Category Archives: belief

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

[Be sure and subscribe to this blog…Would love to hear from you…]

{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…”}

5 Comments

Filed under apostles' doctrine, belief, faith, manifestation of the sons of God, perfection, sons and daughters of God

Tagged as , , ,

December 2, 2012 · 12:16 am

Add to Your Faith Virtue–God’s Strength and Power (2 Peter 1: 5)

We must add certain spiritual qualities to our faith in God if we are to grow up into the manifested sons and daughters of God.  We found that out in II Peter 1.  Our faith in God needs to be shored up; it needs to become stronger in order to conquer and “quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”  We will only “partake of the divine nature” if we add these things.  And the first to be added to our faith is virtue.

But what exactly does this word “virtue” really mean?  It is an English word, after all.  We could look it up in Webster’s Dictionary, but we would only find what it means to the English speaking mind, distilled down through the centuries.  We would see that it is from the Old French virtu, which came from the Latin virtus, meaning “strength, courage, virtue.”  It has come down to us meaning “moral excellence…active quality or power…manly strength or courage; valor.”

And so we dig still deeper, believing that this study is important and expedient, for we simply must know what “virtue” means.  We are trying to “study to show ourselves approved unto God,” as we are admonished to do.  Without study, we will not be approved.

The English word “virtue” was translated, of course, not from Latin, but from the Greek.  So what was that Greek word that the King James scholars translated “virtue”?  The Strong’s Concordance shows us that it was arete, #703 [http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G703&t=KJV].  Consulting Thayer’s Lexicon on that page, we see that arete denotes power stemming from moral excellence and goodness.  It relates to God’s power, perfection, and excellence.

We get a further picture of “virtue” by looking up “virtuous” and “valor” in the Hebrew [http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H2428&t=KJV].  We see “strength, power, might.”  The Hebrew word #2428 is used many times in the phrase “mighty man of valour.”  Also, it is translated as “host” as in a large army of mighty warriors.  It is rendered “strength” in David’s prayer to God, “For Thou hast girded me with strength to battle” (II Samuel 22: 40).

We need to stop and reflect here and not pass over this lightly.  These words in  II Samuel are inspired.  They are the Scriptures of truth that Paul studied, and he said by the Spirit: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…”  Why?  To what purpose do we need those old books back there in the “Old Testament”?  “That the man of God may be perfect…”

Perfect.  Complete spiritual maturity.  These passages, like this one in Samuel, teach us lessons that will help us add the “divine nature” to our faith in God.  It is for the same purpose of perfection and glorification, which is the fulfillment of His promise to us  of immortality.

Looking at the Picture that “Virtue” is Painting for Us

We see “virtue” as not just power.  No.  It is the strength and power of God, emanating right out of His very heart through His Spirit into ours.  It is He; it is a part of His divine nature; it is all about His strength and power stemming from His excellent goodness.  This then is His power, which gives us now the strength and ability to go on the offensive against the devil and his tricks that block our road to immortality.

Let’s go back to David speaking to Yahweh.  In this song of praise, David thanks God for His strength and power in overcoming mightily all of his enemies.  He thanks God for His goodness, and then details in much “war” imagery his exploits over the enemy.  This picture of a warlike attitude  is a real key for us in understanding just what virtue is.  David’s inspired prayer shows us the spiritual application through his physical earthly accomplishments.

The First Step

First, David declares his complete trust in Yahweh, recalling how he called on Him in his despair and how God answered (verses 1-17).  David says that God did deliver him, but it was “according to my righteousness…and cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me” (v. 21).  David first had to be right with God, on the same spiritual page, “a man after God’s own heart.”  “I kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God” (v. 22).  That is the first step that we need.  Walk on in His faith.  Trust in Him.  And then get ready to go on the offense like King David does in the following verses.

And now the war imagery looms as David spiritually attacks his enemies.  “God is my strength and power…I have run through a troop…He teaches my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.  Thou hast given me a shield of thy salvation…I have pursued mine enemies [read: doubt, fear, unbelief, impatience, et al], and destroyed them (v. 31-38).

Wait.  Let’s savor this.  “Pursued mine enemies.”  He went on the offensive!  He did not just sit on the couch waiting for fear and doubt and unbelief to maybe take a holiday.  Would you please leave me alone, guys?  I don’t appreciate these ugly thoughts I have been having lately.”  No!

David “pursued” those negative thoughts and “destroyed them”!  Furthermore, David “consumed them, and wounded them, that  they could not arise…”  Wouldn’t that be wonderful–to have all negativity consumed and wounded so that it just was not able to rear its ugly head up in our minds ever again?

That’s adding virtue to your faith.

But David’s not through.  He knows where the strength and power is coming from.  “They are fallen under my feet.  For thou hast girded me with strength to battle.”  It was Yahweh that subdued his enemies under him (v. 39-40).

And finally, David says, “Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O Yahweh…and I will sing praises to thy name” (v. 50).

Our Spiritual Application

This song of David is so rich, reaching even unto prophetic strains that depict a vision of the Kingdom Age in all its glory.  And yes, we are in that vision.  But we see here now for our present edification a picture of just what virtue does when added to our faith.  “Faith without works is dead.”  Without virtue added, faith/belief/assurance just sits passively on the couch “waiting for the world to change.”  To the contrary, we His sons and daughters must “put on the whole armor of God” (Eph. 6: 11-18).  This same war imagery is used by Paul in Ephesians, that we “may be able to withstand all the wiles of the devil.”  We must put the armor of the Spirit of God on and take the fight to our adversary.

“Add to your faith virtue…”  This first addition to the faith, then, is an offensive weapon given to us by God to go with our trust-faith-assurance in Him.  “Virtue” then is that quality of valor, that makes us like the mighty men of war as David was.  They were men of strength.  Mighty men.  Strong men and women in the Spirit, pro-active in their attacks on the enemy.  This all comes in realizing that it is God Almighty who does all this conquering–not only for us, but also in and through us.

Yet, the question will arise in hearts: But how do you add it to your faith?  Answer: You add virtue to your faith–by faith.  The Master said it simply.  “Ask and it shall be given…When you pray, believe that you receive, and you shall have whatsoever you ask.”  Now that we know what “virtue” is, we “reckon it done,” for in God’s mind, He already sees us having it.                          Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{If you liked this article, hit the “like” button. Please make a comment. I will answer them all. And be sure to send for my latest book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect; it is totally free. Just send me your mailing address to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com If you appreciated this article, you will be thrilled with the new book. I wrote it for you. You need this book if you want to grow spiritually and be like Peter, James, John, and Paul.
“Greater works” we will do with His help and guidance.}

15 Comments

Filed under armour of God, belief, glorification, immortality, King David, manifestation of the sons of God, sons and daughters of God, Yahweh

Tagged as , , , ,

November 27, 2012 · 8:43 pm

The Additions to Your Faith–Prerequisites of Receiving Immortality

Just having faith in Christ is not enough.  Now, wait a minute.  Hear me out before you jump.

Some have said, “Faith in Christ is all you need.”  To get into the first level of a walk with God, that is true.  But things must be added to the true faith in order for us to fully manifest God’s divine nature in us, according to the apostle Peter.

He says that we must make certain spiritual additions to the faith, so that we can be “partakers of the divine nature…Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity (agape love)” (II Peter 1: 5-7).

Peter goes on to say that if these additions “be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren (idle) nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus (Yahshua) Christ” (v. 8).

In other words, without these additions, we will not grow up “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4: 13).  Nor will we without these additions “be filled with all the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 3: 19).  Why?  Because the person without these additions listed above “is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” (II Pet. 1: 9).  These additions, then, serve as a kind of eye salve that anoints our eyes that we may see the spiritual road ahead of us.

In fact, the way we “make our calling and election sure” is to add these very things to our faith! That is why this is so important to the overcomers of all things.  For if we add these things to our faith, we “shall never fall” (v. 10).  The addition to our faith of these things is the key that unlocks the door to the “entrance…into the everlasting kingdom” of our God (v. 11).

Who was Peter writing to?

Peter is writing not to everyone, but to those “that have obtained like precious faith with us” (1: 1).  He is writing to “those who have already received by divine allotment” this equally honored and precious “conviction that God exists and is the Creator and Ruler of all things, the Provider and Bestower of eternal salvation through Christ” {Thayer’s Lexicon}.

It is God who has placed this faith, this “conviction” that He is real, in our hearts.  It is not something we “muster up.”  It is all Him.  It is His grace to us, which is to say, God favors us with knowledge of Him and His plan and word.  This brings light to our eyes and strength to our hearts.  God gives grace to some during this end time era with spiritual knowledge of Him.  This is His grace to us.

Now He gives this grace in accordance to “His divine power” which gives to the recipients “all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him” (1: 3).  For He “has called us to glory and virtue.”

Glorification = Immortality

God has tapped us on the shoulder in some way  to bring us to the stage of spiritual growth called “glorification”!  Yes, this spiritual road we have begun to walk down is leading us into being glorified with Him!  This is sonship; this is rulership with Him in His kingdom.

We have to add these things listed by the apostle Peter, if we are to fulfill our calling to be His manifested sons and daughters, His ruling family that He has called us unto.  That’s how important they are to Him, first, and should, therefore, be important to us.  Important enough to seriously study them out.

But the big take away of this opening chapter of II Peter is this: This conviction that God is and is in control through Christ–this faith, this conviction must have other attributes added to it, in order for us to fulfill our calling as His sons and daughters, the princes and princesses, sitting with Him in His throne.

Peter knows full well what it takes to “make our calling and election sure.”  He knows that our initial experiences based on God’s favor and grace in showing a bit of Himself to us and thereby “calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light”–he knows that those early experiences and revelations will not take us across the finish line in this race “for the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3: 14).

And it is through this knowledge of the holy things of God that we are given “exceeding great and precious promises” (II Pet. 1: 4).  God has promised to give unto us His followers immortality, or eternal life.  Immortality is it.  It is the biggest gift, the greatest promise the Immortal One can give to a mortal.  There is nothing greater for one who will die than to be granted eternal life.

And this immortality that God has promised us is what the aforementioned “glorification” is all about.  And Peter says by the Spirit of God that we are called “to glory and virtue.”  And God promised this to us from time immemorial.  “In hope of eternal life, which God, which cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1: 2).

All of this notwithstanding, in order to receive this precious promise of immortality, we must add certain spiritual components to our faith, to our conviction that God is real and true.  These additions are the elements of the very nature of God Himself.

How do we do this?  First we must study them out and receive the knowledge of just what they are, and then, reckon them added by faith.

Two points are worthy encouragers for us on this road to immortality.  First, He said of us in His prayer in John 17: 22: “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.”  In His mind, it is a done deal.  He is saying, I have already given them glorification, which is immortality.  With this, they are one with the Father and Son.  It is also good to know that “He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.”  He has full confidence in His plan, which includes us.  But the first step is to add to our faith virtue.   What virtue is comes next time.          Kenneth Wayne Hancock

3 Comments

Filed under belief, body of Christ, elect, eternal life, eternal purpose, glorification, immortality, knowledge, manifestation of the sons of God, princes and princesses of God

Tagged as , , , , ,

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

Leave a comment

Filed under apostles' doctrine, baptism, belief, death of self, glorification, manifestation of the sons of God, repentance, resurrection, Yahshua

Tagged as , , , , , ,

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

1 Comment

Filed under apostles' doctrine, baptism, belief, death of self, gifts of the Spirit, repentance, resurrection, righteousness

Tagged as , , , ,

October 6, 2012 · 8:48 pm

Who Are the Elect of God? Hint: He Has Chosen the Weak Things

This teaching that a person must willingly submit their life to the death of the cross with Christ–it seems foolish to the worldly mind.  But this cross experience is the equalizer, for it places all of mankind in the same location before God.  And that is a place of weakness.

