Immortality Road

One of the most trite and worn-out expressions in the English language is “In His name.” What does it really mean?  All through our Christian walk to date we have uttered that phrase or a variation of it. “In the name of Jesus.” “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

We ended most every prayer that we’ve ever prayed with a form of “in His name.”  We have recited it almost as an incantation, as if it had magical qualities that would bring healing and comfort. Now let us investigate and study these three words in a new light.  “In His name…” In, inside, within the true name.  He is pointing us to go into His name.  Take His Hebrew name, Yahshua, and go into that name and extract the meaning from it.

His name means literally, “Yah is salvation” or “Yah is Savior.”  But to all who received him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become the children of God. John 1:12.  Here, “receiving Him” and “believing in His name” are synonymous.  

A message in His name to be believed 

“Believing in His name” implies that there is a message to be believed, a truth inherent in His name. We have seen that Hebrew names are prophetical. We have seen that the Savior was named Yahshua because “he shall save His people from their sins.”  And Yahshua means “Yah is Savior.”  So what is the message contained within His name?  That message is “Yah is the Savior.

His name is loaded with meaning.  Inside that name is the meaning and efficacy needed to bring a person into the Spirit of the Father and to bring the Spirit into the person.  “Believing in His name…” The children receive the Spirit by believing in what His name means (by believing in His name). 

We believe that Yahweh or Yah, the Eternal Spirit, came down to earth and poured His essence into a specially set apart human form to sacrifice Himself so that we could take on His spiritual nature. For I am Yahweh thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour…I, I am Yahweh, and besides Me there is no savior…Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. Isa. 43:3, 11; 45:15. 

Yes, Yah did hide Himselfwell in a flesh body some 2000 years ago.  But He makes it very clear from the above passages in Isaiah that He is the Savior; He is the Creator.  The apostle John makes it very clear that the Spirit-filled human flesh body that he had walked with for three and a half years did the creating.  In the beginning was the Word…All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made…He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…John 1:1, 3, 10, 14. 

Believing What His Name Means

There is no contradiction here.  Yah did the creating, the forming, the redeeming and the saving.  And Yah, clothed in human flesh, took the name “Yahshua,” Yah-Is-Savior.  The very name of the Messiah points to the fact that it is the Father Yahweh who is doing the saving.  Yah was in that vessel, the Messiah, reconciling the world unto Himself.  The Spirit, Yah, pours Himself into His temple and works out of it to the world.

When a person believes in the name of Yahshua, he is believing what that name means—that Yah is the Savior in human form.  In fact, the act of believing in the name of Yahshua is a miniature of the Creator’s plan of kingdom redemption.

If one has really received Him, that person will have believed in His name, which is to say, will have believed that the Father Yah was in human form, and that combination, Yahshua, is bringing salvation to the world.   

He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. John 3:18.  When one does not believe in the Messiah, he is not believing in the meaning of His name.  For He said, “He that rejects Me, rejects Him that sent Me.”  If you reject the Son, you are rejecting the Father that dwells within the Son, for that is exactly where the Father Yahweh is. “Know ye not that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” He asked.      

The phrase “in the name,” then, has profound meaning.  First, we cannot believe in His name if we do not know His name.  If we seek, He will reveal to us the meaning of His name.  This knowledge, in turn, is an important key that will unlock the door.

The Savior’s name is Yahshua, Yah-Is-Savior.  To believe in His name is to believe what His name actually means: Yahweh, the self-existent One that cried through Isaiah, who appeared and spoke to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and many others, offered up His perfect human incarnation and became the Author of eternal salvation for His people.

[This is taken from Chapter 9 of my book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality. You need this book. Order your free copy with free shipping by sending your mailing address to my email:  wayneman5@hotmail.com  Be sure to include your name, street address, and the title of the book. No mailing list, no follow up. It is just me here. God bless you. Kenneth Wayne Hancock]

I have found a surefire cure for depression.  It is simple, natural–well, it is really spiritual–and it is free.  No money, clinics, or doctors needed.  The only physician involved in this cure  is the Great Physician.

The cure?  Depression is cured when the sufferer just sits down and thanks God for his blessings.  For a state of depression and a grateful heart cannot co-exist.  There is no such thing as a depressed praiser of God.

As the Savior taught, at the bottom of most maladies we will find a spiritual cause.  Think about it.  When was the last time you saw someone depressed, sitting there on their couch and saying to you, “My friend.  Thank you for coming to visit.  I was just thinking about you.  You know, I thank God for the wonderful friends and family I have.”  That grateful heart cannot utter a depression-filled negative thought.  A depressed grateful person is an oxymoron.  Those two cannot go together.  Impossible.

Depression, sadness, and worry spring from self-centered  thinking.  A depressed person only thinks of themselves.  It all centers on self.  Woe is me! they will say.  Self-pity, fear of what others think, and selfish thoughts cannot exist in a mind and heart that is thankful to God.  It is impossible.

So what can the depressed do?  They simply must stop the negative thinking, just for a moment.  Then think about God and say, “Thank you, God, for _________________.”  Everyone can fill in the blank with one thing.  Sunshine, air, food, a son, a daughter, a wife that has stuck with them through thick and thin, a husband who works and brings home bread and milk.  Hey, fill in the blank with something, and in that very instant of thanksgiving, the depression begins to lift.

The darker the hour, the more need to thank Him.  “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus (Yahshua) concerning you” [1].  Everything.  The “good” and the “bad.” 

For we must realize that God has deliberately built in hardships and sufferings, so that our belief in Him may be purified [2], and that joy may abound within us.  But most people get down, blame others, or blame themselves, instead of seeing this truth: “Acknowledge Him in all our ways, and He shall direct our paths” [3]

We then, should realize that when negativity attacks our minds through self-centered thoughts bringing on depression,  we should simply thank God.  For depression is caused by negative thoughts that cannot co-inhabit a grateful mind.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. I Thess. 5: 18
2. I Peter 1: 6-7
3. Proverbs 3: 6

Christ’s New Commandment issues organically out of God’s purpose. Every thought and action has a purpose. God’s purpose is the reproduction of Himself. “God is love.” Therefore, His purpose is to reproduce agape love.

God has a plan to accomplish His purpose. It is to use human beings to reproduce Himself in. Because it takes time, His plan has been written down and has come to us in the Holy Bible. But unfortunately, it is a closed book for most readers. It is full of mysteries because people do not know God’s purpose in creating the earth and the human beings teeming on its surface.

Christ said, “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34). In short, we are commanded to love each other like He loved us.

So, how do we obey His command? We have been taught that we cannot be like Christ. Yet, He tells us to be like Him, to love like Him. Do we look at John 13:34 and turn our backs and say, He really didn’t mean what He said? Or do we ask Him to open our eyes and hearts to solve the mysterious command?

We better obey Him. He is the great Teacher. He created all things, so surely He will show us how to obey His New Commandment (Col. 1:16). He does this by giving us a series of specific commands, or commandments, that we can study out and apply in our lives.

For example, He commanded us to forgive each other (Mark 11:25). When we forgive, God’s Spirit grows within us, much like our muscles grow when we use them. God’s purpose is for Him to grow in us to a point that it is all Him inside of us. This is how God will reproduce Himself in us.

His New Commandment is to love each other the way He loved us. Under this overarching Commandment are many other commandments. When we obey them, we will have loved each other with Christ’s love. Christ knows that it is a big order to fill for us. So He breaks it down into smaller steps. We ask Him for more of His Spirit in order that we may forgive, thus loving that person who has offended us. For it is only His Spirit now growing in us that does the loving.

The first section of this book will give more background information. The second section will address several of Christ’s new commandments in detail. We will not attempt to elucidate all of the new commandments of Christ. They are like pearls just under the sand, waiting for the pilgrim to discover them. It is our hope that this book will bring awareness of the commandments and their importance for our spiritual growth, that it may be used to carry us all on down the road to immortality, that God may reproduce Himself in each of us.

{This is the Prologue for the new book that I am working on. It is called Christ’s New Commandment. Our job as Christians is to help each other grow till it is fully “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Be sure to order one of my books. They are free with free shipping in the USA and a pdf to requests from overseas: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/donate/ }

Many Christians proclaim that they “go by every word of God.” But sadly, that is not quite true. A more accurate statement would be that they go by every word that they think they understand. They go by every word, except those passages in scripture not understood by them.

The danger here is that not-understanding-a-passage leads to ignoring it. For huge portions of the Bible just lay there, ignored by billions of professing Christians, just waiting to be read, understood, and believed. But the ignorers don’t have the keys that open up passages of scripture because the keys are found in the books that are ignored.

Moreover, many dismiss entire books, especially from the “Old Testament,” saying that those books have no bearing upon born again Christians. And so they espouse the reading of the New Testament. But Christ’s word is a sword of sharpened irony. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3). Christ was referring to the Old Testament books because the New Testament books in AD 26 were not yet written. In essence, He is saying that the books of the Old Testament is the word of God.

So we see that a vast expanse of uncharted spiritual territory lays before us. And God is telling us that, yes, we can take the land. “Taking the land” incidentally is one of the keys taken from the Old Testament books. It alludes to the children of Israel conquering the Holy Land. Their trials and tribulations in the taking of the land are written about extensively from Moses through David and on through the prophets and apostles. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [types; representations of things to come]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (I Cor. 10:11).

“All these things that happened unto them” provide keys to unlock the mysteries of God. What happened to the Hebrews has been meticulously written down and preserved for you and me, to help us grow spiritually in these last days. God uses His people’s natural earthly experiences as types and shadows of the spiritual battles that He has in store for us today.

To what end? That we in these last days might grow up to be just like Him, thus fulfilling His purpose of reproducing Himself, reproducing Agape Love in the earth. The “old” books are what the apostles studied, and they wrote how that they elucidated the light of Christ. If we ignore them, we ignore them to our own hurt.

The Lost Sheep of Israel

The “keys” found in the Old Testament books unlock rooms of understanding in the mansions of our God. Another of Christ’s quotations languishes unread, untaught, and ignored. And yet, there it is, saying in every translation the same thing. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24 ESV). These words of the King are ignored by billions because their priest/pastor/preacher has never taught them their meaning. In fact, understanding is blocked by false concepts and traditions.

Digging deeper, first, because these are Christ’s word, they are God’s words. And His words are important! Remember about going by His every word. And His words need to be understood. If this is our first exposure to this passage, and we do not quickly understand it, then we must not ignore these words of God! [I rarely use exclamation marks, but these words deserve to be exclaimed.]

Christ says that He was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel. The “lost sheep” must be very important to Him. His mind and thoughts were on the “lost sheep of Israel.” We are told to have the mind of Christ. This is how you have His mind. You think about what He was concerned about, and He spoke of them. No idle words found from Christ’s lips.

Wanting to have Christ’s mind, questions naturally bubble to the surface. Who are the “lost sheep of Israel? Why are they lost? What happened to them? Are they still around today? Do the early apostles speak of them? These are just a few questions we could ask as we “dig deep” into this mystery. Think of this as a treasure hunt, with a few clues dropped along the trail for us to follow.

Who are they? The main clue is that they are lost. They are the natural children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Old Testament books tell the story of the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. They give the detailed history of the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel. They were slaves in Egypt, and were delivered by Moses under God’s direction. God told them to take the land occupied by pagan nations, a land named after Canaan. They did take the land, each tribe receiving a land grant from God.

For about 500 years they remained a kingdom with twelve tribes, but it split into two kingdoms in c. 950 BC. The Kingdom of Israel in the north with ten tribes and the Kingdom of Judah with two tribes plus some Levite priests were two separate governments, armies, kings, and priests. One can read about them even warring with each other. This went on until about 721 BC when the Kingdom of Israel (ten tribes), the Northern Kingdom, was conquered by Assyria. These ten tribes sinned greatly as a nation and were carried into captivity into northern Mesopotamia—Assyria.

It is here that they began to lose their identity. They lost the true Sabbath through their sinful pagan ways. They became the “lost sheep of the House of Israel.” They were spiritually and physically lost. They began to migrate “north and west” of Jerusalem, but they lost their identity as the children of Israel. This caused them to forget all of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their offspring.

The Old Testament writers, inspired by the Holy Spirit, took great pains in preserving their roots and their history. Knowing their history is the key that will solve the mysteries about the “lost sheep” that Christ was sent to. But it takes digging deep. Those who do not will not find the key to understanding, and they will wind up ignoring Christ’s words: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” But His sheep will hear His voice and will hunger for the truth found in His words.

This takes study, deep study. And you can study this out. The “giants are not too big.” We can take the land. God is looking for a few Joshuas and Calebs [That is another OT story, a type and shadow that speaks about you and me.] They said that we can do it. His sheep will hear His voice and will hunger for the truth found in His word—every word.

Here is another clue in discovering the “lost sheep of the House of Israel.” Some people will say that the Jews are the lost sheep. But this is not the case. For the Jews were of the Kingdom of Judah (two tribes) and were never lost. They were dispersed and scattered, but they kept intact their identity. In fact, they kept the Torah, the five books of Moses, the feasts, the times, etc.

Finally, for a New Testament witness, the apostle James writes a letter to the Israelites. “To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting” (1:1). The apostle Paul, also, spoke of them, quoted by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles. Speaking about the resurrection, Paul says, “…Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night hope to come” (26:7).

James, Paul and Luke evidently were digging deep into the mind of Christ. They studied His thoughts, and thereby changed the world.

But you won’t hear this in church. They don’t understand it, and so they ignore it. And so I must ask with respect: How are they going by every word of God?

[For more on these things: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/lost-tribes-of-israel-in-earth-today-three-scriptural-proofs/  and https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/?s=lost+sheep ]

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

We can never please God without faith (Heb. 11:6). And there is no greater faith than God’s own faith in Himself and His word. It is His faith that He has “delivered to” those He has saved (Jude 1:3). And this is where Christ issues another new commandment. “Have the faith of God” (Mark 11:22). Have God’s faith residing in you, by making our hopes real by believing having not seen. That is what faith does. We have to reckon it so (Rom. 6:11).

Since we are now dead and have received the Spirit of Christ that has “raised us to walk in a newness of life,” we now live “by the faith of the Son of God” (Rom. 6:4; Gal. 2:20). We now live by Christ’s belief system. Whatever He believes, we believe through Him.

And He now commands us, “Have the faith of God.” Take it. Walk in it. Have it. Believe His word, which gives us many promises. The most breathtaking promise is that He will glorify those whom He has chosen when He returns to earth to usher in His government throughout the earth.

Have God’s faith is a new commandment given to us by Christ. We love Him and serve Him now, having not seen as of yet His promise of everlasting life. We have not yet seen with our eyes a “glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). The glory that the Spirit of Christ speaks of is the glorious spiritual body that we Christians will receive upon Christ’s return.

The whole creation is as it were, waiting “for the manifestation of the sons of God (8:19). At Eden, the Adamic race became destined to suffer the throes of an assured decline into the grave. The whole creation including mankind is bound for the dusty tomb (Gen. 3:19).

But God has a great hope for us and has provided a way to “deliver us from the bondage of corruption” and physical decay.

And so the earth and its inhabitants and “ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit,” we all are groaning…waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:22-23). And the Spirit of truth that now resides in believers “helps our infirmities” and “makes intercession for us with groanings (vs. 26-27).

And then comes the verse that almost all Christians know and quote. “And we know that all things work together for good…” And then most stop right there unfortunately. Things work out good for whom? “…To them who are the called according to His purpose” (v. 28; II Tim. 1:9).

The Spirit explains just who these “called” are. “For whom He did foreknow, [God knew them before their earthly existence] He also did predestinate [He gave them a destiny predetermined—but for what purpose?] to be conformed to the image of His Son [to be like the Son of God]…” (Rom. 8:29; II Cor. 3:18; I John 3:2).

Predestined them, called them, justified them, and glorified them. He promised us glory. We will receive this glory when we receive our glorified body just like Christ’s. This is being “conformed to the image of His Son.”

This is the “eternal life” He has promised us. This is the ultimate victory over death and the grave. God is for us. And “if God be for us, who can be against us?” asks the apostle Paul (Rom. 8:31-39).

The kicker is this: In God’s mind, this is already done. “God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17). He declares the end from the beginning. That is His faith, and His faith, His belief system, has now become ours. This is contained in the new commandment, “Have the faith of God.”    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

  I was reading Psalm 150 the other day, and I noticed a footnote at the end of verse 1.  The verse said, “Praise the LORD.”  So I checked it at the bottom of the page, and the footnote read, “Hebrew Hallelu Yah.” 

     So I looked up Hallelu and it does mean “praise.”  I looked up “Yah” in Wikipedia and it said this: “The name Yah is composed of the first two letters of YHWH.  It appears often in names, such as Elijah…as well as the expression Hallelujah.”  So Yah is God’s name and was translated “the LORD.” 

    I looked up “YHWH” in Wikipedia and it referred me to “Tetragrammaton”:  “The name of the God of Israel, written with four letters…appears over 6,800 times” in the Bible.

     Halleluyah.  How many times have I heard that word in my life?  I immediately thought of an old hymn.  “Hallelujah, Thine the glory.  Hallelujah, Amen.  Hallelujah, Thine the glory, “Revive Us Again.”  And it appears not just in hymns–in popular music, Ray Charles singing “Hallelujah, I Just Love Her So.”  The “Glory, glory, Hallelujah” of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”  And Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”  And the “Hallelujah Chorus” of Mendel’s Messiah. 

And the movies, books, sayings, quotations.  And then I realized that the word “Halleluyah” permeates the very fabric of Western Civilization and American society, for we all have heard and said this word hundreds of times in our lives.

     And then I thought of God, sitting on His throne, looking down on us and smiling.  For He has the last laugh.  The “wise” men of this modern age have worked diligently to eradicate both God and His name out of the minds of the people.  And despite their efforts, the people still are praising His name in His original language Hebrew, when they say, “HalleluYah.”  Even the atheists praise His name when they say, “HalleluYah.”  He’s got to be laughing right now.            Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[For more on this send for my book Yah Is Savior. It is free with free shipping. Send your mailing address, name of book and your name to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com If you live outside the USA, you may read it online here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/book-yah-is-savior-the-road-to-immortality/ ]

Just Look Around

Just look around and see our cities burning.

Stones and bricks the weapons of today.

Just look around and see what’s affecting you and me

And the dreams we share to keep our children free.

Just look around; it’s only you and me.

 

Have you never had your grandma hug and kiss you?

Have you never held a baby in your arms?

Have you never given thanks for the entire human race

And another piece of momma’s apple pie?

Just look around; it is only you and I.

 

Just look around and see that hearts are turning.

Just look around; you can see them everywhere.

Just look around and see that love’s the way to be.

Just look around; God’s made us you and me.

 

Have you never seen a toddler picking flowers

As he reaches up and puts them in your hand?

Have you never smiled with love at such sweetness from above?

Just look around; I’ll help you if I can.

 

(CH) Just look around and see that hearts are turning.

Just look around; you can see them everywhere.

Just look around and see that love’s the way to be.

Just look around; God’s made us you and me.

Just look around; God’s made us you and me.

[Words and music of the song “Just Look Around” was written by Kenneth Wayne Hancock on August 30, 2020. The words are published here first on Immortality Road, a WordPress blog. I plan on singing it soon on facebook and youtube. Please make a comment about what you think of the song. I enjoy your feedback. KWH]

 

Martial metaphors abound in the scriptures of truth. Words of war describe the spiritual battles that Christians must face in order to grow. The Spirit of truth paints scenes of our struggles in figures of speech. Those who think literally often fall on the battlefield, without sufficient armor and implements of this war.

For the Christian, the battleground is the mind. It is not the “war of the worlds,” but rather “the war of the words,” for words are formulated through thoughts that course through our minds. The apostle Peter admonishes us, “Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.” Whose mind? The mind of Christ (I Pet. 4: 1). Having the mind of Christ is being armed and battle ready.

To win this battle, we must think the King’s thoughts. Christ is the Word. His is the word that counts. When our thoughts reflect His thoughts, we win the spiritual battle.

This is why it is so important to study His word, both through quotes of the Savior and also His apostles’ words, which are His thoughts. This is true worship. Not the outward keeping of man’s traditions about God, but knowing the truth and meditating on it. And then believing the truth. Believe Him, for He is the truth. And know that His words are spirit. That’s true worship—“in spirit and in truth.”

The apostle Paul tells us to “put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” This is arming ourselves with the mind of Christ. Let us have the “loins of our mind” girded up with truth. We are to put on the “breastplate of righteousness” and the “shield of faith” and the “helmet of salvation,” and the “sword of the Spirit.” All of these components of the “armor of God” are put on by us in our minds by having the pure truth about them in our thinking. When we know Christ’s thoughts and believe them, then we will have put on His spiritual armor (Eph. 6: 10-18). So let us delve a bit deeper into His spiritual armor…

Kenneth Wayne Hancock