Himself that He gives to us.

Faith Is Not Something We Have to Muster Up

It is the “faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).  Faith is a spiritual commodity from God 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 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.

God Has Assurance in the Things that He Hopes For

“Things hoped for…”  Because we are naturally egocentric, we think that it is the things we hope for.  No.  What does God 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.

And it is to this faith, His faith, that we are to add several more  spiritual qualities as outlined by the apostle Peter (II Peter 1: 5-8).  These are the more advanced facets that the Holy Spirit gives to those going “unto perfection,” which is full maturity in Christ.                Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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{This is an excerpt from my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God, which you can read at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook: The Unveiling…”}

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December 8, 2012 · 5:35 pm

Add to Virtue Knowledge–The Additions to Your Faith

We have seen that some Christians are called to “go on unto perfection.”  These are the elect, the ones chosen by God to be “a kind of first fruits” of His glory.  They are the trailblazers into that spiritual country of immortality and will serve as princes and princesses in God’s soon coming kingdom that will subdue all of man’s governments and will fill the whole earth.

We have seen that these sons and daughters of God will not be content with “playing church,” but will forge ahead in study and prayer, searching for that hidden wisdom of God.  They are the ones who are searching for “a better [country], that is, an heavenly” one.  They are on a quest to enter into the heavenly New Jerusalem that will come down here to earth and will be the habitation of immortals, who are those who have spiritually matured.

They will understand that to fully partake of the “divine nature,” they will have to go beyond that initial flush of faith we Christians have all experienced.  These will see that the full spiritual maturity  calls for additions to their faith.  Just possessing in one’s heart a strong conviction that God is real and working in one’s life is not the nutrient that will foster the spiritual growth, which leads to the harvest called “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

And make no mistake, brethren, glorification is where the elect are heading.  It is in the mind of God; it is already done in His books.  We need to embrace this truth and make the necessary sacrifices that will bring about this maturity.

We have seen that in order to go on with Him on this path, we must add certain spiritual attributes to our faith.  Peter tells us to “add to your faith virtue,” which is that quality that helps us be proactive and not passive in this walk.  Virtue is that warlike energy that takes the fight to the enemy.  It gets us off the couch and into the fray.  It is the very strength and power of God’s Spirit [For more see these two articles   https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/add-to-your-faith-virtue-gods-strength-and-power-2-peter-1-5/   https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/the-additions-to-your-faith-prerequisites-of-receiving-immortality/ ].

Adding knowledge to virtue

The second addition to the faith is adding knowledge to virtue.  God does not want us running out there cutting and slashing with the “sword of the Spirit” at just any old thing that pops up.  Nor does He want us to be gullible and believe everything we hear about God.  We must have knowledge added to the zeal.

Many “little children” of God, energized with their new found faith, want to get out there and change the world.  So they rush out and tell everyone they meet about their experiences in God.  This universal reaction comes out of a heart that means well.  But like Paul says, “They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge” (Rom. 10: 2).

There is a “knowledge” then that young Christians need to be in agreement with.  If we strike out on our new found Christian walk without this knowledge that the apostle refers to, then we will wander off onto a path that detours us away from the road to the celestial city.

Some detours

What are some of these detours?  They are imaginations; they are false teachings about the plan and purpose of God.  The apostles and prophets continuously warn us about not believing false teachers and preachers.

One detour takes an unsuspecting young Christian to “Neverland.”  It is the mythical concept that just accepting Christ grants us a ticket to heaven and not to the bad place.  They are promised by their teachers that they will go to heaven and stay in heaven forever with God.  That’s about it.  They are never told that Christ is coming back here to earth–what a stupendous event!  And He is bringing all the dead in Christ with Him.  They have never considered it.  And what about those who are alive when He touches down on the Mount of Olives?  What happens to His followers who are alive?  And what happens to the people who survive the Great Tribulation Period?  What happens to them here on earth?  All this never enters their minds.

Another detour that hinders Christian growth is the false promise of a rapture.  Total escapism.  Not going to happen.  But people rush out in their zeal and believe this because it sounds good and logical.  Yet, they never study it out and prove it one way or another to themselves.  It is tricky.  They have a zeal for God, “but not according to knowledge” [for more on this go here https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/?s=rapture ].

So what is this knowledge Peter’s talking about?

To answer that question, we must be prepared to dig deep into the scriptures of truth.  Knowledge is a noun translated from the Greek word gnosis (#1108) meaning “knowledge.”  We see it in the English words “diagnosis” and “prognosis.”  The verb form of this word (#1107; #1097) means “to make known.”  So the noun means “that which is made known.”

But there is a lot of “knowledges” out there.  Which knowledge is he talking about?

So what has been made known?  What exactly is this knowledge that the apostles were so keen on?  First, God has “made known” to us through Christ’s resurrection the “ways of life,” as in the path we will take to arrive at a state of immortality or everlasting life.  Literally.  Not “crystal blue persuasion,” “floating around heaven all day.”  No.  God has given us the knowledge on how to obtain immortality.  That is how big this concept is.  There is a true way into His kingdom/government as His elect sons and daughters.  We can see this in the book of Acts where Peter is quoting David, “Thou hast made known to me the ways of life” (2: 28).

Christ’s resurrection, where His earthly body did not remain in the grave–this is our hope, that as He promised, we, too, can receive immortality.  But there is so much of this knowledge to learn.  True knowledge of how we will attain immortality does not come willy-nilly.  If our earthly jobs require a modicum of seriousness and sobriety to master and perform, how much more does our training to be His fellow rulers in His kingdom?

