Getting Wisdom through Overcoming Trials of Our Faith

Everyone will agree that we all need the wisdom of God in our lives. “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom…” (Proverbs 4: 7). And wisdom is the fear of Yahweh (Job 28:28). “Fear” here is “reverential awe” in the Hebrew.

The apostle James says, “If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God who gives liberally and upbraids not” (1:5). This comes directly after verse three and four where he speaks of “patience.” We need wisdom, yes. And we need to ask Him for it. But we must be careful what we ask for, for He will send wisdom disguised as trials of your faith. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (1:3). These trials will cause us to go through suffering.

This is extremely important. Those of us called to “go on unto perfection” must realize that there are sufferings needed in our lives for us to grow spiritually “until Christ be formed in [us].”

But here is the rub; very few want to suffer with Christ to reign with Him. Paul said that he suffered “as an evildoer.” But he endured—patience was forming inside his heart—through the sufferings (2 Tim. 2:2). Very few desire the trials. It is counterintuitive. We think, Isn’t God supposed to deliver us from pain and sorrow and suffering? And, Why do good Christian people suffer?

Furthermore, many do not even believe that God works that way. What way is that? Most Christians don’t believe that God will love them enough to chasten them, and yet the Word says that if you endure chastening of the Lord, then God will deal with you as sons (Heb. 12:5-11). Patience is translated “endurance” in several places. If we endure Christ’s correction and chastening, then we will grow. This is part of the experience of adding patience.

“Let patience have her perfect work…” (James 1:4).  Patience/endurance brings forth a maturity in us. Trials and tribulations are painful but necessary for our spiritual growth. We tend to shun the very experiences that will bring about those changes because they are painful. This is why Christians remain children and not fathers of the faith like Paul, Peter, James and John.

Who among us would sincerely pray for patience to be added, knowing that we are asking God for trials of our faith? No child of God would, for a spiritual child wants to just feel good and be happy in the Lord. A “babe in Christ” is mostly alive for what blessings they can receive from God to ease the pain and suffering of earthly existence. When God’s elect receive the light concerning these necessary additions to the faith, they will begin to surrender to this phase of God’s spiritual growth in them.

Finally, because of all this, Paul says, “We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works patience” (Romans 5: 3). We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance [patience]” (Romans 5:3 KJV, ESV).

Enduring the fiery trials produces a jewel called “Wisdom.” If you desire her “and search for her as for hid treasures,” then you will understand “the fear of the LORD.” With wisdom, you will understand “having reverential awe of Yahweh.” To be in awe of Yahweh–that is wisdom. Let us ask Him for wisdom; He will deliver.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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The “Deep Things of God”—Knowledge That Will Change Your Life

We are commanded, “Add to your faith.” The seven additions to the faith are “the deep things of God.” Knowledge is one of those deep things.

Man’s wisdom teaches us that knowledge comes as we get to know God better. But knowledge is not us knowing him or us knowing about him. It’s what he alone knows. It is proprietary knowledge—God being the Proprietor. For knowledge is an attribute of God. Knowledge emanates out of Him–not us. Knowledge is part of his “divine nature.”

And God has hidden His knowledge and wisdom from the eyes of natural man. The disciples inquired of Christ about the hidden knowledge. And He responded, “The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them” (Matt. 13:11 NIV).

Example of Hidden Knowledge

The irony is rich. We were drowning in sin, and we reached for the lifeline. But we found that God’s lifeline does not save our old way of living; it puts it to death. His lifeline is the cross. Being crucified with Christ is God’s way of putting to death our old selfish heart. Then we are buried with Him, and then we are resurrected with Him by believing in Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 6:6-12). This is part of the hidden wisdom. It is a secret that natural man’s wisdom does not comprehend.

By this belief, we receive the Spirit of God into our hearts. Our old sinful life is dead and gone, whether we feel it or not. As we seek Him and grow, the Spirit now within us seeks and searches and shares with us the “deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:6-16).

The knowledge to be added to our faith is an attribute of the Spirit of God. It can only be attained through a gift from God to us; only the Spirit can teach us His knowledge. It is in the heart of God. It is the kind of knowledge that only God has. It’s the knowledge that is of Him and by Him and for Him, to be channeled through us out into the world.

The Spiritual World Contains Secrets and Mysteries

His divine nature is painted in secrets and mysteries, to be meted out to those who seek Him with all their heart. Only God can give his own secrets and mysteries and knowledge to us. Therefore, we must ask Him for wisdom and knowledge. It is His to give. He is the Great Giver of His own secrets of hidden wisdom. And He “has freely given us all things” (Rom. 8:32).

To be in reverential awe of Yahweh is the first step in attaining knowledge. “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). Fearing Him, being in awe of Him—that is the start of knowledge and wisdom. When His omnipotence floods the heart and mind, then we begin to know Him and the power that He wields in His universe.

It Is All God’s Doing

Comprehending all this is having “the mind of Christ.” Paul speaks of “the wisdom of God in a mystery,” a “hidden wisdom.” God ordained it so. He ordered His plan to unfold in the very beginning. He planned it that there would be a wisdom and knowledge hidden from the eyes of the unregenerated ones. And God ordained the hidden wisdom, revealed along the way, as steps toward our glorification. “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory” (1 Cor. 2:7).

He planned everything—all the secrets and mysteries—to bring us into a glorified state. He ordered it; it was part of His plan. Our glorification is His way to reproduce Himself. He does it by sharing Himself. That is what agape Love does. It shares His glory with us. After all, He did say that man is the “glory of God” (I Cor. 11:7).

The Crucifixion—Hidden Knowledge

The crucifixion of Christ is an example of this “hidden wisdom,” which leads to our glory, culminating in us sitting with Him on His throne. The rulers of this world system did not know the “hidden wisdom.” Paul wrote, “We declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:7-8).

This is secret knowledge that is only attained by the Spirit revealing it to us. Natural man cannot give us secret wisdom; only God can give it. Millions of souls all over the earth are “destroyed for lack of  knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).

We are talking about knowing the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). This knowledge is indispensable, for we must know His thoughts before the Spirit will enable us to act according to that knowledge. Knowing comes before doing.

There is only one way for us to know the secret, hidden wisdom, and that is for the Spirit to reveal His knowledge to us (v. 10). Natural man’s eye, ear and heart cannot see, hear, nor feel the secret things and blessings that “God has prepared for them that love him (v. 9).

Once we receive the Spirit, then He will begin to “search all things, yea, the deep things God” in and through us! I repeat. The Spirit of God inside of us will search. The Spirit will be the driving force that leads us in our search for His truth. The hidden wisdom was this: God used hate and evil, that led to murder, to accomplish the crucifixion. It was the very thing that had to take place on the very day of Passover. The Pharisees and the Romans were serving God’s purposes, trying to wipe out the Savior through hateful murder. Their sin took the Savior’s human life but enabled the resurrection to become our lifegiving source of power. We will see that the “deep things of God” help us grow into powerhouses that bear much fruit for the King. Being in awe of Him will lead us into much more hidden knowledge and wisdom.

What Prevents Us from Going Deeper?

Later in chapter 3, Paul explains how he could not go further into the deep things of God with them. He could not teach them the “meat of the word” because they were “carnal” or worldly (3:2). And why were they worldly? Because of their “envying, strife, and divisions.” Think denominations and their thoughts of being the only true church. Christ is not divided. But that is for another time…

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Wisdom—Do We Have It?

If we do not know the secret knowledge held back from most of mankind, then we will not hear nor speak words of that knowledge (Matt. 13:11-17).

If we do not know of the “hidden wisdom” “kept secret from the foundations of the world,” then we will not hear the “word of wisdom,” much less speak the “word of wisdom” (1 Cor. 2:2:7-9). For we cannot properly channel the spiritual gift of Wisdom’s words if we have never been taught them. The very first of the much talked about “gifts of the Spirit” is the “word of wisdom” (1 Cor. 12:8).

Yet, few Christians know what the word “wisdom” means. Few know its scriptural definition. So we consult the concordance, and we find this: “The fear of the LORD, that is wisdom” (Job 28:28). But what does “fear” really mean here? So, we look up “fear” and find that in Hebrew it means “reverential awe.” In other words, “wisdom” is being in reverential awe of Yahweh. You know, the kind of awe of a hundred million galaxies out there, beyond our Milky Way and beyond our wildest imaginations—the kind of awe where you gasp for air, falling onto our knees—it’s that kind of reverence and awe of the One who created it all. That is wisdom.

And it is the foundation upon which the rest of the gifts of the Spirit are laid. “Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom” (Prov. 4:7). It’s the main thing that we need, in order to grow spiritually. But how do we get wisdom? We simply ask Him for it (James 1:5).

And He will give it to us. That means that He has wisdom. Yes, He has reverential awe of Himself. He used it to create the heavens. “To him that by wisdom made the heavens” (Psm. 136:5). The question for us all is this: Do we fear Him today? Do we have wisdom?

 Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Patience, Godliness, and Wisdom—Their Relationship

Our spiritual growth in God does not happen accidentally. We have a part to play. A seedling plant must strive to break free from the clutches of the clods of hardened earth to get to the light.

So it is with God’s offspring, you and I. To grow and to fulfill God’s purpose for each of us, we must first gain knowledge of his plan, and then execute it. He is “bringing many sons [and daughters] unto glory.”

How is he doing this? He has several spiritual programs to accomplish His will. They are laid out in black and white in the Holy Bible. The programs for our growth are hiding in plain sight. But you won’t hear about them in the church houses, even though the early apostles wrote glowingly about their secrets. Their pastors, priests and preachers have closed their eyes and ears to anything new. Yet God’s programs are full of “new creatures, new testament, new hearts, new lives, where all things are become new.”

Some of the Programs

We should not think that once we profess Christ, it is all done. The Apostles’ Doctrine, the title of my 2019 book, expounds on one of God’s programs that shows us how to become like the early church. The apostles walked in the seven teachings that Christ taught them. Their doctrine was Christ’s doctrine/teachings. To be like the early apostles, we need to do what they did; they “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine,” and then power was given to do mighty works in the land.

Another of Christ’s programs to help us grow spiritually is what I am writing now–The Additions to the Faith. We must add, through much study and prayer, certain facets of God’s divine nature to His faith that now resides in us. But we cannot add them if we have no knowledge about these attributes of God.

We have seen that in order to fulfill God’s purpose of fully walking in his divine nature, we need to add to our faith certain attributes of that very divine nature. We see that we are to add patience to temperance. The problem has always been understanding these English words. We are dealing with three words: patience, godliness, and wisdom.

They are all scriptural, taken from the King James Version. All three are difficult to comprehend because of man’s traditional definitions and connotations placed on them. To get a clearer picture of their meaning, we go to the Greek texts.  “Patience” means endurance. “Godliness” means to love and revere God. Wisdom is to fear Him, or to be in reverential awe of Him.

We can all agree that we need more wisdom. “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom…” (Proverbs 4:7). God has made it seemingly simple for us to get wisdom. Just ask Him for it, the apostle James tells us (1:5). But we cannot waver in unbelief (verse 6).

Why would we waver? Those that waver will not get wisdom (verse 7). I always thought that the wavering happened because of our weak faith in not believing at the outset that God would give us wisdom. But now I see that we waver when we don’t understand how overcoming trials produce wisdom. God tests our faith; going through these trials shows us just how awesome our great Creator is. We will see his great love for us in correcting us, getting us ready to sit with him on his throne. We have a lot of changing to do. Trials bring those changes about.

We still are talking about adding patience, and to patience godliness. Many early Christians had, no doubt, complained to James about the trials that they were going through. He gets straight to the point. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (1: 2 NIV). Joy? The heathen are hunting us Christians down like dogs. How do we see this as bringing happiness? At first glance, it is difficult to see, but a profound revelation hides in the shadows of our disbelief.

How Trials Bring Joy

How do trials bring joy? These trials test our faith. This testing of our faith “develops perseverance” (verse 2, NIV). It “works patience.” Trials of the faith develops endurance/patience/perseverance (verse 3). Overcoming trials develops spiritual muscle needed for us to endure all things thrown our way.

When our Father tests, chastens, and corrects us, we tend to not understand just how blessed we are. That is why we are admonished to “let patience have her perfect work.” In other words, we must allow endurance and perseverance do the job of bringing us to spiritual maturity. This is what the additions to the faith is all about: The spiritual maturity of becoming like Christ and his apostles. “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete” (verse 4 NIV).

It is here at verse five that we receive an astounding revelation. The previous four verses show us  how  God gives us wisdom. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God who gives liberally…”

But we must ask, “What does wisdom have to do with patience/endurance? What’s the tie-in?” First, we are admonished to ask for wisdom, not knowing how or from where it comes to us. God then gives us wisdom through orchestrating trials for us to overcome in our lives. These trials, as we have seen, produce endurance/patience. Then, on the other side of the testings and trials, we see that it produces in us a love and reverence for God in all His marvelous ways of creating us in His image. Love and reverence for Him is the very definition of wisdom. “The fear of the LORD, that is wisdom.” “Fear” in the Hebrew means “reverential awe.” Reverential awe of Yahweh, that is wisdom. Wisdom and patience/endurance combine to bring godliness to be added to patience. And the kicker is this: Godliness in the Greek means “a love and reverence for God.”

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Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Walking in the Spirit Comes from Knowledge of God’s Purpose of Reproducing Himself–Being About Our Father’s Business

We are admonished in God’s word to “walk in the Spirit” and to “abide in [Christ]” (Gal. 5: 16, 25; John 15: 4). But in order to get in step with the Spirit, we need to not only know the Spirit’s destination, but also the why and the how of God’s intentions. In order to abide in the Spirit, we need to know what the abiding entails and how to get there.

Simply put, in order for us to walk in the Spirit, we must first know what God is doing and where He is going. “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” (Amos 3: 3). We must agree with Him as to the where and when of His Spirit. He said that we are to have the mind of Christ and to think the way He does (Phil. 2: 5). Christ is doing His Father’s business (Luke 2: 49).

And the Father’s business is God reproducing Himself. This is His purpose, and He has a plan to finish His work.

God has given us many clues as to His purpose. Every living thing in both the vegetable and animal kingdom is striving to reproduce itself. Just look around. It is what it is all about. You striving in your life to find “the one,” that special one to mate with–the drive  has been put in your DNA by your Maker, and it is another clue as to His purpose: God is reproducing Himself, His Love, and His life. And He has the plan to make it happen. And we humans are the spiritual environment in which He is doing this reproducing of Himself.

Only when we understand His purpose and then believe it, will we be able to walk in the Spirit or abide in Him. If we are operating on a different spiritual wavelength in our worship, then we are not staying, remaining, nor abiding in Him and His purpose and His plan to achieve His purpose of reproducing Himself.

People of God, we say that we want a closer walk, a closer relationship with Him! This is our opportunity. Oh, to cease to be Christ’s servants and to become His friends! To hear Him say to us, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his lord does: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” To be His friend! To be given this rare knowledge of what the Father is doing. To have Christ trust us so much that He with His great loving heart would include us in these secrets and mysteries of what the Father’s purpose is! To be trusted as a friend that knows what His Lord is doing! To be a part of His inner circle (John 15: 15).

And don’t tell me that it is not for us. That is a cop out. Two chapters later in that same flow of truth, Christ prayed for you and me: “Neither pray I for these alone [seated around the Last Supper table], but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one…and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them…” (John 17: 20). That’s us, brothers and sisters, if we can believe it.

He has promised us that if we abide in Him, whatever we ask, He will do. If we are walking and abiding with Him then what we ask will further His purpose. Those are the prayers that will get through–those that are asked by us to further His purpose and plan.

When We Have Another Purpose

But if we have an agenda and purpose and plan other than His, then we do not have true worship of the Father, for we will be following our own imaginations as to what will please God. God does not need another church building on another corner. He does not need another minister preaching the same sermons spoken a hundred years ago because those sermons, though they may be sincere, smack of stale incense wafting up into God’s nostrils. Small-hearted prayers for ourselves won’t get through the brass heavens to His ears.

Understanding His Purpose

However, when we do get His purpose and take it to heart and begin to work to help bring it to pass, then our power increases by His Spirit, and we become co-workers with Christ in doing the “Father’s business.”

Christ is all about doing the business of the Father. He is doing His will and finishing His work. The Father’s work? Reproducing Himself.

And what are we to do? We as members of Christ’s body need to be doing what Christ is doing, which is the same work. To do the works of God, we need to believe upon Him whom God has sent, and to finish His work. We are to bear witness to the truth about how God is reproducing Himself through the Seed Son. The works that God will do through us will be a witness that Christ the Seed has resurrected in us. The Seed Son will have germinated in us as we show forth the resurrection power through many signs and wonders done very shortly on this earth.

But it all starts with wisdom and knowledge, which happens to be the main ingredients of the first two “gifts of the Spirit.” Yes, as we get on the right road, God the Spirit begins to give us gifts to help us help Him fulfill His purpose. The first is “the word of wisdom,” and the second is “the word of knowledge” (I Cor. 12: 8).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gay Marriage–A Stench in God’s Nostrils

The Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage fulfills perfectly this passage: “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Man’s secular governments have rejected the King of glory. They say, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” Consequently, they do what they think is right and do not consult God their Creator as to His thoughts on marriage (Judges 21: 25; Lk 19: 14).

Yet, they say that Christ was a great teacher. But they will not obey His teachings. Those in favor of gay marriage are judging the issue from their own vantage point. But mankind’s morality comes from God’s viewpoint.

Christ’s Teaching on Marriage

Christ told the corrupted Pharisees, “Have you not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh?”

You secular progressives out there, have you not read in Genesis where “God created man in His own image…male and female created He them” (Gen. 1: 27). That bears repeating. Man was created by God in God’s own image. God fashioned man as a male-female joining. This is a likeness of God and His wife, Wisdom.

Proverbs admonishes, “My son, hear the instruction of thy Father, and forsake not the law of thy Mother (1: 8). Our spiritual Mother is Wisdom, which is the “fear of Yahweh (the LORD). “Fear” is reverential awe of God. And Yahweh possessed our Mother Wisdom “in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was…I was by Him…and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him” (Prov. 8: 22-30).

This is our spiritual Mother speaking to us.  Wisdom is crying out to us to turn away from the evil and to cleave to that which is good. When we are in reverential awe of the great Creator Father, then we will “hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Prov. 8: 13).

God Created Us in This Image–In the Likeness of Himself and Wisdom

Christ continues His teaching on marriage. God in the beginning made them male and female, which is the likeness of our Father and our Mother, Wisdom. “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh….What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” Mankind was to emulate God’s spiritual relationship with our Mother Wisdom (Mt. 19: 4-6).

God has joined together in His likeness only male and female. Not male and male. Not female and female. This is God’s vantage point. This is how He sees it. He created it this way. Gay marriage is an attack on the very heart of God. That is the reason it is so sinful in God’s eyes.

Woe Unto the Pastors Who Lead the Sheep Astray

Those who support homosexual marriage are wringing the nose of God–especially churchianity’s pastors and priests.  They are burning fetid incense. In Christ’s stead they perform gay weddings, which is totally against Christ’s teachings. And now the secular governments of man give political backing to such a stinking affront.

For all this, I fear that a sword is coming on the land. That sword will be permitted by Yahweh Himself. The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with the two angels visiting Lot. Lot told them, “Do not so wickedly…I have two daughters which have not known man; let me bring them out unto you, and do to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these men do nothing.” The sodomites rushed upon them, and the two angels had to blind them in order to deliver Lot and his family from them. After getting clear of the city, “the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire…” The stench of homosexuality wafted no more, being extinguished by the sulfurous cataclysm that enveloped them (Genesis 19: 1-24).

Judgment is coming upon our nation who has turned away from God, like the children of Israel did in olden times. The things that happened to them are written down to admonish us. When they sinned against Him, He permitted oppression to come upon them.

His judgement may be an economic collapse of the US dollar. Perhaps it will be a war, an asteroid, an earthquake, civil unrest, or all of the above. But this Supreme Court decision is a stench in God’s nostrils. And when He comes to the end of His patience with the evil inclinations of His people, severe judgement will come.

We as a nation and world must repent. But I know that all of us who stand up against this abomination–our words will be rejected, as He foretold. “If they rejected Me, they will reject you.”

Yet, He also said that a remnant will respond and the rest were blinded. We who see, then, must brace ourselves for the rocky days of judgement that shall come. We must examine ourselves and “strengthen the things that remain” to be done.

President Obama has already taken the words “under God” out of the pledge. The gay marriage ruling by the Supreme Court has in effect replaced those words with “against God.”

 

 

The Hidden Wisdom and the Power of God

It is hiding in plain sight, this great mystery that the apostles and prophets wrote about. It is not in man’s old nature to see and understand what it is, for this hidden wisdom of God entails attributes that are completely opposite of the old nature man is born with.

In fact, when old man Adam glimpses the hidden wisdom in operation in a human’s life, it appears as foolishness. But God has chosen the foolish, weak, base, and despised things on this planet to confound the current powers that be–those humans who think that they in their own strength and position rule their own destinies (I Cor. 1: 25-29).

So just what is this wisdom of God that is hidden from men? What is this secret mystery of God that He withholds from carnal man’s eyes? The answer is in that first letter to the church at Corinth that the apostle Paul wrote.  In it he upbraids them for their lack of spirituality, citing many instances of their carnality and lack of the Spirit.

Paul explains early on in the letter that he was not coming to them “with enticing words of man’s wisdom,” but in the Spirit and its power” (2: 4).  They were hung up on following the teachings of a man. Some were saying, “I am of Paul and I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas” (1: 12).  Sounds like, I am of Luther; I am of the Pope; I am of Wesley; I am of Russell; I am of…ad infinitum. Denominationalism was already in full bloom by AD 59. “Only by pride comes contention.” And such contention as seen in the modern day churches comes in believing that they are the only ones who have the truth.

It is this vain glory that causes the divisions and schisms in the church (1: 10-17). Most denominations, distrustful of each other, labor in carnality, thus showing a lack of the wisdom of God.  We all should be “perfectly joined together.” But how? “By having the same mind.” Which mind? “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ,” which was a mind of humility, which is exemplified in the cross.

The Preaching of the Cross

The cross experience is for us to go through, not just observe in another.  Man’s wisdom looks at this as the man Christ dying on the cross for our sins.  But Paul speaks of the hidden wisdom of God as “the preaching of the cross” and what it spiritually represents.

Had the rulers of this world in Christ’s day known of this hidden wisdom of God, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”  Make no mistake of who they were.  They were the offspring of Edom who had converted to Pharisaism and by Christ’s day held most of the top posts in the religious hierarchy of Jerusalem.  They were the chief priests and religious henchmen who conspired on trumped up charges to get rid of Christ.  They goaded the people and the Romans to crucify Him, which is just what God wanted them to do. They thought in their carnal man’s wisdom that they were getting rid of Him, when they were in reality ensuring that “the cross” and the humility of God that it signified in the hearts of all mankind would ring down like joyful bells through the ages.

Of course, if the rulers at Jerusalem knew of this hidden wisdom of humility, they would not have crucified Christ.  For His cross experience put to death our old sinful nature, which was placed upon Him just before He expired on that cross.  Not only our sins died with Him that day, but also our old sinful carnal nature died as well. When He died, our old sinful self died; when He was buried, our old lives were buried with Him.  When He was resurrected, we were also “raised to walk in a newness of life.”  We are free from the bondage of having to sin,” for “he that is dead is freed from sin.” Those who believe this become “new creatures” by faith, and we receive His Spirit within and receive a new heart.

This is the preaching of the cross.  This is the hidden wisdom; this is that special knowledge of God that is hidden from carnal man and definitely hidden from the rulers of this world system, as it was hidden from the rulers of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. This act of humility–giving up our old lives–is the cross experience and is the hidden wisdom put into action in our hearts.  It is the only sacrifice that God is pleased with, for it takes faith.  It takes believing that He has done all this for us.

Those who go through this cross experience receive the resurrection power of the Spirit into their new hearts and their lives begin to change, and through proper nurturing, they will grow up into Him and He in them. But they are the desperate ones to change, and they will love much, for they will know that they have been forgiven much.  In this crucible lies the hidden wisdom and the power of God.     KWH

A Lesson in Wisdom

Who is that one person that you love so much that you would give all your assets and possessions, even your own soul, so that they could live on for ever and never have to taste death, never have to lie there cold and ashen, prepared for burial?

We all have someone, surely, that we would give everything to redeem them from the inevitable decay that awaits them in the belly of the earth.

But we cannot make them live on for ever.  We do not possess the power to save them.  They will die; the graveyards are full of people that someone loved dearly yet could not prevent their demise.

I remember the scene at the graveyard.  Most of the mourners had left.  Hugging the casket of the 20 year old young man was his grandfather, sobbing and moaning, “But I loved him.  My darling boy.  But I loved him!”  And in that instant I knew that he would have given his very own life in exchange for his grandson’s.  But he could not.

We mortal human beings cannot redeem, for any price, someone that we love.  Our riches cannot be brought and given to God as a ransom paid in order to purchase the life of our loved one and thus prevent them from dying.

It is only God Almighty, the Giver of life to our loved one, who will take back that life at a certain time.  We are not in control of life or death.  God is, and He will take our lives back to Himself. And there is nothing we can do to alter this fact.  Rooms full of gold cannot purchase a ticket out of death.

And God has ordained this so, as a lesson for us to learn, a lesson to teach us wisdom and understanding, a lesson for all people in the world, rich and poor and high and low.  The lesson lies in us facing up to this truth: that God is sovereign and in complete control of our scheduled descent into the dusty tomb of the earth.

As we contemplate this, it is God’s hope that we distill drops of sorely needed wisdom, which is the “fear of the LORD (Yahweh).”  Wisdom is being in reverential awe of this God, who is in control, who has given us a short time in these earthly bodies to learn of Him and His love, who will someday soon take the spark of His spirit back, and our fragile shells will fall to the ground, taking nothing with them, no matter how richly arrayed they once were.

Wisdom is being in awe of Him.  And understanding is “to depart from evil.”  He hopes that these thoughts will awaken His people to His saving power, for He is the only power in the universe that can and has trumped death.

And when we realize all this, that He has already paid the price for our resurrection, then this meditation on our weakness and His power over death will have done its job on us.  For the above is the lesson found in Psalm 49.  Read it all again.  It is addressed to you, to all of us.  “Hear this, all peoples; give ear, all inhabitants of the world…my mouth shall speak wisdom.”      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Understanding: To Depart from Evil

Step Five on the Road to Immortality: Repentance from Dead Works

“To depart from evil is understanding.” Job 28:28.   “Knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10

Chapter 26 of the book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality

     So far we have taken some very necessary steps on the road to immortality.  We have discovered that Yahweh-Is-Savior is that Road to Everlasting Life.  We have learned how to be in awe of Him, which is the obtaining of wisdom.  We have learned His true name, His nature, and His eternal purpose and plan.

     But all these steps have amounted to the mere acquisition of knowledge—extremely important, of course, and necessary, but knowledge nonetheless.  In this next step, however, we must do and not just know.  We will learn to put this knowledge into practice.  We now start doing what we know to do.

     Talk is cheap; action is expensive.  “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them,” said the Master.  Conversely, if we gain knowledge of the holy things and do not begin to do them and walk in them, then we will not be happy. …The latter end is worse with them than the beginning.  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. II Peter 2:21.

     Receiving knowledge of the high, sanctified, set-apart things of God is the gaining of understanding.  Now at first this does not make much sense to us because we have man’s definition of what understanding is, much like we had man’s definition of what wisdom was in step one.  When we think of the word “understanding,” we think of comprehending something—the ability of making sense of something. But this is man’s interpretation.  When we begin to attain knowledge of the holy things, the secret things, the things that the Supreme Being reserves only for those who fear Him and are awe of Him—that is understanding!  And this knowledge of the sanctified things, the things that the Almighty has set apart and reserved for only a few—that is understanding and that will bring us into the desire to flee the evil of our ways, to depart from the old life and get into the flow of His new life within us. …The knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10…To depart from evil is understanding. Job 28:28.  Understanding is knowing about His true ways which leads us to depart from evil.

     True knowledge about the Most High’s sacred truths will lead us into doing something about it; it will lead us to fleeing the evil.  But how do we do really ever be rid of the sin in our lives?

YAHWEH IS SAVIOR: THE ROAD TO IMMORTALITY CHAPTER 3

Chapter 3

  How to Receive Wisdom 

But as we saw in James 1:5-7, the obtaining of this awe and reverence and respect is tied to our asking Him for it in faith, in full assurance that He will answer our prayer.

Here we have three extremely important concepts inextricably intertwined: wisdom, faith, and prayer.  Wisdom is the main thing.  And because we all start out lacking it, we need to ask Him for it.  Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.  But we must ask for wisdom in faith, in full assurance in our hearts that God not only hears our request, but also grants our request and gives us awe and respect of him.  That is prayer.  And it is a lovely circle because when He gives us a bit of awe of Him, then that is a direct answer to our prayer of faith, which in turn gives us more awe (wisdom) of Him.  This is a beautiful circle.

James outlines for us in the first chapter some necessary knowledge about wisdom, faith and prayer.  First, he is writing to the 12 tribes which are  scattered  abroad.   He  then  says  that  it  is  a necessary thing that our faith be tried (1:2).  It will be tried by temptations that come.  But we are to look at these temptations as a source of joy because it brings patience into our lives.  Patience is that part of His nature (2 Peter 1:4-7) that helps perfect us. She performs a perfect work, if we let her (v.4). Then in the very next verse the apostle says that if any of us lack wisdom or, in other words, if any of you are not letting patience do the work of perfection in you through a lack of  awe and respect of Him, then, by all means, ask Him for wisdom in faith, and He will give it to you.

In v.14 we learn that every person is tempted when we are drawn away from that guiding awe of the Supreme Being by some desire that we allow ourselves to go after.  And when that lust or desire has conceived it brings forth sin.  There was a seed, a thought, a word of desire of something contrary to the Ten Commandments that conceived, and it brings forth the evil fruit of sin, the breaking of the 10 Commandment law of God.  And death is the final result of sin.

In verse 16:  Don’t err.  Don’t make a mistake in what I’m about to write to you, James is saying to us:  Every good and perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of lights.  We cannot manufacture what it takes to become perfect; we cannot in our own thoughts and work and effort here on earth accomplish the great work that He wants done through each of us who are called with His heavenly calling.  It will come down from heaven through prayer, through fearing and being in awe of such a majestically powerful and loving God.

And then, through moving with fear, we can do the deeds that show that we have the faith and assurance that He is living in us and through us.

We need to get wisdom; it is the principal thing.  Without it we will not get anywhere on the road to immortality.  We must realize that wisdom is to be in awe of the Great One, the One who created billions of galaxies.  We realize our need for wisdom, and then simply ask Him as a little child asks his loving parent.  The child fully expects the mother or dad to give him what he is asking for.  We need to ask our spiritual Father the same way for wisdom.  Father, help me to be in awe of You, You who have created all things in this profound universe.  Help me to realize just how powerful You are and to respect your ways.  Father, will You give me wisdom?