ted4leaders

Greetings,

As leaders we must not only set an example to those we lead, we must activate, facilitate, and release others to become all that they are to be in Christ. We are not just those who know the word of God, we must become examples of the word of God to those we lead. We must become expressions of God’s word that will activate God’s personal voice in the hearts of those we lead.

1 Timothy 4:12  Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Paul was not merely telling Timothy to be someone who was instructed in the word of God, but to become an example of the word of God. Every revelation from God is an invitation to have an encounter with God so that we will be transformed by Him to become a testimony of a revelation of God to those around us. When God has expressed something it is considered to be the logos (word) of God. The Scriptures are logos (word) of God, but so is leadership to be a testimony of an expression of God. Jesus was the very expression (Word) of God in flesh. The word of God is meant to pierce through the soul to the place where God speaks. The Holy Spirit within agrees with anything that has been expressed by God and when we are pierced through by an expression of God, the voice of the Holy Spirit brings life to the human spirit in the human heart.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 

Leaders are to be expressions of God to those they lead in order to activate the voice of God within the heart of each believer. Scripture is logos (word). Leadership, as well as maturing believers, are to be expressions of God (logos) as well. Their lives should pierce through the souls of those they influence to the very Spirit of God within their spirits, causing the voice of God to be activated within them. Leaders are not the voice of God to the people. This is Old Covenant. Leaders only serve to activate the voice of God within the hearts of those they lead. This is New Covenant.

The Old Covenant brought control and bondage, but the New Covenant brings life and liberty. It’s the manifest presence of God that brings liberty. As leaders we must lead in a way that the voice of God brings the liberty of God’s presence in the lives of those we lead. We cannot hear God for people and expect them to simply remember what we have said. We cannot teach law, present Biblical rules, propose Biblical principles, or enforce any form of covenant that holds people to the words or experiences of the past. This is a covenant that is read. It is a covenant that is remembered. A veil remains on this type of covenant for it is an Old Covenant of bondage and control. Only the New Covenant of the life of Christ within can bring the life and liberty of God. Only the New Covenant brings increasing and lasting change from within the human heart.

2 Corinthians 3:12-15 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—  unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 

It is only when one turns to the Lord in their hearts that the veil can be removed. We cannot teach people to know God, knowing God is a personal revelation discovered within the heart. It is there that true change is brought about in and through the believer. Leaders in the New Covenant must excel in the example of this personal experience and they must serve those they lead in a way that advances the New Covenant grace of life within the hearts of those they lead.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Christ in each believer is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). It is the anointing oil that breaks the yoke. It is not merely the anointing, but the anointing oil. The anointing oil is the testimony of the fatness of Christ within us. It is the grease that comes out from within. It is not the illumination of Christ that makes men free. It is the manifestation of His presence within our lives.

Isaiah 10:26, 27 And the LORD of hosts will stir up a scourge for him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; as His rod was on the sea, so will He lift it up in the manner of Egypt. It shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.

One can experience the anointing oil or the light that comes from the anointing oil. As New Covenant leaders we must lead to activate the anointing oil in those we lead. It is like the testimony of the torch within the clay vessels of Gideon (Jdg. 7) and the sound of the Spirit within that blows through the prophetic shofar. When Moses told the people to stand still and see the salvation of their God, God told Moses to trust what was within him. He told Moses to lift up his rod and move forward (Ex. 14:13-16). These were shadows of the testimony of Christ within.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Today I want to remind us all as leaders that our role is to provide New Covenant leadership to those we lead. We cannot slip into the pattern of Old Covenant methods in our leadership. The New Covenant is not a transition in time two thousand years ago. The New Covenant is a transition of relationship. It is NOW reality in relating to God. The New Covenant is a personal relationship with God that is empowered by Christ within the believer. The New Covenant is a NOW covenant and it requires NOW leadership.

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 dependent upon what God says today. Old Covenant ministry was dependent upon what God said yesterday. It was a ‘remember when’ covenant. God would show up in the power of His presence with His instructions and commands. The people were then instructed to remember the day and to remember the words that were given to them in some past event with God. The Old Covenant was a covenant that took people by the hand to lead them, but the New Covenant is one where each one knows God. In the New Covenant we do not teach our neighbor or their brother to know God, for even the least has a personal relationship with God in their hearts. That relationship is not merely based upon an experience with God in the past. It is a personal relationship with God each day, every day, and it is NOW!

In the New Covenant we become the place that hears God in relationship with Him.

It is a place of being able to hear, read, and keep the words that are given to the believer in Christ (Rev. 1:30). There is a daily personal relationship with God in our hearts, therefore, there is a remembering of the things that God has said and done for us. Because we hear God in the NOW place of relationship with Him, we are also empowered from within to do what He desires. His voice within us becomes an empowerment of faith and passion to walk in His ways. Jesus is standing in the midst of His Church.

Revelation 1:10-12 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

Leaders in the New Covenant must be the first to recognize God in their lives. They must demonstrate an example of faith towards God. The New Covenant is about knowing God and walking with Him in all things. New Covenant leaders don’t merely tell people what God is saying, they demonstrate a testimony of what God is saying in their lives. They stand among the congregation to be the first to give a testimony of the corporate letter God is writing in the expression of Christ life community they are part of.

The Old Covenant and New Covenant offer two different means of governing the human soul. The Old Covenant was one of information while the New Covenant is one of transformation from within. In a governmental system of the knowledge of good and evil people are informed of the knowledge of God so they can administrate their lives according to that remembered information. In the New Covenant people are transformed from within and they are dependent upon the life of Christ within their hearts to empower God’s desires from within.

Human beings are made of three parts in the dynamic of their human expression. Every person has the substance of power within them, a throne of administration, and a physical expression of whom they are to reveal the authority of their lives. These are the power, throne, and authority of being human (Rom. 13:2; 1Thes. 5:23). Human beings were designed to be led by God’s Spirit in the power, throne, and authority of their lives.

We don’t hear God with our souls, we hear with our spirit. When we allow God’s Spirit to food our human spirits we come alive from within. We do this by stirring up the Spirit of Christ within us. Christ within us is the hope of glory. It is the hope of coming fully alive as a human being. When our human spirits become empowered by Christ’s Spirit within us it floods our soul. It floods the throne of our will, thought, reasoning, imagination, and emotions. It is there that we begin to give human expression to that which we have heard in our spirits. When our spirits flood our souls with life, our souls flood our physical expressions of life with life. God’s Spirit is to flood the human spirit, the human spirit is to flood the human soul, and the human soul floods the human life. As leaders in the New Covenant we must lead to activate this process or hearing an manifesting God’s will in the lives of those we are called to lead. It begins with us as leaders. We must be activated, facilitated, and released with the life of Christ within us and then we serve to activate, facilitate, and release those we lead into the life that God has for each one.

When we live by law we submit our souls to the law as God’s voice, but when we live by the Spirit we submit our spirits to God’s Spirit as the voice of God in our lives. This floods our lives with the sanctifying salvation of God in all things.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

Sorry to say that I posted the wrong blog earlier today. It has been a busy day and I am just now getting to the place of making the correction.

Leadership is not a position to seek for the sake of leading. It is a calling, an anointing, and an appointment from God for the sake of others. Leadership is a gift to those they lead. It is not just a matter of gifting and function. It is a matter of God-ordained relationship. That God-ordained relationship is one of a leader towards God’s purpose and objective as well as his or her relationship with those he or she leads. Leadership is a patter of authority; therefore, leadership comes from authority. It is always under a life-source. In the kingdom of God leadership doesn’t represent the people, it represents God who gives life to the world. Leadership represents God in heaven and the delegated expressions of God with skin on that carry the substance of the life that is being given to the authority.

If you are called to lead in an area of life it means you are the first to be found in the authority of that area of life. Authority is not mere power; it is the power to give life to others. All authority comes from God and all authority is intended to bring life to those they are over. A pitcher of water must be over a glass in order for the glass to receive the water that the pitcher holds. It is not a matter of control. It is a matter of proper relationship in receiving what the pitcher carries for the sake of the empty glass. Authority is always over for the sake of all that is ‘under’ that authority. It is not a matter of lording or seeking to be more important than others. It is a matter of being able to fulfill God-given responsibilities. The pitcher doesn’t become filled with water because of the need of an empty glass; it becomes filled with water because of the abundance of a fountain of water. It is the fountain of water that fills the pitcher and then the pitcher seeks out a glass that is seeking to find a pitcher of water. Needs do not determine what authority is required. God-directed authority activates the hearts of the needy to seek out the life that is being offered through the authority of God. This is true for individual people as well as societies and situations in society.

How do you determine the direction of God in leadership? Do we look at the needs of an area or the needs of a people and then attempt to fashion leadership to a role of meeting those needs? If we look at the apparent needs of people and fashion leadership to meet those needs we are not seeking authority. We are attempting to grasp for some form of power to meet the apparent needs of people. It can be true for a community or any needy area of life. A proper direction for the authority of leadership doesn’t come from the apparent needs of a people or any given situation. It comes by the direction of God. It comes from the source of authority. We live in societies that attempt to meet needs, but that reactionary approach seldom deals with the root of the perceived fruits. It is a backwards approach to healing a situation. Authority produces life because authority comes from a life-source; it is not a demanded power by a source of need.

If we lead to meet the needs of others we will never change the world. We will manage a measure of fruitfulness, multiplication, and filling, but we will never see the greater measure of God’s authority to subdue and have dominion. The needs of people are very often determined by their perceived realities. If we lead to respond to their needs we are responding to their perceived realities. The result will be another measure of what has happened before. We may gather a crowd, grow in size, or grow in number, but we may never change the world. To subdue is to destroy death with life. Leading to meet the needs of people very often deals with the perceived fruit of a need, but doesn’t really change the root cause of that apparent need. The substance of life doesn’t come from the task we are trying to accomplish. It comes by the measure of life we carry to accomplish the task. That measure of life comes from who and what we are under. It is not determined by what we are over in our responsibilities. True dominion is the ability to crumble a lie with a measure of truth. Dominion, like subduing, is not determined by who or what we are over. Who or what we are under determines dominion. God is the fullness of truth, so to be a measure of truth we must be under that expression of truth in God. This involves our personal relationship with God by His Spirit as well as the God-sent physical expression of that truth to our lives. Who or what we are over does not determine our responsibilities in life. Who and what we are under determine responsibility. We are responsible to receive life so we have life to give to others. We cannot change the world by looking at the world. The future of the world is not determined by how it is in the world. It is determined by how it is in heaven. Authority is not a matter of seeing what is in the world and attempting to bring heaven to it. It is a matter of seeing what is in heaven and then bringing a measure of that heavenly substance to a hungry world. When life walks into a room, death is transformed to become life.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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

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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