To admit that you can’t make it anymore in this old world, that your old life is selfish and devoid of true love, that you are in need of someone stronger than you to lift you out of the mire of evil thoughts and actions–that is weakness.

The worldly mind would think, how utter pathetic!  How weak and helpless!  But it is this very weakness that God has chosen!  “God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty” (I Cor. 1: 27).

The apostle Paul is saying that God has chosen those who know they are weak, for the Word also declares, “God resists the proud but gives grace/favor to the humble” (I Pet. 5: 5).

How does a person know if they are one of the elect or chosen ones [“the elect” and “chosen ones” come from the same word in the Greek  http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1588&t=KJV ]?  This is an all important question, for since God does choose out certain individuals, and we are to “make our calling and election sure,” we do need to sincerely explore His election or choices to do His work in the earth. (II Pet. 1: 10).

And this leads us back to this question.  Who does God choose to be in His elect?  God has chosen the weak, the ones who have endured the sufferings of Christ.  These are they who have willingly submitted their old selves to be “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2: 20; Rom. 6: 6-11).

God has chosen these weak ones.  They are the elect of God, chosen by Him to turn this world upside down–to “confound the things that are mighty.”

The power comes into a Christian’s life after we humble oursleves “under the mighty hand of God.”

God has chosen this extremely humbling form of death for His elect to prove them to see if they be found worthy.  For crucifixion is the most humbling of all ways to die.  Thank God He provided our Savior Jesus/Yahshua the Anointed One to bear the physical, literal crucifixion for us.  Then it is our turn to follow our Example and yield to the spiritual crucifixion that puts an end to our old spiritual nature, to our original sinful old heart.  We do this by faith and begin to walk in the new heart we receive from Him.  Through study of His Word and communicating with Him, we grow in this grace/favor that He has bestowed upon us, seeking “first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”

2 Comments

Filed under belief, crucified with Christ, death of self, elect, kingdom of God, sin

Tagged as , , ,

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.

1 Comment

Filed under apostles' doctrine, belief, faith, grace, prayer

Tagged as , ,

July 9, 2012 · 3:22 pm

Faith–How to Walk in the Newness of Life

Chapter 30 of  the Book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality

How do we do it? How do we let the old self die? We reckon it done by faith/belief. How do we start walking in a brand new God-given life? We reckon it done by faith. Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Yahshua Messiah our Master. Rom. 6:11.

We’ve got to reckon it done! The word “reckon” is #3049 in Strong’s. It means “to account it, to count it as such.”

God wants us to reckon it so, but He does it first! When we turn to Him, then He counts us righteous in His eyes even in our imperfect state. This is the way our Creator is. This is part of His nature—faith, belief. In fact, faith is the foundation of Yahweh’s divine nature, for we are admonished to be “partakers of the divine nature” by adding to the faith once delivered by Yah to his set-apart ones, virtue, and to virtue knowledge, on through agape-charity-love, the very essence of Him. But His nature starts with Faith. It is His nature to “call those things that do not exist as though they did.” Rom. 4:17, NKJV. If He is this positive, then He would want His children to be the same.

He wants us to follow in His footsteps! God “accounted” righteousness to Abraham because of his belief—before Abraham was righteous! “Accounted” here is the same word as the one translated “reckon.” We are commanded to RECKON some things done. Now we have to reckon our sinful self gone—by belief—as though it were already done—for that is how Yah looks at it! By belief! Reckon it done through Him and His faith. He said it. Let it be done. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Rom. 4:3. Yahweh imputed, reckoned to Abraham the ability to live in a upright manner, keeping Yahweh’s laws and not sinning, by just believing that Yahweh had done it! We make it so hard through our hard heart of unbelief. He is looking for childlike faith, the belief of a small child. All we have to do is just believe that Yahweh has provided a way for us to actually put the old life to death and start living a new life in Him.

But the main reason that many do not want this is because they do not want to give up their old lives. Yah has provided everything for us to get the sin out of our lives, to clean out the temple so that He can take up His rightful abode. But people want to keep sinning and still be the people of God. They may claim it in words, but it is in words only and not in reality as far as Yahweh is concerned.

God must be getting tired of hearing how powerful sin is in our lives. I know that He wants to hear out of our mouths how great the power of Yahweh is—powerful enough to keep us from sinning. We must quit glorifying sin!

Do we think that Yah is pleased to hear our unbelief when we say, “I sin everyday. We all sin every day. We can’t live without sinning.” Oh, we are so quick to say that, almost as if it were an excuse that He would accept.

That’s like saying that the giants are too big; we can’t take the land. Is the giant Sin too much for us, or are we going to believe that Yahweh in us can slay that giant Sin in our life? Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof….For sin shall not have dominion over you. Rom 6:12-14. We’ve got to reckon our old man, our old self, our old nature dead to sin in the same way that Yahweh reckoned or credited righteousness unto Abraham because of his belief in the promises. Are we going to stagger at the promise that we can live a righteous life now?

But someone will say, “But we just can’t live without sin.” Yah knows that we can’t on our own strength. The question is, “Where is God in that statement?” What happened to, “I can do all things through Messiah Yahshua that strengthens me…” What about, “And nothing shall be impossible to you.” Nothing. Which is to say in reality, “Anything is possible. With God all things are possible.” All things means with His help even living without sin. Where’s our belief in His promises?

We Can by God’s Grace

Paul believed that we should live in a righteous manner before God right now. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. Titus 2:11, NIV.

Some have used God’s granting of grace as a possibility to keep on sinning and still get forgiveness. Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase. By no means! We died to sin: how can we live in it any longer? Rom. 6:1, NIV. On the other side of the fence, some practically throw out God’s grace in reckoning righteousness to us by believing Him because of the “cheap grace” people. The second group believe that we have to really work at this thing; we have to keep the laws and ordinances. This is true, but it is no longer “I” that lives, but Messiah’s Spirit that lives in me! He helps me to keep His laws—by His Spirit! The sad part is that both of the above camps still are in sin.

Where is our belief, our faith that overcomes the world? “My grace/favor is sufficient for you,” Yahshua said. My favor is all you need. That’s how important it is. Him choosing us out of the dunghill before the world ever was, writing our names down before we were ever born—that’s all we need.

Don’t say with a sad countenance, “I hope my name is written down in His book on that day.” Where’s the word of faith that Paul preached in that? Where’s the confidence we have with Him? Speak the word! That kind of timidity reveals a lack of belief that your name is there.

It is very near us, even in our mouths! Say it! Speak it into existence! Be like Him! Reckon it done! Count it as such in our own lives. Which takes more faith? Him counting us righteous or us reckoning our old man dead unto sin? For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with…Rom. 6: 6, NIV. Instead of all the unbelief in His love to us, we need to thank Him for the absolute abundance of mercy and favor He has smiled down on our undeserving heads, and the power to bring forth fruit worthy of repentance.

Get off of this “we can’t do anything.” It is He that works in us! When are we going to get out of the way and let Him work in us? As long as we think it is ourselves either doing or not doing whatever, then He can’t do the job in and through us. We must decrease to nothing; He then will increase in us.

We will show our belief (faith) by what we do. We will believe Him for His Spirit, to do His laws and statutes. We are not going to impress Him, however, by doing “good Christian deeds” as if they were our duty while we still harbor doubts as to His ability to raise us up to walk in a newness of life—doubts as to the efficacy of His love and mercy and grace/favor towards us. He loves us. Loose Him and let Him go on out of the tomb of our bodies and unbind Him (the Spirit). Let him arise in our hearts, and let (we must reckon it so) the light so shine.

God who has “commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts…” (For what purpose?) “…to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Yahshua Messiah.” 2Cor 4:6.

 To keep us humble now for a season, Yah has us having the Spirit, Himself, the treasure, in these old earthly bodies, that we may know that it is Him and not us that does anything good in and through us.

Christ’s Life in Us–Now

2Cor 4:10–Always carrying with us the fact of the Savior’s earthly sacrificial death (since He died for our sins, now we die, following His example) “that the life also of Yahshua might be made manifest in our body.” The life of the Savior may be made known to the world in our earthly body. (Now someone will say, limiting Elohim and giving glory somewhere else, “Yes, He will make known His life when He gives us our spirit body at the resurrection.” One problem with that statement; that is not what it says! Go to verse 11. “For we which live (present tense–time is right now) are alway delivered unto death for Yahshua’s sake, that the life also of Yahshua might be made manifest IN OUR MORTAL FLESH.”

There. “In our mortal flesh.” You and I are mortal, and the apostle is telling us that it is possible for us to make known Yahshua’s life in our bodies. And His life does not include sinning.

One thing, though, is guaranteed; if you say today in your heart or out of your mouth, “I can’t show forth His life in my mortal body of flesh, then you will not! And you’ll go down as a “nay-sayer,” but all the promises of Yah are “yea.” Yes. Yes. Yes. Say it. Speak it into existence. By believing what is already there, reserved in heaven for you. By faith/belief. The giants are not too big. You have just got to reckon it so.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[To read this book in its entirety, go to the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

1 Comment

Filed under belief, cross, death of self, faith, grace

Tagged as , , ,

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…”]

1 Comment

Filed under apostles' doctrine, belief, elect, faith, righteousness, Yahweh

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

March 14, 2012 · 3:43 am

What Prevents Christian Growth–The Deceitfulness of Sin

As the sons and daughters of God, we are called to do one thing– “to  fulfill the word of God” (Col. 1: 25).  That is our destiny and what we are to do.

God has spoken from the beginning His word about what will transpire on this earth.  And it is a mystery to unregenerate natural man.  It is also a mystery to babes in Christ whose senses have not been exercised “to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5: 14).  What God has spoken and written down for His earthly creation is a “mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations,” but now it is being made known to His elect, the ones He has chosen for the end time happenings (Col. 1: 26).

It is then to His elect that He is revealing this mystery, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (v. 27).  To get Christ fully formed in His elect–to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus/Yahshua”–that is the work of His called out ones.  That is the “word of God” that we are “to fulfill.”

What Hinders the Spiritual Growth to Get to “Christ in You, the Hope of Glory”?

What hinders the new Christian’s growth?  In a word–sin.  For they are taught by their pastors, preachers and priests that they will never stop sinning. But that is a lie. The apostle Paul urges new Christians to “be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4: 14).  The way of growing from a spiritual child to a spiritual adult is not be deceived any longer by cunning and crafty men who teach false doctrines.

Paul already has said in this same chapter that God has given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers “for the perfecting of the saints”!  Perfection of Christians sounds like a stupendous growth in God.  You mean it is possible?  I mean, to grow up and be just like Christ?  Paul believes so.  In fact, he says that this perfecting through the teaching of the truth will continue “till we all come…unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ!”! (4: 11-13)  And we know that this perfection cannot be attained if one is still sinning.

Paul spends most of the rest of the book of Ephesians urging new followers to put away sin out of their lives and “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (4: 24).  No more lying, selfish anger, no more stealing, filthy talk, and malice (4: 25-31).  In other words–No more sinning.  “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  Let no man deceive you with vain words” (5: 5-6).  How can a man deceive the new Christian with vain words? By

telling him that he can do all these things and still have an “inheritance in the kingdom  of Christ and of God.” Or to put it another way: You can be a Christian in good standing and still sin.

This Is a Hard Saying–Who Can Hear It?

Many reading this will stop and say that I’ve gone too far.  That’s fine.  “They that have ears to hear, let them hear.”  This message is for the few–like I stated in the previous post last time.  But this is crucial for those wanting to grow all the way in this thing.  It is to you I am writing anyway.  All others with God’s help will be what they are meant to be.  My job is to teach the truth to the elect so that they can grow.  And He has shown me that this concept is what will hinder the elect from growing.  This is crucial.  Bear with me, and let me explain more fully.

Faith (Belief) Is the Key

Now this growth process inside of a believer is an invisible spiritual happening.  It takes belief without seeing first.  Faith is believing, having not seen the evidence as yet (Heb. 11: 1).  It is believing what God said, not what some man said He said.  And this goes for the sin question, too.  It is all about believing His word as to how to get rid of sin (and sinning) in our lives.

Sin is deceitful.  It is born in deception and it breeds deception.  It was born of a lie and it spawns more lies.  And its most powerful lie tells new Christians that they can’t escape its clutches.  Organized religions keep people in the prison of sin through the lie that they can’t live without sinning–that you are a sinner and will die a sinner.  Ironically enough, some preachers pridefully preach this every Sunday!  They say that you will always be held captive by sin–that you cannot escape its bondage!  In other words, they tell the people that God is not strong enough to break sin’s hold on you.  But be not dismayed; God will accept you even though it is impossible to stop sinning against Him, if you just accept Christ.

But wait a minute!  I thought “with God all things are possible” (Mark 10: 27).  And, “With God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1: 37).  And, “All things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9: 23).  I mean, even the LORD, Yahweh Himself, answered Sarah’s incredulity about having a baby with this question, “Is any thing too hard for the LORD/YHWH?” (Gen. 18: 14).

And so He is asking every one of us: Which is easier for Me to do?  Grant Sarah a child in her old age, despite the “deadness of her womb,” or grant unto you a new heart that does not sin against Me?  Which is the “easier miracle” for Him to perform?  To God it is all the same.  If it is in His will, He makes it happen.

The preachers say that you are in bondage to sin; you can’t escape.  But God says “he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom. 6: 7).  The preachers say, “I sin every day.”  But God says, “He that is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him and he cannot sin because He is born of God” (I John 3: 9).  If we are not saved from sin, then what have we been saved from?

You won’t hear the message contained in Romans 6.  “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”  Shall we go on sinning, breaking the Ten Commandments, so that His grace can be exercised to its fullest extant?  Answer:  “God forbid.  How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein” (Romans 6: 1-2).  Since the true salvation experience begins at the cross, baptized into His death, how can we continue to sin when sin has died inside of us (6: 3-11)?

Of course, very, very few will be preaching on this come next Sunday morning [or Saturday, for that matter].  Even if they know about this message, very few understand it, and fewer yet believe it, so they stay away from Romans 6 like the plague.

But it is this very message of the death of our old sinful self that opens the door.  What door?  The door to the mystery of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  The door to the secret of Christian growth.  The door to the overcoming of sin in our lives  and growing up to be like Him.

This “hope of glory” is not just a ticket to heaven, which is what the little babe in Christ wants from the Father.  No.  This “hope of glory” is our hope that Christ would be fully formed in us during these latter days–that the “greater works” that He promised His followers would do–that would be fulfilled in and through us!  That we could actually walk like the early apostles and the prophets of old!

That we could be the “called according to His purpose.”  That we could actually be those He knew before we were ever born, those who He gave a destiny before we were  born “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”  And so He pre-destined us, called us, justified us, and soon, oh, so very soon He will glorify us! (Romans 8: 28-31).

And there is nobody that can separate us from Christ’s love for us.  And there is nobody who will succeed in stripping away our glorious growth into His manifested sons through lies and deception.

But this vision of full spiritual Christian growth hinges on getting past the deceitfulness of sin.  “The counsels of the wicked are deceit” (Prov. 12: 5).  Or, in other words, The words of the sinner are deception.

Their unbelief in God’s power to deliver keeps people in bondage to sin and sinning.  This is where the deception lies.  A Christian cannot grow when they believe that they cannot keep from sinning with God’s help.  This is the key that will unlock the door to Spiritual growth.

Through Christ we receive a new heart; the old heart is passed away once and for all.  Man says that it is impossible to be rid of sin in your life.  But God says, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18: 27).  Christ’s own words.  Hallelu Yah!

[If you find someone that teaches these things, you have found a very precious thing.  Hold them near and dear and never let them go.]  KWH

3 Comments

Filed under belief, children of God, crucified with Christ, death of self, elect, faith, false doctrines, false teachers, manifestation of the sons of God, old self, perfection, sons and daughters of God

Tagged as , , , ,