After all, Christ promises this to some: “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also over came, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Rev. 3: 21).  You mean some of us will literally sit on the throne with Christ?  Somebody will, and He said, Whosoever will may come.  Kings and queens sit on thrones.  But to be sitting on the one and only throne designed by and for immortals.  That’s getting out there.  Need more faith?  Maybe we need  these additions to the faith, to grow it, to feed it, to enlarge and strengthen it.

What else is God “making known” to us?  “That He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory.”  Some human beings that He calls “the vessels of mercy” He has already prepared to receive “glory.”

Nothing more glorious than everlasting life.  The “glory that He has for us is immortality.  He is making known this knowledge of these true spiritual riches that some will be glorified with Him at the end of this age!  That is what He is making known right now (Rom. 9: 23).

He is making known the mystery of His will.  “That God would make known what is the riches of the gloryof this mystery…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory…even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints (Col. 1: 27, 26).

This “glory” spoken of here is spelled out in Romans 8: 18-31.  It speaks of the adoption, where we mortals shall be redeemed by God through resurrection and receive a new spiritual body that cannot die like this earthly body that is physically corruptible.  God gave us a destiny unto this glorious state beforehand, that we would “be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (v. 29).  And if we are, indeed, one whom He has predestinated, then He has called us, justified us, and He has also glorified us (v. 30).  This “glorification” is all about receiving an immortal spiritual body.  [Read more in I Cor. 15  and here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/the-high-calling-of-god/ ].

There is so much more that He has “made known” to His children.  We are told to add this knowledge of His plan and purpose to the virtue/zeal and on to the faith.  Adding knowledge then is all about first learning His true plan and promises and incorporating them into our thinking.  This takes true teachings, much study, and much communication with our Savior.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[To read my books go to the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

 

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November 1, 2012 · 2:31 pm

True Overcomers Will Continue Steadfastly in the Apostles Doctrine

There is a great awakening happening in the Christian world.  God is planting a hunger in some for the “greater works” that He promised His followers would do.  These brothers and sisters long for that same spiritual walk that the early apostles had.  But many are not following the steps laid out by those very early apostles, which serve as our example.

In other words, if we want the same spiritual experiences in our lives that they had, then we must follow the same steps that those apostles took.  We must know the same things, study the same things, speak the same words, and do the same things that they did.

Scripturally speaking, what did those early apostles study, speak about, know and do?  “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, and fellowship, and breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2: 42).  The foremost paramount thing that they did was that they stayed in the apostles doctrine.  They stuck exclusively with the teachings of the Apostle Christ.  And then they had fellowship.  If you don’t have the “apostles doctrine” you don’t have real fellowship because it is going to be the Word.  And then there was “breaking of bread.”  Yes, earthly bread, but more importantly, they shared these teachings, which is the bread of life, with each other.  And then they continued to pray, for their communication to God was a sweet savor to His nostrils, for it was in accordance with His true teachings.

But what is the doctrine of the early apostles?

What were the teachings that the early apostles continued steadfastly in?  How are we to know who the true teachers of God are?

Teachers of God will expound His way, while false prophets and false teachers will veer off into doctrines that seem like they are relevant to God’s plan, but they don’t line up with the doctrines that the apostles taught.  The true teachers are gifts to mankind from God (Ephesians 4: 11).  They are precious and very few in number.  If we seek, we will find one, and we will hold them dear.

But how can we tell the true from the false?  The true teachers will have a grasp of the apostles’ doctrine, which is the doctrine of Christ.  They will realize that “whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God” (2 John 1: 9).  So it is extremely  important to abide in Christ’s teachings.  But what is that doctrine?

The apostle Paul knew and followed it and reveals it to us in Hebrews 6: 1-2.  He is urging his readers to grow up into Christ and stop playing around with other teachings that do not yield the fruit of becoming like Christ.  “Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgement.”

There it is laid out for all of us to see.  In order to go on to perfection, which is the completed spiritual growth of “Christ in you,” we need to stop laying again the foundation of repentance of sin, faith toward God, the baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement.  These are the teachings that the early apostles continued in.  And these are the teachings that we all in our latter rain era must know and do thoroughly.

These teachings are what the early apostles talked about.  Take the teaching about baptisms.  That’s plural.  Many talk of their immersion in the Holy Spirit but have no idea about the “baptism into His death” (Romans 6: 3).  It is this baptism that opens up the other baptisms.  This is where the old self, your old Adamic nature dies with Christ on the cross in revelation, where you can truly walk in a newness of life as a “new creature” where all things are become new!  Why don’t we Christians talk about that?  Especially those who teach His word?  The early apostles did! [Read all of Romans 6]

And the doctrine of “the resurrection of the dead” comes into focus  for us and in us, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him” (Rom. 6: 5-6).  Here “faith toward God” and believing in the resurrection of Christ, lead to us believing that we too can live a life free from sin and sinning.  Here we see three of the apostles doctrines in action.  But these are the elementary principles, the foundation of the house of God, which is us His body.  And very few talk about these teachings.  Is it because no one is teaching them?

This is the “breaking of bread,” the sharing of the word and promises of God that the early apostles fellowshipped in.  If your fellowship is not discussing and sharing these teachings aforementioned, then something is missing.  And that something is the doctrine of Christ.

For not many are teaching Romans 6, and if it is read at all, it is not believed.  But the true teachers sent from God will teach it and believe it and will be solid in it, as a foundation built upon the rock.

They will know how to explain in detail how one repents, how faith works in us receiving a new heart.  In short, they will have true knowledge of the “principles of the doctrine of Christ” (Hebrews 6: 1-2).

Yet they will also know that one must leave those first principles in order to “go on unto perfection.” The Spirit that is within them will “lead us into all truth.”  They will know that it is Christ in them who actually is the real Teacher.

Many fellowships talk about wanting the same power as the early church in the book of The Acts of the Apostles.  They see the miracles and wonders performed and long for that same divine power to hold sway on the earth today.  They want, however, to circumvent the procedure used in those enlightened days right after Christ’s resurrection.  They want to accept Christ, be baptized, and then they want to set the world on fire with God’s power.  They think that visions and dreams replace the rock solid foundation of the apostles doctrine and teachings.

Before the miracles come from God, pre-requisites must be done. “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles” (Acts 2:42-43).  Here you see the progression of things: the doctrine, fellowship, breaking bread, prayers, fear of God, and then came the wonders and signs.

“We Don’t Want Doctrine–Just Jesus”

It was the apostles’ doctrine that the early converts stayed in.   They did those teachings.  For “doctrine” is translated from the Greek word didaskalia, which means “teaching; that which is taught.”  Beware of those who will say, “We don’t want doctrine, we just want Jesus/Yahshua!”  If they could only realize that the Savior Himself was referred to as a “Didaskalos,” meaning “Teacher, Master.”  The same root word!  People who say, “We don’t want doctrine” are really saying they do not want the real Christ and what He taught.

The true teachers of God will teach true repentance from sin in one’s life and how faith works to give us a new heart and new spirit that pleases God in not sinning against Him.  And this is just the first principles “of the doctrine of Christ” (Hebrews 6: 1-2).

This is not a new thing that I write about.  Read it for yourself in Martin Luther’s writings*; in the sermons of John Wesley (  http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/sermons/040.htm ), founder of the Methodist Church; from Andrew Murray, 19th Century Scottish Missionary and author ( http://www.victoryoversin.com/murray/like/lc24.htm ); or in my books which you can find at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”).

So, turn away from anyone who doesn’t teach the apostles’ doctrine, that says that you cannot be a righteous son or daughter of God.  Don’t believe them.  They will try to drag you down into the same spiritual slop that they are stuck in.  Find yourself a true teacher and study out the apostles’ doctrine, for those are the teachings of Christ.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

* “Sermon on Three-fold Righteousness” at  http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/3formsrt.html

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October 17, 2012 · 4:06 pm

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

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October 13, 2012 · 8:40 pm

Feasts, New Moons, and Sabbath Days–Mere Shadows of Christ in Us

The Feast Days of Yahweh, His New Moons and Calendar, and His Sabbath Days–even the Ten Commnadment Law itself–are but a shadow of the spiritual light we are in Him and that He is in us.  A shadow is not the real thing.  We can learn from studying a shadow, but a shadow can never replace the thing that creates the shadow.

After we are crucified with Him, buried with Him, and risen with Christ–after receiving a new heart from the Master, the apostle Paul says this: “Let no man therefore judge you in respect of a feast day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come…” (Col. 2: 11-17).  In fact, these feast days and Sabbaths and laws “serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things,” even as God told Moses to “make all things according to the pattern showed to you in the mount” (Heb. 8: 5). All things that Moses laid down to the children of Israel are a “shadow of heavenly things” and not the heavenly things themselves.

And what are these “heavenly things” that the apostle is talking about in Hebrews 8: 5? We children of the living God are those heavenly things! When we finally get it that it is “no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me,” we then are the pattern for all the things that Moses instituted in the first five books.

The old testament was the sprinkling of animal blood upon the tabernacle, for “without the shedding of blood is no remission. But the “heavenly things” needed “better sacrifices than these” for purification (Heb. 9: 23). We, brethren, are those “heavenly things” that needed the blood of the Lamb to purify us!

We now as the spiritual body of Christ were before the sabbaths, before the moon, before food and drink, before the holy days, the feast days, before time, before this earth, before this world.  We are now “risen with Christ” and we  “seek those things which are from above” [Col. 3: 1].  We now yearn to see our true home, our heavenly dwelling.

For God has established in this new walk, this “newness of life,” a spiritual reality (Rom. 6: 4).  It is built upon better promises wherein He says that He will put His Spirit in our minds and hearts and that He will not remember our sins anymore!  This is the new covenant (Jer. 31: 31-34; Heb. 8: 12).

The apostle Paul says that we are a new creation and “are complete in Him… buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead” [Col. 2: 10-20].  We are new spiritual righteous creatures now and are not to be judged in respect of what we eat or drink, what holy days, new moons, or sabbaths that are observed.  Why? Because His Spirit now in us was before all the laws and observances were set down on this earth.  This does not give us a license to carelessly break them.  Rather His Spirit in us guides us to that right walk in Him.

In other words, we now do not observe religiously these mentioned things to somehow be accepted by the Father.  To the contrary, we use these to teach us to come to the Savior in a true, meaningful way.

We do not do them to insure that we are okay with God.  That would be working for salvation.  Remember: they are shadows and not the reality of true worship.  Rather they, like the Mosaic Law and the Ten Commandments, are part 0f the “schoolmaster” that Paul refers to, that “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster” [Gal. 3: 22-25].

The Schoolmaster

The laws of God are instructive to a seeker of God.  They teach us and help bring us to the cross.  They show us about His plan of redemption.  His feasts show that very plan as a type and shadow of Christ Himself.  The new moons and sabbaths teach us of His plan and timing for His coming kingdom.  But they are but a shadow of the reality that now resides in our hearts.  They are only an image of the reality.  They are made for us to learn from–made for us by our Creator.  But they are only a shadow of the Reality.  That Reality is Christ’s Spirit in us.

Shadows Are Not Real

Shadows have never been the real deal.  Shadows are actually made from a lack of light.  Shadows are in the shape of things or people, but they are not the real thing; they are not a part of reality.  Shadows merely imitate reality; they simulate what is real; they intimate that which is true; they suggest obscurely as to what or who made their image possible. But they are not the real thing.

They do not have the depth.  They lack that third dimension.  Shadows are flat and a bit distorted at times.  They lie upon the earth in only two dimensions.  Something three dimensional is held up off the earth, and light is actually blocked and a flat shadow results–a lack of light laying flat on the earth.  Shadows are earthly phenomenon; they are distinctively of the earth.

Furthermore, shadows have no life in and of themselves.  They are only beneficial in that they resemble at times the thing that blocks the light.  Shadows are dark lifeless representations of other things.  They cannot give life because they have not life to give.  The law, along with the feast days, new moons and sabbaths are a shadow of the reality found in Christ.

We Can Learn from Shadows

But we can learn from shadows.  What do they tell us?  We can glean a rough idea of what something is, what is its shape, what is its function.  But we cannot by embracing a shadow ever obtain the reality.

Shadows are merely lifeless, lightless representations and can never perfect anyone.  They can lead you to the Perfecter, but worshipping and circling a shadow is not worshipping that Glorious Reality.

All shadows disappear when the true Light comes near.  Christ is the Light with “neither shadow nor variableness of turning” [James 1: 7].  The true Light dispels the shadows. When He is truly come inside of us His temple, the Light will cause the shadows–the new moons, feast days, sabbaths, and all other earthly situations of worship to disappear.

These two passages of scripture should become clearer now: “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2: 27).

“The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient…” (I Tim 1: 9).

I welcome your comments.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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July 28, 2012 · 6:56 pm

How Miracles Happen: By Faith

Chapter 31 of Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality

Miracles defy earthly laws. The Spirit of God supersedes all of them. Laws of matter, energy, gravity, and inertia are subject to His every wish. He is not a man that He can be held to earthly expectations. All physical laws that men spend their lifetimes seeking to prove become null and void in the face of the Spirit. Just like earthly man is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be. For the first man, the earthly man is not spiritual, is not operating in the way, the avenue of the Spirit. Neither is the Spirit limited by earthly laws.

Because the fullness of the Spirit dwelt bodily in Yahshua, He was able to perform miracles that were absolutely impossible with men and their natural, earthly, physical laws. Biologists say that there is a certain molecular structure of every substance. The water molecule is different, say, from the molecule of grape wine. Yahshua is not limited by what man comprehends or says can be done.

With men it was impossible to change water into wine (John 2:1-11). The power of Yah was a mightier thing than mere earthly molecular cell structure. The Word-made-flesh made molecules, and He can change them right here on earth when He wants to because He was before the earth and has power over the earth and the things in it. By this miracle, this changing the water into wine, He made known his glory. And the fruit was that his disciples BELIEVED on him. This kind of power definitely yields belief. And this was a showing forth of His glory.

The glory of God does miracles. The glory of God overcomes death, hell, and the grave. It overcomes all laws of the earth. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. I John 5:4, NIV.

He said, “And nothing shall be impossible unto you…All things are possible unto him that believes…Believe and doubt not in your heart…” There are so many sayings of the Master about faith overcoming the world and everything in it. Let’s examine a few.

Faith is believing Him, and it pleases God. Faith localizes God. Faith is the evidence that God is true and real—that the invisible God is present with power to do his works here on the earth. Faith will have works to prove that God is real.

“Why could not we cast him out?”

The disciples were unable to cast out a devil that was vexing a child who had fallen into the fire. The Master then came and cast the devil out. Later they asked Him why they could not cast it out. Yahshua told them that it was because of only one reason: unbelief. He had rebuked with words the devil in the child, and it had come out. Again, it was the power of the spoken word of faith that did it. Unbelief hindered them from doing the work.

These disciples were no greater than any of us, and He told them, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

In other words, He was saying that a tiny speck of heavenly faith is more powerful than an earthly mountain. It is a heavenly faith, for it originated from heaven. And that heavenly faith is spiritual. When we believe, we are doing what God did, what the Spirit did in the beginning. Yahweh had faith and assurance in His own Word and that things would go right.

When we exercise faith, when we say, “Yes, I believe God is hearing me this instant and is answering my prayers,” when we believe His promises, then THAT is God’s Spirit within us in action! Faith, the heavenly faith, has then been localized! It is the faith once delivered to the saints!

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak…II Cor. 4:13, NIV.

Paul of Tarsus, who was called and taught literally by the risen Savior, tells us that the spirit of faith is this kind of action. The spirit of faith believes and speaks because of that belief. Speech of the word of God comes after one believes. This is the same Spirit of faith that happened in the beginning. And it comes right out of the mouth of the believer. When we believe, the words like rivers of life-giving waters, will come out of our mouths. All this is what the Spirit does through us which they (at that time before the Day of Pentecost) were to receive, for Spirit was not yet given because Yahshua was not yet glorified.

Faith speaks the word. The Master taught that if we had faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, we would say unto a mountain, Be removed and cast into the sea, AND IT WOULD OBEY YOU! We are to be like God insomuch that we should call those things that be not as though they already were! Do before you get it as you would if you had it. Belief! Faith! Faith knows that God is, without having to see it first.

Faith speaks. The spirit of faith produces words. Say unto this mountain. I’ve wondered in the past about my puny prayer life. I wouldn’t speak to God because I didn’t have enough faith. For the spirit of faith speaks–speaks to God in prayer, speaks to humankind about the One whom we address in prayer, speaks to ourselves in psalms and admonitions. And that is the Spirit of God in action.

What does the Spirit of God do? How do we know if the Spirit of God is present within us? Rivers of living water will flow out of our hearts (this he spake of the Spirit). And how does the Spirit grow within us? It grows when we hear our own self speak about God, and we hear God’s words come through our mouths, and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God—coming, not only through the lips of another, but out of our own mouths. Faith praises God for what He has done, is doing, and will do for us, our families, and mankind. This then is how to add virtue, or power, to our faith, and thereby begin to add the divine nature of God into his temple, his body, us.

The power (virtue) is in the word. The word of faith by the word of His power. He spoke the word and healed them all. “Speak the word only and he shall be healed.” Jesus hadn’t seen that great of faith in Israel. Speak the word! Just say it and doubt not in your heart, and it will be done.

But some man will say, “All this power to do these miraculous great works like Yahshua did and the apostles did was just for their time. There is no indication that we in our dispensation of time can do these mighty deeds like they did.” In John 14:12 Yahshua is speaking: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” Yahshua did not qualify this as to a certain time frame of history. He said, “He that believeth on me…”

“Through their word…”

And to further clarify just who He was referring to, He is still speaking during that same discourse in his prayer of intercession in John 17:20: Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word… He has included all who come to Him through the witness and words of the disciples. That they all may be one; 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. That He would include the likes of us who have sinned against Him so many times to be at one with Him.

In Matthew l7:14-21 the disciples did not really believe that the devil would come out of the boy. They were not convinced that God would do it. They did not have that assurance that what He had said over them in Mt.10:1 was going to happen: “…he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.” They did not trust Him, that what He said would come to pass. They did not trust that the Spirit would meet them there and back them up. They would learn. They did not get this faith to do miracles all in one day. It took time for them to grow up in this belief. Watching them in the book of Acts doing the very miracles that the Master said they would do is faith-building for us. It gives us hope, for He said that we who believe on Him through their word would do the same mighty works.

And one of the greatest miracles is when He changes one of us.

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June 16, 2012 · 5:03 pm

“Let Us Go on to Perfection”–Spiritual Maturity Begins with Repentance from Sin and Faith Toward God

We cannot go on to a maturity of growth in God’s plan until the spiritual foundation is laid and secured in a person’s heart.

We are indeed urged by the apostle Paul to “go on unto perfection.”  But this cannot come to pass until the foundation, or “first principles of the doctrine of Christ” is laid (Heb. 6: 1).

Now Paul’s exhortation begs some questions.  What does “perfection,” or maturity entail?  What are these “first principles” of Christ’s doctrine, and how do they serve as a foundation for the glorification of His body to follow?

If Christ’s teachings outlined in this passage are the very foundation of building this “holy habitation,” this “temple of the Holy Spirit,” then what will the finished spiritual edifice look like?  If the church is “His body” and the very temple of God, and if we are to “grow up into Him,” then what will He have us doing in this spiritually mature state during these latter days?

Your Ways Are Not My Ways

To get to the answers to these questions, we must look at the spiritual things of God though His perspective.  Because His ways are not our ways, we have to see His things through His eyes (Isa. 55: 8).  But there is a “catch–22” here.  We cannot look through God’s eyes while we still have our old sinful nature.

This is the reason that there are thousands of theologians, pastors, priests, and preachers who just cannot see God’s vision of perfection for us because they have not had the foundation of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ–the first two of which are “repentance from dead works (sin) and faith toward God.”

They cannot see through God’s eyes, whose vision He has elucidated in plain language  in the Bible for us.  They don’t get it because they have not repented from works that bring forth death in their own lives.  In other words, they are still in their sins; they haven’t repented from sin in their lives.  In fact, most of them teach that a person cannot be free from sin and sinning.

Repentance from Sin and Sinning a Must for Growth

And why?  Because they will not believe that it is possible to be rid of sin and sinning.  They don’t believe that God can do it in this life.  So they continue to teach and preach that you cannot stop sinning.  They teach that you can be saved and go to heaven if you believe in Jesus, but that He cannot save you from  sin and sinning.  They are called to maturity, but the spiritual temple that they could be cannot “grow up into Him” because of a lack of the righteous foundation that true repentance and faith provides.

This saddens me greatly in writing this, for I know that there are many sincere preachers out there who have not been taught the true doctrine of Christ.  They have run with hand-me-down rags of man’s reasonings about Christ and have not been clothed with the true robe of righteousness found in His truth.  It saddens me that they have been duped into thinking that whatever biblical training they have received is all there is.  In reality they have been fed stale crumbs of doctrine which are unable to nourish them up into full grown men of God!  And so Christ’s question to us resounds: “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?” (Matt. 24: 45).  What will it take for us to wake up and seek the “meat” of the word?

So these preachers, some very well-meaning, have been purveyors of poisoned promises, which can never nourish the children of God into growing up into the mature spiritual temple.  Fed false doctrines, the children of God cannot “grow up into Him,” personally or corporately, because they have not repented from actions that bring forth death–sin, in other words.

Spiritual death hovers over them, and they are lulled to sleep by false promises of “the sweet by and by” on “the beautiful shore” of man’s imaginations of what heaven is.  And they never come to grips with the fact that the soon-coming King Jesus/Yahshua “is an austere man,” who expects to find a “glorious church without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing” (Luke 19: 21; Eph. 5: 27).  Those “spots” are false teachers, false prophets, and false doctrines (Jude 12; II Peter 2: 13).

A Sad Day

And when He returns to set up His kingdom, He is going to deliver to somebody this terrifying retort: “I never knew you; depart from Me” (Matt. 7: 23).   And He will be speaking in that day to people who claim to know Him well.  And they will persist and say to Him in that day, But, Lord, did we not prophesy and teach in your name?  Didn’t we do great things in the ministry?  We built this fine sanctuary and dedicated it to You, and we planted churches and sent missionaries all over the world to help the poor.  We saved many lives feeding the poor people of Africa, and we did it to glorify You!

And then Christ is going to say, Yes, but you ran with the wrong vision.  I did not send you.  You ran with what some natural thinking man said about Me.  You believed a man who had not even died on the cross with Me, who did not have enough faith toward God to receive a new heart after the death of his old sinful heart–who did not experience being  baptized into My death, much less being immersed in My Spirit and fire–who did not dig deep and build his house upon the Rock, who wiped his mouth, content he had done no wrong, and settled into his own house built on the sand of man’s traditions (Jer. 29: 9; Rom. 6: 1-6; Matt. 7: 24-27).

Oh, it will be a sad day when millions, who were called, find out that they were not chosen due to their lack of study and prayer and preparation (Matt. 22: 14; II Tim 2: 15).  Had they studied to “prove all things,” then God could have shown them the deeper walk, away from the crash and crescendo of Sunday morning’s man-musings about God, and into the quiet whisper of God’s “still small voice” that leads His elect down a narrow road that few will trod, for few there be to find this way of truth (Matt. 7: 14).

I personally know preachers today who will not listen to anything “new”–anything that does not agree with their denominational line and pre-conceived concepts–that does not line up with what grandpa and grandma and mom and dad taught.    They just will not “prove all things,” both things that they believe to be true, nor things they already think to be false.  I do not condemned them.  It just saddens me, is all.  For they do not realize that much more light is being shed during these latter days–light that grandma and grandpa did not have.

Without the foundation as outlined in Hebrews 6, a Christian cannot grow spiritually, for they will never be rid of the bondage to sin.  For this concept of sin that is so “incorrect” to talk about in our society today is at the heart of the matter.  Christ and all His apostles and prophets spoke of sin continually.  The apostle John even says that “whosoever sins has not seen Him, neither known Him” (I John 3: 6).

The whole plan has God’s Spirit coming down and taking up residence in us.  But He will not dwell in an unclean temple (I Cor. 3: 16-17).  So He has made a way for us to get rid of the old sinful heart at the cross, and by faith receive a new heart that can receive His Spirit.  Wonderful news.  But that is just the first steps on the road to immortality.  There’s so much more as we learn about how we are to walk in preparation to literally become the kings and queens in God’s soon-coming kingdom to be set up shortly right here on earth.  Remember: He is the King of kings.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[I appreciate your comments.  For more on these topics, be sure to read my two books found at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

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May 28, 2012 · 1:16 am

Be Established in the Present Truth–Walking in God’s Faith

The body of Christ, the church, is admonished to “be established in the present truth.”  We are to be in a stable walk with God that is called “the present truth.”

But what is this “present truth”?  To find the answer, we have to go back to Pilate’s question, “What is truth?”

Of course, the answer to that question was looking back at Pilate.  The Son of God said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  He is the “Word made flesh” dwelling among us.  Truth is expressed in words, and Jesus/Yahshua is the living Word, the living expression of God’s thought, “the expressed image of the invisible God.”  He is the embodiment of the expression of the will and Word/Logos of God.  He is the truth.  He is “full of grace and truth, and we are to be established in “the present truth.”  We are to be stable in Him, the Truth, and we are to be stable in Him in the present–right now.

Since Christ is the truth, then how are we to be established in Him presently–right now?  We arrive at spiritual stability right now by faith.  For it is all by faith, by belief.  But the word “faith” is one of those worn-out words that mean so many different things to people that its original meaning is lost.

“Now faith is…”  Can we believe right now what He said without first seeing the evidence of its ultimate fruition?  Can we believe His words when He said, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world” (Matt. 28: 20).  His Spirit is with us though we cannot see it, for it operates like the wind which leaves behind evidence of its presence.

You can feel your skin cool as the wind breathes across your face.  You can see the leaves murmur and quiver at its presence.  So it is at this very moment with the Spirit–Him.  He is breathing in and even through  us.  Yet we cannot see Him, for He is an invisible Spirit with great power to move things like the wind.  “I am with you always,” He said.  It takes faith to walk in this knowledge.

Faith of our Father Abraham

But how does His faith work?  That’s right.  It is His faith, not ours, that He has given us to work with.  When we come to some knowledge of the truth, we must “reckon” it so, or count it as done.  We should have confidence in doing this, for it is His word that we are reckoning done.

For the scripture says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.”  In other words, our father of the faith believed what God said to him concerning having a son through Sarah–against all odds–and God considered Abraham righteous in His eyes because he believed Him when He said that Sarah, his elderly and barren wife, would have a son.

Abraham had to reckon it so–even though what God had promised was against everything that his five senses told him.  When God told him to sacrifice this miracle son Isaac a few years later, Abraham could have questioned God saying, “Wait a minute, God.  You promised that through Isaac I would have countless heirs.  If I kill him, that will be impossible, and your word will not come to pass.”  He could have used human reasoning, “leaning unto his own understanding.”

So what was in Abraham’s heart that led him to the mountaintop, knife in hand, intent on sacrificing his son Isaac?  Was he just another brainwashed religious nut, or did he hold the secret to the very key that unlocks all the spiritual mysteries and riches of God?

He had the secret to faith, and it is this: He believed that since God had told him to sacrifice Isaac, even though he did not understand it, God would evidently raise up Isaac from the dead after the sacrifice was completed.  For God had previously said that “in Isaac shall thy seed be called.”  God had said that through his son Isaac, his seed would be innumerable as the stars of the heaven.  “And he believed in the LORD/Yahweh; and He counted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15: 5-6; Rom. 4: 3).

Abraham believed God, “who quickens the dead, and calls those things that be not as though they were” (Rom. 4: 17).

Now, now, this same righteousness, this same state of being right with God, is ours–by the same faith that Abraham exhibited  “if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus/Yahshua from the dead” (4: 24).

For we are the ones now in Isaac’s place, “presenting our bodies a living sacrifice.”  And by believing that God will raise us up from the dead after we take our sinful hearts to the cross and let them die there with Christ, we can “walk in a newness of life” with His invisible Spirit as our heartbeat. We can walk in a righteous state like the patriarchs and prophets and apostles did centuries ago.  By faith.  By calling “those things that be not as though they were.”

This is how we will “be established in the present truth.”  This is how we will please God.  For “without faith it is impossible to please Him.”

We start out in His walk by believing in His resurrection in us.  But believing for our new heart is just the beginning.  As His Spirit grows in us, we will eventually believe God for the big one: We will look “for a city, whose builder and maker is God”–just like Abraham believed Him and looked for that same city.  And that is the New Jerusalem, the literal heavenly city that will sit down on the exact spot on the earth–on the very land that God promised to our father Abraham!

“Believest thou this?”     Kenneth Wayne Hancock  [For much more on this, check out my books which you can find at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

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January 10, 2012 · 9:23 pm

I Will Remember Him That Way–Elegy for My Mentor

I thought of my spiritual mentor who passed away some nine years ago now.  Without him and his love and patience, I would not have come out of the depraved selfish existence I led in my old life.  I wrote this elegy upon hearing of his death.  I want to share it with you.

I Will Remember Him That Way

I will remember him, but not for his last days on earth.

I will recall three decades ago, when the world was mad

and senseless and cruel,

When a young man and woman so in need of love

and patience

And so full of fear and loss and alienation, with cynicism

in full rotten bloom—

I’ll remember him that day, that warm April East Texas

spring day

When the joy emanating from his countenance hit me right

in the chest

As I strutted in with a smirk that said,

Okay, show me what you got,

Because I’ve just about given up the search for truth,

although I talk about it all the time,

And I know that my old self is my nemesis, my master, my

ruin,

And I can’t get rid of it by myself, because my self is my

very problem,

And I know that it has to die, and I’ve looked three years in

books from India,

And books from China, and books from Persia,

And none of the sages of the East could tell me how to put

my self to death,

And live to tell about it,

And I knew that I would waste my time

In looking to the christian buildings which cannot hold

moms and dads together in love—

So as a last futile foray for the truth before I give up

And sink into the numbness of nothingness,

I was thinking, Okay, show me what you got.

And he did, as I remember the joy and the love that swept

down on me,

As he spoke of a certain writer named Paul who spoke of

an old man Adam

Who was now put to death with the Lamb in a Roman 6

finality

And who could be raised to walk in a newness of life.

“You mean that my old self, my old ego, can die?”

I asked out loud that April morning in the cedar cabin in the

East Texas woods.

“That’s exactly what Paul is saying.”

And so I had finally found my sign that I had searched for.

I’ll remember him that way,

As the joyous messenger of my joy in God.

I’ll remember how he let me keep sleeping till noon the first

time we spent the night,

Under his breakfast table in the tarpaper shack,

For I was bidden to come and rest, and he let me rest.

I’ll recall the joy and deliverance from tobacco, drugs, alcohol,

and cursing.

I’ll remember him that way.

I’ll remember the countless times I robbed him of his rest,

And he would smile,

Knowing I was special in the hands of God.

I’ll remember him that way.

I’ll remember a man who believed in me like no one had done

before.

I’ll remember the days of Pepsi and popcorn,

And winter mornings, wood burning stove, kettle on top,

Cool mornings full of hot tea and scriptures,

When riches meant nothing and material possessions held no

power over us,

As we sat laughing into the gentle breezy piney woods evenings,

Secure at last that, yes, there is a God with a plan and purpose,

And all was as it should be here on earth at this moment.

I’ll remember him that way.

I’ll remember Tom as the mentor of my youth,

Who awakened me to greater things than my old self,

Who showed me how to speak to tens of thousands

about the Kingdom.

I’ll remember him as the one who helped me

along the road to God,

Who patiently in those early days,

taught me all the Truth he knew.

And so I ask, What more can any one man do?

I’ll remember him that way.

I’ll not let those early days be blotted out of my memory

By judging him on his last days on earth—

No matter how much it hurt—

I’ll leave all judgements of him to God and to bitter little hearts

Who can’t remember him in the early days.

But I’ll remember him that way.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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December 31, 2011 · 6:52 pm

Repentance—Departing from Evil—Pre-requisite of Immortality

Chapter 27 of the book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality

      A few of us humans will achieve immortality  when we are given a new spiritual  body  at  the  time  of the resurrection, the time of the Messiah’s return.  But not everyone that says that He is Master of their life will become immortal.  It will only be those who are alive and have the Spirit of God dwelling in them in a reality, or those who had the Spirit of God dwelling in them at the time that their earthly bodies fell asleep, these also will be given a  new immortal spiritual body during the first resurrection.

     You have a mortal, fleshly body at this time, but God Almighty has unlimited power and he is quite capable with the mere power of his word to give you a new spiritual body as it has pleased him in his eternal plan and purpose laid down since before the beginning of the world. (II Cor. 5:1).  He will have called many, but few are chosen for this the greatest of all honors—to be one of the many sons and daughters  that God is bringing to glory.  It is a great love  that  will  bestow  this  on  a  select few, for few there will be to find this way of truth.  It is quite easy to find the way that leads to destruction, misery, and  desolation.  A narrow gate awaits those who enter the way that leads to love, honor, and glory.

