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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am in Bellingham after a great time in California. It was great to be with family in California and it is great to be with family here. I will be heading to Portugal, Bulgaria, Netherlands, back to Portugal and back home in the next weeks. I believe that God is going to doing some great things.

The life of Holy Spirit within us empowers us to be alive in Christ and to give the life of Christ to our world. Every season of God in our lives gives new life to us and new life to our world. We are called to live today for the sake of the successive generations in our lives.

Ezekiel 47:6 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. 7 When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other.”

Trees are a testimony of humanity in generational terminology. Trees bear fruit that brings blessing to the world. The life-giving river of Holy Spirit in our lives and in the earth is meant to establish us as sons and daughters of God who receive His life, become expressions of His life, and bring an influence of His life to our world.

Isaiah 61:3 …that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” 4 And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.

Only life can rebuild old ruins, raise up former desolations, and repair ruined cities. Our mandate to build is because something has been torn apart. Our mandate to raise things up is because something has been thrown down. Our mandate to repair or ‘make new’ is because something has been ruined in its relational connection to God and others. We cannot approach any situation by assessing how torn apart it is, how thrown down it appears, or how ruined it is it its quality of life. We must approach every situation in life on the basis of our connection with LIFE. God is LIFE and our connection to Him and His family of life is powerful enough to bring His testimony of life to any situation in in our world. Every new season of God is a new season of new life. That life is for us, for our children, and for our children’s children.

Every season of God is influenced by the river of Holy Spirit for us to be alive, to be an expression of life to our world, and to bring an influence of that life to our world through a partnership with God in Christ that affects our world in a generational way.

Ezekiel 47:8 Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed.”

Every season of God is meant to bring healing to the world. The sea is a symbol of the world. The sea is salt water, and it is a prophetic symbol of the fruit of man’s decision to choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil over a trust relationship with God to become a testimony of His love that is expressed in the tree of life. The flood of the earth was the result of man’s decision.

The decision of first Adam resulted in the consequence of flood and the earth was changed. God promises that the evidence of Last Adam, eternal Adam, will fill the whole earth (Isa. 11:9, Hab. 2:14). In your life, the evidence of first Adam is going to be overtaken by the evidence of eternal Adam. The old man is being overpowered by the new man. He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it. There is no end to the increase. It is like leaven in three measures of meal. It fills the whole loaf. It is like a little mustard seed that is very small, but it grows to become like a tree. For each of us, Christ in me is the hope of glory! Grace is the ability to subdue, and the result is truth. Truth is dominion. Truth crumbles every lie. Instead of pretending I love my neighbor, grace empowers me to be loving towards my neighbor until I become real. I love you! That crumbles the lie! It is a work of the Spirit. It is also a work in me.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am in Redding, California. I have had a great week with my family here. My grandson Kaden and granddaughter Zaria continue to get bigger and bigger. It is wonderful to be with them and to see how they have grown – spirit, soul, and in life.

The seasons of God are seasons of life, and He is the Lord of the seasons of mankind. The life of God is seen as the fruit of God that comes by knowing Him and that fruit brings God’s life to our world. There is fruit in every season of God, but the fruit for today’s season is not the same as the fruit of the season of yesterday.

I am experiencing many aspects of harvest in my garden this year. There was a harvest of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, loganberries, currents, and now apples and pears. I have had many different kinds of lettuce, kale, cucumbers, beet roots, peppers, beans, and tomatoes. Each harvest in my garden is relationally connected to the season of each crop. Although I had a harvest of strawberries, now I am left with strawberry plants but no more berries. I had a harvest of raspberries, but now I have only raspberry plants. The fruit of each plant is for the season of each crop. The same is true in the church. The seasons of God determine the fruit of our lives and we cannot expect to get the fruit of yesterday in the season of today. We must recognize the seasons of God to serve the harvest of fruit in each season. The fruit of yesterday cannot give life to our world today, only God’s fruit for our world today can bring His life for our world today.

Every season of harvest requires laborers of that harvest. There is not just a need for laborers, but laborers who are willing to seek to understand each season of harvest. Sometimes we put the emphasis upon our labors, and we miss the need for God’s presence. Sometimes we seek God’s presence and forget the need to partner with Him with our willingness to labor. Every season of harvest requires us to do works that serve that harvest.

Psalms 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

1 Corinthians 3:6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

God is the One who builds the house of His presence and purpose but we must labor in partnership with Him to receive what He is building. The Lord is the One who guards the city, but we must be awake and partner with Him in watching to receive the blessings of His guard. We each have a role in the seasons of God. God gives the increase in every season, but we must plant, we must water, we must tend to the crop of every season of God in our lives.

Laboring in the season of God requires us to do things that serve that season. The things we do are not meant to be permanent methods for every season of God. They are simply methods we receive to labor in the harvest of each season. This requires us to do new things, but also to do. We cannot be bound to the methods of a past season, nor can we reject being involved in new methods that serve the present season of God in lives. We don’t get our identity out from what we do in life. What we do in life gets its identity from who we are. We get our identity from our Father in heaven. To get our identity out of what we do is idolatry. Life can only come from a source of life. It cannot come from works. In doing, we must be willing to submit what we do to the now season of God in our lives.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I have had a few great days at home with my family and my church community. Today I am heading to California to be with family there. I am looking forward to being with kids and grandkids. It is always my happy place. Bonnie and I are driving the long scenic tour. We had a great weekend here in Bellingham and we are enjoying our summer months.

Jesus is seated at the right had of God in the realm of heaven. He sits in a position of authority, and He makes intercession for us (Rom. 8:34). As a temple of Holy Spirit, we are stirred in our spirits to respond to the will of God according to the intercession of Christ. We seek the things of above (Col. 3:1) and not our own earthly desires, plans, or visions in life. Jesus is seated in a place of authority for our sake that the enemies of God might find their proper place of being under the feet of the body of Christ. Those enemies are all manner of wickedness and unrighteousness that suppresses the truth of God’s love with a lie. God’s love for us is the love of a father and He sees us as His sons and daughters called to live in His perfect will of love. We are perfected forever in Christ and Christ in us is the authority of life that sanctifies us spirit, soul, and body in our journey of life (Heb. 10:12-14).

Ezekiel 47:2 He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side.

The north gate is the place of God’s manifest presence. It is with the manifest presence of God in our lives that we bring the testimony of the desired place in God to our world. It is new every morning. Like the rising of the sun in the morning, the water that flows from God to our world brings the life of God’s Day to our world. It is the power of God’s grace at work in and through our lives because of God’s mercy to us that freed us from all death.

Ezekiel 47:3 And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. 4 Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. 5 Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.

God’s grace increases in our lives and God’s grace increases through the church to the world. The history of the church has brought about a continual reformation and restoration of life to the church. The church is the body of Christ, the temple of Holy Spirit, the family of God – the place where heaven’s grace invades the earth. The move of God’s Spirit in the past has opened an effective door for the earth to find the grace of the Spirit of the Lord that enlightens human hearts to know the just live by faith. That same river has given us a revelation of God’s wisdom in that we know we are sanctified unto God and our works are works of faith towards Him. Those works are empowered by the Spirit of Wisdom, and they make us different than mere people of the world. Humanity without God is humanity without the wisdom of God to move forward in the destiny of life. We have inherited an increasing grace of heavenly testimonies in the fact that there is growing external evidence of supernatural things from heaven. The Spirit of Understanding is giving us a testimony of being a witness of heavenly things. We are submerged in the Holy Spirit of God to be the holy people of God. We can know that we are the body of Christ, and the life-giving authority of Christ is causing us to grow in the testimony of the laying on of our hands and the ministry of Christ’s true authority of life. The Spirit of Counsel is empowering us to bring light to darkness, healing to sickness, and life to death in growing measures. Body ministry is a growing reality in the church. We have inherited a huge value for hearing God, speaking God’s word, and experiencing God’s manifest presence in our lives. The Spirit of Might has granted us a grace of being awake to God in new measures. Others paid a price for us to have such things in our hands. We have been growing in a testimony and an understanding of being the community of God with communion with God and believers. We are experiencing new understanding of intimacy with God and one another that comes by the Spirit of Knowing in our lives. We are living in increasing benefits of what God has done, and is increasingly doing, for us by His eternally flowing river. Each measurement of a thousand in the river of God is another eternal measure that cannot end.

