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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I had a blessed time yesterday ministering at Everyone’s Church in Mt. Vernon, Washington. God is blessing those who seek His presence, His promise, and His purpose in their world. We are at the close of another year, but we are continuing forward in our destiny in Christ. We are about to enter into another season and God is leading us in a journey that grows in the continuity of His grace working in our lives.

Overcoming the power of the flesh is not a discipline of the flesh. A discipline of the flesh is merely the control of something that remains alive in our lives. Only a life led by the Spirit of God can grant us the victory over the power of the flesh. Grace empowers us to live according to God’s Spirit; thus it puts to death the deeds of the flesh. God’s grace is the power of God’s Spirit working in our lives.

Romans 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

God’s grace enables us to live as sons of God, male and female for in Christ all are sons of God (Gal. 3:26, 27). Grace empowers us to be led by the Spirit of God. This is not merely instructions as to how to live, what to think, or what to do. Being led by the Spirit is to be led by a different desire, a different wisdom, a different understanding, a different counsel, a different might, a different knowledge, and a different awe of purpose – a fear of the Lord. This is the testimony of the sevenfold Holy Spirit of God – the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel, the Spirit of Might, the Spirit of Knowing, and the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:2). Grace enables us to know God as our Father – spirit to Spirit. Grace empowers us to endure and to overcome all things as sons of God.

Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

The opposite of fear is love. Perfect love casts out all fear. Being led by the Spirit of God is being led by God’s love. Beling led by the Spirit is a matter of intimacy with God. It’s not a matter of power. It is a liberty that comes by the Spirit of God working in our hearts. Sonship is empowered by grace. It is empowered by our spirits being one with Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

God is the One who subjected the earth to futility as a consequence of man’s disconnection at the fall. Man chose an outside/in administration when he chose knowledge over intimacy and trust with God. God’s desire has always been to restore the intimacy and trust that was lost by man at the fall. His subjection of the earth to futility put a demand for a supernatural transformation in the hearts of men and women to become sons and daughters of God. Man was created to live by the Spirit and not the flesh. God’s plan was to restore the truth of the Spirit to mankind. God’s grace enables us to be led by God as sons and daughters who grow in knowing God intimately and trusting Him to transform our lives to be givers of life to our 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

Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you have a blessed week and a wonderful Christmas celebration. We have been celebrating here at the Hanson house. Our California family was home with us for a few days, and we had a wonderful early Christmas celebration with us all together. I will continue again today on the topic of grace.

The Old Covenant administration of the tree of the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil can never bring freedom to the earth. When our focus is knowledge, we end up becoming judges of ourselves and judges of others. Without an internal change in the weaknesses of our hearts we can never attain to a testimony of being fully good. Only an internal connection to God in our hearts can transform us to become a testimony of God who is good. The Old Covenant of conscience and law can only end in death. Jesus died for us to put an end to the old administration of death in our lives. His death was a judgment of mercy for us all that we might receive the empowerment of His presence in our lives. That empowerment is the testimony of His grace. It is not a law of death but a law of the Spirit of life for us all.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

God’s mercy freed us from condemnation. The death of Jesus upon the Old Covenant tree of death (the cross), enabled us all to find our death in Him. Having died in Him, we are made free from the power of death. We are made free from our disconnection from life. God’s mercy freed us from the law of sin and death. Having been freed from death we are now joined to God in Christ. We are joined to the eternal life found in God. God’s grace gives us the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Having been joined to eternal life in God enables us to live our lives as a testimony of life. That life increases in our lives as a testimony of God’s grace. Grace empowers us to walk according to God’s Spirit. When we are joined to the Spirit of God in our hearts, our spirits inspire our souls with life-giving thoughts, reasonings, imaginations, emotions, and desires that enable us to live as sons and daughters of God. We are inspired from within to live our lives as givers of life to our world in every aspect of our being. Mercy ended our life of flesh and grace empowers our life in the Spirit.

Romans 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

The Spirit of God dwells in us. The power of eternal life is within us! Grace is the Spirit of God dwelling in us. Grace is a relationship with God – spirit to Spirit. Being joined to God in our spirits is good news for our souls and even our physical being. Grace is the resurrection life of Christ within us. It is stronger than our mortality. Being joined to God in Christ grants us the power of the resurrection life of Christ – in this world and in all that is to come. We are saved by grace!

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 am writing again today from my home in America. I was blessed to speak in my home church yesterday and we enjoyed God’s presence as the family of God. It is always good being with my local church family. I hope you were able to enjoy the same wherever you are. I am continuing to address the topic of mercy and grace. God’s mercy frees us from the bondage of the law and God’s grace liberates us by transforming our hearts and minds to manifest as God’s sons and daughters in our world.

The law of God was good because it revealed the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God. The law informed us of the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. It revealed the perfect standard of God and that perfect standard exposed our own failures. The law exposed our sin, but the law could not transform the iniquities of our hearts. The Law could not change our internal weaknesses. The law lacked what only God’s grace can do in our lives.

Iniquities are a flaw, a propensity to transgress, a place in our hearts where we are vulnerable to the temptation to look for life in the wrong place. Iniquities are issues of the heart that need a visitation of God’s presence to transform the root character, nature, way, power, and authority of our family name. The root of sin is found in the iniquities of our hearts. Only God’s grace can transform the iniquities of our hearts. His grace is His manifest presence within us as the sevenfold Spirit of life. Holy Spirit is the internal Messenger of God that changes the message of our lives from within. God’s strength transforms our weaknesses to a testimony of His likeness from with. We can only be transformed by His presence within our hearts. The law could not transform our hearts. It could only reveal the failures of our ways.

Romans 7:13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Law cannot save us from sin. The law manifested our need for God’s mercy and grace. The law exposed the desires of the flesh. The law only manifests sin. It is good in that it reveals our need for a new heart and a new mind. We need the heart of God within us, and we need the mind of Christ to become a testimony of life-giving change. Jesus was the end of the law for us so that He could also be the beginning of grace in our lives. Law revealed the weakness of our flesh. God’s grace brings the strength of God’s likeness and image to our inward man.

Romans 7:21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

The law only exposes the evil within me. Only grace can deliver us from our failures. Only the mind of Christ within us can transform our lives. Paul’s objective in this portion of his letter to the believers in Rome was to challenge them all to be people of grace. He was challenging them to let go of the old way of the knowledge of good and evil and be intimately joined to God in Christ to know the wonder working power of God’s powerful love within. This is the testimony of being married to grace. It is being intimately joined to God through the internal connection of Holy Spirit.

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,

Blessings to you all in this final month of the year. We had a great time yesterday at Alife Church. Jesus was in the house and there was a prophetic Spirit that testified of His presence. I am fully embracing what God is doing and is about to do in our new year. I have a great expectancy. Let me continue again today on the topic of God’s mercy and grace.

The apostle Paul was a former Pharisee of Pharisees, but God’s grace transformed him to become a light unto the Gentile world. He found the testimony of both God’s mercy and grace. God’s mercy freed him from the bondage of the law, and he found the liberty of being joined to God in the Spirit. Paul’s desire was that his own countrymen, the Jewish people, would also embrace the freedom of being joined to God by the power of His grace. For this reason, he challenged those who had been bound to the law to embrace the grace of God found in Christ.

In Roman’s chapter 7 Paul writes concerning marriage, death, and remarriage. He was not really addressing marriage. He was presenting a truth concerning law and grace. One was a covenant of bondage but the other was a live-giving covenant of grace. He was presenting that you cannot be married to grace while you are married to law. In Christ, the law has died and thus in Christ we can all be joined to the life-giving covenant of grace.

Romans 7:1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

The first Adam (our old man) was bound to the law through an administration of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the administration of the knowledge of good and evil, all men are bound to some form of law. The conscience of mankind is only the conviction of our own spirits that cries out for freedom from the judgment of law. The laws of men, and the law of God, hold humanity into a bondage of information and a judgment of death. Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law for us, and He died upon our family tree of the knowledge of good and evil to allow each of us to be submerged (baptized) into His death. Our death in Him freed us from the bondage of a relationship with the law that only leads to death. In this, the law died in our lives, and we can now be joined to God in Christ by God’s grace. God grace brings the newness of the Spirit into our lives. God’s grace is the life-giving power of God that transforms our lives from within.

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. 12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

What purpose was the law? The law exposed sin and the weakness of our hearts. The law is holy and good but without God’s presence within us we are only judged by it. The law informs us of our failures, but God’s grace transforms our lives to be changed. Grace is God’s unmerited favor of His living and active presence in our lives that brings about real change in our character, nature, and way in life. Let’s all be married to Christ by His manifest presence abiding in our lives. This is grace!

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 home in America. I had a wonderful time with family in our Thanksgiving holiday. I have been blessed to be in the forest and I’m in search of my harvest of blessing for my new year. It is great experiencing God’s presence and also looking for the benefits of living in what He has given to us in our world. In everything we are called to live with Him and experience Him. Mercy is God’s testimony of love in our lives, and His grace is the testimony of the power of His love working in our lives. When we were disconnected from God, we lived our lives with self-seeking motives, desires, and agendas. We lived our lives as sinners. God’s presence in our lives empowers us to practice a right relationship with God and with one another. The law was a standard of control to our sinful ways, but grace is God’s true answer to change.

Romans 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

Without the presence of God in our lives we become prisoners to the external things of our world. Our disconnection from God led to the bondage of being connected to other things. Jesus came to reconnect us to our life-source. We were slaves to sin and that was a testimony of the bondage of being controlled by created masters. Those masters held us in captivity by the carnal, self-seeking ways of our hearts. No law, not even the law of God, could free us from such slavery. Only the power of God’s love could free us and bring liberty to our hearts. God’s mercy freed us from obedience to the law. God’s grace empowers us to be obedient to God’s voice – a relationship with God from within. Mercy freed us from the penalty of being a law breaker, but God’s grace empowers us to be holy as our Father in heaven is holy. The unmerited favor of God’s presence in our lives changes our thoughts, reasonings, imaginations, emotions, and desires from within. This is God’s grace working within and it grants us a passion of love that we cannot deny.

Romans 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Law produced death but grace produces life. The fruit of law was death. The fruit of grace is life. It is not merely a discipline of our flesh. It is an internal change in our hearts and minds. Our Father is holy and His Spirit within us causes us to become holy also. We cannot do religious acts to become holy. We must embrace a connection with Holy Spirit within our hearts. When we respond to, and cultivate, a relationship with God in our hearts we become like our heavenly Father in increasing ways. Embracing a relationship with God will make us holy. The testimony of grace is a growing relationship with God in our hearts. His salvation is not just a salvation of going to heaven when we die. It is a salvation of our souls. It is a salvation of our lives that empowers us to live as sons and daughters of God in this world. When we embrace the Light, we become testimonies of that light to our world. The light of Christ within us is the source of who we are as children of 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 in Bulgaria. I’ve been blessed with God’s presence and God’s wonderful family in Rouse, Sofia, Blagoevgrad, Sandanski, and Plovdiv. God is surely good. He is moving by His Spirit in the nations. New things are happening in the earth. God Is filling us with His presence that we might partner with Him in His purpose in our world.

God wants us to know the power and testimony of both His mercy and His grace. God’s mercy frees us from the judgments of death. God’s mercy triumphs over every other judgment and unlike other judgments, His mercy gives us hope of new life. God’s mercy justifies us to find our life in Christ and then God’s grace transforms us to rein in life. God’s grace is the unmerited favor of His presence in our lives that transforms us to become testimonies of God’s life to our world.

Romans 5:18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. 20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The mercy of God is given to each of us through the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His shed blood upon our cross justifies us all to find life in Christ. This is God’s mercy. God’s mercy frees us from judgment and condemnation. God’s grace makes us righteous in Christ. Our righteousness in Christ gives us eternal life. This is life that cannot die! It is life that cannot be destroyed! It is life that brings change to our character, nature, way, power, and authority.

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Jesus died once for us all so we can find the death of our old life as Adam in Him, but then we find our new life in Christ. Having been submerged into His death we are raised into His resurrection life. This gives us an empowerment to walk in newness of life as sons and daughters of God in Christ. This is Christ working in us in this world but also into eternity beyond this world.

Romans 6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In Christ we are dead to sin, but alive to God. God’s mercy submerges us into the death of Jesus. God’s grace joins us to His resurrection. God’s mercy makes us dead to sin. God’s grace makes us alive to God in Christ.

Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Mercy freed us from the law, but grace joins us to God. Being joined to God gives us the power of His life. His life influences us to not only live but to be givers of life to our world. Grace is the influence of God’s presence in our lives. Law only restrained us, but grace liberates us. Law controlled us but grace empowers us to know the freedom that comes by God’s love. It empowers us to bring the freedom of God’s love to our 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,

Today I am in the Netherlands. I have had a great time in Ede with great friends and a great church – HOPE (House Of Praise Eda). We have experienced God and we have been blessed with His kindness, His presence, and another measure of His life. Our Father is good!

God’s mercy justifies us to live, and His grace empowers us to live. Christ died to for us while we were still sinners. God’s mercy is a gift to sinners. Mercy is the testimony of God’s connection to us even though we were living lives disconnected from Him. It’s God’s gift of reconciliation. Jesus’ death upon our cross, justifies us to live – this is God’s mercy. It’s an act of His love for us. Because God loves us, He desires to save us from all destruction. He saves us from His wrath.

Romans 5:6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

What is the wrath of God? I don’t believe that God’s wrath is upon people. God’s wrath is upon anything that destroys the life of people. When we live our lives disconnected from God, we pursue things that cannot give us life. Those things prove to be destructive to us in some way. If we embrace those things as our good news, our salvation, or our way of life, we experience the consequence of what God has placed upon those things. We experience the wrath of God. God’s mercy is His judgment that saves us from the things that His wrath is upon. Mercy ends the past, and grace empowers the new.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. 17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

God’s mercy is His provision for the death of our old man in Christ. The free gift given to us through and in Jesus is God passionate pardon that justifies us to live. This is God’s mercy. The consequence of death has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ and the empowerment of eternal life that comes by Christ’s resurrection can now reside within us. This is God’s grace that empowers us to live today and into eternity. God’s grace is the empowerment of righteousness in Christ to reign in life. That grace is His manifest presence in us that transforms our hearts and minds to be who we are meant to be as God’s sons and daughters in our world. This is good news for us, for our marriages, for our families, and for every aspect of our world. God’s mercy fulfills our death in old Adam. God’s grace empowers us to reign through eternal Adam – Jesus Christ. This is not just in our life beyond this world. It is in our life today and every day in this 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,

I have enjoyed being home after being several weeks on mission. It was good to be in the home church yesterday. I will be heading to the Netherlands at the end of the week after a brief break at home. I am looking forward to being with some wonderful people across the pond and seeing what God will do.

It is great to be the place where God lives. Not just a place where God visits, but a place where God lives. God has always wanted a place of dwelling in the earth. That is His family. The family of God lives with a culture of grace. The power of God’s grace is found within our hearts as we live as a dwelling place of God by His Spirit.

Grace is the power of Holy Spirit working within our hearts. Our willingness to respond to Holy Spirit enables us to receive the testimony of God’s grace working in us. The result will be change. God doesn’t just change us. The change comes by our response to Holy Spirit. Sometimes the change is sudden and even instant, but many times the testimony of God’s grace working in our lives comes through a process of testing. Holy Spirit brings about the change, but we must stand fast to consistently and continually respond to God’s word and presence in our lives.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

God’s mercy justifies us and gives us peace. When we receive God’s mercy, we enter into an experience and testimony of His grace. We enter that grace by faith. God speaks to our hearts, and we respond to His word and presence working in us. Grace is an empowerment that transforms our lives. The process of being transformed by God’s grace includes a resistance to that grace. The resistance is not a sign that grace is not working. It is the very thing that causes grace to overcome. Grace is God’s manifest presence in us empowering us to overcome all things.

Tribulations are the pressures of life. The pressures of life lead to the perseverance of our faith. I believe that the tribulation in our lives can also include our own human failures. When we fail, we must find God’s grace to overcome. It is a matter of hearing God in our hearts and continually responding to God’s word and presence in us. When our minds tell us we cannot stand, we hold on to God’s word to us, and we embrace His manifest presence in us for the victory. It’s God’s love that qualifies us and not our strength in the flesh. The testimony of God’s grace doesn’t come by our power or might, but by God’s Spirit within us. For this to happen, we must persevere in the midst of every tribulation that we face in life.

God wants us to learn to persevere. The Greek word used here, implies two ingredients. It contains the ingredient of endurance, and it also contains an ingredient of cheerfulness. It is cheerful endurance. Cheerful endurance is the key to activating the character of Christ within us. If we decide to be miserable while in the midst of our circumstances we appeal to the old nature of the flesh, but if we stand with cheerful endurance, we draw on the life of Christ within us, then the life of Christ within us can manifest. This manifests the character attributes of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22, 23). These are the substance of the fruit of the Spirit within us. When this happens, we manifest the testimony of Christ in a measure of His glory. This is the testimony of hope. Christ in us is the hope of glory.

God’s grace enables us to manifest as sons and daughters of God with an internal change that can be seen as an external testimony that testifies of the goodness and power of God working in our lives.

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 week in Angola, Africa teaching on God’s mercy and grace. Thank you to all the hungry sons and daughters of God who eagerly and willingly came to hear God’s words and to be touched by God’s presence. I have now arrived back in Portugal, and I will travel home tomorrow.

God loves us and the testimony of His love for us is seen in His judgment of mercy in our lives. God’s mercy is a judgment that triumphs over all other judgments. It triumphs over the judgments of sin. It triumphs over the judgment of law. It triumphs over the judgments of being wrong. Mercy is the judgment of our heavenly Father who never stopped seeing us as His children. Mercy frees us from the condemnation that comes by an administration of the knowledge of good and evil. No matter how hard we seek to be good, without a connection to the One who is good, we can never be good. God is good and His glory is to give life, breath, and all things to us. Apart from Him, we all fall short of His glory. Our character, nature, way, power, and authority are less than His without His manifest presence in our lives. God’s mercy is a judgment that frees us from our past shortfall and justifies us to find life through a connection with God in our hearts.

The evidence of grace is change. Without change there is no evidence of grace. Mercy justifies us to live, but grace empowers us to live. Grace is free but we must each come to the throne room of grace to find it. Grace is a testimony of overcoming. Hearing God in our hearts empowers us to stand in the process of grace and see the change that comes as a testimony of God’s salvation that comes in Jesus’ name. Our salvation is not just a salvation of going to heaven one day. Our salvation is a testimony of eternal life that affects our thoughts, reasoning, imagination, emotions, and desires in every aspect of our lives. We need God’s salvation in our daily lives, our marriages, our families, and in every aspect of who we are and what we do. Salvation is a testimony of God’s grace working in us.

What is the process of finding the grace of God? What is the relationship between God’s mercy and grace in our lives.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Faith justifies us to have peace with God. This is a testimony of mercy. There is no gap between God and us. This is peace. It’s not because of anything we did, but everything He did. The once for all sacrifice of Jesus upon our cross put an end to our disconnection from our Father God. Jesus was the scapegoat for our sins. In Him we find forgiveness for our sins. He reconciled us. He reconnected us to our Father. Our sins are forgiven, and we know our heavenly Father and the testimony of His love. We have peace with God. There is no gap between us and Him. We have access to His house. This even describes our destiny when we die. This verse guarantees us heaven when we die. All we need is to hear His voice and come to Him in faith. When we hear Him in our hearts it is made real in our lives.

God’s mercy gave us peace, and this becomes real in our lives when we boldly come to His throne and receive our gift. It is true for all human beings, but each of us must come to Him to receive our gift. When we boldly come and receive His mercy we know His peace. There is no more shame or condemnation. It doesn’t matter what we have done or who we are.

Romans 5:2 …through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Standing implies overcoming. Our standing is in the place of embracing God’s manifest presence in our lives. This is the testimony of grace. Standing is a prophetic term for possessing the land and receiving the inheritance given to us by God. The Bible teaches that the enemy is under the soles of our feet. Jesus is held up in the heavens until all His enemies are placed under the soles of His feet. The feet of Jesus are the feet of the body of Christ. The enemies of God and the life that He gives are to be under the feet of people like us. Wickedness is overcome and we stand upon our possession. We stand upon our inheritance. God wants to transform our self-focused human character, so we no longer act unjust. He wants to change our hearts and minds, so we are not under a law, but we are empowered by grace and our lives cast a shadow that looks like law.

A law looks like you shall not commit adultery, but grace says, Honey I Iove you! You are a one and only! You are the one and only in my life! I could never want to consider thinking of another because my heart is constantly empowered and transformed to love you more. To those who don’t understand this grace, they can look at my life and think I live by a law that says you shall not commit adultery, but it’s really the power of grace that empowers me in my heart and mind to love my wife as I should. Should I lose that passion, I can receive God’s mercy at His throne of grace and His manifest presence can empower me to be transformed by His grace to love again. The manifest presence of Holy Spirit in me gives me grace and the evidence is testified by an internal change and an external testimony. His presence gives me grace, and the evidence is known in my heart and seen in the testimony of my 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