Ted J. Hanson's Weekly Blog – ted4you.com

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I hope your new year is off to a good start. I was blessed over the weekend with a prophetic worship night on Friday at Alife and a great service yesterday in Mt. Vernon, with Everyone’s church. I am expectant of God doing good things in this new year.

Last week I wrote concerning finding the desirable place in our lives. I presented that in the creation of mankind, God put man in a garden named Eden – meaning desirable place. That desirable place was a garden in the east. The east is the place of new days and new beginnings. It is a birthing place for new sunrises. What made Eden a desirable place? There were limitless options of life and direction in Eden, but the source of life for all of those options was a personal relationship with God, who gives life.

While on my morning run, one day this past week, God presented to me a concept of eternal life. We know that Jesus said that eternal life is to know God our Father and Jesus Christ His son (Jn. 17:3). This is not merely knowing that they are but knowing who they are. That knowledge is not informational, it is transformational. Knowing God transforms our world in a life-giving way. This is through the fellowship of Holy Spirit in our hearts. Our spirit-to-Spirit connection to God gives us life. We can always find that life because it is eternal. It is true in every season of our lives, even in the day that we finally physically sleep from this world. God gives life, breath, and all things. He is life and He is a giver of that life to all who join themselves to Him. No matter what the circumstance is in our lives, when we join our inner being to the manifest presence of God, we discover life. This is true even on difficult days and in difficult situations. Our perspective must always be to choose life and to find life in all things and at all times. That life is not separate from God but is the testimony of being joined to Him. When we choose to take steps to find Him, we find Eden – the desirable place.

Sometimes God uses practical things in my life to manifest spiritual realities as a prophetic influence for the sake of the body of Christ. Time brings about natural changes. Natural conditions in our lives change, but what do we do when the natural conditions of our lives change? I have lived in my present house for twenty years. When I purchased this house, I enjoyed a spacious yard with an open view of trees and a connection to nature in a wonderful way. Even though my house is in the city limits, the feeling has been one of living close to the city but a part of the country. My house in the natural has proven to be a desirable place for me. Over the years there have been changes that are now affecting my property in a big way. My backyard is filled with fruit trees, berry bushes, grapes, garden spaces, a pond with a waterfall, and a place where I have experienced God in a wonderful way. This past year, the neighbor behind me built a large Additional Dwelling Unity just a few feet from my backyard fence. This dwelling has windows and a second story deck that looks directly into my backyard and to my house. At the front of my house, a new development of town houses is projected to be built in the next year. The circumstance of my dwelling place is being affected radically.

In considering my circumstances, I have considered selling my property and moving to a more suitable environment outside of the city. This option would require a lot of money and a lot of change that is not what I feel God is saying to me at this time. So, what do I do? God told be to “up the Eden factor”. In other words, take your present circumstances and do practical things that will transform it into a desirable place today. You see, we can’t return to a past circumstance in a present time of our world. Whatever the present circumstance of our lives is, we must look for ways to return to our first love. This is ultimately our love for God, but it includes our love for one another and even our love for our present world. We cannot return to a past circumstance. We cannot return to a first experience. We can return to our first love and find new first experiences in our lives today.

As a prophetic statement to my present world, I am planting a couple of trees to change my view of my back yard and my front. I am taking practical steps to change how I see my yard to inspire the attitude of my heart to find God in the garden of my today. I am looking to make positive changes for my world today and choosing to look for the positives of my now situation. The time is NOW, and the day is TODAY. I cannot live in yesterday, nor can I waste time longing for a tomorrow. Today is the day to find the desirable place of life. This is true in our relationships with one another and our practical roles in life. We cannot return to the past or even escape our present, but we can find God in our world today. We must never see the garden as more important than finding God in our garden. When we find God in the garden of today, we find new vision for our dwelling place in life. This will empower our steps for tomorrow.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

We have entered a new year, and God is calling us into another measure of His story. We had a wonderful time at Alife yesterday in Bellingham. Pastor Jonathan challenged us all to hear God for the new year; a word, a phrase, some specific direction for our lives for 2025 that we can set as a base as we move forward in this new season.

As we have closed 2024 and entered into 2025, I have been contemplating the past season and considering what is in store for us in this new year. I believe that this new year is not disconnected from where we have come from but is a furtherance into another measure of God’s story in and through our lives. This year I will enter into my 70^th year and a new decade will be given to me. I consider my 50^th decade to have been a blessed season in my life. My 60^th decade was a greater measure of who I am in Christ and a time of challenges but also great victories. As I enter this 70^th decade of my life I have a great expectation for what God is going to do.

In the decades of my life I have learned that everything in life is a matter of relationship. It is a matter relationship with God and with one another. What is it that makes our world a place of blessing. It is a personal relationship with God and a relationship with others in the context of being family – a family of God. The highest call of God in our lives is to be sons and daughters of God who grow to know the joy of also becoming dads and moms for the purpose of God’s family in this world. Great joy is not merely found in the place of being blessed, it is found in the place of being a blessing. This is the place of God’s purpose in our lives.

I believe that God is extending His hand to us to partner with us for a new adventure into the writing of His story in our world. We must celebrate the blessings and joys that we have known in the past, but to experience what is new we must enter into it. To move forward we must find the desirable place of knowing God in the testimonies of faith, hope, and love. These things are found in the place of knowing God’s manifest presence in our lives today. We cannot find it in the memories of our past. We must return to our first love. Our first love for God is not found in any circumstance of our lives. It is found is the place of love. It is a place of knowing that today is the first day of entering into all that is new through a relationship with God whereby we know we are loved by God.

The first letter in the Revelation of Jesus Christ was to the Church of Ephesus. The word Ephesus means, pleasure or delight. This letter depicts the language of God in the beginning of Adam and God in the Garden of Eden. The word Eden means desirable, in synonymous terms to the meaning of Ephesus. In this letter Jesus is seen as “the one who holds the seven stars in His right hand”. He is seen as Lord, because He is the one who loves us. His love holds us in all things!

The language of this letter to the Church of Ephesus is that of the Garden of Eden with terms like “works”, “labor”, “patience”, and the knowledge of hating “evil”. These are garden tending terms. In this letter Jesus comes as the one “who walks in the midst”, as He walked in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:8). Those in Ephesus had done well at knowing who true apostles were and who were false. They had the knowledge of good and evil, but they had left their first love. They sought the labor of the garden, but they had lost the testimony of the ‘desirable place’. They were missing the purpose of the garden as a place of knowing an intimate walk of love with God whereby they could be empowered to live for His purpose in their world. Knowing God’s presence of love in our lives empowers us to love Him and to love one another.

Whatever the present circumstances are in your life, only a partnership with God and His love will bring about the testimony of Eden, the desirable place of knowing the newness of God and the newness of His purpose every day. I believe we are entering into a productive season of life, but the secret to that place is returning to Eden in our hearts. We must look to our life today and not the life we had yesterday. We must look to find Eden in our present circumstances.

The desirable place is a place of eating from the tree of life. It is not a place of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is a place of being loved by God to find love for the day at hand. It is there that graves can turn to gardens. It is there that impossible things become possible. It is time to enter the new but to enter the new we must find the place of Eden today in our everyday world.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

We have come the end of 2024 and are about to enter into a new year. I have expectation stirring in my heart for this new season. I believe that God is going to be revealed in His powerful love.

I have been writing in regard to bearing the mark of God. As sons and daughters of God we are changed in our thinking and changed in our way of doing things. God is our God, and we are His children. We live in Him, and we are expressions of Him to our world. I have presented that the kingdom of God is a kingdom within us that transforms our external kingdoms to be kingdoms of our Lord and Christ. We used to bear the mark of our own carnality. We were self-seeking and self-motivated, but now the focus of our hearts and minds is to live for the will and kingdom of our heavenly Father.

True righteousness is a right relationship with God in our hearts. God is our God! Jesus is our redemption and salvation in all things. We have righteousness in the Holy Spirit, and we have peace in the Holy Spirit. We also have joy in the Holy Spirit. Joy is not dependent upon happiness. Joy is deeper and stronger. In the presence of the Lord there is the fullness of joy (Ps. 16:11). Joy is connected to purpose and our true purpose is found when we partner with God and He partners with us in all things.

Our future is in God. We live for His purpose and will in all things. The Old Covenant feast of Tabernacles was a partnership acknowledging that every aspect of man’s harvest is for the glory of His name.  God is the one who gives us all things. In Him we have our being for His kingdom and His will to be done in our world.

The children of Israel were to keep the feast of Tabernacles as a testimony of God’s partnership with them in every season of their lives. Every season of life is a season of harvest. That harvest brings bread to the world today and seed for the world of tomorrow. This was to be a mark on the forehead and a mark on the back of the hand. It was to be in the thinking of God’s people and in their way of doing things.

Deuteronomy 11:18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”

As sons and daughters of God, we are new creations in Christ to be givers of life to our world. It is in our way of doing things and in our way of thinking. We live, move, and have our beings in God for the glory of His name in all things! By this, we will give life to our world.

God gives us all things and all things are for His purpose and glory. Our lives are filled with many seasons of harvest and each harvest is purposed to give the food of life to our world and plant the seeds of life for a generation to come. This is to live our lives as sons and daughters of God who is our Father. We are givers of life as He is a giver of life to us. This is the testimony of the kingdom of God within us. We must seek the purpose of the kingdom of God in our lives. It is in Him that we have our beings.

Proverbs 3:9 Honor the LORD with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; 10 So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

Our barns are the supply houses of God’s heavenly bread to feed the nations and the generations. Our vats are the reservoirs of life filled with life-giving power for the testimony of heaven’s grace to others in our world. As sons and daughters of God we should make it our aim to live for the kingdom of our Lord and Christ. The kingdom of God is what should consume our attention. His justice system of life to the world should be the focus of our hearts. We have a great heritage and a great destiny. We live for the joy of the Lord. This is our strength! A zeal for God’s house should consume us in all things. It is in our thinking and in our way of doing things.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you have a blessed week with a time of God’s presence this Christmas season. We were blessed to have all of our family with us this past weekend for a wonderful time together. This year we are up to the number 14 and our time together is precious.

Today I am going to continue to address the subject of the mark of God in our lives. I have presented that the feast of Passover was only a shadow of the internal reality in our hearts of righteousness in the Holy Spirit. Today I am addressing the testimony of internal peace in the Holy Spirit that was foreshadowed in the Old Covenant feast of Pentecost.

The Old Covenant Pentecost was given as a feast to Israel as a testimony of being empowered by God’s Word and Spirit to be the people of God. The Torah law and tabernacle systems were given to mark God’s people to be a testimony of His word and Spirit to the world. The fulfillment of this is seen in the Holy Spirit in and upon our lives. We have peace with God in the Holy Spirit that gives us a testimony in our world that reveals we are expressions of heavenly testimonies in Christ. Our connection to God’s presence in and upon our lives empowers us to move in Him. We are strong in God’s Word and strong in His Spirit. We overcome every wicked thing as sons and daughters of God. The feast of Pentecost was to be a feast in Israel that was to be kept as a mark of God in their lives.

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”

Our internal relationship with God gives us the power of His word that transforms our character, nature, and way in life. His manifest presence in our lives empowers us to be a testimony of His power and authority enabling us to be expressions of His life in and to our world. God is the word, but we are expressions of His word in human form. We live our lives to be a testimony of His eternal life because there is no separation between us and Him. We have peace with God and that peace is the fullness of His presence made known in our lives.

