Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am in Bellingham. I have enjoyed another great week at home with my family and friends. Yesterday I was blessed to speak to my home church of Alife. I will be blogging the next weeks on my topic. God’s presence in our lives is the testimony of salvation in our lives at all times and in all things.
To know the salvation of God we must know Jesus in both His first coming and an eternally increasing second coming in our lives. We must know His gift to us as the Son of Man/Son of God and we must receive Him as a life-giving Spirit in our hearts. We must embrace His sacrifice for us upon our cross and we must live from His throne room of grace to experience His salvation in our lives in this world and in heaven to come.
Jesus’ death upon our cross was God’s judgment of mercy for us all. That judgment gave us peace with God and all we have to do is come and receive His gift of mercy to be justified to live. His death upon our cross was God’s judgment of love. Our Father’s love was greater than our disconnection from Him. The marks in Jesus’ body were a testimony of God’s gift of love for us all. After His resurrection from the dead Jesus appeared to His disciples and He revealed to them both His gift of mercy and their new ability to experience His grace.
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.
When Jesus showed His disciples His hands and His side it was a testimony of His first coming for all of mankind. As it was appointed for all men to die once, Jesus died once for all so that all could find a new life of living as a dwelling place of God’s Spirit. God’s judgment of mercy has given peace to us all. The peace of God is made evident by His Spirit living within us. Jesus not only showed His disciples the marks in His body, He also gave them the gift of Holy Spirit within them.
John 20:21 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.”
I believe that when Jesus breathed on His disciples it was like the breath that God breathed into first Adam when He formed Adam from the dust of the earth (Gen. 2:7). The breath of God’s Spirit within us is the testimony of Holy Spirit, the Helper, within us. Holy Spirit within us is the testimony of the name of Jesus within our hearts. This is the birthing and forming of His character, nature, way, power, and authority in our lives. This empowers us to be a body born by His Spirit – we are the body of Christ. Because of the mercy given to us through the death of Jesus we can find the grace of God that empowers us to reign in life. This is the power of a new life as a member of the body of Christ. We are no longer bound to the body of self, but we are liberated in Christ to live our lives as life-giving members of the body of Christ. This is the testimony of our salvation that makes us part of the calling of Christ, the testimony of Christ, and the purpose of Christ in all things.
Our life in Old Adam was destined to die, but Jesus was the Son of Man in flesh to free us from the life of the flesh. He came to liberate us to live our lives empowered by the life of His Spirit. This is a life of faith – a life of hearing God within our hearts that empowers us to live. That life is eternal life, the fruit of knowing God our Father and Jesus Christ the son by the fellowship of Holy Spirit.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
