Knowing God as He Really Is–The Definition of Immortality

We are well down the road to immortality now.  We have learned that wisdom is being in awe of God.  It is the first step; it is the main thing, for it is the first key that begins to unlock the treasure house of God’s knowledge.  Without this awe of Him we won’t get anywhere.  Then we took step two, knowing His name.  Moses got some wisdom, some awe of God, at the burning bush, and then he had to know His name.  It was a crucial step, to know God’s true name Yahweh.

     And now we have come to our third step: Knowledge of Who He Really Is.  The farther we go down this road that leads to immortality, the more is at stake.  We cannot turn back now; our own hopes of transcending a certain death hangs on our stead-fastness and perseverance at this time.  Immortality, the elixir that our mortal mouths must drink, is the knowledge  of  who  God really is.  This knowledge is the key to unlock the secrets of eternal life.  We have arrived at nothing less than the information that will catapult us over this valley of the shadow of death.  Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Yahshua the Messiah, whom you have sent. John 17:3. NIV.

     Our hopes for arriving at immortality hinge on how well we really know Him—how well we really know His nature, His essence, His Deity, His Godhead.  For us, eternal life depends on whether we really know Him as He really is.  We must straighten out misconceptions of who He is and how He is. 

     Those of us on this road to immortality must realize that only He can grant us true knowledge of Himself.  It will not come through man’s conception of who and how He is.  We must believe upon Him in true knowledge “as the scripture has said,” the way the scriptures really portray Him.

     But that, of course, is the problem.  We all have our own conception of Him.  We think that we have just “come up with it,” but we have received our personal conception of God through what we have been taught by other human beings that we have come in contact with.  It really gets tricky when people have studied out minutely different denominational doctrines, and even though they have “come out” of that organization, they cling tenaciously to its teachings—teachings about who He is. 

     The Savior, 2000 years ago, standing before them in a human flesh body, told them that they were searching the scriptures.  They thought that eternal life was contained in those scriptures of truth.  But, as the  Master  was  pointing  out,  the very writings that they thought would yield immortality for them were the very writings that spoke of Him—the One that they were rejecting!  You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.  These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. John 5:39-40, NIV…You study the scriptures diligently, supposing that in having them you have eternal life: yet, although               their testimony points to me, you refuse to come to me for that life. NEB.

     They were studying the scriptures diligently, thinking that immortality would be derived through them.  What writings were they studying that spoke about the Messiah, the Savior?  What scriptures existed then?  They were the books commonly referred to as the Old Testament.  Now  Yahshua, the Savior, said that those old books written by the prophets of ancient Israel, those old books spoke about HIM!

The prophets spoke and wrote  about the Savior by His very Spirit within them

      Let’s go, then, to the prophets where they speak about the Messiah, specifically using the word “Savior.”  He just said in John 5 that the scriptures do testify of Him, so let us go there and see for ourselves what they are saying.  Now Peter tells us that the spirit that was in those prophets was the Spirit of the Savior, Yahshua the Anointed One.  And  they  spoke  and  wrote  down with the Spirit of Yahshua about this immortality, this salvation from a certain death.  This salvation was the theme which the prophets pondered and explored, those who prophesied about the grace of God awaiting you.  They tried to find out what was the time, and what the circumstances, to which the spirit of Christ in them pointed. I Peter 1:10-11, NEB.

     The Spirit of Messiah, which was in Isaiah the prophet said this: But now thus saith Yahweh (the LORD) that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel…For I am Yahweh thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. Isa. 43:1,3.

     Several important points emerge from this passage that are vital for our understanding of His essence, which in turn is vital for our obtaining immortality.  First, the Spirit of Christ that was in Isaiah said that He was Yahweh! Thus saith Yahweh…I am Yahweh.  When the prophets wrote down the words, “Thus saith Yahweh,”  they were saying that Yahweh is speaking through me the following words.  Yahweh is speaking thusly.  Yahweh, the Father, the Creator, the Supreme Being is using me by speaking through me! Oh, to be used that way, the way He used the prophets!

     Second, the Spirit of Christ is saying that He created and formed Jacob/ Israel.  John confirms this. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:3. Paul confirms this as well. For by him were all things created, that are in the heaven, and that are in the earth, visible or invisible…Col. 1:16.

     Third, I am Yahweh thy God, the Holy One of Israel…The  Spirit  of the Messiah speaking through Isaiah now says that He is Yahweh, that He is one God and that He is Israel’s Holy One (the whole House of Israel or the 12 tribes of Jacob/Israel).

      Fourth, the Spirit of the Messiah, God’s Spirit, Yahweh, breathing and speaking through Isaiah says, I am thy Savior…I, even I, am Yahweh; and beside me there is no saviour. Isa.43: 3, 11.  Here Yahweh, which is the Spirit that was in the Messiah, says clearly that He is the Savior and that there is no other savior!  Yahweh, then, was inside the man  Yahshua who was called the Savior, for Yahweh says that there is no other savior except Him. We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those who believe. I Tim. 4:10.  God was in Christ (the Anointed One) reconciling the world unto Himself. II Cor. 5:19.  It was Yahweh in the man who was the Savior.  Or, in other words, Yahweh-in-human-form is the Savior.            

     Bottom line: the same Spirit that spoke through the prophets, that created Jacob/Israel and everything else, this Great Spirit God dwelt bodily in the man Yahshua the Messiah. His name Yahshua means “Yah-Is-Savior.” It was Yahweh of old, the Yahweh of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel, the Yahweh of Moses, David, and all the prophets—  that same Yahweh came down, leaving His spirit-body dimension.  And He came to earth in a flesh and blood human body, walked in our midst doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.  And in due time, He laid down that human body, yielded it up to a sacrificial death, and raised that body in three days to life again, so that we could be restored to His original plan of reproducing Himself.    [This is Chapter 11 from my book, Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality.  You can find the whole book at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”] Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Finding the “Lost Sheep of the House of Israel”–Why It Matters, Part II

In part one of this article, we saw that finding the “lost sheep of the House of Israel” does matter to God because of Christ’s very words: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matt. 15: 24 NIV).  That is who Christ is sent to, to the twelve tribes of Israel.  If they are not in the earth today, then Christ cannot fulfill His own calling!  For being sent to them is part of His calling.

Furthermore, the Spirit of God in Jeremiah promises to bring them back to Jerusalem (32: 37-40).  He is pouring out His heart to “the children of Israel and the children of Judah,” (v. 30) telling them that their sins have provoked His anger, that He should remove them from the Promised Land.  Only because of “all the evil” that they have done did God exile them to the four corners of the earth.  But, He says that He will bring back a remnant of them and “will gather them out of all countries…and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”  He goes on to say that He will plant them back into the promised land.

The Lost Sheep Are Not the Israelis

To the untrained eye, it looks like that the Israelis have fulfilled the above prophecy.  But this cannot be because the Jews were never lost!  They have always called themselves Jews.  It is the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel that were lost in history.  Where did they go?  Where are they today?  That is one of God’s mysteries that He is revealing today. 

God’s servants knew in their day.  The apostle James wrote to them 700 years after their captivities: “To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting” (James 1: 1).  Many Christians today believe that they are Gentiles and not Israelites.  If they are
Gentiles, then the book of James is not written unto them.  Why then do they persist in reading someone else’s mail?  James wrote a letter to the twelve tribes.  James would not have written to them had he not known of their existence and their location.

Huge Proof that Lost Sheep Are in the Earth Today

 But some will persist in saying, Oh that is all ancient history.  What difference does it really make whether the lost sheep of Israel exist or not?  The answer is that the destiny of a remnant of  all 12 tribes of Israel is literally spelled out in the Book of Revelation–twice!

Thousands of Israelites are sealed by God and are given a special calling in Revelation.  If it really doesn’t matter about the literal offspring of Israel being around today, then why does Christ make reference to them by name twice in the book of The Revelation?  

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass” (Rev. 1: 1).  And a part of these eminent things to happen is the appearance of thousands of descendants of fleshly Israel being called out to do a special spiritual work in these last days.  

Where in Revelation Are They?

We find them mentioned in the 7th and 14th chapter.  These cannot be the modern-day Jews, for the Jews only came from the House of Judah, which only had two of the 12 tribes, and they were never lost; they along with everyone else knew they were Jews.

During the tribulation period, the four angels on the corners of the earth are admonished to “hurt not the earth…till we have sealed the servants of God in their foreheads…an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of Israel” (Rev. 7: 4).  Then they are all cited by their specific names: 12,000 from each tribe.  “Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand,” and so on for the rest: Reuben, Gad, Aser, Nepthalim, Mannaseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zabulon, Joseph, and Benjamin.  Twelve thousand from each tribe with a very special calling for the latter days.

They appear again in Revelation 14 where we see these 144,000 with the Lamb of God Himself!  They are about to do a great work in the earth.  They meet Christ on Mt. Sion, “which is Mt. Hermon,” 125 miles north of Jerusalem.  Again: These are not the Jews because they come out of all twelve tribes!

Now the Big Question

If it doesn’t matter whether the Lost Tribes are still in the earth, then why are they the very ones whom God will seal ?  How will they be called?  How will God’s prophecy concerning them be fulfilled if it doesn’t matter?

Bottom line: It does matter to the Creator.  We are told to “let this same mind be in you that was in Christ.”  As we get more of His thoughts and mind and Spirit, then we will begin to grasp the significance of finding and alerting the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel as to their destiny.  [To read more on this go here:   https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/finding-the-lost-sheep-of-the-house-of-israel-why-it-matters/ and here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/abraham-father-of-many-nations-but-which-nations-are-they/ They are just two of several articles on this subject.  For more go to “Categories” and scroll down and click “Lost Sheep of the House of Israel.”]   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Finding the “Lost Sheep of the House of Israel”–Why It Matters, Part One

Why does it matter?  The short answer: Because it mattered to the Savior.  Christ said, “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  He said that He was sent to them.  So then we must ask, If Christ is sent to them, and we are His followers because the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, then are not we sent to them, too?

Letting our understanding of spiritual things be the standard as to what is important to God is a weak position to be in.  Evidently He knows much better than we do as to fleshly Israel’s importance in the plan and purpose of God.  He also said that “man will give an account of every idle word spoken.”  I do not believe any of His words were useless, void, or idle.   They are important, whether I understand them at present or not.  Believing His words about the Lost Tribes of Israel propels us on our search for the meaning of His words, which is truth.

Some history is needed.  After the captivity of the House of Israel (Ten Tribes) )and the House of Judah (Two Tribes), Yahweh promised that He would make a new covenant or agreement with both Houses after their respective captivities around 721 B.C. and 600 B. C.  “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the House of Judah…After those days, saith Yahweh, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people…They shall all know Me” (Jer. 31: 31-34). 

Wait a minute.  He through His prophet Jeremiah, 120 years after the northern Ten Tribed Kingdom was scattered by the Assyrians–He now utters a prophecy that He will indeed inhabit His chosen people placing His Spirit within their hearts and promising that they will be His people!  Nothing has changed in God’s heart.  What He does, He does forever.

The Question

How will He make this New Covenant with His Chosen people, who are the fleshly descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob if they are lost forever, especially unto themselves?  If they are not in the earth today, then the above prophecy in Jeremiah cannot be fulfilled.  And it simply must be fulfilled because He said that His word “shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isa. 55: 11).

Lost Forever?  Not so fast…

Yet the naysayers persist in saying that the old tribes of Israel are lost, thrown out into the dust heap of history and, therefore, are unfindable in the earth today.  And so they say, what’s the difference anyway?  In anticipation, as if to refute this thought, the Spirit through Jeremiah continues to speak, “Thus saith the LORD (Yahweh), which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars by night…If those ordinances depart from before me, saith Yahweh, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever…If the heaven above can be measure, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel…” (v. 35-37). 

Wow.  Homo ingnoramus has not measured the heavens nor the foundations of the earth, nor indeed can he.   Therefore, if we are to believe His word, He has not cast off all the children of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.  In fact, they are a nation today, only they do not go by “Israel”, obviously, for they are lost at present, according to His word.

[To be continued…]