The Hebrew word for peace is the HSRN 7965. שָׁלוֹם šâlôm; or שָׁלֹם shalom; from 7999; safe, i.e. (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace. The Greek word for peace is the GSRN 1515. εἰρήνη eirēnē; probably from a primary verb εἴρω eirō (to join); peace (literally or figuratively); by implication, prosperity. Peace is not merely an emotional feeling or a confirmation of God’s forgiveness in our lives. I believe that God’s peace is the substance of the life of God that exists in His house. When our house becomes His house, His house becomes the available substance of life to our house. It includes the safety, wellness, happiness, friendship, welfare, health, and all manner of prosperity that exists in His house in heaven.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. He is the source of our testimony in life. He is the giver, but we are each an expression of all that He gives. He delights in loving us and we delight in loving Him. There is no gap between our world and His and His world and ours. All that He is and all that He has is changing the expression of who we are in life. Being joined to Him fills us up to overflowing and what He is doing on the inside of us becomes an expression that others can see. This is the testimony of our peace with God. It is in our thinking and in our way of doing things. It is a mark on or foreheads and a mark on the back of our hands.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Greetings,

Blog In Audio:

I hope you are all well and that your week and weekend were blessed. I have been blessed to be home for a bit and sense God stirring for the new year that is ahead. We had a good day together yesterday at Alife as we are preparing to end a year in God’s presence and enter into a new one for a further step in our destiny in Christ.

As sons and daughters of God, we know the treasure of the kingdom of God within us. It is the kingdom of God within us that empowers the expressions of our own kingdoms in this natural world to be true to the character of God’s purpose and will in heaven. That internal kingdom is manifested in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. These internal realities mark our lives to think differently than we did in the world and to express our lives to our world as givers of life as our Father in heaven is a giver of life in all things. The Old Covenant feast of Passover was a shadow of our internal knowing the righteousness of God by the power of His Holy Spirit. This feast in the Old Covenant was only a shadow of the good thing that has now come to us in Christ.

Galatians 3:19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. 21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

Faith has come to us by an ability to hear God’s voice to our hearts from within. This is a part of the testimony of being a member of the body of Christ. Our righteousness is not given to us by an obedience to the law. Our righteousness is given to us by an internal inspiration of faith. We hear God and we respond to Him in our hearts. The actions of our lives are a witness to our relationship with God in our hearts. We bear this mark in our thinking and in our way of doing things. The law could only restrain the actions of our flesh, but God’s manifest presence in our hearts inspires us to demonstrate actions led by God’s Spirit. This is grace. God is our God, and we are empowered to live our lives by His powerful love working within us. We have life and we are givers of life to our world.

God desires all of us to be kings and priests to Him. We are priests in our connection to God in heaven with increasing revelations of His wonderful love. We respond to His love in our worship, and we become a testimony of His praise to our world. Our influence in our world is that of kings. We influence our earthly realities with an authority and an anointing given to us by heaven’s grace. It is not that some are priests and others are kings. We are all meant to be priest before our God and kings in our influence in and to our world.

Revelation 1:5b …To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

We are each to be a part of Christ’s calling in who we are. Our relationship with God in our hearts will reveal His love through us to our world. We are marked in our thinking and in our way of doing things that demonstrates our righteousness with God that comes by faith. It comes by a relationship of love by and for God. The mark of God is not some physical mark upon our hands or our foreheads. It is a way of thinking and a way of doing things. This was foreseen in the shadow of the Old Covenant feast of Passover. The Passover feast signified a way of life that knows it is in God that we live. We have righteousness by the Holy Spirit within us. We know that our sins are forgiven because we know we have a Father who loves us. The Old Covenant shadow was prophesying of what has now come to us in our thinking and way of doing things in Christ.

Exodus 13:8  “And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, ‘This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came up from Egypt.’ 9 It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the LORD’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt.”

Wherever the mark of God is revealed, it is a testimony of living to know the life that God gives us so that we can give His life to our world. Our thoughts are for God’s will to be done, and His kingdom to come in all that we are and do. Our hands become instruments of blessing and not instruments that take things from others for our own purposes. We are givers of life to our world. We know the liberty of life that God gives to us and we are inspired to give that life to and for others in our world.

1 Corinthians 10:23 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. 24 Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being. 

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Help Us Complete of Mission:

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am in Bellingham. We had a blessed day at church yesterday. Pastor Jonathan spoke on the peace of God and there were many responses to God’s word and presence. We had an activation of God’s peace at the end of the service and God’s presence was real.

As sons and daughters of God, we bear the mark of God. That mark is in our thinking and in our way of doing things in life. Our thoughts are motivated by the Spirit of the Lord within us. God’s voice to our hearts empowers us to believe Him. This is the miracle of faith. Because of this, we live for the will of our heavenly Father and that inspires us to live for the wellbeing of others. We live to give life to others in our world and we live for the future generations of God’s family in this world. This is the heart and mind of our heavenly Father. He is a giver of life because He is secure in who He is as the source of life for all of mankind. He gives life, breath, and all things to those who eagerly embrace a relationship with Him in life.

People who embrace the way of the world live for themselves. They are marked in their thinking to seek to live for themselves in their world. This is in their thinking and in their way of doing things. They live in themselves and for themselves in life. It is in themselves that they live, move, and have their being. Because of this, they are insecure in their identity, and they seek to take life wherever they think it is found. Their motivation is self-seeking, self-willed, and self-serving in their world.

Those in the world live by the standards of the tree of a knowledge of good and a knowledge of evil. When our motivation is inspired by a knowledge of good and evil, we become judges of ourselves and others in regard to what we believe to be good and what we believe to be evil. Even when it comes to believing in God, when the foundation of our belief is based upon a knowledge of good and evil, we twist God’s words to become tools by which we invoke death upon ourselves or others.

The Scripture only talks about the mark of the beast in one chapter of our Bible, but the mark of God is talked about in many places in Scripture. The mark of the beast in Scripture is simply the way of the world (a beast of the sea), and a way of dead religion (a beast of the land). It is a carnal way of thinking and a carnal motivation for all that they do in life. This is the mark of the beast, but the mark of God is the call of eternity that is in every heart. It is the place of finding one’s true identity, testimony, and purpose in this world.

We have righteousness in the Holy Spirit. This is the power of the kingdom of God within our hearts. Our righteousness is found in a relationship with God as our Father whereby we grow in knowing His love for us and we are transformed in our hearts and minds to love Him and others. This is the gift given to us through Jesus. He was the fulfillment of the law for us so that we could live our lives empowered by God’s grace. This is the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham, the father of our faith.

Romans 4:13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, 15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”

Faith works through love, and when we know the love of God in our hearts, we are inspired to love Him and to love others. This is the testimony of our faith. We are empowered from within to leave our old way and pursue a life of following God. We respond to His voice to become all that He says we are. It is evident in the way we live life. Our thinking is that of being loved by God, so we live our lives to love Him. We live our lives to be givers of life to our world because Christ in us makes us come alive. This is the faith of Abraham – a Chaldean who became a Hebrew by a righteousness imputed to him by faith. We are new creations in Christ by a righteousness imputed to us by faith in Jesus Christ.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Please help us complete our mission!

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am out in the field on a hunting trip. I had a blessed time ministering yesterday at Alife in Bellingham. I am now hoping to reap some harvest and have a good time with God in the forest in the process.

As sons and daughters of God, we have been appointed and anointed to be salt and light to our world. We must be internally motivated by the kingdom of God within us and not shaken by the instability of the kingdoms of our world. Where is our focus? Are we looking to the light of Christ or are we looking to the darkness in the world? When things become troublesome in the world, some Christian believers become focused on things they believe to be signs of the end of the world. They say, It must be getting close to the end, because look at how dark it is getting. This is good. Finally, persecution will come to the church in America or the church in Europe, or the church in the world. Now maybe we will become the real church.

It is true that pressure does make what is real manifest in our lives. So, should we get excited to invite undue pressure? Or should we say: It is time to arise and shine! It is not time to arise and judge. It is time to arise and demonstrate what true fathers and mothers look like, what true businesses look like, what true music sounds like, or what true art portrays.  All that we are and all that we do must become life-giving to the world. It must produce life-giving testimonies. We don’t need more movies that condemn the world. If we only aired good news on the radio and the television, we could impact the world in a life-giving way. If we only told good news to our neighbors, we would change the world. If we simply broadcasted all the good news something good would happen. The world is not going to do that. I wonder if someone who is part of the church will.

Are we waiting for people in darkness to speak as light? They live in darkness! They are not going to speak as the light, nor can we expect them to. They cannot see. They don’t need us to condemn them for their ways of darkness. They need us to demonstrate what it looks like when someone lives in the ways of light. Are we are waiting for people who live in darkness to speak light? They live in darkness, and they are not going to speak light. They don’t need us to condemn their darkness. What if we became competitive with good news, good music, good art and everything that is good in life. I am not talking about old things or old sounds. I am not talking about safe business ideas. I am talking about radical ideas that have never been thought of before. I am talking about life-giving ideas with life-giving expression and life-giving sounds.

Grace always gives to others. It never takes from them. Mercy is given so you can be empowered by grace to give mercy to others. When we experience God’s mercy, we can empower others to come into grace. Grace is working in our lives so we can be merciful to those who are in the law or to those who are bound to promiscuity. Grace doesn’t work in legalism or promiscuity. It works in the hearts and minds of those who have become hungry, willing, and teachable in and for the presence of Christ within their hearts. We don’t condone darkness, nor do we condemn those who live in it. Darkness is already condemned. We simply look for a way to help people out of darkness, but we must first demonstrate light.

Isaiah 60:3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

People who do not understand God will be attracted to people of grace. People who don’t understand covenant will come and say, Wow! What is this? How can I get this? Even kings will come to the brightness of their rising. Wow! How does it work? How does this wellbeing for others thing happen? Where did this revolution come from? What are your ideas? I need some ideas! What are your ideas?

A dog barks like a dog, that is how we know it is a dog. If an animal sounds with a meow, it is likely a cat. If it clucks, it may be a chicken. If it moos, it might be a cow. We identify animals by their sounds. When a cow sounds like a cow we don’t say, why don’t you act like a lion? We don’t condemn a cow for being a cow. We don’t put a saddle on a lion and expect it to behave like a horse. In the same way, we cannot expect people who do not know God to act as though they do. We live in the world, but we are not of the world. We are to shine in the world, not to condemn the world for being darkness. What do we expect? People of grace don’t measure people in the world by law. They measure them by love!

Can we be the people of God? Can we become people of grace with one another? Can we become people of grace who show mercy to those who need mercy? Can we arise and shine and live for the wellbeing of others? The world is a mess, but we can manifest with the testimonies of a life-changing, life-restoring God.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am back at my home in Bellingham, Washington. It is good to be home. This is a week where we celebrate Thanksgiving in the U.S., and I am thankful to be a part of God’s family. I will celebrate with my own family, but I am also thankful for the family of God that I am a part of in Christ.

We are a dwelling place of God by His Holy Spirit. This is the good news granted to us all through our redemption to God through the shed blood of Jesus upon our cross at Calvary. We have been redeemed and now we can know the blessing of being sons and daughters of God in Christ. God’s presence in our lives doesn’t just give us His blessing, it empowers us to be a part of His life-giving purpose in and to our world. God’s presence in our lives gives us both His blessing and His purpose.

Without God’s presence, we cannot become. God’s purpose won’t give us His presence, but His presence will reveal His purpose. We each have a part in the calling of Christ, the inheritance (the testimony) of Christ, and the power (the purpose) of Christ. This is a season where you can find your identity, testimony, and purpose in Christ. There is an identity crisis in the nations and generations, but Holy Spirit is calling out to the nations that they would come and find the truth of their being in Christ. Our journey begins with knowing God in an intimate and powerful way.

Exodus 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

This is the first commandment of ten commandments of God given in the Torah to the children of Israel. It is not a command from a controlling God who has some need to be honored. It is the strong appeal of a loving Father who wants all to know the freedom of life that only He can give. His is the only one who can bring us out of the darkness of disconnection from Him and bring us into the liberty of life that comes by knowing Him. No other god can give us life that empowers us to fully live in the freedom of God’s eternal reality of life.

God’s second commandment of the ten commandments reveals a key to becoming who we are meant to be in God. It has to do with responding to our Creator’s love to become an expression of His love as we are meant to be as a son or daughter of God. It is only through a relationship of love towards God that we can become who we are meant to be.

Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” 

God is not a jealous God because He needs something from us. He is jealous because He wants to give us all that He has for us to become who we should be in life. He gives life, breath, and all things. His desire is to be Himself towards us to give us all that we need to be who we are meant to be.

What, or who, gives us our identity, testimony, and purpose? Whatever or whoever we worship creates us. Each of us are a one and only son or daughter of God and we can only become who we are meant to be by our worship of the One who creates us. When we worship something other than Him, we become something different than who we are meant to be. This is idolatry. When we love some created thing more than we love the Creator, we become something less than who we are meant to be. To be the expression of God we are meant to be requires us to respond to God’s love with a love for Him that is greater than our love for any created thing. Creation cannot create us as we should be. Only our heavenly Father can define our true identity, testimony, and purpose in life.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I have had a wonderful time in Angola, Africa. God has been good and the fruit of His life and love is growing here. Thank you to all who came with hunger for God. His love and purpose are going to grow in this land. Today I am arriving in Portugal to go home tomorrow.

As sons and daughters of God, we are the light of Christ to our world. We are like stars in the night placed by God to rule in the night. In this, we are dependent upon God and upon being in our God-assigned place in the body of Christ. This is the place of God’s purpose and will. It is the place of being alive and being life for our world. This is the place of our authority in Christ. Authority always gives life, it never takes. It is not a matter of control or manipulation. It is a matter of giving to others, the life that God has entrusted to each of us. The light of authority is the light of God’s love that destroys death with life and crumbles every lie by a testimony of truth.

To shine we must seek first God’s kingdom. The kingdom of God is within us (Lk. 17:20, 21). It is the place of knowing righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). To seek the kingdom of God is to seek the will and the way of the King in all things. Christ in us is the source of our true identity, testimony, and purpose in life. It is in Him that we live, in Him we move, and in Him we have our being. Our relationship with Him gives us a righteousness that empowers us to be alive in our world. Our oneness with Him gives us peace that reveals His heavenly testimony in our lives. He gives us breath and we are an expression of Him in our world. His manifest presence in our lives gives us all things. A partnership with Him in all things gives us the joy of His purpose in all things.

As children of God, we are the light of Christ to our world. The foundation of our lives is made secure and growing by the power of Holy Spirit working in us. Holy Spirit in us is the testimony of grace that empowers us in all things.

To be the light of Christ, we have to know the presence and love of God resting in our lives. He is our first love and being loved by God is eating of the tree of life. We were born to be loved by Him (Rev. 2:7).

To be the light of Christ, we must be empowered from within to love God with all of our hearts. We have no fear of death because God’s perfect love casts out all fear in our lives. Not even the second death has any power over us. We have eternal life in Christ and that eternal life is knowing God our Father and knowing Jesus Christ His Son by a connection with Holy Spirit in our hearts (Rev. 2:11).

To be the light of Christ, we must have a personal testimony in Christ, inside and out. We are submerged in God’s Holy Spirit to become holy in our character, nature, way, power, and authority. The mystery of God’s word is continually transforming our hearts from within, and the power of His Spirit is transforming who we are to reveal to our world the power of God’s love (Rev. 2:17).

To be the light of Christ, we must give the life of God to our world. We destroy the lies of death by the authority of life given to us by God. The truth of God’s life destroys the lies of death that surround us in our world. We shine like the sun to bring the authority of God’s life to the world given to each of us (Rev. 2:26-28).

To be the light of Christ, we demonstrate the good works of Christ to our world. We were clothed in self, but now we are clothed in Christ. We are sent by God our Father to bring the power of God’s resurrection might to those God sends us to. Our Father confesses us before the angels of heaven to be His sent sons and daughters in Christ to our world (Rev. 3:5). 

To be the light of Christ, we must know the love of God to be His love to one another. We are a dwelling place of God’s Spirit in this world and knowing His love ignites our hearts to love Him and to love one another to be a corporate community of His love (Rev. 3:12). 

To be the light of Christ, we must open the doors of our hearts to God’s presence for His will and purpose in all things. Partnership with God in Christ empowers us reign in life. We are in awe of who He is, and He ignites our hearts to live for the zeal of His house in all things (Rev. 3:20-21).

We are a dwelling place of God by His Spirit, and we shine as His light in the uniqueness of who we are for His glory in our world. We are joined to Him and to one another to rule in the darkness of the night. We are children of light!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am in Angola, Africa. It has been a great time with leaders as well as with some of the Angolan Church family. Today I am beginning several days with training for pastors and leaders here. It is a blessing to be with the believers in this region of our world. Thank you Bengo CCVA for your hungry hearts for God and your warm welcome to me.

It is not the things that God gives us that enable us to advance the influence of God’s kingdom in our world. It is who He is in our lives and who we are because of Him in our lives. The influence of the kingdom of God in our world is directly connected to the influence of the kingdom of God upon our hearts. As Jesus said, the kingdom of God doesn’t come by external observations. The kingdom of God is within us (Lk. 17:21, 22). Only when our own kingdoms become influenced by the kingdom of God in our hearts, can we influence our world by the power of God’s kingdom. Knowing who God is empowers us to know who we are and knowing who we are enables us to influence our world as we should. Our relationship with God in our hearts gives us an experience and knowing of His love. Our relationship with Christ in us gives us evidence of heavenly things that reveals our peace with Him – our connection to Him in all things. Our partnership with God in our hearts grants us His purpose and the joy that comes from His presence with us in and though our lives in all that we are and do.

God is a giver of good gifts. What are His good gifts? As sons and daughters of God, we are light to the world of darkness around us. That light is seen in the works of our faith, but the works of our faith only happen when we are internally inspired to be givers of life to others as our heavenly Father is a giver of life to us. The purpose of our lives is to be life and to give life to others in our world. This is the way of Christ. We are the body – of Christ! As sons and daughters of God, Christ in us is the hope of glory. That glory is to become as our heavenly Father and Jesus Christ His Son in our character, nature, way, power, and authority. We are not in this world to one day become new creations. We are new creations in Christ to give life to our world. We are to shine as the light and life of Christ.

God loves the world, but the world is bound to darkness apart from knowing God. Only a relationship with God in our hearts can empower us to become as we should be in the darkness of the world around us. As sons and daughters of God, we shine to inspire others to shine also. We inspire others to know God, even as we know Him in our hearts. Our Father is the Father of lights. We are those lights! God’s sons and daughters are the perfect gifts of His light to our world.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Children of God are like the stars. We are called to know God from within. The fire of His presence burns in our hearts. It’s by knowing God within that we can shine with the light of Christ from within. As we grow in knowing our heavenly Father, Jesus His Son, and Holy Spirit, we become lights in the darkness of our world that are as stars in the night by which the lost can find their way home. Finding our right place in Christ empowers us to become as we should be in our world.  Living as the family of God enables us to be hope to the lost in our world.

Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. 2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. 3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Jesus is the Light of the world, but He is also the light of every man and every woman. Each of us are meant to shine to our word revealing the life and love of our Father in heaven. When we find Jesus in our hearts, we shine to our world as a light in the darkness.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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