Greetings;
Leaders must lead for relationships. They are the first to set an example to those they stand before in demonstrating the way, the path, the character and the testimony of relationships. Everything that matters in life is about RELATIONSHIPS! Relationships begin with a commitment. The strength of that commitment determines the strength of the relationship. Relationships established by law will fail. They cannot express covenant. Leaders must not lead by way of rules and principles, they must lead for the transformed lives and the testimony of relationships that result from transformed hearts and minds in Christ. The first step is a revelation of God’s love. Love is the fuel and the strength of life-giving and life-sustaining relationships.
The empowerment of your actions determines the willingness of your responses. When we know that God loves us we believe Him when He speaks. That belief is demonstrated with actions that testify of our love for Him. These are acts of faith towards Him. Faith comes by hearing the one we love. The empowerment of our actions is revealed through faith that works through love. Those works reveal that our hearts are with the one who speaks. We have no fear of losing ourselves, because we are empowered in our hearts to live for another. There is no fear of death, because our actions are a testimony of love from our hearts. Perfect love in our hearts casts fear from the environment of our motivations. We are motivated to act in love toward another because we know how much they love us. This is a testimony of our love towards God or towards anyone in a relationship that testifies of God’s kingdom. This is the testimony of true covenant. It is not true for a contract of law. Law measures commitments by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, while love liberates its joining partners by the tree of life. When we are empowered to act in faith towards another, we become inspired to willingly respond to who they are in our lives. Leaders must set an example in actions of love that demonstrate love for another in the relationships of life.
Responding to another is not an action we make to prove what we have is worth receiving by them. It is a revelation that what another possesses is of great value to us. Like the tithe given by Abram to Melchizedek in the shadow of the law (Gen. 14:18-23), our response to another is a gratuity of honor to invoke all that can be received from them. Tithe is not something that is limited to our money. It is not meant to be a legalistic ten percent given to God in the hope for His blessing upon the remaining ninety percent of our substance. Ten is a prophetic symbol of ‘totality’, ‘completeness’, or ‘judgment’ (more specifically, ‘a judgment of love’ – as ten commandments reveal a two-fold witness of loving God and loving others). Tithe represents the making of a judgment of love that what another has is of great value in our lives. God gives us a gratuity of who He is and we respond with a gratuity of who we are; thus confessing that we depend upon all of who God is to become all of what we should be. What about our responses to one another? In a covenant relationship we respond to another because we know they are of great value in our lives and we want all of them based upon a revelation of love. We make a judgment of love in our responses to our covenant partner knowing that without them we lack the full testimony of who we are meant to be in life. The willingness of our responses determines the trust of our submission to one another. A revelation of who another is determines our willingness to respond with who we are. Our response to God invites the fullness of who God is into our lives. Our response to one another invites the fullness of who another is into our lives. Proper responses give us a testimony that is beyond who we are alone.
When we have a revelation of covenant love, we make covenant actions of love. When we act with covenant actions of faith towards another we become inspired to respond to who they are in our lives. The willingness of our responses to another determines the trust of our submission to them in our lives. Submission involves an under and over relationship with another. We must come under another in order to receive the life that is given. We must willingly come over another in order to tip in their direction and give the life that we have to the one who comes to receive. There must be a tipping towards another of one and a coming under of another. Submission is like a dance of life. It is not a matter of control, nor is it a matter of manipulation. Neither partner comes to take from another. Authority is given and received; it is not taken or used as a force to lord over another. It is the recognition of life and the exchange of that life for the testimony of life that comes to each one from the Father of life in heaven. All authority comes from God and that authority is like light from the Father of lights to His children as the light of life to the world. In a covenant relationship submission one to another reveals the light of the relationship, as each one becomes a testimony of light in the greatness of their relationship as one.
These are the first issues of relationship. Commitments inspire actions, actions prompt responses, and responses invoke a submission of one to another. Leaders must set an example to follow. They must lead to activate, facilitate, and release these in those within their sphere of influence.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
Click below to watch a video of the atmosphere of training in Angola, Africa. It was a blessed time of God’s presence and training. Thank you for your prayer and support to help make this possible.
Thank you to all of you who have partnered with me in prayer and support. More resources are being developed and we are moving forward with reaching the nations with the message of New Covenant Life and Grace.
Donations can be made at the above right link or mail your donation to House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, Wa. 98225.
