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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I have arrived in Bulgaria after a great weekend in Ede, Netherlands. Thank you to House Of Praise Ede for receiving me and for being hungry for God’s presence and word. God is moving in the nations!

God doesn’t just make Himself known to us to bless us. He makes Himself known to us so we will be a blessing to our world. Knowing Him empowers us to know who we are. God is a giver of life and whenever He speaks, life happens! False things get removed because true things are revealed. God never reveals who He is merely for information. He reveals who He is to transform our lives and to transform our world.

Acts 2:1 Now when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Jesus was the word made flesh and He completed His course of life as a man to receive His inheritance as the ‘Son of Man’, not as the ‘Son of God’. The inheritance of the kingdom of God had been given to Him as the ‘Son of Man’, not the ‘Son of God’. He was the resurrected Last Adam. Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended to the presence of His Father in heaven in a flesh and bone body. That body was the flesh and bone body of the ‘Son of Man’. The cry of the souls and flesh of men could now be answered with the regained access to their Father in heaven. He was the door to the presence of God for all of mankind. He was the firstborn among many who would open the door of the kingdom of God unto men.

Acts 2:12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” 13 Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”

Gladness, joy, and strength had come to the nations. The guarantee of the inheritance had been poured out, and continues to be poured out, upon all flesh. God has poured His Spirit upon all flesh so that we can all now stand as ‘doorkeepers’ in the courts of our God welcoming all to come and tabernacle with Him as their Father. Jesus is the ‘Desire of the nations’. He is the answer to the cry of the souls and the flesh of all men.

Acts 2:14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 “For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 “But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. 18 and on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and notable day of the Lord. 21 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ 

The salvation of mankind is that all would become a dwelling place of the Most High. Only God can fulfill the cry of the hearts of men. God has put it within the hearts of all of humanity to seek out the place of their dwelling in Him and His dwelling in them. His presence brings life to our world. He brings order, fullness, and light. God has released the power of His prophetic presence upon the flesh of men in order to call all men to come and tabernacle with Him. The days of natural limitations are being replaced by the eternal day of life in Christ. Old ways are ending so that eternal realities can be experienced in Christ.

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. 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

Let us fulfill our destiny in Him as ‘doorkeepers’ in His awesome house of life! The key to the cry for life is found in a dwelling place with Him. He is our abiding place. How wonderful is His presence! How wonderful is the Body of Christ. Let us be fruitful and multiply for His glory! He is our God! He is our Father! He is the nesting place of LIFE and we are the nesting place of His presence!

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,

I hope everyone is well. We had another great week and weekend here in Bellingham. I was blessed to speak at Alife yesterday. God’s presence in worship, the hunger of the people, and the feeling of family were all hallmarks in yesterday’s community connection. I am preparing now to go to the Netherlands and Bulgaria for an appointment with what God is going to do there.

God’s plan has always been that He would manifest His presence among men. He desires to tabernacle with all men. Let’s look at a Scripture in the book of Numbers that will help explain God’s heart in wanting to see His presence made known among all men.

Numbers 11:16 So the LORD said to Moses: “Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you. 17 Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone.”

Here we see that Moses was to appoint seventy men among the people to stand before them. These men were elders of the people and officers over them. They were ‘doorkeepers’ among the people. I believe the number 70 is significant of all of the tribes and tongues upon the earth. In Genesis chapter ten we find an account of the descendants of the sons of Noah. If you do a study of this chapter, you will find that the descendants of the sons of Noah were represented in seventy different peoples. The sons of Japheth were fourteen, the sons of Ham were thirty, and the sons of Shem were twenty-six, for a total of seventy. I believe these seventy elders represented God’s intention for all of the tongues, peoples, tribes, and nations of the earth.

There is significance in the prophetic content of this number 70. Throughout Scripture this number 70 carries with it the passion of God the Father’s heart for the scattered sons of Noah. It represents the Father’s heart for all people. We find that all through the record of God’s relationship with His covenant people, the number 70 comes up again and again. When we see this number 70, it is God’s heart for the sons of Noah. It is God’s heart for the tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations of the earth. By gathering the seventy around the tabernacle, God was declaring the need for all men to tabernacle in His presence. God was about to demonstrate the means by which He would make Himself known to all of mankind.

Numbers 11:25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied, although they never did so again. 26 But two men had remained in the camp: the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who had not gone out to the tabernacle; yet they prophesied in the camp.

What did these men prophesy? Perhaps they prophesied that one day God would pour His Spirit upon all flesh and that He would make a way whereby He could tabernacle with all men. They may have said that the cry of all flesh would be fulfilled when men would come to know God intimately and He Himself would make His home among men. They may have prophesied of God’s desire to meet with all men upon His Mountain, Zion. We don’t know what these men prophesied, but we do know that two of these men were in the camp when they prophesied.

These were Eldad and Medad. The name “Eldad” means, “God has loved”; and “Medad” means, “The affection of God”. These men were not following the rule and order of an Old Covenant. They were prophesying in the camp and proving that God’s love and affection would one day be made known to all men. Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, became very concerned that they were prophesying in the camp. He wanted Moses to put a stop to their actions.

Numbers 11:27 And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, “Moses my lord, forbid them!”

The response that Moses made has of a great prophetic significance. He spoke of God’s heart concerning His desire to make Himself known among all men.

Numbers 11:29 Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!” 30 And Moses returned to the camp, both he and the elders of Israel.

Moses was prophesying of the day when God would pour His Spirit out upon all flesh. This act would be the guarantee of the inheritance of God to all men. He would give men the power to tabernacle with Him. In the New Testament account of the fulfillment of Pentecost, we find this prophetic statement of Moses made complete.

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 in Bellingham. I am looking forward to some days at home after being on the road for several weekends. I was blessed this past weekend to have my granddaughter spend the night and several people in my house for our ‘church at home’ Sunday with Alife. It is still winter here and it is much colder than it was in Africa. My body is adjusting to wherever I am.

For the past weeks I have been addressing the content of Psalms Chapter 84. This Psalm describes the psalmist’s desire to be a place where God lives and to be someone who invites others to know the life and freedom that comes from being a place of God’s habitation. The psalmist was proclaiming the truth that God intends to make known to all mankind. God has always desired to dwell in and among His children.

The basic problem of the Old Covenant was that man could not relate to God on a personal basis. The power of God’s prophetic nature was not fully attainable by God’s people because they were limited in their ability to hear God for themselves. They were bound to the limitations of their flesh. The true longing of their souls and the true cry of their flesh could not be satisfied within the limitations of an Old Covenant relationship. They lacked the power of God within them that would allow them to do all that the prophet spoke. They could attain to a measure of prosperity, but they could never be established. This is true for us today if we choose to pursue a path of a knowledge from God but fail to prioritize on a being intimate with God. Jesus made a way for us to be a living temple wherein abides the Spirit of God. This is a greater temple than any created structure of form of worship created and facilitated by man. God is the builder of our lives by changing our hearts and minds by His manifest presence within our hearts.

God wants to establish us as His sons and daughters in the earth and into all of eternity. He doesn’t just want to bless us in this life. He wants us to have and to know eternal life. That eternal life is to know God the Father and Jesus the Son in an intimate and personal way by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 17:3). We can find a testimony of this in the story of Jehoshaphat when he chose to adhere to God’s presence in the face of his enemies.

2 Chronicles 20:20 And they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”

It has never been God’s intent to merely prosper His people. He has always desired to ‘establish’ them. We find this to be true throughout Scripture. A good example is found in Isaiah 61:1-3:

Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, 3 to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

The goal of these three verses of Scripture is not just that we might prosper. God has much more in mind for us. God’s goal is not just to give us riches for our poverty, healing for our brokenness, or freedom from our captivity. His goal is that we might be ‘established’. There is only one reason that God brings freedom and prosperity into our lives. That is so that we might become the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. God intends that there be a people with a personal relationship with Him. He desires to have a people who will ‘believe Him’ that they might be ‘established’.

We must believe God in order to be ‘established’. To believe God means that we must first have a living relationship whereby we can hear Him and relate to Him. We must live in His presence. We have been called to be the place of His dwelling. It is in that place that we can be ‘established’. This was not possible in the Old Covenant, but for just a few. In the New Covenant, Jesus has made a way for this to be the real world for us all.

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 in Deming, New Mexico with CitiLife church. We had a great weekend, and I am expecting our gathering tonight to be filled with God’s presence, purpose, and will. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we have the mind of Christ within us. We were inspired by the Holy Spirit yesterday and I know that Jesus will be seen again today in our lives and in our gathering together.

Last week I addressed some thoughts concerning being a doorkeeper at the entrance of God’s house. People in the world are bound to a history and inheritance of aimless wandering but God has invited everyone into a life of knowing Him and an inheritance of eternal life and peace. God wants everyone to know Him in an intimate and powerful way. To be a doorkeeper in the house of God is to stand at a place where you invite others to come and experience the goodness of dwelling in the presence of God as you do.

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.

There is another important aspect to remember when considering the fact that this Scripture is relating the believer to a doorkeeper. You can only be a doorkeeper if you have been fully accepted into the house. Having been in, you want to call others in as well. Being a “doorkeeper” implies the responsibility of ‘keeping’ the door. It is a place of ‘responsibility’. You have ceased your endless journey of aimless conduct and you want to invite others to do the same. You have been ‘entrusted’ to bear the responsibility of inviting others into God’s place of dwelling. It is only those who have tasted the abundance of God’s life that God would trust to be keepers of the entrance to that life. A doorkeeper is someone who lives his or her life for the purpose of others. Having tasted the good life of God, they now live to invite others to that life. I believe that the truth of the context of this verse in Psalms can be found where Paul, an apostle, was faced with the dilemma of not knowing whether to go to be with the Lord, or to stay and be a doorkeeper for the sake of the saints.

Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 24 Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.

The context of the goodness of this verse in Psalms is verified in the following verses of Psalms 84. Having no good thing withheld is hardly a testimony of poverty or of ‘almost’ making it into the presence of the Lord’s dwelling. Those who trust in Him find the fullness of God’s blessing!

Psalms 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. 12 O LORD of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!

When the psalmist says that the Lord God is a sun and shield, he is implying that God is life (sun) and protection (shield) to all who walk in a relationship with Him. This is hardly a testimony of slavery, servant hood, labor, or anything that is short of entering into the full blessing of God in His presence. The word for “blessed” in verse 12 is the Hebrew word “esher”. It means “happiness; only in masc. plur. constr. as interjec., how happy!” This is hardly the scenario of one looking at the presence of God from merely the doorway. It is rather the picture of one who is boldly inviting others to come and partake of the abundant life that they have come to know in His place of dwelling.

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 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