Tag Archives: faith

August 21, 2010 · 4:21 pm

Life Out of Death–The Ultimate Paradox

A paradox is “a statement that seems contradictory or absurd but is actually valid or true.” Life coming out of death is a paradox. Yet any seed must lose its identity before it will spring back to life in another more glorious fruitful form. The seed rots and dies in the moist earth and then, through a miraculous Lifeforce, it multiplies itself at the harvest. One grain of corn yields two or more ears of golden corn.

God is wanting this to play out in our mortal lives here on earth. The death of self is the only sacrifice that God will accept from us. He wants us to be a part of Christ’s body, but the only way to get that Life that lasts forever is through a spiritual death.

This death is the baptism that the apostle Paul talked about–being baptized into His death, so that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we to can be raised to walk in a newness of life [ 1 ]. It is His resurrection in us that is our only hope of transcending the grave. For the only pay that we will receive in our old selfish life is a certain physical death. “The wages of sin is death” [ 2]. So we need to die now and avoid the rush.

Let’s get it done. Many are teaching that you can never get rid of sin in your life. Where does it say that? I thought that “all things are possible with God.” If it is “no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me,” then “Is Christ the minister of sin? God forbid!” [ 3]. Let’s “present our bodies a living sacrifice,” for this is the reasonable thing to do in gratitude for all He has done for us [4 ].

Let’s identify our old self with the sin sacrifice of the Lamb of God. He took on our sins on Himself on the tree, providing a way for us to be made free from the old sinful cravings and dark selfish actions that we were a slave to all our lifetime [ 5]. We are going to pay for our sinful selfish actions sooner or later. He said we would. The upside is that He has provided a way for us to take on His Life after we let our own selfish nature die on the cross.

Most have not heard this true message of what the cross is all about. They are told that Christ is our substitute. No, He is our example, and we are to follow His steps [6 ]. This “preaching of the cross” is just a bunch of foolishness to those who are dying in their sins, whether they know they are or not [ 7]. But to us who He is calling and choosing, it is an absolute lifeline, and it is the power of God to change lives. It is the only way for us to complete what we have been put here on earth for.

What we are doing here

And what is that, you ask? He is using an elect chosen few of His redeemed ones from all of humanity to reproduce Himself through [8]. He is going to take only those who have submitted themselves to the death of the cross; He is taking them into His heart to reveal His very essence to them. They will be in awe of Him and revere His name and will bow to His magnificence as He overshadows their earthly physical plight to do His immortal work on them and then through them. Those who submit to Him will be changed into His glorious image as His own sons and daughters when He returns to this earth to set it all in order [9 ]. They will rule with Him and be in His inner circle while the rest outside wait for their word on the day’s business of the King’s Government.

Now that is the Life that He’s talking about. To be His son or daughter, to be a prince or princess by His side as He trains us up to be rulers with Him in His kingdom soon to fill the whole earth. That is the great destination, the wonderful reaping of our initial humble planting of ourselves into death with Him on the cross. For “if we have been planted together with Him” into His death, we shall also be raised together with Him in His resurrection [ 10].

Dying with Him does not make sense to the world

Yes, dying with Christ is utter foolishness to the worldly mind. But to us who He is calling and choosing, it is our ticket to the big show. And we will be on the stage of this earth, together with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Noah and Job and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Peter and Paul and all of His sons and daughters who have followed Him in this death of self [11]. If He was good enough to literally and physically die for us, why then should we not spiritually die for Him and, better yet, allow Him to live out His life in us?

In so doing we are then made free from sin. And as we take in His Spirit into our new hearts through belief in His resurrection, sin shall not have dominion over us, for we are made free from it and its power over us [ 12].

But how?

It is just too simple and yet, too wonderful to just believe. Our small, weak, finite minds fail to grasp just how to do this. How do we get our old self to die and then receive a new life in Christ? We have to just reckon it so. We have to count it as a done deal. He has. He said that it was already done; the “works were finished” [ 13]. All we need to do is agree with Him and walk in this truth. He said that our old man “is crucified with Christ” [ 14]. Notice that is with an –ed, meaning that it is already done and over with in the past. That’s how God looks at things; that is how his faith and belief works. Now we need to believe what He believes about us. It is His faith in His own power in our lives that is the key. We just need to believe what and how He believes, and we will be changed into His image. We are now alive unto Him who said that He has raised up all who believe Him [ 15].

Life out of death is the ultimate paradox. The Savior said that very thing. “He who seeks to save his life shall lose it. He who loses his life for my sake shall save it” [ 16]. You will not hear this message in the vast majority of churches; they are trying to increase numbers–not lose membership. For “few there be to find this way of truth” [17 ]. Yet, those to whom He is granting His grace and favor to at this time will hear this and they will respond and take their old self to the cross, thereby enabling the new man to grow into His likeness. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Romans 6: 6
Rom. 6: 23
Galatians 17-20
Rom. 12: 1
II Corinthians 5: 21
I Peter 2: 21
I Cor. 1: 18
https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/the-law-of-har…oduces-himself/
II Cor. 3: 18
Rom. 6: 5
Matthew 8: 11; Luke 13: 2
Rom. 6: 18, 22; 8: 2
Hebrews 4: 3
Gal. 2: 20
Rom. 6: 11-13
Mark 8: 35; Matt. 10: 39
Matt. 7: 14

11 Comments

Filed under cross, crucified with Christ, death of self, elect, eternal life, sin

Tagged as Christ, christianity, death of self, faith, the cross

August 7, 2010 · 5:26 pm

God’s Eternal Purpose: “Bringing Many Sons unto Glory”

The thoughts and intents of the Father’s heart are without beginning and end. His purpose has existed through all time and has never wavered, has never changed. His intention toward His creation is everlasting.

It is forever the same and will always be true and valid. His purpose will always go on; it will never stop. It will come to pass; nothing can prevent His eternal purpose from finding full fruition in this earth and in the heavens. His purpose is, of course, the perfect example of the definition of “eternal” (Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, 2^nd College Edition).

God not only has, but is the definitive word on what will transpire here on earth and in the entire universe. “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God” John 1:1. “Word” is translated from the Greek word Logos, meaning “(1) a thought or concept; (2) the expression or utterance of that thought” (note, Scofield Reference Bible, p. 1114). Therefore, in the beginning was the thought or concept, and that thought or concept was the Supreme Being. And that thought, that Word, became an utterance of that thinking. And that Word, that Thought, would unfold into a living reality throughout the universe.

Those thoughts, expressed in words, comprise the purpose of God. His purpose is the road His creation will travel. His thoughts are His counsel, and they shall stand forever and will come to pass. The counsel of Yahweh standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Psalms 33:11.

Both “purpose” and “thoughts” are words in English translated from the same Hebrew word machashabah, #4284 in Strong’s Concordance. His thoughts are His purpose. They express His intentions, His plan, His purpose. And these thoughts, this purpose, are an intention directed personally and deliberately by God toward His people. It is a plan that involves people right here on earth. David knew this intimate truth that God hovers in thought abundantly over his people. Many, O Yahweh, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward; they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Psalms 40:5. David was well aware of God’s purpose, which definitely concerned him and all of Israel.

And the Word, the Purpose, the Thoughts of God “became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” John 1:14. The Word/Purpose/Thoughts of God was made flesh; He is called the Son of God, and He is full of grace and truth. If we can tap into the truth of God’s purpose, if we can conceive of His plan, then we will know the thoughts and intents of His heart. And when we think those thoughts, and have the same intention and purpose that He is and has, then we are well on the way of pleasing the Father.

Knowing of God’s eternal purpose, which is the grace and truth that the Word-made-flesh was full of, will bring light to us. For the Word-made-flesh is Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. John 1:9-11.

The Purpose Incarnate was walking around on the earth He created with the people He had chosen to reveal Himself through, and the majority rejected Him. But some will receive Him, and they will receive power to become like Him. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.

Received Him? Who is He? He is the Word, the Thought, the Purpose of God from the beginning put into earthen vessels. Receive His thoughts and intention and purpose and you are receiving Him. And you will then receive power to become His sons. And the sons will have believed on His name. The sons will not only know His real Hebrew name Yahshua, but they will believe what His name means. More on that later.

His Purpose Is Sharing Himself with His Offsprin

Yes, Yahweh has a purpose. He has thoughts toward certain chosen vessels, His sons and daughters to be. To get them into His camp, He deliberately contacts them or calls them. He lets them know He is real in some way. He puts a desire and a hunger in their hearts to know the truth as to why they are here. He feeds their hunger with small portions of the truth, and they grow. And soon they begin to realize that everything seems to work out for them. Even through the bad times, the times of suffering, both of their making and through no fault of their own, God seems to bring some good out of it. They realize that they are maturing and becoming less selfish. They begin to love this invisible God who has provided a plan to deliver them from their sinful selves. Where once they were destroying themselves and their families, they now are enjoying more peace and harmony in their lives. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28.

At first, his offspring may not realize that they are a special creation descended from Adam, who was created some 6,000 years ago in God’s image. Other men had been created by God earlier. We know this because Cain was cast out to the east of Eden after murdering his brother Abel, and there he took a wife from those people. But the descendants of Adam had a special destiny in God’s heart. God had His eye on a few of these Adamites before they ever were born on earth. Unknown to them at first, He would call and choose out a few whom He knew beforehand. And He gave them a destiny before their entry into a mortal earthly fleshly existence. He predestinated them to be made into the exact image of the Son of God, the Word-Thought-Purpose of God. They are to be His siblings, his brothers. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be con-formed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 8:29. For God knew his own before ever they were, and also ordained that they should be shaped to the likeness of his Son. 8:29. NEB.

And those that He predestinated to be exactly like Himself, those are the ones that He first contacts or calls. And, as far as He is concerned, it is a done deal. It is His Thought toward them that they should be like Himself. What He has purposed, who can prevent it from coming to pass? To those that He called, He gave them a new heart that does not sin against Him. He justified them. They are in His sight justified from all of their despicable past actions. They, of course, must witness this on earth by believing the word of God about His Son, who is the sacrifice for our sins, whose shed blood slays the sin within us. It is already done and over with in God’s mind before it ever happens here on earth to His children! And to those called ones who He has justified, He in His thinking, in His heart, has already glorified! More-over, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 8:30. He chose them long ago; when the time came he called them, he made them righteous in his sight, and then lifted them to the splendour of life as his own sons. 8:30. Phillips.

This is God’s Doing and Not Ours

God the Word has thought it all out and has purposed it and planned it to happen according to His predetermined counsel. Nothing accidentally happens. He is calling, justifying, and glorifying His elect, the chosen few. They will be “conformed to the image of His Son.” They will shortly be glorified and have their mortality swallowed up by His miraculous eternal life! God is for them! He helps them to do His plan, and this personally pleases Him. He gives them what they need and when they need it to become what He has pre-determined for them to become. In the face of all this, what is there left to say? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not grudge his own Son but gave him up for us all—can we not trust such a God to give us, with him, everything else that we can need? Romans 8:31, Phillips.

Not According to Us, But to His Own Purpose

We cannot do anything to become a part of His purpose and plan. God is saving some and calling some with a holy calling, but it is not because of anything “good” or “evil” that they have done. You cannot work at it in order to be accepted as a son or daughter. You work at it because you realize you are chosen by God. You cannot give enough offerings or go to church tirelessly and endlessly and expect to be one of the chosen ones by your efforts. To be called to be like Him, to be chosen as one of his sons is not according to our own works. It has nothing to do with what we have done, do, or ever will do. He calls us to be His immortal sons and daughters in accordance with His own purpose that was given to us in Yahshua His Son before the world began. Who has saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Yahshua the Messiah before the world began. II Timothy 1:9.

Our perfection and sonship in Him was given to us before the creation of the world. Therefore, we were in existence before the world began! We had to have spiritually been with Him in the beginning in order to have received the holy calling of sonship from Him. It is he who brought us salvation and called us to a dedicated life, not for any merit of ours but of his own purpose and his own grace, which was granted to us in Yahshua from all eternity. 1:9. NEB.

The Inheritance

The sons and daughters of God have obtained an inheritance. Our destiny is to inherit all things and to reign with the King of the Universe. Now this inheritance that some are to receive is a destiny that He has pre-arranged for that elect few. He has predestined them for greatness. He has selected these chosen few before the world ever was, to be like Him. And their lives—their destiny as His sons and daughters—have been predestinated in accordance with His own purpose. He thought it through before the world ever was, and He purposed and planned it all out to the finest detail. He then began to work all things after the counsel of His own will and purpose. For God has allowed us to know the secret of his plan, and it is this: He purposes in his sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its perfection and fulfillment in him. And here is the staggering thing—that in all which will one day belong to him, we have been promised a share (since we were long ago destined for this by the one who achieves his purposes by his sovereign will), so that we, as the first to put our confidence in Christ, may bring praise to his glory! Ephesians 1:9-12, Phillips.

Summary

The great Creator, the Giver of life, has a definite plan and purpose in creating all things. He has revealed His purpose over the last 6,000 years to only a few human beings. We call them apostles and prophets, and they by inspiration of the Spirit of God have left us some writings that tell of His purpose.

They tell of His promise to humankind of a life everlasting—an eternal life where our frail, flimsy earthen bodies will be replaced by a glorious spiritual body in which those blessed ones will live with the Heavenly Father as His spiritual sons and daughters, His heirs of His kingdom.

The apostles and prophets speak of the following concepts that are a part of the perfecting of His sons and daughters:

Purpose—No accidents. He has an eternal purpose in reproducing Himself in His children.
Predestination—He has given a royal destiny to a few human beings before they were ever born here on earth.
Foreknowledge—He knew who they would be before they were born into this earth.
Election—Same word as “chosen.” He chooses or elects certain human beings to fulfill His will.
Grace or Favor—He favors the ones He has chosen. They are predisposed to respond to Him, and He showers great grace on them, or He favors them with a depth of knowledge about His purpose and how He is going to perform his plan.
Kings and Priests—The elect or the chosen ones will acquire immortality according to His will and become like Him. They will do the “greater works” as His ruling royal family. They will be His immortal offspring, able to mediate the glorious blessings of His Spirit to the rest of creation. They will be His inner circle, His cadre, His round table of rulers in His exact image, able to love mankind in the same powerful way that He did.
Sovereignty—He is sovereign and can do whatever He desires to do and whenever He decides to do it, in order to accomplish His purpose, plan, intention and thoughts.

[This is Chapter 2 of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God. If you would like to read more, I have it online at the top of this page. Just click “Ebook…” ] Kenneth Wayne Hancock

3 Comments

Filed under body of Christ, elect, eternal purpose, sons and daughters of God

Tagged as eternal purpose, faith, God, sons of God, Yahweh

July 20, 2010 · 2:10 pm

“Greater Works” Comes by Believing Yahweh Dwelt Bodily in Christ

The time was growing short. The Savior knew that He had but a short time to be with the disciples that He had chosen to reveal Himself to. He began to comfort them with words that would reassure them that His imminent death was not the end.

He told them to not be troubled. Just believe in God and in Me, He was saying. Trust Me. It is going to get rough, but stay in the ship. After the crucifixion, I will rise again after three days and three nights. I’m going to prepare a place for you, and I will come back for you so that you can be where I am. Anyway, you already know the way to that place where I’m going.

Then Thomas spoke up and said, “We don’t even know where you are going, much less the way to get there.” Thomas was evidently thinking of a literal geographical location.

“Thomas, I am the way to get there. I am the truth, and I am the life. I am not only the way to get there, but I am the destination, as well. If you realized just who and what I am, then you would know who the Father is and where He is.”

“We will be satisfied if you just show us the Father.”

“After all you have witnessed me do, don’t you realize that the Father is the only one who has done these miracles through these hands? Look at me. Look past the flesh, and when you see the invisible Me inside, that spiritual force that lives in my body–when you have really seen Me, you have seen the Father. For the Father is living inside of Me, and it is He who is doing all the mighty works that you see me do” (John 14: 1-10).

He was reaffirming that the Father is Spirit, or how else can the Father be dwelling in the Son? You cannot stuff the body of the Father into the body of the Son. The Father, then, has to be a Spirit who dwells in His Son, which is the Spirit in a human form.

Christ’s New Commandment

Then He gives us a command in v. 11. “Believe Me.” Believe what? “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Believe the truth of my words that the Life is living in me, and that I am the way for you to get this Life, who is the Father.

Then He makes a promise in v. 12. “Whoever believes me when I say that the Father is in me–that person will do what I have been doing. He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I am going to my Father.” He who believes the Savior’s words that it was Yahweh Himself, the great Eternal Spirit Creator, who was dwelling in Him–that believer will do the same things that the Savior did! What an astounding promise!

This promise has to be to those people who know and the believe the truth about the Father being an ivisible Spirit residing in His body–us. “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will do it that glory will come to the Father (v. 13).

What Are We to Ask?

Two questions arise that need clarification. What exactly are we to ask? And what does it mean to ask it in His name? What are we to ask? We are to ask Him to do the same things through us that He did in human form! We are to ask for the greater works to be done by His Spirit in us–that the Father may be glorified.

The believers in Yahweh-is-the-Savior [“I, even I am the LORD (Yahweh in the original Hebrew); and beside Me there is no savior.”]–believers will do greater works than what He did 2,000 years ago in His incarnation as the Son of God. The Father, who is that great invisible Spirit, who dwelt in the Son and did the works, the miracles, the wonderful gifts to men of healing and deliverance from demons, wants to do the same works–only on a much greater scale through a body of many sons. And so we will do the same works by the Father, the Spirit, dwelling within us. It is not by our might, nor by our strength, by “by my Spirit saith Yahweh” that the works will be done.

The Main Pre-requisite

So it boils down to receiving more of the Spirit, more of the Father within us. And the main pre-requisite in receiving the Spirit is obeying the Son of God, for He gives the Spirit to those who obey Him (Acts 5: 32). He continues speaking in v. 15, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.”

What had He just commanded the disciples? He had just told them to believe Him when He said that the Father is in Him. “Believe also in Me,” He said. He told them to believe Him and His word as to just Who was in Him. “Believe Me!” That was the commandment.

He was telling them: You believe in God and you know that He is the Father/Spirit. This is good. Now believe that the Father is in Me! Believe Me! For it is the Father speaking to you right now through my very lips!

This is the commandment that He wanted us to obey–believe that it was Yahweh clothed behind His special veil of flesh.

After Believing This, What Comes Next?

Immediately after this order to believe that the Father is in him, He says that He will arrange for the Holy Spirit to come down to us, to “be with us forever.” Forever. This signifies that once a person really receives the Spirit of truth, who is the Comforter, that He will never depart from us. He will abide with us forever!

Bottom line: We must believe that “God was manifested in the flesh”–that Immanuel was God with us, walking on this planet in a human flesh body. The Creator is Yahweh, who is an invisible Spirit that hides Himself behind a veil of flesh. This is exactly what He did in the man Yahshua of Nazareth. Now He is asking us to see past the His fleshly body [which has been changed into His spiritual body anyway] and believe that the Father was in Him, residing a brief time in that mortal flesh. He walked among the special people of His creation. Yahweh is the Word, and He was made flesh and dwelt among us. And He has promised that all those who believe this word about Himself will do the same things that the Savior did. And thousands of sons doing the same works that the Savior did will the “the greater works.”

3 Comments

Filed under belief, elect, glorification, princes and princesses of God, Sacred Names

Tagged as faith, Holy Spirit, miracles, Yahweh

July 11, 2010 · 2:24 pm

His Faith–Once Delivered to the Saints

We have seen that we are to look upon the invisible things and not on the things that are seen with our earthly eyes. Faith is one of those spiritual things that is invisible. But there are many misconceptions as to what faith really is. Everyone has their own imagination as to what faith is.

But faith is an invisible spiritual thing that has already been given to God’s elect. It is a special gift from Him to His future sons and daughters that will help them grow up into Him.

It is the “faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Faith is a spiritual commodity that has been delivered to the people of God. Who delivered it? The Creator Yahweh did. Faith is not something that has to be mustered up by us His people. We rather must receive it from Him. It is something that originates from out of His nature and is given to us. “For every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.” That includes faith.

It is His faith that is transplanted into our hearts. It is not something we manufacture out of our own will and effort that leads us to finally believe in Him. His faith in us is the first part of His divine nature to enter into the human heart. But what is it exactly? Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.

“Things hoped for…” What does Yahweh hope for? What are the desires of His heart? What has He purposed? Long before we were ever born, He saw us in our down-trodden state of sin and misery. He also saw us rise with Him by His Spirit to vanquish sin and death in our lives. He believed that this was a reality—that this was substance—having not yet seen it come to pass. He believed and so therefore spoke and said that it was so. He believed the best about us and His plan—not having seen the evidence yet of its fruition. We as changed individuals are evidence that the invisible Supreme Being is real. We are His witnesses that He is God. And if He believes in His work in us before it comes to full fruition, then we should, too. He is our example.

His divine nature is positive, full of faith and power. All of His promises are “yes.” Nothing negative flows from His heart. He is positive; His attitude is positive. In fact, He calls those things that are not, that do not exist as yet, as though they did exist. He said that He will be all in all eventually. We should then, right now, begin to walk around as if He already is all in you and me. This will take belief that “it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.”

He is positive, giving “life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing.” This is He. This is how He thinks. He is positive about His capabilities. He has absolutely no doubt about His reserves and His resolve to get done what He wants done. And what He wants done is the multiplication, the reproduction of Himself, within His creation. He is an invisible Spirit; He wants to see Himself in action in human form. This is the witness that He talks about in Isaiah. We are to be His witnesses that He is the invisible Spirit/God. His faith believes that not only we can change, but that we will change—that we are changed! He seeks people to worship Him in this spirit and attitude and in this truth. He needs people to worship Him in this way—to believe the way He believes.

A key scripture regarding the nature of His faith is Romans 4: 17. It sometimes is advantageous to read it in several translations. God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. KJV. God, who gives life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing. The Scriptures. God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. NIV. God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist. TEV.

Nothing good exists within us—except His Spirit, if so be that we have received His Spirit. By believing that He is—not only that He exists, but also that He is where He hopes, intends, and expects to be—in us.

Tapping into this faith of His will bring His Spirit down into us. You cannot receive the Spirit by just keeping the law, or trying your best to keep the law. Human effort in trying to keep the law (the ten commandments) will not bring His Spirit down into us. The work of our selves, of our flesh, profits nothing in the end. After all, it would be just us trying to accomplish a spiritual law made for a spirit to keep. It is the spirit that makes alive…the flesh profits nothing. The words I speak, they are spirit and they are life…Does God give you His Spirit because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard? Gal. 3: 2. NIV.

Paul is trying to tell the foolish Galatians that no amount of us trying to keep the letter of the law will bring His Spirit into us. Trying to keep the law in our own strength will never perfect us. Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 3:3.

No. We shall receive the Spirit by believing what we heard—by faith. We have to be like Abraham, who believed in the promises without wavering. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 3:6. Abraham believed the promises. But what promise? “I will walk in them and will be their God and their sins I will remember no more.” Hebrews 8:12. The promise we are to believe is the promise of God giving us His Spirit.

Some of us are so afraid of being like “them”—the mainstream denominations with their cheap grace. But Yahweh is saying to us that you are not like them. You have respect to my laws and ways and precepts and you know my name. But although your conscious effort to keep my laws and honor my sabbaths are good intentioned, that alone should be the fruit of the state I want you to be in. And that state is a state of your old nature not being there in the temple of your body, but rather my Spirit, my presence. I have promised you my Spirit, my presence. That is all you need. When I am there in you, I’ll keep my laws in you. If any man have not the Spirit of Messiah he is none of His. You do not have to worry about that. My servant Paul kept the feasts and preached law keeping. He forbad sinning. Shall we continue in sin that grace (favor) may abound? God forbid. Romans 6:1-2.

It is absolutely not the way to go to try to keep the torah and 10 commandments without first seeking to receive the promise of His indwelling Spirit. The law, the torah, was given 430 years after the promise to Abraham—the promise that God would live in us and help us live righteously and godly. And the law cannot “set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise…” (Galatians 3:15-18, NIV).

What was the purpose of the torah (the law)? It was added because of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred had come. We are that seed—rather Christ in us is that seed. When we believe, the seed germinates and grows within us. The promise is receiving His Spirit by believing that He has given it to us—as we follow on in His steps.

We do this by faith. We do this by believing His word about His faith, His nature. His faith works both ways. If He has confidence in us before we ever bring forth the fruit, then we should believe in Him even though we have not seen Him in the flesh. This is our trial of the faith. Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:8.

And during the time of our sojourning here on earth, we are to add His divine nature to the faith that He has delivered unto us. His divine nature is built upon His faith. No wonder not many have added it, for they have tried to add it to their own faith in Him instead of adding His divine nature to His faith. Peter says that we are “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

The Word is the seed. And that seed is growing in us by us believing His word that says that His word is growing in us. This is the faith once delivered to the saints. This is the way He thinks about His power to change our lives—by His Spirit. Now we walk in His faith/belief when we believe the same thing about ourselves that He believes about us. That is His faith. That is His faith which was once delivered to the saints. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[This is Chapter 19 of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God. To read more go to the top of this page. Just click “Ebook…”]

4 Comments

Filed under apostles' doctrine, eternal purpose, faith, Spirit of God

Tagged as divine nature, faith, torah

June 27, 2010 · 7:52 pm

How the Old Self Dies–Baptism into His Death

We may not realize it yet, but we are blessed, for we have seen that our old self needs to go. Many try to redirect or re-channel its activities. Sometimes we try to clean it up, but He wants it to die.

He said to repent and be baptized in water. Yes, water baptism is a symbol of something else, yet we should still do it. But few know what the real baptism is. Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Messiah Yahshua were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Rom. 6:3-4. NIV.

Going down into the water is a symbol of the mortal life we now live in this flesh. Coming up out of the water is a symbol of the new spirit-being life we shall live which is the immortal life that we are called to.

Water is a symbol of our mortality. Our first physical birth is an immersion in a bag of water. We are born of water. We mortals are about 75% water. We begin in our mother’s womb in water. During water baptism we are baptized into His death. To live in this mortal body is to die. This watery entombment we call a body is really a deathtrap. It by its very nature has to die. The Messiah’s earthly body was composed of the same watery stuff that our bodies are. And He died. He had to die by reason of the nature of his shell during His earthly tenure. This watery, flesh and blood body cannot inherit immortality and go into the kingdom of the Eternal One. To be made of water is to be mortal, to be awaiting death, for water is extremely unstable, subject to every whim of nature’s forces.

To sin is to die. Mortality is to be able to die. Therefore, our mortality is to sin. Sinning insures a human of not receiving a new spiritual heavenly body. But now He has enabled us to live a life where we do not have to sin, if we receive His Spirit. Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust (desires) of the flesh (this old mortal body). Gal. 5:16. NKJV.

He was made to be sin for us

We, then, when we go under in water, are symbolically being immersed into this watery mortal state of sin with Him. We “are buried with him by baptism into death.” Rom.6:4. God calls those things that are not, as though they were. We are dead already (Yahshua told the disciples, “Let the dead bury their dead”). He calls it before its actual physical death when we consent to and experience it (in revelation). The water is the symbol of our earthly mortal bodily state. This spiritual death of our old self comes now in this revelation before the fruit of death comes to our earthly bodies.

In conjunction with this, few know that the Messiah, the day of His death, actually became sin for us—he who had never sinned. He was the sacrificial Lamb who was set to be sacrificed before the world ever came into existence. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. II Cor. 5:21. NIV. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev. 13: 8.

The levitical priest, in types and shadows, laid his hands on the sacrificial goat, thereby transferring Israel’s sins upon it. So did the Father place all of mankind’s sins upon the body of Messiah. When He died, the body of sin died; our sin died that day. To whom is the arm of Yahweh revealed?…Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all…It pleased Yahweh to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see His seed. Isa. 53:1,6,10.

We make the Lamb’s soul an offering for our own sins by realizing that it was us in our sinful state hanging on the tree that day. We must be immersed in this knowledge. We must believe that our old self—that old monkey on our back, that old demon that we were, that selfish, egotistical, self-absorbed, sorry excuse for a human being—that old thing that we were is now, in God’s eyes dead. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Rom. 6: 6.

[This is ch. 28 of my book, Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality, which you can find at the top of this page. Just click “Ebook…”]

2 Comments

Filed under baptism, belief, crucified with Christ, death of self, faith, old self, repentance

Tagged as baptism, death, ego, faith, resurrection

June 11, 2010 · 3:55 pm

Repentance–Departing from Evil–Pre-requisite of Immortality

A few of us humans will achieve immortality when we are given a new spiritual body at the time of the resurrection, the time of the Messiah’s return. But not everyone that says that He is Master of their life will become immortal. It will only be those who are alive and have the Spirit of God dwelling in them in a reality, or those who had the Spirit of God dwelling in them at the time that their earthly bodies fell asleep, these also will be given a new immortal spiritual body during the first resurrection.

You have a mortal, fleshly body at this time, but God Almighty has unlimited power and he is quite capable with the mere power of his word to give you a new spiritual body as it has pleased him in his eternal plan and purpose laid down since before the beginning of the world. (II Cor. 5:l). He will have called many, but few are chosen for this the greatest of all honors—to be one of the many sons and daughters that God is bringing to glory. It is a great love that will bestow this on a select few, for few there will be to find this way of truth. It is quite easy to find the way that leads to destruction, misery, and desolation. A narrow gate awaits those who enter the way that leads to love, honor, and glory.

The sole criteria in achieving immortality is that we receive the Spirit of God somehow into our bodies. But therein lies the problem for mankind. The Spirit God will not dwell in unclean temples. The human body was created for the express purpose to house the Spirit of God, the essence of Himself. God made his crowning creation, man and woman, to house Himself. Mankind is to be His temple.

However, God cannot dwell in the fleshly, earthly tabernacle called the human being until He cleans out the temple first. The old carnal nature dwells in unregenerated man. Man in his original fleshly state is abominable before God.

If He were speaking directly to us He would say, “Your actions toward your fellow man make you filthy before God. The inside of you is dirty. It is your heart that needs cleansing. Your nature of selfishness is an abomination before God. You lie, cheat, steal, kill, commit adultery, want other people’s worldly possessions; even their sons and daughters and wives and husbands. Nothing is sacred to you humans anymore, but then it was always that way. I gave you a simple ten point law and you refuse to keep it because there is nothing in it for yourself. You worship other things besides Me, your Creator God. And you don’t keep the one day that I said to keep holy, the sabbath. A very simple law, but a very profound law.

“You humans basically worship yourselves, think of yourselves first, put your thoughts for your lives first. Always first, first, first. And before you realize it, there is little if any thought for, or even about Me in your thoughts. You see, your thoughts make the temple, your body, unclean. Your center is not right, is not on Me the Creator, and so, man and woman live out their little mortal existences, leading their little desperate rut-like lives, never glimpsing the truth of the potential of what could be for them. And that potential is immortality, never ending life, everlasting life, eternal life, a life of infinite years.

“But man’s problem is that he wants his own life to go on without end. He wants his own selfish little existence to continue unabated with everyone worshipping him and centering in on his every whim and inordinate desire. He wants to live forever in his way of getting for himself. And yet he doesn’t realize that that way of life cannot last forever. The way of getting selfishly will end up in death. Labor in the fields of selfishness, and all you are paid is death. In all man’s thoughts these things should not be, but that’s the way of all man’s flesh that doesn’t heed the higher call. This is man’s grief—that he can’t take it with him. This is the proverbial vanity of vanities. No profit under the sun of all one’s labor spent upon oneself.”

So God cannot live in the midst of all that selfishness—a lawlessness that is called sin, for the breaking of the ten commandments is sin. And God hates sin because it is so against His nature. He wants to live in man and woman, but He can’t because when man is full of himself, then there is no room for God. Selfish action is a selfish spirit and is the opposite of God’s Spirit, which is the action called Love.

So there again is man’s problem; he wants to live forever, but wants to live his own selfish life forever, and this thinking breeds mortality, the way of death. In order to gain immortality, man must have God’s Spirit living within him. But the Spirit of God will not dwell in temples (bodies) that are unclean (have actions done in them that are sinful in breaking the l0 commandments). Mankind that comes as far as this knowledge on the road of life comes to a fork in the road. He must chose to either remain as he is and how he has been living, or he must seek a way to repent, to change the error of his ways. In other words, he must find a way to stop breaking the l0 commandments.

And men have tried in the past to do just that to keep the ten commandments of God. They have failed miserably, for they have tried on their own strength and power to do so. It is impossible to keep them without God’s help. We are created that way, so that we must, in order to please Him, turn to Him for his power and strength to keep His holy law. The mightiest of body and the noblest of mind found among men cannot obey the law without His Spirit doing it in and through them.

One would ask then, “What can a person do in order to keep the law?”

First, he must through a broken and contrite spirit and heart be sorry for the way he has treated his fellow man and God. This sorrow can grow and eventually yield a desire to not do those things again. He will then repent of his sins, turn away from that way of getting for himself, and throw himself on God’s mercy to forgive him. God is rich in mercy and wants to receive his creation back into the fold of His plan and purpose. If they are sincere, He will forgive them and cleanse them from the filth and uncleanness.

We are cleansed by the shed blood of the Lamb, Yahshua, Yah-in-human-form, who gave Himself up in sacrifice for us.

It all hinges on faith and belief in the sacrifice that God has ordained–the only sacrifice that can take away a person’s sins. The sacrifice is the Lamb of God, the only one who lived a sinless life. If you can really believe that your sin was placed upon him the day of His death, that when He died, your sin died with it, and that when He was buried, your sinful life was buried, and when He was resurrected, you also were raised again to walk in a newness of life—if you can believe all this, then you can receive into your body (temple) that same Spirit and power that raised Him from the dead. It takes belief, faith.

If you ask Him, He will give you a portion, an earnest, a down payment of His Spirit. And that Spirit will come into you to replace that old spirit and will grow like a tiny seed in a large garden. You must water it with your prayers and feed it with your study. And that little portion of His Spirit will grow up into a full-fledged son and daughter of the Spirit who will someday be transformed in a twinkling of an eye and will be changed when immortality will come down out of heaven to swallow up that which can die.

For without God’s Spirit dwelling within us, we are only a member of the walking dead who spend a few nightly whispers with loved ones and then bury their dead and wait to be buried in turn. Without that entity, the Spirit of God, that makes alive whatever it touches and lives in, we are just as good as dead. Without His Spirit, if we are walking around, we do it on borrowed air in an incredibly delicate and fragile shell. And our shell will in a few moments, comparatively speaking, go back to dust from where it came, and our brief stint at self-glory here on earth will not be remembered anymore. Every thing that man says and does without the Spirit of God is vain and of no profit in the final analysis. KWHancock [This is chapter 27 of my book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality. You may read more of this book which you can find at the top of this page. Just click “Ebook…”]

CHRIST: You Must “Hate” Your Family to Be My Disciple–Counting the Cost of Discipleship

I know. “Hate” is a very strong word. Surely, Christ did not mean for us to hate our family members, as in loathing them.

Here is exactly what He said: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple“ (Luke 14: 26).

These are powerful words and very perplexing. Surely He did not mean hate hate. Pondering this, I looked up the word in the Greek. Miseo is used with several shades of meaning. Consulting Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, I found that it is indeed used for “malicious feelings toward others.” But it is also used to speak “of relative preference for one thing over another, by way of expressing either aversion from, or disregard for, the claims of one person…to those of another.”

The Key to Understanding What He Meant

The key to understanding this kind of “hate” for earthly family members that Christ speaks about resides in understanding “aversion from” and “disregard for.”

Christ is saying that when we answer the call to become a son or daughter of God, earthly family members will stand in the way of us walking on with God. Consciously or unconsciously, they will obstruct us. Christ called them blind and the walking dead. Even though some may mean well, Christ sees them as enemies endeavoring to thwart His plan for our new lives in Him. They have their plans for us–how we should act towards them, and it is always about them. And God has His plan for how we occupy our minds with His thoughts. Therefore, we must choose God’s thoughts for us and “disregard” their little self-centered world, around which they want us to spin. We must avert or turn away our minds and hearts from dwelling on them.

Simply put, in comparison to the high calling, they are a hindrance and must be put on the back burner when we are forced to choose between Christ and them. We must set Christ and His plan as the top priority and not antagonistic family members. In a word, we must separate ourselves from them.

The Rest of Christ’s Lesson

Christ continues His teaching on all this in the verses that follow, illustrating the actual cost, the actual price we must pay for discipleship. For He immediately asks, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?” For you may come up short and not be able to finish the project.

By that He wants us to ask ourselves, “What might it cost to seriously follow Christ into Sonship?” It just may cost us a row, a major blow up with a family member. It might cost a wife [I have actually seen this happen more than once, and thank God that mine stayed with me]. It may cost you a relationship with a son or daughter [I know about the son].

Following Christ the way He wants us to follow Him may cost us someone dear to us. “For how can two walk together, except they be agreed? And “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness? Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord” (II Cor 6: 14-17).

The Conclusion of Christ’s Lesson for Us

Finishing up His lesson on counting the cost of serving Him, He says, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsakes not all that he has, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14: 33).

The “all that he has” here is the earthly life mentioned seven verses before at the beginning of the lesson–his earthly father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters.

Christ is teaching us that we should disregard and turn away from, and thereby forsake earthly family members if they continue to be used by Satan to prevent us from fulfilling our calling. We still love them and pray for them that they might repent and turn toward God. But we should hear Christ’s words and not theirs. He did warn us about all this. He said, “For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter agains her mother…and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Mt. 10: 34-36).

Finally, we must ask ourselves this: Are we going to flail around in the deep dark lake of fear and dread, trying to save someone whose thrashing about just might drown us in the process? Or are we going to obey and trust our Master by standing on the banks with Him as a beacon of light and thereby be able to help those who want to come to the light and walk with Him?

16 Comments

Filed under calling of God, elect, eternal purpose, God's desire, sons of God

Tagged as Christ, disciple of Christ, discipleship, faith, sonship

December 20, 2009 · 8:39 pm

The Armor of God–Conversations With the Seer

(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)

“The last time we talked, you mentioned the armour of God. I have been thinking about it a lot lately. And I’ve been studying it out. But I’m really having difficulty grasping what it means, ‘to put on the whole armor of God.'”

The Seer smiled at me and said, “It is difficult to grasp the heavenly things with a mind that is thinking on an earthly plane, and next to impossible to comprehend spiritual things with a finite mind. It is difficult to understand because of unbelief.”

“But I believe,” I blurted out.

“You want to believe desperately,” the Seer said. “I will grant you that, and that is good. But wanting to believe and actually believing are two different matters. Belief in the armor’s efficacy brings the ability to grasp its power. It all goes back to trusting in His word.”

I was really confused now. “Well, what is the armor of God exactly?”

“First, the armor is spiritual. The apostle likens it to literal devices like shields, armor, a breastplate, a helmet, and a sword. Through this extended metaphor, we take away the idea of a spiritual, protective layer. It is the armor of God (Eph.6: 11-18). And God is Spirit [1]. He is also truth. Therefore, it is the armor of the Spirit and truth and light. And we are to ‘put on the armor of light [2].'”

“And what is light?” I asked.

“Light is the life of God. If you want to see light, then look at the Light in action by studying Christ. Because ‘in Him was life; and the life was the light of men’ [3]. God dwelt in the Son of God fully [4]. God is life and ‘this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life'” [5]. When we truly receive this truth in our hearts, then we receive the secret to answered prayers [6].”

“Wait a minute. I didn’t get all of that. Let me see if I got this right. God is the Spirit of Truth, which is light and life. And the fullness of life and light dwelt in the Son of God. And if we believe that, then we receive the same light and life of God, too.”

“That’s right,” the Seer said. I don’t know if I was seeing things or not, but his smile radiated a glow of inner light. He continued, “For, you see, since God dwelt fully in Christ, if we reject the Son of God, we reject the Father, as well, because the Father was inside the Son” [7].

“But how does all this tie in with the armor of God?”

“The armor of God is not some equipment that God possesses that He wants to give to us. No.

“The armor of God is God Himself! It is a spiritual protective covering comprised of the invisible Spirit of God Himself. Since His Spirit is truth, when we know and then believe the truth, we are believing God. And by believing, God comes down into us. When you believe the truth, the truth (God, Spirit) takes up His abode in us, and we become one with Him. In other words, by believing all this truth how that the Father dwelt fully in the Son, giving light and life to the world–this truth is God, and through faith or belief of this truth, the Spirit of God comes into our hearts and minds. This is the armour of God–God’s Spirit in our hearts and minds.”

We just sat there for what seemed an hour. Finally I said, “I understand it now, but why haven’t the preachers told us about all this?”

“The only part of the apostle John’s writings they quote is John 3: 16. They stay clear of the rest of his gospel and his three letters to the churches.”

“But why? Why don’t they preach it?”

“Either they don’t know what is in John’s writings or they don’t have it in their hearts because they don’t believe it. Either way, they will have to give an account to God about it. I would like to think that the vast majority have not been taught these truths. They have been taught old leaven from a hundred years ago. There is no new light in them. They are still preaching what their grandfathers did in the 1950’s, and they are proud of that fact. Spiritual stagnancy is equal to spiritual bankruptcy. However, ‘when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth’ [8]. But there I go quoting more of John’s gospel–the part they don’t like to read or quote.”

“He will guide you into all truth?” I asked.

“It is the ‘unsearchable riches of Christ’ [9]. ‘All truth’ are these unsearchable riches. And if those preachers are not leading their flocks into more and more astounding and fresh truth, then it is safe to say that the Spirit of truth does not reside in them. Because that is the sign that a person has the Spirit of truth. At least that is what John said. And I’m sticking with him.”

“This is a lot to take in,” I said.

“We will save some for later,” the Seer said.

“There’s more about the armour?”

“It’s the unsearchable riches. Remember?”

John 4: 24
Romans 13: 12
John 1: 4
Colossians 2: 9
I John 5: 11-12
I John 5: 14-15
I John 2 23
John 16: 13
Ephesians 3: 8

The Greatest Hit of the Ages–The Called According to His Purpose*

(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)

One time I asked the Seer, “What is life all about? What’s really going on? Why are we here?”

And then the Seer answered in a sweeping monologue.

First of all, there is a Creator, a Supreme Being with a plan and purpose. Modern man will just have to get over it and accept that there is Someone higher in the food chain. Just look around. Things that are alive come from living things. If anything ever lived, it owes its existence to something else that was living–of its own kind. Every living thing reproduces itself. Since every living thing gets its life from another living being, then an Initial living being, a Supreme Being, had to have given life to all the living.

It is only logical. Two pieces of granite cannot reproduce. Only the living things of creation are reproducing, and their pro-creating drive has been ignited by the Creator, the Life Giver.

But the kicker, though, is that the Creator has put in motion all this reproduction as a type or metaphor of what He is doing with Himself. The Creator’s plan and purpose is written into the quintessential action of every living thing–procreation. His plan and purpose is written into nature, and it is just waiting there to be deciphered.

So what does the secret writing of both nature and the scriptures reveal as to what God is saying? Answer: Hey, creation, I’m reproducing Myself, too! You didn’t think I was going to let you have all the fun of raising a family, did you? I have a family, too.

And this is how I am going to do it. My essence is Love. And I desire to magnify and reproduce Love. So, in order to reproduce the real Spirit of Love, which is Me, I will create a special being that can contain Me.

I’ll create this special creature, the human being, male and female. And I will place within them both a desire to procreate. I will make them capable of loving with a heart that longs for love. And their lives will be like a play, lived out on the stage of this earth.

But this play will seem like a tragedy in the first few acts, for the human beings will have tragic flaws. As my crowning creation, humans will be extremely complex characters. In their inner being, they will want to do good, but their innate selfishness will thwart their intents to do that good and right thing.

Some humans will eventually come to their wit’s end. They will do craven acts of unkindness, driven by the first nature I have given them. Their foolish and selfish heart will drive them to cheat on their spouses, steal from their fellow humans, and tell falsehoods to further their own selfish desires. And other sins they will do.

But some will feel horrible about their actions. Their consciences will torture them. They will long to do good, despite succumbing to the temptations of the old nature. It is from these who feel the need to repent that I will choose to reproduce Myself in. They will know that they have done wrong and will search for a place of repentance and redemption as desperately as a lost man in the desert seeks water.

And they will find forgiveness of all their past evil deeds and thoughts. Then I will give them of My Spirit, which is their new seed beginning in the garden of their hearts. And through this new spirit within, they will blossom in love. And this love will be shed abroad, by them forgiving their fellow human beings–especially those who are still using them for their own selfish desires.

They will learn to bless those who hurt them and persecute them. They will love their enemies and do good to all unenlightened human beings. They will forgive everyone in their old Adamic past, and they will reach out and love any and all. And they will love Me who gave them a new chance–an opportunity to become one of My children, one of My princes or princesses.

And they will walk on this earth, shining forth this spiritual light of My own reproductive perfectness. For I will multiply Love, which is my nature, through their realization of the great deliverance I have brought them through. They will be fountains of forgiveness, shedding forth the refreshing water of life to all so called.

And in due time, I will change these redeemed ones into my immortal offspring. For they will be those human beings who have believed My word. In the face of all the gainsayers, they will have persevered despite the doubts of those who persisted in pernicious ways.

And then I said, “So this is what the Bible is all about.”

“Exactly. It is not about sanctimonious ceremonies in “castles midst the poverty” once or twice a week. It is about Life, an abundant Life, a life that will last forever. It is all about God sharing Himself with His creation. And this Life is the play foreseen and written by God and revealed to a few. It is a real play produced and directed by God. He wrote it eons ago, and we as the principal players in this drama should submit to the Director. The sooner we do, the sooner we will be a part of the Greatest Hit of the Ages.” Kenneth Wayne Hancock

*Romans 8: 28-30; Ephesians 3: 11-19

1 Comment

Filed under Bible, children of God, eternal life, immortality, princes and princesses of God, repentance

Tagged as eternal life, eternal purpose, faith, immortality

December 5, 2009 · 5:04 pm

The Battle in the Mind–The Weapons of Our Warfare Are Not Carnal [Conversations With the Seer]

(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 didn’t have to say anything. I’m sure that my countenance said it all. The Seer once told me that my face telegraphed quite clearly what was in my heart. And yet he asked, “What is troubling you?”

I said, “I’m not sure. I think some doubts are creeping in about God and things.”

“Doubtful thoughts are a formidable weapon that our enemy uses. They are like mortars hurled at us during those long blackouts that we must endure.”

“It is worse at night.”

“Yes, under the cover of darkness, the doubtful thoughts charge onto the battlefield of our mind. And the battle insufferably rages on. Two opposing armies of thought are clashing. Each is establishing a beachhead in our mind. Both are digging in for the long haul. Both are vying for the spoils of our souls. They do it, first, by controlling our thoughts. And then our thoughts grow wings and fly past our lips as utterances. And finally, our words materialize into actions that either justify us or condemn us [1] . You must know that there is a battle raging. Make no mistake about it,” the Seer said.

“It’s good to know about the particulars of a war. When I was in Vietnam, I asked many fellow soldiers and officers, ‘Why are we here?’ And, you know, not one of them could tell me why we were killing and being killed in that hot, muggy hellhole. Not one.”

“Of course, that is a different kind of battle. This battle in your mind that I speak of, however, is over our very existence, both present and future. The outcome of our own personal battle will answer one of two questions. Will we finally realize that we are created by God, who has a definite will and purpose guiding every human being, which culminates in our surrender to Him? Or, will we remain adamant, ruled by a secular humanistic delusion, and persist in pretending that we are our own god, serving our own selves, and thereby forgetting the ‘Rock from whence we are hewn’?”

“No wonder I feel torn up inside. Thoughts and doubts are whirling and churning inside of me.” I heard a rooster crow and looked out the window at the golden red mist of light in the east. I hadn’t slept all night and had waited until his lights had come on to come over and get some help.

The Seer continued. “Yes. A war is being fought inside of you. It is the War of the Wills. God’s will is fighting your own will. And your own will for your life is being fed and reinforced by the enemy of God. The “prince and power of the air” [2] supports your determination to hang on to your own purpose for your life. And our old man’s purpose looks at everything through this prism–what’s in it for me? You see, God’s thoughts for His creation is opposed to man’s thoughts about himself and his purpose on earth.”

“What are man’s thoughts about himself?”

“In general, the prevailing wind blowing in the politically correct arena is that we are just animals with higher intelligence, that there really is no personal Creator who has a will and purpose for us. God’s thoughts toward us are that mankind is a special creation, formed and shaped in every way by the Creator for a highly specialized purpose: to be the dwelling place, the temple for God to reside in. He grants to some eternal life, so that they can house the Eternal One.”

“How does this tie in with the battle?”

“This great destiny of eternal life will be given to those who win the battle staged in the theater of our minds. For the Creator does not just go, Poof!, and we all are miraculously transposed into gentle, smiling, sweet little humanoid robots who go about saying, ‘Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!’ Oh, no.”

“How does He do it then?”

“First, God has given us everything needed for victory–weapons, armor, food. Yet He has allowed a sly and cunning spiritual enemy to be able to speak to us anonymously by injecting thoughts right into our own brains. It is so deceptive that humans think that these thoughts are coming out of the ether of their own minds. Because, after all, they reason, I don’t believe in a world of spirits, where a diabolical spirit would do that to me! And, anyway, if a God of love existed, He would not put those He loved through all this mental anguish and suffering.”

The Seer stopped to emphasize the point. “That right there. That thought is an example of the ‘cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive’ [3]. And yet, there is a great paradox at work in this battle. In the world of man’s wisdom, when you surrender, you lose. But in this battle, when we surrender to God and His plan, we win! And through our victory, we realize that when we surrender to Him and His will and purpose for us, then we enlist in His army and begin to march forward helping others in the battle they are fighting for their very souls.”

The truth is that, although of course we lead normal human lives, the battle we are fighting is on the spiritual level. The very weapons we use are not those of human warfare but powerful in God’s warfare for the destruction of the enemy’s strongholds. Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God. We even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ [4]. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Matthew 12: 37
Ephesians 2: 2
Eph. 4: 14
II Corinthians 10: 4, Phillips

6 Comments

Filed under eternal life, mind of Christ

Tagged as armor of God, eternal purpose, faith, mind, will of God