ted4leaders

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

As leaders, we lead people into personal connections with God so they can find corporate connections to one another that are life-giving and life-promoting. We cannot be the connection to God for anyone. We can only inspire them to seek God and find Him in their own hearts. God doesn’t have grandchildren. He only has children. To Abraham, He was the God of Abraham. To Isaac, He was the God of Isaac. To Jacob, He was the God of Jacob; who was then intended to also be the God of Israel. Old Covenant leadership is to take people by the hand and lead them into the works of God, but the New Covenant way is to allow the hearts of each one to reach God where God empowers a change of their ways from within. New Covenant leaders inspire those they lead to find God in their hearts and be changed in their ways. I believe God is leading us deeper into this reality as His people in this world. God’s grace is at work in the generations and He who began a good work in the earth is also faithful to complete it.

We can always expect God to bring more life into our world. The news of the day is not what the enemy is doing in the nations. It is what God is doing in the nations from His kingdom within the hearts of men and women in Christ. The true temple of God is the body of Christ. We are His dwelling place, the fulness of Him in all things. The real question of our day is: What measure of water is flowing from the temple of God in this hour? This is the truth that God prophetically revealed to the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel saw what Jesus said would flow from the hearts of all who come to Him and drink. We can expect the life-giving water of God’s Spirit to get deeper and deeper for the glory of God in our world.

Ezekiel 47:1 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side. 3 And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. 4 Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. 5 Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. 6 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. 7 When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. 8 Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. 9 And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. 10 It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many.

God’s life-giving water flows from His presence to the East. He always gives us a new day of life! His waters bring healing to the places that need healing. Even the deadest places in the earth and in our lives are transformed unto life when His life-giving presence and purpose reaches us in the place called today.

In a time when the world is isolated and separated, it’s time for God’s people to be connected to God so that their personal testimonies can bring healing to the nations. God is calling us all to know Him intimately in our hearts. God is doing something in the body of Christ. There is another measure of His life-giving grace at work in our lives.

The Spirit of God says, I’ve stripped away all performance! Performance does not impress Me. What impresses Me is the sincerity of heart, and I want each one to know Me as the One and I want each one to become authentic in their identity. I want the sound of diversity! I want the notes in the song! I want each paint stroke to fill the canvas! Because I’m revealing an authentic community.

Things in the world are going to shake because the unshakeable One is manifesting in the nations. As leaders we must inspire those we lead to live in a daily connection with God, their Father, who gives us life in all the seasons of the ages of men.

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 those they lead in hearing God and proclaiming what He says. This is the testimony of prophetic ministry. Prophetic ministry is both prophetic and ministry. It is something ‘received’ from God and then ‘given’ to people. One part is the passive function of receiving the prophetic message from God. The second part is the active function of transmitting the prophetic message to the people. The more we grow in knowing who God is, we grow in being His voice in our world. He does not put shame upon the world but comes in the power of life to free all people from every place of shame. For this reason, our voice as leaders must free people from shame and not place shame upon them. We must set an example in our ability to receive what God says and to transmit what He says in the way that He says it. All people should prophetically see what God is revealing and proclaim His message of life to their world. Leaders only set an example in doing so and inspire those they lead to do the same.

Leadership in the body of Christ should set an example in being expressions of God’s voice to their world. When God speaks, life happens! This is the true testimony of the Spirit of prophecy. It is a testimony of Jesus. To understand the function of prophetic ministry we must look at the receptive function as well as the proclaiming function of prophetic ministry:

1 Sam. 9:9 (Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus: “Come, let us go to the seer”; for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer).

To speak what God says, we must first hear what He is saying. Hearing God is actually seeing by revelation what God is saying. This is why John turned to see the voice that spoke to Him in the first chapter of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 1:12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

God’s voice is not a voice of information, but a voice of transformation. Prophecy is the testimony of Jesus and when we receive something of Jesus by revelation, that revelation changes us from within.

