Ted J. Hanson's Weekly Blog – ted4you.com

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am in Portugal after a great time in Angola, Africa. The hunger of the people in Angola and the willingness of God to meet us was wonderful. I look forward to seeing all that God is going to do in the future there. I will be returning home tomorrow and I will be blessed to see my family. Life is full, but life is good.

Let’s continue our look at the 84th chapter of Psalms. The next verse in Psalms 84 is one that has been greatly misunderstood in the Church. I believe that a poverty mentality and a twisted view of the blessings of God have caused many to miss the point of this verse.

Psalms 84:10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

I have heard this verse translated in ways that are far from its truth. There is a song that has been around for some time in the church that says, “a day in the house of the Lord is better than a thousand on the outside”. The song continues to say, “I would rather stand at the gates of the house of the Lord than to live like a king in the tents of the wicked”. Where do we find that? First of all the word thousand, is the Hebrew word “eleph” and it means: “hence (the symbol is an ox’s head being the first letter of the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral) a thousand”. It comes from the words “eleph”, meaning: “a family (from the sense of yoking or taming) an ox or cow” and “alaph”, meaning: “to associate with; hence to learn (and caus. to teach)”. The implication of this word is one of an endless journey of slavery or labor, since it is associated with a word for ‘dwell’, it is not a place of resting but a place of things being heaped up upon you.

As for the part of this verse that has somehow been misconstrued to become something of living like a king in the tents of the wicked, that is far from the truth. The wicked do live in “tents”, but they do not live like kings. They may live in the deception that they are kings, but those in the world are bound as slaves in a world of aimless wandering. The word for dwell is the Hebrew word “duwr” and it means “to gyrate (or move in a circle) i.e. to remain.” It has an implication of ‘aimless conduct’. This is the only place in the Scripture that this word is used for dwell and it is not a ‘dwelling’ as in ‘residing’. It is a ‘dwelling’ as in perpetual circling without being able to get anywhere. This verse is implying that if you have not found the courts of God, you are left in the bondage of an endless journey of aimless conduct. You are searching, but never finding; desiring, but never finding fulfillment. Those who have found life in Christ have ended their life of ‘aimless conduct’ (1 Pet. 1:18) and embarked upon a sojourn of destiny. The righteous find a purpose and a future, while the wicked are left in the cycles of aimless wandering.

This verse also clarifies that those who have not found the courts of our God are left in the unstable condition of living in tents that are always wrong (a condition of wickedness). These tents are very obvious and ‘showy’ as the Hebrew word implies. They are very ‘surface’ minded and never find the true meaning of life. Like nomads, they are on a journey of tent-to-tent and place-to-place dwelling. They never find the place of destiny. They never find the place of rest and full purpose.

The true context of this verse is that of being a doorkeeper in God’s house. The word for “doorkeeper” is the Hebrew word “saphaph” and it means, “to snatch away, i.e. terminate”. It implies “to wait at the threshold” in the sense of a vestibule (a large entrance or reception room or area).

It could be thought of in the sense of being a dish holding blood or wine as the Hebrew word “saph” implies. It is the place where you invite others to end their life of aimless wandering and begin a covenant relationship of life with God as their Father. It is the place where you are inviting others to come and experience the goodness of dwelling in the presence of God as you do.

Because we know what it is to be a dwelling place of God’s presence, we live our lives in a place of inviting others to come and experience the same. Because we are an altar of God’s presence, our lives shine as in invitation to those who are bound in darkness. We find our strength in God, and we bring life to the weeping places of our world. We have God’s favor and His countenance shines upon us so we can be a witness of Him to our world.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings, Today I am in Portugal. It was great being with the CCVA church in Lisboa this past weekend. There was a strong connection of family and God’s word and presence were hungered for among the people. I always enjoy being with my Portuguese family. I have a few more days in Portugal and then I will head to Angola, Africa on Thursday night.

Last week I began to address the cry of every person to discover that they were born to be a dwelling place of God’s presence. It is only by being a place of God’s dwelling that we can fulfill our destiny in life. God told me that this year is a year of finding new strength in Him. That strength is not the strength of the flesh, but the strength of God’s abiding presence within us. His abiding presence within us will give strength to our spirits, souls, and bodies in increasing measures.

Man only finds continual blessing when his heart cries out for more of God each step of his journey in life. Each of us has been destined by God to complete a journey. Our pilgrimage is intended to be from strength to strength. That can only happen when one finds the secret to life. The secret is that all strength comes from the Lord. Only those who dwell in His presence find the power of increase along the journey. Those who fail to find His presence are left with an endless journey of failure-to-failure, defeat-to-defeat, and weakness-to-weakness. They find themselves in the never-ending spiral downward in a journey of missed appointments and forsaken destiny.

Psalms 84:5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.

God’s desire has always been to bless mankind. God wants an intimate, covenant relationship with man. In the history of God and His covenant people, we find that God’s heart has always been that He might be able to bring blessing into the lives of those who intimately dwell with Him. Man is to be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath.

Deuteronomy 28:13 “And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.”

We see this principle of God’s blessing to be true in the context of Psalms 84 as well. God’s people are to be those who influence the environment around them and not those who are influenced by the circumstances at hand. God’s people are the solution to the problems of darkness. The world is locked up in the bondage of weeping and God’s antidote to the weeping of the world is that His people might bring joy to the world’s despair. We are light to the darkness. We are hope to the hopeless. We are life to death and fullness to the emptiness found in the lives of the prisoners of the world. As Christians, we must be gateways to heaven that release the power of God’s life around us as we walk the journey of life.

Psalms 84:6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca (meaning: “weeping”), they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools.

The future for the Christian is not one of weakness and limitation. Believers in Christ are those who live in God’s presence. They believe in the person God and thus they believe Him in all things. He is God, but He is their friend. Their strength is found by living in His presence. The source of their strength is found in an intimate, personal relationship with God as their Father. They have been given the access and the boldness to stand before God in His holy mountain.

Psalms 84:7  They go from strength to strength; Every one of them appears before God in Zion. 8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah

God has put the desire for a personal relationship with Him within the hearts of all mankind. That desire is the cry of the heart that calls for the presence of God. God shakes the nations that they might find the answer to their confusion. The Desire of the Nations is Christ in them, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). Everyone must appear before God in Zion in order to find the fulfillment of their destiny.

Haggai. 2:6 For thus says the LORD of hosts: “Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; 7 ‘and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. 8 ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts. 9 ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.”

The latter temple is not the physical structure of an Old Covenant. It is the temple of human flesh made holy by being a dwelling place of God’s Holy Spirit in this life. We are individual altars of God’s presence and together we are the body of Christ. God’s increasing presence shakes both heaven and earth and the nations are freed to come to their true Desire. Jesus is the Savior of the word.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of: www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:

House of Bread Ministry 3210 Meridian St. Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am heading home after a great weekend in Wichita, Kansas. God was present with us on Saturday at a men’s gathering from ChristLife and Eagle’s Nest churches. I was very encouraged as God touched the hearts of these men. Yesterday we had a wonderful time at ChristLife in the presence of Holy Spirit and the ministry of God’s word. It was good to be with close friends.

The cry of every human heart is for God. The basic need of all of humanity is a need for ‘God’ in their lives. The problem is the eyes of the understanding of the world have been darkened and they cannot see this truth. God has initiated a major ‘assault’ of life upon the nations.

Just as true as the Devil has propagated his degenerate plans of death to all men, God has released an overflowing scourge of life to the nations. God has put the key to finding Him within the heart of all of humanity. The desire of the nations is life and God is life!

Psalms 84:1 How lovely is Your tabernacle, O LORD of hosts! 2 My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

We see in this Scripture that the psalmist understood that the cry of his soul and his flesh was for the living God. I don’t believe that this cry is something that has to be planted within the hearts of men. I believe that the souls and the flesh of men are all crying out for the living God. God put that cry within them. They are looking for life! They are simply confused as to what the desire within them is all about. The psalmist is simply stating that he had found the answer to the desire that had been locked up within his very being.

The secret to finding the answer to the cry of the human heart is only found when one finds himself or herself in the place where the answer to that cry is found. We can be asking the right questions, but if we are not living in the place of ‘right answers’ we may never find the answer to our questions asked. Death can be found in the pits of darkness. Death can be found in the caves of despair. Death can be found within the deserted valleys of loneliness, but life is only found in ‘life’s nest’.

Psalms 84:3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young–even Your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will still be praising You. Selah

The fulfillment of the sparrow’s destiny is found in the place of the sparrow’s dwelling. Her destiny to be fruitful and multiply is found within the environment of her nest. When birds build their nests, it is only natural for them to lay their eggs and hatch their young. They don’t have to attend ‘bird schools’ concerning proper habitation of birds. It is in them to know what to do when they find the place of their nesting. When birds find their proper environment, they naturally fulfill their destiny as birds. There is a place where man can find the fulfillment of His destiny as well. It is within the ‘nest’ known as ‘the abiding presence of God’. The altar of the Lord of hosts is the place God intended man to dwell. It is in that place of dwelling in the abiding presence of God that the destiny of mankind will be fulfilled. The altar of the Lord is an open heart before Him. The place of His dwelling is the heart that has asked for, and received, His presence within them. This Scripture refers to the place of God’s dwelling in the plural context. It is the place of His ‘altars’. This tells me that the place of fulfilling our own destiny in Him is connected to our relationship with others in His house. His body is one body but has many members. His house is made of many rooms, but it is one house. I must find my relationship with Him and His family in order to fulfill my destiny. It is only in that context that I can lay hold of that for which He has laid hold of me.

Blessings

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Well, we are now into 2023 and we are discovering the greatness, goodness, and mercy of God in new ways. We had a great day yesterday at Everyone’s church and a great zoom meeting over the weekend with the House of Bread Network.

This is a year of fresh appointments in Christ. It is a season of knowing who God is and knowing who we are in Christ. I am anticipating that another measure of our friendship with God is going to be made known to us in this new year.

This is also a year of partnership with God. That partnership is a partnership of knowing Him and Him knowing us, and then revealing who He is and who we are together to our world. We are not responsible to change the world, but we are responsible to be the light of Christ to our world. We have been sent to be light and salt in our world.

I recently published a new book, Friendship With God – The Empowerment of Honor and Grace. When we know that God is our friend, we become empowered to honor Him and to honor one another. When we know God as our friend, we become empowered by His grace – His manifest presence in our lives that changes us in life-giving ways. Today I want to post a segment from my book that challenges us to embrace being who we are meant to be in Christ for the sake of our world.

Jesus came to reestablish God’s name in our lives, so we will no longer take it in vain. His kingdom is a testimony of His character, nature, way, power, and authority manifest in all that we are and do. When we speak badly of ourselves or others, we are speaking badly of Him. When I speak badly of myself, I speak badly of you; and when I speak badly of you, I speak badly of me. I don’t possess my kingdom for my purposes in life and neither do you. Our kingdoms are kingdoms of our Lord and Christ because of the kingdom of heaven that is within our hearts.

God doesn’t want to tell us what to do or how to act. He doesn’t want to train us like parrots to simply say what He wants us to say or do what He tells us to do. He wants us to be like Him because we are of Him. He is our Father, and we are His children! Intimate friendship with God is at the core of our very being as members of His family. God’s name is our family name! He wants us to know that we are His praise! We are the excellence of His name in all that we are and do.  

Praising God is not using the words, as we often say, “Praise God”. True praise is becoming the excellence of who we are meant to be for His glory. We are not just the worship of God; we are His purpose in the earth. We are His word. We are His name. We are His inheritance. We must not take it in vain. We must not forget who we are.

We must never do something that would be out of character for God and then blame Him. He is a covenant keeper, so we can’t break covenant and then tell people He told us to do it. We can’t do something that is not true to His character or exhibit something in our attitude or actions that is contrary to the way He is, and then blame the voice that motivates us as something inspired by God.

When believers do something that is not true to God’s character, they will often hear a voice and be convinced that it was God, but expressions of God are true to the character of who God is. We cannot ask illegitimate questions and expect to get legitimate answers. If we ask God a question that is not true to the character of who He is, we will hear an illegitimate answer. Illegitimate questions sound like: “God, do you want me to be unfaithful? God, do you want me to let a hater of the brothers into my house? God, do you want me to break covenant with my wife?”

Sometimes the questions are cloaked in a more deceptive way, but these kinds of questions are not questions that can be asked. They are not questions to ask, because these are not questions that God will answer. When we ask these kinds of questions, we will hear a voice, we will believe that we are justified, we will believe we are right and they are wrong, and we will believe that we deserve a break from our commitments and connections. The thought process for the answers we position ourselves to hear sounds like: “They’re not meeting my needs anyway”. What is God doing? These kinds of questions present the truth that we are willing to take God’s name in vain.

Knowing God as our friend, will inspire us to want to be like Him in our world. My two, soon to be three, year old granddaughter was at my house the other day. I said out loud as she was joyfully being herself in the living room, “What was the world without you in it?” She immediately responded with, “What was the world without me in it?” I want to propose to all of us today to embrace this attitude and then to embrace God as your friend and be empowered to shine to your world in the character, nature, way, power, and authority of who He is.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

What a wonderful start to our new year! Last week my children and grandchildren from California were home. The whole family was together, and we did another round of Christmas to celebrate. It was wonderful to be together as a family and to enjoy the sounds of laughter and life that testify of our love for one another.

2023 is a year of fresh appointments from God. It is a year of ‘new strength’. It will be a year of hurdles. What is a hurdle? A hurdle is an obstacle that you are expected to overcome. It is not a place that you cannot get over. It is a place that you are expected to get over, but you are going to have to find the strength to do so. That strength comes from within

Our dependency upon God is not going to be a dependency out of need. It is going to be a dependency inspired by love. An understanding of who God is will give a greater understanding to who we are. An understanding of who we and God are together will give us a greater testimony of purpose. I believe that we will see a measure of the zeal of the House of God restored. It is a season of fresh appointments. It is a season to know that God’s mercy is new every morning. It is a season to know that God’s grace is more than sufficient for every situation in our lives.

At the beginning of 2022, I heard God say that it would not be a year of ministries (ships), but it would be a year of the rudder. We would find ourselves submerged in God’s peace, submerged in God’s presence, and submerged in God’s purpose. It would be a year of becoming the substance of an expression of God. I believe that this is the place of our true identity in Christ. Finding our identity in Christ would be revealed through knowing God in a deeper way and even knowing that He knows us. God would shape us to be a rudder for His direction and His plan. This is a deeper submersion in God. It would not be about knowing where you were going or what you are doing. It would be about who you are and who He is in your life.

A single word of significance for the year would be ‘peace’. Peace was a big word for me and was my message to the church at the beginning of the year. God revealed that doing and being the will of God is connected to peace. The Old Covenant peace offering was a meat offering to be shared with the community. Jesus told His disciples that eating meat was to be and do the will of God.

John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.

To eat meat; to do the will of God, or to be the will of God, involves a connection to God’s community. The peace offering of the Old Covenant was a corporate offering celebrating peace with God that reveals His presence and blessing in the life of each member of His community. To eat meat (to do or be the will of God), requires a connection to the community of God. The community of God is seen in the testimony of Jerusalem. Jerusalem means, vision of peace.

Jerusalem is the heavenly community of God. It is the testimony of being joined to God in heaven, and it reveals heavenly things in our lives. It is a place of worship, a response to God’s love. It was in Jerusalem that King David put the tabernacle of God’s presence on the hill of Zion. It is there that David found wisdom from God to be King in Israel.

Zion is the place of God’s influence to the earth. It is a place where the manifest presence of God and His spoken word becomes the influence of our lives by which we can influence our world. I believe that Jerusalem speaks of a vision of peace, whereby we worship God. I believe that Zion is a testimony of God’s influence to our world through our lives because of God’s peace. We rule and reign with Christ in this world. It’s not just God doing something for us. It is us partnering with God and God partnering with us. We are kings and priests in this world to bring God’s heavenly influence to our world.

My year of knowing God‘s peace culminated with me knowing a deeper level of God as my friend. Because there is no separation between me and God and God and me, I can know that He is my friend, and I can be His friend. He’s not my friend because He needs something from me. He’s my friend because he wants to give me life, breath, and all things. I’m not His friend because He needs me to give Him anything. I am His friend because I give all that I am not because He needs me to do so, but because I love Him. I believe that friendship is the empowerment of honor to God and to one another, and that friendship is also the power of God’s grace working in our lives. The more we understand friendship with God, the more we become empowered to honor God and to honor others. The more we understand friendship with God, the more we become empowered by God‘s grace. God’s grace transforms us to become a testimony of Him in our world

Living our lives as a testimony of God’s peace requires us to live from the inside out. The things of the world are not what shape us. Christ in us is the hope of glory. Christ in us is the power of the kingdom of God working to make our personal kingdoms ones of our Lord and Christ.

God is inviting us to live in a place of partnership with Him and with one another in Christ. Why does God want us to know partnership? Partnership is not merely about purpose; it is about love. But love is always filled with purpose. That purpose is a furtherance of God’s love that changes the world in which we live.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Welcome to the year 2023. We had a great day yesterday at Alife. Pastors Jonathan and Dannie cast vision for the new year and we had a wonderful time having a meal together as a church family. There was a release of thoughts from God and some prophetic declarations. I gave the following word:

I just hear the Lord saying that, Many of you have been looking for Me to redeem your situation, to redeem your past, to redeem your circumstance, but I say, I have redeemed you. Because I’ve redeemed you, all things are new. This is not a season of do overs, this is not a season of fixing what has been broken, this is a season of rising to what you have never seen before. Because I’ve redeemed you, this is a season of fresh appointments. Fresh appointments: to understand in your heart and let what’s in your heart flood your mind. That you would know that you are about to find the treasures of My glory. Do not end the year with conclusions but begin your year with expectations.

Now in that, I want to share something I sense – this is almost a ‘thus says God’. Sometimes God has me say a story that connects to what He is saying prophetically. Last year I wrote a new book, Friendship With God – The Empowerment of Honor and Grace, and I anticipated that the print copy would be done before the end of the year. The e-book copy was up but the print copy was waiting upon the final draft, but the US mail didn’t get it to me on time. So, yesterday was the final day for it to be ready by the end of the year. It said it was out for delivery, but It’s stuck in the post office – so, it’s probably coming Tuesday.

As I was hearing God say what He just said about, He has redeemed us. I heard God say, You expected to close your year knowing that I am Your friend. But I am making so that you begin your new year knowing that I’m your friend.  

So, He purposely is saying that what looked like it was delayed was only delayed so that it could be said in a different way. I want you to begin this season, God says, as a new season in your life. I want you to begin this season as something you have never seen before because I have redeemed you. And because I have redeemed you, the words of your life are always future. The words of your life are always hope. And this is a season of you arising, rising above what has been because you’re not looking to fix what was. You’re not looking to do a do over concerning something that didn’t work. You’re stepping into something fresh because you know – “I am the redeemed of the Lord.’”

And because ‘I’m the redeemed of the Lord’, the price has been paid for the treasures of heaven to invade my earth. And the goodness of God will be seen. And the sound of God will be heard that God is great, God is good, and His mercy endures forever.

On Sunday, Jonathan and Danie shared that they had heard a phrase for Alife Church this year is to “Rise Above”. Pastors Jonathan and Danie cast vision for the year, and they challenged us to plot our own course to ‘Rise Above’ in the new season. As in past years, they challenged us to hear some personal words.

In the past couple of weeks, I have heard God say that 2023 is a year of ‘new strength’. There will be hurdles to overcome, but those hurdles are not meant to stop us. They are meant to draw our fullest potential from within us. Yesterday I heard the phrase “fresh appointment”. It is in the place of fresh appointments that we will find new strength, and we will face hurdles that will draw out a fuller testimony of who we are in Christ. We will find unexpected turns that will reveal the greatness, goodness, and mercy of God in a fresh new way.

The hurdles that we will face and the turns that we will have to make are not a negative thing, but a positive thing. I believe that God is going to do things that are beyond our expectations. New doors of effectiveness are going to open. Those doors of effectiveness are not doors of opportunity, but doors of destiny. They are doors that will reveal the goodness of God‘s love in our lives.

I believe that 2023 is going to reveal the sound of God in a greater way. That sound is a sound that declares that God is great, God is good, and his mercy endures forever!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful holiday and that you experienced God’s presence in some way.  For some, this is a joyful time of celebration. For those with loss, it can be a difficult time of reminders, but God’s presence brings life in every situation of our lives.

As the Bible describes the creation of man, there appears to be two significant dichotomies. One was a world of paradise and the other was a world of barrenness. 

Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.

Man wasn’t formed from the earth of paradise. He was formed from the dust of barrenness. God then took some time to plant a garden in the midst of the barrenness of the field.  It was there that He put the man he had formed from the dust. It was in a place called Eden. Eden means desirable place. The place of desire. It was eastward of the place of man’s formation.

When we wake up in the morning, we see the sun and the sun gives us a testimony of a new day. It is full of promise and expectation. I believe that the eastward place signifies a place of hope and a new day. On a clear morning, we can see the sun rising in the east. In reality the earth turns towards the sun, but the experience is a sunrise and a new day. The experience is more powerful than the scientific knowledge of the turning of the earth. The light of the sun is what touches us. When we turn in the direction of the light, the light shines upon us and our day begins.

I believe that every person is faced with two worlds as an option to live from. One is a world that appears to be absent of the presence of God and the other is a world that is filled with presence of God and a paradise experience with Him every day. One is a place where our desires are inspired by the barrenness of the world. The other is a place where our desires are stirred by knowing God as our friend in life.

Genesis 3:8-10 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”  So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Even at the failure of Adam and Eve, God showed up in His usual way to walk with them in the cool of the day. It appears that God’s greatest desire was to have a friendship connection of conversation and intimacy with man. This was paramount to their destiny as His likeness and image in the earth. I believe Adam and Eve’s testimony was seen as a walk of friendship and love with God.

God so loved the world that He didn’t condemn the world but sent His Son to give life to all men. The world already does a good job of condemning itself. Jesus came to free all humanity from condemnation and the power of condemnation. He didn’t come to condone living in darkness. He came to give men light. In the world there is darkness, and the people in the world are in great darkness, but God has delivered us from the power of darkness, and He conveys those who receive Him into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

It seems that God’s usual pattern in the creation of man was to walk with him and to talk with him at the close of every day. We turn to God in the morning, and He becomes our light, but He comes to us every evening to see what we have done with His light. When we know God as our friend, we can be the light of our friend to the world.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings;

Today I am posting this blog a day late. I normally post on Monday, but I have been hunting in the woods and I wasn’t able to post yesterday. Still looking for some hunting success but had a good day in God’s presence. It was very cold with a bit of snow, but I put several layers of clothes on to manage the day.

For the past several months I have been addressing the topic of friendship with God. I have finished a new book: Friendship With God – The Empowerment of Honor and Grace. It should be available on Amazon by the close of the year. Today I am posting a segment from the chapter of the Honor in Worship. God is our friend, and He wants us to know Him as our friend and what it means to be a friend to Him and to one another.

We are not limited by the inherited iniquities of our fathers, because God is able to come into our midst and He is a jealous God. He wants to give to us the life-giving, life-transforming substance of who He is. When we recognize that He is the giver we say to Him, “Here we are. We live for you! We worship You! We like being ourselves. We have a great life. Look at what You have done! You created us in your likeness and image. We sing songs to you! We live out loud as an expression of the life of You. We don’t worship to get anything from You! We worship You because we love You!”

When we love God like this in spirit and truth, God in His jealousy says, “Wow! I love being Myself with you. I like it when I can be Myself! I love being able to walk into the room and not be resisted in My giving. I love environments where the things coming off of Me are not being thrown back at Me. I love being able to walk into a room where My gifts are not being rejected. I love walking into the room where your cheeks are not turning to avoid My kisses. I love walking into My family where your arms are open to receive My hugs and when I hug you the aroma of My perfume sticks on you. The marks of My kisses remain upon you. The gifts that I give become packages to be opened in your midst and heavenly things become discovered in your earthly territory. That is what happens in this worship environment upon the earth. I am not lacking! I don’t lack anything. I am not formless, void, and dark. I have no emptiness in Me. You can’t give me anything that fills some place in My life. There is nothing missing in Me. You can’t give Me anything that will fill something missing in Me. There is nothing missing in Me! Would you get a revelation? There is nothing missing in you! I like you! I am your friend! Would you look to see what I see, and freely give of yourself from security, not from insecurity? Would you be my friends? Worship is about security. It is not about a need. It is a matter of abundance. You lack nothing!”

In worship our hearts become open to God. The fullness of our hearts and minds testify that we don’t lack approval. We don’t lack identity. Here we are! We have been carved in the likeness and image of God. “We worship You God! We give all we are to You! We feel good about ourselves, but we feel better about You! You make us feel so good! You move our hearts!”

Worship is not coming to God from a place of lack; it is coming to God from abundance so God can come to us in the abundance of who He is. What happens when a family becomes a family of abundance and begins to live in a value of who they are for the sake of who He is?  We are a family that should value who we are and realize we don’t come to God because we need anything from Him. We are not in this family because we need anything. We are in this family because we have been born into this community, and we have come to give of who we are in the testimony of who we all are for the glory of God! 

When this happens, God the Father says, “Wow! Yes! Let me walk among you. Let Me be the giver, the jealous One, the One who has treasures, rivers, and light streaming from Me. Let me walk in your midst and let me take what you think is good and make it amazing! Let Me take what you think is wonderful and make it phenomenal!”

I hope you have enjoyed this excerpt from my new book, Friendship With God. May you find your week filled with God’s presence and life. Blessings to you for this Christmas holiday and my you experience Christ in Christmas. Worship Him from His love for you!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

IN Process – Available on Amazon before the close of the year

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am home after a great time with family in California. We will be blessed to see our California family home with us all here in Bellingham for a few days at the start of the new year. It was good to be in my home church yesterday and I was blessed to minister on God as our friend.

God wants to partner with us in life. This is the testimony of fulfilling our purpose in Christ. God is our God, we are His people, and we live together in all things. God is our friend, we are becoming His friends, and we are to partner with Him in all things as His friends in all that we are and do.

A friend doesn’t need anything. A friend seeks to give life to those they are a friend to. This is the character, nature, and way of God. He gives life, breath, and all things. He doesn’t need anything from us but wants to partner with us to give us life. God desires to empower us to be friends to Him and to one another as He is our friend.

To see God as our friend and to be empowered to be His friend and a friend to others requires a healing in our identities. When we discover our true identity, we become givers of life to our world. This is a testimony to the likeness and image of God.

God is healing our identities. We are not merely people living in a world to fulfill the will of mankind. We are sons and daughters of God, and our destiny is to fulfill the will of God in all things. We are loved by God, sought by God, and joined to God in His purpose in our world.

I believe that the present anointing of God is seen in the testimony of the cassia oil. It is a type of cinnamon oil, testifying of a deeper level of intimacy with God in Christ. This anointing oil is restoring our breath, our ability to digest things that give us life, our ability to give life to others, and our ability to be free from things in our past. This present anointing oil empowers us to be strengthened in our joints, our relationships with others in the community of Christ. It is a healing oil to things that have affected our relationships in the past. It is a healing oil to things that have given irritations, pain, and relational difficulties in the past. It is a healing oil to give us peace and relieve us of stress and anxiety.

The enemy has fashioned weapons against us in an attempt to resist God’s plans for humanity, but God is our friend, and He cares for us, He is there for us, and He will always fight for us. He doesn’t merely rescue us from the assaults of our enemies. He empowers us to partner with Him and to know His partnership with us in the midst of every battle. The resistance of our enemy only challenges us to be empowered to overcome all things by the power of Christ in us.

God chooses to know our good. He promises to never leave us. He is strong on our behalf, and He empowers each of us to be strong in Him when we call upon His name. He empowers us to be strong in His Spirit and strong in His Word and we know the victory of overcoming all things by the power of His grace.

God doesn’t just want to deliver us from our enemies. He wants us to become strong in the midst of them. He wants us to become givers of life in our world for the sake of bringing life to our world. God has partnered with us, and we must partner with Him.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728