ted4leaders

Blog In Audio:

Greetings, 

Today I am going to begin addressing a need for leadership to take people from the world and empower them to become effective sons and daughters of God that bring the life of God to their word. Jesus didn’t merely free us from a life of sin, He came to empower us to live lives that are influenced by and for the grace of heaven. Grace is the manifest presence of Holy Spirit in our lives that transforms us to become what we could not be before. God wants us to be individuals who are joined to an expression of His family to fulfill the purpose of our Heavenly Father in our world.  

In the world, there is increasing evidence of the iniquities of the hearts of mankind. Men and women in the societies of the world live in the ways of the world. Although this can appear to be a challenge to our faith, I believe it is a real opportunity for God to do great things! As leaders in the body of Christ we are called to empower former people of the world in becoming heavenly people of life in this world. This means that those people find their identity, testimony, and purpose in Christ. Christ in them is not only the hope of heaven for them one day, but also the hope for each of them living their lives for the glory of God. It involves their individual lives, their marriages, their families, their membership in the family of God, and in every role that they find themselves in, in life.  

When we come to Christ, we find an escape from the bondages of our sin. We find our refuge in God. People in the world are increasingly knowing the pressures of life in a progressively complex world. They often look for a way to escape their old life. They look for a place of refuge that meets their own needs in this world. When we seek to serve people as a way of escape from the world or a way of finding their personal needs fulfilled, we fail to see a community of God’s purpose. We end up becoming some measure of a fellowship with God and with one another, but we don’t discover our true identity, testimony, and purpose in this world. Leaders must lead people from a place of escape and refuge to become a place of purpose and destiny. The church cannot be a place of escape and refuge. It must be a place of empowerment and glory. A city of escape and refuge will create a culture of survival and thus it will not develop and empower change for a greater glory. A city of refuge is a need-based society, and it can create a fellowship, but it cannot produce an ekklesia (church) of influence in the world.  

What is an ekklesia? The word “Church” is taken from the Greek word “ekklesia”. It comes from the Greek word “eke”, a primary preposition denoting origin (the point whence action or motion proceeds), from, out (of place, time, or cause; literal or figurative; direct or remote) and the Greek word “kaleo” meaning; to “call” (properly, aloud, but used in a variety of applications, directly or otherwise). In the time of Christ using this word it was a political term used in the Greek culture. It literally meant “an assembly of citizens summoned by the crier, the legislative assembly to make a decision for the community”. 

Leadership is greatly affected by our definition of what we lead. If we lead for the purpose of the facilitation of a group of Christian people gathered together to encourage one another in the Christian lifestyle and the principles of the Christian faith we will carry some measure of significance, but we will miss the fuller picture of what Jesus meant.  

The church is the body of Christ. She, together with her head Jesus, is the fullness of Christ who fills all in all. She is one with Jesus Christ in His authority and has been given authority over every rule, authority, power, dominion, and name in the earth. This is the ekklesia of God. This is the church, the called-out assembly of the members of Christ’s body that brings life to the world. She is the life-giving womb of God in the midst of the nations and the generations of men. 

We cannot empower the church to fulfill her destiny in Christ by merely becoming places of escape and refuge from the world. We must be transformed in our thinking, and we must empower those we lead to be transformed to become a different kind of community than the communities of the world. We must restructure the city to become a city of destiny in Christ. We must see ourselves as a community with a clear identity. That identity is given to us by God in Christ. We must see ourselves as a community with a unique testimony given to us by a manifestation of God’s Word and Spirit in our lives. We must embrace a partnership with God in all things to find a common purpose of God’s kingdom and will in our lives. We must set a foundation in our community for a 100-year plan. We must lead to empower the present and future generations to live to be a blessing, apply the actions of their lives to multiply by giving their lives to empower their sons and daughters to believe and know God in an intimate and powerful way. We must lead to see our children’s children bring the life of Christ to places beyond the ability in our present day. We must lead to see the blessings of Christ influence the world with the eternal power of our Father that creates a life-giving sound 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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I have addressed several roles of leaders in leading and today I want to present a final thought on the role of leaders. That thought is that the point of life is LIFE! Leaders lead others in knowing God’s life and giving God’s life to their world. This is knowing God’s love and loving others.

Revelation 22:1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

These verses reveal an awesome truth in regard to the administration of God in the body of Christ. That administration is not one of the knowledge of good and evil, but one of the Tree of Life. I believe that this is the administration that is suitable to sum up all things in Christ. It is an administration of grace. If we believe that true righteousness is about being right and not wrong, our words and expressions to others will be about being right verses being wrong. If we as leaders embrace a justice system of right and wrong, we will embrace those who are right and reject those who are wrong. We will govern and rule through an administration that defines some as worthy of God’s love, while others are cast out from His love. God’s New Covenant government is not based upon right and wrong. It is the power of life that prevails over every form of death. There is a right and there is a wrong in the matter of things in life, but true life only comes from an intimacy with Life. When we know Him, we release the substance of who He is to the world and to all that we administrate in life. I have addressed this in my book, Prophetic Ministry – A Ministry of Life in the chapter called The Administration of God.

Leaders lead others to allow every thought, attitude, vision, dream, emotion, and action that they express in life to pass through the Tree of Life before the fruit of their lives becomes food for others or the outward expression of our lives becomes a touch of healing to a sick and dying world. Believers in Christ must embrace an administration that receives mercy and finds grace each and every day (Heb. 4:16). Mercy ends that past administration of right and wrong, while grace empowers the present administration of grace that enables us to live by the spirit of life and peace in Christ. This is the administration that loves the unlovable and empowers the unlovable to become loveable. It is the administration of love that believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. It is the administration that changes what is a substance of death to become a substance of life for others.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a  Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…

As leaders we must excel in love, not in being right. We must inspire others to excel in love more than in receiving what they think they deserve. This is a different justice system. It is not a justice system that receives the good things we deserve. It is a justice system that gives love to others. It is a justice that is better than being right. It is a justice system that reveals the love of God to others in this world.

Summary:

• Leaders lead by being an example to those they lead.
• Leaders humble themselves and serve others by giving their lives to give life to them.
• Leaders equip believers for the work of ministry.
• Leaders lead others to know God personally and to mature in Him.
• Leaders lead others to live in God’s life and to give His life to their 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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I am continuing to address the role of leaders in the church. I have presented that leaders lead by being an example to those they lead in their way of life. This is in their character, nature, way, power, and authority. They are examples of Spirit empowered and transformed people who give life to their world. Leaders are servants and not hierarchal leaders. They are not above others in value but take on the form of servants to give their lives to give life to others. Leaders have been given a grace from God to equip believers for the work of ministry. That work is to love others in being sent and established, being a voice of God’s life to their world, assisting others in knowing the grant of God’s salvation and life in all things, caring for one another with a pastoral grace, and discipling others in understanding and knowing God in the transformation of their hearts and minds before Him.

A fourth role of leaders is to lead others in knowing God in an intimate and powerful way. Leaders don’t hear God for the people, they assist those they lead in hearing God. They don’t take others by the hand and lead them; they inspire them to give their hearts and minds to the will of God’s Spirit from within them.

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. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

The new covenant is not a different way of informing us concerning what God desires in our lives. The new covenant is a granted gift from God that puts His desires in our hearts and minds by an internal supernatural power of grace. Our knowing God is not the result of new instructions from God, it is an internal transformation of our hearts and minds by Christ within us. Knowing God is not a matter of understanding His instructions, knowing God is a matter of internal revelation and intimacy with God in our hearts. Leaders set an example in receiving this gift and they inspire others to receive the life-transforming gift of God’s grace that brings about this internal change in everyone who comes to believe. It is a grant from God. Knowing God is a matter of knowing His love that forever changes us. That process is not just a one-time event. It is a way of life that changes us from glory to glory as we each turn to God in Christ.

Christ in us is the source of life for a changed and enlarged heart. Leaders lead others in knowing the power of Christ in them. Each person must know the testimony of God’s grace that gives them a changed and enlarged heart that increasingly becomes a testimony of God’s law of love.

leadership cannot take people by the hand and lead them and expect to see New Covenant transformations in the lives of those they lead. We must inspire people to live from their hearts in loving God and we cannot lead them through mere accountability to godly principles and rules. A covenant of accountability will not change the hearts of those we lead. It must be a covenant of love and relationship. We must lead in a way that inspires people to live from transformed hearts and mind towards God. It must be a covenant based upon a revelation of God’s love. Even the least in a covenant of love can know Him. We must lead in a way that we inspire a culture that is shame free. We need God’s manifest presence that transforms the weaknesses of people’s hearts by the greatness of God’s love and the power of His grace.

We cannot put God’s way into the hearts and minds of those we lead. We must be more dependent upon God’s manifest presence in the lives of those we lead than in merely teaching them godly principles. We must be dependent upon God’s presence in order to lead others into His presence as well. We must teach people what God is like in His character, nature, way, power, and authority, but we must depend upon God to be the one who makes those things real in the lives of those 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,

Today I am continuing to address the role of leaders in the church. The first was that of being an example to others in word, conduct, love, spirit, faith, and purity. Leaders inspire those they lead by the example of their own personal testimony.

A second role of leaders is that of being servants. Leaders are not better than those they lead. They have been given a grace from God to assist others in living and growing into maturity in Christ. Paul wrote concerning what manner of attitude a leader should embrace.

Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Although Jesus was equal to God, He served mankind in the form of a man. He didn’t make Himself of any reputation but served those that He led with a face like that of every man. As leaders, we must humble ourselves and give our lives to give life to others. Although we too are members of the body of Christ as sons and daughters of God, we choose to serve others by giving our lives to give life to them. All that we do we do for the wellbeing of others. This is the true heart of a leader.

True ministry is to love others. It is not about anointing and power. It is about powerful love and being able to love others powerfully. All believers are to give life to others. They are to do the work of ministry. The true work of ministry is to give love as who we are for the sake of others. We have each been given a grace from God to give life to our world. For this reason, a third role of leadership is to equip believers for the work of ministry.

Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.

The equipping gifts of leadership serve to activate, facilitate, and release the characteristics of the apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, and teaching testimonies in the body of Christ. I believe that the body of Christ is filled with diverse members that exhibit the actions and testimonies of these attributes found in Christ. God has given equipping gifts in Christ that are sent to release and facilitate a culture where the maturation of these attributes can come about in the body. As those characteristics and attributes are made manifest the members of the body will be edified and will edify one another. There will be an increasing unity of faith, knowledge of the Son of God, increasing perfection, and continued development in maturation among the members of the body.

The apostolic gift is a gift that is ‘sent’ to ‘send others’ in establishing the things of God. An apostolic body of believers are believers who each know they are sent by God for a purpose, and they assist others in knowing who they are so they too can be sent for their true purpose of establishing others in Christ. A prophetic gift sees what God sees and activates a prophetic spirit in the body that sees what they could not see before. True prophecy is to speak as God’s voice whereby – life happens! God wants a prophetic body where the voice of God is spoken, and life happens. The evangelistic gift causes those who did not know faith to know faith in Christ and the salvation of Jesus’ name. God wants an evangelistic body of believers that brings the life of God’s salvation to many. The pastoral gift is a grace of caring for others. God wants a pastoral body of believers that cares for one another. This is not one pastor over many, but a pastoral spirit that empowers everyone to know the names of one another and to care for them as an expression of our chief shepherd – Jesus Christ. The teaching gift is not about information but is a true grace of mentoring that brings an understanding of God to the hearts and minds of men. God wants a body of believers with a grace of discipling others in understanding and knowing God in all things. For these reasons, leaders lead others to equip others for the work of ministry.

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 going to give you some foundational truths for the role of leaders. I have written on these in previous blogs, but I felt it important to remind us as leaders in regard to what our role is in leading others in the body of Christ.

God appoints leaders in the body of Christ for the sake of those that God leads and loves. Leaders don’t lead others for their own sake. They lead them for the sake of every believer’s relationship with God as their Father, Jesus as their Lord, and Holy Spirit as their empowerment of life in all things. Leaders inspire others to embrace a personal and powerful relationship with God in life.

What is the role of leaders? The first role of a leader is to be an example to those they lead so that those they lead can see an expression of the way, the truth, and the life in Christ. The apostle Paul wrote to his spiritual son Timothy in regard to being an example to those that God had entrusted him to lead.

1 Timothy 2:12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

To be an example in the word is not about being an example in Scripture memory. The Pharisees were excellent in Scripture memory but their use of the words of the Scriptures became weapons of death in their mouths and not words of life to those they spoke to. To be an example in the word is to be an example in the substance of the word. This is the Spirit of the word in the testimony of their flesh. Just as the word became flesh in the life of Jesus the Son of Man, leaders are to become a testimony of flesh transformed to the word of God as a life-giving testimony and expression to inspire those they lead to become the same. It is about setting an example that others can see that is true to the word of God. It is true to being an expression of God. All believers in Christ are to be an example to their world as expressions of God. They are to be true to God’s word. Leaders simply lead others in becoming true to God’s word.

Leaders are to be an example that can inspire others by their conduct in life. Leaders are not examples in conduct while believers are not. All believers in Christ are to be an example to the world as to the conduct of sons and daughters of God. How do we handle the challenges of life? How do we live our lives? How do we respond to others? Do we react to the situations in our lives, or do we make actions of faith in every circumstance of our lives? Reactions will lead us into a path of carnality and self-preservation, but actions of faith are responses to the voice of God in our hearts that always leads to new life. How do we react to others? How do we live our lives as dads, moms, brothers, sisters, grandparents, friends, and neighbors? Leaders lead for this testimony in the family of God.

What about love? How do we exhibit the character of love in our attitudes and actions in life? All believers in Christ are to exhibit the love of God to their world and leaders lead in this testimony. They demonstrate the character, nature, and way of God in their love for God and for others. True love lives to give and never to get. Leaders lead others in this testimony.

What about living lives that exhibit a supernatural connection to the Spirit? Do we manifest being spiritual people that inspire others to be the same? This is not about being religious with religious actions and the keeping of religious ceremonies. It is about being people of the spirit. This includes a discerning of spirits and a spiritual example to others in being connected to the Spirit of God at all times. For this reason, I stir up my spirit all day long in praying in the spirit. I don’t make it a religious task; I simply pray without ceasing throughout my day. I choose to have a face-to-face relationship with God all day long.

A leader is to be an example in faith. Faith is a supernatural testimony of responding to the voice of God in our hearts. The opposite of faith is natural sight, but faith is walking in a path that is inspired by God’s voice of love. It enables us to see what we could not see before, hear what we could not hear before, and to think what we could not think before. The trouble in our lives simply becomes framing material to frame our world according to God’s purpose and will.

Leaders are to be an example in purity. This is to live an innocent and sinless live. To do this requires a connection to God that inspires a change in our hearts and minds to live to be givers of life and not takers of life from others. We live for the wellbeing of others through an intimate connection with God in or hearts. We live lives empowered by God’s grace. The manifest presence of God in our hearts enables us to live lives that exhibit the holy life-giving nature of our heavenly Father in all things. Leaders give themselves to being pure to inspire those they lead to do the same.

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 going to continue on the need to keep our hearts in a way that life is always flowing from us to others in our world. Leaders must set an example that can inspire others to do the same.

Keeping our hearts filled with life that overflows to others is connected to our decision to rejoice in God in all things and at all times. We must be sensitive to others around us and not consumed by our own needs or desires. We cultivate a relationship with God that simply seeks to know Him and to grow in the testimony of His love to others in our world. There is no separation between us and God. He sees us as His sons and daughters, and we must always live to see Him as our heavenly Father. The apostle Paul encouraged believers to live a lifestyle of rejoicing, being gentle to others, knowing God, never being anxious, and cultivating a face-to-face relationship with God that would protect their hearts and minds in Christ (Phil. 4:4-7).

Paul went on to write some key things for us to embrace in order to keep our hearts open to the flow of God’s life. We must keep our hearts so the issues of life will freely flow to those around us. This is true for all believers, but especially true for us as leaders as we set an example for others to follow.

Philippians 4:8, 9 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

Rather than focusing on the things we cannot think about, we should fill our hearts with the things we can think about. We must give our hearts to things that are true. Here is something true. He loves us! He will never leave us! He cares for us! Nothing can separate us from Him! We must receive the things that He says about us and embrace them with our whole hearts. We must give our spirits, souls, and physical lives to all that is true. What about things that are just? I am not talking about complaining about injustice! I am talking about thinking on the things that are just. Can we be merciful and gracious to others based upon who we are and not what they deserve? Love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace – these are all things of God’s justice. We must give our hearts to things that are pure! Resisting the things of impurity is not as powerful as embracing the things of purity with our whole hearts. We must give our hearts to things that are of a good report. Indulging in the good reports of life is more powerful than choosing a path of negativity and of bad report. Let’s give our hearts to things that are of good report. How about virtue? This is giving our hearts to every opportunity to give life to others. To live for the wellbeing of others and for the purposes of God and His kingdom is a virtuous thing. Life will come off of us that will empower others to live too! We must give our hearts to anything that is praiseworthy. If we think this is hard, all we have to do is think of ANYTHING! Anything praiseworthy is a good thing to give our hearts to. Giving our hearts to receive, hear, and emulate others in their example of faith in their journey of Christ’s life will surely help us keep our hearts with all diligence. These things are essential for all believers, but especially for those who lead for the sake of others.

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 must know how to keep our hearts for the sake of others. Our ‘heart’ includes our emotions, and all about us that is spiritual, mental, and physical in life. If we confess that our heart is into something, it means that all that is spirit, soul, and body embrace it. A great example of this is when King David danced before the Lord with all of his might.

2 Samuel 6:14-16 Then David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. And as the ark of the LORD came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.

David’s wife, Michal, didn’t understand what David was doing. Her heart was not into what he was doing. She saw his actions as actions of foolishness, but David knew that his actions were those of a full and passionate love for God. David was giving his full heart to worshipping God and that included the emotional and physical expressions of his life.

Our heart is the seat of our collective energies and the focus of our personal lives. It is the throne from which life flows. It is the seat of our thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, and endeavors. Our heart is our personality, our inner life, and our character. A leader must guard their heart. We are not to guard our hearts in the way the world guards their hearts. Those in the world seek to protect their hearts and often find themselves in situations where their hearts become hard and small, due to the wounds of life. King Solomon said that keeping our heart had to do with keeping the springs of life open and flowing.

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

How do we as leaders guard our hearts and set an example that others can follow? How do we keep the springs of life flowing from within us? The apostle Paul gave some great instructions to the Philippian church.

Philippians 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

A decision to live a lifestyle of rejoicing is key to being a healthy leader. This doesn’t mean that we laugh when we should cry; it means we choose to embrace God’s life and God’s presence every day of our lives. We must seek to be gentle among people and not forceful in our own ways, our own desires, or our own agendas. God is always at hand. He is always within our reach. If we realize that God is with us every step of the journey, we can embrace a face-to-face relationship with Him that will keep us from being anxious. We should keep an open line of communication between Him and us, as we would with a friend. We don’t go to God with our needs of crisis expecting Him to give us a bailout or to deliver us from our circumstances. Once in a while God wants to get us out of our circumstances, but 100% of the time He wants to get into our circumstances with us. When we realize that there is no gap between God and us we can have a peace that surpasses our own understanding. Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is being in a place where there is no gap between God and us. It works on good days and on bad days. Peace is a knowing that our house is in the right place and that no change of circumstances can separate us from the love of God in our lives. It isn’t necessarily the absence of conflict. It is the assurance that we are joined to God and His house in all things and at all times. There is no separation between us, and we can live near to Him in all things. Knowing these things will help us keep our hearts so that life-giving water flows from within us to 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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am going to finish with my theme of grants from God with two final grants. There are no doubt many grants found in Christ, but I have been presenting some things that are specifically said to be grants in the Scriptures. These final two grants are the grant of God’s mercy and the grant of reigning in partnership with Jesus by His Spirit.

Mercy is a judgment that frees us from the power of the law. We cannot break laws. We can only violate them and then they break us – unless we surpass them with a higher law. The higher law of justice is our Father’s love. Jesus made it possible for us to receive God’s mercy that triumphs over all other judgment. It is because of this that we can boldly come before the throne of God’s grace and receive mercy, that we might find grace (Heb. 4:16).

Mercy is not only God’s judgment that frees us from the judgment of death, but it is also a part of the nature of our compassionate Father. When the Lord grants us mercy, we receive a testimony of God’s love that frees us from the consequence of other judgments in life.

2 Timothy 1:16 The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain; 17 but when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me. 18 The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that Day—and you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus.

Mercy is part of the character of God. His love for us reveals His compassionate gift of mercy. Mercy is the judgment of God that conveys us from the administration of law and conscience to one of grace and truth. The grace empowered sacrifice of Jesus enables us to know that we are children of God. Our sins are forgiven, and we have a Father who loves us. Jesus has forgiven our sins and revealed to us our loving Father in heaven.

God’s mercy is a judgment of God’s compassion towards us and it justifies us to live, but His grace empowers us to reign in life. It is through His gift of mercy that we have the forgiveness of sins. We are justified to live. We have redemption through the blood of Jesus. There is also an administration that can sum up everything in Christ. That administration is one of God’s grace (Eph. 1:9,10). The manifest presence of Holy Spirit working in and through our lives is the power of God’s grace. God’s manifest presence in our lives grants us an ability to reign in life.

We are justified to live because of the shed blood of Jesus, but we are saved by His grace. His gift of mercy justified us to live, even though we were bound to death in our sin. His grace working in our lives grants us the ability to reign in life.

Romans 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

The grant of reigning in partnership with Jesus by His Spirit is a testimony of God’s intimate and overcoming power. God stands at the door of our hearts and calls us to open the door to His presence. He wants to partner with us and us with Him in every aspect of our lives.

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

Let us abide in the love of God and receive His gifts of life that we might live in this life as children of God who know the power His wonderful love. Leaders set an example in receiving these gifts from our Father in heaven. These are gifts given to us in Christ:

1. The grant of salvation in every situation of our lives.
2. The grant of a changed and enlarged heart.
3. The grant of deliverance from our enemies
4. The grant to be bold in speaking God’s word with miracle power, signs, and wonders in Jesus’ name.
5. The grant of repentance unto life.
6. The grant to be patient with others and to comfort one another.
7. The grant to be strengthened with might through God’s Spirit in our inner man, to know Christ in us with a revelation of God’s love, increasingly filled with the fullness of God.
8. The grant of God’s mercy.
9. The grant of reigning in partnership with Jesus by His Spirit.

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,

I am continuing today to write concerning grants given to us by God in Christ. So far I have addressed the grant of salvation, the grant of a changed and enlarged heart, the grant of an ability to be bold in speaking God’s word accompanied by God’s healing power, signs, and wonders, and the grant of repentance unto life.

Now let me address some more grants given to us by God in our lives as believers in Him. The first of these is a grant to be patient with others and to comfort one another.

Romans 15:1 We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. 3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” 4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Being patient with one another cannot be a discipline of our flesh. Patience motivated by control is really imprisonment of our thoughts and attitudes. This type of discipline can only force our emotions into an internal chamber of our lives that fosters bitterness and a cry to be freed. True patience with another must be a new birthed compassion in our hearts. We must desire to be patient. We must desire to comfort those who are struggling. This desire is motivated by true compassion – a life-giving love. There is a decision on our part to choose to posture our hearts and minds to be patient, but true patience is a gift from God to our hearts. The written account of the testimonies of men and women in the Scriptures inspire our connection to Holy Spirit in being empowered for patience in our walk of faith. For this reason we must all read the Scriptures as a treasure for our learning and position our hearts to receive the gift of patience. As leaders we must excel in this reality, it is a gift to us by God’s grace at work in our lives. God wants to give this gift, but we must willingly and willfully desire it and seek to find it.

There is also a grant to be strengthened with might through God’s Spirit in our inner man, to know Christ in us with a revelation of God’s love, increasingly filled with the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

This grant is the gift of Holy Spirit’s empowerment to our spirit from within. It is where divine revelation occurs. Holy Spirit intercedes within us, drawing what is in heaven into our spirits so that our spirits flood our souls with life-giving thoughts, reasoning, emotions, imaginations, and desires. The mind of Christ within us becomes the source of our fruitful thinking. We grow in intimately knowing God. It is from within that we can know the love of Christ and that love goes beyond the reasoning of our minds. It floods our hearts and transforms our minds from within. It is about knowing God through an intimate connection with Holy Spirit in our hearts. Leaders set an example in knowing God to receive this intimate connection.

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 going to continue in my theme of grants from God in our lives. These are gifts that come to us by the power of God’s grace. They are realities that we receive as a result of the manifest presence of God in our lives. Leaders must set an example in receiving these gifts.

God grants us the gifts of salvation, a changed and enlarged heart, deliverance from the hand of our enemies, and an ability to be bold in speaking God’s word accompanied by God’s healing power, signs, and wonders.

Now let me address another grant given to us by God. A foundation of our faith in Christ is a changed mind. This is a changed way of thinking. This is not merely a discipline of our thoughts by an administration of law. It is not a control of our thoughts. It is a revolution in our thinking. It is a change in the source of our thoughts by the power of a new internal desire. It is a grant of repentance to life. It is not a grant of repentance from evil. This was the testimony in the beginning of the church when those who had no understanding of God began to supernaturally experience Him in their lives.

Acts 11:18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”

When the apostles heard the evidence of Holy Spirit in the lives these Gentiles, they understood that God had made them alive in their hearts to God. It was a grant from God – a gift of God’s grace that transforms the hearts of those who receive the Spirit of the Lord. The expressions of Holy Spirit in the lives of these new believers were that of a supernatural love for God and a confession empowered by a new desire by the power of Jesus as Lord from within.

Every leader must embrace and lead others to live in an empowerment of repentance from dead works. This is not a repentance from evil. It is a repentance from being dead. It is a gift from God, not a discipline of the flesh. It is an empowerment of the Spirit of the Lord in our lives. The Spirit of the Lord gives us a desire empowered by being loved by God! Repentance is a gift, or granted to us by God when we embrace His love in our hearts. 

This gift of repentance unto life is not just a one-time experience in our lives. It is a way of life. It is an increasing transformation of our hearts and minds by the Spirit of the Lord in our hearts. It is an experience of God’s love that changes us. That internal experience gives us a new testimony that is evident by changed actions in our way of thinking and being in life.

When we seek external things to find love, to find our identity, it is because we lack an internal revelation of being loved by God. Receiving the love of God in our hearts makes us come alive to God in our hearts. The dry places of our hearts become empowered to be a watered garden of God’s presence. Paradise is restored in our lives – a place of knowing God, living with Him, and walking with Him in life. It is the desirable place of knowing God and it frees us from being dead in our hearts. Leaders must lead others by example in being loved by God in their hearts and no longer living in the shadows of illegitimate life sources that only leave us dead to repeatedly do dead works that never produce the fruit of life. It is not a repentance of condemnation and shame. It is a repentance unto life! It is knowing the truth of God’s love in our hearts. We were born to be loved by God! He loves us and He gives us the desires of our hearts! Those desires given to us by Him change our lives forever and it is a continually growing reality in our lives. This is not a one-time experience of turning to God in our hearts, but a daily turning to Him so the light of His life gives desires that come from being loved by God.

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