Category Archives: faith

May 28, 2012 · 1:16 am

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Faith of our Father Abraham

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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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

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May 6, 2011 · 4:16 pm

YAH IS SAVIOR: THE ROAD TO IMMORTALITY CHAPTER 5 “The Importance of His True Name YHWH”

Every year here in southwest Missouri in November, an onslaught of hunters converge into the tens of thousands of acres of hardwood forests in hopes of bagging a prize buck.  Imagine yourself in the middle of a 2000 acre tract alone in a deer stand.  You hear the sounds of other hunting parties, for many have the same thing in mind as you do.  You hear the word, “Daddy,” faintly off in the distance, and then it fades into the whisper of the wind in the leaves.  You don’t pay it much mind.

     I dare say that if you had heard your name coming through those trees, be it ever so faint, it would have gotten your attention.  It would have generated thoughts immediately!  Who could that be?  Is that one of my kids?  What are they doing out here?  Are they hurt?  Do they need me?  And chances are that it would have sparked a search for that voice until you had found that person who had called your name.

     Are names important?  In this scenario a certain name is.  The use of our name gets our attention.  It could have been anybody’s daddy from anywhere, but when our name is uttered, we perk up.

     I can’t help but think of our Father in heaven.  We have been made in His likeness, in His image, both physically and emotionally.  If our attention is corralled, galvanizing us into a desperate action by the mere mention of our name, could it be that His attention could be gotten in the same manner?  Could it be that if only we could call upon the Creator and our Father using His real name, His given name, the name He said was His name forever—would that perk up His ears to our prayers, to our requests, to our cries?

     The scriptures say that if we humans know how to give good gifts unto our own children, how much more will the Father give to those who ask Him.  If we could respond to a faint cry of our own name in a deep forest, is it a big stretch to believe that the Almighty God, who is Love, could not be moved in His heart by hearing His own name expressed by one of His little ones?  

The substitution of  titles for YHWH

     Now we know His real name.  YHWH, pronounced “Yahweh,” is not a new revelation unto man.  The name of the God of the Hebrews has been known for many centuries, but the translators have deliberately substituted the titles “LORD” and on occasion “GOD” and “JEHOVAH” for “Yahweh.”  This is despite the passage quoted above, “Yahweh is my name forever.”

     But Yahweh already knew that men would try to change  His  name throughout the ages.  That’s why He said that it was His name forever and how we will remember Him.  His name is His memorial unto all people in all times.  You know His real Hebrew name, and you will begin to remember Him.  His name  Yahweh  has  been  set  up  from  the ancient times as a way for His people to bring Him back into their memories. The Hebrew word for “name” is shem, #8034, meaning “reputation; memory; renoun.”  It was sometimes used as a synonym for “memory” (“Name,” Vine’s Expository Dictionary).  

Believing in His Name 

     Just how important is the name of the Supreme Being?  “But as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons (children) of God, even to them that believe on His name,” (John 1:12).  Two major points are to be considered from this passage.  First, when we receive Him, we are given authority and power to become the Spirit-Creator’s children.  A comma sets off the second part of the verse.  It is set up like an appositive, which renames what just went before in the verse.  The second part of the verse says, “even to them that believe on his name.”

     In other words, those who receive Him are those to whom He gives power and authority to become His offspring.  And these are equal to those who believe in His name.  His name is very important then.  Those believing in it are equated with those who have received Him, who have received His Spirit (“I will come to you,” He says in John, speaking of the Comforter, the Spirit).  Those believing in His name are  those  who  are  to  become  His  children.    The  Creator  came  in  human  form;  the Word was made flesh.  “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.”  He came unto His own people and they did not receive Him.  But some will.

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April 30, 2011 · 8:04 pm

The Elect of God–The Seekers of Truth

It is like we, the elect of God, are down here on earth where God has placed within our hearts a thirst and hunger for the truth.  We have to know the truth.  This search for truth is what keeps us going.  It is the only thing seemingly that matters to us.  Everything else is just cosmetics and window dressing. 

“Great is the mystery of godliness,” the scriptures say, God being the greatest mystery of all.  And so the seekers search Him out.  And throughout the expanse of the earthly years that He has given us, we discover little bits of truth like pieces  to the puzzle.  We are like children adding a crystal to our tin box that it might lay with a seashell or a discarded brass key.  We know these bits of truth are a special treasure and we hold them dear.

And these little bits of truth, if we endure, begin to add up and, like a jigsaw puzzle, begin to take shape.  A picture of the landscape of spiritual reality emerges as we put things together. 

We begin to see this panorama of God’s purpose and plan to reproduce Himself inside His sons and daughters.  And then we begin to walk in it, thereby exercising His Spirit in us.  And then He smiles, pleased with our belief, and says to those around Him, “See there.  They are getting it!  They are believing my word, and so I will answer their cries and grant their requests.”

And so our faith grows as we see that God really is real and personal.  It is no longer just book learning intellectualism.  No.  He is real, and no one can take that away from us.

And so our appetite for the truth about who God is and why we are here is whetted, and our hunger is unabated.  We need more of Him, who is the Truth.  That is it.  That is the truth.  I am the way, the truth, the life…Thy word is truth…God is truth…

God has placed within us this unquenchable need to know the truth, which is Him and His plan, which entails the heavens and earth and all that is therein.  This need for truth within us was placed there by God.  It is His doing.  And someone will say, What about the others who are not desperately seeking the truth?  To that we must say that we are not to judge another man’s servant.  They were created by God for His pleasure, and although our eyes are dim as to all mysteries, we will continue to trust Him that He knows what He is doing.  He is our Father, and we are His children.  We will submit our finite thinking to His mind, which is magnificent.

For it is all His doing.  “His ways are past finding out.”  Just knowing that it is all summed up in His name, which is holy and is to be reverenced.  For the secrets of His universe are expounded in His name–His original Hebrew name–Yahshua, “for there is no other name given whereby man must be saved.” Find out what it means and you’ll have the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.   KWHancock

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April 17, 2011 · 1:52 pm

YAHWEH IS SAVIOR: THE ROAD TO IMMORTALITY CHAPTER 3

Chapter 3

  How to Receive Wisdom 

But as we saw in James 1:5-7, the obtaining of this awe and reverence and respect is tied to our asking Him for it in faith, in full assurance that He will answer our prayer.

Here we have three extremely important concepts inextricably intertwined: wisdom, faith, and prayer.  Wisdom is the main thing.  And because we all start out lacking it, we need to ask Him for it.  Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.  But we must ask for wisdom in faith, in full assurance in our hearts that God not only hears our request, but also grants our request and gives us awe and respect of him.  That is prayer.  And it is a lovely circle because when He gives us a bit of awe of Him, then that is a direct answer to our prayer of faith, which in turn gives us more awe (wisdom) of Him.  This is a beautiful circle.

James outlines for us in the first chapter some necessary knowledge about wisdom, faith and prayer.  First, he is writing to the 12 tribes which are  scattered  abroad.   He  then  says  that  it  is  a necessary thing that our faith be tried (1:2).  It will be tried by temptations that come.  But we are to look at these temptations as a source of joy because it brings patience into our lives.  Patience is that part of His nature (2 Peter 1:4-7) that helps perfect us. She performs a perfect work, if we let her (v.4). Then in the very next verse the apostle says that if any of us lack wisdom or, in other words, if any of you are not letting patience do the work of perfection in you through a lack of  awe and respect of Him, then, by all means, ask Him for wisdom in faith, and He will give it to you.

In v.14 we learn that every person is tempted when we are drawn away from that guiding awe of the Supreme Being by some desire that we allow ourselves to go after.  And when that lust or desire has conceived it brings forth sin.  There was a seed, a thought, a word of desire of something contrary to the Ten Commandments that conceived, and it brings forth the evil fruit of sin, the breaking of the 10 Commandment law of God.  And death is the final result of sin.

In verse 16:  Don’t err.  Don’t make a mistake in what I’m about to write to you, James is saying to us:  Every good and perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of lights.  We cannot manufacture what it takes to become perfect; we cannot in our own thoughts and work and effort here on earth accomplish the great work that He wants done through each of us who are called with His heavenly calling.  It will come down from heaven through prayer, through fearing and being in awe of such a majestically powerful and loving God.

And then, through moving with fear, we can do the deeds that show that we have the faith and assurance that He is living in us and through us.

We need to get wisdom; it is the principal thing.  Without it we will not get anywhere on the road to immortality.  We must realize that wisdom is to be in awe of the Great One, the One who created billions of galaxies.  We realize our need for wisdom, and then simply ask Him as a little child asks his loving parent.  The child fully expects the mother or dad to give him what he is asking for.  We need to ask our spiritual Father the same way for wisdom.  Father, help me to be in awe of You, You who have created all things in this profound universe.  Help me to realize just how powerful You are and to respect your ways.  Father, will You give me wisdom?

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April 2, 2011 · 3:24 pm

The Oneness of God–Christ Said, “The Father Is in Me”

Believing in the meaning of His name is of utmost importance.  To ever fulfill our God-given calling of becoming His sons and daughters with His power flowing through us, we must believe on His name.

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12).  And in John 3:18 we discover that “believing on Him” is “believing in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”  And conversely, he that “believes not is condemned already” for only one reason: “because he hath not believed in the name.”

Not believing in the meaning of His name carries a catastrophic result.   The condemnation is “that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).  Because that same apostle wrote, “God is light,” in I John 1:5, we might read the above passage, “God is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than God, because their deeds were evil.”  He did say that He was “the true Light” in John 1:9.

The Savior’s name, Yahshua, which means in Hebrew, “Yahweh is the Savior,” has within it God’s truth as to what His very nature is.  That nature is that He is One.  One Spirit, one expressed image called the Son, One, One, One.  The invisible Father is in the Son, which is God (Spirit) in human form.

Let us get this teaching from the Master’s own lips.  In John 14:10, it is like the Savior is speaking to us today.  Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?  The Father that dwells in Me speaks the words through me and does the works.  The Father is omnipresent.  He is everywhere.  The Son is a vessel, then, that is in the Father, in the Spirit.  We, then, since God is everywhere, we are in the Father, too. And the Father, in turn, is also in the vessel as that same one invisible Spirit.

In verse 11, He commands us.   “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”  This is a commandment.  In fact, this is one of his new commandments that John tells us about.  He is saying, The things I do only God can do, so believe what I am saying to you about the Father being now present right now with you (in me).  These miracles done through me—it is the Father in me that is doing them.

Believing on Him as the Scripture has just said

In verse 12 He says that those who “believe on Him” will do the same works that He does.  Now, most assume that this means “accepting Him as their personal Savior.”  But it does not mean this.  It means, “to believe on Him” in the same manner that He just expounded on in the previous two verses.  I repeat—those that “believe on Him” will believe on Him as He has just expounded—believing that the Father, the great wonderful invisible Spirit-Creator is in the Son.  There is only one way the Father could be in a human vessel, and that is by the Father being an invisible Spirit.

Let us not forget already what He taught about belief in them.  First, He said that “ if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”  Second, He said, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”  This was His teaching on “believing on me.”  That is what He meant when He commanded, “Believe on me.”  It was that we believe that He was in the Father and the Father in Him, as opposed to the idea of the Father in some other vessel.  For the Son is the “expressed image of the invisible God.”

He emphasized this truth by prefacing it with, “Verily, verily.”  This means, “In truth,” and He said it twice to make sure we got it.  And that truth about believing on Him means believing that He was in the Father and the Father was in Him.  And if we get this right, there is a ton of promises He makes to us.  One of them is that we will do the same works that He did.  And “if we believe on him as the scripture has said,” the Spirit will flow out from our depths.  KWH

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March 26, 2011 · 4:27 pm

“Yahshua”–Believing in the Meaning of His Name

The  disciples are looking up into the serene face of the risen Savior.  They have been with him for forty days now—witnessing the glory in His every word and movement.  He has taught them precious things “pertaining to the kingdom of God.”  He has also instructed them to stay in Jerusalem and “wait for the promise of the Father.”  He has told them to wait for a spiritual baptism in which they will be immersed in God’s very own Spirit.  No water like John’s baptism—this time the power from on high will come upon them.

This promise to them must have been difficult to believe because instead of asking questions about it, they ask a question concerning the kingdom.  Thinking He was talking about a political government, they ask, “Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”

He responds by saying that the times and seasons of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel rests in the Father’s power.  Shortly, you will be given some of this power from the Father.  That is the first step in the restoration process.  You disciples must begin to receive some of the Father’s power so that you can be witnesses of Me, not only locally, but throughout the whole world.  First receive the power of the Father, and then He will restore the government to Israel in due season.

This account in the first chapter of Acts begins the talk of the restoration of all things in the post-resurrection era.  Peter picks up this thread in Acts 3: 21 when he tells the crowd on the day of Pentecost that   “the heaven must receive” the Savior “until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.”  In other words, the Savior Yahshua will not be returning to set up the kingdom of God here on earth until all things are restored.

Restoring the Knowledge of His Name

And one major piece of the puzzle that God is restoring is the knowledge of His name.  First, we must become aware of His original Hebrew name.  But that is only the beginning.  The secrets of God’s power are locked up inside the holy name of God—secrets to His power, secrets about receiving answers to our prayers, and secrets about how to have Him flow through us to heal, which, in turn, shows that the Father is alive and well and living in His sons and daughters.

Clues to the Power in His Name

Peter gives a clue to this healing power found in His name five verses before in Acts 3:16.  Peter and John had, of course, just received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire on the day of Pentecost.  They go to the temple; a lame man asks alms from them.  Peter then delivers his famous line.  “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Yahshua the Messiah of Nazareth rise up and walk.”  And the man was healed!

And he starts to walk and leap around in the temple, praising God for healing him.  And everybody standing around knew this crippled man, and “they were all filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened to him” (v. 8-11).

And Peter, looking around, realizes that the people think that they had healed him somehow.   So he straightens them out and tells them that it was the Holy One who had healed him.  In fact, he gets even more specific about just how the man was healed.  “And his name through faith in His name has made this man strong.”

Wait a minute now.  Let’s not just pass over this lightly.  It was “His name through faith in His name” that infused that poor man’s legs with strength.

Now if a person nowadays could channel this power by just saying, “in Jesus name,” then everybody would be healing the sick everywhere  And we know that is not happening.  So there has to be more to it than just speaking a formula, such as “in Jesus’ name.”

And, yet, we have thousands of so called men of God running around the earth trying to invoke the name of God in order to heal someone.  They will say earnestly, “But He said that if we ask anything in his name, that He would grant it.”

Now all of us at one time or another labored under this thought.  We have understood this to mean that if we say the special words, “in Jesus’ name,” that somehow or other God would answer our prayer requests.

But upon further reflection, just saying those words, “in Jesus’ name” tacked onto the end of a prayer, does not guarantee anything.  Our minds, of course, did not know what else those words could mean.  After all, someone supposedly much more knowledgeable about God than us showed us how to say “in Jesus’ name” after our prayer request, and so we, without questioning it, began to say it.  We were young and impressionable.  We did not know any better.  We were spiritual children, “tossed about by every wind of doctrine.”

And then a wonderful thing happened.  We learned about the sacred names.  It was a glorious revelation at the time.  And so we began to replace the name of Jesus with God’s Hebrew names.  And, so, we naturally ended our prayers, asking all “in the name of Yah, or Yahweh or Yahshua.”

But we still are saying the words, “in Yahshua’s name,” at the end of our prayers the same way we did with, “in Jesus’ name.”  We have the name right now, but why aren’t we seeing the fruit of our prayers?  Why are we powerless to heal in His name?

The key:  Believing what His name means

It is time for us to get a deeper understanding of His promise, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do…” (John 14:13).  YHWH earnestly desires to share this with us.  He wants us to have the power to be His witnesses.  So what is the key to understanding what this means: asking anything in His name and receiving it?

The key lies in believing what His name means. Three steps are on this road of understanding.  First, we need to know His name.   Second, we need to know what His name means.  Third, we need to believe in the meaning of His name.

The Hebrew name of Immanuel, God with us, is Yahshua.  There are many variations on the spelling.  Spellings may be different by one or more letters.  Different camps are adamant that their spelling is the correct one.  I’m not trying to be glib here, but until He or one of His heavenly messengers speak His name to us, it is difficult to be sure.  Paul of Tarsus, under the influence of the Spirit, said that the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.  Getting to the spirit of His name is more important than the exact spelling, as rendered in a foreign language called English.  Understanding its meaning is the important thing.

Yahshua means “Yah is Savior.”  “Yah” translated means in essence, “The Self-Existent One.”  So, “Yahshua” means “The Self-Existent One is Savior.”  YHWH created everything, says many verses of scripture.  It also says that Yahshua created all things.  “He was in the world and the world was made by Him,” says the apostle John.  “You shall call His name “Yah Is Savior,” for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).

Believing in the meaning of His Hebrew Name

It is when we get to this third step that the going gets tough.  Believing in the meaning of His name.  That is the difficult part because one must throw away preconceptions about His name, and there are plenty.  This is the crux of the matter, however.  If it were not difficult to come to this part of the quest for God, then everyone would have the power.

This is what, literally, separates the sheep from the goats, the spirit of truth from the spirit of error.  To believe the message contained in His name, we must believe its meaning.  And it means that Yah, the eternal Spirit, the Father, dwells in a human vessel known as the Son of God, and that entity, called the Holy One of Israel, is the Creator and Savior of mankind.

There are not “two men and a dove” up in heaven somewhere.  There are not two gods in two different forms sitting on two different thrones.  The Father is invisible—period.  If you want to see the Father, you will have to go to the “expressed image of the invisible God.”  In other words, you will have to go to the Son, for He is that very image of God.  And so are we humans, for that matter.  We have been created by the Pattern Himself in His own image.  You want to see what God would look like here on earth?  Just look around at your brothers and sisters walking the globe.  That is the reason that he said, “If you cannot love him who you can see, you cannot love Him who you don’t see.” To love the invisible Father we need to love His visible image.  That would be Yah in human flesh—Immanuel, an invisible Spirit, dwelling in the Son, who is sitting upon the throne.  For He is the First and the Last, and “Beside YHWH, there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:11).  The prophet Isaiah saw into the throne room in heaven; he is a reliable witness to His majesty.  We need to believe him.  KWHancock

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February 20, 2011 · 12:19 pm

“God Is Love”–Our Aching Need to Be Loved

Love is the great magnet that attracts us, that draws us to others.  We need only to look back in our lives to see that we are drawn to and “like” those who take an interest in us, who approve of us, who make us feel special.  We are drawn to people who we believe like us. 

We love God because He, who is Love, “first loved us.”  When a person comes to the knowledge of His Love for us, then we are drawn like a magnet to Him, even though we cannot literally see Him.

The Universal Need

To be loved by another, then, is the universal need.  “Nobody gets too much love anymore,” someone once sang truly.  And so it is.  To be loved is the need that equalizes mankind.  It does not matter if you are rich or poor, black or white, or anything in between–that aching need deep down in our hearts to be loved still throbs and longs to be quieted.

Of course, we speak of the higher love, the divine love, the unselfish love that negates mere earthly lust/love and religates it to the ash dumps of the lowly earth.  Many marriages and relationships go out like fading embers because the original fire which ignited it  was the false flames of lustful passion, and never did it transcend the “weak and beggarly elements” of those carnal desires. 

“Youthful lusts” can never satisfy the spiritual man in the end.  And so we continue to look for this divine love, this love from above, which is the only satisfying kind.

God has placed into our hearts this need to be truly loved, and so we seek for it.  Realizing that this divine, agape love is God Himself is a life-changing revelation.  For we then will see that the love we crave from everyone we see can only be satisfied by Him who is Love itself.  We seek love from God’s image–human beings–instead of from the source of Love–God Himself.

And how does this God, who is Love, reach down and touch us and give us the wonderful feeling of being truly loved?   How does an invisible Spirit (Love) reach down through the ether and show us His heart of Love? 

He does it through His visible Son.   The greatest  love that one can show is to give up his life for others.  Does it not touch our hearts, bringing tears to our eyes, to see reports of firefighters, policemen, and soldiers laying down their lives in efforts to save another? These we call heroes.  “Everybody’s looking for a hero.”

But the ultimate Hero is God-in-human-form, God’s Son, called Jesus in English and Yahshua in His original Hebrew language.  God loved us so much that He yielded up His son, the only perfect man, so that we could feel what true love is and respond by doing likewise.  Christ is our example.  He provided the way at the cross for us to get rid of our selfish little heart and receive His heart of love.  And that same Spirit of Love now is shown through us.  God wants us now to give up our selfish lives in service to the King and to His subjects, our fellow human beings.

This is it.  This is the answer that mankind is seeking for.  For we all seek to be loved.  Now we must realize that we are loved by God, who is Love.  And now we share this love.  Mankind must channel God (Love) through their actions to others.

Tapping into this Love transforms us into the loving and the loveable.  The change is astounding.  We become that fountain of loving waters that quenches other people’s thirst to be loved.  In so doing, God is multiplied and magnified by Love’s very transformational spiritual properties. 

Perhaps you have already started this change.  We now are left the challenge to “go onto perfection,” perfecting His love within us.  We do this by loving.  For Love is an action verb, not just an idea/noun.  Now let Him give His gifts to others through us.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

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July 11, 2010 · 2:24 pm

His Faith–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 as to what faith is.

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 manufacture out of our own will and effort that leads us to finally believe in 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.  To read more go to the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

 

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