Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am home after a great week in Colorado Springs, Colorado with the G42 Leadership Academy. I taught for the week on New Covenant Realities. The students were hungry for God and eager to know Him more. Thanks to all who participated and blessings to you all in your journey of destiny in Christ. There is hope for the future. The younger generations and the older generations are joining to see the hearts of the fathers for the children and the hearts of the children for the fathers.
We once were people empowered by the desires of our own flesh, with dreams of our own greatness, and ventures towards our own destinies; but in Christ, we have entered a greater life, expression, and purpose in this world. We are each called to be a part of the body of Christ with expressions of Christ fulfilling various measures of the works of Christ in this world. It is a great calling, great testimony, and a great power of purpose that we find in the corporate place of Zion, the community of God’s manifest presence in this world. This is not a time to live for ourselves. This is the time to live for the purpose of Christ in all things.
2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Jesus came not merely to get us to heaven when we die. He came to get heaven into us so that we will influence our world with heaven’s grace. We are not people of flesh and blood; we are people of the flesh and bone body of Christ. As the bride of Christ, we are loved in every way. As the wife of Jesus, we are the body of Christ as bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh in all things. This is not the flesh of humanity unto themselves. It is the flesh of the body of Christ and the life of that body is the manifest presence, testimony, and purpose of God’s Spirit within us. We are one with Jesus and He is one with us individually and corporately. Jesus was both Adam and Eve eternal. He was a last life-giving Adam with the hidden destiny within Him of the help-mate eternal Eve. It was at the seventh shedding of blood that Jesus made a way for the earth to yield the many members of the nations that comprise His spiritual dwelling known as the body of Christ.
John 19:33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
Just as the Adam of dust was put to sleep and out of his side came the rib of flesh that was Eve – from the side of Jesus came the living water of the Church. Jesus’ pierced side won back our joy and the testimony of a face-to-face relationship with Him in life. We are being perfected in Him to rule now and into eternity. The bride of Christ is the body of Christ and we are co-heirs with Him in the destiny of the family name!
Jesus was the Red Heifer (the Body of Christ offered outside the camp for all) so that we could become the Bride of Christ (Body of Christ). He gave His life fully so that He could sanctify us with the water of His testimony (His word) and present us to Himself as a wife without spot, blemish, wrinkle, or any such thing (Eph. 5:25-32). The shadow of this truth is found in the Old Covenant. Again, the Old Covenant was only an informational testimony of that which one day become the transforming power of God’s grace for mankind. We cannot just think in terms of a single lifetime. We must think generationally and understand that eternity is not measured in created terms. Our lives are part of something much bigger than the mere few years we are given in this segment of our journey. Life does not end on earth, but earth plays an important role in our journey of life.
Numbers 19:1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come.’”
As was portrayed in this sacrifice, Jesus was without blemish to guarantee a progressive sanctification of our lives so that we too can become people without blemish. God does not see our blemishes and the Holy Spirit works in our lives to cause us to become as God sees us. Even with our flaws, God does not see our flaws. He writes us up well in the halls of heaven, even as he wrote Abraham as being a man who never wavered in his faith. Although God does not see our flaws, Holy Spirit is also working in our lives as the power of God’s amazing grace to cause us to reign in life. We are overcoming the weaknesses of our lives by the power of God’s strength. This is not merely for ourselves, but for an increasing glory in the maturation and culmination of God’s plan for mankind. Being healed of our blemishes does not make God love us more, it simply reveals the life-transforming power of God’s love working in our lives.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225
Once more, you have touched our hearts to the heart of God. I love the phrase, “life does not end on earth but earth is a part of our journey through life.”
I am so very greatful for the life connection that Marilyn and I have with you and Bonnie, and the Alife family.
Blessings