ted4leaders

Greetings,

As leaders we set an example for others in putting off the old conduct of our old man. We do this by putting on the testimony of Christ. We allow Christ within us to be the source of life to our souls.  We live each day to receive the renewal that comes to our minds by Christ’s Spirit within us. We are receiving a new way of thinking inspired by our spirits made alive by Christ’s Spirit within our hearts. We are constantly and progressively becoming new men and women in Christ. Our character, nature, way, power, and authority are becoming that that speaks truth to others with passionate love. This is not speaking law; it is releasing life-giving words to others through the expressions of who we are. When we go through the challenges of life we don’t let the challenges of life determine who we are. Christ in us determines who we are. When we are angry, we never let our day end in anger. We don’t hold on to anything that would be a root of bitterness in our hearts. We are becoming by nature what God already saw us to be. It is affecting our attitudes, our actions, our conversations, our efforts, and our expressions and influence upon others in life.

Ephesians 4:20-32  But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

These things are not disciplines of the flesh. They are transformations in our flesh brought about by the power of God’s grace at work in our lives. We are being changed from glory to glory and that change is activating our purpose and destiny to others.

The more we know God, the more we become like Him. We are His children and He is our Father. This is why our view of God is so important. Whatever we see God to be is what we will become to others. If we see God to be a master, we will become a master of others. If we believe He is unapproachable, we will also become unapproachable in life. If we believe He is compromising in His character, we will also become compromising in our character. If we believe that He is legalistic in His words, we will become legalistic in our words to others. If we believe He simply forgives, but He never empowers us to change, we too will be forgiving, but we will never live to empower anyone else in the change that God can bring in life. We must be leaders who see God more clearly each season of our lives. It is only then that we can be an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma of life.

Ephesians 5:1, 2 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.  And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

This is called living for the sake of the Father and for the sake of the unfolding generations of His family in the earth. We were born for such a time as this and we are on this earth to bring life to others. As leaders we must be imitators of God as dear children and then examples of fathers and mothers to others.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Jesus has ascended above all the heavens that He might fill all things. As the body of Christ, we are a growing part of the fullness of Christ as His glory increases in the earth. We are not just living lives with the hope of going to heaven some day. We should embrace the eternal purpose of Christ in filling the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God. It is for this reason that God has given some to be gifts to the body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers… 

What is the purpose of these five-fold expressions of Christ in the church? I believe the greater value is not the gifts themselves, but the attributes that these gifts serve to release in the church. God wants His church to be apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, with a teaching grace for mentoring and understanding of truth. The five expressions of equipping are meant to release the unique expressions of the body of Christ. They will activate, facilitate, and release the members of the body to be themselves with the anointing of Christ in unique ways that contribute to the collective purpose. Members of the body will be edified and will edify one another. There will be an increasing unity of faith, knowledge of the Son of God, perfection, and continued maturation among the members of the body.

Here is a list of the things the equipping gifts do, and even more so inspire to happen, among the members of the body of Christ:

• Equip the saints for the work of ministry
• Edify the body of Christ
• Cause the body members to come to the unity of the faith
• Cause the body members to come to the knowledge of the Son of God
• Cause the body to become a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
• Prevent the body members from remaining little children, growing up into maturity
• Protect the body from being tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine
• Protect the body from the trickery of men who come in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive
• Teach the body members to learn to speak the truth in love
• Produce a functioning body that grows up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ
• Cause the whole body to be properly joined
• Cause the body members to be knit together
• Cause every joint (body member) to supply life to one another
• Cause everyone to find their place of effective working
• Cause every part to do their share
• Cause growth of the body
• Cause the body to edify itself in love

The equipping gifts of leadership serve to activate, facilitate, and release the characteristics of the apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, and teaching testimonies in the saints. I believe that the body of Christ is filled with diverse members that exhibit the actions and testimonies of these attributes found in Christ. God has given equipping gifts in Christ that are sent to release and facilitate a culture where the maturation of these attributes can come about in the body. As those characteristics and attributes are made manifest the members of the body will be edified and will edify one another. There will be an increasing unity of faith, knowledge of the Son of God, increasing perfection, and continued development in maturation among the members of the body.

As leaders we must set an example in the things we seek to activate in the hearts of those we lead. The work of ministry is to love God and to love people. We are ministers of reconciliation so our aim as leaders must be to reconcile people to God. We must stir up the Holy Spirit within our hearts so that we can be edified and therefore edify others. We must depend upon God’s voice in our hearts so we can excel in the unity of the faith. Intimacy with God as our Father and intimacy with Jesus the Son should be priorities in our lives. Dependency upon God that leads to perfection and the stature of Christ needs to be an attribute of strength in our lives. As we grow in maturity we can lead others into maturity. Seeking God and seeking to understand His heavenly ways must be the strength of our stability that we might lead others to be stable in their courses of life. Love and relationship must be the foundation stones of our lives in order to lead for the sake a relational body of life. As leaders we must live for the sake of giving life to others and we must inspire body members to do the same. Giving greater value to others is the testimony of the great value of ourselves. Our place of effective working is to live for the sake of giving life others; this is the place of God’s favor for every member. When everyone does their share the body grows in life, liberty, and a testimony of the greatness of Christ. This is the edification of the body with the life of Christ.

We are here to set examples in putting on Christ and putting off our old ways that were before Christ. It is not a matter of escaping our past lives. It is a matter of fully embracing our new lives in Christ. We should be the most imaginative, expectant, and hopeful people on planet earth.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Today I want to remind us that our role as leaders is not a role of position or organization. It is a role of family participation. The body of Christ is the family of God and leadership must excel in being family. Jesus was the Son of God, not merely the appointed King. He is the King, but it being a Son that qualifies Him for that role of responsibility. Being sons and daughter so God is what qualifies us for our roles of responsibility in life, but those roles serve the purpose of being the family of God. God wants all people to receive a revelation of being true family.

Ephesians 3:14-19  For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

We are the family of God and the glue of our relationship with God and with one another is love. Love is the key quality of both membership and leadership in the body of Christ. Where love is, faith will be. Faith works through love and without a revelation of love there can be not true faith. The love of Christ passes our own knowledge therefore we are often faced with impossible situations so that we will know the love of God. As leaders we must set the example of facing impossible situations with a spirit of love that only comes through a revelation of God’s love. God wants us to be filled with His fullness, but the key a revelation of His love that works within us.

Ephesians 3:20, 21 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

God wants us to do greater things than Jesus did. He wants us to be the testimony of His family, a family of calling, inheritance, and power in all things. The substance of our family is Christ in us, God Himself! The testimony of Christ is us is one of God’s own love. As leaders we must set the examples of sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and even transitioning grandparents to the generations that follow us. It is all about family!

When we understand that we are family, we willingly embrace necessary sacrifices for the sake of others. Our position becomes that of lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, and an endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace in all things. The apostle Paul understood this to be true.

Ephesians 4:1-3  I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Church is not an organization, a structure, a belief system, or a way of ministry. Church is something we are and it is a family for the glory of our Father in heaven. Each of has a grace given to us by God for the sake of others. That grace allows us to be a multifaceted, diverse, and glorious family. There is one body, one spirit, and one hope of our calling. That calling is fulfilled by being sons and daughters of God who are led by one Lord, one Faith, one submersion, one God and Father of us all, one God above us all, one God through us all, and one God in us all. This is the testimony of the family of God in the earth. As leaders let us lead in an example of all of this.

Ephesians 4:4-6 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

We are blessed to be a part of something that was a hidden mystery in the Old Covenant. God has always desired to have a partnership with humanity in revealing His glory in the earth. That glory is made known through an intimate relationship with God and man. As leaders in the body of Christ we must first and foremost seek the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and the power His grace that brings the fullness of His glory to the world. We are part of something ancient that has now become amazingly new! We are part of the good news of God’s wonderful love and transforming grace! As leaders, we must set an example of the life that God desires with mankind.

Ephesians 3:1-7 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:  that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,  of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.

All human beings are part of the mystery of the gospel. It is not for any one natural race of people. It is for a race of people made of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. It is a supernatural testimony of heaven made known in the formerly natural seed of man. The mystery of the gospel is for all of humanity. What is the gospel?

We have been given really good news in Jesus. He is the door to the eternal reality of the blessings of heaven in our lives. Jesus was the Seed promised through the faith of Abraham and that Seed was the source of heaven to this world in which we live.

Galatians 3:8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.”

What was the gospel preached to Abraham? The word gospel means “good news”. I don’t believe that the word gospel does the good news given us by God true justice. I believe that it is often a religious word that allows the truth of God to be masked with unreal presentations of what the good news really is. The good news is not that a man died for sinners. The good news is that an eternal Adam gave His life so that all can find themselves in the family of blessing! The good news is that Jesus Christ reconciled men to God while they were yet sinners so the blessings of heaven could flood the worlds of men. The message of heaven is one of transforming the world. The good news preached to Abraham was that in blessings God would bless Him, in multiplying God would multiply him, His descendants would possess the gates of their enemies, and through his Seed all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 22:15-18).

Our heavenly destiny is to know that we are blessed in Christ and thus we believe God and are a blessing to the world. Our actions expand the blessings of heaven to the world we live in. We don’t merely add people to our own cause in life; we give greater value to others. We live to multiply and thus God multiplies our lives in the lives of others. Our imaginations are for the advancing life and authority of our children and our children’s children. Our influence is that of blessing to the families of the earth. This is the destiny of heaven in our lives! I believe that Paul understood these things when he wrote to the church of Ephesians.

Ephesians 3:8-12 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,  in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. 

The manifold wisdom of God is going to teach principalities and powers through the influence of God’s amazing grace in the earth. The testimony of the increasing influence of Christ in the world is causing the places inhabited by the enemy to be reclaimed for the God’s glory. The love of God is more powerful than any or all of the weapons of the enemy. Our boldness and access to the fellowship of Christ is revealing a great testimony of God’s grace in the generations of mankind. As it was in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan. 2), the stature of Christ in His body is destroying the former strongholds of human selfishness inspired by principalities and powers in high places. The hearts and minds of people are being captured by the love of God in Christ and the places once held captive by an enemy are being revealed as free by the power of God’s intimate love and grace. Christ in us is the power that overcomes all strongholds of the enemy. Our hearts are now held by the love of God. As leaders we must set this example. Like the apostle Paul, we can endure all things because the resistance of the enemy only proves to reveal the power of God’s grace. God’s glory shall fill the earth!

Ephesians 1:13 Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

God wants people to know who they are. Being a leader is to be an influencer of others to inspire them in their path of destiny. Being a leader is setting an example for others to follow. It is setting an example of the kind of person God wants us all to be. It is about knowing whom we are, not merely knowing what to do. When we know who we are we know what we to do. It is a relationship with God that empowers us to know who we really are. When we come near to Him we become like Him and it then that we reveal the true identity of whom we are. We were once far from God, but Jesus made a way for us to be brought near to the One who gives us life and causes us to become who we were meant to be. We were not far from God because we could not see Him for who He really is.

We were far from God, but now we are near by His mercy. No one needs to be far from God, but people who don’t know who God is still live as though He is far from them and they are far from Him. Jesus paid the price to reconcile humanity to God as their Father. His death upon our cross revealed to us what God is like as a person. Jesus revealed the love of the Father of humanity by His acceptance of our death upon the cross. He died once for all, therefore all died (2 Cor. 5:14). Now all can live in Him and know the love of a heavenly Father who does not condemn nor shame His children. Jesus made peace for us all through the blood of the cross. He wants us to come as we are and be transformed, as we should be by the power of His grace in our lives.

Ephesians 2:14-16   For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 

There is no gap between that which was Jewish and that which was Gentile. There is no preferred race of humanity; all are children of God in Christ. There is no gap between God and us.

Ephesians 2:17, 18 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.  For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

We have access by the Holy Spirit to the Father. No one needs to be a stranger or a foreigner to God. All of humanity needs to know their citizenship in the family of God. We are part of something ancient. We are part of a great glory that is built upon the ceiling of the Old Covenant and the foundation of the New.

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. It is the continuation all that was and it is destined to become a culmination of all that ever will be. Every member of the human race is a fellow heir of the same body, the body of Christ. We have been chosen by God to be partakers of the promises of God through the good news of His kingdom in this world and in that, which is to come. Do we know who we are? We are citizens of heaven with a legal authorization to reside upon this earth and influence this world with the power of His amazing grace, an administration that suitable to sum up all things in Christ (Eph. 1:9, 10).

Being a leader is not about being an example of what is right verses what is wrong. It is more about being dependent upon the One who is right. Our dependency upon God is what qualifies us to lead others. We must live with no gap between God and us. We must be vulnerable and willing to yield to Him in all things. We must be examples in being a dwelling place where God lives. God’s presence in our lives and our dependency upon His presence in all things is the qualifying factor of our call to leadership. Our character will change, but it is not our character that qualifies us. It is the One who changes our character who qualifies us. If we are not changing for the better there is not evidence of His presence in our lives and His presence in our lives will for surely change us. Others will clearly see the fruit of change in our lives if we daily seek to see His presence in our lives and we yield to His will and power within us.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

We live in a time when people’s lives can become extremely complicated and challenging. We live in societies and environments where iniquities of the heart are being accepted as issues of normal life. What happens when people find themselves in complicated situations due to the iniquities of their hearts? Iniquities are not sins, they are weaknesses that lead to transgression and end up in the entrapments of sin. Sin is an issue of finding love and life in something less than God and therefore becoming bound to situations that are something less than God’s perfect will. When people become wounded in places that should be safe, they respond with a defense of and for their own lives. They look for safe places, or seemingly safe places, to retreat and hide. They look for those same safe places to find what they believe to be love. They end up in relationships that are based upon getting their own needs met. This would be true for heterosexual or homosexual ones. Many people enter into relationships through sin. This could be the sin of fornication, adultery, homosexuality, self-gratification, drunkenness, or just plain selfish greed. The result is complicated situations based upon carnal human need, or their own perception of human need. God never endorsed any marriage that was based upon mere carnal human need. The need of partnership for human destiny is surely legitimate, but personal gratification is not. To get married for what we believe is our true need is a wrong foundation, but to trust God for what He gives for our need is legitimate. God formed Eve and presented her to Adam, she was fashioned, as God knew Adam needed her to be to partner with him and fulfill the will of God in the earth. This was not the personal will of Adam. God authored a relationship of destiny that would reveal the likeness and image of Him in the earth fulfilling His family purpose and destiny in the earth. That likeness and image would be seen in the masculine and feminine character, nature, way, power, and authority of God made manifest in and through a one-flesh union of one man and one woman. The woman was not to be the helper of the man but the helpmate with the man fulfilling the will of God in the earth to be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and have dominion. Marriage was to be a testimony of the activation, facilitation, and release of God’s life in the earth. This was never to be a multiple partnership or a contract for human need. It was to be a covenant of life-giving love that would fill the earth with God’s glory. It was to be the exact representation of Jesus and the Church, a covenant of destiny filling the earth with the Father’s glory!

God never authorized a man to take more than one wife, but we have many examples of men with multiple wives in the Bible. The consequence was something less than the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven upon the earth. God never authorized more than one wife, but He never condemned it either. He never desired for husbands to rule over wives, but He made it a consequence to living according to the knowledge of good and evil. Many, often most, marriages display the consequence of the curse of the fall as the expected normal relationship of marriage before God. The religious do it even worse than the unknowing. These types of mindsets are an error in the truth for how God intends for things to be. They propagate the growth of cells in the human community that are contrary to the true life of community that God desires for us all to have. There are many cancers in the body of humanity and cancers in the body of Christ. Cancer cells are cells that live for their own purpose, growth, and destiny. Those cancer cells rob from other cells in the corporate body of purpose for their own existence. We accept many things in our own lives that are the result of wrong food consumption or the ingestion of some carcinogenic substance that causes cancerous cells within us to destroy the identity of our true destinies in God. I deal with men, and even pastors, in Africa who have multiple wives. I don’t tell them to put away their wives. I teach them that they must apply the same principle of one husband to one wife for each of their wives and then to teach their children a more perfect way. I inspire them to teach their children that God’s desires a marriage to be one man and one woman so that all that is in the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven can be made known in the future generations of their family. I believe that we must all come as we are, but then personally assess the dysfunctions that caused us to be as we are. This is an intrinsic and very personal thing. It may take others to help, but the journey of discovery is through the desire and initiative of the individual and not others around them. God doesn’t want us to destroy more lives in the process of our journey in life. He doesn’t want us to form God in our own likeness and image, but to discover the likeness and the image of God to be manifested as the truth in a world filled with lies. He wants for each of us to embrace His change for our own lives in a life-giving and life-revealing way, then He wants us to embrace His perfect will for our children and our children’s children. God’s way was intended to be a man and a woman as one flesh before Him bearing the fruit of destiny in the generations that proceed from within them.

Perhaps there are many things that God doesn’t authorize; yet He does not condemn. Perhaps those things receive His mercy for salvation to heaven, but they lack the power of His grace to bring the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven upon the earth. Each of us must assess whether we want salvation to be an issue that meets our needs when we die or a salvation that brings about the restoration of God’s glory upon the earth. Does salvation simply give me mercy for my present situation or does it bring His grace to my dysfunctions of today to be transformed to unlock the destiny of the generations of my family for tomorrow? Can I embrace God’s grace that empowers the generations of my descendants to possess the gates of their enemies? Can my children and my children’s children know the greatness of the testimony of one man and one woman that lives for the glory of God in being fruitful, multiplying, filling, subduing, and having dominion in the earth? Can this be true for any relationship that was birthed in sin? Can this be true for any marriage that was conceived through the dysfunction of suppressed truth? These are not questions that can be answered by others. These are questions that can only be answered by those who find themselves in the realities of their own dysfunction. We all have dysfunctions of our own and we are all being called into a path of greater destiny. The Law was never given for us to measure others. It was given to measure each of us in our need for Christ. Grace is not given for us to measure others. It is given to empower each of us to become more for the sake of all that follows us in this world. When we receive mercy we can show mercy to others. When we receive grace we become gracious to others because of our own journey of grace. These are not measuring tools in the church, but empowering substances of life within each one who believes.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

I believe that salvation is not just going to heaven when we die, but to reign in life by the power of God’s grace to the fullness of the resurrection of the dead. That life is a knowing of God the Father and Jesus Christ the son in all the situations of your life; thus you are a son or daughter of God your Father in heaven for eternity. God wants all people to know His salvation of love and destiny. He wants all people to come to Him and to know Him as their Father, the one who truly loves them.

God’s wrath is not against people, but against ungodliness and unrighteousness done by men. Those actions work to suppress the truth of God’s love for men. Those actions suppress God’s true intention of showing His love to people through other people. God doesn’t hate people, He hates what causes them to ignore Him and become self-seeking in their focus of life.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness…

God’s wrath is not against ungodly or unrighteous people. It is against the powers of ungodliness and unrighteousness at work in those who do not have an internal revelation that they are children of God.

God invites all people to this truth. He reveals Himself to people through the internal witness of human conscience and the external attributes of the created world in which they live. The pure things within us and the untainted things of creation around us tell us of the reality of God’s love for mankind. It is when men view creation as the source of their understanding that they stumble on the concept of a Creator who made all things. This is especially true when they try to define God through a twisted view of how God really created things to be. They call the perverted things good and error in their judgments of themselves and of God. Even the world as we see it is not the pure world as it was in its original creation, but a world of the consequence of man’s failure to seek God and to know Him.

2 Peter 3: 5, 6 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.

The flood of Noah’s day was the consequence of the hardened conscience of men toward God and the world as we see it with its violent extremes and catastrophic weather patterns is not as it was in God’s original creation. The very stratum of the earth’s terrain has been altered as a consequence of man’s ignorance of God. This is why the earth groans for the manifestation of human beings who know who they really are. The twisted state of creation was man’s doing under the sway of spiritual powers of darkness that hate God and His image in the earth. God’s words to creation were simply the consequence of man’s actions and it requires the manifestation of true children of God to bring back true freedom.

Romans 8:20-22 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. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

God wants to reveal Himself to people and He wants them to know that He loves them. He is not responsible for the evil or wicked things that so often infest the lives of men. It is the ignorance of men and their subtle submission to a prince and power of the air that causes them to be swayed to become wicked in their actions and destructive in their ways towards their fellow men.

Romans 1:19-25  …because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

God simply gives people over to their own perceptions of who He is and who they are in this world. Jesus came to free men from the consequence of the human perceptions of mankind. When mankind looks to themselves or to creation as the source of life and knowledge they become fools and end up creating concepts of themselves and concepts of God that they believe to be wise, but are really the testimony of educated fools. The iniquities of men then become accepted inheritances and the transgression of their hearts leads them to paths of sin that kill them and they wonder why.

Romans 1:26-27 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

It is not God who gives them the penalty of their error. The penalty of their error is the consequence of their own foolishness. God wants them to come to Him that He might heal their iniquities. An iniquity is not a sin; it is the source of sin. It is a weakness that leads to a transgression in the heart that results in believing a lie as truth and looking for love in a place other than God. We cannot define what is life or what is true inheritance without including God in the equation. Not everything we have inherited is intended to be ours. We have inherited weaknesses, iniquities, from our natural DNA and God wants to visit every part of us and bring His healing to make us whole. The way we were naturally born is not the way God intends us to be. He accepts us all as we are but He wants us all to confess that none of us are as we should be. God in our lives can transform us to become as we should be and this is the miracle of His grace. If we simply seek to be tolerated as we are we will find ourselves in a great deception.

Romans 1:28-32  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

We all like to point the figure at things like unrighteousness, sexual immorality, and various forms of wickedness, but malicious intents, envy, hate, strife, deceit, evil thoughts, gossip, and backstabbing are very often quite present in what we call the culture of church. We must all look to God to make us as we should be and simply recognize that it is time for all of us to come as we are that we might be changed.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Being a leader is not merely about the skill of leadership. It is about presenting who God is to others and leading others into the reality of who they are in Christ. Our view of God and our view of people will influence our prophetic voice to the world. Our view of God determines our view of others and ourselves and it affects how we lead. I believe that there are some key things to knowing who God is.

As a leader I must believe that God is good and that He loves people. If my perception is that people are bad and they need a savior, it will affect how I lead people. People do bad things, get themselves into bad situations, and can even become bad in their character and actions towards others, but this is not the main point of humanity. The main point of being human is that God loves people and He wants to give them the true eternal life of heaven that only comes from Him. This is true for bad people as well as for good people. It is true when we are bad and it is true when we are good. It wasn’t that the world was so bad that God had to come as a Savior; it was that God loved the world and therefore Jesus came to reconcile people to God their Father. This included His salvation in every situation of their lives. What does that salvation look like? God wants people to know His peace and grace. He wants them to be blessed with every spiritual blessing from their Father in heaven. It is those heavenly blessings that make people holy and blameless before Him. It is the power of His love that causes us to become who we were meant to be, not a discipline of the flesh. God wants all people to know the power of His adoption as His sons and daughters in this world. He has redeemed us all through the blood of Jesus Christ and He has forgiven us of our sins.

Ephesians 2:1-3 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

The world is under the influence of the prince of the power of the air who seeks to inspire them to conduct themselves according to the lusts of the flesh and their carnal thinking.  The disobedience of people is not their wickedness. It is their failure to recognize the love of God, to seek Him, and find Him. When we believe Jesus we find the life of God that comes to make us alive. He has made a way for us to be above the deceptive spiritual powers of darkness that seek to keep us bound to believe that true life is in the flesh of men. Jesus gave every drop of the life of the flesh so that all people could know the love of God and have every drop of His life-giving Spirit of grace. His shed blood at Calvary was God’s triumph of mercy for all men that enable us all to come boldly to the throne of God’s grace that we might find the life of His Spirit and live. True life is in the Holy Spirit of God and this is what God has made possible for all people.

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

God wants to show the riches of His grace in our lives. He wants to show His kindness toward us in Christ.  He wants to give us a testimony of faith. Our good works come out of who we are in Christ; they do not qualify us to be in Christ. They are the testimony of changed lives by the power of God’s grace.

As leaders in the body of Christ we must lead with the power of God’s grace and demonstrate His kindness towards humanity. Hearing God is the source of faith, not demanded rules of discipline. We must help people find their destiny in Christ. When they know who they are they will do the things prepared for them to do.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

What is the justice system of God? Is it a justice system of right and wrong or is it something more? There are things that are right and there are things that are wrong; there are things that are good and there are things that are bad, but God’s justice system is far stronger than restraining us to doing things that are right and refraining us from doing things that are wrong. His justice system empowers us to be life, to release life to others, and to do things that empower life in the world around us. It is a justice system that empowers us to become like Him in His character, nature, way, power, and authority. God wants us to be able to make decisions for others based upon who we are, not what others deserve or what we think they deserve. He wants to empower us to change others by the power of mercy and grace. His justice system of God is not one of the mind, but an administration of the heart. This is the justice system of the kingdom of God.

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.

The Rod from the stem or stump of Jesse was the greater David, Jesus the Son of God born in Bethlehem. The Branch was Christ. Jesus told His disciples that He was the vine and they were the branches, the Branch from the Rod of Jesse is both Christ the head and Christ the body. He was both the head and the body of Christ that made a way for us all to become part of His body through the blood of His mercy and the Spirit of His grace. The sevenfold Spirit upon our lives anoints us to live by a different justice system than that of the knowledge of good and evil and mere judgments of right and wrong. The Holy Spirit empowers us to delight in the awe of God and to judge things by a different standard that what can be seen or heard naturally.

Isaiah 11:3 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…

The Holy Spirit’s administration of grace empowers us to make judgments for the poor by a righteousness of life. With the equity of who we are we can make decisions for those who do not qualify according to the standards of right and wrong. They simply qualify through a judgment of love. As leaders in the body of Christ we must set the example of destroying evil through the power of love. When the devil strikes the earth it is with a blow of hate and death, but the breath of God is a wind of love and the measure of His mouth is a life-giving expression that destroys the power of evil.

Isaiah 11:4, 5 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.

These verses are not verses for heaven in the life beyond, but a heavenly testimony in the world we live in. It is the righteousness of Christ that measures us, not the unrighteousness of our own lives. The procreative decision of life for all is made by the righteousness of God’s mercy. The power to manifest that life within us is by the action of His righteousness in the power of His grace. His mercy and His grace changes everything. This is the power of His loins and the faithfulness of His truth in our lives. We are not what we were, not because we have been made right. We are not what we were because of the power of His grace. Some were bad and some were good, but all were dead. Now we are all made alive by the power of God’s love and grace. Mercy has triumphed over judgment and grace is reigning in our lives. There is a change from evil to good, but it is by the life-transforming power of God’s grace at work in our hearts and minds. It is an empowerment of transformation, not an disciple made by right information. It changes who we were to who we are in Christ. The body of Christ is filled with former enemies of God and one another who have been made community companions by the justice system of God’s love.

Isaiah 11:6-9  “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

We are in the day of the justice system of God’s grace. It is an administration that is suitable to sum up all things in Christ (Eph. 1:9, 10). It is a reality today and not some far away promise of heaven. The day of wolves, lambs, leopards, goats, calves, lions, fatlings, children, cows, bears, young and old is made manifest by the power of God’s grace at work among us. Holding on to a justice system of right and wrong is not strong enough to reveal His glory in the world. Only a justice system that empowers us to make decisions for others based upon who we have become, not what they deserve, is sufficient to change the world.

Isaiah 11:10  “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious.”

It is when God rests in our midst that our world changes. It is not when we become good and judge others based upon their sin and failures that we see the glory of God in our midst. It is when we decide from the abundance of who we are to show mercy and release the power of His grace that God’s glory prevails. We are love when we are faced with hate. We are mercy when faced with law. We are forgiveness when faced with unforgiveness. We are acceptance when faced with rejection. When we faced with evil things in the world, evil things don’t have the power to change who we are. Who we are has the power to change the world that we face. This is the justice system of God’s mercy and grace. It is a justice system of love! Let’s all embrace God’s mercy and grace to become influences of life from the kingdom of His life for the glory of His name.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

God reveals who He is to us, but we reveal who He is to others. We are the book that is read by our neighbors. The Bible is a book for those who believe that they might seek to know the character, nature, way, power, and authority of the One they believe. The Bible is not a book for the world. Believers in Christ are the book that is read by the world. As leaders we must be examples to those we lead so they will also be inspired to those they influence in this world.

Our view of administration will influence our voice to others. As leaders we must embrace being New Covenant leaders and we cannot revert to an Old Covenant administration of condemnation and death. We have been entrusted with an administration in Christ that has the power to sum all things up in Christ. This is the administration we must embrace within our responsibilities of influence as leaders.

2 Corinthians 3:7-9  But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,  how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?  For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 

Ephesians 2:9, 10 …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 – In Him… (NAS)

We have been given an administration that is suitable to sum up all things in Christ. That administration is one of true righteousness. It is based upon a glory that knows no end to its increase. That glory is seen through a change within the hearts and minds of those who believe Christ within them. We must lead to excel in this unsurpassable administration of grace!

Revelation 22:1-5 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

These verses reveal an awesome truth in regard to the administration of God in the body of Christ. That administration is not one of the knowledge of good and evil, but one of the Tree of Life. I believe that this is the administration that is suitable to sum up all things in Christ. It is an administration of grace. If we believe that true righteousness is about being right and not wrong, our words and expressions to others will be about being right verses being wrong. If we as leaders embrace a justice system of right and wrong we will embrace those who are right and reject those who are wrong. We will govern and rule through an administration that defines some as worthy of God’s love, while others are cast out from His love. God’s New Covenant government is not based upon right and wrong. It is the power of life that prevails over every form of death. There is a right and there is a wrong in the matter of things in life, but true life only comes from an intimacy with Life. When we know Him we release the substance of who He is to the world and to all that we administrate in life. I have addressed this in my book, Prophetic Ministry – A Ministry of Life in the chapter called The Administration of God.

We must allow every thought, attitude, vision, dream, emotion, and action we express in life to pass through the Tree of Life before the fruit of our lives becomes food for others or the outward expression of our lives becomes a touch of healing to a sick and dying world. We must embrace an administration that receives mercy and finds grace each and every day (Heb. 4:16). Mercy ends that past administration of right and wrong, while grace empowers the present administration of grace that empowers us to live by the sprit of life and peace in Christ. This is the administration that loves the unlovable and empowers the unlovable to become loveable. It is the administration of love that believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. It is the administration that changes what is a substance of death to become a substance of life for others.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a  Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…

As leaders we must excel in love, not in being right. We must inspire others to excel in love more than in receiving what they think they deserve. This is a different justice system. It is not a justice system that receives the good things we deserve. It is a justice system that gives love to others. It is a justice that is better than being right. It is a justice system that reveals the love of God to others in this world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson