October 7, 2009 · 12:58 pm

Receiving Immortality and Overcoming Death, Our “Last Enemy”

The saddest, darkest, and most hopeless day is to believe that when we and our loved ones die, then that’s it; there’s no tomorrow.  Death is our “last enemy.”  And Death stalks us, and our minds scurry away from it.  Our mortal condition haunts us and causes us to at times run and hide from having to think about Death.

But God has made a promise–that all those who believe in the Savior will be rewarded in receiving immortality.  This is our hope (1).    Our day of adoption into this immortal realm is when we receive our immortal spiritual bodies in the future on a certain date (2).

Many of His followers will have to face the fact that their earthly bodies will expire before that glorious date comes (3).  The encouraging part is that He has given a portion of His Spirit to them.  They carry His Spirit within their mortal bodies.  And with it, they not only “put to death” old deeds of the flesh, but also bear spiritual gifts to the unenlightened–to help them enter into the truth.

For His promise to us is that even if we die this earthly death before that certain date in the future, He will grant unto us a new immortal body and with it everlasting life.  So whether we die or whether we live on till He come back, we are assured in our hearts, when we believe that He will do what He said He will do in granting us immortality.

He grants unto us His mortal believers His Spirit, which is a down payment, a kind of spiritual earnest “money,” if you will, until that day (4).   We then wield the Spirit as a sword, cutting off every thought of minds that come against the truth.  Every grudge, every insincere gesture, every fear do we deal a death blow.  In so doing, we shall have an abundant door provided unto us to enter His Kingdom of the Immortals (5).       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

  1. Romans 8: 23-24
  2. Romans 8: 15
  3. II Cor. 5: 1-4; 4: 7
  4. II Cor. 1: 22
  5. II Peter 1: 11

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October 1, 2009 · 3:03 am

Ten Reasons You Should Own Gold For “The Last Days”

For 6,000 years, Adam and his descendants have used gold as the ultimate store of value.  Gold is real money; it is biblical and has been  the “money that answers all things”  that pertains to the earthly portion of our spiritual sojourn.

A wise man once said, “That which has been is now, and that which is to be has already been, and God requires the things of the past” (Ecclesiastes 3: 15).  Gold “has been” real money in the past, and it is “now” real money.   And God is requiring us, His children, to wake up to the fact that gold will play a huge part in our survival for these last days.

Confirmation as to gold’s importance to us comes from these secular sources provided by Aurum Advisors:

  1. The Stimulus Effect: Including $1 trillion in cash infusions, the stimulus plan will pump $9.7 trillion into the economy, according to Bloomberg. As the Globe & Mail reports flatly, “Many believe that the monetary stimulus efforts will cause a spike in inflation,” driving gold higher.
  2. COMEX Traders Predict $1,600 Gold… by December: If gold trades at or above $1,600 by December, some 100,000 call option contracts will be “in the money.” Big-money players Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are reportedly helping to drive the action, ahead of a huge purchase of gold futures contracts.
  3. “Big Money” Inflows: In 2008, NYC-based hedge fund Paulson & Co’s flagship fund returned 37%, as the world markets burned. Paulson’s bullish on gold, big time, including the Mar. 17 purchase of 39.9 million shares of AngloGold, worth $1.28 billion. Other major hedge funds are piling into gold, too, including Eton Park Capital, Green light Capital and Hayman Advisors.
  4. China’s Doubling Down! China just revealed that it has doubled its gold holdings to 1,054 tons. Yet that still only equals 1.6% of its overall reserves. As China moves out of U.S. Treasuries and into gold, this will help fuel the next leg of the run-up.
  5. Demand Building across the Board: Worldwide demand for gold jumped by $29.7 billion in the first quarter, a 36% bolt, according to the World Gold Council. Demand for gold ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) rocketed 540%… another trigger for the coming gold boom.
  6. The Paper Dollar’s 30% Drop: Since 2001, the U.S. Dollar Index has tanked 30%… while gold has risen 300%. With all the downward pressure on the dollar, and inflation on the way, this trend is about to pick up steam.
  7. Gold/Dow Ratio Signals $8,000 Gold: During major gold bull markets (and corresponding equity bears), gold and the Dow converge at a 1-to-1 ratio. During the last gold bull, the Dow sank to 850 and gold rose to $850. The Dow is now over 8,000… But even if it fell to 4,000, we could see $4,000 gold before this bull run is over!
  8. U.S. Treasury Dept. Signals $5,468 Gold: Currently, the U.S. government holds about 286.9 million ounces of gold. It has printed about $1.569 trillion worth of paper dollars. If each dollar were backed by gold, that would put the price at $5,468.80 an ounce.
  9. Riding the “Commodity Super Cycle”: Jim Rogers expects the Commodity Super Cycle to drive commodity prices higher for another eight years… including gold. And he’s stockpiling the yellow metal by the day. Every pullback, says Rogers, is another buying opportunity. Considering he’s been dead right on every major trend of the past 40 years, we wouldn’t bet against him.
  10. Historic Model Predicts $6,214 Gold: During the last gold bull, the yellow metal ran from $35 an ounce to $850, a 24-fold increase. This bull started with gold at $255.95, meaning that if historic trends hold, the price target would be $6,214 an ounce [ http://www.goldcoinsgain.com/comex-traders-predict-gold-at-1600-by-december.html?mode=preview ].

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September 24, 2009 · 11:00 am

God’s Spiritual Life Cycle–Babes in Christ and What Stunts Their Growth

To fully understand the profundity of the Creator’s eternal purpose in “bringing many sons [and daughters] unto glory,” we must learn of the spiritual life cycle of God’s Spirit in us–how it grows unto full maturity.

This is a great mystery that has been “kept secret from the foundation of the world” (1).  This mystery of the growth of the Spirit within us has been carefully guarded, couched in the criptic words of the parables of the kingdom.  These are the very secrets of the kingdom of God, how He rules and reigns both in His children’s hearts and throughout the earth and universe. 

These parables are not nice little stories to make it easier for all to understand what the Master is teaching us, but to prevent interlopers from receiving it.  They are secrets, after all, and are hidden in plain sight.

Why Parables?

The disciples asked Christ why He spoke to the crowds in parables.  “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand” (2).  They may hear the words, but they won’t understand what they mean.  Those who do not have “ears to hear” will just not get it.

The Seed Is the Word

In the parables, Christ likened this spiritual growth unto a seed that grows.  He refers to a natural seed.  And He explains that this seed in His parables represents the word of God.  He said, “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God” (3).  A seed must die in the ground; it must lose its original identity as a lonely grain of wheat, for instance.  It takes in moisture, which corresponds to the “water of the Word,” and then, as it dies, new life springs out of it, and a blade of grass rises “from the dead” and vaults out into the sunlight.

First Stage of Growth–Babes in Christ

This answers to newborn “babes in Christ,” spiritual infants, who have not matured or grown.  They are like natural children–mostly alive  for what they can receive from their parents.  A little child receives nourishment from their parents and grows.  There is nothing wrong with this, for all new children of God must receive spiritual food from God’s word in order to grow.    Truth plus study and prayer is the recipe for spiritual growth. 

The problem lies in the fact that most Christians stay in this growth as babes and children.  They do not mature, for they are fed with teachings tainted with error.  Even with much study in false doctrines, the child of God cannot grow.  “We are not meant to remain as children at the mercy of every chance wind of teaching and the jockeying of men who are expert in the crafty presentation of lies” (4).  The truth is that “certain men have crept in unnoticed,” (5) and they are teaching lies to the new Christians who are desiring to have their lives changed from darkness to light.

For we are warned of this very thing.  “There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies”.  “Many will follow their shameful ways…and in their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up” (6).

Thus we see that a newborn babe in Christ is in peril because of false teachers and preachers.  As disease and malnutrition stalks natural babies, false teachings and lies stunt and threaten the lives of the children of God.

So Which Are the Lies About God That Stunt the Growth of Babes in Christ?

How can we tell the false teachings from the true teachings?  Christ gave us the answer.  “By their fruits you shall know them” (7).  Look around and observe the fruits of the various ministries and denominations.  Are the people growing?  Are the flocks changing, or are they still trapped in sin and sinning?   Are the people still mostly alive for what they can receive of God, or are they unselfish?  If they are not changing and growing “up into Him,” if they are remaining selfish, desiring to be blessed and not yearning to be a channel of blessings unto others, then it is safe to say that the teachings they are fed with are tainted.    KWH  

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  1. Matt. 13: 35
  2. Mark 4: 11-12
  3. Luke 8: 11
  4. Eph. 4: 14 (Phillips)
  5. Jude 1: 4 (NKJV)
  6. II Peter 2: 1-3
  7. Matt. 7: 20

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September 19, 2009 · 3:04 pm

Jimmy Carter Says Protestors Against Obama Are Racists

I just found out that, according to former president Jimmy Carter, I am a racist!  Just because I do not agree with Pres. Obama’s policies–and say so.  He says my dissent is attributed to plain old racism  [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b5xoUHCBsk ] .

Jimmy Carter said that an “overwhelming portion” of those who are protesting against Obama are doing so because he is a black man.

Wait a minute.  I don’t protest Justice Clarence Thomas’ decisions on the Supreme  Court, and the last time I checked, he was, yes, still a black man.  If I were a racist, then why would I not be protesting against him?  And I definitely like Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee; he makes a lot of sense, and he is a black American.  In fact, I approve of all black political types who hold conservative views.

I don’t approve of the politics of the liberals.  And they don’t have to be African American for me to disapprove  of them.  I do not care if they are black or white; they all are leading this country away from what the Founding Fathers envisioned, and I don’t agree with them.  And so I ask, How can that make me a racist if I distrust of all liberals?

And, get this.  Six months ago Pres. Obama had an approval rating of 70%.  Since blacks only make up 13% of the population, whites elevated him to that lofty realm of approbation.  Now Obama is at 45% approval.  President Carter, you mean suddenly, millions of white folks just woke up out of a stupor to realize that Obama was black?  “You mean he’s black?  Heck, if I’d a known that, I wouldn’t have voted for him!  I’m against him now!”

Mr. Carter, is that how stupid and prejudiced you think white folks are?  And what about the black protestors against Obama?  Are they racist, too?   What a goober you are!

The reality is that many whites and people of color are awakening to the fact that Pres. Obama is an extreme leftist liberal with many radical friends.  He is bringing change, all right, but not the kind of change 52% of the people voted for when they pulled the lever for him.  His socialist agenda was hidden in “great swelling words of man’s wisdom” during the campaign, but it is now being brought to light. 

And Obama, Carter, and the rest of those who would undermine and destroy this great republic have forgotten the words of our Savior Christ, “There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known” (Matt. 10: 26).  It is all coming out, and those who have eyes to see and ears to hear will get it.

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September 12, 2009 · 11:56 am

In Search of the Ultimate Hero

Much has been said lately about heroes.  And rightfully so.  The rescue workers rushing headlong into the burning towers to save the thousands trapped there come to mind. 

And then we think about our soldiers and marines who “gave the last full measure of devotion” on a faraway battlefield.   Yesterday I attended the memorial service of Pfc. Jonathan Yanney, who was killed in Afghanistan August 18, 2009, by a roadside bomb.  Jon gave up his life for a cause greater than himself and will always be remembered here in our little town as a hero.  And I will remember him, for I taught him in high school and enjoyed his presence, smile, and integrity.  He was my friend.

And so we all are looking for a hero–someone who would lay down their life for us.  That is what touches our hard and, at times, cynical hearts.  We are wired that way–to be touched when we realize that someone was so selfless as to put others before themselves–someone to face the peril of fires and the danger posed by those with dark designs. 

And so it was yesterday that my heart was touched, remembering the 20 year old soldier, who sat in my class just three years ago, and laughed at my antics as I coaxed him and his classmates into learning the lesson of the day. 

And as I sat there in the service, trying to dam up the warm salt water that fell from my eyes, I learned the lesson of the day.  I thought of Christ and realized that He is the ultimate hero.  For He showed us what love really is. 

He had said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (1).  And in order to express God’s nature, which is Love, He would have to “lay down his life” for His crowning creation, Mankind.  That would show them who and what God is. 

But God, the Immortal One, was just that–immortal, and could not die.  So in His infinite wisdom, He anointed a special human being that would house Him fully and would become the sacrificial Lamb of God and mankind’s anointed King of kings. 

This man was the Anointed One, the One appointed by the Father to do a very heroic act.  He would be referred to as Christ–Christos in the Greek, meaning the anointed one. 

Yes, Christ is our Hero.  He showed what love is by laying down His life willingly for us.  It is His selfless sacrifice for others that still touches man’s heart, that still shakes the flimsy foundations of our lives, that still speaks to us 2,000 years later. 

Christ is our Great Hero, for all the prophets testify about Him, that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name (2).  All because He loved us and laid down His life for His friends.     KWH

  1. John 15: 13
  2. Acts 10: 43

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September 6, 2009 · 10:33 pm

Presidents Do Not Make Presidential Policies–The CFR, Trilateralists, and Bilderbergers Do, Says Bob Chapman

A must read by Bob Chapman explaining what’s going on behind the economic and political debacle in Washington:

“We remind you that presidents do not make presidential policies. They are made by the bureaucratic types, who receive their marching orders from the Illuminists above them. This is why you had the seamless transition from the neocon administration to the current decidedly more fascistic one now in power.

Team A replaced Team B from the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateralists and Bilderbergers. Nothing really changed. If you accept the premise that they are all intent on creating world government then you can understand why they all are preparing us for controlled collapse.

These planners expected problems, but they were not prepared for the potential of major social unrest displayed at Town Hall meetings nationwide. There is finally growing social unrest and rightly so. All that was initiated by bailing out the rich financial sector to the tune of $23.7 trillion, and then the lying about where funds were going and how they were being used, then more lies, and then the bonuses at AIG and Goldman Sachs and at other Illuminist companies. The public has begun to listen to our story and the elitists cannot let the truth see the light of day. The system is rigged toward the rich insiders and now the public isn’t even getting crumbs and everything is being taken away from them. Those insiders… are dismissive of population and the fairness of the system…

Government no longer serves the people or the general good, and the healthcare and cap & trade are typical issues. It is not what Americans want, but what corporate America and politicians want. All the rewards to the crooks on Wall Street and in banking that have destroyed our financial system. We have just been on the receiving end of dreadful government for 8 years and Americans feel helpless after electing a new president. The result thus far has been disastrous.

Still few of their elected representatives listen to anything they have to say and it is no wonder we saw the outpouring of unhappiness displayed at Town Hall meetings. This in part is why people are walking away from debt and not paying their taxes. They believe they have an illegitimate government, which refuses to serve and listen to them. They now only represent corporate America.”

{This article appears in its entirety here:  http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/Economic_Breakdowns_Cause_Social_Breakdowns 

 

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September 3, 2009 · 2:52 pm

Spiritual Transformation Comes Through the Renewing of Our Minds

Our transformation as the sons and daughters of God comes through the “renewing of our minds” (1).  Our new heart that we receive from God through faith is that fountain of new thoughts based in truth that feeds our minds.  Believing that we have been given a new heart makes our transformation possible.  This process in the Christian walk is called putting “on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (2).

“In the image of its Creator.”  We, His sons and daughters, are being transformed into the image of our Creator!  That is the true walk of the Christian.  As we look at our Savior’s glorious image, and walk in His way by believing Him,  we are changed into that same image through His Spirit in us!  “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (3).

This Is Difficult for Some to Believe

Some will gainsay and resist this truth and say, “No, no one can be changed into the image of God.”  They are speaking for themselves, for those doubt-filled words have sealed their fate.  And “the fearful and unbelieving” will have no place in His kingdom (4). 

But those who believe the report of the true prophets and apostles of God will be changed into His image.  That is the belief and the promise of the Savior and His apostles.  “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (I Cor. 15: 49).  This is the truth that renews our minds, thereby changing us. 

We Are Led by Our Thoughts

Our change starts with our thinking.  We are led by our thoughts.  We started out our earthly walk by thinking naturally, which is thinking derived from the input of our five senses.  Natural thinking says, If I can’t hear it, see it, taste it, touch it, or smell it, then fit must not be real or worth anything.

This empirical thinking would be absolutely correct if that was all life was made up of.  But think on this a minute.  This belief–if I can’t observe it, then it must not exist–this thinking is so prideful, as if they are the supremest of beings, and the whole world revolves around them and their wee little minds.  That is the wisdom of the world, the wisdom from beneath.  It tries to put the invisible God in a black box, stuffed way back in a dank warehouse for the politically-incorrect. 

But millions of lives that He has touched are rising from the graves of their doubts and are putting on their new self, created by His Spirit through belief in His resurrection–in them!  They will rise up and expose the natural thinkers as the liars that they are.  As Ezekiel saw into our day, the bones of His chosen ones are rising up, and they shall come together into one body with one Spirit leading them.  And they will be grateful for their new start, created in His image, transformed by a transfusion of life-giving truth.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

  1. Rom 12: 2
  2. Col. 3: 10
  3. 2 Cor. 3: 18
  4. Rev. 21: 8
  5. I Cor. 15: 49

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August 29, 2009 · 2:49 pm

“Our Conversation Is in Heaven”–The Fruit of a New Heart and New Mind

The sons and daughters of God, His princes and princesses, those born of Him–they will have a new conversation.  They will not speak of the things of their old natural life, for now their “conversation is in heaven” (1).  They are like seedlings freshly regenerated from a once hardened seed; they transcend the earthy grave and reach for heaven’s light.  These children of the most High are “risen with Christ” and now “seek those things which are above” (2).

And they realize that their old life is now dead and that their new life is “hid with Christ in God.”  Their old nature and old self dies with Christ on the cross.  And with it dies “whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed.”  They begin to see themselves changing, being “transformed by the renewing of their minds” (3). 

“The Mind” Is the Key

Our conversation is determined by the thoughts rattling around in our mind.  Whatever we are thinking about–that is what comes out of our mouth.  But what determines our thoughts?  Christ said that a person’s heart will dictate their thoughts.  “Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart…evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (4).  Those things proceed, of course, from an old heart.  So then, a new heart, infused by the Spirit of God will issue forth thoughts of love, peace, harmony, truth, sharing, and giving.  And these new thoughts will manifest themselves in our new conversation.

Based on Faith and Belief

The new heart of love creates in us new thoughts, which in turn, creates a new conversation.  Our spiritual change then hinges on the new heart He has given us.  And it can only come by our belief  that He has given us it.  Faith is the key (5).  Our new heart, our new center core of being, now renews our mind with truth about God, about who He is, what He is doing, and how we fit into that plan.

This is the fertile bed of truth from which our new mind grows.  Our minds are nourished by the truth.  Falsehoods and misconceptions about God choke out the  seedling minds, and they are left to wither and finally decay for lack of real spiritual food and water.  This is why we are admonished to “purge out the old leaven that the lump may be holy” (6).  This is why we are admonished to beware of false prophets and teachers who will bring in “damnable heresies” (7).   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

  1. Phil. 3: 20
  2. Col. 3: 1
  3. Col. 3: 3; Rom. 12: 2
  4. Matt. 15: 18-19
  5. https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/without-faith-it-is-impossible-to-please-god-but-how-do-you-walk-in-it/
  6. I Cor. 5: 7
  7. II Peter 2: 1

 

 

 

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August 25, 2009 · 12:19 pm

Without Faith It Is Impossible to Please God–But How Do You Walk in It?

Faith.  Belief.  Without it, we will never please the Creator, which should be our foremost thought. 

If we are only alive to please our selves, then which god are we serving?  For make no mistake about it, to quote Dylan, “It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”  

And the only way to serve the Creator is by faith.  We are shut up to it.  Why?  Because God is invisible, and since He is an invisible Spirit, we must believe Him, having never seen Him with our eyes.  And that takes faith.

And then someone will say, “Well, I believe in God.  I must have faith and am all right, then.”  Not exactly.  For even the devils believe in one God and tremble (1).  The prophets tell us that we must believe on Him “as the scripture has said.”   The “rivers of living water,” which is His Spirit, will only flow out of those who believe on Him the way the scripture has actually portrayed God (2).

How to walk with God by faith

Every step we take on our spiritual pilgrimage back to our Father is done through faith. The first step is the renunciation of our old sinful life.  God commands that we put it to death on the cross with Christ–not literally, but spiritually.  We have to let it die in order to receive a new life and a new heart.  “We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.  For he who has died is freed from sin.  But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him” (3).

The scenario goes like this.  Some will get sick and tired of doing bad things (sinning) and can’t in their own power stop.  Their conscience bothers them.  They want to stop sinning, which is breaking the ten commandments, but an evil unseen force overtakes them, and the good they want to do, they cannot do.  And the evil things they don’t want to do, they can’t stop doing (4).  This is the state of an unregenerated human being prior to the cross experience.  His old nature is still present.  So how does one put the old sinful heart on the cross to die with Christ and then to be “raised to walk in a newness  of life”?

The Reckoning

How do we do it?  How do we let the old self die and our new life in Christ begin?  We reckon it done by faith/belief.  We have to “reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through  Christ” (5).       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!  He has already reckoned our change done.  When we believe Him, then He counts us righteous in His eyes even in our imperfect state.  It is His nature to “call those things that do not exist as though they did” (6). 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 God 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 or 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. 

The Churches Won’t Touch This

But the “Christian” denominations don’t believe it is possible.  The pastors won’t touch this, for it will get them fired.  The people in the pews don’t believe it, for they have been told all their life by those very pastors that they are sinners and that they will die a sinner.  The pulpits present no hope of ever really changing the heart.  The “deliverance” they preach is window dressing.  Just come to church, pay your tithes and offerings, and don’t rock the boat.  But the people in the pews still sit there in their private sins, undelivered.  But the future sons and daughters of God will long for more and will come out of her. 

They will take this first step by faith, by reckoning it done.  Then, by faith, they will take the next step, and the next, and they will begin to walk in the Spirit. 

But someone will say, “But we just can’t live without sin.”  Of course , we can’t.  That’s why we have to die on the cross with Christ and by faith receive a new heart, His heart, His Spirit.  We who do this have the victory–victory over sin and sinning.  For if we are still sinning, where is the victory?  Our faith is our victory (7). 

But we have to want this new life.  We have to pant after it like a desperately thisty deer.  We have to throw ourselves upon His mercy and break–break our hard hearts, and so He will come and comfort and heal us by giving His very Spirit into us, giving us a new heart.

Our part is to believe that “with God [in us] all things are possible.”  Even to live a life without sin and sinning.  Impossible, you say?  Not with Christ, for He said,  “And nothing shall be impossible to you…All things are possible to him that believes” (8).  And again, “The things that are impossible with men are possible with God” (9). 

Somebody is going to pick up the Book, believe its contents, and change the world.  By faith.   And He wants it to be us.       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

  1. James 2: 19
  2. John 7: 38
  3. Romans 6: 6-8
  4. Romans 7: 15-20
  5. Romans 6: 11
  6. Romans 4: 7
  7. I John 5: 4
  8. Mark 9: 23
  9. Luke 18: 27

{You can read more on this in my book, here:  http://www.yahwehisthesavior.com/yahch30.htm

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August 20, 2009 · 12:26 pm

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

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

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

Being Converted–What It Really Means

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

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

If We Can Just Believe…

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

The Returning Prodigal Son

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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