Greetings,
As leaders in the Body of Christ we must lead people with and into a different justice system than the justice system of the world. The peoples, families, communities, and nations of the world are part of the family tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their justice systems are based upon a knowledge of good and a knowledge of evil. Although there is good and there is evil, an administration based upon the information of good and the information of evil is bound to repetitious patterns of doing what is perceived to be good and or perceived to be evil. The true fruit of good must be life and the true fruit of evil is death. Many times we do things that we perceive to be good, but the result is death or dysfunction in our own lives or in the lives of another. Our actions lack the ability to bring life to the world. We must embrace the administration of the family tree of life in order to truly see good in this world. God is only one who is truly good and only an administration based upon a transformation of our hearts and minds by the power of His Holy Spirit can change our lives as individuals among the peoples, families, communities, and nations of the world. We must receive a changed character, nature, way, power, and authority in order to receive different results than the old family tree of death. We must embrace an internally motivated administration of love. It is an administration of grace that will empower each of us to become truth for the sake of God’s increasing life in this world. People of grace and truth are people of love. To be people of love we must have a different focus than we did as people of the world. We cannot be self-seekers, but we must live for the wellbeing of others.
1 Corinthians 10:23 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. 24 Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.
To be people of love we must know who we are. In order to know who we are, we must first know who God is and who Jesus is in our lives. Jesus is not merely an option, He is the way, the truth, and the life for all mankind.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords to give all men life! He is not like the kings of the world or the lords of mankind. He is not a taker of life, but a giver of life in all things. His righteousness is not based upon what He perceives to be right or wrong. His righteousness is based upon His ability to give life to all men. This is what is right. We cannot understand who we are, unless we first understand who He is.
Isaiah 32:1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.
As sons and daughters of God we must rule with justice. Our justice system is not based upon a family tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is a higher justice system than one that tries to merely make things right in action. Our justice system makes things life in heart and mind. Our covenant with God is a covenant whereby He writes His law upon our hearts and minds.
We live in a time where the kingdoms of the world have become word sensitive, but they are not heart sensitive. The kingdoms of the world are ‘love me’ societies instead of societies that profess “I love you”. Everyone hears what they hear, but not necessarily what is truly said. Language is made up from our own hearts and minds and it is based upon our own perceptions. When we embrace a word sensitive world we define the world around us by the definitions of the words within our own hearts. The world must be measured by God’s heart, not ours. God’s heart is not defined by ours. Our hearts must be defined by His justice system and a work of His grace within us. The people of God need to become the people of God rather than shape God to become the God of the people. He is the righteous King and we cannot rule as princess and princesses unless we first embrace Him. We are to be in His likeness and image and not He in ours. We cannot be the light of the world unless we know the true Light that gives life to all men!
John 1:9-18 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ” And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
