Category Archives: crucified with Christ

May 5, 2012 · 8:10 pm

You Cannot Put New Wine into Old Wineskins–Holy Spirit Only Goes into a New Heart

Many followers of Christ lightly throw around the idea of “getting the Holy Spirit.”  We are talking about the very essence of God here and who He is, and they are wanting “It” right now–even making a spectacle of themselves, splayed out in front of the whole church house, with some preacher “slaying them in the Spirit” with a magical slap of his hand on their forehead.

Do they really think that God can be manufactured like that with a few tawdry carnival tricks?  Besides, pagan societies have been “slaying in the spirit” for thousands of years in their heathen rites.  The anthropologist Sir James Frazer lines it all out in his classic 1922 volume The Golden Bough, one of the Great Books of the Western World (http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/frazer/index.htm).

People are wanting the Spirit of God, however, and that is a good thing.  But “you cannot put new wine into old wineskins.”  This is the crux of a parable that Christ was teaching.  And we must remember that a parable reveals “a mystery kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 13: 10-11).

The “new wine into old wineskins” parable is found in Luke 5: 36-39:

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved” (NKJV).

The mystery revealed here is that the new wine is the Holy Spirit of God that He desires to place within us.  But first the old wineskin, which is the old heart or old Adamic nature that we are born with–it must be replaced with a new heart, a new nature.  This new heart is the new wineskin.

People must realize that God will not  place His Spirit into an old heart.  Through the prophet Ezekiel, God promised us a new heart:  “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit…I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (18: 31; 36: 26).  Notice that before He gives us a new heart, we must first get rid of all our transgressions.  This means the new heart will come only after a full and final repentance from sin.

This repentance from sin is done at the cross.  We  must experience the cross in a spiritual way in our own hearts.  We must deliberately place our old sinful self on the cross with Christ, acknowledging that this is the only way that God has provided for us to rid ourselves of the sin “that so easily besets us.”  We are immersed into His death, for our sins were placed upon Him as the Sin Sacrifice for us, and when He died, our sins died.  And when He arose from the dead, we arose with Him.  This all, of course, is done by faith in His resurrection.  This is when He grants our new heart (https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/conversations-with-the-seer-heirs-of-god-and-joint-heirs-with-christ/).

It is ironic that this cross experience is the first thing out of the mouth of Christ and His apostles, and it is never taught in the churches.  Oh, the preachers will mention the cross and how He suffered, but they will never encourage their flock to identify with the Sin Sacrifice and give up their lives of sin.  Christ came preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  His apostles taught the same thing (Romans 6: 6; Hebrews 6: 1; Rev 2: 5, just to name a few).

Getting rid of the old heart through the cross experience is essential in putting to death the old heart, which is the old wineskin.  It must go, once and for all time, never to be resurrected again.

Expounding on this experience is “the preaching of the cross,” which is the power of God (I Cor. 1: 18).  But teaching a man that he has to die is not a welcomed message.

But that is exactly what the early apostles taught.  Some would call this teaching absolute “foolishness.”  You can’t just go up to some unsuspecting person and tell them that their old spirit and way of doing things has to die.  That is foolishness, they would say.  But “it pleased God that by the foolishness of preaching [the cross experience] to save them that believe (1: 20).

Paul went on to say that he preached “Christ crucified,” which is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1: 23).

The power of God?  The power of God for what–to do what?  The power from God to grow!  To grow up into His sons and daughters.  “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to becoome the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1: 12).

First, we have to receive Him, His Spirit.  But He will not give us His Spirit to co-exist in the old wineskin of the old sinful heart.  It first must die on the cross with Christ.  Then we can receive His Spirit, and then He will give us the power to become the sons of God.

Paul continually taught this (Col. 2: 12-13).  He knew that this was the key to unlock future growth in His Spirit.

So, what happened to the great start 2, 000 years ago?  Satan, of course, knows the plan and began right away to insure that Christ’s followers believe the lie that God is not able to change them from sinners to saints.  And through this deception, many cannot grow spiritually, for they cannot receive Him and then receive power to be His children.

No wonder Christ said, “O ye of little faith.”  Is anything too hard for Him that created billions of galaxies?  That’s galaxies–not stars!

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{One other thought: The new wineskin will in its ultimate fulfillment be our new spiritual bodies promised us upon Christ’s return (I Cor. 15: 42-55) }

Leave a comment

Filed under crucified with Christ, death of self, eternal purpose, old self, resurrection, sons and daughters of God

Tagged as , ,

April 21, 2012 · 5:48 pm

“Whoever Commits Sin Is a Slave of Sin”–Who Shall Deliver Us?

You hear Christ’s words quoted all the time: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  But free from what exactly?  People rarely go on and finish the quote.  Christ did not stop expounding after that thought in John 8: 32.

The Pharisees retorted, We have never been in bondage to any man.

Then Christ spelled it out which bondage the truth would free a man from.  “Whover commits sin is a slave of sin” (v. 34 NKJV).  A slave of sin.  If a man is committing sin, he is sin’s slave.  He is bound to do sin’s bidding.  These are heavy words.

Sin is a harsh slavemaster to the natural unregenerated man, which is old man Adam, the nature we inherited when we were born into our earthly existence.  Without Christ’s Spirit coming into our hearts, mankind is prey to every whim of sin that the devil, the prince of the air, wants us to do.

Sin Is the Transgression of the Law

So just who is this slavemaster that Christ called Sin?  Sin is a spiritual state of a human being that breaks the ten commandment law of God.  And it is these ten laws that the evil one entices lost man to break.  Lying, stealing and cheating, committing adultery, murder, having other gods before the One True God, idolizing anything or anyone–these are just some of the sins that man not only does but is in slavery to.

Sin enslaves people; it has them to a point that the sinner can’t fight it.  The little demonic voice says, Take it, and the body obeys as the hand snatches something just that fast.  The voice whispers, Go ahead and take her; your wife won’t find out.

Paul the apsotle described this bondage to sin.  Describing that time in the past when he was a slave to sin, he wrote, “For when we were controlled by the sinful nature…” (Rom. 7: 5 NIV).  The rest of the chapter describes how sin enslaves a person.  Paul makes this experience immediate for his readers by shifting it into the present tense.  This is a literary technique used by writers for centuries.

Yet, sadly, most preachers erroneously teach that Paul was a sinner and was a slave to sin.  How utterly preposterous and ignorant these preachers are!  Do they really know what they are saying?  They are saying that Paul raised the dead and healed the sick one day and then lusted after another man’s wife the next; That he “spoke with the tongues of men and angels” and preached the everlasting gospel, and was transported to the third heaven one day, and then was capable of having other gods before Him the next?  Please.  It is impossible, for Christ settled the issue with this statement: “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit…By their fruits you shall know them” (Matt. 7: 18, 20).  Trust me.  Paul was a good tree.

I pray that God will be merciful to these ignorant teachers, for I know that He has intense grief and misery in store for them that do not repent: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness…” (Isa. 5: 20).

In Romans 7 Paul was making it immediate for his readers.  “When we were in the flesh (the sinful nature)”–the “flesh” here in the KJV being the old sinful nature, not Paul’s earthly body.

When he had the old nature before his incredible conversion on the road to Damascus, he was a slave to sinning, doing things that broke the ten commandment law.  In fact, he said that the bad things that he did not want to do, he did, and the good things he wanted to do, he could not do (Rom. 7: 19).

Who Will Deliver Me?

Recreating this lost state, Paul finally cries out to God.  “O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (7: 24).  Thus Paul completes the scene of this misery in a lost man’s life and gives the answer.  It is the Lord through His sacrifice of Himself and His Resurrection.

We are freed from this slavery to sin when we submit to our own crucifixion of our sinful self.  “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [Him], that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (Rom. 6: 6).  The crucifixion with Christ, “who was made to be sin for us,” puts an end to the slavery to commit sin!  We are free!  “For he that is dead is freed from sin” (6: 7).

How do you actually do this?  What’s the secret in walking in this?  How do you conquer sin in your life?  You’ve got to “reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6: 11).  Reckon it so.  Reckon it done.  Count it as such.  We might as well do it, for God has already done this.  He has reckoned it done in our lives.  He is just waiting with great patience for us to come on board.  He is waiting on us to “get it.”

This is the truth!  And you shall know this truth about getting rid of the old sinful nature, and it shall make you free from sin in your life!

What’s next?  What comes after our deliverance from sin and sinning?  “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (6: 18).  We are enslaved now to another Master; we are now “slaves of God.”

“But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”

[Some are saying to me right now, You keep talking about this sin question all the time.  Yes, and I will continue until we all come to the unity of the faith, until His elect reach full maturity.  For I know that we cannot come to spiritual maturity (perfection) until we get this foundation right: repentance of sin that brings physical death and faith toward God who delivers us from sin.  I would like your thought and comments on this.  KWH]

1 Comment

Filed under cross, crucified with Christ, death of self, false teachers, old self, resurrection, sin

Tagged as , , ,

March 20, 2012 · 10:50 pm

Faith–How to Walk in It–How to Partake of the Divine Nature of God

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?

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.

2Cor 4:10–Always carrying with us the fact of Yah’s earthly sacrificial death (since He died for our sins, now we die, following His example) “that thelife 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.

Leave a comment

Filed under crucified with Christ, death of self, elect, faith, forgiveness, manifestation of the sons of God, repentance, sin

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 , , , ,

February 28, 2012 · 1:03 am

How the Old Self Dies–Baptized into His Death

Chapter 28 to the book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality

     We may not realize it yet, but we are blessed, for we have seen that our old self needs to go.  Many try to redirect or re-channel its activities.  Sometimes we try to clean it up, but He wants it to die. 

     He said to repent and be baptized in water.  Yes, water baptism is a symbol of something else, yet we should still do it.  But few know what the real baptism is.  Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Messiah Yahshua were baptized into His death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Rom. 6:3-4. NIV.

     Going down into the water is a symbol of the mortal life we now live in this flesh.  Coming up out of the water is a symbol of the new spirit-being life we shall live, which is the immortal life that we are called to. 

     Water is a symbol of our mortality.  Our first physical birth is an immersion in a bag of water.  We are born of water.  We mortals are about 75% water.  We  begin  in  our  mother’s  womb in water.  During water baptism we are baptized into His death.  To live in this mortal body is to die.  This watery entombment we call a body is really a deathtrap.  It by its very nature has to die.  The Messiah’s earthly body was composed of the same watery stuff that our bodies are.  And He died.  He had to die by reason of the nature of his shell during His earthly tenure.  This watery, flesh and blood body cannot inherit immortality and go into the kingdom of the Eternal One.  To be made of water is to be mortal, to be awaiting death, for water is extremely unstable, subject to every whim of nature’s forces.

     To sin is to die.  Mortality is to be able to die.  Therefore, our mortality is to sin. Sinning insures a human of not receiving a new spiritual heavenly body.  But now He has enabled us to live a life where we do not have to sin, if we receive His Spirit.  “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust (desires) of the flesh (this old mortal body)” Gal. 5:16 NKJV.

He was made to be sin for us

     We, then, when we go under in water, are symbolically being immersed into this watery mortal state of sin with Him.  We “are buried with him by baptism into death.” Rom.6:4. God calls those things that are not,  as though they were.  We are dead already (Yahshua told the disciples, “Let the dead bury their dead”).  He calls it before its actual physical death when we consent to and experience it (in revelation).  The water is the symbol of our earthly mortal bodily state.  This spiritual death of our old self comes now in this revelation before the fruit of death comes to our earthly bodies. 

     In conjunction with this, few know that the Messiah, the day of His death, actually became sin for us—he who had never sinned.  He was the sacrificial  Lamb who was set to be sacrificed  before the world ever came into existence.  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. II Cor. 5:21. NIV. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev. 13: 8.

     The levitical priest, in types and shadows, laid his hands on the sacrificial goat, thereby transferring Israel’s sins upon it.  So did the Father place all of mankind’s sins upon the body of Messiah.  When He died, the body of sin died; our sin died that day.  To whom is the arm of Yahweh revealed?…Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all…It pleased Yahweh to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see His seed. Isa. 53:1,6,10.

     We make the Lamb’s soul an offering for our own sins by realizing that it was us in our sinful state hanging on the tree that day.  We must be immersed in this knowledge.  We must believe that our old self—that old monkey on our back, that old demon that we were, that selfish, egotistical, self-absorbed, sorry excuse for a human being—that old thing that we were is now, in God’s eyes dead.  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin. Rom. 6: 6.  [I invite you to read my whole book and make comments.  God is calling out His elect (chosen) sons to be manifested in our time.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock]

1 Comment

Filed under baptism, crucified with Christ, death of self, elect, sons of God

Tagged as , ,

January 22, 2012 · 1:53 am

The Holy Spirit (in Us) Reproves the World of Sin–Let Your Light Shine–Conversations With the Seer

“Is the ‘Spirit of truth’ in the Bible the same as the Holy Spirit?” I asked the Seer during one of our daily morning meetings.

“Yes.  Remember that ‘there is one Spirit.’  And there is one truth.  Christ said ‘I am the truth.’  So, yes, they are one and the same.”

“It says that when the Spirit of truth is come, that he will reprove the world of sin.  What does that mean?”  I asked.

“To reprove is to expose or reveal.  It shines a light on people’s innermost thoughts and sins.”

“How does the Spirit do it?”

“Because God is all-powerful, He can show things to us directly.  But oftentimes He uses other people.  Remember when the Savior sent out His disciples and told them to say to the people, Repent.  The message first and foremost to all is  ‘Repent.’  Why?  Because ‘the Kingdom of God is at hand.’ It is right here, inside the very one that is telling you to repent,” the Seer said.

I paused a moment, trying to let his words soak in a bit.  I finally asked, “I am having trouble understanding the kingdom of God being within someone.”

“God’s dominion is where His Spirit is.  Wherever He resides is His domain or His kingdom.  We receive His Spirit of truth when it comes down into us at our conversion to Christ.  Those that are God’s children will definitely have His Spirit, according to the apostle John, who says that ‘he that does not have the Spirit of Christ is none of His.’ It is by faith that you receive a portion of His Spirit when you receive a new heart at your conversion.”

“How does that work?”

“It is all by faith, meaning that it happens by believing that it will happen–because God said so.  It is not believing-something-into-existence that is against what God said.  It is believing that we receive His Spirit because He said that it could and would happen.  If you take step A, B, and C, according to His word, then D will happen–because He said it would–nothing more.  He can’t go back on His own word.”

I asked, “So, after our conversion, He wants us to help others escape the darkness of their sins?”

“Think about it.  How else is someone supposed to come out of the darkness of sin, except a person speak to them about their sinful lifestyle?” the Seer said.

“Yes, I guess we can’t expect God to verbally speak to us in a big booming voice from heaven telling us to quit sinning.”

“Exactly.  He doesn’t do it that way, except in special instances where He speaks to one person, and then they  go and tell others the message from God.  Even God came down in human form and told us to repent.  Do you remember what Christ said in John 15: 22? ‘If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin…’  See, the great Creator Spirit Yahweh came in a human being and spoke to them, and unless He had done that, ‘they had not had sin.’  In other words, their sinful nature would not have been exposed if He had not spoken to them about escaping the darkness of their sinful life and letting the light come into them.  What words do you think He actually spoke to the people?” the Seer asked, his eyes piercing mine.

“Words about repentance?”

“Precisely.  You see it all over the gospels. ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,’ He said to all He crossed paths with.  And to finish that passage above in John, ‘But now  they have no cloak for their sin.’  He is saying that by Him (His Spirit) speaking to  people about their sin, they would not have become guilty; they would still have a cloak to hide behind, to keep their actions in the dark.  But now that I call them on it, they have no excuse for continuing their sinful ways.”

“Because God has provided the way to escape that old sinful life.  Just like I am doing.”

“Yes.  You, my son, are a living example of how great a deliverance God can do in a person’s life, for you have changed so much since you first drove up on the land.”

“Thank you for your help,” I said.

“If you will recall, one of the first messages I gave when we first met was on repentance from sin.”

“That’s right.  It was.”

“That is the message for a newcomer into the Kingdom.  Leave the life of sin behind and take on the light in your heart.  But, you see, God speaks through those who already have His Spirit.  He will reprove those without Him of their sin, and this takes away the excuses for continuing in that sin.  They must be confronted with this kind of love in order to become guilty, and therefore, repent and turn from the old life.”

“But people won’t like the message.  They will reject us if we try to help them,” I said, remembering how I was rejected on my first few feeble attempts to tell others about what God had done in my life.

“Of course.  Not many people want their darkness revealed by the light.  All the way through John 15 and 16 Christ talks about how the world will hate us and persecute us.  Ever wonder why?  Because He has commanded us to ‘let our light shine’ and to ‘reprove the world of sin.’

“He says to not hide our light under a bushel.  But what is ‘the light’ exactly,” I asked.

“The light is His Spirit come down into us that dispels the darkness of sin in others.  When His Spirit has come into us, He in us will shine into the darkness of sinful hearts to help them by turning them from their sinful lives unto righteousness.”  The Seer looked at me approvingly.  “But let it shine into all the world.  Yes, this Kingdom of God is hidden ‘to them  that are lost: in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.’”

“I was blind to God’s goodness once,” I said.

“Yes, we all were.  The apostle Paul tells us that we are now light and that we should walk as children of the light, and that ‘we should have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them’ or reprove them [Eph 5: 8-11].  If we ‘do not quench the Spirit of truth,’ we will do this, for we are the ‘children of light’ and no longer in darkness.”  He could see that I had a question.  “Yes?”

“Why don’t more Christians reprove the world of sin?  Why don’t the preachers preach  repentance?”

“They are too busy teaching the opposite.  They teach their congregations that they cannot stop sinning.  They will tell them that they are sinners and will always be sinners.  They will recite it with pride: ‘I’m a sinner saved by grace.’  In essence they are telling the people in the pews that God is unable to change them from darkness to light.  But the scriptures speak otherwise.  The word says, ‘With God all things are possible, to him that believes.’  Even to give us a new heart that will not sin against Him.  ‘And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin (I John 3: 5).’”

“If you take something away, you don’t have it anymore,” I said.

“Yes, He is in the business of taking away our old sinful dark spiritual nature and giving us a new heart that does not sin against Him.  Look.  Christ’s Hebrew name Yahshua means ‘Yahweh saves.’  That is why He came in the flesh–to deliver us from sin and sinning.  It says, ‘You shall call Him Jesus/Yahshua, for He shall save His people from their sins.’  What are Christians saved from if not from their sins?  Paul asks this question: ‘Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  God forbid.’”

“It is hard to help others out of the darkness if we are still in darkness ourselves,” I said.

“That is it exactly,” the Seer said with a smile.  The follower of Christ, who believes that he still sins, will be very reluctant to talk to someone else about repenting of his sins since he is a sinner himself and would be a first class hypocrite if he tried to dispel the darkness of sin in others.  And so, sin abounds in others as Christians are too timid to stand in the gap and truly help those who are in darkness.  And thereby they do not show to the world that they have the Spirit of truth in them.  For ‘when the Spirit of truth is come, He will reprove the world of sin.’” 

 “People never even mention the word ‘sin’ anymore,” I said.

“I know.  And yet, it is the very thing that God’s Spirit deals with; it is what His Spirit does.  It deals with a person’s sin and exposes it and thereby helps that person come to repentance and change.  To put it another way–if people in the world are not having their sin reproved, then the Spirit of truth is not residing in anyone, for He, the Light, will shine into the darkness and ‘bring the hidden things of darkness to light.’  And we as the children of light are to let our light shine.  Which light?  The light of His Spirit that resides within us by faith.”

4 Comments

Filed under cross, crucified with Christ, kingdom of God, light, Spirit of God

Tagged as , , , , ,

January 15, 2012 · 3:22 am

“You Gotta Die Before You Live”–New Song on the Cross Experience of Christ

People talk about the cross of Christ a lot in some churches, but few teach the central truth about what that experience does in a human life.  Our old sinful self, our old heart, must die with Christ, “who was made to be sin for us.”  We identify and repent of our sinful ways by surrendering to this death on the cross.  Then we “are buried with Him” in an immersion of that old self into His death {water baptism being the type and symbol}.

Then, by believing that Christ literally rose from the dead the third day, we too can be raised from the spiritually dead, and we are then “raised to walk in a newness of life.”

HalleluYah!  This is real biblical way to repent–“by faith in the operation of God that raised up Christ.” This is what this song is about.  I wrote it back in 1975; it speaks of the  great paradox–life out of death–just like a seed buried in the ground.  This is a great mystery “kept secret from the foundations of the world,” and I am blessed to have been given it to share with the world–in a song.”  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

You can see the video and hear the song that contains these revelations here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeDb5WdFHS0

2 Comments

Filed under Christ, cross, crucified with Christ, death, death of self, immortality, kingdom of God, repentance

Tagged as , , ,

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

Leave a comment

Filed under apostles' doctrine, crucified with Christ, death of self, old self, repentance, truth

Tagged as , , ,

October 16, 2011 · 9:21 pm

Borderline Personality Disorder–Reaching Out to the Depressed–Christ and the Man-Who-Lived-in-the-Tombs-and-Cut-Himself

The other day I happened onto a blog by a person who says she has BPD–“borderline personality disorder and other mental illnesses as well.”  As I read her post entitled “I Am Worthless, Pointless, and Hopeless,” I saw how her condition was destroying her.  She confessed that she was contemplating suicide and showed photos of her cutting herself with a razor blade and yearning to end her emotional misery through taking her own life.

I immediately thought of the time that Christ encountered “a man with an unclean spirit, who was dwelling in the tombs.”  He was “always, night and day…in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.”  Christ went on to cast the unclean spirit out of the man, who later was found “sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind.”  The man even wanted to go with Him.  But Christ told him to “tell them how great things the Lord has done for you, and has had compassion on you” (Mark 5: 1-19).

And so I was moved to write this comment to her post: 

My darling girl,

There is another way to end all the pain and misery besides offing the physical body.  The death of the old self, the old ego, the old nature that we were born with, that old blue monkey crouched on our shoulder, screaming in our ear to do bad things to ourselves and others–yes, that selfish old adamic nature must die–not the body, mind you–the old heart inside of us, the old spirit that we have always been–that must die. 

I searched for 5 years desperately seeking solace and was led to the pits of nothingness.  Then, miraculously, while I tripped out on “sillysideburns” one day, it came to me: The old self had to die, not the body…I studied all the philosophies and world religions and did not find out how it is done.  

But then,  a wise man, seeing my plight, told me, “You need to die with Christ on the cross.  Just let all the bad inside of you go, by revelation, up on that cross, and let your old selfish self die.  When He died, you died.  When He was buried, you were buried, and when you truly believe that He arose from the dead, then you will arise from the dead, too.  And you will  walk in a newness of life.  You can read all about it in Romans 6 in your Bible.”

“Why doesn’t the churches teach this?  Because I know they don’t.”

The wise man replied, “Most of them don’t have the truth about real deliverance from sin, which like a serpent, coils around our inner being and has us enslaved. But this truth whereof I speak will deliver you, once and for all.  You are enslaved for now.  Follow my words and you’ll be free from the bondage you are suffering.”

And so, after reading all the books from the East and the West with no surcease from the emotional pain I was experiencing, I did it.  And a complete change happened in my life.  The drink, the smoke (of all kinds), the obsession with music, the womanizing, the cursing, the depression, et al, left.  And it has never come back in all these 40 years. 

I hear your cry, little one.  Read more here on my blog, ImmortalityRoad.wordpress.com
You are not alone…  Wayneman

5 Comments

Filed under cross, crucified with Christ, death, death of self, old self, resurrection

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

August 21, 2010 · 4:21 pm

Life Out of Death–The Ultimate Paradox

A paradox is “a statement that seems contradictory or absurd but is actually valid or true.”  Life coming out of death is a paradox.    Yet any seed must lose its identity before it will spring back to life in another more glorious fruitful form.  The seed rots and dies in the moist earth and then, through a miraculous Lifeforce, it multiplies itself at the harvest.  One grain of corn yields two or more ears of golden corn.

God is wanting this to play out in our mortal lives here on earth.  The death of self is the only sacrifice that God will accept from us.  He wants us to be a part of Christ’s body, but the only way to get that Life that lasts forever is through a spiritual death.

This death is the baptism that the apostle Paul talked about–being baptized into His death, so that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we to can be raised to walk in a newness of life [ 1 ].  It is His resurrection in us that is our only hope  of transcending the grave.  For the only pay that we will receive in our old selfish life is a certain physical death.  “The wages of sin is death” [ 2].   So we need to die now and avoid the rush. 

Let’s get it done.  Many are teaching that you can never get rid of sin in your life.  Where does it say that?  I thought that “all things are possible with God.”  If it is “no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me,” then “Is Christ the minister of sin?  God forbid!” [ 3].  Let’s “present our bodies a living sacrifice,” for this is the reasonable thing to do in gratitude for all He has done for us [4 ].