God speaks to our spirits by allowing us to see into the realm of eternity for life-giving expressions into our natural realm. When God speaks to our spirit, our spirit then speaks to our soul. It comes from within us. When people hear, they hear in basically three different ways. God is not limited in His ways of communicating, but we are limited in our means of hearing. We hear God by seeing pictures, hearing thoughts, or sensing and feeling something from within. The reception of revelation from within inspires us to declare what we see, hear, or sense from within. Prophecy is a result of the Divine activity of God upon the human personality of man, resulting in a prophetic message which “bubbles up” and “gushes forth” as living water from the throne room of God.

John 7:37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus demonstrated this life in His encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. He didn’t condemn her in her sin but offered her life by life-giving words of the Spirit.

John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

In Jesus’ conversation with her, he demonstrated God’s love for her through words that broke the shame of condemnation off her life. He didn’t shame her. He gave her life! Our words as leaders must be words of life! Our words as believers in Christ, must be words of life. We live to hear, see, and sense all that God empowers us to see in order to give life-giving words to those in our world. The result is life!

Ezekiel 47:9 And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.

Words from our hearts should bring life to our world! They should bring healing to those we speak to. Life should be the testimony of our encounters with others in this 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,

A key to hearing God’s voice is to know that there is no shame on any of us. Love is the foundation for hearing God’s voice. He speaks to us because He loves us. His voice doesn’t condemn us. His voice frees us from all condemnation. If we believe in Jesus, we will not be put to shame (Rom. 10:11; Isa. 28:16).

Romans 10:11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily.

Jesus came to take our shame off us and to graft us into the family tree of God’s love. He came so that we would not choose a path of shame. He came so that we would choose the path of being loved by God. When we choose the path of being loved God, we don’t act hastily. His love makes us unshakeable, and we don’t choose anything that is less than His love in our lives. It is His love that empowers us to choose His path of life. It is not the fear of sin that empowers us to choose the path of life, but a revelation of God’s love.

Jeremiah 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. 8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.

Jesus came that we might trust our Heavenly Father. He came that we would know the love of God. He came that we would know the truth, and the truth would make us free. The truth is not how bad sin is, but how good the Lord is. Jesus came that we would be planted in a firm relationship with God in all things. It is for this reason that leaders lead.

Religion often emphasizes the sins of humanity and therefore seeks to put shame upon those who are bound to the error of sin. Jesus came to break the chains and shackles that bound us to the shame that is attached to sin. Shame belongs on sin, but God desires to free all sinners from the shame of sin. Sin is a disconnection from God, who is life. It is not our job to point to sin. Our role is to love those who are being freed from every shame of sin.

Prophecy is not meant to reveal man’s sin. It is given to reveal God’s love. Our objective must never be to condemn or judge others with words of guilt or shame. God wants to speak, but His words are words of life! It is the love of God that breaks the power of sin. It is not the condemnation of sin that frees men. Sin is already condemning, and sin is already condemned. To attach to it is to attach to condemnation. Jesus frees us from our attachment to sin. He frees us from our attachment to death. This is the testimony of God’s love. As leaders, we must keep a right focus for the sake of those we lead. Our focus must be upon the love of God, not the hate of sin.

If we hate sin more than we love people, there is something wrong in our focus. Our hate for sin must be rooted in our love for people, not our desire to see things made right. Sin kills sinners, this is why we want to see people set free from all sin. Sin is a disconnect from God. It is a disconnect from the true inheritance of life that only God can give. It is for this reason we invite people to a relationship with God in all things. It is in Christ that they will find all freedom from every shame. It is for the love of God and for the love of God’s children that leaders lead.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is: House of Bread Ministry 3210 Meridian St. Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

As leaders, we are expressions of God’s communication to others. We are activators and facilitators of the voice of God in the hearts of those we lead. We are not the voice of God to them, but we are servants sent to help them hear God in their own hearts for the sake of their identity, testimony, and purpose in Christ. We hear God and we share what we hear, but we are not a substitute for the voice of God within anyone’s heart. We are, however, examples of sons and daughters of God who hear His voice and experience His friendship and love in our lives for the sake of inspiring those we lead.

Any expression of communication by God is for the sake of life. God’s communication with us is not about information. It is about relationship. He has always wanted us to know Him as our Father. He wants us to know that He sees us as His sons and daughters. We are His family. The strength of family is love. The attribute of being family members is to be friends. We are friends with God and with one another. We aren’t friends in order to get something from God or from one another. We are friends to love one another. We are friends to support one another in life. This is what God wanted in the very beginning as we find it in the record of His covenant with man. God walked in the cool of the day with Adam (Gen. 3:8). God’s conversations with Enoch were based upon the fact that God liked him. Enoch pleased God.

Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

God liked Enoch. He found pleasure in His relationship with Enoch and Enoch found pleasure in his relationship with God. To Enoch was revealed a glimpse of the triumphant Church of God in the earth (Jude 14). God showed Him this because he was His friend.

God told things to Abraham based upon His friendship with him (Gen. 18:17). Before He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, He told His friend Abraham what He would do. God would not bring a change in the earth without telling his friend in the earth what that change was.

When king Jehoshaphat faced the enemies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, he appealed to God on the basis of God’s friendship with Abraham. He knew that the foundation for being the people of God was a friendship with Him. Being the people of God, was being the family of God. The family of God is filled with family members who know God as their friend. They trust God in His abilities, because they know God in His friendship.

2 Chronicles 20:5 Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court, 6 and said: “O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? 7 Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? 8 And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, 9 If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’

It is on the basis of personal relationship that God tells His prophets His coming actions in the earth (Amos 3:7). It’s not because of God’s power. It’s because of His love. God’s communication with man is based upon friendship and love. The love of God is at the core of prophetic communication. It is love for people and a desire to see them relationally connected to God as their Father that must motivate our willingness to prophesy. This must be at the core of our willingness to accept any responsibility of leading others in the body of Christ.

God wants to speak to us on the basis of friendship and love, not on the basis of information. For this reason, prophetic ministry must function to further our relationship with God, not to get information from Him. Our role as leaders must be to assist others in knowing a friendship with God based upon His 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,

As leaders we are called to lead people to become expressions of God’s life to others that activates others to become expressions of God’s life to others in their world. When God speaks, life happens! When God expresses something of Himself to our world, life happens in our world. As God’s children, we must be expressions of life to our world. When we speak, it should activate life in those we speak to.

We can only speak in accordance with what we can see. We speak what we hear. What we see can affect what we hear and what we seek to listen to will affect what we see. For this reason, we must be a prophetic people. We must speak those things that come from the realm of eternal life in Christ.

Prophetic ministry is not about information. It is a matter of intimacy with God that releases the power of His transformation in our lives. God wants to give us life and He wants us to give life to others in our world. Sometimes there are influences in life that hinder us from hearing God. God will often use the ministry of the prophetic to help us hear Him in those times. He will use an external voice to activate His internal voice in our hearts. His objective is always love and an intimate connection to Him as His children of light. God wants us to be one with Him – to be connected to Him relationally.

Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ “

When Jesus was being confronted by the devil in the wilderness, His strength to overcome was not rooted in His supernatural abilities. It was rooted in His personal connection to God as His Father. He set this example for us all and He opened the door for all of humanity to have this same grace to overcome all things in life. It is the place of hearing God from within. The word is not merely written in the Scriptures. It is the word of the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God written in our hearts and minds through a personal relationship with God as our Father. When Jesus said, “It is written”; I believe He was talking about it being written in His heart and mind. I don’t believe He was merely quoting the Torah; the Torah (Law) was a witness of Him. His personal connection with God made Him an overcoming testimony of God’s word to others.

God is constantly communicating with us through the intricate expressions of His creation. That expression is not about information, it is about life!

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

The expression of creation is not about information. It is about life. The winter season communicates a time of rest, and even hibernation for creatures in the forest so that they can be prepared to birth new life in the spring. The spring season isn’t about information to the forest. It is a wakeup call to the forest for the sake of being alive. New life springs forth to activate new life, and more life, in the forest. Communication is part of God’s nature because His heart’s intent is to bring life to the world. He is not interested in informing us concerning truth. He is truth for the sake of us coming alive in Him, and because of Him!

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 are called to lead people with a spirit of expectancy into new expectations of the greatness, the goodness, and the mercy of God. There is a difference between being expectant and having expectations. Our personal expectations of God, and even of one another, often limit us from receiving the gifts that God wants to give to us. Our expectations of what He will do can bind us from living with an expectancy of who He is. I believe that the greatest gift that God desires to give us is the gift of becoming people of God. It is the gift of growing in being the place of God’s presence in the earth. This is surely what God is doing in this hour.

Our own preconceived ideas can hinder us from receiving the fresh things of God in our lives. We can get stuck in some place of the past if we fail to have an expectancy for what God is doing and going to do in our future. When our expectations are fixed upon things, we see God for what He can do in our lives and not for who He is and who He can cause us to become. What should the center of our expectancy be focused upon? Perhaps our greatest dissolution comes when we focus on things, instead of our relationship with God and one another. The children of Israel failed to enter the Promised Land because they knew the works of God, but they failed to know His ways. They failed to know who God is, because they were distracted by what they expected He would do.

Psalms 95:6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. 7 For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: 8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they saw My work. 10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation and said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.’

Worship of God, bowing down to God, and kneeling before Him, are terms that describe an intimate relationship with Him and a revelation of His love. Being the people of His pasture implies knowing a personal connection to the presence of God who cares for us in life. Being the sheep of His hand is to know His personal touch of love and care in our lives. He is speaking, not so we will know what to do or what He is going to do. It is hearing so we can know who He is and know who we are. God wants our hearts because He wants us to know His heart. He wants us to know His love. As leaders, we must live to know a relationship with God, knowing who He is, and then leading the way for others to discover the same.

We must lead people to have an expectancy rooted in who God is, not in what He can do. To do this, we must first find ourselves captured by the ways of God. I believe only a view of God as our heavenly Father can give us a proper view of who He is. He is great, He is good, and His mercy endures forever! This is the sound of His heart and it is the sound of His presence in our lives. We can always expect great outcomes in life because He is great.  We can expect things to work out for good because He is good. We can expect a future of life because His mercy endures forever!

Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Our expectancy of God is not merely connected to what He can do. It is not about how supernatural or powerful we can be for some expression of ministry. Our expectancy of God is connected to who He is and His love. It is connected to a love for Him and a love for one another as the family of God. Our inner strength, the strength of our spirts to our souls, is connected to a personal connection to God. Our strength is connected to His presence in our lives. His presence is not merely about His power. It is about His love. It’s the dwelling of Christ in us and us in Him that gives us an understanding of His love. We grow in knowing the width, the length, the depth, and the height of God’s love in our lives! These are attributes of connection to Him, not merely attributes of connection to the things that He does or can do. As leaders we lead others into a connection with God and one another by our own connection to God and to others as the body of Christ. This is the testimony of His power working in us! It is about relationship and knowing the ways of God, not merely His works. This is the reality of God in His greatness, goodness, and mercy! This is the essence of being people of God!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com www.ted4you.com or www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to: House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is: House of Bread Ministry 3210 Meridian St. Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

What determines the future of our world? Our world consists of everything within the environment and influence of our personal lives. Authority is based upon our responsibility, not our anointing. Our anointing serves our authority, but it does not define our authority. Authority is a measure of responsibility given to each of us that authorizes us to give life to others in our world. When we know who we are, we can find the grace of God to give life to our world. Grace comes on truth and only grace reveals the salvation of God to the circumstances and situations of our lives. Grace cannot empower us when we live a lie. Grace comes when we acknowledge what we are responsible for in life. As leaders, we have been given the authority to lead those within our sphere of influence to embrace the authority of their lives. This means we are called to help them embrace who they really are.

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

The commission to our lives is to make disciples of the nations. We do that by influencing those in our own world for the sake of God’s salvation to the world. To make disciples is to be an influence of grace in the lives of others. Grace is the manifest presence of God that changes our lives. We are called to influence others in a way that inspires, and even empowers, them to embrace a life in Christ. In embracing their identity in Christ, they also embrace the manifest presence of Christ in their life.

Authority is being who we are for the sake of giving life to our world. It is being responsible. In the English language I can define responsibility as the ability to respond to the source of life to be able to give life to others in our world.  We are not to take people by the hand and lead them. We are to lead them to take responsibility for their own lives. This involves a partnership with God in all things. It involves becoming strong in God’s word and strong in His Spirit. To be strong in His word is not being strong in Scripture memory. It is being strong in the character, nature, way, power, and authority of His word. What is God saying? To know what God is saying, one must first know the kind of things God would say. This is knowing the person God. If we don’t know the person God, we will take what He says and misinterpret it. We won’t understand Him in His written word if we don’t know Him in His personal presence. We must be strong in His Spirit. This is to be strong in His manifest presence in our lives.

