Tag Archives: faith

January 25, 2014 · 4:51 pm

God Is the Teacher Teaching Through His Teachers

Oh, my God! This thing is real! You are the great Teacher, and when your Spirit dwells within a member of your body, then You the Teacher begin to teach, and the vessel that you speak through becomes a teacher of God. For it is no longer them that lives but Christ that lives in them. As Paul the apostle and teacher of God said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2: 20).

And really, this message, the death of the old sinful self, is the foundation of the temple of God. We are His temple; consequently, our foundation must be the crucifixion of self, which is how we repent, and faith toward God, which is believing that He raised us up when He raised Christ up. That is the foundation that we are to build on. That is the cornerstone of the apostles’ teachings that we are to continue in (Acts 2: 42).

When we are baptized, we are immersed into His death (Rom. 6: 3). The water symbolizes to all that this is done. And what does “His death” entail? His death is the death of our old sinful nature; it is the end of our sin and sinning. “For He has made Him to be sin for us, who did no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5: 21).

Christ carried our sinful nature on Him; He was the scapegoat offering. He put an end to sin in us, for when He died, our sinful self died. When He was buried, our old self was buried; and when He was raised–HalleluYah!–then we too were raised to walk in a new life! Where old things are passed away! Behold, all things are become new!

“For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin–because anyone who has died has been free from sin” (Rom. 6: 6-7 NIV). We are not bound to sin anymore; we are not under that bondage anymore. Believing in the His resurrection is the key because when we believe it, we are believing that we are being resurrected from the death that comes from the sinful self. Death is destroyed when our sin is put to death on the cross with
Christ. Ingenious plan!

Just the Beginning

This makes us a child of God. Wonderful, yes, but it is just the beginning of our walk with Him. It is the first step, the first stones to be laid in the foundation of us His house. Yet many new Christians are content to remain here as little children of God. But we are admonished to “go on to perfection,” to full maturity in God’s life cycle, for He is all about reproducing Himself. That is His plan and purpose.

But how do we continue growing? What steps must we take? What knowledge do we need, what spiritual meat was He talking about when He said to children of God that He had more advanced teachings for them, but they were “dull of hearing.” He was saying, You ought to be teachers of these advanced things of God, but you “have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God and…have need of milk and not strong meat” (Heb. 5: 11-14).

Babes need milk to grow. And that spiritual milk is comprised of the “principles of the doctrine of Christ,” which leads to Christian “perfection,” which is maturity.

These first foundational teachings of Christ are outlined in Hebrews 6: 1-2: repentance from dead works [sin], faith toward God, doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

And to get to full maturity like the early apostles, we must get these solid in our new life in Christ and then–leave them! We must not circle them like the Israelites circled the same old mountain. Forty years they wandered, and only two out of millions went into the Promised Land! We incorporate these teachings into our spiritual life, but we don’t remain there. These doctrines serve as our foundation in Christ, but to fulfill His will for our lives, we must leave them. They are stepping stones for the princes and princesses of the King! They are pre-requisites; they are means and not the end-all-be-all. To complete our royal destiny, we must grow in grace and knowledge and “be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine.”

And we Christians will leave the first principles of Christ’s doctrine and “go on to perfection”–if God permits. He wishes that all of us were prophets. He loves us and wants us to be just like Him. And more importantly, He has provided the way through the first two gifts of the Spirit–the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, the tools of the trade for His teachers.

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Filed under apostles' doctrine, baptism, belief, children of God, crucified with Christ, death, death of self, elect, faith, glorification, perfection, princes and princesses of God, sin, sons and daughters of God, Spirit of God, Spiritual Life Cycle

Tagged as baptism, death of self, faith, resurrection, sin

December 28, 2013 · 10:53 pm

Making Our Calling and Election Sure

We are admonished by the apostle Peter to “make our calling and election sure.” You mean that we have to do something? I thought it was all God and His grace that helps us to be what He wants us to be. It is, but there remains things we must do in order for the spiritual growth to take place.

We must study and pray and eventually fast that the culprit Unbelief might skulk away out of our spiritual lives. For it is unbelief that hinders our growth. But the Spirit has left us a roadmap, a way of cutting through the haze of phony doctrines about God.

Peter tells us in his second letter the steps we should take. He explains that to grow to full maturity, we must add seven attributes to our faith.

Peter writes to those who “have obtained like precious faith with us” (2 Peter 1: 1). The elect, God’s chosen ones for this high calling, have received the same exact precious faith that the early apostles received.

Now this comes about in our lives “through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ (Yahshua)” (v. 1). After we were convicted of our sin-guiltiness, and after we stepped out and laid down our old sinful self on the cross and died in revelation with the sacrificial Lamb of God, we, by believing that Christ was raised from the dead, receive a newly resurrected life by faith.

It is His faith that we have received. God believed in His own power to raise up the Lamb of God, and when we believed that, then we obtained that very same belief in the form of a “new heart” and a new spirit. By believing in His resurrection, we also believe that we were raised from the dead, for we were definitely dead in our sins—the walking dead, as it were. But now we are alive from the dead, and we bear God’s very own faith in our bosom. As Paul said, “Old things are passed away,” and all things “are become new.” It is no longer the old Adamic man, writhing in the guilt of sin, that now lives, but rather the new man Christ, who has now begun His growth within our new hearts.

This is the faith we have obtained with Peter, Paul, James, and John. Faith is the foundation that must be added to, just like a builder adds walls, a roof, windows and doors to the foundation of the new house he is building. And it is this faith—God’s faith now in us, not our faith in Him—that must be added unto.

Adding Seven Spiritual Attributes Insures Three Things

We are to add to our faith “virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity [agape love]” (1: 5-7).

Peter writes that adding these seven spiritual attributes to His faith in us yields three major things in God’s plan for these latter days. First, they insure that we will not “be barren nor unfruitful” (1: 8). God wants us to bear “much fruit” and is glorified when we do (John 15: 8).

Second, the additions to our faith are how we solidify our standing as one of God’s elect; it is how we “make our calling and election sure.” Walking in these seven attributes of God’s nature insures our place in the elect. Or better put, those destined to be part of the elect will build their spiritual house with these attributes (1: 10).

Furthermore, it is through them that “an entrance shall be ministered unto [us] abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior” (1: 11).

Adding them is how we “partake of His divine nature” (1: 4). It is how we make our calling and election sure, how we never fall, how we will be full of spiritual fruit, how we will receive an entrance into His kingdom, and how we will “partake of His divine nature.” That sums up what spiritual growth is about. That is how important these things are as outlined by Peter in his Second Epistle, Chapter 1.

A Serious Assignment

Adding these attributes is a serious assignment that only the Spirit of truth can teach, for it is He that leads us into all truth. Truth being the key word.

“Truth is fallen in the streets,” says the prophet. And there is a famine in the land, a famine of the word of God. Because of this dearth, adding these seven attributes is a formidable task. Why? Peter in the very next chapter forewarns us of how the devil will hinder our growth in becoming God’s elect. He warns us to beware of false prophets and false teachers who “shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.” And many will follow these hypocrites, who will “speak great swelling words of vanity” and will “promise them liberty” while they are “the servants of corruption” (II Peter 2:1-19).

And how does this second chapter tie into the first? These false “Christian” teachers will spew out false teachings that will hinder a young Christian’s spiritual growth. Peter gives his stark warning to us so that we would not be hijacked and taken away by the enemy, thus prohibiting us from making our calling and election sure. Bluntly put, false teachings will thwart the children of God from growing into fully matured Christians, fit to sit on the throne with Christ. Getting rid of these false concepts about God is where the study and prayer come in after true knowledge comes to us.

Isaiah wonders, “Who hath believed our report?” Who will answer the call to go all the way to the throne of God? Only the adventurous. Only the unafraid. Only the rebels who refuse to come under the yoke of the god of this world. Only those who trust in the Spirit of God within themselves, as He helps them separate the good teachings from the bad.

But man’s wisdom cannot teach this truth to the elect. Old Adamic man just cannot teach it to us, nor the well-meaning manna-gatherers of yesteryear, who fed the flock of God with the spiritual bread that they had one hundred, five hundred, or one thousand or more years ago. That cannot sustain the elect of God for these latter days. For these elect must have the “present truth”—food convenient for them.

God is doing a new thing; He is pouring out new light as to His plan and purpose. The Spirit is pouring out His truth today all over the earth. He has seven thousand unbowed to Baal, and they are like river bed conduits of His living water. Those who thirst will drink. The rest will with parched throats persist in scratching moisture out of broken cisterns of the waters of the past, repositories of the damp shadows of truth.

For God is doing a new thing in the earth, a thing that men will not believe though God Himself tells them. For He has already, even though He has blinded all but the remnant, the elect. But they will prepare and do and put on these additions to the “faith once delivered to the saints.” Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Who Hath Believed Our Report? How long, O Lord?

A few weeks ago I put a couple of my books on consignment in a local discount grocery store that had a rack of Christian books. It was a self-described Christian establishment sitting in the middle of the Bible Belt, and I figured a local author with a Christian book–what’s not to like?

So I came back to the store a month later to see if the books had moved and noticed that they were not on the rack. So I asked the assistant manager who made the deal with me about stocking the books, “Did they sell? I don’t see them on the rack.”

He looked at me real funny and being the diplomat/merchant that he is, he began to hem-haw around, saying, “Well, the manager hasn’t had time to look them over and approve them yet.”

I said, “Your racks contain scores of books that I doubt he spent any time pouring over to approve.”

“Do you want them?”

“Of course, I want them if you are not going to try to sell them.”

“I’ll go get them.” In a moment he returned with my books.

And then I realized what had happened. They had put them on the rack because they had a price sticker on them. But a shopper had perused them and did not approve of the teachings found in them and complained to the manager. Probably my Yah Is Savior book insulted someone’s churchianity quotient; perhaps they read the back cover which has summary of its contents. And so they stopped right there and got indignant. If they had read on, they would have found out much about how Christ, the Son of God, came in His Father’s name, Yahweh and what that really means.

The more truth He gives you, the less likely it will be received by the masses

But what did I expect? That everyone really wants the truth about God and everything else? How naïve of me. How presumptuous, like Moses, who “supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not” (Acts 7: 25). God had showed Moses a glimpse of the plan but not the power; that would come forty years later at the burning bush (v. 30-36).

After my little incident, Isaiah’s question kept coming to mind: “Who hath believed our report? (Isa. 53: 1). Why is there so much rampant unbelief? Why can’t people just believe?

It is the age old dilemma for men and women of God. The more truth He gives you, the less likely it will be received by the masses. You and I have had several revelations of truth and, excited about it, we share it immediately with probably the first person we meet, and it falls disappointedly on deaf ears. The kicker is that we honestly believe that they at this time ought to believe the truth we are sharing. But the vast majority don’t, and we wonder why.

But the scriptures state that most will not believe. In fact, if everything you share garners a huge following and acceptance by the masses, you don’t have the right message.

The Wide Gate and the Narrow Gate

That’s a bold statement, I know. But, we are to “enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7: 13-14). The masses are fooled and led to destruction through a wide gate; the few will find the true way. These are the Savior’s very own words.

And how are the masses led astray by the tens and hundreds of millions? Christ answers this in the very next verse: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (v. 15). Sheep’s clothing. They look like they are a Christian; they appear to be a bona fide spokesman for God, God’s helper, but Christ says they are ferocious wolves! That’s how the masses are herded into the wide gate and destroyed. By deceivers with their false teachings and old leaven concepts about God and not the true word of God.

In fact, Christ implores us to “strive to enter in at the narrow gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13: 24-30). The word translated “strive” is rendered “fight” in many passages. We must fight to enter through the narrow gate into the kingdom of God. It is a fight, a struggle. Fight against what? Against the false doctrines and concepts taught by the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Because there will be many who went the easy way through the wide gate and they will “seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” Upon realizing that they messed up, they will knock on the Master’s door, but He will say, I don’t know you. And they will be in anguish when they are rejected by Him. Those that went in through the wide gate taught by the false prophets will be in big trouble.

But why won’t the masses believe this message?

So, the question remains. Did I really expect when I committed my writing to God–did I expect to be believed? Especially since what God keeps showing me is so different to the doctrines that organized churchianity teaches.

But why won’t the masses believe this message?

I found the answer, which lies in the fact that they did not believe the Savior Himself! Very few “got Him” then, and very few get Him now.

“But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him” (John 12: 37). It would be the same today if we had the same power to heal the sick and raise the dead. Oh, the masses would clamor after a miracle for themselves, but they would not really take the truth in and believe it.

Nothing has changed. But why? Why at this present time in history won’t the people believe?

Verse 38 answers the question. “That the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: Lord, who has believed our report…Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them” (Jn 12: 38-41).

Why can’t the people just believe when truth comes their way? Because the multitudes are unable to at this time in history. What? And why can’t they believe? Because God–yes, God Himself–has “blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts” (Isa. 6: 9-10). He has blinded the vast majority of fleshly Israel and the Gentile nations. That is what the sacred writings of the prophets Isaiah and John tell us.

The masses are blinded by Him, but “the few” that Christ spoke about above are entering in by the narrow gate. These are His elect, His chosen ones. To Christ’s disciples He said, “It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the masses] it is not given” (Matt. 13: 11-16). And then He quotes Isaiah 6: 9-10 to them. Although not politically correct to say it, Christ is revealing precious mysteries at present as the masses remain blind and hardened to His truth (Rom. 11: 7).

How Long, O Lord?

But when? God, how long will it be before You open the people’s eyes and soften their hearts so that they can believe You? When will their vision be restored and their hearts softened? Isaiah asked, “Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land” (6: 10-11).

When the cities are wiped out, when the earth lies totally ruined and desolate, and when this world system is forever shattered and lying in rubble on the ground, then the masses will turn to God. These are the disasters of biblical proportions. This is the realization of all the disaster movies we’ve ever seen. This is the great tribulation period that everyone alive on earth will go through, just before Christ’s return to earth to establish His kingdom.

When God unleashes His trumpets and vials of wrath upon the earth, then the masses will begin to awaken and believe. They are asleep and deceived and “poor, wretched, miserable, blind and naked.”

God, please help us. Spare thy people, oh God. I am grateful for this knowledge, but it is a heavy burden to bear–knowing the sufferings that await the inhabitants of the earth.

The tribulation will come, and then more of the masses will have a softened heart to believe and love Him and they will repent and follow Him.

Of course, the false prophets and false teachers say that you won’t have to go through the tribulation period. Of course, they would teach that. How else are they going to get the massive numbers of souls through the wide gate that “leads to destruction”? God, help us. KWH

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Filed under catching away of the saints, Christ, elect, eternal purpose, false doctrines, false prophets, false teachers, great tribulation period, kingdom of God, manifestation of the sons of God, old leaven

Tagged as faith, false prophets, tribulation

June 15, 2013 · 3:23 pm

First Step in Becoming a Son or Daughter of God

A seeker once asked the Seer, “How do you get into the family of God? I see what you mean about respecting God’s awesome power and sovereignty. At least a little. But what do I have to do in order to get involved in this sonship the Bible keeps on talking about?”

“The first thing is to feel in you inner being, in your heart, that you need to change. Unless a person admits that he is not living right before this awesome Creator God, that person cannot get closer to God. God has a written law, handed down by the Son of God himself to the prophet Moses. It is called the Ten Commandments. It was in effect from the creation of man and woman. It was in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They are called the commandments of righteousness. And everyone has broken them.

“God laid down the law: You shall have no other gods before me [especially ourselves]. You shall not make for yourself a graven image and bow down to it and serve it. You shall not lift up the name of God [Yahweh] falsely. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Honor your father and mother. You shall not murder, nor commit adultery, nor steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet or desire for yourself anything that belongs to your neighbor.

“Those are the commandments as found in Exodus 20. Mankind, led by their old nature, breaks them. Many people who claim to know the Bible say that the law was done away with. But the Savior Jesus (Yahshua) said in Matthew 5: 17, ‘Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come…to fulfill them.’

“And the way He fulfills the law is giving us His Spirit. But this only comes after we identify our old sinful self on the cross with the dying Savior, and let our old sinning heart die with Christ. This is repentance from sin. Then we must believe that when Christ resurrected from the grave, we, too, were raised from the dead–to walk now in a sinless existence–through belief that His Spirit is now leading and guiding us in this new life in Christ. This is faith toward God, the second of the apostles’ doctrines.

“And it is with these two extremely important and fundamental truths that a new son or daughter of God is born–born of the Spirit. But a person must have a need. God knows His own; He is aware who is written in the book of life, and He will help them and favor them (grace) and lead them into these truths.

“But this is only the first step in the growth to becoming His son or daughter. For this is the foundation that must be built upon with more of His truth and Spirit. For never forget this one thing: Salvation is just the first step in God’s growth cycle. He wants us to mature into full grown fruit-bearing capability as His ruling cadre in His kingdom during the 1,000 year reign! Go and learn what that means. Seek God for it. Study, dig deep, for the kingdom’s treasures are much greater that gold and precious diamonds and jewels.

“Ask Him to send a true teacher who will help you get started. And then, as you get stronger and more mature, you will have no need that any man should teach you, for you will have the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, leading you into all truth” (John 14: 16-26).

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Filed under apostles' doctrine, belief, death of self, elect, faith, kingdom of God, repentance, sons and daughters of God

Tagged as faith, repentance, Spirit of truth

May 25, 2013 · 8:58 pm

“The Just Shall Live by Faith”–But Who Are “the Just”? and Which Faith?

“The just shall live by faith,” says the prophet Habbakuk (2: 4). It is a very important passage quoted by Paul the apostle and made famous by Martin Luther. But who are the just? And which faith was the prophet talking about?

The Hebrew word translated “just” is rendered “righteous” in scores of passages. So how “righteous” and “just” are we talking about here? Godlike righteous. We see this same word used to describe God Himself. He “is a God of truth…just and right is He” (Deut. 32: 4). We are talking about a godlike righteousness that some will have. Not a self-righteousness, but a godly rightness. The just, the righteous ones will be living their days on earth by faith.

Who are the just? Who are the righteous? They will carry in their hearts that righteous state of God Himself. And they will receive this happy state with the Hebrew God because of their faith, having believed first without seeing.

The “just” in God’s eyes are those who are right with Him because He is right in them. They are the righteous and in good standing with their Maker.

They, like their spiritual father Abraham, walk by faith and not by the sight of their eyes (II Cor. 5: 7). Faith is the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11: 1).

So the just are the righteous humans like God is righteous here on the earth, who believe having not seen nor received the promises of the kingdom of God. They shall live their days on earth by faith. Believing God’s word and plan is the way they will live. And because God can only be pleased by this walk of faith, they become just in His sight. He imputes righteousness to them, which is being in a right state with God. And that is all we really need.

Which Faith?

So the true faith is extremely important. And this faith spoken of in the scriptures of truth is not the same “faith” spoken of in news casts on TV, when the news-reading talking head says about someone who displays some religious activity: “He is a person of faith.” Meaning that he believes in a higher power. They acknowledge that somebody up there is bigger that they are. No, this is not the faith that Paul, Peter, and John spoke of.

Think about it. The Hindus believe in thousands of somebodies up there swimming in a mystical nirvanic goo. That is indeed a belief and a faith. And many Hindus are very spiritual and religious, and TV personalities may say that they are people of faith, but that is not the faith of the Hebrew God of the Holy Bible.

Not picking on Hindus here, for the same can be said of most of the denominations and sects of Churchianity. 2,200 and counting, and they disagree with each other. That is why there are so many of them. But the Spirit says there is only one body (church) and one Spirit (one God) and one faith (Eph. 4: 4-6). So all of these denominations cannot be exactly what the apostles practiced and wrote about.

Depart from Me…

Moreover, Christ speaks disparagingly of some very sincere Christians in these last days. He says to them, “Not everyone that says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. [We sincerely called You Lord] But he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven [You mean confessing that Christ is our Lord won’t do the trick?] Many will say to Me in that day [Which day? The time of the end?] Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? [Come on, now, we preached in your name!] and in thy name have cast out devils? [Lord, I saw many slain in the Spirit in your name. It had to be You!] and in thy name done many wonderful works? [We set up food kitchens and sent out missionaries and gave away bibles in far away lands, and You were with us, weren’t You?] And then I will profess to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matt. 7: 21-23). Since there is no idle words of God, these words will be spoken to some well-meaning people in that day.

That last paragraph was tough to write, but there it is in black in white. Of course, some will say that His words are harsh treatment. But why will these sincere Christians, who are “people of faith,” why will they be rejected? Because their faith was based on a vision of Christ and His plan that was in error.

Because denominations have hundreds of different interpretations of what the Bible is saying, and because they all cannot be right and just, then somebody has to be wrong. Sincere, maybe, but wrong as to what the faith of Christ and its vision is about.

So, yes, “the just shall live by faith.” Those who God sees as His offspring walking with Him in His truth at the time of the end–they “shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12: 3). Righteousness—there’s that word we started out with again. The just, the righteous, those upon whom God has imputed righteousness because of their faith toward Him—they will shine.

In fact those “just” ones, they will rule over men during the kingdom age. They will sit with Christ on His throne, full of His righteousness, and they will sit as princes ruling the world. Nothing less. “He that rules over men, he must be just, ruling in the fear of God, and he shall be as the light of the morning sun after the rain, after the rain” (II Sam. 23: 3; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiJlJgd9x1s ).

And because God has chosen “not many mighty and not many noble,” His true elect will appear as no one very special. They are the “filth and off-scouring of the world…For God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the mighty (I Cor. 1: 26).

So the question comes full circle to each of us who is a “person of faith.” Which faith is it, for there are many faiths in Christendom that will be rejected by Christ upon His return? Which vision of the Bible do we believe? For many followers will come up short and they will weep and gnash their teeth at Him when they realize that the version taught in their churches was the wrong one. For “wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” And few will find the narrow way that leads to life (Matt. 7: 13-14).

We must then believe on Him the actual way that the scriptures have said. Those who do are the just and righteous, and they will rule and reign with Him in His kingdom. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Tagged as Christ, faith, righteousness

May 18, 2013 · 2:16 pm

Believing the Resurrection in Us–How the Holy Spirit Comes Down Into Us

The everyday pressures and the stress of just living on this planet causes us much grief. The demanding bosses, the irate public, the disgruntled co-workers, the incessant bills, and the constant drain of having to deal with earthly things all day long is just too much to cope with. With all this confusion going on, the children of the King begin to feel like spiritual paupers instead of heirs to the throne.

Yes, the Father allows this to happen to His children because He wants us to finally get our fill of it and call upon His name for deliverance. He has made us “subject to vanity.” He created us, in other words, in our original earthly state to feel the futility of living on earth no matter how much material wealth we may have. “All is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Simply put, we’ve got to get sick of it.

So enough of this world’s insanity already! The answer? God, we need more of Your Spirit working inside of us. We need more of Your love abiding in us so that we can return love to those who slight us out here in this world system. We need more of You in us, more of your Spirit welling up in love, joy, and peace. We need You, God, to fill us like you filled your chosen people in the days of the early church.

Yes, that is our need, but how do we get more Spirit into us? What did You say in your word about this? It all boils down to believing in the Resurrection.

Paul lines this out in Ephesians. He is saying to them that through God’s mercy, which is based in His infinite love towards us, He has made us alive where once we were dead in sin. He has done this through the power of the resurrection of Christ. When the Father infused that dead sacrificial body of the Lamb and raised him from the dead, all sinners who believe this were raised up together with Him. “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ…and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Yahshua Messiah” (2:4-6).

This miraculous turnaround from the darkness of sin and sinning to light and righteousness in a person’s heart can only be realized through belief. [I know what some are thinking: “We’ve been hearing about the resurrection and righteousness and sin and belief all our lives in church. You are not telling us anything that we don’t already know.”] If what we’ve heard all our life were enough, then why are we so weak spiritually? Why aren’t we walking in the joy and victory that God has promised those who follow Him? Why? “Because of your unbelief,” the Master said.

The transformation to power in our lives is by believing what God said about the resurrection and us—that if we believe that our old life died with the Lamb 2000 years ago, that if we believe that we were buried with Him, and if we believe that God raised Him up out of the grave after three days and three nights—if we can just believe this, we can also ourselves be “raised to walk in a newness of life” (Romans 6:4-6).

We are delivered from depression and death by believing what He said He did through the resurrection and how it regenerates our hearts and consciences. For His Spirit comes into us by believing the truth of His word to us about our being raised up with him to walk in a new life.

A new life is what He has promised us. However, if we are still thinking the same way we did before our experience with God, if we are still doing the same things we did before our “conversion,” if we still are the same earthly-minded person, then how is that a new life? How does it differ from the old?

Let’s cut to the chase. If we are still lusting after women, how is that a new life? If we are still desiring another person’s material things, how is that new? If we put our own self before others, how is that new? If we are breaking any of the commandments, then how is it a new life? We were breaking them before we came to God. So what has changed?

If we are still sinning, or breaking the Ten Commandments, then we have not died, been buried, and been raised from the dead-in-sin. We have not actually believed it yet. Our need is for the Spirit of Christ to live in us. But how do we abide in Him and He in us? “That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith…” That the Spirit of God may live in our hearts—but how? By just believing it! It is God’s word! It is the truth! Believe it before you feel it. You have to believe it first! Then the evidence of the reality will come. The trouble is that unbelief is such a part of the human condition, the human heart, that we have trouble believing what we see. “I can’t believe my eyes,” is a common statement. God is asking us to believe before we see.

We attain this righteous state not by us trying to be righteous and keep the law. No. It is a gift from God. We cannot attain the righteous state by working for it. Faith attains it and then the works we do with the help of His Spirit within witness to the fact that He in us is righteous. “By grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

Actually, we in our newness of life, in our newly received righteous state with Him, are a product of His work—not our own work. “For we are His workmanship…” (v. 10). And God’s work through His own faith in us is good. He said, “Let there be light, and there was light, and He said it was good. We are His doing, His creation.

He definitely knows what He is doing. He through this new life derived by Him raising His chosen ones up with the Messiah—He has through this new life created a new creation—the second Adam, the second man. And He has created us in Christ unto good works (v. 10). I repeat: We have been created in Christ with the expressed purpose of producing good works.

Not some good works through us and some bad works. No. He has spiritually created us anew “unto good works.” We need to believe this. He has not created us unto bad works or corrupt works. No. He has made us in our new life to bear good fruit. The Master said, “ A good tree cannot bear evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bear good fruit. You will know them by their fruits.”

“We are his workmanship, created in Yahshua the Messiah unto good works” (v. 10). And the kicker is that God has already foreordained for us to walk in the spirit and thereby do these good deeds.

And this great treasure-life is opened to all that our God has called. For He took all the sin of the whole world upon Himself and became sin for all of us, and when He died, all of the sin of the whole world died with Him. That’s your sinful heart and my old sinful heart. And by His shed blood we all were brought close to Him. So close, in fact, that all who believe this and respond are “one new man” (Eph. 2:15). And all believers, whoever they are, through Him “have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (v. 18).

And we all are spiritually built upon the “foundation of the apostles and prophets, Yahshua the Messiah Himself being the chief cornerstone.” We are a building made by God Himself, built on this foundation. He is building us up; we are growing into “an holy temple in the Master, builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (v. 22). God will inhabit us His temple. He will live in us through His Spirit.

Later Paul reveals the mystery of how God is opening up His Spirit to come down on whomever can receive it—be they Gentile or Israelite. Paul prayed (Eph. 3:15-19) that God would grant to the Ephesians power and strength by His Spirit in their “inner man.” Power, strength, and might, Paul knew, were needed in the spiritual new creation within the heart of each new believer.

And this strength was to be given how? How do believers receive this strengthening? “By His Spirit in the inner man.” But how does this spiritual power come from His Spirit into our inner being? It comes by faith. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” This spiritual anointing comes to us by us believing it. Because He said it, spoke it, and His prophets wrote down His inspired words about the power coming, we need only to believe that He is good to His word about Him giving us more of His Spirit.

We have to believe that the invisible Spirit is giving us strength, and now is the acceptable time for this to happen. We’ve got to believe it before we feel the strength. Believe it because He said to believe it, and the strength and power will come. “All things are possible to him that believeth,” the Master said. “Have the faith of God,” He also said. God believes it already about us; why shouldn’t we?

He said in Eph. 2:21 that we are the spiritual building of God, and we are in Him and He in us, and we are growing “unto an holy temple” of God. This strengthening that He does on us in our inner man is the growth of the Spirit with us. We grow in His love in us, and we grow spiritually out to others. This spiritual growth ends up with us being “filled with all the fulness of God” (3:19).

We are to finally through humility “grow up into Him in all things” (4:2). We are to be “renewed in the spirit” of our mind, “putting on the new man” wherein we walk in love and forgiveness one to another.

Paul is saying that by believing it so, we can walk in His Spirit. We can leave the pride and arrogance of the old life and walk as obedient children. His Spirit can live within us and can grow in us—if we believe. For it all happens by faith—by believing what He said about it. That is what makes it so. It is not believing in something that is not there.

This new life that God has declared is already a reality in His eyes. Our new life in Him is not an illusion, some figment of our imagination. No. Our new life in His Spirit is a reality already spoken into existence by our God. We need only believe that it is real. Through us believing it, we actualize it and witness it. It is like the priests with the Ark of the Covenant stepping out upon the Jordan River and the waters peeling back for them that they go over on dry ground. God said it; they believed it, and they achieved it. A miracle happened that day at the Jordan River.

And a miracle was done in our hearts when we believed that He had taken the old one out and had given us a new one. This is how miracles are done. Miracles will come through believing that they are already foreordained to come. The disciples asked why this impotent man was lame. Was it his sin or his parents sin that put him in this pitiful shape? The Master said, No, because of neither, but that the glory of God could be seen when he was healed by one of God’s believers.

This is not believing this life of strength and power into existence. No. This new life He has for us is already in existence. Our new life in Christ’s Spirit already exists. It is His with Him. When we believe His resurrection, that power is witnessed in us again and again. We then have the witness within our own selves. This is a miracle of transformation. Let the miracles continue. Let us all walk on, believing what He said He would do for His children and through His children. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Gold Tried in the Fire–Overcomers and the Time of the End

Somebody at the end of this age will sit down with the Savior on His throne. They will be rulers with Him during the 1,000 year reign right here on earth. This is promised by Him.

This promise of kingly rulership for some of His followers is conditional. During the last age of the church just before His return, His followers will be lukewarm in their service to Him. They will think that because they are affluent in material things, that they are rich in spiritual things. They will take pride in “knowing God,” and they will say that they spiritually “have need of nothing.” But they do not know that they are in His eyes “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked” (Rev. 3: 14-17).

They do not know that their faith in Him is a poor approximation, a poor substitute for His vibrant faith. They do not have the higher richer knowledge of His plan and purpose. Consequently they are spiritually blind and naked.

And so, He counsels them to buy from Him three things that will correct their spiritual deficiencies: “gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see” (v. 18).

And then He makes an astounding promise to them. If anyone in this end time age hears His voice concerning these matters, and hears His knock on their door, He will come in and have a feast with them, sharing intimate details of His soon coming kingdom. And then the promise: “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (v. 22). Now you’ve got to have an ear that is attuned for these things. He says if you do, then hear what the Spirit is saying to you about these things (v. 22).

So, the first thing we need is the “gold tried in the fire” (1). We know that this gold is our faith and belief in God. We believe in Him, having never seen Him nor the outcome of His kingdom plan, for faith is the “evidence of things not seen” (2). It is like the Holy Spirit, which is invisible but is “leading us into all truth” and thereby comforts us as the Comforter” (3).

The “gold tried in the fire” that we are to “buy” from the Savior is the purification of our faith/belief through trials and temptations, “if need be.” Most of us will need the times of “chastening” that He will give unto His elect–the ones who He has chosen to sit with Him in His throne (4). This chastening is in the form of correction.

This fire that purifies our faith is much like the pruning of the vine that Christ speaks about (5). And what He lops off of us is the old erroneous concepts about Him that we have learned from those who taught us in the past.

“Purge out the old leaven that the lump may be holy” is a similar concept (6). Spiritual leaven is what puffs us up. He calls leaven hypocrisy, insincerity, falsehoods, and misconceptions.

Those that submit themselves to the Spirit/Teacher and endures this fire, pruning, chastening, and purging–they will be the ones that will overcome in this the Laodicea Church Age. They will be the ones who “humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (8). Yes, exalt you. And there is no greater exaltation than to share in the glory of sitting with Him on His throne!

This glory, this exaltation that some will receive–this honor will only come to those who pass the fire test. To illustrate this, two scenarios are presented to us. Which is the more difficult to accept? A rant that denies that Christ is the Savior or a doctrinal fine point that you’ve never heard before? It is new to you, but there it is in black and white in the Bible. Yet, you have never heard it or seen it before. In fact, to receive this new teaching, you must admit that you did not have the whole truth. And this takes humility, which is the ability to be taught of Him and His Spirit.

For He did say, “The Spirit of truth will guide us into all truth.” So, the Spirit, to fulfill this verse, must take us to truth that we do not already have (9).

The elect who will sit with Him on His throne will be the teachable ones, the humble ones, the hungry ones. For having to humble ourselves is a fire that will purify our faith, our gold, our belief. It will purge out pride in our prior knowledge about God. And these overcomers will come out on the other side unto “praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Yahshua the Anointed One” (10). And this “appearing” is the same word translated “the manifestation of the sons of God,” which is the appearing of Christ in us! The unveiling of the sons of God. The whole creation is groaning and travailing for them to come onto the scene, for God will save this planet through them! If you have an ear that can hear, then hear it and walk in it (Rom. 8: 18-19).

The humility of a child

But it is going to take the humbleness of a little child for us to overcome in the last days. “Whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” said the Master (Matt. 18: 4). The greatest in any kingdom is the King and His sons and daughters, the princes and princesses. But in God’s kingdom it takes humbleness to be the greatest–like a little child.

And why are we to be like a little child? Because they don’t think that they already know it all. The wonder of discovery of the earth and its natural beauty fills their eyes and ears. They know that they don’t know it all, for they are too busy learning. That is why adults are so drawn to them; we are hoping that a bit of that wonderdust that a child collects like bees do pollen might fall on us, that we could experience just one more time that spontaneous burst of uninhibited joy brought by the “splendor in the grass and the glory of the flower.”

So now God is calling us to be “as newborn babes” and little children, to have a newfound wonder of the spiritual realm of our heavenly calling. He is asking His future overcomers to be open to Him as He shows them new wonders that far eclipse those earthly wonders.

Listen. Quit thinking our own thoughts for a moment and let us just listen to that “still small voice” that is talking to us. Can we hear His voice whispering to us? Can we hear Him faintly knocking? We won’t be able to hear Him is our thoughts are all we hear. Listen. He is calling us.

And if we humble ourselves, He will show us the unglimpsed and unheard wonders that “God has prepared for those who love Him” (11). He’ll show us His government that will transform this earth, purging it from all evil and hatred and suffering, and creating on it a holy habitation for the Righteous King of kings, our Savior Yahshua. But He will only show these wonders to the humble ones, to those who listen to Him, to the overcomers.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. Rev. 3: 18

2. Heb. 11: 1

3. John 16: 13; 14: 16-17

4. I Peter 1: 6-8; Heb. 12: 5-11

5. John 15: 1-2

6. I Cor. 5: 6-7

7. Verse 8

8. I Peter 5: 6

9. John 16: 13; 14: 26

10. I Peter 1: 7

11. I Cor. 2: 9; Isa. 64: 4

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Tagged as faith, humility, kingdom of God, Revelation

April 20, 2013 · 4:01 pm

The Faith of Abraham, the Promise, and the City of God

Why is the patriarch Abraham considered a giant in the faith of God? Faith means believing having not seen it yet with the eyes.

So what did Abraham not see? Reading his story in the book of Genesis, we understand that Abraham did see many wonderful things. Yes, Abraham was promised that he would become a great nation and that God would bless him and make his name great. And God would bless “all the families of the earth” (12: 1-3). So by faith Abraham believed God’s initial promise to him by faith.

But this did not come to him off the pages of a book or a dream. “The LORD appeared unto Abram” (12: 7). Yahweh appeared to him! “Appeared” is translated from the same Hebrew word rendered “see” hundreds of times in the Bible–as in literally seeing with one’s eyes. So Yahweh made Himself visible to Abram, and He spoke to Him and promised to him the land they were standing on, the land of the Canaanites, the Promised Land. Did Abram own that land at the time God appeared to him? No, but He who promised him stood there and spoke to him. That obviously made it a lot easier to believe.

Then God promised Abraham that he would have a son in his old age. Now that is a miracle, especially considering “the deadness of Sarah’s womb.” And it did indeed take faith to believe God that this miracle would happen. But God appeared several times to Abraham and spoke with him many times, literally, and this made it much easier for him to believe. I am not lessening the faith of Abraham, but, let’s face it; appearances help. No question about it.

More Appearances

Abraham walked in full belief, and so God appeared unto him again and again, making a covenant with him, that he would become the father of many nations (17: 1-8). God would make nations from him and kings. In fact, through the lineage of Abraham, God would bring forth the Lamb of God, Immanuel, God with us.

So for a time, Abraham did walk in faith, and his miracle son of promise, Isaac, did come, all from the appearances of God to him. It did take faith to believe that he at 100 and Sarah at 90 would have a child the next year after God appeared and promised it (18: 1-15). But God was standing right there promising it. It happened and as they held Isaac in their arms, it did not take faith to believe it, for they had the evidence right there. For faith is “the evidence of things not seen.”

What Abraham Never Saw

So what was it that Abraham never saw in his walk with God? What took the most faith for him to believe of God’s promises? He saw miracles, heavenly messengers from another dimension, even the great Creator Himself standing there speaking to him. And once having seen all this, it did not take a great faith to walk in it. What was it that he did not see during his lifetime? What thing did he never see, that remained an ephemeral promise from God that lived as a glorious image in his imagination?

The answer: “Abraham looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11: 10; 12: 22). The particular promise to Abraham that touches all of us His children, that is ever so important in these last days, concerns this celestial city. This is where it gets out there. God promised to Abraham that he would be the father of many who would inhabit a heavenly city that would float down out of heaven and land right on the spot on earth that God gave to him and his heirs. And that piece of real estate is Bethel in the land of Canaan, the land of Palestine, the Holy Land.

Abraham saw where the heavenly city of Jerusalem was to sit down in its descent from heaven, but he never saw it on earth.

And so Abraham “sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country” looking “for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11: 9-10).

Now that takes faith. A city built by God Himself in heaven coming down onto earth? And only the people who have faith will dwell with God there? That’s going to take some real strong faith.

Abraham never saw the heavenly Jerusalem in all its glory, but he believed that one day it would be his and his children’s. That one day it would be our city, our literal everlasting habitation!

And so it happens that all the righteous personages that we have read about, with all their triumphs and trials–they “all died in faith, not having received the promises,” and they “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (11: 13).

And we now, like our biblical heroes, seek that same country, that same heavenly Jerusalem. For we, like our fathers in the faith, “desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called our God: for He has prepared for us a city” (11: 16).

The City of God

This city, described by the apostle John is that thing that takes faith to believe in. This is where it is all at. It is heaven on earth, for it “comes down from God out of heaven” (Rev. 21: 2). Those that overcome will live with God in the city.

Everything in scripture points to that day when God will take up His abode in His heavenly city with His children right here on earth. This is what all of the apostles, prophets, and patriarchs looked and longed for–the city of God. This is the fulfillment of this promise: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him” (I Cor. 2: 9; Isa. 64: 4).

In fact, this is the gospel, the good news. This is what all of the teachings and doctrines of Christ is all about–to prepare us to be able to enter into New Jerusalem, the seat of the government and kingdom of God. That is the faith of Abraham. That is the faith of Christ. And that is our faith. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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April 6, 2013 · 7:01 pm

The Next Great Move of God

God will appear to certain individuals of His own choosing not many months or years hence. He always has; He always will.

How can I be sure of this? God’s history of His dealings with His people serves as a prophetic blueprint of what He will do next. “That which has been is now. And that which is to be has already been, and God requires the things of the past” (Eccle. 3: 15).

In fact, the Holy Bible is a record of God’s literal appearances to people. Before every great move of God, He has appeared to someone. He intervenes with His presence, shattering the dull, numbing grind of human earthly existence with His incomparable light. We humans evidently need this astounding experience in order for us to be sure that God really is real and means business.

These stupefying manifestations begin, appropriately enough, in the book of Genesis, the seed book of beginnings. There we see God speaking to Adam and Eve in the Garden. “And they heard the voice of the LORD God (Yahweh) walking in the garden,” (Gen. 3: 8). He was in a human form, “walking in the garden,” and they were afraid of His presence there. A bit later we see God having a lengthy conversation with Cain.

Before Yahweh destroyed by water the wicked, He talked it all over with Noah, who “found grace in the eyes of Yahweh” (6: 8). And “Noah walked with God.” And so it was that God confided in Noah His plans, instructed Him to build an ark, and established the Noahic Covenant with him, ensuring the continuance of His righteous seedline.

We next see Yahweh appear to Abraham, the father of our faith. “And Yahweh appeared unto Abram,” and established the Abrahamic Covenant with him, giving him and his heirs the Holy Land of promise (Gen. 12: 7). And “after these things the word of Yahweh came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (15: 1; 17: 1-19). And God makes a great move and promises Abram that of his own loins he will have a son in his and Sarah’s old age, and his seed will be as numerous as the stars of heaven. And Abram believed what Yahweh told him. And it was that very faith and belief that God appreciated so much that God “counted it to him for righteousness.”

This is huge. This is a great move of God as He shows mankind that just believing God and His word will establish us in a right standing with God. Getting right with God comes from believing Him. Period. This is when faith triumphs over man’s puny attempts in his own strength to keep the ten commandment law of God.

For the law was not given to us as a goal to strive for or a moral ideal, as it were. For we in our human strength cannot successfully keep the 10 Commandments. No. The law was given to man as a mirror to show him of his own unrighteousness and sins, and to show him his innate wickedness. “The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers…for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars…” (I Tim. 1: 9-10).

God granted to Abraham, because he believed Him and His promises, a new heart that keeps the commandments of God, which is when God counted his belief as righteousness, or being right with God.

What Does This Have to Do with Our Generation?

The take away for us in our generation? God has promised us a new heart and new spirit that keeps His ways and commandments if we believe Him. God commands us, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit.” How do we make this happen? By just believing His promise: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezk. 18: 31; 36: 26).

This new heart that does not transgress and break the 10 Commandments is called “righteousness” by God in the scriptures. It is the state of being right with God, and it is attained the same exact way that Abraham obtained it from God. By believing God.

And this way of receiving a new heart and new spirit from God that does not break His commandments is outlined in the New Testament scriptures. Although written in plain sight in black and white, you won’t hear those passages preached in the pulpits Sunday morning, for most pastors don’t believe it (for more on this read the “Introduction” of my book found here:

https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/ebook-the-unveiling-of-the-sons-of-god/ ).

No, most modern day pastors don’t believe that after letting our old heart and spirit die with Christ on the cross, that God will give us a new heart and new spirit that does not sin against him. The pastors don’t think God can do that. They don’t believe that “whosoever is born of God does not commit sin” (I John 3: 9). It is right there in black and white, but they don’t think it is possible. But I thought that “all things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9: 23).

Do We Believe God Can Do It?

Abraham certainly did not let the “deadness of his wife’s womb” keep him from believing that God was able to keep His promise that they would have a child. He was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. Which is easier to believe? That a 90 year old woman, decades past the age of bearing children could get pregnant and deliver a baby or God being able to change our hearts to not sin against Him? Yet Abram “did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4: 19-22 NIV).

Let us not waver either through unbelief of His promise to us of being His righteous sons. We simply must believe like Abraham did. That God will give us a new clean spirit if we believe Him; He did promise it to us if we believe that He will.

And so Yahweh appeared to Abraham and promised him much and established the way for Abraham’s spiritual children–us–to walk by faith in these last days. Faith. Belief. This is what is holding us back from becoming the manifested sons of God, the princes and princesses of the Kingdom of God. If we cannot believe Him that He will give us a pure sinless heart and spirit–a new heart that He promised–then how will we ever grow up into being like Him and those men of God that He appeared to?

Time would fail me to outline all of those men and women of faith that God appeared to–Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul–to name just a few. He appeared to them all before a great move of His in the earth. He will do the same today, for He changes not (Mal. 3: 6).

The Criteria

Wait a minute. That will be the criteria. He will appear once again to those who believe Him for a new heart and new spirit, which is being right with God. For Christ did say, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much” (Luke 16: 10).

For a new spirit is just the beginning, as it makes us a child of God. We must keep growing spiritually into spiritual young men and fathers. For God will bring forth in the last days His kingdom. That is the good news. And ruling with Him right here on earth will be the over comers. “To him that overcomes, will I grant to sit with me in my throne.” Some will sit with Christ on His throne. That is a promise. But it will be those who are full of faith and belief, those who have bought from Christ “gold tried in the fire,” and “white raiment” to hide their nakedness, and have “anointed their eyes with eye salve that they may see” (Rev. 3: 14-22). Those are the over comers; those are the manifested sons and daughters of God; those are the ones He will appear to in these latter days to strengthen them and encourage them for the battle to take back the earth and establish His literal kingdom and government right here on earth. K. W. Hancock

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January 26, 2013 · 8:09 pm

Patience–Enduring the “Sufferings of This Present Time”

As the sons and daughters of God, we are to add certain spiritual attributes of God’s “divine nature.” This is how we become “partakers of His divine nature” (II Peter 1: 4-7). This assures our inheritance as His sons and daughters. These attributes are added in sequence–in layers, if you will. To our faith we add virtue, and then knowledge onto it. Then we add temperance to that knowledge. Then we add patience onto the temperance.

Patience. Patience. Oh, how we all need patience in this hurry-scurry world! This world that careens through our conscious hours robs us of this important godly essence–patience. The swirling, rushing pace of our 21st Century lives conspire against us in our search for truth. Patience is needed to even read this simple article on patience.

For all that we see and hear is temporary. We will be able to temper the appetites of our earthly bodies more easily when we realize how transitory–how utterly perishable our bodies are. When we believe this and wholeheartedly acknowledge the need for God’s promise of our immortal house from heaven, we will more easily shift our focus from the temporary to the eternal.

The Next Step in Adding the Divine Nature

And that next step is adding patience to the temperance. But in order to add patience, which is the ability to endure the sufferings of Christ, we must understand just what those sufferings are. Paul speaks of them when he writes, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8: 18). This “glory” is, of course, that destiny of God’s elect after they have grown spiritually to full maturity, which is the evidence of them partaking of the divine nature.

But those “sufferings” spoken of by the apostle is the sojourn we are experiencing in these mortal earthly bodies. For “we have this treasure [of the Spirit] in earthen vessels” (II Cor. 4:7). And that is the root of our current spiritual problem. Our bodies are, alas, mere temporary bottles holding the water of the Spirit.

“This present time” in which these sufferings are being endured is our time now in our earthly bodies. Our perishable fragile mortal bodies will too soon return to dust. Now is our time of waiting with long patience, trusting God will deliver us from the long sleep that awaits us, tucked in dust in the tomb of the earth.

Temporarily housed in our earthly tabernacles at “this present time,” we have a universal thirst that yearns to be quenched. And that desire is to live on. And whether cognizant of it or not, we are waiting in “earnest expectation…for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8: 19).

And so we who have a portion of His Spirit, for a dry season at present, find ourselves trapped in a shell that will die soon. And so we wait for our forerunners, the sons of God to be unveiled first, for they are the firstfruits. And so we are waiting for these offspring of the Almighty to come onto the scene.

For they will give His other children great hope when they are seen striding this earth–a hope that they, too, can be “delivered from the bondage of corruption,” which is the cruel slavery that our present mortal bodies inflict on us in our new spiritual journey.

Slaves to Our Own Mortality

Our earthly bodies are decaying as they grow older each day, and we are not free to ascend and descend at will. We are on a timetable, slated to expire, most likely before the age of 80–whether we want to or not. That’s slavery; that’s being in bondage to our own mortality. That is the “bondage of corruption.” In the earthly sense, we are slaves to our own decay and impending death.

In our youth we were not aware of this impending decay of our earthly body. Hence, we thought ourselves invincible and immortal. But as we get older and see our bodies deteriorate, we see that we become the slaves to our own bodily limitations. We begin to admit that we cannot do what we once did. Our age, brought on by the ravages of time, becomes our master and limits us and dictates to us what we can and cannot do. This is the “bondage of corruption.”

Aging is the accumulation of many miles and years on the human body. Aging is that onerous sign announcing our impending physical passing. But this daily physical decay of our bodies does not work on our spirits. We can take heart in this, that “though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day” (II Cor. 4: 16). And this renewing is the “partaking of the divine nature,” the adding to our faith of which we speak.

So why death?

And so we ask God, Why do we have to die? Why give us a mortal body, God? Why subject us to all this suffering? The short answer: God created us “subject to vanity.” He deliberately subjected us to mortality in hope that we would be delivered into immortality. He made us to suffer this mortal existence in hope that we would seek Him, who is Life Himself, and in so doing find eternal life, which is the fulfillment of His promise to them who seek Him and love Him.

God has dangled death ever before us so that we would seek Him. He reasoned that our looming demise would spur us to seek Him for answers to our dilemma. Surely we would call on Him, the Giver of Life, to help us solve this problem of mortality if we were confronted with the sadness of first, the loss of loved ones and then, finally, ourselves.

God provided a law ingrained into the universe, as sure as gravity, that if we seek Him for the truth, we would find it. “Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you,” Christ promised (Matt. 7: 7).

And so, confronted by the sufferings of our mortal worries, we turn to God. And His words resound through the ages to our hearts and tell us the answer to the riddle of our faint existence. He tells us that He is the Fount from which the blessing of immortality flows. And it starts with believing in the resurrection of His Son. And latching onto that faith in Him begins our own new life, ending in the complete inheritance of a new spiritual body that will swallow up this old earthly one (I Cor. 15).

He seems to be saying, Surely when they see my Son arise from the dead, they will turn to Me in great hope that My resurrection power will one day raise them up as well.

His resurrection is our hope to escape the dusty tombs of death. And yet, the sufferings continue. And as He teaches us and helps us to endure all things, we add patience. For patience is that part of God’s nature that endures. It lasts. And as we continue our sojourn in these earthly vessels, He grants to us patience by infusing us with experiences that helps us endure, that gives us rather things to endure.

Yes, “tribulation worketh patience” or “suffering produces endurance” (Rom. 5: 3). Earthly wisdom shuns all sufferings. The wisdom from above prescribes it. That is why He allows us to suffer–so that we can become like Him. For He planned those very steps of suffering for Himself, and if we want to be His sons and daughters, we must suffer with Him. That’s a tough one. That is why “few are chosen” (Matt. 22: 14). Those chosen are the elect, and they will submit to the plan along with its sufferings, much like those chosen for our Special Forces endure the sufferings that the training entails. It all comes with the territory. To reign with Him we must suffer with Him (II Tim. 2: 12). Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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