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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I have had a great week and weekend in Portugal. It is a blessing to be back to see this part of my spiritual family. God is revealing His presence in the body of Christ.

Our relationship with God is not a means by which we escape the world for some secluded territory apart from the world that we live in. Our relationship with God is the means by which we become a life-giving influence in and to the communities of the world around us. Jesus prayed for His disciples that God would not take them out of the world, but that He would keep them safe from the world. They were to be an influence of life to the world, not influenced by the spirit or ways of the world.

John 17:15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

The truth is not a set of laws by which we judge ourselves and others. Knowing the truth is to know God’s love and His overcoming testimony of life in all things. This doesn’t make us separate from the world, it separates us unto God. If the world rejects us for our union with God, that is on them, not us. We are not to reject the people of the world; we are to be salt and light in the world. Salt brings the preserving testimony of health and life, and light makes a way in the darkness by which men can see.

Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Salt is not meant to destroy the earth; it is meant to draw out the flavors of life, like good food to the taste buds of our mouths. Salt purifies, preserves, and enhances the diversity of flavors. To say there is one salt at the table is an idiom in some cultures that simply means that the diversity of food at the table becomes one feast by the grace of life at the table. We are to be the salt of God’s grace that enables others to come and find themselves as sons and daughters of God at the table of life.

Light is not meant to be an enclave for some, thus excluding others. It is not an enclosed territory that makes us culturally distinct from the foreign territory that surrounds us. It is a way by which all around us can find the way to true life. For this reason we shine before men. We don’t shine to be separate from the world. We shine to inspire others in the world to desire a transformed life that reveals the good works of God that come by an intimate relationship with God as our Father.

We are not meant to be a culture in the world that grows a population that is separate from the world. We are to be the family of God that inspires anyone and everyone in the world around us to receive a revelation that God is their Father and that they too are called to live as sons and daughters of God. Their disconnection from God has not disconnected God from them. Sin doesn’t stop God from seeing us all as His children, it simply blinds us from seeing Him as our loving Father. When men and women are blind to the love of God, they fail in living as His sons and daughters in our world. When we are the light, others are drawn to the light. Our light is a light that gives God’s life to others, others are drawn to the light that only comes from God. That light is not merely a copy of the kind of things that God would do. That light is the testimony of a burning relationship with God in our hearts. A relationship with love will inspire us to shine with the light 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 route to Portugal after a great week in the UK with some very good friends. I am ready for the blessings of God in my continued journey. Life is a destiny, not a destination, and we must embrace the presence of God in every aspect of our lives. Relationship with God will impassion our relationships with one another. It is for love that we live.

The religions of the world are man’s attempt of doing what is good in their own hearts. Religion alone involves things that we do to express some cultural belief that we believe qualifies us to belong to something that is greater than ourselves. It is likely something that we feel makes us greater because we belong to it. When we are part of this group we can belong because we are a member. This kind of thinking creates an elitest mentality that separates us from others that is really based upon a strength spawned by our own insecurities and deceptions to the truth of life.

James 1:26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

The apostle James wrote that true religion is to care for orphans, to care for widows, and to not be defiled by the world. We often define these words of James to be; if we care for orphans, if we care for widows, and if we are different than the world we can belong. We don’t have to care for orphans to belong, but when we know we belong we will care for those who need an environment of belonging. We don’t have to care for widows to be loved, but when we know we are loved we will care for those who have no one to care for them. We don’t have to avoid acting like the world to be loved by God, but when we know we are loved by God we will dependent upon Him and we will no longer desire to depend on the ways of the world.

Religious ways are often ways that we place upon ourselves to justify who we are or to justify being loved in some way. We create rules and regulations that we place upon ourselves that cannot change us internally but only serve to condemn the character and nature of our own hearts. Because these things cannot change our internal ways, we tend to condemn others when we see them violating the rules. In honesty, we do this to appease the guilt of own hearts. We become judgmental of others because we are living in a judgment of ourselves in some way. God’s love for us is measured by His love for us and not our love for Him. Jesus died for us so that we could find our own death in Him and then find our true eternal life in Him. It is a gift of our Father’s love for us, not His response to our love for Him. Our love is a response to His love, and it comes by a revelation of His love for us. It is not a method of religion but a response to and of relationship.

Colossians 2:20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

An appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion is not the true wisdom of God. False humility is based upon a condemnation of ourselves and a rejection of God’s unconditional love for us. Religious rules and regulations can only discipline our flesh, and they cannot transform our hearts. Religion demands a structure, while relationship with God empowers an influence. Building a structure won’t build a temple of God’s presence but being a dwelling place of God will give a way of life that exhibits being a temple of God. We will shine like light into the darkness and not merely be a hidden place of light within walls that hide us from the darkness of the world.

Religion seeks to build a structure or system that seeks to destroy anyone or anything outside of that structure or system. Relationship with God empowers us to be a dwelling place of God by His Spirit that gives life to the world around us and inspires others to become a dwelling place of God’s presence within the boundaries of who they are.

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 is a holiday in the US and I will be spending my day with family. We had a great time yesterday as a church family in a city park. It was good to eat, fellowship, and to get to know one another a bit more. Tomorrow I will be heading across the Atlantic for a few weeks in the UK, Portugal, and the Netherlands. I am looking forward to seeing all that God is going to do.

The expressions of God produce results. God speaks, and life happens! God doesn’t speak for information. He speaks to bring forth life. His speech is not merely His voice. His speech is every expression He makes. His presence, thoughts, words, expressions, and actions bear the fruit of life.

Our relationship with God is not merely for the fact of knowing that He is. It is not just for knowing who He is. It is for the sake of being loved by Him that we might become expressions of His love to our world. Being loved by God causes the substance of His love to flow as a life-giving river from our hearts to our world. Jesus said that those who drink of Him will become sources of living water to their world. That living water is expressed as the words of God in our mouths. This is not words for information, but every expression that flows from us to bring life to our world. We are a dwelling place of God by His Spirit to be expressions of His Spirit in natural and supernatural ways to our world.

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

God’s hand upon our lives is the impartation of His blessing to us that we might be sources of His blessing to our world. God wants the influence of heaven to become the influence that establishes our place in the earth as a heavenly place of life. He wants our place in this earth to manifest our partnership with Him in and from heavenly places of life.

God is the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. He is the one who gives life, expresses life, and causes life to come in all things. As people, we were created in the likeness and the image of God. We are three-part in our being. We are spirit, soul, and body. Our spirit is meant to be one with the Spirit of God in all things, thus we become alive by the life that He gives. Our soul is the bridge between that which is spirit and that which is natural. It manifests with thoughts, reasoning, desire, emotions, and imagination. The human soul is how the human spirit can be manifested in the human life. The human life is the physical expression of authority. Authority is not a matter of control but one of life. Authority gives and does not take. Our authority is the substance of life that we carry for the sake of others in our world. It is the measure of life that we can give to our world in the reality of who we are. It is the testimony of the human spirit made real in practical endeavors through our physical lives in the world.

Our expression of life to our world is the fruit of our personal connection to God in our spirit. The human spirit is to be one with the Holy Spirit and thus it is to be abundantly alive and prosperous in all its substance. When our spirits are alive in God, our souls become impassioned from within. The thoughts, reasoning’s, emotions, imaginations, and desires of God become the attributes of all that we are in Him. A prosperous spirit produces a prosperous soul that inspires a prosperous life. This is how the Spirit of God influences the world in which we live.

The expressions of our lives are to be expressions of sons and daughters of God. It is only as manifested sons and daughters of God that we can bring the life-giving liberty of God to our world.

Romans 8:20 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.

What is the glorious liberty of the children of God? I believe that true liberty is to become like our heavenly Father in His character, nature, way, power, and authority. He is the one who gives life, breath, and all things. As sons and daughters of God, the expressions of our lives give His life to our world. In this our presence, thoughts, words, expressions, and actions that bear the fruit of life even as our Father gives life. The source is Him but by Him in us we become 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,

Bonnie and I just finished several days with gathering in Trail, Slocan Valley, Tarry, and Nelson, BC, Canada. It was a wonderfully blessed time of God’s presence and word in community settings of the family of God. Thank you to all the hungry people who came and participated in a time of blessing with Holy Spirit. God is in the Kootenay area of Canada. I look forward to coming here again.

As sons and daughters of God, we are expressions of our heavenly Father. Very often we think that our need in life is to receive life from God, but our true need is to be givers of life to our world as our heavenly Father is a giver of life to us. We are meant to be like our Father in our character, nature, way, power, and authority. We are earthly expressions of all that is of God in heaven. This is the testimony of His kingdom come and His will being done in our world.

The true thirst of our lives is to fulfill the purpose and destiny of being a child of God. We often confuse our thirst as a need for something that serves us in some way, but God knows better.

John 7:37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus defined the need of the thirsty as one of giving life to others. The rivers of living water that flow from us can be understood as rivers of life-giving water. Each of us are uniquely created to give life to our world. Our true need is to receive the substance of life from God that enables us to fulfill this God-ordained purpose in our lives. This is the fruit of a partnership with Holy Spirit in and through our lives. The power is of the Spirit, but the expression is also fully us.

We were created in the likeness and image of our heavenly Father. He gives life, breath, and all things. He defines our identify, testimony, and purpose in life.  Our identity is found in who we are. We are alive; therefore, we give life to our world. God is the source of life and that life is eternal life. It is greater and stronger than every force of death. It is life; therefore, it brings a testimony of life in us and through us to our world. This is the source of our purpose. Our purpose is for the kingdom of God and for His will to come in all things. This changes our world. We are to be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and have dominion in life. To subdue is to destroy death with life and to exercise dominion is to destroy every lie with truth. The lie is a matter of death, and the truth is always a matter of life. To subdue is not a conquering through control or some measure of death. To subdue is to bring life and thus death is destroyed. To have dominion is not a domination to some knowledge of control. It is to be a truth that gives life and thus death and the control of death is conquered in some way. God made us to have dominion over the works of His hands for this reality.

Psalms 8:4 What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? 5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.

God doesn’t do anything in the earth without human voice, because dominion in the earth was given as a purpose and responsibility of mankind. We are to be expressions of God’s word to our world. The word of God is not just the verbal expressions of God. It is by no means merely the written expressions of Scripture. The word of God is His touch, His voice, and His expressed atmosphere that brings life to all that is around Him. When God expresses who He is, who He is brings life to all that experiences Him.

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

God’s words in our mouths bring God’s life to our world. His words come from His presence and His presence plants heaven in our world. This is the foundation of the life-giving community of God in the earth. The former strongholds of our enemies become the places of God’s purpose and will. They become the source of the direction of our world as Zion, a former stronghold of the Jebusites, that became a headquarters for the influence of God’s life to the 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 hope you had a great week. We had another great time together yesterday as a church family. God’s presence was in the house and Pastor Jonathan gave another great word concerning the process of finding our true identities. God is surely good.

God’s presence in our lives is not for the sake of right information to us. God’s presence in our lives sets the boundaries of our lives. Those boundaries are not measures of control. They are measures of inspiration from within our hearts. We must live in and from God’s presence and allow Him to saturate the substance of who we are as sons and daughters of God. His presence will give us His desires, His wisdom, His understanding, His counsel, His might, His knowledge, and His awesome purpose in life. This is the testimony of the sevenfold Holy Spirit working in us. This is the testimony of the kingdom of God working in our hearts and minds.

The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. These are internal realities that affect the external expressions of our lives. The kingdom of God within us empowers our external kingdoms to be kingdoms of our Lord and Christ, Jesus the Savior of our world.

The law was and is an external control, but Holy Spirit working in us is as internal inspiration. If we seek the knowledge of good and evil by some external measure, we can only apply a law that blinds us from finding the liberty of true love. The liberty that comes by a revelation of God’s love is the testimony of a new covenant. This is the testimony of a new and living way in Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

The testimony of Moses was the control of law. It was an external influence to mankind. The law cannot transform us; it can only restrain us. Only the Spirit of the Lord can transform our hearts from within. The Spirit of the Lord brings true liberty. Liberty is not a measure of freedom that we simply receive. It is a transformation that happens in us that empowers us to give life to others. We are changed to be sons and daughters of God who give life to our world even as our heavenly Father gives life, breath, and all things. We are able to live for the wellbeing of others by the Spirit of the Lord working in us. Liberty is not about what we can get but rather what we can give to others.

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.

Sons and daughters of God live to give life to others in their world. Even as Holy Spirit is the helper in our lives, we become able to help others by the power Christ within us. We are being perfected from the inside out to bring life to others. The light of Christ is within us and is shining from the inside out to transform every area of darkness to light. This is the hope of glory – Christ within us!

2 Corinthians 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

The excellence of the power is of God and not of us. Christ in us gives us the desires, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and purpose (as in awe of God) by which we live for the wellbeing of others in all things. By this we do the works of our heavenly Father and we destroy the works of the devil in the kingdoms of 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,

Bonnie and I are back in Bellingham. We had a wonderful day yesterday at Alife. Pastor Jonathan gave a great message on finding our identity. God’s presence in our lives is the key to knowing who He is and who we are. We must keep our eyes on Jesus to walk in the blessings of the kingdom of heaven. Our identity doesn’t come from the outside in. It is found within when we keep looking to Jesus.

There is an environment where life happens. That environment is determined by the Creator of all things. Our world was created by God to be a place of fruitfulness and life. When the world was formless, void, and dark, God’s ability to give life, breath, and all things put the imprint of life that brings form, fullness, and light into all things. When God speaks, life happens! God spoke, and life happened.

Whatever God speaks to, becomes the soil by which what He speaks continues to spring forth into life. When God spoke to the earth, the grass, herbs, and trees sprang forth. They are therefore bound to the soil of the earth and when the sun shines and the rain comes the plants of the earth propagate and grow. When God spoke to the heavens, the stars and the planets came to be. The realm of the heaven’s is the soil by which the stars shine, and planets maintain their orbits of destiny. When God spoke to the waters, living creatures came forth and in the soil of the waters those creatures continue to emerge with life. He spoke to the air and birds came about according to their kind and continue to live from the environment of the air. God spoke to the soil of the natural earth, and the living creatures of cattle, creeping things, and other beasts of flesh came to be. From the natural earth that life continues to abound. Whatever God spoke to, is the soil by which all life continues. Abiding in the soil of what God spoke to is the source of life for every created thing.

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

When God made mankind, He spoke to Himself. The plurality of God as One God spoke to Himself in the creation of man, male and female. He gave man dominion over the works of His hands, male and female. The us of God was the Father, the Word, and the Spirit as the triune God of life. It was from the Spirit of God that the inner substance of man, male and female, was created. The true soil of life for mankind, is the Spirit of God. The human spirit is the connecting portal for a relationship with God in the Spirit. It is through our spirit that we maintain an intimate relationship with the giver of life, the expresser of life, and the worker of life in all things.

The Spirit of God is the soil for the life of humanity. Our spirit within us must abide in the Spirit of God for us to abound in the life that God intends for each of us. The environment where life happens is found in a personal relationship with God. God’s presence is our sunlight and our water. It is from the environment of God’s presence within us that we live and bring life to our world.

The boundaries of creation fight for life, even in the adversity of futility brought into the earth by man’s own disconnection from the way of life set for him by the Father’s love in the beginning. God, the Word, became flesh that we might find our place of abiding in God as a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. Life isn’t about knowing what to do or being powerful in some way. Life is what happens when we abide in a relationship with God in the Spirit.

Let God love you today, and life will happen. Loving Him is not a work on our part, it is a response from our hearts to His love in our lives. His love is not merely a message to us; it is the environment of His manifest presence in us. We need to look for Him in our lives each day. Eternal life is knowing God our Father and Jesus the Son. This is made known by Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

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,

Bonnie and I have been in California with our son Aaron and his family for the entire week. Today Bonnie and I will return home to Bellingham. It will be a difficult goodbye to our grandkids, but that is the price of love. We look forward to our next time together to enjoy a deeper measure of the treasure called family.

As children of God, we are called to grow in maturity to become sons and daughters of God who are led by Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is a seven-fold Spirit and to be led by Holy Spirit is to be led by internal motivations that are divinely inspired by God. Holy Spirit is 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 (as in intimacy), and the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:1, 2). We live in a difficult world, and the difficulties of our world only serve to manifest the truth of who we are from within. This is not just automatic for children of God. It requires us to partner with Holy Spirit to manifest the testimony of overcomers by God’s grace.

