ted4leaders

Greetings,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

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

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

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

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Romans 8:20-22 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

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

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

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

Isaiah 11:3 His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears…

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

Isaiah 11:4, 5 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.  Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His waist.

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

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

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

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

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

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

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

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

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

Ephesians 2:9, 10 …He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth – In Him… (NAS)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

As leaders in the body of Christ we must be expressions of God in our character, nature, way, power, and authority. We are not God, but we are leaders for the sake of the body of Christ. The body of Christ is an expression of Christ in human lives. It is made of individual members joined together for the corporate testimony of Christ in the earth. This is not merely a belief system. It is testimony of people who believe God, listen to Him, and are transformed by His expression in their lives. Today I want to address some key elements in making this happen.

God is the word, but we are expressions of Him. He is the word and we are the voice. People will see God to be who we present Him to be. If we believe He is a controlling master, we too will become controlling masters of those we lead. If we see Him to be the savior of every crisis situation, we will lead to save everyone from every crisis situation. We will make healing, deliverance, breakthrough, direction, and the like, more important than knowing Him. If we believe God is mean and angry we will become mean and angry in our own lifestyles and leadership roles. These things are true for any believer, but it becomes even more critical for those who have been given the responsibility of leading others. We can only convey the God we see to others. We must see Him for who He really is to reveal who He really is to others. Distorted presentations of God are given to the world through the distorted filters of human hearts and minds in their perception of Him. We hear God within our hearts, but discerning His voice is only found in the frequency of His heart.

Many people believe that God is God because of His sovereignty. I believe that He is sovereign, but I also believe that He has chosen not to exercise His sovereignty in reveling who He is. His sovereignty serves who He is, He does not serve His sovereignty. I believe that He is love, not merely someone who loves. I believe that He is good and He loves people (Jn. 3:16). I believe that He can be all-powerful, but I believe that He gave us a free will and that free will demonstrates His love for us. He is not looking for slaves or puppets. He doesn’t merely want people to serve Him. He wants people to know that He loves them. Our own traditions can make His word of no effect in our lives (Mt. 15:6). It is only when people know that God loves them they in turn live to love Him and to love others.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 8:38, 39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 John 4:9, 10 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

As leaders we must first and foremost know that God loves people. We must know that He loves us! If we don’t see Him through the eyes of love we will present Him as something less than love to those we lead. When we see God through the eyes of love we become leaders who lead people with a lifestyle of love. Love motivates God to choose not to know all things. He has chosen to not remember our sins and our lawless deeds (Jer. 31:34).

God remembers people according to His mercy, not according to their transgressions. He remembers those who come to Him with humble hearts. He is willing to take action for those He loves, but it is for the sake of love that He takes action. He does not exercise His abilities for the sake of legalism. He exercises His abilities for the sake of relationship. He will change His mind, because He can never change His character. When we give Him reason to show mercy, He is quick to respond in His mercy, even to the changing of His mind. People with a religious mindset are not willing to change their minds; therefore, they are willing to change their character to enforce what they have legally pledged.

Psalms 9:12  When He avenges blood, He remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the humble.

Psalms 25:7  Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to Your mercy remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O LORD.

Psalms 79:8 Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us! Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us, for we have been brought very low.

Isaiah 43:25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.

Jeremiah 31:34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

God who could remember chooses not to remember for the sake of His love for men. As leaders we must see God as the one who loves and shows mercy. He is slow to anger and quick to forgive. He is patient and long-suffering in who He is. Let us see Him for who He is. Let us be leaders that demonstrate who God is to those we lead.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

As leaders in the New Covenant we must serve to create an environment where people can discover who they are. The destiny of people is to be children of God who reveal the likeness and the image of their heavenly Father. We cannot focus on telling people what to do or how to act. This is an Old Covenant reality and it only serves to take people by the hand and lead them. It falls short of seeing people truly change within their hearts. Our focus as leaders must be to help people become who they were meant to be through the power of Christ within them. People need the manifest presence of God in their lives more than instructions as to how they should act or what they should do. God wants us to act as children of God who do the things sons and daughters of God should do, but the secret in doing those things is not found through Biblical instruction. It is Christ in them that will transform their hearts and minds to empower them act as sons and daughters of God.

The things we do should be the fruit of proper relationship with God and men, not obligatory rules to live by. Our works should speak of our faith, not the doing of things so we can prove we have faith. Works of faith are the evidence of faith, not the means of having faith. Faith comes through hearing God through intimacy with Him in the human heart. When we implement methods we very often create forms of Christian life, but we fail to active true life that comes by being empowered through Christ within. The New Covenant is all about people discovering what it means to be a part of the body of Christ. It is about knowing what it means to be the place that God inhabits. It is about an empowerment to live, not instructions in what to do. It is about relationships of commitment, faith, responses, submission, contribution, intimacy, and an awe of God in all things. These are not works, but they will manifest the fruit of works. If we make it our goal as leaders to get those we lead to do the works of commitment, the works of faith, the works of responding to God, the works of submission, the works of contributing, the works of community, or the works of the fear of the Lord we may just create a complicated form of bondage that retrains people from knowing the true life of God in their hearts. We must lead for a better testimony. We must lead to create a culture where each one knows God and is empowered from within to walk out the fullness of true relationship with God and other people in life. Biblical instructions cannot be a substitute for Holy Spirit empowerment. We cannot focus on teaching what is right or wrong and expect to see New Covenant life manifested in the lives of those we lead. We must demonstrate, activate, facilitate, and release the life of Christ in the culture of those we lead. The objective is to see people discover the true change that comes from heaven within them, not disciplined actions of the flesh that seek to attain to some promotion of glory when they die and go to heaven. The wonder working power of God’s grace must be allowed to cause people to become manifestations of God’s truth in the world. God wants to heal the roots of iniquity, not merely shackle them in some religious prison filled with actions of religious performance.

Colossians 2:20-23  Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

When the Scripture gives instructions in regard to what to do and how to act it is in reference to the true life that is found in Christ. It is not doing the things that are Christ like that make us like Christ. It is embracing the power of Christ within us that empowers us to do the things we should and act the way we should. We cannot settle for the instructions of what to do or how to act and think it is enough. We must embrace the life of Christ within us and know that it is true through an internal empowerment to put on the character and the actions of Christ. The actions can look the same, but the motivation for the actions is totally different. One is death and the other is life in Christ. As leaders we must lead to see people empowered in Christ, not controlled by what we interpret as Christ-like behavior. True change of action comes from internal beliefs in the human heart. Actions don’t change the place of true belief, but the empowerment of true belief will always spawn actions that testify of that belief. The high place of the human heart is the internal place of believing God and believing who we are in Him.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

As New Covenant leaders we must no doubt hear God in order to lead properly, but today I want to present an even greater challenge. If we are to be leaders in a New Covenant culture we cannot just hear God to know how to lead. We must create a culture of hearing God. We must lead people in a way that they too hear God in the things God is leading them into. Old Covenant leadership is all about knowing what is good verses what is evil. It is a covenant that takes people by the hand and leads them. It involves a paradigm of knowing what to do and how to act. New Covenant leadership is all about knowing who we are. It is about empowering people to be nobility in Christ, thus they know what to do. We must empower people to be sons and daughters of the King. This means we cannot just hear God in leading people; we must lead people in a way that inspires them to hear God.

Isaiah 32:1-4 Behold, a king will reign righteously and princes will rule justly. Each will be like a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land.  Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded,
and the ears of those who hear will listen.
The mind of the hasty will discern the truth,
and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.(NAS)

As New Covenant leaders we must activate, facilitate, and release those we lead to know how to be a refuge in the wind, a shelter from the storm, a stream of water in a drought, and a shade from the heat in a weary day. When they know how to be who they were meant to be, others will be able to see, listen, discern truth, and speak clearly.

I believe that these issues address the wrestle of mankind in the earth. Man was created in the likeness and image of their heavenly Father (Gen. 1:26, 27). The fall of mankind left man short of attaining to this true testimony of God through man in the earth. The best that man could do without God was to create a likeness and image of ‘self’ – the ultimate testimony of missing the mark (sin) in God. God’s plan was to restore the human race through the gift of His only begotten Son, a perfect likeness and image of God in the flesh. Jesus was such a man. He was the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person (Heb. 1:3). I believe that there are four things that reveal the testimony of man in the earth. They can be seen when men and women stand fast in their beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influences in the world. Whatever one believes determines how they act. How they act will then propagate the imaginations of their hearts that determines how they think. How they think will determine how they influence the world in which they live. Jesus believed what His heavenly Father believed, acted how His heavenly Father acted, set his imagination in the thinking of His heavenly Father, and influenced this world with the weight of His heavenly Father’s character, nature, way, power, and authority. These four things are known as the heavenly place of the human heart, actions revealing the rule of man’s way, and the power revealing a force of human imagination, that leads to principle influences in this world (Eph. 6:12).

A righteous King has redeemed the beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influence of mankind. We must lead to empower people to believe God in their hearts. This will cause them to be steadfast and immovable in their faith. They will be a refuge from the wind for others. The wind is a symbol of the things that cause men to not be secure. They don’t know what to believe, because they don’t know whom to believe. When we know the King, we know whom to believe. When we know whom to believe, we know what to believe. We believe all that He says. As New Covenant leaders we must seek to empower people to know God intimately and to believe all that He says. In doing this we must teach what He has said so those we lead will recognize His voice. We are not leading to teach them what to do or how to act. We are leading to teach them the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God so they will recognize what sound in their own life is the sound of God’s voice. When they know the sound of God’s voice they can become secure in who they are, because they are secure in knowing who God is. They then become influencers of others. They become shelters from the wind to others in the world. Knowing who to believe will empower them in knowing how to act. When they act according to the true voice of God in their own lives they then become shelters from the storm for others. The actions of their lives will bring blessings to the lives of others. They will live for the wellbeing of others and not for the personal agendas of their own self-gratifying desires. The life of God within them will become a life-giving river that flows from the imaginations of their hearts to bring life to others. They will become rivers to the dry land of the world around them. This will then empower them to become a shade from the heat. They will be people who influence the world around them and are no longer influenced by the world they live in. Heaven in them will become a greater power than the spirit of the world that is around them.

As leaders we must know the King and we must lead to empower those we lead to know the King who rules righteously.  He is bringing a generation of princes through a wrestle with God in the earth that proves they can stand in the name of the King. These princes reveal an increasing likeness and image of God in the earth by standing strong in every wind without faltering in their belief in God. The storms of life cannot sway them from actions that are the result of listing to their heavenly Father. Their hearts and minds are clearly expressed through an endless imagination of increasing life as they are those who know how to find God’s life-giving water even in the driest of droughts. These are those who have endured the heat and have not withered but are the influence of God’s speech with great clarity and confidence to a world that is stammering in its tongue. As New Covenant leaders we must lead to empower those we lead to hear God and become all that He says they are in this world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

As leaders we must embrace the New Covenant in its fullness. Many times we fall into the trap of embracing a New Covenant message while still holding on to Old Covenant methods of implementing that message. Many times we embrace an Old Covenant message in a New Covenant time and then think we are ok because we attempt to implement that message in a New Covenant way. We must embrace the full package of the New Covenant to lead in a New Covenant way.

The Old covenant took people by the hand and led them. We cannot simply preach New Covenant truth and take people by the hand in implementing New Covenant truth. This means a different type of discipleship. We must be willing to allow those we lead to fail. We must demonstrate mercy that ends the past for those we lead. We must also demonstrate grace in allowing them to be empowered for New Covenant life. We cannot hear God for those we lead, but we must expect them to be empowered to embrace the responsibility of hearing God for themselves. This doesn’t mean that we sit back while they seek a self-gratifying, self-fulfilling, or self-gratifying life. We lead to see them sincerely embrace being led by God’s Spirit in their lives. Helping those we lead define boundaries in their lives is legitimate. Giving commands from sincere love within the context of our leadership responsibility is legitimate. Not empowering others to be responsible is not legitimate.

The disciple Peter was zealous to rebuke Jesus for talking about dying, when he had a revelation that Jesus was the Messiah. His revelation was hindered by his interpretation of that revelation. Although Peter was strong in his verbal support of Jesus, something in Peter was willing to bend to the pressure of natural sight and fear. His own heart was destined to deny Jesus, but the heart of Jesus was destined to support Peter even in his failure. Jesus didn’t judge Peter by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He believed in Peter by embracing the tree of life on his behalf. Jesus told Peter that a conversion would happen in his life whereby he could strengthen his brothers.

Luke 22:31   And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”

It was Peter’s return to the Lord in his heart that qualified him for the responsibility of New Covenant life in God’s church. After Jesus had risen from the dead He found Peter fishing. Peter had returned to his former trade and it seemed he was hiding in his past for being disqualified through his denial of Jesus. Jesus called out to Peter and gave him the familiar words of casting his net on the other side of the boat. Peter recognized the voice of His Lord and soon found the fruit of an abundant catch of fish and His friend waiting for him on the shore with a fresh breakfast for a new day. It was then that Jesus demonstrated the power of New Covenant grace. Peter’s heart was humble and he was tender in his heart toward Jesus.

John 21:15 So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”

Jesus addressed Peter as Simon Peter – the ‘little rock’ who ‘bends like a reed’ or the ‘little rock’ who ‘hears’. His salutation to Peter no doubt touched the tenderness of Peter’s heart.  Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him and He used the Greek word agapao, a giving love or a sacrificial love.  Peter responded by using the Greek word phileo, a love that is a friend or affectionate toward another. The honesty of Peter was matched with the grace in Jesus’ words. He told him to ‘feed His lambs’. The key was the truth and honesty in Peter’s words and the New Covenant life in the words of Jesus. Jesus was empowering Peter with grace. Peter wasn’t expecting anything. He was being honest and the love of God was melting his heart.

Jesus asked Peter a second time, but this time His salutation was even deeper.

John 21:16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”  He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”  He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”

His salutation to Peter was the same as when Peter had received the revelation that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Mt. 16:17). These words implied that Peter was the one who hears God by the Holy Spirit, as Simon means ‘one who hears’ and Jonah means ‘dove’, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him this second time and He again used the Greek word agapao, a giving love or a sacrificial love.  Peter responded again by using the Greek word phileo, a love that is a friend or affectionate toward another. The honesty of Peter was once again matched with the grace in Jesus’ words. He told him to ‘tend His sheep’. I believe that the key was once again in the truth and honesty in Peter’s words and the New Covenant life in the words of Jesus. Mercy was kissing the heart of Peter and grace was empowering him for the responsibility of life.

John 21:17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”  And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.

This third time Jesus changed the word that He used for love when asking Peter if he loved Him. This third time Jesus used the Greek word phileo, a love of friendship and affection. This is what caused Peter to weep. He knew that he wasn’t qualified. He wasn’t expecting anything and Jesus was giving Him everything. Peter responded in honesty by acknowledging to Jesus that he knew He knew all things and that he did love Him with a phileo love. Jesus acknowledged Peter’s acceptance of mercy by again empowering him with grace. He told Peter to ‘feed His sheep’.

Jesus then went on to tell Peter what His grace would do in Peter’s life. He prophesied of the day that Peter would die.

John 21:18 Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” 19 This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”

Church tradition says that Peter was crucified in Rome over twenty years later. On the day they crucified him, Peter requested that they crucify him upside down since he was not worthy to die in the same manner as His Lord. God’s grace had empowered the one who had denied Jesus to love (agapao) Him in his death. This is the power of New Covenant grace! Peter didn’t expect anything, but God empowered through everything. He was empowered to give his life for the Church and for the love of His Savior. Peter never demanded mercy or grace, he simply responded to the voice of his Friend with tenderness, willingness, and a heart to receive all that God expected of him. This is New Covenant life.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson