ted4leaders

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

The government of God is not a government of godly or biblical principles whereby we are simply informed as to how to act or what to do in life. It is not merely an administration of Christian beliefs or values. The government of God is the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. It is the manifest presence of Holy Spirit transforming our hearts and minds because we are a dwelling place of God. Instructions alone can never empower us to become a testimony of God in character, nature, way, power, or authority. We can never come to understanding of these things by godly information or godly laws.

2 Corinthians 3:15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Only the manifest presence of God in our lives transforms us from within. This is the government of God. Leaders assist by setting an example and serving to administrate an atmosphere and path by which the government of God can govern our lives. The kingdom of God is not merely a coming kingdom someday. It is a constantly coming kingdom within us that transforms our lives. The internal kingdom of God causes our kingdoms to manifest as kingdoms of our Lord and Christ. The Lordship of Jesus and the anointing of Christ in, with, and upon our lives empowers us to become a testimony of God’s kingdom to our world.

The Old Covenant served as a shadow of the good thing to come. The good thing to come was an administration of grace. The administration of grace is an administration of God’s manifest presence dwelling in us. It is an administration of God’s manifest presence working in and through us to be givers of life to our world.

When King David became king in Israel, something was missing from the Tabernacle of Witness. The ark of the covenant had been missing for twenty years. All of the ceremony of the tent was performed, but the manifest presence of God was not there. Forms of service, methods of ministry, or simply administrating what we believe to be the will of God is not enough. We must live with and be empowered by the manifest presence of God in our lives. King David knew that to be the king of Israel, a testimony of the kingdom of God upon the earth in shadow form, he had to have the manifest presence of God. He was not merely interested in returning the presence of God to a form of law that didn’t value God’s presence. He knew that to be king in Israel, every decision and act of his rule had to be made by the inspiration of God’s word and presence in his life. For this reason, King David sought to create a tent for God’s presence in Jerusalem and put the ark of God’s covenant there – 2 Sam. 6:1-15. 

In the beginning days of David’s rule there was a form of godliness in the Tabernacle, but God was not there. RITUAL is not a substitute for the presence of God. King David, as the governor of the government of God in the earth, recognized that to lead God’s house he had to have the presence of God in his house. As leaders, we lead for, from, and with the presence of God in our lives. We lead others to live in this same way in their daily lives. Only the manifest presence of God in us, with us, and upon us can fully empower us to be the husbands, wives, dads, moms, grandpas, grandmas, friends, neighbors, and members of our community. It is true in the things of the spirit, and it is true for all the things in the natural. The fruit and the power of the Spirit comes from the presence of Holy Spirit in our 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,

The government of God is the empowerment of Holy Spirit working in the human heart and mind. This is where the law of God is written. That law is the Father’s love given as a desire to those who willingly receive it. This is the writing of the character, nature, way, power, and authority transforming who we are from within. This is what empowers our thoughts and beliefs to be life-giving to our world. This is the internal government of the Kingdom of God. Leaders in the New Covenant are not the government of the church. They are simply governors serving the Holy Spirit for the will of God in all things. Every individual is responsible for the presence and purpose of God in their life. They are responsible to seek to be a participating member of the body of Christ for the will of our heavenly Father.

New Covenant governors cannot rob God’s people of carrying the responsibility of their covenant with God nor the blessing of His presence in their lives. The government is not what comes to the body, but it’s the design of the body and it’s the fuel in the body. The design of the body is for each individual to grow in knowing who they are in Christ and who Christ is in them. The fuel of the government of God is the manifest presence of Holy Spirit in each believer. This empowers each one’s response of faith. These truths are realized  by each one turning to the Jesus whereby He is Lord by His Spirit working in and through each member of Christ’s body. Every believer is a part of the royal priesthood of God in Christ. We are all kings and priests unto our God.

Revelation 1:5 To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The leaders of the Church are NOT the government of God. Those who are responsible to lead in the Church are covenant governors to serve the body of Christ in fulfilling the identity, testimony, and purpose of being kings and priests to our God and Father. The shadow of this was seen in the Old Covenant priests and Levites. It was not God’s desire to merely have one tribe in the role of carrying the covenant and presence of God. He has always desired that all of His people fulfill this role.

1 Chronicles 15:14 So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel. 15 And the children of the Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders, by its poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the LORD.

The ark of God contained the presence of God along with the testimony of His Law and Spirit. In the days of Noah, the ark was a boat that carried the family of God’s people that would be left behind in the earth to fulfill God’s purpose and plan as the wicked were removed in the waters of the flood. God’s presence rested with Noah and his family for a furtherance of His plan in the earth. For the Israelites, the ark as the covenant was the sanctified container carried by the priests upon poles as they journeyed in their chosen path by God. The priests had the responsibility of carrying the ark in a way that demonstrated that the presence of God in the ark was what directed their path. That ark was the testimony of God’s presence resting with His people for His covenant purpose and plan in the earth. In the New Covenant, the ark that contains God’s presence is the body of Christ. God resting in our lives is the source of His covenantal purpose in our world. Leaders must lead to activate, facilitate, and release those they lead to embrace their role as members of the body that carries God’s manifest presence for His kingdom to come and His will to be done upon the earth as it is in heaven. Leaders are not called to minister on behalf of the body of Christ. They are called to equip each member for the work of the ministry. That ministry is the testimony of God’s love to the world. It is a ministry of God’s manifest presence and purpose to the nations of the world. Each member is meant to do their share in functioning together with others for the identity, testimony, and purpose of the body of Christ.

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 to know the Prince of all princes, not merely principles of a Christian faith. It is the voice of God to our hearts that empowers us to live, move, and have our true being in life. Principles of truth testify of God in His character but only God can transform us to become like Him in His ways. Knowing Christ transforms our character. Seeking to merely adhere to principles of His character can only conform us by restraining us in some way. The New Covenant is revealed through an intimate relationship with God in each one’s heart. It is a spirit-to-Spirit connection that transforms us from within to be growing and maturing members of the body of Christ. A priority of leadership is not teaching people what or what not to do. It is inspiring others to seek to know God for who He is so that they can become who they are meant to be.

I believe that much of the church tries to operate with Old Covenant principles. Principles alone cannot change the lives of people. We all need the influence of a greater Prince that can empower us to be sons and daughters of God in Christ. Christ in us can give us the true life-giving changes that are only testified of in godly principles. The system of the Old Covenant was one of law and conscience, while the New Covenant is an administration of grace and truth. Under an administration of the knowledge of good and evil it was necessary to have a knowledge of good to inspire the human desire for the One who is good. That knowledge either came in the form of the administration of the human conscience or in the form of law. The perfect knowledge of good was given through the full expression of law in the Torah Law of God. God had no intention of the Torah Law changing the inherent lives of people, it simply pointed to the perfect knowledge of good in a time of the administration of the knowledge of good and evil. It lacked the fullness of truth, which could only be revealed in and through a human expression of grace, and truth.

Galatians 3:24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

Jesus was the Word of God in flesh. God became a man as an expression of God in human form as the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person. The word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood so that anyone and everyone could be transformed by God and become an expression of God in their flesh.

John 1:14   And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…

John 1:17 …For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Jesus as a man was full of grace and truth. The influence of His life was the Spirit of God within Him and by this He grew as a testimony of God in human form. He was the Word in flesh. He was the Truth. To lead the church as New Covenant leaders we must embrace the realities of New Covenant grace and truth. We cannot put New Covenant rule with Old Covenant principles and expect it to work. Godly principles are a witness to God’s character, nature, and way but only a NOW relationship with God in our hearts empowers us to become truth. As church leaders we are governors of the government of God, but the government of God is the life of God within the heart of the church and within the heart of each believer. We must lead in a way that activates, facilitates, and releases the life of God within the church and its members. Our role is not merely to teach godly principles but to demonstrate an intimate relationship with God that inspires others to follow.

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,

When I was completing my master’s degree in biblical studies, I was asked to write a simple theology of the Old Testament and a simple theology of the New Testament. My conclusion was this (from my book: The Now Covenant):

The Old Covenant testimony revealed that God always wanted a people who could say God was their God, it would be said of them that they were God’s people, and they would know the reality of living together with Him. The New Covenant testimony is that God finally has a people who from their hearts know that God is their God. He has passed over their sins and made them dependent upon Him in their hearts. He is their righteousness. God finally has a people who are a testimony of Him. They have peace with Him in their hearts because He is their peace. There is no gap between them and Him and thus the testimonies of His heavenly realities are becoming increasing testimonies in their lives and others can see it. God finally has a people who live together with Him in all things. They know the joy of His manifest presence in their hearts. They know that God gives life, He gives them breath, and He gives them all things.

These three things were seen in the Old Covenant through the main feasts of Israel. Passover depicted the testimony of being the people redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. God was their God. Pentecost depicted the testimony of being people of God’s testimony – the Word and the Spirit. We are different than those who seek to live for themselves in the world. We seek God and live to be a testimony of Him in our world. Tabernacles depicted the testimony of being people who celebrated every harvest in partnership with God for His purpose and glory in all things. We don’t live for our own kingdoms, but for the kingdom of God. These realities were not intended to merely be ceremonial feasts. They are attributes of a way of life with God as His family in this world. God is our God, we are His people, and we live together. It is for these three things that leaders lead.

Leaders lead others in knowing God in a personal and intimate way. He gives them life. We are loved by God, and it is God’s love that gives us life at all times. Leaders lead others in knowing the supernatural power of God’s love. They lead in knowing the righteousness of God found in Christ. It is a righteousness of being loved by God through the testimony of Jesus – the redeemer of our lives.

Leaders lead others in being the family of God with the testimony of His Word and Spirit in this world. We have peace with God and there is no gap between us and Him. We are expressions of Him for the glory of His inheritance in all things. God loves us and we love Him! We reveal His love to our world through His continual change in our lives.

Leaders lead others in a partnership with God in all things. God gives us all things and all things are for His purpose and glory. Our lives are filled with many seasons of harvest and each harvest is purposed to give the food of life to our world and plant the seeds of life for a generation to come. This is to live our lives as sons and daughters of God who is our Father. We are givers of life as He is a giver of life to us.

We must live our lives each day with these three strong values in our hearts. We should expect to experience them every day and we should seek to celebrate them with our attitudes, thoughts, and actions in life. God is our God, we are His people, and we live together in all things.

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 want to address the focus of our lives. What has our attention? What is at the center of who we are and what we do in life? If our attention is upon some created thing, we cannot become who we are created to be. Our attention must be upon our Creator for us to be created as we should be in life. We were created by the word of God and the word of God is what causes us to discover our true identity, testimony, and purpose in life. That word is not simply something that God has spoken in the past. It is not the Scripture, but it is fully Scriptural in its substance. The word of God is the voice of God to our hearts. When are spirits are joined to His Spirit, we hear His voice from within. His voice is the voice that creates us and forms us to be who we are meant to be. For this to happen, we must value Him above all others and above all things in life.

We need to put God first to be who we are in all things. God is the only one who brings us out of bondage into our path of destiny. His love is supernatural. He is not limited by anything that is created. When He walks into the room, everything in the room changes. When He enters a space of our life, we find His life in that space. His powerful love leads to His powerful purpose.

Exodus 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 You shall have no other gods before Me.”

God brings us out of darkness, and He frees us from anything that imprisons us. He sets us at liberty so we can know the influence of His liberty in our lives. God wants us to be sons and daughters who bring freedom and liberty to our world. This is the testimony of life. We find true freedom and liberty when we see Jesus as the center of every area of our lives.

To put God first, is to put Him at the center of everything. He is at the center of our marriage, our family, our job, our service, and every aspect of our lives. Our attention is not upon God at the beginning of the day and then everything else throughout our day. Our attention is upon God at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of every day. We live for His kingdom and for His will in all things.

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

We are a temple of Holy Spirit and our attention, affection, and motivation in life is from His presence in our lives. As leaders we set an example of living our lives with Jesus in the center of of all things. He is the voice behind us that motivates us by faith in life. His voice is a voice of love and when we live our lives with Jesus in the center, we discover our identity, testimony, and purpose in life. He is the Word that creates us. He is the beginning and the ending of every day.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

When we keep our focus on Jesus, we receive the life and the light that is our light as sons and daughters of God. To do this, we practice being aware of His presence. We talk to Him. We listen to Him. We respond to Him! He is our light and through Him we become a light in the darkness of 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 posting a blog from a few years ago. I felt prompted by Holy Spirit to remind us as leaders about the justice system of God. God’s justice is not merely one of right and wrong. It is a justice of mercy and grace. It is a justice system of love.

God desires to give His love to all people, but not all people desire to receive what He wants to give. When we turn even in the slightest measure towards Him, we discover the amazing power of His unsurpassable affection. In Christ, former enemies become friends and those who were once not a part of His plan find themselves fulfilling His purposes in the earth.

As leaders we must lead with this same example. We should desire to love everyone. We should be willing to love all people, but we can only give our love to those who want our love. We cannot force our lives upon them, but at a hint in our direction we should be ready to respond even as God our Father responds to us. By this even former enemies can become friends.

Isaiah 61:5-6 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But you shall be named the priests of the LORD, they shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory you shall boast. 

By the power of Christ’s internal kingdom of life, even those who did not know Him find themselves sowing and reaping in His kingdom. They find themselves standing as priests before Him and they become those who serve Him for the glory of His purposes in the earth. I believe that eating the riches of the Gentiles is receiving them as brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God. Those who did not know God become part of His family for the inheritance of the family name. The glory of the Gentiles is their salvation in Christ! We are living in a time where the harvest of the nations will be seen as those who labor in the fields of God’s purpose in the nations. We must be willing to partner with others for the sake of the purpose of God’s fields in the earth.

It is not in the defeat of those who have not known the covenants of God that we rejoice. It is in their glory! When those who had not known the covenants of God become those who sow and reap in the kingdom of God it is a time to rejoice in the justice system of the kingdom of God. It is a justice system of the Tree of Life. It is a justice system of love. Those who had not known the covenants of God are no longer bound to shame; but have found a place of inheritance among those who are the redeemed of the Lord!

Isaiah 61:7  Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs. 

This is a justice system of forgiveness and healing. It is a justice system of new beginnings and of grafting into the ancient things of God. Those who come at the end of the day will get the same wages as those who came at the beginning of the day. The ceilings of the past will become the foundations of the present, only to increase in the testimony of God’s grace and peace!

Isaiah 61:8-9 “For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery for burnt offering; I will direct their work in truth, and will make with them an everlasting covenant. Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people. All who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the posterity whom the LORD has blessed.” 

It’s not fair! It’s scandalous by the standards of the knowledge of good and evil. It’s unfair by the standards of right and wrong! The justice system of the kingdom of heaven transforms the hearts of men to become a testimony of being children of God. Those who were the enemies of God become friends to His name! As leaders we must embrace God’s justice system of love above the justice system of right and wrong and we must set an example that those we lead can follow.

Isaiah 61:10-11 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. 

The Israel of God is not just a Jewish people group by birth, but a people of circumcised hearts! These are those who are true inheritors of God. They were Jew and Gentile, but now they have become the children of God in Christ! These are those who bear His name in the earth and the governing rule of their lives is Christ in them, the hope of glory! His righteousness and praise are springing forth before all the nations as the internal kingdom of Heaven invades the nations as the Kingdom that consumes all of the kingdoms of the 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,

We are a dwelling place of God. We are a temple of Holy Spirit. This is the source of our life as members of the body of Christ. This is the source of our testimony in life. This is the source of our purpose in all things. God’s presence in our lives is more important than knowing what we are doing. Him in us is the source of our transformation and our maturation in Christ. As leaders we live in, with, and from the presence of God in our lives. We lead others in knowing this same reality. Being aware of God’s presence in our lives is something we must cultivate each and every day.

God doesn’t desire to simply visit us in life. He desires for us to abide in Him and He to abide in us. It is through an intimate relationship with Him that we can bear the fruit of life to our world. Fruit is not for our sake, but for the sake of all in our world.

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.”

John 15: 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.”

To abide in the words of God is not merely to depend on what He has said in our past or in His written word. The word we abide in is His rhema word. It is His spoke words to us each day. Those words are the evidence of His love for us and our love for Him. His words to us are not the words of a master to his servants. They are the words of a Father to His children. Our relationship with God is a matter of love. Leaders live to know this and to lead others in knowing this truth.

Every relationship in life requires a decision to seek an experience with another. That experience is not stuck in some moment of the past but is the fruit of eagerly seeking the presence of another to know them. God wants us to know Him and He wants us to experience an understanding that He knows us in every way. Love is the testimony that overcomes all fear. The fruit of knowing God is love. It is a love for Him and a love for one another. Leaders demonstrate God’s love in their authority. Their authority is an ability to give God’s life to their world.

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

We must seek to know God’s manifest presence in our lives. To do this, we need to practice expecting to see Him in our lives in every aspect of our lives. Holy Spirit is our connection to knowing God our Father and Jesus the Son. Holy Spirit is in us and with us and we should seek to be clothed in His presence every day. This is the armor of life. It is an armor of God’s love. It is an armor of being loved by God. This is the truth, our righteousness, our testimony in life, our ability to move forward in giving life to others, our victory of life, our expression of life, and our daily partnership with life. We must live to know God’s presence and knowing God’s presence will enable us to live. The fruit will be life and love 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,

As leaders we set an example to those that we lead in receiving life from God, being and expression of that life to our world, and in partnering with God in the truth of who we are for the purpose and will of God in all things. We must all receive the life that only God can give. We must believe the words that God says about us. We live to be expressions of Him in a likeness and image of His character, nature, way, power, and authority. We also accept who we are in Him, and we willingly partner with Him and allow Him to empower us to fulfill His purpose in our lives for the glory of His name.

God gives life. That life is eternal life. It is not a life that ends, but a life that grows from glory to glory. It is the fruit of a relationship with God in our spirits. True righteousness is to depend upon God in all things to be alive and to be empowered to bear the fruit of life in all things and at all times. Eternal life is knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son through an intimate connection with Holy Spirit in our hearts. When we experience, and hold fast to, an internal connection to God in our hearts we know the righteousness of God by the Holy Spirit transforming our hearts and minds to be expressions of our heavenly Father’s love in a supernatural and powerful way.

When God gives us life, we become expressions of that life. We have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus the Christ. There is no gap between us and God. What is in heaven is meant to shine through us as light to our world as a heavenly empowered expression of God’s life. Because there is no gap between us and God, His words to us sanctify us to be expressions of Him to our world. We hear Him and we become like Him to be a testimony of His life and love. We must believe the words that He says about us to become revelations of Him in our world.

When we become expressions of Him, we must accept our responsibility to step forward and partner with Him in His purposes and will in life. We must see ourselves as the body of Christ and willingly embrace His headship to become expressions of His body in the power and authority of life.

In his letter to the church of Ephesus, the apostle Paul wrote of the mystery of Christ and His body, the church. He wrote concerning husbands and wives, but He was ultimately revealing a mystery of Christ and the church.

Ephesians 5:32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

The great mystery of Christ and the church was seen as the wife to her husband and the husband to his wife. The wife is to receive the life that the husband gives to her. She is to believe the words that He says to her, and she should seek to come alongside of Him in all things for the will of God the Father in all things.

Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

Jesus is the head. He is the ultimate husband. He gives life to us as His wife – His body. This is true both for the individual and for us together as corporate expressions of the church. As Jesus gives life to us, we submit to Him to receive that life. We are a dwelling place of His Spirit. He makes us come alive by His powerful love! We submit to Him to receive the sanctifying words that He speaks to us. He washes us and waters us with life-giving words. His words to us make us expressions of His life in the uniqueness of who each of us are. Jesus presents us to Himself. This means that He brings us alongside of Him in all things because He doesn’t see the spots, blemishes, or wrinkles of the flesh. He sees us as His wife. We are His co-partner to bring the authority of the Father’s life and will to our world.

Leaders lead in these things and they lead others to embrace them as well. Receive the life that Jesus gives! Believe the life-sanctifying words that He says to and about you. Accept the responsibility of being who you are to partner with Jesus as the body of Christ at all times! By this we will shine as God’s light to and in our world. We will be a river of life-giving water to the peoples and generations of 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,

God doesn’t just give us promises for the sake of promises. He gives us promises for the sake of us knowing who He is and becoming like Him in His character, nature, way, power, and authority. The apostle Peter wrote that the great and precious promises of God are given to us so we will partake of God’s divine nature.

2 Peter 1:4 …by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

If the great and precious promises of God are given for us to partner with God and become like Him than we can also know that this principle is true for any and every promise given to us by God.

God wants us to know who we are and to become the authentic substance of sons and daughters of God. For this reason, God also allows us to go through pressures whereby we manifest who we are by the power of God’s grace.

Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the Holy Spirit who was given to us has poured out the love of God in our hearts.

Our peace with God is not merely a state of being calm in our hearts or at ease in our soul. Our peace is a positioning in Christ whereby there is no gap between God and us. We have been made one with Him and there is no separation between Him and us. In this He manifests in our lives and His Spirit is the substance of His grace that changes our lives from the inside out. The true test of what is in us is made known by the pressures that come against us from the outside sources of our lives. This dynamic of the inward life of Christ and the outward pressure upon our lives causes the testimony of Christ within us to become a force of life that changes the character of our lives. In this process of grace we face tribulations or pressures in life. All who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

2 Timothy 3:12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

When we face the pressures of persecution we choose to persevere. Perseverance is not just a holding on to something in pain. It is a position of attitude from within our hearts. It is a choosing to cheerfully endure in the midst of the pressures that are against us. This is not just a thing of our soul. It requires us to draw the life of the Holy Spirit into our own spirit within. In the presence of the Lord there is the fullness of joy and true perseverance is drawing upon the presence of God in our hearts in order to see His life flood our souls with the testimony of true endurance. It is not a thing of misery, but a decision to embrace the life of Christ that is within us. True perseverance always carries the substance of a choice to be cheerful and to endure. It is a cheerful endurance. When we find the secret of true perseverance, we discover the key to seeing the character of Christ in us manifest. Our own character changes by the life of the character of Christ within us. The transformation of our lives from within is what reveals true hope – a testimony of Christ in us revealed through the substance of our lives.

As leaders we set an example that others can follow in this process of change. The character of Christ becomes manifest in us when the beliefs of our hearts receive and trust Him more that the things that oppose us in life. Christ in us is the key to this process of change in our lives. Our character is to be the character of Christ. This is more important than the gifting, the skills, the charisma, or the manifested talents of our lives. It is Christ’s character that can sustain Christ’s gifting and it is only that which is  of Christ that can overcome the world. As leaders we must know and lead others in knowing that the pressures of life appear as our enemy, but the power of Christ within each of us is greater than the weapons that oppose us. We must pay more attention to our character, than to the surface abilities of leadership.

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 want to remind us of some things that I have written in the past. We live to be blessings to our world and to lead others in being a blessing to their world. That blessing is the gift of God’s life. It is a gift of an intimate relationship with God and the life that is known through that relationship.

As leaders in the body of Christ we lead others in becoming a testimony of the character of Christ to their world. This is perhaps the greatest testimony of our leadership to the lives of those that we stand before in the spheres of our influence in life. The process of God’s grace in each of our lives is one of revealing the testimony of Christ in us. This means that the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Christ must become embodied in each of our lives.

Genesis 22:15-18   Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” 

The good news that God gave Abraham was not that He would merely bless him. It was that in blessing He would bless him. The Hebrew word for blessing here is placed in a double. It is the word blessing repeated twice. It can mean great blessing, but it more clearly states that in blessing God would bless. This is the foundation for belief of every human being. Do we believe and know that we are the blessing of God in the earth? When we realize who we are, we will live to be who we are. We are a testimony of God’s likeness and image in this world, and we were born to bring glory to His name. As leaders, we must lead people in a way that they know who they are in Christ. They are not only blessed by Him they are His blessing in the earth. While the enemy pronounces “shame on you” words of bondage and death, God pronounces “shame off you” words of freedom and life. Being a blessing starts with believing who God is so you can believe who you are in Him. This is the foundation of the good news preached to Abraham. God’s plan was to make a way for humankind to be restored in the likeness and image of their heavenly Father in the earth. As leaders, we must lead others with a foundation of believing God and believing who we are in Him. It is the power of God’s Word and Spirit conceived in the human heart that establishes a foundation of believing God and believing who they are in Him. As leaders, we must be facilitators of God’s Word and Spirit in the hope of transforming the beliefs of men.

As leaders in the body of Christ we are not just gifted to lead by the grace that is given to us in Christ, we are to also be examples of the character of Christ to those we lead. This is perhaps the greatest testimony of our leadership to the lives of those that we stand before in the spheres of our influence in life. The process of God’s grace in each of our lives is one of revealing the testimony of Christ in us. This means that the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Christ must become embodied in each of our lives. God gives us promises and leads us forward to face pressures in life so that we will manifest who we are in Him. Whether it is the promises of God or the pressures of testing, both are part of a process in our lives that makes us partakers of God’s divine nature. The promises are the substance of life that He gives us, and the pressures of testing are the proving of what is being given to us by God within our lives. The pressure only manifests what is within us and Christ within us is the hope of glory.

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