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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I hope you are all well today. I have been in the woods for a few days hunting my yearly groceries. I am hoping for success today. I almost had elk in the freezer yesterday, but not quite the right opportunity. I am having a great time with my Friend and Father.

The glory of God is the testimony of God and the formation of His character in our lives. His glory is not just the brightness of His presence filled with signs and wonders. Surely supernatural power is part of the glory of God, but the glory of God is much more. The glory of God is more about a relationship with God than merely His power. He wants us to be a testimony of the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. He wants to reveal His character, nature, way, power, and authority in and through our lives to our world.

Isaiah 2:3 Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

God’s ways are ways of love and life. God doesn’t seek His own way for His own desires. His ways are to give life to the world. Holy Spirit in our lives empowers us to give life and love. Knowing the ways of God is a changed character. It is a changed nature within us that empowers us to demonstrate a life that is true to the character of God. God is a giver and not a taker. He doesn’t need anything from anyone, but gives life, breath, and all things. I believe that knowing the ways of God is about being transformed from living for ourselves to living to give life to others. The way of God is always a matter of choosing life that brings life to others. It brings life to the world we live in.

What does it mean to walk in the path of God? I believe the path of God is not a discipline of our flesh, but an empowerment of the Spirit. It is not merely a way of walking for our own sake, but a way of moving forward in life that reveals the testimony of God’s love and life in every circumstance. That path also serves to help others find a way forward to life in their world.

Psalms 27:11 Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.

Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.

Perhaps the smooth path is the path that causes no pain to others. Our enemies seek to cause us pain, but the path of God brings life. I believe the path of God includes the testimony of God in and through our lives and it empowers us to move forward and even make a way that others can follow. It is the witness of the testimony of life. God’s path is a path of justice that makes a way for life in the earth. It reveals the goodness and the greatness of God in our lives. The path of God is always a path of deliverance from our enemies, and it leads to a place of transformation and inheritance in Christ. The path of God in our lives always leads to life.

Isaiah 43:16 Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters, 17 Who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power (They shall lie down together, they shall not rise; They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick): 18 “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

What does it mean for the law to go out of Zion? In the Old Testament, Zion was the place that David set up his tabernacle for the manifest presence of God in Jerusalem. Zion was the geographical place of the stronghold of the Jebusites, a name meaning “to trample” or “to tread upon”. I believe that Zion represents the human heart. This is where the tabernacle of David is found. It is the place of the human heart that has been redeemed in Christ. What was formerly a stronghold of destruction, becomes a stronghold of God’s mercy and grace. God’s presence is in our hearts. God’s law is a law of love. I believe that knowing God causes our hearts to become a habitation of His love. Love for others even as we are loved by God becomes the rule of our hearts.

What does it mean for the word of the Lord to go forth from Jerusalem. The name Jerusalem means “vision of peace”. The influence of our lives is determined by a vision of peace, a vision of our lives being one with Christ in heaven as we increasingly become the community of God in the earth. We become expressions of God’s word in some way as a testimony of those who have a vision of peace, an increasing reality of being part of the community of Christ in the earth. We become transformed to influence the world as expressions of the people of God. We don’t condemn the world; we give love and life to inspire all to come to the mountain of the Lord.

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 from my home in Bellingham. I hope you had a great week. I am doing well, working on a few projects in preparation for some coming trips. I am enjoying God’s presence and encouraged by His love. I am still contemplating upon the glory of God.

God doesn’t just want us to know His character. He wants us to exhibit His character in our lives as His sons and daughters. As children of God, we should be forgiving. We should be merciful and gracious in our heart and actions towards others. We should be longsuffering in the circumstances of our lives and in our relationships with others. We should abound in goodness and abound in truth. Like our heavenly Father, we should show mercy in every opportunity that is given to us. This does not mean that we simply sweep illegitimate issues under the rug.

Exodus 34:5-7 Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

The last phrase in these verses is not out of context with the preceding descriptions. It says that God does not clear but rather visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generation. The words “the guilty” are not in the original but are meant to clarify what He does not clear. It is somewhat accurate, but it must be taken into consideration in the context of the previous descriptions. It can only be understood in the context of forgiveness, mercy, grace, longsuffering, abundant goodness, abundant truth, and eternal pardon. It is not a judgment to destroy the person, but a judgment to destroy the root of iniquity that leads to sin. It is simply what happens to the iniquity when God visits it. God’s presence eradicates our intern flaws and heals the hearts and minds.

Jesus is our salvation in all things. He is a loving Savior granting us forgiveness. He grants us mercy as a judgment unto life. He demonstrates His love to us in His patience and endurance. He reveals the abundance of His goodness to us in all things. He gives to us His truth—the stability and faithfulness of His presence to perform the will of His freedom in our lives. He gives us constant and eternal mercies that demonstrate His forgiveness of our weaknesses, our internal rebellions, and even our disconnections from His presence in our journey with God in life. He is a loving Jesus, but He is also a dangerous Jesus. He is loving in His care for us, but He is dangerous to the things that seek to destroy our lives. By no means does He clear the guilty but visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.

He carries a shepherd’s rod, and staff to guide us and protect us from the wandering ways of carnality and the vulnerabilities of the destruction of the flesh. These are essential tools for managing and protecting each of our lives as members of His flock. His rod is used for discipline and defense, while the staff is used for guidance, rescue, and gentle correction. He doesn’t overlook our internal flaws; He comes to heal our hearts and minds that we will walk in His ways in our paths of life.

Psalms 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

This is also part of the glory of God. God wants us to know His glory, and He has declared that the knowledge of His glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The evidence of His goodness, deliverance, and care will be greater than the knowledge of man’s sin in the earth.

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 as we enter another week. Yesterday we were blessed to hear from Marty Euper, a long-standing friend and member of our church community. Her testimony revealed that we can always trust God in every season of our lives. Whether He changes our circumstances or is found in our circumstances with us, the miracle is Him in our lives.

The glory of God is His influence in our world. What does that influence look like? When God speaks, life happens! This is His glory. His glory is to give life to us and for us in our world. Life on earth is a testimony to the eternal life with God in heaven.

We are called to be sons and daughters of God who bring the testimony of God’s glory into our world. To receive God’s glory, someone must see what is in heaven and then express what they see into the earth. Prophetic expression must first be seen as it is in heaven. It must then be expressed as a mystery into the earth. Prophetic expression is then made known as a clear declaration of heaven to the earth. After the word is clearly proclaimed, the word which we proclaimed by God is then physically manifested in our everyday lives. This principle is simple; every revelation from God is an invitation to have an encounter with God, to be changed by God, and become something of that revelation to our world.

The glory of God is more than His power. It is a testimony of His character. It’s a testimony of His love. Moses asked to see God’s glory. When Moses asked for God to show him His glory, God put Moses in a rock to keep Him safe for the ways of men cannot comprehend the ways of God in His glory. God’s presence kept Moses safe as Moses found a place by God where he could stand.

Exodus 33:21 And the LORD said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”

We cannot see the glory of God from a distance. We must find our place by God where He empowers us to stand in the rock of Christ as a son or daughter of God. God’s glory will change us to become a testimony of God’s character, nature, way, power, and authority. It was in the glory of God that God wrote upon the tables of stone the values of a love for God and a love for others. It was in the manifest presence of God that the glory of God came as a mystery to change the way of Moses. 

Exodus 34:5-7 Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation

Here we find the introduction to the name of God is “the Lord, the Lord God”. In the Stone’s edition of the Hebrew Torah, the rabbinical commentators address this double “Lord” as implying to the love and goodness of God. They state that when the Lord is put in this double context it implies two things. It means that God is the one who forgives us before we sin knowing the full extent of everything we are ever going to do, and He forgives us after we sin knowing the full extent of everything we have ever done. The very first experience, atmosphere, ambiance, and reality received when we experience God’s presence in our lives is one of forgiveness. What a wonderful thing! The verses go on to read that God is merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abounding in goodness, and abounding in truth. These are all wonderful experiences that flood our lives when God comes to us. These things are the essence of God’s glory. Jesus made a way for us to come near to God and experience these things! We have been reconciled to God in Him. The final verse of this passage reads that God keeps His mercy for thousands. The term “thousands” is an interesting symbolic and prophetic number in Scripture. It implies an aspect of eternity. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Ps. 50:10), meaning He owns all the cattle. God is God to a thousand generations (1 Chr. 16:15; Ps. 105:8), meaning He is God forever. A day with the Lord is as a thousand years, meaning His day has no end. Here we see that God wants to show mercy for thousands. He wants to show mercy to everyone, and He wants to show mercy forever!

God forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. These three things are often confused, but they are different. They are progressively linked, but it is the testimony of sin that leads to death. Iniquity is the weakness that leads to transgression. Transgression is a rebellion in the human heart that leads to sin. The wage of sin is death. God does not kill sinners; sin kills them. Being disconnected from life results in the consequence of death. Where there is iniquity there will be transgression, and where there is transgression there will be sin. God in His amazing character, nature, way, power, and authority comes to forgive us fully. This is even to the root of our sin, the weakness of our hearts. He doesn’t just clear the weakness. He visits the weakness to heal the root cause of every flaw.

God’s character is life-giving. It is the character of love. When we see His glory, we are changed in our character to be loving and life-giving to others.

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 Kootenay area of B.C. Canada. I have had a wonderful few days here with some wonderful people who are hungry for God and all that He desires to do. It is always a blessing being here with friends that I have known for a long time.

The environment we find within us becomes the environment around us. The way of God’s kingdom is to transform our hearts and minds from within. A revelation of Jesus in our hearts will prove to be the power that is manifested in and through our lives. We find true life from the environment of Christ within us. We are a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. An experience with God will change us and it will change our world. An encounter with God is prophetic in nature—God speaks, Life happens!

For God to bring the change that comes from heaven into our lives, we must have a personal experience with Him. When we have an experience with God, we see something of Him. Jesus is the voice behind us. He is the motivating voice of faith in our hearts. When we turn to see Him, something in us changes. A revelation of Jesus is an invitation to turn and see Him more clearly that we might be changed by Him.

Revelation 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet… 

Revelation 1:12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands…

Every revelation from God is an invitation to have an encounter with Him, to be changed by Him, and become something of that revelation to our world. When we are changed by God’s presence in our hearts, we see something of the glory of God in our lives. We must turn, but the work within us is a work of God’s grace when we turn to Him. His manifest presence changes us.

2 Corinthians 3:16 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. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

We are being changed from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord within. An experience with God within us is prophetic. That experience becomes manifest as His expression to us and it causes us to be something of the mystery of heaven in our world. We experience a mystery, we receive that mystery by faith, and then we are progressively changed in a way that brings understanding to our hearts and minds. What was a prophetic expression of God in our hearts becomes made known to our world as a clear declaration of heaven in our world. This is seen in our confession of faith and our faith filled testimony to our world. After the word has been clearly proclaimed, the word which we received becomes manifested in our lives in practical ways. We are not the same as we were before. We are a testimony of the glory of God.

God’s glory is His influence in and to our world. His influence is an influence of love. He changes our character from within to become like His. He is a giver of life and an encounter with Him will transform us to be givers of life to our world if we receive Him and respond to Him willingly. If we resist Him, we align ourselves with something that He removes. When we cling to Him, we become like Him. We must embrace His presence—embrace His love— and be changed.

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. Today is my birthday and I have completed 71 years on this earth. I begin my 72^nd year of life with expectation of God, who is good! I am ready for His ways, His paths, His love in my heart, and His influence in my world. As a child of God, I hope you have an expectation of life for what is before you.

God is the one who gives us life. Life is about identity, testimony, and purpose. When we know who God declares us to be, we can partner with Him to bring His life to our world. We become an inheritor of the destiny of the family of God. We don’t get our life from any created thing. We don’t get our life from any created being. Only God can give us life.

Family doesn’t give us life; we give life to family. Family expresses life. God is the author of marriage; thus, God is the author of family. Family is the foundation and the fruit of God’s will in the earth. The enemy will form weapons against family in every way that he can, but God is greater than any enemy. When we partner with God, we find the glory of His presence that prevails against every enemy.

To be an individual who’s qualified for marriage you must first be an individual who is a dwelling place of God’s Spirit. To be a marriage, a husband and wife must be a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. To be a father or mother, you must be a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. You raise your children to know the testimony of being a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. This is God’s way and God’s desire. In this, your children will grow in knowing their identity, their testimony, and their purpose as God desires for them in all things.

Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

This text is not for women to submit to men. It is for a wife to submit to her own husband. In a marriage the husband gives his love to the wife, and the wife receives the love that her husband gives. She submits to his love as unto the Lord. He is not her Lord. He is an expression of her Lord in physical form. She submits to him as unto her Lord and thus she opens the door for God’s access to her husband’s heart for their sake as one flesh before God. The husband gives words and expressions that wash and water his wife and she receives and believes the words of love that he gives. She believes in who she is for the sake of her and her husband as one together. The husband presents his wife to himself as a co-reigning partner in life. He seeks to bring her alongside of himself in everything for God’s purpose in their lives in everything. The wife willingly comes alongside of her husband in every invitation to partner with him in the identity, testimony, and purpose of being one flesh for the glory of God in their lives. Together they live for the purpose of giving life to their world. The fruit is seen in the inheritance of their house.

Genesis 1:28 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.”

God’s established family as the foundation of blessing and purpose of mankind in the earth. Fruitfulness comes from blessing.  We are His blessing in the earth—a source of life! Fruit is a source of life from one to another.

Multiplication comes from fruitfulness. Whatever is fruitful, multiplies. We are not adding others to our cause; we are activating others into the cause of Christ. When we multiply, we greatly increase the value and potential of another

To fill is to fully complete something. In the kingdom of God our fullness leads to the inheritance of others. The places of inheritance (gates) in the earth are meant to be the possession of your children and your children’s children. When we fill, we create ceilings that becomes foundation floors for the next generation to go beyond where we have ever been.

To subdue is to conquer with the power of life. It is a place of the influence of life. Subduing is the testimony of the full power of God’s grace at work in the earth. God’s family is the place where God’s grace abounds in the earth.

Dominion is the manifestation of truth. Truth crumbles every lie. It is not a matter of control. It is a matter of prevailing in life. Dominion is the testimony of life-giving authority. When a man and a woman parter with one another in partnership with God, they become an unstoppable force of God’s love to their 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,

Blessings to you all from my home in Bellingham. I was blessed to speak at Everyone’s church in Mt. Vernon yesterday. God blessed us as His sons and daughters in His family here. We are New Covenant people living in a world that clings unto Old Covenant futilities. It is time for us to arise and shine to bring life to those in need.

God’s family is a culture of mercy and grace. In the throne room of God’s presence, we find mercy and grace (Heb. 4:16). Family is held together by love. This is the testimony of both mercy and grace. Mercy is a judgment of love that frees us from the mistakes of the past and welcomes us into the present. Grace is the power of God’s presence that transforms us and leads us into the path of tomorrow. This is also the testimony of family love. The culture of heaven is one of family. It is held together by love.

It’s only in family that we can see the identity of love, the testimony of love, and the purpose of love. To succeed in family, you need something far stronger than human love. You need Love Himself.

1 Corinthians 13:4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.

God suffers long. He is kind. He has no need to envy, for His love is not based upon any need. He is a giver of life and doesn’t seek to get His life from anyone or anything. He doesn’t seek His own but seeks to give His life selflessly for His children. He is kind and not easily provoked to anger. His thoughts for us are thoughts of peace, filled with a desire for our future and hope. He seeks to heal and not to condemn us for our weaknesses. He rejoices in truth and doesn’t live to expose lies for the sake of shame. He bears all things, believes all things, and hopes all things for the sake of love. This is His character, nature, and way and it is the foundation of His power and authority.

As children of our heavenly Father, we are loved, we are overcomers of all wickedness, and we are givers of life to our world. We find our identity in being loved by God. We have a testimony of God’s love working in and through us in all things. We are in partnership with God, who is love, to fulfill the purpose of God’s love in our world.

We must each know that we are a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. We must be a dwelling place of God to be a foundation stone for the identity, testimony, and purpose of family. We must be a dwelling place of God to produce the fruit of family as God knows it to be. The fruit is not just automatic, it involves building, but without being a dwelling place of God, it is impossible to build a family.

It starts as an individual. You must be born of love. You know you’re loved— your sins are forgiven. You find your identity in being loved by God as your Father.

You grow in the testimony of God. You overcome all things by the power of God’s love. You embrace His word and His Spirit—His love. By the power of love all wickedness is destroyed in your life. God’s love empowers you to be an overcomer!

You embrace the purpose of love. You live to give life to others. You know your identity, you know the testimony of God‘s love in your life; therefore, you live to give love to your world. You are a giver and not a taker. You are secure and not needy. You seek relationship with others for the opportunity of giving life, not to get life.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I am home again in Bellingham. It is always good being home with family and with my church family in Bellingham. I had a full week of connection with grandchildren after being gone. I am ready for a week of focus at home.

God’s glory is revealed through the testimony of sons and daughters born of His Spirit. The culture of family is God’s way. The identity of family, the testimony of family, and the purpose of family is what fulfills the will of God as our Father and us as His children. He is a giver and His family fulfills His purpose in being givers of life.

God’s family is a culture of children, fathers, and sons. Children know that their sins are forgiven. They know they were born to be loved by their heavenly Father. They are not loved because they are good. They are loved because their heavenly Father is good. Young men and women know that God is the one who empowers them to overcome anything that seeks to destroy life. They have victory over all wickedness by the strength of God’s word and presence working in their lives. This is their testimony as maturing sons and daughters of God in Christ. Our ultimate purpose is that of fathers and mothers who live for the will of the Father and for the future generations of God in Christ. We live to see children born by the Spirit of God, empowered by the Spirit of God to mature in the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God as a giver of life in all things. These things were established in the foundation of the church in the first century.

1 John 2:12 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. 13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. 

Little children hear God, sons and daughters learn to respond to what He says, and fathers and mothers live for love. They live for to enable little children to hear God, sons and daughters to grow in obedience to God, and to raise of a generation of fathers and mothers who live for the Father’s will and for the generations of tomorrow.

Little children are expectant, willing, hungry, teachable, daring, and accepting (Lk. 19:17). They expect to be loved, and they live with a mindset of being loved.

Maturing sons and daughters of God are overcomers. Their testimony is seen as becoming expressions of God’s love. They grow in the overcoming testimony of Christ (Jn. 16:33). The Spirit of God within us is the overcoming power of eternal life (1 Jn. 4:4). Sons and daughters of God respond to the voice of God within them, and they grow in knowing a testimony of faith that is greater than any power in the world (1 Jn. 5::4). They hear God and respond to what He says, thus they are joined to Christ as the Rock—the foundation of their lives. God is love, thus His voice to us is a voice of love. When we respond to Him, we can expect to see the testimony of His love working in our lives.

Luke 6:47 Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. 49 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

The purpose of our lives is found in giving our lives for the sake of the lives of others. As our heavenly Father gives life, breath, and all things, we also live to give life to our world. Our purpose is not ministry, but love. We embrace the ministry of life because of the love of God made known in and through our lives. This is the rock of our foundation in Christ.

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 Wisconsin. It was a blessing to be together for a family reunion once again and it was wonderful to be with a very close friend for several days. I was also blessed to join the church family of Living Waters yesterday. It was a bit of an adventure getting here with lots of airplane delays, but it was good to finally be here. God is blessing my time here in a great way.

I have been addressing the topic of family. God’s way of bringing life to the world is family. Family is the foundation for the influence of the kingdom of heaven upon the earth. When we are born of the Spirit we are born into the family of God. We become part of the eternal family of life in Christ. It’s not about works; it’s about relationship. We were born into a relationship of love. Our identity, testimony, and purpose in life spring forth from the foundation of family.

We were born of God to be loved by God. Adam and Eve were created for the testimony of family, but they needed an understanding of being born of God and its importance. The true testimony of family is found in the life and power of the Spirit.

I believe there are some interesting comparisons in the family line of Adam and the family line of the eternal Adam—Jesus. Adam was created but Jesus was born of the Spirit into a human environment of family. Adam was created by God, but he wasn’t born into a dynamic of family. Adam knew God’s presence in the garden and God commissioned him with the task of work. Adam’s first responsibility was to give names to the animals. Jesus spent the first thirty years of His life in the environment of family and then embraced His purpose as the Christ. Adam went to work naming the animals, but Jesus grew in wisdom and favor with God and man as a boy into becoming a young man, even in an imperfect environment of family.

Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Jesus was God in flesh, but He was also fully man. He experienced the life of being a baby with an earthly father and mother. He experienced the dynamic of family with brothers and sisters. He grew as a boy, a young man, and as a man for the purpose of His heavenly Father’s glory.

Jesus learned things through what He suffered. He didn’t merely see God as the Almighty, He knew Him as Father. He heard His Father, He responded to His Father, and He did what He saw His Father doing.

Hebrews 5:8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

The identity of love, the testimony of love, and the purpose of love is found in knowing God as our Father. This was the testimony of Jesus. Before He did the work and ministry of the Christ, He knew that He was God’s Son, and that His Father was pleased with Him.

Matthew 3:16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

This is my Son with whom I’m well pleased—equals identity. Jesus manifested the Father—equals the testimony of love. He didn’t love His life even onto death—equals the purpose of love. These are attributes of the family of God, and they are true to God in His Trinity. In the environment of family we are born of the Spirit, sanctified by the Spirit, and commissioned for the Father’s will by the Spirit of God.

You have a Father in heaven, and He is pleased that you are His son of His daughter. He has given you His Spirit so that you can overcome anything that seeks to separate you from God. In this, you are anointed to testify of God’s peace—a testimony of heavenly grace. You are commissioned to manifest the character of a parent—a father or a mother. You are commissioned to live for the family of God with a generational purpose of life.

Don’t be distracted by ministry. Don’t be distracted by work. Don’t be distracted by any created thing. Embrace God in His triune being and embrace the family of God. The enemy will seek to destroy your connection with family, but you are called, appointed, and anointed to be a son or daughter of God that grows in wisdom and favor with God in the environment of family.

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 California. I have enjoyed the past week with family as Bonnie and I have been blessed to stay with our son Aaron and his family. It is always a delight seeing our grandson, and granddaughter here. We will miss them but will look forward to our next time together. We love you lots Aaron, Amani, Kaden, and Zaria. Family is a precious gift of love and life!

The dynamic of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals a testimony of relationship. More specifically, it reveals a testimony that can be seen in the dynamic of family. God’s design for family reveals His nature of love and the fruit of love. God created man in His own likeness and image, male and female He created them. The foundation of love in the marriage of a man and woman produces the fruit of children who are born to be loved.

God’s design is that two very different partners prove to be comparable through the power of love. A man lives to dwell with his wife, to understand her, to see her is valuable and precious, and to see her as a co-heir of the grace of life with him (1 Pet. 3:7). Because of this, he will give her life and even give his life for her (Eph. 5:25). He will wash her and water her with life-giving expressions and words (Eph. 5:26). He will bring her alongside of himself in everything as a co-reigning partner for God’s purpose in life (Eph. 5:27). He doesn’t look to see her flaws but sees her as half of who he is for the purpose of life. A woman lives to receive life from her husband as from the source of all life, the Lord. By this she gives God access to her husband’s heart. She is confident and alive as his co-reigning partner in life (1 Pet. 3:1-7. She is a confident daughter of God and through her trust in her husband she receives the life that he gives (Eph. 5:22). She believes the expressions of his love and willingly accepts her role as his wife (Eph. 5:23). She willingly comes alongside of him in all things to reign together in life (Eph. 5:24). The husband and wife are dependent upon one another to be the source of family in the earth for God’s glory.

This same principle is found in the design of the body of Christ. When members of the body of Christ are joined to the headship of Jesus Christ the fruit will be children of God that are born to be loved. Life is not about work or ministry. Life is about living to be loved and loving others. God desires for us all to know the dynamic of family.

In the creation of man, the garden of Eden was an environment of love to influence the world from an identity, testimony, and purpose of love. God took the time to plant a garden, and He placed man in that garden where God and man could fellowship together in an environment of life. Apart from God, the earth was dust, but the place of knowing God was in an environment of life.

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It was in the environment of paradise that Adam would experience an intimate walk with God. Within Adam was the substance of Eve, which God would remove to make the two one through the power of love and a willing pursuit of relationship. Adam was formed from the dust of the ground, but Eve would be formed from the substance of Adam’s own flesh. Adam would identify with the ground and would seek to prevail in the tasks of the earth. Eve would identify with the rib, the framework that surrounds the heart. The woman would identify with the senses and feelings hidden within and would process her perspective in life through the hidden rhythms of the heart. Their ability to be one would be found in their divine connection with God in the garden of life. From that place of love, they would find their identity, testimony, and purpose in life.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am home in Bellingham. I have been home a few days after a wonderful time in Bulgaria. Tomorrow I will be heading to California to see grandchildren and family there. It is cool here, so I am bracing for the California heat.

God is love and His presence, promise, and purpose reveals His love to us in all things. We find this truth in the very foundation of the beginning we find in Him and because of Him. In the beginning, the earth was formless, void, and dark, but Holy Spirit hovered over the face the deep. God’s Spirit creates an environment of being loved—an environment of being cared for. This same principle was and is true for us. When our lives seem to be without form, void, and dark, the presence of God’s Spirit hovers over us because we were all born to be loved by Him.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

God said, Let there be light, and there was light by the power of His Word (Gen. 1:3). What the Father saw came to pass by the overcoming power of God‘s Word from that which God spoke to. This is a testimony of love. God speaks to our darkness and what He sees becomes the reality of our salvation. We are loved by Him and we experience the testimony of His love when we hear His voice in our lives.

The culmination of God‘s work was seen in a husband and a wife, a man and a woman that could produce family. This is the purpose of love. Their relationship was not merely one of flesh. It was a relationship of spirit, soul, and body that would bring the life of the Father in heaven to the earth.

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.”

Genesis chapter 1 reveals how God viewed the earth in its purpose, and destiny. What God saw it to be is what it was destined to become. From God’s perspective, humanity was at the very core of hope and future for the earth. Mankind would be a family, the fruit of a husband and wife together as one. God didn’t see man as greater than woman. He saw the two as one for the His purpose in the earth. The woman would not be merely a helper to the man but would be a helpmate of equal value for a co-reigning purpose together that would produce the testimony of God’s love and life in the earth. A man and a woman would be the foundation of family to reveal the likeness and image of God to the world.

Why is family so important to God? God is Father, God is Son, and God is Holy Spirit. God is a trinity. He is one because relationship makes Him one. He is bound together by love. He is relationship in the very makeup of His being. Family reveals who God is by the nature of relationship and love. The enemy has fashioned weapons against family, because it is only through family that God’s nature of relationship, love, and life can be revealed.

The likeness and image of God can only be seen through the testimony of a man and woman as one flesh for the foundation of family. By this we reveal God’s giving nature through being fruitful, multiplying, filling, subduing, and exercising dominion in our world. Through intimacy with God we find a foundation for intimacy with one another. The fruit is life to one another and to the offspring of our love. Sons and daughters are the testimony of life. They are the testimony of love; the very essence of the character, nature, way, power, and authority 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