Greetings;
Well here we are in 2016. We had a great start to the year in Bellingham. Pastor Jonathan hit one out of the park yesterday with His message on ‘Born to be Loved! He began the year by introducing some core values for A-Life and the spiritual letter that God is writing in human form here in Bellingham. The first of these values is one of being born to be loved and that is the internal revelation that changes the internal thinking of our hearts. Thank you Pastor Jonathan for a great start to a great year.
I believe that this present year is a year for the body of Christ to get a greater revelation of who they are in Christ. We are the people of God! As the people of God we are called, appointed, and anointed to reveal the person of God in the earth and to fulfill the purpose of God among the nations. This is a year of partnership! It is a season of partnership with faith, hope, and love. It is also a year of partnerships with others for the sake of God’s purposes in the earth. It is connection with others that we will enable us to discover the increasing testimony of the partnership of faith, hope and love.
I presented last week that God has brought an anointing for free people to be planted in the earth for the generational purposes of God’s kingdom in the nations. Trees of righteousness in Christ are being planted in order to build, raise up, and make things new in the earth.
Isaiah 61:4b – 5 …“That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.
God’s heart and plan is one of restoration. He is a redeemer, a reconciler, a restorer, a rewarder, and a replenisher in His ways. He doesn’t just love those who love Him. He loves all people. He gives His life to those who love Him, but He gave His life that all might be empowered to love Him. When we turn even the slightest in His direction we discover the amazing power of His unsurpassable affection. In Christ former enemies become friends and those who were once not a part of His plan find themselves fulfilling His purposes in the earth.
Isaiah 61:5-6 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But you shall be named the priests of the LORD, they shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory you shall boast.
Those who did not know Him find themselves sowing and reaping in His kingdom. They find themselves standing as priests before Him and they become those who serve Him for the glory of His purposes in the earth. I believe that eating the riches of the Gentiles is receiving them as brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God. Those who did not know God become part of His family for the inheritance of the family name. The glory of the Gentiles is their salvation in Christ! We are living in a time where the harvest of the nations will be seen as those who labor in the fields of God’s purpose in the nations.
It is not in the defeat of those who have not known the covenants of God that we rejoice. It is in their glory! When those who had not known the covenants of God become those who sow and reap in the kingdom of God it is a time to rejoice in the justice system of the kingdom of God. It is a justice system of the Tree of Life. Those who had not known the covenants of God are no longer bound to shame, but have found a place of inheritance among those who are the redeemed of the Lord!
Isaiah 61:7 Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs.
This is a justice system of forgiveness and healing. It is a justice system of new beginnings and of grafting in to the ancient things of God. Those who come at the end of the day will get the same wages as those who came at the beginning of the day. The ceilings of the past will become the foundations of the present, only to increase in the testimony of God’s grace and peace!
Isaiah 61:8-9 “For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery for burnt offering; I will direct their work in truth, and will make with them an everlasting covenant. Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people. All who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the posterity whom the LORD has blessed.”
It is not fair! It is scandalous by the standards of the knowledge of good and evil. It is unfair by the standards of right and wrong! The justice system of the kingdom of heaven transforms the hearts of men to become a testimony of being children of God. Those who were the enemies of God become friends to His name!
Isaiah 61:10-11 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
The Israel of God is not just a Jewish people group by birth, but a people of circumcised hearts! These are those who are true inheritors of God. They were Jew and Gentile, but now they have become the children of God in Christ! These are those who bear His name in the earth and the governing rule of their lives is Christ in them, the hope of glory! His righteousness and praise is springing forth before all the nations as the internal kingdom of Heaven invades the nations as the Kingdom that consumes all of the kingdoms of the world!
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
So wonderful to embrace the idea that The Bride of Christ is in the earth with Christ in us the hope of Glory! The earth is getting brighter as we partner with others in bringing the Kingdom. We may not always know what that looks like but that is what walking in faith mean–bringing all the things we cannot imagine from the mind of God into the earth. “Ears have not heard nor have eyes seen…”
As I think back on the foundations of what Pastor Ted teaches this is how I would like to respond to this post:
When we do not accept the grace of God given as a free gift, we are existing in death by remaining in the Law. God does not care about right and wrong in the new Covenant. A system of “right and wrong” is futility. What this means, when we embrace the New Covenant, we embrace a higher law of “right and wrong.” We embrace Love. The gift of Love will always supersede the Law. This is freedom. This is how chains are broken. This is the essence of what Jesus lived, died, was buried, and rose again for–for us to be alive as a real human being reconciled to His glorious Light and Word. We are the people of God: A Royal Priesthood and Holy Nation of righteousness. Jesus gives us the New Covenant of Grace motivated and activated by love so that we are reborn into the fullness of the Tree of Life.
This is the picture of the Tree of Life in the earth: Life is a connection with God, ourselves, and others in a people who abide in the Kingdom of inspirations from the Heart and Will of God to fill, subdue, and have dominion over all the futile earth dispelling death and birthing life. This is Paradise to be reconciled to our Father and to illustrate Christ in us in loving God, one another, ourselves, refusing to respond to the thorns and thistles of futility.
I am learning how to dispel the darkness in my own life in terms of “going deep to the roots of bitterness” to allow God to love them out of my being. I look forward to a new journey this year connecting with others in the Love of Christ bringing out the treasure of their light to shine even brighter in the earth. This is seeing the Glory of God fill the earth!
“Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth” (Psalm 57:5).
We have a great family Tree! The old tree has ended on the cross and the new Tree is growing from the throne of grace!