ted4leaders

    Greetings;

Love is the only solid foundation of our commitments in life. If we don’t have a revelation of love in a relationship, our commitment to the relationship will be easily offended when the natural circumstances of that relationship shakes in life. When we become offended with another we then make a judgment towards them based upon things that are naturally true or perceived to be true in the relationship. Those judgments are birthed in the environment of fear, a fear of our own death in some way in the relationship. Our actions will become ones of judgment and will not be acts of love towards another. When we make a judgment of another we then become defiled in the relationship. Rather than responding to the other partner we seek to isolate and separate from the relationship. We no longer see the need for a testimony as one and thus we seek to protect our own individual identity. When we become defiled it inspires an insubordinate attitude towards the relationship. Submission is lost and a protection of personal agendas is sought. We become negatively expressive towards the relationship. We don’t see the other as a part of us so we are willing to destroy them with our attitudes, words, and acts in life. When we become insubordinate we then become apathetic towards the relationship. We no longer see the need to live to contribute who we are to another. We don’t care about the relationship anymore. We are not awake in our hearts towards them and we no longer see the need for them in our lives. When this happens we become bound to the logic of our own judgments. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil has surpassed any revelation of the tree of life in the relationship. We seek to be separate in our desires, attitudes, visions, and aspirations in life. We find no need for the relationship. The end result is a total destruction of the relationship. Destiny has been laid in the dust and the relationship has been annihilated. There is no more future. Offense has led to judgment, judgment has led to defilement, defilement has evolved to insubordination, insubordination has transformed to apathy, apathy has grown to atrophy, and atrophy has now been revealed as death. The relationship has ended. Its end began with an offense, a refusal to stay in a revelation of love. Love is the foundation and love is the substance in the journey of our relationships in life.

Within a healthy relationship there is a foundation of commitment for the relationship. So, the first key element to a life-giving relationship is a commitment to the other or others in the relationship. This commitment is based upon a divine connection and it is a matter of the heart. It is the source of desire in the relationship. This is why it is very important to consider the possible boundaries for any relationship before allowing your heart to go to a level of commitment. God gives clear direction in His written word that confirms His voice in our lives. If we ignore simple wisdom like “equal yoking”, “godly pursuits”, “godly lifestyles”, “covenant principles” or other things instructed by God we will be inviting a destructive force into the foundation of any relationship we seek. Every relationship will be tested and only those established on God’s word and godly character produce the destiny of God’s will. We won’t get everything right, but we must seek to try to get it right!

The strength of any commitment in a relationship is the heart. Even if you are part of a team that sells a product, you must first be convinced that the product is valuable to those who will buy it. It cannot just be a matter of reasoning of the mind, you must believe in your product in your heart. This is even more true in life-giving relationships. You must believe in your heart that God is good for your commitment to Him to be lasting and true. This same principle carries over into the practical connections of our lives. We must believe in one another before we can believe in our connections to one another. The source of your belief must be rooted in your heart and not merely your head. For a relationship to be birthed and succeed takes a commitment to believe in the ingredients and the purpose of the relationship. The ingredients are its members and the purpose is its destiny.

Offenses lead to judgments, judgments lead to defilement, and defilement leads to separation by differences. The measuring of things in the relationship becomes self-focused and apathy spawns a care for external things above the relationship. Logic and reasoning bind the failing members to a stronghold of atrophy toward the future. The result is a divorce and a loss of destiny in the relationship. Can you see how important that first level of connection is? Offences are not worth taking!

Every God-ordained relationship must have within it increasing measures of commitment, faith, response, submission, contribution, love, and dedication. Let’s not forget that the strength of every relationship is only found at its simplest level of its formation. That simplest level is the point of our commitment. That commitment is based upon a revelation of who the others are in the relationship, not what they can do. As I have stated before, I call it a “first love” level of the relationship. The degree of connection to the “first love” level of the relationship will determine the increasing testimony of every other level that follows.

As leaders in the Church we must understand these things and we must live to demonstrate true relationships within our team connections. This is more important than what we say. Who we are as a team will demonstrate God’s grace and will empower those we lead to live in healthy relationships.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Please Consider Making a Donation To House of Bread Ministry. 

Thank you so much to those of you who support and have supported House of Bread Ministry. I am presently involved in several long-term projects that do not have the funding to support my travel, time, or efforts. You partnership in this is greatly appreciated.

Donations can be mailed to: House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA. 98225

Or at the DONATE button to the right of this posting

Thank You – Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

Life-giving relationships begin with a revelation of love and they are sustained through a growing revelation of that love. That love empowered revelation is the strength of true covenant commitments and it inspires acts of love towards one another in our relationships. Those acts of love prompt responses, and responses invoke a submission of one to another. That submission is based upon trust and it is a receiving of life and a giving of life to one another. It is like dancing. One move invites an responding move. It is like giving a drink of water to a thirsty mouth. The mouth must be ready to receive the water, but the hand must be willing to serve the mouth by tipping water in the direction of the thirsty mouth. Submission is not a matter of control or manipulation. It is a relational connection that allows there to be a dance of life that brings life to the relationship and bears the fruit of life to others touched by that relationship.

The trust of our submission determines the focus of our contribution to another. We must each receive a revelation that we were born to reveal something of the testimony of God in this world. Who we are is not for our own gain, but for the benefit of another. We are each part of the fellowship that contributes life to our covenant partners in life. When we have food at a table we don’t just merely experience food for our natural needs. We experience the feast of fellowship. When we willingly bring our best food to the table for the sake of another we create a feast and a celebration of diversity that makes the table a testimony of unity through the unique expressions brought by each one. Each of us has been given a measure of life to contribute to our relationships in life. It is not about what we can get from another, but what we can give so those at the table become a fuller expression of the one covenant expressed there. We must each recognize that those in our covenant relationships in life are contributors of life to our lives. More importantly, we must know that we are a gift of life for the sake of those we relate to. God gives each of us an ability to bring light to darkness and that light is for the glory of our relationship with God and with one another. It is a testimony of who Christ is according to His resurrection life! We must be awake to who you are and to who another is in the relationships of our lives. An ability to do works of righteousness for the sake of others is a testimony of life at the table of our relationships. There is a diversity of food that is given by each one, but there is one salt at the table that brings the unique flavor of who we each are for the sake of our fellowship together in life. Unity is revealed through diversity, not conformity. This can only be true when we know the mystery of living to contribute life to those we are in relationship with in life.

The focus of your contributions determines the value of your community. If we do not see that the contributions of our lives are for the life of others we will seek to take life from others and we will experience less than what God has for us. I believe that true community is the testimony of God’s presence that draws each member of the community to come-to-unity around the presence of Christ’s life. We then live with sacrificial love for one another we make decisions in our hearts for one another based upon love and not law. We become willing to make decisions for those we are in relationship in love and not a logical measurement of whether they deserve our love or not. This is the true testimony of sacrificial love for one another as one community for the glory of the relationship as one.

The value of your community determines the determination of your destiny. If we don’t have a revelation of our community together we will be willing to forfeit our destiny together in life. The purpose of our lives is not simply to live successful lives filled with earthly blessings. We were born to live significant lives that bear the fruit of generational destiny and inheritance. The fruit of our relationships in not merely revealed in our lifetimes, but it is ultimately revealed in the lives of our children and our children’s children.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Life-giving relationships begin with a commitment based upon a revelation of love, continue in the power of that commitment by a revelation of love, and grow in maturity by a revelation of love. When our commitments are based upon a revelation of love our actions towards another are empowered by love. We will even make sacrifices towards them because of our love for them. Commitments and actions are the first two ingredients towards a life-giving relationship. Commitments and actions lead to a level of relationship known as life-giving responses.

Responding to another is not an action we make to prove what we have is worth receiving by them. It is a revelation that what another possesses is of great value to us. Like the tithe given by Abram to Melchizedek in the shadow of the law (Gen. 14:18-23), our response to another is a gratuity of honor to invoke all that can be received from them. Tithe is not something that is limited to our money. It is not meant to be a legalistic ten percent given to God in the hope for His blessing upon the remaining ninety percent of our substance. Ten is a prophetic symbol of ‘totality’, ‘completeness’, or ‘judgment’ (more specifically, ‘a judgment of love’ – as ten commandments reveal a two-fold witness of loving God and loving others). Tithe represents the making of a judgment of love that what another has is of great value in our lives. God gives us a gratuity of who He is and we respond with a gratuity of who we are; thus confessing that we depend upon all of who God is to become all of what we should be.

What about our responses to one another? In a covenant relationship, we respond to another because we know they are of great value in our lives and we want all of who they are in our lives based upon a revelation of love. We make a judgment of love in our responses to our covenant partner knowing that without them we lack the full testimony of who we are meant to be in life. In a marriage, it is a confession of being together as one flesh in life. In a community, it is a confession of being one together as the community. In a team, it is a confession of being one together as a team. Commitments, actions, and responses are essential ingredients of every life-giving relationship.

The willingness of our responses determines the trust of our submission to one another. A revelation of who another is determines our willingness to respond with who we are. Our response to God invites the fullness of who God is into our lives. Our response to one another invites the fullness of who another is into our lives. Proper responses give us a testimony that is beyond who we are alone.

When we have a revelation of covenant love, we make covenant actions of love. When we act with covenant actions of faith towards another we become inspired to respond to who they are in our lives. The willingness of our responses to another determines the trust of our submission to them in our lives. Submission involves an under and over relationship with another. We must come under another in order to receive the life that is given. We must willingly come over another in order to tip in their direction and give the life that we have to the one who comes to receive. There must be a tipping towards another of one and a coming under of another. Submission is like a dance of life. It is not a matter of control, nor is it a matter of manipulation. Neither partner comes to take from another. Authority is given and received; it is not taken or used as a force to lord over another. It is the recognition of life and the exchange of that life for the testimony of life that comes to each one from the Father of life in heaven. All authority comes from God and that authority is like light from the Father of lights to His children as the light of life to the world. In a covenant relationship submission one to another reveals the light of the relationship, as each one becomes a testimony of light in the greatness of their relationship as one.

These are the first issues of relationship. Commitments inspire actions, actions prompt responses, and responses invoke a submission of one to another. Next week I will continue with the issues of contribution, community, and destiny in the journey of our relationship with God and one another in the journey of live.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Request For Assistance:

Some of you have been able to respond with some assistance to House of Bread Ministry. Thank you so much for your support. Your support is vital to my ability to equip and resource various ministries in the sphere of my calling in Christ. I am headed tomorrow to do some vital training and recording of training material in Portugal. We are preparing materials and resources for extended ministries in Africa and other locations.  If you have not been able to support House of Bread Ministry financially but are able to do now, please consider making a donation at the donation link to the right of this blog or send a contribution to House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA. 98225.

Thanks You Sincerely,

Ted J. Hanson

    Greetings;

I am going to continue to write on life-giving relationships again today. I had a wonderful time sharing these truths in Castlegar, BC, Canada a couple of weeks ago and I feel these are essential qualities for leaders and every member of the community of God.

Commitment to Christ and to one another begins with a revelation of love. Without a revelation of love our commitments will fall short. The strongest force of life is the power of love. When we have a revelation of love for someone we can easily give our all in our commitment to them. This is true for our relationship with God as well as our relationship for one another in life. This is the foundation and the strength of marriage, family, friendship, and all manner of human connections in life.

The fuel of our commitments will create the force of our actions. The source of commitment is the empowerment of our actions. The empowerment of our actions determines the willingness of our responses. The willingness of our responses determines the trust of our submission and the trust of our submission determines the focus of our contribution to another. The focus of our contributions determines the value of our community, while the value of our community reveals the determination of our destiny. The determination of our destiny is rooted in the source of our commitment. The destiny of God in our lives is one of reigning in life in all things, but its foundation is God’s love. True destiny is not about being successful in life. It is about being significant. The measure of our legacy is not seen in the years of our lives, but in how our lives effect the generations beyond our days upon this earth! This is kingdom of heaven destiny! Jesus asked His Father for the nations, and the posterity of His name is seen in the generations of men.

Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. 

The empowerment of your actions determines the willingness of your responses. When we know that God loves us we believe Him when He speaks. That belief is demonstrated with actions that testify of our love for Him. These are acts of faith towards Him. This same truth carries over into our human connections. Faith is toward a person and without a revelation of love there cannot be a testimony of acts that speak of our faith towards one another. Faith comes by hearing the one we love. The empowerment of our actions is revealed through faith that works through love. Those works reveal that our hearts are with the one who speaks. We have no fear of losing ourselves, because we are empowered in our hearts to live for another. There is no fear of death, because our actions are a testimony of love from our hearts. Perfect love in our hearts casts fear from the environment of our motivations. We are motivated to act in love toward another because we know how much they love us. This is a testimony of our love towards God or towards anyone in a relationship that testifies of God’s kingdom. This is the testimony of true covenant. It is not true for a contract of law. Law measures commitments by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, while love liberates its joining partners by the tree of life. When we are empowered to act in faith towards another, we become inspired to willingly respond to who they are in our lives.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Special Request and Thank You; 

I want to give a special thank you to all of you who have been so faithfully and lovingly supporting me. Without your support, I would not be able to provide the equipping and resourcing that God has called me to do in this season of my life. Last week I shared a need in our ministry and several of you have responded. Thank you so much to those who have supported and to those who have freely responded to my request. Thank you to all who support in prayer.

I am asking that others of you please consider assisting me in fulfilling my part in the call of Christ by way of financial support and prayer. Last year House of Bread Ministry experienced a 31% decrease in annual support. This is the lowest since 2012. Many new doors have opened in international arenas and I am traveling about 60% of my time. Many places that I go cannot cover my full travel expenses and most of the time I do not receive funding from travel that provides much more than travel expenses or something towards it. This is part of going to the places that I have committed to go. Covering my travel expense alone does not allow for funds to support myself, my family, or the other needs of our ministry.  I am presently needing to buy numerous airline tickets to travel to the places God has called me, but I am unable to purchase tickets in a timely manner due to a financial burden I am carrying from last year. Please consider helping in this matter if you are able. I am asking God for the freedom to do what He has called me to do without the restraint of finical burdens. Any support that you may give will be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

Ted J. Hanson

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

Donations can also be made through the onation link to the top and right of this page.

Greetings;

Today I am writing concerning a subject that I have blogged in the past. I feel that this topic is essential for the present season of God in the relevant truth of the Spirit for this time. God is calling us, appointing us, and anointing us to be the people of God. The essential elements of being a community of God is that of life-giving relationships. We must receive life from God and give life to one another. This is the true testimony of being the community of God. It is the testimony of being the people of God.

Everything that matters in life is about RELATIONSHIPS. Who we are, what we do, and the destiny of our lives are not based upon our gifting or our anointing. Everything of life is a testimony of relationship. Fruit comes from relationship, not from works or abilities. God wants a relationship with each of us. What is the strength of a relationship with God? What is the strength of every relationship in life? Relationships consist of commitments, actions, responses, submission, contributions, community, and destiny.

Relationships begin with a commitment. The strength of that commitment determines the strength of the relationship. Relationships established by law will fail. They cannot express covenant. They can only hope to maintain some form of contract and contracts are as the name infers. Contracts restrict and bind its participants to one another in some way, but they don’t live for the greater value of another. They seek to make a greater value of the contract and thus restrict the participating members from the greatness that is found in covenants. Contracts may appear to create things that are greater, but the binding force of a contract is law. The binding force of a covenant is love and love is a revelation, not a command. This is the source and the strength of our covenant with God and with one another. It is a revelation of love. Love will empower our hearts to be in covenant. Covenants are not based upon what we receive from another, but upon who we are for the sake of another. God made a covenant with us by giving us all that is His. We make a covenant with God by giving Him all that we are. When these two things become realities in the relationship, there is a powerful dynamic of life that is beyond anything that can be negotiated in a contract of law. Both contracts and covenants require a commitment of its participants, but the commitment of a contract is based upon law while the commitments of covenants are based upon a revelation of love.

The source of your commitment is the empowerment of your actions. One day a Pharisaic lawyer came to Jesus and asked Him what the greatest commandment in the law was. Jesus responded that the greatest was to love God and the second was to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that upon those two commandments rested the entire law and the prophets (Mt. 22:34-40). The law and the prophets depended upon commands to love God and one another, but humanity could not love God and one another based upon a command of law. Jesus gave a new commandment to His disciples. That commandment was to love one another even as He had loved them, that they would love one another.

John 13: 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

This New Covenant command was based upon a revelation of God’s love. Only a revelation of God’s love will inspire a commitment of love. The source of our commitment to a relationship with God or one another must be a revelation of God’s love for us. When we know how much God loves us, we are inspired to know how much God loves others. Only a revelation of God’s love can create a true commitment that will empower the actions of our lives towards God and others. Love is a revelation, not a commandment of law to love another. A revelation of forgiveness leads to repentance. A revelation of reconciliation leads to understanding. A revelation of belonging leads to believing. A revelation of purpose leads to passion. A revelation of having a Father makes us a son or daughter. These are all elements found in a commitment based upon a revelation of love. Perhaps Paradise is a place where nothing works without God. It is then also a place where everything works with Him. Paradise with God is a place of knowing how much God loves us and this is the fuel of our commitment to Him and to one another. When we know how much God loves us, we then are inspired to know how much God loves others. You see, the revelation that God loves us is not just a revelation of His love. It includes a revelation of how undeserving we are – yet He still loves us! This is in turn inspires us to love others! It is not based upon a deserving of that love. It is totally based upon a revelation of love!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Special Request;  

I want to thank all of you who have been supporting House of Bread Ministry financially and with your prayers. Without your support, I would not be able to provide the equipping and resourcing that God has called me to do in this season of my life. I am asking that others of you please consider assisting me in fulfilling my part in the call of Christ by way of financial support and prayer. Last year House of Bread Ministry experienced a 31% decrease in annual support. This is the lowest since 2012. Many new doors have opened in international arenas and I am traveling about 60% of my time. Many places that I go cannot cover my full travel expenses and most of the time I do not receive funding from travel that provides much more than travel expenses or something towards it. This is part of going to the places that I have committed to go. Covering my travel expense alone does not allow for funds to support myself, my family, or the other needs of our ministry.  I am presently needing to buy numerous airline tickets to travel to the places God has called me, but I am unable to purchase tickets in a timely manner due to a financial burden I am carrying from last year. Please consider helping in this matter if you are able. I am asking God for the freedom to do what He has called me to do without the restraint of finical burdens. Any support that you may give will be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

We must live our lives by faith towards God and not towards things. Our relationship with God is eternal, but the things we do of material value will only last a day, a lifetime, or a minor duration of history in the generations of men. Things we accomplish can vanish in a day. Lifetimes we live will fade in the end. Empires we build will soon become the crushed rocks of landfill for another’s endeavor in life. We must do things in life or our lives are not a testimony of living, but what are the ‘doing things’ that count? Do the things we do define who we are or do the things we do refine the substance of who we are? When the substance of our lives becomes a testimony of eternal value then the things we do can take on the character of our eternal value. It is not the things that remain in the earth of our lives that are the most significant. It is the substance of who we are that we leave in the lives of others that matters most.

My own father was a hardworking man for his entire life. He raised ten children and provided for us by working as a farmer on our home farm as well as working in the community as a painter, a roofer, and in insurance sales and claims. He worked from early morning to night every day of his working life. He was not a successful entrepreneur and many would consider that he was unsuccessful in his life. Some may even consider his works failures, but I believe that my dad left a greater inheritance in this world than the things that can be destroyed by rust and decay. My dad believed in God and was faithful to God and to his experience of church for his entire life. He read his Bible diligently from cover to cover many times in the days of his life. His priority was loving God in his way and loving his family as he thought he could. His love language was one of giving to others and working to show that love in whatever way he could. He wasn’t good with words of love, but his actions in life spoke of love. I have come to understand the language of his life, though I have not always understood it. He was a man with flaws, but for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, his life was perfect in love.

When my dad was 58 years old he fell from the top of a barn and never walked again without the use of crutches, but he lived to 90 years and didn’t use a wheelchair until the very end. He spent 3 years in and out of hospital surgeries for bone repair, bone replacement, staff infection battles, and even an additional brain tumor that left him battling seizures through the following years. My mom also battled during that time with diabetes, and eventually amputations due to infection complications in her leg. She ended up in a walker for her remaining days. Those were no doubt tremendously hard years for my dad and my mom, but in it all they both remained true to their love for God, their love for one another, and their love for their family.

My mom loved to sing and her favorite bird was a small brown wren. She loved it for the song that it sang in the morning. My mom never stopped singing throughout her life and even sang the song ‘Trust and Obey’ to a dying patient in the hospital. Ina Hanson was like that small brown wren. She didn’t seem to be mighty and strong, but the atmosphere of life around her was filled with the song of her life each day. Thank you, mom for the song of life. The song of life brings life to each and every day!

Endurance was a strong testimony of my dad’s life and I am grateful for the inheritance of endurance he left for me in this life. His name was Simon, but the community called him Sam. His reputation was that of being ‘honest Sam’. When he painted a house or a barn, you could count on the fact that the paint would last longer than others painted at the same time. I remember him teaching me how to paint when I was 8 years old. He taught me to not use masking tape when cutting in the paint around the window trim. His words to me were that the paint would seal to the window when not using tape, but the use of tape would break the seal of the paint on the wood and the paint would not last as long. His concern was to give the customer a quality paint job that would last as long as possible. He used brushes and not a sprayer, since he said the paint from the brush was a fuller coat and the job would not fade. He charged less than others and usually cut himself short for the sake of giving others a job that would please them. He taught me how to fill a paint brush with paint, but not to drip paint where it was not to be applied. His heart was to provide an affordable, long-lasting, quality painting for the people he served. Sometimes we kids would be upset with how our dad let others seemingly take advantage of him, but I think my dad left us a mystery to be discovered concerning giving one’s life for the wellbeing of others. At times we thought he should have lived more to give more things to us as children, but perhaps he gave us something of eternal value in the heart. My dad demonstrated a life of loving God with all his heart and loving others. He did it in his way, not mine. He did it with his heart, not mine. He did it with his language and not mine, but he did it well. Thank you, dad, for living your life from the foundation of Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Living for the comfort of our own lives is as straw and it will simply be consumed at the end of the day. Living for my own lifetime will surely fade and can only vanish in the flames of eternity. Living for a business, a ministry, or some empire of human effort can only last a generation or more, but even the things of empires are consumed in the flames of eternity in the end. It is only those things of eternal character that remain. What are the qualities of Christ’s kingdom in you that will live on in the hearts of men? You will live it in your way and not of mine. You will express it with your heart, not mine. It will be expressed in your language and not mine, but ask God to give you the grace to do it well. Live and lead from the foundation of Christ and let the point of your life be LIFE for the world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

    Greetings,

Each of us has been given a realm of rule in this life. We have each been given a life to have dominion in. I believe that dominion can only be fulfilled when we become the true testimony of who we are meant to be in Christ. When we become the authentic person that God has called us to be, we crumble the lies that seek to pervert the testimony of our dominion in life. Dominion is not a matter of control. It is a matter of truth. Truth crumbles every lie and truth is the full testimony of being the life-giving person God intends for each of us to be. This is not limited to our natural birth, but fully dependent upon God’s presence in our lives in order to be and to increasingly become. Truth is not based upon information we have attained to know, but the testimony that we become. Truth is not based upon what we do. It is a testimony of who we truly are. Truth is not based upon our own carnal or self-seeking desires, but upon the desires given to our hearts by a constant encounter with Him. God is life and true life-desires are granted to our hearts when we don’t lean on our own understanding, but acknowledge God in all our ways.

Psalms 37:3-6 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

Only by trusting in the Lord can we truly dwell in our sphere of influence in life. We can live there and exist there without Him, but we can only dwell there with Him. To dwell in the land is to bring life to its barren places and to crumble every lie with truth. God’s presence is the power of God’s grace and it is only by the power of God’s grace that we can bring life to the barren places of our lives. Our righteousness is only found when we discover the truth of who we are. We were born for the well-being of the world we live in. The creative power of our minds is merely an expression of our hearts and our hearts are the containers of life for the world. When are true to who we really are, we can do all things that serve the purpose of who we are. As leaders in the body of Christ we must set an example of truth and we must lead others into the testimony of who each one is in Christ. This is the strength of true dominion in life. Leaders set an example in trusting the Lord, thus they are empowered to lead others in doing good. Leaders set an example in accepting the responsibility of their lives for the sake of giving life to others, thus they lead others into the same. Leaders set an example of feeding on God’s faithfulness, thus they lead others to discover amazing testimonies of God’s love. Leaders set an example of delighting in the Lord and their hearts become bigger with time. Leaders lead people to discover the joy discovering the freedom of heart and mind that can only be found in Spirit of the Lord. Only the Spirit of the Lord within the human heart can bring true liberty in life. Leaders commit their way to the Lord and thus their leadership is merely an expression of God who leads all into discovering who they are in life. Leaders seek to know truth, become truth, and to be truth in the world in which they live.

We cannot attain to the truth of who we are from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We can only attain to the truth of who we are from the tree of life. The source of who we are is found in discovering who God is in our lives. I believe that the secret is in the coming of the influence of the kingdom of God in our hearts. The kingdom of God is not an external kingdom (Lk. 17:20, 21). It is an internal kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). It is the internal place of the heart. When we find the kingdom of God in our hearts we find the realm of God’s influence within us. What happens to our realm of influence in life when the realm of the God’s influence enters our hearts? God’s Spirit within us answers the questions of the human heart.

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. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

We live, move, and have our being in God. The realm of God’s influence in our hearts will affect the spiritual and practical realities of the realm of our influence in life. God is the one who gives us life, breath, and all things. All things that we do in life are empowered by the life of God within us. The expression of who we are can only be discovered when we find the expression of who God is in us. God is the life and we are made alive by that life. God is the life-giving word and we are the voice, expression, and way of revealing Him to the world we live in. When we discover His presence in our hearts, we discover the source of our being. God is our God, we are His expression, and we live together with Him in all things. When we partner with God in who we are and receive Him in all that He is, we do works that express His glory in the sphere of our dwelling in the earth and we impact our time with the influence of God’s glory. We don’t get our identity from the things we do. All that we do finds its identity in who we are in Christ.

Jesus said that when we drink of Him, life-giving water flows from us to the world we live in (Jn. 7:37-39). The kingdom of God within us will cause our name to become a testimony of God in our realm of influence. Only by this can we know truth, become truth, and be truth in our world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

The kingdom of God is in our hearts. It is Christ in us that is the hope of glory. The unshakable kingdom is about who you are, not what you do. Who you are determines how you do every ‘what to do’ in life. Moses had to encounter the God of fire in the bush. He had to become consumed with the passion, zeal, and purpose of God in His heart. He had to know who God was and who he was so he could lead a generation of slaves into becoming a people who could overcome all things for the sake of God and the generations of God’s children.

Moses needed an encounter with God as his God. He needed to know that there was no separation between him and God. He needed to know that God and him lived together in all things. Moses needed a transformation by the life-giving God of heaven in order to lead God’s people into that same encounter in life. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt was more about becoming the testimony of the children of God upon the earth than about being freed from Egypt. Being freed from a life of sin is only the invitation to become an expression of God’s life-giving people upon the earth. God wants us to become heaven powered from within. When we are empowered from within, we can do all things without.

Exodus 3:5 Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7 The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. 8 So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.”

When Moses had his encounter with God in the burning bush, it was a commission for him to lead God’s people into the land of promise. The land was a good and a spacious land flowing with milk and honey. It was a land of blessing, but it was also a land of resistance. In the land was the Canaanite (self-seeking), Hitite (fearful), Amorite (bitterness), Perizzite (superficially individualistic), Hivite (wicked – disconnected),  Jebusite (trodden underfoot – trampled/defiled)and the Girgashite (discontent & wandering).

Deuteronomy 7:1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.”

These inhabitants of the promised land are a testimony to the ways of the kingdoms of the world. The administration of the kingdoms of the world and the justice system of the knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong, has humanity bound to a worldly testimony. The administration of the knowledge of good and evil is not the same as an administration of life. When we embrace a justice system of knowledge we tend to approach life with a fair or unfair paradigm in our thinking. We measure justice by whether something is right to us or wrong. I believe that there is a right and there is a wrong, but the real issue is not right and wrong. The real issue is life and blessing or death and curse. Only a relationship with God can give us the true fire of life. When we have a relationship with God in our hearts we are given the ability to increasingly embrace an administration of life. We can receive a revelation of God’s love for us and thus we can be empowered to love others. The internal motives of our hearts can change from motives of self-desire to living for the wellbeing of others.

Deuteronomy 30:9 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before your life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live…                                            

The inhabitants of the land represented self-seeking motives, self-preserving actions, bitter judgments, aspirations driven by insecurity, self-focused agendas of personal success, an unwillingness to embrace differences, and a life of discontent wandering. These inhabitants represent the attributes of our hearts when we choose to live for ourselves rather than for God as our Father and for others as His children.

Moses was called by God to lead a people to become overcomers in a land of resistance. This was a type and a shadow of what God intends for us in the promised land of life. The promised land is not a land of geographical location. The promised land is for each and everyone of us. It is a land of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It works in any life and in any geographical location. It is for every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. It is a land of internal reality and a justice system of life. We cannot experience this land by the things we do, but all that we do will be affected by its existence in our lives. The promised land is a place of the human heart. It is the internal kingdom of life, the kingdom of God within. It is the testimony of Christ in us and it grants us a justice system of life and blessing.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

As a prince in Egypt, Moses knew what to do when he saw the oppression of the Israelites. He sought to deliver his people when he murdered the Egyptian. In his heart he knew what to do, but he had to become who he was meant to be before he could be entrusted with task. He had to know that God’s purpose cannot be fulfilled without God’s presence in his life. His forty years in the wilderness was about becoming who he needed to be in order to deliver God’s people. It was not about knowing what to do. He needed an encounter with God, more than he needed instructions from God. He had to lose his old life and find it new!

Who we are precedes the ‘what to do’s’ in our lives. Leaders are God’s gift to lead others into becoming who they are meant to be in Christ, not merely what to do in life. How many times do congregation members measure their leaders based on whether they think they know what they are doing or not? How many times do we all measure others based upon whether we think they know what they are doing or not? Leadership is more about becoming than it is doing. Membership is more about embracing becoming what we are being led to become than what we are being led to do.

What we are becoming is determined by the kingdom of God within us. God’s expression in our hearts transforms who we are for a greater purpose than ourselves. God’s voice in our hearts transforms us for the purpose of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God isn’t about the things we see or the things we do. It is about who we are by the power of Christ at work within our hearts and minds.

Luke 17:20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

The kingdom of God is not a natural kingdom, but when we discover the kingdom of God within us it affects even the practical things of our lives. The kingdom of God is within our hearts. It is a kingdom of knowing righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

These three internal realities are all about knowing who God is. It is not enough to know that God is, we must know who God is. God is the Son, Jesus; God is the Spirit, Holy Spirit; and God is the Father. He is the one who gives us life, breath, and all things. He want us to know Him in the reality of His triune reality. Jesus is the one who saves us. He is our righteousness. Christ in us reveals the testimony of being children of God because of Jesus our Savior in all things. He is our way to a relationship with God. He is our righteousness. From our hearts we now know that God is our God! Holy Spirit in our lives is the testimony that there is no gap between us and God. We are growing and overcoming sons and daughters of God. We have peace in the Holy Spirit. We are sons and daughters of God! The evidence is both internal and external in our lives. God is our Father and He is with us in all things. In His presence is the fullness of joy. That joy is in the internal place of the heart. It is joy in the Holy Spirit. Joy is not just happiness. Joy is the fullness of God’s focus, purpose, and destiny in our lives. God is the one who gives us all things. We live with Him in all things. God wants us to know who God is! It is a growing reality that makes us live as children, sons, and fathers in an intimate relationship with Him!

Hebrews 12:25-28 See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. 26 And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” 27 This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

The unshakable kingdom is who you are, not what you do. Who you are determines how you do every ‘what to do’ in life. Moses had to encounter the God of fire in the bush. He had to become consumed with the passion, zeal, and purpose of God in His heart. He needed an encounter with God as his God. He needed to know that there was no separation between him and God. He needed to know that God and him lived together in all things. Moses needed a transformation by the life-giving God of heaven in order to lead God’s people into that same encounter in life. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt was more about becoming the testimony of the children of God upon the earth than about being freed from Egypt. Being freed from a life of sin is only the invitation to become an expression of God’s life-giving people upon the earth. God wants us to become heaven powered from within. When we are empowered from within, we can do all things without.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

God wants to bring a change in us, not merely a change of what we do. It is the change in us that will bring the change to the world. God is an I AM not an I DO. We must become a testimony of “i am” in Christ. As leaders, knowing who we are is more important than knowing what to do. We are not called to merely lead people in doing things for God. We are called to lead people in becoming who they are meant to be in Christ. The confession of our hearts cannot be one of the acts of our life, but that of the character of our lives. The character of who we are will not only define what we do, but also the reason for which we do all things. Knowing what to do is not enough. We must first know who we are. When we know who we are, we can easily discover the why of all the things we do in life. Knowing why we do what we do is more powerful than merely knowing what to do. Knowing why we do what we do will empower us to do anything and everything necessary in our path of destiny. Merely knowing what to do can leave us easily swayed from destiny. Our focus and our passion can be easily extinguished when what we do is more powerful than why we do it.

Moses was destined to be a deliver to his people, Israel. He was rescued as a baby in the river Nile and raised as an Egyptian prince in the house of Pharaoh. When he came to the age of forty, he saw the mistreatment of an Israelite and he rose against the Egyptian that was doing the abuse and he killed him. Having been seen by others, he fled to the wilderness of Horeb, where he established a family and a way of life among the people of Midian. Moses was an Israelite by birth and an Egyptian prince by upbringing, but he was destined to be an Israelite deliverer for his people. He had spent a generation knowing the ways of Egypt (40 years), but he had to see his Egyptian identity die in the wilderness and his Israelite roots restored for the task that was before him. He had entered a generation of discovering who God was and who He was in God’s plan of life. His time in the wilderness was a time of discovering who he was, but to discover who he was he had to discover who God was in his life. He already had a sense of what to do, when he killed the Egyptian abuser in Egypt. He had to know who he really was before he could lead his people, Israel, to their destiny in their journey as the people of God. In order to discover who he was, Moses had to discover who God was.

Exodus 3:1 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

There are some names of prophetic significance in this story of Moses. He was serving in the family business of his father in law Jethro. The name Jethro means, abundant or his excellence; his posterity. Moses was living under the shadow of one who was abundant and excellent. Jethro was of the tribe of Midian. The name Midian means, judgment. Moses was in the wilderness of Horeb. The name Horeb means, waste, desert; solitude; destruction. It would be easy for Moses to see himself as under the shadow of his father-in-law. It would be easy for Moses to feel like he was being judged by the measurements of another. It would be easy for Moses to think that he was wasting his time in the wilderness. Moses thought that he had fled to the wilderness for his action of killing the Egyptian, but Moses wasn’t in the wilderness because he had to run for fear of the actions of his past. God had brought him to the wilderness for the sake of the future of others. Moses wasn’t running from his Egyptian inheritance, he was brought into a 40-year season of his life to discover who he really was. Knowing who he was, was more important than knowing what to do.

Exodus 3:2 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. 3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Moses didn’t turn aside to see the bush because it was on fire. There were probably many fires in the wilderness. The wilderness is a dry place and things burn easily and things burn up easily. Moses didn’t turn aside because of the fire. He turned aside to see why the bush was not consumed by the flames. The bush was a message for Moses. Moses had to become a bush that would not burn out. He had to discover God, who was in the bush. He had to discover God in his own life for the task that set before Him.

It would be easy for Moses to see himself as under the shadow of his father-in-law. It would be easy for Moses to feel like he was being judged by the measurements of another. It would be easy for Moses to think that he was wasting his time in the wilderness. If you feel like you are under the shadow of others or you feel as though you are being measured or judged by others, you need to find your confidence in Christ. Christ in you is the hope of glory and only Christ in you can give you the power to burn with a zeal for God, His family, and His purpose in your life. Don’t seek the fire of God, seek the presence of God! The presence of God in your life will lead you in discovering the purpose of God in your life.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson