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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Knowing God as our friend is not seeing Him as our friend because He always does what we want Him to do. It is knowing that all that He does is because He loves us, and He has our best interest in mind. Sometimes He will do His part so we can do our part. He loves to partner with us in every aspect of our lives. He doesn’t mind when we fail a bit on our part because His willingness to partner with us is not for a purpose of perfection. It is for a purpose of trust, love, and all the aspects found in friendship. God is our friend, and a friend is not defined by their willingness to do things for us. A friend is defined by their willingness to partner with us.

Church tradition has defined God as the Sovereign One, but I believe He is more accurately defined by being our Father and friend. In my book, The Now Covenant, I define who God is. I feel to blog a portion of my book today to help us understand God’s desire to partner with us as a friend and not merely act as the Sovereign One in our lives.

The Now Covenant, Chapter 9, Who Is God? – Page 96-98:

The Greeks had many gods and therefore the Christian God could only be incorporated into their thinking if He out trumped all of the other gods. By this criterion, to be God He must be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

Is God omnipotent? I believe that He can be, but He chooses not to be as often as He can. He said that the traditions of men make His word of no effect (Mk. 7:11-13). Jesus (God in flesh) couldn’t do many miracles in His hometown because of their unbelief (Mt. 13:58). If we draw near to God, He is quick to draw near to us, but He has given us a free will that we might choose Him or reject Him (Jam. 4:8). God doesn’t want puppets or slaves; He desires children with a free will that is impassioned to choose Him in all things. The Father didn’t go chasing the prodigal son but was quick to run to him when he saw him returning (Lk. 15:20). I believe that God can be all-powerful, but He has chosen not to be for the sake of being a loving Father.

Is God omniscient? I believe that He can be, but He has chosen not to be. He says that our sins and our lawless deeds He remembers no more forever (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:12, 10:17). He has chosen not to know them. The first man of faith mentioned in the Bible is a man named Abel. Abel gave God the first and the best, but God never commanded him to do so. God ‘respected’ Abel’s offering. The Hebrew word for ‘respected’ is the Hebrew word hDoDv sûaœ{aœh (HSRN 8159); it means to look with favor, have regard for, pay attention to. It comes from the Hebrew word hDaDv sûaœ}aœh (HSRN 7583) meaning to watch closely, gaze at, to inspect carefully and from the Hebrew word oAtDv sûaœt◊a{ (HSRN 9283) meaning to be dismayed, nonplussed, gob-smacked. God was surprised with Abel’s offering (Gen. 4:4). When Joshua needed more time in the battlefield, he requested that God give it to him and God ‘heeded the voice of a man’ (Josh. 10:14). David’s tent was David’s idea and God liked it. The tabernacle of Moses was God’s command, but David’s idea was God’s true heart. When it says of God that He knows all of the hairs on our heads, it is a term of endearment and care, not of His sovereignty. It is not a phrase concerning knowledge, but a phrase expressing care. Paul told those on the boat that was about to sink to listen to him and trust him and not ‘a hair on their heads’ would be lost (Acts 27:34). I wonder if anyone lost a literal hair in the shipwreck?

God changes His mind, but He never changes His character. If we can appeal to His character of mercy, He will quickly change His mind concerning His actions. Religious people often refuse to change their minds concerning what they say or believe, and they are willing to compromise in their character to prove it. If God works things out for good in our lives, I think it means He has to ‘work some things out’. God is not limited to time or the dimensions of time, as we know it. He is quantum in His abilities. He told Nicodemus that He came from heaven, was going to heaven, and was in heaven right now (Jn. 3:13). Is it God’s providential will for a child to be born when a woman is raped by some wicked, self-seeking man? Is it the will of an uncaring sovereign God or is God a loving Father who goes to the place of human conception and chooses to know them in that place before they were formed in their mother’s womb and into the future. Is it a sovereign God who determines horrific acts of pain, or a loving Father who turns what was not the will of God to a testimony of His amazing grace?

Is God omnipresent? Many quote the psalmist when he said he could not go anywhere where God would not be found.

Psalms 139:7-8 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell (sheol), behold, You are there.

In these verses the psalmist says He would find God in heaven and he would find God in hell. Hell in this verse is Sheol, the realm of the dead. Does God live in the realm of the dead? If God lived there, could it be called the realm of the dead? Does God live everywhere or is He an intimate Father who promises never to leave the psalmist? The psalmist knows that wherever he goes God will be, because God never leaves the psalmist. This is why the grave cannot hold the psalmist.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I don’t believe that it is sovereignty that makes God who He is. There is something that is more powerful than His ability to be sovereign. It is His identity as Father. He gives life, breath, and all things to all people. This is an action of intimacy and endearment, not mere strength. I don’t believe that God wants to be God. He is God, but He wants us to know Him as Father. It is through a Father/son, Father/daughter relationship that we can receive His divine guidance for life. It is both specific and providential, but it is intimate and real. He loves His children and delights in their course of life in this earth. Our perception of God influences our ability to hear Him. Sons and daughters of God will hear Him more readily and clearly than mere subjects and slaves.

God as our Father is God as our Friend. He wants to partner with us in our world to reveal who we are together. We are the family of God and God as our friend wants us to partner with Him in our friendship to Him and to our world.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

– The Now Covenant – by Ted J. Hanson on many Amazon networks – Print / Ebook / Audio

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 returning from several weeks overseas. It is good to be home with family. We had a great Thanksgiving holiday, and I am catching up with my grandchildren. I will be heading to California tomorrow for some time with family there. I am looking forward to a month of family and holiday gatherings.

We are in the process of being manifest as the people of God in a fuller measure. It is the challenges of life that manifest the supernatural reality of being sons and daughters of God. The true test of grace is found in the process of tribulation, cheerful endurance, character change, and hope. That hope is the testimony of the work of grace proven in our lives. That grace is the manifest presence of God in or lives transforming us to become a testimony of sons and daughters of God who know that God is their friend.

When we see Jesus in our lives, the revelation we receive becomes the substance we become by the work of God’s amazing grace. I wrote in 2021 that a new gift of trust is being given to us that is unlike anything we have known before and that we would be tested in our trust. I believe that the strength of our trust can only be found in our ability to know God’s love for us. God is our friend, and His grace is always working in our lives to reveal Him in our lives. To know the trust that God desires for us to have, is to know Christ as the Rock of hope in our lives. He is the Rock that is solid and true. I am growing to know that He is the Rock of a friend, and He wants us to manifest a testimony of His friendship to our world. He wants our character to match the character of His truth as a Rock of our salvation.

What is it that makes Jesus the Rock? Is it His endurance or is it His unchanging Love. God is our friend and His love for us cannot be shaken. His steadfast love is seen through His willingness to give us life, His ability to empower us to become an expression of His love, and His partnership with us in all things to reveal His love through us to our world.

Luke 6:47-49 “Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

Foundations guarantee a future. When Christ is the foundation of our lives, the trials in our lives cannot prevail over the faithfulness of God in the foundation of our lives. The man who dug down to the rock, was the one who responded to the words of God in his life. In this story of two houses, both houses were built in the same geographical location. Both may have been the same design of house and even the same size of house. Perhaps they both were drawn with the same architectural floor plan. Both houses are likened unto people who God was speaking to and who were hearing what He had to say. The difference is that one responded by acting upon the words he heard while the other did not. Jesus says that the one who heard and responded to what he heard was like one who digs down to the rock and establishes a foundation for his house. The one who merely heard is like someone who built his house without any foundation at all.

If we just hear God’s words of love for us without responding with love for Him, we will fall short in becoming who we are meant to be. Our love for Him is seen in our responding relationship with Him. The response of acting upon what God is saying is a testimony to the process of setting a foundation for the house. Both houses in this story were faced with the violent storms of life, but only the house with the foundation set upon the rock was able to stand.

Deuteronomy 32:1-4 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass. For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.

In knowing Christ in us, we will become like Him in the place of our standing. As a Rock, He is One to be trusted and He will prove to be trustworthy in our lives. This is the testimony of God as our friend. The more we know that God is our friend, the more eager and willing we will be to respond to all that He says. We will become like Him in our character, nature, way, power and authority and we will stand as a place where God shines 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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I will finish my time in Portugal. I have a gathering tonight with many pastors from various congregations here. I believe that God is going to do good things. It has been a great journey in the Netherlands, Ireland, the Netherlands, and here in Portugal. God is releasing His life in the nations, and it is an honor and a privilege to participate in what He is doing.

God sees who we are, and He invites us to see who He is. When God sees us, He doesn’t see us according to the spots, blemishes, or wrinkles that have been placed upon us as false identities. He sees us as He has known us to be from a view of heaven. God sees the end from the beginning and thus He requires the beginning things in our lives to embrace the perfect testimony of His end work in our lives. His end work is a testimony of His unshakeable love. That testimony also includes us becoming a dwelling place of God’s unshakeable presence. Our true identity reveals the greatness, goodness, and mercy of God to our world.

When we see God, we become like Him in some way. Who He is changes who we are when we see Him for who He His. His unshakeable character makes us unshakeable in our character as His sons and daughters. We don’t see Him in His full measure, but we see Him in measures that lead to a greater glory in our lives. From glory to glory He changes us, but that glory is a testimony of turning to Him and seeing Him in our lives. He is our friend, and His presence always gives us more life.

Seeing God for who He is empowers us to believe in who He is. When we believe in Him, we also believe what He says. When we believe what He says, we respond to what He says. Responding to Him is not merely about responding to words of information. Responding to what He says empowers us to join to Him to be transformed in our hearts and minds and become expressions of who He is.

Luke 6:47-49 “Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

A house is only as secure in its standing as it is in its connection to a foundation. Christ is the foundation of our lives, and He is the life-giving Rock that empowers us to become a house that reveals the substance of who Christ is to the world around us. To be a house of God’s presence, we must embrace an authentic connection in hearing and responding to all that God says to us.

Every house that is built faces the elements of testing and the opposition of many seasons of life. In Christ the foundation of our lives is established in the Rock of Christ. The objective is to be connected to the Rock, not to see how great our house can become, but our connection to Christ causes our house to reveal a testimony of who Christ is to our world. Our connection to the Rock is a connection to LIFE. We are a house of God’s presence in all seasons of our lives. We are called to be a spiritual house. We are to be a holy temple of the Lord, a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. This is not about being strong, it is being strong because of an intimate connection with God as our friend.

Ephesians 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

1 Peter 2:4-5 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

At the beginning of 2021, I wrote that God is revealing Himself as the unshakeable One in our lives. He wants us to be unshakeable in Him because His love for us empowers us to be unshaken in a shaking world. This is not just for us but for our ability to be a testimony of hope to those in 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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I had a great week and weekend with a trip to see long standing friends in Northern Ireland and then a great time with the family church of the De Fakkel in Utrecht, Netherlands. God showed up in wonderful ways. We witnessed God transitioning the church to a new season with a further step into destiny. The Holy Spirit manifested with the cassia oil and some people were freed from some things in their lives. God is good!

I have been addressing the topic of friendship in these past months as God has challenged me to know that the greatest thing that I am learning is that He is my friend. While reviewing some prophecies of the past, my attention was brought to the following word given by me in 2009. I was surprised to see this and did not even recall giving it until seeing it now. It is very relevant to what God has been saying to me in these past months.

Ted J. Hanson – 2009

The Lord says, “In this hour, for My people, for My family, for My body, there’s going to come a new understanding of favor – it’s My friendship.”

The Lord says, “It’s not in the testing that favor is discovered, it’s discovering the favor that enables you to endure all tests. It’s not in the absence of the tests that favor is proven, but the favor is there, and the favor prevails all tests. I’m bringing My people to an hour where they will understand – they will receive that understanding that ‘I am your friend’. From that place I am empowering My people in friendship. I am empowering them not only to be My friend, but to be a friend to the thing that cries out from the earth for life. It’s in that favor – not as some treasure earned, not as in some reward given, not just as a prize that’s attained – it’s in the deepest intimacy and the strongest expression of love and favor to understand that I have chosen to declare that you’re My friends – and that I am your friend,” says God.

There have been many tests in past years for me, my local church community, other church communities that I know, and the nations of the world. I have even wrestled with knowing that God’s favor is on my life and on the lives of others that I know. In the past couple of years, and especially the past few months, I have increasingly become secure in knowing that God’s favor is upon us as His children. God is revealing a deeper intimacy with us in the Spirit. He is our friend! Knowing that God is our friend will make us unshakeable in every shaking circumstance.

At the beginning of this year God told me that 2022 would be a year of knowing God’s peace. Peace is a celebration of a connection to God in all things and all times. It is shared with our relational connections in life because it is a testimony of our connection with God. It is a celebration of being loved by God and sharing the fruit of that love with others. It is evidenced with heavenly blessings in our earthly circumstance.

I am growing to know that peace is given to us because God is our friend and when we receive a revelation of that divine connection, we celebrate being friends with God. In this, we invite others to know the friendship of God in their lives. We even see God in others as a testimony of His friendship to us. We also become a testimony of God as a friend to others in our world.

A friend doesn’t need anything from another, but rather lives to give life to another, expand life through another, and partner with others for sake of fulfilling the purpose of giving life to the world. A friend is a giver and not a taker. A friend finds their identity in giving life to others from substance of who they are. God is our friend, and He wants us to live as His friends and as friends to one another. This is the testimony of being the family of God – the people of God in 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,

I have just finished a weekend in the Netherlands with HOPE church in Ede and the Meeting Place church in Holten. We had great meetings with a wonderful presence of God and the members of His family. We began with a Friday night meeting in Ede, did leadership teaching on Saturday in Ede, and ended with a time of ministry in Holten on Sunday. It was a blessed weekend.

We are in a season of becoming authentic in our identity in Christ. God wants us to be the people of God who find our identity in Him so we can be expressions of who He is to our world. I believe that people in the world are crying out to find their identity. Our true identity is found in the likeness and image of God our Father. God is a giver of life, and our true identity will give life to others in our world.

We have liberty in Christ, and we are no longer bound to live under the law. We are free to be sons and daughters of God with the desires of God written in our hearts and in our minds. True liberty will bring life to others. Self-seeking motives and self-gratifying agendas will only give us false identities. Finding the desires of our hearts is finding the God-given desires that come by a supernatural connection to God in our hearts. True liberty is not simply living for our own desires, it is living with the desires of God reining in our hearts.

1 Corinthians 10:23-24 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.

Paul wrote in these verses that the testimony of true liberty is to live for the well-being of another. This is the nature of God our Father. This is the nature of God as our friend. There is freedom in knowing that the boundaries of our lives are defined by our willingness to live for the betterment of someone else. Jesus demonstrated such a nature when He gave His life for us that we might find life in Him.

Philippians 2:3-8 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

When we find our identity in Christ, we no longer seek to do things so we will know who we are. We do things because we know who we are. We are secure in our identity, and we know that we were born to give life to our world. We are sons and daughters of God born to be loved by God and to in turn love others, even as He loves us. We can humble ourselves even as Jesus did and live to give life to others. In this, we are willing to lose our lives that others might find their life in God. Our need to get something from others diminishes when we find our needs met in Christ. It is then that we can be givers of life to others.

When we know who we are, we can give identity to our surroundings. We can give identity to our world. This was the case with Adam in his creation. We gave identity to the animals in his world. Whatever he called them is what God said they were to be. God didn’t tell Adam what to call them. God simply gave identity to Adam so Adam could define his world.

So many people in the world find their identity in their world. They don’t define their surroundings, they let their external environment define the internal definitions of their hearts and minds. God wants us to know His presence and love within our hearts and minds so we will manifest as sons and daughters of God in our world. In this, we will bring life to our world, and we will define our external environments by the internal environment of God’s love in our hearts.

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 back in Bellingham. I had a great weekend, and I was blessed to share at Everyone’s Church in Mt. Vernon, Washington. We felt God’s presence and a testimony of family. I am home for a few more days and then back across the big Atlantic pond.

God is continuing to speak to me regarding knowing Him as my friend and me being a friend to others as to revealing who God is. I believe we are each to be a piece of God as a friend to others. A friend doesn’t need anything but is a giver of life to someone else. This is what makes them their friend. This is the likeness and the image of God our Father.

If our friendship with someone is based upon what they give to us, we really don’t understand friendship. That kind of friendship is based upon our own need, not upon our ability to give life to them. Our friendship is tested when they don’t meet our need in some way. This is not true to the character of God.

At the beginning of the year God told me to let go of my need to influence anyone. I felt empowered by the grace of God to do so, and I immediately felt a release in my heart and a sense of new freedom. A couple of weeks later, God told me that I didn’t need to influence anyone, but they needed me to. There was a difference in this statement than me needing to influence them. The purpose of my influence was not to give me anything. It had nothing to do with giving me identity. It had everything to do with giving life to someone else. I felt empowered by God’s grace, and I experienced a release in my heart to see it as so.

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

When God looked at the earth it was formless, void, and in darkness. From His perspective as a life-giver, He spoke from the place of seeing a finished work of life. His words released the life to bring order, fullness, and light to our world. God didn’t do this because He needed anything. He is a giver of life, breath, and all things (Acts 17:24, 25). A situation that needed life, breath, and all things was the perfect environment to reveal who God truly is.

Mankind, male and female, was created from the substance of who God is when God spoke to Himself and mankind was birthed from the heart of God to be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and bring the dominion of life into the world. To be fruitful is to be a blessing of life to the world. To multiply is to give life for someone beyond yourself. To fill is to see that life increase in others, even beyond your life, as it has also increased in you. To subdue is to destroy death with life. To have dominion is to crumble every lie of death by the truth of life. This is the nature of God. God is a life giver and mankind, male and female together, are to be givers of life to their world. This is the substance of friendship. It is not to need life, but to give life to someone else. A friend knows who they are so they can be a friend to others.

In Genesis chapter 4, we have a story of Cain killing Abel. Cain was a firstborn, but he saw himself as a one and only. Because of this, he was jealous of God giving honor to his brother Abel in His respect for Abel’s offering. Cain set it in his heart to kill his brother. You see, Cain didn’t see himself as a firstborn son, he saw himself as a one and only; therefore, he lived for himself. To be a firstborn he would have had to see Abel as a second born. He would have needed to see himself as a firstborn for the sake of Abel and all that would follow in the family. Cain should have seen himself as a friend to his brother Abel, but instead he saw his brother as his enemy.

Genesis 4:8-9 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

God is our friend. He gives life, breath, and all things to us and doesn’t seek to get anything from us. We were created in His likeness and image and Cain should have recognized this. When God asked Cain where his brother Abel was, He was speaking to Cain’s true identity. He was reminding Cain that he was a firstborn and that he was born to be a friend to his younger brother. He was born to be a friend for the sake of His brother, not an enemy. To be who he was meant to be would mean to be a giver of life to his brother. This would be the likeness and image of God.

Each of us are our brother’s keeper. Our true identity will give life to another. This is the likeness and the image of our Father. God is our friend, and we were born to be friends to one another.

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 finishing ministry in Portugal. We had another great week and weekend in Lisbon with numerous venues of ministry. The people were hungry and receptive, and God was good to give life to us all. I am blessed to see God’s grace revealing the power of His love working in and through His children.

In third world cultures, people are often desperate for physical needs. That desperation inspires them to seek God as a savior and as a deliverer. In western world cultures, people are not as much desperate for need. They are often busy and desperate for comforts and the fulfillment of their own personal desires. Their search doesn’t inspire them to seek God as a savior or as a deliver. They seek God as their provider and promiser of good things. In eastern world cultures, people are desperate for knowledge and power. That desperation inspires them to seek God as wisdom and knowledge. They consider sources of wisdom and knowledge as life to their souls.

In the third world cultures, Jesus can be found as their Savior and Deliverer, but people in cultures of poverty sometimes find other spirits or other sources as their salvation or deliverance. Whatever promises to meet their physical needs becomes a stronghold or a god in their life. In western world societies, people don’t often see God as their provider, they see things as the fulfillment of their comforts and desires. These can be physical things created by men or they can even be physical things created by God. These things can even be physical experiences of pleasure and adventure in life. People in western world cultures often see their god as whatever offers them the fulfillments of their personal desires and plans. Jesus can be found as their Provider, but they seldom seek Him first. In Eastern world cultures people often see what offers their souls wisdom and knowledge as a god in their lives. It can even take on the form of law by which one is governed in their soul. Jesus can be found as their true Wisdom and Knowledge, but they often settle for lesser powers of truth to enlighten their souls.

I believe that God desires to save us amid our troubles and pain. I believe that God desires to deliver us from our oppression and bondage. I believe that God wants to give us blessings and comfort in life. I also believe that He wants to give us desires, but those desires are not merely desires of our own flesh. They are desires that fulfill our destiny in Christ. I believe that God desires to give us wisdom and knowledge, but that wisdom and knowledge doesn’t exalt the inner power of our minds. God’s power gives us the mind of Christ from within. He empowers a change in our character, nature, way, power, and authority as life-givers to our world. God can be all that is necessary for these things, but He is even more. He is our Father, and He is our friend.

Do we seek God to fulfill our needs, or do we seek God to know Him? Do we seek Him to save us amid our troubles, or do we seek Him on good and bad days simply to be with Him and He with us? Do we seek God to fulfill our desire for adventure, or are will willing to embrace whatever dream or adventure is in His heart for our lives? Do we seek God to know what to do or to be wise, or do we simply seek the One who is knowing and wise in all things so that we can become what He desires?

The center of our world must be Christ, it cannot be us. Humanity is not the source of life to the world. Our Devine Father is the source of life in our world and in all the world. What we value in life becomes the god of our life. I often say, “If hearing God is knowing what to do, then knowing what to do is our god.” What about when we make “beings saved” our god? Or “being delivered” our god? What about “receiving comfort”, “fulfilling our desires”, “having knowledge”, or “having wisdom”? God is our friend, and He wants us to know Him for who He is, not merely for what He can do.

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 had a great week in Portugal and a great weekend in the CCVA church of Moscavide and the CCVA church of Caldas da Rainanha. I am looking forward to a week of Leaders gatherings, the CCVA church of Carregal do Sal, and a weekend in Lisbon for prophetic ministry and multiple gatherings experiencing the new season of Christ in His church. I know it will be great.

The foundation our lives is upon Jesus Christ. It is upon Him that every aspect of our life is built. He is the foundation for our relationship with God our Father. He is the foundation for our daily communion with Holy Spirit. Jesus is our salvation and as Christ He is the anointing of God in our lives for each new day. He is the foundation for our being the body of Christ.

Ephesians 2:17-22 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Jesus came so that we would know the friendship of God in our lives. He announced the good news of peace to those who thought they knew God and to those who didn’t even acknowledge the God is. All people have been given access to God their Father through Jesus Christ. Having been given access, we must all seek to live in the relationship that has been freely granted to us.

Jesus came into our world so that we would know that our world is dependent upon a connection to Him in the realm of eternity. He became flesh and moved into the neighborhood so that everyone in every neighborhood could know Him, and His Father who sent Him, in an intimate and real way.

Jesus is the chief cornerstone of our lives. He is the foundation of life for us all. This is true for all the ages that are after His coming and for all the ages that were before His coming. As the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world, He is the foundation of all who labored in the days of the Old Covenant, and He is the foundation for all who live in these days of access into a New Covenant. The prophets of the Old Covenant served as the ceiling that became the floor in Christ. The first fruit apostles of the New Covenant, the apostles of the lamb, became the foundation for the building of the house of God’s habitation in the successive ages of the body of Christ.

Jesus came that we might be the body of Christ – the habitation of God’s manifest presence in the earth. Wherever the presence of God is, there is life. We are to be the life of God in our world.

Colossians 2:6, 7 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

We are to walk in Christ, knowing Jesus as our Lord. He gives us the desires of our hearts and those desires are desires of life. They are desires that give life to others. We are rooted in Him; therefore, we live and grow in Him. Holy Spirit is in our lives in the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Jesus. He has come in Jesus’ name. Christ in us is the hope of all glory.

Colossians 2:8-10 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Knowing Jesus is not merely knowing some philosophy. It is not merely embracing some form of religion and external control by a knowledge of good. Jesus is the head of all principality and power as a matter of authority, but He is the head of our lives as a matter of intimacy.

Jesus became a person in our world so that we can know to relate to Him as a person in the realm of eternity. That is not someday, that is today! Jesus came so that we would know that our connection to our heavenly Father is a connection to the life-giving person of God. That connection is a never-ending connection of increasing life. Holy Spirit in our lives is the person of God in our lives. We must cultivate our relationship with Him daily. We must never see God as distant in our lives. He is present and we should acknowledge Him throughout every day.

Your life and my life can only be built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. He is the foundation of life for us to be givers of life to our world. Talk to Him! Listen to Him! Respond to Him! Know Him! Love Him and receive His love in all that you are and do.

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. I started here this weekend and will be here for the next few weeks. We had a wonderful day yesterday in the church of Alverca, near Lisbon. I am looking forward to all that God is going to do here.

In the past couple of blogs, I have been addressing the apostle Paul’s words to the Church of Corinth regarding our works in life. Those works can be self-focused works that are consumed by the fire of God, or they can be God-focused works that are only refined by the fire of God’s presence. As Paul describes these works, they appear to be written in a reverse order to what they should be according to natural logic. I believe that straw represents living for our daily comforts and needs, hay represents a life of personal success, and wood represents some measure of generational inheritance of natural things. Surely the correct order of these would seem to be straw, hay, and wood but Paul writes them as wood, hay, and straw.

This is also true for the works that endure. Gold is a testimony of God’s character, nature, way, power, and authority. Silver is symbolic of the testimony of Christ’s redemption. Precious stones are symbolic of individual identity as God gives life to each of us. Surely it would be logical to say that our individual value leads to our testimony of redemption in Christ and our redemption in Christ leads to our perfected purpose in God.

In Paul’s instruction to them regarding building upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, he addresses them as God’s field, God’s building, and a temple of the Holy Spirit. These also appear to be in a reverse order.  A temple denotes a personal connection to God. A building denotes being a testimony of God, something that is being built by Him. A field denotes the purpose of God, as being something that provides life to the world.

Why does Paul write these in a reverse order? Perhaps this reverse order has to do with destiny. God determines the end of a matter before He determines the beginning. How we view something determines how that thing can come to pass. It is only by seeing what God sees that we can embrace the process to become what God sees.

Isaiah 46:10 “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,”

Isaiah 48:3 “I have declared the former things from the beginning; They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.”

God’s works are determined by what God sees in His heart. He is purposed in doing what He sees to be done. When we know the purpose is God’s field, we will embrace being a temple of the Holy Spirit so that we can become those who are built by God for a testimony that can fulfill the full purpose of God in our lives. When we know the end, we embrace the process to get to the end, but when we are not sure of the end, we don’t know what process to embrace.

Successful people in the world have a generational focus. They plan to create something that will last beyond their lives. Their motive is self-focused, however. They embrace their own comforts and personal desires, but they also live for a full life of success. Because they see success as their goal, they are even generational in their process. They plan to create something that exists because of them and continues beyond their own lives in the hands of successors. This only happens for those who see the end from the beginning, and they are determined to do whatever is necessary to make this process happen. Although they seek to build something lasting, in the presence of God it is consumed by His fire.

God doesn’t want us to live for personal success. He wants us to live to be significant in releasing His divine purpose in our world. When we see what God sees, we will embrace the process to become what He sees. It is shown to us by God’s grace and the process is revealed by God’s grace to those who embrace it. It is a process of precious stones, silver, and gold. It is a process of being a temple of the Holy Spirit, a testimony of the building of Christ, and a fruitfulness as God’s field for our world.

Our story in life, is a story of eternal life – knowing God the Father and Jesus His Son. It reveals that we are each loved by God. We are each an expression of God’s love. We are each sent by His love to be love to our world. The end that was declared by God was that we would be sent to our world to reveal the Father’s love. For that to happen, we must know that we are each an expression of God’s love because we are each loved by 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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am in the trees of the great Northwest. I have been hunting for the past couple of days. I hope to finish with success today. In any case, God is good and I have enjoyed my away time with the Lord.

Last week I wrote regarding the testing of each one’s work in life. The apostle Paul wrote about this in his first letter to the church of Corinth. When Paul wrote this, he wasn’t writing to unbelievers. He was writing to believers in Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:9-16 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

We are part of the field of God for the purpose of His harvest. We are part of His building for the testimony and inheritance of His name. We are part of the temple of His presence that we might find our full identity in the life that comes from Him. As His temple, we live as precious living stones manifesting the light of His love in the uniqueness of who each of us are. He loves us and His love makes us come alive in the true identity of who each of us are in Him. We are a place for the habitation of His presence. As His building, we exhibit increasing testimonies of His redemption as we each contribute to the many rooms of His inheritance in this world. As His field, we become the harvest of His divine purpose revealing His power of fruitfulness and the will to live to give life to our world. Our works in life are not works of self. They are the works of the will of God for the glory of His name. Those works are revealed in the Day of the Lord. What is the Day of the Lord? Is it only a moment of culmination in the future? Or is there something more?

The apostle Peter wrote to the scattered Jews from Jerusalem regarding the soon destruction of the torah / temple system that they had known. What could shake was shaking and what could be consumed was about to be consumed in the siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 by Rome. The early church was being tested but the attempts of their enemy to destroy them would only prove the genuineness of their faith.

1 Peter 1:6-9  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

Like the first fruit church of the first century, the Day of the Lord only proves who and what is real. Things that are not of faith are removed in the fire of God’s presence. These are natural things but also the attitudes of our hearts and the thoughts of our minds. We need not fear any destruction that comes because of God’s presence is fire and light and it reveals that we are children of the Day and not the night.

1 Thessalonians 5:4-9 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

Paul was writing to the church of the first century, but what was true for the first fruit is true in every season of fruit in the destiny of the church. We are awake and focused on God in every season of our lives. We know that our identity, testimony, and purpose is found in Him in every stage of our journey in life. Our salvation is not just some day in the future. Our salvation comes through our Lord Jesus Christ in every situation we face in life. We live together 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