Holy Spirit leads us by a different desire, a different wisdom, and a different understanding than people who live for their own way in life. In a world of difficulties, there are also many false fathers. Those false fathers are sources of control and manipulation that restrain us in our true authority. Unity is seen as sameness through conformity, not submission for oneness through diversity. We end up seeking power through self-gratifying agendas and we fail to live in the true authority of our heavenly Father who is self-giving in His heart. True authority gives life to our world. True counsel is like sunshine. It gives light and life to others. Holy Spirit desires to lead us by the Spirit of Counsel to fulfill our destiny as sons and daughters of God. He is the Father of lights, and we are His perfect gifts of light and life to our world (Jam. 1:17).

In a world of difficulties, there are many distractions and powers that control and tempt us to seek our own satisfaction in things that call for our attention. Our lives are often lived reactively and circumstantially controlled as though there are many gods above us. Man’s pride can make him captive to a world filled flesh gratifying distractions. Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Might that demonstrates the testimony of the resurrection power of Christ to reveal that God’s Might is stronger than any other power in this world. It is not the strength of our own flesh but the power of the resurrection life of Christ revealing who we are in Christ to our world.

In a world of difficulties true community is often lost and there is little giving of life to others. Self-seeking motivations isolate and separate us from others, and we end up being less than the family of God in our world. Our justice is often a justice that makes judgments of others declaring that we are right and they are wrong in some way. The Spirit of Knowing is not a knowledge of right and wrong but a knowledge of intimacy with God and one another. Only the Spirit of Knowing can lead us to become the family of God with life-giving expression of God’s love through us to others in our world.

In a world of difficulties death often reigns when we become discontent in some way. We end up disconnecting from God and we wander in some direction that lacks true purpose in life. We seek to find our purpose in things that are only destined to return to dust since they are merely created things from the dust of this world. Men give their lives for their own purpose – a purpose of mortality. Only the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord can give us an awe of God that empowers us to live with a zeal for the purposes of God in our world. The Fear of the Lord is not a fear of death. It is an awe inspired zeal by a deep love and desire to see God’s will fulfilled in and through our lives.

To be led by the Spirit of God is to be led by a different Lord – a different desire in our hearts. It is to be led by a different wisdom, a different understanding, a different counsel, a different might (or strength), a different knowledge (a knowledge of love and intimacy), and a different awe (a different vision of purpose in our lives). Being led by the Spirit of God is not about right information concerning what or what not to do in life. It is about being motivated by a different Spirit than the independent spirit of man. It is a partnership of the human spirit with the Holy Spirit of God, so our souls receive life-directed and life-giving desires, reasonings, thoughts, imaginations, and emotions so the actions of our lives bring the life of God 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 Bonnie and I are in California visiting our family that lives here. We have been enjoying time with kids and grandkids with the blessings of family. One of the riches of life in this world is surely family. We are looking forward to a great week here.

What does it mean to be led by the Spirit of God? The Scripture says that those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God (Rom. 8:14). This is a term for those who inherit the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God. It is a term for both men and women who take on the attributes of their life-giving Father in heaven. These are those who bring liberty to the world they live in.

Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. Holy Spirit is a seven-fold Spirit. Holy Spirit is 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 (as in intimacy), and the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:1, 2). To be led by the Spirit of God is not a matter of being told what to do. God can surely instruct us as to what to do in a matter, but the ultimate aim is to do what we see our Father doing in all things. This requires us to be led by a different internal motivator. Holy Spirit gives us a different desire, a different wisdom, a different understanding, a different counsel, a different might (or strength), a different knowledge (as an intimacy), and a different awe (a different motivation for purpose in life). We live in a world that is filled with difficulty. The difficulties of life are not intended to destroy us. They are the true tests of life that manifest the true internal motivations of our lives.

Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits (to expect fully) 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.

In a world of difficulties, there are many lords. The testimony of a lord is found in the desires of our hearts. Whatever we desire motivates our beliefs and actions in life. When we willingly join our spirits to the Holy Spirit of God we discover the mystery of Jesus as Lord. He gives us the desires of our hearts. Those desires are God’s desires, and they become our desires when we are led by the Spirit of God. Our spirit then empowers the thoughts, reasonings, imaginations, emotions, and desires of our soul which is then expressed in the attitudes and actions of our lives.

In a world of difficulties, there are many faiths. Faith toward God is motived by a love for God because of an internal revelation of God’s love for us. God’s voice of love is expressed to our spirit from within. This inspires a wisdom of faith toward God from within that gives us a hope of life in all things. The opposite of faith is natural sight (2 Cor. 5:7). When we look with our natural eyes, hear with our natural ears, or are motivated by our natural senses or perceptions our actions can be influenced by a fear of death in some way. We are motivated by an attitude of self-preservation. The Spirit of Wisdom motivates our hearts by God’s love, and it inspires us to have no fear of death. It is wisdom that trusts the future to God’s love and willingly moves forward with actions of love towards God. When we are led by the Spirit of Wisdom, we willingly make sacrifices that demonstrate our love for and trust in God.

In a world of difficulties, there are many submersions. Bitter experiences in life askew our identity to be less that heavenly. Bitter roots become established in our hearts, and we exhibit attitudes and actions that defile us and others. The Spirit of Understanding motivates us through supernatural testimonies of God’s love inside and out. God’s understanding surpasses our own and is a mystery to us, but the fruit gives life to us and to others in our world. The grace of the Spirit of Understanding working in the midst of our circumstances in life gives us an identity that reveals the liberty of life in our internal character and external testimonies of God’s powerful love that reveals heavenly things through us to our world.

Holy Spirit give us the desires of our hearts. Let our Father’s desires be the desires of our hearts even as they were the desires of Jesus’ heart as a man in this world. Holy Spirit give us the wisdom of God in our hearts and minds even as Jesus chose the Father’s wisdom over the wisdom of the flesh. Holy Spirit give us a testimony inside and out that is the fruit of our Father’s understanding and not our own. Inspire us to partner with you in these things today and every day of this week for the glory of God 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 hope you are all well. We had another great weekend here at Alife in Bellingham. I was blessed to speak yesterday. The family of God was blessed by the presence of God and one another. It is good to be a part of a community that is a dwelling place of God by His Spirit.

As sons and daughters of God in the New Covenant, we live in and from the presence of God to be kings and priests to our God. We are new creations in Christ, and we have the testimony of living creations before God in Christ.

The first living creature is like a lion. In Christ, you are a lion. The devil goes around like a lion seeking whom he may devour and destroy, but you are a lion. You are a part of the lion of the tribe of Judah. The lion is who you are toward the enemy. Your attitude, your thoughts, and your actions are a testimony of praise to God. This is the weapon of life that overpowers every foe. Praise is not simply something we do with words or songs. Praise is the testimony of God’s victory working in and through our lives. This is the high praise of God. It is an attitude of victory of life even as we sleep at night.

Psalms 149:5 Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud on their beds. 6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, 7 to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; 8 to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; 9 To execute on them the written judgment—this honor have all His saints. Praise the LORD!

Praise is a testimony of the victory of God in Christ. It is not by our strength but a testimony of God’s love for us as children of God. Our childlike expectation of God’s love gives us victory over our enemies. God silences the enemy through the mouths of little children in their praise. When we are like little children, we praise God.

Psalms 8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

The second living creature is like a calf or an ox, particularly a young male ox that has never been put in a yoke. A calf speaks of worship and service. We may be bold as a lion and victorious over the enemy, but we never go to God as a lion. We go to God as a calf. We go to God as a new creation no longer living by a dependency upon the strength of the flesh but upon the love of God. We, the creation, worship and serve God the Creator as a response to His love. The life that we now live, we live by faith in God. I don’t need to be a lion to God. No, I’m an ox. I may have angels that follow me around. I may glow in the dark, but to God, I’m a creature. He’s the Creator, and my life is for Him.

The third living creature has a face like a man. The lion has the likeness of a lion, the ox has a likeness of an ox, the eagle has the likeness of an eagle, but this creature has a face that is like a man. Why? You used to be a man, but now you’re a new creation in Christ. But you still have a face like that of a man, which means when it comes to mankind, when it comes to sinners or believers, when it comes to expressing our lives towards one another, we make ourselves the size of the other. We make ourselves of no reputation. We take on the attitude and action of Jesus, who didn’t consider it robbery to be equal with God, yet He humbled Himself, and He made Himself a servant, and He washed feet (Phil. 2:5-8).

So when we come before people, we never allow people to worship us. We never go before people to be a lion. We go before people to be like them. We have a face like their face. That’s how we say, holy, holy, holy. We love people because He loves us. We have a face like that of a man. I’ve known Jesus for 52 years, but I’m just as much a man as someone who doesn’t know Jesus at all. So I’m going to treat all people as though they know Jesus, and then I’m going to invite them to know Him. I’m going to talk to my neighbors as though they hear God, because they do. They just might not know it is God they are hearing. So I always have a face like that of a man when I go before a man. I don’t have a face of an ox to man. I don’t worship people. I don’t have a face of a lion toward people.

The fourth creature is like an eagle. The whole creature is like an eagle. We are strong in God’s word. We are strong in the Spirit, and others can follow us as we follow Christ. Like an eagle, we have two wings that make us heavenly beings in Christ. Our access to heaven gives us the wings of the Spirit and the Word. We’re strong in the word and we manifest the testimony of Christ to our world. We’re strong in faith. Others can follow us as we follow Christ. We are led by the Spirit and not by our own carnal desires. We live from a divine connection to God in the realm of the spirit of life and peace in Christ Jesus.

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,

What a blessed day we had yesterday in church. Pastor Jonathan gave a great word on identity. Holy Spirit was present in the house, and we were blessed to be together as a family of God. I hope you had a great weekend as well.

As believers in Christ in the New Covenant, we live in and from the presence of God in our lives. We are a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. We have a revelation of Jesus Christ in our hearts. God’s mercy has triumphed in our lives, and His grace empowers us to overcome all things and to reign in life.

Revelation 4:6 Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.

In the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures. If your Bible says beasts, that’s a terrible translation. They’re not beasts. They are you and I in Christ! They’re living creatures.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

These creatures are full of eyes all in front and back. That means their whole existence is based on revelation. They are expressions of a revelation of Jesus Christ; thus, they are full of eyes. Every part of their life is based on a revelation of intimacy with God through Jesus Christ. A revelation of a personal relationship with God is what empowers these living creatures, these forever living creatures.

Revelation 4:8 The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”

These living creatures, each have six wings. In the Scripture, the number six is significant of man. Man was created on the sixth day. These mystery beings are the heavenly testimony of who we are in Christ. We’re living creatures. Revelation 4 and 5 describes these as angels, but they’re not just heavenly angels. These are the ones that sing the song of the redeemed.

Revelation 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, 10 and have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”

Jesus, the Lamb of God, has redeemed us. If you have another translation, it may say; He’s redeemed people or He’s redeemed men. The word people or men is not in the Greek text, not in any Greek text. The translators added the word men and the word people because the text says that angels are singing the song. The translators can’t get around their head, how can angels be singing this? Because the angels are not the redeemed. So the angels must be simply singing, He has redeemed people, He’s redeemed men. But the Textus Receptus Greek used by the New King James, the King James and some other translations, does have a word in there and the word is us. It could be us or me. He’s redeemed me by His blood. He’s redeemed us by His blood. We are from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. In other words, we are sent ones because we’ve been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb to be a testimony of God to our world. We are messengers of God’s love and life to our world.

How do we sing holy, holy, holy? A new song is not merely music. It is a covenant term for a new and NOW testimony of God in our lives. The new song is a testimony of our personal relationship with God every day, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. This testimony is found where we find God in our everyday places, our ordinary situations, our backyards, our place of high worship, our place of music, our place of reading, our place in the workplace. We experience God as sons and daughters of God and we say what only sons and daughters can say, holy, holy, holy. It is the expression of our spirit, soul, and body that glorifies God.

Revelation 4:8 The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”

As the redeemed of the Lord we are a lion to our enemy, an ox to our Creator, we have a face like that of a man to our fellow man, and we are an eagle in our walk of faith in Christ. We are the praise of God that silences every enemy. We are new creations in Christ that worship God in all things. We make ourselves of no reputation to love our fellow man. We are overcomers who are strong in God’s word and strong in His Spirit that others can follow as we follow Christ. This is the foundation of our lives in and from the throne room of God’s grace. We live in and from the presence of God to be kings and priests to our God in all things. This is not a someday to come reality. It is a testimony of the grace of God at work in and through our lives in every circumstance and situation of lives that reveals the glory of God in all 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