ted4leaders

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

What are strengths of leadership? Leaders are not to be strong in themselves. They are to be strong in the Lord. They are strong in His word—His character, nature, and way. They are strong in His Spirit—His power and authority. For this reason, they are vulnerable before God. They are dependent upon Him. They eagerly respond to Him. They set an example in being transformed by Him. God is love and the fruit of these qualities is to bear the fruit of love to others in our world. Leaders set an example in loving God and people. They inspire and lead others into the testimony of love in all times and through all things. Their endurance is not a disciple of the flesh. It is a testimony credited to their passion for God’s will and way of love in every season of their lives.

God is not a master who seeks to control us. He is a master in love and life, and He will always empower us in love and life for the truth of every day. Our way is not hidden from God and He is always faithful in every season of our lives. When we are vulnerable before Him, we are open and willing to be transformed by Him in our way. When we are weak, He is strong. When He is strong in our lives we become testimonies of His great love. We depend upon God to become like Him—givers of love and life to our world. The most important thing for a leader to have is the presence of God in their lives. This is not His presence for power, but His presence for powerful love. Leaders lead others into the testimony of God’s love.

Isaiah 40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my just claim is passed over by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, 31 but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

To wait upon the Lord is not a season of emptiness, waiting for Him to do something. To wait upon the Lord is to bind ourselves together with Him. Our expectation is one of knowing His presence in our lives each and every day.  The Hebrew word for wait in this Scripture is the HSRN 6960. קָוָה qâwâ; a primitive root; to bind together (perhaps by twisting), i.e. collect; (figuratively) to expect. When we bind ourselves together with our Creator, we experience the creative power of His life to give us the power and strength we need for today. We become expectant of His love, His direction, and His purpose in our lives.

When we wait upon the Lord, we are vulnerable before Him, we are dependent upon Him, and we willingly respond to Him at all times. We trust the wind of His presence. We ride the currents of His Spirit as we partner with Him each day. We learn the mystery of the eagle. We dance with God’s Spirit and trust the wind of His presence to guide us in all things.  

Like the eagle, we find the strength in our wings to ride the winds of our day. Our wings are the power of His word and the power of His Spirit. Through these we can be above and not beneath. We find the realities of heaven as we overcome every earthly storm. We grow in the strength of God’s word when we abide in His word. We grow in the strength of His Spirit when we abide in His Spirit. When we partner with God and when we invite Him to partner with us, we find our identity, testimony, and purpose in Him in the season of today. Our ways are never hidden from Him, and nothing can separate us from His love. We will find His way in our way when we wait upon Him.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

As leaders, the effectiveness of our leadership is directing connected to our connections in relationship in Christ. Leaders are connected to an expression of the body of Christ. They lead in the testimony of Christ, not some human expression of themselves. This is manifested in life-giving communities of believers that express the life and love of Christ in natural and supernatural ways. Leaders are an expression of that body.

If we are not connected to something living, we cannot give living words that join people to community expressions of life. We must be planted in relationship to produce the fruit of relationship. We must be a part of love to be expressions of love to and in our world.

Psalms 92:13 Those who are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing.

Our ability to flourish is directly connected to our planting in the house of the Lord. When we are planted in the dwelling place of God’s presence, we know the life that God freely gives. We know the love that He gives. When we are planted in life, we can bring life to the surrounding courts. We will bring life to the places that God sends us.

When we read about the church in the New Testament, none of the New Testament letters existed for the first twenty to thirty years of the church. There were no buildings or structures called the church for two hundred to two hundred and twenty years. The believers gathered in homes and various places, but they gathered together as the family of God. They gathered together as the dwelling place of God’s Spirit. They were people joined together to know the presence, testimony, and purpose of God in them for their world. They were a governmental influence of life to the world around them.

So, when Scripture refers to the church, it’s not referring to something that is locational. It is referring to something that is relational. It is not referring to a structure or system by which we agree upon common information. It is referring to a living body by which we become life-giving expressions of God for His will to be done and His kingdom to come in an increasing way to our world. When we study the Scriptures as leaders, we must keep this in mind.

We are called to help those we lead to live in an intimate relationship with God and a relational connection with others. For this to happen, we must be connected in relationship ourselves. Our first relationship is with God, and our second relationship is with the body of Christ. It’s all for love that we do anything! It is not for the power of ministry! It is for the testimony of powerful love!

We must be planted to plant others. Unless there is a spiritual letter that is joined to us, we don’t have credentials to speak. The testimony of the church, believers joined together in relationship for God for His will and purpose, is the fruit of our leadership. That fruit is life-giving.

2 Corinthians 3:1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? 2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

Human lives are the testimony of a spiritual letter written by Holy Spirit. It is written in the heart of leaders first. We lead people in a direction determined by Holy Spirit. We don’t seek the will of leadership. We seek the will of God in all things. It is for the will of God that we speak.  It’s not for the will of a Christian belief system that we lead. We believe Christ and lead others into that reality of believing Him. When we believe Christ, we join ourselves to Him. When we join ourselves to Him, we become an expression of Him. We cannot just say we are joined to Christ by being joined to Jesus as our head. We must also be joined Christ in His body. It is for this that we lead.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of: www.ted4leaders.com www.ted4you.com or www.houseofbreadministry.org. Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to: House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225 To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year. Our Ministry Information Is: House of Bread Ministry 3210 Meridian St. Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Our experiences with the presence of Jesus, change us. He is the word by which we are changed. Our experiences with Him as a life-giving Spirit cause us to be life-giving to our world. In the Scriptures, bread is a symbol of the food of our lives. The true food of our lives is found in God’s expressions to us. We don’t live on physical bread alone, but upon every word (every expression) that comes from the mouth of God. What we receive from God becomes the substance of life that we give to our world.

Luke 11:5 And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? 8 I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.”

In this story, there is a man who needed bread. He needed three loaves of bread. Now, in scripture, three is a symbolic number of God. Bread is a testimony of the word, the expression of God. Each of us needs the bread that comes from God to be strong as an expression of God to others in our world. We need the word of God to be strong as an expression of the word of God. We need the expressions of God to us to become expressions of God to our world. We need the Spirit of God to have the testimony of God. When we are strong in God’s word and strong in His Spirit, we can overcome every wicked thing (1 Jn. 2:14).

It is a wicked thing to become self-seeking in life. We are to be sons and daughters of God who live for the wellbeing of others. For this, we need to be strong as expressions of His word, and strong in His Spirit. That’s not just a religious theology. We depend upon God expressing something to us that makes us expressions of God to our world.

Leaders are strong as expressions of God, and they lead others in this same path.  When we are not strong in Christ, we will bow our knees to other expressions. We must be an expression of love, or we’ll bow our knees to hate. We must be an expression of forgiveness, or we’ll bow our knees to unforgiveness, and we’ll become unforgiving. We must be strong in God’s word. That’s not scripture memory. That’s a testimony of what the scripture talks about. It isn’t us memorizing what’s written in the book. It’s us becoming a life-giving book that can be read by others.

Now in the story, in Luke chapter 11, there was a man who needed God bread for he had a friend coming to his house and he didn’t have the bread that his friend needed. He didn’t have the life that comes from God. That’s why he needed God bread. We need God bread! Why do we need God bread? Because in our lives, there are some friends that are going to come to our house. They may be people that we thought were enemies, but they’re actually friends. They’re coming and they’re looking for God bread. They don’t have God bread, and there is God bread in our house. So they’re going to knock on our door. They’re probably knocking already.

They’re knocking on our door, and we might be asleep because we don’t know who you are.

We need times of experiencing the expressions of God that transform us so that we can be awake and know who you are. People are knocking on our door saying; Wake up! I need some God bread. I have people coming to my house. I have people coming to me. I don’t have what they need. I was born to give life to my world, and I can’t give life to my world. Hey, I need what you have. I need what you have, son of God. I need what you have, daughter of God. Son or daughter of destiny, I need what you have.

We must be strong in our experiences with God so that we can lead others into experiences with Him also. This is a testimony of true leadership.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am presenting a segment of my new book, Secrets to Understanding God’s Word. I have just published it in audio -book and recently published it in E-book and Print on Amazon.

Scripture is not meant to be our specific guidance, but Holy Spirit can use it to give us specific guidance. It’s the voice of Holy Spirit in our lives that gives us that guidance.

2 Peter 3:14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

Peter wrote that believers were to look forward to all that God was bringing into their lives in a new way and that they were to be diligent to be found by the Lord in peace, without spot, and blameless. In other words, they were to continue in a relationship with God concerning the promises He was giving them. Even as the Lord demonstrated His longsuffering, the fruit of their suffering would be increasing measures of His salvation. The God-inspired wisdom of Peter was like the instructions of the apostle Paul, according to the wisdom given to him for believers.

2 Peter 3:16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

Peter explained that some of Paul’s letters contain things that are hard to understand. If you try to make Paul’s letters easy to understand, remember—they are not supposed to be easy; they are hard to understand. If you try to interpret Peter’s letter concerning a new heaven and a new earth solely by your own natural understanding, you will miss the point. Peter was telling them that what he was discussing was a mystery hidden in God. What he was writing about was not going to be easy to grasp. He wasn’t saying that it could not be understood; he was saying that some things are foundationally important and require a revelation from Holy Spirit to understand their true, life-giving meaning.

Just like Paul’s letters, they’re not easy to understand, and people who are untaught and unstable twist these things to their own destruction, as they do with the rest of the Scriptures. So, we can say that the rest of the Scriptures also include many things that are not easy to understand. God didn’t inspire Scripture to be written so that it would be easy to understand; He inspired Scripture to be written in a way that would inspire our connection to Holy Spirit, because Holy Spirit is our teacher, and only Holy Spirit can give us understanding that is true to the heart of God.

If we want Scripture to make sense to our logical mind, then we’re not going to be men or women of faith and intimacy with God. We’re going to miss the point. We will be vulnerable to twisting the things that are not easy to understand to our own destruction because we are unstable or untaught in some way.

We are unstable if we are not firm in our relationship with God, with others, or with ourselves. Our understanding is hindered if we are insecure in some way. If we have insecurity about our own identity, insecurity about others and their relationship within the family of God, or insecurity in our connection with God, we will be hindered in hearing Holy Spirit and understanding the hidden truth in God’s word.

If we have made judgments about God, we will have difficulty hearing and understanding what He says. If we harbor bitterness in our hearts toward people, the body of Christ, humanity in general, or toward God, we are going to twist Scripture in some way. We become vulnerable to misinterpreting Scripture—seeing something that is not there—and we twist it to our own destruction. Scripture is not given for destruction; it is given for life. Any interpretation that leaves us in destruction is a misunderstanding of the full statement of that Scripture.

When Scripture becomes destructive to you or when Scripture becomes destructive to others, it misses the redemptive end. All Scripture is redemptive in its ending. All words from God are redemptive in their ending. His direction always ends in day. His instructions always lead to light. His guidance always leads to life. So, if you’re reading Scripture and it condemns you, you’re reading it wrong. It can convict you, but the end will be life. If you’re reading Scripture and interpreting it in a way that allows you to condemn others or judge others in a destructive way, you’re reading it wrong. You’re twisting Scripture because you’re unstable in your relationship with God or people in some way.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

The written letters of the New Testament did not exist for some time at the launching of the New Testament church. The New Testament church as a whole had been functioning for around twenty years before any Scriptures of the New Testament were written. During that time, there was no structure known as the church. The church was understood to be a body of believers who were ambassadors of Christ as the corporate dwelling place of Holy Spirit–a dwelling place of God in bodily form.

The early church had been keeping in the apostle’s doctrine for at least 20 years with no written New Testament Scriptures. Keeping in the apostle’s doctrine was not about obeying the written letters of the apostles. It was about keeping in the way of life of the apostles. It was about living with the testimony of the laying on of hands. Even as the word apostle means “sent one”, the New Testament believers were sent ones of God’s authority to bring life to their world. To keep in the “sent ones” way of life (doctrine), was to be sent ones of life to others. It was about living as sons and daughters of God who gave life to their world through the testimonies of God’s supernatural love.  

When the New Testament Scriptures referred to the church, they were never talking about a physical structure or building known as a church. Church buildings didn’t exist until the third and fourth century. It was about being a body of believers who lived to love God and to love one another as a testimony of the dwelling place of God by His Spirit. When we read the New Testament Scriptures, we must keep that in mind to properly understand what the written letters regarding the church were and are about. I believe we should remove all the added subject titles in our Scriptures to position our hearts and minds to allow God to teach us what the letters really address. One such case is the fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. Paul’s first letter to the church of Corinthians was written around A.D. 55 or slightly earlier.

Paul’s letter to the church of Corinth was not about what you can or cannot do in a church meeting. It was about functioning as a dwelling place of God’s Spirit. It was about living in a relationship with God and with one another. It was not just about loving God, but also about loving one another in a supernatural way. It wasn’t about proper protocol for ministry in a meeting. It was about proper function of love to be sons and daughters of God and family members with one another, seven days per week.

1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 2 For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. 3 But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. 4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.

Paul was encouraging the believes in Corinth to speak to God first and most, but to then also seek to be givers of life to one another with words inspired by Holy Spirit. Paul was encouraging them to allow the mysteries of God to lead their path in life. Edification from God would empower them to be life-sources to one another in their everyday world. Prophecy was not meant to be some religious form of ministry by which one is made important. It was simply allowing God to speak so that life would happen! God speaking to their spirit would make them come alive from within and God speaking through them to one another would inspire life to happen in someone else.

1 Corinthians 14:18 I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all; 19 yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

The word for “in” in verse 19 is the GSRN 1722. ἐν en; a primary preposition denoting (fixed) position (in place, time or state), and (by implication) instrumentality (medially or constructively), i.e. a relation of rest (intermediate between GSRN 1519—to or into and GSRN 1537—from or out). When Paul wrote this letter there was not a building known as the church. So, in the church is not about being in a building or merely a place of gathering. It is being the place of the church. It is about being in relationship with others as the dwelling place of God by His Spirit. This is a relational word, and it can be translated as in, or towards one another as a matter of relationship to be the church. God wants us all to be connected to Him first, but then to also be towards one another to give love and life in supernatural ways.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

As leaders in Christ, we guide the body of Christ to know the life and peace found in Him, even in the midst of every circumstance we may be facing in our lives today. God is good, and He is our Father. He will not withhold any good thing from us as His children, and He knows what is good—better than we do. No weapon can succeed against us, for nothing can separate us from His love. We need not be shaken by anything that can be shaken in the circumstances of our lives shakes.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

The good in our lives is for the purpose of God in all things. We are not called to live for our purpose but for the purpose of God. We find our identity, testimony, and purpose in Christ. When we set our focus on God, we can know that every aspect of who we are in this world and in that which is to come will reveal a testimony of God’s love that will resonate into the inheritance of all that we are for His glory.

Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We face many things in this world in our journey of eternity but all that we face can only reveal the love of God in supernatural and amazing ways. Things are not as the appear in the aspects of creation. Things are only as the can be and will be from the heart of our Creator. God is our Father and we can trust Him in all things. As leaders, we lead others in trusting God in every circumstance of life.

This is a prophecy that I gave on April 12^th, 2026:

For God says, It’s My great joy to partner with you in all things. It’s My great joy for you to partner with Me in all things. For I am the triumph. I am the victory. But not just in times that are a shout. But in times of quietness. In times of resistance. In all times. For it’s My joy for you to know Me in the deepest place.

The joy of the Lord is your strength, and My joy is to partner with you. My joy is for you to partner with Me. For it’s not just in the celebration. It’s in the victory. It’s in the triumph. For I have defeated all things. I have defeated separation. I’ve defeated isolation. I’ve defeated every feeling, every condition of oppression. I’ve defeated death. For I have brought the victory of My presence, and I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I will never abandon you. Nothing can separate you from Me. Nothing can separate you from My love. For My joy is your strength, and My joy is to partner with you and for you to partner with Me in all things. For My purpose is your purpose, and Your purpose is found in Me.

Let this be the day of My triumph. The day of My Spirit, the day of My presence, the day of My victory. For I am sounding forth the sound of life in all things. For My joy is to partner with you in all things.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

This is an exert from my book, Authority – Control? or Release!; Chapter 9.

Authority is a process. Within that process there is a birthright, training, and a testimony of becoming the substance of a specific measure of authority. Authority doesn’t come merely from birthright. There must be a receiving of that birthright and then a training process to become what that birthright proclaims one to be. Authority requires an appointment from God and that appointment comes in the timing of God. There is an age of authority. It is not a set age in the natural, but it is a moment of appointment for authority. Authority requires a time of appointment. There is an anointing in authority, but that anointing is only proven to be legitimate when there is a God-ordained appointment for that anointing to function for the purpose of that appointment. I believe that authority is a measure of inheritance from God. That inheritance is given to bring life to the world. When Jesus was thirty years old He received the first measure of His authority for His heavenly inheritance as Lord and Christ.

Matthew 3:17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus proved that His inheritance was not just natural, but also Spirit. After He received His appointment of authority the Spirit led Him into the wilderness. It was there that He manifested the full authority to defeat the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride life for mankind. He defeated the power of the devil by walking in the authority of the Spirit. He opened the door of the kingdom of God for the spirits, the souls, and the bodies of all humanity. Jesus could only defeat the devil because of birthright and years of training. He re-established the truth that man lives, moves, and has their being in God. He was a living testimony of a man who loved God with all His heart (spirit), soul, and life (body). He was a walking demonstration of authority that comes by faith. As a man, Jesus lived by faith, walked by faith, and His full being in God was made known to others by His faith. He could walk in the kingdom business of His heavenly Father because He had become a testimony of a manifested Son. Let’s look at His first temptation.

Matthew 4:1-4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

I don’t believe that Jesus was quoting Scripture to the devil. He wasn’t quoting Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy was quoting Him. Jesus said that the Scriptures were a testimony of Him (Jn. 5:39). The Old Covenant was a shadow of that which was to come (Heb. 10:1); it was not a testimony to be copied to bring to pass that which was to come. Jesus was a living testimony that the word was written in His heart and in His mind. The devil thought He was quoting a book, but Jesus was simply confessing the testimony that was within Him that gave Him discernment as to the voice of God. He knew that the voice promising bread was not the voice of His heavenly Father. The devil probably didn’t announce who he was. He is a deceiver, and his voice was no doubt a deceiving voice of temptation to Jesus. Jesus discerned that the Spirit of the words spoken were not the substance of His Father’s voice. Jesus was walking in His God-given authority as the Son of Man. The devil challenged the identity of Jesus by using words like, ‘if you are the Son of God’. Jesus had no question in who He was. He knew He was His Father’s son, and that God was pleased with Him.

Jesus had come through the process of training to become what He was in the authority of life. He had the sound of God in His character, nature, way, power, and authority. The sound of God had come into Jesus’s name through a process of training. It wasn’t just an anointing given to Him at the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of John.

What was the process that brought Jesus to this place of authority? Was Jesus ever chastised? We tend to think of chastisement as a punishment for being wrong. We do this because we filter things through a paradigm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Chastisement is not a punishment; it is a part of our training process in life. Jesus learned things like patience, endurance, long suffering, mercy, and grace. All of those things are testimonies made manifest through chastising events. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. In the flesh He was chastised because of the sin of man. In the Spirit He was chastised by the Father of Spirits that He would have life. Chastisement is an expression of love. It is in the disciplines of life that we manifest who we really are. It is pressure that reveals a diamond and irritation that reveals a pearl.

Hebrews 12:3-14

Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered. Do you suppose He ever hit His hand with a hammer in the carpenter shop? Do you think He may have been misunderstood and wrongly disciplined by His natural father Joseph? He knew how to be led by the voice of His heavenly Father even in everyday life. He knew that it was the instruction of the Spirit that strengthens hands and the word of God that strengthens knees (Job. 4:3, 4). He knew how to walk in a practical world in a spiritual reality. This is how He could defeat the devil in life.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

As leaders we lead people to become expressions of God. We lead them to become testimonies of the work of Holy Spirit in their lives. We don’t lead them to be obedient to the written word of God. We lead them to be obedient to the faith, and thus they become expressions of God. They become expressions of the principles, patterns, and values that are found in the written word of God. They are a letter written by the Spirit, not merely people trying to mimic some form of obedience to the law.

2 Corinthians 3:2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

The Scripture is not our teacher; Holy Spirit is our teacher. This is probably one of the most important things when it comes to understanding God’s word and receiving a revelation of the secrets hidden in it. This is a great principle: Scripture is not our teacher; Holy Spirit is! Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You search the Scriptures thinking that in them is salvation. But let me tell you the truth. The Scriptures, they testify of Me” (Jn. 5:39).

In the Scriptures, when you’re reading about people and you encounter pronouns such as them, they, him, her, you, he, she, or any pronoun, it is a reference to someone at that time. Any pronoun or noun from that time that refers to a human is not you or me.

There is no place in Scripture where it says, “And I say to you,” and the term “you” refers specifically to you or me. Now, Holy Spirit can speak that Scripture to you right now, and in that moment, the term “you” is you. But when you’re reading Scripture concerning something Holy Spirit wants to say to you, what you’re reading first applies to someone at the time the Scripture was inspired. It might even be the exact same words that God is choosing to use with you right now, but only because it is true to the principle, pattern, or value of the voice of God. God can use Scripture to speak to you, but there is no Scripture in the Bible where the pronoun in the text is directly referring to you or me.

Pronouns in Scripture are relevant to the people present at the time of each story. So, when you read about Jesus speaking to a crowd, the noun refers to the crowd of that day. When He is talking to His disciples, the people He is addressing are His disciples.

When we’re talking about application of Scripture, Scripture is always applied by principle, pattern, and value. It isn’t applied by fact. So, there’s no place in the 66 books of the Bible where the literal verse is talking to you or to me. There’s no place—not even the book of Revelation is talking to you or me—but it has principles, patterns, and values that apply to you and me.

As leaders, we don’t lead people to live their lives in obedience to the Bible or in fear of warnings they find in the written word of God. We lead them to know God personally in their hearts. The Scriptures are essential to our learning, but only because they are a witness to the voice of Holy Spirit in our lives today.

2 Corinthians 3:16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

We are being changed from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord within. Leaders set an example for others to follow, and leaders inspire those they lead to know the work of Holy Spirit within their own hearts.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of: www.ted4leaders.com www.ted4you.com or www.houseofbreadministry.org. Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to: House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225 To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year. Our Ministry Information Is: House of Bread Ministry 3210 Meridian St. Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Love inspires true hope and hope inspires faith. What is a proper perspective in finding our hope? Our hope cannot merely be in the things that God does or the promises that He makes to us. Our hope cannot be in beginnings and endings, since we don’t always know which we need in our lives. Our hope must be in the One who gives beginnings and endings. He is the one who really knows what we need?

Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “ who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

When we put our hope in God our hearts are clear to hear what He says to our hearts. When we lay down our preconceived ideas as to what He should do in our lives and we simply trust who He is in our lives, we hear Him clearly. When we hear Him in our hearts, we become inspired in our actions. Our actions become those of faith. Our worlds are changed through a partnership with His voice in our hearts that inspires the actions of our lives. This is the testimony foreshadowed in the history of God and the men and women of faith.

The kingdom of God is an internal force of love and life upon the human heart that is the testimony of intimacy with God in Christ. The administration of the law was an external influence upon the human soul and was limited to the instruction of words and the voice of a prophet. The administration of grace is an internal influence that brings about true change of the hearts and minds of men. It is not an administration of mere accountability to God. It’s an administration of intimate and powerful relationship with Him. It’s an unshakeable testimony of God in the human heart.

Hebrews 12:25  See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

The voice of God within our hearts is a more sure voice than a covenant of remembering what He has said in the past or the discipline of keeping to rules that He has established for us to follow. The writer of Hebrews was admonishing the Jewish people to remember that they were meant to be Hebrew people, and it was time to know the intimate voice of God within their hearts that empowers children of God to be children of faith. This is the power of the kingdom of God for each and every one of us.

External things can be removed, but the internal realities of the kingdom of God in our hearts is enough to frame a world of love, hope, and faith in any environment we find ourselves in. The kingdom of God is not just a promise for us in heaven to come, but also for heaven coming into our world in increasing measures as we respond to the internal voice of the One who loves us in all things. We must let the shakable things be removed so we can become the unshakeable people empowered by His love. Faith is the foundation for that which cannot be shaken.

Hebrews 12:28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Faith is the foundation of lives established by knowing God’s love. Love is the unshakeable attribute of God’s kingdom that God desires for each of us to know. Reverence and godly fear is found in a revelation. God’s way in our lives is one of faith because God’s character is one of love. By faith we see Him, by faith we know Him, and by faith we love Him in all that we are and do. As leaders we must lead in faith, and we must lead for faith in those in our world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728