Walking through the valley of the shadow of death

I write these words to those on the lonely journey– my brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow pilgrims walking on through “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psm. 23).

We are called and chosen by Yahweh to tread through death’s shadow. Who are the dead that casts such ominous shade? Christ said it, “Let the dead bury the dead.” They did not have the Spirit, so they were the dead walking around the earth.

And we, the children of light, intersect with their shadows daily when we come in contact with them. We are kind to them, even merciful, for we were once them. We once cast shadows of death and doubt, but now we, according to his great mercy, are rays of His brilliance called to burn brighter and brighter as we wait on the day to dawn.

But we usually wait alone, it seems. Most around us do not comprehend who it is that we serve. We are not alone, for Yah has a few scattered throughout the earth. It feels like we are alone, but we are not.

Elijah found that out. He walked alone as he stood against the evil of King Ahab and Jezebel of the northern Kingdom of Israel (ten tribes). He walked without an entourage as he waited on Yahweh to communicate with him (I Kings 17: 1- 4). They of the court of Ahab, no doubt described Elijah as a “one lone nut.” First, Elijah prophesied a dire drought on Ahab’s kingdom. He slaughtered 450 prophets of Baal, and defied Ahab at every turn. So Elijah was running. Exhausted, he was being chased by Ahab into the desert. You talking about a trial. You and I have not gone through trials like this!

Then “the word of Yahweh came to Elijah. Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan river. You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”  Elijah was walking with God, waiting on Him, renewing his strength each day. Our takeaway is this: Though the going gets tough and lonely, if we stay in our Captain’s ship, He will guide us through the rough waters into a calm and serene bay. We may not realize it, but we will have learned that the trials and experiences on the rough seas are necessary for our spiritual growth. And now, as we rest on the beach’s comforting sands, we look around and see other sailors resting along side us. And then we realize that we are not alone in Yahweh’s work.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

On Spiritually Struggling with Family and Friends

You may be spiritually hurting right now. You are seeing deeper into God’s plan and purpose and you love it, and you try to share it with your family and friends, and try as you might, you just can’t seem to win your family members over. It’s a struggle as they seem to thwart you at every turn. It’s bad enough that the world, in general, is resistant to the truth. But your own family, too? 

Many of you are sparring with spirits in your own house.  They withstand you and plague you with worldly thoughts, tempting you away from thoughts of Christ and His righteousness and ways.

“Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you” (I Pet. 4:12-14) Rather, rejoice. You are “partakers of Christ’s sufferings.”

Our sufferings are His because we are His. He knows that we are going through anguish with the unbelievers in our family. That wayward son or daughter, that wife or husband who resents us when we speak of Him, that uncle or aunt, or cousin or friend—all these He has in our world for us to overcome. Don’t we know—we’ve all read it I am sure—that a “man’s foes shall be they of his own household”?

He is come to send a sword onto the earth, not peace. This war is raging in our own families. Christ is “come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother (Matt. 10: 34-36).

He Is Sending A Sword

Christ says that He sends a sword, which symbolizes war, conflict, confusion, desperation, fear, dread, frustration, tears (v. 34). And then the very next breath He sets a spiritual war in the hearts and minds of us and our family and loved ones. The fight and struggle that we must endure is on the battlefield of our homes. Period. In this battle, the sword He brings will slice away our selfishness.

The apostles warn us of the sword that Christ will send to us. First, we are not fighting or wrestling with the flesh and blood of our family members. We are battling spirits. We are pitted against powers that God has ordained for us to overcome—for our spiritual growth. God has created that family member or friend to come against you. Remember, His purpose is to reproduce Himself in us. He is Love. He loves your family member who is your enemy. And we should, too. 

So He commands us to “love your enemies. Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). Our enemies are not in Washington, D.C. or Moscow.  Our enemies are those close to us dwelling in our house or close by.  When their actions and words break your heart, this is the golden opportunity to forgive them. The struggle is not with them. It is in ourselves. Will we love and forgive them, thereby expressing agape love?  Or will we remain the victim of a selfish hardness? 

Someone is saying “How can I do this? How do I love my family member who has tried to shipwreck my faith so many times? How do I do it?

You ask Yahweh, the God that King David served. Study the story of how his son, Absalom, betrayed him in an attempt to steal the crown from David’s head. Study David’s response, and you will understand why he was so loved by Yahweh and why David was considered “a man after God’s own heart.” Read of David’s heartbreak and then his love for Yahweh expressed through his heart and lips (II Samuel 19).

The poet and prophet wrote of this trial in Psalm 41:9. Though heartbreaking for David, the betrayal of his son Absalom helped develop God’s Spirit in David’s heart.  Your trials brought to you to overcome by your Father, will do the same, as we call on God with a humbled heart.

Knowledge is the first thing–knowing who the real enemy is. Then it is loving and forgiving them with Christ’s Spirit emanating out of your heart. This is part of fulfilling God’s purpose of reproducing Himself in us. Agape love is growing, and this gives us the victory.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Receiving Authority to Cast Out Satan and To Heal

We saw in the October 23rd post that when we “resist the devil, he will flee from you.” We resist by thinking God’s thoughts seen in the metaphor of God’s armor (Eph. 6:13-18). The Spirit says to “arm yourselves” with the mind of Christ. Think His thoughts; they are found in the armor of God. God is the armor.

But we Christians have a problem. We are not fully dressed with His armor–His thoughts. And we wade out into the spiritual battlefield to combat our enemy, Satan. And many of us do not believe that we will have the victory over him. Many of us are plagued with the thoughts that the giants are too big. Many of us do not approach the fight like David did facing Goliath. David had no doubts about who would win. His trust was with Yahweh working through him. He defeated Goliath and the Philistines melted in fear and ran.

How did David walk in such authority? God says that we have that same power in the spiritual realm today.  He said that we now have the power to heal, to grow in His Spirit, and basically to become like the early apostles.

Questions come to mind. Why aren’t we Christians using this power more effectively? How does the power to cast out of Satan happen exactly? How does God do it through us? Knowing the truth about this will make us free of spiritual impotency when we come face to face with the enemy. Which piece of knowledge ushers us into this kind of authority over Satan?

Sovereignty

The answers lie in an understanding of God’s sovereignty. We should realize that our thoughts are not God’s thoughts initially. When we study His word, ideally we discipline our minds to think how He thinks. It is a kind of self-sacrifice, an abdicating of our innate human-centered stance in favor of our Creator’s thoughts about us and our position in the universe. And our position as His son or daughter is one with authority.

First, based on His words about Himself, God is sovereign; we are not. Mankind is so humanistic that we actually think that we make the choices that govern our existence. When all the while it was God behind the scenes working His will out on the earth’s stage. He chose us, and with His choices, He has guided our direction back to Him. “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit…” (John 15: 16).

For we in our first state have not the power to say to ourselves, “Live on forever.” Sooner or later we are faced with that disappointing reality called death. God rules in the kingdom of men. It is not our ball game; it is His. And with purposeful precision He has laid out the ground rules for us humans.

He Created Good and Evil

God in His sovereignty, created both good and evil. “I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the LORD [Yahweh] do all these things” (Isa. 45:7). But why the evil? God uses evil to develop and mature the good in those whom He has chosen, which are His elect. He foreknew that mankind would have a precocious predilection for self; He made man that way. He foreknew that the humans He had created would rebel and fall; He was the producer of that tragedy—for a purpose: that mankind would cry out to Him, seeking solace from their Creator. Our tragic fall into the evil of sin would be the very environment that would produce a grateful heart upon our deliverance.

God is sovereign; He does it His own brilliant way. We would not have written the script with evil causing us to suffer. We would write it where we would not have an antagonist to struggle against. God’s thoughts are not ours, but we can make them ours.

He Created Angels To Be Our Servants

He created the angels to be “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Heb. 1:14). “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (NIV).

Lucifer is one of the angels, an angelic spirit created by YHWH to minister to the sons and daughters of God. Lucifer received orders from Yahweh to become the minister of evil here on earth. Lucifer became Satan and is the god of this world. He dispenses the evil under God’s supervision. He and his cohorts are sent to serve and minister sufferings to us. We become stronger in God when we overcome Satan and the sufferings. Therefore, Satan is my servant and minister. Yours, too. The irony is rich; what Satan means for harm, God uses for good. You cannot out-god God. All angels, then, are spirits created by God to help us reach the goals that He has set for us. They exist to help us grow up to be joint-heirs with Christ of the Father’s kingdom.

We Are Satan’s Master

Fifth, even though Satan is the minister of evil, he is an angel, and by definition, he is still serving and ministering to us. Satan is our servant. Therefore, with the Holy Spirit inside, we are Satan’s master. We have power over him. We have power from God to cast him out, “to loose the bands of wickedness and undo the heavy burdens,” and to heal those oppressed of the devil. When we resist Satan, he flees. We are to resist him in others, not just ourselves. We have power over our own servant.

When we really believe this truth, we will walk with authority, knowing the truth about our position and our enemy’s place in God’s plan and purpose. And because we understand now that we are Satan’s master, we will command him to leave and be gone from the people we love, and we will give them “beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning” (Isa. 61:3).

For it is this authority, presented to us through the knowledge of the holy, that generates the power to first cast out the devil and then to heal others. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

Oneness of God–Key to 100 Fold Growth

Newsflash to All Future Manifested Sons of God

The Trinity concept of the Godhead is a grievous error; it is an abominable false doctrine that aspiring sons and daughters of God must repent of. It is ubiquitous in its reach, spread by the minions of the Catholic and Protestant churches. “Trinity” does not appear in the Bible. Neither do the words “three persons.” If we stubbornly cling to this false concept the way its tentacles cling to our minds, our spiritual growth will be stunted, and we will never bear 100 fold spiritual fruit, never be in His inner circle, and never fulfill the royal destiny that we are called to do.

To be like Christ, we must see Him as He really is. We must know Him the way He was and is in the beginning. The Oneness of the Godhead explains all this, and in so doing, it disproves the Trinity.

Children, Young Men, Fathers

The apostle John wrote to all three growth level Christians—30 fold, 60 fold, and 100 fold, as seen in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. He called them children, young men, and fathers. He gave a specific reason why he was writing unto the spiritually mature fathers. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning.

We see here that he makes a definite distinction among little children, young men, and fathers—30, 60, and 100 fold Christians.

The future manifested sons of God for these latter days will be the fathers that John is writing to. You fathers will know Him in a pure unadulterated state—knowledge of the Self-Existent One prior to fallen man’s false concepts about who God is. You fathers, you manifested sons of God, will know Him as He really is and was. There will be no false concepts or imaginations seeping into your minds about the truth of God’s nature and Godhead. You will have purged out all false teachings and the old leaven of man’s thinking as to who God really is and what He is really like and is about. You, sons, will know Him as He is from the beginning. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. I John 3:3.

The sons of God will not have false concepts of who the Holy One of Israel is. They will, therefore, become just like their Father. Each seed bears its own kind. Like begets like. They will become fathers and, yea, kings on the same throne as their Father King. They will, in fact, be able to engender others with this great power and essence from above. They will have everlasting life generating in and out of their new spiritual bodies. They will be fathers like their heavenly Father. 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.

David knew Yahweh well. In fact, Yahweh said that he was a man after God’s own heart. Let’s learn from this pattern son about Him that is from the beginning.

David is pouring his heart out to the Father Yahweh all the way through Psalm 102. He talks to Him throughout, expressing his faith in the great One who created all things. What is astounding about this is that this very same passage is quoted by Paul referring to the Son of God!

“Hear my prayer, O Yahweh” (rendered “LORD” in most versions). Hear me, please, he is saying, in my hour of need, for I am in trouble. His enemies are all around him; he fears for his life. His literal time here on earth is running out; the sun is going down to the dark night of the grave. His flesh is soon to be consumed and turned back to dust. “My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.”

But he says that Yahweh (v. 12) shall endure forever. He is from forever and shall go on forever. Yahweh will appear (v. 16) and hear the prayers of His people. “The people that shall be created shall praise Yahweh.”

David Goes Back to the Beginning

 And then David remembers and acknowledges Yahweh as the One who looks down from above and hears our groanings because of our mortal state and comes down to loosen us from this death (vs. 19-20). It is Yahweh who gives us this hope of transcending our mortality. And then David reaffirms his belief in the One who has “laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands” (25).

Paul quotes this very same passage from Psalms in Hebrews 1: 10. He establishes early on that he is talking about Yahshua the Messiah. First he says in verse 2 that Yahshua, Yahweh incarnate, created all things. He mentions the Savior purging our sins (3).   And then he quotes Psalm 102: 25, speaking of the Savior: “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.”

Paul is quoting the psalmist who addressed all of 102 to Yahweh. And David said in that psalm that Yahweh created all things. But Paul in Hebrews 1:2 says that the Son created all things. Now there seems to be a contradiction here. If Yahweh, the Father did create all things, then how can Paul, and the apostle John also, say that the Son created all things?

The answer is that both are right. Yahweh did create all things, while He, being the Spirit that He is, resided in the glorified vessel we know as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Son. Yahweh, the Spirit/Father dwelt bodily in His “expressed image,” the Son, and created all things through Him. For Yahweh did create all things.

This is the mystery of God. This is the secret; this is the enigma. Our finite natural thinking minds have difficulty in conceiving the answer to this mystery because we want to see two Gods up there. That is the way we deal with this problem as to just who did the creating. If there are two up there, the Father and the Son, then which did the creating of the worlds? The scriptures in many passages state that Yahweh did the creating. And in many other passages, the apostles say that the Son did the creating. So we begin to think, Well, the Father delegated the creating for the Son to do, by just telling Him to do it.

But this is natural thinking. Could we not just as well believe the scriptures and have the Father be this invisible Spirit who resided in a form, a human looking form, a form from which human beings were patterned? And this form with Yahweh the invisible Spirit/Father dwelling within—could not this One God have done the creating? There is no contradiction in this concept of the Creator. Both accounts are correct and do not contradict anything. You have Yahweh inside a special vessel doing the creating. This concept coincides with the scores of times that He is called the “Holy One of Israel.” It confirms all the times that the prophets said that Yahweh is not only the Creator, but also the Savior! It confirms all the times that the NT writers said that the Messiah did the creating. In fact, it does not contradict anything at all.

In this concept of the Godhead, the Father and the Son are one. Is not that what the Messiah said? “I and my Father are one…If you have seen me you have seen my Father.” The Father is in me and is doing the works. This is the central core message that will solve the mystery of God: the eternal Spirit Yahweh was in the Messiah, reconciling the world unto Himself. This is the great mystery solved.

Paul speaks of this mystery of God to the Colossians. He says in chapter 2: 1 that he is concerned. Something is already at work to corrupt the vision of the Holy One of Israel in their eyes. He longs for their hearts to be as one in love, “to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.” Here we have God, the Father, and the Anointed One all mentioned together as making up the mystery. And then he goes on and says that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are hidden in the Messiah.

Just what was in the Son? Whatever that was, was “all the treasures.” Christ said that the Father was in Him. Paul said that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” Other apostles said that the Son was full of the Spirit of the Father. This is an important point to Paul—for his brothers in Colosse to know this mystery of the Godhead. In fact, he warns in v. 8 for them to beware of the traditions of men that will come in with man’s philosophy and vain deceit. And then he drops the bombshell in v. 9: “For in him (the Messiah) dwells all of the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

He said all. “All” means that there is not any more to be placed in there. All of the Spirit, all of the Father, all of God, was in the Messiah. But man’s philosophy teaches that the Father is still sitting in heaven in some kind of form watching the proceedings below. Traditions teach us that there are really two up there now. But Paul teaches us that all of the Deity dwelt bodily, that all of the Great Father/Spirit God Almighty was comported about in the body of the Son of God. It is difficult for people today to agree with Paul just as it was hard for the Pharisees and Sadducees to believe, too. It is just unbelief that tricks a heart into not admitting and believing that the Father was fully in Him.

Be that as it may, the mystery of Elohim/God is that the Son has all of the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily. For in Messiah all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. Col. 2:9, NIV. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. KJV. For it is in Christ that the complete being of the Godhead embodied, and in Him you have been brought to completion. NEB. For in Christ there is all of God in a human body, so you have everything when you have Christ. Living Bible.

No matter how you slice it or dice it in whatever version of the Bible, it still comes out the same. All of Deity was in the Son of God. Period. And the Father Yahweh, the Great Spirit, “was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.” Col. 1:19.

Back to Col. 2:3, speaking of Yahshua, Yahweh in human form:   “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge was hid in the Son.” The Father Yahweh, was Himself in the Son, the Anointed vessel who was to carry Yahweh around in on earth.

The mystery is this: Yahweh, the Creator, poured Himself into the Messiah. Everything that that Anointed One did, it was Yahweh Himself doing it. Christ said as much: “The Father that dwells in Me, He does the works” (Jn. 14: 11). Yahweh created everything, in His pre-existent form, which is Yahshua. Yahweh is an invisible Spirit; He is not a man sitting up there. The only place He resides is in the high and lofty place in His Son and with those of a broken spirit and a contrite heart.

This Oneness doctrine enables us to “see Him as He is,” which, in turn, enables us to be like Him. “We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (John 3: 3). We shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is. And He is the Holy One of Israel, not three.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Chapter 22 of New Book– “Our Royal Destiny”

{This is Chapter 22 of my new book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It will be out this spring. I want to get this book into as many interested hands as I can, so I am offering it totally free to my readers. The book is free; the shipping is free in the USA. All I need is your prayers and your mailing address.

22   Our Royal Destiny

King David is looking up at the dancing diamond lights in the heavens and writes, “What is man that Thou art mindful of him?” [1]

You, God, who created this vast expanse of stardust, whose beauty causes us to gasp when we take time to look up—how incomprehensible is Your love for us! You, the Master of the Universe, who controls the destinies of a billion stars and their planets, why would You even think about us down here in the clay pits of the earth? And yet, You think about us all the time.

Your mind is full of us; we occupy your thoughts. And You have “crowned us with glory and honor.” Really?

Really? Glory for homo ignoramus? Honor for man who frets and struts his petty little ego around the yard of his mind? God has crowned man with glory and honor? Man, who grasps at vainglory all the days of his life, earnestly desiring to be the center of attention, does not realize that he is the center of God’s attention. But man wants the glory on his own terms and not his Creator’s terms. And therein lies the problem.

For man in his natural state will die, for God has “made him a little lower than the angels” for the suffering of death in hope that man would turn to Him for life, the crown of life.

Some Will Literally Wear a Crown

For those who can believe it, God has crowned us with glory and honor. God speaks here as though things already were fully actualized. A select few will wear a crown placed upon their heads by God Himself! A crown is made for and is only worn by royalty.

And this is no “hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king” [2]. No, these crowns placed upon God’s elect sons will be their immortal reward for their humble service to their King.

For in the Kingdom of God soon to literally come to this earth, no one will “tell sad stories of the death of kings.” For these kings will be immortal, ruling in their “house which is from heaven,” their new spiritual bodies. Immune from death, they will “rule and reign with Christ” for a millennium, and they “will be strong and do exploits in the land.” They will be like the patriarch Joseph in Egypt, their type and shadow. They will be the administrators and judges and rulers filled with the Spirit of God.

These are God’s elect, His chosen ones in this last generation before He returns to earth. They are the 100 fold spiritual fruit bearers, spoken of by the Master in Matthew 13’s “Parable of the Sower.”

They are the “five wise virgins” who had oil in their lamps and knew the times and were prepared for the Master’s return, unlike the five foolish virgins [3]. The ten were Christians all, but only the former group were accepted for the high calling.

The Overcomers Are Coming

“Many are called, but few are chosen” [4]. What distinguishes the elect from Christians who don’t mature? They will have overcome all things and endured all things and will have added to their faith those attributes of the divine nature that the apostle spoke of (II Peter 1: 4-7).

They are coming. Thousands will break through the suffocating conventions of churchianity and armed with the knowledge of their destiny and how to arrive at it, they will overcome all of the roadblocks and purify themselves with the cleansing power of the Spirit.

These overcomers have a stupendous destiny to fulfill. It is a future forged in the fires of Yahweh’s creative energy, fired like fine pottery to make vessels of quality, vessels worthy to contain the fruit of God’s ultimate vintage, His Spirit.

And these elect chosen ones will walk humbly with their God and with mortal men. For God requires the utmost humility, and only a few thousand humans in this age will be counted worthy to “go on to perfection” [5].

These are the elect of God—His princes and the future monarchs of His kingdom. To these God will delegate authority during His 1,000 year reign of peace, for they will have proven themselves worthy of this glory and honor. Just like King David said earlier, they have been crowned “with glory and honor.” For “they were redeemed from among men” [6].

The Plot of a Fantasy Novel

I know that to some, this vision of a destiny of kingship for us seems way out there. To some it reads like the plot of a 1,000 page fantasy novel. It is fantastic if you look at the Bible story with fresh eyes and take it at face literary value.

Picture it. The Supreme Being in another dimension/world desires to reproduce Himself. But He happens to be an Invisible Spirit/Force of Love. And the greatest love in the universe is laying down your life for another.

But the Supreme Being, this wonderful Force of Love, cannot show His great love because, well, He is invisible, and He is immortal. He can’t be seen, and He can’t die for another.

So He first creates a prototype vessel, composed of Spirit, which looks like what a human being will become, called His Son. He then creates a world, a planet called earth, and He forms Adam’s body out of the dust of this planet. And Adam and His offspring are mortal.

The plan is that these mortal men are to be redeemed by their Creator from a life of bondage to an evil spirit being. This fiendish adversary has seduced these mortals into committing selfish dishonorable acts all their lifetime. And they are mired in a pit of degradation until they are lifted up and saved by their Creator. He does this by incarnating Himself in a body, a son of Adam that can die. The Son then suffers death for their ransom, thus demonstrating the greatest Love—to die for another. He raises from the dead, and He buys them back and delivers them out of the pit of despair, and they remember no more their guilt for past iniquities.

And He cleans them up and trains them in the wise ways of the prophets of old who were placed in the earth to preserve the path that leads from death to everlasting life.

And these redeemed ones apply themselves to the teachings of the apostles and prophets who were sent in earlier ages to light the way to immortality. And they now believe with grateful hearts what their Master has prepared for them, and they grow in this newfound belief.

And they set their sights on this new vision and quest of becoming one of the Master’s princes. They humble themselves and learn the true teach-ings, enrolling in the School of the Prophets, and it transforms them. Old petty thoughts and desires melt away like tired and dirty snowbanks in the afternoon sun.

And that same sunlight begins to shine through their lives, and love and care for those still in the chains of darkness begins to grow until one day they hear a knock on the door. And they ask, Who is it? And the voice says, I am come to speak with you. And they recognize the voice as their Master’s, and they open the door, and their Master comes in, and He breaks bread with them, granting them His ultimate stamp of approval. He grants that they sit with Him on His throne [7].

That’s the destiny of the overcomers. That’s the destiny of the kings of the Kingdom. That is The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect.

 

How Will We Know?

But one will ask, Who of us will these future kings be? Who will He choose? For we know that “few there be to find this way of truth.” The way to mortal mediocrity is broad and wide and many will enter it [8]. And the path to His immortal throne is narrow and fraught with spiritual sufferings that the masses will choose to not go through. These are the very sufferings that are used by God to burn out the dross in the lives of His chosen ones.

So who will they be? And how does one know that they are chosen? One thing is certain; you can’t work for it and earn it. It is a gift from Him. Christ gives us the answer. “He that has ears to hear, let him hear” [9]. Some will have their ears predisposed to be able to understand this high calling that He is speaking about, and some will not. Those that do, He is telling them to take it in and hear it and do it. For “unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them” it is not given.

If all this makes sense to you, then you may be one of those called to His throne. It will take a massive overcoming for us. Part of that overcoming is outlined in the growth levels we are to overcome in the seven church ages. Each of these overcomings are prefaced by this call: “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: To him that overcometh…” (Rev. 2 and 3). I would like to think that some of us reading this right now may be these future kings.                                                 1. Psalm 8: 1, 4-6    2.  Shakespeare, Richard II   3. Matt. 25: 1-13Matt. 22: 14         5. Hebr. 6: 1; Rev. 14            6. Rev. 14: 4-7.    Rev. 3: 20-22       8. Matt. 7: 13-14                   9. Mark 4: 9, 11

“I Saw Yahweh Always Before My Face”

The prophet David and the apostle Peter join together in proving yet again that it was none other than Yahweh of the Old Testament who walked in human form as the Savior in the New.

It is the day of Pentecost and the apostles have just been filled with the Holy Spirit, and Peter stands up and preaches. He tells the people that what is happening was foretold by the prophets of old.

He tells them that Joel prophesied of this mighty move of the Spirit, quoting him. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and you sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2: 17).

He then tells them about the Messiah, the Savior, mentioning Him by name–Yahshua of Nazareth–how He was approved by God because of the miracles He performed and how He was delivered up to be crucified by the predetermined plan and purpose of the Almighty. And then He was raised from the dead.

And then Peter alludes to David and quotes him on that day of Pentecost, speaking about this Savior who was raised from the dead. Peter’s words: “For David speaks concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face…(2: 25). Peter was quoting Psalm 16: 8. If you read that, you will see that “Lord” there is rendered “LORD.” And we know that “LORD” in all capital letters is a title, a convention that the King James translators invented, taking the place of the word “Yahweh,” the true name of David’s God. Any encyclopedia or Bible scholar will confirm this.

So, “I foresaw Yahweh always before my face…” It was Yahweh that David spoke about so lovingly. Yahweh! And Peter quotes that exact passage referring to the Messiah!

Peter continues to quote the Psalm 16 passage. “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (v. 10). We have to see what the word “hell” really means here. It is translated from the Hebrew word sheol, #7585 in Strong’s Concordance. That same word is translated “grave” over thirty times in the old testament scriptures. David is singing about a great hope that he has that his nephesh, his own earthly being, will not be left in the grave, that some day God will give him a new spiritual body. This assurance comes because Yahweh has shown him that the Messiah, God’s Holy One Incarnation, Yahweh in human form, will be raised from the dead before His earthly body is decayed or corrupted.

We see in these passages that Peter and David had this revelation. The Savior was Yahweh in human form. It was Immanuel, God with us, walking and talking with us. And thus the passages about the Savior in Isaiah resound through the ages to us: “I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God…I, even I, am Yahweh; and beside me there is no savior…There is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside    Me ” (44: 6; 43: 11; 45: 21). Paul, of course, backs all of this up when he says, “God (Yahweh) was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself” (II Cor. 5: 19).

Our Savior wants us to see Him as He really is. This revelation will help us do that.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock    [First published in The Search newsletter, January 2001   For more on this, see my first book found here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/book-yah-is-savior-the-road-to-immortality/ ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mystery of the “Holy One of Israel”

“I and my Father are One…”

A major prerequisite in becoming a manifested son of God is knowing Him that is from the beginning. The sons of God will know Him and the power of His resurrection. They will have solved the puzzle, the mystery of godliness.   “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.”

Things kept secret from before the foundation of the world will be understood by the sons of God. “The secrets of Yahweh belong to them who are in awe of Him, and He reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets.” Yes, the sons of God are destined by Him to know all the mysteries of Deity; they will know their Father that is from the beginning. They will be just like their Father and will, in fact, be spiritual fathers to nations and kings.

Learning the Mystery from King David

David is pouring his heart out to the Father Yahweh all the way through Psalm 102. He talks to Him throughout, expressing his faith in the great One who created all things. What is astounding about this is that this very same passage is quoted by Paul referring to the Son of God! Let me repeat that: Paul quotes this psalm when referring to the Savior, the Son of God, Jesus/Yahshua of Nazareth.

“Hear my prayer, O Yahweh” (rendered “LORD” in most versions). Hear me, please, he is saying, in my hour of need, for I am in trouble. His enemies are all around him; he fears for his life. His literal time here on earth is running out; the sun is going down to the dark night of the grave. His flesh is soon to be consumed and turned back to dust. “My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.”

But he says that Yahweh (v. 12) shall endure forever. He is from forever and shall go on forever. Yahweh will appear (v. 16) and hear the prayers of His people. “The people that shall be created shall praise Yahweh.”

David Goes Back to the Beginning

 And then David remembers and acknowledges Yahweh as the One who looks down from above and hears our groaning because of our mortal state and comes down to loosen us from this death (vs. 19-20). It is Yahweh who gives us this hope of transcending our mortality. And then David reaffirms his belief in the One who has “laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands” (25).

Paul quotes this very same passage from Psalms in Hebrews 1: 10. He establishes early on that he is talking about Yahshua the Messiah. First he says in verse 2 that Yahshua, Yahweh incarnate, created all things. He mentions the Savior purging our sins (3).   And then he quotes Psalm 102: 25, speaking of the Savior: “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.”

Paul is quoting the psalmist who addressed all of 102 to Yahweh. And David said in that psalm that Yahweh created all things. But Paul in Hebrews 1:2 says that the Son created all things. Now there seems to be a contradiction here. If Yahweh, the Father did create all things, then how can Paul, and the apostle John also, say that the Son created all things?

The answer is that both are right. Yahweh did create all things, while He, being the Spirit that He is, resided in the glorified vessel we know as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Son. Yahweh, the Spirit/Father dwelt bodily in His “expressed image,” the Son, and created all things through Him. For Yahweh did create all things.

This is the mystery of God. This is the secret; this is the enigma. Our finite natural thinking minds have difficulty in conceiving the answer to this mystery because we want to see two Gods up there. That is the way we deal with this problem as to just who did the creating. If there are two up there, the Father and the Son, then which did the creating of the worlds? The scriptures in many passages state that Yahweh did the creating. And in many other passages, the apostles say that the Son did the creating. So we begin to think, Well, the Father delegated the creating for the Son to do, by just telling Him to do it.

But this is natural thinking. Could we not just as well believe the scriptures and have the Father be this invisible Spirit who resided in a form, a human looking form, a form from which human beings were patterned? And this form with Yahweh the invisible Spirit/Father dwelling within—could not this One God have done the creating? There is no contradiction in this concept of the Creator. Both accounts are correct and do not contradict anything. You have Yahweh inside a special vessel doing the creating. This concept coincides with the scores of times that He is called the “Holy One of Israel.” It confirms all the times that the prophets said that Yahweh is not only the Creator, but also the Savior! It confirms all the times that the NT writers said that the Messiah did the creating. In fact, it does not contradict anything at all.

In this concept of the Godhead, the Father and the Son are one. Is not that what the Messiah said? “I and my Father are one…If you have seen me you have seen my Father.” The Father is in me and is doing the works. This is the central core message that will solve the mystery of God: the eternal Spirit Yahweh was in the Messiah, reconciling the world unto Himself. This is the great mystery.

Paul speaks of this mystery of God to the Colossians. He says in chapter 2: 1 that he is concerned. Something is already at work to corrupt the vision of the Holy One of Israel in their eyes. He longs for their hearts to be as one in love, “to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.” Here we have God, the Father, and the Anointed One all mentioned together as making up the mystery. And then he goes on and says that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are hidden in the Messiah.

Just what was in the Son, the Messiah? Whatever that was, was “all the treasures.” Christ said that the Father was in Him. Paul said that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” Other apostles said that the Son was full of the Spirit of the Father. This is an important point to Paul—for his brothers in Colosse to know this mystery of the Godhead. In fact, he warns in v. 8 for them to beware of the traditions of men that will come in with man’s philosophy and vain deceit. And then he drops the bombshell in v. 9: “For in him (the Messiah) dwells all of the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

He said all. “All” means that there is not any more to be placed in there. All of the Spirit, all of the Father, all of God, was in the Messiah. But man’s philosophy teaches that the Father is still sitting in heaven in some kind of form watching the proceedings below. Traditions teach us that there are really two up there now. But Paul teaches us that all of the Deity dwelt bodily, that all of the Great Father/Spirit God Almighty was comported about in the body of the Son of God. It is difficult for people today to agree with Paul just as it was hard for the Pharisees and Sadducees to believe, too. It is just unbelief that tricks a heart into not admitting and believing that the Father was fully in Him.

Be that as it may, the mystery of Elohim/God is that the Son has all of the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily. For in Messiah all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. Col. 2:9, NIV. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. KJV. For it is in Christ that the complete being of the Godhead embodied, and in Him you have been brought to completion. NEB. For in Christ there is all of God in a human body, so you have everything when you have Christ. Living Bible.

No matter how you slice it or dice it in whatever version of the Bible, it still comes out the same. All of Deity was in the Son of God. Period. And the Father Yahweh, the Great Spirit, “was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.” Col. 1:19.

Back to Col. 2:3, speaking of Yahshua, Yahweh in human form:   “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge was hid in the Son.” The Father Yahweh, was Himself in the Son, the Anointed vessel who was to carry Yahweh around in on earth.

The mystery is this: Yahweh, the Creator, poured Himself into the Messiah. Everything that that Anointed One did, it was Yahweh Himself doing it. Yahweh created everything, in His preexistent form, which is Yahshua. Yahweh is an invisible Spirit; He is not a man sitting up there. The only place He resides is in the high and lofty place and with those of a broken spirit and a contrite heart.

Moses confirms that Yahweh created all things. In the song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32, he begins by praising Yahweh. “He is the Rock, his work is perfect.” And in v. 6, “Is not Yahweh thy father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee, and established thee?” Right here in the torah we see that Yahweh is the Rock that created the children of Israel. But I thought that the Son created all things.

A contradiction? No, for Yahweh, the Great Spirit Father “was in Messiah, reconciling the world unto Himself.” It is Yahweh in human form that did the creating. The Father was in the form, the Son, doing the creating. “And his name shall be called…the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” Isa. 9:6. How can this be? Only with the invisible Father/Spirit residing in the Son (“all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in the Messiah”) can this be.

The Father dwells in the Son, “who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” Col. 1:15. Yahshua the Messiah is the visible image of the invisible Father/Spirit Yahweh. Yahshua cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. John 12:43-44. Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been   among   you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?…Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. John 14:9-11.

I believe that it is the Spirit of God within me at this moment that is writing down these things. But how does the reader know that these things are really true? How can the reader be sure?

     The scripture reveals a sure way to tell if someone has the Spirit of truth—a sure way to know if a person is of the truth and is telling the truth.

You will know you have really come in contact with the Spirit of Truth because the person who has the truth will speak about the Savior as He really is. The Master said so. “When the Spirit of truth is come He will testify of Me.” John 15:26. When someone receives the Spirit of truth within themselves, they will speak of the Savior. But the Spirit of truth will speak of the Savior truthfully. The Spirit of truth will tell the truth about the Savior. The Spirit of truth within a person will tell of the true nature of the Savior.

But that is tricky because everyone speaks about the Savior. Everyone speaks of Jesus Christ. Some even speak of Him using His true Hebrew name Yahshua. There are thousands of denominations and organizations speaking about a savior, and they all have different concepts of who He is. Consequently, they all could not have the Spirit of truth. Yet everyone thinks they have the Spirit of truth.

How can one be for sure? The Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, will guide us into all truth; He will show you things to come; and He will glorify the Savior; He will receive the things about the Savior and will show us them (John 16:13-16). You will know that you really have the Spirit of Truth because He will speak of Yah-is-Savior; He will testify of the fact that the Self-Existent One-is-in-human-form and is Savior. The Spirit of truth = Comforter = sent to us by Yahshua = proceeds from the Father = the Spirit of truth shall testify of Yah in human form. The Spirit of Truth shall lead us into all truth about just who the Savior is, which is Yah-in-human-form.

And it is by that very same Spirit of Truth residing within us that we will be a witness of just who the Savior is. And you also shall bear witness, or testify, of Yahshua by that same Spirit of truth within us. The Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of Yahshua. Yahshua the Savior said that He is the truth. And Father, the eternal Spirit, dwelt bodily in the Savior, the Anointed One.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock  {This is Chapter 23 taken from the book The Unveiling of the Sons of God. Here’s the link to the entire book: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/ebook-the-unveiling-of-the-sons-of-god/ }

The Stone Kingdom and the Elect

The stage is set for the elect of God; the battle lines are drawn for these latter days.  The elect will know who the participants are in the battle, but they will understand that it is God’s fight.

For as the young David said to the seemingly unbeatable Goliath, exemplifying the very faith that the elect will project, “The LORD (Yahweh) does not save with the sword and spear, for the battle is the LORD’S, and He will give you into our hands” (I Sam. 17: 47).

In this one verse lies the template in which we may glimpse how it will all go down in these latter days.  Of course, we are talking about the bringing down of the current Babylonian world system, which Goliath is a symbol of.  He was huge, threatening, dominant, and invincible, much like the world governments appear to their peoples.  God will position His people in an impossible situation that oppresses them so much that they will cry unto Him for deliverance.  They will know that they are too weak to overcome the powers that be.  Then God will hear their cries, and He will “give our enemies into our hands” in a miraculous way.  God will fight our battle and will turn the tide in His elect’s favor.

The “Stone”

It was not by accident that God used a smooth stone to take down Goliath.  How will God, then, take down Satan’s world system?  He will use a stone.

The prophet Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, thus revealing to us the mystery of the “stone” and how this stone will be used to bring down the current world system, like David’s stone brought down Goliath.  The king of Babylon had a dream and could not remember it, much less understand its meaning.  Daniel told the king that “there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets… and makes known what shall be in the latter days” (2: 28).

Daniel relates to him the dream of a great image with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, and legs of iron with its feet of iron and clay.  And the king saw “a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet…and brake them to pieces.”  In fact, the whole image was shattered and carried off like “the chaff of the summer threshing floors…and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (vs. 31-35).

Daniel interprets the image as four world gentile empires: Babylonian, Media-Persia, Grecian, and Roman.  The stone that smashed and destroyed these is the literal Kingdom of God that will be ushered in by a stone, not cut out with man’s hand.  The stone that smashes the world system are the stones that God will hurl with his cosmic slingshot—large stones of a heavenly origin, asteroids coming into the earth during the Great Tribulation Period, as depicted in the prophecies of Revelation.

Here’s the proof: The 6^th seal kicks it off when “stars of heaven fell unto the earth” (Rev. 6: 12). Then comes the…

1. First trumpet—“Hail and fire mingled with blood…cast upon the earth” (Rev. 8: 7)
2. 2^nd trumpet—“A great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea (v. 8)
3. 3^rd trumpet—“And there fell a great star from heaven…called Wormwood” upon the rivers (v. 10-11)
4. 5^th trumpet—Another star fell into the earth

In all these instances, we see a stone from heaven used by God as the instrument of destruction of the world system.  These are “acts of God” completely out of the realm of man.  That is why He said, “Vengeance is mine, saith the LORD; I will repay.”  We are to just believe Him and “stand fast and see the glory of the LORD.”

His soon coming kingdom is the stone kingdom.  For “in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed…and will break in pieces all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (Dan. 2: 44).  This is the good news; this is the gospel.  This is why Christ came to earth.  All roads lead to His government being established.  He will return to this sin-sick earth after the Tribulation period to assume His throne in this earth.  His elect, the 100-fold fruit-bearing sons of the living God will rule with Him, sitting with Him on His throne, for 1,000 years of peace.

The Stage Is Set

So, yes, the stage is set and ready for all of this to take place.  The battle lines are drawn.  “Two manners of peoples” are doing battle for dominion of the earth, as it was with Jacob and Esau.

The minions of Edom control the central banks and the economies of this present world system.  As Rothschild said, He who controls the money controls the world.  The international bankers then control the governments of this world.  They control, therefore, the political machinations, the media, the economy, and the educational trends.

It’s the parable of the wheat and the tares.  These rich men “heap treasure together for the last days” (James 5: 3).  They “wrap it up” (Micah 7: 3).  They sound and look like the chosen people of God, but are not, being wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Christ said to them, “You are of your father the devil” (John 8: 44).

And the sheep are asleep right now in their respective flocks/countries.  They are relying on their political and religious shepherds, who are bought and paid for by the wolves, and are fed with just enough food to keep them making money for their masters (read, the Fed and the other central banks of the world).  These are the tares.

But bad things are prophesied for Esau/Edom.  They will not continue forever, for their one world government will come crashing down (Obadiah, Malachi, Revelation).  Who will cry the loudest when the stones start falling, thus destroying this world system?  It will be the merchants and bankers (Rev. 18: 9-19).

And who are the wheat in the parable of the wheat and tares of Matthew 13?  They are the elect—those who God has awakened.  They are the very few whose eyes He has opened wide to see the current sad state of affairs of this world and all the misery caused by God’s enemy.  And they will begin to mobilize to prepare themselves to battle the monolith.  But not with physical guns and weapons.  No.  They will use the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith and truth.  “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds…” (II Cor. 10: 4).

And those strong holds are the chains of this world system that the children of the wicked one has forged and fastened on the people.

For this is God’s fight really.  He is now looking for more people like David, who knew it was God’s battle and believed that what He had promised, He was quite able to perform.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Add to Your Faith Virtue–God’s Strength and Power (2 Peter 1: 5)

We must add certain spiritual qualities to our faith in God if we are to grow up into the manifested sons and daughters of God.  We found that out in II Peter 1.  Our faith in God needs to be shored up; it needs to become stronger in order to conquer and “quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”  We will only “partake of the divine nature” if we add these things.  And the first to be added to our faith is virtue.

But what exactly does this word “virtue” really mean?  It is an English word, after all.  We could look it up in Webster’s Dictionary, but we would only find what it means to the English speaking mind, distilled down through the centuries.  We would see that it is from the Old French virtu, which came from the Latin virtus, meaning “strength, courage, virtue.”  It has come down to us meaning “moral excellence…active quality or power…manly strength or courage; valor.”

And so we dig still deeper, believing that this study is important and expedient, for we simply must know what “virtue” means.  We are trying to “study to show ourselves approved unto God,” as we are admonished to do.  Without study, we will not be approved.

The English word “virtue” was translated, of course, not from Latin, but from the Greek.  So what was that Greek word that the King James scholars translated “virtue”?  The Strong’s Concordance shows us that it was arete, #703 [http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G703&t=KJV].  Consulting Thayer’s Lexicon on that page, we see that arete denotes power stemming from moral excellence and goodness.  It relates to God’s power, perfection, and excellence.

We get a further picture of “virtue” by looking up “virtuous” and “valor” in the Hebrew [http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H2428&t=KJV].  We see “strength, power, might.”  The Hebrew word #2428 is used many times in the phrase “mighty man of valour.”  Also, it is translated as “host” as in a large army of mighty warriors.  It is rendered “strength” in David’s prayer to God, “For Thou hast girded me with strength to battle” (II Samuel 22: 40).

We need to stop and reflect here and not pass over this lightly.  These words in  II Samuel are inspired.  They are the Scriptures of truth that Paul studied, and he said by the Spirit: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…”  Why?  To what purpose do we need those old books back there in the “Old Testament”?  “That the man of God may be perfect…”

Perfect.  Complete spiritual maturity.  These passages, like this one in Samuel, teach us lessons that will help us add the “divine nature” to our faith in God.  It is for the same purpose of perfection and glorification, which is the fulfillment of His promise to us  of immortality.

Looking at the Picture that “Virtue” is Painting for Us

We see “virtue” as not just power.  No.  It is the strength and power of God, emanating right out of His very heart through His Spirit into ours.  It is He; it is a part of His divine nature; it is all about His strength and power stemming from His excellent goodness.  This then is His power, which gives us now the strength and ability to go on the offensive against the devil and his tricks that block our road to immortality.

Let’s go back to David speaking to Yahweh.  In this song of praise, David thanks God for His strength and power in overcoming mightily all of his enemies.  He thanks God for His goodness, and then details in much “war” imagery his exploits over the enemy.  This picture of a warlike attitude  is a real key for us in understanding just what virtue is.  David’s inspired prayer shows us the spiritual application through his physical earthly accomplishments.

The First Step

First, David declares his complete trust in Yahweh, recalling how he called on Him in his despair and how God answered (verses 1-17).  David says that God did deliver him, but it was “according to my righteousness…and cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me” (v. 21).  David first had to be right with God, on the same spiritual page, “a man after God’s own heart.”  “I kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God” (v. 22).  That is the first step that we need.  Walk on in His faith.  Trust in Him.  And then get ready to go on the offense like King David does in the following verses.

And now the war imagery looms as David spiritually attacks his enemies.  “God is my strength and power…I have run through a troop…He teaches my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.  Thou hast given me a shield of thy salvation…I have pursued mine enemies [read: doubt, fear, unbelief, impatience, et al], and destroyed them (v. 31-38).

Wait.  Let’s savor this.  “Pursued mine enemies.”  He went on the offensive!  He did not just sit on the couch waiting for fear and doubt and unbelief to maybe take a holiday.  Would you please leave me alone, guys?  I don’t appreciate these ugly thoughts I have been having lately.”  No!

David “pursued” those negative thoughts and “destroyed them”!  Furthermore, David “consumed them, and wounded them, that  they could not arise…”  Wouldn’t that be wonderful–to have all negativity consumed and wounded so that it just was not able to rear its ugly head up in our minds ever again?

That’s adding virtue to your faith.

But David’s not through.  He knows where the strength and power is coming from.  “They are fallen under my feet.  For thou hast girded me with strength to battle.”  It was Yahweh that subdued his enemies under him (v. 39-40).

And finally, David says, “Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O Yahweh…and I will sing praises to thy name” (v. 50).

Our Spiritual Application

This song of David is so rich, reaching even unto prophetic strains that depict a vision of the Kingdom Age in all its glory.  And yes, we are in that vision.  But we see here now for our present edification a picture of just what virtue does when added to our faith.  “Faith without works is dead.”  Without virtue added, faith/belief/assurance just sits passively on the couch “waiting for the world to change.”  To the contrary, we His sons and daughters must “put on the whole armor of God” (Eph. 6: 11-18).  This same war imagery is used by Paul in Ephesians, that we “may be able to withstand all the wiles of the devil.”  We must put the armor of the Spirit of God on and take the fight to our adversary.

“Add to your faith virtue…”  This first addition to the faith, then, is an offensive weapon given to us by God to go with our trust-faith-assurance in Him.  “Virtue” then is that quality of valor, that makes us like the mighty men of war as David was.  They were men of strength.  Mighty men.  Strong men and women in the Spirit, pro-active in their attacks on the enemy.  This all comes in realizing that it is God Almighty who does all this conquering–not only for us, but also in and through us.

Yet, the question will arise in hearts: But how do you add it to your faith?  Answer: You add virtue to your faith–by faith.  The Master said it simply.  “Ask and it shall be given…When you pray, believe that you receive, and you shall have whatsoever you ask.”  Now that we know what “virtue” is, we “reckon it done,” for in God’s mind, He already sees us having it.                          Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{If you liked this article, hit the “like” button. Please make a comment. I will answer them all. And be sure to send for my latest book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect; it is totally free. Just send me your mailing address to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com If you appreciated this article, you will be thrilled with the new book. I wrote it for you. You need this book if you want to grow spiritually and be like Peter, James, John, and Paul.
“Greater works” we will do with His help and guidance.}

God’s Chosen People–The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel

In these latter days, God is searching for His people.  The unenlightened will respond, saying that the people known as Jews today are His people, so no problem finding them.

But they are wrong.  85% of today’s Jews did not spring from the loins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel [1].  They are not the “lost sheep of the House of Israel” that Christ was only sent to, but are of a Turko-Mongol tribe known as the Khazars who converted en masse to Judaism at the heighth of their power during the Middle Ages.

These people are not God’s chosen people who He scattered in 721 B.C. and 603 B.C.–the House of Israel (ten tribes) and the House of Judah (two tribes), respectively.  Yahweh likens His chosen people to sheep, the sheep of His pasture.

And although they strayed and sinned against Him and He scattered them, He is jealous in His watching care over them, having something wonderful planned for them at the end of this age.

Our job as His elect, is to sift through all the information out there, both true and false, and share the truth with those who are slated to come into His government, His kingdom.

But some teachers are persisting on teaching falsehoods and lies about God’s plan and purpose, about the endtimes, and about just who His people are.

In the scriptures, He refers to the religious leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel down through the centruies as “the shepherds of Israel.”  These shepherds–the rabbis, pastors, ministers, priests, evangelists, prophets, teachers, and pastors–have not fed the flock of Yahweh with His truth.  In fact, they have hidden the truth about Yahweh’s identity, His name and its significance and meaning, and His plan and purpose in reproducing Himself in this earth in His elect.

Another Gospel

They have substituted “another gospel,” another name, and another false vision that does not agree with the prophets’ and apostles’ vision of Yah in His kingdom glory.

Furthermore, these false shepherds grow rich from His people.  They fleece the people of their money, deceiving them into supporting a system that churns out falsehoods, misconceptions, and myths about the Creator.

Because of all this, Yahweh through the prophet Ezekiel prophesied against these shepherds.  “Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves!  Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?” (34: 2).  He is saying, You profit from my people, but you don’t do anything good for them.  You don’t feed them; you don’t comfort the sick or gather the lost.  “But with force and cruelty have you ruled them” (v. 3-4).

And because of you wicked pastors, my sheep were scattered and “wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill…upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them” (v. 5-6).  No one eaten up by the world system cares about the “lost sheep of the House of Israel,” who Jesus/Yahshua said He was only sent to.  What great importance He placed upon them!  Christ’s Spirit through the apostle James wrote his book to them!  “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”  To the twelve tribes that were already by then, 700 years 0n, scattered “north and west” of Jerusalem.  James’ mind was thinking the same thoughts as his Master Jesus/Yahshua.  He knew that he was sent to the lost sheep.

Should we think that all the other apostles were any less mindful of these “lost sheep of the House of Israel”?  This proves that the above message delivered by the Holy Ghost through His prophet Ezekiel about His sheep and their false shepherds was far-reaching, spanning many centuries, even to the end of our age!

And so the Spirit has a message for the sheep and their false shepherds today.  “O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD (Yahweh)…Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand…”  And the false pastors will stop feeding My people, and they will stop making their living from them.  “For I will deliver my flock from their mouth” (v. 7-10).  Falling into the hands of the living God is a fearful thing!  I would not want the Creator to be angry with me and be against me because I was teaching false doctrines!

God Is Searching for His Lost Sheep

Yahweh goes on to say that “I will search my sheep, and seek them out.”  God will find them where they are scattered all over this world.  He will feed them with truth, seeking out His lost ones.  They are lost, for they know not who they are; they do not know that they are the descendants of the Twelve Tribes of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.  They not only do not know who they are, they do not know that God Almighty is seeking them out.

Yes, He is seeking them out by first placing in them a hunger and a need to know their spiritual roots.  Meanwhile, God is placing in the hearts of true shepherds the true knowledge of His plan and purpose, and they will with the Great Shepherd at the helm teach the lost sheep about Him and His kingdom and how He is regathering and restoring His people to the original prominence they once had with Him.

God will find them where they are scattered all over the earth.  He will heal them and save them, and will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even His servant David (v. 23).  Yes, King David in his new spiritual body will be over us in the kingdom.  Christ is coming back to establish His government of the entire earth.  There will be peace in His kingdom and “showers of blessing” will fall on the land for His people (v. 26).

To be a part of this, we, the sheep of His pasture, must prove all things out that are taught to us.  Question everything and pray for God’s guidance in proving a teaching–whether it is true or false.  We must dig deep, very deep into the spiritual matters if we want to reign with Him at the end of this age.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1.  See Arthur Koestler’s The Thirteeneth Tribe

http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/koestlerindex.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirteenth_Tribe

2.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars