Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am in Wisconsin. It was a blessing to be together for a family reunion once again and it was wonderful to be with a very close friend for several days. I was also blessed to join the church family of Living Waters yesterday. It was a bit of an adventure getting here with lots of airplane delays, but it was good to finally be here. God is blessing my time here in a great way.
I have been addressing the topic of family. God’s way of bringing life to the world is family. Family is the foundation for the influence of the kingdom of heaven upon the earth. When we are born of the Spirit we are born into the family of God. We become part of the eternal family of life in Christ. It’s not about works; it’s about relationship. We were born into a relationship of love. Our identity, testimony, and purpose in life spring forth from the foundation of family.
We were born of God to be loved by God. Adam and Eve were created for the testimony of family, but they needed an understanding of being born of God and its importance. The true testimony of family is found in the life and power of the Spirit.
I believe there are some interesting comparisons in the family line of Adam and the family line of the eternal Adam—Jesus. Adam was created but Jesus was born of the Spirit into a human environment of family. Adam was created by God, but he wasn’t born into a dynamic of family. Adam knew God’s presence in the garden and God commissioned him with the task of work. Adam’s first responsibility was to give names to the animals. Jesus spent the first thirty years of His life in the environment of family and then embraced His purpose as the Christ. Adam went to work naming the animals, but Jesus grew in wisdom and favor with God and man as a boy into becoming a young man, even in an imperfect environment of family.
Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Jesus was God in flesh, but He was also fully man. He experienced the life of being a baby with an earthly father and mother. He experienced the dynamic of family with brothers and sisters. He grew as a boy, a young man, and as a man for the purpose of His heavenly Father’s glory.
Jesus learned things through what He suffered. He didn’t merely see God as the Almighty, He knew Him as Father. He heard His Father, He responded to His Father, and He did what He saw His Father doing.
Hebrews 5:8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
The identity of love, the testimony of love, and the purpose of love is found in knowing God as our Father. This was the testimony of Jesus. Before He did the work and ministry of the Christ, He knew that He was God’s Son, and that His Father was pleased with Him.
Matthew 3:16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
This is my Son with whom I’m well pleased—equals identity. Jesus manifested the Father—equals the testimony of love. He didn’t love His life even onto death—equals the purpose of love. These are attributes of the family of God, and they are true to God in His Trinity. In the environment of family we are born of the Spirit, sanctified by the Spirit, and commissioned for the Father’s will by the Spirit of God.
You have a Father in heaven, and He is pleased that you are His son of His daughter. He has given you His Spirit so that you can overcome anything that seeks to separate you from God. In this, you are anointed to testify of God’s peace—a testimony of heavenly grace. You are commissioned to manifest the character of a parent—a father or a mother. You are commissioned to live for the family of God with a generational purpose of life.
Don’t be distracted by ministry. Don’t be distracted by work. Don’t be distracted by any created thing. Embrace God in His triune being and embrace the family of God. The enemy will seek to destroy your connection with family, but you are called, appointed, and anointed to be a son or daughter of God that grows in wisdom and favor with God in the environment of family.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
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