Tag Archives: Christ

December 15, 2008 · 7:31 pm

Bearing the Fruit of the Spirit–Being the Children of Light

The apostle Paul says that we are light, and we are to “walk as children of light” (Eph 5:8).  Then, in the very next breath he says, “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness…”  This thus signifying that “light” is equal to bearing the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Gal 5:22-23).

We become the children of light when we have His Spirit abiding in us, bearing the fruit of the Spirit.  Light is what makes something known; therefore, God will be manifest in us when others see and experience His love, joy, and peace coming through us.  We are the light of God when we have the fruit of the Spirit because others will see God in us.

We bear this spiritual produce when we abide in the Savior Christ.  We are commanded by the Savior to “abide in me,” and let me abide in you.  Let my Spirit live and flow through you.  Then you will bear much fruit (John 15: 4-5).   Much love from above, joy, and peace will flow down from Him by His Spirit within us and out to others.

How Does His Spirit Abide in Us?

Yes, we are told by the Savior to let the Spirit of God come and flow through us.  But how does this happen?  Is there something that we, His children, need to do to effect this?  How will His abiding presence come into us so that we can bear this fruit of His Spirit?

The Savior Jesus (Yahshua) makes a conditional promise to us concerning this.  “If a man love me, he will keep my words…” (John 14:23).  Good things will come to the man who loves the Son of God.  Loving Him will mean he will obey his words and what He tells us to do.  “If you love Me, keep my commandments”.  If we do this, then He will give us the Spirit!  And the Father “shall give your another Comforter; that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth…for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14: 15-17).   This is the Spirit of God coming down into us!

He just said, those that love Him will keep His commandments.  “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loves Me” (John 14:21).   The person that loves the Son of God understands just what He requires of him, just what He wants him to do.  This person that loves the Son of God will comprehend what this pre-requisite is before we can receive the  in-dwelling Spirit.

What exactly are these commandments that Christ wants us to keep?

The first new thing that He commands us to do is, “Believe Me.”  Real simple.  Not complicated.  Even a child can comprehend this.  He is saying, Believe Me when I tell you about my relationship with the Father.  “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.”  That is a command.  Those of us who take this to heart and do it will receive His Spirit in a reality and bear much fruit of the Spirit.

He did not request mythic gargantuan tasks to prove that we love Him.  He merely gives us a simple command: “Believe me that I am in the Father and believe me that the Father is in Me” (John 14:11).  We are to believe that He was in the Father’s will, heart and mind, soul and body.  And we are to believe that the great Spirit Father, Yahweh Himself, was walking around doing the great miraculous works through Christ!

That’s it in a nutshell.  That is what the book says.  This is worshiping God in spirit and in truth.  This is the truth:  The Father dwelt bodily in the man Christ Jesus (Yahshua) of Nazareth.   “For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2: 9)…”He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father…I and my Father are one…God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself…”

There is so much riding on this.  If we get this one, then the gates of heaven will open, and we shall be the recipients of His very Being in our bodies!  He goes on, “He that believes on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works  shall he do!” (John 14: 12).  Because the Father will be abiding in us, too!  HalleluYah!  This is how we get the Father to come down and live in us: we must first believe that the Father was dwelling fully in the Son of God.

We get this right and great joy, great peace, and great love will come down through us and on out unto the world.  Believing that the Father walked around in the Son of God and did the works is the first step in us receiving the Father and having Him walk around in our bodies here on the the earth.  It will be He loving others through us.  He will be touching others with peace and joy.

Christ goes on and confirms it again: “If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (Jn 14:23).  This is how the Spirit will come down and abide in us.

“He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit…”  Much love, joy, peace and all the rest, coming down and through us to the love-starved world.  This is how we glorify the Father–that we bear much fruit of the Spirit (John 15: 8).   These fruit-bearers will be His disciples.

Once the belief has begun–belief that the Father is in Christ fully–then “whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”  We now have confidence to ask for more of His presence, more of His Spirit, so that it can be channeled out to others who need to know that God is real.

In this way the light of God’s Spirit will shine so that all men can be drawn to God.  “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me.”  We are then to “let your light so shine that others may see your good works and glorify your Father (which is walking inside of you, doing the works).

Why is this so difficult for us to comprehend?  It is because of the old leaven, the old teachings about the Father and Christ taught by the false prophets and teachers throughout the centuries.  They have made it mysterious and difficult to understand God through subtilty, lest our “minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (II Cor 11: 3).        Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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December 3, 2008 · 7:20 pm

Conversations With the Seer–What Is Sin in God’s Eyes?

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

“Just what is sin then?” I asked the Seer.  We had been talking about the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the “sin” question had come up.

“Sin is the breaking of the law,” he said (1).

“Which law?”

“The Ten Commandments.  If you are breaking one of them, then you are in a sinful state.  The apostle Paul of Tarsus proves this when he wrote, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet (2).  Here he equates sin with breaking one of the Ten Commandments.  Coveting or desiring your neighbor’s possessions or wife is a sin, prohibited by the Ten Commandments.  There are nine others.  Breaking any of them is sinning.”

“But I’ve been taught that sin can be anything from dancing to drinking wine, from getting angry to not doing something that I am supposed to do.”

“Shuffling one’s feet on a hardwood floor does not necessarily mean one is sinning.  Remember King David, flooded with complete joy, danced in the streets; he did not sin.  The Savior Himself drank wine in the homes of sinners and publicans (3), yet He committed no sin.  He also got angry at the moneychangers at the temple, yet without sin.”

“Why don’t the preachers teach this?”

“They either do not know the truth, or they have turned from the truth and continued on in man’s traditions.  I do not judge them.  We all have a Judge who will examine us in light of the knowledge given us by Him.”

“You mentioned dancing and drinking wine.  Why would that not be sinning?”

“God looks on the intents of the heart (4).  If dancing is used for sinful and lustful purposes, then it is suspect.  Same goes for drinking a glass of fermented grape juice.  Righteous indignation is not the same as selfish anger.”

“Sin then is a spiritual condition.”

“Yes.  It is a spiritual condition of the heart, of the core of a person.  But sin does not have to be permanent in the human being.  A ‘new heart’ composed of His Spirit can be transplanted into the human being through repentance and faith toward God (5).”  He saw that I had enough to chew on, so he stopped speaking.

I thanked him for the visit and walked away with some answers, but they seemed to germinate and sprout into more questions–questions for another day.        Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. I John 3:4

2. Romans 7: 7

3. Luke 19: 2

4. Hebrew 4:12

5. Ezekiel 36: 26-27

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November 22, 2008 · 4:09 pm

You Just Can’t Fight the Love*–My Testimony in Song

I once was a lost and bitter young man

Till Christ showed me He’s the way.

The way for a man to be like God is

Doing what He did.

And what did He do but give up His life

That other people might live.

And compassion like that is from above,

And I couldn’t fight the love.

So I gave up my life, and He gave me His.

Now I don’t sin anymore,

For “he that is dead is freed from sin.”

There’s only love now within.

And God and His love obeys all His laws

Inside me, loving neighbor as self.

And action like this is from above,

And you just can’t fight the love.

Until that day you hear the Master say,

“I want to make you my son.”

And, oh, that light from up above,

And you just can’t fight the–

You’d better not fight the–

You just can’t fight the love.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

* {I wrote this song back in 1973.  Someday I’ll record it on You Tube and share it.}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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November 16, 2008 · 1:09 pm

Conversations With the Seer–What is the Light of God?

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

I came to the Seer with a question about the Light.  I was reading the words, but I just could not wrap my mind around it.  So I asked, “What is the Light?”

“The Light is the life of God,” he said with a smile.  “Whenever a person receives His life, then they are receiving the Light.”

“How does this tie in with Christ being the Light of the world?”

“Eternal Life was and is in Christ.  The fulness of the very life of God dwelt bodily in Christ, and it is this Eternal Life that is the Light.  His Life enlightens natural man.  Man sits in darkness, drifting aimlessly, a victim of kneejerk responses that oftentimes land him into trouble.  When unregenerate man runs into this Eternal Life, a light shines brightly into his dark soul.  His “heart of darkness” is exposed.  He sees that someone is leading a righteous life, revealing his life to be unrighteous and sinful.  He doesn’t understand at this point how all this happens.  This is how the Light shines into darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not (1).

“How does this work?”

“God’s Life in Christ is Light.  The very nature of Light is to shine into darkness.  But to understand this spiritual Light, we must examine natural light that enters our earthly eyes every morning.  Just like the light from the sun searches out and dispels corners and pockets of the darkness of night, even so the Life of God in Christ searches out and reveals the darkness in the hearts of sinful human beings.  The positive creative goodness of His Eternal Life can’t help but go where sin, evil, and darkness resides.”

“I understand this, but why does it do this?”  I ask.

“It hinges on why God created human beings in the first place.  Mankind was created to house the Eternal Life of God.  Nothing less.  And since what God does, He does forever, He still is seeking out a place to reside.  He’s looking for a home.  Our bodies are designed to be His temple.  And He has not stopped searching for a people to live in.”

“Yes.  ‘He seeketh such to worship Him–in spirit and in truth.’  Christ and the woman at the well” (2).

“Exactly.  This incident actually shows us what true worship is.  He told her that God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him will have His Spirit, His very Life, living in them.  God is searching the hearts of men and women everywhere as sunlight searches out darkness.”

“But why doesn’t everyone surrender to the Light when it enters into their thinking?”

“When the human heart is doing evil, it shies away from the Light, which is His Life.  The sinful heart is selfish and does not want to surrender to God’s Life, which demands a change.  Most prefer to continue to live their old lives.  But He wants His temple clean of all the evil because He can’t dwell where evil is.  But some persist in their evil ways.  The scriptures say, For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be discovered.  But he that does truth comes to the light so that his deeds may become known” (3).

“So everyone makes his or her choice.”

“Yes.  This one thing all must realize.  This Eternal Life which trumps death, which is the key to immortality, the thing that everyone wishes for–this Eternal Life is in Christ.  When someone rejects Him and His words, they are not rejecting some nice man who taught good principles in Galilee 2,000 years ago.  No.  They are rejecting Life and their chance at immortality.  He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.  When we believe that God (Yahweh), the supreme Creator, dwelt bodily in Christ, we have LIFE.  And His LIFE is man’s Light that shines into the selfish heart and drives the darkness out (4).     Those that receive the Light, those who receive this Eternal Life into their hearts, these are the ones that He will give power to, to become the sons and daughters of God, which is believing what His name means.  But that’s another day” (5).

And with that, I thanked the Seer for sharing his thoughts on the Light.  I went out, wondering if I would ever be able to contain the Light.  And then the thought came, I will not put on you more than you are able to bear.  And that made me smile.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

(1) John 1: 4-5          (2) John 4: 23-24             (3) John 3: 19-21         (4)  I John 5: 10-12     (5) John 1: 12

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November 9, 2008 · 12:43 pm

Lost Tribes of Israel in Earth Today–Three Scriptural Proofs

     Proof #1: An end-time prophecy in the book of Revelation puts the lost sheep of the whole House of Israel—12 tribes—in the earth in the last days. 

     In chapter 7 we read of 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes being sealed as the servants of God.  “And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (7:4).  And then he begins to list them by the specific names of the tribes of Israel.  Some say that these are all Jews.  This is impossible, for the Jews of the lineage of Abraham were comprised of only two the the twelve tribes, Judah and Benjamin.

     Question: If the 12 tribes of Israel are no longer in the earth or are no longer recognizable as such, then how are they to be found and sealed in the latter days?

 Proof #2: Yahweh will cause the house of Israel to wander among all nations.

      “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth” (Amos 9:9).  The word “sift” is from #5128 in Strong’s Hebrew, meaning “to wander, move.”  In fact, it is translated “wander” and “move” in several passages such as Numbers 32:13: “He made them wander in the wilderness.”

     All authorities agree that the passage in Amos speaks of the last days—a time of destruction for the wicked and a time of restoration for the people of God.  “Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD” (Amos 9:8).  Here the evil empires of the earth will come down, but God will spare certain of the tribes of Israel.  They will be recognizable; they will be in tact.  They will be known by God and by the world at that time.

 

Proof # 3: The Savior Yahshua, when sending his twelve disciples out in Matthew 10, was sending them out as a type and shadow of what will take place in the future.  The lost sheep of the House of Israel are to be the target audience of the end time preaching of the kingdom of heaven.  In fact, the Master tells them to not go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but to go to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 

     He then commissions, empowers, and instructs them.  But it is not only for them; it is actually written for those of us who will come in to work in his vineyard in these latter days.  How do we know that all of this in Matthew 10 is for us?  The answer is found in verse 23.  “Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.”

     Two points emerge here.  First, by this time, the cities of the northern Kingdom of Israel are not inhabited by Israelites.  By 721 B. C. the Assyrians had emptied the cities of Israel and had deported them to upper Mesopotamia.  The Assyrians had then brought in people from their cities to repopulate the Israelite cities.  Seven centuries later, the disciples could not physically have gone to the new cities that the dispersed Israelites had migrated to—not in that short time frame.  Besides, they did not know where they were; they were lost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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September 27, 2008 · 3:56 pm

Wisdom Is the Principal Thing–Key to God’s Treasure House

     Those of us who are on this quest for immortality must have the key that unlocks the vault to God’s treasures.  He has left it in plain sight, for He wants us to find it.  That key is wisdom.

     “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom” (Proverbs 4:7).  We’ve got to get wisdom.  It is the main thing.  Why?  Because we cannot find God without it.  He didn’t say that we first need to come down to the front of a church building, go to meetings or tithe or jump through  manmade hoops.  We need wisdom, the key that unlocks God’s spiritual treasure house.

     Many people have tried to enter into the vaults of the  Supreme  Being where His treasures are stored.  Many  have  wanted  to  explore   the   unsearchable riches of Christ–without wisdom.  Many people have tried to clone the Messiah or make temples and buildings to please Him, without wisdom. Mankind sometimes uses interesting but futile chants, hums, repetitions, songs, shouts, “slayings-in-the-spirit” and the like, but the Almighty is not impressed by them. He seeks people to worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

     Many have twisted the word “riches” to mean only money: filthy lucre, mammon, riches of this world that finance luxurious cathedrals midst the poverty,  wealth that  the  world  and  Satan  can  give  ( “I’ll  give you all the kingdoms of this world if…”).

     And yet, Wisdom personified cries to us, “Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness” (Prov. 18: 8).  The durable riches, those that will last, are with wisdom.  And the righteousness that will last and endure is with wisdom, as well.  In the end man will be destroyed “that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches…” Psalms 52:7-8. 

 

The True Riches

     So what are the true riches of God that comes with wisdom?  Paul said that “all the treasures of wisdom” are hid in Christ (Colossians 2:3).  After we get rid of our old selves on the cross, we then are “dead and our life is hid with Christ in God.”  We receive His Spirit in us.  We then have the opportunity to grow up spiritually into Him-walking-around-in-our-body! Which has now become His body!  Think about it: Us doing the same things that He did 2,000 years ago!  Christ did say that those “who believe on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works shall he do also” (John 14: 12).  

 

     That right there should put us in awe of our Creator–which, incidentally, is the very definition of “wisdom.”  More on this next time.  {This is from chapter one of my book, Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality found here:  http://www.yahwehisthesavior.com/yahch1.htm )  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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August 16, 2008 · 1:46 pm

“The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel”–Entering the “Mind of Christ”

     We are told to “let this mind be in you”–the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5).  We are to have His thoughts, to think the way He does, to meditate on subjects that fill His mind.  After all, He is the King, and if He is truly our Master, then we will strive to think His thoughts and to have His mind.

     So, then, how can we know His thoughts?  What is He thinking right now?  He is the “same yesterday, today, and forever,” so His thoughts 2,000 years ago are still in His mind today.  What are they? 

     The answer lies in the words He spoke.  Whatever thoughts were in His heart and mind, that is what came out of His mouth.  And one of those things was His concern for “the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  

     A Canaanite woman, who was not of Israelite stock, came to Him and wanted Him to heal her daughter.  But He said nothing.  She cried for mercy.  And kept on so much so that His disciples said to Him, “Send her away for she keeps crying out after us.”  Instead of sending her away, Christ says something very curious.  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  He was saying, First, I’ve got my people who need Me, and they don’t know who they are.  They are like sheep without a shepherd, and I need to help them.

     Then “the woman came and knelt before Him.  Lord, help me!”  

     And then He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”  This bread is for the children, the children of Israel, He was saying.  These spiritual gifts are for them primarily.

      Then she said, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  This touched Him, and so He praised her faith and healed her daughter (Mt. 15:22-28, NIV). 

      The point: Christ made it very clear who He was thinking about.  It was the lost sheep first.  That was His primary mission.  He was compassionate and honored the faith of the Gentile woman and blessed her.  But His main mission was to gather “the outcasts of Israel.” 

     To solve this mystery of who they are, we must keep an open mind.  Hopefully we now have a reason to study a bit of Biblical history in order to unravel the strands.  These “lost sheep of the House of Israel” are extremely important to Christ, and now to us.  “Finding” these “lost sheep” will uncover one of the secrets of the ages.  More later.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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August 7, 2008 · 11:54 am

“Thine Is the Kingdom, Power, Glory”–Surrendering to God

     It is all His, and we’ll surrender to Him when we believe it.  Because in the end, it will be all Him.  It is the Father’s kingdom rule that will hold sway to the furthest speck of the universe. 

     His power will permit what He desires and will permeate the will of mankind.  He will share His glory with the humble, with those who have abdicated and renounced themselves unworthy to rule their own lives, and have surrendered to His majesty for ever.

     Here lies a paradox.  There is nothing in the plan of God for us humans, and yet, if we surrender to Him, we inherit all things!  How can this be?

     Christ is teaching us His disciples in this closing line of the blueprint prayer to realize that it is all about the Father.  In the end, after our fitful demands and childish schemes, all of us humans will fall into one of two categories: vessels surrendered to Him or unsurrendered to Him.

     “Surrender” implies a fight that has taken place.  We see in the natural a little child throwing a fit, fighting the will of his parents.  It is his will versus his parents’ will.  And so it is spiritually with us adults.  We have our own will initially that fights against God’s will for our lives.  And His will is for us to see that His way is best and surrender to it.

     For He, of course, already knows “the end from the beginning,” and in the end, it will be all Christ.  The Spirit of Christ will be all, and will fill all (Colossians 3:11). 

     When we surrender to Him, we receive His Spirit into our hearts (“that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”–Ephesians 3:17).  He begins to make His abode in us; He takes up residence in our hearts, and His Spirit in us grows as we water the Seed through study and prayer.  He actually fills us with His goodness.

     He in His surrendered vessels is how He multiplies Himself.  This is the role that we His followers play.  For we become more than just followers.  We become His dwelling place, His temple, His body.

     The “Father of glory” glorified Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15).  The Father unleashed His power and glory to be channeled through Christ.  And He has opened it up to the likes of us.  To us, who were so far removed morally from His purity, has He provided a way “to partake of His divine nature” (II Peter 1:4). 

     If we surrender to Him.  And those who do will become His body, His very dwelling place, which is “the fulness of Him that fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23).  Full of His power, full of His glory, and full of His regal aspect.  Wow.  That is all I can say right now.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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July 26, 2008 · 7:25 pm

“Overcome Evil With Good”–Forgiving One Another

     Been betrayed lately?  Lied to?  Cheated on?  Robbed?  Beaten up?  Victimized?  Abused mentally or physically?  

     Have you ever wondered, Why do good-hearted people suffer at the hands of evil ones?  It is the age old question explored in the Book of Job in the Bible.  Why do the righteous suffer?

     The short answer: God allows it.  For a very good reason.  He wants us to be like Him, but to be like Him, we must have something to forgive.  If this does not make much sense, we need to remember that “HIs ways are not our ways, His thoughts not our thoughts.”  We must look through His eyes to comprehend the answer to this one. 

     His eternal purpose is what He is about from the very beginning before time as we know it.  And it is this: He is in the process of reproducing Himself.  He is the Seed, the Word, and He is multiplying Himself in us. 

He Is the Forgiver

     We receive His Spirit within our hearts and begin to grow.  One of His major traits that He is keen on passing on to us is that He is the Forgiver.  “To forgive a wrong” is an attribute of God, for only He can do it; only He has a heart big enough for it. 

     We, in order to be His sons and daughters, should now forgive.  The English poet Alexander Pope wrote, “To err is human; to forgive is divine.” 

     But it is not in the old nature of man to forgive.  We hold on to things that people do to us.  We hold grudges and forge weapons of revenge, or harbor little agonies about wrongs committed aganist us.  

     And since forgiveness is not a natural human trait, we then are forced to go to God and ask Him for His Spirit-of-forgiveness to be channeled through us to the one who wronged us.

     This has a powerful impact on both the forgiver (us) and the forgiven (them).   We will have contacted God and witnessed His Spirit of forgiveness flowing through us, and the forgiven knows now that something greater than a victim stands there–in peace.

     This is how we are delivered from the evil done to us by others–when we forgive their sins toward us.  We have that power with God.  In fact, He wants us to forgive others, for it shows the world that we are His offspring.

     We are to “be partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4).  By forgiving, we show His godly nature in us.  This gives God glory.

     Forgiving will not put an end to “people hurting people.”  The old nature will sin against others. But we can transcend this lower, earthy, devilish cycle of hurt-for-hurt and an eye-for-an-eye.  With God’s help, this we can do to end the cycle of sin.  We forgive and thereby join the ranks of God’s princes and princesses who have now partaken of His divine nature–the nature of forgiving.

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July 16, 2008 · 3:20 pm

“Lead Us Not Into Temptation”–Being “Led by the Spirit of God”

     God does not tempt us.  When we desire worldly things, we are lured away from the spiritual heavenly things.  This is temptation, and Christ is reminding us of this in the Lord’s prayer.

     “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed” (James 1:13-14).  Those without the Spirit of God dwelling in their hearts fall prey to these thoughts and desires as they conceive and bring forth sin (Thou shalt not covet) and death (1:15).  Those with the Spirit are spared this, for they have a new heart.

     Our example in the Bible of how not to act are the Israelites in the wilderness.  They lusted after the food and creature comforts of their old homes in Egypt, and those desires took root in their hearts and led them to perdition.  We are specifically admonished to not do what they did (I Cor. 10:6-13).

     No, God will not lead us into temptation.  He is our faithful Shepherd, as David sung, “He leads me beside the still waters…He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake” (Psalms 23: 2-3).  And yet, God gets blamed for our foibles and trials. 

     God, rather, leads His sons and daughters into unspeakable realms of glory by His Spirit.  “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons (and daughters) of God” (Rom. 8:14).  He has given us the downpayment of His Spirit through our belief in His resurrection in us.  His Spirit that now resides in us is leading us on down the path to an immortal reign with Him.

     As we continue reading Romans 8, we see that we have received from Him the “Spirit of adoption” instead of our old spirit of fear (v. 15).  He is our Father and we cry out to Him as such.  We are His children and His heirs.  He is the King; we His children are His princes and princesses–heirs to His throne (v. 15-18). 

     The whole world is groaning, waiting for the “manifestation of the sons of God” (v. 19-22).  This unveiling of God’s soon-to-be immortal offspring is the final act of the play called Life As We Know It (read more in my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God  at http://yahwehisthesavior.com/unveiling.htm ).

     We all want to live on, but we are entrapped by a body of fragile flesh that is destined to expire.  We are rushing to our “expiration date” because of the physical corruptability of our bodies.  Most have little hope. 

     But Christ our Shepherd will lead us through our faith in Him.  For we know that it is all going to work out, for we love Him.  We have been called by Him according to His plan and purpose (see post “Nature Teaches God’s Plan of Reproducing Himself” at https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/nature-teaches-gods-plan-of-reproducing-himself/ ).  

     He knew us and gave us a destiny to become His sons and daughters long before we came to the earth–a destiny “to be conformed to the image of His Son…the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8: 28-30).

     He is leading us down this path to His throne as we write this.  Believing this gives us great confidence, for we will never ever be separated from the love of God, which is in Christ (8:39).

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