Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today Bonnie and I are in Redding, California with our son and his family. It is great to be with our grandchildren here for a few days. I am looking forward to our adventures together in these next days.
This is a year of partnership with God so that we can partner with others in all that we are and do. We are not just people in a plan of human history. We are meant to live as sons and daughters of God who reveal the story of God in our world. We are expressions of life in His-story for His glory in our world.
God has called us to know a greater justice than a justice of human knowledge. Human knowledge alone can only empower us to seek to live by the knowledge of good and evil. That kind of life is dependent upon the strength of mankind – spirit, soul, and body. God has a greater plan for our lives. He has called us to live, move, and have our being in the justice of His love. When we abide in His love, we become givers of His love to our world. Intimacy with God will give us a solid foundation in life while mere knowledge of good and evil leaves us in an unstable world of independence with the strongholds of human pride.
Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Only a connection with God can give us the stability of faith. Faith is the foundation of our true identify in life. Each of us must find your Identify in God. In the seventh letter of Revelation to the Church of Laodicea, those who had become lukewarm were told to “buy gold refined in the fire”. This was a signification of their need to become faithful to God. Faithfulness is the testimony of standing in faith. Faith comes by hearing God in our hearts, and it is there that we find our strength to stand. We walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). Faith is a supernatural testimony that rises up from within when we hear God. Hearing God will bring salvation to our souls.
1 Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
I believe that the salvation of our souls is not just our going to heaven when we die. I believe it is the restoration of who we are meant to be in life. Our souls are the bridge between the spirit and the natural. The soul is the throne of our lives, and it causes our desires, thoughts, reasoning, emotions, and imaginations to be manifest in all that we do. A key to allowing God to change our character is to present our bodies in the right place. We must present our bodies as living sacrifices and that means that we cannot live like we did when we were in the world. We must live for the well-being of others and our character is the utmost important in our journey of life!
We find our identity in God, but we also find our testimony in Him. We live in Him, and we also move in Him. We must put on the “white garments” of Christ. Each of us are to be clothed in the testimony of Christ. We are not the body of self but members of the body of Christ. This is our hope! We are part of the inheritance of God in Christ and we are granted the grace of God to walk in the works that have been prepared for us in Christ.
The promise to the church of Sardis was that he who overcomes would be “given white garments” (Rev. 3:5). White is a symbol of cleanliness, purity, and righteousness. White garments speak of being clothed in the New Man. We are to put on Christ now (Col. 3:5-17) and to be fully clothed in Christ in the “last day” (Col. 3:4; Jude 24). As sons and daughters of God, we are to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ (Gal. 3:27; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). This is a heavenly truth that is progressively revealed in the life of every believer. It is seen in and through the testimonies of our lives.
It is only when we find our identify and testimony in God that we can live for our true purpose in this world. Our true purpose is not found in our own dreams or visions of life. Our purpose is found in seeing what God sees and finding a zeal empowered by His Spirit. Holy Spirit’s anointing is salve upon our eyes that gives true vision in our world. We must look at what God is looking at to see what He sees.
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
