ted4leaders

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Leaders lead others in knowing God. It is not about knowing what God wants us to do. It’s about knowing God. Knowing Him will empower us to become all that we are meant to be in life. Religious people seek to know the Scriptures to know God, but little children seek to know God so that they can manifest all that the Scriptures reveal. Leaders don’t lead others in merely understanding Scripture, they lead others in coming to Jesus so they can become expressions of Christ in life.

1 Peter 2:4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

The objective of being a believer is to be a part of a spiritual house. We are a habitation of Christ. Christ in us empowers us to be priests unto our God. We bring heavenly things into our world because of a personal relationship with the One who is heavenly. Knowing Jesus is knowing the love of God. To us who believe He is precious. He is like the air we breath. He is like the food we eat. He is like the water we drink. We cannot live without Him. He makes us come alive in every way.

1 Peter 2:7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

The apostle Peter declared in these verses that Jesus is precious to those who believe, but He is a chief cornerstone to those who don’t believe. Those who don’t see Him as precious can only see Him for what He is and their preconceived ideas of what that should be trips them up to be offended by what He appears to be. They make judgments  concerning what they believe He should be and they cannot see who He is in their life. God is a person and as a person, we must know how precious our relationship is with Him. This same principle is meant to be true in our human relationships in life but even that is first of all dependent upon our relationship with God.

When something is precious, we value it above other things. When something is precious to us, we know we cannot live without it. Air is precious to me. I can hold my breath for a bit, but by body will gasp for air if it is not allowed air for long. Water is precious to me. I can go for a while without water, but even in one day my body will start to cry out for water. In just a few days my body will shut down for lack of water. A secret to growing in knowing God is to get a revelation of how precious He is to, and in, our lives. We can’t live without Him!

God is not a power. His power simply testifies of Him. God is a person. He is our Father, He revealed His love to us through His only begotten Son, and He comes to us by His ever-present Holy Spirit. God is a trinity, but He is revealed to us through three distinct persons in His being. Without Jesus, we cannot fully know God as our Father, because it is only through the embodiment of a son that we can grow in knowing God as our Father. Without Holy Spirit, we cannot know the Father or the Son, because no one can come to God but by the Spirit of God. To be spiritual people we must embrace a relationship with God as the Spirit, God as the Son, and God as our Father. To know Jesus the Son, we must also embrace knowing God our Father. To know God our Father we must embrace knowing Jesus the Son. To Know God the Son and God the Father, we must know God the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is God and He has been sent to us by God our Father in the name of Jesus, God’s Son. To fellowship with Holy Spirit is a fellowship with the Son.

John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Holy Spirit in us, and with us is precious. We need to grow in knowing how much we need Him, not just for what He can do but for who He is. Partnership with Holy Spirit is a partnership with our heavenly Father. It is a partnership with Jesus God’s Son. Our connection to Holy Spirit in our own spirit is the key to growing in knowing God in our lives. We must have a revelation of how precious our connection to Holy Spirit in our hearts is.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Leaders lead others in finding purpose in life. Our purpose is not about ourselves. Our purpose is to bring God’s life to our world by revealing God’s love to others in our world. We are sons and daughters of God, and we reveal the testimony of God in all that we are and do.

When we were in the world, we were absent of an understanding of our true purpose in life. Even those of the law lacked an understanding of God’s purpose for mankind. They thought they understood God’s written word, but they didn’t understand God’s heart. The Old Covenant way of law and conscience left mankind bound to aimless conduct in life. Not knowing who they were, left them unable to find their true focus in life. Jesus ended our aimless conduct by empowering us to be born again into a living hope. The shed blood of Christ ended our old lives of flesh and invited us all to live our lives empowered by God’s Spirit within our hearts.

1 Peter 1:17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you 21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word (logos) of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, 25 But the word (rhema) of the LORD endures forever.” Now this is the word (rhema) which by the gospel was preached to you.

Jesus is the word of God by which we have been born again. A literal translation of verses 22 & 23 of these verses would be:

Having purified your souls in the obedience of the truth through the Spirit to unhypocritical brotherly love, love one another earnestly out of a pure heart, being begotten again, not out of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through a word of God—living and remaining—continually.

Our scripture reads that we were born again through the word of God which lives and abides forever. The word which is not in the original Greek text. It is added because the translators are attaching the word logos (word) to being Scripture. Scripture is a what and Jesus is a who. Scripture is logos (word that has been expressed), but Jesus was the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person in our world (Heb. 1:3). He was the word (logos) made flesh. We were not born again by the Scriptures; we were born again through a living relationship with Jesus in our hearts. The One who lives and remains continually in our lives is Jesus. He is the expression (logos word) of God to us and He speaks to us (rhema word) in our hearts.  It is Christ in us that is the hope of glory. We are born again into a living hope by Jesus speaking to our hearts. He speaks, and He continues to speak. As we grow in knowing Him in our hearts, we grow in becoming like Him in our character, nature, way, power, and authority, in our world.

1 Peter 2:1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word (logikos), that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Our tasting is not a tasting of God’s written word. It is a tasting of Jesus in our lives. It is having a personal experience with Jesus as Lord of our hearts and minds. He gives us desires that empower life-giving changes from within. An internal experience with Jesus in our hearts empowers us to desire to be expressions of Him to our world. The word for word in verse two is the Greek word logikos. It is to be logical, rational. reasonable. sensible (acting with or showing good sense; able to make good judgements based on reason). A relationship with Christ in us will empower us to be life-givers to others in our world. Our relationship with Jesus as sons and daughters of God in Christ empowers us to be expressions of Him to others in the substance of who we are. This is the kind of logic, rational, reason, and sense that we seek to express. This is the pure milk that we desire. It is a milk of babes. It is a milk of innocence. It is a diet of being innocent to evil and wise to good for the sake of giving life to others in our world. It is the place of becoming like children who see Jesus as the center of everything in life.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Leaders lead others to be strong in their relationship with God. It is not a matter of merely doing what God wants. It is a matter of becoming the sons and daughters of God that our heavenly Father knows we are destined to be. It is a matter of being loved by God and loving others in our world.

The strength of our relationship with God is found in our hearts and minds. What we believe in our hearts will inspire us to make a confession in our lives. How we act is connected to what we believe. As believers in Christ, how we act is connected to WHO we believe. What we believe can determine what we do, but WHO we believe will determine who we can become. When we know who God is, we grow in knowing who we are. When we know who we are, we act as we should act. Do we believe the One who is the life-giving Spirit within us? Christ in us is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

The Scripture is not our teacher. Holy Spirit is our teacher, and the Scripture is a witness to the voice of Holy Spirit. The letter of the law will kill, but the Spirit gives us life. We can only know the Spirit that gives life through an intimate relationship with God in our hearts. The Pharisees of the first century knew the Scriptures in their minds, but they didn’t know God in their hearts. Jesus confronted their religious stronghold of valuing their understanding of the Scriptures above a personal relationship with Him – the word made flesh.

John 5:38 But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. 39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

Much of Christianity presents a faith that is based upon a rule of law. That rule of law is that the Scripture is our rule of faith. Faith doesn’t come by rules. Faith comes by hearing God in our hearts. We hear God in our hearts when we embrace a personal relationship with God in our hearts above all things. Only a personal relationship with God in our hearts will enable His kingdom to come and His will to be done in our lives.

When writing to the Jewish believers in the first century, Peter addressed the need for a personal relationship with Christ in all things. He was writing to Jewish believers who were rapidly approaching the day when their Torah/Temple system would be destroyed, and they would be left with the living testimony of being a Temple of Holy Spirit as the body of Christ. The Old Covenant was one of information and works, but the New Covenant was one of grace and transformed hearts and minds as members of the living body of Christ. The Old Temple had become obsolete, and the living temple of Christ was proving to be clothed in the overcoming power of grace. The first century church was overcoming the opposition of what was stuck in a system of law. They were overcoming by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and loving not their own lives even unto death. They were exhibiting the testimony of an internal Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles in their hearts. Jesus had fulfilled the Old Covenant Passover when He put an end to sin for all mankind upon our cross at Calvary. His shed blood granted all access to God’s gift of mercy and eternal life for all who believe. Holy Spirit had been poured out upon a firstfruit body of Christ to demonstrate that being the people of God comes by the presence of God’s Spirit and Word within our lives. We are the body of Christ and as His body we are being sanctified with a heavenly testimony in all things. A firstfruit church had embraced a partnership with God as their Father in all things; thus, the zeal for God’s house was empowering them to give life to their world even as Jesus, our eternal Adam, had done.

These things were, and are, the fruit of an intimate relationship with God in our hearts. This is where the rule of faith abides. Leaders lead others in living from the rule of faith in their hearts.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Living in the comfort seeking societies of the world often blinds us to the truth of the spiritual reality that we face in life. We live in a visible world, but there is a realm that is invisible to our natural eyes that is the true issue of our wrestle in life. We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but most of our conflicts in life come in packages of flesh and blood. Those packages are human lives that are often manipulated, controlled, and deceived in some way. Our adversary seeks to destroy love. He seeks to destroy relationships. Relationships are the most valued treasure in life. Our love for God and for one another is the true value of life. God is a giver. He is not a taker. He gives life, breath, and all things for the purpose of life. As children of God, we were created to be in our Father’s likeness and image. We must seek life and live our lives as a part of the family tree of life. As leaders, we lead others in clinging to life and giving life to each one’s world.

When we fall for the trap of thinking that our enemy is flesh and blood, we fall for a deception that only leads to dysfunction and death. We become more focused on right and wrong than we do life and death, and we end up living to be right and the fruit of our quest is death. It is death for us and death for one another. In our fight, we believe that our battle is with one another or even ourselves, but our true battle is against the one who wages war against our souls.

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

To be sober is to be serious about our role as sons and daughters of God. We must always be purpose focused. We must be awake to God’s purpose in our lives because we have an adversary who wants to devour us. The enemy seeks to wage war against our souls, and we must keep our souls focused on God’s kingdom and will in all things. Our relationship with God will lead to all things turning for good in our lives.

We resist the devil by being steadfast in faith. To be steadfast in faith is to be constant and consistent in listening to the voice of God in our hearts. This is not the voice of our will, but the voice of our Father’s will in all things. We must seek His kingdom and not our own. We were born into our world to bring God’s life into our world for such a time as this. In this process, we will go through suffering at times. In the suffering, what is true is proven. In the process of difficulty, the supernatural testimony of God’s love prevails. It is there that we find Him in an intimate and powerful way. In this process we are perfected as sons and daughters of God. We are established in our relationship with God, strengthened in our inner man, and settled in knowing God and knowing who we are in Him. We must never reject the path that is put before us. It is in the path of difficulty that truth prevails. That truth is not according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but according to the tree of life. The truth is always found through our abiding in God and He in us in all things.

1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but the enemy seeks to inspire our personal desires to put our thoughts, reasoning, imaginations, emotions, and desires in a place that destroys our destiny as sons and daughters of God. Leaders set an example in holding fast to their faith to inspire others to cling to the One who does miracles in the hearts and minds of us all. It is only in impossible situations that we truly discover that all things are possible for God.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

One day Jesus was walking down the road, and a certain man came to Him making a typical Old Covenant statement. His statement concerned a willingness to follow Jesus, but Jesus’ answer to Him revealed that following Him is not what God desires. The New Covenant minded man, Jesus, responded to the Old Covenant minded man with the following words:

Luke 9:57, 58  As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Jesus wasn’t saying that if we follow Him, we won’t know where we will sleep each night. He wasn’t saying that if we follow Him, we won’t have any guarantees of what is next. His statement was one of “being”, while the statement of the man was merely one of “doing”.  

Jesus’ illustration of the fox and bird are quite simple and profound. The fox affects the world from beneath the ground with fox stuff, simply because he has found his place of habitation. The fox doesn’t look for a hole in the ground to find a night’s rest. He builds his home in the ground and then he lives a fine old fox empowered life. The bird doesn’t look for a nest to have a place to sleep. No, the bird finds a stick, then another, then another, and the bird builds a nest to live from. From the place of his nest the bird and all of his family affect the earth from the air, fulfilling the destiny and purpose of a bird. Jesus was simply saying to the man that He wasn’t looking for anyone to follow Him. He was first looking for a place to call His habitation. He was looking for a body! He was the Head and He was looking for a place to rest His headship. He was looking for that part of humanity that would say yes to His habitation in their lives. He was looking for those who would discover that they are a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.

We must lead the body of Christ in a way that inspires men and women to find Christ as the head of their lives. God wants to rest in their lives and empower them to live out a Christ filled destiny! The first and foremost purpose of the body of Christ is to be a place for His habitation. In Him we live!

Jesus continued in His words to address the issue of “doing”. After He spoke those words of “habitation” to the one man, He spoke to another concerning “following” Him.

Luke 9:59, 60 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”  But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” 

I don’t believe that Jesus was advocating never going to a funeral again. He wasn’t advocating not showing honor to the loss of our loved ones. His illustration was addressing the subject of our “doing” in Him. Our “doing” is not with an objective of being free from our past. Our “doing” is meant to be a testimony of being joined to Him in a continually unfolding future of His life. Our aim in life is not to fix the things of our past, but to embrace all that God has for us in Christ. Just as we live in Him, we also move in Him in all things. We must influence and lead the body of Christ in doing works that speak of their faith, not works that appease the loss of their past. Our works are from justification, not for justification. If we spend more time trying to fix things in our lives than in living for the life of others, we are missing the mark. We need a revelation of “habitation” before we can continue in being an expression of God’s life to our world.

In this story found in the book of Luke, Jesus continued to address a third aspect of humanity. This again pertained to the issue of following God – a following God in all things!

Luke 9:61, 62 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

In this third example, Jesus addressed the issue of fully following Him. God doesn’t just want a relationship with men whereby they do a few good things in life. He wants a relationship that empowers us to become a full testimony of Him in everything in life. We have our being in Him. Jesus wasn’t advocating cutting off relationships with friends. He was simply revealing the full reality of being friends with God. We were born for the kingdom of God.

We must lead in a way that inspires the members of the body of Christ to know that the whole purpose of their lives is for the glory of God. Jesus came into our world as a man that we might be the body of Christ born for Him! Because we are a habitation for God, we can do works that speak of our faith in Him. Because we have faith toward Him, we can know that everything in our lives is for the glory of His purpose and will. We can know a partnership with God whereby He gives us all things for His kingdom to come and His will to be done in our lives, even as it is in heaven.

We must lead and influence the body of Christ in a way that inspires them to live, move, and have their being in God. We are a place where God can rest in the earth and thus all of God’s enemies will be made His footstool in the earth. All of God enemies can be placed under our feat when we live to know our identity, testimony, and purpose in Christ.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

In my last leader’s blog I presented that proper meditation of God’s word, testimonies, and even God as a person includes an expression of our words. We must speak. We must make some expression of what God has said and is saying in our lives. I gave several Scriptures where the word for meditate is translated as the word speak. This is an out loud expression of an experience in our hearts.

Ephesians 5:18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.

The word for speaking in in this Scripture is GSRN 2980. λαλέω laleō. It is a prolonged form of an otherwise obsolete verb; to talk, i.e. utter words. When we are filled with the Spirit, we are inspired to speak! Speaking is an overflow from our hearts when we experience an intimate and powerful connection to Holy Spirit. When we have an encounter with Holy Spirit in our hearts, it invokes a response in us. Our response to Holy Spirit invites a further encounter with Him in our lives and we are edified and even transformed in our lives from within.

Our expression of God’s words, God’s sound, and God’s life is something we must give sound to. It is not enough to merely think upon God’s words, testimonies, or even His person. We must receive His word, His testimonies, and a revelation of Him in our hearts and thus we express a confession of these things with our mouths. With our hearts we believe and with our mouths we make confession. This empowers the imagination and the influence of our lives to others.

The same thing is true for meditation upon the testimonies of God in our lives. We don’t just think about them, we make a confession of them to ourselves and to others. When our meditation of God’s testimonies includes the confessions of our mouths it empowers further faith in us and even inspires faith in others as they hear what we experience and believe.

Psalms 77:12 I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds.

Sometimes we fail to meditate upon God and the things of God because we are occupied with some form of negative mediation.  Worry is also a form of meditation. It is meditation on what the news says, what my circumstance says, what people say, or what I see naturally. It is a negative form of meditation.

Jude wrote that when people speak negatively toward us because of what they know to be naturally true or what they perceive to be true, we are to pray in the Holy Spirit (Jude 20). This will build up our most holy faith. The apostle Paul said that to pray in the Spirit is to pray in tongues (1 Cor. 14:15). Faith comes by hearing God’s words to us in our hearts (Rom. 10:17) and faith works through love. When we pray in the Spirit, we silence our natural thoughts and we position our own spirit to hear the Holy Spirit within. We have an internal experience with God’s love, and we hear God’s voice from the mind of Christ that is within us. This inspires our spirit to flood our soul with thoughts, reasoning, imagination, emotions, and desires that are the voice of God to our soul. Praying in the Spirit builds up our faith. This is a part of our meditation upon God and His word in our lives. 

Another aspect of proper meditation involves an internal focus and an active seeking from within our hearts. This is the aspect of musing God’s word, testimony, and person.To muse means to ponder, consider, and study closely.

Psalms 39:1 I said, “I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me. I was mute with silence, I held my peace even from good; and my sorrow was stirred up. My heart was hot within me; while I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue”

Luke 24:32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

Proper meditation involves a response to the burning presence of God in our hearts. His words to us are not for us to have proper information in our lives. The power of the Scriptures is not simply in reading them. The power of Scripture is seen in an encounter with Jesus in our hearts that opens up our understanding in a supernatural way. This is what causes us to be transformed in our lives. Leaders set an example for those they lead and the lead them into a way of life that consistently meditates upon God’s words, testimonies, and His person in their lives.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I want to present some practical ways to meditate upon God’s word, our testimonies in God, and who God is. As I have written, the Hebrew concept of meditation is “to murmur (in pleasure or anger); by implication, to ponder. It is an active partnership with God’s Spirit. This could be expressed as muttering on our part. To mutter is to speak the word under your breath, or quietly to yourself. We mutter all the time, usually without even realizing it. We talk out loud to ourselves concerning the normal process of our days. We might say, “where did I put those keys,” or, “how come this car doesn’t start in the morning”, etc… If we really stopped to think about it, we would probably conclude that most our muttering is probably negative, if we haven’t been training ourselves in biblical meditation (Josh. 1:8). We express the inner core of our being with expression of our voice, our attitudes, and even our physical expressions. It is not just what we say, but why we say it and how we say it.

Romans 10:8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

These verses in Romans are not merely verses for confessing Jesus for a born-again experience of salvation. These verses are quoting the words of Moses when God instructed His people as to how to live their everyday lives in the Promised Land (Deut. 30:11-20). They were to make a confession with their mouths because of a personal relationship with God in their lives. This is especially true in our everyday lives in the New Covenant because our personal connection to God is in our hearts. It is in the place where He writes His perfect law of liberty in our hearts and minds.

Our soul manifests our thoughts, reasoning, imagination, emotions, and desires. Therefore, when we meditate, or mutter on the goodness of God, it will bring fatness to our thoughts, reasoning, imagination, emotions, and desires. Our soul is not the part of our being that creates our thoughts, reasoning, imagination, emotions, and desires; it is simply the throne of our being that empowers our articulation and expression of them. Our soul is meant to be motivated by our spirit from within. Our spirit is our connection to God. When Holy Spirit stirs our human spirit, our human spirit floods our soul with thoughts, reasoning, imagination, emotions, and desires that come from God. When our flesh, or some outside influence temps us to yield our soul to be a door instead of a window, we become motivated in these things from an illegitimate source. Therefore, we must position our lives to invite God’s Spirit to empower our spirit from within. This will produce a voice of faith; a voice that comes by hearing God in our hearts. Our spirits are inspired by the Spirit of God and thus our spirits inspire our souls. Our souls respond by making a confession that can be heard and seen in our world. The fruit is life in our world. This testimony is the result of an appearing of Christ within us.

Proverbs 8:7 For my mouth will speak truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

Psalms 35:28 And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness and of Your praise all the day long.

Psalms 37:30 The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of justice. 31 The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.

Psalms 45:1 My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

Psalms 63:5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. 6 When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.

Sometimes the word for meditate in the Scripture is translated as the word speak, but it is the same Hebrew word that is translated meditate in other verses in the Old Testament (HSRN 1897).When we are speaking the word of God out loud to ourselves, or even to others, and telling of His great power we are actually involved in meditation.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I have been addressing the need to meditate upon God’s word and testimonies in our lives. This includes both the general word of God in our lives and His specific words to us. Without knowing the general will of God we will be vulnerable to deceptions in hearing correctly the specific words of God in our lives. Meditating on the things that we can think upon will prepare our hearts and minds to know God’s words to us in life.

Philippians 4:8 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.

We can talk about and think on things that are just. Can we make judgments for others based upon who we are and not what they deserve? When our meditation is about a relationship with God and not mere rules, we embrace the character of who we are meant to be. 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 waging war against 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.

The Hebrew word used in God’s instruction to Joshua to meditate upon the book of the Law was HSRN 1897. הָגָה hâg̱â; a primitive root (compare 1901); to murmur (in pleasure or anger); by implication, to ponder. This word can be used for imagine, meditate, mourn, mutter, roar, speak, study, talk, and utter. It implies more than mere thinking. It includes expression on our part as we consider and think upon God’s word and testimonies in our lives. For this reason, I believe that praying in tongues is a critical part of proper meditation. When we pray in the Spirit we activate our own spirits to flood or souls with thoughts, reasoning, imagination, emotions, and desires. What God says is more important than our own assessment of things. Speaking God’s word and His personal words out loud to ourselves, and even under our breath, is a good life-giving exercise.  

Psalms 63:6 When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. 7 Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. 8 My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.

We must fill our hearts and minds with thoughts of God. Our meditation is not just upon the words that He has said or His word in Scripture, we are to think on Him. His word reveals the character of who He is and this is very personal, intimate, and powerful. It is a revelation of who He is in our lives.

We must choose not to think upon the things that are not God. We do this by thinking on God and all that is true to who He is and what He says.

Matthew 6:3 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ “

The King James Version says “take no thought saying…” The word saying could mean mutter, or speak – something we are musing. To muse is to be absorbed in one’s thoughts and engaged in meditation. It is to consider or say somethingthoughtfully. To be in a state of meditation.

Matthew 12:34 Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Matthew 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.

An activation of biblical meditation will do away with the thoughts you are struggling with. What we think about is what we are going to eventually believe. What we believe is what we are eventually going to say. What we say is what we are going to eventually receive.

Proverbs 23:6 Do not eat the bread of a miser, nor desire his delicacies; 7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

When we set our minds on God and what He says, we position ourselves to believe what He believes, act as He acts, imagine as He imagines, and influence our world with the life-giving power of sons and daughters of God. Leaders give their hearts and minds to meditating upon God and His words and they equip those they lead to do the same.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

The apostle James said that we are to lay aside the ways of the world. We lay aside the ways of the world by embracing the ways of God. How do we know the ways of God? We know the ways of God by growing in knowing God. When we meditate upon what God has said in the past, we position ourselves to recognize His voice in the present moments of our lives. His instruction to us is not our goal. Knowing Him is our goal. Knowing His heart and knowing His way is the focus of our pursuit of meditating upon His words. His implanted word comes by knowing Him in our hearts and minds. It is not informational. It is transformational.

James 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

Being a doer of God’s word is easier when we realize His words are expressions of who He is. His written word and His personal words to our hearts are expressions of who He is. Being a doer of God’s word is the fruit of a relationship with Him. The law of liberty is different than a law of obligation. When we approach God’s word to us as mere instructions, we can become bound to rules and obligations. When we approach God’s word as His expression of life to us, we become inspired to respond to what He says to us today and what He has said in the past. Responding to His words to us causes His word to become a part of who we are. This produces a law of liberty that leads to life.

How can we continue in the law of liberty. Paul wrote that when we turn to the Lord, we experience the Spirit of the Lord that brings true liberty (2 Cor. 2:18). Embracing God’s presence is embracing His life-transforming desires. His presence activates our spirits to inspire our souls with God inspired thoughts, reasoning, imagination, emotions, and desires. When we think on God, we open the soil of our hearts and minds for His presence to inspire us and change us from within. The fuel for proper meditation upon God’s word is found through a personal relationship with God. Our personal testimonies with God are the strength of our meditation to know Him more fully.

Psalms 119:99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. 100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts. 101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word. 102 I have not departed from Your judgments, for You Yourself have taught me. 103 How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104 Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

There is a difference between theological fact and living truth. A theological fact is distant and detached from a person’s life. Truth is alive, creative, supernatural, and life changing. Our meditation upon the testimonies of God is a meditation upon the truth of who He is. We must fill our hearts and minds with thoughts of knowing God as our Father and friend.

Meditation is not the emptying of your mind as in transcendental meditation or other Eastern religions. Biblical meditation is the filling of your mind and keeping it full. We fill our mind with God’s expressions to us. Even our study of His written word is meant to inspire our personal connection to Him in our heart and mind.

The meditation of God’s word is the filling of your life with God’s word to be filled with God’s presence. As leaders we set an example for others to follow. We inspire them to meditate upon God’s word to know who God is in their lives. Leaders lead others in relationship with God.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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

Blog in Audio:

Greetings,

As leaders we are called to lead others into the way of God that is prosperous and leads to good success. God wants us to be prosperous, and to have good success. What does it look like to be prosperous and have good success in the kingdom of God. The word success, found in Joshua 1:8, is not the success of the world. This word means to make or act circumspect.

Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

This word for success in this text is the Strong’s Hebrew reference #7919: sakal / Definition: to be (caus. make or act) circumspect and hence intelligent. The word for prosperous is the Strong’s Hebrew reference #6743. צָלַח ṣâlaḥ; or צָלֵחַ ṣaleaḥ; a primitive root; to push forward, in various senses (literal or figurative, transitive or intransitive).

To be circumspect is to be aware of the possible outcome of a circumstance. The outcome of our path should lead to life for others, not merely the fulfillment of some personal desire. This is not even a desire of personal ministry. God wants us to grow in knowing Him and to grow in becoming like Him in our character, nature, way, power, and authority. This is the prosperous way of God’s kingdom. We push forward toward our upward call in Christ. To know the prosperous and successful way of God is to be alert for and aware of the path that leads to God’s life. That path is a path of God’s kingdom. It is a path of His will being done in our lives. This is the path that leads to the will and blessing of God. We must meditate on God’s words to be aware of God’s will and purpose in our lives. As sons and daughters of God we don’t think on the things of the world. We are no longer bound to think like those in the world think. We are enlightened in our hearts to the life-giving ways and testimony of God in all things. We are growing in thinking like our heavenly Father. He is a giver of life in all of His ways and to push forward in our destiny in Christ is to become life-giving to our world.

Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” 15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.

We are children of light, and we are to walk in His goodness, righteousness, and truth. Some translations of this Scripture in Ephesians chapter 5 say that the fruit of light is goodness, righteousness, and truth. These verses in the New King James Version reveals that the fruit of the Spirit is in whatever is good, righteous, or true. In either case, the evidence is seen in the fruit, not pretend doing. Sometimes the lines between good and evil, righteous and unrighteous, true and false get blurred. A good indicator that we are walking in the path of life is the evidence of the fruit of life. We cannot do fruit; fruit is something that happens when we live in the place where fruit grows. Fruit is something that gives life-energy to someone else and produces seeds for a future generation of life. Fruit is not a self-gratifying thing; it is a life-giving thing to others beyond your own life.

To walk circumspectly is to be heedful of the path of light and life. It is the path that reveals the character of God, a relationship with God, and a testimony of God in our lives. It is a path that manifests God’s love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Meditating upon God’s general word and His specific words to us in life will give us an awareness of the path of God’s will and kingdom in our lives. Meditating upon His word is not merely intellectually memorizing what He has said. It is embracing a personal relationship with Him in a process of desiring to know Him. Meditating upon God’s words will enable us to be filled with His Spirit. When we are filled with His Spirit, the words that we speak to one another are life-giving words that are true to who God is. We will embrace a path forward with one another with an awe of who God is in or lives.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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