ted4leaders

Greetings,

God wants to heal the curse in the earth. This can only happen when the children of God manifest in the earth. When we live for ourselves or for the testimony of some other thing that who we are meant to be in Christ, the earth remains in a condition of futility (Rom. 8:20, 21).

Malachi 3:9 You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.

God wants a living and active relationship with us as His children. The Holy Spirit has come so that we will respond as the gate of heaven in the earth.

Malachi 3:10    “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house…”

When we respond to the bread and wine that comes to us from God in heaven, we become empowered to see the will of God done in the earth. Jesus said that His food was to do the will of God in the earth (Jn. 4:32-34). He did this by releasing the life of Christ within Him to the world around Him. A river of life-giving water flowed from His heart because He was a Son of God with a constant connection to His Father by the Holy Spirit (Jn. 7:37-39).

To understand the blessing of food in God’s house through a response relationship with God we must understand the testimony of tithe. The first mention of tithe in the Scripture was in the life of Abram just after he had returned from freeing his nephew Lot after being taking captive in a battle in the Valley of Siddim where the kings Chedorlaomar, Tidal, Amraphel, and Arioch had come against the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah. Zeboiim, and Zoar. Abram and his 318 trained men pursued those kings and freed Lot along with the goods that had been taken. Now what was the value of the goods that Abram had recovered? Among the goods were the possessions of Sodom, Gormorrah, and Admah. History reveals to us that the goods of those cities were of no value at all. God would soon destroy them all in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the coming days of Abram. Abram didn’t know that, but God knew the true value of those goods. These were the goods of which Abram gave a tenth to Melchizedek. What was the point? Did Abram give a tenth of what he had so that God would bless the remaining ninety percent in his possession? If we read the story we find that Abram didn’t keep anything of the goods that he had recovered. Abram’s act of giving a tenth to Melchizedek had nothing to do with anything that Abram possessed. It had to do with all the Melchizedek possessed.

Genesis 14:18-23 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all.

Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself.” But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, “I have made Abram rich”…

The first gifts given were not those from Abram. They were gifts given by Melchizedek to Abram. Those gifts were those of bread and wine. Bread is a symbol of the Word of God and wine is a symbol of the life of the Spirit. This Melchizedek was giving Abram gifts from heaven. Somehow Abram got a revelation. He knew that what Melchizedek had given him was just a gratuity of all that He possessed in heaven. Abram’s gift of tithe was a response to the gifts of Melchizedek. He was giving a gratuity even as he understood that Melchizedek’s gifts were a gratuity from heaven. His gifts were a testimony to the life that comes from the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of the full inheritance of God (Eph. 1:13,14). Abram’s act of tithe was a response to the gratuity of bread and wine. He didn’t have his goods in mind when he tithed to the King. He had the gifts of the King in mind. Abram didn’t keep a stitch of the goods that he possessed. He knew that he needed all that God had in heaven for him to bring the testimony of heaven into his life upon the earth. If he was to be God’s house in the earth then the food of God’s house was necessary for him to become all that he was destined to be. His destiny in God was dependent upon his response to the flesh manifestation of Christ before his eyes. This demonstration of tithe from Abram’s heart had nothing to do with any command that God had ever given. It was a revelation given to Abram by the Spirit of God when He encountered a manifestation of Christ upon the earth. This demonstration of faith was done hundreds of years before the Law would ever testify of this thing called tithe. It had nothing to do with a command to tithe, but it had everything to do with a revelation concerning tithe. When the gratuity of the Holy Spirit is given in our lives a response should be a gratuity of all that we have. It has nothing to do with a dollar amount. It is a prophetic activation of the principle of a tithe  – a tenth. Since the number 10 is a prophetic number signifying completion, judgment, and love, perhaps this tenth is a testimony to God’s complete promise in our lives to bring about the fruit that comes from His judgment of love. A tenth of Abram’s treasure was given to the one who held all the treasure of his heavenly destiny.

Genesis 28:10-22

Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Here we have an account of the grandson of Abraham in another encounter with God and a testimony of tithing. When Jacob awoke from his dream he didn’t say, “How awesome is God!” He said, “How awesome is this place!” He understood that he was in the place of the house of God. He was sleeping in the very place of destiny. The rock that he saw as a pillow needed to stand upright and be called for what God saw it to be. A place that meant, “isolated” or “separated place” (Luz) needed to be called by the name that God saw it to be – “the house of God” (Bethel). Jacob was not isolated or separated from God. He was the place of God’s habitation. He understood that God was with him. He took the sleeping place and confirmed that it was truly a standing place, a place of inheritance. He took the rock that was a pillow and stood it upright as a pillar. He anointed the standing pillar with oil as a testimony to the place of the manifestation of Christ in the earth. There was an open heaven over his life and angels were ascending and descending. They were ascending from the house of God upon the earth to bring back all of the heavenly supply needed for that house to be known as the gate of heaven in the earth. Jacob didn’t give the gratuity of tithe so that there would be an open heaven. He gave the tithe because he knew he was the gate of heaven. He didn’t give the tithe so that God would bless his earthly possessions. He gave the tithe as a testimony to all that would come from heaven. He was responding to God, not invoking God to respond to him. He knew that God would keep him in his way and that way was the path of destiny set before him by God. God would rebuke the devourer on his behalf not because of what he did, but because of who he was. He responded with tithe because of who he was, not because of what God would do. He knew that God was the giver of bread and that there would be food in God’s house, not the house of isolation or separation from God. His tithe was a testimony to his oneness with God. He had a covenant of peace with God and he knew that God would provide heavenly bread to change his character and to prove His will done in his life. He knew that God would clothe him and give him the outward evidence that would cause the nations to call him blessed. Jacob didn’t tithe to get these things. He tithed because he knew that the gratuities of God would prove to lead to the full provision of the inheritance of God in his life. His act of tithe was a prophetic sign to his response to God. The test before him was not one to prove whether God could perform or not. It was a test that proved that God is who He says He is. Tithe was a response level testimony to the giving culture of God in His house.

Tithe is a response level relationship whereby we respond to the bread and wine of Melchizedek with a prophetic tenth, declaring that the full inheritance of heaven is to be made known in God’s house through the gate of heaven in the earth. It is like the submersion in the Holy Spirit, a holy testimony spills out from our hearts and submerges us in a testimony that declares we are a holy nation before God in the earth! We are dependent upon God as our righteousness and we are an earthly testimony of His peace, the evidence our oneness with Him in heaven while upon this earth.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

God wants a relationship with humanity as a Father and His children. His means of making that happen is the gift of the Holy Spirit within the human heart. He is the voice the cries out “Abba, Father” from within us. Jesus Christ made this possible. He was the Son of God who made a way for us to receive the Spirit bearing His name within our hearts. His gift of mercy and His gift of grace enable all to come and know the life of being children of God. The Prophet Malachi foretold of this day. God’s answer to restoring the relationship of man and God is the Holy Spirit within.

Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the LORD of hosts.

The Holy Spirit comes to His temple. His temple is the body of Christ. He is the one who writes the law of God’s love upon our hearts and upon our minds. He is the one who changes our hearts and gives us an outward testimony that reveals us as children of God.

Malachi 3:2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap.

Holy Spirit removes the things in our lives that cannot stand. These are the things that cannot inherit the testimony of the kingdom of God. The result is seen as a true testimony of Christ in our hearts. It is a real testimony from the inside out that reveals our dependence upon God.

Malachi 3:3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness.

The testimony of Christ’s change in our lives is a witness to the redemption that Jesus paid for us all. He has restored our relationship with God as our Father and joined us in our hearts to Him. Our praise and our vision of peace has been restored.

Malachi 3:4 “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the LORD, as in the days of old, as in former years.

It is through Christ in us that our internal flaws will be healed. These are our iniquities, our weaknesses, our propensities to pursue other things and live our lives as something less than whom we were intended to be as children of God. These are the false testimonies that propose a truth about us that only a lie to the likeness and image of God. God has made a way for these false testimonies to be removed.

Malachi 3:5 And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien— Because they do not fear Me,” Says the LORD of hosts.

The judgment that God brings is not a judgment of our condemnation and death. It is a judgment that removes the lies in our lives. He comes to remove the illegitimate voices in our lives. He comes to remove the illegitimate relationships that breach the testimony of our covenant with God. He comes to remove the deceptions and the lies that entrap us in the bondage of sin. He comes restore the nature of God our heavenly Father within our heats. It is good news for a Jacob generation. It is good news for those who seek Him to be a blessing to the world they live in.

Malachi 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.”

Those who seek God, those things within us that seek God, are not consumed. God does not want to destroy us. His heart is to restore us to our true identity. We are the children of God who were destined to be the likeness and the image of God. If we view God is a master who controls us or some god that demands things from us, we will fail to become who we were meant to be. The prophet Malachi foretold of voice of God that would come to the human heart. He has always wanted a relationship with us as His children.

Malachi 3:7 Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” Says the LORD of hosts. “But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’

God’s desire to restore our responses to Him and our actions testifying of him in life. These are the tithes and the offerings. Tithe is a response level relationship with God. Offerings are the actions we make that reveal we are God’s family.

Malachi 3:8  “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.”

The actions of giving the burnt offering, sacrifice, tithe, heave offering, vowed offering, freewill offering, and the first of our possessions were really a testimony to the type of people we are meant to be (Deut. 12:5-7). It is really about learning to be like God. God doesn’t want us to do things for Him; He wants us to be people who act like Him. Holy Spirit is in our lives to restore the testimony of the family of God in the earth.

God doesn’t want to tell us how to act. He wants us to be inspired from our hearts to act like His children without being told. When a dad or mom tells their children to do something they aren’t interested in merely getting their children to obey. It isn’t about picking up their clothes, cleaning their room, or some kind action commanded them.  A parent doesn’t want to tell their children to do things. They want their children to learn to do things that are in the character of the family. God wants to inspire us to spontaneously act the way children of God act. The actions are merely a testimony of the character of the family. That is the kind of family we are. We are God’s family.

We are the kind of family that never hides from mom, dad, our sisters or our brothers. We never hide from God, but have a commitment to be in relationship with Him. After the fall of Adam and Eve, God made clothes for them. They were hiding from God because they were ashamed of their nakedness, but God didn’t want them to hide from Him for shame. Sin caused man to hide from God, but God made a provision of a burnt offering so they wouldn’t have to hide from Him. God’s mercy has triumphed over every judgment and He doesn’t want us to hide from him. When we know this it shows we have a really good attitude and we know that we are loved. We must never hide from God or from those who love us.

We are the kind of family that does good things for one another. We do them because we love each other. These are our actions of faith. They are sacrifices motivated by love. We are inspired in our hearts to do things for God and for other people.

We are the kind of family that appreciates what others do for us and we appreciate who others are. We do the same with God. When He gives us our daily bread and life we respond to him by giving him a portion of ours. We appreciate who He is and we respond to Him in ways that lets Him know that we want all of Him in our lives. That is called tithe. It is not merely a matter of money; it is a matter of making a confession that we want all of the substance of who He is in our lives. We are the kind of family that does things that show God and others how much we want them in our life.

We are the kind of family that knows who others are and we listen to those we are supposed to listen to and we help people we are supposed to help. This is called true submission. It was portrayed in the choice offering given to the priest, lifted to God, and then received by the priest. It was an action that demonstrated a confession of submitting to one another as unto God. If we have some water and our brother or sister is thirsty we want to give them some. Submission is the receiving of the life of authority in others so we can also give life to others. It is with this attitude that we obey God, obey those we are supposed to obey, and help others in this life.

We are the kind of family that does the best we can at what we can do and we are always true to being ourselves so that others can do what they can do and they can be themselves too. God knows who each of us are. Without Him we are nothing, but in Him we are each a treasure of life as a part of the mystery of the fellowship. When we are true to what God says about us we can be true to contributing life to others in the truth of who we really are. This is like a vowed offering, an offering that is true to what God declares it is. We must be ourselves and help others be who they are too.

We are the kind of family that looks for times when we can show love to others just because we want to. They might not even know we did something nice for them, but we are glad they are happy. This is true community. It is a freewill relationship of love. We love God and we love others, because we really want to.

We are the kind of family that puts God first so that He can bless us, our family, bless us as we grow up, bless our children when we have children, and bless our grandchildren when we get white hair like me. We put God first and expect His blessing in our family. This is called a first fruit, an offering of the first of what we have to God. When we give to Him first He comes to our house and changes things that need to change. Giving God the first of something is the same as praying. It is putting God first and inviting Him to be in every part of our lives. We give the first to God with joy and rejoicing! When we give it we are telling God we need Him in every part of our lives. We are asking God to bless everything that is going to happen this year and in the years to come. We are praising Him and praying to Him when we give. It is like asking God to eat first at our table, so He can be with us at every meal. When we give to God first we can enjoy everything we have. We are believing for God’s blessing and presence in our lives We are believing He will help us think, get new ideas when we need them, do what we need to do, to be able play well, learn well, work well, and sleep well.

God has put His Holy Spirit inside of us so we will know to do these things because He wants to really bless our families and us. This is the kind of family we are:

1. We Never Hide From God or Loved Ones

2. We Do Good Things For God and Other People

3. We Do Things That Show God and Others How Much We Want Them In Our Life

4. We Obey God, Obey Those We are Supposed To Obey and Help Others

5. We Are True to Being Ourselves and We Help Others Be Who They Are Too

6. We Show Love to God and Others

7. We Put God First and Expect His Blessing In Our Family

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

Last week I began to present the foundation for establishing the family name of God in the earth. We are all called to be priests before Him. We are called to be ambassadors of heaven who bring the heavenly things of God into this world. Some things that I laid before us last week were:

• As priests before God our primary responsibility is to hear what God says and to give glory to His name. We live for His desires and to lead others to do the same.
• We must all understand that how we respond to God’s voice affects our descendants. The future of the church is affected by our responses to God today.
• An awe of who God is and an honor for His name will cause the expressions of our lives to have a life-giving effect upon others. The iniquities of others are healed when we accept the responsibility of being people who are in a close and personal relationship with God.
• Loving God as our Father and loving His children should be the testimony of our lives.

God loves us as we are, but He wants to move into our world and transform us to become like Him. He does this for the sake of His name in the earth. His name is His inheritance in the world. It is how He is revealed through His family in the earth. We must embrace God’s family above our own personal ministry agendas. Our aim in life must be to point all to the Father. It is not about what we want. It is about what the Father wants.

Let’s continue to look at the secrets found to show honor to God in the words of the prophet Malachi.

Malachi 2:11 Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the Lord’s holy institution which He loves: he has married the daughter of a foreign god.

What does it mean to marry the daughter of a foreign god? When we make the things that God does more important than who God is, is it not a making of covenant with something less than what should be? We must be true to God our Father, not true to the gifts He gives. What about when we make our dreams, visions, goals, work, or ministry more important than God? We cannot make personal agendas, personal work, or personal ministry our mistress. This is defilement to being a priest before God. It will affect His inheritance in the earth.

Malachi 2:12 May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, being awake and aware, and who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts.

We must see being responsible for others as a joy. Doing what God wants is not a sacrifice of pain. It is a sacrifice of love. Do we desire God’s way more than our own? We must be zealous for His house, not ours.

Malachi 2:13 And this is the second thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and crying; so He does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with good will from your hands.

The secret to leading with joy is to lead for the future of the family. It is not about our will and our kingdom in the earth. It is about the kingdom and the will of God. It is about the family name, because this is the Father’s inheritance.

Malachi 2:14 Yet you say, “For what reason?” because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
We have a responsibility to the family name. That which is part of our lives is for His glory not ours. The relationships given to us are for the purpose of His life. We must know that our lives are meant to be lived in a way that strengthens the body of Christ. We have been given a life for the sake of children and children’s children. We must love God and have a covenantal and relational commitment to His bride.

Malachi 2:15  But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

When we live for our own needs, our own desires, or our own agendas, we create an open door to the spirit of divorce. To live for ourselves is to live for divorce! We will live for the family of God, not the testimony of ourselves.

Malachi 2:16  “For the LORD God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence,” says the LORD of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”

To live for the Father and His family is righteous, true, and the destiny of our life as the church. We cannot make personal vindications and a justice system of the knowledge of good an evil the directing factors of our hearts. We must embrace the justice system of God. His justice is one of mercy, forgiveness, goodness, and love.

Malachi 2:17 You have wearied the LORD with your words; yet you say, “In what way have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”

To live for the Father and His family is righteous, true, and our life as the church! To live for our own vindication or justification is to live for divorce. We must live for the future of God’s house and the future of His kingdom upon the earth.
To embrace the testimony of the Father’s name requires a covenant with God, not merely a contract. What is the difference between a contract and a covenant?

In a contract two or more parties commit their individual selves for the fulfillment of the contract agreement. A contract is a formal or legally binding agreement holding all parties to the terms of that agreement. It is a putting together of entities to create a binding agreement for a greater containment. The name contract implies a shrinking or the making of something to a smaller size. It is tightening or a drawing together for a contained purpose.

A covenant is a compact made by passing between two pieces of flesh. In a covenant two living things become sacrificed for something greater to be born new. A covenant is a process of selecting another in order to feed them and to render all to them to become what did not exist before. Jesus made a covenant with us by allowing His body to be broken that we might receive the life that He gives, the love that He gives, and the testimony that He gives that makes all things new in our lives. To enter into this testimony we must fall upon the rock of this covenant to give our lives to Him, render all to Him, and become what did not exist before. As members of the body of Christ we must be broken and pass through the broken pieces of the body of Christ to select the Father, feed on Him, and render all to Him.

To be in covenant is to be one in the same body, house, or habitation. If we are a covenant family, we make our lives broken for one another that we might pass between the pieces to enter into one place of habitation. We select one another, feed one another, and give our all to one another. The testimony of covenant is a new entity that produces life beyond what could be before, whereas a contract is a binding of entities for a benefit of individual parts. A covenant is a commitment to fully identify with one another. It is a sharing of all possessions in the covenant with a loyalty to the covenant, no matter the cost. This is the testimony of the covenant family of God in heaven and earth!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

God’s desire has always been that His people would be a royal priesthood before Him. His family is a family of kings and priests. It could be interpreted that His family is a family of priestly kings and kingly priests. They are to stand before God as a holy people and they are to rule in this earth as a testimony of the power of Christ. This is God’s heart for all people.

The Old Covenant was a shadow of the good thing to come. It was a testimony of imperfect men trying to obey a system that reflected the true covenant of Christ in heaven. The earthly expression was often less than what was to come, even as a shadow. Even the tabernacle with its partitions and furniture arrangements was seen in an Old Covenant reality, therefore a veil separated man from the presence of God. In the Old Covenant the tribe of Levi held the priesthood, because they were the tribe that stood with Moses at the destruction of the golden calf (Ex. 32:25, 26). The nation of Israel was then revealed as a nation of tribes, with one tribe being the tribe of the priesthood. That one tribe was a shadow of what God wanted to do with all people. He wants all of humanity to know that they are to be a royal priesthood before Him (1Pet. 2:9).

The priesthood of the Old Covenant transgressed in God’s ways and failed to live in faithfulness before God as the priests that God had chosen them to be. Malachi, chapter 2 describes a spirit of divorce that had broken covenant and caused God’s people to abandon the passion and the true responsibility of being a part of the inheritance of God’s house. This chapter is an example to us all as to what is to be the passion and focus of each of us as a royal priest before God.

Malachi 2:1 And now, O priests, this commandment is for you.

The commandment was to the priests – His testimony of heaven on earth. We are a priesthood of believers and we can see an example of who we should be before God through His desire and Israel’s failure to fulfill His desire in the covenant.

Malachi 2:2 If you will not hear, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to My name,” says the LORD of hosts, “I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart.

As priests before God our primary responsibility is to hear what God says and to give glory to His name. This is a matter of desire in our hearts, not merely the surface actions of our lives. As leaders among the priests we must set an example of those who hear God and give glory to Him. We do not lead for our own personal desires, nor do we lead for the desires of the people. We, and those we lead, are here for the glory of God to His name as our heavenly Father. We must set an example in following God’s desire and leading others into the same.

Malachi 2:3, 4  Behold, I will rebuke your descendants and spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts; and one will take you away with it. Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD of hosts.

God was revealing through the prophet Malachi that it was not the feasts that God desired. It was a relationship that fulfilled the purpose of the feasts. The priests had failed to see that the attitude and the actions of their own lives would affect the generations to come. As priests before God we must all understand that how we respond to God’s voice affects our descendants. This can be good or bad, depending upon our own obedience of disobedience to God. The future of the church is affected by our responses to God today.

Malachi 2:5, 6 My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear Me; so he feared Me and was reverent before My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity.

When we embrace a face-to-face relationship with God, there is life and peace. Our personal relationship with God will be seen in the testimonies of our lives. An awe of who God is and an honor for His name will cause the expressions of our lives to have a life-giving effect upon others. The truth of God in our mouths is the testimony of becoming like Him in our ways. The principles, patterns, and values of God in our hearts will empower us to walk in the justice of His ways. The iniquities of others are healed when we accept the responsibility of being people who are in a close and personal relationship with God. When we stand with God, we change in our character, nature, way, power, and authority. When we change, we inspire others to change also.

Malachi 2:7 For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

As leaders, we must embrace a relationship with God in order to inspire others to do the same. We live on the words of God’s mouth. We must speak the truth and see ourselves as messengers of the Lord. We must speak life-giving words of love for God and love for people, not critical ones. Loving God as our Father and loving His children should be the testimony of our mouths.

Malachi 2:8,9  “But you have departed from the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of hosts. Therefore I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept My ways but have shown partiality in the law.”

The Old Covenant priests of Malachi’s day had departed from God’s way. The had used the form of God’s covenant to benefit themselves. They had exalted themselves above others and they saw the community of God as a system they could use for their own purposes. As priests before God we must understand that we live for the will of God and for the blessing of others. We must keep God’s way before others that none will stumble in loving God and loving others. We cannot show partiality in loving God and loving people. There is no rank of value in the community of humanity before God. As leaders we cannot show partiality in love to those we lead. We cannot show partiality in how we love others, for we set an example of love to all.

Malachi 2:10  Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers?

We live to reveal the Father to others. We are God’s family and we must all understand that no child of God is greater or less than another. As leaders we must embrace God’s family above our own personal ministry agendas. We are not here to become famous; we are here to reveal God the Father to others. When each one knows who their Father is, they will become a testimony of Him and His will in all things. We live to reveal the Father to others. Our aim in life must be to point all to the Father. It is not about what we want. It is about what the Father wants.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

The book of Malachi is an amazing book. It is the last thing prophetically spoken in the Old Testimony, before God became the Word manifest in the flesh of Jesus Christ. The subject of Malachi is God as a Father, we as His children, and God’s plan to repair that relationship and testimony in the earth. The name Malachi means the messenger of Jehovah or my messenger. I believe that Malachi is a witness to the Holy Spirit being sent to humanity to cause us to be made known as the children of God. It is about God’s plan to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers in the hope of healing the curse of human failure in the earth.

The secret to honoring and father and mother in the earth is only revealed and given through the testimony of the Holy Spirit. As I have written, God wants His family name to be an increasing inheritance in the earth. God loves us as a Father loves his children, but our failure to see Him for who He really is left us short of being a true testimony of His family in the earth. Malachi chapter one begins with God testifying of His love for those who see Him as the source of making them His blessing in the earth. He testifies that it was Jacob that He loved, while Esau He hated.

Malachi 1:2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved”…

Jacob represents a generation of humanity that seeks the blessing of God. They don’t just seek the blessing of God to be blessed. They seek the blessings of God because they know they represent God in this earth. A Jacob generation seeks God so they can be God’s blessing in the earth for the sake of God’s covenant and the generational testimony of His name. It is only through knowing who God is, that we can become who we are meant to be in the earth. God’s issue with humanity is that they would know Him as their Father, not merely a God to serve for their our own advantage. When we don’t know who He is, we can never know who we are.

The prophet Malachi deals with a fatherless generation of people. He addresses a self-seeking generation who do not know who God is.

Malachi 1:6 “A son honors his father, if then I am the Father, where is My honor?”

The self-seeking generation of Malachi’s day thought that life was about them, not God. A self-seeking generation sees themselves as the center of everything, not God.  They want God to meet their needs, but they have little concern with serving Him. They fail to understand that He is their Father and thus they fail to see serving Him as a testimony of love.

Malachi 1:7 “You offer defiled food on My altar, but say, “In what way have we defiled You?’ By saying, ‘The table of the LORD is contemptible.’ ”

When we exalt our needs above the will of God we fail to see the need to see God for who He really is. We expect God to receive us as we are, but we don’t expect to become like Him. I believe that this is very prevalent in the present generation. Many people want the grace of God, but they define God’s grace, as an excuse to hold on to their old ways while proclaiming God loves them as they are. This was the case with the people of God in the day of Malachi. They wanted to offer God the blind, the lame, and the sick while making excuses for their flaws.

Malachi 1:8 And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?” Says the LORD of hosts.

When we expect God to love us as we are without expecting that we must be transformed to His ways, isn’t it offering God the blind, the lame, and the sick as a sacrifice? We want God to come and be the God of the people, but we don’t want to be changed to become the people of God. We expect God to receive us with our flaws, but we don’t want to embrace any changes God may desire in our lives. We want to justify our weaknesses, while demanding that God lowers the standards of His expectations in our lives. Iniquity is not sin, it is an internal weakness of the heart that leads to transgression in our hearts and manifests as sin before God. It is the internal weakness that makes us vulnerable to look for life in things other than God. When we do this, we expect God’s favor calling mercy a testimony of grace. We believe that grace is an excuse for us to remain as we have been and we fail to see that only mercy can receive us as we are, but grace transforms us to become what we have never been before. Grace transforms us to become as God desires us to be.

Malachi 1:9 “But now entreat God’s favor, that He may be gracious to us. While this is being done by your hands, will He accept you favorably?” Says the LORD of hosts.

The real problem is a lack of understanding who God really is. Self-seeking people fail to recognize that He is their heavenly Father and He is worthy of their testimony becoming a reflection of Him.

Malachi 1:10 “Who is there even among you who would shut the doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you,” Says the LORD of hosts, “Nor will I accept an offering from your hands.”

When we seek our needs above the will of God in our lives we fail to see that His kingdom will is to make His name great among the nations. We were born for His calling, His inheritance, and His power in this world. God’s children are a testimony of His name.

Malachi 1:11 For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the nations,” Says the LORD of hosts.

A self-seeking generation considers the testimony of their own lives as more important than God and what He wants in their lives. They see serving God as an unfair demand. Any change that God would require in their life is an insult to their hearts.

Malachi 1:12 “But you profane it, in that you say, ‘The table of the LORD is defiled; and its fruit, its food, is contemptible.’ ”

A self-seeking generation wants to justify their iniquity, transgression and sin and they demand that God accepts them as they are.  They see God as one who serves their needs and they have little regard for God’s ways in their lives.

Malachi 1:13 You also say, “Oh, what a weariness!’ And you sneer at it,” Says the LORD of hosts. “And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?” Says the LORD.

A self-seeking generation gives their best to their own agenda, and less to God. They invite the consequence of curse into their lives for their failure of seeing God as their Father.

Malachi 1:14 “But cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male, and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished— For I am a great King,” Says the LORD of hosts, “And My name is to be feared among the nations.”

A self-seeking generation doesn’t want to recognize who God really is. They want their own name to be great, not His. The way of the world is more important to them than His way. Their culture is more valuable to them than the culture of the kingdom of heaven. God’s doesn’t curse them; they simply embrace the way of the curse in their failure to see God for who He really is. This is the foundational flaw of a self-seeking generation. They are fatherless in their mentality and they fail to honor God as the Father He truly is.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

When we know who we are we live lives that are beyond our own personal needs. When we know who we are, we live lives of destiny. We are part of the family of God and our family destiny is a bridge to the future. Our destiny answers the questions of the human heart. I believe that it is in the heart of every person to ask four basic questions. Those questions are: Who is God? Who am I? Who are God and I together? And – What is the point of everything?  These questions are in the hearts of all people. The apostle Paul recognized this when he addressed the people of Athens.

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.” 

The first three of the internal questions of humanity are revealed in these verses. Who is God? God is the one who gives life to all people. Who are we? We are an expression of God. We are a testimony of His breath. Who are God and us together? God gives us all things and when we have God in our lives we then can have all the things that have been determined for us in our preappointed times and within the boundaries of who we are. God doesn’t need anything from us. He gives life, breath, and all things to all people. We live, move, and have our being in Him. It is part of our multigenerational inheritance in the earth.

If we look at the 15th chapter of the book of Luke we find several parables spoken by Jesus. The religious society of the self-righteous Pharisees was upset with the fact that Jesus was eating and drinking with sinners and tax collectors. People of the world were being attracted to Jesus, while those in the religious system of the law were despising His ways of grace. I believe that those in the world were attracted to Jesus because He demonstrated the answer to the questions of the human heart. I believe that those questions were demonstrated in the parables that Jesus told those before Him. Jesus told a parable of ninety-nine righteous sheep and a shepherd going out to find one that was lost. Israel was the testimony of the ninety-nine righteous sheep, while the nations of the world were depicted in the redemption of the lost lamb. The lost lamb represented God’s care for all people. He gives life to each and every one.

Jesus then told the parable of the ten silver coins, the lost coin represented the one and only value of everyone redeemed human being by the blood of Christ, while the nine remaining coins represented those who already had the testimony of the Holy Spirit with them. The lost coin had the exact same value as each of the remaining nine coins and the woman was willing to sweep the floor thoroughly in search of the one coin of equal value. The coin was an expression of Him and its value was the same as the other nine. God’s gives breath to all people and He knows the value of each and every one.

The next parable told by Jesus was one of the father, the prodigal son, and the older brother. Israel was the older brother while the prodigal son represented the Father’s love for all the peoples of the world. The father wanted both the younger and the older son to be part of his purpose in life. He wanted both of the sons to know the testimony, the authority, and the inheritance of the father’s kingdom. The father’s testimony, authority, and inheritance were enough to celebrate every day with him if they desired. Our business in the world is the family business of God in connection with God as our Father. We are not making our own way, we are part of His family in the earth.

At the beginning of Luke, chapter 16 Jesus told the parable of the unrighteous manager. In this story the manager turned shrewd depicted the nations of the world that proved to be shrewder than the sons of the kingdom of Israel, by making friends with their handling of money and the things of the world. The details of the parable appear to reveal a man who made decisions with another man’s money for the sake of personal favor. The real issue was the fact that the bad manager knew that once he lost his job the only thing that would really count was having fiends. The parable isn’t about handling accounts righteously. It is about valuing the right things in life. It is about valuing friendships. This is what God was looking for through the life of His Son Jesus. Jesus was looking for those would be friends with God and see God as their friend. The Pharisees were lovers of money, though they prided themselves as not being tied to the things of the world. The story of the unrighteous manager was a stumbling block to their right and wrong mentalities. Their self-righteous attempts of fulfilling the law had blinded their eyes to seeing the need of friendship in life. They saw the principle of being right as more valuable than relationships.

These parables reveal that God cares for us. He is the Shepherd of our souls. He gives life to all people. They reveal that God knows who we are. He has declared the value of each of us as a one and only precious human being redeemed by the blood of the one and only begotten Son of God. He gives us breath and we are a testimony of Him. These stories reveal that God has a plan for our lives for He is our Father and we are His sons. He wants to include us in His purposes in the earth. It is all about Him and us in the story of life. The final question of the human heart is one that asks what is the point of it all. In the story of the manager, God revealed that His heart is for us and our righteousness is found in Him and Him alone. We were not born to be right, we were born to be loved by Him. He is our true Friend and he wants us to know and reveal His friendship in the world.

God wants to connect the generations and it is only through understanding our destiny in Christ that the generations can carry the continuity of purpose for the glory of God’s name. The children of the generations must be connected to the fathers and mothers of the past and the fathers of the faith must see the children of the unfolding generations as the testimony of the Father’s name.

Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” 4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Children must seek to obey their parents. The values of the past must be embraced by the generations as a substance of strength to all that will be added. Fathers must not provoke their children to wrath. It is important for fathers to understand that the next generation will see things that are beyond where we have been. Father’s are activators, facilitators, and releasers and they must not seek to control or restrain their children from going beyond where they have been and what they have known.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

As believers in Christ we are part of something great. We are not just individuals going to heaven when we die. Our story is not just one of Jesus and us. We are part of a multigenerational legacy in Christ. It is a testimony of the hope of His calling, that testimony of His inheritance, and a demonstration of the power of Christ in the earth to change the world we live in for the generations that follow.

Ephesians 1:18-20 …the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places…

As leaders, we must set an example of this value of inheritance. We must seek to empower God’s people in the greatness of the family name. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Israel. He is the God of Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and others also. He is not a grandfather, He is simply a great Father to each and every one of us, but our connection to Him includes the legacy of those who were connected to Him in the past and those who will be connected to Him in the future.

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.”

The new things are things that have never existed or been seen before, while the old things are those things that are antique and lost before our time. Our yes to Christ is a yes to the future and a yes to the past. When we allow Holy Spirit to write His will in our hearts and minds we become part of something that is redemptive to the past and creative towards the future. We become part of the family legacy and we give value, purpose, and definition to His family name in our own family DNA.

Ephesians 2:19-22   Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

We are a dwelling place for God in the Spirit. We are part of something ancient. We are part of something eternal. The foundation of the New Covenant is built upon the firstfruit testimony of the apostles and the first century church and it is built upon the prophets and the full harvest of what was set in the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is the Old Covenant made living. It is the continuation all that was and it is destined to become a culmination of all that ever will be. This principle continues in the New Covenant testimony of Christ.

We must embrace a revelation of family destiny in our hearts. We were not born to simply have our own personal needs fulfilled. The dreams and visions of our lives are not about our personal desires. They are valuable tools for Christ’s kingdom purpose. We were not born for the comfort of houses; we were born for the destiny of barns and vats!

Proverbs 3:9, 10 Honor the LORD with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

What are the barns and vats of your family name? Your firstfruits and your possessions are about the family business; they are not merely expressions of you annual income. You were born for greatness. You had to be born again to come to the knowledge of what greatness you were really born for. You were born for the glory of God – to bring glory to His name. What is the focus of your life?

Matthew 6:19-21  “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

What are the treasures of your life? Are they storehouses filled with life for the wellbeing of others? Or are they security banks for your own comfort and will? Is your treasure going to heaven? Or is your treasure bringing heaven to the earth for the sake of others. What are you looking at?

Matthew 6:22, 23 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 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 is it that consumes the attention of your day? Our focus in life must be for family purpose, not personal blessing.

Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?’ or “What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Every day has enough trouble to deal with, but our personal trouble is not really about us. Will we allow the trouble of our day to distract us from the destiny of our lives? Gentiles pray for their needs to be met. People who don’t know God are concerned with their daily needs. They may not know they are praying, but their focus is their personal needs in life. The cry of their hearts is one of ‘help’! This should not be the testimony of those who believe. We were born to build barns, not merely see our needs met. The barns of our lives are the supply houses for the wellbeing of others. God is the word, but we are His voice! Our barns are the supply houses of His heavenly bread to the nations and the generations. Our vats are the reservoirs of life filled with life-giving power for the testimony of heaven’s grace in many. As the family of God we should make it our aim to live for the kingdom of our Lord and Christ. The kingdom of God is what should consume our attention. His justice system of life to the world should be the focus of our hearts. We have a great heritage and a great destiny.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

As leaders in the Body of Christ we must be examples as children of God and testimonies that represent God our Father is a spiritual parent to those we lead. We are not their parents, but we do represent physical expressions of the One who is both Father and Mother to the generations of humanity. God is a life-giver and a life-protector to all men, male and female. He is both masculine and feminine in His nature and we were created to reveal His likeness and image in the earth.

Malachi 4:6 … “And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Romans 8:20, 21 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

God’s way of filling the earth with His glory is family. It is not ministry. It is not His sovereignty or a demonstration of the greatness of His power. It is simply a family that acts like God’s family. It is a multigenerational expansion of the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God in the diversity of human tongues, tribes, peoples, and nations. I believe that a key to this is found in the attributes of the commandments of God as they were given in the Ten Commandments written upon stone seen only as a shadow of the good thing that existed in heaven. God wants His family to know His love as a Father, thus no other god will do. He wants to give life to every one of His children, thus no other life source will do. He wants His family to know the testimony that can only come through His amazing grace, thus no other name can be sufficient for such a cause. He wants each of us to know the power of His name at work in our lives. God wants His family members to live from rest, knowing that they are a place where He rests and thus His holiness prevails in and through all things in their lives. God wants us to know the longevity of inheritance and destiny as the family name continues to grow and expand in the generations of men. He wants His family to act like Him. They value life and protect life even at the expense of their own. They value relationships and remain true to covenant commitments and covenant testimonies. They value honor and respect the boundaries and appreciate the lives of others while being fully content with all that they are and possess in life. God’s family knows that each one is a one of a kind. They know that each human is a one and only gift of God, thus they seek to protect the integrity of others. Children in God’s house know who God is, thus they know who they are. They never seek to be someone they are not, nor do they seek to cause another to become different than who they are. The children of God love God and they love one another, not because they are commanded to, but because they have a revelation of God’s love. They are children of God.

The 10 Commandments List, Short Form:

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

The fifth Commandment is the bridge of a two-fold testimony to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. In this commandment we see an expression of love for God and a love for people. It is an expression to physical forms of humanity, but a testimony of honor to the One who is the source of life to all people. This is the secret to valuing life and protecting the life of others. It is the key to understanding relationships and living in covenant connections. This commandment is foundational to honoring and respecting the boundaries of others. It offers a foundation to valuing all that has been given to us in life. Honoring our father and mother is the secret to recognizing and protecting the integrity of others. It is in this inheritance that we can rejoice in who we are and offers the substance for accepting others for who they are. This fifth Commandment is the bridge to understanding God’s love so we are empowered to love God and others even as we love ourselves. An honor of our father and mother sets the foundation for being children of God in the earth. In light of this, it is a sure thing that the enemy has targeted this to cause our destiny to be derailed and inheritance to be cut short in the earth.

Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”

I don’t believe that our days being long in the earth are merely the number of days we are alive in the earth. I believe it is the continued testimony of the destiny of our family. It involves the expansion of the family name. That family is really the family of God with God as our heavenly Father. Jesus said that we should pray to our Father and commission Him for our daily bread and expect Him to cause our character to be even as He is in this world. The family name is the character, nature, way, power, and authority made manifest in our lives. Honoring our father and mother is about expanding the family inheritance in the earth. It is about establishing the substance of life for others in the earth that will further expand beyond our natural days. Honoring our father and mother is about seeing the testimony of the family business transitioned to the generations that follow our lives.

A few years ago I was in an Awake and Arise conference and the Holy Spirit spoke to me about several places in my life that could have been testimonies of bitterness. It was a time where the atmosphere had been created for the Holy Spirit to speak in regard to any judgments those in the room may have made in regard to the lives of others. As I sat there, the Holy Spirit showed me the face of a woman. As I looked at the face of the woman I saw her face changed to that of another woman, and then another, and another. I realized that she was Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Reformed, Baptist, Pentecostal, Non-Denomination – she was the church. The Holy Spirit said, “This is your mom, you need to thank her. She gave you material to work with. She did the best she could do with what she had.” In a moment I felt tremendous love for her. I could thank her for who she was. I don’t have much love for religion, but in that moment I could see past her religious ways into her heart. It was a revelation of her as a person free from the religiosity of her actions. The scene changed and I began to see the face of a man. It was the face of a church leader who in the past had hurt me bad. Then the image changed to another man and it was also the face of another church leader who had hurt me. The picture continued to change to several faces of church leaders who had hurt me in the past. The Holy Spirit said, “This is your dad, you need to thank him. He put a baton in your hand to run with. He did the best he could with what he knew to do.” I felt overwhelming love for him. I was able to thank this corporate expression of church fathers that had hurt me, because I was able to look past the actions of their wounding me to the substance of who they were. I realized that what was now in my hand had a direct connection to what had been in their hand.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

God is transforming human lives to become testimonies of His love and testimonies of who He is to the world around them. He is not just God; He is our heavenly Father. As children of God we must reveal who He is to those around us in this world. This means we will not be conformed to this world, but we will be transformed through a metamorphosis in our thinking.

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

We cannot think like we used to or like those in the cultures of the world. The renewing of our mind is the metamorphosis that happens in our thinking when we are submerged in the power of His Holy Spirit. Jesus reconciled us to God our Father while we were still sinners. He paid the price to reconnect all people to God. He wasn’t merely the expression of God connected to humanity. He came to connect humanity to God’s divinity. This is the gift of God’s grace. God’s grace is the power that changes human lives. The beliefs of our heart are changed and the thinking of our mind is transformed by God’s presence in our lives. The purpose of Christ’s reconciliation was not merely the forgiveness of sins, but the connection to the source of true life and change in our lives. Jesus made a way for all of humanity to become a testimony of being a son or daughter of God. This means that we progressively grow in the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God.

People in the cultures of this modern day world pride themselves in their independent thinking and independent values in life. God loves diverse expressions of creativity, but diversity of creativity cannot become diversity of character. The only true character of the family of God is the character of Christ. We must be holy as our Father is holy. This is not an action, but a character of substance. There is an unlimited expression of creativity in the expression of Christ, but the character of God is the sole rule of the culture of the kingdom of God in the hearts of those who believe. It is a culture motivated by righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit within the human heart.

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

A dependency upon God, oneness with His presence in heaven, and an open access to His presence in our lives are values to be embraced by children of God. Self-dependence and personal independence are not values in the kingdom of God. Although these things appear to promise the liberty of life, true liberty only comes when the Spirit of the Lord motivates our hearts and God’s values become the motivations of our will, mind, intellect, reasoning, and emotions.

2 Corinthians 3:17: Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

When we look in the mirror we see a reflection of ourselves. The glory of God that we see is the testimony of life and change that comes from the Spirit of the Lord at work in our hearts. The reflection we see is a testimony of Christ and a testimony of who we are. It is uniquely us, but us as we are being changed from within. Light is shining out of darkness, that darkness being our old way of thinking, our old values, and our own will and way in life. The light of Christ within us is transforming us to become children of God by the Spirit of Christ within our hearts.

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

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

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

I believe that we are in the midst of a grassroots revolution in the earth. God is doing a work of His grace to reveal His people as the people of God. We were the people of a nation, the people of a culture, or some expression of the people of self; but God wants to empower us to be His people. He wants us to forsake the governments of the kingdoms of self and embrace the government of the kingdom of God. A government is the testimony of what rules the hearts and minds of people. Whatever beliefs reside in the human heart determine the strongholds of the human heart. Whatever we believe, determines how we act. How we act is simply the fruit of what we believe. The things we do in life do not change us, what we believe in our hearts changes us.

We are living in a time where God wants to reveal His government in a greater way. This means that He desires to change the beliefs of our hearts. There is a lot said today about the goodness of God, the love of God, and the grace of God. These things are sure and the testimony of being born to be loved by God is very true. We were not merely created to worship Him; we were born of His Spirit to know the truth of being children of God. God loves all people, therefore, He desires for all of men and women to be born again in Him. He wants us all to be born of the His Spirit so we can know what it really means to be loved by Him. He doesn’t want us to do things for Him. He wants us to know who we really are. In order to know who we really are we must first know who He really is. I saw a statement on the Internet the other day that said, “Knowing who you are is the beginning of wisdom.” I don’t believe that is true. The beginning of wisdom is not knowing who I am, it is knowing who He is. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is not only the beginning of wisdom; it is the beginning of knowledge and the key to understanding in life.

Psalms 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His instructions have good insight. His praise endures forever. (HCSB)

Job 28:28  He said to mankind, “The fear of the Lord is this: wisdom. And to turn from evil is understanding.” (HCSB)

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

The awe of His wonder inspires us to know Him and hear Him to become as He is in all things. This is what will change our actions in life. It is in believing Him, not just believing in our selves.

If our focus is upon who we are, we sometimes fall into a deception of expecting God to become like us. When we encounter something in His word that doesn’t match our perception of Him we want to change the word instead of changing our perception of the word. We come up with crazy ideas that the word is not relevant for today because God was only speaking to a culture of yesterday. Let me propose to you that He was speaking from the culture of the kingdom of heaven to the cultures of the world and that the culture of the kingdom of heaven is relevant to any and every culture of the world. We are not the advanced culture that has now come to be smarter than the culture of the kingdom of heaven. God loved us so much He moved into the neighborhood of humanity, but He did not become like the cultures of humanity. He expects the cultures of humanity to become like Him. He is not the God of the people. He expects us to be the people of God. The cultures of the world, in any and every season of humanity, are cultures motivated by selfish desires, selfish visions, and selfish agendas in the propagation of the governments of self. People living in the kingdoms of self put their personal desires and needs above any expectations of change that requires a supernatural action of God. They expect God to accept them as they are, but also leave them as they are. Anything that would require a discipline or a sacrifice to their accepted character is a stumbling block in their minds to believing who God is.

The kingdom of God is a culture of life. It is a culture that promotes the wellbeing of others. It is not a kingdom that becomes like the kingdoms of this world, but the kingdom that consumes the kingdoms of the world and causes them to become a testimony of the kingdom of God. Metaphorically speaking, He is like yogurt yeast in milk transforming what is to what should be. He is like living enzymes in yogurt transforming a culture of yogurt to a testimony of cheese. His culture is a higher reality than what we have known and what we were born into. He is not the one who needs to change to match who we are. We are the ones being empowered to change to a testimony of who His. His presence in our lives empowers us to embrace the principles, patterns, and values of His heart. The government of His kingdom is one of grace and truth. He will not conform to our lies, but will rather transform our deceptions to become testimonies of His truth.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson