Spoken Blog:
Greetings,
Today I am in the Netherlands with pastors Bruce and Angelique Wijnen of House Of Praise Ede. We had a great weekend exploring our path of Navigation in Christ for this year in the journey of God’s grace. Yesterday we experienced being the house of God’s presence. He is a life-giving stone and we are life-giving stones of faith, hope, and love declaring that God is great, God is good, and His mercy endures forever. It’s great being the family of God with God in our midst!
I believe that there are seven attributes of relationships for a family identity, testimony, and destiny. I believe those attributes are the bond and strength of a family relationship. They are: 1) commitment, 2) actions of faith, 3) responses, 4) authority connections (submission), 5) contribution, 6) sacrificial love (communion & community), and 7) dedication to destiny. Relationships begin with a commitment to the family identity, inheritance, and purpose. The commitment is empowered by a revelation of love. This is the way of family. When a child is born into an environment of family love and lives in an environment of family love, they can receive a revelation of living for the family name. They want to be like their parents when they grow up. They want to be like the ones they know love them. This includes the fabric of things past and things present. It includes grandparents, parents, and now children who will eventually become children’s children and beyond. They will become a family that produces families that increase the family name in diverse and increasing measures. I believe that this is also the way of a spiritual family – a Christ-centered community of life. This is the way of spiritual parents and spiritual children. This is why the apostle Paul boasted that his spiritual son Timothy would remind others of himself. The inheritance of the family name was more important than mere spiritual gifting or anointing. It was the influence of a family character, nature, way, power, and authority. It is the way of spiritual fathers and mothers to spiritual sons and daughter. For this to happen, there has to be a revelation of love to empower a commitment to the family name that can overcome all things. Every relationship is tested. Relationships will be shaken when our own wills are shaken in a way that we perceive to be a losing of our own lives in some way. When we think our way is going to be lost, we tend to be offended by the will of another. It is like an earthquake. Our natural understanding and our natural perceptions are shaken in some way. We are tempted to take an offense because something in the relationship is offensive to us. We cannot live lives that are free of offenses, we can only choose to never take an offense when shaken in our own place of standing. Life is not fair, nor is life intended to be always easy. It is very often meant to be an environment that can overcome all manner of death. Love overcomes hate and even perceived hate. Forgiveness overcomes unforgiveness and even perceived unforgiveness. Faithfulness overcomes unfaithfulness and even perceived unfaithfulness. The list can be endless in the diversity of offenses that can come into our hearts and minds in the process and journey of relationship. This is the true measure of love. The enemy wants us to experience relationships from the view of receiving and not giving. When this happens, the unfair situations or the perceived to be unfair situations that arise in family life can overcome our thinking and tempt us to embrace a victim mentality rather than one of overcoming love. Love requires grace! Grace is entered by faith and then it is tested in the path of circumstance. Faith only works through love, so love is essential for faith to thrive and grow.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
In the place of grace there is always testing. Testing is some form of tribulation of pressure towards our ability to stand fast in love. Tribulation or pressure of some kind is an essential part of every relationship. It is what proves the inner strength of Christ in us. When we look to the kingdom of God within our hearts, we can be inspired to maintain righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit from within our hearts and minds. This is where the character of Christ can manifest. It is the ability to overcome and not succumb to some deception of being a victim in some way. The character that is meant to manifest is the character of being a son or daughter of God. It is the character of being a member of the family of God. It is the testimony of our commitment, a testimony of love. It is a commitment to identify with another, a commitment to recognize that the testimony of our lives is meant to be part of a family inheritance. It is a commitment to the family purpose and destiny in being victorious over every principality, power, throne, dominion, and name that seeks to destroy our path in Christ. When we are shaken in our place of standing, we need a revelation of being family or our false perceptions will inspire us to look for family in some other way. We will likely end up in a place of seeing ourselves as victims and will end up repeating the process again and again in our journey of life.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
Thank you to all who give their support in prayer and finances. We are reaching the nations with New Covenant Life and Grace!
If you can make a donation it would be greatly appreciated. Donations are payable to House of Bread Ministry. You can donate at the link on this page or mail your contribution to:
House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225
Thank You So Much – Ted J. Hanson
