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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I’m headed to Portugal for a few days of leader’s gathering in the presence of Holy Spirit. After that I’ll be headed to Angola, Africa. It was a great weekend here with a worship night at Alife on Friday, and I was blessed to speak at Alife yesterday. I have a great expectancy for what God is going to do in my journey across the big pond.

It was in the first century that Jesus rose into the heavenly dimension. He was the firstfruit of a family of believers who are made to be new creations in Christ. As the firstfruit, Jesus ascended and was taken into the “cloud” in a ‘bodily form’ (Acts 1:9). He did this so that we could receive the fullness of the blessings found in His heavenly dimension (Eph. 1:3; 3:10; 1 Pet. 1:3). When Jesus ascended into heaven, two angels had a message for the observing disciples of Jesus.

Acts 1:11 …who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Clouds speak of the manifest presence of the Lord in Scripture. There have been numerous aspects to the manifest experiences of the church and the Lord in the ages of men that have brought increasing testimonies of God’s glory in the earth. If you will, there have been many comings of Christ “in the clouds”. There have been various comings of the Lord in many aspects of God’s grace that have brought forth increasing glory and change in the church. The comfort of the first century church was, and our comfort is, that each and every one in Christ is promised a greater glory of eternal life in Christ in every aspect of their lives.

Every season of our lives culminates with the sound of a prophetic trumpet that reaps a harvest of bread for others in our world and seed for another harvest. The last trumpet is resurrection life for those in Christ. Paul said that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. This is our greatest hope! In the history of the culture of the shadow of the law, the last trumpet is the trumpet that sounds the completion of the harvest. It is a sound of tabernacles where a new season of rest leads to a new season of increasing life. Everyone has a last trumpet to the completed harvest of their lives. Though there may be a full culmination of this in a    future day to come, I believe that there is a last trumpet for each of us in life. For us in Christ it is a sound of greater glory. It is therefore a reason to live this life to the fullest as the glory of God subdues the things that can be subdued in this world. This is the testimony of the increasing harvest of God in our lives. The unshakeable kingdom of God continually removes the shakable things in our lives and in our world. Our comfort is that life and purpose doesn’t end when the last trumpet is blown for us in this life, but Christ receives us to join those who are alive in Christ in heaven, those who have already fallen asleep to this life.

1 Thessalonians 5:1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. 11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

Like those going through the great tribulation of the birth of the Body of Christ in the first century, we need not be shaken or troubled in the times and seasons of the world. We have already embraced a Day that never ends. We have embraced the Day of the Lord in Christ. Our last day was the day we lost our old life, and we found resurrection life in Christ. Our personal kingdoms are increasingly becoming a kingdom of our Lord and Christ. The life we live we live by faith in Him! There is no death that has any power over us for the second death has been destroyed by the resurrection life of Christ within us.

The day of the Lord comes for everyone, but that day does not come as a thief to those who are already alive in Christ. For those who are not alive in Christ, the last trumpet of their life is a surprise, and their life is taken from them. They live their lives as though they have peace and safety, but the last trumpet of their life reveals to them that the peace they held on to was not peace at all. The safety they clung to, was not safety at all.

The constant coming of the Lord into the generations of humanity proves to destroy those things that are not true peace or safety and what people trust in apart from Christ is destroyed. What is life for those in Christ proves to destroy anything that is not true life. It destroys anything that is not life or life-giving. Our comfort is that we are sons and daughters of God. We are sons and daughters of the true light. We are of the Day and not the night, so the constant and increasing coming of the Lord into the generations of men proves to be the light of Day to us. We must remain awake, aware of God and His presence. We must remain alive to the fellowship and purpose of God’s Spirit in Christ. What keeps our hearts in all seasons of our lives and of the earth is faith and love in our hearts. Our minds are secure because we know that Jesus is salvation in any and every situation of our lives. While we live in this world, or after we rise in Christ, we are together in the life and purpose of Christ for eternity. This is comfort to us in all seasons of life.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Available on Amazon in Print & Ebook

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am in Deming, New Mexico. I have had a wonderful weekend with my church family here. Thank you to all who came this weekend to CitiLife church. God’s presence and favor is upon you, and His influence of life and love is going to impact your community more and more. I am looking forward to meeting with leaders tonight.

The world around us is shaking, but the kingdom of God within us cannot shake. We must not be distracted by the kingdoms of the world. What should our focus be in a shaking world? The apostle Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian church gave hope to the early church in a time of testing and it gives hope for us in our shaking world.

The letter written by Paul to the believers in Thessalonica was one of the first letters written to the believers of the first century church. It was written to the church, the habitation of Christ, as they had now existed for a little over twenty years and they were facing increased opposition by the anti-Christ spirit of that day. Like all words from God, there are increasing layers of truth and life in what God decrees. One view of the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians has been that it is a letter regarding a one day coming of the Lord in the future and a rapture of Christian believers into the presence of the Lord. This view did not become the focus of this letter until the nineteenth century. Since God’s words increase from glory to glory, there is clearly a culmination of this truth for us all in some way. There are various interpretations as to what that looks like, but there is for sure a guarantee of a full glory of being one with God in Christ for eternity.

Paul wrote this letter to a firstfruit church concerning things that were literally occurring in their day. His purpose in writing this letter was to comfort the first century believers who were facing persecution and the tribulation for being a church that was birthing the New Covenant reality of the growing Body of Christ for the generations to come. Christ was being opposed by anti-Christ, but Christ would overcome, and in the future, there would be more realities of the constant and increasing coming of the Lord to cause the kingdoms of the world to become kingdoms of Jesus as Lord and Christ. The words of Paul were not merely a promise for something thousands of years in the future. They were words of promise for the moment at hand. Some had already died in the faith and Paul was charging the church to know the truth of the present and future promises of glory.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

In these Scripture verses, Paul was encouraging the church in regard to the coming of the Lord. The word for until is a Greek word that can also be translated as to or into. It is not a word necessarily indicating a moment of time but can also be a process of time. The word for ‘coming’ in this Scripture is the “GSRN 3952. παρουσία parousia; from the present participle of GSRN 3918; a being near, i.e. advent (often, return; specially, of Christ to punish Jerusalem, or finally the wicked); (by implication) physically, aspect.” It is a present tense word and not a futurist tense word. It is a happening and a continued happening. The promised place of destiny for the dead in Christ and for the living was, and is, a transition to a dimension of increased life. It is a place of being caught up in the breath.

This is not a place of going up into the sky, but a place of entering into the further dimension of life in Christ. This was the testimony of the first martyred saint, Stephen. As the crowd hurled stones at his physical body he gazed to heaven and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Stephen was the firstfruit of those who sleep in the Lord. His sleep was a transition into the greater glory of God’s presence. As the apostle Paul wrote, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). This was the testimony of Stephen as he was caught up into the breath of eternity.

Acts 7:54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

Upon Stephen’s death he was caught up into a dimension of eternity with Jesus. The Lord met him in the breath, in the dimension of Christ in heaven. The dead in Christ rise first and those in Christ who continue into the constant and increasing realities of the coming of the Lord will be participants with them in the breath. The breath is the connection of the Spirit. It is not a natural air, but the breath of the Spirit that keeps us and unites us in life, in this world, and in the world to come. The living believers in Christ and the cloud of witness in Christ are partners in a constantly increasing coming of the Lord. Those who sleep in Christ transition into the greater glory of God’s house. Those who remain in this world in Christ grow in the glory of the increasing presence of Christ in His body through a growing revelation of God’s glory in the earth.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Available on Amazon

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am on a few day hunt in the woods. I am enjoying my time among the trees with my Father and friend, God. I hope you had a blessed week and that you will have an encounter with God this week as you invite His presence into your life.

When we have a relationship with God in our hearts, He teaches us to love one another. A revelation of His love for us empowers us to love one another. It is not some external command, but a growing desire from within. We are a dwelling place of God by His Spirit and Christ in us is the hope of glory. That glory is to become like Him in His character, nature, way, power, and authority. He is a giver of life and as His sons and daughters we become givers of life to one another. The apostle Paul wrote to a church facing suffering and persecution with words of encouragement for them that also encourage us in the world that we live in. When the world around us shakes, we are to shine like stars in the night. We are testimonies of God’s love and life to our world.

1 Thessalonians 4:9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; 11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

Our confidence is in the love of God. We know we are loved; therefore, we are not easily shaken in a shaking world. The spirit of the world will oppose us, but we must live our lives as examples of sons and daughters of God who know His love. In this, we lead a quiet life. This doesn’t mean that we live without adventure. It has more to do with our attitudes than our actions. This is a life that is not easily shaken. We may find ourselves is a loud and reactive world, but we live with faith towards God in all things and thus we are not agitated in our hearts or minds towards the world. We trust God and we are a testimony of His grace in and to our world. Our lives are not impassioned by bitterness.

We are not to make judgments of others, but to mind our own business in all things. We make it our aim to be productive members of our world. We don’t depend upon others to meet our needs. We eagerly and willingly do our share, and we are faithful in our own responsibilities in life. We work with our own hands and know that God will meet all of our needs because He is a loving Father who always rewards His children. We set an example to those in the world around us as givers of life and love in all things. Our lives testify of the goodness of God.

