ted4leaders

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I have been addressing grants that God gives us and as leaders we must be an example to those we lead in receiving the grants that come to us from God in heaven. Salvation is a grant from God to us. It is a gift of God’s miracle power working in our lives. Our salvation is not just a salvation of going to heaven when we die, it is an ability to bring heaven into our earthly realities. Jesus is our salvation in every situation of our lives. The favor of God in our lives is His presence that saves us in every aspect. He frees us from captivity and liberates us from every form of death. His salvation gives us both His mercy and grace and these things reveal His life in our lives.

God grants us the gift of a changed and enlarged heart. This enables God presence within us to change our character, nature, and way in our world. It is an increasing testimony of His presence within us, but it is a gift granted to us by God when we willingly invite Him into our lives and we willfully respond to His desires within us.

Another grant from God to us is a grant of deliverance from our enemies. Our victory is not found in our knowledge about God, our gifting in Christ, our understanding of God’s word, or any power of our own strength. It is a freedom given to us by God that we might serve Him in holiness and righteousness.

Luke 1:74 To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

Being holy doesn’t come by abstaining from the world. Holiness comes by being attached in our spirits to the Spirit of God who is holy. It is God who empowers our holiness, not some religious form of holy effort. It is God who makes us righteous, not some discipline in the flesh in an attempt to do right things. Deliverance from the hand of our enemies can be deliverance from some external force of the devil that seeks to destroy us. It can also be a deliverance from some self-seeking power within us. Being able to serve God in holiness and righteousness is a liberty we experience when we are granted God’s gift of deliverance from our enemies.

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

Acts 4:29 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, 30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.

God’s grant of boldness to us is not a matter of healing, signs, or wonders. This grant of boldness is that we might be His voice to our world. It is so we can speak His word that transforms the lives of others. It is a voice of love that calls His children to the place of life. To be expressions of God’s word to our world is a grant given to us by God. Leaders lead others in receiving the grants of deliverance from every enemy and being able to speak God’s word to their world. God’s word is powerful, and it will bring healing with signs and wonders that testify of God’s love.

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,

Kind David lived in an Old Covenant time of Law, but his desire was for the day of New Covenant grace. He knew that the secret to obeying the commandments of God was only found in the heart. He prophetically declared the human need for a changed and enlarged heart to be able to live in the character of God. His view of keeping the testimony of the law was a grant from God.

Psalms 119:29 Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me Your law graciously. 30 I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me. 31 I cling to Your testimonies; O LORD, do not put me to shame! 32 I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart.

David knew that the ability to run the course of God’s values required an enlarged heart. To receive God’s way in our lives, we must experience a change in our own character and nature. We must experience an internal change to have a change in our external actions. This is a grant from God and not a work of our own flesh. It requires us to respond with obedient actions to the internal change of our hearts. It is a miracle from God. Leaders set an example in exhibiting external actions that are the fruit of internal changes. This was the prophetic declaration of the prophet Jeremiah for us all and it is a gift given to us by God when we willingly and willfully give our lives to receive this granted change from God in our lives.

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.

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,

Leaders lead others in knowing the salvation of God in every situation of their lives. God’s salvation is not something we earn. It is granted to us by God when we come to Him. It is His gift to us and our receiving of that gift in our lives as a continual testimony of God’s love to us in life. Perhaps the greatest responsibility of a leader is to envision, encourage, and be an example in receiving the salvation of God in the lives of those they lead.

God loves us and God has revealed His favor to us through Jesus His Son. He frees us from all of our captivity. The changes that come into our lives are a gift from God. The changes in our lives don’t come for the external circumstances in our world. They come about by the working of God’s Spirit within us in the midst of the circumstances of our lives. Those changes are a gift to us from God. We hear Him and respond to Him, but the work of change is a gift from Him. He is favorable to us. He forgives us of our flaws and our disconnections from Him. He removes things from our lives that are destructive forces to us. His fierceness destroys the things that seek to destroy us, but His love protects us in the process of change. God never seeks to destroy us. He seeks to destroy what destroy us so that we can be revived in Him. He enables us to rejoice in Him for who He is and for what He does in our lives. He is our salvation, and it is in His salvation in our lives that we are restored in every way. His mercy is new every day, and His mercy is a testimony of His great love to us. Our hope is in hearing Him because in hearing Him we become empowered to live lives of faith towards Him. He is our salvation in every and any situation. His salvation to us is a gift. He grants it to us because of who He is. His words to us are words of peace and there is no need for any of us to return to the foolishness of our own ways. Our awe of Him invites His salvation in our lives. He transforms our lives to reveal His glory in all things. His glory is not a passing reality but a resident testimony of His goodness to us. His mercy helps us in our weakness and His mercy grants us access to eternal changes of truth in our lives. His heart of love and His righteous acts on our behalf reveal our peace with Him. We are changed! Truth springs out from our lives! Things given to us in Christ by the righteousness of Jesus in heaven become the realities of our lives. He gives us what is good, and life happens in us. What He has done and what He still does reveal the footsteps of our path forward in life.

Psalms 85:1 LORD, You have been favorable to Your land; You have brought back the captivity of Jacob. 2 You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin. Selah 3 You have taken away all Your wrath; You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger. 4 Restore us, O God of our salvation, and cause Your anger toward us to cease. 5 Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations? 6 Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? 7 Show us Your mercy, LORD, and grant us Your salvation. 8 I will hear what God the LORD will speak, for He will speak peace to His people and to His saints; but let them not turn back to folly. 9 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land. 10 Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed. 11 Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. 12 Yes, the LORD will give what is good; and our land will yield its increase. 13 Righteousness will go before Him, and shall make His footsteps our pathway.

As leaders we receive the gift of God’s salvation and set an example to others that salvation is not a work of our flesh. It is a gift from God to us.

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,

Leaders set an example to others in knowing how to find guidance in life. Our guidance is not found by navigating our own desire and will. Our guidance is found in our relationship with God and our willingness to trust Him and to expect that His will brings life to us – spirit, soul, and body. The following list are things that I consider to be essential for guidance in life.

Essential Things for Guidance in Life:

• Seek first God’s Kingdom – Seek His will and Kingdom to come into every area of your life.
• God’s kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit within your heart and these things empower every aspect of your kingdom to increasingly become an expression of the kingdom of God.
• Live to be loved and to love.  Let God love you, receive that love, and then live to love Him and others.
• Love is a revelation – seek that revelation.
• Love is inspired by desire and not by command. It bears the fruit true commitment.
• All steps forward in life can lead to redemption and restoration because reconciliation is a free gift of God’s love.
• Mercy triumphs over every judgment when that mercy is found in Christ.
• Pray that your sins will be forgiven even as you forgive others. True freedom only comes by a willingness to give freedom to others.
• Always give your life for the wellbeing of others.
• Your identity, testimony, and purpose are always found in Christ, and it is always connected to others for the glory of God.
• All things should inspire you to worship God and worshipping God empowers you to embrace all things for God’s purpose and will.
• If the choices you make and the things you choose don’t inspire you to worship God, there is something wrong.
• The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth – if the fruit isn’t manifesting something is not good, righteous, or true in you. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
• Mercy is received and grace is found – both are gifts from God.
• Finding grace includes tribulation, cheerful endurance, a changed character, and a birthed hope, for another measure of glory (Rom. 5:1-5).
• Always stand to overcome every wicked thing – things that make you dead and not life-giving – things that disconnect you from God and His plan.
• Overcome by being strong in the word of God (what does He say?) and strong in the Spirit (His presence).
• Live to give life to your world.

If your thoughts, reasoning, imagination, emotions, and desires seek to embrace these things, God will guide your path into life.

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,

God’s church is the place of God’s habitation. We are a temple of Holy Spirit. As leaders, we lead others in becoming and living as the place of God’s habitation. This is not just for us to know the presence of God in our lives. It is that we might walk in His purpose in our lives. This is not just automatic because God wants this to happen. It involves a partnership with God. Leaders live to empower others to partner with God to become all that God wants them to be and to do all that God wants them to do in the earth.

In my Monday blog I am presently writing concerning embracing the present season of God. The seasons of God are what God determines those seasons to be. Every season has a purpose of bearing fruit to bring life to the world. Every season is an age of blessing. Harvest is a blessing of God to the world. When one season ends, another is in process. The sign of the end of every season is harvest, and every season ends to provide food for eating and seed for sowing for a new harvest.

Every season of harvest requires laborers of that harvest. There is not just a need for laborers, but laborers who are willing to seek to understand each season of harvest. Sometimes we put the emphasis upon our labors, and we miss the need for God’s presence. Sometimes we seek God’s presence and forget the need to partner with Him with our willingness to labor. Every season of harvest requires us to do works that serve that harvest.

Luke 10:1 After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. 2 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

Jesus sent the seventy out into the places that He was about to go. Where is the Holy Spirit about to go today to proclaim the life and victory found in Jesus’ name? There is a new harvest in every new season of God in the earth, but every season requires laborers for that work for the life, care, and purpose of that new harvest.

Psalms 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

God is the One who builds, and God is the One who guards, but we must partner with Him to labor in building and to labor in watching. Are we building with God or are we seeking to build something of the past or something of our own desires? Are we guarding what we have obtained from the past or are we awake to what God is doing and is about to do in our world.

1 Corinthians 3:6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

Laboring in the season of God requires us to do things that serve that season. The things we do are not meant to be permanent methods for every season of God. They are simply methods we receive to labor in the harvest of each season. This requires us to do new things, but also to do. We cannot be bound to the methods of a past season, nor can we reject being involved in new methods that serve the present season of God in our lives. We don’t get our identity out from what we do in life. What we do in life gets its identity from who we are. We get our identity from our Father in heaven. To get our identity out of what we do is idolatry. Life can only come from a source of life. It cannot come from works.

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,

Hearing God is about knowing God and it is in knowing God that we overcome all manner of death in our world. Hearing God empowers us to overcome in relationship, faith, testimony, authority, and our purpose in Christ. Leaders set an example in this that inspires others to follow.

The sixth letter of Revelation was written to the church of Philadelphia. The name Philadelphia means, brotherly love. We are increasingly experiencing the testimony of communion with God and one another that inspires the testimony of His community in the earth. We are increasingly knowing God in our midst as the family of God. We are the people of God in the earth.

A sixth reason to hear God is to be a pillar of God’s presence in the earth that loves and lives for God and His family. Our thinking is for God our Father and for one another as the family of God. We know that we are each a temple of Holy Spirit and together we make a greater temple of God’s Spirit.

Revelation 3:12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.

The seventh letter in the book of Revelation is to the church of Laodicea. The name Laodicea means, just people. True justice is not a testimony of what is right verses what is wrong. True justice is to become the substance of who God is as those who have clearly obtained His mercy. We can know the power of prayer that is really a face-to-face relationship with God in all things. Those prayers are not about meeting the needs of a justice of right and wrong. They are a testimony of God’s mercy and grace that extends to the generations.

A seventh reason to hear God is to be consumed with His zeal for His glory. It invites a partnership with God to reign with Him in life. This only comes by knowing Him in us and us in Him in all things. We can partner with Him in all things and reign in life.

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.

Summary:

• The first reason to hear God is to know the life that comes by being loved by God. It is to have a relationship with Him and know Him – this is eternal life.   Revelation2:7

• A second reason to hear God is to overcome the fear of death in all things. Love does whatever is necessary to show that love and it will physically manifest that love in the actions of our lives. Revelation 2:10, 11

• A third reason to hear God is to know the inward transformation of God’s word in our hearts and His outward testimony in our lives. These are the fruit of responding to God’s gifts of His Word and Spirit in and through us. Revelation 2:17

• A fourth reason for hearing God is to give life to our world. We can bring light to any darkness and transform it to light. Revelation 2:26-29

• A fifth reason for hearing God is to walk in the works prepared for us in Christ. We are sent ones; thus, angels work with us to reveal the goodness of our Father through our lives as part of the testimony of His Son. Revelation 3:5, 6

• A sixth reason to hear God is to be a pillar of God’s presence in the earth that loves and lives for God and His family. Hearing God empowers us to be part of God’s community of life. Revelation 3:12, 13

• A seventh reason to hear God is to be consumed with His zeal for His glory. This only comes by knowing Him in us and us in Him in all things. We can partner with Him in all things and reign in life. Revelation 3:20-22

Leaders seek to live in these overcoming truths and to lead others into this same living testimony that comes through an intimate relationship with God, revealed by hearing Him.

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,

Our personal relationship with God will lead us to personal victories in our lives. We hear God to know God, not merely knowing what to do. It is through knowing God that our hearing Him will give us triumph to know an intimate relationship with Him, a life of faith towards Him that overcomes all fear of death, and a testimony of an inward and outward change of life that others in our world can see and experience. Leaders lead others in a lifestyle of hearing God for these things. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we find these things and more as a fruit of hearing God. Anyone who hears will bear the fruit of life to their world.

The fourth letter to the churches of Revelation was written to the church of Thyatira. The name Thyatira means, sacrifice or labor of love. Authority is not about getting something from someone else. It is about giving life to them. True authority is the ability to give life to others. Having been judged in Christ, we can now give life to others. We are under authority and thus we have been given authority. The ability to give life in and to any circumstance has been given to Jesus as the Son of Man, therefore, we can give life to those who are in our sphere of life. It is a matter of submission to receive authority and submission to give that substance of life to others.

A fourth reason for hearing God is to give life to our world. We can live in the uncompromising standard of giving life that destroys all manner of death. We can be true to who we really are and who God truly made us to be brings life to our world. We are sons and daughters of God, who is Light. We are lights to our world. By this we can be like the sun to the night. We turn darkness to light. We turn death to life.

Revelation 2:26 And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations— 27 ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’— as I also have received from My Father; 28 and I will give him the morning star.

The fifth letter of Revelation was to the church of Sardis. The name Sardis means, prince of joy. It is in the presence of God that there is the fullness of joy. We are awake to God, and we are children of the day and not the night. We know the power of His Might and the testimony of who we are in Christ reveals His resurrection power to our world. We are each a part in the testimony of His calling, His inheritance, and His power to the world around us.

A fifth reason for hearing God is to walk in the works prepared for us in Christ. We hear God to live in the purpose of Christ. We are clothed in the good works that have prepared for us in Christ. We live in the testimony of resurrection life and in the purpose of giving that life to our world. Like angels (sent ones) in heaven, we become sent ones in Christ to our world as sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. We are sent ones; thus, angels work with us to reveal the goodness of our Father through our lives as part of the testimony of His Son.

Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

We overcome all manner of death by being the life-giving force of God’s grace to our world. In addition to hearing for relationship, faith, and a personal heavenly testimony we hear God to receive the overcoming promises of life-giving authority to our world and a testimony of our purpose in Christ according to His resurrection life. Leaders lead others into hearing God and overcoming to see these things true in their daily lives.

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,

Leaders lead others in a lifestyle of hearing God. Hearing God is about knowing Him. It’s about knowing a living reality of an intimate relationship with Him. Living from a revelation of God’s love should be a growing reality in our lives. That revelation of love should inspire a growing measure of faith towards God in our lives. That faith is a testimony of hearing God in our hearts. Faith towards God should inspire sacrifices of love on our part. A testimony of God’s word and Spirit in our lives should empower a heavenly testimony in our lives that others can see.

In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we find these things as a fruit of hearing God. Anyone who has an ear to hear is to hear that they might bear the fruit of God’s life to others in their world. The first letter of Revelation chapter 2 is to the church of Ephesus. As the meaning of its name implies, Ephesus is the desirable place, the place of paradise. Paradise is a place of intimacy with God in Christ. It is the ability to know how much God loves us. It is a place of knowing that God walks with us in life. It is not about what is good and what is evil, it is about knowing the love of God. Our hate for evil or our desire to do good things cannot exceed our ability to know the love of God. Our first love is to know how much God loves us and to say to Him, “here I am.” 

The first reason to hear God is to know the life that comes by being loved by Him. It is to have a relationship with Him and know Him – this is eternal life. Leaders must set an example to others in this overcoming testimony.

Revelation 2:7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”‘

The second letter of Revelation chapter 2 is to the church of Smyrna. Smyrna means, myrrh. Myrrh is a burial oil. Christ died once for all; thus all have died in Christ, but because of the overcoming power of His love we can also live in Him. It is only in Christ that we can truly live, and that life is eternal life. It is life beyond death and life that overcomes death in all things. It is not just life that comes from being loved by God, it is a life that testifies of our love for God. It is a place of hearing the voice of life in our hearts that empowers us to do works that speak of that life in all things. Our actions in life are empowered by faith that works through love. Perfect love has cast out all fear and thus the life we live is empowered by the overcoming love of God. No death can destroy us.

A second reason to hear God is to overcome the fear of death in all things. Love does whatever is necessary to show that love and thus it will physically manifest that love in the actions of our lives. Leaders must set an example to others in this overcoming testimony of sacrificial love that is free from all fear of death.

Revelation 2:10 Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 “He who has an ear, let  him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”‘

The third letter of Revelation chapter 2 is to the church of Pergamos. Pergamos means the place of height or elevation. It is a place of becoming the testimony of God’s heavenly power and fruit in life. It is the place of heavenly realities in the lives of men. It is the place of the circumcision of the heart where heaven becomes a part of our testimony in life. It is the reality of the gifts of God’s word and Spirit at work in us.

A third reason to hear God Is to know the inward transformation of God’s word in our hearts and His outward testimony in our lives. These are the fruit of responding to God’s gifts of His Word and Spirit in and through us. It is the evidence of a personal experience with Holy Spirit in and upon our lives to overcome the powers bitterness and carnal desires. It is an enlightenment of Holy Spirit inside of our hearts and an overflowing testimony of Holy Spirit in our lives. Leaders must set an example to others in this overcoming testimony.

Revelation 2:17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”‘

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 lead others in hearing God. We hear God and we live to serve others in being empowered to hear God and respond to Him in their lives. Hearing God is not about God loving us, it is about knowing God’s love and knowing a loving God. Hearing God is not about being clean, it is about being fruitful. We are already clean by the word that Jesus was and is. God our Father loved us, so He sent His word as His Son to reveal to us His will and way for us in life. Jesus was the word made flesh to make each of us clean. He is and was the expression of our Father’s love that washed us clean through the gift of His righteousness. He became a man to make us clean and we are joined to Him as men and women that we might now be fruitful in this world.

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

In these verses, Jesus was speaking to His disciples. He had not yet died for them, but He had come as the word of the Father’s love to their lives. This is God’s way and will for us all. He wants us to know the free gift of righteousness that comes by the empowerment of our Father’s love. In this story told by Jesus, the purpose of pruning the vine was not to make the vine clean. It was to empower the vine to be more fruitful.

John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”

Like the branches in the vine, our Father desires for us to abide in the vine. Jesus is the vine. Being a part of the body of Christ is being a part of the vine. Being joined to God in Christ is being part of the vine. Being part of the vine is a matter of relationship and relationship with God who is life will bear the fruit of life to others in our world. The fruit of the vine is not for the vine. It is to bring the life of the vine to the world of the vine. We hear God to bring the fruit of God’s life to our world.

We don’t hear God so that God will love us. We are already loved. Jesus demonstrated this in real life with His disciples before He died for them. He was the word sent to them to reveal to them the Father’s love.

John 15:9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”

We don’t hear God so that we can abide in God. God is our Father and He already loves us. When we abide in His love the fruit of His love will empower us to manifest the fruit of His love to our world. Hearing God is so we will become life for our world.

Hearing God is about relationship, faith, testimony, authority, purpose, community, and destiny. All of these things are elements of relationship. Relationship is all about love. As leaders we lead others to hear God that they might be fruitful – that they might bring the fruit of God’s loving 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,

As leaders, we lead others in hearing God. Hearing God empowers us to live our lives in faith because we are empowered by faith. Faith is the opposite of natural sight. It is a testimony of trusting what God sees more than what we can presently see in our world.

Faith happens when we hear God in our hearts. Faith is not merely about knowing God’s love for us. Faith is the environment of finding our true identity, testimony, and purpose in life. The sound of faith is a sound of a great God, a good God, and a God whose mercy endures forever. It is a sound of overcoming life that empowers us to live, to be expressions of life, and to fulfill our purpose of giving life to our world.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

The word for world in this verse is the GSRN165, αἰών aiōn; an age. The worlds that were framed in Hebrews chapter 11 were not the worlds that God created. They were the worlds of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and many other men and women of God. Their futures were resisted by the natural realities of their lives, but they were empowered to overcome all things by hearing and responding to God’s voice. Their present and their futures were framed by hearing God in their hearts.

When we respond to God’s voice in our lives today, our present reality and our future destiny can be changed to become a testimony of God’s will. Only God’s will in our lives can empower us to fulfill our true purpose in life. We were born to be loved by God. We were born to know God personally and intimately. We were born to overcome all the things that resist God’s will in our lives by the power of faith. The will of God in our lives is that we can be fruitful in bringing life to our world, even a world that is often damaged by a thief, some power of death, or some form of destruction.

Isaiah 61:4 And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.

The framing of each of our worlds includes things that we have inherited from our past, things that happen in our present reality, and things that are destined to be because of who we are in our world. Things that have been taken, taken apart, or taken down, need to be rebuilt. Things that have lost life and have become desolated need to be raised up and made new. Things that have been ruined need to be repaired for the sake of our generational purpose in life. Hearing God in our hearts will empower us to receive realities of a new world that gives us a redeemed identity, testimony, and purpose for the sake of bringing life to our world.

The first three verses of Isaiah chapter 61 reveal the supernatural means by which God comes into our lives to empower us to overcome all things. Jesus is Lord and the true source of life transforming desire to the beliefs of our hearts. It’s with compassion that God comes to give good news to those in poverty. It is with His love that He heals broken hearts and gives freedom to those who were bound in some form of captivity. It is by the power of His love that He opens prison doors, restores inheritances, and defeats all our enemies. His heart is moved with compassion to comfort those who mourn, to restore human beauty, give them back their joy, and clothe them in His work of praise. It is with His compassionate love that He does all these things but is for His purpose of our knowing His love and becoming His love for our world that He does them. God wants to plant us as evergreen trees of righteousness in our world. He wants us to live for Him and for one another in the compassion and love of our hearts. Leaders live to know this, be this, and to lead others into this path of life-giving inheritance. As trees of righteousness our leaves will bring healing to the nations of our world and the fruit of our lives will be ripe to give life to those in our world in every season of our path for God’s glory. It is through a personal and intimate relationship with God that we can be empowered to overcome every thief, every manner of death, and every testimony of destruction so that our true identity, testimony, and purpose can be empowered to bring life 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