ted4leaders

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

When I was completing my master’s degree in biblical studies, I was asked to write a simple theology of the Old Testament and a simple theology of the New Testament. My conclusion was this (from my book: The Now Covenant):

The Old Covenant testimony revealed that God always wanted a people who could say God was their God, it would be said of them that they were God’s people, and they would know the reality of living together with Him. The New Covenant testimony is that God finally has a people who from their hearts know that God is their God. He has passed over their sins and made them dependent upon Him in their hearts. He is their righteousness. God finally has a people who are a testimony of Him. They have peace with Him in their hearts because He is their peace. There is no gap between them and Him and thus the testimonies of His heavenly realities are becoming increasing testimonies in their lives and others can see it. God finally has a people who live together with Him in all things. They know the joy of His manifest presence in their hearts. They know that God gives life, He gives them breath, and He gives them all things.

These three things were seen in the Old Covenant through the main feasts of Israel. Passover depicted the testimony of being the people redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. God was their God. Pentecost depicted the testimony of being people of God’s testimony – the Word and the Spirit. We are different than those who seek to live for themselves in the world. We seek God and live to be a testimony of Him in our world. Tabernacles depicted the testimony of being people who celebrated every harvest in partnership with God for His purpose and glory in all things. We don’t live for our own kingdoms, but for the kingdom of God. These realities were not intended to merely be ceremonial feasts. They are attributes of a way of life with God as His family in this world. God is our God, we are His people, and we live together. It is for these three things that leaders lead.

Leaders lead others in knowing God in a personal and intimate way. He gives them life. We are loved by God, and it is God’s love that gives us life at all times. Leaders lead others in knowing the supernatural power of God’s love. They lead in knowing the righteousness of God found in Christ. It is a righteousness of being loved by God through the testimony of Jesus – the redeemer of our lives.

Leaders lead others in being the family of God with the testimony of His Word and Spirit in this world. We have peace with God and there is no gap between us and Him. We are expressions of Him for the glory of His inheritance in all things. God loves us and we love Him! We reveal His love to our world through His continual change in our lives.

Leaders lead others in a partnership with God in all things. God gives us all things and all things are for His purpose and glory. Our lives are filled with many seasons of harvest and each harvest is purposed to give the food of life to our world and plant the seeds of life for a generation to come. This is to live our lives as sons and daughters of God who is our Father. We are givers of life as He is a giver of life to us.

We must live our lives each day with these three strong values in our hearts. We should expect to experience them every day and we should seek to celebrate them with our attitudes, thoughts, and actions in life. God is our God, we are His people, and we live together in all things.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I want to address the focus of our lives. What has our attention? What is at the center of who we are and what we do in life? If our attention is upon some created thing, we cannot become who we are created to be. Our attention must be upon our Creator for us to be created as we should be in life. We were created by the word of God and the word of God is what causes us to discover our true identity, testimony, and purpose in life. That word is not simply something that God has spoken in the past. It is not the Scripture, but it is fully Scriptural in its substance. The word of God is the voice of God to our hearts. When are spirits are joined to His Spirit, we hear His voice from within. His voice is the voice that creates us and forms us to be who we are meant to be. For this to happen, we must value Him above all others and above all things in life.

We need to put God first to be who we are in all things. God is the only one who brings us out of bondage into our path of destiny. His love is supernatural. He is not limited by anything that is created. When He walks into the room, everything in the room changes. When He enters a space of our life, we find His life in that space. His powerful love leads to His powerful purpose.

Exodus 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 You shall have no other gods before Me.”

God brings us out of darkness, and He frees us from anything that imprisons us. He sets us at liberty so we can know the influence of His liberty in our lives. God wants us to be sons and daughters who bring freedom and liberty to our world. This is the testimony of life. We find true freedom and liberty when we see Jesus as the center of every area of our lives.

To put God first, is to put Him at the center of everything. He is at the center of our marriage, our family, our job, our service, and every aspect of our lives. Our attention is not upon God at the beginning of the day and then everything else throughout our day. Our attention is upon God at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of every day. We live for His kingdom and for His will in all things.

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

We are a temple of Holy Spirit and our attention, affection, and motivation in life is from His presence in our lives. As leaders we set an example of living our lives with Jesus in the center of of all things. He is the voice behind us that motivates us by faith in life. His voice is a voice of love and when we live our lives with Jesus in the center, we discover our identity, testimony, and purpose in life. He is the Word that creates us. He is the beginning and the ending of every day.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

When we keep our focus on Jesus, we receive the life and the light that is our light as sons and daughters of God. To do this, we practice being aware of His presence. We talk to Him. We listen to Him. We respond to Him! He is our light and through Him we become a light in the darkness of our world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of: www.ted4leaders.com www.ted4you.com or www.houseofbreadministry.org. Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to: House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225 To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year. Our Ministry Information Is: House of Bread Ministry 3210 Meridian St. Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am posting a blog from a few years ago. I felt prompted by Holy Spirit to remind us as leaders about the justice system of God. God’s justice is not merely one of right and wrong. It is a justice of mercy and grace. It is a justice system of love.

God desires to give His love to all people, but not all people desire to receive what He wants to give. When we turn even in the slightest measure towards Him, we discover the amazing power of His unsurpassable affection. In Christ, former enemies become friends and those who were once not a part of His plan find themselves fulfilling His purposes in the earth.

As leaders we must lead with this same example. We should desire to love everyone. We should be willing to love all people, but we can only give our love to those who want our love. We cannot force our lives upon them, but at a hint in our direction we should be ready to respond even as God our Father responds to us. By this even former enemies can become friends.

Isaiah 61:5-6 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But you shall be named the priests of the LORD, they shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory you shall boast. 

By the power of Christ’s internal kingdom of life, even those who did not know Him find themselves sowing and reaping in His kingdom. They find themselves standing as priests before Him and they become those who serve Him for the glory of His purposes in the earth. I believe that eating the riches of the Gentiles is receiving them as brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God. Those who did not know God become part of His family for the inheritance of the family name. The glory of the Gentiles is their salvation in Christ! We are living in a time where the harvest of the nations will be seen as those who labor in the fields of God’s purpose in the nations. We must be willing to partner with others for the sake of the purpose of God’s fields in the earth.

It is not in the defeat of those who have not known the covenants of God that we rejoice. It is in their glory! When those who had not known the covenants of God become those who sow and reap in the kingdom of God it is a time to rejoice in the justice system of the kingdom of God. It is a justice system of the Tree of Life. It is a justice system of love. Those who had not known the covenants of God are no longer bound to shame; but have found a place of inheritance among those who are the redeemed of the Lord!

Isaiah 61:7  Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs. 

This is a justice system of forgiveness and healing. It is a justice system of new beginnings and of grafting into the ancient things of God. Those who come at the end of the day will get the same wages as those who came at the beginning of the day. The ceilings of the past will become the foundations of the present, only to increase in the testimony of God’s grace and peace!

Isaiah 61:8-9 “For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery for burnt offering; I will direct their work in truth, and will make with them an everlasting covenant. Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people. All who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the posterity whom the LORD has blessed.” 

It’s not fair! It’s scandalous by the standards of the knowledge of good and evil. It’s unfair by the standards of right and wrong! The justice system of the kingdom of heaven transforms the hearts of men to become a testimony of being children of God. Those who were the enemies of God become friends to His name! As leaders we must embrace God’s justice system of love above the justice system of right and wrong and we must set an example that those we lead can follow.

Isaiah 61:10-11 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. 

The Israel of God is not just a Jewish people group by birth, but a people of circumcised hearts! These are those who are true inheritors of God. They were Jew and Gentile, but now they have become the children of God in Christ! These are those who bear His name in the earth and the governing rule of their lives is Christ in them, the hope of glory! His righteousness and praise are springing forth before all the nations as the internal kingdom of Heaven invades the nations as the Kingdom that consumes all of the kingdoms of the world!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of: www.ted4leaders.com www.ted4you.com or www.houseofbreadministry.org. Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to: House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225 To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year. Our Ministry Information Is: House of Bread Ministry 3210 Meridian St. Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

We are a dwelling place of God. We are a temple of Holy Spirit. This is the source of our life as members of the body of Christ. This is the source of our testimony in life. This is the source of our purpose in all things. God’s presence in our lives is more important than knowing what we are doing. Him in us is the source of our transformation and our maturation in Christ. As leaders we live in, with, and from the presence of God in our lives. We lead others in knowing this same reality. Being aware of God’s presence in our lives is something we must cultivate each and every day.

God doesn’t desire to simply visit us in life. He desires for us to abide in Him and He to abide in us. It is through an intimate relationship with Him that we can bear the fruit of life to our world. Fruit is not for our sake, but for the sake of all in our world.

John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

John 15: 7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”

To abide in the words of God is not merely to depend on what He has said in our past or in His written word. The word we abide in is His rhema word. It is His spoke words to us each day. Those words are the evidence of His love for us and our love for Him. His words to us are not the words of a master to his servants. They are the words of a Father to His children. Our relationship with God is a matter of love. Leaders live to know this and to lead others in knowing this truth.

Every relationship in life requires a decision to seek an experience with another. That experience is not stuck in some moment of the past but is the fruit of eagerly seeking the presence of another to know them. God wants us to know Him and He wants us to experience an understanding that He knows us in every way. Love is the testimony that overcomes all fear. The fruit of knowing God is love. It is a love for Him and a love for one another. Leaders demonstrate God’s love in their authority. Their authority is an ability to give God’s life to their world.

John 15:9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”

We must seek to know God’s manifest presence in our lives. To do this, we need to practice expecting to see Him in our lives in every aspect of our lives. Holy Spirit is our connection to knowing God our Father and Jesus the Son. Holy Spirit is in us and with us and we should seek to be clothed in His presence every day. This is the armor of life. It is an armor of God’s love. It is an armor of being loved by God. This is the truth, our righteousness, our testimony in life, our ability to move forward in giving life to others, our victory of life, our expression of life, and our daily partnership with life. We must live to know God’s presence and knowing God’s presence will enable us to live. The fruit will be life and love to our world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

As leaders we set an example to those that we lead in receiving life from God, being and expression of that life to our world, and in partnering with God in the truth of who we are for the purpose and will of God in all things. We must all receive the life that only God can give. We must believe the words that God says about us. We live to be expressions of Him in a likeness and image of His character, nature, way, power, and authority. We also accept who we are in Him, and we willingly partner with Him and allow Him to empower us to fulfill His purpose in our lives for the glory of His name.

God gives life. That life is eternal life. It is not a life that ends, but a life that grows from glory to glory. It is the fruit of a relationship with God in our spirits. True righteousness is to depend upon God in all things to be alive and to be empowered to bear the fruit of life in all things and at all times. Eternal life is knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son through an intimate connection with Holy Spirit in our hearts. When we experience, and hold fast to, an internal connection to God in our hearts we know the righteousness of God by the Holy Spirit transforming our hearts and minds to be expressions of our heavenly Father’s love in a supernatural and powerful way.

When God gives us life, we become expressions of that life. We have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus the Christ. There is no gap between us and God. What is in heaven is meant to shine through us as light to our world as a heavenly empowered expression of God’s life. Because there is no gap between us and God, His words to us sanctify us to be expressions of Him to our world. We hear Him and we become like Him to be a testimony of His life and love. We must believe the words that He says about us to become revelations of Him in our world.

When we become expressions of Him, we must accept our responsibility to step forward and partner with Him in His purposes and will in life. We must see ourselves as the body of Christ and willingly embrace His headship to become expressions of His body in the power and authority of life.

In his letter to the church of Ephesus, the apostle Paul wrote of the mystery of Christ and His body, the church. He wrote concerning husbands and wives, but He was ultimately revealing a mystery of Christ and the church.

Ephesians 5:32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

The great mystery of Christ and the church was seen as the wife to her husband and the husband to his wife. The wife is to receive the life that the husband gives to her. She is to believe the words that He says to her, and she should seek to come alongside of Him in all things for the will of God the Father in all things.

Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

Jesus is the head. He is the ultimate husband. He gives life to us as His wife – His body. This is true both for the individual and for us together as corporate expressions of the church. As Jesus gives life to us, we submit to Him to receive that life. We are a dwelling place of His Spirit. He makes us come alive by His powerful love! We submit to Him to receive the sanctifying words that He speaks to us. He washes us and waters us with life-giving words. His words to us make us expressions of His life in the uniqueness of who each of us are. Jesus presents us to Himself. This means that He brings us alongside of Him in all things because He doesn’t see the spots, blemishes, or wrinkles of the flesh. He sees us as His wife. We are His co-partner to bring the authority of the Father’s life and will to our world.

Leaders lead in these things and they lead others to embrace them as well. Receive the life that Jesus gives! Believe the life-sanctifying words that He says to and about you. Accept the responsibility of being who you are to partner with Jesus as the body of Christ at all times! By this we will shine as God’s light to and in our world. We will be a river of life-giving water to the peoples and generations of our world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

God doesn’t just give us promises for the sake of promises. He gives us promises for the sake of us knowing who He is and becoming like Him in His character, nature, way, power, and authority. The apostle Peter wrote that the great and precious promises of God are given to us so we will partake of God’s divine nature.

2 Peter 1:4 …by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

If the great and precious promises of God are given for us to partner with God and become like Him than we can also know that this principle is true for any and every promise given to us by God.

God wants us to know who we are and to become the authentic substance of sons and daughters of God. For this reason, God also allows us to go through pressures whereby we manifest who we are by the power of God’s grace.

Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the Holy Spirit who was given to us has poured out the love of God in our hearts.

Our peace with God is not merely a state of being calm in our hearts or at ease in our soul. Our peace is a positioning in Christ whereby there is no gap between God and us. We have been made one with Him and there is no separation between Him and us. In this He manifests in our lives and His Spirit is the substance of His grace that changes our lives from the inside out. The true test of what is in us is made known by the pressures that come against us from the outside sources of our lives. This dynamic of the inward life of Christ and the outward pressure upon our lives causes the testimony of Christ within us to become a force of life that changes the character of our lives. In this process of grace we face tribulations or pressures in life. All who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

2 Timothy 3:12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

When we face the pressures of persecution we choose to persevere. Perseverance is not just a holding on to something in pain. It is a position of attitude from within our hearts. It is a choosing to cheerfully endure in the midst of the pressures that are against us. This is not just a thing of our soul. It requires us to draw the life of the Holy Spirit into our own spirit within. In the presence of the Lord there is the fullness of joy and true perseverance is drawing upon the presence of God in our hearts in order to see His life flood our souls with the testimony of true endurance. It is not a thing of misery, but a decision to embrace the life of Christ that is within us. True perseverance always carries the substance of a choice to be cheerful and to endure. It is a cheerful endurance. When we find the secret of true perseverance, we discover the key to seeing the character of Christ in us manifest. Our own character changes by the life of the character of Christ within us. The transformation of our lives from within is what reveals true hope – a testimony of Christ in us revealed through the substance of our lives.

As leaders we set an example that others can follow in this process of change. The character of Christ becomes manifest in us when the beliefs of our hearts receive and trust Him more that the things that oppose us in life. Christ in us is the key to this process of change in our lives. Our character is to be the character of Christ. This is more important than the gifting, the skills, the charisma, or the manifested talents of our lives. It is Christ’s character that can sustain Christ’s gifting and it is only that which is  of Christ that can overcome the world. As leaders we must know and lead others in knowing that the pressures of life appear as our enemy, but the power of Christ within each of us is greater than the weapons that oppose us. We must pay more attention to our character, than to the surface abilities of leadership.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I want to remind us of some things that I have written in the past. We live to be blessings to our world and to lead others in being a blessing to their world. That blessing is the gift of God’s life. It is a gift of an intimate relationship with God and the life that is known through that relationship.

As leaders in the body of Christ we lead others in becoming a testimony of the character of Christ to their world. This is perhaps the greatest testimony of our leadership to the lives of those that we stand before in the spheres of our influence in life. The process of God’s grace in each of our lives is one of revealing the testimony of Christ in us. This means that the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Christ must become embodied in each of our lives.

Genesis 22:15-18   Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” 

The good news that God gave Abraham was not that He would merely bless him. It was that in blessing He would bless him. The Hebrew word for blessing here is placed in a double. It is the word blessing repeated twice. It can mean great blessing, but it more clearly states that in blessing God would bless. This is the foundation for belief of every human being. Do we believe and know that we are the blessing of God in the earth? When we realize who we are, we will live to be who we are. We are a testimony of God’s likeness and image in this world, and we were born to bring glory to His name. As leaders, we must lead people in a way that they know who they are in Christ. They are not only blessed by Him they are His blessing in the earth. While the enemy pronounces “shame on you” words of bondage and death, God pronounces “shame off you” words of freedom and life. Being a blessing starts with believing who God is so you can believe who you are in Him. This is the foundation of the good news preached to Abraham. God’s plan was to make a way for humankind to be restored in the likeness and image of their heavenly Father in the earth. As leaders, we must lead others with a foundation of believing God and believing who we are in Him. It is the power of God’s Word and Spirit conceived in the human heart that establishes a foundation of believing God and believing who they are in Him. As leaders, we must be facilitators of God’s Word and Spirit in the hope of transforming the beliefs of men.

As leaders in the body of Christ we are not just gifted to lead by the grace that is given to us in Christ, we are to also be examples of the character of Christ to those we lead. This is perhaps the greatest testimony of our leadership to the lives of those that we stand before in the spheres of our influence in life. The process of God’s grace in each of our lives is one of revealing the testimony of Christ in us. This means that the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Christ must become embodied in each of our lives. God gives us promises and leads us forward to face pressures in life so that we will manifest who we are in Him. Whether it is the promises of God or the pressures of testing, both are part of a process in our lives that makes us partakers of God’s divine nature. The promises are the substance of life that He gives us, and the pressures of testing are the proving of what is being given to us by God within our lives. The pressure only manifests what is within us and Christ within us is the hope of glory.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

What is the purpose of God’s promises in our lives. We know that God blesses us with good things simply because He loves us but is there something more that He desires to do. As leaders we lead people into knowing who they are in Christ. We lead them to know that they are sons and daughters of God. What does a son or daughter of God look like. A son or daughter reveals the brightness of the Father’s glory and becomes an expression of His image in their world. This was the testimony of Jesus as the Son of Man/Son of God in our world.

Jesus was the firstborn of a race of newly created people in Christ. As new creations we reveal the giving nature of our heavenly Father and His Son Jesus. We do this by the life-giving power of Holy Spirit in our lives. By the presence of God in us, we give life to our world.

John 7:37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

God’s nature is one of giving. He desires to give life to the world. For this reason, God sent His only begotten Son Jesus to redeem us in our purpose and destiny in our world. God wants us to be partakers of His divine nature. His divine nature is to give life to the world. God is a giver and not a taker. He doesn’t exist to have His needs met. Who He is meets the needs of the world. As sons and daughters of God this is to be our growing testimony. We are to be givers of life to our world and change our world by God’s powerful love working in and through our lives.

2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

We used to be takers, but in Christ we are growing in becoming like our Father in heaven. We are growing in becoming givers of life to our world. If the great and precious promises of God are given that we might grow in our Father’s divine nature, we must also know that the greater value of any promise from God in our lives is that we might grow in becoming like Him. It is through knowing God that we are changed by His glory and virtue. God’s glory is to give life to the world and knowing Him empowers us to grow in giving life to our world.

Let the life of Holy Spirit flow in and through you today and be a giver of God’s life to your world. Let a new song be in your heart and mind. Let a fresh experience with God manifest in and through you. Let God’s grace and peace be multiplied in you through your knowing Him today. Lead others in knowing that God’s promises in our lives are not merely about the things that He gives. They are about us becoming like Him in our character, nature, way, power, and authority in our world. We are gives of life our world as He is a giver of life to all the world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I want to challenge us as leaders regarding keeping thing fresh in our lives. When we hold on to the past, or when we long for a better future, we miss the moment of today. We must embrace the responsibility of each day and be scribes in the kingdom of heaven for the sake of those we lead.

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.”

To be a householder is to accept the responsibly of your life today for the sake of all who are in your world. The new treasures revealed are things that have never been seen, heard, or thought before and the old treasures are the redemption of things lost in the past. This includes things inherited from your past. A scribe in the kingdom of heaven is one who allows God to write upon their hearts and minds to create a world that is fresh for today.

We are not to think like those in the world. We are not children of the world. We are children of God. We are sons and daughters of God, and we were born to bring life to our world for the sake of those who are in or world. This includes our families, our friends, and our places of influence for the purpose of God in all things. To keep things fresh, we must embrace every moment and circumstance of our lives and live it for the glory of God.

Our calendar has one day, that day is TODAY. TODAY is the Day of the Lord and not the day of our old lives of self. We must hear God’s voice TODAY. To live in the past is to live stuck in some reality that is no longer true. To live with a longing for the future is to embrace not living for the sake of some better reality that is not yet ture.

Hebrews 3:12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said:

“Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

The time on our watches and clocks is NOW. It is always NOW. If we embrace the day called TODAY and the time called NOW, we will find Christ in our world. We will be free from any bitter stronghold that is stuck because of some place in our past or stuck because of some unfulfilled promise in our future. We must hear God today to experience every first reality for our world today.

We can never return to a first experience, but we can always return to our first love. That is to say to God, here I am! I present my life to you to live with you TODAY! When we do this, we experience many more first experiences in our lives. Grace come on truth! Leaders lead others in this reality and this testimony in life.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

As leaders, we set an example for those we lead in the testimony of the character and the power of Christ. Our example is one of revealing the power of God’s grace that works in the lives of those who believe. Grace is freely given to those who seek to find it, but we must seek God’s grace to find what is freely given. When we find God’s grace we are empowered and changed in some way.

Our access to God’s grace working in our lives is made possible by God’s free gift of mercy to us all. His first coming to our world with His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, enabled His appearing in our lives as a life-giving Spirit from within our hearts. Holy Spirit has been sent to us in the name of Jesus. Holy Spirit working in our lives is the testimony of God’s grace. Grace is freely available to all, but we must come to the throne of Grace to find it.

I have been a believer for more than fifty-one years. God has bought about many changes in my life. Those changes have been the fruit of willingly yielding to God working in me. When I respond to, and yield to, Holy Spirit’s presence in my life I am changed. The fruit of God’s Spirit is the testimony of the fruit of God’s character made real in our lives.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

We must choose to walk in the Spirit every day. God is the source of our direction every day and in everything. The actions of our lives are a decision we make, but those actions must be actions inspired by the presence of Christ within us. This is the testimony of sons and daughters of God. The change that comes into our lives in the process of our responding to Christ are not works of our flesh. They are not disciplines of our flesh. They are empowerments of God’s Spirit. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are all attitudes and characteristics of our lives that are granted to us by grace in Christ. In the process of grace we experience pressure and resistance, but the overcoming testimony of Christ in us transforms us from within. The tribulation in our lives proves the character of Christ within us made real by a transformation of grace from within.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Finding the grace of God working is us is the fruit of faith working by our cheerful endurance in the midst of our tribulations. It is partnership with, and responding to, Holy Spirit in us that empowers us to cheerfully endure in the midst of any resistance in our lives. When we embrace the work of Holy Spirit in us, we experience a character change. That character change is a testimony of the hope that we have in Christ in all things. God’s mercy enforces the judgment of God’s love given to us in the coming of Jesus as a man of flesh for our sake in our world. Because of God’s mercy, we can find God’s grace that helps us in every time of need and changes our lives for the glory of God (Heb. 4:16).

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728