We lead people to know who they are and then to overcome everything in their lives that seeks to destroy who they really are.

1 John 2:12-14 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

There are many forms and expressions of the wicked one in our lives. The wicked one comes to destroy our true identity, so we won’t become fathers and mothers for the sake of our world. Fathers and mothers don’t just take responsibility for their own lives. They take responsibility for the care and training of children. They know how to be overcomers. They know how to overcome the wicked one and they empower their children to be able to do the same. To overcome the wicked one, we must be strong and allow the word of God to abide in us. That word that abides in us is not just the freshly spoken rhema word of God in our hearts. It is the logos word, the words that God has spoken.

An overcomer knows how to stand on what God has said even if they don’t feel the freshness of His word within them. They know how to constantly hear God and how to stand fast on what He has said. This includes doing due diligence to study God’s written word and to know the kind of things God says so they will not fall for covenant breaking, character compromising thoughts and words that come from other sources. The cares of the world, offenses of the flesh, plans of the devil, and many other things want to keep them as mere children who know that God loves them, forgives them, and is present in their lives.

God comes into our lives to reveal that He loves us, but that doesn’t mean that He approves of everything we are doing or even the present character of our being. We were born naturally in societies of compromise, but we have been born again to become who we were meant to be as the people of God in Christ. God wants us to move into His world and become like Him. To do this we must understand that empowerment is more valuable than entitlements. Giving life to others is greater than simply receiving the life that God gives to us. It is not about what God can do for us; it is about becoming like Him in all things! We can only be empowered to give life to our world if we take responsibility for our part in our world. Leaders, lead others to take responsibility in their own lives by embracing a partnership with God and an ability to live in the overcoming power of God’s grace.

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 things of God are today! God is speaking and is only in TODAY that we can hear what God is doing. The future of the earth is not determined by what is going on in the earth. It is determined by what is going on in heaven and how the influence of heaven can invade our earth for the will of God and the influence of His kingdom to come. For this reason, we must lead as New Covenant leaders.

Old Covenant leadership leads by giving people information of what God did in the past and making that the rule of their faith. This is not really faith at all, but a belief system that is bound to something that was the result of someone hearing God yesterday. The focus of Old Covenant leadership is largely upon something that can be seen because of what God did yesterday. It is a leadership that takes people by the hand and leads them. It can end up becoming a system where the supposedly smart people lead the less intelligent people though a government of control. It is very informative and informative leadership can gather a crowd because it offers a form of perceived safety to common connection based upon a common project or a common work. That project or work is centered upon building a memorial to the memory of something that God has done. There is a perceived safety in saying you follow something that is not really going to new places but gives the assurance of places that have been known. This type of leadership may give an appearance of going somewhere new, but that new place is only a new rendition of something that has been done before. Metaphorically speaking, this type of leadership pretends to offer new life, but it is an experience of old wine in another version of an old bottle. It is perceived to be more stable and not so volatile, thus it appeals to those who don’t trust what they have not seen, heard, or thought before. It offers a connection to external things, but it doesn’t inspire the heart and mind from within. It connects people to a work of God, but it doesn’t inspire knowing God in your heart and in your mind.

Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.”

New Covenant leaders inspire people to go to places that they have not been before. This is not merely for the sake of going to new places. It is for the purpose of destiny in Christ. Like the river of God described by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 47), it is a flow of water that progresses forward for a deeper reality of God in human lives. Because it is a fuller reality of God it is a further commitment and connection to who He is in our lives. This involves letting go of some things to embrace the new things of God in our lives. It is hard to swim in the deeper waters of God if our hands of full of things that were established as monuments along the banks of the river of God in the past. When the memories of what God did become the focus of our attention, they create monuments that hold us to the banks of the river and prevent us from going further in the flow of what God is doing in the generations of humanity. By default, what should be New Covenant subtilty embraces an Old Covenant government that doesn’t hear God now and doesn’t enter the new season of God in the earth that bears the fruit of God’s life for today. To go forward seems risky because going forward is a matter of faith. 

Luke 5:39 And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.'”

New Covenant leaders are required to lead people into places they don’t immediately desire to go. Old Covenant leadership is in many ways simpler and Old Covenant leadership makes people dependent upon leaders. I believe that much of the church is led in Old Covenant ways. For this reason, many of our church structures and methods are dependent upon strong leaders who become kings and priests for the people. New Covenant leaders must inspire those they lead to hear what they are hearing. They cannot hear God for the people but they themselves must hear God and they must be obedient to faith. They then inspire those they lead to be people of faith. Faith is the supernatural result of a personal relationship with God in our hearts. It comes when we hear God speaking to us from within. New Covenant leaders must lead people to hear what God is saying now. They must lead people into a personal responsibility of embracing God presence of love and God’s presence of purpose in their own lives. This is a daily reality. It is seasonal and requires each one to bear the fruit of the present season of God in their lives and in the earth. The fruit of the present season is a testimony of what God is doing is now, not a memory of yesterday. The best wine is now!

John 2:10 And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”

The best wine is the life of God revealed in our hearts and minds that inspires a testimony of God’s life-giving Spirit today. It inspires a celebration of life as an intimate connection with God by each and everyone. The miracle of Jesus at the wedding of Canna was a miracle that depicts a celebration of intimacy and a foundation for a covenant relationship of life. New Covenant leaders lead others to know God in their hearts.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

As leaders we must know the reason for which we lead. Do we lead for Christian works? Do we lead for Christian ministry? I believe that we must lead for love. This is not just humanistic love, but the love of God made known in our hearts and through the works of our lives. That love is manifested as being members of the family of God. We lead in the family so that every member of the family can be inspired and empowered to love someone else, but it is for love that we lead. The family of God is a place of knowing the love of our heavenly Father in all things. His love is manifested both naturally and supernaturally. But even when it is in practical and natural things, it is in a supernatural way that God’s love is revealed. Do we love to minister to others, or do we minister to others because we love them? The testimony of true family is a testimony of love. It is not a testimony of works of ministry. The apostle Paul commended those who led with love as the motivation of their hearts.

1 Corinthians 16:15 I urge you, brethren—you know the household of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the ministry of the saints— 16 that you also submit to such, and to everyone who works and labors with us.

The household of Stephanas had committed their lives to loving the believers in Achaia. Paul commended the church of Corinth to submit to those like those who were part of the house of Stephanas. It was not for the love of ministry that they served. It was for the love of others that they ministered. This is the testimony of true leadership. Submission to such as these, inspires and empowers us to love as well. When we love people, we are willing to minister to them in whatever is necessary and in whatever way serves best to show our love.

The woman Phoebe was such a woman in the church of Cenchrea. Paul charged the church to receive her and to help her in whatever business she had need of them. Her business was helping many, including Paul. No doubt, it was because of love that she served. This was her qualification as a leader in the church of Cenchrea. Her serving was not the qualifier of her life. It was her love that empowered her to serve. She was no doubt willing to serve in whatever was necessary. Her business seemed to have many aspects to it, and she needed help of other believers to fulfill the service of what was in her heart.

Romans 16:1 I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea, 2 that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you; for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also.

Leaders like the patroness Phoebe were people of love. Pricilla and Aquila were a well-known couple to Paul in the early church. They traveled with him on occasions in ministering to churches in Paul’s charge. Their motivation was no doubt love. They even risked their own lives for the sake of loving Paul and the early church.

Romans 16:3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. 5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ.

The qualification of being a minister in the early church was not merely because of gifting and anointing. It was not based upon gender, whether someone was a man or a woman. It was based upon being a part of the family of God with an ability to love others and to inspire love in them to be the family of God. That love was the fruit of an internal intimate relationship with God in Christ. The anointing of the Holy Spirit in our lives as believers helps us demonstrate the love of Christ to others and to one another in a supernatural way. It is for love that leaders lead!

Paul’s commendations of those who served in ministry was a testimony of love, not one of mere supernatural gifting. They were loved by him, and they loved him. They demonstrated that love in their service and sacrifice for others. That same spirit was in the very fabric of who they were as those who served the will of the Father and the glory of Jesus name.

Romans 16:6 Greet Mary, who labored much for us. 7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. 8 Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord. 9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved. 10 Greet Apelles, approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. 11 Greet Herodion, my countryman. Greet those who are of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. 12 Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, who have labored in the Lord. Greet the beloved Persis, who labored much in the Lord. 13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. 14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them. 15 Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. 16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you.

The testimony of these leaders and their work in ministry was one of love. The testimony of the early church was one of covenant and love. It was a testimony of being the family of God. Paul’s commendation of each of them carried a tone of affection and gratefulness for who they were as members of the family of God. Their service was a service of love. Those who lived for mere agendas of ministry had a different spirit than what Paul considered a qualification for ministry.

Romans 16:17 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.

Those who lead for the love of ministry live for their own desires and the appetites of their own flesh. They do not produce the fruit of family love. They may use words that sound like love, but they fail to lay their lives down for the sake of being the family of God.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

We cannot teach people to know God. We can only point them to the One they know. It is the Holy Spirit within each of us that is the true teacher of life. All external teachers can only teach by way of information, but Holy Spirit teaches by way of transformation. It is not a matter of taking someone by the hand and leading them. It is a matter of having hearts and minds that are transformed by the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God from within.

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 kingdom of God is an Internal kingdom that affects the external kingdoms of the world by changing the internal nature of our hearts and minds. As leaders, we point people to the internal kingdom of God in their hearts. When we seek first the kingdom of God in our lives the fruit of the spirit will be evident. The fruit of life will surround us. Our lives will be established through a personal relationship with God in our hearts. The kingdom of God is a constant coming in kingdom within us.

When leading people questions are often better than answers. How is that working for you? What did God say to you? What do you sense? Is that true to the character of God? What is your heart telling you? Do you have peace? Do you have faith and a release in your heart that this is life? When we seek to give people answers externally we take them by the hand to lead them. We must lead in a way that makes people responsible in their own relationship with God in their lives.

The ark of the presence of God rests upon the shoulders of each priest and no human being is a priest on behalf of other human beings. We are all priests into our God we are all priests onto our God. In the old covenant there were priests who served on behalf the people. This was never God’s perfect will. God wanted all His children to be kings and priests before Him. In the new covenant leaders serve to assist others to become priests. In the old covenant there were kings on behalf of the people. In the new covenant we lead others to become kings in their own lives. Each one is responsible for their own world and each one’s world is dependent upon a personal relationship with God in their hearts. We cannot be people of God on behalf of others. We lead others to become people of God. Being people of God is a very personal thing. It is the fruit of a personal relationship with God in our hearts. Leaders lead others to find a personal connection with God in their own hearts. Leaders can demonstrate the principles, patterns, and values of God in their own lives as examples for others to follow, but mere principles, patterns, and values are not teachers that transform hearts and minds. They only inform them. Only God can write what those principles, patterns, and values upon the human heart and mind.  We can point others to use the principles, patterns, and values of God but those things cannot teach them to know Him. They can only inspire them to know Him. Paul told Timothy to be an example that would inspire those who follow.

1 Timothy 4:7 But have nothing to do with irreverent and silly myths. Rather, train yourself in godliness, 8 for the training of the body has a limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 9 This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance. 10 In fact, we labor and strive for this, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of everyone, especially of those who believe. 11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise your youth; instead, you should be an example to the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you; it was given to you through prophecy, with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. 15 Practice these things; be committed to them, so that your progress may be evident to all. 16 Pay close attention to your life and your teaching; persevere in these things, for by doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers. (HCSB)

Leaders have a responsibility to lead, but that is not to take them by the hand and lead them. Anything that we do must only serve to activate the internal kingdom of God in the hearts of those to whom God sends us. As leaders we are an example that others can inspire others to find God in their lives as we find Him in ours. Only God can empower us to be as we should be in Christ. As leaders we lead others to manage their own lives. We don’t manage their lives for them. This is also true for each of us as parents to our children, members of our family, and citizens of our community. Being the people of God is dependent upon each of us being joined to God in our hearts.

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