Each generation before us has laid hold of essential foundations of life. We should grow in being justified by faith, works that speak of our faith, testimonies that come by being submerged in Christ, authority of body ministry, revelation of God’s voice and presence in our lives, and in brotherly love in new levels and dimensions of intimacy with God and one another.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am Wichita, Kansas. I have had some wonderful days here serving Christlife Ministry, Pastor Derick, and the family of God. We had a great time yesterday as God’s family. God is doing a new thing. We are in a season of community, presence, participation, and the supernatural riches of being the family of God.

The enemies of God are being subdued by God’s presence from heaven to earth. God is invading darkness with light. He is bringing life to death in the lives of people and in the generations of mankind. Although there is great darkness in the world, the earth is the Lord’s, and all of its fullness and God is increasing His glory in the lives of men and women in the tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations of the world. His glory transforms our lives as individuals and is also a growing glory in the testimony of the body of Christ in the corporate context of the generations of the church. The growing glory of God in the earth is a testimony of the changing seasons of God in the rising Day of the Lord in the nations. The more we see Him, the more we are changed to become like Him in our character, nature, way, power, and authority.

Religious activities keep us busy in church, but Christ in us transforms our testimony to our world. We don’t get our identity out from what we do in life. What we do in life gets its identity from who we are. We get our identity from our Father in heaven. To get our identity out of what we do is idolatry. Life can only come from a source of life. It cannot come from works. The works that we do must serve the life that is being given to us by God. God doesn’t want to bless what we are doing in life. He wants us to partner with Him in what He is blessing. In doing so, we become a partner with Holy Spirit in becoming a blessing to our world. We must not be stuck in the works of a past season of God in our lives. We must seek to do works that serve what God is doing in every new expression of His life in the earth.

Ezekiel 47:1 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar.

We are a temple of Holy Spirit. Together we are a greater expression of the temple of Holy Spirit. The prophet Ezekiel was proclaiming of the day when we would become a temple of Holy Spirit. We are each a temple of Holy Spirit but together we are a greater expression of Holy Spirit that brings a greater glory to our Father in heaven. Together we are a family.. Life-giving water flows from the threshold of the temple to bring new things into our world. It flows to the east. It flows to the desirable place of knowing God and walking with Him, even as Eden (the desirable place) was a garden in the east. It was a place of knowing God and bringing the blessings of God to the barren places of the world. The rivers that flowed from Eden, were a testimony of God’s desire to bring life to the world. It is from the place of knowing God and walking with Him that we can bring life to our world.

John 7:37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Holy Spirit in our lives is the testimony of Jesus at the right hand of God. Jesus is not dead – He is alive! The life that He releases in us is life with resurrection power. The life that God gives to us is testified by the life that comes out from us to our world. Knowing God will bring the fruit of life that comes by knowing Him to our world. Jesus had told His disciples that they would see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God in power (Lk. 22:69). That power is the power of the authority of resurrection from the dead. On the day that Pentecost was fulfilled, the outpouring of Holy Spirit was the confirmation that Jesus had been exalted to the right hand of God (Acts 2:32, 33).

The right hand of God is the place of God’s authority to man. It is the authority of resurrection life, and that life is an eternal life. It is a life that cannot die, and it is life that can bring life to the deadest of places in us. Eternal life is a place of knowing God our Father and Jesus the Son (Jn. 17:3).

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

We had another great weekend here in Bellingham. There was lots of personal ministry in the Alife community yesterday. The family of God is becoming a greater testimony of community. God is doing good things in the nations.

Jesus is our Lord. A lord is not merely a term of information. A lord is a desire that determines the beliefs and actions of our lives. The term lord implies the motivation of our hearts.  As sons and daughters of God, Jesus is our desire. He is the motivator of the will of our hearts. Holy Spirit has come into our lives in the name of Jesus. Fellowship with Holy Spirit is fellowship with Jesus. Our relationship with Holy Spirit is the key to our connection to Jesus as Lord in our lives. Holy Spirit is God in us, with us, and upon us to reveal that we live with God for His purpose in all things.

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.

Turning to the Lord is turning towards our internal connection to Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Lord within our hearts. Holy Spirit gives us new desires that are inspired by God’s desires within us. Our fellowship with Holy Spirit in our hearts is the empowerment of internal changes that come by the Spirit of the Lord – the Spirit of changed desires as we are transformed by the power of Jesus name.

Our connection to Holy Spirit is also our connection to our heavenly Father. Our source of being is our heavenly Father. It is through knowing the Father that we know the Son and it is through knowing the Son that we know the Father. The more we practice our relationship with Holy Spirit, the more we grow in knowing God our Father and Jesus the Son. We practice our relationship with Holy Spirit by responding to His presence in our lives. Our willingness to know Holy Spirit is revealed through our willingness to respond to Holy Spirit in our daily lives.

Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

The very expression of our being reveals a prophetic testimony of Jesus as the Lord of our lives. That prophetic expression is an increasing testimony of life that causes us to become givers of life to our world. The posterity of our being is empowered by Holy Spirit working in us and with us for the glory of God in all that we do. God doesn’t just reveal these things in our lives. They are revealed as we willingly respond to God. The testimony of Christ is within us, but we must willingly respond to Holy Spirit to see those things manifest in our lives.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I hope everyone is well. I am continuing to enjoy my time at home in Bellingham. I am finishing a few projects at home and enjoying my summer. I am working on a few video projects and also working around home a bit.

Holy Spirit is not merely a power of God. Holy Spirit is God. Our daily fellowship with Holy Spirit increases our daily connection with Jesus the Son. Our internal connection to Holy Spirit empowers our spirits to know that we are God’s sons and daughters. It is by this that we know God as our Father and our spirts cry out, “Abba, Father”. To develop this relationship, we must practice responding to Holy Spirit within us as our daily way of life.

John 7:37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus has now been glorified and He has given us Holy Spirit. If we seek to know God as Holy Spirit joined to our spirits from within, we must also partner with Holy Spirit to allow rivers of living (life-giving) water to flow from within us to our world. Life-giving water is the ability to give life to others. This is love. It is not a matter of releasing power. It is a matter of living in an intimate fellowship with Holy Spirit, and this is manifested through the fruit of life that comes to us and through us for the sake of our world. It is supernaturally powerful because Holy Spirit is God. It is a testimony of love by being loved by God from within. That testimony of being loved will empower us to love others in our world. The living water that flows from within us is experienced in the words, expressions, and actions of our lives. We are new creations in Christ, and it is the life of Holy Spirit within us that empowers our testimony to our world.

Ezekiel 1:24 When they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a tumult like the noise of an army; and when they stood still, they let down their wings.

Jesus is in our lives by the testimony of Holy Spirit. He stands in the midst of our lives as both Lord and Christ. He is the Word, but we are His voice. His voice is the sound of many waters. That water is the life of Christ flowing from within each of us. He is in us, but we must make expressions that are responses to His presence within us. By this we see His presence upon us to our world. We become witnesses of Him, not merely witnesses for Him.

Revelation 1:13 …and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters…

When we know someone and we love them, we value who they are, and we respond to who they are. We invite them into our world, and we share our world with them.  Holy Spirit is God in our lives, and we respond to Him because we are loved by Him. We find our identity in our Father, God. Because of this, we live to be expressions of Christ as part of the body of Christ joined to Jesus in every aspect of our lives through an intimate fellowship with Holy Spirit.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

We had a wonderful day yesterday at Alife. Pastor Jonathan invited us all to have a prophetic encounter with God. It was rich and full to hear the response of people as God spoke to them and through them. Everyone in the room was participating in some way. Life happened! Most people stayed at the end for a long time. They didn’t seem to want to leave. God was in the house. God was in His family and His family was in Him.

God wants us to know Him in a deep and intimate way. When we approach God as a power, we often miss God as a person.  When we look to Him as our savior, our healer, our deliverer, our promiser, or any other attribute of His power, we tend to miss discovering Him in a more intimate way. Without realizing it, we exchange a relationship with Him for a relationship with what He can do.

Our journey in life is about growing in knowing God. Life is not measured in what we can accomplish in life. It is measured by our relationship with God. Our relationship with God is testified by the life that we bring to our world for knowing Him. We must grow in knowing God.

Knowing God comes by our desire to know Him. He is not far from any of us, and He desires to be found in every day and every aspect of our lives. How do we cultivate our desire to know God? How do we position ourselves to experience God in our lives? What is the secret to seeking for and finding God in a greater fullness in our lives? I believe the answer to these questions is seen in the focus of our hearts. Whatever we set our hearts to find, we will find. We set our hearts to find what we consider to be valuable in our lives.

1 Peter 2:7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”

The apostle Peter declared in these verses that Jesus is precious to those who believe, but He is a chief cornerstone to those who don’t believe. Those who don’t see Him as precious can only see Him for what He is and their preconceived ideas of what that should be trips them up to be offended by what He appears to be. God is a person and as a person, we must know how precious our relationship is with Him. This same principle is meant to be true in our human relationships in life but even that is first of all dependent upon our relationship with God.

When something is precious, we value it above other things. When something is precious to us, we know we cannot live without it. Air is precious to me. I can hold my breath for a bit, but by body will gasp for air if it is not allowed air for long. Water is precious to me. I can go for a while without water, but even in one day my body will start to cry out for water. In just a few days my body will shut down for lack of water. A secret to growing in knowing God is to get a revelation of how precious He is to, and in, our lives. We cannot live without Him!

God is not a power. His power simply testifies of Him. God is a person. He is our Father, He revealed His love to us through His only begotten Son, and He comes to us by His ever-present Holy Spirit. God is a trinity, but He is revealed to us through three distinct persons in His being. Without Jesus, we cannot fully know God as our Father, because it is only through the embodiment of a son that we can grow in knowing God as our Father. Without Holy Spirit, we cannot know the Father or the Son, because no one can come to God but by the Spirit of God. To be spiritual people we must embrace a relationship with God as the Spirit, God as the Son, and God as our Father. To know Jesus the Son, we must also embrace knowing God our Father. To know God our Father we must embrace knowing Jesus the Son. To Know God the Son and God the Father, we must know God the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is God and He has been sent to us by God our Father in the name of Jesus, God’s Son. To fellowship with Holy Spirit is a fellowship with the Son.

John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Holy Spirit in us, and with us is precious. We need to grow in knowing how much we need Him, not just for what He can do but for who He is. Partnership with Holy Spirit is a partnership with our heavenly Father. It is a partnership with Jesus God’s Son. Our connection to Holy Spirit in our own spirit is the key to growing in knowing God in our lives. We must have a revelation of how precious our connection to Holy Spirit in our hearts is.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am in Bellingham. We are continuing to have wonderful weather with the blessings of summer. I was blessed yesterday to minister at Alife Church in the theme of Growing in Knowing God. God wants us to know that we are part of His eternal family of life.

What is the gospel? What is the good news in the simplest form? God made a way for us to be a temple of Holy Spirit. He made a way for us to abide in God and for God to abide in us. This is true for us individually and true for us as the corporate body of Christ. Being a temple of Holy Spirit is what empowers us to become expressions of God in our world.

In the Old Testament King Cyrus made a decree to build the temple of God and that decree was in reality a decree to build the city of God (Ezra 1:2; Dan. 9:25). Although King Cyrus did not say the words, ‘build the city’; his word to build the temple became the word to build the city once the temple was restored. The word to build the city was the manifest completion of the temple of God. The city of God had to be built because the temple was built (including the law and proper offerings). The temple was the word gone forth. Build a temple and there will be a city.

We must be a house of God’s presence before we can be a community of His testimony. We must be a community of His testimony before we can be a people of His purpose. The community of God is dependent upon being the temple of God’s Holy Spirit. The temple is not dependent upon the community. The community is dependent upon the temple. The temple of Holy Spirit will activate, facilitate, and release the community of Christ. Build a temple and you will build the city. Build the city and you may never build the temple.

This is also true in our Christian walk. If Jesus is in our heart, if there is a temple, then the work of the city (Christian community life) can be completed. Once Jesus is in our heart, we are new creations, but it is yet to be further manifested in our lives. God spoke the word to call us, but it didn’t become ‘the word sent forth’ until we received Jesus into our hearts. We had to become a house for His Spirit to dwell in and we had to receive His Spirit to dwell in us to write His law of love upon our hearts and minds. We had to be able to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God in Christ (Rom. 12:1). Christian community doesn’t make us the testimony of Christ. Christ in us empowers us to become the testimony of a Christ-like community. We must embrace Christ in us to become part of a culture of Christ in our world.

Holy Spirit in our lives is an awe-inspiring reality. We can grow in knowing God as our Father and ourselves as sons and daughters of God. We know Jesus the Son and in knowing Jesus the Son we grow in understanding our own identity as sons and daughters of God. We grow in becoming a testimony of His character, nature, way, power, and authority. In this we also grow in a partnership in the purposes of God as our Father for the glory of His name in all things.

We must not be ignorant of Holy Spirit in our lives. We must cultivate our desire to know God in us, with us, and even in the power of His presence upon us. We need to embrace being clothed in the testimony of Holy Spirit in our lives. Knowing Holy Spirit is a seven day per week, twenty-four hour per day reality. Although we don’t see Holy Spirit, we must practice responding to His presence in, with, and upon our lives. We need to practice recognizing the thoughts, reasonings, imaginations, emotions, and desires that are inspired by Holy Spirit from within us. Our spirits are being inspired by Holy Spirit and we must recognize that Holy Spirit is the person of God abiding in us. We are not merely people in our world. We are sons and daughters of God in our world as expressions to those who know the love, presence, and purpose of God in our lives. When we know that we are a temple of Holy Spirit we become blessings in and to our world. We live to multiply the blessings of God in the lives of others. We empower others in a multigenerational way that influences the future in a life-giving and life-changing way. The influence of God’s kingdom brings blessings to the world, even beyond our earthly journey.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am in Wisconsin. I have had some wonderful days here with a very close friend, a family reunion, a connection with some classmates from fifty years ago, and a great time with a church family here yesterday. God has been in many connected moments. Tomorrow I will head home, and I am looking forward to some summer time with my family and friends there. God is good!

When we lived our lives apart from a personal relationship with God in Christ, the focus of our lives was one of self-interests and self-purposed vision. We lived for our own wills because we were disconnected from God and His desires. Jesus made it possible for us to be reconnected to God as our Father and to find an internal administration of life. When our lives are summed up in Christ, our lives bring the life of Christ to our world.

Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation (administration – NAS) of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.

What is it that governs our lives? Everyone is governed by something. Whatever governs our lives determines how we live our lives. How we live our lives determines how we influence our world. As believers in Christ, we are to live our lives by the influence of the government of God’s kingdom. Jesus is the headship of our lives, and His headship is administrated by the voice of Holy Spirit to our spirits. Holy Spirit inspires our spirits to influence our souls with thoughts, reasonings, imaginations, emotions, and desires that agree with God’s will. This is the empowerment of our beliefs. Our beliefs determine our actions, our actions determine how we view our future, and how we view our future determines how we influence our world.

The kingdoms of the word operate with a different government than the kingdom of God. What is it that governs your life? The cultures of the world, and people in the world, are governed by the internal voice of their own conscience or by some external forms of law. These two things are informational administrators. They are governments of individual lives, with self-focused interests, opinions, and views determined by a knowledge of good and a knowledge of evil.

Sons and daughters of God are to be governed by the kingdom of God. It is an internal reality of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is a government of grace and truth. It is a government of a corporate body with a corporate purpose – the body of Christ. This is an administration of grace and truth. A government of grace and truth puts God at the center of our world. A government of conscience or law puts man at the center of our world.

The Old Covenant was governed by an obedience to the law. The New Covenant is about being obedient to faith. Faith comes by hearing God. Faith happens when we hear God speak to our hearts. Faith works through love, and it is always toward the one who spoke. Faith towards God comes by hearing God in our hearts. It results in actions on our part, but those actions are inspired by a revelation of God’s love in our hearts. We know that God loves us and thus we hear Him in our hearts. We respond with actions of love towards Him and towards who and what He loves. This is the New Covenant testimony of intimacy with God in our hearts. This is grace! Grace is the manifest presence of God in our hearts. This is what empowers our beliefs, and this is what will change our actions. Our minds will be renewed to see what God sees and to live for what God desires in our lives. This is the administration of the kingdom of God from within us.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I hope you had a great weekend. It continues to be sunny in Bellingham. The garden is bearing fruit, and it is good to be home. Pastors Jonathan and Danie gave a great word yesterday at Alife. It is time to let go of some things to embrace what God desires to do in our lives today. God’s way is better than ours and we can always trust Him.

God’s gifts of peace and grace have come to us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. God’s peace is our access to our heavenly Father and all of His heavenly blessings in our lives. Grace is the testimony of God’s access to our earthly house. Christ in us is the hope of glory and Christ in us is the manifested presence of God that changes us to become all that we are intended to be in life. We have something greater than the disciples of Jesus had while Jesus walked this earth. The reality of this greater testimony was given to His disciples after His ascension to heaven. That testimony grew in the church of the first century after Jesus ascended into heaven and then clothed the body of Christ in the manifest presence of Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus had risen in bodily form into the clouds, ten days later the cloud of Holy Spirit’s presence clothed the body of Christ in the testimony of a greater glory. This was a further coming of Jesus as Holy Spirit was sent by the Father in Jesus’ name. The outpouring of Holy Spirit upon those on the day of Pentecost was just the beginning of a continual coming of Christ in greater measures of His Spirit in the generations to come. Like the river described in Ezekiel chapter 47, the presence and purpose of God increases from glory to glory in the generations of Christ’s unfolding story in the earth.

Revelation 1:7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

There are many references in the Scripture to God coming in clouds. It is a metaphor for God’s manifest presence. For those who seek God with a desire to know Him, it is a metaphor of good news of God’s presence. For those who do not desire to know God, the coming of the cloud is a metaphor of destruction. For anything in us that does not desire God, the term coming in clouds is good news in the sense that God’s presence will remove what can be removed from our lives so that we will know the eternal testimony of life given to us by God from heaven.

The Revelation was being given to John because it was to “shortly take place” (Rev. 1:1). The Revelation was given to John in a form of ‘signs’ since the greater value of its content was in its prophetic application for all time, not merely the exegetical fulfillment in John’s day. In the first chapter of Revelation Jesus is seen as the King, the High Priest, and as the Prophetic Judge, standing in the midst of His true Church. The glory of His presence is seen as Him “coming with clouds”. Jesus is standing in the midst of His Church as a witness of the New Covenant and against those who hold to the lifeless testimony of the fulfilled past. Jesus was being revealed as the One who fulfills all things and through whom all things exist. He stands in our lives to empower us by grace that is brought to us by faith. Faith comes when we hear God in our hearts and when we hear God, we turn to see Him. Every revelation from God is an invitation to have an encounter with God, so that we can become transformed by Him and become something of that revelation. His presence in our lives continually reveals His glory as we are changed as we turn to Him in His coming in our lives.

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.

It is a continual encounter with Christ in us that empowers us to rule and reign in life. We are empowered by God’s manifest presence in our lives. In Christ we have been given an administration of grace.

Revelation 1:12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters…

Think about your own life in Christ. When you experience Jesus, He inspires faith in your heart. When you hear Him, you grow in knowing Him! When you hear His voice, you can see His presence in your life. Jesus Christ is standing in the midst of your life! He is standing in the midst of His Church! He is who He is, and because HE IS we are forever changed. He is the King, Priest, Prophet, and Transformer of our lives!

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