ted4leaders

Greetings,

As leaders we must have to be motivated to lead. What is it that motivates leaders? Faith is surely a big part of being able to lead. I used to believe that faith was towards something that God said, but I have come to understand that faith is always towards a person. Faith works through love and that love is a love for a person. It is not a love for a promise. It is not a love for a purpose. It is not a love for a ministry or a task in life. It is a love for God and a love for people. True faith is towards God and it comes by hearing God. When God speaks we hear what He says because we love Him. We don’t twist His words to our destruction. We hear Him and we respond to His voice with actions of love for Him. Faith is a huge part of being able to lead. We lead because we are first able to follow. We follow not only the voice of God; we follow the heart of God. We grow in knowing Him and we grow in knowing His heart. I believe that as we grow in knowing Him we also grow in doing what we see Him doing. His heart leads us. His Spirit leads us. We do what we see our heavenly Father doing. We don’t wait for Him to do it and then follow His actions. We see what He would do and we do it, because we know His nature, character, way, power, and authority in the things He does. Our hearts grow to be motivated by what motivates His heart. We are moved by compassion and love in the role of leading for the sake of the Father’s will in loving people.

I used to think that vision based upon principles, patterns, and values is what motivates leaders, but I have come to understand that there is something much stronger than vision based upon these. It is what actually gives vision the power of imagination. I believe that it is two-fold. I believe that it is a love for God and a love for people. Love for God and love for people empowers leaders to serve through a power of submission. There is no doubt a part of leadership that is built upon principles, patterns, and values that motivate their actions, but these alone will not be enough to motivate leadership in the long haul. Leaders must know the commission of their leadership and that commission is no doubt filled with principles, patterns, and values that direct their hearts, but being able to lead others is not merely being able to obey God or obey a commission. It is to submit to God and to submit to people in the task of leading. It is possible to obey without truly submitting, but it is not possible to submit without demonstrating actions of obedience. I believe that submission is an attribute of love for someone else. Obedience can be performed through a commitment or an obligation to something, but submission is an attitude of the heart. Leaders submit to God by embracing willingness to follow Him in leading others. They also submit to people by willingly embracing their responsibility of leading them for the sake of love. They tip in the direction of those under their leadership in order to give them the substance of life entrusted to them by God for the sake of bringing others further in the path of destiny. They also come under God’s authority in their lives so they can be leaders that others can follow. I believe that leadership is a gift of God’s love to those they are entrusted to lead. They don’t lead for the sake of their own agendas. They don’t lead for their own ministries. They don’t lead for the sake of their own kingdoms. Leaders lead for the sake of the Father’s heart in writing spiritual letters of life in the hearts of men and women joined together for God’s purposes in the earth. Those letters are letters of God’s love being written by His Holy Spirit to be manifestly read by those in the world around them. They are a message of God’s kingdom love to the kingdoms of the world. Each letter has a unique message of life and each letter contributes to the bigger picture of God’s life for the world. Leaders are not merely responsible to the letter being written. They are responsible to the One who is writing the letter and to the hearts of those the letter is being written within. Leaders must lead for the Spirit of the letter, not merely the words of the letter. The letter without the Spirit can kill, but the Spirit of the letter will always bring life. It is a testimony of God’s love.

Love is the true motivation of leadership. It isn’t a love for the letter being written, but a love for God the Author of every letter and a love for people, the substance of every letter written. It is not a love for ministry, a love for purpose, or a love for the anointing. Leadership is motivated by a love for God and a love for people! Let’s embrace a revelation of God’s love and let’s lead for the sake of love!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

A leader is not someone who is a scholar or a professional. They are not merely individuals who have gone through a process of developing skills to lead others. A leader is someone who influences those they lead in a way that is in agreement with what God is doing as a whole among all who are being led. Whatever the Spirit among people is writing must be embraced by leadership within the environment of that community being expressed by the Holy Spirit. Leaders are the first to respond to what God is doing in the heavenly community they are part of. Whatever is being expressed of heaven must be embraced by leaders and implemented into natural expressions by leaders first. The objective of any expression of God’s community must be that the community members embrace the expression of God being given to them by the Holy Spirit. God wants to express Himself in a specific way and in a specific area in every expression of His community in the earth.

A leader is not someone who can give eloquent, impressive sermons. A leader is not someone who is a great orator, educator, or instructor. When we exalt these things we rob the church of the spiritual blessings that only spiritual leaders can bring. We don’t need information about love, mercy, or understanding. We need love! We need mercy! We need understanding! Leaders are an expression of God’s love, God’s mercy, and God’s understanding. They are expressions of whatever God is doing and in whatever way God is revealing Himself among people.

It is spiritual life that produces spiritual leaders, and only spiritual leaders serve to activate, facilitate, and release spiritual people. Those spiritual people are not the result of leadership. They are the result of the Holy Spirit working in their midst, but leadership is an example and an inspiration to that entire community expression of whatever God is doing. These are men and women who live to activate, facilitate, and release all that God is doing within their sphere of influence in life. They themselves must excel in being activated, facilitated, and released in all that God is doing so they can serve to assist others in all that God is doing.

Spiritual life is activated through a close relationship with God, God’s people, and the spiritual examples of leaders in the faith. These are leaders who live to respond to the NOW personal voice of God in their lives. They are people of faith! Leaders must exhibit compassion, concern, willingness, humility, warmth, forgiveness, brokenness, self-sacrifice, service, maturity, transparency, and the like in becoming what God has called them to be. Leadership is a gift to those they lead, not a position of being lords of what they lead.

Leaders must have a heart for God and for the generational destiny of those they lead. They must be willing to go through difficult things on behalf of those they lead. It is not their own will that is to be implemented in the communities of Christ that they lead. It is the will of the Father that they serve. They must lead with His heart and must therefore exhibit the heart of parents in the midst of the congregation. This is the example set by the early Church leaders in the birthing of the Church.

1 Thessalonians 2:2-13 You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition. So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.

For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.

As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.

Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you. You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.

Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe

As leaders we must exhibit hearts of servants to those we lead. We serve the will of the Father in the role of leadership in the community expressions of God in the earth. It is not merely the actions of our lives that reveal who we are. It is the inner heart attitudes and motivations that manifest as the actions of love for God and for His people.

Food For Thought.

Ted J. Hanson

Thank you to those who support me and the endeavors of this ministry. We are providing resources and implementing an equipping of the Body of Christ. We are empowering those in the Body of Christ for the future generations of the world! If you would like to make a donation to support us and our cause please consider doing so at the donation link on this page.

Thank You – Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

Last week I presented that we as leaders must know how to keep our hearts spontaneous, deep, full, broken, and fervent in the life of God. We must lead others to keep their hearts in this same way so the issues of life flow through us all for the wellbeing of others in this world. Today I want to talk about implementing our hearts as a weapon of life.

A leader must know how to activate God’s weapons of life.  I believe that Isaiah chapter 12 is a wonderful illustration of using the heart as a weapon of life.

Isaiah 12:1 And in that day you will say: “O LORD, I will praise You; Though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.”

We must have a perspective in life that testifies of the fact that God is not angry with us. He is not angry with people. He desires to comfort us in all things. He doesn’t want us to look for love in the wrong places. He wants us to come to Him, because He cares for us. As leaders we must lead with this perspective.

Isaiah 12:2 Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; “For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’ ”

There is no situation in life where God is not big enough or great enough to reveal His salvaging plan. He is able to save any soul or any situation. This understanding should flow from our hearts like a song that can be heard by everyone around us. Have you ever been around someone who was singing a ‘catchy tune’; whether the song was good or bad, you went away stuck with the melody in your mind? What if we the song was one of life? I am not talking about necessarily literally singing, but I am talking about an attitude of the soul. A prosperous spirit will spawn a prosperous soul and prosperous soul will influence the lives of others around them.

Isaiah 12:3 Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

If we are to draw water we must make some action to reach the water. To draw water from a well you need a bucket, a pump, or some means of reaching the water and bringing it back to you. The water of life is within us, but we must activate the flow. We must seek to draw that water of life from within us and from within those around us. Joy is the key to drawing that water. Joy is the ‘bucket’; joy is the ‘pump’. We must be diligent to exercise joy in all that we do.

Isaiah 12:4 And in that day you will say: “Praise the LORD, call upon His name; declare His deeds among the peoples, make mention that His name is exalted.”

To activate the weapons of life within us we must call upon the name of the Lord. We must make declarations of His wonderful acts in our lives. We must make mention that He is awesome in our lives. Calling, declaring, and mentioning are all things we do that release the life of Christ within us. I am not talking about being religious; I am talking about letting God be the center of all that we say. You don’t have to be religious to talk about your best friend. Your best friend would prefer that you just be you and that you just be real. A perspective of life around negative people will inspire them to wonder about the source of your attitude. God is mentioned in the book of Esther without ever using His name.

Isaiah 12:5, 6 Sing to the LORD, for He has done excellent things; this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!”

The excellent things of God are known in all the earth if we will look for them. We should pay more attention to the excellent things of God and less attention to the bad news of man. If we focus on and declare the good things of God, the world around us will change. We can be a stronger force than the negative media of the world. We need to cry out and shout. This is not a crying out from despair or a shout from trouble. This is like the crying out and shouting that you do for your favorite sports player of team. In the Seattle area we know the power of the twelfth man! The Holy One is in our midst! He is in our lives and we should make mention of it in a life-giving, non-religious way. Life is real and what better life can there be than to have the King of glory in our midst!

Food For Thought

Ted J. Hanson

House of Bread Ministry and Christ Life Training are venturing into some very important areas pertaining to the future generations of the church. We are empowering people today for the generations of tomorrow. I have some very significant projects developing with many peoples in Europe, Africa, and some Latin American cultures. This also means that my expenses to reach these places have increased and there is a need for financial resources. If you are able to partner with me with a one time donation or an on going financial support, it will be greatly appreciated. You can make donations through the donation link on this page. Thank you so much – Ted Hanson

Greetings;

I have been writing on the importance of leaders keeping their hearts for the sake of those they lead. It is important that all believers in Christ keep their hearts, but as leaders we must set the example for others to follow and we must be a substance of life to others that will assist them in making their own connections to God in their hearts. We must keep our hearts for out of the heart flows the issues of life (Pr. 4:23).

It is from our hearts that we worship God. God doesn’t need for us to worship Him. He doesn’t need anything from us, but to allow Him to be Himself in our lives. He gives life, breath, and all things to all people. He wants for us to allow Him to give us life, breath, and all things. When we don’t allow Him to do these things we resist who He really is. When we recognize that all life, all breath, and all things come from Him, we cannot help but worship Him. He looks for those who worship Him in that spirit of truth. When we do this, our hearts release life to those around us in this world.

Acts 17:25

Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 

John 4: 23, 24 “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

God loves the fragrance of the honest heart of someone who loves Him. It is with the heart that we hear Him and it is with the heart that we love Him. It is also from our hearts that we love others. In the Old Covenant it was required for the Priest to offer incense before God. The incense was offered in the morning and at night, signifying the beginning and the end of every day. The Priest of the Old Covenant would also take the prepared incense from the holy place and bring it into the holy of holies at the appropriate time of the manifest presence of God. I believe that the incense was a testimony of what must come from our hearts in order to experience the full life of God. That life is not merely for us, but it is a testimony of life to others. Just as the ingredients of the incense burned to release a fragrance before God, out hearts must release the fragrance of life in our love for God and others.

Exodus 30:34, 35  And the LORD said to Moses: “Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each. “You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy.”

God considered all of the ingredients of the incense to be sweet spices. The aroma was pleasing to those who smelled it. Some of the ingredients were not so sweet by themselves, but when compounded with the other ingredients they became a sweet aroma in the offering. Our hearts must create an atmosphere in, around, and from our lives that others like to be around. Those sweet spices where those of stacte, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense.

The ingredient of stacte is believed by many to have come from the storax tree. The storax tree was a tree that grew in the dry and arid region of Gilead. The root of the tree was as deep as its top. This tree was able to find water deep in the ground and thus if flourished in the dry region of Gilead. The root meaning of the name of the tree was “to distil”. If you cut the tree it would release a substance spontaneously that would heal the cut in the tree. This gum substance was also used for bringing healing to wounds in human flesh and was even believed to provide relief to asthma and other respiratory disorders. The aroma was pleasing and it was believed to carry healing properties. I believe that the stacte represents the spontaneity of the heart. We must keep our hearts spontaneous in the life of God. When we are wounded the life within us releases a spontaneous flow that brings healing to the wound. As leaders we must keep our hearts spontaneous and lead others in the spontaneous life of God’s forgiveness and love.

The second ingredient in the incense was that of onycha. Onycha was a shellfish that lived in the depths of the Red Sea. When these shellfish were ground and burned they released a very strong odor. I believe that it is significant that these shell mollusks came from the depths of the Red Sea. The Red Sea is a symbol of the death of the past and the path that leads to the inheritance of the future. It speaks of a baptism into the body of Christ that leads us to the promises of God and all of His inheritances. I believe that this ingredient speaks of having a deep heart for God and a heart that is for the things of God and one that forsakes all of the things of the past. When our hearts are deep for God and ground fine, not surface and unchanged, we release and inspire a fruitfulness that leads to all the inheritances of God. When our hearts are deep it becomes obvious to those around us, like the strong fragrance of the ground onycha.

The next ingredient was galbanum. Galbanum is a plant that is bitter tasting and releases an earthly smelling resin. It is a plant that is difficult to break, but when broken it releases a gum resin that when burned it was believed to repel snakes, lizards, and other desert creatures. The resin is released through the branches as well, thus the bitter substance is throughout the plant. I believe that the resin drawn from the galbanum plant speaks of a broken heart. It is the willingness to yield our own wills to the will of God that bears the fruit of righteousness and the testimony of peace. When we don’t allow our hearts to be broken we end up with bitter roots that defile others. When we allow our hearts to be broken, our hearts release a substance that repels earthly wisdom and demonic influences that are bound to the dry places of the earth (James 3:13-18). As believers in Christ we must allow our hearts to be broken before God and we must never harbor a bitter root of any kind.

The final ingredient in the incense was pure frankincense. Frankincense is harvested from the frankincense tree by cutting its bark. When the bark is cut the tree releases a resin that bleeds out from the tree and then hardens. It produced a very flammable material. I believe that the frankincense represents a pure, holy, passionate, and fervent heart. Our hearts must remain pure and passionate before God.

We must keep our hearts with all diligence. Our hearts must be spontaneous before God and spontaneous with the life of God to others. They must be deep with a focus towards the things of God and a forsaking and forgetting of the things of the past. They must be broken with a willingness to yield to the will of God and let go of the things that would create bitter roots and strongholds that produce dry places that harbor earthly, sensual, and even demonic influence. Our hearts must be fervent. We must be purr and passionate in our love for God and others. These are the ingredients of a heart that releases the flow of God’s life to the world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

A Leader must know how to guard his or her heart. The enemy targets the human heart. It is with the heart that we hear God, therefore, the heart of every leader must be kept to flow with the issues of life. People in the world protect their heart by setting boundaries around it as a wall of defense. As time passes, and life is experienced, the heart very often becomes smaller. Believers in Christ must keep their hearts in a way that allows life to increase within them. They cannot allow offenses, judgments, defilements, insubordinations, apathy, atrophy, or disconnections to cause their hearts to fail. As leaders in the body of Christ we must lead to enable others to know how to keep the issues of life flowing freely from our own hearts.

The enemy targets our hearts. The enemy can be one of affliction. This can include spiritual, emotional, and physical pain. The enemy can be one of captivity, which would include forms of bondage in the spirit, soul, or body. The enemy can be one of harassment, including demonic assault against our souls. The enemy can be an enemy of defilement, where a bitter poison causes spots, blemishes or strongholds of unforgiveness, resentment, or some deep infected wound in our lives. The enemy seeks to establish STRONGHOLDS in our lives and we must know how to keep the issues of life flowing from our hearts in spite of the attacks of the enemy. .

2 Corinthians 10:4-6 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Our weapons are not fleshly weapons. The strength of our hearts is not found in our ability to stand strong in our own abilities. Strongholds are issues of the heart. They are created when an expression of a word and a spirit come together and conceive a belief within. Lies and deceptions create strongholds in the human heart. Truth and life-giving Spirit also create strongholds of life in the human heart. The truth of Christ within creates a strong life-giving belief. A lie creates a strong life-taking belief. The lies and deceptions rooted in our hearts by the attacks of the enemy create beliefs that resist the knowing of God. We must know how to access the life of Christ within our hearts that allows us to cast down the arguments of the enemy in our lives. Our weapon against the attacks of the enemy is the life of Christ within us. It is a mighty power of life within and it gives us a belief that allows our hearts to be free and free flowing in the life of God. These are realities discovered through the mystery of Christ in us and they are spiritually discerned, received, and manifested. God’s weapons are foolish to the natural man.

1 Corinthians 2:9, 10 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit…

We must know how to allow the life of God’s Spirit flow from within us. We must trust the life of Christ within us more than we trust what our natural eyes can see, our ears can hear, or our thoughts have thought. The weapons of life are accessed by faith and manifested as a testimony of God’s love in our lives. As leaders we must seek to be people with hearts that freely release the issues of God’s life from within.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

July 6, 2014 – Sunday Morning at ALife in Bellingham
Ted J. Hanson

Hang 10 – ten is a number of judgment. But it’s not a number of judgment according to law, it’s a number of judgment according to love. Just as God has it in His heart to love, this is a season where there’s – not a second chance – but there’s a new momentum for your life. The things and areas where you could not stand before, you’re going to stand because you’re going to Hang 10. You’re going to stand in My love. You’re going to stand in My grace.

I hear the Spirit of the Lord saying: “Many are looking for the wave of My presence, but what if I bring the wave of My momentum in your life? What if I bring the wave of My momentum that causes you to stand in My grace? What if I bring the wave of My momentum that causes you to stand where you could not stand before?” For God says, “I’m moving by My Spirit in a new way. I’m not moving by My Spirit according to the expectations of the hearts of men, I’m moving by My Spirit according to the expectations of who I AM. I’m going to cause My people to rise up and to stand in a new place.”

God says, “I’m going to cause the places of disconnect to become places of connection. I’m going to cause the places that have been lost to be redeemed. I’m going to cause the places that have been missed to be found again. Because,” God says, “I’m bringing forth a momentum of My grace. And My body is going to stand – and they’re going to Hang 10. They’re going to Hang 10. They’re going to stand on their feet and they’re going to possess the inheritance for My name. That which has been robbed, and that which has been stolen is going to be restored in a new way. You’re going to know the momentum of My love. You’re going to know the momentum of My purpose. You’re going to know the momentum of My grace, because this is a season that I AM WHO I AM. And I’m going to reveal who I AM in your midst.”

So, to the Body of Christ, Hang 10.

Greetings,

I am sorry to be a day late, but the granddaughters and Christ Life Training School took my attention yesterday. Today I want to bring to you some thoughts concerning our hearts as leaders.

As leaders we must know how to keep our hearts for the sake of others. Our ‘heart’ includes our emotions, and all about us that is spiritual, mental, and physical in life. If we confess that our heart is into something, it means that all that is spirit, soul, and body embraces it. A great example of this is when King David danced before the Lord with all of his might.

2 Samuel 6:14-16 Then David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. And as the ark of the LORD came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.

David’s wife, Michal, didn’t understand what David was doing. Her heart was not into what he was doing. She saw his actions as actions of foolishness, but David knew that his actions were those of a full and passionate love for God. David was giving his full heart to worshipping God and that included the emotional and physical expressions of his life.

Our heart is the seat of our collective energies and the focus of our personal lives. It is the throne from which life flows. It is the seat of our thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, and endeavors. Our heart is our personality, our inner life, and our character. A leader must guard their heart. We are not to guard our hearts in the way the world guards their hearts. Those in the world seek to protect their hearts and often find themselves in situations where their hearts become hard and small, due to the wounds of life. King Solomon said that keeping our heart had to do with keeping the springs of life open and flowing.

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

How do we as leaders guard our hearts and set an example that others can follow? How do we keep the springs of life flowing from within us? The apostle Paul gave some great instructions to the Philippian church.

Philippians 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

A decision to live a lifestyle of rejoicing is key to being a healthy leader. This doesn’t mean that we laugh when we should cry; it means we choose to embrace God’s life and God’s presence every day of our lives. We must seek to be gentle among people and not forceful in our own ways, our own desires, or our own agendas. God is always at hand. He is always within our reach. If we realize that God is with us every step of the journey we can embrace a face-to-face relationship with Him that will keep us from being anxious. We should keep an open line of communication between Him and us, as we would with a friend. We don’t go to God with our needs of crisis expecting Him to give us a bailout or to deliver us from our circumstances. Once in a while God wants to get us out of our circumstances, but 100% of the time He wants to get into our circumstances with us. When we realize that there is no gap between God and us we can have a peace that surpasses our own understanding. Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is being in a place where there is no gap between God and us. It works on good days and on bad days. Peace is a knowing that our house is in the right place and that no change of circumstances can separate us from the love of God in our lives. It isn’t necessarily the absence of conflict. It is the assurance that we are joined to God and His house in all things and at all times. There is no separation between us and we can live near to Him in all things.

Paul goes on to write some key things for us to embrace in order to keep our hearts open to the flow of God’s life. We must keep our hearts so the issues of life will freely flow to those around us. This is true for all believers, but especially true for us as leaders as we set an example for others to follow.

Philippians 4:8, 9 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

Rather than focusing on the things we cannot think about, we should fill our hearts with the things we can think about. We must give our hearts to things that are true. Here is something true. He loves us! He will never leave us! He cares for us! Nothing can separate us from Him! We must receive the things that He says about us and embrace them with our whole hearts. We must give our spirits, souls, and physical lives to all that is true. What about things that are just? I am not talking about complaining about injustice! I am talking about thinking on the things that are just. Can we make a decision for others based upon who we are and not what they deserve? Love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace – these are all things of God’s justice. We must give our hearts to things that are pure! Resisting the things of impurity is not as powerful as embracing the things of purity with our whole hearts. We must give our hearts to things that are of a good report. Indulging in the good reports of life is more violent than embracing the things of negativity and of bad report. Let’s give our hearts to things that are of good report. How about virtue? This is giving our hearts to every opportunity to give life to others. To live for the wellbeing of others and for the purposes of God and His kingdom is a virtuous thing. Life will come off of us that will empower others to live too! We must give our hearts to anything that is praiseworthy. If we think this is hard all we have to do is think of ANYTHING! Anything praiseworthy is a good thing to give our hearts to. If we give our hearts to receive, hear, and emulate others in the journey of Christ’s life we will be doing a good thing in keeping our hearts with all diligence. These things are essential for all believers, but especially for those who lead for the sake of others.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

God wants us to be spiritual people. That is not just spiritual people within what has often been defined as the Church, but spiritual people as the Church in every aspect of life. I don’t believe that God intended for the Church to be separate from the world, the Church is to be the salt and the light of the world. Members of the Church are the salt and light of Christ in every aspect of life. We are human beings redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and empowered by the resurrection life of God in Christ for the purpose of bringing the world to life in God.

The curse of the fall left all of humanity in a state of imperfection (Gen. 3:14-19). We have been bound to a situation in the earth where there are many lords, many faiths, many submersions, many illegitimate authorities, many ruling powers, many sources of knowledge, and many paths that end in death. The testimony of the earth without God is one of entropy and imperfection. God subjected the earth to futility in the hope that one day the sons of God would manifest.

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

It is only when we become manifested sons of God that the earth can be liberated from its state of imperfection. Thank God we have been given the Holy Spirit of life in Christ! He is the one who has come to liberate us from the testimony of sin and death. He has come to reinstate one Lord, one faith, one submersion, one family with one Father, one God above us all, one God through us all, and one God in all to restore our true destiny and inheritance of life in the earth (Eph. 4:4-6). The earth is to be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. This is our mandate in Christ and the Holy Spirit in His sevenfold grace is empowering us to become who we are meant to be (Isa.
11:1-5).

If we look at the type and shadow of the Old Testament we can find a form that reveals the ultimate testimony of being sons of God. That ultimate testimony is to drive out the imperfections of futility by the perfections of God’s grace. The Promised Land for the nation of Israel was a place filled with godless influences of godless men. There were seven nations possessing the land that were considered to be mightier than the nation of Israel (Deut. 7:1,17). Those nations were the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Parasites, Hivites, Jebusites, and Girgashites. There were seven nations in all. God commanded the children of Israel to enter the Promised Land and to trust His presence and direction for driving out each of the seven nations from the land.

There are many great teachings in the Body of Christ concerning the seven mountains of influence in the earth. Many teachers often relate these seven nations to those seven mountains of influence. I agree with many of those teachings on these mountains, but I also believe that these seven nations represent the imperfections of the human heart that resist the testimony of being led by God’s Spirit in the earth. I believe that each of these seven nations represent seven influences of death brought on by the curse of the fall. Although they can no doubt be seven influencing mountains of the earth, such as, religion, family, education, business, media–arts and entertainment, health–science and discovery, and the government of the world, there are seven influences of death in each of these seven mountains that will prevent us from being manifested sons of God to bring God’s freedom there. These seven influences are multiple motivators, fear propagators, bitterness testifiers, separation and isolation instigators, wickedness distracters, poverty and despair tramplers, and discontent and wandering gravediggers. I believe that every mountain of influence in the world has these seven influences of futility that are destroyed by the influence of the seven-fold Holy Spirit. When man chose the knowledge of good and evil over intimacy with God and relationship of love and trust, he caused the earth to be subjected to seven areas of futility. We must become spiritual people to liberate our areas of influence to the testimony of life in Christ Jesus. We must be spiritual people who are empowered by the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel, the Spirit of Might, the Spirit of Knowing, and the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:2).

Destructive lords, fear inspired bondages of natural sight, bitter submersions, controlling fathers, destructive gods above men, life-taking powers for self-seeking communities, and death enraged powers for the destruction of destinies are all influencing factors in the influencing mountains of the world. God wants the spirit of these things removed from the various influences of humanity. We must become spiritual people who are led by one lord, one faith, one submersion, one God and Father, one God above all, one God through all, and one God in all so we might see the influence of Christ’s kingdom effect every aspect of human life (Eph. 4:4-6). All that we are and do must express that we are alive to God, our actions are acts of love towards Him, our testimonies are responses to His presence, our authority is to bring life and light to men, we are awake to His manifest presence in all things, we live to love Him and our fellow man in all things, and we are dedicated to see His name made great in our posterity in the earth. These seven things should become the motivating factors of our lives in all that we are and do. These are not things we do on Sunday when we go to church, these are attributes of our lives that affect everything we do in life and also affect those around us in the world. We are not to be separate from the world. We are to be separate from the ways of the world, but we must walk in the ways of Christ’s kingdom to become a life-giving force of authority and influence in the world.

Let us lead to equip and empower the family of God to be the influence of God in the world. Our expressions together as the Church should be saturated with these attributes of life. Our testimony as families, our expressions as educators, our endeavors in business, our creativity in the media and arts, our initiative in health–science and discovery, and our influence in the governing of the world should all be filled with the attributes of being the Church of Christ among men. We must be spiritual people in all things!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

Sorry for the day late and the alternate posting. It seems I posted my Monday blog yesterday in this leadership blog. Here is the post I intended for you all to receive.

Being spiritual people is to be seen in our gatherings together, our families, our business in life, our friendships in life, and any and every aspect of our lives. It is meant to fill every mountain of influence in life! I don’t believe that the Church is a separate mountain of influence in the world. It is the one and only Spiritual Mountain of influence in the world. It is the influence of the rock of Christ in the cultures of humanity. The Church is to fill every mountain of influence in life. The power of the Spirit, the ministry of Christ, and the generational effects of being spiritual human beings are to fill the mountains of religion, family, education, media – arts and education, health and science, and the governments of the world. This happens when human beings are not ignorant of the things of the Spirit that empower them to be spiritual.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul describes nine gifts or influencing powers of the Holy Spirit that are meant to empower human beings on a daily basis in the journey of being spiritual people in life. He then describes the uniqueness of people in their creation by God. He likens people unto parts of a human body. He doesn’t describe many body parts, because he already knew that all people clearly see the diverse and extensive makeup of a body if they think about it. It is not less spiritual to be a nose than it is to manifest the discerning of spirits. A nose should be empowered to discern things by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is how a nose testifies that Jesus is Lord and not the flesh. You make a good you, but a terrible someone else. The uniqueness of you must be empowered by the Spirit in being a true spiritual you. Without the power of the Spirit you will simply be a natural nose six days a week and then a religious spiritual pretender on Sunday in a service manifesting the gifts of the Spirit. We must be spiritual people in life.

1 Corinthians 12:27-31 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.

The Church is not an institution. There is an expression of the Church when we gather together as congregations of believers, but being the Church is greater than attending meetings and participating in corporate activities. I believe there is a value in coming together as congregations. Gathering together enables us to be equipped and trained for our everyday lives in the world. Our gatherings together could be likened unto working out in the gym, or getting together for coffee, or getting together as dads and moms with our children. Even those practical things should be a part of good connections of relationships in life throughout the week. A weekly gathering is just another expression of getting together in a bigger way and it can serve as a great connection for experiencing God’s manifest presence together. It can serve to provide equipping, training, encouragement, etc. to members of the Church. It is not a substitute for being the Church, but it can be a very healthy effective expression of church as the Church. It is not a matter of structure, but one of culture. If the living culture of Christ can be found in the structure of gatherings or meetings of congregation members, the gathering can be an effective expression of the Church. A king is honored by a multitude (Pr. 14:28), so coming together in a big way with a focus of the presence of the King can be very honorable to God and give glory to Jesus name. Gathering together should be sought out and encouraged in every possible way. When we come together we can stir up love and encourage good works (Heb. 10:24, 25). These are not simply social gatherings of naturally minded people, they are gatherings of spiritual people to stir up and release the effective life of Christ to the world in which they live.

At the time of Paul’s writing there was no building structure known as ‘a church’. The Church was the description of redeemed humanity living for the purpose of Christ in the earth. The expression of the church was the joining of people in relationship with God and one another by God as a testimony of God’s governmental voice in the earth. These people were to be empowered by the gifts of the Holy Spirit in being who they each were born to be in function for the purpose of affecting the earth with the influence of the kingdom of God. Just as there are diversities of gifts of the Spirit, and diversities of functions of members, there are also different expressions of purpose and effect in the works of God through people. In the same way that Paul did not list all the parts of a body, but only mentioned some examples of body parts, now Paul mentions some examples of works of God that influence the world. These are works like governmental influence through apostles, prophets, or teachers. They include the influence of ministries of miracles and the influence of ministries of healing. There are administrative works and works of helps. There are the affects of those who fulfill the ministry of tongues – a ministry of spiritual languages. I believe that this is the ministry of ‘intercession’. There is also a ministry of interpretation of spiritual languages. I believe that there are countless expressions of various influences of works of God in the earth. Paul was not mentioning all of them, but simply expressing examples of the effects of God. These are not the ‘gifts’ of the Holy Spirit. These are the influences of spiritual people in the work of God in the earth. I don’t believe these were ‘jobs’ in a church structure. These are expressions of spiritual works that affect the world through the lives of human beings. There should be a safe place to exercise, practice, train, equip and implement the diversity of these workings. The congregational gatherings of a church can be a great place to do this. I also believe that in the natural, these things would be seen in every aspect of life in a natural way. Paul was charging the Church to do these things as spiritual people, people who have chosen not to be ignorant of the Holy Spirit in every aspect of their lives. When Paul says these things are to be so “in” the Church, he is not talking about in a church structure. There was no church structure to be ‘in’. The Greek word for ‘in’ is ‘en’ and it implies a relationship with, in, toward, etc.

As leaders we must lead to inspire others to be human beings who are spiritual in power, spiritual in ministry, and spiritual in accomplishing God’s works in this world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

As leaders, we are not merely called by God to lead churches or to lead various administrations of service. We are called by God to lead people. Leadership is not a job; it is a twenty-four hour per day reality and responsibility in life. It is a testimony of what we are anointed to be in life. It is not a job we were hired to do or selected my men to perform. Leadership is not a task given that you can easily be released from or simply put on or put away like a piece of clothing from our dresser drawer or closet. Leadership is a gift from God for the sake of leading others.

In the Old Covenant the responsibility of a leader was to take people by the hand and lead them (Jer. 31:32). We cannot take people by the hand and lead them in life. That will never empower people to become who they are meant to be in life. We must lead to empower people to know who they are and to be who they are destined to be in the everyday world of their daily lives. We are not to make decisions for those we lead or tell them what to do. We are to serve them by activating, facilitating, and releasing the life of Christ within them to become human beings who live lives filled with the testimony of God in the world. They must be spiritual people empowered, anointed, and led in life. They must know the power and life of the Spirit of God within them, discover their unique roles in life, and join with others to produce the effects of God’s life in the world and to the world that continues to exist even after they have transitioned to the greater glory of heaven.

So many times we think that the things of the Spirit are spiritual and the things of the natural are natural. Religious cultures have left us a bankrupt mentality of life. We have somehow bought a lie that God’s world is separate from our world and that our world is separate from His. This has left us bound to realities of poverty, depravity, and meaningless activities in life. I believe that human beings were born to be spiritual beings in life. They are both natural and spirit and both of these realities are what make them spiritual in everything they are and do in life. It is not more spiritual to pray for the sick than for a mother to care for her children. It is not less spiritual for a man to drive a truck than to cast out a demon. It is not more holy to sing worship songs than for men and women to lay their lives down for one another out of a preference of love. It is not more holy to wait on tables than to sit at Jesus’ feet and it is not less holy to wait on tables than to sit at His feet. It is all a matter of the responsibility and important thing of the moment. Mary was not more spiritual than Martha; she simply knew what was important at the moment.

As leaders we must lead to empower others to be spiritual in life. We must be spiritual and empower others to be spiritual also. We must be sons and daughters of God who serve to empower others to be sons and daughters of God in life. Paul wrote some words in regard to being spiritual people.

1 Corinthians 12:1-3 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

The word ‘gifts’ in the above text is not in the original Greek. It is an added word to explain the context of the letter. I believe that the translators have missed the point of this chapter by adding the word ‘gifts’. The chapter is not about spiritual ‘gifts’. It is about being spiritual people. It includes gifts of the Spirit, the ministry of Christ’s body, and the effects or workings of the body in the world. This chapter is describing the empowerment of humanity from within, the diversity of humanity in revealing Christ to the world, and the purpose of humanity in effecting the world through relationships and functions of destiny. In all of these, human beings are to be spiritual.

Paul starts by saying that when we were not in covenant with God, lifeless, voiceless things were the drive and passion of our purpose. We were motivated by fleshly passions and desires, but at least we were motivated. Things such as parties, business, education, sports, adventure, vacations, shopping, music, science, discovery, and many other things that do not reveal or release the true destiny of human beings led us. Things are not the true issue. They are not necessarily bad, but when they become the controllers and motivators of our lives they bind us to being natural people. They become the idols and lords of our lives. The real issue Paul was dealing with was one of being spiritual. Paul was challenging believers to be the most passionate and purpose focused human beings on earth. They looked like people with destiny when they were dead, but now they should really reveal the true destiny of human beings in the earth. They must be spiritual people. They were born to reveal the Lordship of Jesus in life! This can only happen by the power, testimony, and purpose of the Holy Spirit manifested in their lives.

We must not be ignorant in being spiritual. We must not ignore, have little use for, have little value for, be uneducated to, or slack in any way in being spiritual people in life. Our role as leaders is to help people discover this mystery of life.

The true subject of Paul’s writing is found in verse four of this chapter.

1 Corinthians 12:4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.

Paul was dealing with the subject of gifts of the Spirit, ministries of Christ, and effects or workings of God in life. To be spiritual people we must have the power of the Spirit, know the uniqueness of who we are in being human’s expressing the power of Christ, and we must know our divine connections for our purpose in life. All humans must be empowered by God’s Spirit in their spirits, led by the spirit in their souls, and reveal a spiritual testimony in life. Paul was not merely talking about how gifts of the Spirit function in an institution called the church. He was talking about how the life of the Spirit works to make human beings spiritual in their expression as the Church of Christ in life.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Today I want to write concerning our qualifications as leaders. It is not what we know about God that qualifies us to lead. It is what we have become of God that qualifies our leadership abilities. We are all part of the family of God and as leaders in the family of God we are called to inspire others to become all that God has for them to be in Him. We are not merely leading them to do all that they can do; we are called to lead them to become all that they are to become. Each of us is an expression of God in our lives. We were created to reveal the likeness and the image of our heavenly Father to the world. None of us can reveal the fullness of who He is, but each of us can reveal a measure of who He is. When we join together we reveal an even greater measure of who He is. When we live as the family of God we reveal the testimony of God to the world.

Becoming expressions of God involves the process of relationship with God in life. Every revelation from God is an invitation to have an encounter with God, so we will be transformed by God, and become a revelation of God to others. God gives us words so that we will become a testimony of that word. God will always makes us become a testimony of His word, before He sends us to deliver it. We may not be a completed work when He sends us, but we will for sure be the testimony of a work in process. When we talk about what we know about God, we are talking. But when we share the testimonies of what we have become in Him we impart life to others. We inspire faith. We encourage others to hear the voice of God within their own hearts. I believe that our greatest qualification as leaders in leading is what we have become of God in Christ, not what we know about God from the Book.

Leaders often encounter many trials, because those trials cause them to be rooted in God to become who they are meant to be in Christ. I believe that this happens for the sake of those they lead and as an example to others as to how to stay in love, intimacy, faith and life in Christ in all things. I don’t believe that the trials of life are our teachers. I believe that the Holy Spirit is our teacher, and He is teaching us on good days and on bad days. It is the difficult days, however, that we often prove to reveal the true testimony of what Christ is forming in us. He is at work on the good days, but the truth tends to manifest in the times of pressure. This is the process of 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 love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Grace is the power of God at work in our lives. We enter into grace by faith, because we already have peace with God by the blood of Jesus and the mercy given to us each day in Him. In the process of grace we experience tribulations, the pressures of life. Those pressures are not meant to cause us to fail; they are the times that prove the substance of the life of Christ within us. It is in those times that we endure. The Greek word for endure always involves a ‘cheerful endurance’. In the midst of the tests of life we cheerfully endure. We don’t just hold on in pain, we choose to rejoice in Christ! When we cheerfully endure in Christ we see the character of Christ manifest in our lives. This is seen as the hope of the life of Christ revealed in us. From glory to glory He changes us and that change is a testimony to those around us. We give life to others because we have become a testimony of the life of Christ for others.

I believe that people are meant to be a message of God. They are not called to know about Him, but to know Him and to become activators, facilitators, and releasers of God’s grace into the lives of others. As leaders we are to excel in living in the testimony of God’s grace. We must cheerfully endure the pressures of life and testify of the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Christ revealed by His work within us. We must lead, not to show what people are to do, but we must lead by example in becoming so that others can also become who God has made them to be in Christ.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson