Peace – A Testimony of Connection

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I have just finished my third weekend in Portugal. I have been blessed to be with many churches as well as many pastors and leaders of different streams of God’s life here in Portugal. Another training course has been recorded and mostly edited. It has been a fruitful time here and a wonderful time of connection with my Portuguese family in Christ. I look forward to my next time here.

I believe that we are in a season of God revealing to us greater peace. Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is the presence of God in His wholeness in all things. Our oneness with Him causes us to celebrate the life that He has and gives to us in all things.

I believe that the peace offerings of the Old Covenant were a shadow of the peace that has been given to us as the body of Christ. Although the people of God in the Old Covenant heeded the letter of the ceremonies of a peace offering, they did not likely understand the truth that cast the shadow of the ceremony. We can know the truth and the truth can make us free!

The peace offering was not an offering to make peace with God. It was an offering to celebrate the peace that God gives. It was a thanksgiving and praise for who God is and who God made each member of His family to be. The authenticity of each member inspired each member of the family to worship God in the earnestness of their hearts. I believe the unleavened cakes and wafers of the peace offering depicted a testimony of sincerity of the heart.

Leviticus 7:11 This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which he shall offer to the LORD: 12 If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer, with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil. 13 Besides the cakes, as his offering he shall offer leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offering.

Jesus revealed to us that God, our Father, seeks those who worship Him in spirit and truth. This is the qualifying testimony for becoming a temple of His presence. The unleavened cakes and wafers were anointed with oil. When we seek God in the sincerity of our hearts, He freely gives us the anointing of His eternal life from heaven.

John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The peace offering had an element of leavened bread, but that leaven was a testimony of the bread of the Body of Christ as we are joined to God and to one another by the life of God’s Spirit. We come to Him as unleavened meal of sincerity and His presence empowers us to become the bread of life for those who knock on our door in life. Because we come to Him for who He is, He transforms us to become new creations that offer living bread to the world in which we live.

The peace offerings didn’t just depict a connection to God. They also depicted our connection to one another. There was an element of submission to God through our submission to one another. Peace is a testimony of connection.

Leviticus 7:14 And from it he shall offer one cake from each offering as a heave offering to the LORD. It shall belong to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the peace offering.

The peace offering depicted a submission to God and to one another through the giving of a heave offering. What was lifted to God, became a provision for the priestly believer.

Leviticus 7:15 The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered. He shall not leave any of it until morning. 16 But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offers his sacrifice; but on the next day the remainder of it also may be eaten; 17 the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned with fire.

Leviticus 7:29-34 (NKJV) 29 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: He who offers the sacrifice of his peace offering to the LORD shall bring his offering to the LORD from the sacrifice of his peace offering. 30 His own hands shall bring the offerings made by fire to the LORD. The fat with the breast he shall bring, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the LORD. 31 And the priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’.

The potency of the offering was not a testimony of the strength of the flesh. The flesh was to be consumed in the day of the offering in the case of a peace offering given for thankfulness. The peace of God comes because there is no longer a judgment given to us by God. No one is judged according to the flesh because the perfect flesh of Jesus Christ has made us one with God and with one another according to the life of the Spirit. No flesh was to be eaten after day three, since the resurrection life of Christ on the third day released all men from the need to die according to the flesh.

Jesus became our offering of peace to God. He was perfect flesh, and He gave the life of His flesh to God for the sake of our peace. As sinless humanity, He was the best of humanity. He gave His life as both the blood and the fat. His death, burial, and resurrection from the dead proved that He destroyed the condemnation of the flesh forever. He made a judgment of mercy for us that we might know God’s grace and peace multiplied in our lives.

Leviticus 3:17 “‘This shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall eat neither fat nor blood.'”

Colossians 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

True peace is found in Christ and the testimony of that peace is revealed through our faith towards God and our faith towards one another as the body of Christ. We are the community of God justified by God’s mercy and empowered by God’s grace to be life and to bring life 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

Posted in #graceculture, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod | Comments Off on Peace – A Testimony of Connection

The Peace Offering

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I’ve had another great week in Portugal. Another training course has been video recorded in Portuguese and I am presently editing the videos for the training of many in the Portuguese world. We printed seven of my books in Portuguese and those arrived this past Friday. It was great to be in Lisbon for the weekend and now I am in Aveiro. I have a gathering tonight with many Portuguese pastors from various churches and denominations. I am looking forward to all that God is going to do.

We are in a season where God is going to give us the substance of peace in spiritual and natural ways. It is not peace as the world defines peace. It is peace as God defines it. I am embracing this word from God and Holy Spirit has prompted me to consider the peace offerings of the Old Covenant to understand what cast that shadow. Something true existed in heaven to cast the shadow in the past. That substance of peace was hidden in the instructions of the Old Covenant but is being revealed in its reality through the New Covenant in Christ for us today.

I believe that the offerings in the Old Testament were really a shadow of something that is real in the body of Christ. The writer of the book of Hebrews states that the priests of the Old Covenant offered gifts to God according to the law that were only a copy and shadow of what cast that shadow from heaven (Heb. 8:4, 5; Heb. 10:1).

Before the law was, Christ existed in heaven. The New Covenant in heaven was before the Old Covenant served as a copy upon the earth. The law was informational, but what cast the shadow of the law was and is transformational it its substance.

When we look at the gifts offered by the priests in the Old Covenant, we must understand their truth through a living relationship with God in Christ. The burnt offering was a shadow of presenting of our bodies to God as living sacrifices, because the blood of Jesus has made us holy and acceptable before God. The sacrifice offering was only a shadow of acts that we do that demonstrate our faith towards God. That faith is birthed and released from hearing God in our hearts. Our actions of love towards Him are actions inspired by His love for us. The tithe offering was a shadow of our response to the One who gives us His heavenly bread and wine in every season of our lives. We respond to the gratuities that He gives us through a gratuity of what we have, demonstrating our desire to receive all that He holds in heaven for our testimony upon the earth. The heave offering was only a shadow of our submission to God by submitting to the life-giving sources of authority in our God-given connections in the body of Christ. The vowed offering was only a shadow of who we are in Christ as a demonstration of His resurrection life in our place of fellowship as the body of Christ. We are clothed in the works that God created for us in Christ. The freewill offering was only a testimony to our part in the communion of Christ and our being a community of brotherly love through intimacy in Christ. The firstling, or first fruit, offering was only a shadow of our lives as prayer before God that opens the path of heaven’s inheritance and destiny to our children and our children’s children in the earth. These seven offerings define our relationship of love and life in the body of Christ. Because of these, we can experience the truth of the peace offerings that were made in the Old Covenant shadow of what is true life.

The peace offerings of the Old Covenant were offerings of participation. They included elements of a wave offering and of a heave offering. As a wave offering, it was a testimony of thanksgiving and praise to God. As a heave offering, it was a testimony of being one with God through a oneness with Him, and Him in one another as the people of God.

The people of God are the body of Christ, a community of people in communion with God and one another by the life of God’s Spirit. This is a season of new revelations of God’s peace. We will experience a greater thankfulness to God for the peace that He has given us as His dwelling place in the earth. It is a greater communion with God and with one another by His Holy Spirit. In a time when the world offers us disappointments and failed promises, we will know the goodness and faithfulness of who God is. In this time in a world of disconnections and isolations, we will know greater connections and communion with God and one another. This is not just to know the goodness of God in heaven, but to also know His goodness in and through one another as His family in this world.

Leviticus 7:11 This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which he shall offer to the LORD: 12 If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer, with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil. 13 Besides the cakes, as his offering he shall offer leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offering.

The peace offering was a testimony of thanksgiving. It was not an offering to make peace with God. It was an offering celebrating the peace that was enjoyed with God and with one another by the life and anointing of His Spirit. This offering could be given as a wave offering of thanksgiving and praise for something God did in one’s life. Because of something that God did, a feast of celebration was enjoyed before God, with God, and with the people of God as His family communing together in the blessings of who God was among them.

A peace offering could also be given as a vowed offering. A vowed offering was a testimony of thankfulness to God for an answered prayer or request that you made to Him. A vowed offering could be a thankfulness to God for who He says you are by the life and power of His Spirit.

In a world of uncertainties, the family of God has the certainty of God’s presence and provision in all things. A peace offering could also simply be a freewill offering. Because you know that you have peace with God and with one another as His family, you celebrate a communal offering with God and those you are joined to in His community of life. It is a celebration of connection in spirit and truth.

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

Posted in #graceculture, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod | Comments Off on The Peace Offering

Constructive Interference

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I am presently in Portugal. I have had a great start in ministry engagements through the weekend. Now I am in Lisbon recording another training course in Portuguese. We have a had a good day and hope to finish recording this course tomorrow. I will be here for two more weekends, and I am looking forward to all that God is going to do.

In the world there are difficult times, but difficult times must never be looked at by believers in Christ as times of despair. Difficult times only reveal who we really are. We must keep our focus upon the positive force of Christ’s life. Nothing that is Christ ever needs to be afraid anything that is anti-Christ. Christ is life! Christ is Resurrection Life! Resurrection Life is not just life, it is life that can never die and it is life that overcomes all manner of death. No darkness can overcome us as the body of Christ. Christ is light! As members of the body of Christ, we are a collective testimony of the light of Christ. In a time of isolation and separation, we must be creative in our connection with God and with one another. It is through our connection to God and each other that greater things will be seen of Christ’s light and life in the earth!

On January 16, 2022 I released a prophecy regarding the present season that we are in. In that prophecy I declared that there would be a discovery of new dimensions that we had not thought of before for the sake of what is on the table. What is on the table is a matter of restoration of things on earth as God has always seen them to be in heaven. It is not a restoration of what we have known before, but a restoration of what God has seen and known. It is revolutionary for us, but normal reality for God in heaven. In that prophecy, I declared that there would be discoveries in science and technology that would be signs of what God is doing. Unknown to me, an article was published on this same day in regard to scientific and technological discoveries just done by a group of scientists in Australia (Proof of concept verifies physics that could enable quantum batteries, by Michael Irving, January 16, 2022 – https://newatlas.com/energy/quantum-battery-proof-concept-fast-charging/?fbclid=).

This article is about a discovery made through experiments to develop quantum batteries that could revolutionize energy storage capacities. The research and discovery was based upon a quantum theory of superabsorption. It involves the entwining of wave frequencies to act collectively and produce quantum effects that advance their ability to absorb light. In the article, Michael Irving quotes the author of the study, James Quach: “Superabsorption is a quantum collective effect where transitions between the states of the molecules interfere constructively.” “Constructive interference occurs in all kinds of waves (light, sound, waves on water), and occurs when different waves add up to give a larger effect than either wave on its own. Crucially this allows the combined molecules to absorb light more efficiently than if each molecule were acting individually.”

Pay attention to this! What appears to be interference, is constructive. It is not destructive. It has a positive effect. The colliding effects of different waves has a greater effect than any wave by itself. More light can be absorbed by the colliding molecules than when each molecule acts individually.

Christ in each of us is the hope of glory. That glory is an increasing glory in our lives, in the church, and in the purpose and destiny of the body of Christ. By ourselves, we are not the fullness of Christ in bodily form, but collectively we grow in this reality for the revealing of the calling, testimony, and purpose of Christ in all things.

Ephesians 1:22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

My word for this year is “peace’. I am discovering that peace is not an individual reality but a participatory reality when we connect to God, God connect to us, and we connect to God in one another. It is not a peace that seeks an absence of conflict or merely the healing of personal wounds. It is a peace that comes by discovering God in our participation at the table. It is a peace that comes when we recognize that we are each light, but together we become a greater testimony of that light. The light from each of us causes interference in one another’s lives, but it is an interference of light and life. It requires us to change, but that change is constructive. If we don’t want change, we don’t want peace. Jesus gives a peace that is different that the peace that the world gives. If those we are joined to don’t inspire us to change, perhaps our connection is merely a connection of common interest or some self-focused desire?

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

In the article by Michael Irving, it states: “In a quantum battery, this phenomenon would have a very clear benefit. The more energy-storing molecules you have, the more efficiently they’ll be able to absorb that energy – in other words, the bigger you make the battery, the faster it will charge.”

What about the spiritual truth in the body of Christ. The bigger we become as the body of Christ, the faster we will charge. The greater our capacity becomes in Christ. Perhaps the peace of God in our lives is going to be a multiplication of the light and life of Christ in a greater way. What is on the table, is not a testimony of the strength of the flesh, but a testimony of the life of Christ.

January 16, 2022 – by Ted J. Hanson

Watch and see, as I open up dimensions that you’ve not thought of before. When I use the word ‘restoration’, I’m not calling things to be restored as you have known them.  I’m calling for things to be restored as I have seen them – as I have known them.  This is a season of My table, not a season of mere victories over an enemy. It’s a season of discovering Me and the things of me in new ways and in new realities. For there is going to be a deeper communion and a stronger community. There is going to be a greater revelation regarding dimensions that are going to be discovered of Me by you, even in this season of your life. Watch and see as even in science and technology there’s a discovery of dimensions that have not  been thought of before. These are but signs of the things that I am really doing. For what I’m really doing is a matter of the heart. What I’m really doing is a matter of the table. Some things are on the table that you are not aware of. Some things are at the table that you’ve not seen. And this table is a table of life, it’s a table of abundance, it’s a table of greater expectations. So, watch and see, as I open up dimensions for you that are beyond where you’ve been before.

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

Posted in #graceculture, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod | Comments Off on Constructive Interference

A Table of Peace

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I hope you are all well today. I am well and had a great weekend with our local church family in Bellingham, Washington. We have several people who have been battling sickness of one kind or another, but God is in our midst. The challenges in our world are only meant to reveal the goodness of God’s presence in our lives in all things. We have peace with God and with one another as we embrace Him together and experience the wholeness of His life that comes to us from God our Father in all things.

It is through our connection with Holy Spirit that we know the peace of God. It is not peace that we seek, but God that we seek. Our gift of life is God in us, upon us, and with us in all things. Peace is the fruit of our connection to God, not our means of connecting to Him. The false prophets in the days of Jeremiah offered peace, but without God there is no peace.

Jeremiah 8:11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.

The peace of God is not about the healing of our hurts. It is a testimony of being one with God and one with one another in His presence with us as His family in every aspect of our lives. The objective of our path is not peace. It is the fruit found in our path. The objective of our path is that we might know God and to know one another by His presence in, through, and with us all. Jesus came as the Dayspring into our hearts that we would know the light of Christ even in the darkest of times in the world around us.

Luke 1:78 Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; 79 To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Our path is not the objective of our day. It is knowing God. It is in knowing the Dayspring that our feet find the way of peace set before us. There are a lot of unknown things going on in the world, but the unknown things of God’s kingdom are different than the unknown things of the world. The unknown things in the world can inspire fear and anxiety regarding the future, but the unknown things of God’s kingdom will always lead us into a place of God’s peace. They lead us into the place of a future and a hope of the life of God in all things. Holy Spirit in our lives is God in us, upon us, and with us in all things. He doesn’t come to teach us in ways that fulfill the questions asked found in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He teaches us in ways that lead to the testimony of the tree of life and being a family grafted into that tree of life. The fruit of that tree is always life and life-giving to others.

In the same way that Jesus assured His disciples of the path that was before them, we can be assured that the path that God has for us will do the same.

John 14:25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

After Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit revealed all that Jesus had said to His disciples in a revelatory and life transforming way. He does the same in our lives today. The revelation that He brings is not a revelation for information. It is a revelation for the path of our feet that is guided by the desires of our hearts. God is the author and abundant supplier for those desires that are birthed within us.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

I believe that the world is wrestling through times of trouble, but the path that God has chosen for us is a path of peace. It is our connection to God through His Spirit that will give us true peace. That peace is not merely the absence of conflict or an assurance of everything working out in our lives. It is a testimony of the wholeness of God in our lives. It is a testimony of our wholeness in Him. What Jesus spoke to His disciples was true during the troubles of their day and that same reality is true for us in the troubles of our day.

John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

There is nothing in the world that has the power to overcome us. Not even death can overcome our assurance of all that is in the house of God in heaven. It is time to celebrate the life of God and to celebrate that life with Him and with one another. The peace offerings of the Old Covenant were offerings of participation. They were offerings that gave the life of the flesh and the fatness of life of the flesh to God to participate in the life of His Spirit and the fatness of His life-giving anointing. They were offerings shared with one another in the choicest parts of the provisions of God in our lives because of our connection to Him and one another as the family of God and friends with Him and one another. It doesn’t matter what trouble there is in the world, our portion is a portion of life in all things!

January 16, 2022 – A prophecy by Ted J. Hanson

Watch and see, as I open up dimensions that you’ve not thought of before. When I use the word ‘restoration’, I’m not calling things to be restored as you have known them.  I’m calling for things to be restored as I have seen them – as I have known them.  This is a season of My table, not a season of mere victories over an enemy. It’s a season of discovering Me and the things of me in new ways and in new realities. For there is going to be a deeper communion and a stronger community. There is going to be a greater revelation regarding dimensions that are going to be discovered of Me by you, even in this season of your life. Watch and see as even in science and technology there’s a discovery of dimensions that have not been thought of before. These are but signs of the things that I am really doing. For what I’m really doing is a matter of the heart. What I’m really doing is a matter of the table. Some things are on the table that you are not aware of. Some things are at the table that you’ve not seen. And this table is a table of life, it’s a table of abundance, it’s a table of greater expectations. So, watch and see, as I open up dimensions for you that are beyond where you’ve been before.

God has set a table for us in the midst of our enemies. It is time to feast with Him and with one another in the table of the Lord. It is there that we will know His perfect peace.

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

Posted in #graceculture, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod | Comments Off on A Table of Peace

The Rudder of Our Lives

Greetings,

We are now moving forward into the new year of 2022. Pastor Jonathan gave a great teaching on identity yesterday at Alife. I believe his word was right on for the present season. His message can be viewed at the facebook page of Alife Church: https://www.facebook.com/alifechurchbellingham/videos/654565792393532

On the first Sunday of this year, God inspired me to declare a prophetic word concerning the rudder of a ship. If you haven’t read or listened to that word, click the posted link to view a written version and to listen to audio version of that word: https://vimeo.com/662351264

I believe that 2022 it is about the rudder. God is leading us by way of our hearts. If we look to the world, we will be tempted to be led by what we naturally see, hear, or are inspired to think. We must choose to have upside-down perspective in comparison with those in the world. Our trust is in God, not in what we can naturally see, hear, or think. God is not leading us by the way of our eyes. He is leading us by the way of His heart. This is a season to be submerged in God’s peace, submerged in His presence, and submerged in His purpose. It is not about what we can or cannot see. It is about our connection to our heavenly Father. It is about our connection to Jesus. It is about our connection to Holy Spirit. It is about our connection to one another in Christ. God is causing us to become what we cannot be without Him. He is causing us to become people of God with a growing transformation by the intimacy of His heart.  It is a season of becoming people who find their direction in Christ. In this, we will become like rudders on a ship. It is in Him that we find our true desire. When we find our true desire, we also discover a desire for God and for one another. Both passion and compassion grip our way. It is who and what we become in Him that causes us to become expressions of God that set the direction for greater things than merely ourselves.

The secret to our direction in life is the made known through the word of our lives. The word of our lives is made manifest through what we say, but in truth it is measured by the spring within us. What we say is merely an expression of who we are, and the true words of our life are only a manifestation of the word that we each become. As sons and daughters of God, we have been given the water of life that we might become expressions of life to our world. We must stir up the water within us to become an expression of that water to our world. We don’t hear God with our souls. We hear God with our spirits. When our spirit hears God, it springs up with faith and speaks to our soul. When this happens, our soul receives life-giving thoughts, reasoning, emotions, imagination, and desire from within. This empowers us to experience a salvation of soul that inspires us to make actions in life that are life-giving actions to our world.

This is a season where small things make big impacts. The small thing is your life. The small thing is who you are. The small thing is what you say. The small thing is your attitude and the ambiance of your way. I do believe that this year is going to be a year of big impact because of God’s connection to the small things and the small thing’s connection to God.

James 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

Only by knowing God’s peace in our lives can we become the truth, even in the smallest measure of our lives. The testimony of our lives is meant to be the fresh water of God’s kingdom that brings life and refreshing to the world in which we live. Who we are and what we say will set the course before us in this new year. We must stay close to Him and stay close to one another. In peace there is no gap between one another. In a world filled with division, our hope is found in being one with God and one with one another with a focus on God’s heart.

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

Posted in #graceculture, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod | 1 Comment

Knowing God’s Peace

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

We are now in 2022. We had a great week here with all the family together. We ended the year with lots of snow and lots of family fun. Our new year transitioned with a day of playing in the snow and enjoying being together. Yesterday was a great day in church with many words from God for the new year and the new season.

My word for this year is peace. I believe I understand some of this, but I also know that God is leading us into a greater understanding of things that we thought we understood in the past. Peace is not merely an emotional state of being. It is not the absence of conflict. It is a connection to God and a connection to God’s house. In the New Testament Scriptures, peace is in the same category as grace and mercy. The salutations of the apostle Paul, the apostle Peter, and the apostle John included a call for the mercy, grace, and the peace of God to be made known to the churches that they each addressed. The apostle Paul addressed his churches with grace and peace (1 Cor. 1:3, 2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; Eph. 1:2; Phil. 1:2; Col. 1:2; 1 Thes. 1:1; 2Thes. 1:2; Phil. 1:3). Paul’s greeting to Timothy and Titus included grace, mercy, and peace (1Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2; Tit. 1:4). The apostle Peter addressed the believing Jewish church with a prayer for grace and peace to be multiplied to them (1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Pet. 1:2). The apostle John addressed the church in his care with a blessing of grace, mercy and peace (2 Jn. 1:3;). He appealed to God for the seven churches in Asia to receive the grace and peace of God (Rev. 1:4). These seven churches prophetically represent the church that was at the time of John’s prayer, the people of God that were ever before, and the ongoing generational church to come.

God’s mercy is new every morning, thus it is something that never runs dry. God is rich in His mercy. Grace is something that multiplies and transforms our lives to greater measures of His glory. Peace is also something that multiplies in our lives. It is not just a one-time gift in Christ, but a growing gift because of Christ.

Much of my life has been about knowing God’s mercy and grace. Much of the life of the church has been about an understanding of mercy and grace. Mercy is a quality of God and the state of His being that justifies us to live. It is the expression of His love for us that is the love of a Father for His children. It is not based upon anything that we deserve, but upon the substance of His heart. God’s mercy is the judgment that frees us from an administration of the knowledge of good and evil and invites us to find the administration of God’s grace in our lives. God’s grace is the administration of His Holy Spirit in our lives that changes us inside and out to be testimonies of being sons and daughters of God. Mercy justifies us to live, but God’s grace empowers us to live. God’s mercy is the door to our salvation, but God’s grace is the working of His Holy Spirit in our lives that exercises and reveals His salvation in our lives in any and every situation and circumstance of our lives. God’s grace empowers us to reign in life.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Romans 5:17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

I believe that God’s peace is the substance of the life of God that exists in His house. When our house becomes His house, His house becomes the available substance of life to our house. It includes the safety, wellness, happiness, friendship, welfare, health, and all manner of prosperity that exists in His house in heaven. I believe we could envision that substance as everything that is in His cupboards, His refrigerator, His closets, and in every space in every room of His house. Grace is the power of His presence in our lives, but God’s peace gives us the substance of everything in His house that Holy Spirit uses to perform His work of grace in our lives.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

When we hear God’s voice in our hearts, we receive His invitation for us to boldly come to Him. This is the testimony of faith. As far as God is concerned, Jesus is fully enough to reconcile us to Him and to give us access to His throne room of grace. His peace puts us on friendly terms with God our Father and grants us an invitation to come to Him with access to all that He is and has. God’s peace is not only God’s permission for us to live, but also the substance of all that He is and has for His Holy Spirit to work in our lives. Both the Hebrew and the Greek words for ‘peace’ reveal much more than merely a place of tranquility for our souls.

Isaiah 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

The Hebrew word for peace is the HSRN 7965. שָׁלוֹם šâlôm; or שָׁלֹם shalom; and it means: safe, i.e. (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace.

The root word of shalom is the HSRN 7999. שָׁלַם šâlam; a primitive root; to be safe (in mind, body or estate); figuratively, to be (causatively, make) completed; by implication, to be friendly; by extension, to reciprocate (in various applications).

The Greek word for peace is: GSRN 1515. εἰρήνη eirēnē; probably from a primary verb εἴρω eirō (to join); peace (literally or figuratively); by implication, prosperity.

The peace of God in our lives is a joining to Him in His prosperity. The peace of God is the substance of all that He has because there is no gap between us on earth and Him in heaven. He has granted us access to His house because He has put our house on friendly terms with Him. I believe that we are entering a season where we will know not only God’s grace multiplied in our lives, but also His peace. God’s peace will reveal His safety, wellness, happiness, friendship, welfare, health, and prosperity in our lives, even in the midst of conflict and challenging times.

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

Posted in #graceculture, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod | Comments Off on Knowing God’s Peace

The Place of Peace

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I hope you all had a great Christmas! Bonnie and I spend the day and weekend alone together, but the kids and grandkids will be with us in the week. We have lots of snow here! It is beautiful, very cold, and it looks like winter all around us. Winter arrived, and winter came!

As we leave 2021 and enter the new year of 2022; what can we expect in the present season of our lives as the church, the body of Christ? Our future is not determined by the events or circumstances of the world. Our future is determined by the will of our heavenly Father and His purposes in the earth. We are part of an ancient plan in Christ. We are part of an eternal destiny. The ceiling of the Old Covenant was the foundation of the New Covenant, because the New Covenant existed in heaven before it cast the shadow of what was seen as an Old Covenant upon the earth.

Ephesians 2:19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

The prophets in these verses are the prophets of the Old Covenant. The apostles are the firstfruit sending authority of the New Covenant. The one body of Christ made of Jews and Gentiles is the testimony of God’s plan for the generations of humanity. There is not a second plan, but only one eternal plan of God in the earth. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of His glory and that glory will be made known in and through the place of God’s indwelling presence in the earth. We are part of a plan that involves an increase of God’s glory in the earth. We can expect to see God’s glory if His glory is what we set our faces to see!

We are a holy temple in the Lord. We are part of something that is being built by God. God is the builder and maker of a heavenly city. He is the one who builds a heavenly community in the midst of the nations of the world. This is not something that just happens. We are being fitted together by the work and presence of God’s Spirit in our lives. I believe that we can expect to be fitted together in this season as the people of God. I believe that we can expect to become the building of God and that is the place of God’s dwelling presence. If circumstances can change these things, then we have not yet become true.

My word for this coming year is ‘peace’. When God spoke this to my spirit, I have to admit it jolted me. I realize that I have some negative thoughts in regard to peace. I know that peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the place where there is not gap between us and God. It works on good days and on bad days. It works in situations of freedom, and it works to bring freedom in the midst of situations of captivity. I am not saying that 2022 is going to be hard, nor am I saying it is going to be easy. Perhaps my negative reaction is to the thought that it might be a hard year. In any case, peace is knowing God’s presence and it is our access to Him and His access to us. This is good news in any case!

Something is being birthed in this time. It is being birthed in our hearts and minds. It is being birthed in our lives. It is being birthed in us as the corporate building and dwelling place of God in the earth. What is being birthed is sure footed. What is being birthed is something rooted and planted. Out of pain comes great joy!

Psalms 29:9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth, and strips the forests bare; and in His temple everyone says, “Glory!” (NKJ)

Some translations of the Bible imply that the words, ‘makes the deer give birth’, can be expressed as ‘pains the oak’, or ‘twists the mighty oak’ (NIV, NLT, YNG). The thought is that something old is birthing something new. Something in pain births something new. Something hidden in the forest is birthing something new for the glory of God. It is about being the temple of God’s presence. It is a place of being able to say, ‘Glory.’

God wants us to become the people of God. He doesn’t just want to provide for us. He wants to fit us together with Him and with one another. He wants us to be sure footed. He wants us to be planted. The tree is generational. It births new shoots from its place of planting. The deer is sure footed. It can manage the various seasons of the forest and still births the offspring of the future. I believe that we can expect the future and the future is filled with the glory of God in our midst. Peace is the place where there is no gap between God and us. It is the place of no gap between heaven and that which is upon the earth. It is the place of being brought near to God. The future will be birthed in our hearts and minds from our nearness with God. The future will be birthed from the house of God from His nearness to us and our nearness to Him in all things.

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

Posted in #graceculture, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod | Comments Off on The Place of Peace

Brought Near To Find Him

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I am busy closing the year with several new projects. I am in the process of recording audio books and expect to have them ready in the new year. I am also publishing a new book soon, of which I will have it in print, eBook, and audio book. I am expectant for the new season. It was good to be in my home church again. Pastors Jonathan and Danie did a great job of giving us more perspectives of Christ’s coming in our present day. The presence of God was with us, and the feeling of family was in the house. I am looking forward to a week of Christmas celebrations and family connections.

How far does God’s mercy extend? How far does the life of God go? We live in a time where the New Covenant is a reality to anyone who seeks to find a relationship with God in Christ. It is a New Covenant because it is a NOW relationship with God from within our hearts. The New Covenant is a testimony of always living in a place called TODAY in an authentic and intimate relationship that births faith towards God from our hearts. Jesus made it possible for us to come near to God, though He was never far from anyone. Jesus made it possible for those of law and those who were lawless to find the love of God in Christ that transforms hearts and minds to be and live as children of God in this world and into all that is to come. One day, Jesus told a parable about workers in the field where the reward of wages at the end of the day was the same for every worker. It didn’t matter if they labored from the beginning of the day, from midday, or even only the final hours of the day. All the workers received a full provision because the master desired to give them all the same. The story is recorded in Matthew chapter twenty. I believe that the story applies to the destiny of humanity from the time of Old Covenant limitations to the abundance of an administration of grace given to us in Christ. The story is not merely about our physical provisions in this world. It is a story of a loving God who has always desired to give to all men an abundance of life. The wages of being disconnected from God is death, but the wages of connection to God is life and that life is eternal. The New Covenant gift of grace given to us by God in Christ gave a free entrance to life for those who had labored in the limitations of the Old Covenant administrations of conscience and law.

God’s love has always been seen in His desire to gather His people to Him and in His desire for anyone to find Him who knows He is life. The woman with the twelve-year flow of blood reached out in her unclean state to touch the robe of Jesus to receive her healing. The goodness of God flowed to her because God’s mercy and grace don’t consider the qualification of the person. They only consider the qualification of the love of God as a heavenly Father. It is the willingness of anyone to come to Him that qualifies them for receiving His acts of love. The apostle Paul presented this truth to the people of Athens who had been bound by thousands of misguided concepts of God through their mythological connection to Him through carved memorials to spiritual sources to their human needs.

Acts 17:24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

The assurance of life is for those who sought for life in the limitations of conscience and law, but it is even more for us now as we can finally find the life of God in Christ in this world. The administration available to us now is one of grace. The mercy of God has triumphed over the judgment of death and the substance of God’s grace can be found to give us a relationship with God who is life in our world today. This is the repentance that He commands all men to find. It is not a repentance from evil. It is a repentance from being dead. It is a gift of God, and it is a gift from God to us. Eternal life is to know God our Father and to know Jesus the Son through an internal connection with His Holy Spirit. God overlooked the ignorance of men towards Himself when they could not see how near He was to them, but now He has removed the veil to seeing His presence in our lives. Jesus has reconciled men to God as their Father and God can be found by those who seek Him. We can boldly come to His throne of grace! We can reach out and take hold of His gift of mercy! The qualifier is the Father’s love, and the condition is simply us reaching out to receive His love. We can find grace to overcome all distractions of death. We can find the manifest presence of God in our lives that gives us life in all things!

Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

The mercy of God through Jesus Christ is enough for all of mankind to come near to God. Those who were near by the covenant of God through the reality of the Torah/temple system, and those who were far away and bound by the deceptions of the world, have both been brought near by the blood of the Lamb. We can call upon God and He hears. We can seek Him and find Him! The nature of God is to show mercy. His nature is to abundantly pardon. We live in a day where He can easily be found by those who seek Him. Seek Him today! Find Him today! Taste and see that He is good! Consider Him today and boldly seek His presence and eagerly receive His love. Expect to find Him! Expect to be surprised by His goodness in your life.

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

Posted in #graceculture, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod | 1 Comment

This Great Hope

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I hope you are all well today. I am home for a bit and enjoying preparations for the Christmas season. All of our family will be together at some point and that will be a blessing. I got close on the elk hunt. God did His part, but I couldn’t get my part done. I should have been a bit more expectant and let go of my perceived patterns. Anyway, it is a story to be told. I did have a good time with God, even though I had to wave goodbye to the herd of elk that passed before my eyes as I navigated the flooded waters of my elk territory.

As sons and daughters of God, we are members of the body of Christ. The body of Christ is a body of resurrection life! It is a testimony of the mountain of God made by intimate relationships with God in Christ. That body is a body of resurrected life, and it is a body of eternal life – today, tomorrow, and in that which has no end.

Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

When Jesus descended into the grave, He opened the doors of realm of the dead and led captivity captive to the glory of a heavenly reality through Christ’s mercy that triumphed over the grave for all of mankind. It was the mercy of God through the flesh of Jesus Christ that empowered life to enter the realm of the dead, both on earth and in heaven. When life entered the room of death, life prevailed! This is true for every aspect of our lives today. When life enters our space of being, our space of being finds the freedom of resurrection life in Christ.

Matthew 27:51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

Daniel 12:2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

These verses in Matthew and in Daniel are not accounts of something to come. For Daniel it was an account of the future that was made real in the account in the story of Matthew. The triumph of the mercy of God through Jesus Christ made it possible for the dead to find life in Christ. Those who had labored from the beginning of the day in the administration of the knowledge of good and evil were now reaping the rewards of the grace of God found in Christ. The judgment of God’s mercy was ending the captivity of death and opening the door for an administration of grace. At the resurrection of Jesus Christ, graves opened and many who had been bound to the grave were freed from their captivity. Not only were those bound to the captivity of Sheol (the realm of the dead) freed, but all who were bound to the captivity of death in this world were justified to find true life in Christ. God’s mercy triumphed over death! It is because of God’s mercy that we can find grace to overcome all manner of death in this world and in that which is to come!

Psalms 68:17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands; the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place. 18 You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, even from the rebellious, that the LORD God might dwell there.

Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”

It is because of the life of Christ, that God gives us gifts that empower the life of knowing Him to become the growing reality of God’s goodness in our lives. Those gifts are gifts of His grace that cause us to become as we should be as a family of God. God’s gifts of grace empower us to be people of God who bring life to our world. It is because of this that we can be empowered to continually put off the old man of death by putting on the new man in Christ. Whether we are in this world, or part of the cloud of witness of life in that which is to come, we are children of God who bring the life of God to the space in which we live.

Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:14 Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

This is not a time to be distracted by what is going on in the realm of death in this world. It is time to be joined to life in the realm of eternity and to be sons and daughters of life and light to our world.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Posted in #graceculture, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod | Comments Off on This Great Hope

The Salvation of Our Souls

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I am blogging once again from my home in Bellingham. We have had a bit of wet weather here and today the ground has a bit of Winter white that has fallen during the night. I am expecting my granddaughter Eleonore in a couple of hours, and I know that today will be filled with lots of activity (ha, ha).

What does it mean to live life in the New Covenant? What is the difference between living in the Old Covenant and living in the New? We often think of salvation as a matter of where are we going to go when we die. I believe that salvation is much more than that. I believe that salvation is the saving of our souls.

James 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Our souls are the throne of our lives that administers the will of the spirit through the ways and actions of our lives. Our spirit is meant to be joined to the Spirit of God; thus, it is empowered by the life-giving force of the One who gives life in all things. This is our heavenly Father, the Father of spirits. He is the Father of lights, and He causes our spirits to be the light of our soul. When our spirts are joined to God’s Spirit, our spirit inspires the thoughts, reasoning, imagination, emotions, and desires of our soul. Our soul then acts as the bridge between the spirit and the natural. It is the throne of our administration in life. In the Old Covenant the administration of the soul was an administration of information. This was in the form of a knowledge of good and a knowledge of evil. It was based upon the information of creation and the human conscience or upon the Torah/Temple society given by God. That administration of information could only inform us of our failures, it could never transform our failures to become testimonies of God’s goodness and strength. It included visitations of God’s presence that brought about momentary changes, but it could never sustain the increasing glory of God in our lives. It was a covenant that was based upon information from God and experiences of God that had to be remembered. Any covenant that must be remembered is always destined to fade. It is only an administration of God’s Spirit within our hearts that can transform our spirits to inspire our souls to think as our Father thinks, to reason as He reasons, to imagine as He imagines, to feel as He feels, and to desire what He desires. That administration is an administration of grace. Grace is the manifest presence of God in our hearts that transforms us from within to become givers of life to our world. Grace changes us and causes us to become increasing manifestations of the truth of God as His sons and daughters in this world. Our souls are being saved; thus, our lives are a demonstration of life-giving realities to our world.

2 Corinthians 3:16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The Old Covenant was based upon information that only served as a teacher that informed us of our failures and our need for a reconnection to God in our hearts. Jesus came to reconnect us to God as our Father. He came to give us an administration of grace that would empower us to become truth. The Old Covenant was one of truth as information, but only the New Covenant can cause us to become truth by the power of God’s transformation from within! God’s mercy is a judgment that frees us from an administration that cannot transform us, but God’s grace empowers us to be transformed in our character, nature, way, power, and authority in increasing and growing measures in life. God’s mercy justifies all to live, but only God’s grace empowers us to live! God’s grace empowers us to reign in life. This is the increasing salvation of our souls.

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

Posted in #graceculture, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod | Comments Off on The Salvation of Our Souls