Tag Archives: sin

October 3, 2014 · 2:49 pm

“The Truth Shall Make You Free”–Free from What?

These are very famous words of Jesus Christ. They have been spoken in Christian and secular circles for millennia. “If you continue in My word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8: 31-32).

But free from what? Free from stress? Free from debt? Free from worry? Free from a bad work place? Free from what?

Christ was speaking to those who believed on Him (v. 31). The Pharisees overheard His words. They, of course, were looking after the flesh, thinking that Christ was referring to physical slavery. “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man,” they indignantly responded. How are you going to make us free? they asked.

And with those words, soaked in that attitude, they revealed who they really were. They were offspring of Abraham, all right, for he was the father of many nations: nations from his son Ishmael by Hagar, and nations by his sons through Keturah, and nations by his grandsons Jacob and Esau.

If the Pharisees counted their lineage from Jacob/Israel, then they would have surely known that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt for 400 years until the time of Moses. The Holy Bible is after all Israel’s story. Yet, they told Christ that they had never been in bondage.

Because of this confession, they  could not be Jacob/Israel’s descendants. But they could be descended from Esau who was known as Edom. The Edomites  were converted to Judaism in 125 B.C. under John Hyrcanus’ reign  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edom ]. And Esau/Edom assumed the seats of power in Jerusalem, parading around as the chosen people during the next 150 years.

Later in their conversation, Christ would tell these imposters that they were of their “father the devil [who] abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him; he is a liar and the father of it” (8: 44). The devil then is the father of those Pharisees, “which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2: 9).

So What Slavery Are We Talking About?

Christ was talking to those who believed on Him about the truth making us free. Free from what? Christ clears that up in that same passage. “Whosoever commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8: 34 NKJV). If you sin, then you are a slave, bound in chains to sin. Sin is the master of one who sins. Sin has him in bondage. And the truth will free you from that slavery. The Savior was named Yahshua in Hebrew because “he shall save His people from their sins.”

And yet, most Christians will readily say that they still sin. Some will almost proudly declare their propensity to sin saying, “I am a sinner saved by grace; I sin every day!”

Is that, really, the confession God wants to hear from our lips? Especially when the Spirit speaks and says, “He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin” (I John 3: 5).

“In Him”–Exploring the Phrase

“In Him is no sin.” How can five simple words be so powerful as to cause the reader to examine the very core of their new existence in God?

“In Him.” In Christ. Brothers and sisters, if God is our Father, then God “has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1: 4). Chosen us! We are the elect that He and His apostles speak of all the time. For at the “fulness of times,” God will “gather together in one all things in Christ, even in Him” (1: 10).

It is already done. God has already picked us out of all the human beings on the planet; it is His doing, His choosing, and His electing us–“elect” and “chosen” being translated from the same Greek word. It is God’s plan, and it is already done in His heart and mind. So if we purport to be in Christ, then we simply must get serious about the sin question. We must get this straightened out.

Straightening It Out

Christ has said very plainly that “whosoever commits sin is the slave of sin.” Period. Sin is his slave master. Sin says, Do this, and the slave obeys.

However, “in Him is no sin.” So, because of a lack of teaching on getting rid of the old sinful nature, the Christian is in an existential dilemma. He has been taught just the opposite of what the scriptures say about sin.

He is taught that remorse for past sins equals repentance from sin and that baptism is necessary to join the church. He is not taught that feeling sorry for past sins merely leads us to repentance. Repentance from sins that bring death comes at the cross when our old sinful nature dies with Christ, who was the sacrifice for all of our sins. Christ died; we died. Christ was buried; we were buried. Christ was raised from the dead; we were raised up with Him to walk in “newness of life.”

It is this belief in Christ that lands us in Christ! The death of our sinful nature, the burying of all the guilt and recriminations of our sinful past, and the belief in His word of promise that we now have received a new nature, a new Spirit, a new direction, a new purpose, a new vision through belief that He is raised up in us–it is believing all this that puts us in Him and He in us. Halleluyah! Praise Yah!

Now We Are Free!

Believing all this brings us into Him and in Him. Now, we are free–made free by the Spirit of God that Christ has given us. Free from the slave master Sin. Free! For God has “purged our consciences from dead works to serve the living God.” No more guilty consciences for faults and shortcomings. For God has restored us back into His heart. He knows that our condition is weakness. Yet through His great love and mercy, He has seen fit to impute righteousness unto us. For us believing what the Son of God has done for us, the Father counts us right with Him, righteous in His eyes, on the right side of His ledger. It is God’s gift to us through His great mercy and love, and it is without repentance.

Why does God reckon us righteous? Because we just flat believe Him and what He says He has done for us and His people! Now  1 John 3: 9 makes sense. Read it for yourself. You are free now. For it is all Him, and we are in Him. And we have been in Him since before He founded the worlds.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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March 20, 2014 · 6:15 pm

Doctrine of Baptisms–Baptized into His Death Frees Us from Sin

The early apostles taught their third doctrine–the “doctrine of baptisms–with an “s.”  For there are several baptisms in the Christian walk–not just the one with water.

The first baptism mentioned was John the Baptist’s “baptism unto repentance.”  He encouraged the people to repent of their sins, be baptized in water, thus pointing them to the Lamb of God, who would soon become the Sacrifice for all men’s sins.  “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I…he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Mt. 3:11).  Here we have three baptisms in one verse.

The baptism in water is symbolic of the death of our old sinful heart (see post on this at https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/baptismempty-ritual-or-symbol-of-death-of-self/ ).  Paul taught that it was symbolic of being immersed into Christ’s death.  “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?” (Romans 6: 3).

Just How Are We Immersed into Christ’s Death?

     Just before Christ died, this perfectly sinless man took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, past, present, and future.  Sin was transferred onto this sin offering, and He died with all our sins upon Him.  Consequently, when He died, my old self died.  When He died that day, our old selfish egos died.

When He was literally buried in the tomb, our old lives were buried.  Gone.  Over with.  And when He rose from the dead, we rose from the deadness of our sinful existence, into a brand new wonderful life, energized with God’s Spirit now within (for more on this, see “Introduction” of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God  found at the top of this page).  All this has already been done for us by God.  We have to only believe it when we read it in Romans 6: 3-7 :

“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.  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 freed from sin.”

We are now free from sin–if we really believe it.  Free!  We are no longer slaves to the pulls, urges, and demands of that old spiritual nature that held us in bondage to do sinful acts!  I’m talking about revolutionary freedom here!  We were dead to sin, but now we live unto God by faith in the Spirit that He has given us.

Water baptism is just the symbol of this immersion into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.  Believing and walking in this truth is the reality.  But God has promised his sons and daughters more and greater baptisms–the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire, which takes us into the very presence of God’s transformative power.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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March 1, 2014 · 8:15 pm

Self-Sacrifice Versus Self-Improvement in Christian Growth

Life is all about love.  It is about living to love. Life is our time to love.

But it is about great love, selfless love, agape love. For that is what touches the human heart–love. But this the highest love is the giving-up-one’s-life-for-another kind of love. It is that rare selfless love. And that is the part of the Christian story that reaches into the inner recesses of the heart and gently breaks it. It touches us. That’s the kind of love that is great–laying down one’s life for a friend.

And that is where the Christian’s Savior reigns supreme in touching hearts. Hearing of His undeniable love in taking our sins upon Himself and providing Himself as an offering for our sins–for the selfish likes of us–that is what touches us.

The cool untouchable reflection of Buddha does not touch us like Christ does. It is, after all, an exercise in helping one’s self gain peace. The busy petty pantheons of India, Rome, and Greece do not move us like Christ does.

Nor do nebulous new age imaginations touch us, for they all are mere means of self-improvement, not self-denial to help others.

And we humans know too well deep down in the core of our beings that self-improvement of the self is, well, self-centered and self-important and has little to do with worshipping the Creator who needs no improvement. For His ways are perfect; His thoughts are law.

This then should give us Christians pause. For we are warned repeatedly in almost every book in the New Testament that there will be false teachers. And even though well-meaning, they “will bring in damnable heresies.”

And the heretical teaching most damning, that condemns that vulnerable babe in Christ to a stunted spiritual growth is the doctrine of “self-improvement.” In an old tract it was call “The Modern Smooth Cross,” as opposed to the austerity of the “old rugged cross.”

The smooth modern cross does not demand the death of the old self on the cross with Christ, our sin Sacrifice, the Passover Lamb of God. This doctrine merely re-directs ambitions, improves little idiosyncrasies. It never gets down to the real problem–the sin nature that is brought to the church house.

In this modern doctrine of self-improvement, the self is still there. It is never demanded to die with Christ. Therefore, the sinful self is hibernating there under the initial rush and excitement of fellowship, hiding like a cornered wild animal waiting to strike out and wound whoever would pressure it out of its comfortable lair. Some feel quite at home and feel no threats to their current status in Christendom and carry on walking through the wide gate.

The Self-Sacrifice of Spiritual Circumcision

However, we now must remember that we Christians have undergone an invisible spiritual circumcision, “made without hands, in putting off the body of sins of the flesh (Col. 2: 11-13).  For we were already “dead in our sins (v. 13). And now God has provided a way to let that sinful nature die now and avoid the rush. And we have been “buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead” (v. 12). That is how God sees it and judges it regardless of whether we see it or even feel it. The “we,” the self is dead. He said it; now we believe it.

He died on the cross; our sinful nature died with Him. He was buried; we were buried spiritually, our old sinful nature entombed forever. He was raised from the dead; we are raised with Him and “walk in newness of life (Rom. 6: 4). And we must know this one thing: “That our old man is crucified with  Him [it is already done and over with], that the body of sin might be destroyed [that means dead, caput, no more, totally annihilated], that henceforth we should not serve sin”  (Rom. 6: 6).

So how to do this in a reality? We must reckon it so. We must account that it is done like God has already done. “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God” (6: 11). Let the invisible chains of sin’s slavery fall off of you. Just walk off of the plantation. You are already dead, so just let the old sinful life go. Be alive unto God. Walk in a new life through Him and through belief in His resurrection. It is already done. God’s Emancipation Proclamation has gone forth. Just believe it, and walk off of the plantation. You are free. You don’t have to sin anymore. Whether you have been going to church three months, three years, or thirty or more years–you are free now. Just believe it; it is already accomplished. I am proclaiming liberty to the captives. Walk on in the light of His love. Give up your life for others. Sacrifice your self to help save mankind. In a word, be like Christ. That is what He is asking us to do. After he told His disciples of these things, He asked them, Are you sure you want to do this? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

The Effect?

“He that is dead is freed from sin” (6: 7). Very few preachers tell their congregations that they are freed from sin. To the contrary, they tell them how sinful they are, but never tell them how to be free from that bondage to sinning. They proudly proclaim that they are a “sinner saved by grace” and will always be a sinner. Where does the Bible say that? Just read  1 John 3: 9. They will proclaim that they “sin every day.”

But why won’t they tell them that they are freed from the clutches of sin? Because they have not taught them that they must let their sinful old nature die with Christ on the cross. No death of sinful heart=no freedom from its bondage. For “whoever commits sin is the servant [slave] of sin,” Christ said (John 8: 34). He also said that “no man can serve two masters.” You cannot serve God and serve sin. Sharp cutting words, but needful.

But tired old churchianity slogs on, “teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.” Their leaders “cause them to err,” and they will give an account to the Judge who will weigh all their justifications and give His verdict, as they are led from the room muttering, “But did we not prophesy in Your name?”

The message written here will bless the hearts of some, but some will scurry out of its light, back to the friendly confines of modern Christendom’s “Today’s Tips for Self-Improvement. ”   Kenneth Wayne Hancock    {If you haven’t visited my website Immortality Road, please do. There you will find over 300 articles and books exploring the “unsearchable riches of Christ,” all written for you, the elect sons and daughters of God, the future rulers with Christ in His soon coming kingdom
https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com }

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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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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

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May 11, 2013 · 4:40 pm

Why Young Christians Fall Away

Why do Christians wilt and fall away when adversity comes?

The major reason is that they lose hope.  They can’t see the promises immediately and so their hope wanes.  Why does hope fade?  Because the young Christian stops believing what they have been told about God and His plan.

The Master was  adamant about His followers getting rid of erroneous teachings and doctrines.  He called it “purging out the old leaven, that the lump may be holy.”

And that is what it boils down to.  Organized churchianity just does not realize that they have been weighed in the scales and have been found wanting.  Christ is crying through the prophet Isaiah, “Ah sinful nation…a seed of evildoers…children that are corrupters…the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint…”  And despite all of your “sacrifices, vain oblations, incense, new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies and feast days, and though you make many prayers, I will not hear,” says the LORD (Yahweh) [Isa. 1: 4-15].

Why won’t God hear the prayers of our nation?  Because “your hands are full of blood” (v. 15).  He has a big problem with our nation right now.  He is addressing a “sinful nation.”  A nation full of sin, whose pastors tell their flocks that God is powerful but not powerful enough to get rid of sin in their lives.  In fact, the preachers won’t tell them exactly what sin is in God’s eyes; they leave the flock to their own imaginations instead of telling them the truth: “Sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3: 4).

What can be done?  He continues, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil” (v. 16).  Wait a minute.  God is speaking to very religious people, who are doing every thing their pastors are telling them.  They are doing all of their denominational doctrines outlined just before in verses 4-15.

And yet, they are sinful people, a sinful nation.  But that is not good enough for God and the plan He is implementing.

So He tells us to wash away our sins and be “willing and obedient” (v. 18-19).  Obey what?  Obey the law, the ten commandments.  But the new Christian, armed with the erroneous teachings that “no one can successfully keep them” and “you will sin, but just ask God to forgive you,” is immediately stunted, and like a young seedling, is stomped out of ever bearing any real fruit of the Spirit.

For, fed with ruinous words, their initial love, joy and peace fades, and when temptation comes, their strength fails.  All because of a poor foundation.

But some will say, That was Old Testament stuff there in Isaiah.  They were under the Mosaic Law and their sacrifices and oblations and doctrines just weren’t efficacious.  But they were for the patriarchs and prophets.  It was good enough for them at that time.  For they were the remnant, those God was referring to in Isa. 1: 9: “Except the LORD (Yahweh) of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom and Gomorrah.”

A very small number of Israelites “got it,” became truly righteous, and they became our examples for our day.  Because “that which has been is now,” a very small remnant in the latter days will “get it.”

[So I suppose that answers the question that arises occasionally in my heart: Why don’t more people see these things?  A: It’s all in the timing.  Just keep publishing the truth; that is all you can do, and trust Me and know this: Few there be to find this way of tru and Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Matt. 7: 14; Luke 12: 32).  Thank you for the encouraging words.   KWH]

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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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April 21, 2012 · 5:48 pm

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

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

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

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

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

Sin Is the Transgression of the Law

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who Will Deliver Me?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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March 20, 2012 · 10:50 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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March 14, 2012 · 3:43 am

What Prevents Christian Growth–The Deceitfulness of Sin

As the sons and daughters of God, we are called to do one thing– “to  fulfill the word of God” (Col. 1: 25).  That is our destiny and what we are to do.

God has spoken from the beginning His word about what will transpire on this earth.  And it is a mystery to unregenerate natural man.  It is also a mystery to babes in Christ whose senses have not been exercised “to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5: 14).  What God has spoken and written down for His earthly creation is a “mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations,” but now it is being made known to His elect, the ones He has chosen for the end time happenings (Col. 1: 26).

It is then to His elect that He is revealing this mystery, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (v. 27).  To get Christ fully formed in His elect–to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus/Yahshua”–that is the work of His called out ones.  That is the “word of God” that we are “to fulfill.”

What Hinders the Spiritual Growth to Get to “Christ in You, the Hope of Glory”?

What hinders the new Christian’s growth?  In a word–sin.  For they are taught by their pastors, preachers and priests that they will never stop sinning. But that is a lie. The apostle Paul urges new Christians to “be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4: 14).  The way of growing from a spiritual child to a spiritual adult is not be deceived any longer by cunning and crafty men who teach false doctrines.

Paul already has said in this same chapter that God has given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers “for the perfecting of the saints”!  Perfection of Christians sounds like a stupendous growth in God.  You mean it is possible?  I mean, to grow up and be just like Christ?  Paul believes so.  In fact, he says that this perfecting through the teaching of the truth will continue “till we all come…unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ!”! (4: 11-13)  And we know that this perfection cannot be attained if one is still sinning.

Paul spends most of the rest of the book of Ephesians urging new followers to put away sin out of their lives and “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (4: 24).  No more lying, selfish anger, no more stealing, filthy talk, and malice (4: 25-31).  In other words–No more sinning.  “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  Let no man deceive you with vain words” (5: 5-6).  How can a man deceive the new Christian with vain words? By

telling him that he can do all these things and still have an “inheritance in the kingdom  of Christ and of God.” Or to put it another way: You can be a Christian in good standing and still sin.

This Is a Hard Saying–Who Can Hear It?

Many reading this will stop and say that I’ve gone too far.  That’s fine.  “They that have ears to hear, let them hear.”  This message is for the few–like I stated in the previous post last time.  But this is crucial for those wanting to grow all the way in this thing.  It is to you I am writing anyway.  All others with God’s help will be what they are meant to be.  My job is to teach the truth to the elect so that they can grow.  And He has shown me that this concept is what will hinder the elect from growing.  This is crucial.  Bear with me, and let me explain more fully.

Faith (Belief) Is the Key

Now this growth process inside of a believer is an invisible spiritual happening.  It takes belief without seeing first.  Faith is believing, having not seen the evidence as yet (Heb. 11: 1).  It is believing what God said, not what some man said He said.  And this goes for the sin question, too.  It is all about believing His word as to how to get rid of sin (and sinning) in our lives.

Sin is deceitful.  It is born in deception and it breeds deception.  It was born of a lie and it spawns more lies.  And its most powerful lie tells new Christians that they can’t escape its clutches.  Organized religions keep people in the prison of sin through the lie that they can’t live without sinning–that you are a sinner and will die a sinner.  Ironically enough, some preachers pridefully preach this every Sunday!  They say that you will always be held captive by sin–that you cannot escape its bondage!  In other words, they tell the people that God is not strong enough to break sin’s hold on you.  But be not dismayed; God will accept you even though it is impossible to stop sinning against Him, if you just accept Christ.

But wait a minute!  I thought “with God all things are possible” (Mark 10: 27).  And, “With God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1: 37).  And, “All things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9: 23).  I mean, even the LORD, Yahweh Himself, answered Sarah’s incredulity about having a baby with this question, “Is any thing too hard for the LORD/YHWH?” (Gen. 18: 14).

And so He is asking every one of us: Which is easier for Me to do?  Grant Sarah a child in her old age, despite the “deadness of her womb,” or grant unto you a new heart that does not sin against Me?  Which is the “easier miracle” for Him to perform?  To God it is all the same.  If it is in His will, He makes it happen.

The preachers say that you are in bondage to sin; you can’t escape.  But God says “he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom. 6: 7).  The preachers say, “I sin every day.”  But God says, “He that is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him and he cannot sin because He is born of God” (I John 3: 9).  If we are not saved from sin, then what have we been saved from?

You won’t hear the message contained in Romans 6.  “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”  Shall we go on sinning, breaking the Ten Commandments, so that His grace can be exercised to its fullest extant?  Answer:  “God forbid.  How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein” (Romans 6: 1-2).  Since the true salvation experience begins at the cross, baptized into His death, how can we continue to sin when sin has died inside of us (6: 3-11)?

Of course, very, very few will be preaching on this come next Sunday morning [or Saturday, for that matter].  Even if they know about this message, very few understand it, and fewer yet believe it, so they stay away from Romans 6 like the plague.

But it is this very message of the death of our old sinful self that opens the door.  What door?  The door to the mystery of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  The door to the secret of Christian growth.  The door to the overcoming of sin in our lives  and growing up to be like Him.

This “hope of glory” is not just a ticket to heaven, which is what the little babe in Christ wants from the Father.  No.  This “hope of glory” is our hope that Christ would be fully formed in us during these latter days–that the “greater works” that He promised His followers would do–that would be fulfilled in and through us!  That we could actually walk like the early apostles and the prophets of old!

That we could be the “called according to His purpose.”  That we could actually be those He knew before we were ever born, those who He gave a destiny before we were  born “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”  And so He pre-destined us, called us, justified us, and soon, oh, so very soon He will glorify us! (Romans 8: 28-31).

And there is nobody that can separate us from Christ’s love for us.  And there is nobody who will succeed in stripping away our glorious growth into His manifested sons through lies and deception.

But this vision of full spiritual Christian growth hinges on getting past the deceitfulness of sin.  “The counsels of the wicked are deceit” (Prov. 12: 5).  Or, in other words, The words of the sinner are deception.

Their unbelief in God’s power to deliver keeps people in bondage to sin and sinning.  This is where the deception lies.  A Christian cannot grow when they believe that they cannot keep from sinning with God’s help.  This is the key that will unlock the door to Spiritual growth.

Through Christ we receive a new heart; the old heart is passed away once and for all.  Man says that it is impossible to be rid of sin in your life.  But God says, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18: 27).  Christ’s own words.  Hallelu Yah!

[If you find someone that teaches these things, you have found a very precious thing.  Hold them near and dear and never let them go.]  KWH

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