     The sole criteria in achieving immortality is that we receive the Spirit of God somehow into our bodies.  But therein lies the problem for mankind.  The Spirit God will not dwell in unclean temples.  The human body was created for the express purpose to house the Spirit of God, the essence of Himself.  God made  his crowning creation, man and woman, to house Himself.  Mankind is to be His temple.

     However, God cannot dwell in the fleshly, earthly tabernacle called the human being until He cleans out the temple first.  The old carnal nature dwells in unregenerated man.  Man in his original fleshly state is abominable before God.      

     If He were speaking directly to us, perhaps He would say, “Your actions toward your fellow man make you filthy before Me.  The inside of you is dirty.  It is your heart that needs cleansing.  Your nature of selfishness is an abomination before God.  You lie, cheat, steal, kill, commit adultery, want other people’s worldly possessions–even their sons and daughters and wives and husbands.  Nothing is sacred to you humans anymore, but then it was always that way.   I gave you a simple ten point law and you refuse to keep it because there is nothing in it for yourself. You worship other things besides Me, your Creator God.  And you don’t keep the one day that I said to keep holy, the sabbath.  A very simple law, but a very profound law.

     “You humans basically worship yourselves, think of yourselves first, put your thoughts for your lives first.  Always first, first, first.  And before you realize it, there is little if any thought for, or even about Me in your thoughts.  You see, your thoughts make the temple, your body, unclean.  Your center is not right, is not on Me the Creator, and so, man and woman live out their little mortal existences, leading their little desperate rut-like lives, never glimpsing the truth of the potential of what could be for them.  And that potential is immortality, never ending life, everlasting life, eternal life, a life of infinite years.

     “But man’s problem is that he wants his own life to go on without end.  He wants his own selfish little existence to continue unabated with everyone worshipping him and centering in on his every whim and inordinate desire.  He wants to live forever in his way of getting for himself.  And yet he doesn’t realize that that way of life cannot last forever.  The way of getting selfishly will end up in death.  Labor in the fields of selfishness, and all you are paid is death. In all man’s thoughts these things should not be, but that’s the way of all man’s flesh that doesn’t heed the higher call.  This is man’s grief—that he can’t take it with him.  This is the proverbial vanity of vanities.  No profit under the sun of all one’s labor spent upon oneself.”

     So God cannot live in the midst of all that selfishness—a lawlessness that is called sin, for the breaking of the ten commandments is sin.  And God hates sin because it is so against His nature.  He wants to live in man and woman, but He can’t because when man is full of himself, then there is no room for God.  Selfish action is a selfish spirit and  is  the  opposite  of  God’s  Spirit,  which  is the action called Love.

     So there again is man’s problem; he wants to live forever, but wants to live his own selfish life forever, and this thinking breeds mortality, the way of death.  In order to gain immortality, man must have God’s Spirit living within him.  But the Spirit of God will not dwell in temples (bodies) that are unclean (have actions done in them that are sinful in breaking the l0 commandments).  Mankind that comes as far as this knowledge on the road of life comes to a fork in the road.  He must chose to either remain as he is and how he has been living, or he must seek a way to repent, to change the error of his ways.  In other words, he must find a way to stop breaking the l0 commandments.

     And men have tried in the past to do just that to keep the ten commandments of God.  They have failed miserably, for they have tried on their own strength and power to do so.  It is impossible to keep them without God’s help.  We are created that way, so that we must, in order to please Him, turn to Him for his power and strength to keep His holy law.  The mightiest of body and the noblest of mind found among men cannot obey the law without His Spirit doing it in and through them.

     One would ask then, “What can a person do in order to keep the law?”

     First, he must through a broken and contrite spirit and heart be sorry for the way he has treated his fellow man and God.  This sorrow can grow and eventually yield a desire to not do those things again.  He will then repent of his sins, turn away from that way of getting for himself, and throw himself  on  God’s  mercy to forgive him.  God is rich in mercy and wants to receive his creation back into the fold of His plan and purpose.  If they are sincere, He will forgive them and cleanse them from the filth and uncleanness.

     We are cleansed by the shed blood of the Lamb, Yahshua, Yah-in-human-form, who gave Himself up in sacrifice for us. 

     It all hinges on faith and belief in the sacrifice that God has ordained–the only sacrifice that can  take away a person’s sins.  The sacrifice is the Lamb of God, the only one who lived a sinless life.  If you can really believe that your sin was placed upon him the day of His death, that when He died, your sin died with it, and that when He was buried, your sinful life was buried, and when He was resurrected, you also were raised again to walk in a newness of life—if you can believe all this, then you can receive into your body (temple) that same Spirit and power that raised Him from the dead.  It takes belief, faith.

     If you ask Him, He will give you a portion, an earnest, a down payment of His Spirit.  And that Spirit will come into you to replace that old spirit and will grow like a tiny seed in a large garden.  You must water it with your prayers and feed it with your study.  And that little portion of His Spirit will grow up into a full-fledged son and daughter of the Spirit who will someday be transformed in a twinkling of an eye and will be changed when immortality will come down out of heaven to swallow up that which can die.

     For without God’s Spirit dwelling within us, we are only a member of the walking dead who spend a few nightly whispers with loved ones and then bury their  dead  and  wait  to be buried in turn.  Without that entity, the Spirit of God, that makes alive whatever it touches and lives in, we are just as good as dead.  Without His Spirit, if we are walking around, we do it on borrowed air in an  incredibly delicate and fragile shell.  And our  shell will in a few moments, comparatively speaking, go back to dust from where it came, and our brief stint at self-glory here on earth will not be remembered anymore.  Every thing that man says and does without the Spirit of God is vain and of no profit in the final analysis. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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