ted4leaders

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

Greetings,

As the people of God it is important that we keep our focus in 2017. Our focus must be fixed upon the presence of God in our lives. We must see responding to what He says as essential in all things. Our hearts must be set upon giving life to others. We must embrace God’s desires as our own and we must let our own desires be transformed by the heart of our Heavenly Father. God’s presence, God’s words, God’s life, and God’s desires are keys to being the people of God. As we become the people of God we will shine like a light of hope to those bound to the cultures and societies of the world.

People in the world are afraid, they don’t know what is next, they can’t find a place to settle, they are tossed to and from by every conflicting way of life, they don’t know what to do, they are out of control – THEY ARE DISCONNECTED FROM GOD. People of God – KNOW A CONNECTION WITH GOD. They are people of love and they bring faith, stability, direction, peace, and freedom of heart and soul.

People in the world don’t seek God’s counsel. They don’t want to do His will, they want to do their own will. The result is dread, calamity, distress and anguish. People of God seek God’s will, not their own. They seek His kingdom first and all the things they need are added to them.

People in the world are never satisfied, they are thirsty, they need life. They seek life in all the wrong places and things. They are left dry and dead and a place of demonic influences. They are a dry place and they can’t find true satisfaction. People of God live from satisfaction, thus they seek to give life to others. They are a watered garden, a place of God’s presence and habitation.

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

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

What are we looking at? Sometimes we think that fixing our eyes upon what God has promised us is the goal, but I am increasingly becoming aware that fixing our eyes on what the King sees is essential in this time. Our King is ruling righteously and He is calling for princes and princesses who will rein justly. Our justice system is based upon a revelation of God’s love. It is an administration of life. We must fix our eyes upon God’s presence. We must enter into the dance of life by responding to every word that God speaks to us. His GUIDANCE in our lives is a testimony of GUI –DANCE – GUI (God – U and I) DANCING. We must fix our eyes upon life and allowing His river of life to flow through us. This is experienced in the world around us by our own attitudes, thoughts, actions, words, and life-giving expressions. We must fix our eyes upon pleasing the One who is already pleased to call us His own. When we fix our eyes upon true light we will be seen as children of LIGHT!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

I am writing today to encourage all of us, especially those who lead, to rise to the challenge of being sons and daughters of God in the midst of the challenges of the world of men. People in the world live world live with an administration of knowledge, but sons and daughters of God embrace a justice system of love fueled by an intimate connection with God in Christ. The administration of our lives is one of grace. God’s grace causes our hearts and minds to become increasingly like God in His character, nature, way, power, and authority. By this we will be known as the people of God and as the people of God we will be light and life to the world of men.

Isaiah 32:1 Behold, a king will reign righteously and princes will rule justly.2 Each will be like a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land. (NAS)

Princes and princesses in God’s kingdom are like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land. In Biblical terminology, the shade of hug rock speaks of the desires of our hearts and where we find the desires of His heart towards us and within us. Jesus is the Rock of Love that we embrace and He is the one who keeps us by His love and protects us day and night.

Psalms 121:5-7 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.

The strength of God’s protection in our lives is found in the desire of His heart. His desire is a love for us and that love is the most powerful protection in heaven and earth.

Song of Solomon 2:2-3 Like a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

Because God’s desire is towards us we can find great hope when His desires become the desires of our own hearts. It is God in His love for us that provides a shade from the heat of the day when we tabernacle with Him in the power of His love (Isa. 4:6). When the fire of His desire burns within us, there is no heat of day that can weary us or drain us of our passion for life that can only be known by the power of His love.

We must not be like the people of the world. We must be a testimony of those who are loved by God and who demonstrate that same love as a covering to the world as God’s love empowers us to cover a multitude of sins for the sake of loving them. People in the world seek personal pleasure and personal identity. They are not shy in their willingness to practice harlotry with whatever overs a measure of satisfaction to their personal agendas of self-love.

Hosea 4:11-13 “Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart. My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, and their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, and they have played the harlot against their God. They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters commit harlotry, and your brides commit adultery.

People in the world seek personal pleasure, personal preference, personal identity and they are left in their own misery, the bondages of their own iniquities. They seek to justify their iniquities as being the source of their true desires. They don’t understand that God can change the desires of their hearts to be like Him in all things. They don’t live to please God, because they don’t understand that the flaws of the human heart are not a mark of condemnation before God. They are merely a place of opportunity for the power of God’s love to be shown.

People of God seek to please God because they know how pleased He is with them. They seek to be children of God and live under His authority. They embrace the changes that come from His covering in their lives. They don’t hold on to the iniquities of their hearts, but allow the shade of His presence to transform their hearts and minds to be like Him from within. As leaders in the body of Christ we must be examples of those who live to please God, because we know how pleased He is with us. We must seek to allow His desires to become the desires of our own hearts. When His desires become our desires, we can handle the heat of any day. The motive of our hearts and the focus of our eyes will be His love in all things. We must lead the community of God in the same!

Psalms 37:3-4 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.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

As the people of God we must embrace and seek to live in a justice system of life. When grace becomes the administration of our hearts and minds our lives become testimonies of truth. When we live as truth, the truth of who we are crumbles every lie within our sphere of influence. It is only by the power of God’s grace that we can begin to manifest and grow in the testimony of who God intends for each of us to be. Who we are is more important than what we do. When we know who we are, we will do the right things. When we seek to do right things without knowing who we are in Christ, we end up doing right things for the wrong reasons and in the wrong ways. Jesus didn’t just give us the forgiveness of sins through His act of mercy on the cross, He gives us the power of His transforming grace from His presence upon the throne!

Ephesians 1:7-10 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.

As sons and daughters of God we are living with an administration of God’s grace. God’s grace empowers and governs our hearts and minds to become who we are meant to be in Christ. As leaders in the body of Christ we must set an example as those who live in such an administration. It is an administration of life!

Isaiah 32:1 Behold, a king will reign righteously and princes will rule justly.2 Each will be like a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land. (NAS)

I have addressed the matters of being a shelter from the storm and a refuge from the wind. What does it meant to be like streams of water in a dry country? Without Christ within our hearts there is no true life. The hope of the fullness of life is only found with Christ in our hearts. The life line is the life blood of God’s presence at one with our own spirits. The life within our hearts is the testimony of the life that flows from our hearts. People in the world are never satisfied, they are thirsty, and they need life. They seek life in all the wrong places and things. They are left dry and dead, and a place of demonic influences – the dry place. They need life! As sons and daughters of God we are to be as an oasis in the dry places of the world. When we find our life in Christ, we become life to the world. It doesn’t make us better than those in the world, it simply empowers us to reveal the way of life to the world.

Psalms 1:3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.

Isaiah 44:3-4 ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring and My blessing on your descendants; and they will spring up among the grass like poplars by streams of water.’

We are in the world for the sake of the world. We have a mandate to give life to the world in which we live. The rivers in the garden of Eden were created to flow from the garden to give life to the world. Water speaks of life, future, inheritance, and posterity. In the midst of King Solomon’s search for wisdom, he discovered that life is a precious gift not to be wasted in the wrong place. We must not let our springs be poured out in the street to no avail (Pr. 5:16).  Jesus said life would come from within us. As princes and princesses, sons and daughters of God, we must always seek to give life to others. We were born for greatness that goes beyond our own personal need and satisfaction. We were born to give life to the world.

John 7:37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “ If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

People in the world are never satisfied, they are thirsty – they need life. They seek life in all the wrong places and things. They are left dry and dead and end up living as a place of demonic influences. Their lives become a testimony of dry places. People of God live from a place of being satisfied in God, thus they seek to give life to others. They are a watered garden, a place of God’s presence and habitation. We must activate, facilitate, and release the community of God to be a source of life to the world. Living for the well-being of others is the testimony of those who live their lives administrated by the justice system of God’s kingdom of love.

1 Corinthians 10:23-24 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

The justice system of God’s kingdom is different than the justice systems of the world. The issue is the roots of our beliefs. The roots of a tree determine the life that is in the tree. When man chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they chose an ability to be wise. That ability made them independent from God and thinking that life is about making decisions based upon a knowledge of good and a knowledge of evil. I believe man’s choice of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil caused them to become as a generational family tree that finds its roots in human decision based upon a knowledge of good and evil. The other option in the garden would have been the tree of life. I believe that that tree of life is eating of a personal relationship with God. Its roots draw life from a relationship with God of intimacy and love. Eating of that tree creates a generational family tree that finds its roots in a personal relationship with God who is love. It is not possible to be dependent upon God and dependent upon the knowledge of good and evil, thus the choice in the garden of choosing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil caused man to be separated from an access to the tree of life. It is only in Christ that we lose our old family tree of knowledge and we are born again to find our roots in the tree of life. A personal relationship with God and a dependence upon His love is a testimony of eating of the tree of life in a relationship with God. As leaders in the body of Christ we must set an example of finding our roots planted in a relationship with God in Christ. It is only then that we can live with a different justice system than those in the kingdoms of the world.

When our roots are in Christ we become sons and daughters of God. As leaders in the body of Christ we must embrace the justice system of the kingdom of God’s love in order to activate, facilitate, and release God’s people into the same. As I have stated before, we are not called to lead people with mere Biblical principles, demanding that people adhere to the rules of a Christian faith. We are called to lead others into the empowerment of God’s grace, whereby they become sons and daughters of God with the attributes of the family of God among the families of the earth. We must lead people to know who God is, who they are, what their purpose is, and how to rise by the power of God’s grace to subdue the world with life and to manifest truth that crumbles every lie. This cannot be done from the family tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It can only be done from the family tree of life.

Isaiah 32:1 Behold, a king will reign righteously and princes will rule justly.2 Each will be like a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land. (NAS)

What does it mean to be a shelter from the storm? In the Scripture, the storm represents the circumstances and challenges of life that come against us all. Every person is guaranteed a challenge of facing the storms of life. To be a refuge from the storm we must set an example of those who find the secret to standing in the storms of life. If we neglect the counsel of God in our lives, we will not be able to stand in the midst of the storms that come our way.

Luke 6:46-49 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?  Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

In this story of two houses, both houses were built in the same geographical location. Both may have been the same design of house and even the same size of house. Perhaps they both were drawn with the same architectural floor plan. Both houses are likened unto people who God was speaking to and who were hearing what He had to say. The difference is that one responded by acting upon the words he heard while the other did not. Jesus says that the one who heard and responded to the words was like one who digs down to the rock and establishes a foundation for his house. The one who merely heard is like someone who built his house without any foundation at all. The response of acting upon what God was saying is a testimony to the process of setting a foundation for the house. Both houses were faced with the violent storms of life, but only the house with the foundation set upon the rock was able to stand. This is the testimony of true ‘belief’. The most important thing in this story is the rock. I believe that that rock is Christ and our relationship with Him is what will allow us to stand in every storm. Our relationship with God is cultivated by our response to His voice in our lives. As leaders we must set an example for others in how to listen to and respond to God’s voice in our lives.

I believe that the basis for our ability to respond to what God says to us is based upon a revelation of God’s love. When we know how much He loves us we will respond to all that He says. It is a revelation of who He is that empowers us to do all that He says. It is a matter of love!

People in the world don’t seek God’s counsel. They don’t want to do His will; they want to do their own will. The result is dread, calamity, distress and anguish. They don’t have a revelation of God’s love.

Proverbs 1:27 When your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

The justice system of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil produces independent people who base the counsel of their lives upon their own perceptions of good and evil and they fail to desire or trust the counsel of God. Sometimes the counsel of God includes pain in the process of responding, but that pain is only a testimony of God’s love.

When we fail to listen to the counsel of God in our lives, we will fail to stand in the storms of life. As sons of daughters of the king we must set an example in seeking and responding to the counsel of God in our lives.

Zechariah 7:13 “And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts; 14 “but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.”

Isaiah 25:1 O Lord, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

Our roots are in God’s love and our family tree is a tree of life. We depend upon God’s presence in our lives and upon responding to His counsel in our lives.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

As leaders in the body of Christ we must embrace the justice system of the kingdom of God’s love in order to activate, facilitate, and release God’s people into the same. We are not called to lead people with mere Biblical principles, demanding that people adhere to the rules of a Christian faith. We are called to lead others into the empowerment of God’s grace, whereby they become sons and daughters of God with the attributes of the family of God among the families of the earth.  We must lead people to know who God is, who they are, what their purpose is, and how to rise by the power of God’s grace to subdue the world with life and to manifest truth that crumbles every lie. This cannot be done from the family tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It can only be done from the family tree of life.

Isaiah 32:1 Behold, a king will reign righteously and princes will rule justly.

As leaders, we must set the example of being princes in the community of God’s life. We are sons and daughters of the King and our purpose is that of the kingdom of God. His kingdom must be called for, sought out, and lived for in all that we do. We cannot act like the sons of the world. We must be an example to God’s people and a leader in influencing the world with the life of God’s kingdom. The secret is in the focus of our hearts.

Isaiah 32:2 Each will be like a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land. (NAS)

What does it mean to be a refuge from the wind? Wind represents change. It can be good or it can be bad. The winds of the world attempt to distract us from things that really matter. There are a lot of changes going on in the world. The wind is blowing strongly and as sons and daughters of God we must not be moved or swayed by the winds of the world. Winds can represent instability or an unknowing of what is next. That unknowing can tempt us to be fearful in our hearts. Surely people in the world are often shaken and swayed by what they cannot control, understand, or clearly see. It is only in the presence of God that we find peace and stability in a world that is tossed two and fro. We can learn a great lesson from Jesus and His disciples as they crossed a lake on a day of great wind.

Luke 8:22-25 Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”

The confidence in the wind could only be seen in the fact that Jesus was resting in the back of the boat. When we know that God is with us, we can find peace in any wind. Jesus has authority over the wind, but more importantly Jesus doesn’t mind resting in our windy situation. Our faith should not be in the fact that Jesus can calm the wind. Our faith should be in the fact that Jesus is resting in the back of our boat. He is resting in our lives and He trusts the direction He is guiding us.

The presence of God can give us stability in a windy world. Being in the will of God is living with the presence of God in our lives. This can give us peace in any windy day. People in the world don’t know God’s presence, thus they cannot truly know peace in a windy day. They are filled with fear on windy days and the lack of God’s presence in their lives can even invite the winds of change to terrify their hearts. When Jonah was out of the will of God, he found himself in the midst of the wind upon the sea. He was not in oneness with God and His plans; as a result he faced the wind and the storm that made even the mariners afraid. Those who know what they are doing also know the potential of destruction of wind and change. Having seen destruction in the past can make us afraid in the winds of the present day. Knowing God’s presence in our lives is more important than knowing what can or cannot happen.

Jonah 1:4, 5 But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.

People in the world need God’s presence. We cannot condemn them for not knowing what to do in the midst of change. We cannot condemn them when the winds of the world cause them to be out of control and circumstantially ruled. People in the world are often driven by the wind, but sons and daughters of God live lives that invite those in the world to find God’s presence in the midst of times of change.

The wind and the waves made Peter afraid when he walked on water and he began to sink, but then Jesus extended His hand to Peter and picked him up (Mk. 4:39). We can be afraid at times, but when we know that God’s presence is with us our fears are vanished.

People in the world are tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14). We must not be like the people of the world. We are not here to condemn the world, but to show them where to keep their focus. We must focus on God’s presence in our lives, not the winds that blow around us. When we don’t trust God for the wisdom of our tomorrow we become double minded and we are tossed by the wind (Jam. 1:6). When we disconnect from God’s presence we are shaken by a might wind.

Revelation 6:13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.

When God’s presence comes into our lives we receive a wind from heaven that brings the peace of God’s presence that promises change in the world in which we live. That change is brought about by God’s presence in our lives.

Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

The people of the world are affected by the wind. They are afraid, they don’t know what is next, and they cannot find a place to settle. They are tossed to and fro by every conflicting way of life, they don’t know what to do and they are out of control – THEY ARE DISCONNECTED FROM GOD. People of God – KNOW A CONNECTION WITH GOD. They are people of love and people of love bring faith, stability, direction, peace, and freedom of heart and soul. This is the testimony of princes who rule justly in the community of God’s life. By this we can lead others to know to keep their focus on God. We are refuge from the wind, because we know God’s presence in the midst of every windy day.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

As leaders in the Body of Christ we must lead people with and into a different justice system than the justice system of the world. The peoples, families, communities, and nations of the world are part of the family tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their justice systems are based upon a knowledge of good and a knowledge of evil. Although there is good and there is evil, an administration based upon the information of good and the information of evil is bound to repetitious patterns of doing what is perceived to be good and or perceived to be evil. The true fruit of good must be life and the true fruit of evil is death. Many times we do things that we perceive to be good, but the result is death or dysfunction in our own lives or in the lives of another. Our actions lack the ability to bring life to the world. We must embrace the administration of the family tree of life in order to truly see good in this world. God is only one who is truly good and only an administration based upon a transformation of our hearts and minds by the power of His Holy Spirit can change our lives as individuals among the peoples, families, communities, and nations of the world. We must receive a changed character, nature, way, power, and authority in order to receive different results than the old family tree of death. We must embrace an internally motivated administration of love. It is an administration of grace that will empower each of us to become truth for the sake of God’s increasing life in this world. People of grace and truth are people of love. To be people of love we must have a different focus than we did as people of the world. We cannot be self-seekers, but we must live for the wellbeing of others.

1 Corinthians 10:23 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. 24 Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.

To be people of love we must know who we are. In order to know who we are, we must first know who God is and who Jesus is in our lives. Jesus is not merely an option, He is the way, the truth, and the life for all mankind.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords to give all men life! He is not like the kings of the world or the lords of mankind. He is not a taker of life, but a giver of life in all things. His righteousness is not based upon what He perceives to be right or wrong. His righteousness is based upon His ability to give life to all men. This is what is right. We cannot understand who we are, unless we first understand who He is.

Isaiah 32:1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.

As sons and daughters of God we must rule with justice. Our justice system is not based upon a family tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is a higher justice system than one that tries to merely make things right in action. Our justice system makes things life in heart and mind. Our covenant with God is a covenant whereby He writes His law upon our hearts and minds.

We live in a time where the kingdoms of the world have become word sensitive, but they are not heart sensitive. The kingdoms of the world are ‘love me’ societies instead of societies that profess “I love you”. Everyone hears what they hear, but not necessarily what is truly said. Language is made up from our own hearts and minds and it is based upon our own perceptions. When we embrace a word sensitive world we define the world around us by the definitions of the words within our own hearts. The world must be measured by God’s heart, not ours. God’s heart is not defined by ours. Our hearts must be defined by His justice system and a work of His grace within us. The people of God need to become the people of God rather than shape God to become the God of the people. He is the righteous King and we cannot rule as princess and princesses unless we first embrace Him. We are to be in His likeness and image and not He in ours. We cannot be the light of the world unless we know the true Light that gives life to all men!

John 1:9-18  That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ” And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

God wants us to become His family in the earth. When the world looks at our lives we should be recognized as the people of God. People of God are people of love. To be people of love we have to live with a justice system of life. We cannot embrace the justice system of the world and expect to manifest the testimony of being people of God. The justice system of the world is based upon a knowledge of information, while the justice system of the kingdom of God is based upon the power of transformation that comes by the power of God’s love.

In the kingdoms of the world there are conflicts of law and men’s own perceptions of the human conscience. The justice system of the kingdom of God is different than the justice system of the world. We are the community of God and it is the love of God that creates the culture that transforms us to become the people of God. That culture is one of love. The culture of love doesn’t just reveal God’s love to us; it also empowers us to become a testimony of love to others. It is the power of God’s love that transforms the iniquities of our hearts to become an exhibiting force of life to be seen by others in the world. Where we were weak, we become strong by the power of God’s grace at work within us.

The government of the Old Covenant was based upon the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. That Old Covenant government still exists in the kingdoms outside of Christ. The only way out of the Old Covenant government of the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil is to embrace the love of God only found in Christ. This is where one find’s the justice system of the New Covenant. The government of the New Covenant is based upon life. True life is the testimony of true love. When we know the love of God we know the life of God! God’s love creates a different justice system than that of the Old Covenant. I believe that love is the testimony of the Tree of Life. Jesus lived as a human being empowered by love. The administration of His life was the Tree of Life, not the Tree of the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. One is a tree of grace, while the other is a tree that constantly requires mercy. Humankind is stuck in the system of law until they find a way out. In order to be free from the justice system of law, mercy must triumph! Mercy is the end of the law and the invitation to grace. Wherever grace abides, love reigns. The justice system of grace is scandalous. It is not a system of fairness, but one of love.

Isaiah 11:1-2 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

Jesus is the Rod the came from the stump of Jesse. He is the New Creation born from the Old Creation. In Christ we are born again to this living hope. Like the virgin birth of Christ, we are new creations through a born again experience in Christ.

2 Corinthians5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

The Rod that came from the stump of Jesse is the testimony of a new human race from a Firstborn Adam that was born of the old human race that was generationally bound to an old Adam of sin. Jesus is the Rod and we are part of His body. He is the Vine and we are the branches. The Branch is Christ and the Rod is Jesus. Jesus was the Body of Christ before we were grafted into Him. The sevenfold Spirit of God rests upon the head of Jesus, runs down His beard, down His robe to His feet. We are one with Him as the body of Christ and the anointing of His Spirit is both in and upon our lives. The same justice system empowers our lives that empowered the life of Jesus. That justice system is one of love. We do not make our decisions based upon what we can see with our eyes or hear with our ears. The equity of who we are becoming in Christ is the power by which we make decisions for others. The substance of who we are becoming is more powerful than the substance of what we used to be. The breath of God is the grace of God at work in our lives. His grace has the power to destroy the roots of wickedness in our lives. His love, the breath of His lips, eradicates the weaknesses of our hearts that transpire to transgression and manifest as sin.

Isaiah 11:3-5 His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His waist.

In order to experience God’s justice system, one must first acknowledge the old one. The way to God’s grace is through God’s mercy. Mercy is found in the testimony of the cross of Calvary. Mercy ended the law and without mercy one is still bound to the justice system of the law. We must come boldly to the throne of Christ to receive the end of the law and the beginning of grace.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Mercy is obtained by an acknowledgement of mercy given. God loves us, but we don’t deserve His love. To think we deserve His love is an injustice in the covenant of law and conscience. The justice system of grace is available for all, but one must first receive the end of the justice system of law and conscience. That requires God’s mercy and it can only be obtained through a revelation of the cross.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 3:21-26 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Love is a revelation and it includes God’s mercy and His grace. His mercy justifies us to live and His grace empowers us to live in life. It is a transition in the administration of our lives and it invokes the scandalous justice of God’s love.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

Proper parenting welcomes God to bring about generational changes in the family destiny. Proper parenting invites God to visit the iniquities of the fathers that seek to rest upon the children to the third and fourth generation.

Exodus 34: 5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

Iniquities are a flaw, a propensity to transgress, a place in our hearts where we are vulnerable to the temptation to look for life in the wrong place. Iniquities are issues of the heart that need a visitation of God’s presence to transform the root character, nature, way, power, and authority of the family name. When someone in the family line accepts the responsibly of the family issues, God can change the family line. This is accepting the responsibility of headship – the authority that comes by accepting the responsibility today for everything in our lives. When we accept the responsibility of authority in our lives and allow God to write in us a changed character, nature, way, power, and authority it changes our family name. We should not just expect God to bless us in the inherited state of our lives. We should expect God to empower us to become all that we are meant to be in Him. We should expect Him to empower our family inheritance to become what it should be by the power of His grace.

Matthew 13:52 Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

Examples of iniquities can be:

• A negative, pessimistic view on life
• Oppression
• Depression
• Poverty mentalities
• Shame Issues
• Pathologic Disorders such as lying and generational addictions such as alcohol, gambling, or other things displaying user tendencies
• Hoarding
• Various compulsive behaviors
• Masochism
• Eating disorders such as bulimia or obesity
• Pedophilia
• Homosexuality
• Infidelity
• Sexual addictions such as pornography
• Anger issues
• Incubus / Succubus or other demonic relationships
• An inability to keep commitments
• Disruptive behavior disorders
• Various phobias
• Mental health disorders

• Anything that influences the human nature to act upon works of the flesh:

Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

People who have issues are not bad people, they just have issues that need a visitation of God’s presence to receive deliverance and healing in order to receive a transformation of character, nature, way, power, and authority. Everyone has iniquities, but some are more obvious than others. Everyone needs a visitation of God’s presence and transformation by God in their hearts and minds. It is foolish to resist God’s transformation in our hearts because of stubbornness and human pride. Admitting that there are things in our lives that are wrong is not saying there is something wrong with us. It is simply a wiliness to allow God to remove the things that are wrong so we can increasing know who we were meant to be. Our identity comes from our Father in heaven, not the natural inheritances of human experience.

Humanity was created in the likeness and image of God, therefore, anything that does not exhibit the likeness and image of God is a problem that needs a visitation of God. God does not condemn us for our iniquities. He does not shame us for our iniquities. He forgives our iniquities, but He doesn’t just ignore them and say everything is ok. He doesn’t just sweep them under a rug to not be seen. He visits us in the places of our iniquities to transform us to become like Him. How we were born naturally is not how we should be. It is how we are and now it is up to us to invite God into our hearts and minds to change the character, nature, way, power, and authority of our family. We are not to ignore our weaknesses nor are we to accept them as things that must be or are even desired to be in our lives. It is not shameful to admit an iniquity. It is foolish to ignore them or to accept them. It is wise to invite our loving Father to give us the identity we were meant to have. It is a miracle and it happens by the power of His grace at work within us. It is not reasonable. It is unreasonable. Everyone has a cup to drink and to accept anything less than the miraculous changes that come by God’s presence in our lives is foolishness. God wants to heal roots. He wants to transform the places of roots so the fruits of our character, nature, way, power, and authority become a testimony of His presence at work in our lives. He doesn’t come to condemn us or to shame us. He has come to deliver us. He has come to save us. He has come to transform us to be what we could not be without Him. There is nothing wrong with us. There is simply something wrong in our lives that needs to be healed by the One who loves us. It is impossible for these things to change without God, but with God all things are possible. It is as miraculous as a virgin conceiving by the power of the Holy Spirit and a Son being born that was the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person in the earth (Heb. 1:3). Life is not fair. Everyone has a cup to drink in life and part of everyone’s cup is leaning to allow God to transform the areas of iniquity in our hearts. His mercy forgives us, but His grace transforms us!

2 Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

Iniquities have been accepted as a normal way of life by those in the kingdoms of the world. We do not condemn people for this. They do not understand and simply need light to shine to show them the way to life. We receive them as they are, but we must never participate in taking any step that leads them further in the bondage of transgression and sin. We must simply set an example of people who allow God to visit the iniquities of our hearts and change us. We do not define the way of God by the cultural ways of the world. We offer transformation to those in the world by the cultural ways of God as His kingdom comes and His will is done in our hearts and minds, even as it is in heaven.

Proverbs 6:20-28 My son, keep your father’s command, and do not forsake the law of your mother. Bind them continually upon your heart; tie them around your neck. 22 When you roam, they will lead you; When you sleep, they will keep you; And when you awake, they will speak with you. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life, to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattering tongue of a seductress. Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, nor let her allure you with her eyelids. For by means of a harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread; and an adulteress will prey upon his precious life. Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be seared?

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson