ted4leaders

Greetings,

I have been writing this month in regard to a 100-year plan. I have proposed that a 100-year plan is found in the promise that God gave to His friend Abraham. God told Abraham that in blessing He would bless him, in multiplying He would multiply him, his descendants would possess the gates of their enemy, and that through the Seed of Abraham all the families of the earth would be blessed. These are the ingredients of a 100-year plan. It begins with a man and then it extends to a third and fourth generation. When this principle is applied in each and every generation it creates a perpetual testimony of life-giving destiny in the earth. I believe that this is God’s way in things.

These four things comprise the basic substance of humanity and mankind’s      facilitation of spiritual forces of either good or evil. They are the issues of belief, action, imagination, and influence. These four things hold the power to bring about change in the earth. This is not a grace for mere blessings in our lives, but the very keys to unlock the destiny of our lives as those who rule in Christ. It all starts with the issue of belief in our lives.

Who you believe is whom you will be like. Who you believe determines what you believe. It is not what you believe that determines whom you believe, but whom you believe that determines what you believe. What you believe is the image that you will present to others, but it is all rooted in whom you believe. I believe that whom you believe determines who possesses the gates in your life. Who you believe determines who possesses the gates in the earth, because possessing the gates has to do with what you believe. Gates are places of influence. Gates are the power of true inheritance in the earth.

John 8:31, 32  Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

In these verses we see that Jesus was talking to Jews who believed Him. He was not talking to those who did not believe Him. He told those who believed Him that if they were to abide in the words that God speaks personally to them they would know truth that would bring a power of freedom. The word translated as “word” in this Scripture is the Greek word “rhema”. It is not the word “logos”. Rhema is a personal expression given directly to someone.  The secret to knowing truth is not in something that God has already said. It isn’t in believing something that God had said. It is found in believing God. True belief in the person God would enable men to receive truth from God. It would enable them to receive a substance of inheritance from the one who gives inheritance, but the secret would be a close relationship with God where inheritance could be received.

Who you believe determines who possesses the gates. Who possesses the place of heaven in the earth? Who possesses the high places in the earth? Whoever possesses the gates, possesses the places of influence. God’s covenant promise to us is that our descendants should possess the gates of their enemies. This is part of God’s inheritance in the earth.

When inheritances are given they remain in the earth. These are the things that create places for the coming generations to stand. We stand in the inheritances given by those before us and we walk forward to expand those inheritances to the generations beyond us. God’s covenant promise to men is that wherever the soles of their feet walk it will become the possession of their inheritance. Money is not for spending, Money is meant to change the world. Wealth isn’t given to merely gratify the pleasures of a generation. Wealth of any kind is meant to influence the world. It is not the destiny of any generation to spend the inheritances given from the previous generations upon themselves. Inheritance is meant to influence the generations of men. The riches of inheritance far exceed the value of mere things and those valuable things are a power of influence in the world.

Jesus came to this world as a man so that through Him all the families of the earth could be blessed. Going to heaven is a fringe benefit of believing in Jesus, but bringing heaven to the world in which we live is a part of our destiny. We are called to advance the kingdom of God in the earth. We are called to bring the kingdoms of this world into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. We must receive the inheritances given to us by God to pass them on the generations that follow our lives in this earth.

God’s promise to Abraham was not a promise to a man. It was a promise to his house. The good news given to Abraham was that he could trust in the Promiser. He could trust in the one who gave a promise and that He could change the world through the house of Abraham. The strength of the world is that they think they are the house, but they are not the house. The weakness of the church is they don’t know they are the house, therefore, they long to go to God’s house in some place in the sky. All God has every wanted is to tabernacle with men. All he wanted to do was to move in the neighborhood of humanity and satisfy the human heart.

We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing from God in heavenly places, but we must first believe that we have been blessed in order for us to receive the blessing of those blessings here upon the earth.

When I have lived my life and run my race I want to be said that 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 many families of the earth were blessed. This is a testimony of inheritance and the reality of a 100-year plan. This is the kind of leaders we should be in the Church.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Hello,

Last week I began to present the ingredients of a 100-year plan. I have written to you in previous blogs in regard to four levels of spiritual warfare. Those levels are the elements of belief, action, imagination, and influence. Beliefs inspire actions and actions propagate imaginations of the heart. The imaginations of the heart determine the influences of our lives. When we receive a belief we activate actions of that belief. A belief received is most often the testimony of an old belief lost and a new belief taking hold. A life-giving belief will dispossess a death producing one. Life-giving beliefs then inspire life-giving actions. When we act upon our beliefs we inspire the imaginations of our hearts towards further influence of that belief. It all begins with a belief and it culminates with an influence to others in the world. As I stated last week, God wants to reveal to us the secret things that belong to Him so those things can become influencing inheritances in the world to and through our children and to our children’s children.

When God reveals His secrets to men His secrets become a revelation to men. A revelation is a secret that existed, but has now become known to those who discover it. Revelations are simply disclosed secrets. The purpose of every revelation from God is to invite us to have an encounter with God so we will be transformed by God and become a testimony of that revelation from God. A revelation from God brings a blessing of God into our lives. When we receive a revelation from God we are called to act according to that revelation. It is impossible to act upon a revelation from God without God’s transforming power at work in the actions of our will. Anything less than faith will only result in dead actions of vane works. They may mimic truth, but they will never propagate real truth. Revelation from God is given to release spiritual inheritances into the earth.

Inheritances are cultural and not structural. They are living and not preserving in nature, therefore inheritances are meant to expand in the generations of men. Inheritances are a substance that can be received by the children of a passing generation. One generation gives the substance of its beliefs to the next generation and those beliefs are expanded through actions, imagination, and influence to the generations that follow. Inheritances are a substance of value to be expanded to greater value in the earth. An inheritance is not meant to be spent by the next generation, but to be used to increase the influence of a family to the generations beyond their day. Inheritances are measures of power given to expand the influence of God-given destiny in the earth. When inheritances are received they are supposed to be cultivated, propagated, and released to expand in the earth. They are the testimony of a family name. Inheritance is a measure of destiny given to a family name. Destiny received is a substance to be passed to and through the dynasty of a family name that brings blessing to the world in a multi-generational way. The Church bears the name of Christ and God wants to give inheritances that can release a destiny of His great grace to the world.

Inheritances from God come by revelation. God has blessed us in heaven with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3). Those blessings are only ours when we come to see what they really are. When we see them, we can receive them. When we see the blessings of God we can also believe that God is giving them to us. God wants us to receive His blessings from heaven so that we can become the riches of His inheritance in the earth (Eph. 1:18).

The blessings of God come from God. God is not a performer of works. He is a being and He wants to bless us by who He is. What we believe is the image that we will present to the world we live in. What we believe is not really based on the knowledge we believe, but in the person we believe. Who we believe determines what we believe and beliefs determine who possess the gates. Gates are places of influence. They are what determine the future of the world. Whoever possesses the places of influence possesses the future of the world. Whoever possesses the gates possesses the future.

The future of the world is determined from heaven, but the question is, “Where is heaven?” Much of the Church believes that the future is determined by heaven, but their focus of heaven is a place that is far off or far away. I believe that we go to heaven when we die. It is a great promise and reward when our race has been run in this life, but our race is the destiny and not merely the reward that we will receive in heaven. Jesus didn’t instruct us to pray that we would one day go to heaven. He told us to pray that the kingdom and the will of heaven would be done in the world in which we live. He told us to look to our source of inheritance while we are here upon the earth not to our hope of God’s power for escape. He didn’t instruct us to pray to a God who is powerful. He told us to pray to our heavenly Father who is holy. A father is a source of blessing. A father is a source of inheritance. This is not commonly understood in the fatherless societies of the world today, but a father is the source of a family name and a family name is a source of inheritance. A family name carries the power of a family’s destiny that carries through the dynasty of a family name. Having a father in heaven guarantees heavenly blessings in any world in which we live.

As leaders in the body of Christ we are not called to tasks of Christian ministry. We are called to inherit the blessings of God our Father and to expand them as His inheritance in the earth. The secrets given to us by God are the substance of inheritance that belongs to our children and to our children’s children. This is the power of God’s increasing kingdom in the earth.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings,

In this month’s blogs I am going to address the need for a 100-year plan in the church. I am not talking about our ability to live for 100 years, but rather our ability to transition inheritance to the generations beyond our lives. God is a multi-generational God. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Israel. He is the God of Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and others also (2Tim. 2:1,2). As leaders we must lead in a way that the God’s given vision and the God given letter entrusted to us becomes a spiritual reality in increasing measures beyond our lives. Our leadership must not be for our lifetime, but for the generations of our lifetime. The generations of our lifetime will lead to the generations of the lifetimes to come. I believe that there should be three and four generations revealing the glory of God at all times.

So much of the church is longing for the day of Jesus’ return, but I believe that our aim in life must be for His continual return. Jesus’ is revealing Himself as the one who stands in the midst of His Church at all times (Rev. 1). His prophetic testimony is a testimony of life that continues to mature and advance in the generations of men. We are the bride of Christ and the Holy Spirit lives within us. The cry of the bride and the cry of the Holy Spirit are for Jesus to come (Rev. 22:17). This is not just an event in the coming future, but a continual reality of Christ’s manifest presence in the advancing generations of men. We are living in administration that is suitable for the summing up of all things in Christ and there is a continual increase of glory to the fullness of the summing up of all things in Him (Eph. 1:10).

There is a difference between being a successful person and a significant one. One can be successful in life and only accomplish things that can be measured in his or her life, but true significance is to make an impact upon others. When we equip others we find that the testimony of all that God has given to us becomes a testimony in the generations of tomorrow. I believe that the heart of leadership in the church must be the heart of a father. Fathers live to raise up sons (men and women) that can carry the vision of today as a dream for tomorrow. A father seeks to put responsibility in the hands of the next generation. A father takes the secrets that he has received from God and gives them as an inheritance to his children and his children’s children.

Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Abraham is known as the father of faith. God’s promise to Abraham was a multi-generational promise. When we read the covenant promise given to Abraham we find that it is a multi-generational plan. I call this a 100-year plan. God made a covenant promise to the human race through the SEED of Abraham. That covenant promise was one of blessing, multiplying, possessing, and influence in the world.

Genesis 22:17, 18 “…blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

God’s words to Abraham had four levels of ingredients. Those levels are generational in there nature. They are the ingredients of a 100-year plan:

1)  In blessing I will bless you

2)  In multiplying I will multiply

3)  Your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies

4)  In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed

Some translations read that God would “greatly bless” Abraham. The Hebrew word for blessing here is a double use of the same word. It implies that in blessing God would bless him. It implies blessing beyond him own life. God was empowering Abraham to be a blessing and to live for the sake of blessing others beyond his life. This is the anointing of a father’s grace. It is an anointing to bring inherited favor to the generations beyond one’s own existence.

The same significance exists with the word “multiply”. Some translations read that God was going to “greatly multiply” Abraham. The Hebrew word for multiply is also a double use of the same word. God was not only empowering Abraham to multiply, but to release an anointing and action of multiplication to those beyond himself. Abraham would be empowered to do actions of faith that would propagate actions of increase in the generations beyond his life. These are the actions of a father for the sake of all that is to come.

God told Abraham that his descendants would “possess the gate of their enemies”. This is not a measure that would be seen directly in Abraham’s life, but in the lives of his children and his children’s children. This was an anointing of imagination. It was a grace that would carry beyond the vision of Abraham’s life into the generations beyond. It meant Abraham had to live with more than a vision for his life. He had to live with a dream that would extend beyond his life. Gates are places of influence. The gates of the enemy are the influences of the enemy in our lives. God was revealing to Abraham that they present conditions of his world would be changed through his generations tomorrow. It was part of an increasing inheritance and the power of a multi-generational plan.

God also told Abraham that “in his Seed all of the nations of the earth” would be blessed. This is the ultimate testimony of influence. God was prophetically declaring the Seed of Christ that would be shadowed in the nation of Israel, but fully revealed through supernatural Seed of Jesus Christ and the conception of the Body of Christ.

I will be addressing these things and what it means to have a 100-year plan in my blogs for this month. What secrets are you called to release as an inheritance in the earth? What secrets have and are you receiving from the generations of the past? The revealed secrets of God are the blessings to men. The blessings of God are supposed to be expanded in the generations of men. All that God gives is meant to change the world to become a testimony of the increasing inheritance of God.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

I have been addressing the subject of leading the ekklesia of God. That ekklesia is the called out assembly of members of the bride of Christ. She is the life-giving womb of God in the earth. She has been sent to bring the influence of the kingdom of heaven to the kingdoms of the earth. There is a great description of the function of Christ and His bride in chapter 5 of the book of Ephesians. The Scripture is referring to the function of husbands and wives, but more specifically it is a description of the function of Jesus Christ the head and Christ His bride. The secret to these verses is found in verse 32 of this chapter.

Ephesians 5:32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

The first verses of this segment of Scripture describe the function of the bride of Christ in relationship to her husband Jesus Christ the eternal Adam of God. This is a description of a wife’s relationship with her husband, but it is more specifically a description of the body of Christ as the feminine expression of Christ in relationship with the masculine expression of Christ in His headship. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, God created mankind in the His own likeness and the image (Gen. 1:26,27). That likeness and image was expressed in that which was both masculine and feminine. Mankind was created both male and female. They were created to have dominion over the works of God’s hands in the earth (Ps. 8:3-8). Jesus came to redeem the human race. He came to restore the masculine and feminine expressions of God in mankind to their state of dominion in the earth. This is to be expressed in every family and in the family of God known as Christ’s church (ekklesia). Everyone must express the attributes of body membership and leadership must express the attributes of Christ’s headship.

Ephesians 5:22-24 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

In these verses the wife is instructed concerning her submission to her husband. She is to submit to him as to the Lord. She is to submit to him as the church does to Christ. She is to submit to him in everything. Under the paradigm of the curse of the fall this is a recipe for disaster. The curse of the fall left the wife bound to a condition of worry and pain, a desire for her husband, and a situation where the husband rules over the wife. Under the paradigm of the fall these words are words of a curse and not words of blessing.

Genesis 3:16   To the woman He said:

¹“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children;

² Your desire shall be for your husband,

³ And he shall rule over you.”

Whereas the curse left the wife with a temptation to fear death, a suppressed identity, and bondage under dominant control, the blessings of Christ have brought an activation of life, a facilitation of life, and a release of life to the church in her fullness. This is the life given to the bride of Christ through the headship of Christ. This is the life of the body revealed as the feminine expression of mankind in Christ. The masculine expression is seen as that that activates life, facilitate life, and release life in the full expression of the family of God.

Godly leadership in the church must not dominate or control. It must seek to activate, facilitate, and release the members of the church to the true testimony of Christ’s life within them. The masculine expression of God is that of protecting life, while the feminine expression of God is that of being a life-giver. The verses in Ephesians reveal that there are three aspects to protecting life. The husband is to:

1. Love as Christ and give himself for her
2. Sanctify and cleanse her with washing by the word
3. Present her to himself a glorious church

These are the very things that Jesus did for us. Husbands must do this for their wives, and the leadership aspect of Christ’s government must do the same in the church. To love and to give as Christ, is to provide and supply the needed resources for life. We love Jesus, because He first loved us. Church members will love leaders, because leaders first love them. New Covenant leadership seeks to provide each member with whatever is needed to bring them to faith in Christ. They do not rule them through natural tactics that promote fear to bondage. They seek to activate each member to the faith of life and function in Him.

Leaders must sanctify and cleanse church members with washing by the word. This is the “rhema” (GSRN 4487) word. These are God’s words from their mouths. This is not the letter of the Law, but Spirit-words of life! This sanctification is one of protection and shelter in the Spirit. Leaders must seek to “facilitate” the identity of each church member. They seek to help each member find their identity in the Father of lights. Only by this can they be the true light of Christ in the church. New Covenant leadership doesn’t seek to force church members to identify in them, but facilitates members to find their identity in Christ.

Leaders must seek to present church members ‘along side’ of them as a glorious church. This is a leadership role of propagating and expanding the destiny of the church. This is the “release” of every member to his or her role in ministry. New Covenant leaders don’t seek to control church members. They seek to release them for the purpose of Christ’s kingdom in the earth. The Greek word for “present” in Ephesians 5:27 is the GSRN 3936. “paristemi, par-is´-tay-mee, or prolonged paristano, par-is-tan´-o; from GSRN 3844 and GSRN 2476; to stand beside, i.e. (transitively) to exhibit, proffer, (specially), recommend, (figuratively) substantiate; or (intransitively) to be at hand (or ready), aid”. As you can see, this is everything but dominant control!

In order to lead in this way, every member of every leadership team must be empowered by God’s Spirit of Might. They must seek to love God and people more than ministry. Prickly things cannot distract them. New Covenant leaders must be empowered by the Spirit of Knowing. They must increasingly know the communion of the Spirit and of the saints. New Covenant leaders must also seek to be led by God’s Spirit. They cannot be circumstantially ruled. The Spirit of the Fear of the Lord must empower them to have an awe of God and His plan for every member entrusted to their leadership.

Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

It is important to understand that the submission is of a wife to a husband, not women to men. In every case, a wife’s submission is to her own source of life. Her submission is to the one who loves and gives love to her. It is to the one who sanctifies her with washing through life-giving words. Her subjection is to the one who presents her alongside of him as a glorious church. God joins a man and a woman for a corporate purpose and destiny. Within the church there is both a masculine and a feminine dynamic of life. Leadership is a masculine expression of Christ’s rule and membership is a feminine expression of Christ’s rule. These are not bound to men and women, but are expressed in both men and woman to reveal a mystery that is best depicted in the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman. Like the man and the woman in marriage, God makes them one flesh for His purposes. God also joins church members to church leaders. He does not join all leaders from everywhere to church members, nor does he join all members to all church leaders. God joins members to leaders and leaders to members so that His glorious church can be made manifest. So, what does New Covenant submission look like?

1. The members are to submit to their “own leaders” – “as to the Lord”. These are the leaders who love them and give their lives to them. This brings their submission to become an activation of faith. Church members love their leaders, because their leaders first love them.
2. The members are to submit to their own leaders as unto to the Lord. Our submission to the Lord is a direct connection to God as our Father. He has even given us His Holy Spirit that causes our hearts to cry out “Abba, Father”. Church members are to submit to their own leaders by being activated to know God their Father as the source of their own identity.
3. The members are to be subject to their own leaders as those who cause them to come along side of them and serve with them in the corporate testimony of Christ and His glorious church. They are not controlled, but rather released to their full testimony of destiny in Christ.

The testimony of New Covenant will be to have a threefold attitude toward every member joined to them. They must confess from their hearts the desire to make others become who they in Christ.  They must live for them and understand that the members of the Body live for them as well to be the communion of the saints in Christ. They must decide to bring church members alongside of them to live with them for the future generations of the church. New Covenant church members must have an attitude that professes to their God-given leadership that they will live from their hearts for them. They see themselves as one body with them and trust the God the Father of them all. New Covenant church members understand that their purpose is divinely joined to the leadership that God has given to them in Christ.

In doing these things, the life-protecting and life-giving image and likeness of God will be revealed in the earth. This is the testimony of the blessed Body of Christ and the true manifestation of the children of God. May we all grow in this grace and may the church become the glorious testimony of Christ!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

  Leader 8 – Audio Teaching

  Leader8 – Outline Notes

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

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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