ted4leaders

Greetings;

I hope you are all well and enjoying the transition of fall to winter. Such are the seasons!

I am going to continue today with the subject of leading the church as the ekklesia of God. I have proposed that the ekklesia of God is the bride of Christ. She is the life-giving womb of God in the earth. She is God’s means of bringing the realities of heaven to the earth. She is made of many members called together by the Holy Spirit to make kingdom decisions in this earth on behalf of her husband, Christ Jesus. She is the one who bears His name. His name is His character, nature, way, power, and authority. Wherever there is an expression of the body of Christ there is the governing rule of Christ.

Matthew 18: 18-20  “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

These verses reveal that the power of binding and loosing is in the hands of the church. More specifically, wherever two or three agree on earth having gathered together in His name it will be done. What does it mean to gather in His name? A name is a character, a nature, a way, a power, and an authority. It is not merely a label, but it is a substance. When two or three come together by the calling of the Holy Spirit there is a manifestation of the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Christ. Decisions that are made from that reality change the realities of the earth. In a democracy it takes a majority of an assembly to be a quorum when making decisions. In the kingdom of God it takes two or three to come together in Christ’s character, nature, way, power, and authority to be a quorum for kingdom of heaven decisions to be made in the kingdoms of the earth. This is the testimony of an ekklesia, an assembly of members called out by a town crier in order to make governmental decisions of the community. This is the condition upon the earth that makes heavenly decrees to change the environments of the worlds we live in. As leaders in the body of Christ we must lead in a way that facilitates quorums of God’s kingdom for heavenly changes in the earth. The town crier is the voice of the Holy Spirit instigating the Father’s will in the name of His Son. It is not merely reciting the name of Jesus and thinking that anything will happen, but facilitating the manifestation of Christ’s character, nature, way, power, and authority whereby anything can happen. When the family name is manifest the family way is implanted. It is a matter of relationship and intimacy, not a formula of power of ministry.

The sons of Sceva discovered that the power of heaven is not released by merely reciting the name of Jesus as though it was a label of endorsement for ministry and power.

Acts 19:13-16 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

In these verses we see that the demons were able to over power the sons of Sceva for their lack of substance. The demons knew who Jesus was and they knew who Paul was, but they did not see the mere words of the Sceva boys as a threat. It was the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Christ made manifest through Jesus the head or Paul as a part of the body of Christ that would cause them to flee, but not the mere reciting of a name. The substance of the name had to be present and that substance would be made known through the true testimony of Christ. The Holy Spirit comes in Jesus name and if He is not present there is not substance of Jesus name, even if His name is recited in words. There has to be a manifestation of the ekklesia in order for there to be an enforcement of Christ’s kingdom life to the world.

As leaders in the body of Christ we must lead to facilitate the manifestation of the name of Christ. The name of Jesus is only made known through the one who bears His name. She is bride of Christ, the eternal Eve joined to the eternal Adam of life! The testimony of the name of Jesus is seen in the anointing of Christ within and upon her in every moment of relationship with Him in heavenly places. Recognizing the voice of the town crier is more important than the implementation of mere Christian principles. Let’s be leaders who facilitate quorums of the kingdom of heaven upon the earth. Those quorums are manifestations of the family of God joined together with Jesus in His body of life. It is not a matter of facilitating power or anointing, but manifestations of intimacy in Christ. It is filled with members in agreement with one another in agreement with His presence. These are not mere words, but the fullness of His substance of life!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Hello;

Today I want to continue addressing the subject of leading the church as the ekklesia of God. Last week I proposed that the church is not just a group of Christian people gathered together to encourage one another in the Christian lifestyle and the principles of the Christian faith. She is a called out assembly of members of Christ’s body to make God’s governmental decisions in the earth. Simply stated, she is the means by which God brings life to the world. The church is God’s ruling bride in the earth. The church is the life-giving womb of God in the earth. She is the helpmate of Jesus Christ, the eternal Adam. She is in fact the eternal Eve. She bears the name of her husband. The body of Christ is in fact bone of Christ’s bones and flesh of His flesh. Jesus Christ the head and Christ the body are one testimony of the likeness and the image of God the Father in heaven and in the earth.

Ephesians 5:31,32 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 

As leaders in the church we must understand this truth. We do not lead to create mere institutes of the Christian faith. We lead to activate, facilitate, and release the body of Christ to be who she is with Jesus Christ her head. She is the Proverbs, Chapter 31 woman. She is the one who deals in the real estate of the earth on behalf of her husband. Jesus Christ is seated in the place that is above all powers. I believe that the apostle Paul understood this truth.

Ephesians 1:18-23  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

The church is the body of Christ. She, together with her head Jesus, is the fullness of Christ who fills all in all. She is one with Jesus Christ in His authority and has been given authority over every rule, authority, power, dominion, and name in the earth. This is the ekklesia of God. This is the church, the called out assembly of the members of Christ’s body that brings life to the world. She is the life-giving womb of God in the midst of the nations and the generations of men.

In order to understand this we have to look at the original mandate of God given to men. In the beginning God created mankind, male and female He created them. He did not make Eve to be a helper of Adam for Adam’s own purposes, but to be the feminine expression of God’s masculine/feminine nature in the testimony of mankind. God is both a life protector and a life giver. He releases the seed of life and He also germinates that seed of life. He is a good God and brings life to the world. Eve was to be a helpmate with Adam in the task of revealing the likeness and image of their heavenly Father in the earth.

Genesis 1:26-28   Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 2:7,8 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. 

Genesis 2: 20-24 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

These verses reveal that the joining of a man and a woman together is the means by which God commission’s men to fulfill the mandate in the earth. The mandate is not merely a task of purpose, but the fruit of relationship. That mandate is to be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and have dominion. The wife is not joined to the husband to fulfill the purposes of the husband. The wife is joined to the husband to fulfill the purposes of God the Father in the earth. The means by which this purpose is fulfilled is through a love of the man and the woman towards God and towards one another. This is the testimony of human kind. This is the testimony of Adam and Eve as the inheritance of God in the earth.

The ultimate commissioning of God’s redemption of mankind came at the last shedding of blood by Jesus Christ, the Son of Man. Jesus pronounced it “finished” and then He willingly gave up His Spirit. Just as the first Adam was put to sleep naturally in order to see the natural expression of Eve formed from his side, so this Jesus went to sleep both naturally and spiritually in order to see a Spirit anointed, naturally expressed bride formed as the body of Christ in the earth.

John 19: 32-34 So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

I believe that the testimony of blood and water from the side of Jesus was a sign to the inevitable Spirit anointed body of Christ to be joined as bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh in the earth. The commissioning of the body of Christ in the upper room some fifty days after Christ’s resurrection was a testimony to the reality of the anointed bride of Christ in the earth. She is the ultimate expression of God’s purpose in the earth. It is about a man and a woman and that man is Jesus Christ the head and the woman is Christ the body in the earth. As leaders we must lead for this purpose. I will continue with this in next week’s blog.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

As leaders in the Body of Christ it is important that we understand the purpose of the Church. Before we can understand the purpose of the Church, we must understand what the Church actually is. We often think of the Church as a group of Christian people gathered together to encourage one another in the Christian lifestyle and the principles of the Christian faith. This is not what the word “Church” means as Christ commissioned it as the New Testimony for a redeemed human race.

The word “Church” is taken from the Greek word “ekklesia”. It literally means a called out assembly. It comes from the Greek word “eke”, a primary preposition denoting origin (the point whence action or motion proceeds), from, out (of place, time, or cause; literal or figurative; direct or remote) and the Greek word “kaleo” meaning; to “call” (properly, aloud, but used in a variety of applications, directly or otherwise). In the time of Christ using this word it was a political term used in the Greek culture. It literally meant “an assembly of citizens summoned by the crier, the legislative assembly”.

Liddell and Scott define ekklesia as “an assembly of citizens summoned by the crier, the legislative assembly.” [R. Scott, and H.G. Liddell, A Greek-English Lexicon, p. 206.] Thayer’s lexicon states that the ekklesia is, “an assembly of the people convened at the public place of council for the purpose of deliberating” [J. H. Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 196]. Trench gives the meaning as “the lawful assembly in a free Greek city of all those possessed of the rights of citizenship, for the transaction of public affairs” [R.C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, 7th ed., pp. 1-2]. Seyffert’s dictionary states, “The assembly of the people, which in Greek cities had the power of final decision in public affairs” [Oskar Seyffert, A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, pp. 202-203]. From “fully after the LORD” by Steve Flinchum http://www.bryanstation.com/flinchum-fully.htm

Leadership is greatly affected by our definition of what we lead. If we lead for the purpose of the facilitation of a group of Christian people gathered together to encourage one another in the Christian lifestyle and the principles of the Christian faith we will carry some measure of significance, but we will miss the fuller picture of what Jesus meant. Let’s look at the verses that initiate this concept of “Church” for those that Jesus’ was commissioning as a New Testimony of a redeemed human race.

Jesus had gathered His disciples and He was asking them who men said He was. They responded by saying that many people believed He was a great prophet and even a further testimony of a great prophet of the past. Jesus then asked them who they said He was and Simon Peter received a revelation from heaven.

Matthew 16:16-19 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” 

The revelation given to Peter was that Jesus was the Christ. He was actually the Son of the living God, the anointed Messiah of mankind. Jesus acknowledged that this understanding didn’t come by natural thought, but was in fact a revelation from His Father in heaven to the heart of Peter. One who heard by the Holy Spirit was defined as a rock that day. Peter means “little rock”, but Jesus said that upon a “huge rock” He would build His Church. I believe that that “huge rock” was not just Christ, but the revealing of Christ that came by hearing the revelation given by the Father in heaven. The thing that Jesus said would be build by that revelation was His Church. It was His called out assembly for governmental decision in the earth. It was His Bride, His Wife, His co-partner in heaven and earth. That Church would prevail against the gates of Hades. Hades is the realm of the dead. The testimony of the Church would be a greater power than the gates of death in the heavenlies and upon earth. Those who have a revelation of Christ would be like Peter and would be given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. They would be given the power of the government of heaven. They would be able to bind on earth things decreed from heaven to see them bound in heaven. They would be able to loose on earth things decreed from heaven to see them loosed in heaven. Those with a revelation of Christ in their midst would be a called out assembly of divinely empowered believers equipped to make heavenly decisions upon the earth for supernatural releases of heaven to the earth. The influences of the realm of the dead would meet the influence of life from the kingdom of heaven. The Church would be the testimony of Christ in the earth.

I will be addressing this subject for the month of November. For today, consider what it means to be the Church, the Body of Christ. Consider what it means to be called a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ. It is more than mere Christian gatherings and Christian encouragement. It is a matter of life to the world!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

I have been writing this month on covenant team leadership. I have presented that the glue of any team is that of friendship. Jesus didn’t come to make us mere servants or employees of His kingdom. He came to make us part of the family and the true element of family is not found in flesh and blood. It is found in flesh and spirit. It is a matter of relationship connection. It is a matter of friendship.

Today I am going to present some essential ingredients to a leadership team. I believe that in order to have a strong leadership team, every member on the team must increasingly grow in knowing who they are. I am not merely talking about their gifting and talents. I am talking about their character qualities, including their strengths and their weaknesses. The last thing any team needs is for the members of the team to try to be someone they are not. When each member fulfills his or her role there is the strength of harmony in a spirit of unity.

It is not just our successes that define us, but it is very often our failures. If you are a mercy gifted person than mercy is you downfall. It is also a part of your significance to the team. If you are a strong leader, than being a strong leader is your downfall, but it is also your measure of grace. If you see things in the details, then you can get lost in the details. You can also save others by the details. If you are a headliner in nature, than you may miss the details of a matter due to your intense focus on the headlines. I like to think of a team like a city. In the city there should be a great hospital. There should be a great library. A city should include business, education, training, recreation, and anything that you find in a community. Each member of a team will carry a strength for certain attributes in the city, but not every member of the team will have the grace to see the big picture of the city. Every team should be led by someone who has a strong grace to see the big picture of the team, like the big picture for the city. If every member of a team can know their strengths then they can also be aware of their own weaknesses that come from those strengths. Every member of a team has equal value, but not every member of a team has equal authority. Authority comes out of responsibility and with authority comes an anointing for that responsibility. Anointing doesn’t always equate to authority, but authority will release anointing. There are various degrees and measures of responsibility within a team and each member must know who they are. They must know who they are in their gifting and in their character.

Each member of a team must be dependant upon God and upon others to know who they are. It is never about individual members of the team, but rather about how each individual contributes to the full expression of the team. God is first and foremost at the core of any leadership team. The objective of the team is the will of God, not the will of members nor a leader of a team. When each member of the team is dependant upon God and dependant upon one another they find greater definition to who they are in the team.

It is essential that team members must increasingly know who God is and who the others are in the team. It is paramount that team members seek to know who one another are. Team members should draw the strength of the other team members into the team. All the members of a team must learn to depend upon the strengths of one another. This includes each member’s discernment of who God is. Together the members of a team can bring greater clarity and definition to who God is and how is guiding the team.

Every team member has a unique strength. It is the uniqueness of team members that makes a team strong. Unity is not found in conformity. You don’t want every member of the team to be the same nor think the same. It is through diversity that true unity is attained. This means that team leadership has within it healthy differences in view points. Each member sees things from a different angle. It is an iron sharpening iron dynamic that makes a team more ready for direction. There can never be a disagreeable spirit in a team, but there must be expression of different views. Those views should never be based upon the mere opinion of team members. Their hearing of God in any matter, not human preferences, should inspire the diversity of viewpoints.

Every team must understand the importance of team and corporate effectiveness. An understanding of being better off together than they are apart should be a prevailing attitude in the team. Every team must know that there is equal value of membership in a team, but not equal responsibility of authority. The authority of the team as a whole is an equal measure, but the individual contribution to that aim varies with measures within the team. Someone has the responsibility of leading the team. This is a greater measure of specific authority, but an equal measure of authority in the corporate purpose of the team. Remember, authority doesn’t equal someone’s value. It is just a measure of their responsibility. It is important that team members know their own measures of rule and the measures of rule of others in the team.

Team members must be confidant in who they are. There is no room for false humility on a team. False humility is just another form of pride. No one can think more highly of themselves than they should nor can they shrink back from accepting their God-given grace for the team. Be confidant in who you are.

Healthy team members make healthy teams. Every team member must seek to be filled with joy. In the presence of the Lord there is fullness of joy and when team members come together it should be a joyful thing. Team member need to enjoy being with one another. This is a spiritual secret of life and it will create a healthy team. Be filled with joy.

Each team member must have a generational focus. They must see the team and their part in the team as something that brings life to the future generations. Team members must live for the present in a way that inspires the destiny of generations. Their leadership should have a generational focus and not a mere lifetime hope of good things. It is an awesome responsibility being a leader in the kingdom of God! It is about the children and the children’s children. With this in mind, team members must live to replace themselves in the generations they lead.

The actions of a kingdom team must be for the future of others. No team or its members should live for themselves. This includes their motives and agendas. They must see leadership as a gift to people, not a gift that people serve. Like a pitcher filled with water they must tip in the direction of the empty glass. Their purpose is to lead, not to be followed.

Teams must look for divine connections for covenant relationships. This is how teams grow and this is how teams connect to other teams that create a greater purpose and destiny. God knows what He is doing when he puts people together. He doesn’t just put people together for purpose; He puts people together to live in the fullness of life.

My final word of encouragement to any team is to know that there is an open heaven over your life. There is an open heaven over each individual on the team and there is an open heaven over the team. God likes you! He wants to give you wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. He will anoint you for every purpose and every task. He is good and He loves you and the purpose of the team.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Leader7  Audio Teach For October

Leader7 PDF file for October

Greetings;

Let me start today’s blog with a reminder that the body of Christ is a Theocracy, God speaks and we respond to His will. The leadership team of any corporate expression of Christ must lead in response to God’s will of leading. I have written in regard to this in my earlier blogs.

Today I want to address some key ingredients to a leadership team. Each member of a leadership team must first know that he or she is a part of the team because God has divinely called him or her as a leader with specific God-given responsibilities. Each leader’s responsibilities are given to them by God and not merely by men. Each leader must carry the weight of this responsibility. It is God who appoints leaders, since leaders are a gift from God to those they lead.

Because leaders are divinely called and appointed to be in this position of responsibility together, the members of the team must choose to seek to develop a relationship with one another. As I stated in my earlier blogs, friendship is the glue of any covenant team.

The task of leadership should never exceed the friendship found among members of the team. This is not an either/or option among the members of the team. Relationship and function are both essential ingredients in the team. Team members should seek to love and honor one another within the team. They must keep in mind that this is not a license for personal agendas, motives, or attitudes among team members. The basis of friendship and function in a leadership team are both God ordained and Spirit led. These together will propagate life within the team.

Each member of the team must understand that due to human uniqueness there will be misunderstandings, different perspectives, different opinions, disagreements, and even unintentional offenses at times. Members of the team must work through every challenge with a spirit of love and understanding. Each member must be committed through the bonds of love to seek to resolve any communication difficulties. Leadership purpose must be the goal with friendship and function as the ingredients of life within that purpose.

As communication challenges arise between any of the members of the team, each team member must commit to approach one another on the basis of relationship and submission in order to seek to resolve any misunderstandings and maintain a spirit of unity within the team. Team members must give one another the right to go to the other team members on their behalf to help work out any communication difficulties. They should even request such action of one another. The motive of this is never to prove any member’s personal point. This is for the sake of friendship and a spirit of life in the team. Whatever atmosphere exists in the leadership team will also pervade in the body they lead. The spirit of the team should be one of family and faith for one another. A spirit of comfort, exhortation, and encouragement should always exist within the life of the team in order to propagate an atmosphere of mercy and grace.

Team members must accept that it is ok to disagree on matters at times, but it is never ok to carry a spirit of disagreement among one another. Differing views and diversity of opinions is part of the sound of harmony within the team as long as views and opinions are not presented as the absolute truth for the team. The God-sent leader to the team is sent to have the final articulation of the will of God to those they lead, but diversity of expression within the team enables the lead leader to articulate the full will of God in a matter. The implementation of this can differ for different styles of teams, but the principle of leadership and authority must be the way of any team operation.

Each team member must resolve that he or she is committed to the other members of the team and to the common purpose as leaders. Members must choose to commit their conversations, their attitudes, and their thoughts toward one another to the grace of God and to their ability to love and support each other as fellow team members.

Each individual member of the team lives for God and for God’s purposes in his or her area of ministry responsibility. In dependence upon God the team commits to make all their strategies, decisions, and actions and they must rely upon God’s grace to bring His people into His inheritance and to propagate this destiny.

Leaders must remember that they do not represent the people. They represent God’s leading to the people. Members of the leadership team represent the sent leader to the team or to any expression of the team and the entire team represents the will of God for leadership to those they lead.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

I have been writing in regard to the focus of a covenant leadership team. Today I want to just share my heart a bit as to what I feel is the glue of a covenant team. I stated last week that friendship is essential among the members of a covenant team. Friendship includes the element of liking one another. Unfortunately, many people view the concept of “liking one another” through a contract paradigm and not a covenant one. In a contract certain conditions are met that benefit the mutual members of the team. That contract is binding as long as the conditions are met that benefit the members of the team. A contract mentality is susceptible to offenses that will erode the substance of love and destroy the atmosphere of life in the relationship of a team. When the needs of a team member fail to be met by another member their relationship with that member is shaken and they can become induced to make natural judgments according to natural understanding in regard to their connection on the team. The team member feels they are not receiving what they should receive on the team and they become offended.

In a covenant leadership team the binding purpose of the team is not the team. It is one of pleasing the Father and living for the children and the children’s children. The focus of the team is not the team. It is something beyond the team. Being disconnected from one another is not an option, since the life of the team is seen in the fruit of the team. Fruit brings life and energy to others. Something of the team is meant to bring life to those they lead.

Although purpose is a strong element that spawns a furtherance of connection in a covenant team, there is something greater than purpose. I believe that is divine connection. God is the one who joins us in true friendships. I can’t say that the disciples of Jesus would have likely sought one another out to create a covenant leadership team. Jesus, however, did seek them out and He divinely joined them together that they might become a team. Only one member failed and that was Judas. He failed to live to please the Father and he failed to live for the future of the children and the children’s children. He didn’t have a revelation of covenant and therefore he fell short of the covenant purpose of the team. Jesus made it known to the disciples that the strength of their team was one of friendship with God and friendship with one another. I believe that the disciples were given a great gift and that gift included the ability to embrace a divine connection that inspired a love for God and one another.

The enemy seeks to destroy relationships, because relationships are the key to the inheritance of God in the earth. Offences seek to destroy commitments. Offences lead to judgments and judgments will resist faith actions in a relationship that will fortify self-preserving defensive acts that begin to establish walls of disconnection. Without an understanding of friendship a members of a team can become self-seeking in their motives and defilements will propagate self-testimonies that close the heart to corporate realities of the team. Disconnections by differences will set foundations for self-seeking divisiveness. A force like the power of the prophetic becomes a destructive power of negative attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions. There is no submission, but only subversion due to differences. The measuring of things in the relationship becomes self-focused and apathy spawns a care for external things above the relationship. Logic and reasoning bind the failing members to a stronghold of atrophy toward the future. The result is a divorce and a loss of destiny in the relationship.

Every God-ordained relationship must have within it increasing measures of commitment, faith, response, submission, contribution, love, and dedication. The foundation for these things is to first of all know that it is God who has joined the members of the team. We must then choose to seek to be friends above all else in order for God’s unfolding plan of purpose to prevail for every season of the team. The foundation of our friendship is that God has joined us together and that our lives together will bring life to others because of us. We choose to seek to be friends and in choosing to be friends we find that we actually are friends. Even in the area of our differences we find the greatest strength of connection when we choose to be friends. Friendship is the way of a covenant team.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

This month I am addressing the attributes of a covenant leadership team. Last week I presented the importance for leaders to make seeking the Father’s will a priority in their responsibility as leaders. I also presented the need for leaders to give their lives to love God and the local body within their care for the sake of the hope and destiny of the coming generations. Covenant leaders lead to fulfill the Father’s will and for the posterity of the generations to come as a result of their covenant role as leaders.

I believe that God is calling for covenant leadership team leadership in the body of Christ. We cannot confuse covenant leadership with contract leadership. What is the difference between a contract team and a covenant team?

In a contract two or more parties commit their individual selves for the fulfillment of the contract agreement. A contract is a formal or legally binding agreement holding all parties to the terms of the agreement. Certain conditions are spelled out in a contract that guarantee certain benefits to the parties of the contract as long as the participating parties meet the conditions of the contract. The word “contract” also means to shrink or make something smaller. It can mean, “to become tighter or draw together”.  I believe that a contract is meant to restrain the participants of its agreement from straying outside of the boundaries of the conditions of the contract. In this sense a contract can serve to limit the parties within the agreement.

A biblical covenant is a compact made by passing between two pieces of flesh. Covenant members of the Church pass through the broken pieces of the Body of Christ to select the Father, feed on Him, and render all to Him. Whereas a contract can be made between two or more parties for a common purpose a covenant is made by two or more parties to become a common entity. A contract allows different parties to befit from one another, while remaining separate in their identity. To be in covenant is to be one in the same body, house, or habitation. Members of the covenant maintain their uniqueness, but their diversity contributes to their unity as one team.  A covenant team makes their lives broken for one another that they might pass between the pieces to enter into one place of habitation. Members of a covenant team select one another, feed on one another, and give their lives to one another for the sake one another and the whole. A marriage is an example of the highest form of human covenant whereas the members become one flesh. This is not a contract for common benefits, but an all in giving of each member’s life for the life of the other.

A covenant is a commitment to fully identify with one another. It involves a sharing all possessions in the covenant. A covenant leadership team shares in the responsibility of stewardship and testimony of their God-given sphere of influence. The covenant testimony of a marriage is the sharing of one another’s life for the glory of the other and their life together as one. There is a loyalty to one another no matter what the cost might be. Although a covenant leadership team is not as high of covenant as marriage, it can be a level of covenant.

I believe that God’s wants leadership in the Church to be a covenant team. I have four apostolic friends in this world that I have entered into a covenant relationship with. We have not joined in our relationship to get anything from one another, but we are bound to give our lives to one another for God’s glory in our covenant connection in life.

A covenantal team will fully identify with one another as members constituting one team. They will commit to be themselves for the sake of their corporate selves. They are committed to the team no matter the cost (never violating higher covenants). No human covenant can violate an individual’s covenant with God. No leadership covenant can violate the covenant of marriage. There are different levels of covenant, but covenants recognize that they are there to contribute to the cause and testimony of the other members of the covenant. The members of the covenant team relate to God through one another in regards to the team.

I believe that the covenant glue of a leadership team is friendship (John 15:12-17). True friendship is not based upon a command to be friends, but the covenant of friendship is based upon a continually renewed revelation of God’s love for each member of the team and each member’s love for one another. If the glue of a leadership team is true God-given friendship, true God-given friendship will be found in the atmosphere and substance of those they lead. A friend is one who embraces a common objective and aim, one with whom life is shared (The Passionate Church – Breen & Kallestad). They love to hang out together, share the workload, and linger after teaching sessions to discuss what they have heard and what it means (The Passionate Church – Breen & Kallestad). Friends can disagree with one another, but are never disagreeable in their attitudes towards one another. I believe that friendship is essential to a covenant leadership team.

The Basis of Covenant For a Leadership Team:

1. We are here to give glory to the Father’s name (Mal. 2:2).
2. We will speak only life giving words of love for God and love for people, not critical ones (Mal. 2:7).
3. We will point all to the Father (Mal. 2:10).
4. We will not make personal agendas or personal ministry our mistress (Mal 2:11).
5. We will live and lead for the future of the Body, for its children, and its children’s children (Mal 2:13-15).
6. We will love God and have a covenantal and relational commitment to His Bride (Mal. 2:14,15).
7. We know that to live for ourselves is to live for divorce (Mal 2:16) – we will live for the family of God.
8. We know that to live for our own vindication or justification is to live for divorce (Mal. 2:17) – we will live for the future of this house and God’s kingdom.

We verbally agree to these statements together, but rely upon God’s grace to be found faithful in them. We agree with and to these statements as a leadership team, but admit without God’s grace we cannot be empowered to fulfill them. We invoke God’s manifest presence with and upon our lives together to be the leaders He has called us to be and know that only By God’s grace we can. We agree to walk in relationship with one another and hope to see God’s life make these things true with us as a team. We hope that God will make these things to be a covenant reality in our lives and ask that He will.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

This month I am going to address some ingredients of a covenant leadership team. I believe that God wants to establish expressions of His covenant life in the body of Christ and not mere Christian principles. This requires a deeper level of leadership.

What is the proper passion and focus for being a qualified covenant leader? In this month’s blog topic I will examine the spirit of covenant as it pertains to leading in God’s house. Malachi, Chapter 2, describes the spirit of divorce that breaches covenant and causes leaders to abandon passion and the true responsibility of being leaders in God’s house. The address of the chapter is to the priests (Mal. 2:1). In the New Covenant every believer is called to be a priest unto God, but as leaders we are called to set the example as a priest unto God before the people of God. I will apply the keys of this chapter in Malachi to leaders as examples before God’s people.

Malachi 2:1,2 And now, O priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not hear, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to My name,” says the LORD of hosts, “I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart.”

In this passage of Scripture the priests were commanded to hear what God says to give glory to His name. As leaders we must hear what God says to give glory to His name. The family of God is to give glory to the Father’s name and as leaders we must lead in a way that sets an example of hearing God. We do not lead according to mere principles of faith, but we lead by the faith that comes by hearing God. If we do not lead by hearing God we are left short of God’s blessings. The goal of any leadership team must be to give glory to the Father’s name, because this is a goal of every expression of the body of Christ.

Malachi 2:3, 4  Behold, I will rebuke your descendants and spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts; and one will take you away with it. Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD of hosts.

How we respond to God’s voice affects our descendants (the future of the church). As leaders we must take the responsibility of hearing God as a serious thing. Our ability or inability to hear God will affect the future generations of the church. God wants us to have a relationship with Him more than he wants our religious activity or mere forms of serving Him. We must lead to enable everyone within our care to hear God for the future generations of his or her life.

Malachi 2:5, 6  My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear Me; so he feared Me and was reverent before My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity.

As leaders we must seek a face-to-face relationship with God. It is from the place of intimacy with God that we find life and peace. Our objective as leaders is to inspire and lead those within our care to an intimate relationship with God. We do this through expressing the truth of God through the words of our lives. Those words are more than our speech. They are the very expressions of our lives. God’s truth must be in our mouths in order to turn many away from iniquity. We do not judge people for their sin, but we lead to give them victory over the weaknesses of the flesh. Iniquity is the propensity to transgress that leads to sin. Sin is a disconnection from God. It is seeking a legitimate need in an illegitimate place. We are called to turn many away from iniquity by leading them into the place of life and peace in Christ.

Malachi 2:7  For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

Leaders must speak truth and see themselves as messengers of the Lord. In order to do this I believe another goal of a God sent and anointed leadership team is to speak only life-giving words of love for God and for people. These are not critical words for the purpose of tearing people down. This kind of leadership will inspire the members of any expression of the body of Christ to do likewise. This does not mean that leaders do not have the responsibility of bringing correction or rebuke at times. It means that any expression of leadership given must be for the edification of the body and not for its destruction.

Malachi 2:8,9
“But you have departed from the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of hosts. “Therefore I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept My ways but have shown partiality in the law.”

Leaders set the example in keeping God’s way before the people. Their example makes a way for others to stand strong in loving God and one another and it inspires them not to stumble. Our way of life as leaders is more important than any words we attempt to teach. We must set an example of dependency upon God and be vulnerable in sharing our failures in order to inspire a dependency upon God. Self-righteousness is not covenant value, God dependency is. Leaders cannot show partiality in loving God in some things, but not in others. Our way of life is the key to loving God and loving people and that way of life is dependant upon the grace of God at work within us.

Malachi 2:10
Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers?

As leaders we reveal the Father to those we lead. Our objective is not just to lead but also to point all we lead to the Father. Revealing people, as the family of God is the objective, not presenting commandments of an impersonal God. Leaders are representations of God as spiritual dad’s and moms, but they are not a replacement for God the Father of all people. We cannot build the kingdoms of men, but we rather lead to inspire the testimony of the kingdom of God. We must have a goal as leaders of pointing all to God the Father.

Malachi 2:11  Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the Lord’s holy institution which He loves: he has married the daughter of a foreign god.

Leaders must be true to God as the Father of His family. We can never make personal agendas or personal ministry our mistress. When ministry becomes our priority we are playing the harlot before God. Relationship must be a priority and ministry is simply a means of expressing and inspiring that relationship. We live to please God, not to please ourselves.

Malachi 2:12, 13  May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, being awake and aware, and who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts. And this is the second thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and crying; so He does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with good will from your hands.

We lead to give life to others, not to take from them. Activating, facilitating, and releasing the life of God in others is a great joy. It is a privilege and not a misery. We must see leading others as a joy. If we lead for any purpose that is less than giving our all as a joy of loving God we are serving an obligation, a pain, or some kind of drudgery. This is an impure offering and brings a dishonor to God.

Malachi 2:14, 15 Yet you say, “For what reason?” because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

Leaders lead with joy because they lead for the future generations of the family of God. Leaders must live and lead for the future of the body. They must lead for the children and the children’s children. Another primary objective of leadership is to love God and have a covenantal and relational commitment to His Bride. I call this a 100-year plan. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Israel. He is the God of Paul, Timothy, Faithful Men, and Others Also. The heart of leadership must be to see God as God in every successive generation that follows. This must be the attitude and spirit of a covenantal leadership team.

Malachi 2:16  “For the LORD God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence,” says the LORD of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”

If leaders don’t live for these things it creates an open door for a spirit of divorce. Divorce is the ultimate abandonment of destiny. To not live for the Father and for the future generations of God’s children is an invitation to a spirit of divorce. Leaders must know that if they live for themselves they are choosing to ultimately life for a spirit of divorce. Leaders must live for the family of God!

Malachi 2:17  You have wearied the LORD with your words; yet you say, “In what way have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”

To live for the Father and His family is righteous, true, and the life of any leadership team! Leaders must never lead in a way that presents a spirit of or an agenda for personal vindication. If leaders live for their own vindication or justification is to live for divorce. Leaders must life for the future of the house and God’s kingdom.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

In this month’s blogs I have been addressing the subject of belief, action, imagination, and influence. I have also been presenting these four things as blessing, multiplication, possession, and influence. These were the four basic elements of the really good news preached to Abraham (Genesis 22:15-18). The good news (gospel) is not merely about going to heaven when we die, but rather it is about knowing God in this life and bringing the life of God to wherever we live. By knowing God we know who we are. In Christ we are the blessings of God and God is blessing us. We are the expansion of His goodness with the multiplication of our lives to our measures of rule in this earth. We have a great inheritance and we are leaving a legacy of heavenly possession in the generations of men. Because of this the families of the earth are being influenced by the blessings of God. This was the testimony of Jesus Christ who gave His life for the nations of the world. As leaders we must lead with this purpose.

In one of my previous blogs I mentioned a vision that I had in the mid 1980s. In the vision I was standing in my city were there is often a gathering of young people. Above me I could see a principality and he had three large chains extending from the ground to three sides of his body. The chains were each stretched tightly as the principality stretched them to his place of standing in the air. He was shouting out belligerently. He declared, “There is no God!” “There are no absolutes!” Then I heard someone say, “Pull him down”, and some began to focus on him and try to pull him from his place of standing. Then I heard God say. “I don’t want him down. I want him out of here!” I turned with my side to the principality and I lifted my hands and began to worship God. I saw thousands of young people stand with me and they raised their hands in worship to God just as I was. Jesus began to come down in bodily form in the midst of the people. As He did, I could hear the breaking of the chains holding the principality. The presence of Jesus was dispossessing the ability for the principality to be held to the ground. As I stated in my blog on this matter, God was revealing to me that the way to destroy the power of the enemy was to fill the place of its standing with an expression of the body of Christ.

A few years after that vision I was part of a ministry that made the error of challenging the influencing powers of religion and greed in our city. It was a quick work for us to be tumbled as a ministry. We were religious and greedy and thus we had no ability to dispossess the influencing powers of greed and religion. God’s way was to divinely join a handful of religious and greedy people who would be committed to and intimate with God in a way that allowed the power of the Holy Spirit transform them be non-religious and generous in their beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influence in the world. A body of people had to know that they were blessed to be free from religion and that they were the blessing of Christ’s liberty in this world. They had to know they were blessed with the generosity of Christ and that they were a blessing of God’s generosity. A body of people had to begin to take actions of Christ’s liberty and Christ’s generosity in their daily lives. They had to believe for a multi-generational expression of that freedom and generosity. Their hearts had to become filled with hope and strategy for the future inheritance of God being given to them. A body of people had to become an influencing expression of Christ’s liberty and generosity in the community and every sphere of their expanding influence in life. This is the way of the good news found in Christ! I have seen this to be true in the generations of Abundant Life in Bellingham, Washington. I have seen the expanding influence of freedom and generosity touch the community and many parts of the world. God is good and His way is wise! There is no end to His government and peace!

As leaders God will join us with others that matche our life message in order for us to walk out our God-given call as leaders. What we believe determines how we will act. How we act will determine where we invest our imagination. Where we make our investments is where we will influence the world. If we are called to be leaders, then we are called to expand the message of our own lives into the lives of others. It will have everything to do with our beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influence. We cannot lead in Christ’s body with mere Christian principles. We must lead to facilitate the testimony of the Principality Christ Jesus. This means that we will lead according to the testimony of Christ’s grace given to us for the good news of Christ’s kingdom. As leaders we are called to influence this world with a people and not merely ourselves. That means we will be involved in the ministry of transforming the beliefs of human hearts. We will be involved in activating the actions of transformed beliefs. We will be focused on a testimony of flesh made into the word of God for the generations of inheritance. We will be involved in changing the world by bringing the blessings of Christ’s influence to the families of the earth.

What is your life message? Are you joined to a body with notes and stanzas to your life’s song? Are you joined to a body that has the poetry of your poem? Are you joined with other leaders who carry the DNA of your testimony? What are the beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influences of your generations? These are the measures of the good news of Christ in you! Let’s be leaders for the glory of God’s covenant with Abraham. We can transform this world for the glory of God!

I believed, therefore, I acted. I acted, therefore, I dreamed. I dreamed, therefore, my children and my children’s children were born with vision. My family was born with vision therefore other families of the earth were blessed.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Leader5a  Monthly Audio Teaching

Leader5  PDF Teaching

Greetings;

Today I am going to continue to address the issue of the stature of Christ in the body of Christ. I wrote on this a few weeks back in the Monday blog, but I feel that it is essential for this segment of my leadership input.

As leaders in the New Covenant we must lead in a way that transforms the beliefs of men and women to come in agreement with the beliefs of God and His kingdom. Those beliefs are manifested in the image of Christ. Our responsibility as leaders is to lead in a way that inspires Christ to be manifested within the life of each believer and  in any corporate expression of His body for the glory of God. We are not called to merely teach godly principles or a “Christian way of life”. We are called as leaders to activate, facilitate, and release the testimony of Christ in the lives of believers.

There is a great story in the Scripture where Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream (Dan. 2:31-45). The dream troubled him and he gave an order for his counselors and wise men to tell him his dream and its interpretation. God blessed Daniel and his friends with the dream and its interpretation. In the dream King Nebuchadnezzar saw a great statue of extraordinary splendor. It had a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, waist and thighs of brass, and legs of iron with feet of iron and clay. Then a stone not cut with human hands struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. The crushing of the feet of the statue caused the entire substance of the statue to be crushed and become like chaff from the summer threshing floor and the wind carried them away so there was no trace left of the statue. The stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. The interpretation of the dream revealed that Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of Babylon was the head of gold, King Cyrus and the Mede Persian kingdom was the chest and arms of silver, Alexander the great and the kingdom of Greece was the waist and thighs of brass, and the legs of iron with feet of iron and clay was indicative of the kingdom of Rome and its carnal ruler Nero. In the time of Rome the rock of Christ would destroy the kingdoms of self by crushing the selfish beliefs of men through the selfless sacrifice of Jesus and His God willed resurrection as Christ the head and body to change the world.

I believe this image was not limited to the four nations represented in it, but that the four nations represented in it were a testimony of the image of man throughout all time. What should have been the image of the heavenly Father had become the glory of self. It revealed humanity in a self-righteous condition without dependence upon God. It took a human being, the Seed of Abraham, to crush the image of self by the testimony of the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person in flesh (Heb. 1:3). That human being was the man Jesus Christ.

The key to the destruction of the statue in the dream was a crushing of its feet. I believe that the iron of the feet was a testimony of the control of man. This was made manifest in the dictatorial rule of the Caesars of Rome. The feet of the statue were also a testimony of manipulation. The clay in the feet was a testimony of the will of man, as Rome was also a democracy. The statue stood upon a testimony of the will of a man and the will of the people, both reveal a belief system propagated by control and manipulation. This is only true when humanity bases its beliefs upon the knowledge of good and evil. Jesus was a man of grace and truth. He stood upon believing His heavenly Father and thus all of His standing was rooted in the Tree of Life.

The waist and thighs of brass in the statue were significant of the actions of the flesh that facilitate a judgmental rule of self. A belief based upon the knowledge of good and evil will inspire actions based upon good and evil, but those actions will be fear based and self-preserving in nature. They are actions of natural sight and are absent the substance of faith that expands a belief of love and life.

The chest and arms of silver in the statue were symbolic of the imaginations of the heart. Whereas the heart of Jesus caused Him to see the joy beyond the cross, the imaginations of the statue of self are self-gratifying imaginations and motives of the heart that sacrifice the future for the present realities of men. Those imaginations are centered upon self and not those that cause the children and the children’s children to possess the gates of their enemies. Rather than being blessers with the hands of inheritance, they live as takers with the hands of self-gratification.

The head of gold was a testimony of the influence of self. Those influences are rooted in a belief system that desires to be blessed more than living to be a blessings. It is seen through the reality of actions that are not willing to yield, but done to take whatever is needed to preserve the image of self. Those actions are actions of addition and not those of multiplication. Self-preserving actions propagate self-gratifying imaginations that spend tomorrow’s inheritance today and leave the generations bankrupt in their ability to possess the gates of the enemy.

Jesus destroyed the foundation of beliefs propagated by control and manipulation. Like the promise given to Abraham He knew He was born to be a blessing and therefore He lived to bring His Father’s blessings to the world. His beliefs were fully based upon a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD. He was not changed by the controls or the manipulations of men.

Jesus eradicated the actions of the flesh that facilitate the judgmental rule of self. Instead of seeking to add to His own life He lived to multiply. He lived to give to others. His actions were fully based upon a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD and were not influenced by the judgments of men.

Jesus transformed the self-gratifying motives of the heart to become life-giving imaginations of hope for our children and our children’s children. He lived for the generations and thus the imaginations of His heart were fully based upon a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD. His thoughts were for the future generations of men and his hands were the blessing hands of inheritance.

Jesus established the influence of the Father in our lives so we can influence the world with the inheritance of His name and not the influence of self. The families of the earth will be blessed because of the likeness and the image of the Father made known in the flesh of men. Jesus’ influence was fully based upon a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD. He didn’t attack influence with influence but eradicated it by the power to transform beliefs.

Jesus stood in a true heavenly belief that revealed a heavenly rule, a heavenly imagination, and heavenly influence for all mankind in the earth. He was the man who could see, listen, discern truth, and speak clearly on behalf of His heavenly Father in this world. He did this as a human being in this world and thus He has the power to transform the beliefs of humanity to change the world!

We are called, appointed, anointed to tear down the high places in the earth through the ministry of reconciliation to God in Christ. Those high places are the seat of heaven in the human heart. Where there is no gap between God and men in the human heart there is no end to the increase of His government and peace. When the Word and the Spirit conceive in the heart the place of heavenly belief is established and there is an empowerment of changed actions. Those actions stimulate the imaginations of the heart to believe for the peoples, nations, and generations of the world. It is through the power of the heart’s eye that we can believe for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done upon the earth as it is in heaven. Those changed beliefs, actions, and imaginations establish the principle things of heaven as an influence in and to the world in which we live. The stone of Christ and a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD will fill our lives with the glory of God!

Our leadership style must never be that of control and manipulation. We must lead to activate, facilitate, and release God inspired beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influences. All of these are rooted in a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD! We must lead to inspire others to live their lives on the foundation of a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD! It is a place of God-dependency and not self-sufficiency.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson