Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am heading home after a great week in Portugal and a great weekend back in the Netherlands. Two more courses have been recorded in Portuguese and we were blessed with God’s presence in Ede, and Holton. Thank you to all the hungry hearts in Portugal and in the Netherlands. I am returning home empowered by our destiny in Christ and encouraged by His fruit of life.
As sons and daughters of God, we are called to be messengers of the good news of Christ and ministers of God’s manifest presence in life. Our message is not one of information, it is a message that empowers transformations unto life in those who receive it. Jesus made a way for us to live our lives empowered by the Holy Spirit within us and clothed with the testimony of Holy Spirit in every way. We are to live our lives submerged in God’s presence and transformed by His presence to be givers of life to our world. Holy Spirit makes us sent ones (earth-sent angels) of God’s life to our world. Holy Spirit also comes as a fire to purify our hearts and minds and impassion our souls to be givers of life to our world.
Psalms 104:4 Who makes His angels spirits (winds), His ministers a flame of fire.
We are sent ones of God’s Spirit, and we are attendants to His presence in and for our world. We can only be ministers of His presence by spending time in His presence. The fire of God in our lives consumes what can be consumed and impassions us to be ministers of life.
Our attention, desire, and purpose should be ignited by fire in the presence of the Lord. Like the finely ground flour in the offerings of the Old Testament, our lives should easily burn on the altar of the Lord. The purpose of that finely ground flour was for fire. Our own personal agendas and any form of self-seeking must be sifted from our hearts to be who God destines us to be for His glory. God wants our hearts to be blazing with a passion of love to Him and to one another. It is God’s desire that we be found as ministers of fire before Him (Ps. 104:4). Anything that is within us that is not a passion for Him, nor for one another, will simply become consumed in His awesome presence. Anything that is pure will become an increased flame of love for Him and for one another.
The Old Covenant offerings consisted of blood, parts, and fire. Jesus fulfilled the sacrifice of blood once for us all. There is no more blood to be shed. The offering of the life of the flesh (blood), has been given for us all. We can add nothing and nothing is needed. We regard no one according to the flesh anymore. The parts in the offerings of the Old Covenant represent who we are in Christ. God is the one who determines our true identity. We find our part in His calling, His inheritance, and His purpose. We do not decide who we are in Christ, we discover who we are by the power of God’s grace working in and through us.
We can present nothing before God but ourselves as fires for His desire within us. Since we cannot offer more blood, nor offer more than His own calling and inheritance within the saints (Eph. 1:18), the only sacrifice that we can willingly present to Him is that which is intended for fire. As we present our bodies to Him as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1 – burnt offering of service), we are presenting the one thing that we can offer. He is the one who gives us grace for the work of ministry, but we are the ones who give our bodies toward that work of ministry. Our work of ministry is simply our service in giving our lives to give life to our world. For this to happen, we are fully dependent and committed to the manifest presence of God in our lives. It is within our ability to present ourselves for the fire of God. That which is of God will increase and that which is not of Him will simply burn away.
The difference between fire that is for an increase of God and fire that is for the consumption of our self-willed motives is found in the motives of our hearts. We want the fire of the Lord upon the altars of our hearts, not the fire of ourselves. We want the fire of God that produces God’s results. We don’t want the fire of self (strange fire) that produces the fruit of self.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