Let’s identify our old self with the sin sacrifice of the Lamb of God.  He took on our sins on Himself on the tree, providing a way for us to be made free from the old sinful cravings and dark selfish actions that we were a slave to all our lifetime [ 5].  We are going to pay for our sinful selfish actions sooner or later.  He said we would.  The upside is that He has provided a way for us to take on His Life after we let our own selfish nature die on the cross.

Most have not heard this true message of what the cross is all about.  They are told that Christ is our substitute.  No, He is our example, and we are to follow His steps [6 ].  This “preaching of the cross” is just a bunch of foolishness to those who are dying in their sins, whether they know they are or not [ 7].  But to us who He is calling and choosing, it is an absolute lifeline, and it is the power of God to change lives.  It is the only way for us to complete what we have been put here on earth for.

What we are doing here

And what is that, you ask?  He is using an elect chosen few of His redeemed ones from all of humanity to reproduce Himself through [8].  He is going to take only those who have submitted themselves to the death of the cross;  He is taking them into His heart to reveal His very essence to them.  They will be in awe of Him and revere His name and will bow to His magnificence as He overshadows their earthly physical plight to do His immortal work on them and then through them.  Those who submit to Him will be changed into His glorious image as His own sons and daughters when He returns to this earth to set it all in order [9 ].  They will rule with Him and be in His inner circle while the rest outside wait for their word on the day’s business of the King’s Government.

Now that is the Life that He’s talking about.  To be His son or daughter, to be a prince or princess by His side as He trains us up to be rulers with Him in His kingdom soon to fill the whole earth.  That is the great destination, the wonderful reaping of our initial humble planting of ourselves into death with Him on the cross.  For “if we have been planted together with Him” into His death, we shall also be raised together with Him in His resurrection [ 10].

Dying with Him does not make sense to the world

Yes, dying with Christ is utter foolishness to the worldly mind.  But to us who He is calling and choosing, it is our ticket to the big show.  And we will be on the stage of this earth, together with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Noah and Job and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Peter and Paul and all of His sons and daughters who have followed Him in this death of self [11].  If He was good enough to literally and physically die for us, why then should we not spiritually die for Him and, better yet, allow Him to live out His life in us? 

In so doing we are then made free from sin.  And as we take in His Spirit into our new hearts through belief in His resurrection, sin shall not have dominion over us, for we are made free from it and its power over us [ 12].

But how?

It is just too simple and yet, too wonderful to just believe.  Our small, weak, finite minds fail to grasp just how to do this.  How do we get our old self to die and then receive a new life in Christ?  We have to just reckon it so.  We have to count it as a done deal.  He has.  He said that it was already done; the “works were finished” [ 13].  All we need to do is agree with Him and walk in this truth.  He said that our old man “is crucified  with Christ” [ 14].  Notice that is with an –ed, meaning that it is already done and over with in the past.  That’s how God looks at things; that is how his faith and belief works.  Now we need to believe what He believes about us.  It is His faith in His own power in our lives that is the key.  We just need to believe what and how He believes, and we will be changed into His image.  We are now alive unto Him who said that He has raised up all who believe Him [ 15].

Life out of death is the ultimate paradox.  The Savior said that very thing.  “He who seeks to save his life shall lose it.  He who loses his life for my sake shall save it” [ 16].  You will not hear this message in the vast majority of churches; they are trying to increase numbers–not lose membership.  For “few there be to find this way of truth” [17 ].  Yet, those to whom He is granting His grace and favor to at this time will hear this and they will respond and take their old self to the cross, thereby enabling the new man to grow into His likeness.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

  1. Romans 6: 6
  2. Rom. 6: 23
  3. Galatians 17-20
  4. Rom. 12: 1
  5. II Corinthians 5: 21
  6. I Peter 2: 21
  7. I Cor. 1: 18
  8.  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/the-law-of-har…oduces-himself/
  9. II Cor. 3: 18
  10. Rom. 6: 5
  11. Matthew 8: 11; Luke 13: 2
  12. Rom. 6: 18, 22; 8: 2
  13. Hebrews 4: 3
  14. Gal. 2: 20
  15. Rom. 6: 11-13
  16. Mark 8: 35; Matt. 10: 39
  17. Matt. 7: 14

11 Comments

Filed under cross, crucified with Christ, death of self, elect, eternal life, sin

Tagged as , , , ,