Blog In Audio:
Greetings
I am continuing to enjoy my time at home in Bellingham. Yesterday I was blessed to minister at Everyone’s Church, in Mount Vernon, Washington. This is a church relationally connected to me and House of Bread Ministry. It was a great morning. I had an interesting experience on my drive to the church. My wife was driving, and I was looking at my notes for the morning message. I looked up and I was surprised to see the scenery was moving from fall into an approaching winter. I was surprised because I thought it was moving into spring. It was a spiritual moment of God saying the seasons are His and we can expect heavenly things to spring forth, even in what appears to be a winter season
I have been writing on the symbolism of the ashes of the red heifer in the Old Covenant and how the washing of the water of purification was merely a shadow of truths being revealed to us in the body of Christ. I am not talking about truths of head knowledge. I am talking about experiences with God in Christ as we are washed by God’s word to our hearts. It is a testimony of God speaking to, through, over, and about who we are in His eternal bride, the church. Heaven is not just a destination for us as believers, it is also a daily experience in our hearts, and it affects our thoughts and our actions in this world.
Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Jesus was the body of Christ so that we could become part of the body of Christ, the habitation of God’s Spirit in us individually and together as Christ in the flesh. Jesus made this possible by His complete sacrifice for our complete sanctification. The spotless red heifer was sacrificed and burned outside of the camp to make a way for all who were outside of the camp of God to become a part of His fa mily. The sacrifice of Jesus and the life-giving words of the Holy Spirit proclaim a transformation of what we wear. We were clothed in sin, but now we are clothed in Christ. We are in this world, but we are not of this world. We are set apart, sanctified to God, for His increasing glory in heaven and earth.
Numbers 19:8 And the one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water, bathe in water, and shall be unclean until evening. 9 Then a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and store them outside the camp in a clean place; and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of purification; it is for purifying from sin.
Jesus was the body of Christ so we could come through the veil of His flesh and become members of the body of Christ joined with Him for eternity. Just as a rib was taken from the side of first Adam and a suitable helpmate was formed to be Eve, the church is the result of the spiritual rib removed from the side of the eternal Adam, Jesus Christ. When Jesus died, he went to sleep, and the soldiers pierced His side and blood and water flowed to the ground. From that ground would come the helpmate of Jesus, the eternal Eve, the body of Christ. This is the spiritual rib formed for the eternal reality of who we really are in Christ. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus allowed us to pass from death to life in Christ. His continued washing of our lives with the pure water that came from His sacrifice, declares that we are no longer sinners, but saints as members of the body of Christ.
Numbers 19:10 And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until evening. It shall be a statute forever to the children of Israel and to the stranger who dwells among them. 11 “He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. 12 He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.
The third day purification was the passing from death to life in Christ. It was brought about by our born-again reality and our conveyance from the power of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. It is the Holy Spirit in and upon our lives that reveals who we really are. We are part of the body of Christ. We have experienced the resurrection power that came through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and we are being sprinkled by the pure water of Christ’s presence in our lives. Holy Spirit is constantly interceding declaring our sanctification in Christ.
We lost our lives, but we then found our lives. We found the death of our old man in Jesus and we found our true life in the testimony of Christ within us. We are new creations in Christ. We now hear God (water) in an intimate relationship with Him in this world (outside the camp) because we can now hear Him (rhema word) and be of faith. Our fath gives access to this redemption story. Hearing God in our hearts allows us to come into the reality of who God says we really are.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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Thanks Again – Ted J. Hanson
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