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

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Greetings,

I hope you are all well today. This is Memorial Day and we are grateful for those who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of others. Blessings to all the families who have endured the pain of loss in war. I also speak a blessing to all who can or cannot come together today. It’s a little rainy here in Bellingham, but it will be a good day for the life of my yard to be encouraged to grow. New life will be happening all around us today in many ways.

Today I feel it necessary to give an encouragement to the body of Christ as we move forward in the path of destiny. God is doing good things and we must embrace His presence and His voice in moving forward in His-Story or we will end up being stuck in some cul-de-sac of history. The Old Covenant was a ‘remember when’ covenant. It was based upon remembering the experiences of God and man in the past. There were times when God manifested and demonstrated His miraculous power and lives of people were touched in some way. That experience became a memorial to remember God. I believe we have many experiences to remember God by. Sometimes our memory of the past becomes more valuable than our present seeking of God in the moment called today. The New Covenant is a covenant we can read, hear, and keep. It is based upon experiences with God on a daily basis. In this time, let’s embrace the now experience of God today that is a furtherance of what God did yesterday. It is not disconnected from the past, but it is a further flow of the river of God in the earth.

Today is a day to be the people of God. I am encouraged that we can experience God’s presence in our lives for greater days ahead of us. This is not a time to be distracted by the news of the world, but a time to be attracted to the presence of God and His purposes in the earth.

Romans 13:11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Paul wrote to the believes of his day that the night is far spent for those who believe. The night is something of the past! The day is at hand for those who believe. For those who believe, each day is a further measure into the light of Christ! The day at hand is not a time to see darkness, it is a time to see the increasing light of Christ. What has our attention? Is it darkness, or is it light? We must cast off the works of darkness. What are the works of darkness? The works of darkness are works based upon fear, doubt, unbelief, self-focus, worry, or some other attribute that depicts a hopeless measure of night. Our walk is to be a walk of people who live in the day. What does it mean to put on the armor of light? Is the armor of light a resistance to darkness, or a confident connection to the One who is light? Is it a matter of warfare against darkness, or is it a life-giving warfare of light? I propose that our path is a path of the liberty of God’s Spirit, not a fretful collision with some power of the flesh. We are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ! This is what prevents the flesh from consuming our thoughts in life. We are children of God who is Light! Our beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influences in life should be attributes of putting on Christ! It is not a matter of condemning those who have not put on Christ, but one of shining as the light of Christ to those who are bound to darkness.

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. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

The fruit of the Spirit will manifest when the true Light is in our hearts. When we walk with the Light, we will become the testimony of that Light. When these things don’t manifest there is something that is not good, not righteous, or not true in our lives. The world around us is not the source of our lack of the fruit of the Spirit. It is a matter of the focus of our lives. Are we looking to the kingdoms around us, or are we looking to the kingdom of God within us? Our thoughts, words and conversations might even sound scripturally true, but if the fruit of the Spirit is not there it is not the right spirit. The cure to being free from any darkness in our lives is to simply embrace fellowship with Light. That Light is the Light of Christ in us. This is the hope of glory in all things. The light transforms the darkness in us to light when we walk in the light.

Sometimes the lines between good and evil, righteous and unrighteous, true and false get blurred. A good indicator that we are walking in the path of life is the evidence of the fruit of life. We cannot do fruit; fruit is something that happens when we live in the place where fruit grows. Fruit is something that gives life-energy to someone else and releases seeds for a future generation of life. Fruit is not a self-gratifying thing; it is a life-giving thing to others beyond your own life. Children of light shine light to the world around them! They are givers of life, not those who simply complain about the darkness around them. We must be children of light!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Well, we have had a beautiful week in the Northwest of the United States. My garden is looking great and I think 2020 will go down as the year that everyone in my neighborhood became farmers (ha ha). Seems like a good thing to do in a lockdown situation. I was also blessed to share via zoom meet with Utrecht, Netherlands yesterday. Thank God for technology in the midst of the present situation.

As believers in Christ, we are living in a day of increasing light. It is not a day of darkness. It is a day where the light of Christ can shine like never before. Light is more powerful than darkness, so people can choose light – but they must choose light to become sons of light.

John 12:35 Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.

To be the light, we have to first believe in the light. We must be of the Father of lights to be sons and daughters of light. We must believe in the light of Christ to be the light of Christ. It is not merely a matter of doing good things, kind things, or humanly compassionate things; it is a matter of doing God things!

John 12:44 Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. 47 And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”

When we believe in Jesus, we choose to abide in the light. Jesus is the light and in Christ we are the light made known to the world in the form of the body of Christ. Jesus is light in the world – not in people of the world. To be the light of Christ we must believe that He is, and we must embrace His presence in our lives. Jesus is light in the word (cosmos), so people can choose light over darkness by Christ’s influence in the atmosphere around them so Christ can be born within them. Even as first Adam created an option and influence of sin in the world (cosmos), Jesus as the Last Adam has given us an option and influence of grace in the world (cosmos). God’s grace is the power of His manifest presence. Holy Spirit is present in the world, but we must embrace Him to be able to even see the truth of the kingdom of heaven. We must be born again to see the kingdom of God and we must be born of water and of the spirit to be able to enter into the reality of the influence and power of the kingdom of God. We must be born of a water womb that empowers us to be natural and we must be born of a spirit womb that empowers us to be of the spirit of Christ in the world. It is by this that we can be the salt and the light of the world.

Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. 2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. 3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. 4 “Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. 5 Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.

Where is our focus? Are we looking to the light of Christ or are you looking to the darkness in the world? When things become troublesome in the world, some Christian believers become focused on things they believe to be signs of the end of the world. They say, it must be getting close to the end, because look at how dark it is getting. This is good. Finally, persecution will come to the church in America or the church in Europe, or the church in the world.  Now maybe we will become the real church.

It is true that pressure does make what is real manifest in our lives. So, should we get excited to invite undue pressure? Or should we say? It is time to arise and shine! It is not time to arise and judge. It is time to arise and demonstrate what it looks like to be the people of God.  All that we are, and all that we do, must become life-giving to the world. It must produce life-giving testimonies. We don’t need to condemn the world. In a day of seemingly bad news, we must look to the true light and be good news to the world. It is time for a grassroots revolution of the true light of Christ. If we only aired good news on the radio and the television, we could impact the world in a life-giving way. If we only told good news to our neighbors, we would change the world. If we simply broadcasted all the good news something good would happen. The world is not going to do that. The true question is; will we?

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings;

Well, life continues in a locked down world. We are restrained, but God is not restrained. When the apostle Paul was in prison, he said that he could be chained, but the word of God could not be chained. This is true in our light and momentary affliction as well. What is it that has our focus in the midst of our present world? Whatever, and whoever, is in the center of our world will determine what our world becomes. We must keep our focus on Jesus in the midst of this present hour.

The focus of our lives must be Christ! Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, He is the Beginning and the End. If we expect to find the end to our present situation and a beginning to what is meant to be, we must see Jesus in the center of our world. Only Jesus can give us the endings that we need and the beginnings that lead to the increasing testimony of life. We cannot think the way the world thinks and expect to receive the world that God intends for us to receive. We are the body of Christ, the church, the gate of heaven! The future of the world is determined by the gate of heaven, not the gates of hell!=

Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 22 Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, 23 who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away justice from the righteous man! 24 Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust; because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

A true rejection of the law of the Lord is a rejection of His character, nature, way, power, and authority. God’s grace transforms our lives to become what the law of God could only reveal in shadow form.

We must allow God to show us the good and we must allow God to define the evil. He doesn’t do this by informing us of what is good and evil, He does it by transforming our lives from within. This is where the light of Christ grants us the ability to know God’s glory in all things. We must look to light as God declares it to be. What day is at hand? Is it a day of doom and trouble? Or is it another measure in the Day of the Lord? Do we see an increased measure of Jesus in our lives? We must not look to things that provide some measure of comfort in escaping the reality of our world or condoning the reality of our world. We must seek God’s presence in our world! When Jesus walks into the room, the room changes! The room that He desires to fill is the room of our hearts and minds. The true law of the Lord is not the shadow of who He is. It is the substance of who He is. The true law is found by embracing the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God in the reality of His person and presence in our lives. I am not just talking about Him being with us, I am talking about Him being with us, in us, and even upon us as the one who transforms us and the world in which we live.

There are two realities in the world in which we live. Light is in the world (cosmos) as sin is in the word (cosmos). Before Jesus came, sin was in the world (cosmos) and mankind was bound to an administration that could not transform the lives of humanity. It could only inform them of good and evil. Unlike much of the traditional thinking in the church, I don’t believe that we inherit sin. I believe that we inherit iniquity and thus we are susceptible to fall to sin that is in the air – the atmosphere of the cosmos. We do not inherit sin, but we do inherit internal weaknesses. This makes us vulnerable to the temptations of the world and we entertain thoughts of independence, the will of self, and a means to be smart in some way. This is transgression and it leads to sin for each and every one. It is in the atmosphere of the world. Jesus came to give us a different atmosphere. He made it possible for the Holy Spirit to be in us and with us, thus the Last Adam brought an option of the true light of life into the world (cosmos). One can choose the Light of Christ, but that Light must become a Light with in them, even as in first Adam the light of sin becomes the darkness within their own souls. One can also chose the former administration of disconnection from the true Light. There are two family trees, but the life of the Last Adam is a growing influence in the world (cosmos).

Romans 7:8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

When first Adam (Adam & Eve) sinned, it was the result of allowing the internal weaknesses of the human heart to transgress their thinking to embrace a disconnection from God who is life. The internal weakness of iniquity made man vulnerable to entertain transgression in their hearts and minds. When man yielded to the temptation to disconnect from God in order to become smart in their own eyes, the path chosen was one of being disconnected from the place of God’s transformation. Man exchanged an administration of transformation for an administration of information. The testimony of sin is to be independent, self-sufficient, and even vulnerable to influences from external sources in becoming something different than what is one’s true identity, testimony, and purpose in life. This put man under the influence of sin (independence, self-sufficiency, and external influence) and the result was death. God did not, nor does not, kill sinners. Sin does.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Jesus came to make us free from the law of sin and death. He didn’t come to destroy law. He came to make it so our lives cast a shadow that looks like law, but law is under us. We are not under law.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

As usual, I am home! This is the norm these days. I was blessed last week to teach via the internet to students in the G42 Leadership Academy in Spain. God was awesome! There were numerous houses of small groups that have been isolated in Spain. God was not limited! The presence of the Holy Spirit broke out here and there! Amazing things happened in the hearts of the students with tears, laughter, and a strong tangible presence of the Holy Spirit! Thank you God for Your great goodness!

What is the secret to moving forward in our journey of life? We can forcefully take steps forward and produce something of the will of ourselves, or we can discover the God-ordained steps to the future of God’s will in and for our lives. What is the secret to finding the path that God has for us? We were created in Christ Jesus for good works that we might walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

The good works don’t define us, but who we are in Christ defines the works that we are destined to walk in. I believe that there are some good works that God is calling us to walk into in this present hour. They are the testimony of the resurrection life of Christ that we were created in Him to reveal for such a time as this. They are our contribution to the demonstration of the resurrection power of God in Christ. How do we discover those works? What is the purpose of those works? Where do we find them?

Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 6 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’

To be clothed in white garments is to be clothed in the righteous works of Christ. To be confessed before the Father is to be confessed as sent sons and daughters of God for the purposes of Christ in this world. To be confessed before angels is to be confessed as the sent ones of God upon the earth before the sent ones of heaven who assist us in the righteous acts of Christ in this world. This is the testimony of those who find themselves in Christ.

God wants us to seek Him in all things, because He wants us to find Him in all things. He wants us to come alive in Him and to be transformed by Him in all things. He wants us to move forward in our lives from every today into every new tomorrow. This process involves finding God’s wisdom every day. God’s wisdom in our lives is empowered by the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of wisdom in our lives. The Spirit of wisdom is testified through the faith that rises in our hearts when we hear His voice internally. We may not even be able to articulate what He has said, but something of a new desire and vision begins to rise from within. These things happen when we find the place of seeing God in the reality of His greatness. An awe of God is the beginning of knowledge and that knowledge is the ability to be aware, and even wittingly aware, of the greatness of God’s thoughts present in our hearts and minds.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The fear of the Lord is an awe of His presence in our lives. It is an awe for His glory and a zealous willingness to fulfill His will in all things. An awe of God is the beginning of wisdom. That wisdom is an internal substance of things hoped for with thoughts, strategies, desires, imaginations, and emotions of faith that can’t be denied. This kind of wisdom doesn’t come from being smart, it comes from the greatness of God’s presence in our lives. We need God’s presence in our world in order for us to find the path of life that God has for us in this world. This is a time to find God’s presence and allow Him to inspire us with knowledge and wisdom that brings about His future and hope.

Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

We discover the wisdom of God through an awe of God in our lives. Wisdom and knowledge will give us understanding. Understanding is a path to our feet, but it is all dependent upon finding God in our minds. Whatever is in the center of our world will determine what our world becomes. Man does not have the answers for the hope and life that humanity needs. These things come by the inspiration of God in our lives.

Proverbs 2:10 When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, 11 discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you, 12 to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, 13 from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; 14 who rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked; 15 whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their paths; 16 to deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words, 17 who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.

The true lover of our souls is God! He is the One who will lead us in the path of life, and this is the day to find Him in the center of all that we are and do. By this, and only by this, can we find the path to life!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings;

Well, I have had another week of learning technology to be able to stay connected in a world that is affected by a mandate to socially disconnect. I hope you are finding ways to remain connected while being forced to remain apart. We received a great challenge yesterday from Pastors Jonathan and Danie to take the iniative in giving love and hope in creative ways to one another and to the world. I believe that our expectancy, creativity, and purpose are being challenged to rise to another level in a time of testing.

God wants us to be established in our relationship with Him and it is through our personal relationship with God in life that we become established as men and women who bring life to our world. God is the one who establishes us. It is in Him that we live, move, and have our being. He is the source of faith, hope, and love. It is by these three things that we can stand in all things. The process that allows these things to become true in our lives is a process of grace. Grace is the manifest presence of God working in our lives. God is the One who establishes us. It is about a relationship with Him that is made manifest by faith. The testimony of true faith is the manifest evidence of the power of God’s grace working in our lives.

Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Tribulations are the pressures of life. At the writing of this Scripture by the apostle Paul, that tribulation was a matter of life and death. In some parts of the world this is true today. For those of us in the west it is not the tribulation of life and death, but the tribulation of life that challenges our faith in God. It is hardly a comparison, but it is true for most in the western church culture. In any case, the pressures of life lead to the perseverance of our faith. The Greek word used hear, implies two ingredients. It contains the ingredient of endurance and it also contains an ingredient of cheerfulness. It is cheerful endurance. Cheerful endurance is the key to activating the character of Christ within us. If we decide to be miserable while in the midst of our circumstances we appeal to the old nature of the flesh, but if we stand with cheerful endurance, we draw on the life of Christ within us. This manifests the character attributes of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22, 23). These are the substance of the fruit of the Spirit within us. When this happens, we manifest the testimony of Christ in a measure of His glory. This is the testimony of hope. Christ in us is the hope of glory.

The Body of Christ wears the reflections of the Father’s heart, because she knows how to endure the pressures that oppose His character within her. When we face pressures in life, it is not a sign that the devil is having victory over us. The pressures of life are the very things that reveal the hidden truth within us. Christ in us is the hope of glory! If Christ is in us, then the pressures of life should manifest the testimony of Christ in us to the world around us.

God wants us to seek Him in all things. He wants us to find Him in all things. He wants us to come alive in Him and to be transformed by Him in all things. He wants us to move forward in our lives from every today into every new tomorrow. This process involves finding God’s wisdom every day. God’s wisdom in our lives is empowered by the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of wisdom in our lives. This is what empowers faith in our hearts. For this reason, the apostle James wrote that if anyone lacks wisdom, they must ask God who is always willing to give us what we need today in order for us to walk a life-giving path that leads to our tomorrow.

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

The book of James is a testimony of faith that is made known by the actions of our lives. Our actions won’t give us faith, but true faith always inspire actions. Those actions will be life-giving actions to the world around us. They will be actions that bring life to our world. The testing of our faith and the overcoming process of grace working in and through us is so we will be givers of life to our world.

People in the world are moved by the circumstances and situations of the world. That is the natural sight around them. It creates an environment where they are tempted to be afraid. Fear becomes the motivation of their actions. This is the mindset of the world. We cannot have a mindset of the kingdom of God and a mindset of the world and expect to clearly see the path to our true future in Christ. God is the One who gives us our future.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Help us fulfill our Mission!

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I hope you had a great Resurrection weekend. The sun has been shining in Northwest Washington and there is a sense of Spring in the atmosphere. Passover was not the end of the past but the beginning of the new year. It is the beginning of a new season. Thank you to all who are being creative in seeking God and connecting to one another in this present time.

God wants to lead us in a path that takes us from today into tomorrow. That path is a path of God’s wisdom. It is not just a knowledge of the day, but a knowledge of faith. It is seeing what God sees before it can be seen in the moment. This is the power of faith that comes by God’s Spirit of wisdom speaking to our hearts from within. There are things happening in heaven right now that are the determining factor for the tomorrow of our lives. God’s thoughts for us are always thoughts for peace and not despair. They are thoughts of a future and a hope. This is true even in difficult times. When the children of Israel faced seventy years of captivity, God said that they were to pray for the prosperity of Babylon, that in Babylon’s prosperity they would also have prosperity. That prosperity comes as an expression of peace from heaven. God told the children of Israel to live life to the fullest in the midst of their captivity with the building of houses, the planting of gardens, and the further establishment of their families and lives. We can believe for the power of the peace of heaven to invade our world with heaven’s grace for such a time as this. We are in need of wisdom and knowledge to acquire true understanding in our lives. That wisdom and knowledge can only come from God, and not mere human experience or perspectives.

Jeremiah 29:4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. 7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.

We cannot find our true present or our true future by listening to the voices of Babylon. We can only find the true present and future of Babylon by listening to the voice of God in our lives. We are to be light in the darkness. We are the preserving salt of God’s grace in the midst of the covenant defying ways of the world. We are the gate of heaven’s influence to the world in which we live. God’s wisdom for our day and the path to our future is determined by His timing and His full testimony in our lives. The greater thing than our deliverance is the testimony of a greater understanding of the fullness of God in our lives.

Jeremiah 29:8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. 9 For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord. 10 For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

I am not saying that our present situation is a seventy-year situation, but just as the number 70 is a prophetic symbolism of all the nations of the world, God’s work in our lives right know is for His perfecting love made known among all the nations of the world. It is time to call upon Him in expectation of His love. He is great, He  is good, and His mercy endures forever!

Jeremiah 29:12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.  

God is listening, are we calling? God is watching with expectancy, are we seeking? God desires us, are we willing to be found by Him? God is offering us new freedom. Will we let go of our captivity and receive His true liberty? We must let go of things as they have been and embrace things as God says they should be to discover the door of today that leads to the path of our true tomorrow. Perhaps our social distancing is a call from God for us to join to Him more than we seek anything or anyone else. Perhaps the things that worked yesterday will not work today and we need to find God in our today, not merely His foundation in our past. Perhaps it is time to expect new things, create new things, and embrace His purpose in new ways. God is great! God is good! God’s mercy never ends!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Thank you to all who have been able to contribute to our mission. Your support is helping us reach the nations and the generations with a message and impartation of New Covenant Life and Grace.

Please continue to pray for us and contribute when you can.

Thanks Again – 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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings;

We are living in a season where we must not be distracted from God’s presence in our lives. God resting in our lives will bring about the testimony of God’s goodness in our lives. We must see Jesus every day and in seeing Him we will become transformed to become like Him in our world. This is what will bring the light of Christ to the darkness around us. We have each been given a path to walk and that path is meant to be filled with the brightness of our heavenly Father’s glory in increasing measures. We will become like whatever, or whoever, is resting in our lives. Whoever, or whatever, is resting in our lives will determine the focus of our lives. The focus of our lives will determine the footsteps of our journey.

Whatever is in the beginning and the end will determine the middle. God must be the beginning of each and every day and He must be the goal of our conclusion in all things. When we make Him our beginning and our end, we will find the goodness of Him in every step of the path of our journey.

Proverbs 24:3 Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; 4 By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

I believe that true wisdom, understanding, and knowledge relate to our identity, testimony, and purpose in life. When we embrace Christ as the foundation and the focus of our attention in life, we experience the growing realities of the unshakable treasures of faith, hope, and love. I believe that God intends for the fruit of true wisdom, understanding, and knowledge in our lives to be that of faith, hope, and love. The beginning is faith.

Faith is the testimony of our relationship with God. It comes by hearing God’s voice in our hearts. Hearing God in our hearts empower a supernatural voice of life in our hearts. What empowers the obedience of our faith? God wants us to know His near and intimate presence in our lives. God’s voice is a voice of love in our hearts. There is nothing more powerful God’s love and the voice of His love in our hearts will be the wisdom that builds our house in life. His voice of love inspires faith and empowers our obedience to His sure and intimate voice.

Romans 16:25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began 26 but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith— 27 to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.

Our Faith is towards the One who is wise. This is the wisdom of God and it is the testimony of the Holy Spirit at work as the Spirit of Wisdom in our lives. Wisdom will lead us to tomorrow. God’s wisdom is not the same as man’s wisdom. Man’s wisdom is concerned with the will of self and it seeks to build a future of human will. God’s wisdom is concerned with the will of God and it causes o future to be built by and for the will of God.  God is a giver of life and God’s wisdom in our lives empowers us to be givers of life. The foundation of our house is built by God’s wisdom and the testimony of faith. This is the opposite of natural sight and it can create a world beyond what we have seen, heard, or thought before. The secret to such wisdom is found by Christ in our lives. Jesus must be the center of our world. When Jesus is in the center of our world, our world becomes a world of life. Good is discovered by the presence of the One who is good in our lives. Without Him, men call evil good, and good evil.

Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 22 Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, 23 who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away justice from the righteous man! 24 Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust; because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Help us Jesus to see You in our lives. We need the true light of life and You are that light. You are the One who defines all that is good, light, and sweet. Help us not to be wise in our own eyes, but to become right by Your presence in our lives. Change our hearts and change our minds by the by the power of Your love working in our lives. Heal the roots and redeem the fruits of our lives for the glory of Your great Name!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Thank you to all who have been able to contribute to our mission. Your support is helping us reach the nations and the generations with a message and impartation of New Covenant Life and Grace.

Please continue to pray for us and contribute when you can.

Thanks Again – 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

Greetings,

It was another week of internet connections across the nations. Intentional connections are inspiring the church to be strong! I hope you are well and that you have taken measures to intentionally connect with others in a time of social distancing.

We are living in a time when God wants us to become expressions of our true identity, testimony, and purpose in Christ. As little children, overcoming sons and daughters, and fathers and mothers who live to give life to others, we are meant to live our lives in a testimony of God’s mercy and grace in all things. For this to happen, we must know God resting in our lives. How do we know God is resting in our lives? We have to see Him every day. He is pleased with us and we must know that the blood of Jesus Christ reconciled us to Him and nothing can separate us from His great love. To see Him, we must expect to see Him! Do we expect to see Him today, or are we expecting what the world expects? Remember, our vision is one of faith! It comes by our connection with God in our hearts. When we know

He is not merely a God, but a loving Father we can know Him in the power of His love. When we see Him, we become changed by His presence. The more we see Him in our lives, the more we become like Him in our world. The fruit of His presence is love, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control, goodness, faithfulness, patience, and kindness (Gal. 5:22, 23). This is the testimony of Him in our lives. This is the testimony of the eyes of our hearts being righteous, good, and true.

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

These verses in the New King James Version reveals that the fruit of the Spirit is in whatever is good, righteous, or true. Other versions state this as the fruit of light, that the fruit of light is goodness, righteousness, and truth. In either case, the evidence is seen in the fruit, not pretend doing. Sometimes the lines between good and evil, righteous and unrighteous, true and false get blurred. A good indicator that we are walking in the path of life is the evidence of the fruit of life. We cannot do fruit, fruit is something that happens when we live in the place where fruit grows. Fruit is something that gives life-energy to someone else and releases seeds for a future generation of life. Fruit is not a self-gratifying thing; it is a life-giving thing to others beyond your own life.

The fruit of the Spirit will manifest when the true Light is in our hearts. When we walk with the Light, we will become the testimony of that Light. When these things don’t manifest there is something that is not good, not righteous, or not true in our lives. It might even sound scripturally true, but if the fruit of the Spirit is not there it is not the right Spirit. The cure to being free from any darkness in our lives is to simply embrace fellowship with Light. That Light is the Light of Christ in us. This is the hope of glory in all things. The light transforms the darkness in us to light when we walk in the light. This is an issue of transparency, vulnerability, and a willingness to change. There is no condemnation for our darkness. There is simply a cure. That cure is to embrace the light.

Ephesians 5:11-13 …and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.  

In times like these, we must shine as people who embrace the true light. We must live our lives awake to God and awake to the things that bring life to others.

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

Living is about being awake to God and awake for the sake of others. We are the light of God in Christ and Christ within our hearts is the light of our souls. It is time that we shine for the sake of the world. This is the testimony of God resting in our lives and the fruit of having a right focus in life.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Thank you to all who have been able to contribute to our mission. Your support is helping us reach the nations and the generations with a message and impartation of New Covenant Life and Grace.

Please continue to pray for us and contribute when you can.

Thanks Again – 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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings;

Blessings to you all in the midst of your various situations with restraint, challenge, and even confinement for some of you due to the Coronavirus situation. I pray you are all safe, shielded, and healed should you be in the midst of recovery. I have to say, in the midst of the challenge of closed doors and restricted gatherings, it is great to see people reaching out to one another in the social internet. It is great to see all the various attempts to connect with others with inspiration, encouragement, care and concern. A lot of Christ centered messages and exhortations are being given. Yesterday Alife went totally live with Pastors Jonathan and Danie being in quarantine for a couple weeks upon returning from overseas. I believe it is a time to sharpen our abilities to intentionally connect in a time of required social distancing. There is no distance in the Spirit, Paul the apostle testified of that from his place of confinement in prison. What the enemy intends for evil, God turns for good and does amazingly good things. In the midst of this storm, we must keep our focus on Christ, the life of Christ, and giving the love of Christ to one another and others.

We must keep our childlikeness in the midst of serious times. We must never forget that we have a Father who loves us and that all of our shortcomings are forgiven in Him. He has forgiven us of our sins and His love for us never wavers. He also wants us to rise above ever circumstance and challenge in our lives as overcomers by God’s grace. We must believe God’s word, and His specific words to our hearts that testify of the character, nature, way, power, and authority of all that God is. We must be strong in His Spirit and His word. This is the testimony of sons and daughters of God! As little children, we overcome because of the blood of the Lamb. As young men and women we overcome by the word of our own testimony in Him! We also overcome by loving not our own lives, even unto death. This is time to rise up as fathers and mothers and live our lives for the sake of others.

1 John 2:12 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. 13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

To be children of heart, overcomers in our souls, and givers of life to others through our lives is going to require a heart-to-heart connection with God in all things. The connection of the core of our being to God is the true source of vision in our lives. Our spirits joined to the Spirit of God gives us proper vision. This is the source of faith! It is the place of hearing God and hearing God is the secret to true sight. Vision doesn’t come from our souls; it comes from our spirit joined to God’s Spirit in all things. Our natural eyes are the windows of our souls, not the doors. The door to our souls comes by the gate of heaven within. That gate is the connection of our spirits to the Spirit of God. At all times, and especially in difficult times, we must let our connection with God in our hearts be the true light of our vision and path. What we are looking at will determine where we will end up tomorrow.

Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

If our focus is on trouble, that trouble will determine our path to tomorrow. If our focus is on worldly news, worldly news will determine our future. If our focus is people, people will be the strength of our path. God wants us to become who we are meant to be, even in difficult times. We are meant to be expressions of God’s likeness and image in our world. Jesus set our path as a man by manifesting as the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person. We must become expressions of that same true light and glory in the midst of our world. Who we are is more important than what we can do. Who we are will determine what we can and will do, but mere doing will not define who we really are. We must keep our focus on God as our Father, Jesus as His Son, and the Holy Spirit as our comforter in the midst of this world. If we put our focus on some created thing, we are going to fashion and form God in the likeness and image of that created thing. It is only when we focus on God that we become fashioned and formed in His likeness and image.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Thank you to all who have been able to contribute to our mission. Your support is helping us reach the nations and the generations with a message and impartation of New Covenant Life and Grace.

Please continue to pray for us and contribute when you can. 

Thanks Again – 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