Blog In Audio:
Greetings;
Knowing who God is, knowing who you are, and knowing who others are in your world will lead to life. God is a giver of life and each and everyone of His children were born to bring life to their world. This is the testimony of true authority. Authority never takes from others. True authority gives life to others. God is a giver, not a taker. If our perception of Him is that He seeks to take from us, we don’t know Him. When we know Him, we become like Him.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
The more we get to know our heavenly Father and Jesus His Son, the more we discover the testimony of life. When we know Him, we become testimonies of His mercy. We become givers of His mercy to others in our world. The more we get to know Him, the more we discover how good He really is. If we don’t see Him as a great God, a good God, and a merciful God, we don’t know who He is. As His children we should grow in being great for the sake of others. We should increase in doing good for others. We should grow in showing mercy to others in our world.
Exodus 34: 5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth…”
Here we find the introduction to the name of God is “the Lord, the Lord God”. In the Stone’s edition of the Hebrew Torah, the rabbinical commentators address this double “Lord” as implying to the love and goodness of God. They state that when the Lord is put in this double context it implies two things. It means that God is the one who forgives us of our sins knowing the full extent of everything we are ever going to do, and He forgives us after we sin knowing the full extent of everything we have ever done. The very first experience, atmosphere, ambiance, and reality received by God’s presence coming into our lives is that of forgiveness. What a wonderful thing! The verses go on to read that God is merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abounding in goodness, and abounding in truth. These are all wonderful experiences that flood our lives when God comes to us.
As leaders, we lead others into a personal relationship with God by setting an example in our own relationship with God. That example should exhibit the attributes of who God is. God is forgiving, even when He knows what should not be forgiven. He is loving in spite of our short comings. If He is forgiving, we should grow in being forgiving. If He is loving, we should grow in loving others. If He His merciful, we should grow in showing mercy to others. If He is gracious, we should grow in being gracious to others in our world. If He is longsuffering, isn’t it reasonable that we should have to forbear some things with others? We are His offspring empowered and transformed by His Holy Spirit! If He abounds in goodness, shouldn’t we have goodness increasing in our lives? Shouldn’t we have enough goodness to overcome the bad things that come our direction? If He abounds in truth, shouldn’t we grow in truth so that we will not be shaken by lies? When we know truth, we can live free. No false accusation can shake us when we know truth in our hearts and minds. When we know God, the testimony of our life is seen in the giving of life to others.
True authority gives life. To have authority means to be a source of life to others. It means that you have too much of something and you have to give it away. It is not about what you can get from others, but what you have to give to them. Authority is always connected to an us, a we, and a corporate testimony of some kind. It is never focused on me, myself, or what can I get or do. It is a servant role of receiving life and giving life to others. It is an aspect of giving life to others and this is the testimony of leadership that leads others to lead others into the path of knowing God. If we do something to ‘get’, we are crossing the line of authority to mere power. You can seek power and live to get something, and you will never discover the true authority of who you really are. The way of the world is to seek to get something so you can be something and do something great in this life. The way of our heavenly Father, and Jesus His Son, is to seek to give something because you are something and therefore you live to reveal how great God is in other’s lives.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
Donations can be made at the link on the home site of: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 
