The Sabbath Is Holy

Posted on September 12, 2016 by ted4you

Greetings,

Today I am writing from Bellingham. It is great to be home after being on the road for some time. I was blessed to speak at Everyone’s Church yesterday, but grateful that it was only a thirty-minute journey from my home. Family is great and I am a rich man with a wonderful wife, children and grandchildren around me. I am blessed!

Once again, I am going to continue on the topic of honor in the community of God. The Old Covenant revealed a shadow of the goodness we experience in Christ. What we have often thought of as ten commandments are a great description of a culture of honor. We must first see God for who He is. Honor is an action and an attitude that we express towards someone when we recognize who they are. Honor lives in the realm of truth and in the realm of love. It is a culture of nobility, of giving. God is first and He is the best. He is our deliverer, the One who gives us freedom. We have no other life sources. We give to Him first and we give Him our best. It is our way of life. It is a testimony of who we are.

We don’t worship anything that we create. We respond to who God is because we know who we are. We are expressions of Him. We don’t worship Him because He needs anything from us. We don’t even worship Him because we need something from Him. We don’t worship Him from insecurity, but security. He is good with us. He loves us. We respond to Him by telling Him we love Him. He walks into our room and gives gifts of His goodness. He changes our worlds.

We recognize that there is no separation between His world and ours. We are an expression of Him. We don’t take His name in vain. We honor His character, nature, way, power, and authority in all that we are and do. We are who we are for the testimony of who He is. It is part of our purpose. We are who we are and who we are is a testimony of His name.

A fourth attribute of culture of honor is found in Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

In the original creation the purpose of the Sabbath was not for man to rest from his labor, because man had not done any work. Man was created on day six and had not seen a day of work yet when the Sabbath day was created. Man’s first day was God’s seventh day in the creation of the earth. Man wasn’t looking for a break. He wasn’t thinking; My goodness, that was hard work! Wow, what a week! I am exhausted! I need a day off! Man hadn’t done any work yet! God had done all the work. The Sabbath wasn’t about working or not working for man.

The Sabbath day was about an experience with God. God was looking for a place to rest. Man’s week was about to begin, but God determined a place for His presence to rest in the earth. That place was with men. A new week was about to happen where man would have to work and God wanted man’s first experience to be one of God’s favor, blessing, and manifested presence. God wanted man’s first experience with Him to be one of no shame, no condemnation and no separation from Him. His heart towards each and every man could be expressed as: You haven’t earned anything. You haven’t worked hard to get Me to love you. You haven’t done anything. You haven’t accomplished a great business or established a great church or ministry. You haven’t plowed any fields or planted any crops. There are many animals and they don’t have any names. There is plenty to do, but it is not time to do anything yet. You need to know who I and you are first before I put you to work. There is something more important than a job. It is not about being lazy, but about being filled with My presence in order to accomplish your purpose. My presence in your life is going to give you vision, focus, energy, and great passion.

God’s presence in your life is going to determine what you do in life. What you do in life is not going to determine God’s presence in your life. In all that you do, you cannot make God better or worse. God doesn’t need you to rest from something you have not done or even done. He does not need to rest, but He wants to rest with you so that you can know true freedom and life. It is from that refreshing place that you can do anything. You will be able to do exceedingly way beyond anything you could ask or think. Even on a day that looks like God is asleep, He has more power than the fiercest dragon in all the earth. God wants you to know Him in His weakest moment in your life. He wants you to know Him from a place of contentment so you can know Him in any place of desperation that may come. He wants to rest in your life. If you know that God rests in your life and you go to work you are not going to work really hard so He will approve of you. You aren’t going to strive to gain His favor. You already have His approval. You already have His favor. He lives in your house. He lives in your world. He wants you to do great things, but you do not do things to please Him because He is not pleased with you. You do things to please Him because you have a revelation of how pleased He already is with you. This is the Sabbath day and it is holy to the Lord. The Sabbath is an experience with Him as a person.

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

Posted in #honor, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod | 2 Comments

True To His Name

Posted on September 6, 2016 by ted4you

Greetings;

I have just finished a great week in Wales, Oldham, England, and a weekend in Clay Cross, England. Sorry for the late blog posting, but internet connection was a problem when I needed to post the blog. God is good and it a blessing to see His presence, goodness, and blessing at work in the lives of people around the world. Yesterday I was at a wedding of a daughter of a good friend here. It should be a great day!

Last week I addressed the honor of knowing who we are in the purpose of God. We bear His family name and we must never take His name in vain. Sometimes we think that just adding His name to certain things we say or do is the magic formula for His blessing, but His name is really the character, nature, way, power, and authority in all that we are and do. We should realize that everything we do we do as Him, not merely for Him. Everything that Jesus did as a man He did as a testimony of who His Father was in heaven.

I believe that we do a lot of things in Jesus name that are not in his name. Jesus did everything that the Father told Him to do, but the Father didn’t tell Him often. Most of the time He simply did what He saw the Father doing. He only did those things which were true to the character, nature, way, power, and authority of His Father in heaven. His expressions in life were a testimony of the family name. He didn’t do things that were not true to the character, nature, way, power, and authority of His Father. When he did something it was the Father doing it. He would heal a sick person and you would know that the Father heals. I don’t find any place where Jesus said be healed in the name of the father. He never said, In the name of the Father, bread be multiplied!  In the name of the Father, go get the water and bring it to me. In the character, nature, way, power, and authority of the Father, water be wine. He didn’t give that explanation. He didn’t hang on the cross and say, in the name of the Father be forgiven. He simply forgave and it was true to His Father’s way. The substance of who He was rang true to the substance of who His Father was. He understood the testimony of the family name!

In the way that Jesus represented His Father’s name He also never misrepresented the Father. His desires and actions were true to the legitimate character of God. He never said, Father do you want me to stop loving them?  That would be an illegitimate question. Father do you want me to forgive them? That would be an illegitimate question for a Son of God to ask His dad. So if a child of God asks their father; do you want me to forgive them? That is not a question for a child of God to ask. It is not true to the character, nature, way, power or authority of God the Father. Father, do you want me to forsake them now? That is not a question a child of God would ask God. We have a Father who will never leave us or forsake us. Questions invoking the breaking of covenants or the forsaking of love are not questions a child of God should ask.

We have this thing we do to justify the flaw in our character. We say, be healed in Jesus Name, be multiplied in Jesus Name, or be forgiven in Jesus Name. Jesus didn’t say that if we forgive people in His name they will be forgiven. He said if we forgive people they will be forgiven. If we are busy adding His name to things we think are in His name pretty soon we start doing things we want and we add His name to it. I forsake you, in Jesus name. I abandon my children and no longer work, in Jesus name. I cannot forgive you, in Jesus name. I curse you, in Jesus name. I despise you, in Jesus name. I command you off the face of the planet, in Jesus name. I declare there is no future and hope for you again, in Jesus name. Be possessed, in Jesus name. Be sick, in Jesus name. None of these things can possibly be in Jesus name! Sky be purple, in Jesus name. Drug addiction be not harmful, in Jesus name. Adultery be not harmful, in Jesus name. After all I made a mistake. I married the wrong partner in my name, there is the right one, in Jesus name. The four children that I have with four different women was in my name, but this new one is surely in Jesus name. I want to try it new and just have sex a couple of times, in Jesus name. It is ok! I know, I have the Spirit of God and I feel in love. I was deceived before, but I love this one and in the sight of God we are already in Jesus name. These are all ridiculous confessions that are indicative of ridiculous thinking. We must remember who we are! We are the family of God and we must not take His name in vain!

What is God saying? I want you to have a culture of honor. I want you to know who I am. I want you to know who you are. I want you to know the effect of us together in all that you are and do. These are not commandments. These are realities of who we are. I still say in Jesus name but to be honest I think that it is often a religious form. It is not necessarily wrong to say, but I think I have done some things that weren’t in His name and I blamed Him and I added Jesus name to it. I am not saying to stop saying in Jesus name, but It is really in Jesus name? There is not anything about our lives that is not about His name. Let’s not take His name in vain! In this we can expect His kingdom to come and His will to be done upon the earth, because we are His family. We are His family and as He is holy, so are we!

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

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

Taking His Name In Vain

Posted on August 29, 2016 by ted4you

Greetings,

Today I am writing from Wales, where I am blessed to be with good friends of many years. Sometimes the best days are the simple days of lasting friendship. Thanks to Graham and Chris for your long-lasting love. Thanks to John and Margaret for many years of covenant life!

I want to continue today on the topic of honor in the culture of a Christ-life community. I have addressed the love of God and our worship that expresses our love for Him. Beyond the value of worship, God inspires us to be empowered by a value of His will. His will has to do with the purpose of His name and our purpose with Him as a testimony of His name.

Exodus 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain…”

What does it mean to not take the Lord’s name in vain? When we know who He is, we know that He gives us salvation and He gives us the freedom of Life. We know that He is the first and He is the best. We cannot help but love Him, when we experience the truth of His love to us! Worshipping Him inspires us to know who we are because of Him. When we know who we are, we live as an expression of Him. All that we are is a testimony of Him. What we say, how we act, what we do – these are all expressions of Him. Jesus instructed us to seek a face-to-face intimacy with God as our Father in heaven.

Matthew 6:9-10  In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name (Holy is Your Name). Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Where is heaven? Heaven is inside of our hearts. The kingdom of heaven is within us. It comes through our hearts.

Luke 17:20-21 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

When we pray to ‘Our Father in heaven’; and for His kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are calling His testimony from within us. There is no such thing as God’s world and our world. It is all His world. Jesus came to reestablish His name so we will no longer take it in vain. His kingdom is a testimony of His character, nature, way, power, and authority manifest in all that we are and do. When we speak bad of ourselves or others we are speaking bad of Him. When I speak bad of myself, I speak bad of you; and when I speak bad of you, I speak bad of me. I don’t have my kingdom and you yours. It is our kingdom and our kingdom is His kingdom. He doesn’t want to tell us what to do or how to act. He doesn’t want to train us like parrots to simply say what He wants us to say or do what He tells us to do. He wants us to be like Him, because we are of Him. He is our Father and we are His children! His name is our family name! He wants us to know that we are His praise! We are the excellence of His name in all that we are and do. Praising God is not using the words, as we often say, ‘Praise God’. True praise is becoming the excellence of us for His glory. We are not just the worship of God; we are His purpose in the earth. We are His word. We are His name. We are His inheritance. We must not take it in vain. We must not forget who we are. We must never do something out of the character of God and blame Him. He is a covenant keeper so we must never break covenant and then tell people He told us to do it. We cannot do something that is not true to His character and then blame a voice that motivates our attitude or actions to exhibit something contrary to the way He is as something inspired by God.

When believers do something that is not true to God’s character they will often hear a voice and be convinced that it is God, but expressions of God are true to the character of who God is. We cannot ask illegitimate questions and expect to get legitimate answers. If we ask God a question that is not true to the character of who He is, we will hear an illegitimate answer. Illegitimate questions sound like: God, do you want me to be unfaithful? God, do you want me to let a hater of the brothers into my house? God, do you want me to break covenant? Sometimes the questions are cloaked in a more deceptive way, but these kind of questions are not questions that can be asked. They are not questions to ask, because they are not questions God will answer.  When we ask these kind of questions we will hear a voice, we will believe that we are justified, we will believe we are right and they are wrong, we will believe that we deserve a break from our commitments and connections in some way. The thought process in the answers we position ourselves to hear sounds like: They’re not meeting my needs anyway.

What is God doing? These kind of questions present the truth that we are willing to take God’s name in vain.

If we are willing to do something that is not true to the character of God we must be willing to compromise, because we have asked an illegitimate question. If we ask God something that He has already forbidden in his word it is an illegitimate question and we will receive an illegitimate answer. When we know who God is and when we know who we are, we will act according to the greatness of our family name!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

Worship God From a Place of Abundance

Posted on August 22, 2016 by ted4you

Greetings,

Today I am in Spain. I will be teaching this week on New Covenant Realities. We had a great start today with hungry hearts and a loving Father who wants to visit us with His presence and impart His life to us in amazing ways. This is always a delightful and challenging week for the students here at G42. I know that we will have some more ambush times with God and some transformational revelations of His goodness and love.

I have been writing on a culture of honor and today I want to finish on the topic of worship in the culture of honor to God. As I have stated, God does not need us to worship Him. When we sing songs to Him in a service He doesn’t need for us to worship Him. We need to worship Him. We need to recognize who we are. We are an expression of Him. So we give the expression of who we are as a testimony of love to Him. When we do this it changes our world, because He is able to be Himself with us and the blessings of heaven begin to fill our lives. We are not limited by the inherited iniquities of our fathers because God is able to come into our midst and He is a jealous God. He wants to give to us the life-giving, life-transforming substance of who He is. When we recognize that He is the giver we say to Him, “Here we are. We live for you! We worship You! We like being ourselves. We have a great life. Look at what You have done! You created us in your likeness and image. We sing songs to you! We live out loud as an expression of the life of You. We don’t worship to get anything from You!” When we love God like this in spirit and truth, God in His jealousy says, “Wow! I love being Myself with you. I like it when I can be Myself! I love being able to walk into the room and not be resisted in My giving. I love environments where the things coming off of Me are not being thrown back at Me. I love being able to walk into a room and my gifts are not being rejected. I love walking into the room where cheeks are not turning to avoid My kisses. I love walking into My family where their arms are open to receive my hugs and when I hug them the aroma of My perfume sticks on you. The marks of My kisses remain upon you. The gifts that I give become packages to be opened in your midst and heavenly things become discovered in your earthly territory. That is what happens in this worship environment upon the earth. I am not lacking! I don’t lack anything. I am not formless void and dark. I have no emptiness in Me. You cannot give me anything that fills some place in My life. There is nothing missing in Me. You cannot give Me anything that will fill something missing in Me. There is nothing missing in Me! Would you get a revelation? There is nothing missing in you! I like you! Would you look with the eyes that I see and freely give of yourself from security, not from insecurity? Worship is about security. It is not about a need. It is a matter of abundance. You lack nothing!”

In worship our hearts become open to God. The atmosphere of our hearts and minds confess that we don’t lack approval. We do not lack identity. Here we are! We have been carved in the likeness and image of God. “We worship You God! We give all we are to You! We feel good about ourselves but we feel better about You! You make us feel so good! You move our hearts!”

Worship is not coming to God from a place of lack, it is coming to God from abundance and God coming to us in the abundance of who He is. What happens when a family becomes a family of abundance and begins to live in a value of who they are for the sake of who He is?  We are a family that should value who we are and realize we don’t come to God because we need anything from Him. We are not in this family because we need anything. We are in this family because we have been born into this community and we have come to give of who we are in the testimony of who we all are for the glory of God!

When this happens, God the Father says, “Wow! Yes! Let me walk among you. Let Me be the giver, the jealous One, the One who has treasures, rivers, and light streaming from Me. Let me walk in your midst and let me take what you think is good and make it amazing! Let me take what you think is wonderful and make it phenomenal!

When we worship things and think that created things give us identity or a sense of value in some way, when bring a spirit of lack into our gatherings. We begin to look at what is not happening. We begin to look at how our needs are not being met and in doing so we redefine who we are. It doesn’t start with us thinking it is about us. It starts with us measuring others by what doesn’t match our own likeness and image. We then begin to think that we have come together to get what is missing in our lives fulfilled. This is the atmosphere of disappointment and offense. When our brother or our sister doesn’t look at us today and we think, “if they really knew who I am they would have looked at me”. The truth is, if we knew who we are it wouldn’t matter if they looked at us or not, because we would have come to look at them. God understands this. He knows who He is and He knows that worship is not about what we get. It is about what we give. God wants us to enter into the life-transforming reality of a culture of true worship.

Another word for worship is love. Didn’t God love us first? We need to get a revelation of God’s love. He really loves us! Did He love us? Did He love us before we did anything right? What about when we did everything wrong, did He still love us? Did He say, “don’t you dare ever come into My house when there are things wrong in your life?” No He said, “come – you are My house! Don’t worry, if there are any shameful things in your life they will all fall away when I walk into the room. Everything changes when I walk into your midst!

In the midst of worshipping God our world is redefined. A culture of honor is a culture of worship, but worship is never based upon need. We do not worship God because He needs us to worship Him. We do not worship God because we need anything from Him. We worship God because we know that who we are an expression of Him. When we do this He amazes us, because our good world becomes a phenomenal one and we become even better expressions of Him!

We do not understand worship because we were busy carving things in the likeness and image of our lack ­– our insecurities. What will happen when the members of God’s family are no longer insecure?  My grandchildren are secure and worship happens in our house in a sense when my grandchildren express their worship to God in their worship of me. Don’t hear this wrong. We do not worship human beings, but there is an expression of our love and worship for God when we have a right attitude in our love for one another. I give gifts to my grandchildren, but they do not love the gifts that I give more than they love me. My grandson was outside one day and I called on Face Time on the phone while away on a trip. He could see me, although I was thousands of miles away. When I went to say goodbye he was some ways away and my wife asked him if he wanted to say goodbye to his grandpa; he ran across the yard, grabbed the phone and hugged it. He didn’t get anything from the phone. He didn’t come to get anything; he came to give me a hug. He didn’t hug me because he was feeling bad about himself. He didn’t do it to get his needs met. It was like worship. His act of love was a confession to say, “I know who you are grandpa.” I was on the phone a few days earlier He said, Opa, I want you home. Sometimes he calls me on the phone and takes the phone in his bedroom and we play with his trucks. He is not getting anything from me. He just has an image of me. He is not getting anything from me. He is sharing his trucks with me. He is sharing his imagination with me. He is giving himself to me and it makes him come alive when he does. When I make truck noises on the phone it makes his imagination go wild. He loves our conversations, even on the phone. Although we are not together my face and my voice make him come alive. I will say, “does that fire ladder rescue cats? Yes, it rescues cats, Opa.” That is relationship! Worship is a culture of honor. So God made it look like a commandment but it’s not a commandment. it is part of our identity. We love Him, so we worship Him!

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

Posted in #honor, #newcovenant, 2016 | Comments Off on Worship God From a Place of Abundance

Worship – Allowing God to be Himself!

Posted on August 15, 2016 by ted4you

Greetings;

Wow! My daughter Joanna married the love of her life, Patrick, this past Saturday. What a great day it was and what a blessing to see my daughter begin the amazing adventure of love, marriage, and all the blessings of a new household for the testimony of life! I am a blessed man and we are a blessed family! Life is good and God makes it good!

Today I am going to continue again on the topic of worship in a culture of honor. God doesn’t command us to worship because He needs us to worship Him. When He commanded men to worship Him He was identifying a key element in a culture of honor. We need to worship Him. We need to recognize who He is. We also need to recognize who we are. He is the one who gives us salvation, but we are expressions of Him. He loves us, so that we can love Him. We worship Him! Worship of God is a core value in a culture of honor.

Paul said in Acts chapter 17 that God is not worshipped in temples made of stone. He’s not worshipped with things that are carved by the hands of man. God does not need anything from anyone, but He is the one who gives life, He gives breath, and He gives all things. Paul said that even their own Greek poets had said that God is the father of all flesh. In Him we live and move and have our being.

Acts 17: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their reappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.

Worship is not about giving God something. It is about allowing Him to be Himself with us and we ourselves with Him. It is all about the full presence of God and the full presence of us in a testimony of truth. It is being real with Him in an atmosphere of love and letting Him do the same with us. When we worship God we create an atmosphere where we can freely receive all that God desires to give to us. He gives us life, breath, and all things. When His presence fills our presence, our lives are changed! God knows this and this is why He has put it within us to worship Him.

When we find ourselves in an isolated lonely place and we recognize who He is and we give our lives to Him, it changes our isolated lonely place to a place where He lives. This is recognizing who He is. In a culture of honor, we don’t just see Him as the first and the best, but we also recognize who we are. The first thing I wrote about was to recognize who He is. We give Him the first and the best because salvation and the liberty of life come from Him. In the expression of worship, we see Him for who He is and we also see ourselves for who we are with Him. The ambiance of worship is love, life, honor, gratitude, thankfulness, awe, and all the expressions of life that exhibit freedom, liberty, and love.

Worship is about recognizing who I am. Who am I? I am an expression of Him. I am a testimony of His love, so I love Him. I am His worship. I don’t need to carve anything; I am the carving. I value who I am so I give all that I am to the One who says I Am who I Am. It changes my world! It changes my isolated separated place to the house of God.

Do you remember Jacob? Jacob was sleeping in an isolated separated place, but then he saw in a dream who he was. He saw a ladder and angels were ascending and descending and He realized that he was the gate of heaven. He realized the place where he was sleeping was the really house of God and he took the rock that was a pillow and turned it into a pillar. He anointed it with oil and he called it the house of God; the place that worships God! This is true individuals, families, and corporate communities of God. We are each an opening for the gate of heaven in the earth. We are expressions of who God His to see all the substance of a heavenly Father revealed in our earthly habitations in this world.

Genesis 28:10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” 18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, 21 so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. 22 And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Giving a tenth (tithe) to God is a prophetic response of love. Ten is a symbolic number for a judgment of love. Our responses to God are meant to be nothing less than a judgment of love. He loves us and we cannot help but love Him for who He is with all that we are. Worship is simply an expression of life to the one who gives life and it activates more of God’s life in the place where we reside. Worshipping God in our lives changes our world!

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

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

Honor in Worship

Posted on August 8, 2016 by ted4you

Greetings;

Today I am just finishing a wonderful weekend in Deming, New Mexico. God was very good! Thanks so much to my Deming church family. You guys are great. Pastor Cesar is doing a great job and God is moving in Deming.

Let me continue today with another aspect of honor. I have addressed the need to honor God as the first and the best in all things. Abel was a man who understood this principle of honor. The life that Abel lived opened the door for the life that came through Jesus Christ. It was not the death of Abel, but the life of Abel. Abel gave God the first and he gave God the best. This His attitude and actions of love for God opened the door for God to be who He is among men, the first and the best. At the death of Abel his blood cried out for the blood of Jesus to redeem the nations and generations of men! Jesus was the first and the best for all of mankind, but the honor that Abel showed to God opened the door for the gift of life that came to all men through Jesus Christ.

In Exodus chapter 20 we have what is often called Ten Commandments, but I believe that they are really the ingredients found in a culture of honor. In any culture of honor, honor must be given where honor is due. Our honor is first to God, for He is the One who brings salvation and the liberty of life in every way. He is the deliverance from every form of death in our lives. He is the source of life for our families. He is the source of all of our ways in life. It is His kingdom and His will that is paramount in all things because He is the source of all things. Everything that we do, we do first to honor Him. Even when we are confident and bold in the things that we know we must confess that the source of our confidence is that we have discovered that God is the source of our will. We are becoming a letter written by Him. A letter written by His Holy Spirit in our hearts and in our minds. We cannot just do anything we want to do in life, we first want to honor Him in our wills and actions in life. When we honor Him, He gives us desires that match what He wants. In Exodus 20:4 we see second value found in a culture of honor.

Exodus 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

These verses are about worship. God does not need for us to worship Him. We need to worship Him. Our worship determines what happens to our world, not His. The environment of heaven is nothing but the fullness of life, so our worship is not to make heaven great. Our worship brings the heavenly things of God into the earthly world we live in. Whatever we worship determines the environment of our world. If we worship an image of something created, our world becomes an expression of something created. If we worship the Creator our world becomes an expression of the Creator. The Creator doesn’t tell us to worship Him because He needs something from us. He doesn’t need anything from mankind. He is a jealous God, but He is not jealous in the way that we view jealousy. When we think of jealousy we often think in thoughts like: “I wish had what you have”; “I wish I could get what you have”; “I am really jealous.” If I said to my wife, “Honey I am jealous of you. You are giving your love to other places and you should give it to me.” This is not how God thinks. God doesn’t need anything from us. God is not jealous because He is not getting something from us. He is jealous because we are not allowing Him to give to us all that He desires to give us. When we fail to worship Him, we bind Him from being Himself in our lives. God is not a taker; He is a giver! He is not lacking so that He needs our worship. He has too much to overflowing. When we worship Him He gives us all that He has, not because He is giving us a payment for worshipping Him. He gives to us because we have discovered who He is. When we worship Him we are allowing Him to be Himself in our lives. Instead of giving our love to something that is taking our love, something that needs our love, we are giving love to someone who appreciates our love. When we love Him, He extravagantly loves us because He is honoring us for our love for Him. When we give our worship to God we inspire Him to say, “WOW! I know who you are. Here – this is who I am. Wow! You didn’t have to do that. I don’t have to either, but here let me give of who I am to you. You are being yourself with Me. You are giving our yourself to Me. I am a jealous God. I have always wanted to be Myself with you. Let me give of myself to you. You are being yourself with Me. I want to be myself with you. I have always wanted every opportunity to be myself with you. I have always wanted to give you my love; to give you my blessing.”

We don’t worship Him to get His blessing. We worship Him to be like Him. We are the likeness and image of God, but when we create an image and worship it we are declaring that we can only worship what is like us or what we like. We are declaring that we can only be in relationship with what looks like us. With this, the greatest world we can create is a world that looks like us in whatever image we have seen it to be. We can only create a world in whatever image we have carved. Our world is limited to our own vision and abilities. Whether it is things on earth, in heaven, or in the sea; we are limited to a world that we can create. Whatever we give our lives to is what we worship. Whatever we worship determines the world that we live in because whatever we worship gives its life back to us. This is why the iniquities of the fathers come upon the children, because the illegitimate worship of humanity is less than the values of the Father, God. The weaknesses of our hearts cannot see the greatness of God brought into our world, therefore God must visit our iniquities to transform our worlds by the goodness of His strength.

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

Posted in #honor, #newcovenant, Relationship | Comments Off on Honor in Worship

Honor and Consequence

Posted on August 1, 2016 by ted4you

Greetings,

Today I am headed home after being in the Trail, BC. and Castlegar BC for the weekend. God was very good and the people were very hungry. My son Jonathan ministered with me and we got to tag team as a generational blessings and impartation to the community here. I am believing for MORE here of what has always been wonderful in Christ.

I am going to continue with the topic of honor and God’s plan to show honor to someone who was not honorable to Him. Cain loved the ground more than he did God so God in His love made it so Cain could not attach to the ground easily. He would be a wanderer in the earth. These consequences were not meant to kill him. God did not want him to die. He didn’t want anything or anyone to kill him. So God put a mark on him so that no one would kill him. I believe that mark was a mark of consequence. God’s thinking was, “As long as you continue in this course of direction Cain, there is a consequence. The consequence is there because I want you to be alive. I don’t want you to die. I don’t want anyone to kill you. I want you to turn and to see honor. I want you to come to Me. I am putting a mark on you. I am cursing the thing that you love more than Me so you cannot easily attach to it. I am placing upon you a mark of consequence so you will get a revelation. I want your heart to be able to say, ‘You are the Lord my God. You are the source of my life!’”

Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. Did God kick him out? No! What would be the condition of not leaving? The condition would be to turn and come back to the place of honor and recognize that God is first and God is best, which is what Abel saw. It was not a law! It was a testimony to the source of life. Honor opens the door to life. The ground should honor Cain and give its strength to Cain, but the ground could not give honor to Cain because Cain was not giving honor to God. So what did Cain’s life end up looking like? He went on a journey of wandering. He went to a land of wandering (Nod). This place of wandering was no longer in Eden, a place meaning “desirable”, a place of intimacy and relationship with God. It was not in a place of relationship with God. He had a child named Enoch – meaning ‘dedicated’. He then built a city, a big empire, a business, something he created. He named it Enoch, ‘dedicated’. He became ‘dedicated’ to what he could do. All of his family was dedicated to what they could do. If you follow the journey of the genealogy of the descendants of Cain you will find a descendant named Leech. Lamech means, ‘mighty power belongs to God’. This man was known for sining the song of bitterness to those around him in life.

Genesis 4:19-24 Then Lamech took for himself two wives:the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal- Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal- Cain was Naamah. Then Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy- sevenfold.

Lamech had three wives and it doesn’t say that he produced children, but his wives bore children. These children were merchant traders of livestock, creators of music and culture, and industrialists of bronze and iron. By all the standards of the world the family of Cain became entrepreneurs, artists, and inventors of new things. They became those who did all the great things that human beings do without God. They were the most successful people on the entire planet, but they didn’t know who they were because they didn’t know who God was. They ended up dying in the flood.

But after the death of Abel, Adam and Eve had another son. His name was Seth, meaning ‘fresh appointment’. Seth had a son named Enosh, meaning ‘mortal man’ – ‘I know I am going to die someday’.  At that time men who knew they would die someday turned and began to pray to God.

Genesis 4:25-26 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.

If you follow that family line they also produced an Enoch – ‘dedicated’. While the great city of Enoch of Cain existed upon planet earth there was also a humble man named Enoch and he walked with God.

Genesis 4:19-24 After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty- two years; and he died. Enoch lived sixty- five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty- five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

One day Enoch got so close to God’s house and he just stayed with Him. The dedication of his life was one of intimacy with God. His focus was on God, who is the first and best. Enoch honored the one who gives life and he didn’t die. He had a son named Methuselah, the oldest living human being on planet earth.

Genesis 4:25-27 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty- seven years, and begot Lamech. After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty- two years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty- nine years; and he died.

The descendants of Seth through Methuselah end up producing another man named Lamech. There were two Lamechs on planet earth at the same time. One was tremendously successful. The other was very significant. The significant one had his eyes focused in the right place. He had a son named Noah whose name means ‘rest’.

Genesis 4:28-29 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty- two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.

God found a man that He could rest in and thus when He flooded the earth He said He could rest in the family of Noah. He would destroy the earth, but where He rests it would be new again. The heart of the Father was towards the children and the hearts of children towards the Father. What was God looking for? He was looking for a family. He wasn’t looking for entrepreneurs, musicians, or industrialists. God wasn’t looking for successful people who were dedicated to conquer the earth. He was looking for a family who could inherit the earth. He was looking for a family of honor who would honor Him for who He was and the earth could honor them for who they were in the earth. God could rest there. God was looking for the family who knew who He is and who they are in the earth. This is the place of honor. The future of the earth rests there.

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

Posted in #honor, #newcovenant, 2016 | Comments Off on Honor and Consequence

How Does A Father Restore Honor?

Posted on July 25, 2016 by ted4you

Greetings;

It’s another great day in the Northwest of the U.S. Pastor Jonathan did a great job yesterday and the presence of Holy Spirit and the family of God was wonderful. It is great to be a part of the community of God. I am looking forward to being with some Canadian friends this coming weekend. I know God is going to do good things.

If you read the story in Genesis chapter 4 you will find how a Father who is honorable deals with a son who has been dishonorable. God looked at the situation and He realized that the only way He could bring honor to a dishonorable reality was by doing something that would bring the dishonorable individual back to the source of honor. Cain could not honor God and he could not honor his brother Abel, because he honored the work of his hands more than he honored the Creator. Honor is love. It is a testimony of recognizing who someone is. God said to Cain, “Didn’t I tell you if you do good all would be well.”

Genesis 4:7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

Cain fell for the sin that was at his door and now God cursed the ground for Cain’s sake. God did not curse Cain. He cursed the place of dishonor. The thing that was being honored above God was cursed for Cain’s sake. Creation was being honored above the Creator. God wanted his son Cain to discover the Creator.

Genesis 4:10-12 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”

The earth would no longer give its strength to Cain. It would no longer honor him. God did not curse Cain. He cursed the thing that Cain was attached to. He cursed the place of dishonor in Cain’s life. He cursed the ground for Cain’s sake. God wanted Cain to turn and attach to the One who gives life and liberty. He wanted Cain to see his own need for who God was in his life. God did not care if the sin was great, because God is the one who frees all men from sin. He is the one who brings us out of Egypt; He brings us out of darkness. God is the one who sets us at liberty. It was not too late for Cain. God wanted Cain to discover honor, but it was dishonorable for Cain to love the ground more than the place of honor. So now the place the Cain loved was cursed for his sake. It would no longer honor him. God’s hope was that Cain would turn and honor God so that honor would be restored in his life and the curse would be broken in the earth. But Cain said, “This is too much for me!”

Genesis 4:13-14 And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”

Cain said, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. This is more than I can bear. Why are You so judgmental in my life? Why have you made a decision about me God as though I have no good opinion? Why are you speaking curses over things that I am doing?” Cain might have been thinking, “Why are you cursing me?” But God was not cursing Cain. Cain said, “Surely you have driven me out from the face of the ground and I will be hidden from Your face. Anyone who finds me will kill me.”

Did God say he would be hidden from His face? No, He did not. Sin did not separate God from Cain. It separated Cain from God. God still recognized who Cain was. He said, “Sin is at your door, if you do honorably it will be well with you.” God did not say, “Cain go away from me! I never want to see you again!” God created an environment that said, “Cain, I do not approve of your focus. I cannot bless what you are focusing on. I am making a judgment on your behalf. I have cursed what you are focusing on so you will turn and focus upon what you should be focusing on. I don’t want your world to be cursed, but unless you turn your heart to the Father you cannot recognize that the heart of the Father is already towards you.” God was thinking, “Cain I know who you are. You are the first. You are the best, but you do not know who you are. Now you are a taker. You are looking to find things in order to take things from the earth to make you strong. You are looking to take honor to make you strong. But strength doesn’t come from what you can take. Honor is not something you take from anyone or anything. I am the Lord your God who brings you out of Egypt, out of darkness, out of bondage – you shall have no other God’s before Me. I am your source. I am the giver of life. I want you to turn towards inheritance.” So Cain says, “This is too much! I will die!”

Genesis 4:16-17 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son — Enoch.

God’s curse upon the ground was an act of honoring Cain. As long as Cain attached to the ground he was going to be attaching to something that could not give him life. God wants us all to find life, but to find that life we must all first attach to Him! We must honor the Creator above all of creation. He is First before us and He is the Last in all that we do. He must fill all in all for us to see His glory in all that we are and do.

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

Posted in #honor, #newcovenant, #peopleofGod, 2016 | 1 Comment

The Ground Cries Out For Honor!

Posted on July 18, 2016 by ted4you

Greetings;

Once again, I write to you today from Washington State and the wonderful Northwest corner of the U.S. – It is good to be home with family enjoying summer days and summer life. I am writing again today on the subject of honor.

The very first family of humanity demonstrated a testimony of honor to God in the offerings given by the sons of Adam. Abel’s offering was one of honor, while Cain’s offering was a self-focused and self-willed action. Abel’s offering to God was not something given to God for God’s sake. It was something given to God for man’s sake. He didn’t give his offering to God to get something from God. He gave his offering because he was inspired by who He recognized God to be in his life. Abel, a human being, needed to recognize whom God was. He recognized that God was the first and God was the best. There was no commandment. There was only a revelation of honor. He recognized that God was the first and God was the best. It was therefore easy to give God the first and the best because he understood in His heart who God was. Because He saw who God really was it was easy for Him to give offerings that were expressions of who God was. God honored Abel because Abel’s offerings were ones of honor to Him.

In the life of Cain, the first born, it was different. Cain was busy working the ground. He was growing crops. His main focus in life was what he could do. He was concerned with what he could create. His ambition was towards what land he could possess. He was busy looking at what came out from his own labors in the earth. He wasn’t looking at what came out from another. Cain was the first, before any other human being was born, not created, but born. Before his brother Abel was born Cain was the first and Cain was the best. There were no other born human beings. Before there was a single child added to the family he was the first and the best born on planet earth. But he did not recognize who he was because he did not recognize who God was. So his focus in life was what he could create. His ambition was for what could come from his own labors in the earth. His ventures were for how successful he could be, and then in the back of his mind as a second thought he knew that he should also remember God. It says of Cain that after a process of time he gave an offering to God. Cain did not have an offering problem. He gave God an offering. Cain had an honor problem. His vision of honor was in the wrong direction. His vision of honor was, “What can I accomplish in life?” He should have turned the other direction and asked the question, “Father what have you determined about me in life? What have you determined about us in life? God You are the deliverer, the One who gives freedom, and sets at liberty! You are the First and you are the Best.” The one human being on planet earth who was the first and the best should have recognized the source of his being. He was the only human being on planet earth that at one point in history it could be said he was the first and he was the best. The moment his little brother was born, he was one of two. Before his little brother was born he was the only one. It should have been easy to receive a revelation that he was the first and he was the best. He should have asked himself the question, “Why am I the first?” Because God is the first! “Why am I the best?” Because God is the best! You see, Cain didn’t have a revelation of honor. Honor lives in the realm of revelation. Honor is found in truth. Honor is a culture of truth. It comes by a living reality of an understanding that comes by love. In the story, what does Cain do? Cain proves to be a dishonorable man. He does not recognize who God is and he is therefore not able to recognize who members of the family are. He could not see his brother Abel as an expression of himself. He did not see him of the same DNA, of the same family destiny. He did not recognize that his brother was precious, one of a kind. He did not recognize that he could not live without his brother. He didn’t understand that by himself he was not the fullness of family, but with his brother they were the first of a great inheritance. He was now willing to destroy his brother, not realizing that if he destroyed his brother he would be destroying the family inheritance. So he kills his brother and God walks in the neighborhood. He says, “Cain, have you seen Abel? I have been looking for Abel, have you seen Him?” If Cain had understood honor it would never bother him if God the Father came and said, “Have you seen Cain?” “Have you seen your brother?” If he had a revelation of honor he would gladly help God find Abel. Now, we know in the story Abel was dead so his brother cannot look. He responds to God in a tone and manner of dishonor. “What am I? Am I my brother’s keeper?” Where there is no honor there is a reaction to honor, to the source of honor. Cain says, “What am I? Am I my brother’s keeper? Who do you think I am? Do you think I am you?” Cain’s reaction was full of accusation. It was like saying, “He is not my job! He is not my responsibility! If you can’t find him he is not my problem.” Honor recognizes that who we are is dependent upon who all of us are. Now Cain had killed Abel and God said to Cain, “What is this I hear crying out to me. Why is the ground crying out with the blood of Abel.” The earth had been dishonored. The ground had been dishonored because something greater than the ground had been brought down to its level. A child of God had been treated with the same value as the dirt and now the earth was crying out because it had been defiled. It could not honor Abel anymore. The earth wants to honor humanity. Honor gives value to another for who they are. A child of God had been sacrificed and now the earth was bound from fulfilling its destiny. You see, the blood of Abel was a dishonor in the earth. Honor has to do with destiny. As a result a curse came into the earth and God had to deal with the situation with Cain. God had to deal with a dishonorable situation with honor. I will write next week in regard to God’s honorable remedy for the dishonor that was bound in the earth.

We must honor God, and we must honor the likeness and the image of God above all other created things. To honor created things above the Creator and His children is to dishonor the earth. The earth wants to honor mankind, but when mankind dishonors the earth, the ground cries out for the true children of God to manifest in honor! That honor is honor to the Father, and honor to the Father’s children. This creates a cultural generation of honor where the hearts of the children are for the fathers and the hearts of the fathers are for the children. It is then that the earth rejoices and yields its fruit in great blessing.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

Honor For Who God Is

Posted on July 11, 2016 by ted4you

Greetings;

Blessings to you all from Bellingham during this wonderful season called summer. It is a little cooler here in the Northwest, but it is green and beautiful as the summers are here. It is good to be home ready for another week of teaching, training, development, and relationship. Bonnie and I had a great time yesterday at Everyone’s Church in Mt. Vernon, Washington. Thank you Pastor Brice and the congregation there.

I have been addressing a topic of honor in the church and honor as members of the community of Christ in the earth. Exodus chapter 20 reveals what we believe to be Ten Commandments. When we view God as a Sovereign ruler we often misunderstand His words to us. When we see Him as our Father we understand Him more clearly. The Israelites interpreted that God gave them Ten Commandments, but I believe that God never desired to merely give Ten Commandments. God’s desire was that the earth would be freed from every curse. God’s desire was that the children of God would become the testimony of Him in the earth. I propose that the Ten Commandments are not commandments. I believe they are attributes of a culture of honor. They are the attributes of values found in the character, nature, and way of the family of God. They are the attributes of what it looks like when the father’s hearts are for the children and the children’s hearts are for the fathers. In these commandments God began by speaking these words:

Exodus 20:2-3 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.”

God brought us out of darkness, out of sin, and the house of bondage. He brought us out of sin and the strongholds that held us to that sin. He is the Lord our God, we shall have no other God’s before Him. We could look at this as a commandment, but if we look at this as a commandment we become bound as slaves and we view God no differently then we view Egyptian taskmasters. These words spoken by God are not words intended for us to exchange one slave master for another. I believe that these words reveal the first secret of living in a culture of honor. Honor is recognizing who someone else is and giving an expression to them that confirms who they are. That expression should include our attention, our affection, and our time. This culture of honor begins with our honor for who God is in our lives. We cannot confirm who another is unless we first confirm who their Creator is. We cannot confirm who another is unless we first confirm who their Savior is. We cannot look at another human without looking at God first. If we look at someone else without looking at who God is in their lives, we will look at them according to their bondages. We will make a judgment of them according to their flaws. We will judge them according to the flesh. This same measure is true for how we behold ourselves. Before we can look at someone else, or even ourselves, and make a proper assessment of who they or we are, we must first look at who God is in our lives as the children of humanity. God brings us out of darkness. He brings us out of bondage. He brings us out of the things that put us in bondage. There is no situation that is unredeemable. We cannot make a judgment of another human being according to the flesh if we make a proper assessment of whom God is for the life of every human soul.

So God joins us together in a family, just as He did in the very first family in the beginning of creation. In the first family, Adam and Eve had a baby named Cain and then Cain got a little brother named Abel. The younger brother received a revelation of who God was. He began to act honorably. Abel gave God offerings, as did Cain, but God only respected the offerings of Abel .

Genesis 4:1-5 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

The offerings of Cain were not the honor due to God. Cain’s offerings lacked the spirit of honor that was found in the offerings of Abel. Cain didn’t have an offering problem, he had an honor problem. His obvious discouragement when God did not respect His offering reveals that he was giving to get something from Him. He was slow to give because he loved his offering more than he did God.  It is the spirit of an offering that makes it what it is. Abel gave offerings of the first; when he had his first lamb in his flock, he gave it to God. His offering was also the best; when he had many sheep he picked the best one and gave it to God. God does not need the first or the best. Abel’s offering to God was not something given to God for God’s sake. It was something given to God for man’s sake. Abel, a human being, needed to recognize whom God was. He recognized that God was the first and God was the best. There was no commandment. There was only a revelation of honor. He recognized that God was the first and God was the best. It was therefore easy to give God the first and the best because he understood in His heart who God was. Because He saw who God really was it was easy for Him to give offerings that were expressions of who God was. God honored Abel because Abel’s offerings were ones of honor to God. God was in awe of what Able did. He respected His offering. He recognized who Abel was. He saw Abel as a child of God. The heart of the Father was for the son, because the heart of the son was clearly for the Father. There was no control. There was simply a recognizing of who God was by Abel. The son realized: ‘The Father makes me free!” “The Father sets me at liberty!” “He is first and He is the best!” The actions of Abel’s life were simply confessions of who God was to him. The things that Abel did were confessions of who God was in his life. It was easy for God to look at Abel and make confessions of whom he was. God’s respect was that of a father for a son who had come to a revelation of honor in his heart towards his father.

Cain was the firstborn son and he should have had the revelation that Abel did, but he failed because he didn’t see who God really was. I will address this in next week’s blog. Consider who God is in your life. He is the first and the best! He brings you freedom, salvation, and liberty. He gives you life, breath, and all things! Recognizing Him for who He really is empowers us to be who we should be in this life.

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

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