Greetings,
Today I am home in Bellingham. I had a great week in Castlegar, BC, and yesterday was a wonderful day at Alife. This is a season of fruitfulness. Roots have been tested and shoots and new fruits are at hand. Don’t be distracted by other branches. Be the testimony of life that God has called you to be in the place of your planting. Hold fast to your place in the calling of Christ and the fruit of Christ will be manifest in your place of divine connection.
When man-kind ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil their true identity, testimony, and destiny as the likeness and image of God in the earth was exchanged for an identity, testimony and destiny of self. We are a part in the whole body of the bride of Christ. He is the head and we are the body. Together we are a testimony of the great I AM, but we are each a stone of Christ comprising the fullness of Christ in the form of a community of His presence, His testimony, and His purpose in the earth. This is the testimony of the eternal Adam and Eve that can fulfill the mandate of being fruitful, multiplying, filling, subduing, and demonstrating dominion.
2 Corinthians 11:1 Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. 2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!
What is the simplicity that is in Christ? What does it mean to embrace a different Jesus, a different spirit, or a different good news? Jesus is our Salvation. The name Jesus means, God Saves. Salvation is not just our entrance into heaven beyond this world, it is the entrance of heaven into our lives now, here upon the earth. Eternal life is to know God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son (Jn. 17:3). God gives us life. Through Jesus the life of Christ is given to us in our hearts. It is the testimony of true righteousness. We have an internal relationship with God and it is the power of Christ in us that empowers us to be part of His calling. He makes us come alive. No other name can empower us to truly live. No external force can empower us to come alive. True life comes from God, not from self-seeking. We cannot find ourselves, we must find who we are in Christ. Only Christ in us can cause us to come alive and to take on our true identity. It is a deception to think that life can come from any other source. No external opportunity, promise, or power can cause us to be who we are meant to be in our part of the calling of Christ. Jesus gives us our true identity. If we receive a different source, we receive a different identity and we end up putting up with something less than our calling in Christ.
The Holy Spirit is the only life-giving Spirit. He is the one who gives us our testimony in Christ. We are part of an inheritance that belongs to God. It is not according to our agenda, but according to the God’s plan to bring His heavenly influence into our world. Our true testimony is not a testimony of our personal abilities, it is a testimony of God’s ability in our lives. We were born in Christ to be one with Christ. There is no gap between our spirits and the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit in our lives is the testimony of true peace and all that is in heaven is flowing into our hearts and overflowing in our lives to be a testimony of heavenly things in our earthly realities. If we receive a different spirit, we may have to put up with a testimony that is not what our testimony is meant to be. A different spirit could be a spirit of competition, a spirit of success, a spirit of bitterness, unforgiveness, self-preservation, or an endless list of spirits that lead to something less than our testimony in Christ. We are part of Christ and Christ is in us. He gives us breath. We are an expression of Him in our world. What is the spiritual letter that God wants to write in and through our lives? His spiritual letter upon our hearts and minds, both individually and as a corporate testimony of Christ, is the testimony of His life sent to overcome all things in our worlds.
What is a different good news? God, our Father, wants to partner with us in all things. We are one with Jesus as the body of Christ in connection with His headship as the head of Christ. We are joined in Christ for the will of our Father in heaven. The power at work in our lives is the same power that rose Jesus from the dead. It is a power that causes us to walk upon the ground before us to bring God’s life to the formerly impoverished territories of the earth. The good news is not about our lives, it is a partnership with God for the generations of humanity before us. We are part of a multigenerational destiny in Christ. Our joy is an internal partnership with God as our Father. He is our friend and He gives us all things. He partners with us to subdue the principalities, powers, might, dominions, and names that have formerly possessed the territories of our destiny in Christ.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
Thank you for your prayers and your financial support. With your help the message of New Covenant Life and Grace is reaching the nations.
House of Bread Ministry –
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