ted4leaders

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    Greetings,

As leaders, we are called to activate, facilitate, and release God’s people to each be a life-giving source of heavenly influence to their world around them. To do this we must lead by example and experience in allowing God to fill us with life and in being givers of life to the world around us in ways that can be experienced by others. God doesn’t just want to satisfy the thirst of us as believers. He wants us to take on His nature in being givers of life to the world. Jesus said if we come to Him and drink, from inside of us will flow rivers of life-giving water.

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.”

I believe that the God wants us to become like Him. He wants us to know Him in His love and life and He wants us to become givers of life and love to others. God wants us to know a relationship of vulnerability, transparency, trust and partnership with Him and others in all things. When we embraced Christ, we embraced a paradise relationship with God, but we need to be able to expand that relationship to others. That paradise relationship was really an awareness of being lost without God, but increasingly saved in our thinking, reasoning, imagination, emotions, and desires in all things. This is the increasing salvation of our souls. This is important for all believers to know, but especially for those who lead God’s people. We need to understand the truth of being a member in the body of Christ – a co-reigning partner with co-reigning members in partnership with God in all things.

We must remember where we were and would be without God in our lives. Our lives without God are lives of barrenness. We end up looking for our needs to be met from a dry and barren despairing place in our hearts. When we first experienced God, He breathed into us the breath of life. His Spirit came into our spirit.

Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.

By no means was the earth a paradise in the original creation. This was also true in our beginning place of knowing God, and it is still true in the place outside of our direct connection with God in our hearts. In the beginning, there was a place among the dust of the field where God planted a garden. It was there that He put the man He had formed from the dust. It was in a place called Eden. Eden means desirable place. The place of desire. It was in the East. When we wake up in the morning, we see the sun and the sun gives us a testimony of a new day. It is full of promise and expectation. The East signifies a new day. In reality the earth turns towards the sun, but the experience is a sunrise and a new day. The experience is not about our turning towards God, but one of God in our lives – even as the sun fills the day. When we turn towards God, He can touch us. When we allow Him to touch us, He can breathe His life into our being. This is how it was for me 47 years ago when I received the Spirit of God into my heart. The very next morning I woke up and I found that in the midst of my barrenness God had planted a garden. It was a desirable place. I woke up and I was smiling. I could not stop smiling. I told everyone I knew about Jesus. I was popular for all the wrong reasons, but my popularity gave me a basis to share my faith. I told them passionately about Jesus. I found myself in Paradise! There were living trees around me! There was life everywhere! God was allowing me to experience His goodness and His presence in my life. It is important to abide in that realty. How can we lead others if we are not abiding in that place the God desires most?

As I have stated, the name Eden means, desirable place. In the garden man was to have a relationship with God where he could be sent forth in a life of being fruitful, multiplying, filling, subduing and having dominion. In the garden man experienced an administration of God’s influence where he could eat of all good things and of the tree of life for eternity, but man chose a tree of information instead of intimacy. He chose the tree of the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. He chose independence, rather than a dependency upon God in all things. We need life, more than we need knowledge. We need one another more than we need the power to judge one another. We need to be people of mercy and grace for a destiny of giving mercy and reigning by grace in all things. We need to stay close in our relationship with God by His Holy Spirit.

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,

The children of Israel did not enter the rest of God because they detached themselves from His presence. They preferred a connection with God through Moses and were content to embrace a connection to God based upon a form of service and works. Rather than embracing a fiery God who could transform them, they chose only a shadow of His presence in the form of an informative law. They rejected a relationship of intimacy with Him; thus, they could observe His works, but they could not understand His ways. Without a personal face-to-face relationship with God, it is impossible to know the ways of God. Unless we know the ways of God, we cannot manifest His character, nature, way, power, and authority in our lives. The true testimony of a personal relationship with God is manifest in the song of our hearts. When we know Him, His life springs up from within our heart. I’m not just talking about a musical tune played with instruments or sung in vocal sound, I’m talking about a spontaneous manifestation of love for God from within our hearts.

