Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am in Wisconsin. I had a great family reunion on Saturday. It was good to see much of the family. My oldest brother is now 88, that tells you that getting together gets more valuable every year. I am also blessed to be with a friend of over 50 years these past days as well. Relationships are truly treasures and people must never be forgotten.
What does it mean to increasingly know the salvation of God in our lives? God’s mercy empowers our forgiveness in the midst of our failures in life. He is great! He loves us. He is also good, and He is mercyFULL. His mercy gives us the ability to know His greatness and His greatness gives us the ability to stand again in life to know that He is also good. He is the one who transforms our hearts and minds to live as new creations in Him. It is not by our own human strength that we prove we are new creations. It is by God’s grace that He demonstrates we are new creations in Him. God’s grace transforms our lives to no longer be creators of the same debts of death that put us in need for God’s mercy in our lives. God’s grace empowers us to reign in life, but there is a process by which grace works. It is not just a magic process with no involvement on our part. It involves our ability to find the power of His manifest presence working in our lives.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We find God’s grace in the place of His presence working in our lives. This is the source of our salvation in Christ. God loves us! He is great, meaning He has the power to demonstrate His love to us in all things. He is also good, meaning He has the power to change us in all things. Who He is reveals what He can do. When we know that God is great, we hear His voice in our hearts. When we hear God in our hearts the result is faith. I think the greatest revelation of God’s greatness is a revelation of His love in our hearts and minds. When we know He loves us, we hear His life-giving words in our hearts. Faith justifies us to live and demonstrates that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is a place of no gap between us and God. It is not dependent upon what we have done, but upon what God did for us through His gift of love in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
We have access to God eternally. This verse guarantees us heaven when we die, but it also guarantees our access to God every day of our life here upon the earth. When we know Him, we can know this. It comes by faith. When we hear Him in our hearts it is made real in our lives. It becomes real in our lives when we boldly come to His throne and receive our gift. It is true for all human beings, but each of us must come to Him to receive our gift. When we boldly come and receive His mercy, we know His peace. There is no more shame or condemnation. It doesn’t matter what we have done or who we are.
Romans 5:2 …through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
God’s peace in our lives is a testimony of the power of His mercy, but knowing His mercy gives us the ability to also know the power of His grace. It is a part of our working relationship with God in life. Standing implies overcoming. Standing is a prophetic term for possessing the land and receiving the inheritance given to us by God. The Bible teaches that the enemy is under the soles of our feet. Jesus is held up in the heavens until all His enemies are placed under the soles of His feet. The feet of Jesus are the feet of the body of Christ. The enemies of God are to be under the feet of the people of God. Wickedness is overcome and we stand upon our possession. We stand upon our inheritance. God doesn’t just want us to go to heaven when we die. He wants us to invade the earth with heaven’s goodness. He doesn’t just want us to have laws that deal with injustice issues. He wants to transform our human character, so we no longer act unjust. He wants to change our hearts and minds, so we are not under a law, but we are empowered by grace and our lives cast a shadow that looks like law. Even if we have not lived our lives in the full measure of this testimony to this point, God’s mercy is new today so we can again know the peace of God that grants us access to the working power of God’s grace in our lives. God’s mercy guarantees our ability to stand back up when we fall, but God’s grace works in us to make it so we don’t fall down again.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
Thanks to everyone who has helped support House of Bread and make it possible to purchase our travel tickets for September. Your prayers and support are greatly appreciated.
We are still in need of more funds for ticket purchase for October, and November. Please pray with us that the provision of God will be loosed so we can do all God has called us to do in this season. If God gives you the means to help, please consider making a donation to House of Bread Ministry.
Thanks Again – Ted J. Hanson
Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:
Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:
House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225
