ted4leaders

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    Greetings,

In the beginning of the year of 2009 the Lord spoke to me in a vision I had while worshipping in a church service in England. The presence of God was in the room and I saw a vision of a woman on a horse. The focus of the vision was at first on the horse’s neck and head. The woman was riding this horse, but the wind was blowing strong into the face of the horse and the woman. The wind seemed to be demanding change that was contrary to the known desires of the woman and seemed to inspire emotions, feelings, opinions, and personal judgments. I could see the neck of the horse was tight with strong muscles. The sinuous muscles of the horse were very noticeable. It gave me the impression of the strength of flesh, the strength of emotions, and the strength of human feelings. I could see the face of the horse and the appearance was of much emotion and strength of feelings. As the wind blew, the horse violently turned its head to the side, and when the horse turned, the head and upper body of the woman turned in the same direction. The movement was full of emotion and passion. As I recall, this happened about four times. I believe it was four times, significant of the four directions of the earth as being something that was affecting the whole world. At the last turn of the horse, the woman stood up on the horse and became brilliant with light. As she stood the horse dissipated and was no longer a point in the vision. She now stood upright with clear focus and determination in a straight forward direction. She was no longer distracted by the wind, but appeared to be determined and full of life. The whole vision at first was on the upper part of the woman and the neck and head of the horse. I was straining to get a grasp as to what color the horse was, thinking it must be significant, but I was not allowed to see the color of the horse. My main focus was drawn to the emotion and strength of the horse’s flesh. As I have stated, when the woman stood up the horse dissolved in the vision. She and the field she was standing in became the focus of the vision. The woman had long golden hair and she was now standing upright in a field of wheat. The wind was blowing, and the woman’s hair became like long golden waves of the sea behind her head. I could see that the wheat field was also waving in the same pattern as the woman’s hair. I now believe the woman’s hair represented an authority of life. An authority to bring life to the world. The feeling was glory and life! Then I heard God say, if the Bride would call the winds of change winds of increase, she would rise up in her brightest hour and she would become the life-giving womb of God in the earth. I was reminded of this vision this morning.

At the close of 2009 I released the following prophecy:

I keep hearing ‘God’s purposes’ – the hatching of this egg is not a revealing of who you are or who we are corporately. It is the revealing of the bigger plan of God. It’s going to bring great excitement. I’m reminded of the vision I had at the beginning of the year – if the Bride would call the winds of change winds of increase, she would rise up in her brightest hour and she would become the life-giving womb of God in the earth. Another name for an egg that is hatching is ‘womb’. “There is a womb that is an ancient womb – it’s a womb that at times has seemed almost barren, at times it has seemed abandoned, not connected to the will or intent of My people. But,” God says, “it’s right on time and this is the season where My life-giving place is going to be revealed. But it’s not going to be life-giving to you, it’s going to be life-giving because of you. It’s not going to be something that comes merely to do something that meets your needs – it will go way beyond that. It’s going to come forth and be an influence that is world changing – not just world shaking, world-changing. There are many world-shaking things that are going on, but God says He’s bringing forth world-changing things.

I believe we are in the midst of a move of God’s Spirit that is going to enable the church to be small, but big and big, yet small. I have an apple tree in my yard with six grafts, a diversity of fruit yet one root. It is not tall, but it is reaching out. It is filled with blossoms this year. I am expecting to have to put supports under what is destined to bear great fruit in this season. I think we need to take a posture as leaders to support what is both small and big. We need to support a grassroots revolution that is putting the identity, testimony, and purpose of God in every block of every city. We need to be a standing church, not merely sitting on the strength of the flesh. Our focus needs to be on the lower portion of the Body of Christ. This is the place of her standing up and becoming the womb of God in the earth. This is not a time to be strong in opinions, personal passions, or personal visions. This is a time to empower a church to stand up and be the light of Christ in the midst of change.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

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      Greetings,

God is resting in our lives. It is from the place of His presence in our lives that we find our true identity, testimony, and purpose in life. So, here we are in the midst of shaking times in the world. I believe that things can only shake when something or someone more stable than the things that can shake is manifesting. God is doing something in this season and the outcome is going to be a testimony of the glory of His name. Something of grace and life is shaking the doorposts to our tomorrow.

Leaders, be confident in the One who is resting in your lives! God is not in all the things that we do, but God is in our lives. We have welcomed Him and He is making a way to be welcomed even more! He is making a way for His presence to be welcomed in the nations. We must take responsible actions to live for the wellbeing of others and the wellbeing of our world, but in all things our actions alone are not enough. Only God’s manifest presence in, through, and with us in life can change our world to become a testimony of His life. The outcome of this present time is going to be a testimony of the wisdom of God.

To embrace the wisdom of God we must be willing to let go of the wisdom of self. The experiences of our present and our past can influence our steps to the future, but only God’s manifest presence in our present can empower us to walk in a direction we have never seen before. God wants to give us a future that is based upon all that God decrees in and from heaven. We must be willing to embrace things that come from heaven to receive a heavenly reality upon the earth. Perhaps earthly things are shaking that we might receive heavenly things in our earthly world beyond anything we have seen, heard, or known before. As the body of Christ, we are the gate of heaven in the earth. We are the gate of life! We are the gate of grace to a world in need of life! If we do what we have done before, we will receive what we have done before, but the path to the future is also connected to what God has been doing in the street of our journey to today. The future is not disconnected from the foundations of the past, but it is not bound to the past either. It is a furtherance of God’s river of life that leads to a deeper measure of His presence and purpose in our world. The past time is not about the last days of men, but the increasing Day of the Lord. It is about the increasing measure of God’s life. It is about an increasing measure of God’s grace.

In this time of separation, will we receive thoughts and strategies that empower of future? Or will we be bound to the things of the past and fail to see or receive what God is giving and doing in our present day? Will we simply live another measure in the history of men, or will we embrace God grace for another measure of His-story among the nations of men? The path to the future is not a path of fear, but a path that is empowered by God’s love. It is a path of faith! The evidence of our faith will be demonstrated in works that speak of our faith. Those works are the testimonies of actions taken because of beliefs of life and not death, a future and a hope, and not despair. What things are being created now, for the testimony of tomorrow?

God is resting in our lives and He is empowering our expectation, creativity, and purpose. The world is changing, not for the purpose of despair, but for the glory of God’s name. Don’t be distracted by weeds, when the real plants of destiny are about to sprout in the garden. Don’t be distracted by the counterfeits to life, when true life is already sprouting and is destined to grow to maturity for the harvest of tomorrow.

What things do we need to allow to become memorials and steppingstones in our path to the future? What new things do we need to embrace to become who God says we need to be for such a day is this? What treasures of heaven can we receive in this hour that will serve as keys to the advancing influence of God’s kingdom of life to the nations of the world?

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

    Greetings,

Today I want to challenge leaders to be an example in expectancy, creativity, and purpose. Our expectancy is a matter of faith. What do we expect to see today? Do we expect victory, or do we expect defeat? Do we have a revelation of Jesus in our lives today that inspires faith to lay hold of the grace that God has for us today? God’s grace is the power of His manifest presence in our lives to overcome all things each and every day. It is the foundation of the kingdom of God working in and through our lives to reign in life. As leaders we must lead those entrusted to our influence into a path of faith. To do this we must also embrace hope. It is hope that inspires the creativity of our hearts and minds. The creativity of our hearts and minds will position our inner beings to be inspired by the internal voice of God. The result is faith, the substance of whatever we hope for. As leaders we must also be steadfast in our purpose. When the circumstances of our lives change, the purpose of our lives does not. If our purpose can be shaken or altered by our circumstances, we haven’t discovered our true purpose in life. Our purpose is connected to God’s love flowing through our lives to the lives of others. As leaders we must demonstrate a purpose of life-giving love to others and we must give our hearts to assist those we lead in finding their life-giving purpose in all things as well.

God loves each of us and each of us are inspired in our hearts to be seekers of God. We are seekers of God to become the blessing of God in the earth. We are the blessing of God to bring about the multiplication of His purpose and blessing in the generational families of mankind. Our descendants are destined to possess the gates of their enemies and the earth is to be changed by the destiny of our family name. We are more than ourselves, we are the corporate expression of God’s purpose and glory. We are the place of God’s kingdom administration in the earth. We are the place of Zion. Zion is a house of grace. Grace gives, grace never takes. God’s grace is God’s power to change our lives and to change the world we live in.

God wants us to understand grace. Grace is given to us, but it is not something that we take. It is something we must each find. It is found when we discover He is a giver. We know we have found grace when we become givers. When we are not givers, we haven’t discovered God’s grace. God’s presence in and through our lives is the place of God’s government at work in and through our lives. This is the true Zion of God. It is a place of faith, hope, and love working in and through our lives to the world around us. Zion is a culture of grace. It is not a lesser covenant than the covenant of law, it is a greater covenant. It is not a covenant of a soft God, it is a covenant of a great God! Zion is a testimony to finally being able to be transformed. It is a testimony of a place where we do not just hear that God is speaking, but we hear what He is saying. We hear Him, we respond to Him, and we become a testimony of what He says.

When we stand fast for our own opinions, when we stand fast to get what we need from others, we may have heard that God is speaking, but we have not yet heard His voice. The testimony of hearing Him is the receiving of a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Where do we receive this kingdom? We receive this kingdom in Zion.

Hebrews 12:22-29 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.

It is among the innumerable company of believers in heaven and upon the earth that we receive the increasing testimony of God’s grace. The increasing eternal grace of God causes us to experience the fire of God that purifies us.

We are living in a time of another level of what cannot be shaken being revealed in our lives. These are the unshakeable things of faith, hope, and love. The world only shakes when something of the unshakeable kingdom of God is being manifested in the nations of men. We must not look at what is shaking, but to the things that cannot be shaken. As leaders we lead other in a culture of faith, hope, and love. These things will inspire our expectancy, creativity, and purpose even in shaking times.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

     Greetings,

In such a day as this, we must stir up our hearts to know the salvation of our God for the sake of influencing our world in life-giving ways. Our salvation is seen by the manifest presence of Jesus in our lives. As leaders, we must rest our hope fully on the grace that comes by seeing Jesus in our lives each and every day and we must lead others in doing the same.

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ…

In this verse, Peter is talking to believers; human beings who have discovered that God loves them. They are not better than other human beings, they have just discovered God’s love. This verse implies that the loins are in the mind. It implies that our future is in our thinking. The world does not gird up the loins of their mind. The world doesn’t have their loins in their mind, they have their mind in their loins. In other words, their future is in the desires of their flesh. Their future is bound to their own ways. They can even have a good intention and a good heart, but they do not put their hope in what God can do in them. They see their future as dependent upon their own human abilities. Their future is determined by what they think, they can do, or what they want to do. God knows that there is a better way. He wants us to be dependent upon Him in all things. I believe that we are about to see a supernatural testimony of God’s grace beyond what we have seen in the past. Our future is only found through Christ in us and Christ in us will empower the thinking of our hearts and minds to be that of children of a Father who loves us. This is the environment of grace and it creates an atmosphere of life for who we are meant to be. It is not about what we can do for Him. It is about who we are in Him.

Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God is for us, not against us. He is for us, but not necessarily for our ways. He is for us and thus He is transforming our lives to His ways in all things. He wants to freely give us all things. He wants to give us His heart. He wants to give us a testimony of His character, nature, way, power, and authority in our lives. God has justified us to live and thus He is giving us a testimony of life. He is giving us truth in who we are. The tribulations, distresses, persecutions or any hard thing in life is not meant to destroy us, but merely to prove the power of God’s grace at work in our lives. God is not the author of the things that come against us in this world, but He is the author and finisher of our faith in all things. Nothing can separate us from God’s love in the midst of all things. When we face the trials of life, our connection to God must be more important than merely our deliverance in our circumstances. The purpose of our present circumstances is so we will know God in His love for us like never before. It is God in His love that will lead us forward in the path of life, not merely our deliverance for our past or freedom from our present circumstances. As leaders, we must lead others in knowing God in His love. This is the true lesson of life. God loves us and nothing can ever separate us from that fact. It is time to draw near to Him so the power of His love can be revealed in and through our lives.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

As leaders we must lead God’s people in difficult times. We do this by setting an example in faith, hope, and love in all things. This is the witness to our true identity, testimony, and purpose in Christ in all things and at all times. Not all things are good, but God is good in all things. Many people believe that God is in control, but I believe that God is in charge. He can intervene because He owns all things, but in many things, we are in control. He gave us dominion over the works of His hands.

Psalms 8:4 What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? 5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet…

Because of this, we often experience the consequence of our own actions or even the actions of others in life. My garden produces plants that benefit my life as well as weeds that require my cultivation. In the same way, the world is filled with things that are both good and bad. I don’t believe that this is because God’s will is both good and bad. I believe that God’s will is always good, but bad things happen that prove how good God really is. Bad things not only prove how good God is, they also prove how good His people can become in the midst of bad things and bad situations.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

In these words, Paul reveals to us that all things work together for good. He was not saying that all things are good. He was saying that God is always good in the midst of all things and He is intimately and practically involved in our lives. He wants to partner with us in all things and He invites us to partner with Him to see our true purpose fulfilled in all things. God is with us and He calls us to be with Him in all things. The true testimony of life is for us to become a testimony of the image of Jesus in the midst of our world in all things. This is true on good days and bad days. It is true in the midst of beneficial things and weeds that seek to require our attention and distract us from the real things growing in the garden of life. We must know that there are both good things and bad thing happening in our world, but the bad things are not the purpose of our day. God who is good in all things is the purpose of every day! Our predestination is found in Christ and not in ourselves. That predestination is to bring the love and life of God into our world in all situations. We were born in our world for such a time as this for the predestined glory of God in our day.

God takes what the enemy intended for evil in our lives and He turns it for good. I don’t believe that He is in control of every detail; I believe that He is in charge of every detail. He is not a distant God who does not want a relationship with human beings. He has not just simply sovereignly determined the future. He has determined the future with an intimate relationship with a wonderful family. This is a process of grace whereby the internal realities of God’s kingdom manifest in external ways in our lives. So, we face pressure, but we persevere. God is our God, we are His people, and we live together in all things. This is the testimony of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit from within our hearts.

God wants us to know in our hearts that church is not a place we go, it is something we are. We don’t just go there for training or for a Sunday service. We are the church! This is a challenging time, but a time for us to manifest as the true church of Christ. Now that our corporate gatherings are being hindered, we must rise to the challenge and intentionally connect through creative measures of our hearts. We are each part of the Provers 31 woman, the co-reigning partner of Jesus as the body of Christ. We know who our Husband is. We are dealing in the real-estate of the earth on behalf of our family name. We carry the family name; the family character, nature, way, power, and authority. We are the church. We are each sons and daughters. We are overcomers. We are facing pressure and we are finding grace to cheerfully endure. We are cheerfully enduring and the testimony of Christ within us is transforming our hearts and our minds. The power of God in us is stronger than the pressure that is against us and what is manifesting is the character of Christ from within for such a time as this.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

      Greetings,

No doubt you have had to make some adjustments in your meetings, scheduling, priorities, and activities of your day in the midst of all that is going on in regard to the recent world events. This is not a time to falter in our faith, but to embrace the eternal realities of faith, hope, and love in the midst of every shaking. I believe that God is about to do some amazingly good things in the earth. Surely it is time to humble ourselves, pray, and see the healing that can only come from God. As leaders, we must keep a right focus to lead others to keep their focus on heavenly things in the midst of earthly shakings.

As the people of God, it is important that we keep our focus in the midst of every storm. Jesus is resting in our boat and there is great destiny on the other shore. We must be confident that God is resting in our lives. Our focus must be fixed upon the presence of God in our lives. We must see responding to what He says as essential in all things. Our hearts must be set upon being givers of life in our world. We must embrace God’s desires as our own and we must let our own desires be transformed by the heart of our Heavenly Father. God’s presence, God’s words, God’s life, and God’s desires are keys to be the people of God. As we increasingly become the people of God, we will shine like a light of hope to those bound to the cultures and societies of the world.

People in the world are afraid, they don’t know what is next, they can’t find a place to settle, they are tossed to and from by every conflicting way of life, they don’t know what to do, they are often out of control because they don’t know where to look.  We must shine as those who are not distracted by things that seek to distract us from what is most import. God is in our lives and He wants to be in the lives of all people. We must be people of faith, hope, and love to bring faith, stability, direction, peace, and freedom of heart and soul to those we influence.

People in the world don’t seek God’s counsel. They don’t want to do His will; they want to do their own will. The result is dread, calamity, distress and anguish. People of God seek God’s will, not their own. They seek His kingdom first and all the things they need are added to them. The kingdom of God is within us and it is the place of God’s Spirit assuring us of our relationship with God for life, testimony of life, and purpose of life in all things. It is an internal knowing of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. No circumstance of life can change this, it can only inspire us to manifest the internal realities of the kingdom of God in external ways!

People in the world are never satisfied, they are thirsty, they need life. They seek life in all the wrong places and things. They are left dry and dead and a place of demonic influences. They are a dry place and they can’t find true satisfaction. People of God live from satisfaction; thus, they seek to give life to others. They are a watered garden, a place of God’s presence and habitation. What better time than today to be people who present life and an expectation of life to the world we live in.

People in the world seek personal pleasure, personal preference, personal identity and they are left in their own misery, and the bondages of their own iniquities. People of God seek to please God because they know how pleased He is with them. They seek to be children of God and live under His authority. They embrace the changes that come from His covering in their lives.

Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

What are we looking at? Sometimes we think that fixing our eyes upon what God has promised us is the goal, but I am increasingly becoming aware that fixing our eyes on what the King sees is essential in this time. Our King is ruling righteously, and He is calling for princes and princesses who will rein justly. Our justice system is based upon a revelation of God’s love. It is an administration of life. We must fix our eyes upon God’s presence. We must enter into the dance of life by responding to every word that God speaks to us. This cannot be shaken by natural sight! We must fix our eyes upon life and allowing His river of life to flow through us. This is experienced in the world around us by our own attitudes, thoughts, actions, words, and life-giving expressions. We must fix our eyes upon pleasing the One who is already pleased to call us His own. When we fix our eyes upon true light we will be seen as children of LIGHT!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

      Greetings,

Today I want to present some thoughts to you as a leader or a believer in Christ. What do you consider the most important in your life: What you know? or, Who you know? In the world there is a reality that who you know can often take you further than merely what you know. The context of this statement is often one of personal importance, personal advancement or personal success in some way. What if who you know is not about how successful you can be, but about who you can become? When we know Jesus, we can be transformed by Him to become like Him in our lives. We cannot merely see a concept or a preconceived idea of who He is, we must clearly see Him. When we really see Him in our lives, we become like Him, because we see Him as He is.

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

I know that these words of John pertain to the coming glory of the incorruptible realm of life in Christ, but I also believe that these words pertain to us in life right now. Every day we have an opportunity to be distracted by the things around us, or to be attracted to the presence of Christ in us. The presence of Christ in us is the testimony of Jesus within our hearts, Jesus within our spirits – the core of the power of our being. It is only through seeing Jesus in the center of our being that the outer expressions of our lives can truly become testimonies of His grace. Grace comes at a revelation of Jesus Christ in our lives.

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ…

This is the secret to the purification of our minds; it is seeing Jesus in the reality of who He is in our lives. It is not about us expecting Jesus to change when He sees how we are, but the transformation that takes place in our lives when we see Jesus for who He truly is in our lives. He is the faith motivating voice behind us that we can turn to see. When we turn to see Him, we become like Him because His love and presence transforms the very core of our being to be as we should be in Christ. As leaders, we must lead in this example and in this testimony.

Merely teaching godly principles or methods of morality are not enough. We are only changed when our hearts are changed from within. This is the difference between light shining into the darkness and light shining out of darkness. The testimony of Jesus in our flesh is the transformation of our lives. The glory we see is found in a mirror. We dimly, but increasingly see the transforming power of Christ at work within our hearts. When we look in the mirror, we see a reflection of ourselves. The glory of God that we see is the testimony of life and change that comes from the Spirit of the Lord at work in our hearts. The reflection we see is a testimony of Christ and a testimony of who we are. It is uniquely us, but us as we are being changed from within. Light is shining out of darkness, that darkness being our old way of thinking, our old values, and our own will and way in life. The light of Christ within us is transforming us to become children of God by the Spirit of Christ within our hearts.

2 Corinthians 4:5-7 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus ’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

It is the power of God at work within our hearts that transforms us to become testimonies of God’s love. We are increasingly, progressively, and forever changed to become testimonies as children of God in this world. The real issue of the reconciliation of mankind to God through Christ is not one of the forgiveness of sins, but of being children of God. If we are children of God, we must become a testimony of our Father. We must expect to be changed. The forgiveness of sins doesn’t justify us to remain in our sin. It justifies us to live and true life is only found in an eternal relationship with God as our Father and Jesus as His son. This is made real through the work of Holy Spirit in our lives. This is where the iniquities of our hearts are transformed by the power of His grace. His Spirit forever changes the values and personal desires of our hearts. The self-preserving and self-motivating desires of our past are changed to a testimony of loving God and others in the character of Christ.

As leaders, the most important thing we can know is the presence of Jesus in our lives. Our role as leaders is to lead others into the place of knowing Him, even as we know Him. It is a personal connection of Christ in them. It is about Who they know, not merely what they know.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

   Greetings,

As leaders, we must know the desirable place of God in our lives. That is the place of God resting in us and us resting in Him. This is what was known as Eden. Eden is a place of knowing God and knowing the abundance of life that is known in a place of intimacy and connection with God in all things. From Eden flowed four rivers. I believe that those rivers represent the life that we are called to give to our world. True life is the fruit of God resting in our lives and us resting in Him. This is the source of true purpose. It is the place of true identity. We can only give true identity to our world if we know our true identity that is found by God resting in our lives. Eden is the place of the manifest presence of God in our lives. It is the place of personal relationship with God in our hearts. It is the life of God flowing through our lives that brings life to our world. I have proposed that those rivers found in Eden represent the place of belief, action, imagination, and influence in the world. These are the things we wrestle against in the flesh. Carnal, fleshly desires inspire carnal beliefs, carnal actions, carnal imaginations, and carnal influences in the world. These are really self-seeking ways made manifest in and through the lives of humanity. We are called to bring healing to those places in the world. The principle things are the first things. They are the things of first response and first influence. This is the result of the true beliefs of our hearts. It is only through God resting in our lives that our beliefs can be transformed by what God believes. That is when the actions of our lives become expressions of what God is doing. This is where we do what we see the Father doing. These are actions of inspiration and not obligation. They inspire the creative imagination of our minds. This creates a force of influence through our lives that expands the boundaries of our world in a way that influences others. For this reason, we are to be God-seekers and seekers of the wellbeing of others in all things. We cannot be self-seeking in our beliefs and inspire a God-seeking influence. What we do in life is connected to who we are in life. God is a giver of life in all things. When we become givers of life, we can do many things in our world. As leaders we are to set an example in being receivers of the life that God gives and givers of that life to others. We are leading others into being sons and daughter of God in giving life to their world. They must be receivers of the life that God gives and givers of that life to the world in which they live.

Love and life must come from the place of desire in our hearts. These cannot be actions required by law, but realities manifested from the living place of Christ in our hearts. That living place is inspired by the life of God in us. Knowing God’s presence in our hearts will inspire us to be givers of love and life to our world. This is the desirable place. It is the place where true desire is found. We are good at doing what we want to do, and God wants to inhabit the place of our ‘want to’. Eden is found within the heart of man in connection with God in His Spirit. Our spirits joined to God’s Spirit is the source of the salvation of our soul. The soul is the throne of our life that is meant to be inspired by our spirits made alive by the Spirit of God within our hearts. I believe that the salvation of our soul is not just for the hereafter, but for today. I believe that when our spirits are joined to God’s Spirit it inspires life from our spirits to our souls. It is then that our thoughts, reasonings, desires, emotions, and imaginations can inspire the actions of our lives to be life-giving actions that influence the world around us in a life-giving ways. The real key is to discover the place of God resting in our lives.

Psalms 37:3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

We must embrace our lives with God’s presence in all things. When we embrace the responsibly of our lives and we attach ourselves to God’s presence in that responsibility, God will give us the desires of our hearts. He will put His desires within us. Those desires will transform our beliefs to see what He sees and be as He is in our lives. This will inspire the actions, imaginations, and influence of our lives to be like the rivers of Eden. We will bring the fruitfulness of the God of the garden to the barren places of our world. In this, God’s presence in our lives is most important. Leaders; seek Him before you seek to lead others and you will lead others in the path of life.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

     Greetings,

We must live our lives from a place of God resting in us and with us. The true desirable place of life is to live in and from the presence of God in our lives. This is most important for every member of the body of Christ to know, especially for leaders as they lead God’s people in discovering and fulfilling their true purpose in life. This testimony can be seen in the beginning of creation as recorded in the book of Genesis. God formed man from the dust and then He plated a garden in the East and put man in the garden. It was a place of knowing God and knowing the goodness of God in order to fulfill human purpose upon the earth. The goal was not to live life in the garden, but to live life from the garden. Our goal is not just to live to know God in life, but to live life from the place of knowing God. We are supposed to influence our world with the goodness and presence of God in all things. There were four rivers in the garden of Eden and those rivers went from the garden, out to the world. I believe that these rivers in the garden depict what Jesus was talking about when He cried out; Is anyone thirsty? Come to me and drink, and from inside of you will flow rivers of life-giving water! I know this to be true, not only in Scripture, but in the testimony of my own life.

When we live in a desirable place with God, the expressions of our lives become desirable to others. When we experience the life of God, we become givers of the life of God to others. If you are a leader in the body of Christ, this is perhaps the most important thing to know as a leader. You lead in giving life to your world to activate, facilitate, and release those you lead to do the same. Like the four covenant rivers in the garden of Eden, the life that flows out from our lives causes our world to be changed. The covenant rivers in the garden were filled with the abundance of life for the purpose of reaching the field. The purpose of the rivers was to reach the place where trees needed to grow. The water of these rivers was destined to flow where herbs needed to grow. The field that Adam was formed from was dust and it was in need of trees and herbs. The earth needed life to become a place that can give life. The garden of Eden was not just a place of blessing, it was a place of purpose. When God rests in our lives it is not just for us to experience the life of God. It is so we can be those who give life to the world.

Genesis 2:10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

There was a river in the garden that produced four riverheads. Four is a number of covenant and it represents the ability to give life to the whole world. These rivers were the testimony of life for all who need life in the earth. If we look at the names of these riverheads, we find some great truth concerning the power of life. If you study the names of these four rivers you will find a description of the following testimony:

• A RIVER THAT BRINGS CHANGE FOR INCREASE –  BELIEF (Pishon – persuasion – an extension of the mouth)
• A RIVER THAT BRINGS AWAKENING – ACTION (Gihon – breaking forth – valley of grace)
• A RIVER THAT BRINGS INCREASE AND MOMENTUM – IMAGINATION (Hiddekel –beyond what is – sharp voice, sound)
• A RIVER THAT BRINGS FRUITFULNESS – INFLUENCE (Euphrates – that makes fruitful)

Whatever be BELIEVE determines how we ACT. How we ACT determines what we can IMAGINE. What we can IMAGINE determines how we can INFLUENCE the world around us. The secret to these being life-filled realities for life-filled purposes in our lives is to live in and from the presence of God in all things. God is resting in our lives for the testimony of His glory in our world! It is not merely so we will be blessed. It is so we will be a blessing.. It is not so good things of God will be added to our own lives. It is so we will see good things manifest in the lives of others. It is not just so we will know God today, but so the world beyond our own lives will change by the power of life. It is not about what can happen in our lifetime. It is what can happen in the earth because of our lifetime. Knowing God resting in our life is so we will fulfill the purpose of God in our life and His name will be glorified in all things. This is the reason we lead others in our God-given spheres of influence.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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