ted4leaders

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

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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

Greetings;

As leaders we must lead for the purpose of God’s kingdom. The kingdom of God is a testimony of the good news of God to mankind. That good news is often termed as being the “gospel”, but the word “gospel” is a word that was religiously created to encompass a simple phrase, “good news”.  Unfortunately, when we use the word “gospel” rather than “good news” we can often disguise “bad news” in the cloak of “gospel” and dupe the world in to believing something less than the “good news” of Jesus Christ. The “good news” is not that Jesus died so that we would go to heaven when we die. The “good news” is that Jesus reconciled all men to know God and Jesus whom God sent. This is eternal life (Jn. 17:3). It is now and forever! It is the place where heaven comes to our realities of the earth and where the life beyond this world is an increasing testimony of that heavenly reality. It is the place of forever knowing God! We have been given really good news in Jesus. He is the door to the eternal reality of the blessings of heaven in our lives. Jesus was the Seed promised through the faith of Abraham and that Seed was the source of heaven to this world in which we live.

Galatians 3:8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.”

What was the gospel preached to Abraham? As I have already stated, the word gospel means “good news”. The good news is that an eternal Adam gave is life so that all can find themselves in the family of blessing! The good news is that Jesus Christ reconciled men to God while they were yet sinners so the blessings of heaven could flood the worlds of men. The message of heaven is one of transforming the world. It includes life beyond this world, but it brings the life of heaven to the world in increasing measures.

What was the gospel (good news) preached to Abraham? I believe that we find this good news recorded in the 22^nd Chapter of Genesis. In this story, Abraham had revealed his faith in believing God’s good news by his willingness to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. He expected God to raise him from the dead, because he believed the One who promised more than he believed the promise (Heb. 11:17-19).

Genesis 22:15-18   

Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 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.”

There are four key elements in the good news preached to Abraham. Those four things were:

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

The good news that God gave Abraham was not that He would merely bless him. It was that in blessing He would bless him. The Hebrew word for blessing here is placed in a double. It is the word blessing repeated twice. It can mean great blessing, but it more clearly states that in blessing God would bless. This is the foundation for belief of every human being. Do we believe and know that we are the blessing of God in the earth? When we realize who we are, we will live to be who we are. We are a testimony of God’s likeness and image in this world and we were born to bring glory to His name. As leaders we must lead people in a way that they know who they are in Christ. They are not only blessed by Him they are His blessing in the earth. While the enemy pronounces “shame on you” words of bondage and death, God pronounces “shame off of you” words of freedom and life. Being a blessing starts with believing who God is so you can believe who you are in Him. This is the foundation of the good news preached to Abraham. God’s plan was to make a way for human kind to be restored in the likeness and image of their heavenly Father in the earth. As leaders we must lead others with a foundation of believing God and believing who we are in Him. It is the power of God’s Word and Spirit conceived in the human heart that establishes a foundation of believing God and believing who they are in Him. As leaders we must be facilitators of God’s Word and Spirit in the hope of transforming the beliefs of men.

The second thing that God told Abraham was that in multiplying He would multiply Him. The Hebrew writing of this is also a double word for multiplying. It is the word for multiply written twice. This is not just God really multiplying those who believe Him, but those who believe Him living to multiply. It involves the actions of those who believe God. When we believe we are blessed then we live to multiply. This is not living to add things to our own lives, but living to give our own lives for the sake of others. The actions of our lives must be to give and release life to others in this world. As New Covenant leaders we must lead to inspire others to seek to multiply who they are in the lives of others. This is the second part of the good news preached to Abraham.

The third thing that God told Abraham was that his descendants would posses the gates of their enemies. Gates are the places of influence in the earth. They are the powers that affect the minds and hearts of the generations of men. When we know we are a blessing we live to multiply in the lives of others. When we live to multiply in the lives of others we live for those beyond our own lives. We live for our children and for our children’s children. I call this a 100-year plan. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Israel. God is the God of Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and others also. He is a generational God and we can expect that the inheritance beyond us is a greater power than what we live in today. The good news preached to Abraham was that the generations of men would destroy the powers of the enemy. The power of God’s inheritance in the earth is greater than the disinheriting powers of the enemy! The imaginations of our hearts and the actions of our hands must be to release the inheritance and the power of life to our children and our children’s children. The gates of Hades (the realm of the dead) cannot prevail against the advancing family of God in the earth. As leaders in the New Covenant we must lead in a way that inspires others to live for their children and their children’s children in the earth.

The fourth thing that God told Abraham was that through his Seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. This is the transforming power of God’s influence to all the nations of the world. The good news given to Abraham was that the influence of God through the generations of men in Christ would know no limit! It was the power of the likeness and the image of God to change the world! The good news preached to Abraham was all about beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influence. This is the testimony of God’s life within those who manifest the likeness and the image of God in the earth. The image of self would be destroyed by the growing image of God in the earth. As leaders in the New Covenant we must lead with this aim. It is the “really good news” preached to all men in Christ!

I will write more next week in regard to this “really good news”. It is time we believe the message of His kingdom come and His will being done on earth as it is in heaven! Let’s lead for His glory!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

God’s government is the visible evidence of His administration that reveals the glory of His kingdom upon the earth. His administration is an administration of grace (Eph. 1:9,10). That grace is a demonstration of God’s power that accomplishes His purposes in the earth. Righteous governors administrate the facilitation of God’s righteous government. God’s government accomplishes the purpose of making His manifold wisdom known to principalities and powers in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 3:9 -12 …and to make all people see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.

What we become by the influence of God’s Spirit will influence the atmosphere of the environment around us. The increasing dominion of God’s kingdom will influence the dominion of the enemy and will dispossess the strongholds of death. The kingdom of heaven in every system will change every system. The kingdom heaven will change human hearts. I believe it is essential to lead any expression of God with a view of advancing the kingdom of heaven in the earth. God’s government has the power to implement and to make God’s glory known in a generational way.

Today I want to write a summary of leadership responsibilities. Leaders lead for the will of God and not for their own will or personal desires. I have been presenting in my last blogs the idea of a corporate letter written by the Holy Spirit to fulfill a purpose of God in the earth. God kingdom and will made known in the earth is the true power that changes the world. It is not merely the good works of mankind, but it is the supernaturally empowered works of Christ that reveal the glory of God in the earth. In order to fulfill this purpose there is a need for God-directed leadership in any aspect of church expression.

In fulfilling this mandate I believe that any team of leaders must rely upon the input and counsel of trusted relationships who are outside of their immediate sphere of responsibility. These could be apostolic relationships that God has given to them to relay objective insights concerning team function from their arenas of God-given grace. In any case, the team sees those outside relationships as a source and resource to the local church body. Those relationships must be both God ordained and God sent to them. Those outside connections give an expanding challenge to any isolated or ingrown tendencies that might arise within a specific group

Every leadership team should also rely upon the council of various prophets sent to the local church by God’s divine choosing. These prophets or prophetic voices must have a relationship with the local church and are not just prophetic voices that come for an event or merely a moment in history. They are fully submitted to the local church authority and the apostolic mission of the ministry. Their concern is for the will of God in that local church expression and not their own prophetic agendas.

There should be a leader of every leadership team. In some forms of leadership this could be a deferring function based upon individual grace and the specific task in any measure. This could mean that several individuals could serve as the leader for various aspects of ministry with an understanding that the grace of leadership for specific tasks could fall upon different individuals in the team at various times. In my own form of leadership and ministry there has always been a ruling leader with the final shepherd’s authority in the local house. Again, the principal of leadership is more essential than the form of leadership.

For the corporate purpose of ministry there should be ruling leaders who serve as pastors or shepherds. Those leaders articulate what God is saying to the church and the team in practical instruction (they are apt to teach). They are apt to set direction for the local church body in regard to God’s corporate instruction of direction. These are apt to serve as shepherds, pastors, or spiritual parents in the local church body.

There should also be other leaders who have a grace to function as facilitators and administrators who serve as leaders in the church by assisting the congregation in walking out the practical instructions given by the ruling leaders. All of the leaders do this, but these facilitative leaders carry this responsibility as their primary role of leadership. They are not the ones who do the practical aspects of ministry for the congregation members. They activate all of the members to do their part. This could be any aspect of ministry from meeting the needs of the poor to laying hands on the sick.

There should be individuals who have a grace to bring spiritual equipping in various areas of the ministry. The equippers train, activate, and facilitate body members into ministry according to each equipper’s God-given grace.  All of the leaders do this as well (apostles, overseeing leaders & facilitative leaders), but the equippers carry this responsibility as their primary role of leadership. Their equipping grace will be according to their specific gift of ministry and call in Christ.

Team members rely upon the input and counsel of one another in all of these areas to help each member walk out God-given strategies and actions for their individual areas of responsibility. The team willingly and diligently seeks to hear God’s voice through every member of the corporate house. This is often discrete and simply a daily awareness of the leaders to recognize God’s voice to the corporate body through every source. This includes paying attention to individual prophecies, dreams, visions, and sense of things. Every member of the congregation has the responsibility of hearing God and sharing what they believe He is saying. All of the aspects of leadership work together to fulfill the full function of leadership.

There are times when the set leader meets with the apostles alone for direction and input to lead the team of leadership. There are times when the ruling leaders meet alone to facilitate the input of the voice of God in practical ways of direction as God has spoken through the team, the congregation, and to them personally. There are times when the ruling leaders meet with the facilitative leaders alone to coordinate the practical ways of facilitating the instruction given by God through the ruling leaders. There are times where the whole team meets together (including the equippers) for the full expression of leadership as it pertains to the will of God and the congregation. There are times when the leadership calls upon various members of the congregation for their sense of things within their own God-given measure of rule. Various aspects of this leadership dynamic can occur in order to practically facilitate the task of responding to the Theocratic rule of God to the local church.

No matter what form of leadership we feel is the God-directed way, we must lead for the glory of God. We must seek to fulfill God’s will as God’s expresses His word in corporate ways in the earth. Leadership is a gift to the body of Christ and it is important to embrace God’s gift in order to fulfill God’s purposes in the earth.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

    leader4 – Monthly Audio Concerning The Leadership Form

     Leader4 – Monthly PDF file for Audio Teaching

Greetings;

God has always wanted a people who could say from their hearts that God is their God. Passover was a shadow of the reality of Christ within the lives of human beings who from their hearts proclaim that Jesus is Lord. God has always wanted a people that it could be said of them that they are obviously God’s people. Pentecost was a shadow of the testimony of Christ’s anointing upon human beings who proclaim the power of Christ’s resurrection life to the world. God has always wanted a people who would truly live with God in His presence. The celebration of Tabernacles was a shadow of the abiding relationship with God found in the life of Christ. As leaders in the body of Christ we must lead in a way that these three testimonies become an increasing reality in the lives of those we lead. These three testimonies will be real within the context of the specific spiritual letter that God is writing in the hearts and lives of those He joins for a corporate testimony of His glory. This testimony takes both the leadership and the membership of the expressions of Christ’s body.

Men make methods while God gives wisdom. The leaders of a local church must seek the wisdom of God in all things and not rely merely upon their position as leaders and natural wisdom (Ephesians 3:10). Structure will not bring forth life, but life does give structure. The leaders of a local church expression must not propagate principles at the expense of imparting life. The restoration of the Church is not simply a restoration of certain truths and ministries to God’s people. It is the restoration of God’s Son to His rightful place in their midst. The leaders must seek Christ’s manifest presence in His Church. It is with a contrite spirit and fear of God that leaders must seek to obey His Word in everything. Their function as shepherds of His flock must be a manifestation of Him as the Chief Shepherd. The ruling leaders of a local church must oversee through a spirit of liberty and not control. It is under the direction of the Holy Spirit that they will seek to shepherd through the spirit of liberty. The Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of the Chief Shepherd. The leaders should always seek to allow the Spirit to be Lord (2 Corinthians 3:17).

I believe that the governing team of the local church is a team of leaders who serve as overseers to the local church. Their roles as ‘under-shepherds’ are to be viewed in reverence and fear of God as being visual expressions of Jesus in His headship to the church. This is by all means subordinate to the personal relationship of each church member to God through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. It is in every way subordinate to God’s Word and Spirit and cannot violate these higher authorities. The term “under-shepherd” refers to the fact that Jesus is the “Chief Shepherd” and that the team of leaders represent an expression of Him. As “shepherds” (Greek “poimen” = shepherd or pastor) they are expressions of the true “Shepherd” of the flock, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 2:25; 5:4).

The leaders must work together to allow each member of the ministry leadership team to operate within the boundaries and expressions of his or her sphere of influence. The leads must yield to and express the Spirit of God the Father in order to allow each team member to fulfill his or her role within the church body. Each leader serves in whatever function given to him or her by the grace of God. It is by God’s grace that they are builders in God’s house. It is God who will use each one as He builds His house (Isaiah 66: 1-2). God will use the leaders as manifestations of Himself in building His house, and only that which is of Him will stand (1 Corinthians 3:9-13). Each leader must function in his or her unique area of service. There are no clergy-laity distinctions, simply different functions in the Body of Christ. Therefore, the leaders are not to be viewed as greater than the congregation. They are servants of God sent to assist the local congregation in fulfilling the role of oversight through a physical expression of Christ’s spiritual life (1 Corinthians 3:7).

Godly oversight is not control. It is learning to submit one to another in the fear of the Lord in order to manifest the oversight of the “Chief Shepherd”, Jesus. Godly authority does not carry the element of domination. Leadership is an expression of God and His means of releasing His authority and grace to, in, and through others. Leadership is given as a gift from God to the local church and it is relational, not a matter of obligation.  Godly order is the divinely arranged assembly of individual parts of Christ’s Body into a collective whole.

Each church member has an authority to function in what God has given him or her. God’s anointing is given to each one in order to accomplish the grace given to them individually, as well as corporately.  All grace is given to contribute to the manifestation of the whole body and thus releases the authority of the one Man Christ, of whom all share equal corporate authority. Authority does not come from position. It comes from responsibility given. When someone is given the responsibility of any area of rule, he or she also receives the authority to carry out that rule. Godly authority does not carry with it the power of subjection. It carries the true power of anointing and thus draws others to yield to its direction. Although the leaders have authority over the church, godly authority chooses not to use that authority in a way of subjection or control (2Thessalonians 3:9).

Authority (“exousia”) is given for edification and not for destruction (2 Corinthians 10:8; 2 Corinthians 13:10). Overseers (“episkopos”) have authority over (“epitasso”) saints. This authority does not equate to value, it simply equates to function and responsibility. Authority given to overseers is not authority to have dominion over the saints. It is authority given to function as fellow workers for their joy (2 Corinthians 1:24).

Leaders are God’s servants. Church leadership is a harmonious order of servants submitted to God and one another. Every local church expression is meant to be a family of sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters who seek to live as the family of God in the earth. Leaders are part of that family, not dictators in a congregation. Leadership is not an escalating hierarchy of persons competing for authority. The leadership team of the local church must be committed both to God and to the local body, to set an example in servanthood and zeal for the house of God. Family must be more important than ministry, but because they lead in the family of God the family of God does the ministry of Christ in all things. They must covenant with God and each other to see the purpose of Christ formed in the corporate house. The objective of leaders is not merely to lead according to godly principles, but to lead according to God’s own divine direction and desires in writing a spiritual letter of His purpose and will. That spiritual letter expresses the community of God, not merely the works of God in the earth. Together the body and its leadership reveal the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Christ in a unique and specific way for His glory.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Last week I began to present a form of New Covenant operation in the church that includes a spiritual letter written in the lives of people divinely joined by God for a specific purpose in the earth. In my experience I have seen God join people together for a corporate purpose. I have led and developed leadership that facilitates a corporate purpose in the church. That purpose is not the kingdom of a man or the will of any leader. It is an expression of the kingdom of God and the will of the heavenly Father. That expression is unique to each individual, but common in a corporate purpose of God’s kingdom expression. Leaders have a responsibility to facilitate the voice of God in a corporate way. They cannot merely hear God for people. They must serve in creating a culture of hearing God to enable the members of the congregation to hear God’s individual and corporate directions to His Church. New Covenant government must provide clear direction for a corporate purpose within the context of the life of God’s Spirit. New Covenant governors must recognize and facilitate the spiritual letter written by God’s Spirit within the hearts and lives of the corporate body of believers. They must serve the corporate purpose of that letter.

All New Covenant government must include governors who accept the responsibility of providing the appropriate environment of equipping the saints for the work of ministry. That work of ministry includes an involvement by each member in the corporate purpose given by God. The expressions of God are not mere testimonies of works, but they are works that result from God’s expression of community. I believe that there are countless expressions of God’s community that reveal His purposes and demonstrate His governmental power in the earth. It is important to seek out the place that God chooses His name to abide for each of us in order to contribute the fuller purpose of Christ’s wisdom in the earth.

In the writing of a corporate letter there is a need for the full expression of the diversity of Christ’s expression in the body. There must be an influence of that which is apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, teaching, and pastoral. This doesn’t mean that the leaders equip the congregation members in all of these attributes, but that they see too it that diverse expression of these equipping graces are made available to the congregation in order to activate, facilitate, and release congregation members in their unique expressions of God’s grace. God is the one who gives the wisdom for this and it is therefore not just a methodical task of ministry, but a relational connection to the direction of the Holy Spirit. Facilitation of diverse expressions of equipping will serve to activate the diverse expressions of Christ in the writing of the corporate letter and fulfillment of the corporate purpose.

In this responsibility of exposing the congregation members to the various expressions of equipping ministry, it is important to seek God directed connections outside of the local body. Although God will no doubt put key equipping graces within the congregation, gifts beyond the local body will inspire the body to grow to its greatest potential. In this the governmental expression of leadership must seek to be relationally joined to the bigger picture and purpose of God’s full government in the earth. Any letter that God writes is only one expression of His greater purpose in a city, a region, a nation, or in the earth.

All members of the corporate body must seek to hear God’s voice and respond to His will at every level of their function. This includes those who lead and those of function in the daily activity of the corporate body. Remember, the government is the grace of the Holy Spirit and God uses leaders to assist in the facilitation of that government. They assist in governing, but the power of the government is in the life of the Holy Spirit. Direction must be sought and given that propagates the life of the Holy Spirit within the local body. Leaders must lead in a way that appreciates, facilitates, and propagates that life.

In my own experience, God gathers and joins a group of people for a corporate expression of His kingdom influence in the earth. He chooses a leader and a team of leaders to facilitate that corporate purpose. He expects that leadership to seek out God ordained connections with equipping ministries beyond that local congregation in order to activate, facilitate, and release that corporate body in a continued process of growth and maturity in their God-given purpose as a body.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Today I want to begin to address the function of leadership in the local church setting. The principles presented in this instruction are more important than any single form used to implement those principles. There are many forms of governing that can work both biblically and effectively. For over twenty years I have led the administration of a form of governmental expression that implements key New Covenant principles that can be applied in many forms of church operations. The main focus of any form of New Covenant governmental function must be the New Covenant life of God. Structure does not produce life, but life will create structure. Any proper form of function of leadership must seek and submit to the Holy Spirit’s ability to speak to the human heart. Leaders must seek to hear God and to create an environment where every member is inspired to hear God himself or herself. That hearing will be for both individual connection with God and for corporate direction as a body of purpose in Christ. The significance of any New Covenant expression of governing is measured in its ability to activate, facilitate, and release the members of that church expression in hearing God to manifest His word, will, and way. It must facilitate the priesthood of the believers. This function will always include the grace gift of leadership and diverse gifts of body membership given by God to provide the governing function of the Church. This is never to mean domination or control of leadership over the saints. No leader of the New Covenant has a responsibility to hear God on behalf of others. Every leader has the responsibility to aid and assist each member in hearing God and responding to His will. The New Covenant function of government is always one of activation, facilitation, and release. With the same consideration, church government is not a form of manipulation. It is never the will of the people over the direction of leadership. It is always the direction of God through leadership, with each congregation member bringing his or her responsible contribution to the process of hearing God in the local church. It is important to note the basic elements of any form of New Covenant government. Those elements must include the substance of New Covenant life.

I believe that God gathers people together in a local church expression for a specific purpose of Christ’s testimony in the earth. This can be clearly seen through a spiritual experience in my own life that set a foundation for an expression of the body of Christ in the city where I live. One morning over twenty-five years ago I had a vision. 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 as well. 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. 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. Jesus in bodily form was the secret to bringing freedom to the place of the stronghold of the enemy. This vision has proven to be true in many areas of my life, but it was a key to a corporate expression of Christ that God authorized me to facilitate over twenty years ago.

My journey of seeking to understand the principle revealed in this vision has not been perfect. Not many years after that vision I was part of a ministry in our city that engaged in the classic form of spiritual warfare often attempted by the church. Our focus was to assault the principalities in the hope of transforming our community. Back then I was known as the prophet whose nose could cut diamonds and my task was to identify the powers of the air in our region. I discerned that the two major powers of our area were those of greed and religion. We staged a warfare conference and I confronted those powers with a challenge of removing them. One month after that confrontation we found ourselves in shambles as the church split and great destruction swept the congregation. The senior leader left and I was left with a handful of bleeding, wounded people.

It was out of that experience that God spoke to me concerning His plan in the city. He told me that we had challenged greed and religion, when we ourselves were also greedy and religious. We had no authority to dispossess the powers of greed and religion. God said, “You tried that your way, now we will do it my way.” He made it clear to me that His process would not be instant, but would take some time. He told me that he would give me a handful of people who were a part of the greed and religion of the community and that He would write a spiritual letter of generosity and freedom within their lives. The effect of His spiritual letter would break the chains that held greed and religion to the region. An expression of Jesus in bodily form would dispossess the strong holds of the enemy. He told me to name the expression of this letter “Abundant Life”. “Abundant Life” would become an expression of the life that Jesus came to give and it would bring liberty to the former places of greed and religion in the region and beyond. For twenty years I was the senior leader of that letter and I watched as God miraculously transformed human lives and it affected the community and even the nations. Today my son Jonathan continues to lead the furtherance of the spiritual letter.

New Covenant government must activate, facilitate, and release each member of the local church body to function within their God-given grace of ministry. God joins members in the expressions of His body that contribute to the stature of Christ revealed in that expression of His eternal Church. In the letter of Abundant Life God has added many expressions of diversity to bring the expansion of His liberty. God wants to write many spiritual letters in the earth, but they begin with a handful of people joined together for God’s purposes. God takes that gathering of people and writes a spiritual letter revealing His purpose and will. The foundational strength of the letter is God’s connection to the leader, the leadership team, and to each member of that corporate gathering.

2 Corinthians 3:1-3   Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

In my time of leading Abundant Life, God has spoken to us corporately and individually. We have watched as a body of people has increased in generosity and the freedom of life. There has been a continued increase in the liberty of the Spirit, the liberty of the soul, and a liberty in life. Leadership has had to model generosity and freedom while each member has learned to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit in the writing of this spiritual letter. The congregation is not the same as it was in its conception. I have also watched changes come into our community as a result of the influence of God’s Spirit among us. Many may not even be aware of what has happened, but the proof is in the influence happening as a result of God’s New Covenant expression among us. God chooses leadership and body membership to write a spiritual letter to bring about changes in the earth!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

I have been addressing the topic of the equipping ministry to and in the body of Christ. I want to continue today with a slightly different focus than my past few blogs. I believe that equipping ministry in the body of Christ has a responsibility of releasing the proper authority of God the Father in the earth. God is the Father of lights and we are therefore the authority of His light in the earth. That light is the authority of His light to the darkness of the world around us.

When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost at the anointing of the body of Christ there were several things that were manifest in the Church. The Church was filled with members who had been empowered to repent. That repentance was a repentance unto life that revealed a testimony of repentance from death and the works of death. Members of the Church were submerged in water as an act of faith that identified them as members of Christ’s body. That work of water baptism was a testimony of their faith toward God. Those in the Church received the gift of the Holy Spirit that revealed the testimony of heaven as a demonstration of the power of His resurrection life through them as His anointed bride of Christ. As the Church that was empowered by repentance, demonstrated works of faith, and manifested a testimony of Christ’s resurrection life they also continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine (Acts 2:42). What was the apostle’s doctrine? There were no New Testament Scriptures written for the first twenty years of the New Testament Church so the doctrine of the apostles were not their writings of Scripture. Their doctrine was simply their way of life empowered by the authority of Christ. To continue steadfastly in their way of life was to also be empowered by the authority of Christ.

The Church continued to manifest the authority of Christ’s light to the world of darkness around them. They were the sent members of the body of Christ. God is constantly authorizing and anointing His sent purpose to the earth through His sent body in the earth. This is the testimony of the manifest letters of Christ being written in and through the Church. Continuing steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine (instruction and way of life taught them by the apostles) is to keep in God’s ‘sent word’ to the corporate body. God wants to accomplish the corporate ministry of the ‘laying on of hands’ though His Body. This is the releasing of His authority of life and inheritance through the Church to the world in which they reside. God wants to accomplish a ‘corporate work’ through His Body. He has a specific task for every corporate expression of His Body.

God will give specific tasks for specific times. Our obedience is necessary to fulfill God’s purpose and will. If obedience to God was required in the Old Testament through some who heard God, don’t you think that obedience to God’s words is even more essential to a Church where everyone can hear God? We tend to make the New Covenant weak and sloppy by not expecting God to give corporate instructions and commands as part of a corporate process in the Church. We tend to believe in individual purpose, but fail to realize a greater testimony found in corporate purpose and direction.

There is a great example of a corporate purpose in the Old Testament. When the children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land they were instructed by God to take the city of Jericho. There were specific instructions given that God expected them to follow in order for them to receive the testimony of God’s victory over the city. Why don’t we believe that God might want to give corporate commands for a corporate testimony in the New Covenant? I know that we cannot rob people from hearing God for themselves, but I also believe that we must position ourselves with an expectation of corporate instructions from God for specific times and specific purposes of His will. Here is a summary of the commands and expectations of God in the taking of the city of Jericho:

Joshua 5:13-15; 6:1-20

• … “As Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my LORD say to His servant?”
• … march around the city
• … go all around the city once. This you shall do six days.
• … seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark.
• … the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times,
• … the priests shall blow the trumpets.
• … when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn
• … all the people shall shout with a great shout;
• … then the wall of the city will fall down flat.
• … the people shall go up every man straight before him.
• … You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice,
• … nor shall any word proceed out of your mouth,
• … until the day I say to you, ‘Shout!’
• … Then you shall shout.”
• … by all means keep yourselves from the accursed things,

• lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things,
• and make the camp of Israel a curse,
• and trouble it.

The governing of the church must be focused on seeking and maintaining the Lordship and direction of Jesus Christ to His body.  All members of the body must continually seek His mind and will, through His Spirit and the Word of God, in all actions and decisions. Any governmental function by those given authority to rule must be under the headship and direction of the Lord Jesus Christ, but Paul gave specific instructions concerning the connection of the members of the Church and its leaders.

Hebrews 13:7 Remember (to exercise memory /to bear in mind, call to mind, to stay, to chew) those who rule (lead / bring, drive, induce) over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering (to look again attentively /to be a spectator of /to look closely at) the outcome of their conduct.

Hebrews 13:17 Obey (to convince; pacify; assent; rely on) those who rule (lead / bring, drive, induce) over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls (they are awake concerning your souls), as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

Here is a great rendition of the above Scripture:

Rely upon those who lead and induce you toward life, surrender yourself to them, for they are required to be awake concerning your souls, and they must give an account in thought and word for you. They will help keep you from falling into deception and will be alert to the life that God has for you. Let them do this with cheerfulness and joy and do not make them sigh and murmur because of you. Don’t put them in straits, for if they are forced to live in a tight and narrow place because of you, it will only work against your gain and prove to cut your purpose short. (Ted J. Hanson)

1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 And we urge you, brethren, to recognize (to see; know) those who labor among you, and are over you (stand before you or stand in front of you ) in the Lord and admonish (to put in mind, caution / calling attention to; warning / to place in your intellect a knowing) you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.

The government of the Church comes through God’s gift of grace and apostleship to the church. Grace is the power of the Holy Spirit within the life of each believer. Apostleship is the “sent” and “sending” authority given to us as the body of Christ.

Romans 1:5 …through whom (Jesus) we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name…

The government of the church is both in the headship of Jesus Christ and in the full responsibility of Jesus Christ. God wants us to reveal the calling of Christ and the inheritance of Christ in the earth. We are the fullness of Him in corporate form in heaven and upon the earth.

Ephesians 1:18-23 …the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may 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 exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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