May 18, 2012 · 8:41 pm

Obama Approves Gay Marriage–Uses Jesus’ Words in Error to Justify Stance–Christ Upholds Male Female Marriage ONLY

President Obama needs to stick to his socialist platitudes at his many fundraisers and not be invoking the name of Jesus to justify his approval of gay marriage.  For he has proven that he “neither knows the scriptures nor the power of God.”

He’s even got the audacity to say that if we don’t approve of gay marriage, we don’t love our neighbor (gays) as our selves.  He quotes the golden rule, from Jesus’ own lips:  “Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”  And then he stops there, taking it out of context. There is a colon with a clause coming after this, explaining it: “For this is the law and the prophets” (Matt. 7: 12).

But the great commandment before “love your neighbor as yourself” is this: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”  (Matt. 22: 37-40).

The first and great commandment is to love God  with all our heart, soul, and mind.  That means “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10: 5).  How do we love God this way?  “For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments” (I John 5: 3).  Since Christ is the expressed image of the invisible God, what are His thoughts concerning marriage?

And so to love God and then love our neighbor, we must obey what He commands us to do.  Jesus Christ said that he always kept his Father’s commandments.  So let’s explore what the Word says about marriage, and let’s obey it.  In so doing we prove that we love God and then we can love our neighbor.

God’s thoughts on marriage

Jesus said, “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife;  and they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.  What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mark 10-6-9).

Jesus is giving us in this teaching a definite direction to follow when it comes to marriage.  First, God made us humans “male and female.”  And a man shall “cleave to his wife” and be one flesh.  God created human beings with two genders for a specific purpose.  And it was not so that two men could get together, nor two women.  But “God has joined together” the male and the female to be one flesh.  And Jesus caps off this with this command: What God has “joined together, let not man put asunder,” or man better not separate what I have joined together.  When a man persists in mating with another man, is he not separating himself from a woman, which is contrary to what “God has joined together”?

Now those are Jesus’ own words in everyone’s Bible at home.  They are very clear and succinct.  They are easy to understand.  It is God’s purpose and plan to have male and female be joined together in marriage.  God has done this since the beginning, and Jesus says that God does not want man to separate what He has joined together.  When male joins together with male, and when female joins together with female, they are separating or putting asunder what God has joined together.

Gays are human beings–people with rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.   However, according to the Scriptures of Truth, “holy matrimony” or marriage is a spiritual and physical joining together by God of a male and female.  These two become one and are the only two human beings that “God hath joined together” scripturally.  God has not changed His position on this.  He did say, “I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; I change not.”

Marriage between male and female is a moral right granted by the Creator.  It was never granted to those of the same sex.  President Obama is trying to forge gay marriage into a civil right, erroneously basing it as a moral or inalienable right.  “That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  According to the Declaration of Independence, it is the Creator that gives the moral or unalienable rights to mankind.  The Creator ordained marriage to a male and female.

This male/female spiritual union is in the internal genetic fabric of human society with roots going back thousands of years, planted there by a purposeful Creator.  That is the reason that “gay marriage” was rejected, first by the Creator and now by the people thirty-two states.  It doesn’t set well in the human heart and psyche because it never was part of the divine plan, according to the scriptures.

I do say this in love: Because of His male/female plan for marriage, the God of the Bible rejects homosexuality in the strongest of terms [See Genesis 19 and Romans 1: 26-27.  I am not going to go on about these rather  obvious passages depicting God’s disgust of homosexuality.  People can read it for themselves, and come to their own decisions.  “Many shall be purified, and made white…But the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand” (Dan. 12: 10).]

But I do not condemn anyone.  I believe that loving our neighbor is telling him the truth of God–in this case, the truth concerning what God’s institution of marriage is.  Mankind did not create marriage, according to Jesus.  Marriage is a spiritual thing, a religious institution, created by God.  And we first need to keep His commandments concerning marriage, thereby showing our love for God.

For this gay marriage controversy is not a political thing, or a sociological thing, or a cultural thing.  It is a spiritual thing.  And it is this: Do we believe that the God of the Bible, the Creator, really exists?  If He does, then are we going to love and obey Him concerning marriage and other things?  Or are we going to act as if He does not exist, and thumb our noses at Him by approving homosexual marriage?  That’s the real spiritual issue before us.  Who will take God’s side in this issue?  Our choice will define us in His eyes.  For “the eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (II Chron. 16: 9).  KWH

2 Comments

Filed under Bible, eternal purpose, gay marriage, God's desire, homosexuality, husbands and wives, marriage

Tagged as , , ,

May 12, 2012 · 4:33 pm

The Lost Sheep, The 144,000–God Searching for His People

God is searching for His people in these latter days.  Granted, He loves the whole world and everyone in it, but there is only one people on the face of this big wide earth that He is actually searching for.  It is the people He chose way back in Abraham’s day, who would be called by Abraham’s grandson’s name—Israel, meaning “Prince with God.”  Yes, salvation is open to all of His creation, but He has “not cast away His people which He foreknew.”   He is searching for them now.  To understand His heart and the importance that His people have in His plan for our day, we must rehearse their trail through Bible history.

You know the story about His chosen people—how Yahweh the Creator chose out a people to reveal Himself to and through—a people who came out of the loins of Adam and Eve about 6,000 years ago, a special creation with a special purpose in the mind of God.  How Abraham and Sarah were promised a miracle son in the book of Genesis—how he would be called Isaac, and he would have Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.  And Jacob/Israel had 12 sons, and they multiplied and remained the chosen people of God.

And then for most people it gets fuzzy.  Most remember a few “Bible stories.”  Few study the Bible in depth to see where the thread of prophecy leads.  The 12 sons married and multiplied into small clans or tribes. Jacob/Israel’s favorite son Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers.  Famine gripped the land and Jacob/Israel and his 11 sons and their families had to go down to Egypt to buy food.  In the mean time,  Joseph had by the miraculous hand of God become the governor of Egypt, Pharaoh’s right hand man.

Joseph, a type of the Messiah, has mercy on his brothers and their families, forgiving them and setting them up.  The Hebrews then stay in Egypt and have it good there and grow over the next 400 years to 3 million, a country within a country.  In the course of time, these 12 tribes of people, all the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel, are enslaved by the Egyptians.  Moses, a Hebrew child reared as an Egyptian prince by Pharaoh’s sister, is called by Yahweh to deliver the children of Israel (all 12 tribes).  Through many miracles like the parting of the Red Sea, Moses leads God’s people into the Promised Land, into the land of Canaan.

After much adventure and misadventure, Joshua, Moses’ protégé, leads them on in, and they conquer the land.  Each of the 12 tribes gets an inheritance of actual real estate and they take up residence.

Their form of government is a theocracy—God ruling them through His representatives, the prophets and the judges.  They are, however, extremely unruly, and seek after other gods and provoke Yahweh to anger and jealousy.  When things go bad for them, they cry out to Yahweh and He comes to their rescue.  When things are good, food and prosperity plentiful, then they forget Him and, what He calls, “whore after other gods.”  He likens them to His wife.

This goes on for about 500 years, from about 1500 B.C. to 1,000 B.C.  At this time they want to be like the other nations around them; they want a king like they have.  And so, against Samuel the prophet’s warning, God gives them King Saul, who is later deposed for His sins, and then has Samuel anoint “a man after God’s own heart,” the illustrious David, the son of Jesse, the ancestor of Jesus/Yahshua.

Later, David’s son Solomon is crowned King of Israel, meaning he is the king of all twelve tribes of  Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.  Solomon was a great man, but his kingdom would be torn in two because of His idolatry.  For he “loved many strange women…of the nations concerning which Yahweh said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go into them…” (I Kings 11: 1-2).  So God told Solomon that because you have done this, “I will surely rend the kingdom from thee” (v. 11).  For David’s sake, Yahweh waited until after Solomon’s death to divide the 12 tribed kingdom.

In about 975 B. C., a civil war broke out and it split into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel with ten of the twelve tribes, and the Kingdom of Judah with the other two tribes.  The Kingdom of Israel (10 tribes) lay to the north with its capital Samaria.  The Kingdom of Judah lay to the south with its capital Jerusalem.  They both had their own kings, with their own religious and political systems.  In fact, one can read about  them at war with each other in many parts of the Bible.

Yahweh warned them that He would punish them for their evil ways going back hundreds of years.  And really nothing changed after the split.  Both Houses, both the House of Israel (10 tribes) and the House of Judah (2 tribes), kept doing evil in God’s sight over the next 300+ years.  They kept breaking His 10 commandment law.  Yet He was faithful, sending prophets to both kingdoms, admonishing them to turn from their evil ways.

Until, finally, Yahweh had had enough.  For His chosen people’s own good, He would do the unthinkable.  He would scatter them to the four winds.  He would raise up terrible nations to sweep down upon their little kingdoms, and to gobble them up and slay some of them and to lead them into captivity.  He had warned them through His prophets of this very detestable thing, yet they would not hearken.  Prophets like Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, among many others cried unto them, reminding them of the great heritage, and warning them to repent and turn their hearts back to God, but they would not hear of it. They were smug in their assurance that their new way of worship was proper.  But they had other gods before the true Creator God, and had forgotten the Rock “from which they were hewn.”

And so, in 721 B. C., the fierce Assyrian Empire swooped down upon the northern Kingdom of Israel (ten tribes) and led them back east to their capital city of Nineveh.  And these enslaved offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel became lost.  They lost their identity as part of God’s chosen people.  They disappeared into the mists of time, and modern scholars are hard pressed to shed light on just where they went or what happened to them.  But “God has not cast away His people which He foreknew” (Rom. 11: 2).

They are mentioned in the “New Testament,” however.  Christ said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel” (Matt. 15: 24, NIV, ESV, RSV).  He spoke no idle words.  The lost tribes of Israel are extremely important to Christ, and consequently, to the Father.  And the apostle James addresses his book “to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, greeting” (1:1).  That has to be the descendants of the Kingdom of Israel (ten tribes) or to the whole House of Israel (12 tribes).  James, who had the same mind of Christ, cleared that up by writing to the 12 tribes that were already scattered all over the world.  Also, the apostle Paul said that as of A.D. 62, the twelve tribes were not only in the earth, but were “instantly serving God day  and night” in hope of the promise of the resurrection of Christ (Acts 26: 6-7).

Kingdom of Judah Carried Away

That same fate that happened unto the northern Kingdom of Israel (10 Tribes) happened to the southern Kingdom of Judah around  603 B. C. by the Babylonians.  Citizens of this two-tribed kingdom, by now called “Jews,” were carried away captive, but they did not lose their identity.  The original Hebrew religion instituted by Moses had by now changed into the beginning of the modern religion of Judaism, which, according to the Savior Yahshua, was hypocritical, evil, and was not pleasing to God (John 8:44).  By 29 A.D. many Edomites (Idumaens) had converted to the Mosaic religion and had changed it into something altogether repulsive to Christ.  In fact, He told them, “You are of your father the devil.”  Judaism had become now the religion of the “serpents” and “vipers,” the Pharisees and Sadducees, who are the progenitors of the modern Jewish religion today.  This is the “synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie,” spoken of by Jesus/Yahshua Himself (Rev. 3: 9).  85% of modern Jewry are not from the loins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe). 

Because the Israelites (10 tribes) were lost to history, people now think that the only Israelites left are Jews.  But the true Jews made up only two tribes out of the original twelve.  That leaves the vast majority of the “lost sheep of the House of Israel” out here in the world, their identity lost, waiting for God to reveal it to them.  For these of the lost ten tribes do figure prominently in prophecy for these latter days.  144,000 of them are detailed specifically in Revelation 7 and 14.  12, 000 from each tribe are mentioned by name.  “Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand.  Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand.  Of the tribe of Gad…” and on through Benjamin “were sealed twelve thousand,” to a total of 144,000.  So a remnant of the lost tribes will be revealed in these latter days in order to fulfill these scriptures.

The 144,000 from the Lost Tribes of Israel

These have a very precious and wonderful calling, for they will be sealed by God as His servants before His throne (7: 3, 15).  They will have “their Father’s name [Yahweh] written in their foreheads” (14: 1).  They were “redeemed from among men,” meaning that they are not super heavenly entities, but came from the loins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  They were washed in the Lamb’s blood like every other Christian, but they have grown to full spiritual maturity and are the “firstfruits unto God” (v. 4).  They are “without fault before the throne of  God” (v. 5).  Without fault!  Perfectly mature manifested sons of the living God!

And they come out of the twelve tribes of Israel.  That may not be politically correct to say, but that is what Revelation 7 says.  This is the reason that it is extremely important for us to study the prophecies concerning the “lost sheep of the House of Israel” out.  Christ said that He was sent to them!  It was important to Him.  Is it important to us?

Some doubters will say that the 12 tribes are lost, and “What difference does it really make anyway?”  Well, it would not make any difference if the future of His chosen people did not matter to Him.  God says that His manifested sons will come out of these twelve tribes, and it does matter to Him.  He said, “My ways are not your ways; my thoughts are not your thoughts.”

We are told to seek the mind of God.  Know His thoughts.  What is He thinking about?  Is He still thinking about His people, the lost sheep of the House of Israel?  Yes.  “Has God cast away His people? God forbid…The gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Romans 11:1, 29).  Yahweh called them and a remnant of them will come back to Him in these latter days.  The question for us is this: Are we one of them?  Will we be one of the “firstfruits of God” who are very close to the Lamb and do the greater works that He promised some would do?

Kenneth Wayne Hancock   {Please make a comment.  I would love to hear from you and where you reside in the earth.}

15 Comments

Filed under end time prophecy, eternal purpose, God's wish, Lost Sheep of the House of Israel, manifestation of the sons of God, mind of Christ, perfection, princes and princesses of God, sons of God

Tagged as , ,

May 5, 2012 · 8:10 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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

Leave a comment

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

Tagged as , ,

April 28, 2012 · 2:06 pm

“There’s Nothing in It for You”–It Is All for God, Who Is Love

There was an old saying at the mission that rings true now some 40 years later.  “There’s nothing in it for you.”

I didn’t really understand then just how profound that simple statement was.  But Time is a faithful teacher.  And as I look now in the mirror and see a much more wrinkled image with a head laden with a heavy hoary frost, I take more time to contemplate the increasing fragility of my physical state.  It seems that the reality of my own mortality crowds daily into my thoughts.

In that mirror I also see in my own eyes how the years have neutralized the piss and vinegar that I was so full of back then in my 20’s and 30’s.

As my earthly frame grows weaker, that old saying–how that there’s nothing in this walk with God for you–rings truer.  It is making so much more sense now as I am staring down the time when I just may have to depart this old earthly body before Christ returns to this earth to set up His kingdom.

For, you see, in those younger years I thought that surely I would be alive when the LORD would come back.  Christ did say that “whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11: 26).  And, that “there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Mt. 16: 28).  Those destined not to taste death would have to be the generation of believers alive when He returned to earth.  Anyway, I always thought that I would be one of them.

But now, as the years tick on, and my body creaks with age more every day, I must take this into real consideration–this “falling asleep,” this “shuffling off of this mortal coil.”

And, yet, I now realize that God has this death of the physical body hanging over us for a reason.  We know that He gives life and He takes life.  Our very breath is in His hand.  And it is this impending destiny with dust that helps us understand the futility of living for one’s self.  The self just cannot see us through, for our earthly bodies must betray us, for that is the very nature  of the physical body formed of the dust of this planet.  The house of dirt was made for us by God on purpose not to last.  It is temporary housing.

God fashioned our bodies to be as ephemeral as butterfly wings.  He deliberately formed them to be fragile in hope that we might sense someday our own vanity before death came knocking.  As we see our bodies decay and crumble with age, He hopes that we will see the futility of living for the self.

Our fragility betrays our pretentious egos that always seem to shout, “Hey, everybody, seriously, I really am something!”  But that self-centered imagination breeds the ultimate deception, for “when a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Gal. 6: 3).

And we have all been guilty of that thought; it is in the spiritual genes of old man Adam and his offspring.  Yes, we are initially made that way by the Creator in hopes that we would see the purposelessness of selfish thinking and be humbled so that we could all realize one truth: Every man is created for only one thing, and it is not for self-glorification; it is for God-glorification.

And if we are blessed to be chosen by Him to reveal this truth to, then we are coming much closer to where we need to be in our walk on earth before our Creator.

There’s nothing in it for you.  For everything in the vastness of the universe and here on earth is for God and His pleasure.  This is the great sticking point with natural-minded man, who earnestly believes that he is the center of the cosmos.  Secular humanism is the new many-headed false god.  “Thou shalt not have any other gods before Me.”  Especially our self.

“For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things” (Rom. 11: 36).  Breaking it down, all things are of Him; they came from Him, and through His creative power all things (including us) exist.  And in the end, all things are created by Him for His pleasure and glory.

For instance, Him delivering us from utter degradation and destruction, and us returning and thanking Him and telling others about His saving love and power–He loves that and gets glory out of it.

“All things were created by Him, and for Him” (Col. 1: 16).  But God does not become a pompous little jerk like natural man when he gets power.  No.  God is LOVE.  He created us so that He could bring us to a place spiritually, where His essence and nature (which is Love) could be multiplied–eventually to fill the whole universe with LOVE!  Our gratitude toward Him for our deliverance from sin is the fertile soil where the seed of Love can grow.

And God-in-human-form is our example and showed us the way.  Jesus (Yahshua) tasted death for us all so that we would not be banished to the dusty tombs of oblivion.  “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory” (Hebr. 2: 9-10).

That’s the plan.  It is all for Him, so that He may glorify those who realize that it is all for Him.  He will share Himself and all His glory with the overcomers, even to the point of sharing His throne with them (Rev. 3: 21).

It is all for the Creator.  When we turn that page in the book of our minds, then joy and serenity will overtake us, for we will have embraced the heart of God with arms of humility, born of His true nature, Love.

{For more on this subject, check out this article:  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/gods-endgame-where-this-life-on-earth-is-leading-us/ }

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1 Comment

Filed under death, eternal purpose, glorification, sons and daughters of God

Tagged as , , ,

April 21, 2012 · 5:48 pm

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

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

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

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

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

Sin Is the Transgression of the Law

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who Will Deliver Me?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 Comment

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

Tagged as , , ,

April 14, 2012 · 4:23 pm

“What’s It All About–Algae?”–Energy and the “Power of Darkness”

I’ve been seriously thinking about the energy problem, but the President’s got me singing that song (with apologies to Bacharach/David).  He really does.

We’ve got crippling gasoline prices, but algae?  Really?  Is that what it’s really all about.  Hey, Mr. President.  We need relief now–not ten to twenty years from now.

The President’s reluctance to open up federal lands and offshore waters for oil drilling confounds me.  Many experts say that it would quiet the speculators and show the world we mean business in getting hold of our energy crisis.  It would bring down crude prices much faster than all the alternative energy sources combined.

“Is it just for the moment we live?”  Not drilling–is it just to appease your base, Mr. President, for this moment of re-election?  Or should it be a government “of the people, by the people, and FOR THE PEOPLE” and their well-being?  Because people are hurting.

I mean–don’t make me go out and buy a Suzuki 250 to ride to work on.  Or worse yet, a Chinese 150cc scooter–although 83 miles per gallon is very enticing.

“What’s it all about when you sort it out, Mr. President?  Wait a minute.  That really is the question that needs answering.  What is it all about, anyway–concerning this big picture stuggle I find myself in?  For I am wrestling in my mind with members of both political parties over the future of our world.

And then a “wrestling” scripture comes to mind, and I am grateful for a word of truthful sanity because what both sides are saying just does not make any sense whatsoever.  For we are not wrestling “against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6: 12 NLT).

Wow.  You want to whip out a can of political incorrectness?  Here is a taste.  Our political and economic leaders are being led by “rulers of the darkness of this world,” as it says in the KJV.  The apostle Paul called those entities that motivated political leaders “the rulers of the darkness of this world.”

But Paul is not talking about the physical men in political power.  He is talking about the spirit in them that works through them.  He calls these spiritual powers “the wiles of the devil,” reflected in the earthly face of our world leaders (v. 11).

Some would say that Paul the apostle was too harsh.  But he was just following his example, Jesus Christ (Yahshua the Messiah).  For He said the same thing.

An example of this spiritual power of Satan working through the leaders of this world system is in the gospel of Luke.  The “chief priests and captains of the temple, and the elders” came out to arrest Jesus/Yahshua, and then they took Him to “the high priest’s house.”  And these same quasi-political leaders “mocked Him, and blindfolded Him,” struck Him, and then demanded of Him, “Prophesy, who is it that smote you?”

Remember.  These are the leaders of the people.  Christ said that what they were doing to Him is “the power of darkness” (22: 52-53).  Paul in the KJV said that our struggle is not against human beings but against spiritual “powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world.”  Their statements are almost identical–truth established in the mouth of two witnesses.

So, what’s it all about?  Certainly not algae, although algae, like an evil spirit, does fly under the radar most of the time.  It is about the spirit of the Wicked One working through world rulers to hinder the people and harm their immediate pocketbooks, and that same spirit working to thwart the Kingdom of God by establishing their one world government.  That is what it is all about. KWH

2 Comments

Filed under Economy, end time prophecy, false prophets, false teachers, One World Government

Tagged as , , , ,

April 7, 2012 · 5:51 pm

Don’t Depend on the Rapture–All Christians Going through Great Tribulation

We saw last time that The Great Tribulation Period is the “Day of the LORD,” spoken of by many of the prophets in scripture.  We referenced a few of them who wrote about this disastrous time on the earth–Daniel, Zephaniah,  the apostle John, to name just a few.

Many who read about all this destruction will say, What difference does it make?  It doesn’t pertain to us.  We Christians will be raptured out before the Tribulation starts anyway.

Many will not take this time of wrath to heart because they do not believe that it applies to them.  They believe in a rapture/reward for being good little children of God.  They do not believe that God could be that “cruel” to them and their families–to treat them just like the ungodly in that He would  make them go through the end time calamities.  God speaks about these foolish “followers” of Christ.

The Parable of the Five Wise and the Five Foolish Virgins

Christ was asked by His disciples what the sign would be for three things:  the total destruction of Jerusalem where one stone would not be found on another, the sign of His return to earth,  and the end of the world (Matt. 24: 1).  He answers these three questions in the next two chapters.  Everything in Matthew 24 and 25 is in answer to these three questions concerning “the end of the world.”  And this also reveals that some lukewarm Christians will be around during the tribulation.

Christ uses two parables to convey the secret answers to the mysteries of when the end will come.  In the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25: 1-13), five were wise and took oil in their lamps and had eyes to see, but five were foolish and had no oil for their lamps.  They were virgins; they were little children of God, but they were lacking in the Spirit of God, the oil, within themselves.  They had not studied and prayed and were told by the wise virgins to go buy their own oil from the same place where one may “buy the gold tried in the fire…and the white raiment…and the eye salve” (Rev. 3: 18).  It was too late to pray and study for those little children, the five foolish virgins.  For the bridegroom came while they were out and they missed  the wrap up, the great marriage supper.  And they cried to Him to open the door, but He told them, “I don’t know you” for this honor.

The Parable of the Five Talents

Another example of spiritual unproductivity is this parable in the very next verse (Matt. 25: 14-30).  Three servants were given talents by their master, “according to his own ability”–five to one servant, two to another, and one to another.  They all three were servants of the same master.  Those with five and two gained the same and were praised upon the master’s return as “good and faithful servants.”  The other servant was “afraid and …hid it in the earth.”  “You wicked and slothful servant,” said his master.  “Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Then the master took the talent from him and gave it to the one with ten talents.

What went wrong with the unprofitable servant?  He had no faith; he was disobedient and did not gain anything for his master with His goods.  Of course, this parable reveals a mystery “kept secret from the foundations of the world.”  The spiritual application shows us three levels of  fruit production as in the Parable of Sower in Matt. 13–30, 60, and 100 fold.  Christ has told all of His followers to study, pray, prove all things, and carry the good news of His kingdom into all the world.  He has told us all to dig deep and build our house upon the rock, and call out others to this great kingdom soon to fill the whole earth.

Laodecean Church Age–The Condition of the Church at Christ’s Return

But do most children of God do this, really?   I don’t think so.  In this last church age of Laodecea (laity deceived) painted for us in Rev. 3: 16-17, we see that today’s average church goer is lukewarm  in the spiritual works of God and is about to be “spued out of His mouth.”  Why?  Because they  say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.’  And they do not know that they are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”  Pride in one’s denomination [‘our church is a Bible church, rich in the word of God], a particular church father, one’s pastor, priest, saint, pride period–all these lead one to say, ‘I am rich [in faith] and have need of nothing.’  Many denominations actually say that they are the only ones who have the truth.

In their heart they will say, Hey, we’ve got the rapture.  God will take care of us.  He wants us to prosper, to be materially well off while we are waiting for His return.  He’ll take us out of the hellishness of the tribulation period.  We don’t need these doctrines (teachings).  Mom and dad didn’t believe this new stuff.  Besides, all we need is Jesus.  And they go one as  sheep to the slaughter never realizing that “whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God” (2 John 1: 9).

And they will go on their shallow ways, having never proven the “rapture theory” from the scriptures–having never seen that they base it on 1/2 of one verse, never even quoting the other half of the verse: “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  They never realize that Christ is coming back HERE–not ‘up in heaven somewhere”!  In our new spiritual bodies, we will rise up into the “air” [look it up in the Greek and see that it is where the birds fly] but we won’t get too far, for He’s descending to earth, touching His feet on the Mt. Olivet, cleaving it, and we will be with Him in that wonderful moment!  “And so shall we ever be with the Lord!”  [I Thess. 4: 16-17].

And so I have to ask the rapture believers: Since Christ is coming back bodily to earth at the time of the “catching away,” who will you be with when your imagination carries you away?  Most have never considered what the scriptures really say in this one verse that they use to base the rapture on.

The Bridegroom comes here!  If this rapture illusion is not straightened out in a person’s heart and mind, if they are counting on something erroneous that is not happening, do you think He may cast them “into outer darkness where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”?

And why will all of this misery land on so many people?  It is because of their unbelief.  Christ said it with a broken heart as He looked on the people of His pasture.  “O ye of little faith.”

Unbelief–Just Like with Moses and the Children of Israel

But there’s nothing new here.  The children of Israel just would not believe the word of Yahweh. “So we see that they could not enter in [to the Promised Land] because of unbelief.”

So, whose voice were the children of Israel listening to?  They listened to Aaron,  a voice from a false god, who led in the worship of the golden calf while Moses was up on Mt. Sinai.  They murmured and complained and said, God would not put all this deprivation and sacrifice on us.  We are God’s people.  Out of 2-3 million people, only two, Joshua and Caleb, made it into the Promised Land.  And what happened to all of those millions of unbelievers?  Their “carcases fell” in the desert outside of Canaan land.  They had a false conception about how that era would end.  And they paid the price.  They died never glimpsing God’s glory.  And the things that happened to the children of Israel “are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come” [3].

The consequences of their unbelief admonishes those living at the “end of the world”!  That’s us.  And we should take the warning to heart.  To be one of the few to get into the promised land of His presence when He returns, we must throw away “every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” [4].

The little children of God are mostly alive for what they can get from the Father.  That’s why they are children and not spiritual adults in the Lord.  They have consequently believed that the Father will miraculously deliver them in a supernatural “rapture” before tribulation breaks out.

The rapture is based on wishful thinking.  It is an imagination and a lie  that will not only disillusion millions of professing Christians, it will also alienate them from God.  When they are not “raptured out” before the tribulation, many will turn against God and will be part of those who “gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores” (Rev. 16: 10-11).  They will blame God for the wrath that He is wreaking, and not the liars that told them they would escape all of the bad things.

But even as just two people, Joshua and Caleb, entered the Promised Land, even so very few will denounce the rapture theory, one of the most addictive sugar stick false doctrines out there.  Most will not believe.  Consequently, they will not prepare, both physically and spiritually, for the tribulation period.  And the sad part is, they are the ones who will be most disillusioned and upset at God.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1.  See https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/no-pre-tribulation-rapture-gods-elect-on-earth-during-tribulation/

2.  Hebrews 3: 13-18

3.  I Cor. 10: 11

4. II Cor. 10: 5

3 Comments

Filed under catching away of the saints, end time prophecy, false doctrines, false prophets, false teachers, great tribulation period, Parables, Rapture

Tagged as , ,

April 1, 2012 · 7:08 pm

The Great Tribulation Period Is “The Day of the LORD”

Many Christians are longing for the Day of the LORD to  come, but few, it seems, know exactly what that day entails.

Many long for it to come thinking that the “rapture” will take them out of the end time troubles to come, seeing the day of the LORD as an escape hatch for God’s children.  But the rapture theory is just that–a theory, an erroneous imagination that is disproved upon closer inspection and study of the word of God [for more on this, see https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/?s=parachute ].

Others see “the day of the LORD” as a metaphor for “going to heaven, or going to be with Christ.

But few realize what they are wishing on themselves and this world. Why?  Because of the utter destruction that the  Day of the LORD will bring on this earth.  It is a time of God’s wrath, not mercy.  It is not an apple pie in the sky event.  It is a time of utter calamity and devastation.

Many prophets spoke of this day of the LORD.  It is a day of vengeance taken by God on the evil Satanic  system and those who have given their hearts to it.  It is when He takes revenge, not us.  Remember when we were taught from the Bible not to hold grudges and be vengeful?  “Vengeance is mine, saith the LORD, I will repay.”

And so shall it be during the wrap up of this present age. God will be dealing directly with wickedness, as only He can.  His body, His church will not be taking vengeance on anyone.  Christ in His first advent was the Lamb; He’ll be a devouring Lion in His second.  The “day of the LORD” is not a gloriously bright sunshiny day.  It is a time of gloom and despair and darkness, much like the day the death angel passed through Egypt.  It will be a day of mourning as that day during the original Passover–a day of wailing and crying aloud in the streets, a day of heart-rending loss of loved ones and cherished belongings.

So, no.  This day is not something to wish for.  Although it has to come on the earth before Christ establishes His kingdom, we would not wish this misery on anyone.

Spoken about by many prophets

We are talking about one of the most important events in the history of the world.  It is the end of an age;  it is a cosmic event of universal proportions.  Most of the prophets spoke of this event–this day of the LORD.  Think about it.  What greater prophecy could they have uttered and written down for us than the end of the evil empire of Satan and his human cohorts?

The prophet Daniel and the “Stone Kingdom”

It is what the prophet Daniel was shown in so many passages.  “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed…” (Dan. 2: 44).  Christ’s Kingdom is coming to earth, but before it makes its full arrival, the smashing of Nebuchadnezzar’s image with the stone kingdom not cut out by man’s hands must first take place.  “The Day of the LORD” is that time in history when man’s world system is coming down!  I’m not going to bring it down; my Christian brethren are not going to smash it; God is, I believe, with a literal “stone” [read “heavenly body”] from  heaven.  Call it a large meteorite, a comet, an asteroid, a hailstone, a star–the name is immaterial what man calls it.  The point is that there are innumerable examples in the Bible citing heavenly bodies falling into earth [that is another topic which space does not permit here].

So many prophets speak of this dark day for the inhabitants of the earth and the lovers of this world.

The prophet Zephaniah’s vision of the ‘day of the LORD’

For example, the entire book of Zephaniah is about this very “day of the LORD.”  The LORD [Yahweh in the Hebrew] is railing and warning through Zephaniah about how He “will utterly consume all things from off the land” (1: 2).  Those “things” include fowls, fishes, stumbling blocks (idols) with the wicked, and finally, man (v. 3).  Then He tells which men: those worshipping other gods.  He says, “The day of Yahweh is at hand” (v. 7).

Who exactly are these people who are about to be destroyed by God?  They are people who actually “swear by the LORD.”  They invoke His name, and yet, they  “have not sought…nor inquired for Him” (1: 5-6).  Ironically, these are professing Christians.

Consequently, Yahweh at this time “has prepared a sacrifice.”  2,000 years ago, it was the Lamb of God sacrificed through God’s great grace and mercy.  This time the tables are turned.  The evil doers this time will be sacrificed.  This will be through “acts of God,” not his elect. For He “will punish the princes [those in power] and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel” [not dressed in white, the symbolic clothing of the righteous] (1: 7-8).

Zephanaiah’s description of the day the world system collapses

“The great day of the LORD is near…The mighty man shall cry there bitterly.      That day is  day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day clouds and thick darkness..and I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung” (1: 14-17).

This is the time that God will execute wrath upon the world.  Compare this passage with Joel 2 and Revelation 16 when the “vials of wrath” are poured out on the earth.  Same time in history.  Same day of the LORD.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock    [To be continued]

1 Comment

Filed under children of God, end time prophecy, great tribulation period, new world order, One World Government, Rapture

Tagged as , , ,

March 28, 2012 · 6:36 pm

Speak the WORD

The world system has conditioned us Christians to not talk about God.  I remember when I taught public school, the teachers rarely spoke of God, and that was in a conservative small school in the middle of the Biblebelt!  Maybe once or twice in fifteen years did I hear a fellow teacher openly talk of Christ.  The secular setting had done its browbeating.

But I was fortunate, for I taught English and American Literature all those years.  The writers in our culture spoke and wrote about God and the Bible until the 20th Century began .  Scriptural allusions and metaphors ran constantly through Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, our Puritan writers. Even our Founding Fathers spoke and wrote openly of the Supreme Being, mixing freely religious and political ideas.

So I was able to talk about God in the secular classroom all the time using the literature books that they provided me. But Satan has done a thorough job in squelching God’s voice coming through His children.  We have almost quenched the Spirit in our reluctance to speak.

But Christ and His early apostles did not play that game.

They had a very important job to do, and they were not about to let another spirit dominate them and what they had to do–which was to lay the foundation for the building of the LORD’s temple (us).  It was also, to use another of His metaphors, to let the early rain of His Spirit fall freely on the thirsty gr0und, the hearts of men.  And this was the former rain; now is the time for the latter rain, His Spirit now falling in our era.

So, Jesus (Yahshua) and His apostles labored mightily.  They spoke the Word, the Logos, which is the eternal purpose and plan of God.  And they wrote His vision for this earth down for us to be able to study and prepare ourselves for the end times.

Now we, the sons and daughters of the latter rain must follow our example–Christ.  “For herein He has left us an example that we should follow His steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth” (I Pet 2: 21-22).  We are to follow our Example. 

We are to be like Him.  “For we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him…” (I John 3: 2).  Don’t let any gainsayer try to tell you differently–not your mom or dad, brother or sister, wife or husband, best friend or feared enemy.  We should be like Christ, and with His Spirit within us, we can and will be like Him.  In fact we are to live “godly in this present world”! (Titus 2: 12).

This is our hope–and His hope.  This is our vision–and His vision.  This is our destiny–and His destiny for us (1).

There–I’ve said it.  Now that the cat’s out of the bag, we are free to speak this vision of manifested sonship throughout the entire planet earth–wherever you are.

Speak the word.  Speak the truth.  For when you speak this truth, you are speaking the WORD.  You are speaking Him, for He is the WORD, and the WORD is thereby becoming flesh one more time–in you and in me and now through us! Speak the Word.        KWH

1.  I John 3: 3; Rom. 8: 18-30

1 Comment

Filed under Bible, Christ, end time prophecy, eternal purpose, manifestation of the sons of God, sons and daughters of God, truth, Word

Tagged as , ,

March 20, 2012 · 10:50 pm

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

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

We’ve got to reckon it done! The word “reckon” is #3049 in Strong’s. It means “to account it, to count it as such.”  God wants us to reckon it so, but He does it first! When we turn to Him, then He counts us righteous in His eyes even in our imperfect state. This is the way our Creator is. This is part of His nature—faith, belief. In fact, faith is the foundation of Yahweh’s divine nature, for we are admonished to be “partakers of the divine nature” by adding to the faith once delivered by Yah to his set-apart ones, virtue, and to virtue knowledge, on through agape-charity-love, the very essence of Him. But His nature starts with Faith. It is His nature to “call those things that do not exist as though they did.” Rom. 4:17, NKJV. If He is this positive, then He would want His children to be the same.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leave a comment

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

Tagged as , , , ,