Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
I hope you are all well today. We have had some cold, but beautiful days here in the Northwest. I know that many of you have had snow and the fridged days of winter. These are the seasons of life. No matter what season we find ourselves in, it is a good day to know the Lord!
God’s grace in our lives is not simply about being better informed; it is about being transformed. Jesus didn’t come so we would merely know what to do or how to act in life. He came so that we would know who we truly are. We were created to be a testimony of God’s likeness and image on the earth. This is only possible when we become sons and daughters of God. We must be born of the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, and transformed by the Spirit. Our administration is not one of law, where we live by instructions and commands; it is an administration of grace. God’s grace transforms our lives from within. God’s grace gives us new hearts and minds in Christ. This is the testimony of being part of the body of Christ. We are not independent people living for individual victories; we are members of one body—the body of Christ!
God is our friend, and His desire has always been for us to be empowered by an internal force of freedom that comes from living as His sons and daughters in our world. He never intended for us to live our lives controlled by law or merely restrained by our conscience. His desire was for us to become a dwelling place of His Holy Spirit, empowered by the greater power of grace.
Law is an informing force, and the human conscience is the same. Law doesn’t really change us—it just makes us a killer in prison, or it makes us a killer restrained from acting upon our internal desire to kill. A violator of the law doesn’t just need to be freed from prison, but to have a changed life so they never go to prison again. God wants us to live by a higher law—a law of life and peace in Christ. This is a testimony of the passion of God’s presence, giving us desires in our hearts. This law is one of love. Love produces fruit of change that looks like law, or doing right things, but it’s really an internal passion.
Grace is something we find when we boldly come to live before and from God’s throne of grace. This is a place of daily relationship with God in our hearts. God doesn’t change us because He is not pleased with us; He is pleased with us and invites us to live with Him in all things. Living with Him changes us! When life moves into the room, everything in the room comes to life. When light moves into the house, every dark room becomes filled with light. You cannot shine light in a dark room and find darkness; when you shine light into a dark room, the room becomes filled with light. When we find God’s grace, it changes us, and we receive a testimony of God’s life that transforms us in some way. We must receive a change of government in our lives to see different fruit in our lives.
In Christ, we receive the testimony of God’s friendship. People in the world don’t recognize that God is their friend; therefore, they pursue a way of life that seems right in their own eyes. True freedom only comes by embracing a culture of grace. A revelation that God is our friend inspires a desire for His grace. Grace doesn’t free the world from a culture of law; it invites them to come to the place of the kingdom of God, where grace frees them from a culture of law. The blood of the cross is found on the mercy seat in the throne room of grace. The life of the flesh has been exchanged for the life of God’s Spirit. God never intended for law or merely the human conscience to be the rule of administration for mankind.
The empowerment of the heart of mankind was always meant to be by a personal relationship with God through the human heart. Jesus was the proof that the internal empowerment of the kingdom of God was the way of life for all men.
Luke 16:16 “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time, the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.”
Although man was created in the likeness and the image of God, the law revealed to mankind that they were no longer like God in their character, nature, way, power, and authority. They were guilty of being disconnected from their true-life source. The judgments of the law were not attributes of an unloving God, but a consequence of the flawed character of unloving men.
The law told men they were guilty and that they should die, but there were provisions to help men in their weakness. Adam’s shame was covered by a death sacrifice and the covering of skin, as Adam was to wear the testimony of that death. It revealed God’s willingness to give life to redeem mankind. It testified of God as our friend. The law only proves that men want to be like God, but it cannot inspire change from within. The law controls the external actions of men, but it cannot transform their hearts and minds. Only intimacy with God in our hearts can change us.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
