Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am back in Bellingham. We had a good international Zoom chat with several of the pastors in my House of Bread network on Saturday. The leaders shared good words concerning healing, restoration, and deliverance. There was a common thought that it is important to see who is next to us in this season. It is time to build wells and not fences. If we dig the wells, life will be the attractor and not merely some form of ministry. It is important to pick up the rod for now. What is in our hand must be what God makes it to be in this season. There was a real sense that God is doing something good and that we will end 2021 strong. We also had a great workday on Saturday at our church working on many coming changes to our church ministry. I am looking forward to what God is doing in this new season.
God has called us to be supernatural sons and daughters of God in a natural world. He has called us to affect our world in supernatural ways. We can have supernatural expectations because our heavenly father is not bound by a natural world. By Him, the world is affected in supernatural ways.
Mark 16:17 “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
How do we live our lives in a way that allows the testimonies of the kingdom of God to become realities in the kingdoms of mankind? The kingdom of God is an internal kingdom of God’s life that affects the external kingdoms of men. It invites them to know the life of the kingdom of God within their hearts, but it also influences the external kingdoms like the mustard seed that grows to be a force that affects the realm of the birds, as leaven fills the loaf of bread, and as the rock of Christ becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth. Jesus was such a man, and He made a way for us to walk in our world as He did in His. It is even greater today, because the one Man, Jesus Christ, has become the testimony of the many members of the body of Christ joined to Him in heavenly places. Each of us are supernatural sons or daughters of God, but together we are the body of Christ that does even greater things. This is only possible by the Holy Spirit in us, upon us, and with us in all things. Jesus came to reconnect us to God as our Father so we can know God’s presence, God’s testimony, and God’s purpose in our lives in all things. He came so we would have the life that comes by being in a right relationship with God in our hearts. He came so we would walk with an outward testimony that reveals we are one with God in all things. He is in us and He is upon our lives as we become expressions of Him in our world. He came so that we would know the joy of God’s purpose in all things as He partners with us and we partner with Him for His will to be done and His kingdom to come into every situation of our lives. This is the testimony of Holy Spirit in us, upon us, and with us in all that we are and do. This was the promise that Jesus gave to His disciples.
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
The Helper is Holy Spirit. He was with the disciples of Jesus’ day, because Jesus was with them. He was yet to be in them, and He was yet to be upon them, though there was supernatural power even when He was with them. Jesus did not leave them, but only made a way to be with them in a greater way. He made a way to be with them and even in them and upon them in their world. This is also our promise and our assurance of supernatural realities in our world. He must be in us to be upon us and when He is in us and upon us, He also partners with us to demonstrate that He is with us in all things.
John 20:19 Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
When Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, He breathed upon them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. It was only upon seeing Jesus after His resurrection, that the disciples were able to receive the Holy Spirit in them. I believe this was a born-again experience for the disciples. They saw the love of God presented to them in the marks of Jesus sacrifice for them and they received His gift of mercy to know Him forever near within their hearts. The breath of Jesus was the breath of the Holy Spirit sent to cause their own spirits to come alive in a supernatural way.
Jesus said that unless we are born again, we cannot see the kingdom of God. When we were born again, we became able to see the life of God’s kingdom by His Spirit within us. Just like the disciples, we received the Holy Spirit within us when we are born again. After Jesus appeared to the disciples, He spoke to them concerning a greater fulfillment of the Holy Spirit in their lives. He told them they must also receive the Holy Spirit upon them to be clothed in the power of Christ.
Luke 24:49 “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
The Greek word for endued is enduo, which means to invest with clothing (literally or figuratively): array, clothe (with), endue, have (put) on. To be endued with the Holy Spirit is to be clothed in the Holy Spirit. This is an outward evidence of the power of God in our lives. To have a supernatural expectancy of a supernatural God we must have His supernatural presence in our hearts, and we must also be clothed in His supernatural testimony of life.
Blessings,
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
