ted4leaders

Greetings;

I have been addressing the topic of equipping ministry in the Church. Today I am going to further detail some ways in which the equipping ministries serve the body of Christ. The fivefold expressions of Christ in the form of the equipping ministries are to teach the body members to grow in maturity in speaking the truth in love. What does it mean to speak the truth in love? This is not speaking the truth for truth’s sake, but speaking it for the sake of love. Any written truth or principle of truth is only a testimony of the person the Truth. He is God’s gift of love to men and He came to make men free! We must remember that the administration of the Knowledge of Good and Evil will not do, all things must operate according to the Tree of Life. The emphasis is upon relationship and not upon truth. The truth inspires a right relationship with God and with one another. The objective is the testimony of the body of Christ. This is to be the way the fivefold ministry functions and facilitates the members of the body. The idea is that the body continues to grow in the testimony of Christ.

The equipping ministry will also serve in causing the members of the body to function and grow in all things. The equippers are not to be the ones who function while body members observe. They are gifts to the body of Christ so that every part of the body will function. The growing testimony is one of intimacy in Christ and responsibility before Him. The objective is an increasing testimony of the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Christ. The whole body is to be properly joined and the equipping ministry is sent to activate, facilitate, and release members according to a Spirit relationship with Jesus Christ the head and the members of His body. In this the whole body will be knit together in covenant and life. The wording of Ephesians 4:16 reveals a contribution of life of member to member that causes one another to come to life. They supply each other with life in a way that causes one another to dance or to become who God made each of them be for the sake of His full testimony in the Church. The testimony of Christ in one that is dependent upon the supply of Christ in another. This is the proper joining of the members of the body. Again it is a testimony of relationship through knitting together in love and the flow of life. Each member is to supply life to another so the glory revealed is the body of Christ and not merely members of the body. The testimony is Christ!

Ephesians 4:16 …from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

The equippers are to serve in a way that causes each member of the body to find their place of effective working. That effective working will be in an apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, or teaching way. This is why it takes all of the fivefold expressions of Christ revealed in the equipping gifts given to the Church working together for the glory of God. The objective is life and the power why which that life is made known is through each member of the body doing their share. This will cause the body to grow and find the edifying life of Christ. It is a testimony of love!

I believe that the glory of Christ can only truly be revealed through a testimony of intimacy in Christ. For this reason those who have been given as equipping gifts to the body of Christ must seek relationship above the power of ministry. I believe that the equipping of the Church can only be done through a plurality of ministry and that plurality must put the greatest emphasis upon covenant and the testimony of love. It is not the power of the apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, or teaching that is the focus. It is the function of these things together in covenant life that serves to reveal the greater testimony of life. The body is filled with diverse members that are meant to reveal the testimony of Christ in His fullness. It is not about the work of ministry, but the body. That body will do the work of ministry, but it is because it is the body of Christ. The work of ministry is the fruit of being the body of Christ. The equipping ministry is sent to reveal the body of Christ for who she is in the fullness of Christ in the earth.

The body of Christ is a part of the calling of Christ and a part of the inheritance of God in the earth. Our objective is not to fulfill the calling of individuals, but to fulfill the calling of Christ as His body in the earth. That is done through diverse individuals working together through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not our goal to obtain inheritance in the earth, but to reveal the inheritance of God through every member made alive and doing their part in Him. The equipping ministry is not given to make each member powerful, but to reveal the wonderful power of Christ in His Church. We are together the fullness of Him and the fivefold ministry is another part of the Church sent to see Christ made known in His body.

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.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Welcome to my leaders blog. I have been presenting a testimony of one of my non-negotiable values concerning the equipping of the Church. That non-negotiable is that of activating, facilitating, and releasing the characteristics of the apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, and teaching testimonies in the saints. I believe that the body of Christ is filled with diverse members that exhibit the actions and testimonies of these attributes found in Christ. God has given equipping gifts in Christ that are sent to release and facilitate a culture where the maturation these attributes can come about in the body. As those characteristics and attributes are made manifest the members of the body will be edified and will edify one another. There will be an increasing unity of faith, knowledge of the Son of God, increasing perfection, and continued maturation among the members of the body.

Today I want to look further into some of the things I presented as part of the list that the equipping gifts fulfill. As I have stated the five-fold equipping nouns don’t do the work of ministry, they equip the members of the body to do the work of ministry. Because those men and women with equipping gifts are part of the body as well they will also do the work of ministry, but they will do it as part of the body and not as the equipping gifts given to the body. That work of ministry is to manifest the likeness and image of the Father to the world and thereby propagate the works of God and destroy the works of the devil. Those works are unique and diverse in that it takes all together to express the fullness of Him.

The equipping gifts are given to cause the body members to come to the unity of the faith. Faith comes by hearing and that hearing is by the personally spoken words of God to every human heart. Faith is a natural response to a supernatural relationship. The equipping gifts cannot be a substitute for faith. Their responsibility is not to teach people what to do, but who to believe. They do this by example and by the power of God’s grace given to them for the equipping of the Church. That believing is a believing of God in the life of each and every member of the body of Christ. It is not a matter of task, but a matter of relationship. Works will testify of it, but works cannot attain it. It is attained by revelation. The equipping gifts of Christ are meant to set an example and to facilitate a culture and atmosphere where people hear God and faith thus happens.

A huge part of equipping is creating a culture of relationship in the Church. The culture of relationship is God centered and not man centered. It is a culture dependant upon grace that comes at a revelation of Jesus Christ. The equipping gifts are to serve God by the power of His grace in establishing a place where Jesus can be increasingly manifest in the lives of people. That place is not merely a geographical location, but a spiritual reality for a group of peoples in a seven day per week reality.

God desires for all people to become expressions of Him in the flesh. Like Jesus, the body of Christ is destined to be an expression of God the Father in the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person (Heb. 1:3). That is to be the weight of the Father’s influence and a manifestation of His character, nature, way, power, and authority. The equipping gifts have the responsibility of leading in a way that causes the members of the body to become a testimony of Christ in the flesh. This is the testimony of the stature of Christ in His fullness.

The government of God in the Church is the design of the body and the power of God’s grace made known within it. The equipping gifts are merely part of the governing of the body. They are part of a directional grace given by God to assure there is a proper focus to the operation of the body of Christ. It is part of God’s design that causes the body to accomplish its greatest purpose. With this in mind, the equipping gifts are part of the leadership given to the body that sets a boundary of direction for the body members that assures the members do not remain as little children, but continue to progressively mature in their walk with God exhibiting the testimony of Christ. The equipping gifts are given so that body members will not just function by the power of the Spirit, but will grow in recognizing the leading of the Spirit. This provides a protection to the body from being tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. The equipping gifts should create a source of stability so that the body will not fall for the traps of the trickery of men. This means that the primary responsibility of the equipping gifts is not found in just teaching good doctrine, but in establishing a culture where a proper relationship with God is maintained whereby members know what God has been like, so they will recognize what God is like. It is a relational reality and not a matter of teaching ways of right and wrong. It is based upon the Tree of Life and not the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It is based upon a relationship with God whereby they can properly understand His word. It is not a relationship with His written word, but with Him as the expresser of life. A witness is His written word, but His written word is not the rule of life. A proper relationship with God and understanding Him correctly is the basis of His Lordship.

Consider the culture of equipping and being equipped. We are the body of Christ and therefore we are the testimony of Him in this world.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Hi;

Today I want to continue on the subject of the equipping ministry to the body of Christ. God has given grace gifts to His Church. Those grace gifts were given for the glory of God and His purpose in the church. I will begin by looking at a Scripture text from the book of Ephesians that describes the equipping gifts.

Ephesians 4:11-16 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head–Christ–from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

In this passage of Scripture there are several things listed that are the responsibility of the equipping ministry of the church. As I mentioned in my last blog, there are 4 or 5 equipping gifts that are given as grace gifts to the body of Christ. I personally believe that there are 5, but I don’t believe the number of nor the definition of the nouns are as important as the verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and things of action made manifest by the nouns in the church. In other words, the purpose of these equipping gifts is to activate the attributes of Christ in the collective, yet individually unique expressions of the body.

The first thing that I find in the description is that these gifts are given to equip the members of the body of Christ for the work of ministry. These are not those who simply do the work of ministry, but rather they equip the saints for the work of ministry. What is the work of ministry? The word ministry is simply a word that means to serve or do actions that testify of the works of God. Every believer is called by God to serve with actions that demonstrate the love of God. Those works reveal the testimony of the love of God and thus they destroy the works of the devil. God has given His equipping gifts to make every believer ready and able to express the works of God in their own unique and powerful way. Those works of ministry will manifest apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, and teaching attributes to the world in which we live. People will touch the lives of other people with a sending power of grace. The result will be increasing revelations of purpose and generational destiny. Fathers will turn their hearts to children and children will turn their hearts to fathers. People will touch people with the power of God’s voice that causes dead places to come to life and the world to change. They will activate the saving grace of God in miraculous ways of life. Lost lives will be found and God’s love will capture the hearts of many in simple, unique, profound, and powerful ways. People will inspire people to care about and for one another. The pastoral heart of God will become increasingly evident in human hearts with demonstrations of God’s love through human hands. The grace of discipleship will cause many to understand the ways of God and walk in His paths of life. The body of Christ will be seen doing the work of ministry and the world will increasingly change for the glory of God.

The five expressions of equipping will release the unique expressions of the body of Christ. They will activate, facilitate, and release the members of the body to be themselves with the anointing of Christ in unique ways that contribute to the collective purpose. Members of the body will be edified and will edify one another. There will be an increasing unity of faith, knowledge of the Son of God, perfection, and continued maturation among the members of the body.

Here is a list of the things the equipping gifts will do, and even more so inspire to happen among the members of the body of Christ:

• Equip the saints for the work of ministry
• Edify the body of Christ
• Cause the body members to come to the unity of the faith
• Cause the body members to come to the knowledge of the Son of God
• Cause the body to come become a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
• Prevent the body members from remaining little children, but to grow up in maturity
• Protect the body from being tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine
• Protect the body from the trickery of men, who come in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive
• Teach the body members to learn to speak the truth in love
• Produce a functioning body that grows up in all things into Him who is the head–Christ—
• Cause the whole body to be properly joined
• Cause the body members to be knit together
• Cause every joint (body member) to supply life to one another
• Cause everyone to find their place of effective working
• Cause every part to do their share
• Cause growth of the body
• Cause the body to edify itself in love

I will address some more of the specifics of the purpose and fruit of the equipping gifts to the body of Christ in my next leader blog. Please consider your role as an equipper and as one who also must be equipped in the body of Christ.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Today I am going to further address the issue of New Covenant governors. In these next series of blogs I will specifically expound upon some of my personal convictions concerning what is often referred to as “five-fold ministry” or what some prefer to refer to as “four-fold ministry”, since some lump the ministry of the teacher and the pastor together as one. My convictions are not so much about whether there are four or whether there are five equipping gifts in the body of Christ, but rather how those nouns activate verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and things of action in the attributes of the body of Christ. Just as we are all human beings and not mere human doings, the body of Christ is a testimony of being and that is what inspires all of its doing in life.

Before I begin I must remind us of the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant was a covenant of the knowledge of good and evil. It was not God’s choice, but man’s choice by choosing to value decisions of doing as more important than a trust relationship with God and a testimony of being. The knowledge of good and evil is all about decisions of right and wrong and it has little to do with a value of life. We can blame Adam, but we have all had thoughts that amount to seeing life as a matter of right and wrong decisions. We often value the knowledge of good and evil more than we value life. We think that the worst thing that could happen to us in life is to be wrong, so give us enough information about good and enough information about evil so we can choose good. However, it never really works out good in that thought process. In as system of the knowledge of good and evil we need the knowledge of good, but it leaves us short of finding life. It is called the rule of law and conscience. Law and conscience can never really change us they merely control us. The purpose of law and conscience is to say to us there is a God and He is good, but it never changes our true nature and thus we are bound by them and not transformed. The New Covenant is one of grace and truth. It is the testimony of God’s grace that transforms our nature to become a true testimony of truth. It is not merely knowledge of good, but the empowerment of a relationship with the One who is good. The result is that we become good! There is more that I could say in all of this, but I have said this to present that the purpose of equippers in the body of Christ is that of serving the New Covenant and not the Old. The equipping ministries in the church are not meant to focus on the knowledge of good and evil. They are gifts sent to activate grace and truth! They are sent for the purpose of the being of the body of Christ and not merely the doing of the body. As leaders we are not sent to teach people the knowledge of good and evil, but to reveal to them the power of God’s grace.

2 Corinthians 3:17, 18

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Remember our illustration of the governor on an engine. The governor on an engine doesn’t make the engine run. The design of the engine and the fuel supplied to the engine make it run. The governor on an engine is a regulating device that assures that the supply of fuel to an engine results in uniform motion as well as a limiting of speed in order to make the engine more effective for its workload. That device doesn’t give power to the engine; it merely gives proper focus to the operation of the engine. It is the design of the engine and the fuel supplied to the engine that causes it to be empowered. The governor is simply a directional device to assure the engine accomplishes its greatest purpose. God put the hunt in the hunting dog. The environment of the hunt activates the inherit nature of the hunting dog. God put His grace in the body of Christ. Leadership doesn’t make the body live, grace does. Leadership in the body of Christ is part of the design of God in the church that is given to cause each corporate expression of Christ to have a proper focus and connection to fulfill the purposes of God in the earth.

Proper governors in the church make the government of God effective for work. A governor causes the power of an engine to produce more effective working power. A governor makes an engine effective for work. The government of God is the Holy Spirit and the life of the Holy Spirit in the church. He is the personal connection as God and with God for each member of the body of Christ. The governing of God is within the body of Christ. It includes the expressions of headship and body members.

Jesus gave these gifts for the equipping of the saints: Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. They are not gifts for individuals, but individual gifts given for the profit of the maturing of all believers.

The body of Christ contains the attributes of Christ in His character, nature, way, power, and authority. Like Jesus, the body is apostolic. It is “sent” by God to bring glory to His name. The body is also a source for “sending” life to the world. I believe the apostolic equipping gift is a noun sent to activate, facilitate, and release the “sending” actions and attributes within the design of the body of Christ. An apostolic ministry is one that will send forth other ministries. An apostolic spirit is a sending spirit.

The gift of the prophet should ultimately activate the prophetic testimony of the church. A prophet doesn’t just prophesy; he or she activates a prophetic spirit in the body of Christ. I define prophecy as the testimony of God speaking. God speaks and life happens! The prophetic equipping gifts activate, facilitate, and release God’s voice in the church. The result will be an increase of God’s life in the church and to the world.

The gift of the pastor should activate the members of the Body to care for one another. It is an Old Covenant practice to expect the pastor to be the one who provides all the pastoral care for the members of the body of Christ. The pastor is not the priest of the people. The five-fold ministry is not the priesthood. Every believer is a priest.

An evangelist should not only evangelize, they should activate an evangelistic spirit in the believers. The passion and compassion of Christ should manifest with attributes and actions of reaching the lost and a revealing of God’s miracle power of grace.

The equipping gift of the teacher is not meant to teach as teachers did in the Law. They are not the revealers of principles and truths, but the activators of the Mentor Christ and the connection of truth through a grassroots discipleship reality within the body of Christ.

I will continue more in my next blog, but for now please consider the importance of the attributes of the church. The work of ministry is more important than the mere equipping of ministry, but the equipping is necessary to raise up the body of life!

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

I hope you are all well and for those who are facing difficult challenges I pray that God causes obvious good to come from any bad situation you may be facing. May God give you wisdom inspired by faith and peace that surpasses your own understanding. I pray for God’s manifest presence to be clearly evident in the life of each of you. I also pray that God brings a huge testimony of grace for dependence upon Him in everything.

I am going to continue today with a blog on church government. As I have stated earlier, the government of God is the life of the Holy Spirit in the church and in the life of each believer. The governing of that government is facilitated by the Holy Spirit’s voice in each of us as believers and through God-sent authority in our lives. The Holy Spirit is the true voice of life, but He uses God-sent authority to witness with His voice in our lives. The government is the power of God, while the governing is the direction of God to facilitate that increasing power of grace and life. Every individual believer has a responsibility to hear God. New Covenant governors cannot rob God’s people of carrying the responsibility of the covenant nor the presence of God in their individual lives. If you have been given a governing responsibility to others you cannot rob them of their personal connection with the true government of God. That government is Christ in them and He alone is the hope of glory!

There is a great story that depicts a testimony of New Covenant leadership found in the life of King David. When he became the king of Israel he knew that he needed the presence of God in Jerusalem in order to rule as God’s sent king. He understood that the direction of God’s government is by God and not by men alone. In the history of David’s life the Ark of the Covenant had been missing from the Tabernacle of Witness for twenty years. The Ark of the Covenant was representative of the presence of God and was filled with the presence of God. In the beginning days of David’s rule there was a form of godliness in the Tabernacle, but God was not there. David understood that godly ritual is not a substitute for the presence of God. We must know this as well. No form of godliness is enough to accomplish God’s purposes in the earth. Only God’s presence can bring about His kingdom will upon the earth. King David, as the governor of the government of God in the earth, recognized that in order to lead God’s house he had to have the presence of God (2 Sam. 6:1-15).

There are many hidden secrets in this story of King David. A profound secret is revealed in the death of a man who’s name meant “strength” (Uzzah). He was struck dead for trying to steady the ark while it was being transported to a prepared place known as Nachon’s threshing floor (Nachon means “prepared”). David was attempting to move God’s presence without the instruction of how to carry it. It didn’t matter how spiritual of a procession he orchestrated or how much he had prepared to succeed. His means of transport was a human method or form for moving it, not a relational response to God’s instructions. The stumbling of an ox and the death of the man who tried to control the presence of God in the task interrupted David’s means of transport. God expects us to do things His way. Human strength and preparation is not a substitute for the way of God. In all the form that we have of God, we have to be willing for God to interrupt us.

Somehow David figured it out. In his second attempt to transport the ark he put it on the shoulders of the priests. Continual sacrifices were made to God as the procession took place. God was the center of the movement of the ark and God was the purpose for its movement. The prophetic sound of life was heard with trumpets and shouts of praise. There was a great celebration by David and he was not afraid to become undignified in his own way to honor the presence of God as he went.

2 Samuel 6: 13-15

And so it was, that when the bearers of the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling.  And David was dancing before the LORD with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod.  So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouting and the sound of the trumpet.

2 Samuel 6:17-19

So they brought in the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent which David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.  When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offering, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts.  Further, he distributed to all the people, to all the multitude of Israel, both to men and women, a cake of bread and one of dates and one of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed each to his house.

Uzzah’s death was symbolic of the death of strength. We have to be willing to allow God to change our form of operation if our form of operation is absent God’s presence. The blessing of God is found in the presence of God. To get the presence of God we have to desire Him more than any work we may think we are doing for Him.

If we want the government of God we must have a willing heart for the government of God. This is the key to the life of the kingdom. The government of God is made known through His manifest presence and it is going to be expressed in all of the members of the house of God. We must receive every member of the Body of Christ for who they are and recognize the grace of God that is upon their lives. To have a willing heart for God’s presence doesn’t mean we just have a willing heart to receive the blessings that come from His presence. God’s presence leads us, anoints us, and allows us to be expressions of His kingdom. His Spirit doesn’t bring liberty. The Spirit of the Lord brings liberty (2 Cor. 3:17). Flowing water without direction or boundaries is a flood. An entrenched boundary without flowing water is a rut. Flowing water within the boundaries of direction is a powerful life-giving river leading to purpose and destiny. This is the testimony of the government of God.  Liberty without boundaries is a flood and it can bring great destruction. Boundaries without the liberty of the Spirit is a rut and can lead to death and even end up being a grave for ministry in the long haul. Only proper boundaries with the life-flow of God’s Spirit can bring about God’s kingdom purposes in the earth.

As leaders we must lead to inspire people to take a personal responsibility for the personal testimony of Christ in their lives. An equipper in the Body of Christ must be willing to be misunderstood, yet keep his or her attitude right at all times. We must lead as those who bring life giving blessing, not organizational control. In the New Covenant we are each made responsible to carry the presence of God. The blessing of God’s kingdom is in God’s presence. In taking the responsibility for the personal testimony of Christ, we must lead to see the manifest presence of God in all that we do.

I am posting an audio teaching with this blog that is on the topic of this past month’s teaching. I don’t expect you to copy the methods of my subject material, but I do hope that the principles of my life inspire you to discover God’s personal convictions in your own life as leaders to the body of Christ.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Attached Leadership Audio#2:

Audio

Leader2

PDF file of Teaching: Leader2

Greetings;

Welcome once again to my weekly leadership blog. I hope you are finding some inspiration and spiritual input from these blogs. Please feel free to share them with anyone else you may feel will benefit from them. They can subscribe to be put on the weekly blog sending.  If you have noticed, each month is a topic of leadership focus with an end of the moth audio teaching on that month’s topic.

Today I am going to continue on the topic of God’s government. Every believer needs to be empowered by the government of God. The government of God is the empowerment of faith within the body of Christ. Two things have been given to us for obedience to the faith. Those two things are grace and apostleship (Rom. 1:5). Grace is the work of the Holy Spirit within our lives. The empowerment of the grace of the Holy Spirit in the life of each believer reveals the voice of God and activates the testimony of faith within their lives. That faith brings not only direction to the church, but also the power of God’s continued maturation and transformation in the life of each believer. It is the voice of the Holy Spirit within the heart of the believer that empowers the church. We have also been given external authorities that have been sent to us in life. Those authorities also serve to activate the voice of God within the hearts of the believers. Who are the sent authorities in our lives that keep us focused in the right place? A leader cannot lead in a way that violates the hearts of people. He or she must lead in a way that activates the headship of Christ in every person’s heart and empowers the testimony of faith.

The kingdom of God is a theocracy. God speaks and we respond to His voice. I believe that there are five expressions that are essential to any body expression of Christ in order to assure the theocratic direction of God is fulfilled. Any methods of facilitating these qualities can be negotiable, but the principle of these means of implementing a theocracy is a non-negotiable in my life. The direction of a God established work of God is not implemented by the will of people, but the will of God. It is necessary to discern the will of God for His mandate to whatever expression of Him we find ourselves a part of.

Let me explain how I believe a theocratic rule operates in a corporate expression of the Church. Whether it involves the life of an individual Christian, the corporate expression of a family, the corporate expression of the body of Christ known as a congregation, or any divinely called assembly of believers; a theocracy is the rule of Christian faith. In a theocracy, God speaks and we respond to what He wills. It is a governing by God. The result is always life and peace. The result is the abundance of life that He desires for us all to have. The result is also a furtherance and advancement of His kingdom in the earth. This sounds simple enough, but we don’t hear God well alone. We all have dull ears and blind spots of various kinds to His voice at times and we are therefore dependant upon His grace to help us. His grace is not just given to us as individuals alone, but is also given to us as various expressions of His grace to one another. God has joined us in relationship together and has granted various measures of grace in order for us to articulate what He is saying to us.

We are dependant upon one another in order to be able to hear God clearly. I believe there are several aspects for this to happen in any corporate expression of God’s house. God provides a source, a resource, and a means of furthering His generations and purpose in His eternal plan for the Church. He provides a means by which He can appoint the furtherance of His corporate will for the Church. From what has been, God appoints what is and is to be. This is then seen in various corporate expressions of His will. For every father there is a father and for every mother there is a mother. It is the way of generations. I believe those generational authorities are the apostolic authorities of life sent to the Church to release the continued inheritance of Christ in His body.

I believe that God also appoints specific prophetic voices to any and every expression of His body. These are not apostolic authorities, but are an objective voice of God to them. These voices help them hear God’s word for the direction of their lives. There should be a plurality of prophetic voices to every individual or corporate expression of ministry or local church.

God also appoints a leader to provide responsible headship accountable to articulate His will for any measure of His house. This God appointed individual is a gift of God’s grace sent specifically to a corporate expression of God’s family as a leadership gift to them. This is a leader, not a dictator or a controller. This leader is simply a “leader”.

Every God-appointed leader must also be relationally joined to other leaders in the dynamic of leadership in order to articulate God’s voice through a fuller measure of Christ’s leadership to the Church. These leaders are gifts of God’s grace sent to the leader and the corporate body in order to fully lead the corporate house within the boundaries of God’s bigger plan.

God also anoints members of the household to hear His voice in order to respond to His will. These are God’s individual gifts of diversity within the house to fully articulate His expression of life in and through that house for the work of ministry in Christ.

There are five theological names that describe these means of hearing His voice. The authority to appoint a sent leader to any given expression of God requires a source of sending. Something generational must exist to provide the authority of further generations. This is known as Apostolic Leadership. This type of leadership is a source and resource to any corporate expression of the body of Christ. This leadership is plural and diverse. It is diverse to the manifold expression of God to the Church. A plurality of diversity in source provides a fuller resource to the future generations of God’s will.

God appoints prophets and prophetic voices to bring direction to a local body. This is Prophetic Council. These voices help the local church hear God’s direction to them corporately.

God always sends a leader to lead specific expressions of His will to reveal His increasing glory in the earth. The sending, or appointing, of a leader is known as an Episcopal form of leadership. God simply sends or appoints a leader to lead a body of believers. He puts a special grace upon that individual to be a leader of leaders for the sake of the corporate household.

Another aspect is that of a Presbytery. This is a team of diversely gifted leaders working together to function as one team in leadership. Various levels of grace are given by God within this Presbytery to lead. God bestows different kinds and various measures of grace upon each of these individuals to create a fuller expression of leadership to the household. Some members of this team are graced by God to make decisions of a governmental nature. These individuals exhibit a tangible power of leadership to put new direction from God into motion for the body. They release direction and grace to the body to respond to His will and voice for their lives. Some members have a grace to creatively implement the governmental direction and decisions of function given by God. They themselves did not receive the direction or make the decision, but they have a grace to see to it that works are facilitated in accordance with God’s given direction and decision. These individuals have a grace to activate and facilitate works that speak of the faith of the corporate house and its members. Some members of the leadership team have a God-given grace to equip individuals of the house for individual function and faith that leads to the actions of ministry in the house. A plurality of these equipping graces will release a harmonious expression of Christ’s function within the house. Within each of these expressions of leadership there is diversity according to the various measures of grace given by God.

The final aspect of God’s rule to the corporate house is found in the lives of individual members of the household. This is an aspect known as Congregational Function, where every believer carries the responsibility of hearing the voice of God within the corporate expression. God gives various kinds and measures of grace to individual members to reveal His voice in and through His household. Some are graced to prophesy, some pray, some see God’s treasures in others, some draw treasures out of others, and so on. There is an endless supply of diversity in any expression of God’s house. All corporate hearing of the congregation members is subject to the discernment, facilitation, and direction of the Episcopes and Presbytery levels of authority in the Church.

I believe that it requires all five of these aspects divinely working together in order to discern and articulate God’s will for the corporate house. The methods for implementing these truths can be flexible, but the principle of the role of each part is essential for discerning the will of God. I believe that a true theocracy requires the submission of each of these aspects of family life in order to make correct conclusions as to the will of God for any corporate expression of the body of Christ. This is not Apostolic rule, Prophetic rule, Episcopal rule, Presbyterian rule, or Congregational rule. It is these five aspects of body dynamic submitting to God’s grace given to each measure in order to clearly hear Him and respond to Him. It is the active function of Theocratic Rule in the Church.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

I hope you are all doing well and are encouraged in all that God is doing in these days. We live in a time where God’s grace is abounding and people are coming alive to the goodness of God in an increasing measure. We have a great responsibility as leaders and influencers of God’s expressions of His church in the ministry of Christ. Today I want to begin to address the topic of being governors (leaders) in the body of Christ.

I believe that much of the church tries to operate with Old Covenant principles. Principles alone cannot change the lives of people. We all need the influence of a greater Prince and we all need to be motivated as princes in Christ in order to express the true life-giving changes that are only testified of in godly principles (Isa. 32:1). The system of the Old Covenant was one of law and conscience, while the New Covenant is an administration of grace and truth. Under an administration of the knowledge of good and evil it was necessary to have a knowledge of good in order to inspire the human desire for the One who is good. That knowledge either came in the form of the administration of the human conscience or in the form of law. The perfect knowledge of good was given through the full expression of law in the Torah Law of God. God had no intention of the Torah Law changing the inherent lives of people, it simply pointed to the perfect knowledge of good in a time of the administration of the knowledge of good and evil. It lacked the fullness of truth, which could only be revealed in and through a human expression of grace, and truth.

John 1:14   

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…

John 1:17

…For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

In order to lead the church as New Covenant leaders we must embrace the realities of New Covenant grace and truth. We cannot put New Covenant rule with Old Covenant principles and expect it to work. As church leaders we are governors of the government of God, but the government of God is the life of God within the heart of the church and within the heart of each believer. We must lead in a way that activates, facilitates, and releases the life of God within the church and its members.

Two things have been given to us for obedience to the faith. Those two things are grace and apostleship (Rom. 1:5). Grace is the work of the Holy Spirit within our lives. Every New Covenant expression of Christ’s body is empowered by grace and then manifested as a testimony of God’s truth. The life of the seven-fold perfecting Holy Spirit of God is the power of Christ’s government in the church (Isa. 11:1,2). The grace of the Holy Spirit is the power of the government within the body and He also brings a governing activation, facilitation, and release to the body and its members. We are also governed by “sent ones” in our lives. Those “sent ones” can be categorized in the gift of apostleship sent to us by God in Christ. These sent authorities also represent the force of all sent authority in our lives. They must operate in the same way that the “Sent One”, the Holy Spirit, operates in the life of each believer. I believe that the apostleship of Christ is manifested in the New Covenant authorities of the body of Christ. These New Covenant governors cannot rob God’s people from carrying the responsibility of the covenant nor the presence of God in their individual lives. These are merely governors sent to inspire and direct each body expression to embrace the power of God’s true government. The government must be upon the shoulders of each believer, while the governing is sent to each believer by God to activate, facilitate, and release the power of that life-giving government.

Isaiah 9:6,7            

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.  There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

1 Chronicles 15:14,15

So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel. And the children of the Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders, by its poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the LORD.

I view a governor like a governor on an engine. The governor on an engine is a regulating device that assures that the supply of fuel to an engine results in uniform motion as well as a limiting of speed in order to make the engine more effective for its workload. That device doesn’t give power to the engine; it merely gives proper focus to the operation of the engine. It is the design of the engine and the fuel supplied to the engine that causes it to be empowered. The governor is simply a directional device to assure the engine accomplishes its greatest purpose.

The government of God is both the body and the head. The headship of the body is seen in the governing of the body, but also in the governing of the heart. Each of us has the headship of Christ in our lives. The human heart is the entrance and the rule of the kingdom of God. As leaders we have to lead in a way that activates, facilitates, and releases the headship of Christ in each individual’s life. If we as leaders rule by simply implanting the principles of God we will not see the full reality of God’s people manifested as princes of God. Governing the body of Christ is more about influencing the focus of who the body is more that what the body should do. When people know who they are they will be empowered to do what they were called to do.

Merely presenting rules, principles, and words of truth cannot fulfill the purpose of New Covenant governing. These alone leave the body confined to the Old Covenant system of law and conscience. As New Covenant leaders we must govern to empower the work of God’s grace and the testimony of His truth within every corporate and individual expression of God entrusted to us. The life of the Holy Spirit, the letter of the Holy Spirit, and the accomplished work of the Holy Spirit is essential to every New Covenant expression of God.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

P.S.

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Hello;

This week I am also giving you a bonus resource. With this posting is an audio link to the first of several teachings I did with a selected group of Abundant Life as a means of releasing a sound of core values for generational leadership. I hope you find this audio both inspiriting and beneficial in your own sphere of influence. These audio teachings are merely a means of me expressing some of my core values and how I arrived at them. I pray that God will inspire you to discover the core values of your own.

Leader1 PDF Outline

Audio

Leader1 Mp3 Audio file of teaching

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Hello;

I hope this blog finds all of you doing well. I am presently in Bulgaria. I will be here for the next week with various meetings, training, and one-on-ones. From here I go to Portugal for several days of meetings. I am looking forward to seeing all that God is going to do here in Bulgaria and in Portugal. May God inspire the leaders of these countries to lead in a New Covenant way!

Thank you for taking the time to view these weekly blogs. It is my desire to serve you as a resource of New Covenant life and experience. Please feel free to pass this blog on to any leaders you may know that might find it useful. They can put their email in the subscribe space if they would like to receive it weekly.

Last week I addressed the topic of leading to bring a three-fold God testimony in the body of Christ. I want to continue with this theme today and then I will move to another topic next week. I believe that our endeavors as leaders and influencers of the body of Christ have a great purpose and responsibility. We are not merely called to do good or godly works of ministry. We are called to serve God and His people in seeing His body fulfill its purpose in the earth.

There were times in the Old Testament when men or women of God presented a glimpse into the greatness of the purpose of the body of Christ. King David was one such individual. There is a great statement made by King David at the end of his life. The purpose of his life was summed up in these words:

1Chronicles 28:2

Then King David rose to his feet and said, “Listen to me, my brethren and my people; I had intended to build a permanent home for the ark of the covenant of the LORD and for the footstool of our God. So I had made preparations to build it.”

All of King David’s efforts were summed up in these above words. First he wanted to build a home for the ark of the covenant of the Lord. I believe that this is a place where the manifest presence of God rests. So many times we seek to find our place of rest, but King David wanted to make a home for God to rest. I think this is the first essential key to the purpose of the body of Christ. We must lead in a way that inspires and equips the members of the body of Christ to become a place where God can rest. Since men have found favor with God they should live for His favor in all things. To be such influencers we must ourselves be individuals that God can rest in. It is not what we know about Christian ministry that will change the world. It is how we manifest the presence of God that will change the world. When God rests in our lives we then see His enemies made His footstool. Jesus is held in the heavenlies until His enemies are made His footstool (1Cor. 15:25; Heb. 10:13). When the presence of God manifests, His enemies are subdued.

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

Luke 9:57, 58  

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

Jesus wasn’t saying that if we follow Him we wouldn’t know where we would sleep each night. He wasn’t saying that if we follow Him we wouldn’t have any guarantees of what is next. His statement was one of “being” and “belonging”, while the statement of the man was merely one of “doing”.  Jesus’ illustration of the fox and bird are quite simple and profound. The fox affects the world from beneath the ground with fox stuff, simply because he has found his place of habitation. The fox doesn’t look for a hole in the ground to find a night’s rest. He builds his home in the ground and then he lives a fine old fox fulfilled life. The bird doesn’t look for a nest to have a place to sleep. No, the bird finds a stick, then another, then another, and he builds a nest to live from. From the place of his nest the bird and all of his family affect the earth from the air living a fine old bird’s life. Jesus was simply saying to the man that He wasn’t looking for anyone to follow Him. He was first looking for a place to call His habitation. He was looking for a body! He was the Head and He was looking for a place to rest His headship. He was looking for that part of humanity that would say yes to His habitation in their lives. We must lead the body of Christ in a way that inspires men and women to find Christ as the head of their lives. God wants to rest in their lives and empower them to live out a Christ filled destiny! The first and foremost purpose of the body of Christ is to be a place for His habitation. In Him we live!

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

Luke 9:59, 60

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

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

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

Luke 9:61, 62

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

In this third example, Jesus addressed the issue of fully following Him. God doesn’t just want a relationship with men whereby they do a few good things in life. He wants a relationship that empowers us to become a full testimony of Him in everything in life. We have our being in Him. In these above words Jesus wasn’t advocating cutting off relationships with friends. He was simply revealing the full reality of being friends with God. We were born for the kingdom of God. We must lead in a way that inspires the members of the body of Christ to know that the whole purpose of their lives is for the glory of God. Jesus was God born for us that we might be the body of Christ born for Him! Because we area habitation for God we can do works that speak of our faith in God. Because we have faith toward God all our lives can be lived for His glory.

We must lead and influence the body of Christ in a way that inspires them to live, move, and have their being in God. We are a place where God can rest in the earth and thus all of God’s enemies will be made His footstool in the earth.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

I hope you are all well. This is my second leader’s blog and I think I am getting the kinks worked out of the process. I apologize for any hiccups this blog start up might cause you. If you received this blog and you would not like to receive it please click the “unsubscribe” button. There is likely a link in your received email contact. If not, you can find an “unsubscribe” link by scrolling down on the right side column of my blog under “Blog Administration”. I do hope that these blogs will be useful to you and you will choose to continue to receive them.

Last week I addressed my personal non-negotiable in regard to the purpose of leadership being for the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is not just a fellowship of socially connected people, but a divinely joined connection of members of Christ’s Body for Christ’s purposes in the earth.  I want to continue on that theme today and address a few more essential points as I see them in regard to the Body of Christ.

When completing my Masters degree in Biblical Studies I was asked to write a theology of the Old Testament. My theology of the Old Testament was quite simple. The first thing that God wanted was a people who could say, “God you are our God”. This was known as Passover and the Old Testament was filled with principles, patterns, and values revealing the need of God as man’s God. The second thing that God wanted was to have a people that it could clearly be testified of them, “These are God’s people”. This was known as Pentecost and the Old Testament was filled with principles, patterns, and values revealing God’s desire for a special people. The third thing that God wanted was for a people who would live together with Him. This was known as Tabernacles and the Old Testament was filled with principles, patterns, and values revealing God’s desire to tabernacle with men. I was also asked to write a theology of the New Testament. My theology for the New Testament is pretty close to my theology of the Old Testament. Stated simply it would be that God finally has a people who can truly say from their hearts, “God you are our God”. There is undeniable evidence that God’s people are His with the evidence of heavenly power and fruit. Now all people can come and abide with God in Christ and He with them. This is the reality of the Covenant made living in Christ! Another way of saying these three things is to say: In Him we live, in Him we move, and in Him we have our being! This is the true reality of each of us being empowered by God’s grace to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all of our strength.

As those who influence the Body of Christ I believe we must seek to lead for the purpose of activating, facilitating, and releasing people into these three things. There is a great Scripture spoken by the Prophet Isaiah that I believe reveals these three things in a great way.

Isaiah 51:16 “And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’ “

Jesus said that if we come to Him and drink, out of our inner beings would flow rivers of life-giving water (Jn. 7:37-39). This is none other than the word of God within our mouths. It is a confession that God is our God. God has poured out His Spirit upon all flesh and now is the time for all tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations to come with the testimony of God’s resurrection life upon them. This is the blessing of God’s hand upon us as His own special people. The ultimate testimony is for God to cause His kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth just as it is in heaven. He is planting the heavens (a people who say God is our God), laying the foundations of the earth (a people who are the testimony of heaven in the earth), and saying to Zion, “You are My people”(a tabernacle of God and men together in heaven and earth).

We must lead to facilitate the hearts of men. The kingdom of God is not a kingdom that is far away. It is a kingdom that is within the hearts of men (Lk. 17:20). The key to being a living body is the heart. The heart is the door to heaven. Our role as leaders is not one of rules and commands, but that of opening the hearts of men to God. We cannot change people, nor can we empower them. Only God can give true life!

We must lead to facilitate TRANSFORMATION not to implement INFROMATION. The Old Covenant presented a concept of the way, while the New Covenant is the reality of the way. Information government will not activate, facilitate, and release the true testimony of God. Only a transformation government can do that and this is only found in the power of God’s grace. The Spirit of Christ within the BODY is the only hope of glory.

We must lead to raise up a BODY. The Old Testament was filled with principles, patterns, and values that only revealed a shadow of the true principality Christ. He alone is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The Law was only a shadow of the good things to come (Heb. 10:1) and was never intended to be the good thing that God gave. The good thing that God gave was His only begotten Son and He came in the stature of a Body. He allowed His Body to be broken that we might receive Him and become pieces of the living bread sent down from heaven. Before the sacrifice and offerings were, the Body was. The Body is the key because the body is the place. Only a living Body can say, “God, You are our God”, “We are God’s People”, and “We live together”. Works of ministry can’t do that, only a living being can.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson