ted4leaders

Greetings;

Leadership is a gift from God to people He loves. Yes, the highest form of communication is the Holy Spirit speaking to the human heart and no person can replace the hope of Christ within each man or woman. The Spirit of God within us leads each of us, but God also gives gifts to help us in our relationship with Him. Sometimes we need a visible expression or an audible sound that helps us receive what God is doing within us in order for us to respond fully to that inner voice. I believe that leadership is a gift from God and it is a sent voice of life to help us recognize the voice of God within us.

We are not in an Old Covenant where someone takes us by the hand and leads us. We are in a New Covenant where the inspirational voice of God within us empowers us to become all that God desires for us to be. The New Covenant is one of faith, but faith does not negate the need for leadership in our lives. We all need help in hearing God at times. Faith comes by hearing God personally, but sometimes we are looking or listening in the wrong direction. We need a gift from God that we can see to help us look in the right direction or listen to the right voice.

Leaders are not men and women of power. They are men and women who have been given an authority. This means that they are men and women who have been given a responsibility to lead. Many people associate the word authority with the word control, but those with true authority bring freedom and release to those they lead. A voice of authority is a voice of life, but it is a voice! God appoints leaders to enable people to fulfill the greater purpose of being part of the body of Christ, not merely live a testimony of individuals with Christ within them. The corporate purpose of the body of Christ is greater than the individual destinies of people. Together we are the fullness of Him, but individually we are merely expressions of Him.

Ephesians 1:22-23 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

The body of Christ is the fullness of Him therefore we need one another to discover the greater purposes of Christ. Leadership fulfills an important role in this corporate purpose. As leaders we must understand that God does not merely give us words to speak to those we lead. He causes us to become an expression of the word that He is writing in a corporate measure. We must be the first to respond to the will of God in our hearts and we must then inspire others to follow the inner voice of Christ within them to become what God desires them to be both individually and corporately together. This means that leaders are the first to walk into new territory. They are the first to think new thoughts. They are the first to respond to the change that God is bringing about through the corporate expressions of the body of Christ in the earth.

As a leader you can assume that what is going on in your life is for the sake of others. If you are facing challenges, you are facing those challenges for the sake of those you lead. If you need to invite the Holy Spirit to help you in your attitude, your focus, your purpose, your expectations, or any other thing, it is for the purpose of those you lead. If you will be the first to pioneer new territory in life others will also experience the benefits of those territories. This is called leadership. It is what you are becoming in Christ that counts. Embracing the journey of ‘glory to glory’ is part of the testimony of being leaders. We must be men and women of faith. We must be men and women of love. We must be sons and daughters of God to be qualified leaders in the body of Christ. It is not a position of hierarchy over others. It is a responsibility of becoming what God is calling His body to be in order for the fullness of Christ to be seen in a greater measure in the earth. Embrace the journey and embrace the responsibility to lead for the sake of others.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

As leaders we must lead others in a way that empowers them to be, not to do. We are not called to raise up Christ empowered activities. We are not called to facilitate Christ empowered doings. Our investments in life are not investments in works, but investments in people who will no doubt do works. We are called to serve others in helping them become who God has created them to be in this world. They are human beings, not human doings. Leadership is about empowering people, not empowering the activities of people. When people are alive they do things, but doing things is not what makes people come alive. When people are insecure in who they are they tend to find their security in what they do. We must influence people in a way that they become secure in who they are as sons and daughters of God. We must seek to create an atmosphere within our realms of responsibility that empowers people to become who they are. When we seek to empower people to do we can create a prison of bondage that becomes a system we serve instead of a culture of life that serves to give life to others. Very often our intentions are sincere, but the results are less than life and true freedom. True freedom brings life to others. When we discover whom God created us to be we find that who we are is a gift for the sake of the world. We were born to bring life to the world, not to live for ourselves or to live for works of ministry.

The will of God is not what we do. The will of God is who we are. When we discover who we are we find that there are many things we can do. The things we do come out of the identity of who we are. When the will of God becomes an activity, that activity limits us in our destiny. If we think the will of God is a work, what happens when that work fails? When we know the will of God is who we are we will not be shaken even when some works seem to fail. We move forward in doing works because we always stand in whom we are. As leaders we must activate, facilitate, and release people to stand as who they are in this world. We must equip them to be, more than equipping them to do. The tools of life serve life; life does not serve the tools. The tools are given to help us be who God made us to be, not make us become who God made us to be. David’s sling carried the stone from David’s hand, it did not make David’s hand. Saul’s armor didn’t fit David, because David was David. Neither the armor nor the sling made David a giant killer. It was the anointing of God upon who David was that made him able to do the work of slaying Goliath.

1 Samuel 17:38-39 And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!” So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine.

David was not seeking to fulfill the hope of his calling. He wasn’t seeking to get His inheritance. He wasn’t trying to stand in his own power. His heart was to be the will of God for the purpose of the will of God in Israel. He was willing to do what needed to be done because he knew who God was. Because he knew who God was, he also knew who he was in the hand of God.

Many times we become stressed over our callings in life. We become prideful in our attempts to be successful. We even become self-sufficient in our desire for the power of God before we realize it. We do not have a calling; we fulfill a specific role in the hope of His calling. We are not looking to get our inheritance; we are a part of His inheritance in the earth. We do not have power; we walk in the testimony of His power for the sake of the world in which we live. These are not things we do. These are attributes that come out of the testimony of who we are in Christ. Christ in us is the hope of glory and that glory is meant to bring life to others. It is a matter of becoming people of the likeness and the image of our Father in heaven. God is not a Great Doing. He is a great Father. He is who He is and therefore He can do all things. He is not motivated by what He does; He does all things because of whom He is. When we discover who we are we can do many things that serve to bring life to the world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

As leaders in the body of Christ we are responsible to lead for the sake of the body of Christ. We are not leaders for the sake of our own Christian organizations. We are responsible to the Holy Spirit in all that He desires to do in the area of responsibility entrusted to each of us as leaders. Jesus is the head of His Church and whatever expression of Christ we are called to lead is a testimony of the body of Christ. We must seek to receive our instructions from the Holy Spirit and not from mere biblical principles and truths. We cannot lead to merely meet the needs of people, fulfill our own dreams, or accomplish some sought out significance in life. We must lead for the purpose of Christ.

In order to lead for the purpose of Christ we must first lead for and from the temple of Christ. Our first qualification as leaders is in being a place where God lives. Our lives must be filled with God’s presence in order to lead for His presence in the Church. Being a temple of Christ comes before being a leader for Christ. Being a temple of Christ comes before being a community of Christ.  Being a place where Christ lives is essential to be leaders for any testimony of Christ in the earth. The Lamb is the temple and that temple is found in the human heart (Rev. 21:22). We live in Him and He abides in us.

When we lead for and from the temple of the Holy Spirit we discover the community of Christ. As the community of Christ becomes evident in our lives and in the lives of those we lead, we can then add the measure of leading for and from the community of Christ in our midst. As we lead for and from the community of Christ we will see the purpose of Christ revealed both corporately and individually in the testimony of those we lead. As the purpose of Christ is revealed we can then lead for and from that purpose. As we lead for and from the purpose of Christ and we will see the destiny of Christ fulfilled. We are called to lead with the authority of Christ. This means we must constantly be under the authority of Christ in all that we are responsible for. Everything is dependent upon the temple of Christ inspiring the community of Christ, which reveals the purpose of Christ, and fulfills the destiny of Christ in our lives.

The temple of Christ will facilitate a culture of Christ. A culture of Christ is a culture of love and a culture of faith. Without love there can be no faith, since faith works by love. The Old Covenant was dependent upon the law and the commands of law. The New Covenant is dependent upon love and the commands of love. The commands of law were commands of bondage and fear, but the commands of love are inspirations of love and faith. As leaders we must seek to activate, facilitate, and release a culture of love. Being right or wrong are not the key elements to the discovery or the development of a culture of love. Being loved by God is the ingredient of life that spawns the culture of love in our midst. When we know how much God loves us we are inspired to love others even as we love ourselves.

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even
as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

The ability to love others is dependent upon a revelation of God’s
love for us. We can only love God when we realize how much God loves us. When
we know He loves us we love Him! It is only then that we can truly love others
and ourselves. It is not the command that gives us love, but receiving His
love. It is a revelation! A revelation of God’s love will be the seedbed for a culture of love in our midst. As New Covenant leaders we must point to the testimony of God’s love in the midst of His people. This will inspire those we lead to look to Him and not to their own right or wrong efforts. This cannot just be a theology of love. It must be a manifestation of His love that is made known by His presence in our midst. God is love and when He is in our midst a culture of love is revealed in our communion with one another. A community of love comes from the communion of His love among us.

A culture of love will create the atmosphere for a culture of faith. Faith comes by hearing God and it is manifested through acts of love from our hearts towards God and one another. Faith is manifested through trust in the One who speaks. It is manifested in a willingness to respond to the One who speaks. It is revealed in acts of honor towards the One who speaks. Faith is dependent upon the One who speaks. These were the attributes of faith. As leaders we must first see these attributes in our own lives and then we must lead to activate, facilitate, and release a culture of faith among those we are responsible for. These were the attributes of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, even in their captivity in Babylon.

Daniel 1:6, 7 Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names: he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abed-nego.

These men were given different names by those who observed them from a culture that did not understand faith. These men requested that they be allowed to eat only vegetables and drink the water of Babylon (Dan. 2:12). Their request was that they be allowed to eat and drink these for ten days. Ten is a symbolic number of totality, or judgment. That judgment is not a condemning judgment. It is a judgment of love, even as the ten commandments of God are a testimony of loving God and loving others. These Hebrew men trusted God’s judgments of love in the midst of their testing. They requested only that which they had faith for. They didn’t ask for vegetables or water from Judah. They simply requested that they be allowed to stay in faith towards their God in the midst of their captivity. The names of these men speak of a testimony of faith. Daniel means, ‘God is my judge’. To him the Babylonians gave the name Belteshazzar, a name meaning ‘one who knows secrets’. When we trust the One who speaks it will appear to those who don’t understand faith that we know secrets. The name Hananiah means, ‘God is merciful, gracious and a giver of gifts’. It is a name that implies being willing to receive everything and anything from the One who speaks. To Hananiah the Babylonians gave the name Shadrach, a name meaning, ‘one who sucks the nipple’. A culture of faith inspires a attitude of being willing to receive everything and anything that God gives. When we are willing to receive anything that God gives it will appear to those who don’t understand faith that we are childish and foolish in our actions.  The name Mishael means, ‘who is asked for or lent’ in the sense of ‘in awe of God’ or ‘God is awesome’! This name implies an awe for the One who speaks. To Mishael the Babylonians gave the name Meshach, a name meaning ‘drawn or controlled by force’. When we are willing to respond to the One who speaks with actions of honor, those who do not understand faith will accuse us of being controlled by force. They will interpret our honor for God as some cultic force of control in our lives. The name Azariah means, ‘God is my help’ or ‘he that hears the Lord’. It implies not knowing anything and being completely dependent upon God. The Babylonians called Azariah, Abed-nego, a name that means you are ‘in league with the god of knowledge or science’. It implies that you ‘know things’. When we are completely dependent upon the One who speaks it will appear to those who do not understand faith that we are in league with some form of knowledge or enlightened truth.  These are the attributes of a culture of faith.

Daniel 1:15-20 And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king’s delicacies. Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days, when the king had said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. Then the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they served before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm. 

This is the testimony of a culture of faith that flows from a culture of God’s love. We must lead for these attributes in the body of Christ.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

As leaders in the body of Christ we must be New Covenant in our thinking and New Covenant in our leadership style. Church is not a structure. It is the testimony of the culture of the kingdom of heaven made manifest in human community. Many times people get offended with what they see in the structure of the church and think that the solution is to create a new structure for a New Covenant expression. I don’t believe we have a structure problem as much as we have a culture problem. Structure doesn’t create a culture, but a culture will mandate a changing structure. Surely there are changes needed in the structure of things in the church, but the answer is not to simply change the structure. It is to change the culture. When the culture of the kingdom of God enters into any structure, the structure will change. The New Covenant church is built upon a New Covenant culture.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah — not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 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.”

The New Covenant is not an external change, but rather an internal one. The internal change of the New Covenant in the heart of the believer empowers many changes to the external way of things. It is not about knowing what to do or knowing how to act. It is about being empowered to live, move, and have our beings as sons and daughters of God in the earth. As New Covenant leaders we must seek to activate, facilitate, and release this reality in the lives of those we lead. We cannot take people by the hand and lead them. We must create an atmosphere that invites all to know God and to listen to His voice. We are not responsible to teach people right from wrong. We are responsible is teaching them to recognize and obey God’s voice. The culture of the kingdom of God is one of hearing, responding, and becoming a testimony of all that God desires in the earth. This will create a community of unity through diversity. When we lead for a structure we command unity through conformity, but when we lead for a culture we inspire unity through diversity.

Psalms 133:1-3 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing — Life forevermore.

God doesn’t bless unity; He blesses Zion. Zion is the place of the manifest presence of heaven on earth. It is the place where the anointing oil touches the earth. It is the place where the dew of heaven touches that little hill of Zion. That is where God commands the blessing and that blessing is – Life forevermore! The result is a testimony of unity. Unity is not the starting point; it is the finished testimony. It comes when everyone finds heaven’s grace in the same place. If God simply blessed unity we could all agree to be religious, we could agree to lie, or we could all agree to hate and expect some form of blessing from God. God doesn’t bless our agreement. Our agreement comes from the place of His blessings. The place of His blessing is the place of His cultural invasion in our hearts. That cultural invasion is one of knowing God and becoming a testimony of Him in the earth. We must be a house of God’s presence before we can be a community of His testimony. We must be a community of His testimony before we can be a people of His purpose.

The community of God is dependent upon being the temple of God’s Holy Spirit. The temple is not dependent upon the community. The community is dependent upon the temple. The temple of the Holy Spirit will activate, facilitate, and release the community of Christ. Build a temple and you will build the city. Build the city and you may never build the temple. In the Old Testament King Cyrus made a decree to build the temple of God and that decree was in reality a decree to build the city of God (Ezra 1:2; Dan. 9:25). The city of God had to be built because the temple was built (including the law and proper offerings). The word sent to build the city was the physical manifestation of the temple. The temple was the word gone forth. Build a temple and there will be a city. It is just like our Christian walk. If Jesus is in our heart, if there is a temple, then the work of the city (Christian community life) can be completed. Once Jesus is in our hearts we are new creations, but it is yet to be further manifested in our lives. God spoke the word to call us, but it didn’t become ‘the word sent forth’ until we received Jesus into our hearts. We had to become a house for His Spirit to dwell in and we had to receive His Spirit to dwell in us to write His law upon our hearts and minds. We had to become proper ‘burnt offerings’ through the one offering Jesus Christ (Rom. 12:1 – members of the body of Christ). Christian community doesn’t make us the testimony of Christ. Christ in us empowers us to become the testimony of a Christ-like community. As leaders we must lead for the culture of Christ before we can activate, facilitate, or release Christian community.

Food For Thought

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

There are different roles of leadership in the body of Christ. People often think that ministry training is about being instructed in the ways of ministry, but mere instruction alone will only inform us of what to do. It will not cause us to become who we need to become. We cannot change the lives of others merely by what we know. We can only change the world by who we are and what we have become in Christ. It is not what we know that empowers us for ministry. It is who we have become in the substance of Christ. To become the substance of something involves being transformed to become something. The apostle Paul understood this truth when he wrote to the church of Corinth. He considered them to be a spiritual letter of truth that was first written in his own heart and then written in both the individual and corporate expressions of the church. This is how he viewed his responsibility to the church in Corinth. This is how Paul saw his role of apostolic leadership and the role of leadership of others towards the church.

2 Corinthians 3:1-3 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

Paul understood that his role to the Corinthian church was not one of instruction. It was one of bringing transformation to the lives of the people he had been sent to. His mind was fixed on being a minister of the Spirit and not a minister of the word alone. He knew that the Spirit of God was the source of any and every testimony in the lives of people alone and people joined together for God’s glory in the earth. Paul accepted his role as a spiritual father in bringing this to pass.

1 Corinthians 4:15, 16 …for though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.

There is a place for instructors, but there is an essential need for fathers in the church. Paul knew that his role as a leader was not to bring instruction to those God sent him to. His role was one of representing God as the Father of all that is born of Him. Paul’s own relationship with Timothy was one of being a spiritual father. No man is the Father, just like no man is the Pastor or Shepherd of the church. God is the Father and Jesus is the Shepherd of human souls, but men give the expressions of God a physical form that can be seen, heard, touched, and handled by men. Their physical form must come in agreement with the ministry of the Spirit in order to see the inheritance of God manifested in the earth. It is not the inheritance of men that we seek. It is seeing men and women standing as the inheritance of God that we seek to attain (Eph. 1:18). Paul understood his role as one of being used by God to serve in bringing about God’s transformation power to those divinely joined to him for God’s purpose and glory in the earth. This is why Paul could use great confidence in expecting others to receive his spiritual son Timothy. He didn’t send Timothy to those in his sphere of responsibility because of his gifting of ministry, anointing, or informative message. He sent Timothy, because Timothy was something of the substance of Paul. He was something of the substance of the spiritual inheritance entrusted to Paul by God. This is an essential role of spiritual leadership in the Church.

We are not leaders because of the information we know. We are leaders because of the substance of Christ entrusted to our destiny. We are leaders for the sake of others, thus we must become the substance of that for which we lead. We must be the first to be transformed by God in order to carry the substance of that transformation power to the lives of those God sends us to. We need more fathers and mothers and less instructors in the body of Christ.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

All human beings have a three-part makeup in their ability to fulfill their human purpose. Human beings are made of spirit, soul, and body. The spirit of man is the source of their power, the soul is the throne of their human administration, and their physical lives are the place that the authority of who they are becomes known to others. This three-part reality is true for all people. The spirit of the world leads those in the world. People in the world have a mindset that inspires them to live for themselves. People with a mindset of the world find their life in themselves, they make decisions in life for themselves, and they do all that they do in life for some measure of success unto themselves. They grasp for power hoping to create a life that appears to have some form of influence. They fail to realize that the motivation of their hearts is the spirit of the devil. He is a dragon, a devourer and a destroyer of the lives of men. Those in the world are like leopards, in that they seek to feast on the flesh of others in order to be powerful. Rather then leading others to bring life to them, they seek to have others serve them so they will be powerful. They are like a leopard in that they stalk in their search to take advantage of others in order to fulfill their own personal desires in life. Their mode of operation is like the walk of a bear. They are possessive and aggressive in their own way. They walk according to their own desires, agendas, and vision in life. They seek to create a testimony in their own lifetime that is about them. The aggressive ways inspire them to promote themselves in intimidating others in this world. They live, and move, and have their being in themselves. This is the spirit of the world. It is a testimony of the carnality of man and it is not a testimony to the true authority of life that God desires to release through all people to the world.

Revelation 13:2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.

The beast of the sea is nothing more or less than the spirit of the world. This verse in Revelation reveals the three-part makeup of humanity. Every human person has a source of power, a throne of operation, and an authority of expression. The power of every human being can only truly be fulfilled by the power of Christ’s Spirit within the spirit of every man. When our spirits are one with the Holy Spirit we become filled with life for our purpose in all things. We receive a prosperous spirit so that we might see an abundance of life that floods our own souls. Our souls are the throne of the administration of our lives and our souls seek the power of a motivation of the spirit. In the world our souls become subject to spirits that are outside the boundaries of our true identity, but when we have Christ within us, we are led by the power of Christ’s Spirit within us. It is only by the power of Christ’s Spirit within us that we can be empowered to live in the true identity given to us by God. We need the life of God within us to facilitate the life of God through us. Our souls are the bridge between our spirits and our physical lives so we can live as spiritual people. Our lives are meant to be a testimony of God’s work. That work is unique to our own creation in Him. The motivation given to us by our Father is meant to be administered by our portion of ministry as the body of Christ. The power to fulfill all that we are is given by the life of the Holy Spirit within us.

True authority is a testimony of life. God has called us all to be a part of a living body known as the body of Christ. That body is not a place we go to in order to escape from the world. That body is the corporate place of our abiding so we can become fruitful and effective in bringing life to one another and to the world. We must be spiritual people in all things. We must not be ignorant of being spiritual beings of authority.

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’ is not in the original Greek text above. Many have presented that this chapter of 1 Corinthians is about spiritual gifts, but it is really about being spiritual in our power, ministry, and work of God in life. It is being spiritual in the power, throne, and authority of our lives. When we were in the world we had a drive, a focus, and an aim of purpose. It was self-focused, self-concise, and self-driven, but it was a life that was led. In this Scripture Paul was exhorting the Church to be empowered by Christ’s Spirit, walk in a ministry of Christ’s Spirit, and fulfill a testimony of Christ’s Spirit at work through an authority of life in this world. Paul was addressing gifts (power), ministry (administration), and works (testimonies of life to the world).

1 Corinthians 12:4-6

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. 

In all of these things we must be spiritual people. True authority is our ability to bring life to others. We do this by the power of the Spirit, the ministry of Christ, and as a part of a work of God in this world. This is the power, throne, and authority of our lives.

This chapter of 1 Corinthians reveals nine charismas that express the power of the Holy Spirit. Those charismas are expressions of the power of God’s Spirit to our own human spirit in order for us to be those who give life to others through the authority of our lives. In order to be spiritual we must first be empowered in our spirits by the charisma of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

We see in the verses that the Holy Spirit manifests with the power of words of wisdom, words of knowledge, faith, gifts of healings, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, different kinds of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. I believe that each of us receives the Holy Spirit in our lives in order that we might have the power of Christ’s life to administrate Christ’s life to others through the uniqueness of each of our being and for the fullness of our authority of life to others. Any of the charisma of the Holy Spirit can manifest through us, but the Holy Spirit will work with each of us according to the uniqueness of our motivational gifting and our membership ministry in the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:6-8, 1 Cor. 12:12-26). I believe that the charisma of the Spirit is meant to empower us as human beings, not as workers of religious activities. We need the supernatural realities of the Holy Spirit within us in order to live with the power of Christ’s life in all that we are and do. Many who say they are Christians have decided that these things are optional, but I believe they are essential to the spiritual makeup of our lives as redeemed humanity with the power of Christ within us. Without them we lack the power for the full administration of Christ in our lives. Paul continues to address ministries and works in this chapter, but the first ingredient to being spiritual people fulfilling the authority of our lives is to embrace the power of Christ within us.

I will continue with this in my next week’s blog. We must each find our unique place of authority in life.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson