A Change in the Sound

Posted on October 16, 2017 by ted4you

Greetings;

I have just finished a great weekend with a great church in Lisbon, Portugal. It was great to be with Pastor Jorge Jacinto and the church of Brotherly Love. We spent the weekend teaching on worship and praise, their source, their purpose, and the result of worship and praise released rightly into the world.

I have seen huge shifts in my thinking in the past seventeen years in regards to worship and praise. I was a worship leader and a worship director and even extensively involved in worship leading and development through the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. During that time, the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of Might, was at work in the church restoring the hearing of God, the speaking of God, and experiencing of God in His manifest presence in the church. There was great shaking and there was great joy in the church. The sound of worship was a sound of shaking the wilderness and it caused many to wake up to the manifest presence of God. It also revealed those who were stronger in their own strength than in their willingness to allow the Spirit of Might to take control. It revealed the strength of the Spirit and manifested many strongholds of the flesh. Though it was a season filled with supernatural testimonies of God’s presence it also manifested carnal testimonies of the flesh. The church was often broken, wounded, and damaged in some way by the unstable, untaught ways of people living a flawed concept of human community. Perhaps a generation born in that pain is required to find the generational healing for our family name. Perhaps the failures of the flesh are the very thing that was needed for the proof of what is to come. Perhaps the injustice of things done wrong is an invitation to a greater justice system of love. Each generation must own what has been handed to them in life and each generation must discover the grace of God to bring life to what is, what was, and what is to come in their own boundary and measure of rule in life.

At the end of the 90’s, the sound the church began to shift towards an awareness of the Father’s love for His children. Things like reconciliation, forgiveness, love, and intimacy began to emerge in the realm of the Spirit as we turned the millennium. Those concepts hardly fit into a justice system of right and wrong and thus many have twisted them to become concepts to justify legalism or, at the other extreme, promiscuity in some way. Love doesn’t require another to change, but only allows the one who loves to be a testimony of love to another. It was easy to demonstrate the prophetic power of God amid the flow of the Spirit of Might, but the Holy Spirit was calling for more. He was calling for the Spirit of Knowing to fill the hearts and minds of His people. Perhaps one of the strongest revelations that has come into the church in the past seventeen years is that each of us was born to be loved by God. The sound of worship has taken on an atmosphere and ambiance of being loved by God. There is no more shame. It is ok to be vulnerable and less than perfect, discovering that we are even more perfect with our diversities than is our unified victories of some external glory. Our victories of the past have been about the manifest presence of God in our midst, but now it is more about God and the community of God together in all things. Huge weapons are formed against such a thing, but God is leading us further in the purpose of His will. It seems harder to be prophetic when the move of the Spirit is willing to confirm His love for us in the midst of our flaws and generational inheritances of weakness. If it was simply a matter of overcoming the weakness in an external manner, it would be easy. The Spirit of Might would move in and wake us up in the midst of our failures. I believe the Spirit of Might is still increasing, but in conjunction with the Spirit of Knowing, an intimacy with God and with one another. The counterfeit to the Spirit of Knowing is a natural knowledge that leads to offenses, judgments and defilements in some way towards one another. Knowledge alone is based upon natural facts and even our perceptions of those facts. Knowledge has become readily available and there is a constant twisting of truth. The world is more word sensitive than they are heart sensitive and they do not see truth with their eyes. Their ears are heavy, their hearts are dull, and they do not see. They hear too well naturally, thus they cannot hear with their hearts, and they cannot see clearly as to what is truth. They hear what they hear, not really what is said. Natural sight, natural conclusions, and natural understanding are weapons formed against communion, community, and corporate destiny. There is a need for spiritual discernment, perception, and understanding. Our greatest battle is what we can hear and it is blinding us to what we can possibly see. Thus it is, when we hold on to our likeness and image and refuse to be formed in the likeness and the image of another. When we hold on to our singleness, we judge others by their diversity and we judge God in our perceptions of the facts of who He is, what He is, or what He should do.

Isaiah 6:9-10  And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ “Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.”

A present truth of the Spirit is surely a testimony of grace and the fact that God loves all people just as they are. It is easy to try to fashion and form God into our likeness when we foolishly think that our likeness is what He is giving His favor to. Perhaps He is giving His Fatherly love and now He is calling for sons and daughters to overcome every wicked thing by being strong in His Spirit and strong in the substance of Him – a testimony of His word made flesh.

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

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Becoming The Word In Our Flesh

Posted on October 9, 2017 by ted4you

Greetings,

Today I am out hunting. Just a quick trip to town to post this blog via my telephone. No elk yet, but hoping for a gift this afternoon. Venison in the freezer and hoping for some new elk treats to accompany soon. It is a sunny day, after some wet weather in the woods. I need a shave, a shower, and a good bed, but life is good! Had to do an emergency repair on my powder gun Saturday, locked my keys in my truck Sunday, but I haven’t lost my character. Having a good time with God in the midst of it all.

What is the purpose in becoming expressions of God as the children of God in the earth? An expression of something is the word of something. A word is not just what is spoken verbally. It is what is expressed. It is something though made known in the word I influence. God does everything by His word and He has placed the creating source of words within each of us. The Bible says that out of the heart flow the issues of life. It’s not deeds that get us in trouble, it’s words; but our deeds are our words. The Scripture teaches us that we are not to make oaths, but our yes is to be yes and our no is to be no (Mt. 5:34-37; Jam. 5:12). Why is this? It is because God understands the power of words.

God does everything by His word. How can we become a people who operate according to the prophetic principles of God and produce life in the earth? How can we allow words to flow forth in our lives that will change the world around us in a positive way? How can we release thoughts, verbal expressions, and actions that are all-powerful words, which produce the life of God in the earth? I want to be a part of a people who influence the communities of the earth by the power of God’s word. This includes our thoughts, attitudes, verbal and visual expressions, as well as actions. Laughter is a word that breaks the power of depression. Peace is a word that breaks the power of confusion. Hope is a word that breaks the power of despair. Faithfulness is a word that breaks the power of faithlessness. I want to live, breathe, and become the power of God’s word in the earth. God does everything by His word. If we can become people of God’s word, we can change the world. This doesn’t mean we become people of Scripture memory. The Scribes and the Pharisees were people of Scripture memory, but they were not people of the word of God. They quoted the Scriptures, but the true words that came from their mouths were words founded upon the attitudes of their hearts. God doesn’t do everything by the Scriptures. God does everything by His Word. I am not making less of the value of the Scriptures in any way. I am simply clarifying the purpose of the Scriptures. The Scriptures testify of Him and are a confirmation to the true sound of God’s words.

We are the people of God and as the people of God we must become expressions of God in flesh. We must become expressions of Him in our thoughts, attitudes, verbal and visual expressions, and our actions in life. When we become the sons and daughter of God as He intends for us to be, our world will change. God is not made in our likeness and image, we are born and formed to be as He is in this world. We are the ones who will change and as we change our world will also change by the power of His word, His expression in and through our lives.

Psalms 8:1 O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens! 2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, 4 what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? 5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen—even the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!

We have been given dominion over everything that God created. Specifically, our personal dominion is in the realm of influence given to us by God in this life. We need the presence of God’s Spirit to subdue what has been given to us. This is the power of God’s grace that brings life to formless, void, and dark places in our world of influence. We need to become a manifestation of God’s word in the flesh of our lives. We must become who we are intended to be in Christ. This is our flesh made an expression of our Father God. This is the power of dominion. It is truth. The truth of who we are in Christ and that truth will crumble every lie.

We cannot just know the word, we must become the word, but we cannot expect to become the word if we don’t seek to know God’s word. We must seek to know who God is and then we must be willing to become as He is. How we were born naturally is not how we remain. We are transformed by the power of God’s grace at every revelation of Jesus Christ in our lives. It is not a revelation about Him, but a revealing of Him in our lives that changes us to become expressions of Him in this world.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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The Mandate

Posted on October 2, 2017 by ted4you

Greetings,

Today I am heading home after a great weekend with Pastor Paul Fowler and the CitiLife Church in Brian College Station, Texas. The church is healthy hear and God is ready to do good things. Thank you to all at CitiLife for a wonderful time.

Today I am going to continue with the theme of the word. Why do we need to speak the word? What does it mean to speak the word? What is the word and what is the purpose of the word? Is the word a what? Or is the word a who? What is truth?

God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is God the life-giver, God the expression of life, and God the power of life. He is the source of life, the word of life, and the testimony of life in all things. As human beings, we were created in the likeness and the image of God. We were created to know the life of God, to be expressions of life of God, and to bring the testimony of the power of God’s life into all things. We were created to be expressions of who God who is in heaven, in earthly form. In our creation, we were to be the word of God in flesh. We were to be spiritual beings of life and our destiny was to be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue and have dominion in the earth.

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

The mandate of mankind was given by God to the substance of Himself in the earth. That substance was the masculine and the feminine expression of who God is, made known in earthly form. The creation of both male and female from the substance of the Spirit of God was to be the source of the mandate. They were to be one flesh comprised of dual expressions of the nature of God. God is both a giver of life and a nurturer of life. Mankind was the antidote to everything that is formless, void, and dark. They were to be rooted in the Spirit of God to be an expression of God in earthly form. By this they could be fruitful, multiply, and fill as living things do, but they could also subdue and have dominion as only mankind was destined to do. The testimony was to be one of authority and not merely power. Authority always gives life, while power alone grasps to take life from others. Men (male and female) were to be givers of life, not takers of life. By this they could give life to formless things and the order of life would unfold. They could fill anything void with life and thus fullness would prevail. They could bring life to darkness and light would arise. This would only be possible through intimacy with God as a living, growing extension of His family in the earth. A family tree, if you will, exhibiting the overcoming power of God as the tree of life. When man choose the external rule of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he/she disconnected from the able source of subduing and dominion. To subdue is to destroy death with life and to exercise dominion is to crumble every lie with truth. When mankind embraced an administration of human wisdom they embraced a disconnection from the true wisdom of God that leads to and brings forth life. Natural sight became more dominant than faith. The result was the loss of the ability to bring life to the formless, void, and dark places of the earth. The testimony was disastrous and the end was the removal of flesh apart from one family line that exhibited a conscience towards knowing God. When left with the rule of conscience, only one family sought intimacy with God over the administration of independence and self. Human conscience is the human spirit and it is an internal witness that cries out for the need to be joined to God in the Spirit. By conscience alone, man cannot subdue and have dominion. They can only know there is a God and they can only know their need for Him in their lives. God desired more for mankind and the commission of His life-giving authority in the earth. There was a need for the flesh of mankind to become the word of God in human form. Only by this could the mandate be fulfilled.

After the flood, man was given the harsh reality of ruling by law. Human law became the administration of mankind, but the ability to subdue and have dominion was removed from the commission of humanity. Even in the giving of Torah law, there was no greater hope than merely being fruitful, multiplying, and fulfilling. The law was added because of the transgression, but the ability to subdue and have dominion could only be restored through the reconciliation of man (male and female) to the source of life. The word had to become flesh so that all flesh could again become expressions of God’s word. Only by this could the mandate be restored and subduing and dominion could be given by to the sons of God (male and female in Christ).

Genesis 9:1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”

The missing pieces of the mandate could only be restored when the word became flesh, a man full of grace and truth to enable all men (male and female) to be filled again with grace and truth. Grace is the presence of the Holy Spirit at one with the human spirit to enable the human being to subdue death by the power of life. Truth is the testimony of life made known in the uniqueness of each one to crumble the lies and deceptions in the sphere of each one’s influence in life. By this the word becomes flesh and good news is restored for the formless, void, and dark places of the earth.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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The Branches and the Vine

Posted on September 27, 2017 by ted4you

Greetings;

Sorry for the delay on this week’s blog. There were some glitches on the hosting side of the site, but all is up and well. It was a great day at Alife on Sunday. Pastor Jonathan gave a great word of the power of US. The presence of God was in the house and there was a strong sense of connection in the room. I even got to sing on the worship team yesterday. I like my church family and my room in the Father’s house.

God is the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. He became the expression of the Word in flesh in the form of Jesus, the Christ. Jesus was the Word made flesh so that we could become the expressions of God in the uniqueness of who we each are. We are meant to be an expression of our heavenly Father as His children, born and formed into His likeness and image in this world. The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood so that everyone in the neighborhood could be restored in their relationship with God as their Father. They could then be expressions of Him. They could each be an expression of the Word of God made known to and among men. They could be made to be light in the darkness so that all who are in the darkness could be drawn to the light. It is a testimony of life and relationship with God in Christ.

Our relationship with God is living and organic. We cannot just join in the membership of a church and understand the fullness of becoming an expression of God. The church of Christ is not an organization, a denomination of churches, or a non-denominational expression of churches. The church is an organism. It is the Father’s house and in the Father’s house there are many rooms. There are many expressions of Christ in the body of Christ, but all those expressions comprise the fullness of the body of Christ. Jesus described our relationship with God by using a metaphor of a vine and a vinedresser.

John 15: 1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so, you will be My disciples.

We are the same substance as Jesus, the word made flesh in the form of a human being. He is the greater vine, but we are branches joined to Him. We receive life from Him and we allow that life to flow through us to bear fruit for the hungry of the world. Those looking for life should find the testimony of that life flowing through and from our lives. We receive the life of Christ so we can give the life of Christ to the world. Anything in us or about us that does not or cannot produce that life is removed by our Father. Like the pruning of the branches of the vine, lifeless things are removed and life consuming things are cut back to induce life giving fruit from our lives for the sake of others. This is what gives glory to our Father in heaven. We have a great promise of being cut or being cut. The cutting involves change. It involves loss of things that lack the destiny of life for others. It involves the loss of some things to gain more life-giving things. This is the process of God working in our lives because He believes in who we are and in the destiny of us together is the vine of the Father’s vineyard.

Jesus was the word expressed to us in the flesh so we could become the expression of the word in flesh to give life to others. We are clean by the word that Jesus expressed to us. The words that He speaks to us now are not words to make us clean, but words to make us fruitful. They are words that empower us to live to give life to others. The words that God speaks to our hearts causes us to become expressions of God’s word to the world around us when we embrace those words and the desires that come with them. In this, God gives us the desires of our hearts. It is from that God-birthed desire within us that we are able to become something of life to the world. We become the testimony of God’s vine. God cuts away anything that prevents or distracts us from living for the corporate purpose of the vine. We were born to give life to others so they too can experience the life of God and become expressions of His life for others. It is through the life that we give to others as the corporate vine of Christ that give glory to God. We are part of the Father’s vineyard as the Father’s vine for the Father’s glory and the Father’s purpose in giving life to the Father’s children. It is a great calling, inheritance, and purpose we find ourselves joined to.

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

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The Voice of Dominion

Posted on September 18, 2017 by ted4you

Greetings,

I have just finished a fantastic weekend in Castlegar, BC, Canada. Thank you to all the hungry people who came out for prophetic teaching and training. It was a real blessing being with you all. I look forward to being with you all again.

God does all things by the power of His word. He is a life giver; thus, He cannot help but express that life to formless, void, and dark places. His expression is His Word and His Word brings life to all things. When He expresses who He is, who He is influences the world.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

The Word of God is not just the verbal expressions of God. It is by no means merely the written expressions of Scripture. The Word of God is His touch, His voice, and His expressed atmosphere that brings life to all that is around Him. When God expresses who He is, who He is brings life to all that experiences Him.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

God is the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. He is the one who gives life, expresses life, and causes life to come in all things. As people, we were created in the likeness and the image of God. We are three-part in our being. We are spirit, soul, and body. Our spirit is meant to be one with the Spirit of God in all things, thus we become alive by the life that He gives. Our soul is the bridge between that which is spirit and that which is natural. It manifests with thoughts, reasoning, desire, emotions, and imagination. The human soul is how the human spirit can be manifested in the human life. The human life is the physical expression of authority. It is the testimony of the human spirit made real in practical endeavors through our physical lives in the world. The human spirit is to be one with the Holy Spirit and thus it is to be abundantly alive and prosperous in all its substance. When our spirits are alive in God, our souls become impassioned from within. The thoughts, reasoning’s, emotions, imaginations, and desires of God become the attributes of all that we are in Him. A prosperous spirit produces a prosperous soul that inspires a prosperous life. This is how the Spirit of God influences the world in which we live.

As the family of God, we must know that we are the expressions of God to the world. We are to be the testimony of His word to the world we live in. I am not talking about Scripture memory. I am talking about a life-giving and life-transforming influence. Many people ask why there is so much bad in the world if God is such a good God. I believe that man is the agent of God’s life to the world and the real answer to changing the testimony of the world is for man to become intimate with God in all things. God doesn’t want us to be puppets dependent upon His instructions to our hearts. He wants us to become the substance of His family in the earth. He wants little children to mature to overcoming sons that become life-giving fathers and mothers in the world. We should be good in formless, void, and dark places. We should be the word of God in flesh. We are part of the family of life, because we are part of the family tree of life. It is a life empowered, life expressing, life transforming tree.

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 overcome the wicked one is to overcome anything that seeks to destroy life. It is not about being successful in life. It is not about merely dealing with the personal issues of your hearts. It is about regaining the dominion that we lost in first Adam. It is about being fruitful, multiplying, filling, subduing, and exercising dominion in all things.

Psalms 8:1 O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens! 2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, 4 what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? 5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen—even the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!

When we live as children of God we become empowered to be the influence of the voice of God in the earth. It is from the heart of children that the testimony of God’s strength is released. God gave us the dominion over the works of His hands, but that dominion comes from being the substance of God in human form, not from the strength of human gifting. True dominion comes from the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God being manifest in human flesh. It does not come from human skill or human ability. It comes from the testimony of God’s word made flesh.

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

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The Power of the Word

Posted on September 11, 2017 by ted4you

Greetings;

It was great being home this weekend after some time on the road. I was blessed to speak at Alife yesterday. Our family is great. We are being blessed to be the testimony of God in the earth. This is a significant time in His-Story.

God is a Trinity. Although we don’t find the word ‘Trinity’ in the Scriptures, we find the description, attributes, and actions of God as a three-person being. He is the source of all life, the identity in all life, and the inheritance as the Father for all life to advance in the goodness of life. He is the expression of all life to all and through all as the Word or the expression of the Father as the Son. He is the empowerment of life in all things as the Spirit. He doesn’t need anything from anyone, because He is an I Am, and not a needy Creator who demands sacrifices and offerings from men. He, in His being; gives life, breath, and all things to all people.

Acts 17:24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

God, as the Father, gives us life. God, as the Word or the expression of the Father as the Son, causes each of us to be an expression of Him in human form. He gives us breath. He is the Word, but we are His voice. He is the composer, but we are the song. He is the artist, but we are the painting. He is the poet, but we are the poem. We are expressions of Him! God, as the Spirit, gives the power of life in all things in us and through us. All that we are and all that we do is meant to bring life to the world in which we live. He is a giver, and not a taker from anyone. When He speaks, life happen!

Whenever God expresses Himself, life happens. We are His offspring, meant to bring the testimony of His life in this world and beyond. In the covenantal view presented in the Scripture, we see that the creation of man came from the heart of God in the substance of who God is in His being. When God saw the earth in a formless, void, and dark state of being, He spoke and there was light. The furtherance of the order, the fullness, and the light was from the substance of who God is, thus when God made man He spoke to Himself. From the substance of God came the substance of the human spirit, male and female. That substance was the power to be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and have dominion.

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

From the perspective of natural things, God formed man from the dust. But it was the breath of God’s life that caused that man to become a living being. Because the substance of the breath in man came from God, who is a giver of life, that man was an expression of God as a life-giving being. Man was made and formed to be a physical substance filled with a heavenly grace. Humanity was made as spirit, soul, and body to bring the influence of God’s life to the world.

Genesis 2:4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Human beings were created to be expressions of God in the earth to bring the influence of God’s life to the world. They were to be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and have dominion. I believe that true subduing is to bring life to death. This is the testimony of God’s grace. It is the testimony of the life of God influencing the spirit, soul, and bodies of men. To be a giver of life, we must be planted in the life of God in our human spirit. This is what produces the power of life in and through us in all things. To be a testimony of God’s likeness and image we must be rooted in the life of God in our spirits. This is the power of grace. I believe that true dominion is to crumble every lie with truth. Each of us makes a great us, but a terrible someone else. Who we are is enough to bring life to our world when we discover who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us. The attributes of subduing and dominion are not ones of control or manipulation. They are not expressions of taking. They are not governing rules that take from anyone. They are the factors that take us beyond the mere ability to be fruitful, multiply, and fill. These attributes are found in the character of our heavenly Father and they excel in formless, void, and dark places. Grace and truth bring order to formless realities. They bring fullness to things that need an expression of life to be filled. They bring light to cause all things to be made known as light to the world. These were the attributes of the expression of God in flesh, when He became Jesus and moved into the neighborhood.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.   

No human had lived a life full of grace and truth. The time and come for the redemption of mankind. The time had come to restore the mandate! The time had come to restore the likeness and image of God in the earth as offspring of God the Father. It was time for the door to be open to heaven and for the influence of the kingdom of the Father’s love among men.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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Grace Makes Possible the Impossible

Posted on September 4, 2017 by ted4you

Greetings;

I have just finished a tremendously productive week in Portugal. We completed two more courses with video in Portuguese. Two more books are also ready for printing in Portuguese. At the present we have six books translated in Portuguese as well as several training manuals. Two courses are completed in video and two more are recorded and now face the task of editing. I will be in Portugal again in October and then several times in 2018. More video recording is planned for January of 2018. I will be in Angola in November presenting Understanding Authority to many pastors and leaders. Thank you for those of you who have contributed financially to House of Bread Ministry to help in this tremendous task. I appreciate your prayers and support. Yesterday I had a great time of ministry with Impact Community church in the Manchester, England area. Pastor Elijah Boswell, the team, and the congregations of Impact are doing a great job!

Jesus was God in the flesh sent to tell us all who we are to our heavenly Father. He came to justify all of humanity to live. We don’t have to believe in Him to be justified to live. Jesus dying for each of us justifies every one of us to live, but we must come to Him to receive that mercy to find the empowerment to live. We are justified to live by the shedding of His blood upon our cross, but we are saved by His life. Being saved is not just going to heaven when we die. It is reigning in life, overcoming every wicked one. That is grace. Grace empowers us to reign in life. Mercy ends the past and grace empowers the future. We need His mercy to end our past, but we need His grace to empower our future in Him. Grace is more powerful than law. Law can only control us or restrain us in some way. Grace transforms us and liberates us in every way. Law only demands excuses for our failures, but grace transforms our failed lives to become significant ones of life. Grace is essential. Grace is not just a matter of being able to come to Him.  Mercy is God’s gift to enable us to come to Him. We don’t have to change for God to love us. Mercy allows us to come to Jesus; our sins are forgiven, He loves us.  We don’t have to change for Him to love us. That is mercy. If we are living on God’s mercy our world won’t change. God will love us, but we won’t be able to overcome the wicked one. Mercy is free, grace will cost us our ability live dependent upon law. Jesus is our Savior, but He is also our Lord, our desire, our motivator and our transformer. He doesn’t just want to get us to heaven. He wants to get heaven in us. He wants us to be different generationally.

I believe that Jesus was free in my life. I didn’t pay anything for Him to love me. But to experience grace, I had to receive mercy, let go of some things I am holding on to, and find grace that transforms who I am. I pay a price for that. The price I pay ends up being an inheritance that my children will receive. It is not free, it will cost me everything, but it is so powerful it will change my world. His yoke is easy and His burden is light, but the task is horrendous. It is awesome, it is hard, except for the grace of God. The change is impossible, except for the grace of God. The grace of God makes impossible things possible, but it doesn’t look like it is going to work. It requires faith. It requires hearing Him and responding to what He says. The fullness of God’s grace is a matter of being intimate with Him. It requires being hungry for Him. There is a price to pay.

When Jesus defeated the devil, He paid a price. He went to the devil’s house and He did’ t eat food for 40 days. He didn’t eat natural food, but He indulged in the presence of God His Father. He believed that living in God was more important than living on food. He didn’t do it to find freedom for Himself. He was already free. He did it to free us! We don’t receive God’s grace to be free. Mercy makes us free. We receive God’s grace to free others! Grace empowers us to become something for the sake of others, for the sake of changing the world. Grace is more powerful than law. Law is not a covenant that can change us, but it becomes a contract that restrains us. A contract has conditions. If you do this, I get this. Obey the law and you will be blessed. It is a contract. It restrains us. Grace is a life-giving covenant. God says, I am going to give you everything. We come to find everything. He gives and we become a person of grace. We choose to give everything we are for the sake of others. We don’t give to get.

When I discover grace in my marriage, I don’t love my wife so she will love me. I don’t give my life to my wife so she will give life to me. When I discover grace, I give my life even though she may never give life to me. When the kingdom becomes a culture of grace and all the members live to give life not expecting anything in return, we experience the supernatural testimony of a culture of grace. Wives and husbands, husbands and wives, not expecting anything in return. Do you know what kind of a supernatural world that creates? That is a free world. It is not based upon law. I am going to love you no matter what, not I will love you if you love me. When both partners say this, a world beyond the wildest dreams is created.

What happens when the community of God is filled with members who each know, I am a child of God, my sins are forgiven, I have a Father who loves me?  In that same community, they embrace grace and overcome the wicked one. They start being transformed and they take on the characteristics of fathers at many levels. The 14 year olds become fathers to 12 year olds. The 20 year olds become givers of life to those in their teens, maybe not in numbers of years, but in the essence of spirit. When this happens, we become a community of grace where we give our lives to give life to one another without an expectation that they are going to give life back to us. What happens when every member does that? What happens when every member lives to give life and to empower the life of Christ to others? It doesn’t exist yet on earth, but it is in the heart of God. It starts from today’s glory and it will grow from glory to glory in a culture of grace.

We can’t have both law and grace. Grace is a covenant that changes lives and only fully works in absolute freedom. A culture of grace only exists in an environment of absolute faith. Where there is law there is a requirement of mercy, but where grace reigns there is no law. I say that statement and two things happen. The law man in us gets upset. The freedom man inside of us twists it and says, Wow, I can do anything now! I can get drunk! I can smoke cigarettes, us pot, indulge in drugs or anything I desire. I can have a bad attitude. I can do anything because I am saved by grace. That isn’t freedom. True freedom lives to give life to others. This is the power of grace! A culture of grace is life-giving, whereas a culture of law is human controlling. We must seek to embrace a culture of grace.

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

Please consider supporting House of Bread Ministry in prayer and in finance. Without your prayers and support we are limited in our ability to do our part in the place of our calling in Christ. If God blesses you to bless us, please consider supporting House of Bread Ministry. Checks Payable to: House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA  98225

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His Mercy Reconciled Us, His Grace Empowers Us!

Posted on August 28, 2017 by ted4you

Greetings,

Today I am in Portugal after a great weekend of ministry and connection with a great church in Utrecht, Netherlands. God was wonderful and the people were hungry, willing, and teachable. Thank you Pastor Niels and all of the church in Utrecht. I am blessed to know you all and to partner with you in what Holy Spirit is doing in your midst. You are growing as a people who have obtained God’s mercy and you are becoming a culture of grace.

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…

Mercy is the judgment of God that conveys us from the administration of law and conscience to one of grace and truth. For there to be a judgment of mercy in a system of law there must be a person of grace. Jesus did not give us the judgment of mercy as God, but as the firstborn man of grace. He was a different kind of human being with a different heart and mind. He was empowered by grace from within. Jesus didn’t pronounce mercy in our lives because He was under the law. He could only make a judgment of mercy because He was a man of grace. He wants us to be like Him when we grow up. He wants us to be able to make a judgment of mercy for those who are in the systems of law or conscience. These are elements in the administration of the knowledge of good and evil. For us to make a judgment of mercy for those bound to this administration, we must become people who are under an administration of grace to become people whose lives are empowered by grace. Because Jesus was the man of grace, He gave us redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins. His grace empowered sacrifice enables us to know that we are children of God. Our sins are forgiven and we have a Father who loves us. Jesus has forgiven our sins and revealed to us our loving Father in heaven.

Ephesians 1:9 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) 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.

The word dispensation in these verses can also be translated administration. This is not just a dispensation, not just a new season or a new time, it is a new administration. God has given us an administration that can sum up all things in Christ. This is a way of governing our lives. The governing of our lives in this administration is a governing that can sum up everything about us in Christ. It causes everything about us to become like Christ. It is an administration that works in heaven and on earth. It causes all things to be summed up in Christ. There is no need for another administration ­– ever! There is not another administration coming for Jew or Gentile. This is the only administration that is needed for all people; Jews, Gentiles, men, women, and all people on earth and in heaven. This administration of grace can sum up everything in Christ. This administration is a government of grace. It is an administration of life where God doesn’t just inform us, He transforms our lives. We become like Jesus was as a man. When we join together we become the fullness of Him. By ourselves we are a piece, but together we are the fullness of Him. We are the body of Christ, the fullness of Him, that fills all in all. We are above principalities, powers, thrones, dominions and names. We are part of His inheritance. We are the testimony of His calling. We are a demonstration of His power because of His grace. His Holy Spirit at work in us is enabling us to become restored in all that we were meant to be in Christ.

God’s mercy justifies us to live, but His grace empowers us to reign in life. We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. We are justified to live. There is also an administration that can sum up everything in Christ. That is reigning life.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We are justified to live. This was the gift of God’s mercy through the man Jesus, the Christ. His gift of mercy justified us to live, even though we were bound to death in our sin.

Romans 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

We are justified to live because of His blood, but we are saved by His grace. We shall overcome all wickedness through Him. Our thoughts, reasoning, desire, imagination, and emotions are being empowered by God’s grace working in our hearts and minds. It is even powerful enough to quicken or mortal bodies and affect us spirit, soul, and body. This is the power of God’s grace working in and through us. It is the power of God’s manifest presence in or lives. It is the proof that there is no gap, no separation, between us and God when we boldly come to the place of His presence because of His mercy, the power of His love towards us as a giver of grace.

Romans 5:10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

God’s mercy reconciled us to God as our Father, but God’s grace empowers us to live with the evidence of lives that have been reconciled to God. Grace is the evidence that God is in our lives. We must choose to receive God’s mercy and embrace His grace to live with a culture of grace among the kingdoms of the world.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

 

 

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Embrace the Goodness of God

Posted on August 21, 2017 by ted4you

Greetings;

I have just finished a weekend with the blessing of seeing my own family in a full family reunion. It was good to see my natural brothers, sisters, uncle, aunt, cousins, and many nephews, nieces on one generation and even two. I have also been blessed with a few days with a very good life-long friend of fifty years. Life is full and life is good.

We are the elect of God. We are holy. God really loves us! We are His passion! We are chosen! I believe that all people have this invitation from God to know this profound truth in Christ, but one must come to Him to discover this wonderful predestination in His name. It is the gift of God’s love and the power of His grace for all who come to Him. God choose us to be transformed by the power of His grace, but we must boldly come to His throne of grace to receive mercy for our failures and find grace that transforms us to manifest as those chosen by Him in this world.

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

God’s grace empowers us to put on tender mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, and long suffering. We can’t just put away our old nature, we must put on a new nature by the power of God’s grace. It is then we forebear and forgive and become like Christ. When someone does something wrong to us and we have a complaint against them we are able to forgive them from our hearts by the transforming power of God’s grace. These things are not mere actions of the flesh with a self-controlling discipline. These things are manifestations of our hearts and minds as we are changed by God’s presence in our lives.

Colossians 3:14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Love is not a work of discipline in our flesh. True love is the fruit of God’s grace at work in our hearts. God’s grace causes the peace of God to rule in our hearts. Peace in our hearts is a testimony of God’s grace working in us. The word of Christ dwells in us. Our character, nature, way, power, and authority changes. We become givers of life to one another. This is not a recipe for a spiritual service of ministry. This is a testimony of our character in an everyday world. It is not a matter of religiously singing, but of having a testimony of life coming off us for the sake of giving life to others. It is an attitude, not a service. People pick up on the tune of our lives. We can be influenced by a catchy tune, what about a catchy attitude? What if this Scripture isn’t talking about music, but an attitude. Life should come off us for the sake of others. A person of grace is someone who inspires people to be excited when they see them come. A person of law is someone others seek to hide from. They are not givers, they are takers. Grace causes us to be givers. We make melody in our hearts. Why? Not so we will be singers, but something about us makes others sing. We make them come alive. My grandchildren know their grandpa makes them sing! They are excited to see me. I empower them. I give life to them. We put on the characteristics of Christ, not so He will love us. We put on the characteristics of Christ so we can love others the way He loves us. We don’t seek to put on the attributes of Christ so He will love us.

We don’t have to be afraid of God anymore. Regardless of all our flaws, we are not afraid of Him. He says our sins are forgiven. We must understand mercy in order to understand grace. If we don’t understand mercy, we will have a hard time understanding grace. When we don’t understand God’s mercy and grace we will constantly look in the throne room to find mercy. But we don’t look for mercy. We simply reach out and receive it. We look for grace, but we have to put it on as we increasingly find it. We find God’s grace in the place of the manifest presence of God in our hearts and minds.

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

We don’t’ beg God to accept us. We know that He does. He is good and He loves us. How do we see ourselves in the mirror? We are children of God and our Father loves us. There are things that the law describes that God does not like, but never is God ashamed of His children. There are things that His children embrace that cause them to experience death and dysfunction. God does not want them to hold on to those things, but there is not a single child that He wants to die. He wants every child to overcome every wicked thing. In the law, we would take rocks and kill those who were wrong. An Old Covenant mentality seeks to kill the wrong in our lives, whereas a New Covenant mentality seeks to embrace all the goodness that is found in Christ. That goodness includes a change in our character by the power of God’s grace.

Jesus made a way to empty the rock box. He is not judging us by the law anymore. He is judging us by love. He never really desired for law to judge us. We chose law, He simply revealed to us the law to invite us to come to Him. He just wants His children back. He wants to empower them to be who they were meant to be. He is not killing us for our sins, He wants us to know who we are and then He wants to transform our lives to become a testimony of His family name. He wants us to overcome every wicked thing. This is the testimony of grace. He doesn’t care where we have been and how we have acted, He just wants His son and His daughter to come home and to know who they really are. We have been trampled on and lied to. We have been overcome by things that don’t define who we really are. God wants to say to us all, I know you think that is who you are, but come to Me and you will find grace. I will transform your heart and your mind and cause you to become what you cannot yet be. I don’t care if it takes a little while. Come boldly every day and find grace.

If we all get busy finding grace we won’t have time to measure one another or ourselves by law. We will find ourselves showing mercy to those who are still bound to the law and we will find ourselves being gracious as people of grace.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

 

Please consider supporting House of Bread Ministry in prayer and in finance. Without your prayers and support we are limited in our ability to do our part in the place of our calling in Christ. If God blesses you to bless us, please consider supporting House of Bread Ministry.Checks Payable to: House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA  98225

Online Donations can be made above at the column to the right.

 

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Grace – The Antidote

Posted on August 14, 2017 by ted4you

Greetings,

It was good to have Andrew Shearman at ALife yesterday. We were all encouraged by the work of God’s grace in his life and the wisdom of life he shared with us all. It is always a blessing to receive the life that comes from Andrew.

We have been sent into the world that is filled with wickedness as an antidote to the sickness of sin. We are empowered by God’s manifest presence, God’s grace, in our lives so that we can overcome wickedness. Wickedness is not trying to overcome us. We are mandated to overcome wickedness. It often feels as if we are being attacked by wickedness, but we are simply walking into the territory of wickedness to transform the earth beneath the soles of our feet. If we walk into a den of bears we can expect a bear to be defensive of his territory. We are in the world and we can expect wicked things to resist us and to try to attack us when we walk into the territory they think is theirs. We are not really being attacked by wickedness, wickedness is simply defending itself against our influence. As children of God we are not in this world wasting time until we go to heaven. We are here to change the world.

What does transforming the territory beneath our feet look like? If my family has a tendency to be stubborn I could be born with a generational iniquity, a generational weakness to being stubborn. If the culture of my family encourages stubbornness, I could grow in the immature attribute of being stubborn and when I grow up I could become an influencer of stubbornness to the world around me. Grace is the antidote to my iniquity. In the midst of my stubborn environment, God comes into my life and forgives me of my stubbornness. I know His love! He has forgiven me of being stubborn! I have a Father who loves me, but I still have a problem. My character, nature, and way is stubborn. God then says, come to Me! I come to Him and He says, I am going to work in your life and make it so you are not stubborn. I am going to transform your stubbornness into something beautiful. I am going to make you extremely teachable and I am going to turn your stubbornness into a strength. I am going to change your desires, thoughts, emotions, and imaginations into a testimony of change. I am going to make you willing to let go of your stubbornness and I am going to turn your stubbornness into tenacity. I am going to transform your weakness into a strength that doesn’t give up easily, but is eagerly willing to change all the time. This is an actual testimony in my life. I was born stubborn. My father’s father was stubborn. I come from a line of ancestors that were stubborn, but God’s grace has changed and continues to change me. I am increasingly becoming willing to change my mind. It is a work of the grace of the Holy Spirit in my life. He took a weakness in my life and turned it into a strength. I don’t quit easily. I change my mind easily, but I don’t give up. It is a work of grace. It is overcoming the wicked one of stubbornness. It didn’t change who I am, but only caused be to be who I was supposed to be.

God wants to change us by the power of grace, but it is not law. It is not something we are obligated to obey, but force of life that transforms our hearts and minds. We must also know that grace doesn’t just happen. We have to find grace. We have to boldly come to the throne of grace, receive mercy and find grace. We have to look around to find grace. It involves action on our part. We have to continually reach out to take hold of the mercy being given to us, but we have to also search for grace and find it. We don’t look for grace with an attitude that it might exist or it might not exist. We have to look for what we know exists. Grace is the power of God that changes us, but we cannot look for it with an attitude of whether it is real or not. We have to know it is real and search for it until we find it.

Colossians 3:10 …and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

We have to put off the old man, but we must also seek to put on the new man. Mercy says we are free from the old man. Our sins are forgiven, we have a Father who loves us. But now we have to put on the new man. We have to know that the new man exists. We must put on Christ and be renewed in the knowledge of who He is. The way we think will change and we will look like our heavenly Father in increasing measure. All of us qualify. It doesn’t matter who we are or who we have been. We are all now the circumcised of heart.

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

Once again, let me give a big thank to those who have and are supporting House of Bread Ministry in prayer and in finance. Without your prayers and support we are limited in our ability to do our part in the place of our calling in Christ. If God blesses you to bless us, please consider supporting House of Bread Ministry.Checks Payable to: House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA  98225

Online Donations can be made above at the column to the right.

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