Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
We had a great day yesterday at Alife. Pastor Jonathan released some powerful prophetic words and gave a great message concerning being hungry for God. We must stir up our hunger for Him. God desires to do amazing things. We must be hungry for Him to know Him the way He desires to reveal Himself to us in lives.
God Himself is more valuable than all of His promises. God Himself is more important than all of our victories. If God is for us, who can be against us but Him being for us is a testimony of His love and not merely His power! We have a New Covenant in Christ. In Christ, we are a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. Being the place that God lives is the place of His favor. It is a place of grace.
The Old Covenant was a covenant of law and human conscience. The New Covenant is a covenant of grace and truth. Grace is the manifest presence of God in our lives that changes us and changes the world in which we live. Truth is the testimony that we become because God’s presence abides in us and with us. God’s grace will empower us to subdue in life. To subdue is to destroy all manner of death by the authority and power of God’s life. Truth crumbles every lie, and truth is the force of dominion in all things. Grace and truth are a testimony of God’s love at work in our lives. They are not merely a testimony of God’s power.
These things were a promise given in the Old Covenant, but a reality discovered in that which is new. Although these things were not common in the Old Covenant, some who sought the presence of God discovered them in their time. They tasted of the good thing to come before that good thing had fully come to our world. Moses was such a man. The scripture says that Moses was a friend of God and that He knew not just the works of God, but the ways of God. Moses desired grace in a day of law.
Exodus 33:13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
Moses new that the grace of God would be to have God’s presence with him and the people at all times. God had said He would send His Angel before Moses and drive out all of the enemies of the land, but He would not go with Moses and the people because the people were stiff-necked before Him (Ex. 33:1-5). Moses wasn’t interested in just the promises of God. He wasn’t looking for deliverance from all his enemies. He was longing for and looking for the presence of God in all things. Moses appealed to God and God said that He would grant Moses his wish.
Exodus 33:14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” 17 So the LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
The character of Moses appealed to the character of God and thus the name of Moses was the name of a friend to God. Grace is the manifest presence of God in or lives that transforms us from what was, into something new in Christ. Grace changes our lives! Mercy is a judgment that frees us from the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death is the reality of death that happens when we live our lives separate from the presence of God. Grace comes to us because of the law of life and peace in Christ Jesus. There is no gap between us and God. He is our loving Father and our connection to Him reveals us to be His family. We are sons and daughters of God for His glory that comes by the power of His grace. Grace is the power of God’s presence in our lives that gives us life and liberty in Christ. God’s grace will perfect our lives. God’s grace can be multiplied in our lives. Grace is the testimony of God’s glory. Grace is the working of God’s love made known in our lives!
Moses appealed to God that he might see His glory. The glory of God is seen as the goodness of God in our lives. When we see God’s goodness, we become a testimony of God’s goodness in and to our world.
Exodus 33:18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
We want Your presence more than anything God! Show us Your glory that we might know Your ways, walk in your paths with You, live with hearts that are for Your will, and influence our world with the testimony of Your grace. We were born to be loved by You that we might be transformed by Your love to love You and to love others as ourselves.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
