Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
What a wonderful start to our new year! Last week my children and grandchildren from California were home. The whole family was together, and we did another round of Christmas to celebrate. It was wonderful to be together as a family and to enjoy the sounds of laughter and life that testify of our love for one another.
2023 is a year of fresh appointments from God. It is a year of ‘new strength’. It will be a year of hurdles. What is a hurdle? A hurdle is an obstacle that you are expected to overcome. It is not a place that you cannot get over. It is a place that you are expected to get over, but you are going to have to find the strength to do so. That strength comes from within
Our dependency upon God is not going to be a dependency out of need. It is going to be a dependency inspired by love. An understanding of who God is will give a greater understanding to who we are. An understanding of who we and God are together will give us a greater testimony of purpose. I believe that we will see a measure of the zeal of the House of God restored. It is a season of fresh appointments. It is a season to know that God’s mercy is new every morning. It is a season to know that God’s grace is more than sufficient for every situation in our lives.
At the beginning of 2022, I heard God say that it would not be a year of ministries (ships), but it would be a year of the rudder. We would find ourselves submerged in God’s peace, submerged in God’s presence, and submerged in God’s purpose. It would be a year of becoming the substance of an expression of God. I believe that this is the place of our true identity in Christ. Finding our identity in Christ would be revealed through knowing God in a deeper way and even knowing that He knows us. God would shape us to be a rudder for His direction and His plan. This is a deeper submersion in God. It would not be about knowing where you were going or what you are doing. It would be about who you are and who He is in your life.
A single word of significance for the year would be ‘peace’. Peace was a big word for me and was my message to the church at the beginning of the year. God revealed that doing and being the will of God is connected to peace. The Old Covenant peace offering was a meat offering to be shared with the community. Jesus told His disciples that eating meat was to be and do the will of God.
John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
To eat meat; to do the will of God, or to be the will of God, involves a connection to God’s community. The peace offering of the Old Covenant was a corporate offering celebrating peace with God that reveals His presence and blessing in the life of each member of His community. To eat meat (to do or be the will of God), requires a connection to the community of God. The community of God is seen in the testimony of Jerusalem. Jerusalem means, vision of peace.
Jerusalem is the heavenly community of God. It is the testimony of being joined to God in heaven, and it reveals heavenly things in our lives. It is a place of worship, a response to God’s love. It was in Jerusalem that King David put the tabernacle of God’s presence on the hill of Zion. It is there that David found wisdom from God to be King in Israel.
Zion is the place of God’s influence to the earth. It is a place where the manifest presence of God and His spoken word becomes the influence of our lives by which we can influence our world. I believe that Jerusalem speaks of a vision of peace, whereby we worship God. I believe that Zion is a testimony of God’s influence to our world through our lives because of God’s peace. We rule and reign with Christ in this world. It’s not just God doing something for us. It is us partnering with God and God partnering with us. We are kings and priests in this world to bring God’s heavenly influence to our world.
My year of knowing God‘s peace culminated with me knowing a deeper level of God as my friend. Because there is no separation between me and God and God and me, I can know that He is my friend, and I can be His friend. He’s not my friend because He needs something from me. He’s my friend because he wants to give me life, breath, and all things. I’m not His friend because He needs me to give Him anything. I am His friend because I give all that I am not because He needs me to do so, but because I love Him. I believe that friendship is the empowerment of honor to God and to one another, and that friendship is also the power of God’s grace working in our lives. The more we understand friendship with God, the more we become empowered to honor God and to honor others. The more we understand friendship with God, the more we become empowered by God‘s grace. God’s grace transforms us to become a testimony of Him in our world
Living our lives as a testimony of God’s peace requires us to live from the inside out. The things of the world are not what shape us. Christ in us is the hope of glory. Christ in us is the power of the kingdom of God working to make our personal kingdoms ones of our Lord and Christ.
God is inviting us to live in a place of partnership with Him and with one another in Christ. Why does God want us to know partnership? Partnership is not merely about purpose; it is about love. But love is always filled with purpose. That purpose is a furtherance of God’s love that changes the world in which we live.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225
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Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
