ted4leaders

Greetings,

All of us find ourselves in various levels of responsibility in life. What has been given to us in this world is a result of what has been and it is directly connected to all that will be. We are the culmination of what has been before us and the foundation for all follows our lives. It takes God’s grace to truly fulfill our role for God’s glory in this world. A New Covenant reality of God’s grace is that we can hear God today, we can remember what He has said, and we can be empowered to walk in what He is revealing in the earth. It is a continual process of foundations and increase for His glory.

Revelation 1:1 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

This verse in Revelation chapter one was relevant from the moment the revelation of the New Covenant given to us in Christ. John saw this revelation of Jesus Christ and revealed a mystery of the progressing generations in Christ. The revelation given to John was not one of doom, gloom, and judgment. It was a revelation of Jesus Christ and an unveiling of increasing glories in the earth.

We are part of something new, yet ancient. All that we walk in is a testimony to the foundations of our past. The foundation of the New Testament church was built upon the ceiling of the Old Testament prophets. The foundation of the New Testament apostles established a firstfruit ceiling for all that would follow in the New Covenant. The ceiling of each generation is meant to be the floor for the generation that follows. Everything is connected!

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 corner stone, 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.

Accepting responsibility today means that we accept responsibility for tomorrow. We must acknowledge that we are the head of something and we must become a place that opens the door to things new and things old. We have a responsibility of allowing the Holy Spirit to draw into our house a treasure of things that have never been seen, heard, or thought before as well as a full testimony of destiny to things that are even antique before our time. We must allow the Holy Spirit to give meaning to the testimony of our family name. God wants for us to have a name that gives glory to Him and it is meant to be a name the reveals our days to be long in the earth.

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.”

Our path in life is connected to who we are in life and who we are is connected to who others have been before us. The will of God doesn’t come from what we want to do or what we think God wants us to do. It is found in the continuity of our lives. Wisdom, the direction to the future, is connected to who we are. We are the will of God and the things we do in life are connected to who we have become because of the foundations and the ceilings of the past. Our lives are like a highway and they are meant to go somewhere in God.

Proverbs 1:20, 21 Wisdom calls aloud outside; she raises her voice in the open squares. 21 She cries out in the chief concourses, at the openings of the gates in the city she speaks her words…

The New American Standard Bible uses the word street for outside. In these verses we see that wisdom is found in the street, in the open squares, in the chief concourses, and in the gates of the city. To understand these four things we must compare them to four small creatures described by Solomon in Proverbs chapter 30.

Proverbs 30:24-28 There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer; The rock badgers are a feeble folk, yet they make their homes in the crags; The locusts have no king, yet they all advance in ranks; The spider (or lizard) skillfully grasps with its hands, and it is in kings’ palaces.

Wisdom is in the street; it is like an ant. The ant knows what season it is; it knows where it is in life by where it is in the journey of life. Is it winter? Is it summer? It doesn’t need to be told by a commander, it knows where it is in the journey of life. What time is it? What is necessary today? There will be more to do tomorrow, but what is the present season of life? The things that are necessary today are connected to the things that have led to this moment from the past. The things that are necessary today are also connected to the things that will be for the sake of others tomorrow.

Wisdom raises here voice in the open squares; it is like a rock badger in its quest to live. Though the rock badger is small and not considerably strong, it uses its natural environment to get its foods. It builds its home in the crags of the rocks and uses its house as a place of protection and a way of surprising its prey to sustain itself in life. What in the open squares of my life leads to the destiny of God’s glory? What is obviously around me and can serve me in my role in the destiny of life? Some of the obvious things are the things that have been established in our surroundings by the work of others.

Wisdom cries out in the chief concourses; it is like the locust. The locust realizes that if it lives in close relationship with other locusts it can do impossible things. What relationships are in my life? How do those relationships serve the purpose of who I am. Who am I joined to? My direction forward is connected to the relationships given to me in life. My relationships in life are part of my inheritance in life. Those relationships are meant to lead to others even as Paul told Timothy to find faithful men who would be able to teach others also.

2 Timothy 2:1, 2 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

God is a multigenerational God. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Israel. He is the God of Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and others also. Everything in life is connected to others.

Wisdom speaks at the gates in the city; it is like a spider or a lizard. The spider or lizard are small, but they are faithful with what they can grasp hold of and they end up in influential places. Their influence in the city comes from their personal abilities. Those abilities are part of who they are and they are merely faithful with what is in front of them. What are my abilities and how am I being faithful today with what is directly in front of me. This will lead to my journey of influence in life. My abilities were given to me for advancing God’s glory in the earth!

God is not scattered in His strategies. Wisdom is found in the street. It is found in the continuity of the path that God has been leading what has been given to me in life. Wisdom is found in the environment I am suited for. That is the environment that has been entrusted to me by God. It is found in the place that I have been given to live. It is in the open square. Wisdom is found in relationships, my journey in life is connected to others. Those others are not just the friendships of my life, but they are the relationships of inheritance from the past and those connecting to the future. I am not to be alone. Wisdom is found through my abilities. It is not in something I am not created or equipped to do. It is found in the place of the responsibility given to me today.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

Today I want to remind us all as leaders and as members that we are the family of God. We are His children. This is the most important revelation that we can know and it is the most important truth that we can lead others into. When we see ourselves as children of God we can be led by His Spirit as sons and daughters. When we see ourselves as children of God we receive an increase of His inheritance in this world that leads to the fullness of all that is to come. The earth itself cries out to be liberated by the manifestation of the children of God.

Romans 8: 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.  20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 

The highest calling in life is to be a son or daughter of God. This is what we live to be and this is what we lead others to know. We are not like we used to be. We have been born again as new creations into a new life. That life contains the blessing and the responsibility of bringing life to this world. God has moved into our lives! He has moved into the neighborhood! Christ is us gives us the glory of becoming a testimony of heaven in and to this world.

1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

I believe that Christ is continually increasing in our midst. When we see Jesus we are changed to become like Him. This is ultimately true when we meet Him in our final resurrection, but it is also true when we see Him in His resurrection life today. When we see Him in a measure of revelation we become like Him in the revelation we receive. This has been true though the past revelations of Jesus Christ that have brought God’s grace into this world.

Humanity can easily embrace that we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ and not by works of law or penance. It requires a loss of human strength and pride, but the grace of the Spirit of Lord is readily available for everyone who reaches out to take hold of it. It is easier today that at any time in history. The reformers of the past centuries paid a price for this grace to come into the earth by losing their strength and trusting a God of mercy and love. It wasn’t by works of the flesh that this grace came, but by a willingness of God’s children to embrace being His children more than being bound to human understanding presented to them from the past or from the world around them.

There was a Great Awakening in the 18^th and 19^th centuries when the Holy Spirit brought about a grace of the Spirit of wisdom and faith towards God. In this season a fresh revelation of Jesus brought about a testimony of works that speak of our faith toward God and a standing as children of God who are set apart to Him in this world. It affected those in the church first and then it extended to reap a harvest of those in the world. When we saw Christ come as the one who inspires our hearts to do things that speak of our faith toward Him we became like Him in our endeavor to be children of God sanctified to Him in life. There was a great demonstration of works that speak of our faith. I believe this was a further step in the reforming and the reshaping of the church in the earth. We can all reap the benefits of a church that paid the price of letting go of less to receive more by a revelation of Jesus Christ in His continual coming into His body.

The Pentecostal outpouring of the 19^th to 20^th century revealed a testimony of supernatural power and unexplainable heavenly realities. The testimony of a heavenly language and outward manifestations of the power of the Holy Spirit in our midst became a thing of celebration. The body of Christ experienced a liberation of the Spirit. Even the world experienced a liberation of women as women were recognized in their right to vote. Perhaps that freedom in the world was a witness to the external evidence of God’s Spirit and approval upon His bride. The blessings of God’s freedom in His church was also heard by seekers in the world as the embraced new things to be heart.

A revelation of Jesus Christ in the church during the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s  revealed Christ in His body with the ability to minister to His blessing through body fellowship, the gathering in homes, and a care of healing, ministry, and life in a more intimate reality. Even this affected the cultures of the world. An aspect of fellowship with one another and an authority of individuals was revealed in the earth as God’s children embraced a fresh revelation of Jesus Christ in the midst of His family.

The 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s revealed a God who speaks to our hearts, empowers us to speak His words to others, and a testimony of His resurrection life in our midst. There was a revisiting and a reviving of God’s presence in the church and in the world. An individual sense of responsibly, power, and the presence of God was revealed as another measure of God reforming, reshaping, reviving, and renewing His family in the earth.

Now we see people groups crying out for community. That cry is perverted by the world, but it is a call of the Holy Spirit to see a generation of the church become more vulnerable, honest, embracing of others, and receptive to God as a Father who loves His children. Now He is coming in a greater presence to reveal us as children to our Father. He is moving into the neighborhoods of the world so the neighborhoods of the world can become expressions to the true community of heaven. He loves us, but His love also changes us! There is a continual progression of the manifest presence of Jesus Christ in His church. He is constantly increasing in the generational destiny of His body. We are grateful for how God has revealed Himself in the past generations, but very often we hold on to the things of the past and resist what God is doing in the present. We must not allow the thing that God did yesterday to become more important than what God is doing today. We must never reject the substance of what God has already done, but we must also embrace the furtherance of what God is doing now.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

What is the truth concerning the ‘End Times’ and the apocalypse of Jesus Christ? Is the present uprising of Islamic terrorism a sign of the end? Are the economic times a sign concerning Christ and His purposes in the earth? What does ‘apocalypse’ really mean and what should we believe concerning the future of the world?

This course will set covenant foundations in your life concerning what the Bible truly says in regard to the future of the world and the increasing power of Christ’s kingdom and His will being done in the nations.

Jesus didn’t tell us to pray that we would escape the world, but that His kingdom would come and His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. If you are looking to rule and reign in the advancing kingdom of Christ, I am beginning an course at Christ Life Training next week. It begins on Monday July, 6^th at 6:30pm Pacific Coast Time. It is an in class and live stream course so you can join us on line or take it via video and audio as the course goes on. I have facilitated this course several times and it is always a life changer. The Holy Spirit will reveal Himself powerful during this course. We have experienced the presence of God in the midst of life-changing revelation time and time again in this presentation. For further info and registration go to: http://christlifetraining.com/end-time-realities-a-level/

Today I want to remind us all of some things that I posted three years ago. I want to address the distraction of natural sight and experiences in the midst of our age. Jesus said that the kingdom of God doesn’t come with signs that can be observed. The NKJ translation states that the kingdom of God does not come by observation, in other words, what we can see or hear in the natural world around us has nothing to do with the kingdom of God. The prophet Isaiah foretold that Jesus Christ as the Head and Christ the Body would not make judgments by what can be naturally seen or heard (Isa. 11:3).

Luke 17:20, 21 Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

In the parable of the tares and the wheat Jesus revealed that the end of the age is not based upon the events of the world, but the fruit of harvest. Harvest is the standard by which the kingdom of God is measured. It is not measured by good or evil in the world. The harvest of every age is filled with that which is bound to the fruitless testimonies of the world and that which reveals the substance of food and seed for the future generations as the testimony of God.

Matthew 13:39 …harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.

If we look at things in the natural world we can become distracted from the true issues of the kingdom of God. The things that we naturally see and hear in the world are not the means to measure the current season of the kingdom of God. We can’t possibly know what time of the day it is if we are looking at the night. Things in the world are of the night and the things of the God’s kingdom of only found in the light.

Let me preset a general overview of some key world events in the past few centuries. If I did an overview of the centuries preceding this past three the story would read the same and even more extreme at times. I have by no means included everything that happened. My intent is to merely paint a picture of how things are in the world outside of Christ and that catastrophic events and human unrest are not indicators of what is happening in the kingdom of God.

In the 1700’s there were numerous wars and conflicts. In the first decade much of Europe was involved in the War of Spanish Succession. In the second decade there were numerous Indian uprisings in America with the slaughter of many Indians and many American settlers. In the third decade the Persian Safari dynasty fell. In the fourth century The War of the Polish Succession ended. Russia and Austria were at war with Turkey by the close of the decade. The War of Polish Succession between France and Austria ended. In the fifth decade Prussia attacked Austria that resulted in war in Europe with the succession of Austria. The sixth decade saw the Seven Years War with Prussia and Britain in conflict with France, Austria, and Russia. In the sixth decade an Industrial Revolution began that would continue for seventy years. The seventh decade brought about the British expedition against Cuba where they seized Havana from Spain. Many years of tensions and conflicts with America and Britain brought about the American Revolution in the eighth decade of the century. In Europe there was the war of Bavarian Succession from Prussia and Austria. In the ninth decade the French Revolution happened. The final decade there were conflicts with Spain in the Caribbean and France stormed the Netherlands to create a dependent Dutch republic. During this century some 60 million Europeans died of Smallpox disease. It is believed that 90 to 95 percent of the Native American population died of this disease between 16th and the 19th Centuries.

The 1800’s began with the Battles of Trafalgar and Austerlitz in Europe. The first decade transitioned to the second decade with the Peninsular War in Spain. The second decade began in with the British-American War and the defeat of Napoleon in the “Battle of the Nations”. The third decade began with the Spanish Revolution and the Greek War of Independence against Turkish rule. Russia was also at war with Turkey. In the fourth decade there was a Revolution in France and Britain was involved in the China Opium War. The fifth decade brought about war between the US and Mexico. California and New Mexico ceded to the United States. In Europe the Communist Manifesto was published. At the end of the decade Mexico City was captured by U.S. troops. In the middle of the century twelve million people died of the Bubonic Plague in China. In the sixth decade Russia fought against Turkey, Britain, France and Sardinia in the Crimean War. Britain and China were also at war. In the seventh decade America entered in to a Civil War after many years of conflict and pressures involving slavery and political division. The Paraguayan War took as many as 1.2 million lives.  In the eighth decade there was the Franco-Persian War. In South America there was the War of the Pacific involving Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. The ninth decade was a decade of peace with a Triple Alliance formed between Germany, Austria, and Italy. In the final decade of the 1800’s there was Civil War in Chile and in America the Spanish-American War.

The 1900’s opened with some revolutionary breakthroughs with the first airplane flight by the Wright brothers, Henry Ford’s first Model-T, and the discovery of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. It also had hardships like the Boxer Rebellion in China and the San Francisco Earthquake. In the second decade the First Word War occurred and a Russian Revolution took place. The Mexican Revolution took as many as 2 million lives. The Prohibition movement began in America. In this decade the Titanic struck an iceberg and sunk. The Spanish flu killed millions around the world. The next decade brought about an era of seeming prosperity and freedom with speakeasies, expressive clothing, the Charleston dance, and jazz music. There were many gangster conflicts in America and the Prohibition movement spawned criminal activities and created lots of tension. The 1930’s brought about the Great Depression. Economic collapse and a massive drought took its toll in America and in the world. The Nazis came into power in Germany and a persecution of Jews commenced with concentration camps for the purpose of genocide. In America there was the notorious crime spree of Bonnie and Clyde and the imprisonment of Al Capone. In the next decade there was the Second World War. Nazi death camps murdered millions of Jews. The Cold War with Russia began. The 1950’s gained a reputation as the Golden Age with inventions of Color TV, polio vaccine, Disneyland, and Elvis Pressley. The Korean conflict brought America and other nations into the activities of war again. In America segregation was ruled illegal and racial tensions began to escalate. In the 1960’s there were racial riots and a sexual revolution. Numerous political tensions escalated with the Vietnam War, a peace movement, a drug abuse revolution, and a civil rights movement marked with numerous racial riots. In Europe the Berlin Wall was built. President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King were all assassinated in this decade. Russia and the U.S. entered into a race for space and America put the first man on the moon. At the beginning of the 1970’s the Vietnam War still continued to be a major issue. There were numerous earthquakes with record setting deaths. Several massacres occurred including the Jonestown Massacre and the Munich Olympics Massacre. A nuclear accident occurred at Three Mile Island. In the 1980’s President Ronald Reagan negotiated with Russia’s Mikhail Gorbachev to end the Cold War. The Berlin Wall was also torn down in Eastern Germany. There was a famine in Ethiopia, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in America, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The 80’s also saw the Iran/Iraq war that took as many as 2 million lives. Although the final decade of the twentieth century seemed to be a time of increased technology with measures of hope and relief there was the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine High School Massacre, and the Rwandan genocide. During this 20th century Smallpox was responsible for an estimated 300–500 million deaths.

As we have entered the 21st Century we see that things in the world are still as they have been. There are wars and catastrophic events of many kinds. Are these things the signs of what is happening in the kingdom of God or are they merely the constant testimony of things outside of Christ? We cannot determine what God is up to by looking at world events. We must look into our hearts and at the testimony of God in His Church to understand the real issues in planet earth. What is the season of God? The seasons of men are always the same, but the kingdom of God is advancing and the time of the good news of Christ is within our reach!

As we look at the ages of the past we can see the fruit and the seed of harvest of God’s kingdom. In the early 1500’s there was a Reformation in the Church and a grace of the Spirit of the Lord with justification by faith was released into the earth. This Reformation was continuing to sweep the nations as we came into the 1700’s. “The just live by faith” is still a resounding testimony in the nations. We can all experience the increasing fruit and testimony of the desire of the nations. We have been granted the power of repentance unto life and a testimony of repentance from dead works in Christ. In the last half of the 1700’s to the first half of the 1800’s there was a great Holiness Movement. Over 150 denominations were birthed based upon the testimony of sanctification. A grace of the Sprit of Wisdom and faith toward God was released as fruit and seed to the progressing generations. At the close of the 1800’s and the beginning of the 1900’s there was a Pentecostal Movement. A grace of the Spirit of Understanding with the testimony of Holy Spirit submersion was released as fruit and seed to the generations. The testimony that comes by submersion in God has become an increasing unstoppable reality in the earth. At the middle of the 1900’s there was a Later Reign Movement and a Charismatic Renewal that brought a grace of the Spirit of Understanding and the testimony of the authority of body membership and ministry. The authority of the laying on of hands with the testimony of Christ’s healing life was released as fruit and seed to the coming generations. At the close of the 1900’s there was a Faith, Prophetic, and Renewal testimony given to the Church. A grace of the Spirit of Might with the testimony of the resurrection life of Christ was given the progressing ages of men. The fruit and seed of hearing God, speaking God’s words, and knowing God’s manifest presence was given to the generations. As we have entered this 21st Century we are seeing an increasing testimony of Communion and a reaching of the communities of the world with the community of Christ. A grace of the Spirit of Knowing with Christ’s eternal judgment of love is being given to the generation. A dependency upon God and His heavenly communion is becoming the available testimony for those hungry for life. God wants to empower a generation of people who seek to live to be a blessing, not merely to be blessed. An Esau generation is being transformed to a Jacob generation and the earth will see the people of God revealed in a greater way. The kingdom of God is continuing to increase with the testimony of food and seed to the ages to come.

The coming of the Lord is not a fearful thing for those in Christ. The end of every age is harvest and there is a coming of the Lord in all of the generations of men. The first century Church was familiar with the day of the Lord in their generation. We should also embrace the day of the Lord in the midst of the circumstances of the world in the age we live. What will be the food and the fruit of harvest in our generation for the generations to come?

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.  You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. 

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Whenever God does something in the earth those in the last move of God upon the earth most often resist it. Those who sought to embrace the grace of the Spirit of the Lord and the foundation of the just living by faith were resisted by those who adhered to being the universal church, the long-standing belief of the Catholic church as an influence to the world with the overcoming power of the kingdom of God. Those embracing the Spirit of Wisdom and the Holiness movement that revealed that true faith is exhibited in works that declare that faith. Although we are justified by faith, works that speak of that faith demonstrates that faith. Works do not justify us, but they do reveal faith that is living. It was those in the Protestant movements of the previous move that resisted the birthing of the denominations who professed the need for sanctification demonstrating works. Those embracing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a demonstration of Pentecostal power were resisted by those who adhered to the denominations of sanctification and justification. Those stuck in the moves of the past resisted the Spirit of Understanding and the Pentecostal expressions of heavenly testimony. Those professing a Pentecostal faith resisted the Later Rain, Healing, and Charismatic Renewal of the 1940’s through the 1960’s, even though the Charismatic Renewal brought a fellowship testimony and a revealing of the Spirit of Counsel and the laying of hands in virtually every denomination of the Christian faith to date. From 1970 to 2000 there was a renewed testimony of hearing the voice of God, the teaching that comes by His voice in our hearts, the prophetic voice restored, and a renewal testimony of His manifest presence in our midst. These things revealed the Spirit of Might and a church that is awake to God’s presence in their lives. Those in the Charismatic church and the preceding movements of God’s Spirit in the past resisted this. We have now been 15 years into a new move of God’s Spirit. I believe that this move is about the Spirit of Knowing and the community of heaven invading the communities of the earth. As I have written in past weeks, God is moving into the communities of men revealing that He is good and He loves us. A grace of the Spirit of Knowing with Christ’s eternal judgment of love is being given to this present generation. A dependency upon God and His heavenly communion is becoming the available testimony for those hungry for life. God receives as we are and wants to move into all of the neighborhoods of humanity.  He wants us to look to Him for who He is and to receive Him for who He is. He is not ashamed to see us as we are, but now He wants us to look into His eyes and see Him as He is. When we see we become like Him, because we see Him as He is. He is enough to change us inside and out to become a testimony of Him in the earth.

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

We are living in a time where God is moving by His Spirit to cause His family to be revealed as the people of God in the earth. He is moving in the lives of many people groups to bring about a testimony of unity through diversity. His love for us grants us the power to become those who exhibit a love for Him. When He moves into our lives we are empowered to be supernaturally changed in our lives to bring about glory to His name. Those who resist this present move of God’s Spirit will prove to be those who hold on to the things of renewal, prophecy, and the word of faith. Previous moves of God will prove to resist the present move of God’s Spirit because we tend to measure what God is doing with what we know He has done in the past. There is a great heritage in adhering to the things God has given to us so far, but holding too tightly to the things God has done will cause us to be less than open handed towards the things that God is doing today. We must have open hands to receive what God is doing. This means we must be willing to risk loosing what we have to receive even more of what God wants to give us. The present move of the Spirit of Knowing requires us to change our beliefs in order to become the people of God in a greater way.

God is good and He loves people! Unity is through diversity, not conformity. When we come to Him in the uniqueness of who we each are, together we reveal the greatness of who He is. We were born to be loved; not merely to be right. Love is a revelation, not a command. When we have a revelation of God’s love we cannot help but love Him and others. God is wrestling with us, not us with Him. He knows who we really are and He wants us to manifest truth. These are all attributes of this present grace of God’s Spirit at work in the earth. What is next? Will we stop and label Him as the God of the people or a Father who is kind to His children? Or will we move forward by the power of God’s grace to become the people of God? Will we embrace the things that require change in our beliefs, or will we allow the limitations of our present belief to hinder the expansion of our minds for the now testimony of Christ in the world?

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

The Holy Spirit is the Messenger of God sent to change us. He is Christ in us the hope of glory. He is the hope of being fully changed from within. He has come to change us by changing our roots. He has come to transform the leaves and the fruit of our lives before the world. He has come to change the family tree.

Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” Says the LORD of hosts, “That will leave them neither root nor branch.”

He consumes the things that are not like Him only to reveal the things that are the inheritances of the family of God. The inheritances of the old Adam must be removed so our lives become a testimony of the Last Adam in Christ. Our Father can heal us and give us a good testimony.

Malachi 4:2 But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.

He brings transformation and true freedom in our lives. He causes us to rise above our old self-seeking ways and our old testimonies of wickedness. The light of our day is no longer the testimony of natural inheritances under a natural light of day in the earth. Our light will be the light of Christ within that transforms everything about us to become like our heavenly father. We will not be people who merely seek the fulfillment of our needs, our personal desire to be loved, nor the satisfaction of the natural cravings of our weaknesses. We will be people who seek to be God’s blessing in the earth. We will be people who subdue and have dominion. The dead things in this world will be destroyed by power of God’s life and we will manifest truth that will crumble every lie. Even the dead things within us will be subdued by the grace of God at work in us and the lies in our character, nature, way, power, and authority will be crumbled by the increasing glory of Christ’s truth within. We will be transformed from being a perverted form of self to become a testimony of what was meant to be truth in our lives. The spots, blemishes, and wrinkles will be removed from within.

Malachi 4:3 “You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” Says the LORD of hosts.

The wicked are the things in our lives that are not like God in His character, nature, way, power, and life-giving authority. They are the inherited iniquities of the flesh. God wants to give us our true inheritance and His inheritance will change us from who we think we were born to be to become who He generationally intended us to be. He comes to unlock the things never seen in our lives before and to restore the antique and lost things even before we were born. He comes to restore our true inheritance as the children of God. This only happens when we allow the Messenger, the Holy Spirit, to write the transformation of God’s love upon our hearts and minds through the power of Christ in us, the hope of glory.

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.”

Christ has come so we will be the family of God and see the fruit of internal changes. The things that were only shadow’s of something real in the past can become the very nature of our hearts and minds in Christ. We are the children of God, a testimony of the inheritance as His family in the earth.

Malachi 4:4 “Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.”

The commands, statues, and judgments of God were not meant to be controlling rules of bondage. They simply revealed what the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God’s family looks like when it cast’s a shadow upon the ground. The law was the evidence of a life-giving covenant seen in heaven; it was not a life-giving covenant by itself. The Old Covenant shadow can only be understood when we realize what it is like to be God’s children in the life-giving covenant of the family inheritance in Christ. It is only received in heavenly places accessed through the gate of heaven, the human heart. The way we were naturally born is not the way we remain. The increasing and progressive testimony in our lives of a supernatural birth in Christ is the testimony of the Father’s inheritance. We were formed in a womb of water to become the natural children of men, but we are being transformed in a womb of the Spirit to become the supernatural children of God.

Malachi 4:5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.”

The word for dreadful in this verse can also be translated awesome. If we think that God is a mean, judgmental, angry God we can perceive this to be bad news. It is not bad news; it is a day of the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord. It is only dreadful to the enemy, but it is good news to those who want to become like their Father in heaven. The day of the Lord is a day that has no end. It is not like the natural days of men. It is a day of eternity. The last prophet of the Old Covenant, John the baptizer, announced the transition from what was to what is in Christ.

Luke 16:16 “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.”

John revealed the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. He revealed the One who submerges men in fire and in the Holy Spirit. He revealed the One who would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. He revealed the human testimony of God in the earth who was a Son of God who only saw God as His Father and not a controlling taskmaster. John the baptizer announced the revelation of the firstborn of a new race of humanity that can only come by supernatural birth and supernatural transformation through the power of Christ within. Jesus was the firstborn of a new creation. The family tree of this new race is the testimony of the character, nature, way, power, and life-giving authority of a heavenly Father who is revealing His family the earth. It is about the family of God. It is about liberating the earth from every curse through the manifestation of the sons of God. In Christ the Messenger, the Holy Spirit, has come to restore the family calling, inheritance, and life-giving power in the earth. The hearts of the fathers will be for the children and the hearts of the children towards the fathers.

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.”

John the baptizer didn’t turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. His role was to simply point to the One who could. He revealed the Son of God in the flesh to announce that God has not come to remove flesh from the earth as He did in the days of Noah, but to transform flesh to become a testimony of the Father’s glory and person as He promised through the sign of the seven-colored rainbow set in heaven. That seven-colored rainbow is the sevenfold Holy Spirit of God that rests in and upon the family tree of God in the earth.

Isaiah 11: 1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,

            And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

2          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 curse on the earth will be healed because we are not slaves of a god who seeks to control our lives. We will be the family of God. He will not merely be the God of the people, but we will be known as the people of God. We will be children of God and freedom will be seen in the earth.

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

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

God wants to heal our responses to Him as well as empower us to do actions in this world that reveal who He is. The Holy Spirit has come into our lives so that we will not only believe whom our heavenly Father is, but we will also believe who we are in Christ. As we respond to Him, His presence fills us up from heaven within our hearts and those blessings overflow with visible blessings from heaven in our lives. It is His presence in our lives, but it requires a response from us as God’s children. We respond to the gift of the Holy Spirit (the Messenger) with the substance of our hearts and lives. The Holy Spirit has come to establish an open heaven in our lives so that the blessings of God will come to overflowing. God’s manifest presence has come into our hearts and He is overflowing with the blessings of heaven.

Malachi 3:10 … “And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”

There is an open heaven! Christ’s presence in our lives is subduing the enemies of God and the enemies of who God intended us to be in our lives. When we are who are, the enemy will be destroyed and the earth will yield its true blessing.

Malachi 3:11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the LORD of hosts”

It is God’s manifest presence in our lives that destroys the devourer in our lives. We must be willing to let go of the things that are an enemy to God. We do this by receiving the Messenger of God in our hearts. The Messenger is the Holy Spirit, the one who purifies our hearts with fire and transforms our outward testimony like fuller’s soap. As this happens, the nations will recognize who we are. We are children of God!

Malachi 3:12 “And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” Says the LORD of hosts.”

The Holy Spirit in our hearts is the voice that cries out “Abba, Father” from within. Christ in us is the testimony of being children of God. Christ in us empowers us to desire God our Father. This was what was missing in the day of Malachi the prophet. The priests could not see the need for serving God because they viewed Him as a hard taskmaster and not a heavenly Father who loves His children. There service to Him was for their own personal pride and need.

Malachi 3:13 “Your words have been harsh against Me,” Says the LORD, “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’”

When we don’t know that God is a loving Father, we don’t understand our true need for Him in our lives. He is not just our Lover; He is our Father. We are His family! We are His children! When we see ourselves as merely servants and slaves we don’t understand our need for Him. We think He wants us to serve Him, but He really wants to love us. When we receive His love, we cannot help but love Him!

Malachi 3:14 You have said, “It is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the LORD of hosts?”

The priests of the Old Covenant saw serving God as a sacrifice of pain, not a relationship of intimacy and joy. The Messenger, the Holy Spirit, has come to change our hearts and minds. He has come to heal the hardness of our souls. When we see God as anything less than Father, we try to justify our iniquities by calling the things in our lives that are not like God unchangeable. We call our pride a blessing and our wickedness not a problem before Him. We fail to understand that the family Spirit in our hearts can change the iniquities of our hearts so we become a testimony of true children of God. Not just children who are loved by God, but children who love Him and thus we are children who are transformed in our character, nature, way, power and authority to reveal the family name in the earth. This includes supernatural miracles in our spirits, souls, and bodies!

Malachi 3:15 “So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.’ ”

The Holy Spirit is the sent Messenger into our hearts to change us from our natural inheritances of the flesh to become children with the supernatural inheritances of God by the power of Christ in our hearts. It is a progressively increasing process in our lives. As we are changed people, the world will recognize who God truly is and He will remember us because our first consideration is honoring our Father and revealing the family name.  This is becoming like Him in our character, nature, way, power, and authority.

Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name.

The Holy Spirit has come so that we will be the people of God. He has come so that we will be the children of God in the earth. It is a miraculous thing and proves that we are not bound by the natural inheritances of the flesh, but we are transformed by the supernatural inheritances of the Spirit.

Malachi 3:17 “They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.”

It is about the testimony of the family name. He loves us, but He wants to make us a testimony of Him as His treasures in the earth. It is about revealing God as a Father. Not a Father because He loves us, but a Father because He loves us and He gives us His inheritance. He gives us His character, nature, way, power, and authority in all things. As this happens it will be clear who is righteous and who is wicked.

Malachi 3:18 Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

It will be clear who seeks God as Father and who seeks themselves. It will be clear who merely seeks to be blessed by God and who seeks to become the blessing of God in the earth. It will be clear who wants God to be the God of the people and who wants to become known as the people of God. The Messenger, the Holy Spirit, is the power of Christ in us that can change the world. He is like a refiner’s fire and a fuller’s soap in our lives.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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