Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
The things of God are today! God is speaking and is only in TODAY that we can hear what God is doing. The future of the earth is not determined by what is going on in the earth. It is determined by what is going on in heaven and how the influence of heaven can invade our earth for the will of God and the influence of His kingdom to come. For this reason, we must lead as New Covenant leaders.
Old Covenant leadership leads by giving people information of what God did in the past and making that the rule of their faith. This is not really faith at all, but a belief system that is bound to something that was the result of someone hearing God yesterday. The focus of Old Covenant leadership is largely upon something that can be seen because of what God did yesterday. It is a leadership that takes people by the hand and leads them. It can end up becoming a system where the supposedly smart people lead the less intelligent people though a government of control. It is very informative and informative leadership can gather a crowd because it offers a form of perceived safety to common connection based upon a common project or a common work. That project or work is centered upon building a memorial to the memory of something that God has done. There is a perceived safety in saying you follow something that is not really going to new places but gives the assurance of places that have been known. This type of leadership may give an appearance of going somewhere new, but that new place is only a new rendition of something that has been done before. Metaphorically speaking, this type of leadership pretends to offer new life, but it is an experience of old wine in another version of an old bottle. It is perceived to be more stable and not so volatile, thus it appeals to those who don’t trust what they have not seen, heard, or thought before. It offers a connection to external things, but it doesn’t inspire the heart and mind from within. It connects people to a work of God, but it doesn’t inspire knowing God in your heart and in your mind.
Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.”
New Covenant leaders inspire people to go to places that they have not been before. This is not merely for the sake of going to new places. It is for the purpose of destiny in Christ. Like the river of God described by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 47), it is a flow of water that progresses forward for a deeper reality of God in human lives. Because it is a fuller reality of God it is a further commitment and connection to who He is in our lives. This involves letting go of some things to embrace the new things of God in our lives. It is hard to swim in the deeper waters of God if our hands of full of things that were established as monuments along the banks of the river of God in the past. When the memories of what God did become the focus of our attention, they create monuments that hold us to the banks of the river and prevent us from going further in the flow of what God is doing in the generations of humanity. By default, what should be New Covenant subtilty embraces an Old Covenant government that doesn’t hear God now and doesn’t enter the new season of God in the earth that bears the fruit of God’s life for today. To go forward seems risky because going forward is a matter of faith.
Luke 5:39 And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.'”
New Covenant leaders are required to lead people into places they don’t immediately desire to go. Old Covenant leadership is in many ways simpler and Old Covenant leadership makes people dependent upon leaders. I believe that much of the church is led in Old Covenant ways. For this reason, many of our church structures and methods are dependent upon strong leaders who become kings and priests for the people. New Covenant leaders must inspire those they lead to hear what they are hearing. They cannot hear God for the people but they themselves must hear God and they must be obedient to faith. They then inspire those they lead to be people of faith. Faith is the supernatural result of a personal relationship with God in our hearts. It comes when we hear God speaking to us from within. New Covenant leaders must lead people to hear what God is saying now. They must lead people into a personal responsibility of embracing God presence of love and God’s presence of purpose in their own lives. This is a daily reality. It is seasonal and requires each one to bear the fruit of the present season of God in their lives and in the earth. The fruit of the present season is a testimony of what God is doing is now, not a memory of yesterday. The best wine is now!
John 2:10 And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”
The best wine is the life of God revealed in our hearts and minds that inspires a testimony of God’s life-giving Spirit today. It inspires a celebration of life as an intimate connection with God by each and everyone. The miracle of Jesus at the wedding of Canna was a miracle that depicts a celebration of intimacy and a foundation for a covenant relationship of life. New Covenant leaders lead others to know God in their hearts.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
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