Audio In Blog:
Greetings,
Today I am in Bellingham after another great weekend home with my church family of Alife. Pastor Jonathan delivered a word in regard to crossing the line from fear, doubt, and unbelief into faith, hope, and love. God is destroying the lies that create false identities and opening our hearts to hearing His truth in regard to our true identities in Christ. Thank you Pastor Jonathan for facilitating the presence of God in such a wonderful way.
I have been addressing the salvation of God in our lives. That salvation is not merely our path to heaven some day in the future, but it includes the access of heaven into our lives even now. We are a community of God’s manifest presence. We are a community of the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Christ. In the Revelation of Jesus given to John, the street of the City was of gold and looked like clear glass. Streets signify destiny! There is a purpose to the City of God; it is God’s means of getting the earth to the place He wants it to be. Like the testimony of the City, the destiny (street) of the City of God is to bring the testimony of the likeness and the image of God into the earth (Gen. 1:26). God’s divine character, nature, way, power, and authority are to be revealed in the earth through the testimony of the City of God (street as gold). The living word is seen as an expression of the purpose of Christ’s City in the earth (street as glass). That living word is the testimony of Christ in the very fabric of those who make up the community of God. Every revelation from God is an invitation for each one to have an encounter with God, whereby they become a testimony of that revelation of God.
God’s grace is the power of God’s manifest presence in our lives that brings about life-giving change. When we teach on grace, we are not really teaching something in the hope that it can happen. We are simply teaching on something the Holy Spirit is already doing in the hearts and minds of those who believe. We are positioning ourselves to come in agreement with the internal work of Christ within our hearts. We are positioning ourselves to yield to and respond to the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We are opening our hearts to God and the internal kingdom of God instead of seeking an external government of promiscuity or legalism that cannot result in true change for the glory of God.
God gives us the power to live life. God’s mercy justifies us to live, but God’s grace empowers our lives for greater things. If there is no transformation in our lives, there is no grace. Even in our initial connection with God of being born again there is a definite and noticeable change. That change is grace! However, it is not enough to just experience the grace of God in our lives, we must be people who embrace a culture of grace. We must willingly and willfully walk with the Holy Spirit to be changed. It is a relationship.
Romans 5:17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
When Adam chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he opened the door for all of humanity to be bound to live by a government of a knowledge of good and evil. It was an external rule, an external administration in our lives. It was a rule of information. It established a way of thinking in the family line of humanity. Outside of Christ, this is how people live today. Sometimes as believers we become confused and still try to live that same way. We sometimes view Christianity as a new way to live by being informed rather than an external manifestation of an internal revolution of our hearts and minds in Christ. For some people this is true, but this is not Christ. It is merely religion. Mere external disciplines don’t really change us. They only restrains us and controls us. In Christ, we receive the power of the Holy Spirit at work within our hearts. He gives us the ability to reign in life. He gives us a gift of righteousness. In other words; our character, nature and way become changed by Him. There is even an increasing testimony of power and authority in our lives. It is the power of God’s grace to reign in life. That grace includes an internal empowerment for life-giving decisions in life. It causes us to be transformed to become good men and good women. We become Christ-like men and women in every practicality of life. It includes our ability to be good workers; people who rise to the challenges of life. We become good husbands, wives, dads, moms, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandpas, grandmas, creators, business leaders, everyday workers, friends, neighbors and whatever else we are in life. We must embrace this great salvation of grace and we must choose to walk in this path of life each and every day.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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Thanks Again – Ted J. Hanson
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