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

Greetings,

Today I am in Spain for a week of prophetic training with G42 after a great week in Ireland, Wales, and England. I was blessed to be with some great people and great ministries. New Covenant Life and grace is happening in the earth. Don’t focus on the bad news, there is a lot of good news to be found. God’s grace is empowering us to reign in life.

Grace makes us right people in Christ and being right people in Christ gives us the power to reign in life. God wants us to be righteous, but our righteousness is not of the flesh. It is a righteousness that is found in Christ. I believe that there are two ways we are made righteous. Mercy qualifies us to be children of God and a righteousness by God’s mercy is enough to get us to heaven. Grace also changes who we are and that it is enough to get heaven in us. God’s grace enables what is in heaven to become something heavenly in our lives here upon the earth. How He is, is how we become in this world. It is an increasing glory!

Romans 5:21 …so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In these verses the Holy Spirit is proactive in our lives. Something is happening. He is causing us to reign in life. Sin reigned before, but now grace reigns. There must be a change. There must be a change in our desires, thoughts, reasoning, strategy of thoughts, a change in our imaginations, and even a change in our emotions. There is a change in us, because Christ is in us and grace empowers us to reign in life. It is a continual increasing glory unto eternal life. I believe it goes with us into heaven, but it also increases in the lives of people in this earth because of us after we go to heaven. We are not on this earth just to live a life and then move on. We are on this earth to bring the influence of heaven in and through our lives that affects the world around us and affects the world beyond us. So, when we go to heaven something heavenly is still happening in the earth because of us. That is the power of grace. That is stronger than the power of law. It is in us and through us, not merely a controlling instruction to us.

Romans 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Our old man died in Christ, but then our new life was raised in Christ. The life we live, we live in Christ. It isn’t just a grace to get us to heaven. Mercy justifies us to go to heaven and surely grace will get us there, but the objective is to walk in newness of life in this world. Every year we grow in Christ we should walk in an increasing reality of a newness of life. There should be an n increasing glory. There should be a continually increasing character change in each of us. We should increasingly experience a newness of nature and way.  It should be seen in the way we do things and the way we think, and it affects the way we act. We should walk in an increasing newness of power and authority. Our influence of life into this world should increase. It is good news for our friends and for our neighbors. It is good news for our spouses,  our children, and our grandchildren. It is good news for every area of responsibility in our lives and for the people within the sphere of our influence in life. Grace is empowering us to walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

We are under the influence of grace. Being under the influence is being under the power of something. In the law, we are under the influence of obligation and condemnation. Being under grace puts us under the influence of a change in, nature, way, increasing power, and authority. God’s grace puts us under the influence of true liberty. True liberty gives life to others. Grace doesn’t give us liberty that gives us life while destroying others. It is a liberty that gives life in every way.

Grace empowers us to walk in newness of life. We don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit – but we do walk. We accept the practical responsibilities of our lives. We fulfill our practical responsibilities in a grace empowered way. Grace empowers us to be good friends and neighbors as citizen of heaven and earth upon the earth. It can be seen in the way we steward our possessions. It is evident in the way we accept our responsibilities of taking care of our homes and our yards in a life-giving spiritual way. It is by God’s grace that we are who we are. It is by grace that we do what we do. We are under the influence of grace. Grace is not just a theory. Grace is the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Thank you so much to those of you who have been able to contribute to our cause. 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.

Greetings,

I have just finished a great weekend in Ede, Netherlands with House Of Praise Ede (H.O.P.E.) and a few more. It was a good weekend. The sun was shining and it felt like August weather for a great time with friends and people hungry for the presence of God. Thank you, Pastors Bruce and Angelique for a great time and great connections. There are New Covenant, grace empowered people in the Netherlands who are seeing the power of Christ’s kingdom affect the lives of many.

When we teach on grace we are not really teaching something in the hope that it can happen. We are simply teaching on something the Holy Spirit is already doing in the hearts and minds of those who believe. We are positioning ourselves to come in agreement with the internal work of Christ within our hearts. We are positioning ourselves to yield to and respond to the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We are opening our hearts to God and the internal kingdom of God instead of seeking an external government of promiscuity or legalism that cannot result in true change for the glory of God.

God gives us the power to live life. God’s mercy justifies us to live, but God’s grace empowers our lives for greater things. If there is no transformation in our lives, there is no grace. Even in our initial connection with God of being born again there is a definite and noticeable change. That change is grace! However, it is not enough to just experience the grace of God in our lives, we must be people who embrace a culture of grace. We must willingly and willfully walk with the Holy Spirit to be changed. It is a relationship.

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

When Adam chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he opened the door for all of humanity to be bound to live by a government of a knowledge of good and evil. It was an external rule, an external administration in our lives. It was a rule of information. It established a way of thinking in the family line of humanity. Outside of Christ, this is how people live today. Sometimes as believers we become confused and still try to live that same way. We sometimes view Christianity as a new way to live by being informed rather than an external manifestation of an internal revolution of our hearts and minds in Christ. For some people this is true, but this is not Christ. It is merely religion. Mere external disciplines don’t really change us. They only restrains us and controls us. In Christ, we receive the power of the Holy Spirit at work within our hearts. He gives us the ability to reign in life. He gives us a gift of righteousness. In other words; our character, nature and way become changed by Him. There is even an increasing testimony of power and authority in our lives. It is the power of God’s grace to reign in life. That grace includes an internal empowerment for life-giving decisions in life. It causes us to be transformed to become good men and good women. We become Christ-like men and women in every practicality of life. It includes our ability to be good workers; people who rise to the challenges of life. We become good husbands, wives, dads, moms, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandpas, grandmas, creators, business leaders, everyday workers, friends, neighbors and whatever else we are in life.

Romans 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

God’s mercy makes us righteous enough to go to heaven when we die. It is the free gift of Jesus. When we receive Him, we receive His gift of mercy. He gave us peace. There is no gap between us and God. No person ever needs to hide from Him because of His mercy. His mercy is enough to give us the righteousness of Christ that gets us to heaven. It is enough to cause each of us to become a child of God. Little children know the Father and they know their sins are forgiven. There is a righteousness for little children that will get us to heaven, but we are supposed to grow up and become sons and daughters and even fathers and mothers in Christ. The righteousness of God that gets us to heaven doesn’t require us to change much in our lives. We could be the thief on the cross and go to heaven when our hearts receive the gift of Jesus. The thief saying, Jesus, remember me was enough to get him to heaven. For sure that is transformational and awesome, but had the thief lived longer than that day on the cross he would have needed something more. He would have needed grace to reign in life. God’s love is enough to get us to heaven without doing anything but believing in Him. God’s love is also powerful enough to change who we are in this world. The thief was crucified on the cross because he was a thief. Had he live on this earth beyond that day, Christ in him would have had to transform his character to no longer be a thief. A lot of believers come to Jesus and then think that is enough. They are going to heaven when they die, but they fail to reign in life. Circumstances and things in life end up reigning over them. Some believers come to Jesus and do a mixture of information and transformation. They return to the law because it has seemingly safe boundaries. It is simple. It has instructions they can see. The problem is it controls them, but it doesn’t truly change them. They may follow rules, but in their hearts they are not changed. Grace is more powerful than law. Jesus said you have heard it written in the law you shall not commit murder, but I say if you hate your brother in your heart you have already committed murder. Jesus said it is written in the law you shall not commit adultery, but I say if you do it in your heart you have already done it.

Law can give us instructions that restrain our actions, but Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit so our character changes. Our hearts and our minds change. We are not restrained or controlled, but liberated by the internal power of God’s grace. Grace empowers us to not hate our brother in our hearts. Grace empowers us to no longer seek illegitimate fulfillments to the desires of our hearts. Grace includes a change that looks right, but it is deeper than actions. Doing right things doesn’t make us people who are righteous, but having a right relationship with God in our hearts will empower us to become people who do right things in life. It is the power of Christ in us and this is the hope of glory!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Thank you so much to those of you who have been able to contribute to our cause. 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.

Greetings;

Blessings to you again from Bellingham. I enjoyed a weekend here and had an opportunity to speak at Everyone’s Church yesterday in Mt. Vernon, Washington. We had a great time. It was confirmed last week that my foot is broken, so less moving activity is in the agenda during of my upcoming schedule. I am getting used of a walking boot and looking to master a set of sticks today. I am off to the Netherlands for next weekend on Thursday and then on the road for a few weeks.

The Old Covenant was a covenant of condemnation. It took people by the hand and led them. The New Covenant is a covenant of glory. It brings the true change of life within our hearts and minds. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

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

The liberty of the New Covenant is not just a testimony of the freedom of the Spirit. It is a testimony of experiencing a life-giving Lord. He gives us desires that change the way we think and the way we act in all things. Grace includes the Lord. Mercy involves a Savior, but grace empowers correct boundaries that produce life for others. Grace is like a river. Without the boundaries of a river bank, flowing water is a flood. A flood almost always brings destruction and creates a mess that must be repaired. Grace is not a flood, it is a river.

Law promotes obligations, grace propagates and produces true commitments. Law makes us obligated to pray, but grace impassions us to pray. Law commands us to love, but grace transforms us to be loving. Grace is not just license to do what we want or to refuse to do what God wants. It is a matter of connection with God. When we don’t desire what it is true to the character of God to desire, we seek to find the grace to do it. Grace is both an empowerment and an internal transformation that includes internal changes in our desires. Grace is not something that just happens. Grace is something we must find. We must come to God boldly to receive mercy and we must come boldly to God to find Grace. One we receive because of what Jesus did by His death, the other we find because we find Christ alive in our hearts and grants us the power of change.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

To find grace, we must present our bodies to look for it. We need grace for all things and we must know that mere obligation in all things is not enough.  I need an intervention that exceeds my obligations in life. This includes my role as a husband. I have been married 40 years. I don’t wake up every morning thinking I am so excited for my obligation as a husband. I do wake up every morning accepting every obligation I have as a husband, so I choose to seek for the grace to fulfill my obligations as a husband. I never question who I am as Bonnie’s husband. I would never ask the question, God, do you want me to be my Bonnie’s husband? That is an illegitimate question that can only result is something less than finding the grace of God to be who I am. Illegitimate questions receive illegitimate answers!  God, do you want me to be a good husband? I am – now I need the grace to be who I am! I am not just a husband. I am Bonnie’s husband. I am not just a good husband. I am Bonnie’s good husband and I am going to find the grace of God to be who I am. In the law, there would be an obligation to be that. I do not live under the law of obligation as a husband. I live above the obligation. When I find the graced to be a good husband the law is a witness of who I am. I cast a shadow that looks like I am obligated to love my wife. If I choose to live under the obligation, it would be law. When I choose to live in the revelation of who I am, I seek to find the grace of God to be who I am. My life then casts a shadow that is a testimony of who I am, not a mere act of what I do. Should I pray? The law says pray. If I live under the obligation to pray it is going to be difficult, so I am going to live above the obligation to pray. This means I am going to pray, but I am going to find the grace to pray. I am going to find the empowerment of God’s grace to pray. Then I will cast a shadow that looks like the obligation to pray.

The writer of Hebrews writes to not forsake the assembling of one another as a family. I am a part of the church, but since the word church means members joined together it is impossible to be the church by myself. The law says come together as members of the church. I could do that on Sunday or any other day according to the law of assembly and it would restrain me and put me in prison and not be fun. Or I can get a revelation of who I am. I am a member of the church. I heard there are members coming together today! There is a member and there is another member – we are the church! He lives here! I choose to find the grace of coming together and I cast a shadow that looks like the law of coming together as the church, but I don’t live under the obligation. Nor do I say that grace says I don’t have to go to church to be the church. That isn’t grace, that is mercy. Mercy says you don’t have to come together as the church for God to love you. Grace requires you to, because grace empowers you to love. Mercy says you don’t have to. Your sins are forgiven and you are a child of God. God loves you. Revelation says, Yes! Here I am! I present my body a living sacrifice. He lives here in us!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

I want to give a special thank you to those who have responded to my call for support. If any of you can partner with me to enable me to fulfill my calling in Christ as an equipping and resource it will be greatly appreciated.

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.

Greetings,

I have just finished a great weekend in Deming, New Mexico at CitiLife Church. Great job guys! I was received by hungry, willing, and teachable people. Friday night prayer meeting, Saturday night men’s gathering, and Sunday morning celebration were all blessed with the presence of God and His people together. Blessings to you all.

When Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan, He identified with all of mankind. He had come to restore the mandate to humanity. His baptism was not into Himself, His baptism was into the identity of man. He was submerged into the identity of common man, but then the Father submerged Him into the anointing of the New. The mantle of Christ came upon Jesus as He stood in the Jordan. The testimony and anointing of life rested upon Him in full measure, a testimony of the promise to all mankind. The New was baptized into the Old so that He could lead all in the Old Covenant into that which is fully alive and New!

The first measure of the journey of Jesus in the anointing of Christ was to take a walk into the wilderness. He entered the wilderness for the wilderness places of all of humanity. He went there as a man so that all of mankind could have triumph over the dry places of their lives. It was there that Jesus demonstrated the authority of a man over the devil.

When Jesus defeated the devil, He paid a price. He went to the devil’s house and didn’t eat food for 40 days, but He indulged in the presence of His Father in the midst of the entire journey. He didn’t do it to get free Himself. He was already free! He did it to free others! He did it to free us! This is a testimony to us as those who are clothed in Christ. We don’t receive God’s grace to be free. Mercy makes us free! We can do anything. We receive grace to free others. The mantle of Christ in our lives empowers us to become something for the sake of others. We carry the mantle of Christ for the sake of changing the world.

Grace is more powerful than law. Law is not a covenant that can change us. Law can only serve as a contract that restrains us. A contract has conditions. If you do this, you get that. Obey the law and you will be blessed. It is a contract. It restrains us, but it can never transform our hearts and minds to become transformed with a spirit of liberty. Grace is a life-giving covenant. God says, I am going to give you everything. We simply come to find everything that He gives. Then we become people of grace. We choose to give everything that we are for the sake of others. We don’t give to get. When we discover grace and it enters into our marriages, we don’t  love our spouse so they will love us.

I don’t give my life to my wife so she will give her 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 every member of the community will exhibit the power of God’s grace by doing the same. A husband gives his life to his wife, not expecting anything in return and a wife gives her life to her husband, not expecting anything in return. Do you have any idea of the supernatural world that creates? That is a free world, because it is not based upon law. I am going to love you honey as long as you love me, is a statement of law. I am going to love you and give my life no matter what, is a testimony of grace. When joining partners in a relationship say the same towards one another, now we have a world beyond our wildest dreams. What happens when the community of God is filled with members who all know they are children of God, their sins are forgiven, and they have a Father who loves them? That community can embrace grace and overcome the wicked one. When this happens members of the community become transformed and take on the characteristic of fathers and mothers at many levels. This is where 14-year-olds live to give life to the 12-year-olds. The 20-year-olds live to give life to the 16-year-olds. The 30-year-olds live to give life to the 20-year-olds. Maybe not in numbers of years, but in character of spirit. We become a community of grace when we begin to 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 facilitate and empower someone else in the testimony of life? This is a supernatural community. It does not exist yet on planet earth, but it is in the heart of God and it starts from glory to glory.

But we can’t have both law and grace. Grace is a covenant that changes lives and only fully works in absolute freedom. Where there can be absolute faith. Where there is law there is a requirement of mercy, but where grace reigns there is not law. When I say that statement the law man in us gets upset. The freedom man inside of us twists that and says wow! I can do anything now! I can get drunk smoke pot! I can have a bad attitude! I can be unfaithful! I can make mistakes! I can do anything, because I am saved by grace. That is not freedom. That is simply license and it ignores the need to live to give life to others. Neither law nor promiscuity is the answer to life. Only life is! God’s grace empowers us to live life and to be life for the sake of the world!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

Blessings from Bellingham, Washington. The sun is shining and I hope to do some garden work today. It is a good day to enjoy God’s presence and experience life!

God’s mercy justifies us to live, but His grace empowers us to reign in life. Paul wrote in the book of Ephesians that we have redemption by the blood of Jesus and His blood gives us the mercy of God’s forgiveness in our lives (Eph. 1:7). Paul then wrote of the power of reigning in life. In Ephesians 1:10 Paul wrote of an administration that can sum up everything in Christ in life.

Ephesians 1:9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him. (NAS)

The administration that sums up all things in Christ is one of grace. Mercy justifies us to come and find grace, but only grace can empower us to be transformed. This is the power of reigning in life by the power of God’s grace.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Mercy justified us to live, but grace empowers us to live. We can overcome all wickedness through Him. We don’t have to believe in Him to be justified to live. His death for us justified each of us to live, but we must come to Him and receive that gift of mercy to find the power to live. God’s grace at work in our lives is the power to live.

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.

Salvation is not just going to heaven when we die. It is reigning in life. Reigning in life involves overcoming every wicked one in our lives. This includes our own weakness of desires, attitudes, and character. 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. Human conscience can tell us we need to change, but it cannot truly change us. Law can inform us of our failures, but it cannot transform our hearts and minds. Grace is more powerful than mere conscience or law. Conscience can only convict us, but grace liberates our hearts and minds with new desires and thoughts. Law could only control us, it could only restrain us, but grace transforms us and liberates us. Law only demands excuses for our failures, but grace transforms our failed lives to significant ones of life. Grace is essential for life!

Grace is not just a knowledge that God loves us, it is the power of God’s love at work in our lives. We don’t have to change for God 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 will not be able to overcome the wicked one. Jesus is free, but Christ will cost us everything. The name Jesus means, God saves. He is our Savior, but He is more than our Savior, He is our Lord, our desire, our motivator, and our transformer. He doesn’t just want to get us to heaven when we die, He wants to get heaven in us. He wants us to be different. He wants to give us the power to see His inheritance increase in our families. He wants our children to know Him as we know Him, but in a fresh and increasing way. He wants the lives of the generations to change for His glory.

I believe that Jesus is our Savior and His gift of mercy to us was free in our lives, but to walk in grace we cannot just receive mercy, we must find grace. Jesus was a man of grace, that is why He could walk in the power of grace and show mercy to all men. He could only give mercy, because He was the embodiment of grace.

We must let go of some things we hold on to be able to find grace. There is a price to pay for that. The price that we pay ends up being an inheritance for others. It is an inheritance that our children receive. It is not free, it is only freely available. It is going to cost us everything, but it is so powerful it will change our world. His yoke is easy and His burden is light in it, but the task is horrendous. The task 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. It requires being intimate with Him and being hungry for Him. There is a price to pay. We cannot just be love, we must find the power to love!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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.

Greetings;

I have just finished a full week of video recording and ministry in Portugal. It was a very fruitful time. I was very blessed to be with the wonderful people of Aveiro yesterday. God is good and it is wonderful to see God’s love and grace working in His people.

I want to be a person of grace. When we become people of grace we look like what the law tried to do by actions, but it could not produce heart transformations. When grace empowers our lives we don’t look like the world, but we don’t look like dead religion either. Religion looks disciplined, but it doesn’t look fun. The world looks fun, but it doesn’t look disciplined. God wants us to be fun and disciplined. He wants us to be real people, which is what both religion and the world try to do in their twisted ways. The world pretends to look happy, but they are not. The world pretends to look alive, but they are not. Religion pretends to look disciplined, but there is no life in their hearts. They are the great non-movement on planet earth. They are most often dead in the issues of true love. They are the thing that doesn’t do anything. They are the least late thing. The latest thing is sin. God wants the church to be the latest thing and the oldest thing. He wants us to be fun and He wants us to be disciplined because grace changes us from within our hearts and minds.

Colossians 2:18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

A relationship with Jesus is a relationship of life. He makes us come alive. A relationship with others is a relationship that makes them and us come alive. True life gives life. Life-giving connections nourish one another. Life-giving connections become strong and increases in life-giving and life-growing attributes. This is the true testimony of grace. God’s grace empowers us to reign in life.

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…

Jesus justified us to have life because He gave us His life. In order for there to be a judgment of mercy in a system of law there has to be a person of grace. Jesus did not pronounce mercy upon our lives because He was under the law. He pronounced mercy upon our lives 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 give mercy to those who are bound to a system of law or conscience. These are the ruling agents of those bound to an administration of the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. In order for us to do that, we to become people who are under the administration of the tree of life, an administration of grace. Because Jesus was a man of grace, He gave us redemption by His blood and the forgiveness of sin. He told us we are children of God. Our sins are forgiven and we have a Father who loves us.

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 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.

Jesus has given us an administration that is suitable to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on the earth. This word dispensation can also be translated administration. This is a way of governing our lives. This is not just a new season or a new time in history. It is a change of administration in the lives of people forever. It 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 both in heaven and upon the earth. There is no need for another administration ever! There is not another administration needed for Jews or Gentiles. It is sufficient for all people! It is the power of God’s grace working in human lives. It is an administration of light where God doesn’t just inform us, He transforms us. God’s grace empowers us to become like Jesus was as a man. When we join our lives together, we become the fullness of Him. By ourselves we are each a piece of His testimony of life, but together we are the fullness of Him. We are the body of Christ that fills all in all. We are above principalities, powers, thrones, dominions and names. We are part of His inheritance and the testimony of His calling by a demonstration of His power, because grace is Holy Spirit at work in us.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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.

Greetings,

Today I am in Portugal. I had a great weekend with several churches here. I am always blessed to be with my Christ Life family in Portugal. This week I will be preparing resource training material for the future steps of New Covenant Life and Grace for the Portuguese speaking people. I believe this will be a fruitful week.

Colossians 2: 16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

In this letter to the church of Colossians, Paul was dealing with people who are wrestling between law and promiscuity. How do I know? Paul was an apostle to gentiles, which meant the people he was sent to had no understanding of law so anything was allowed in their lives. Paul was bringing those people who believed that anything was ok into the reality of being children of God. His desire was to lead them into an intimate relationship with God and not a false security of adherence to the dead ways of law and legalism. God chose a man who was qualified to put them under the law. He was the best at keeping the law. Paul was formerly Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of Pharisees. Saul was an expert at keeping the law. He was the one who was killing those who were a blemish to the law. When he was persecuting the church, he wasn’t a deranged psychotic. He wasn’t a terrible, vile, wicked man. He was a godly man who had given his entire life to obey God. Jewish people were embracing Jesus faith. They were being empowered by grace and they were bold enough to say Jesus was the way. Saul measured them by what he knew. He passed a judgment on them. His judgement was that those of the sect of faith in Jesus were wrong! Saul’s thinking was likely: If you believe what these people are saying they will lead you into deception. They will lead you into death. God, I love you so much I am going to kill theses deceivers. The law says that if a prophet comes and gives you a sign or a wonder and it comes to pass but it leads you after another god, you shall not listen to that prophet or the dreamer of dreams but you shall kill that prophet with rocks (Deut. 13:1-5). Saul of Tarsus was obeying the Scripture to the best of his human knowledge when he was persecuting the church. In his mind, he was right and they were wrong! He was the light and they were the darkness. He was passionate and he was out to kill what was wrong.

There are people groups on earth right now that are living with the same passion. Clearly Islam in its extremity is out to destroy the infidels. They are out to remove what is wrong. They are not serial killers. They are not psychopaths. It is not that they don’t like you. They are trying to save the world. It is not a matter of you leaving them alone. It is a matter of you demonstrating what life looks like, and their rejection of what life can be without law. Although the physical killing of others is horrendous, there are ways of killing people spiritually. There are ways of killing people with the attitudes of our hearts, the words of our mouths, and the actions of our lives towards them. There are even Christians that do these things.

Grace and mercy torment those who hold on to the law. Where law is, there is no way out without mercy. Mercy lives where law remains and only mercy ends law. Without mercy, you cannot live in grace, but grace does not live where law lives and law does not live where grace lives. Only those who live in grace can give mercy to those who live in law, so they too can find grace – a place where law does not live. All things are lawful, but a revelation comes concerning what is helpful and beneficial.

There are places that I go in the world where I am opposed by good people who see my beliefs as detrimental to their beliefs. They pray against my meetings. The bind me up and seek to cast me out of their cities. I hope they pray in tongues. Maybe they do, because I still go to their cities where they have prayer meetings against me. They pray because they want to be people of law. They are not wicked or evil, they are simply right in their minds and in their minds I am wrong.

What is my posture? I cannot become a person of law against them. I must say, Jesus is being preached even if their motive is wrong. Jesus is being preached! It is not my job to change them. It is my job to be a person of light. It is my job to be life. We must be people of life.

Colossians 2:16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

This is wat these verses DO NOT say: If anyone seeks to judge you in regard to what you eat or drink, if anyone seeks to judge you in regard to keeping festivals or not, be sure you judge them for trying to make you do these things. Be sure you judge them for keeping these things in their lives. Be sure to get into a big debate with them and argue with them as to how they are wrong and how you are right. That will reap great fruit for you!

Do not let what anyone does to you or says about you change who you really are. If they don’t know Christ yet, they are simply practicing things that are not the truth of HIM. If they say they know Christ, but they act with religious legalism against you, they are simply bound to a limited understanding of grace.  Things established by law are simply a subtle substitute for the real thing. I promise the substitute will never satisfy! We must demonstrate what it looks like to be satisfied. People are not stupid. When one lives in darkness they can pretend it is light, but when light shines to the darkness it is recognized. We cannot put darkness out, it is already dark. We cannot kill death, it is already dead. All we can do is be life. Life transforms death to a testimony of life! The verse is not given to believers so they can justify a new way of living. It is given to believers so we can live and shine. It is not given to believers so we can debate with others who don’t live there yet. It is given to believers so we can shine as a light to those who are not there yet. It is not because we are better than those who are not there yet. We simply have a revelation. God did it! And God can do it for them too!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

I hope you all had a great Resurrection Sunday! We had a great time at Alife. Pastor Jonathan gave a wonderful word of not putting Jesus in a box. I am looking forward to growing in my relationship with Jesus in this season of my life. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Knowing Him is better than thinking we know something about Him.

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

It is true that pressure does make what is real manifest in our lives. So, should we get excited to invite undue pressure? Or should we say? It is time to arise and shine! It is not time to arise and judge. It is time to arise and demonstrate what true fathers and mothers look like, what true businesses look like, what true music sounds like, or what true art portrays.  All that we are and all that we do must become life-giving to the world. It must produce life-giving testimonies. We don’t need more movies that condemn the world. If we only aired good news on the radio and the television we could impact the world in a life-giving way. If we only told good news to our neighbors, we would change the world. If we simply broadcasted all the good news something good would happen. The world is not going to do that. I wonder if someone who is part of the church will?

We are waiting for people in darkness to speak as light. They live in darkness! They are not going to speak as the light, nor can we expect them to. They cannot see. They don’t need us to condemn them for their ways of darkness. They need us to demonstrate what it looks like when someone lives in the ways of light. We are waiting for people who live in darkness to speak light. They live in darkness and they are not going to speak light. They don’t need us to condemn their darkness. What if we became competitive with good news, good music, good art and everything that is good in life. I am not talking about old things or old sounds. I am not talking about safe business ideas. I am talking about radical ideas that have never been thought of before. I am talking about life-giving ideas with life-giving expression and life-giving sounds.

Grace always gives to others. It never takes from them. Mercy is given so you can be empowered by grace to give mercy to others. When we experience God’s mercy we can empower others to come into grace. Grace is working in our lives so we can be merciful to those who are in the law or to those who are bound to promiscuity. Grace doesn’t work in legalism or promiscuity. It works in the hearts and minds of those who have become hungry, willing, and teachable in and for the presence of Christ within their hearts. We don’t condone darkness nor do we condemn those who live in it. Darkness is already condemned. We simply look for a way to help people out of darkness, but we must first demonstrate light.

Isaiah 60:3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

People who do not understand God will be attracted to people of grace. People who don’t understand covenant will come and say, Wow! What is this? How can I get this? Even kings will come to the brightness of their rising. Wow! How does it work? How does this wellbeing for others thing happen? Where did this revolution come from? What are your ideas? I need some ideas! What are your ideas?

A dog barks like a dog, that is how we know it is a dog. If an animal sounds with a meow, it is likely a cat. If it clucks, it may be a chicken. If it moos, it might be a cow. We identify animals by their sounds. When a cow sounds like a cow we don’t say, why don’t you act like a lion? We don’t condemn a cow for being a cow. We don’t put a saddle on a lion and expect it to behave like a horse. In the same way, we cannot expect people who do not know God to act as though they do. We live in the world, but we are not of the world. We are to shine in the world, not to condemn the world for being darkness. What do we expect? People of grace don’t measure people in the world by law. They measure them by love!

Can we be the people of God? Can we become people of grace with one another? Can we become people of grace who show mercy to those who need mercy? Can we arise and shine and live for the wellbeing of others? The world is a mess, but now what is not a mess can manifest.

Isaiah 60:3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. 4 “Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. 5 Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.

When God’s people shine, the abundance of the world, the abundance of sinners, will be turned to brightness of their rising. The wealth of the gentiles is not just their money. It is their uniqueness. It is each and every one of them as they find the life of Christ. They are precious to God, even though they don’t understand that God is precious to them. God knows them, even though they don’t know Him. He wants them, even though they don’t yet desire Him. I don’t want the rich man’s money. I want the rich man, he knows how to make money. We must teach the rich man how to be a son of God. This can only be demonstrated for him to see. Being a son or daughter of God is more expensive than being able to make money, but as a son or a daughter of God you should also learn how to make money. We need the uniqueness of sinners as they are transformed by the internal kingdom of life! This is a testimony of grace. Living a grace empowered life empowers us to shine like light into the darkness!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Greetings;

I was blessed yesterday to speak at Alife Church here in Bellingham. It was good to be home and a blessing to speak to my church family. It is great to be a part of a life-giving community of grace!

Grace empowers each of us to live for the wellbeing of others. As dads and moms, we live for the wellbeing of our children. As a husbands and wives, I live for the wellbeing of our spouses. As citizens of God’s community, I live for the wellbeing of the community. As leaders, we live for the wellbeing of those we lead. As human beings, we live for the wellbeing of human kind. Grace is not about what we get from God. God’s grace empowers each of us to be someone who can give what God has given us for the sake of others. Mercy gets, but grace gives. If we say, ‘You cannot judge me because we are in a time of grace.’ ‘You cannot make a judgment of me, you have to tolerate me as I am. You must see me as I am and you cannot judge me.’ These statements are not the confessions of people of grace. These are the confessions of people who need mercy. People of grace don’t need others to not make a judgment of them for them to be givers of life.  You can judge me. It will not change who I am for you. As a matter of fact, when you judge me it will only challenge me to be a person of grace.

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

Grace is the power of God’s Spirit in our lives that transforms us, anoints us, and empowers us to live for the wellbeing of others. We are saved by grace, but salvation is not just going to heaven when we die. It is bringing the influence of heaven into our world. God’s grace is the power of His presence in our lives that overcomes all wickedness. Grace empowers us to overcome injustice with a justice system of love.

Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.

Something inside of us is coming out of us. The glory of the Lord has risen upon us. This is an amazing verse concerning God’s heart for His children. As little children, we know that our sins are forgiven and we have Father who loves us. This is a testimony of God’s mercy and it ends our past and justifies us to live. Our sins are forgiven and we have a Father who loves us, but the goal is to become like Our Father when we grow up. Our aim is to mature to be fathers and mothers in the faith. Fathers have known Him from the beginning. Being a father or a mother is becoming like the One we know and living for the same purpose found within His heart. We live for the family. The goal of each member in the community of God is to become like Him. We live for the Father’s will. The Father’s will is to raise sons and daughters who know they are the children of God. The process of becoming fathers and mothers involves being young men or young woman who embrace the life transforming work of God’s grace in their lives. Young men and women in the community of God grow in maturity to overcome the wicked one. They are strong in the Lord and strong in His word. They are not merely strong in Scripture memory, but strong in being the substance of His word. They have overcome the wicked one. Isaiah 60:1 describes this. Who He is, empowers us to be transformed by grace that we might arise and shine in a world of darkness!

Isaiah 60:2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.

God’s glory does not arise upon us so we can be empowered to condemn the world. We are not becoming people of grace so we can measure people in the world by our grace. True people of grace show mercy to those in the world, but they do not expect them to act as though they have the power of God’s grace working in their lives. The glory of God will rise upon us, but we must be willing to embrace what He is doing for the process of grace to be fully experienced in our lives.

I believe we often misunderstand grace when we fail to realize that there are two realities in the earth. One reality is that of the nations of the world. The second is that of being a citizen of heaven sent as an ambassador to the world. The nations of the world are in darkness and they are bound to an administration of a knowledge of good and evil. Citizens of heaven are children of light and they live in the freedom of an administration of the tree of life. It is not our job to condemn the world for being in darkness. We are not to get angry when people in the world act like people of darkness. We cannot measure world citizens or world leaders by the kingdom of God. We cannot measure people in the world to see if they are like Jesus. They are part of the kingdoms of the world. Sometimes people in the world do act like Jesus in some way and not in another way, but they aren’t Jesus. What do we tell our children about people in the world and about worldly leaders in our countries? We tell them they are not Jesus, but they are people who are trying to figure things out. We tell them we are God’s family and it is not our job to measure people in the world by what they are or are not. It is our job to arise and shine! It is our job to demonstrate what Jesus looks like to a world in darkness! God so loved the world that He did not condemn the world, but sent His Son to give life to all men. The world already does a good job of condemning itself. Jesus came to free all humanity from condemnation and the power of condemnation. In the world there is darkness, and the people in the world are in the great darkness, but God has delivered us from the power of darkness and He has conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

Children of God demonstrate what it looks like to live for the wellbeing of others. We cannot expect people in the world to live for our wellbeing. We cannot expect the leaders of the world to act as Christ. Give me a leader that simply agrees with something of the direction of God in my life, but the truth is our countries needs each of us more than we need our countries. The world needs us more than we need the world. We are the light of the world. The glory of the Lord has risen upon us. The people in the world are in deep darkness, but we are the light! Walk as children of light!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson