Virtue—Why We Must Add It to Faith

Because “all things are of God,” the very faith that we have now as Christians is not innate. We were not born with a belief in Him and His plan and purpose. It did not come up into our consciousness one day after we heard of the gospel. We received it from Him. We have “obtained like precious faith.” For the Christian life is lived “by the faith of the Son of God” which He has given us. We are now believing what He believes. He calls many, but chooses [elects] a few to fully walk in His faith (2 Cor. 5: 18; 2 Pet. 1: 1; Gal. 2: 20; Mat. 22: 14).

He has promised us through His faith now in us that we can walk with His “divine nature” coursing through our spirit. But we are admonished that we must diligently add to our faith seven aspects of His divine. By adding them we will make our “calling and election sure” (2 Pet. 1: 10). The first one to be added is virtue, or moral goodness.

But why do we need to add this moral goodness? When we first come into God and His ministry on earth, we are like babes. We do not know how to come in (to God’s plan and purpose) or go out (to do His will). We are, nevertheless, elated. We feel great joy and immense gratitude for the way our Father has with open arms welcomed us back into His presence.

By faith we have taken the plunge and have renounced our old life by submitting our selfish lives to the death of the cross with Christ (Rom. 6: 1-12). It is a stepping out there into the unknown, trusting our Father to protect us and sustain us on our new pilgrimage.

As we begin to walk in our new spiritual life with Christ, we experience a lifting of the burden of sin-guiltiness. New freedom flows in and around us. We exult in the liberty as Christ breaks the chains from off of our hearts.

It is here in this spiritual child’s playground that young Christians want to stay. They reason, “Why leave a good thing? I have always just wanted peace and love and joy, and Christ has granted me that. I am happy in this new life.”

And they stay right there. But God wants us to grow. So the joy and the elation begin to wane. And so at Christian gatherings pastors and church leaders try to drum up the spiritual reverb to simulate the initial joy that the “babes in Christ” first felt.

And so what started as God’s deliverance into His new way of living with joy and peace, turns into habit and ritual. Worship services turn into attempts to recapture that first moment of euphoria when they came into Christ. And the new flush of freedom becomes a carte blanche to act on whatever thought comes to mind. But spiritual children cannot discern which thoughts are from God and which are not. They do not “have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5: 14).

Because they have taken the faith of Christ and in the end used it to secure more joy for themselves, they must be admonished to “use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh.” And because the child of God seeks a church house where members are like minded, there is no one to guide them away from the pitfalls of that kind of fellowship. They do not know that this spiritual environment just enables young Christians to stagnate and not grow. Ironically, the flow of the Spirit is blocked.

Some may be wondering, “Well, what else is there? I have given my life to Christ and have walked in the joy and freedom that He provides. So, what more is there? What do we need to do?

Peter gives the answer. We are not to remain spiritual “babes in Christ” forever. We are to grow and become full grown men and women of God like the early apostles. To remain as little children of God always seeking more stimulation in order to receive more joy is not the plan of God for any of us. He wants us all to grow spiritually. He wants us to “make our calling and election sure.” And to do that, we must add to our faith these seven attributes of the Spirit’s divine nature (2 Pet. 1: 3-12).

This is so crucial for our growth unto full maturity. Let me put it another way. If we do not heed what the Spirit is teaching us through Peter, we will remain 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). Little children will be deceived by false teachers, thereby stunting their growth.

So the first step to spiritual maturity is to “add to your faith virtue [moral goodness].”

[Ordering My Free Books in Paperback

I am now able to send you a copy of my books absolutely free with free shipping.  Please specify which one.

Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality explores the deeper meaning of our Savior’s Hebrew name Yahshua, which means Yahweh is the Savior.

The Unveiling of the Sons of God explains how the whole creation is waiting and longing for the manifestation (the unveiling) of the sons of God for these latter days. Christ will be totally formed in His elect as they will have grown and matured spiritually into His likeness and power.

The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It explores God’s vision for us, to be kings with Christ and how He will use us to reproduce His nature of Love.

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Send your request, specifying which one of my books you desire, to my email address:  wayneman5@hotmail.com  Include your name and mailing address. For those outside the United States, or who may prefer a pdf copy of the last two books mentioned, please specify.  Also, you may read the first two books online at my website Immortality Road found here:   https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com

God bless you and your family, and thank you for taking a stroll with me on Immortality Road.]   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Repentance from Sin and Faults–But What’s the Difference?

If we were to outline the apostles’ doctrine “Repentance from dead works,” it would roughly look like this:

I. Repentance from Dead Works

A. Repentance from sin

B. Repentance from faults

We see that this teaching of repentance is divided into two distinct categories that are very different in meaning. Most people do not know the scriptural difference. The denominations have their own definitions. There is much confusion.

Especially when it comes to sin. Some say that shuffling your feet on a sawdust floor is sin. Some say that sipping a glass of wine is a sin. Some say losing your patience and yelling at someone is a sin.

God looks at the intent of the heart and not the outward appearance of things like natural man does. Sin is the state of spiritual being that we are born with. It is based on the love of self and the ego’s unquenchable drive for self-aggrandizement. In essence, sins are the actions one does in the worship of one’s self.  Sin is selfishness incarnate. It is a spiritual state of self-worship and all that it entails. The scriptures say that “Sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3: 4). That “law” is the Ten Commandments.

“Thou shalt not steal” is a pretty plain commandment. One steals from another for selfish reasons. It is not to help the victim of the theft. “Thou shalt not covet.” This is desiring things that another has, including wives or husbands. This is sin. As you go down the list of the Ten Commandments, you see how the worship of the self dominates and thereby breaks every one of them. Self-worship is the root cause of sinning.

Love Fulfills the Ten Commandment Law

The law must be taken as a whole to be understood. Breaking the Ten Commandments is a state of spiritual being alienated from God, who is Love. The state of Love keeps or obeys the law.  The old nature of man wants and takes for himself. The new nature of Love gives to others. “Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13: 9-10). There is no law against loving others. But there are laws on God’s book against selfishness and the sin that comes out of it.

The old original Adamic nature that man is born with cannot keep the law, try as he will. But “love fulfills the law.” God’s Spirit of love does keep the law—inside us! The old nature we are born with cannot obey the law, for its nature is opposite of loving God and others. This is why the old nature must die on the cross with Christ. “The wages of sin is death,” so for the lost person, it is best to just die now (spiritually) and avoid the rush. Death is coming for all who have sinned, for all who have broken the Ten Commandment Law. Christ’s sacrifice as our sin offering has given us an opportunity to let our sinful selfish nature die with Him, be buried with Him, and to be resurrected with Him—by believing God’s word about Him.

The old nature is a sin nature that must die in revelation with Christ. This is how we repent from sin. By faith we receive an earnest of His Spirit in a new life in Him by faith in His resurrection.  God has given us a portion of His Spirit that is sufficient to change our lives from sin to righteousness. It is now that we can begin to grow in this new life He has given us. At this beginning stage we are spiritual newborn babes in Christ. And there are things to digest in the milk of the word given by God’s five offices. We learn how to do certain new things in our new walk, and we learn of old things that need to be gotten rid of.

These are called faults. These actions are not breaking the Ten Commandments; they are not sin. Children of God have them. These shortcomings must be repented of as they are revealed to us—if we desire to grow in God. Many followers of Christ confuse faults with sins. Faults are habits of thoughts and actions generated by a lack of knowledge of God’s plan and purpose. Faults in Christians are things in our lives that show our lack of spiritual maturity. [More on “faults” next time.]  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

****[Be sure to order your free copy of my latest book, The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It explores our rich destiny as the princes and princesses of God. It is free with free shipping. Just send me your mailing address to my email:  wayneman5@hotmail.com   I will get it right out to you. You need this book if you are serious about growing up to be like Peter, John, James, and Paul and the rest of the apostles.]

Knowing Christ as He Was in the Beginning

We now realize that God wants to glorify a certain group of Christians for the last days. They will have grown into full maturity; they will no longer act like little children of God who are mostly alive for what they can receive from the Father. They are His first fruits. They are called the manifested sons of God; they are the ones for these last days that will fulfill the Father’s purpose of reproducing Himself.

They are the over comers in the church ages of Revelation 2 and 3. They will bear 100 fold spiritual fruit. They will rule with Christ in the Kingdom of God upon His return to earth. They are the “kings” in the phrase “King of kings.”

John refers to spiritual Christian growth levels when he writes to “children, young men, and fathers.” These mature Christians are the fathers. And John writes to the fathers “because you have known Him from the beginning” (I John 2: 13-14).

Knowing Christ as He Was in the Beginning

Brethren, if the Father has laid on our hearts to answer this high heavenly calling and election to be His sons, then we need to know Him that is “from the beginning.” In the gospels, we see the Son of God, the Father clothed in human flesh, loving the people, healing them and teaching them.

But to know Christ “from the beginning,” we must know of His actions and deeds in the beginning. We must go back to that primeval epoch, when on the earth everything “was good” in the Garden of Eden. We must see Him during the Exodus, communing with Moses and sitting on the mercy seat in the old tabernacle. We must see Him in the fiery furnace of Babylon with the Hebrew children and in so many other scenes.

When we know of Christ’s literal exploits on earth in OT times, we are one step closer in being what He wants us to be—one step closer in being His friend like Abraham—one step closer in knowing Him that is from the beginning—one step closer in being a spiritual father—one necessary step closer in becoming a vessel God will use to reproduce Himself in. That is what it is all about. We must decrease so that He can increase in us.

And just who was this Holy Entity that appeared and communed with the prophets and patriarchs hundreds of years before the Son would be born in a manger? That Holy One that was from the beginning, that we believe was made flesh and dwelt among us, we call God.

The Hebrew scriptures declare Him to be Yahweh. Over 6,700 times His name Yahweh appears in the Old Testament. He came to this earth many times bodily, taking a personal interest in His eternal purpose and plan in reproducing Love.  This God, this great Spirit of Love, who poured Himself into a human body and laid down that life willingly, has proven by His resurrection that He is worthy of our praise.

The First and the Last

Christ said that He is the first and the last. The Father Yahweh also said that He is the first and the last (Rev. 1: 11; Isaiah 48: 12). This is the great mystery of the Godhead. This is the one that we must get right in order to grow to full maturity. We must get this in order to “know Him that is from the beginning.”

The Son said that He is the first and the last, and the Father said the same thing. They both cannot be the first and the last. A father by definition is first and then the son is last. How do we solve this mystery? The answer is that the Father and the Son are one. The Son said that they were one.   “I and my Father are one.” The Father is the invisible Spirit, who inhabits His body, the Son. It is Yahweh, the Spirit, the Father, speaking through Isaiah, and it is the invisible Father speaking through the Son in Revelation.

God spoke to us through His prophets in times past, but has in these last days spoken to us by His Son (Hebrews 1:1). God spoke to His people through the old prophets with the same Spirit that He spoke to the Israelites through Christ. There is only one God; there is only one Spirit. And God, who is a Spirit, is invisible. Yet, He resides in a spiritual body, His Son.

On the road to Emmaus, Christ after His resurrection appeared unto two men with little faith. They talked to Him, and “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24: 27).  These scriptures are the Old Testament, and Christ says that they speak of Him! This proves that the OT scriptures speak of Yahweh-in-human-form—in other words–Christ.

Christ delivered His people many times in the Old Testament; His mercy endures forever. His love carries the same power to heal in every era of time–past, present, and future. Christ’s deeds give universal comfort to all who just believe His report. When we believe that He is the Word made flesh, and contained the Father Yahweh inside His vessel, when we really see Him as He is—then we have seen the Father. We then will know Him that is from the beginning.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Word of God–Spirit, Life, Light, and Wisdom

When we hear the phrase, “the word of God,” most of us think of the book, the Holy Bible. The  Bible is our precious library of books inspired by the Spirit of God, written down by certain foreordained men of God. That is true. All of us seekers of truth have benefited greatly by the efforts of those who made the Bible happen.

However, the Holy Bible is but a repository of the inspired spiritual words that God spoke originally out of His heart.

The future manifested sons and daughters of God must get back, back, back to the beginning, before the word of God ever appeared on the printed page, back before it was committed as ink stains on fragile scrolls, back even before the word of God was transmitted orally, when Noah told of God’s plan and purpose to Shem, and so on down orally to his offspring like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

For the Word of God is alive; it contains the very thoughts and longings of the Father’s heart. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6: 63). These words were spoken by the Word Himself, who “was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” (John 1: 14). He spoke words comprised of His thoughts; He spoke truth because He is the truth (1: 17). He spoke words explaining His plan for us and all the earth. And these words that He speaks now enter our ears and seep down into our encrusted hearts, and they bring life to the spiritually dead.

For His words are life itself. They are the very breath of everlasting life. They are a spirit that makes us alive unto Him; they are spirit and life for us mortals. And this life is  contained in His words, which are spirit; they are our light. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” And this light now shines on into the darkness of men’s hearts, and they do not comprehend Him, for He is the “true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” He is the Light, for He reveals God’s purpose and plan (John 1: 4-9).

His Words Are Spirit

The words that came out of the mouth of the Son of God are spirit and life. A God given curiosity compels me to ask, How are spoken words spirit? Fair question. Going to the Greek in Strong’s, “spirit” is translated from “pneuma” meaning “wind, breeze, breath.” It is from a root word meaning “to blow, to breathe.”

How are audible words formed? We literally create the spoken word by breathing air over the voice box, thus producing sound through the vibration of our vocal cords. We humans speak all kinds of words this way. But when we speak God’s words, divine words, holy words, His thoughts–then we breathe His Spirit. For His words are spirit and they are life.

We are admonished to speak the word of God, His words. “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Mt. 10: 20). The prophet Ezekiel is told by God several times to speak to the children of Israel, and what comes out of his mouth? The word of God.

The Word of Wisdom

If we study His word with true knowledge, then He will give us words to speak. The very first “gift of the Spirit” happens to be the “word of wisdom” (I Cor. 12: 8). It enables us to speak His thoughts about being in reverential awe of not only His majesty, but of His purpose and plan of reproducing Himself. He will reveal in a word to us  His great heart in sharing Himself with us.

But the time grows short. People sit like orphans in the dark streets of despair, hungering and thirsting for the truth. We must all share the portion of the truth that we have. We must not let His knowledge expire with our last breath in human flesh.

For our appointed time for the death of our old corruptible, decaying, earthly bodies fast approaches. We His children must share what we have while the sands of time still flow through the hourglass. We are channels and not the objects of His blessings. For knowledge of the holy things is the richest blessing our ears can hear.

Wisdom. Ask one thousand people what it is and you will receive one thousand different definitions. Philosophy cannot tell you what wisdom is, for it prattles on vainly about how much it loves (philos) wisdom (sophia), but it has never met her. Imagination cannot tell you, for it only projects images conjured up by the faux genius of earthly man’s mind.

And yet, the word of wisdom is the very first “gift of the Spirit” that God gives us to give to others. But it is not a mystical unction bestowed upon us from on high. We must seek to know what wisdom is–according to what the word of God says it is. Most do not know that wisdom is being in reverential awe of God. I repeat: Wisdom is being in reverential awe of God ( https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/book-yah-is-savior-the-road-to-immortality-chapter-2/ ).

Most professing Christians have one of three thoughts about the gifts of the Spirit. Some just don’t know that they exist. Others say that the “gifts of the Spirit” are not for modern times, thus limiting God’s power through unbelief. Another group are just the opposite; they “catch on fire” for God and immediately clamor for the power to perform miracles and healings.

The reality is that the gifts of the Spirit are real and are being given to His people. But they are given to us “decently and in order.” The first two gifts that God gives us is the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. Without them the new Christian will not grow spiritually. They will be stunted children, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness” (Eph. 4: 14).

We must be rooted and grounded in His word. We must dig deep and put our spiritual house on the Rock. We must seek deeply “that we may be filled with all the fulness of God.” We must see and believe the Word, our Savior, savoring just where His words of glory came from–the Beginning. “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1: 1).   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not of This Earth

The origin of the sons of God transcends any location on earth. They are strangers to earth. Earth is not their home. They are sojourners and pilgrims during their earthbound travels. Their roots go back to the beginning, locked deep down in their Father’s heart. They are not earthlings. They are not of this earth.

For God’s true offspring, life on earth is not really about earthly things. Invisible heavenly things, spiritual things, are driving what is happening for the sons of God while here on earth. But most of God’s sons and daughters do not know their destiny as of now. Their main problem is that they do not know how to walk in the heavenly calling that they are called to. Their problem is that they are thinking from a fleshly, earthly, natural point of view.

Man sees everything this way. He sees it all through the eyes of his own carnal senses. If it cannot be seen with the eyes or heard with the ears, or touched with the fingertips, or tasted with the tongue, or smelled with the nose, then it must not exist! That is natural man’s thinking. But, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for those who love Him.”

Natural minded man does not realize that this earth is not just about earthly things! The truth is that the things that are happening here on earth have been put in motion by things that cannot be seen from earth, nor seen by earthlings. This earth is about heavenly things! This earth is not really about earthly things. This earth is about spiritual things. This earth is about invisible things.

This earth is not about things that can be seen right now by the naked eye, nor with telescopes, for that matter. All earthly things, including man, are only temporary things. There is nothing lasting or enduring about them. Nothing of this earth lasts. Everything based on earthly vistas—what can be experienced by the senses—not only will not last, but cannot endure!

Of course, man proves this everyday, for men, women, boys, girls, and infants die daily. They do not endure. Their bodies daily return to dust from whence they came. And their spirits return to Him that passed them out at the first.

Earthly Things Cannot Fulfill a Spiritual Being

This is the reason that the Preacher said in Ecclesiastes, “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Everything here on earth vexes a spiritual entity’s being. Earthly things cannot fulfil a spiritual being. Man, a spiritual being, created by God to house Him fully, in vain tries to live a fulfilling life by the acquisition of earthly things, when earthly things cannot suffice a human being, a being designed to be the glory of God, who is an invisible Spirit.

Yet, unregenerate man slugs on in the slop of misguided desires and lusts. These passions are for things that will not satisfy nor endure.

The sons and daughters of God realize that they were put here by a Being that is not of this earth. They see that reality is not earth-based. They realize that they cannot see true reality by looking through earthly eyes. Man can only endure by seeing things other than earthly things.

It is a heavenly vision, a heavenly faith, a heavenly destiny, a heavenly plan, a heavenly purpose, a heavenly blueprint, a heavenly design, a heavenly way, a heavenly thought of a heavenly Father, who is above all this on earth and is in us whom He has called.

To think earthly is to be in darkness. He has called us out of darkness into the heavenly light. To be earthly-minded is sure death in the darkness, for what seems to be our earthly life is really only a walking death. Remember when the Savior told them to let the dead bury their dead?

To continue to think in an earthly way is a recipe for death. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires” (Romans 8:5, NIV).

As long as our earthly bodies dictate what we do or say, we walk in death. That hold on our minds by the fleshly desires of our earthly bodies only will pass when we believe that our old carnal heart at its core is crucified with the Savior. When He died, we died. When He rose, we rose. But that is very difficult to believe because we cannot sense it with our five senses. It takes a spiritual sixth sense to see from whence the miracle is derived. It is something that must be believed without seeing the evidence before hand.

To even get out of the old and to get into the new life, we must believe in a spiritual being who does the saving. We have to believe in a Being we cannot see with our earthly eyes. We must believe in someone who is invisible, who is not of this earth, someone who calls us somehow with a calling that is not of this earth, calls us with a heavenly calling, and urges us in mysterious ways to appear to choose His heavenly way against the better judgement of our earthly unbelieving senses—a someone who brings us into a place where we will repudiate all that we see here on earth and count it all as dung that we may win an invisible race for an invisible heavenly spiritual Supreme Being.

An enlightened man takes in this light—light that nothing earthly is as it seems. Everything is tricky here, slippery, treacherous, hypocritical, deceiving. Man is crooked, undependable, self-centered and prideful.

There is a group of human beings who are beginning to realize that this walk here is a spiritual thing and not an earthly thing. They realize that they are in the world but their spirit is not of the earth. They realize that they are really strangers here on earth, that they are not really from the earth, that they are heavenly and spiritual, that they have become blind to the earthly desires and temptations.

They realize that they are looking for their home which is a four square city full of light that has 12 foundations where it never gets dark. That city, the New Jerusalem, is their home, which one day will literally come down out of heaven and set down right here on earth. And they believe this having never seen it with their earthly eyes.

[This is Chapter 8 of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God.  The original trade paperback version was published in 2001, but now I have published it as an e-book.  If you would like to read more, go to the very top of the home page and just click it.  Please share this with anyone who you believe is called with this calling–to be a manifested son of God.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock]

Partakers of the Divine Nature–The Holy Calling to Be the Sons of God

True Christianity is not about a person striving to attain a collection of good deeds and contributions like regularly praying, attending church, paying tithes and offerings, or volunteering time.  The true walk with Christ is not an accumulation of good deeds in hopes of having a better relationship with God.  It is rather a remembering what we already had with Him before our time on earth began.

Our salvation and deliverance from sin and the evil in our old life was given us by God before we were ever born here on earth!

We were called by God to walk with Him on this earth in our earthly bodies before we were ever born here on earth!

Sounds crazy, I know, and you are probably thinking, Wayne, you are going too far now.  Come back to us.  You are drifting up too far into the stratosphere.

But bear with me a minute.  God has called us with a holy calling in accordance with His own plan and purpose, and we were in His plan and purpose and grace before our mothers gave birth to us here on earth!

Some may be asking, Where did you get this idea from?  It’s right there in the Bible–the same one grandma and momma had.  And this is what it says: “God who has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (II Tim. 1: 9) [Compare this to my paraphrasing of it in the above paragraphs].

This “holy calling” to be God’s son or daughter does not come down to us “according to our works.”  We do not attain it because of anything we have done or could do, but because we were already included in His purpose–His plan to favor us that way.  It is called grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ before time began on earth.  Remember what Christ said: “You have been with me from the beginning” (John 15: 27).  The word “beginning” in the Greek is the same one used in John 1: 1: “In the beginning was the Word…” denoting the timelessness of the origin of all things.

We must remember how the LORD (YAHWEH) questioned Job intensely about the creation: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?…Who laid the cornerstone thereof when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38: 4-7).

The “sons of God” rejoicing at the creation of the earth?  Yes.  Isn’t that kind of like before the world came into being?  Yes.  And who are these sons of God?  The word of God says that we are the sons of God!  “Beloved, now are we the sons of God…and when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3: 2).

Also, we know that “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8: 14).  That’s us, brethren!  Things are going to work out great for us that love God.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  For “we are the called according to His purpose.”  He knew us before!  He gave us this destiny before!  This destiny “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8: 28-29).   Hey, I know I’m not the only one getting this right now because it says “many brethren” are going to be just like Him!

And let’s just say it out loud: We who He has “predestinated” to be like Christ–He has called us, “and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified”! (v. 30).

Glorified us!  Notice this is in the past tense.  Already done in God’s way of reckoning and doing things.

Wow!  It is truly difficult sometimes for us to wrap our sometimes doubting little minds around these astounding promises, but there it is.  His words, not mine.  The “exceeding great and precious promises that Peter spoke of.  That we “might be partakers of the divine nature” (II Pet. 1: 4).

And this is all in Christ.  When we believe and trust in Him, then our inheritance manifests itself.  Let us walk on in faith and assurance of these promises, not letting worldly man-thoughts hinder us from achieving what God already has spoken into existence for us.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

Simplifying the Worship of God–Offering the “Calves of Our Lips”

How does God want us to worship Him?  The biblical answer is really very simple, but humans lean to their own understanding and make it extremely complicated. 

They put worshippers in the bondage of certain conditions and offerings and meetings three times a week where you have to come to the ‘house of the Lord’ because no other place will do and money, money, money and pilgrimages and forced prayer times and hocus pocus rituals and incense and holy water and fastings and observances and physical sprinklings and beads and prayercloths and sundayschool and bar mitzvahs and idols and images that ooze and gotta-read the Bible everyday and giving our children to be brainwashed into another manmade religion  and, and…

Is that what God wants us to do to worship Him?  To blindly follow what others have imagined that we should do?

God does not need us to give Him or His “ministry” money; He owns the whole earth and everything in it.  The only thing that He does not have is our grateful heart.  And that is all He wants.  He wants us to just sincerely thank Him and praise Him for all that He has done for us.

Why do we not thank Him?  It is because we do not believe that He has delivered us and saved us from a disastrous and futile existence.  He has already done this; all we must do is believe it.  He has delivered us from sin and from sinning.  All we need do is walk in His grace and mercy.  Those who do this will thank Him, for they know what a deep pit they have been lifted out of.  And they are thankful to Him for His love to them.

And so they continue to call upon Him in “the day of trouble,” and He delivers them, and they thank Him, and in so doing, together they create a circle of glorification of God.  God is glorified through us thanking Him (Psalm 50: 15).

We are admonished to “offer unto God thanksgiving” (v. 14) and to “offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually..the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13: 15).

The thanksgiving and praise we give to God are the sacrifices we give to Him now in this present age.  Our offerings should not be money but thanks and praise.  We now should offer “the calves of our lips” instead of the animal sacrifices under the old testament (Hosea 14: 2).

We simply thank Him now, sincerely from a broken and contrite heart.”  And He hears us and has compassion on us and is near to us.  This is worshipping Him in Spirit and in truth.  KWH

Life Out of Death–The Ultimate Paradox

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

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

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

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

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

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

What we are doing here

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

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

Dying with Him does not make sense to the world

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

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

But how?

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

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

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

Abraham, Father of MANY NATIONS–But Which Nations Are They?

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The Lost Tribes of Israel have to be in the earth today.  They are only lost to those who do not have an ear to hear and an eye to see.

Scholars say that after being taken into captivity around 720 B.C., they were totally dispersed and never heard from again.  They say that they melted into all of the other peoples of the earth and that they no longer exists as the direct descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (whose name was changed by God to Israel).

That simply cannot be true, for many prophecies in scripture say that these descendants of Abraham would become nations.  And not just any old run of the mill nations either.  For Abraham was told by God, face to face, “Thou shalt be a father of many nations”  (1).

But Abraham had just one little problem; his wife was barren and he had no heir to fulfill this prophecy.  And he was running out of time, for he was about 100 years old, and his wife Sarai was 90 and well into menopause.   It was difficult to believe, but “he believed the LORD (Yahweh); and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness (2)

From then on, God looked on Abraham as His righteous son.  Here is the first seed lesson of what God’s faith can do–just believe God–the thing hardest for man to do.  And in that same passage God gave him and his offspring all the land from the Nile in Egypt to the Euphrates.

Now, he just had to get this family started.  Still no first born son…until that day when God yet appeared to Abram again.  This time God made a covenant with Abram.  In fact God changed his name to Abraham, “for a father of many nations have I made thee.”  Many nations.   And I will be your God and “establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant,” or agreement (3).

And it was then that God blessed Sarai and changed her name to Sarah, meaning “princess,” and told her that He would give her a son “of her,” and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.”

And their miracle son that God promised them came a year later as spoken.  And they named him Isaac.   And this great promise of nations and kings was renewed by God to Isaac.  And then Isaac blessed his son Jacob with these words: “And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land…which God gave unto Abraham” (4).

Later God appeared to Jacob to renew His covenant of nations with him.  “And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins”.

Who are these “many nations”?  “Declare if thou hast understanding.”  In the seed book of Genesis, prophecies spoken by God to Abraham declare that he will be the father of many nations.  Can we discover who these nations are?  Did not Christ say, “Seek and ye shall find”?  Can we read the other prophecies about these nations that developed out of the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel and come to the knowledge of just who these nations are in history?

Scripture cannot be broken, for God cannot lie.  He spoke of many nations out of Abraham.  This could not be the Jewish Israeli state, for it is only one nation, and the Jews have not been a nation since 70 A. D.  But it was “nations.”  Christ spoke of the “Lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  They are so important that He said He was only sent to them (6).  We must find out, for they are the key that unlocks the prophetic utterances for these last days.  KWH…to be continued

1. Genesis 17: 4

2.  Gen. 15: 6

3.  Gen. 17: 7

4.  Gen 28:3-4

5.  Gen 35: 11].

6.  Matt. 16: 24

A Childlike Faith in God Is What We Need

This world and the people of this world are sick.  The malady comes from a steady diet of doubt.  Almost all of the systems of man–the media, politics, education, and even religious denominations–almost all are starving God’s people and feeding them the poisonous pablum of lies.  And the major lie is that either there is no God or, if there is, He is untrustworthy and His word is no good.

It is getting so bad that people are afraid to speak of God; it is not politically correct to believe in the Savior.  The atheists, marxists, maoists, and communists have done a job on the American people–so much so that people are reluctant to even demonstrate for our great republic founded on Christian principles.  No matter what Pres. Obama says, America is a Christian nation, but we have lost our way.  

But some are finding the way.  In the midst of all of this immoral morass, God is still in control.  He has a plan, and it does not matter to Him just how dark the sky seems to us, He will bring His plan to pass.  He will raise up a few good men and women who will believe Him and His promises found in the Holy Bible.  Christ is coming back to earth soon.  He is searching for those with “like precious faith.”  He is looking for those who believe Him and take Him at His word.  “When the Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18: 8).  I believe He will. 

A Childlike Faith

He said to let the little chidren come to Him for the Kingdom of God belongs to them (Matt. 19: 14).  Why to them and those like them?  Because they don’t doubt.  They believe.  It seems that the older we get, the more doubts enter into our hearts.  But the little child believes.  Ralph Waldo Emerson knew this and believed that we adults could go back to a childlike state to see the world through a prism of belief or faith.

For God is calling out His future sons and daughters right now.  They will be His future rulers with Him in the world government that He will set up right here on earth.  And the very quality that we need in order to fulfill this calling is a childlike faith.

I was talking to my two grandsons, Cody and Austin, 12 and 10, the other day.  They had been playing a “Civilization” video game and asked me, “What are ages?”   I explained that they are major chunks of time marked by a certain characteristic of that era of time.  Now we are in the Information Age.  We have just left the Industrial Age, which started back in the 1800’s.

“Well, what does A.D. mean?”

“It is an abreviation of the Latin Anno Domini, which means year of our Lord, or since Christ was born.  Isn’t it amazing, guys, how man’s dates are reckoned by Christ’s life here on earth?  He was so great that everyone acknowledges Him when they give a date.”

I looked at my two grandsons.  Not one doubt clouded their shining faces.  Their childlike faith readily believed that Christ was so important to mankind that man would include Him in every date in their history.  No doubts fogged their thinking–just clear belief, unfettered by negatives, unhindered by man’s puny fears and foibles.

And then I smiled and realized that God has the last laugh.  Always has, always will.   Every atheist, marxist, and maoist that picks up a newspaper today will be faced with this year of our Lord, 2009 A.D.       Kenneth Wayne Hancock