Two Administrations

Posted on December 14, 2015 by ted4you

Greetings;

Today I am headed home to Bellingham. I had a great time in England with Impact Community Church as well as with the great people of Clay Cross. Thanks to everyone for your hunger for God and your kindness to me. I am returning home with joy in my heart.

The kingdom of God is not like the kingdoms of the world. The justice system of the kingdom of God can transform the kingdoms of the world, but until the kingdoms of the world choose to embrace the kingdom of God they are still stuck in the administration of the kingdoms of the world. The administration of the kingdoms of the world is one of the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. It is an Old Covenant administration and its base of justice is established upon what is right and what is wrong. That administration most commonly becomes expressed as what one thinks is right and what one thinks is wrong. It is a system that constantly battles to define what is good and what is evil. It is self-preserving in its character and therefore the definitions of good and evil within its sphere of influence become defined by its own self-preserving mentality. This is the way of the world. It is the way of the kingdoms of the world. It is the way of the kingdoms of self. Every war is fought over a knowledge of good and a knowledge of evil. Every relationship is disintegrated over a knowledge of good and a knowledge of evil. The only eternal judgment that can release someone bound to a worldly kingdom is one of triumphant mercy. Jesus made that judgment for all of mankind by being a man of love and not a man of law. His exit strategy for the kingdoms of the world is a death of the administration of the kingdoms of the world and a new birth with a new administration in the kingdom of God. Only in Christ can we find the true substance of life. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Secularism, Atheism, Sikhism, Judaism, Shamanism, Satanism, Paganism, Spiritism, Mysticism, Agnosticism, or any other religion of the world is not a way to life. No religion is a way to God; only truth within the human heart can lead to true life. Only Christ inside the heart of humanity is the way of life. The kingdom of God can only be discovered within the human heart and the testimony of life is only discovered through Christ in each of us. This is not the same as mere Christianity. It is Christ in the heart of humanity. Religion alone still leaves mankind bound to the system of the knowledge of good and evil, it does not transition them into the administration of true life. Only an administration of love can transition us from the kingdoms of the world to the kingdom of life in Christ.

Colossians 1:13-14 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (NAS)

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Ephesians 1:7-10 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 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…

What does it mean to be saved? Jesus was the Father’s gift of love to redeem humanity. We were looking for a way to get to God, but He wanted us to understand that He desired to make a way to get to us. Religion alone seeks to get to God, but the intimacy of Christ within us seeks to bring God and heaven into our world. We were the ones preventing Him from coming near to our hearts. The administration of love cannot live in the atmosphere of law or promiscuity.

John 3:18-21 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

God does not condemn the world. The administration of the knowledge of good and evil condemns the world. True light is love. It includes mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation, and all the things of true life. We cannot hold on to a justice system that demands others pay their debts to us when the gift of God to us was one that paid the debts of us all! Outside of Christ there is still a need for all to acknowledge the condemnation that they are bound to because of the administration they embrace. Only in Christ is that condemnation lifted. The New Covenant does not exist for all simply because Jesus died for all. The New Covenant is available to all, but it can only be attained through an exchange of administrations. Let me conclude by stating what I did a couple of blogs ago:

Mercy is obtained by an acknowledgement of mercy given. God loves us, but we don’t deserve His love. To think we deserve His love is an injustice in the covenant of law and conscience. The justice system of grace is available for all, but one must first receive the end of the justice system of law and conscience. That requires God’s mercy and it can only be obtained through a revelation of the cross.

Love is a revelation and it includes God’s mercy and His grace. His mercy justifies us to live and His grace empowers us to live in life. It is a transition in the administration of our lives and it invokes the scandalous justice of God’s love.

Blessings,

 

Ted J. Hanson

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Becoming the Children of God

Posted on December 7, 2015 by ted4you

Greetings;

Today I am writing from the Netherlands. I have had a good weekend in Utrecht with Pastor Niels and the church family here. Today I have been doing a lot of writing in preparation for several training ventures in 2016. It has been a fruitful writing time.

Last week I addressed the transfer from an Old Covenant justice system to a New Covenant one. The Old is one of the knowledge of good and evil. It is a justice system based upon right and wrong, good and bad, and fair and unfair. It is an administration of law or conscience and its structure is seen in the obedience of actions. The New is one of the Tree of Life. It is a justice system based upon love, life, and it is totally unfair. Whereas the Old justice system mandates that we were born to be right, the New mandates the truth that we were born to be loved. The Old Covenant reveals to us that we don’t deserve to be loved, but the New Covenant reveals that God simply wants to love us. Having been loved by God we cannot help but love God, love others, and love ourselves. The New Covenant is an administration of Spirit and truth whereas the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus causes us to become a testimony of the truth of God in the flesh. The testimony of Christ within our hearts inspires us to be testimonies of faith towards God in our attitudes, desires, and actions. The Old Covenant was religiously structured, while the New Covenant is organically inspired by life and peace in Christ.

We must acknowledge our need to be freed from the Old Covenant in order to find the invitation to the New. Mercy is the only judgment of life to end the consequence of sin. Since the consequence of sin is death, Jesus died in our stead to enable us to embrace the loss of our old life in Christ and the discovery of our new life in Him by grace. Grace is the only substance by which our desires can change from within. Mercy ends the Old Covenant administration of religious actions of obedience. Grace empowers the New Covenant administration that is seen as changed beliefs that inspire changed actions in our lives. The inspiration of love and life from within our hearts transforms our beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influences in the world. This is the testimony of grace!

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.

Living from the throne of grace empowers true change in our lives. This is what causes us to become the substance of God’s character, nature, way, power, and authority in our lives. When we live from the throne of God’s grace we are transformed by the power of God’s grace to become the substance of God’s love. It is then that we can love the unlovable, forgive the unforgivable, and become what we were not for the testimony of God’s victories love. Love wins! Instead of merely forgiving those who treat us wrong, we become the substance of forgiveness to those who treat us wrong. Jesus was the substance of God’s grace at work in the flesh. When we shamed Him, He didn’t become ashamed nor did He shame us. When we rejected Him, He didn’t become rejected nor did He reject us. When we despised Him, He didn’t become despised nor did He despise us. When we offended Him, He didn’t become offended nor did He seek to offend us. He was the substance of His heavenly Father in the flesh. He was a Son of God, as we have been called to be children of God. This is the only true freedom from the curse of the fall of man.

Romans 8: 20-21 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

The true test of grace is the offense of law. The opposing actions of the Old Covenant are the very things that manifest the increasing substance of the New Covenant. The shaking realities of futility only prove to manifest the steadfast realities of the unshakable kingdom of Christ within our hearts. God wants us all to manifest as children of God and part of that process is the opposition we face through a wright and wrong, good and evil, fair and unfair system. Embracing the Tree of Life in the face of the opposition of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is what reveals the power of Christ within our hearts and the overcoming power of God’s grace.

Living as New Covenant children of God in the midst of a wrong, evil, wicked, dead, and ugly world is what invites us to walk though the training process of life. That training process includes the scourging of God. We are supposed to be treated wrongly. We are supposed to be lied about. We are supposed to be misunderstood at times. We are supposed to come face-to-face with what we are not so we can manifest who we really are in the world. Our cross is to be willing to suffer for the sake of loving another. Jesus embraced this chastening in life and proved to be a fully manifested Son of God.

Hebrews12:2-8 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

The proof of being children of God is only reveled through the opposition of the Old Covenant justice system of the knowledge of good and evil. When we are right yet accused of being wrong, is the time we can reveal the justice system of God’s love. We must value love more than we value being right. We must value forgiveness more than we value vindication. We must value the things of the kingdom of heaven more than we value the things of the kingdoms of this world. This is the testimony of grace. It is the justice system of life in Christ!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

 

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The Justice System of Love

Posted on November 30, 2015 by ted4you

Greetings;

Welcome to my weekly ted4you blog. Thank you to all who have re-subscribed and to those who are joining us as new subscribers. We hope that all is well on the site and the new site serves well in connecting to you all on a weekly basis.

I believe that we are presently in the midst of a move of God’s Spirit in the earth. I have written in regard to this in earlier postings. In this present move of God there is a prevailing justice system of love. This is in the kingdom of God, while in the kingdoms of the world there are conflicts of law and men’s own perceptions of the human conscience. The justice system of the kingdom of God is different than the justice system of the world. We are the community of God and it is the love of God that creates the culture that transforms us to become the people of God. That culture is one of love. The culture of love doesn’t just reveal God’s love to us; it also empowers us to become a testimony of love to others.

The government of the Old Covenant was based upon the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. That Old Covenant government still exists in the kingdoms outside of Christ. The only way out of the Old Covenant government of the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil is to embrace the love of God only found in Christ. This is where one find’s the justice system of the New Covenant. The government of the New Covenant is based upon life. True life is the testimony of true love. When we know the love of God we know the life of God! God’s love creates a different justice system than that of the Old Covenant. I believe that love is the testimony of the Tree of Life. Jesus lived as a human being empowered by love. The administration of His life was the Tree of Life, not the Tree of the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. One is a tree of grace, while the other is a tree that constantly requires mercy. Humankind is stuck in the system of law until they find a way out. In order to be free from the justice system of law, mercy must triumph! Mercy is the end of the law and the invitation to grace. Wherever grace abides, love reigns. The justice system of grace is scandalous. It is not a system of fairness, but one of love.

Isaiah 11:1-2 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

Jesus is the Rod the came from the stump of Jesse. He is the New Creation born from the Old Creation. In Christ we are born again to this living hope. Like the virgin birth of Christ, we are new creations through a born again experience in Christ.

2 Corinthians5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

The Rod that came from the stump of Jesse is the testimony of a new human race from a Firstborn Adam that was born of the old human race that was generationally bound to an old Adam of sin. Jesus is the Rod and we are part of His body. He is the Vine and we are the branches. The Branch is Christ and the Rod is Jesus. Jesus was the Body of Christ before we were grafted into Him. The sevenfold Spirit of God rests upon the head of Jesus, runs down His beard, down His robe to His feet. We are one with Him as the body of Christ and the anointing of His Spirit is both in and upon our lives. The same justice system empowers our lives that empowered the life of Jesus. That justice system is one of love. We do not make our decisions based upon what we can see with our eyes or hear with our ears. The equity of who we are becoming in Christ is the power by which we make decisions for others. The substance of who we are becoming is more powerful than the substance of what we used to be. The breath of God is the grace of God at work in our lives. His grace has the power to destroy the roots of wickedness in our lives. His love, the breath of His lips, eradicates the weaknesses of our hearts that transpire to transgression and manifest as sin.

Isaiah 11:3-5 His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His waist.

In order to experience God’s justice system, one must first acknowledge the old one. The way to God’s grace is through God’s mercy. Mercy is found in the testimony of the cross of Calvary. Mercy ended the law and without mercy one is still bound to the justice system of the law. We must come boldly to the throne of Christ to receive the end of the law and the beginning of grace.

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.

Mercy is obtained by an acknowledgement of mercy given. God loves us, but we don’t deserve His love. To think we deserve His love is an injustice in the covenant of law and conscience. The justice system of grace is available for all, but one must first receive the end of the justice system of law and conscience. That requires God’s mercy and it can only be obtained through a revelation of the cross.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 3:21-26 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Love is a revelation and it includes God’s mercy and His grace. His mercy justifies us to live and His grace empowers us to live in life. It is a transition in the administration of our lives and it invokes the scandalous justice of God’s love.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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Remaining In Relationship

Posted on November 26, 2015 by ted4you

Greetings;

This is the new site for ted4you.com. I have had many problems with the old site and have had to create a new one. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused any of you.

Today I want to finish addressing the topic of relationships. Covenant relationships begin with a revelation of love and they are sustained through a growing revelation of that love. That love empowered revelation is the strength of true covenant commitments and it inspires acts of love towards one another in the relationship. Those acts of love prompt responses, and responses invoke a submission of one to another. It is submission based upon trust and it is a receiving of life and a giving of life to one another. Submission is not a matter of control or manipulation. It is a relational connection that allows there to be a dance of life that brings life to the relationship and bears the fruit of life to others touched by that relationship.

The trust of our submission determines the focus of our contribution to another. We must each receive a revelation that we were born to reveal something of the testimony of God in this world. Who we are is not for our own gain, but for the benefit of another. We are each part of the fellowship that contributes life to our covenant partners in life. When we have food at a table we have a supply to meet our natural needs. When we willingly bring our best food to the table for the sake of another we create a feast and a celebration of diversity that makes the table a testimony of unity through the unique expressions brought by each one. Each of us has been given a measure of life to contribute to our relationships in life. It is not about what we can get from another, but what we can give so those at the table become a fuller expression of the one covenant expressed there. We must each recognize that those in our covenant relationships in life are contributors of life to our lives. More importantly, we must know that we are a gift of life for the sake of those we relate to. God gives each of us an ability to bring light to darkness and that light is for the glory of our relationship with God and with one another. It is a testimony of who Christ is according to His resurrection life! We must be awake to who you are and to who another is in the relationships of our lives. An ability to do works of righteousness for the sake of others is a testimony of life at the table of our relationships. There is a diversity of food that is given by each one, but there is one salt at the table that brings the unique flavor of who we each are for the sake of our fellowship together in life. Unity is revealed through diversity, not conformity. This can only be true when we know the mystery of living to contribute life to those we are in relationship with in life.

The focus of your contributions determines the value of your community. If we do not see that the contributions of our lives are for the life of others we will seek to take life from others and we will experience less than what God has for us. I believe that true community is the testimony of God’s presence that draws each member of the community to come-to-unity around the presence of Christ’s life. We then live with sacrificial love for one another we make decisions in our hearts for one another based upon love and not law. We become willing to make decisions for those we are in relationship in love and not a logical measurement of whether they deserve our love or not. This is the true testimony of sacrificial love for one another as one community for the glory of the relationship as one.

The value of your community determines the determination of your destiny. If we don’t have a revelation of our community together we will be willing to forfeit our destiny together in life. The purpose of our lives is not simply to live successful lives filled with earthly blessings. We were born to live significant lives that bear the fruit of generational destiny and inheritance. The fruit of our relationships in not merely revealed in our lifetimes, but it is ultimately revealed in the lives of our children and our children’s children.

If we don’t have a revelation that love is the empowerment of our commitments we will be easily offended when the natural circumstances of our relationships shake in life. When we become offended with another we then make a judgment towards them based upon things that are naturally true or perceived to be true in the relationship. Those judgments are birthed in the environment of fear, a fear of our own death in some way in the relationship. Our actions will become ones of judgment and will not be acts of love towards another. When we make a judgment of another we then become defiled in the relationship. Rather than responding to the other partner we seek to isolate and separate from the relationship. We no longer see the need for a testimony as one and thus we seek to protect our own individual identity. When we become defiled it inspires an insubordinate attitude towards the relationship. Submission is lost and a protection of personal agendas is sought. We become negatively expressive towards the relationship. We don’t see the other as a part of us so we are willing to destroy them with our attitudes, words, and acts in life. When we become insubordinate we then become apathetic towards the relationship. We no longer see the need to live to contribute who we are to another. We don’t care about the relationship anymore. We are not awake in our hearts towards them and we no longer see the need for them in our lives. When this happens we become bound to the logic of our own judgments. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil has surpassed any revelation of the tree of life in the relationship. We seek to be separate in our desires, attitudes, visions, and aspirations in life. We find no need for the relationship. The end result is a total destruction of the relationship. Destiny has been laid in the dust and the relationship has been annihilated. There is no more future. Offense has led to judgment, judgment has led to defilement, defilement has evolved to insubordination, insubordination has transformed to apathy, apathy has grown to atrophy, and atrophy has now been revealed as death. The relationship has ended. Its end began with an offense, a refusal to stay in a revelation of love. Love is the foundation and love is the substance in the journey of our relationships in life.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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The Issues of Relationship

Posted on November 26, 2015 by ted4you

NOTE:  From 2015/11/17 blog posting

Greetings,

Today I am in Spain after a great weekend with good friends in Wales, United Kingdom. It was good to see John and Margaret Marsden, Graham and Chris Wilkinson, and old and new friends at Calvary Church in Prestatyn. I am encouraged with old connections of relationships and hopeful for new ones that lead to a world of hope framed by hope in Christ! I am now doing prophetic training with the G42 Leadership Academy in Mijas, Spain.

First let me give my apologies for the recent difficulties in my Monday blog. I have been working to resolve the issue and hopefully things will back on schedule by next week. If all is working in the right direction this blog should go to you now.

Last week I began to present some thoughts concerning relationships. Everything that matters in life is about RELATIONSHIPS! Relationships begin with a commitment. The strength of that commitment determines the strength of the relationship. Relationships established by law will fail. They cannot express covenant.

The empowerment of your actions determines the willingness of your responses. When we know that God loves us we believe Him when He speaks. That belief is demonstrated with actions that testify of our love for Him. These are acts of faith towards Him. Faith comes by hearing the one we love. The empowerment of our actions is revealed through faith that works through love. Those works reveal that our hearts are with the one who speaks. We have no fear of loosing ourselves, because we are empowered in our hearts to live for another. There is no fear of death, because our actions are a testimony of love from our hearts. Perfect love in our hearts casts fear from the environment of our motivations. We are motivated to act in love toward another because we know how much they love us. This is a testimony of our love towards God or towards anyone in a relationship that testifies of God’s kingdom. This is the testimony of true covenant. It is not true for a contract of law. Law measures commitments by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, while love liberates its joining partners by the tree of life. When we are empowered to act in faith towards another, we become inspired to willingly respond to who they are in our lives.

Responding to another is not an action we make to prove what we have is worth receiving by them. It is a revelation that what another possesses is of great value to us. Like the tithe given by Abram to Melchizedek in the shadow of the law (Gen. 14:18-23), our response to another is a gratuity of honor to invoke all that can be received from them. Tithe is not something that is limited to our money. It is not meant to be a legalistic ten percent given to God in the hope for His blessing upon the remaining ninety percent of our substance. Ten is a prophetic symbol of ‘totality’, ‘completeness’, or ‘judgment’ (more specifically, ‘a judgment of love’ – as ten commandments reveal a two-fold witness of loving God and loving others). Tithe represents the making of a judgment of love that what another has is of great value in our lives. God gives us a gratuity of who He is and we respond with a gratuity of who we are; thus confessing that we depend upon all of who God is to become all of what we should be. What about our responses to one another? In a covenant relationship we respond to another because we know they are of great value in our lives and we want all of them based upon a revelation of love. We make a judgment of love in our responses to our covenant partner knowing that without them we lack the full testimony of who we are meant to be in life. The willingness of our responses determines the trust of our submission to one another. A revelation of who another is determines our willingness to respond with who we are. Our response to God invites the fullness of who God is into our lives. Our response to one another invites the fullness of who another is into our lives. Proper responses give us a testimony that is beyond who we are alone.

When we have a revelation of covenant love, we make covenant actions of love. When we act with covenant actions of faith towards another we become inspired to respond to who they are in our lives. The willingness of our responses to another determines the trust of our submission to them in our lives. Submission involves an under and over relationship with another. We must come under another in order to receive the life that is given. We must willingly come over another in order to tip in their direction and give the life that we have to the one who comes to receive. There must be a tipping towards another of one and a coming under of another. Submission is like a dance of life. It is not a matter of control, nor is it a matter of manipulation. Neither partner comes to take from another. Authority is given and received; it is not taken or used as a force to lord over another. It is the recognition of life and the exchange of that life for the testimony of life that comes to each one from the Father of life in heaven. All authority comes from God and that authority is like light from the Father of lights to His children as the light of life to the world. In a covenant relationship submission one to another reveals the light of the relationship, as each one becomes a testimony of light in the greatness of their relationship as one.

These are the first issues of relationship. Commitments inspire actions, actions prompt responses, and responses invoke a submission of one to another. Next week I will continue with the issues of contribution, community, and destiny in the journey of our relationship with God and one another in the journey of live.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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Relationships Live In Love

Posted on November 26, 2015 by ted4you

NOTE: From 2015/11/09 blog posting

Greetings;

Today I am writing from Bulgaria. I have been here since last Thursday and we have experienced some powerful meetings with God’s presence and a setting of foundational things of life in the church here. I am so pleased with the faith, love, endurance, and hope of the believers here. The assignments of God’s favor endure and the blessings of God’s kingdom will advance for His glory!

Everything that matters in life is about RELATIONSHIPS. Who we are, what we do, and the destiny of our lives are not based upon our gifting or our anointing. Everything of life is a testimony of relationship. Fruit comes from relationship, not from works or abilities. God wants a relationship with each of us. What is the strength of a relationship with God? What is the strength of every relationship in life? Relationships consist of commitments, actions, responses, submission, contributions, community, and destiny.

Relationships begin with a commitment. The strength of that commitment determines the strength of the relationship. Relationships established by law will fail. They cannot express covenant. They can only hope to maintain some form of contract and contracts are as the name infers. Contracts restrict and bind its participants to one another in some way, but they don’t live for the purpose of the greater value of another. They seek to make a greater value of the contract and thus restrict the participating members from the greatness that is found in covenants. Contracts may appear to create things that are greater, but the binding force of a contract is law. The binding force of a covenant is love. Covenants are not based upon what we receive from another, but upon who we are for the sake of another. God made a covenant with us by giving us all that is His. We make a covenant with God by giving Him all that we are. When these two things become realities in the relationship, there is a powerful dynamic of life that is beyond anything that can be negotiated in a contract of law. Both contracts and covenants require a commitment of its participants, but the commitment of a contract is based upon law while the commitments of covenants are based upon a revelation of love.

The fuel of our commitments will create the force of our actions. The source of commitment is the empowerment of our actions. The empowerment of our actions determines the willingness of our responses. The willingness of our responses determines the trust of our submission and the trust of our submission determines the focus of our contribution to another. The focus of our contributions determines the value of our community, while the value of our community reveals the determination of our destiny. The determination of our destiny is rooted in the source of our commitment. The destiny of God in our lives is one of reigning in life in all things, but its foundation is God’s love. True destiny is not about being successful in life. It is about being significant. The measure of our legacy is not seen in the years of our lives, but in how our lives effect the generations beyond our days upon this earth! This is kingdom of heaven destiny! Jesus asked His Father for the nations, and the posterity of His name is seen in the generations of men.

Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. 

The source of your commitment is the empowerment of your actions. One day a Pharisaic lawyer came to Jesus and asked Him what the greatest commandment in the law was. Jesus responded that the greatest was to love God and the second was to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that upon those two commandments rested the entire law and the prophets (Mt. 22:34-40). The law and the prophets depended upon commands to love God and one another, but humanity could not love God and one another based upon a command of law. Jesus gave a new commandment to His disciples. That commandment was to love one another even as He had loved them, that they would love one another.

John 13: 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

This New Covenant command was based upon a revelation of God’s love. Only a revelation of God’s love will inspire a commitment of love. The source of our commitment to a relationship with God or one another must be a revelation of God’s love for us. When we know how much God loves us, we are inspired to know how much God loves others. Only a revelation of God’s love can create a true commitment that will empower the actions of our lives towards God and others. Love is a revelation, not a commandment of law to love another. A revelation of forgiveness leads to repentance. A revelation of reconciliation leads to understanding. A revelation of belonging leads to believing. A revelation of purpose leads to passion. A revelation of having a Father makes us a son or daughter. These are all elements found in a commitment based upon a revelation of love. Perhaps Paradise is a place where nothing works without God. It is then also a place where everything works with Him. Paradise with God is a place of knowing how much God loves us and this is the fuel of our commitment to Him and to one another. When we know how much God loves us, we then are inspired to know how much God loves others. You see, the revelation that God loves us is not just a revelation of His love. It includes a revelation of how undeserving we are – yet He still loves us! This is in turn inspires us to love others! It is not based upon a deserving of that love. It is totally based upon a revelation of love!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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