Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
I am now home and I experienced a great week with my family, a great 4thof July celebration, and a wonderful time with my church family in Bellingham. The presence of God was wonderful yesterday as God used many members in our church family to express His presence and His love in intimate and powerful ways. It was great to see the family of God being the family of God. Pastor Jonathan has been ministering on true identity and we must each find our identity in Christ to be a corporate expression of the community of God.
To be the family of God, we must daily embrace a revelation of God’s love so that we are not shaken by natural sight. We must be empowered by faith and faith only works through love. When we take an offense towards someone, we make a judgment of them according to what is naturally true or what we perceive to be naturally true. We make a judgment according to the flesh and then we become defiled towards that person. Our attitude becomes one of self-preservation and not one of responding to the other person in recognition that our being together produces one testimony – a testimony of “us”. The body of Christ is a testimony of the family of God. I believe that perhaps the greatest testimony of the body of Christ is to walk as one with a corporate identity of the calling of Christ, a corporate testimony or inheritance of Christ, and something of the corporate purpose or destiny of Christ in all things. I do believe that there are spiritual powers that resist this commission. I do believe that there is a devil, there are demons, and there are spiritual forces that seek to destroy the family of God in the earth. The family of God, the body of Christ, is to be the fullness of Christ in bodily form and she is to possess the earth by the power of God’s grace and as a testimony of truth.
Ephesians 1:18 …the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
The enemy seeks to destroy relationships in the family of God. Many have exited church community and blamed others for their departure, but I believe that most of the time it is the deceiving power of the enemy that causes us to stumble and prevents us from staying the course to become what we are called to be in Christ. When we become defiled it inspires an insubordinate attitude towards the relationship. Submission to those we are joined to is lost and a protection of personal agendas is sought. We become negatively expressive towards the relationship. We don’t see the other as a part of us, so we are willing to destroy them with our attitudes, words, and acts in life. When we become insubordinate, we then become apathetic towards the relationship. We no longer see the need to live to contribute who we are to another. We don’t care about the relationship anymore. We are not awake in our hearts towards them and we no longer see the need for them in our lives. When this happens, we become bound to the logic of our own judgments. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil has surpassed any revelation of the tree of life in the relationship. We seek to be separate in our desires, attitudes, visions, and aspirations in life. We find no need for the relationship. The end result is a total destruction of the relationship. Destiny has been laid in the dust and the relationship has been annihilated. There is no more future together and we have found the grave of disconnection, isolation, and disintegration to the corporate purpose of destiny. Offense has led to judgment, judgment has led to defilement, defilement has evolved to insubordination, insubordination has transformed to apathy, apathy has grown to atrophy, and atrophy has now been revealed as death. The relationship has ended. Its end began with an offense, a refusal to stay in a revelation of love. Love is the foundation and love is the substance in the journey of our relationships in life, but love is not merely a feeling. Love is in the giving. The strength of our love must be found in our understanding of calling, inheritance, and destiny. When we know that these three things are essential, we will become passionately committed to staying in the place of love. It is then that love will inspire us to live in and for life-giving relationships.
The Holy Spirit has anointed usas a BODY:
1) To be motivated for commitment – My future is with you
2) To be empowered to do works of faith – My heart is with you
3) To be activated to respond to the testimony of one household – Our footsteps are one
4) To be enlightened to the testimony of submission to one another – a life-giving shield of togetherness to bring God’s life to our world
5) To be awakened to give contributions of Christ to one another – we are of one mind and I am dead without you because we are part of the same table, a feasting table of true fellowship
6) To be drawn to the love of one another – what comes out my mouth and from my life is for you so that we can be us as the family of God
7) To be impassioned to dedicate our lives to one purpose – an awe of each other for the generations beyond our lives
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