Psalms 95:1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. 3 For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods. 4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the hills are His also. 5 The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land. 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.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

When we embrace God’s presence in or lives, we experience a worship of Him that comes from within our hearts. Our bowing before Him is a bowing of honor, adoration, and love. His presence causes our hearts to become as parchment for a letter written by His Spirit at work in our lives. Knowing His presence inspires a willingness to become a habitation for His presence in every aspect of our lives. This is the true rest of God.

A secret to entering the rest of God is found in knowing God’s ways. When we try to control or manipulate God to conform to our ways, we cannot enter the rest of God. We can only find some false appeasement for our own pain. Conforming God to our desires can never heal the roots of our being, but merely sedates the fruit of our own diseases. We were made in the likeness and image of our Father, God. The secret to growing into our full identity, testimony, and purpose in Christ is found by being connected to God in a personal and intimate way. Only this can empower a transformation in our lives that can be experienced by others around us in the world we live in. As leaders, the most important thing we can do is to seek, stir-up, and maintain a personal and intimate relationship with God in our way of life. It is by this that we can know the rest of God and it is by this that we can be an inspiration to those we lead to discover the same in their own lives.

True rest is to be fully satisfied. What is it that brings satisfaction in life? Satisfaction can only be found when we become as He is; when we become givers of life.

Acts 17:24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

The evidence of discovering the rest of God is to become a giver of life to our world. The manifest presence of the One who gives life, breath, and all things inspires us to become givers of life to others. It motivates us to facilitate others to be expressions of life. It empowers us to partner with others in the purpose of life. It is not the work of giving that we seek, it is embracing the One who gives life into our hearts that empowers us to be givers of life to our world. Let us excel in this as leaders. Let us excel in God resting in 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,

Our obedience to God is connected to our belief in Him. This is not a believing that He is, but a believing in who He is. It is a believing that is inspired by love. When God rests in our lives we grow in knowing His love. When we know His love, we believe His words when He speaks. We even believe in Him, when He doesn’t speak. It is believing in Him that inspires our obedience to His desires. The children of Israel failed to connect their hearts to God and therefore their hearts were hardened towards Him. They wanted His supernatural works, but they put themselves at a distance from His manifest presence. For this reason, they could not hear His voice. They no doubt heard His voice speaking, but they did not embrace His presence in order to hear what He was saying.

Hebrews 4:6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”

We can only rest in God when we allow Him to rest in our own lives. When God rests in our lives, our lives are transformed by His presence. The rest that the children of Israel could not enter is still a rest for us to enter into today. It is a rest that empowers us to cease from our own labors that are merely our striving efforts to rest from our pain. God’s rest is a rest of satisfaction and expectation of God’s increasing life and goodness.  Embracing God resting in our lives allows His manifest presence within us to give us our true identity, testimony, and purpose in life. These things can only manifest in our lives from knowing God’s satisfaction in our lives. God rests in us so we can labor from rest, not in order to be able to rest. When we live our lives from the place of God resting in our lives, God gives us the desires of our hearts. He literally puts desires in our hearts that are His desires and then we can obey Him with passion and not some service of control and obligation.

Hebrews 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 

A face to face experience with the expressions of God inspire a fresh activation of the voice of God in our hearts. Only a fresh activation of God’s voice within us can empower us to know His word, will, and way for today.

Hebrews 4:11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

We don’t need to be afraid of the hidden things being exposed. We should be encouraged that anything that is not of life within us can be transformed to become life by His life-giving presence in our lives. Being judged by God’s law can be a fearful thing but becoming the parchment upon which, He can write is liberating and should plant within our hearts and minds an expectance of good things each and every day. The time to know God’s resting in us and for us to rest in Him is TODAY, and ALWAYS TODAY.

As leaders, we must lead from rest in order to inspire those we lead to do the same. This can only happen when we know God’s manifest presence resting in 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,

I believe that God is bringing us into a greater awareness and reality of His manifest presence in our lives. He is not interested in blessing our ways, He is interested in putting His ways in our hearts and minds. When God’s ways are within us, our works will be a testimony of His ways. Being born again in Christ has empowered us to be new creations in Christ. In the first creation, man’s first day was a day of God resting in his life. It was from that place that the next six days could be days of purpose motivated by God’s presence in man. This is the design to fulfill the mandate. Unless we live from God’s presence in our lives, we will strive to find His presence outside of us. Jesus came that we might be new creations in Christ and do the works that have been prepared for us in Christ.

Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

The exceeding riches of Christ, and the good works of Christ in our lives, are the result of God resting in our lives and we resting in Him. The Promised Land is not some place outside of us, but an internal knowing of Christ within us were we know the internal testimony of righteousness, peace, and joy of the Holy Spirit in and for all things. This is the place of true rest that empowers us in life to be life to our world. As leaders we must set an example and inspire this truth in those we lead.

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”

It is by believing in Him, that we enter true rest. This is not a believing that He is, but a believing Him as He resides in our hearts and minds in this world. Most people don’t know His rest, because they don’t know Him. They don’t believe Him because they don’t know His presence, His heart, and His purpose of life. Knowing Him only comes by knowing His presence in our lives. Not around us, but inside our hearts. This is the place of true rest. Without knowing His rest within us, we end up pursuing the works of self. When we pursue the works of self, we redefine rest as it should be defined. We define rest as a place of being exhausted and needing recuperation. This is self-focused rest. God’s rest is one of satisfaction, expectation, and purpose filled vision. God rested after He put His likeness and image in the earth – the creation of man. He knew there was hope for every formless, void, and out of order place in the earth because He was resting in His likeness and image in the earth.

God’s rest inspires faith, hope, and love for the task set before us. Knowing God in our lives will inspire faith, a supernatural response that comes by hearing Him in our hearts. It inspires hope, an understanding that expects life and a testimony of life in all things. It inspires love, a willingness to be a giver of life and not a taker of life in all things. God resting in our lives is the source of our true identity, testimony, and purpose in life.

Leaders – see Him resting in your life before you see the task before you. Unless you see Him, you will be distracted by the deception of self-seeking agendas and self-seeking ways. Don’t just be God-seekers, be God-abiders! Let Him abide in you and you abide in Him. By this you will know the unshakeable things of faith, hope, and love! Inspire this in the house of God!

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 we have entered 2020, we have entered into a new decade of embracing each and every moment as a time of God’s presence resting in our lives. When we are a place of God’s manifest presence, we can be a place of hearing His voice each and every day. I am not just talking about hearing His words with merely an acknowledgement of Him speaking. I am talking about hearing Him. I am talking about hearing Him and understanding what He is saying. I am talking about hearing Him and understanding His heart. Truly hearing Him is to believe what He says. To be a place where God rests and the place that rests in God, we must believe Him each and every day.

Hebrews 3:12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

If we truly hear God, we will respond to His voice, believe what He says, and act as He instructs us to be. Departing from the living God is what creates unbelief. Being the place where God rests and the place where we rest in Him is the empowerment of our believing. This is not merely believing what He can do or for what He can do. It is about love, trust, relationship, life, vulnerability, and internal magic. Being the house where He lives empowers our belief. The writer of Hebrews states in these verses that to be a partaker of Christ we have to hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast in our lives. The beginning of our confidence is not just confidence. It is the confidence that springs forth from the innocent of heart. God can restore our innocence, but that can only happen by His manifest presence within us. My younger grandchildren have a confidence in me because of childlike love. My presence in their lives ignites a confidence of little children. They hear my voice from a place of believing who I am. Only by being people who know God resting in them and them resting in Him, can they know the beginning of their confidence in their hearts in a steadfast way. Our confidence is in who He is, not merely what He can do. At times I give gifts to my grandchildren, but their confidence is not in me as a gift giver. It is in being family and being close to one another.

Jesus said that if you saw Him, you saw the Father. He was the place where God lived, and He lived in His Father. This was the power of His believing. Because He never departed from the living God, the life of God was with Him each and every day. The same can be said of us. When we are the place that God lives, we become the influence of God’s life to our world.

Hearing God concerning His works, His promises, His miracles or any other external reality is not really hearing Him.

Hebrews 3:16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

The root of the unbelief of the children of Israel was their disconnection from the presence of God. They didn’t want to deal with a fiery God, a God who can change hearts, and in fact – for sure does. They chose a secondhand testimony at the hands of Moses and therefore they could not know God’s ways. They could only see His works. Belief is connected to a person, not merely their abilities. If our belief is based upon seeing our personal needs fulfilled or some personal experience, our belief is destined to become unbelief in the changing circumstances of life.

As leaders, we must set an example of being men and women who know and live as a habitation of God in human form. We cannot be a replacement for those we lead in being God’s voice. No one can hear God today, unless they become the place where His voice speaks from within. We cannot settle for taking people by the hand and leading them. We must inspire and expect them to become a place where God rests; a place that is transformed by Him and believes Him, rather than trying to convince God to believe them from self-seeking distant place. When we become a place of His presence, we will fulfil the commission of His purpose in our lives. It is by this that we find our true identity, testimony, and purpose in all things.

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 is the first day of a new year, a new decade, and a new season in the life of the church. What is most necessary for us as leaders and what is most necessary for the church as we enter into this new season? This year is not just a year, it is also a leap year. We have one more day to see what we need to see and to be what we need to be for the glory of Jesus name in this time called now.

God is not just a being that visits us or calls upon us to visit Him. He is our life! The house that He has always desired is a house of human life. To be on earth as it is in heaven requires us to become the place of God’s habitation upon the earth. The church is not some place we go or a building we attend. The church is the body of Christ. It is the house of God! It is the place of God’s habitation. God doesn’t just want us to believe in Him, He wants us to believe Him. To be the place of His believing. It is not a day of the week or a season in the year, but a reality called now. Jesus is the foundation of this house and He is the way by which we become the place of God’s habitation.

Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. 3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. 5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

We are the house of Christ. The house of God’s manifest presence. The time to hear Him is ‘Today’ and always ‘Today’. It is a time and place of knowing God’s rest. It is a place of God resting in us and us resting in Him. Perhaps the most important thing we can do as leaders in 2020 is be an example in being the place where God rests and the place that rests in God. We must lead those in our sphere of influence into this truth to truly be the people of God.

Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

If we are a place that God rests, we can know His voice every moment of every day. This is a word that I gave at Alife Church this past Sunday. I feel it is very important for this new decade that we have just entered:

I just hear God saying that the past decade there were many things that were not necessarily wrong that you held on to. They were enough for the time to get you to the future, but they weren’t enough to get you into now. And I hear God saying; today if you’ll hear His voice, today if you will hear His voice. So, God wants you to exchange the future for today, because the future as you saw it is stuck in the past. And God has better things for you than you could imagine, but the time is now. And God is releasing a grace for His body to be able to enjoy the moment, enjoy the hour, enjoy the day – today if you’ll hear His voice. Don’t even look at this year as; ‘how am I going to get to the end of this year?’, because that’s how you looked at last year. And last year, God says, I gave you enough to get you to the end of this year, but I didn’t give you enough for today. But now I am releasing My grace for now, and there’s a grace that’s coming on My family, a grace that’s coming on My people to appreciate the time called now. And don’t let now be tainted by what was; or diminished by what you think is yet to come. But let now be, be juicy, let now be full of life. Let now enter into your mouth, let now enter into your taste buds, not just your stomach. And live for the moment, live for today – today if you’ll hear My voice. But God says, there’s a grace for this. So today is the beginning of a moment of reality, and it will be real, unlike any time before.

As leaders we must lead by an example of being men and women who embrace God’s manifest presence resting in our lives each and every day. Let’s embrace the time called ‘today’ and release the things that no longer exist. The place where God rests and we rest in Him is more valuable than the stories of yesterday or the yet to come promises of tomorrow. Christ is everything!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Thank you to all who have been able to contribute to our mission. Tickets have been purchased for ministry in New Mexico, Texas, Angola Africa, and Portugal.  We are set through March 2nd. Please continue to pray for us and contribute when you can. We plan to move into 2020 with full purpose and a focus of bringing New Covenant life and grace to the nations. 

Thanks Again – 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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Here is an account of the 24 chapters of Luke that I have challenged to read in the 24 days of December leading to this day – Christmas. Merry Christmas to you all!

DAY 1 – LUKE 1 – When Holy Spirit comes in Jesus name, miracles happen! Life breaks out everywhere and at the presence of Jesus, the Holy Spirit rejoices! Jesus empowers all the promises to be fulfilled.

DAY 2 – LUKE 2 – At the birth of Jesus heaven rejoices, the earth rejoices, the past rejoices, and the future is made known! Jesus is the fulfillment of it all, the firstborn of a new race!

DAY 3 – LUKE 3 – Jesus restores the family line as sons of God – one with our Heavenly Father in the intimacy and fullness of the Spirit.

DAY 4 – LUKE 4 – Jesus demonstrated the way of man – A connection with our Father, authority over Satan, the authority of heaven, and authority’s power of the kingdom of God bringing life to mankind!

Day 5 – LUKE 5 – When Jesus speaks, manifests His presence, touches us, or enters our world in any way – LIFE HAPPENS. It is time to forsake all the imitations and indulge in life! Put on the full garment, be a new wine skin and we need to be filled with New Covent Life! Indulge in the Spirit!

LUKE 6 – Day 6 – Jesus personal connection to His Father demonstrates the source of the internal kingdom of God for the external expressions of Christ in our lives. We have no control over what comes to us, but our connection to God surely will affect what flows through us and out of us to others. Our ability to live, move and have our being comes from the inside out by our heart connection to God in an intimate way in all things!

Day 7 – LUKE 7 – The nations cry out for the power of New Covenant Love – Jesus is true love and true love brings increasing life – The justification of the old was a recognition of the need for the new. It is an intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ! Only the power of God’s love can defeat death and sin.

Day 8 – LUKE 8 – Jesus is life, brings life, and will empower us to produce life. The power of His life is seen in the power of His love. His faith works through love! He gives us power over every storm, power over every sickness, power for our deliverance, power for our fruitfulness, and even power over every grave! It is all because of God’s great love for us all!

Day 9 – LUKE 9 – Jesus set the example and made a way for the anointing of Christ to be an everyday part of our lives. It is about giving life to the world. Healing for our bodies, deliverance for our souls, and even our daily provision is a gift of God’s love. In Him we live, and move, and have our being! Be all in!

DAY 10 – LUKE 10 – The good news of our names written in heaven is eternal life now and forever! God’s power is a power of love that demonstrates that mercy triumphs. Our relationship with God is above all else. Recognize His presence today and be aware of His presence in your room.

DAY 11 – LUKE 11 – Jesus shows us God as our Father, we as His children. Jesus is our true bread that we might give bread to the hungry. He gives freedom to the nations as the One who is stronger than every strong man. The lifeless old covenant of law is done, and the resurrection life of Christ has come.

DAY 12 – LUKE 12 – It is time to live for the purpose of the kingdom of God. There is no peace for a form of godliness that doesn’t have God’s presence and fulfill His purpose. There is only division, that we might embrace the kingdom of God over the kingdoms of self. All that is given, is given for His kingdom and His will. Life through us to the world.

DAY 13 – LUKE 13 – To love religious traditions more than the freedom of life that Jesus gives is nothing short of being a worker of iniquity. Jesus came to give us repentance unto life! The entrance is narrow, but the rewards are limitless!

DAY 14 – LUKE 14 – Be a giver of life, not a keeper of law. Take the humble path and wait for God’s invitation. Don’t be so busy fulfilling your needs, that you miss the celebration of God’s presence. Love God even more than those you love the most. Be all in! He is your source of life.

DAY 15 – LUKE 15 – God gives us life, breath, and all things. He cares for us and has always seen us as His child. We are an expression of Him, He knows the value of who we each are. He desires for a partnership with us in all things! He is our God, we are His people, and we live together at all times.

DAY 16 – LUKE 16 – Life isn’t about the accounts of right, it’s about relationship. The purpose of all that we possess is to make friends. Don’t hold on to law! It can’t change, so pick relationship! Mercy and grace connect us to God and one another and Law and right accounts can never understand such love!

DAY 17 – LUKE 17 – Faith is connected to relationship, not to works you can do nor works that God can do. It is about relationship with God. Serving God is our duty; but loving Him is our miracle. The kingdom of God is a matter of relationship and it is within us. God’s presence makes all things new!

DAY 18 – LUKE 18 – God will come to the aid of those He loves, He honors the humble, and He satisfies those who come like little children to Him. He wants us to be loving, as He is loving; to put our trust in Him and not in ourselves or anything we possess. Only God can do all things and when we live for Him, He takes care of us. What do you want God to do for you? Your faith will make you whole. Receive what He gives, follow Him, and glorify God.

DAY 19 – LUKE 19 – It all belongs to God! What you possess is not yours. Steward it well for His glory! Know that Jesus is the source and you are to magnify His name, even with what you possess. When you do, what you have will increase for His will. Jesus is the King and He is the firstfruit of life for us all. Live your life for Him and don’t fake it. He will teach you daily.

DAY 20 – LUKE 20 – Authority gives life; thus, Jesus gives to all life. He is the true rock, upon which we can stand. We cannot change Him, but we must be changed by Him. He came that we might become givers, givers of life in this world now. It is not about what we can get, it is about who we can be.

DAY 21 – LUKE 21 – God doesn’t measure us by our possessions, but by our hearts and He delights in those who put their trust in Him. Jesus has come to establish the true and remove what is false. Only through Jesus has the price of redemption been paid. God’s kingdom has come to consume the kingdoms of the world. He changes heaven and earth forever!

DAY 22 – LUKE 22 – Jesus introduced the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New. The cup of the New Covenant is given to us because Jesus gave His life for us as the Lamb to end the Old. The Life of the Spirit is now to be ours! The way is to give life to others! Jesus willingly offered His life for us all!

DAY 23 – LUKE 23 – Jesus demonstrated giving His life for the sake of all mankind. Though He was innocent, He did not protest His rejection. He was willing wounded, bruised, and chastised for us all. He didn’t consider it sorrow to give His life for us, but sorrow for those who do not receive His gift of life. Lean in His direction and resurrection life is yours!

DAY 24 – LUKE 24 – We cannot find Jesus among the dead. He is risen! His life is stronger than the grave – eternal life – resurrection life. We will know Him on the road of life. He makes us come alive inside and He is the one that all Scripture confirms! He shows us His wounds of love. Now we can be clothed as His body, with power from on high! Blessings from His presence!

Merry Christmas to you all. God bless you in this new season as you enter a new chapter in your life.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Blog In Audio:

       Greetings,

Last week I addressed a few of the attributes needed to find the grace of becoming the salt and light of heaven to the world around us. We must demonstrate what it means to know we are lost without Jesus. We must be hungry for God and eager to receive Him in all things. We must know our need for God. We are in a place of loss without Him. Because of this, we are willing to receive His fullness. We have to know that God is our true comfort and that no earthy thing can truly satisfy. We have to be humble. To be humble is to be teachable.

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

We must see righteousness as food and drink. True righteousness is a right relationship with God and men. Without a right relationship with God we cannot have a right relationship with men. Connection with God and His family is like food. Without this righteousness we starve. It is like drink. Without it we will die of thirst.

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

To be the salt and light of heaven to the world we must be merciful. We need a revelation that all that has been given to us is because God is merciful to us.

Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Mercy is a judgment of love to those who are bound to a justice system of law. It is the testimony of love being triumphant over all judgment. As leaders we cannot seek to excel in judgment. We must excel in mercy. In our hearts we must know our own need for mercy so we can show mercy to others also.

We must be pure of heart. To be pure of heart is to have a concern for life. To be pure is to expect life and to be expectant with life.

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

In order to truly see God for who He is we cannot have preconceived ideas as to who He is. We must be like little children in our hearts. We know He loves us, we know He is great, and we know He is good. Leaders lead others into being pure of heart. Being pure of heart also includes a willingness to forgive others and to think the best in all things. We must be wise to all that is good and innocent to all that is evil.

We must be peace makers. To be a peace maker is not to be someone who avoids conflict or confrontation. We must be willing to face conflict and confront anything that seeks to separate us from God.

Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Peace makers see reconciliation as most important. They seek to resolve issues that create separations between them and God. They do not hesitate to put to death works of the flesh and judgments of the flesh that divide relationships.

We have to be willing to be persecuted for righteousness. We can even expect to be persecuted for righteousness. True righteousness is doing right for others. It is standing fast to do all that God desires. We cannot be quick to compromise in our relationship with God and others. Pressure and all manner of persecution will arise to weaken our resolve, but to be salt and light we must endure persecution and not bow our knees to other life sources. We must not bow to any idol.

Matthew 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

We can even expect to be lied about and taken advantage by others at times. When we are lied about, we must not lie about others. When we are taken advantage by someone, we must not do the same to them.

Matthew 5:11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

These are all keys to being salt and light to the world around us. We are the gate of heaven and our character, nature, way must not be like that of the world. Only God’s grace can empower us, but God’s grace can only be found by those who are eager and willing to seek for it and find it.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Please consider making a donation to House of Bread Ministry to help us close the year and purchase needed travel fares for 2020. We will continue to reach the Portuguese world in Africa, Europe, and beyond. We are committed to Bulgaria, Spain G42, the Netherlands, the UK, the US and Canada. Help us fulfill our mission with the message of New Covenant and Grace!

Donations can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry,

3210 Meridian St., Bellingham WA 98225

or make a donation at one of our online connections

Thank You

Blog In Audio:

     Greetings,

The Church is called to be the testimony of Christ in the earth. We are expressions of God in earthly form. It is for this reason that we must be born of the water and born of the Spirit. That which is born of the water is natural and that which is born of the spirit is Spirit, but together these attributes make us spiritual. We are expressions of God in His likeness and image to bring the influence of heaven into the world in which we live. I don’t believe that this can be accomplished as individuals. I believe it takes many members in diverse expressions of Christ to fully reveal who He is to the world. Surely the enemy has fashioned weapons against this happening. We are the gate of heaven and as the gate of heaven we are salt and light to the world.

Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Salt preserves and salt brings out the full flavor of all that it touches. We are called to bring the best out of others by inviting all to come and be a part of the transforming power of God’s grace.  We are light to the darkness so that those in darkness might come into the liberating testimony of becoming part of the light in Christ. How do we touch the world with the salt of heaven’s grace? How do we shine as the true light in a world of darkness? Jesus gave some keys to being the salt and light of the community of Christ to the community of the world. Those keys are keys of character, attitude, nature, and ways of our hearts. Leaders must grow in these things and lead others to embrace these attributes to be the salt and light of heaven in the earth. When Jesus addressed the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 5, they had lost their ability to be the salt and light of the world for lack of these qualities.

We must be desperate and hungry. We cannot take on a form that is satisfied in ourselves and complete without God. We must demonstrate what it means to know we are lost without Jesus. We are truly hungry and therefore we are eager and willing to receive Him in all things.

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The poor in spirit are those who cry out for the life that only comes from God. As leaders we must grow in the strength of our spirit, but we can only do this if we are poor in spirit without Him. We can never forget where we would be without Him so we can grow in becoming who we need to become by embracing His presence in our lives in increasing measures in each and every season of our lives.

We must know our need for God. We are in a place of loss without Him. Because of this, we are willing to receive His fullness.

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

In order to receive and to depend upon the comfort that comes from God requires us to know that without Him there can be no true comfort. We cannot find true comfort in things that the world offers. True comfort only comes from the One who is the true comforter. Leaders must set an example and inspire those the lead to do the same.

We have to be humble. To be humble is to be teachable. We know that we are darkness, but He is the light. Only God can give us the light of life.

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

To be meek is to be teachable. To be the salt and light of heaven we cannot depend upon what we know. We have to depend upon the One who knows all things. Leaders are not those who know all things. They are those who excel in being teachable and grow in knowing God and all that he desires for them to know. In order to teach others, we must first be teachable ourselves. True teachability is seen in our willingness to change. Leaders willingly change so they can also lead others in their journey of God’s change in their lives.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us as we close this year and enter into this new year. Now is the time when we have to make investments for the opening year. We will be going to Africa in February and are in need of tickets. Please consider making a donation to House of Bread Ministry. Help us fulfill our calling and commission to the nations!

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 are the gate of heaven in the earth for the purpose of invading the earth with the life of heaven. Jacob received this revelation when he fell asleep in a place that he thought was isolated and separated from God and others. While he was asleep, he had a dream in regard to the reality of who he truly was. He was part of the family of God meant to fulfill the destiny of God’s family upon the earth. Where he was, God was. He was the gate of heaven in the earth. This is our path of destiny as well. We are not isolated from God and God is not isolated from us. Where we are, He is; and we must know that where He is, we are also. We are one with Him in heavenly places so we can bring heaven’s grace into our world. When Jacob received this revelation, he stood the rock that had been his pillow upright and it became a pillar testifying of the house of God. He poured oil upon it as a testimony of God’s manifest presence and anointing upon the house of God in the earth. This is not a day for us to be asleep! We are the house of God! Each of us are called to be pillars of God’s presence in the earth for the purpose of God’s will in our generation. We were born for such a time as this to invade our world with the power of heaven’s grace. We were born to bring life to our world!

Peter had this same revelation in another way.

Matthew 16:15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Peter’s revelation came by the voice of God in his heart. He heard the voice of his heavenly Father from within his heart. Jesus said that this was the key to being the place of God’s manifest presence in the earth. It is hearing God’s voice that empowers us to be part of the unshakable testimony of Christ in the earth. God’s manifest presence within us is what empowers the anointing and authority of Christ from us and around us. Hearing God transformed Simon to Peter, the little rock. But the little rock Peter was transformed by the Big Rock of hearing God’s voice from within his heart.

Peter means “little rock”, but Jesus said that upon a “huge rock” He would build His Church. I believe that that “huge rock” was not just Christ, but the revealing of Christ that came by hearing the revelation given by the Father in heaven. I also believe that it infers that the rock of the body of Christ (the Church) is made of little rocks that are transformed through a relationship with God as their Father and the power of His transforming voice at work within them. The revelation that comes from our heavenly Father to our hearts also defines the substance of our lives. We become the substance of Christ in the Rock of Christ. The thing that Jesus said would be built by that revelation was His Church. It was His called-out assembly for governmental decision in the earth. It was His Bride, His Wife, His co-partner in heaven and earth. That Church would prevail against the gates of Hades. Hades is the realm of the dead. The testimony of the Church would be a greater power than the gates of death in the heavenlies and upon earth. The testimony of the life of God in our lives and through our lives would be more powerful than the onslaught of death upon or around us.

Those who have a revelation of Christ are like Peter and they are given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. They are given the power of the government of heaven. They are able to bind on earth things decreed from heaven to see them bound in heaven. They are able to loose on earth things decreed from heaven to see them loosed in heaven. Those with a revelation of Christ in their midst are part a called-out assembly of divinely empowered believers equipped to make heavenly decisions upon the earth for supernatural releases of heaven to the earth. The influences of the realm of the dead are overpowered by the influence of life from the kingdom of heaven within our hearts. This is the key to our being true salt and light in our world. It is for this purpose and testimony that we must lead the body of Christ.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us as we close this year and enter into this new year. Now is the time when we have to make investments for the opening year. Please consider making a donation to House of Bread Ministry. Help us fulfill our calling and commission to the nations!

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

Thank you for your prayers and your support!