Category Archives: repentance

December 28, 2011 · 9:20 pm

Understanding: To Depart from Evil

Step Five on the Road to Immortality: Repentance from Dead Works

“To depart from evil is understanding.” Job 28:28.   “Knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10

Chapter 26 of the book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality

     So far we have taken some very necessary steps on the road to immortality.  We have discovered that Yahweh-Is-Savior is that Road to Everlasting Life.  We have learned how to be in awe of Him, which is the obtaining of wisdom.  We have learned His true name, His nature, and His eternal purpose and plan.

     But all these steps have amounted to the mere acquisition of knowledge—extremely important, of course, and necessary, but knowledge nonetheless.  In this next step, however, we must do and not just know.  We will learn to put this knowledge into practice.  We now start doing what we know to do.

     Talk is cheap; action is expensive.  “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them,” said the Master.  Conversely, if we gain knowledge of the holy things and do not begin to do them and walk in them, then we will not be happy. …The latter end is worse with them than the beginning.  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. II Peter 2:21.

     Receiving knowledge of the high, sanctified, set-apart things of God is the gaining of understanding.  Now at first this does not make much sense to us because we have man’s definition of what understanding is, much like we had man’s definition of what wisdom was in step one.  When we think of the word “understanding,” we think of comprehending something—the ability of making sense of something. But this is man’s interpretation.  When we begin to attain knowledge of the holy things, the secret things, the things that the Supreme Being reserves only for those who fear Him and are awe of Him—that is understanding!  And this knowledge of the sanctified things, the things that the Almighty has set apart and reserved for only a few—that is understanding and that will bring us into the desire to flee the evil of our ways, to depart from the old life and get into the flow of His new life within us. …The knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10…To depart from evil is understanding. Job 28:28.  Understanding is knowing about His true ways which leads us to depart from evil.

     True knowledge about the Most High’s sacred truths will lead us into doing something about it; it will lead us to fleeing the evil.  But how do we do really ever be rid of the sin in our lives?

1 Comment

Filed under apostles' doctrine, repentance, wisdom

Tagged as , , , ,

June 27, 2010 · 7:52 pm

How the Old Self Dies–Baptism into His Death

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.

[This is ch. 28 of my book, Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality, which you can find at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

2 Comments

Filed under baptism, belief, crucified with Christ, death of self, faith, old self, repentance

Tagged as , , , ,

December 12, 2009 · 5:54 pm

The Greatest Hit of the Ages–The Called According to His Purpose*

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer.”  I Samuel 9: 9)

One time I asked the Seer, “What is life all about?  What’s really going on?  Why are we here?”

And then the Seer answered in a sweeping monologue.

First of all, there is a Creator, a Supreme Being with a plan and purpose.  Modern man will just have to get over it and accept that there is Someone higher in the food chain.  Just look around.  Things that are alive come from living things.  If anything ever lived, it owes its existence to something else that was living–of its own kind.  Every living thing reproduces itself.  Since every living thing gets its life from another living being, then an Initial living being, a Supreme Being, had to have given life to all the living.

It is only logical.  Two pieces of granite cannot reproduce.  Only the living things of creation are reproducing, and their pro-creating drive has been ignited by the Creator, the Life Giver. 

But the kicker, though, is that the Creator has put in motion all this reproduction as a type or metaphor of what He is doing with Himself.  The Creator’s plan and purpose is written into the quintessential  action of every living thing–procreation.  His plan and purpose is written into nature, and it is just waiting there to be deciphered.

So what does the secret writing of both nature and the scriptures reveal as to what God is saying?  Answer:  Hey, creation, I’m reproducing Myself, too!  You didn’t think I was going to let you have all the fun of raising a family, did you?  I have a family, too.

And this is how I am going to do it.  My essence is Love.  And I desire to magnify and reproduce Love.  So, in order to reproduce the real Spirit of Love, which is Me, I will create a special being that can contain Me. 

I’ll create this special creature, the human being, male and female.  And I will place within them both a desire to procreate.  I will make them capable of loving with a heart that longs for love.  And their lives will be like a play, lived out on the stage of this earth.

But this play will seem like a tragedy in the first few acts, for the human beings will have tragic flaws.   As my crowning creation, humans will be extremely complex characters.  In their inner being, they will want to do good, but their innate selfishness will thwart their intents to do that good and right thing.

Some humans will eventually come to their wit’s end.  They will do craven acts of unkindness, driven by the first nature I have given them.  Their foolish and selfish heart will drive them to cheat on their spouses, steal from their fellow humans, and tell falsehoods to further their own selfish desires.  And other sins they will do.

But some will feel horrible about their actions.  Their consciences will torture them.  They will long to do good, despite succumbing to the temptations of the old nature.  It is from these who feel the need to repent that I will choose to reproduce Myself in.  They will know that they have done wrong and will search for a place of repentance and redemption as desperately as a lost man in the desert seeks water. 

And they will find forgiveness of all their past evil deeds and thoughts.  Then I will give them of My Spirit, which is their new seed beginning in the garden of their hearts.  And through this new spirit within, they will blossom in love.  And this love will be shed abroad, by them forgiving their fellow human beings–especially those who are still using them for their own selfish desires. 

They will learn to bless those who hurt them and persecute them.  They will love their enemies and do good to all unenlightened human beings.  They will forgive everyone in their old Adamic past, and they will reach out and love any and all.  And they will love Me who gave them a new chance–an opportunity to become one of My children, one of My princes or princesses.

And they will walk on this earth, shining forth this spiritual light of My own reproductive perfectness.  For I will multiply Love, which is my nature, through their realization of the great deliverance I have brought them through.  They will be fountains of forgiveness, shedding forth the refreshing water of life to all so called.

And in due time, I will change these redeemed ones into my immortal offspring.  For they will be those human beings who have believed My word.  In the face of all the gainsayers, they will have persevered despite the doubts of those who persisted in pernicious ways.

And then I said, “So this is what the Bible is all about.”

“Exactly.  It is not about sanctimonious ceremonies in “castles midst the poverty” once or twice a week.  It is about Life, an abundant Life, a life that will last forever.  It is all about God sharing Himself with His creation.  And this Life is the play foreseen and written by God and revealed to a few.  It is a real play produced and directed by God.  He wrote it eons ago, and we as the principal players in this drama should submit to the Director.  The sooner we do, the sooner we will be a part of the Greatest Hit of the Ages.”     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

*Romans 8: 28-30; Ephesians 3: 11-19

1 Comment

Filed under Bible, children of God, eternal life, immortality, princes and princesses of God, repentance

Tagged as , , ,

August 20, 2009 · 12:26 pm

“Repent and Be Converted”–Returning to Our Previous State with the Father

“Repent and be converted…”  How these words of the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost have been watered down by mainstream Churchianity today.  “Repent” has become “feeling sorry,” and “being converted” now means “coming to church.”

“To repent” is rather the changing of one’s mind, from the Greek word metanoia.  “Godly sorrow does work repentance.”  Ie, feeling sorry for our past sins to God will bring about a change in our thinking.  But for the mind to really be changed, we must go through the “cross experience”  whereby our old heart and mind are “crucified with Christ,” buried with Him, and finally raised up in newness with Him.  We then receive His Spirit, His heart, and His mind.  We then are poised to be “transformed by the renewing of our mind.”  Old thoughts of selfishness are “passed away.”  “Behold, all things are become new.”

Being Converted–What It Really Means

“Converted” is from the Greek word epistrepho, meaning “to revert, to return, to come again” (1).  “To return” inherently means that we were there before.  “To return to St. Louis” means that we have been in that city on a previous occasion.  Therefore, “being converted” to God means returning back to Him–reverting or going back to a spiritual position we had with Him before.

Truly becoming a child of God means that we have received His Spirit.  For “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8: 9).  We become a “new creature” with the Spirit we had with Him in the beginning now residing in our earthly bodies.  “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.”  And this treasure is a portion of His Spirit, a bit of Him that we shared with Him before the worlds were framed.

If We Can Just Believe…

I know that is “getting out there,” but if we can believe  that we are returning to a spiritual state that we already had with God, then it will become easier to believe that we now have the great Eternal Spirit, Yahweh Himself, walking in us now.  For things are always easier to do, if we have done them before.  Can we with humility say, Been there, done that?

The Returning Prodigal Son

In the parable of the prodigal son, he returned to his Father.  He was once with his Father, but went to the swine pens of this world.  We, like him, have made a complete mess of our old lives, and are now returning, reverting to our prior position with the Father.  We are the prodigal sons and daughters of God, repenting from our old life and being washed from the slop and mire of sin.  We now in spirit have returned to our Father to the standing we had with Him before this wearisome walk on earth began.

“The Jews took up stones again to stone Him.”  Christ asked them, Which good work from my Father are you stoning me?  They said, Because you make yourself out to be God and you are only a man.  Christ then quotes from Psalms, “Is it not written in your law, I said, You are gods”?

The word “gods” is translated from the Hebrew word elohim, which is the exact word translated “God” over 2,000 times in the Bible.  Christ said that we are elohim.  That portion of His Spirit that He has given us was with Him in the beginning.  Remember when He said in Genesis, “Let us make man in our own image…so God created man in his own image” (1: 26-27). 

But we must not make the mistake in thinking that our old man Adam is God.  No.  Our old self must die, thereby blotting out our sins.  Only after believing in His resurrection can we receive His Spirit.  It is His Spirit that is God.  We are mere clay vessels that He has chosen to reside in.  It is all Him, not us in our natural thinking. 

This is difficult to comprehend when we look at this “after the flesh” and not “after the Spirit.”  Most still circle that same old mountain of sin in their lives, not believing that God is quite capable of “blotting out” our sins (Acts 3: 19).  Most will not believe Him and truly repent of their sins.  Sadly, most will not believe that “He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin” (I John 3: 5).  Their preachers don’t teach it, and most will depend on them for their spiritual food.

But a few will believe and repent and follow on in the Way.  They will receive Him into a new heart, and they will grow, and He will grow in them, “till we all come in the unity of the faith…unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4: 13).  These will be His fully manifested sons and daughters of God in these latter days.

We need to help them fulfill their calling.  In so doing, “there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior” (2 Peter 1: 11).

Repentance and being converted to Christ has a deeper meaning than some think.  But knowing and doing the truth about them will bear fruit.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock 

(1) Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for epistrephō (Strong’s 1994)“. Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2009. 17 Aug 2009. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?
Strongs=G1994&t=KJV > 

“converted” —  http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Strongs=G1994&Criteria=be+converted%2A&t=KJV

1 Comment

Filed under belief, crucified with Christ, death of self, glorification, repentance

Tagged as , , , ,

August 15, 2009 · 2:27 pm

Conversion to Christ–Just the First Step Towards Glorification

God’s offspring, His future manifested sons and daughters for these last days, will realize that conversion to Christ is just the first step on their spiritual journey back to their Father’s heart. 

Their conversion, yes, is an astounding miracle performed by the Spirit of God, whereby their old heart is cleansed from sin and sinning, as they stand before the King justified by their faith in Him and His power to change lives.  This true conversion experience is giddy-wonderful, filling our souls with an inexplicable peace and love.

Charles G. Finney  described this experience of justification in his memoirs: “I felt myself justified by faith; and, so far as I could see, I was in a state in which I did not sin. Instead of feeling that I was sinning all the time, my heart was so full of love that it overflowed. My cup ran over with blessing and with love; and I could not feel that I was sinning against God. Nor could I recover the least sense of guilt for my past sins. Of this experience I said nothing that I recollect, at the time, to anybody; that is, of this experience of justification” ( http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/religion/conversion.html ).

Justification (just-if-I’d never sinned) is truly wonderful.  It is our ticket to Immortality and a Life in the presence of the King of the Universe.  But it is just the first step.  And it is here that many “babes in Christ” remain, for they are taught that this is all there is by well-meaning, unenlightened teachers. [For more see https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/the-manifested-sons-of-god-overcoming-the-law-of-sin-and-death/ ]

“Be Converted”

The sons and daughters of God will see that conversion is something even more grand than justification.  Being converted to Christ sets our feet on the path “to the glory we had with Him before the world began.”  Through it we revert back to what we had with Him before the worlds were ever created.  We are “called unto glory and virtue.”  After being “justified by faith,” we are to “sanctify ourselves,” setting ourselves apart for His purposes.  In turn, those who become sanctified may enter the rarified realm of glorification.

Yes, a few of His followers will be glorified, just as our example was.  The apostle Paul wrote of “the glory which shall be revealed in us.”  A few will complete Christ’s spiritual life-cycle; they will “suffer with Him” now, that they “may be also glorified together” (Romans 8: 17-18).  Yes, some of His followers will grow to the point that they will be “glorified together” with Christ!  You can read it in plain English in any translation; they all say the same thing. 

These that are “glorified together” with Christ are manifested sons and daughters of God (v. 19).  This is the “high calling.”  There is no greater calling on this planet than to be one of these.  For they will “sit with Him on [His] throne” and will become “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rev. 3: 21; Rom. 8: 17). 

Suffering With Christ

But this calling is only to those who “suffer with Christ.”  They must first suffer their own crucifixion, allowing their old self and old heart to die with Christ on the cross; to be buried with Him into His death, and by believing His resurrection, we believe that we are raised from the dead, from the death sentence caused by all our past sins.  We then receive His Spirit by faith.  This is justification (Romans 6: 1-16).

We then must suffer the Spirit of God to “purge out the old leaven” from our thinking.  We all in our old lives have been taught erroneous doctrines and teachings.  Coming off of these things that we were taught and believed our whole lives is difficult, but very necessary.  Difficult because of what friends, family, and acquintances will say.  We will suffer rejection from loved ones as we make a stand for truth.  They will not understand and will try and talk us out of our newfound beliefs.  It is all in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13.  All false doctrines and concepts must be gotten rid of.  This takes much prayerful study.  This also takes humility to learn from someone else who knows the way and has been sent to help teach the future sons and daughters of God.  This is part of the sanctification experience, the second leg on our journey.  Only those who make it through to the end of this process will go on to glorification.

All this is a process that yields an astounding spiritual transformation in a few good men and women.  They will do the “greater works” that Christ spoke of (John 14: 12).  They will shine as “lights in the midst of a wicked and perverse nation.”  The darkness is thick, but God, who is light, will pierce the darkness through, and will bring in a wonderful new government to earth.  And these manifested ones will rule and reign with Him.  Incredible, I know.  But that is what The Book says.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Leave a comment

Filed under crucified with Christ, death of self, glorification, repentance, santification, sons and daughters of God

Tagged as , , , ,

August 8, 2009 · 1:22 pm

In Him Was Life–The Light of Men

God, the creative Life Force, has now made it possible for His very Life essence to be placed into the human beings that He has created.  He is Eternal Life, and “God is a  Spirit.”  And when He places Himself in a human being, that person has eternal life dwelling in him.  The promise is unto us of immortality.  But there is only one way to attain this most precious of gifts.

Only one way, and Christ is the way.  He alone is the Road to Immortality.  He said as much.  “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  The Father, who is that original Spirit Life Force, dwelt bodily and fully in the man known in the English speaking world as Jesus Christ.  That is why Christ continued and said, “No man comes unto the Father, but by me” (John 14: 6). 

His disciple Philip asked Him to show the Father to them.  And He responded, He that has seen me has seen the Father…the Father that dwells in me, He does the works.  Then Christ commands them to believe Him that the Father is in Him (John 14: 9-11).  Those who can do this will go on to do greater works than what even Christ had done (v. 12). 

Christ is the mediator between the Father and mankind.  He alone was predestined to overcome all things and provide the way into the Most Holy Place of the Father’s Presence, which is the Spirit coming into us and us coming into Him.

So this notion that Christ Jesus, who actually was called by His Hebrew name Yahshua during the 1st and 2nd centuries–this notion that He was just another great teacher or enlightened sage must be discarded once and for all.  Anyway, if He was such a great teacher, then why doesn’t everyone believe His teachings?  If He was so enlightened, then why doesn’t everbody follow Him?

In Him Was Life

The scriptures of truth declare that “in Him was life.”  Christ had and has eternal Life residing in Himself.  And this Life Force, which is the Spirit/Father, is Light.  “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1: 4). 

It is here that it gets sticky for the human race.  For they are living their lives in the darkness of hidden sins and lies, and “the Light shines in the darkness,” and the darkness of men’s souls has never quenched, nor overcome, nor ever put the Light out.  For the Light is the very Life Force of the Father, who is immortal.

How does the Light shine into the darkness of the human heart?  It exposes the sin and evil that dwells therein.  The Light shines into the heart of darkness and convicts it of sin and forces it to change, to repent.  And it is here that most of the masses of humanity lose interest in Christ and His message of regeneration; they feel that they are okay and have no need to change.

Yet the Savior and His apostles’ message was, “Repent of your sins.”  His forerunner, the prophet John the Baptist, witnessed to all at Christ’s appearance at the river, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 8).  He was saying that Christ has the Father in Him and He is the true Light that will search out the dark hidden recesses of your heart and soul.  He will provide the way for you to not have sin plaguing you daily.  He will take away your sin and anyone else’s that hears and obeys Him.  He will literally “save His people from their sins,” which is exactly what His Hebrew name Yahshua means–“Yahweh is the Savior.”  Yahweh, the Father, dwells fully in the Son, and He delivers us from sin and sinning.

His Spirit-Life-Love is Light insomuch as it exposes evil, selfish darkness.  When a person in darkness rejects the Light, then condemnation follows.  Christ and those He dwells in do not condemn anyone.  They merely allow Him to live His righteous life in their daily walk and leave the judging to Him.  A person is condemned when he rejects the Light by loving darkness and evil rather than drawing near to the Light.  In fact, everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light because they don’t want their evil deeds to be exposed.  “Everyone that does evil hates the light, because their deeds are evil” (John 3: 17-21). 

One must get past the veil of Christ’s flesh and see the Father in Him, and thereby allow the healing Light of truth cleanse our hearts and set us upon the right path.  This takes humility–a commodity sorely lacking here on earth.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1 Comment

Filed under eternal life, immortality, repentance, Yahshua

Tagged as , , , ,

August 4, 2009 · 11:41 am

Christ in You–The Treasure in Earthen Vessels

Every stimulus that bombards our five senses works to prevent us from glimpsing the true Light.  It is no accident that this happens; the great Creator made it this way so that His spiritual offspring would have spiritual struggles to overcome, thereby making them stronger.  This is His doing and not ours; we would not do it this way.  “His thoughts are not our thoughts.”

It is the overcoming of sin that lies at the heart of the Christian experience.  Man’s thought says to us, No one can stop sinning in this life.  This is pure self-projection, for the scriptures of truth speak otherwise.  They speak of a deliverance from sin.  “He that is dead is freed from sin” (1).  And, “He shall save His people from their sins” (2).  And “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).

This is what actually distinguishes the children of God from the children of darkness.  I have written extensively about the “cross experience.”  For it is there that one must come and surrender their old sinful selfish ways and just let them die with Christ, who bore them there; and be buried with Him, and be raised with Him.  Or rather, through belief in the “operation of God” that raised Him up, we also can be “raised to walk in a newness of life” (3).  This is “where old things are passed away,” where “all things are become new” (4).  This is bottom line.

For it is His Life that counts.  He doesn’t want a re-directed, re-furbished, re-cycled old selfish life.  No.  Our old life has to completely go, completely die out.  He wants His life taking root and growing up in us.  And finally, God wants His Spirit, the Spirit that is in Christ, to grow and flourish inside of us to the point that we become just like the Son of God.  There it is.  That is His plan and purpose.  But only a few will have the faith to believe it and walk in it.

This is the secret kept from the foundation of the world–the secret that all seekers have wanted to know down through history.  It is the treasure kept hidden in plain sight in this old world, a vast spiritual chest of knowledge much more precious than gold and diamonds.  “And few there be that find it” (5).

Why?  Because one cannot find this elusive spiritual treasure when moved by selfish motives.  For one will not be given the map to find it if one seeks it selfishly.  “Only the pure in heart shall see God” and His purpose and plan to reproduce Himself.

One can even read about this treasure in plain English, like you are reading this right now, and if their eyes have not been anointed with eyesalve, they can read the words, but the message will lay thud-like on leadened ears. 

Here, then, is the secret of this “sacred mystery which up till now has been hidden in every age and every generation, but which is now as clear as daylight to those who love God.  They are those to whom God has planned to give a vision of the full wonder and splendour of his secret plan for the nations.  And the secret is simply this:  Christ in you!  Yes Christ in you bringing with him the hope of all the glorious things to come” (6).  And those things include His government and righteousness filling this earth–precious things that we, His children, the overcomers will inherit.  He is our Father; therefore, we are His heirs, heirs of all things!

But before all this happens, we have to get over ourselves and realize that we are nothing; it is all Him, all Christ.  Once we receive that, we can find rest.    KWH

  1. Romans 6: 7
  2. Matt. 1: 21
  3. Romans 6: 4
  4. II Cor. 5: 7
  5. Matt. 7: 14
  6. Col. 1: 26-27

5 Comments

Filed under death of self, eternal purpose, faith, repentance, sons and daughters of God

Tagged as , , ,

June 5, 2009 · 12:45 pm

A Simple, Sincere Prayer Away from “The Answer”

This world is in trouble.  America is bankrupt.  It is all teetering on the brink of destruction.  Families and homes are being wrecked through unemployment, brought on by insidious, covert forces.  And yet, all of us earth-dwellers are a whisper away from receiving real answers to our problems.

Humankind is one simple sincere prayer away from contacting The Answer, who is the Author of the Book of Life.  One simple, sincere communique to the Great One.  Just one prayer, one humble request based in true knowledge would yield a release from the stresses and fears plaguing us.

But which god?  “For there are gods many.”  We need to ask the one true God.  But we are to “ask in faith–nothing wavering…Ask, believe, and you shall receive.”  That is the scriptural Rx for answers.  But the catch is that we cannot ask God for things for our self, “to consume it upon our on lusts (desires).”  He doesn’t hear the prayers of the selfish or prideful.

The Renunciation of Self

First, then, there must be a renunciation of our own selfish desires, and then we are to ask the Father and petition Him with our “simple, sincere prayer.”

But man is so full of himself that one of two things happen as he stands so close to receiving The Answer to Life’s Problems.  He either is consumed with his own ego (old self), or he would pray to another god or another concept of the true God, which cannot give him The Answer.

Only One Religion Gets Rid of the Old Self

Only true Christianity–not Churchianity, not the watered-down pablum of Christendom–provides a way for a person to get rid of the old selfish heart we are all born with.  It is done at the cross, which is not taught anymore in denominational churches like it once was 100-200 years ago.

At the cross, we surrender up to God in revelation our old self, identifying its sinful ways with Christ, who took our sins upon Him and actually died as a lost man that day at Calvary.  When He died, our old self died; when He was buried, our old life was buried; when the Spirit entered into Him and raised Him from the dead, we, too, were “raised to walk in a newness of life” by His faith now entered into our new heart.

Now It Is All About Him

And now, after this experience, we communicate with that God, who walked fully in the man Christ.  We call on Him with a simple, sincere prayer, asking for more light that He may reveal to us how better we may serve Him, how better we may be of help to Him as He fashions His earth and the people in it.

We then in our simple, sincere prayer seek to help Him bring in His government  into this old earth.  His soon-coming kingdom–this is His plan and purpose, which is contained in His book, that He, the Author, has already written.

We, then, are a simple, sincere prayer away from touching the heart of the very Creator of this entire universe!  He knows our “frame is dust.”  He knows we are weak and have great needs that only He can fill.  And He is only a simple, sincere whisper away from us.  We need only to take that first step.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

See also:

“He Who Commits Sin Is a Slave to Sin”

Q: What Is Sin? A: The Transgression of the Law

“But Deliver Us From Evil”–From the Evil Within the Heart


6 Comments

Filed under cross, crucified with Christ, death of self, repentance

Tagged as , , , ,

May 21, 2009 · 3:25 pm

“He Who Commits Sin Is a Slave to Sin”

It always comes down to the sin question.  The Savior is not going to let us slide on this point.

“Sin is the transgression of the law.”   Breaking one of the Ten Commandments is the scriptural definition (I John 3: 4).  We all have in the past broken them, but are we still breaking them?

For Christ “shall save His people from their sins.”  For “He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin” (Matthew 1: 21; I John 3: 5).  Are we professing Christians “in Him” or not?

The True Light is come now.  We have no excuse for our sin today.  If we do not believe in the Light, we reject what the Light can do in our lives.  Man is already condemned if this is the case.

Loving Darkness More than Light

Most human beings reject or do not believe in the Light because they love the dark deeds that they get to do, and they do not want to give them up.  These actions are evil.  And if man is doing evil things, things against God and man–sin, in other words–then he is going to hate the Light that exposes that evil action.  That person will not come to the light because he is afraid that his actions will be discovered.  Most adulteries, fornications, thefts, murders, and evil in general occur at night.

It is only when a person is truly and completely fed up with being a slave to sin–only then will they welcome the cleansing light of His truth.

A Slave to Sin?  Really?

But, a slave to sin?  Is man with his old nature in bondage to sin?  Is sin his master?  The scriptures of truth say, Yes.

Christ was speaking to some who were gathered.  “And you shall kow the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8: 32-34).  The pricked them, for they responded indignantly, “We have never been in bondage to any man.  We have never been slaves.  How then is the truth going to free us from anything?’

He then told them just what kind of bondage He was talking about.  “Everyone that commits sin is a slave to sin.  And the slave does not continue in the house forever: the son continues forever.”  In the KJV, it says “servant.”  But this is rendered from the Greek word G1401 meaning “a slave or bondman.”  Its root word (G1210) means “to bind with chains.”

The apostle Paul wrote about this bondage to sin in Romans 6: 16.  If you yield yourselves to obey the old master Sin in your life, then you are a slave to sin.  You won’t be able to stop.  You will obey sins dictates and holds and demands on you.  But if you obey God in putting that old sinful nature to death, then you will become a servant unto the righteous Spirit of God that He will place inside you through belief in His resurrection.

God has provided a way for the bondage of sin and sinning to be broken.  It is at the cross.  To be free, we must surrender and place our old sinful hearts on the cross.  It’s the only way to freedom from sin and sinning.  KWH

{Check out “He Who Commits Sin Is a Slave to Sin–Part II for more.  If this has been helpful, forward it to others; bookmark this site, and please come visit again and share comments on your experiences.  God bless.}

4 Comments

Filed under crucified with Christ, light, old self, repentance, sin

Tagged as , , , ,

March 30, 2009 · 12:54 pm

Overcoming by the Blood of the Lamb

People are pressed down by this old world system.  The world’s economies are skidding down into a gigantic depression.  People are under extreme pressure, some even going crazy, killing their families and themselves.  They are losing their jobs, their homes, cars, their lives as they know it.

In lieu of all this, Christ’s words ring with the crystal clarity of truth: “In the world, you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

But here is a newsflash:  We shall overcome also!  But how do we overcome the world and all of its tribulation, trouble, and anguish?

The First Overcoming

The first overcoming, which leads to all of the overcomings, or victories in Christ, is the victory over sin in our lives.  It is a direct victory of the power of the devil in our lives, for “he that commits sin is of the devil.”  But to get rid of sin in our lives was the “purpose the  Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3: 8).

How is this done?  “They overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12: 11).  Our victory over the evil comes through these two things.

Many talk a good Christian ballgame, but few deliver through the lives that they lead.  Many claim to follow Christ, yet they still do secret sins, which emanate from the dark recesses of an unregenerated heart–a heart that is old and carnal–a heart that has not climbed Calvary’s hill to submit to the death of the cross along with Christ.

By the Blood of Christ the Sacrificial Lamb

He is the sin sacrifice–the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  He takes away the sin of the world. When He gets through, we don’t have it anymore.  But we must identify our old sinful heart with Him that day of the Lamb’s death some 2,000 years ago.  This is how the Lamb’s blood cleanses us.  When it drained out of Him, the life and energy and power of sin died out.  When His blood was all spilled out, then the lifeforce of sin in us drained out as well. This is how we overcame the devil.  It is from this cleansing of sin through the death of our old nature, of our old spirit, of our old heart.

Yet, sadly, chances are very slim that you will hear this in today’s church houses and Sunday schools.  It is “too strong, too harsh.”  It is not politically correct and is a sure fire way for the hired preacher to lose his pastorship.  But the old preachers of past centuries taught these very things I have shared here.  John Wesley taught it, yet you won’t hear this in a modern Methodist church.  Martin Luther taught it, but today’s Lutherans won’t hear it in church.  Spurgeon taught it, but most Baptists won’t hear this stark message in their churches.

But this is how we repent from sin.  The very first apostles’ doctrine was “repentance from dead works.”  Sin, the breaking of the 10 Commandments, is a “dead work,” for it leads to death.  And getting rid of sin in our lives is the very cornerstone in the sure foundation Christ talked about.  Without this start in Christ, the foundation is shaky, and the house will fall when the devil winds blow.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{Be sure to bookmark this site.  Share it with others.  Make a comment and share your thoughts about  these things with people worldwide.  To read more on this see “my books online” in the blogroll in the right column}

.

1 Comment

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

Tagged as , , , ,