Nothing in our lives can end in death, because we have eternal life. That eternal life is a knowing of God our Father and knowing Jesus His Son through an indwelling presence of Holy Spirit in our lives (Jn. 17:3). For a believer in Christ to die is to fall asleep to this world, but to rise up in a greater glory of eternal life of knowing God our Father and Jesus His Son. Holy Spirit in our lives in this world is Holy Spirit raising us up to a greater life in that which is to come. When a believer dies, our world loses their voice, but their voice continues on as an eternal witness beyond this life. To the world they are asleep, but to be absent from the body of flesh is to be present with the Lord in glory. What should our focus be concerning those who have fallen asleep?

1 Thessalonians 4:13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

To fall asleep to this world is not to fall asleep to eternity. Our purpose in Christ continues on in that which is to come. The believers in Christ who sleep to this world are alive in Christ in a dimension beyond what we can naturally see. They are part of a cloud of witness that eagerly waits to meet us in our transition to a greater glory.

2 Corinthians 5:6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Our lives in Christ are a testimony of eternal glory. We must not be shaken by a shaking world. We are in this world, but we are not of this world. We must shine in our world as people of faith, hope, and love. These things are found in Christ, and these things cannot be shaken.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

It is good to be back home after several weeks out. I have enjoyed this past week, and I was blessed to minister at Everyone’s Church yesterday. God is moving in the nations, and He desires for us to know Him both intimately and powerfully. We must live as a dwelling place of God by His Spirit in our world. This is the hope of God’s glory!

Religious systems create cultures that see the world around them as an enemy to be destroyed. Those in such a system seek to increase their size from within as an opposing system to the world around them. They claim victimhood by those they see as their opposition, and they reject any authority beyond themselves. Rather than overcoming evil with good, they judge those they deem as evil as unworthy of love.

As the body of Christ we know that we are a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. This empowers us to be a life-giving influence in and to the communities we live in. Our way of life inspires healthy family in and to the community. We don’t see ourselves as victims but as overcomers of all things through the love of God in all things. We know God’s mercy and grace, so we become merciful to others, and we inspire change as we are changed by God’s presence within ourselves.

Religious cultures and societies reject the society around them, and they institute rules and judgments that supersede any standards outside of their system. In this, they embrace a secession from the world rather than a love for those in the world. Instead of being a life-giving influence to the world, they become a legalistic standard of judgment to the world. Instead of offering healing to the iniquity of men’s hearts they deem iniquity as sin and impose a judgment of shame upon those bound to the ways of the world. We don’t endorse an exaltation of the weaknesses of men’s hearts, as though those weaknesses are a way to life. We recognize that we all fall short of the glory of God, and we all need His salvation in our lives. We offer the presence of Christ to all who desire to be transformed in their hearts and minds that each one might become a testimony of God’s powerful life-transforming love.

As members of the life-giving body of Christ, we support and respect the authorities in our world according to the responsibilities given to them. We understand the kingdom of God is an internal kingdom affecting each one from within. We don’t seek to control the kingdoms of the world by our standards but to inspire them to embrace a knowing of the kingdom of God within them. It is a place of knowing righteousness, peace, and joy within. When we find our identity in Christ, His love affects our beliefs in life. Being loved by Him empowers us to love others from within our hearts. We then find our testimony from His presence in us. We have peace and there is no gap between us and God. The internal atmosphere of our hearts inspires an external testimony in our lives that testifies of God’s powerful love. Our purpose is for the will of God as light to our world. Our joy is found in the fullness of a partnership with God in all things. By these things we shine in the darkness of the world, not to condemn the world but to invite them into the pathway of destiny in Christ.

When the kingdom of God operates within us, our external kingdoms become kingdoms of our Lord and Christ as expressions of the ways of God in the things that we do. Our external kingdoms become an increasing testimony of the kingdom of heaven within our hearts. Religion seeks to place a religious control upon the kingdoms of the world, but relationship with God in our hearts inspires us to enable the kingdoms of the world to become kingdoms of Jesus as their Lord and Christ. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. We aren’t better than the world, but we are life to the world. We must be awake to the light of Christ within us, and we must shine as the light of God’s accepting love and His life-transforming love in our world. Jesus is both accepting and dangerous. He loves us as we are, but He also frees us from our old ways of self to become sons and daughters of God in Christ.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am on my journey home after some more great days in the Netherlands. It was great to be with my Dutch family and to see many wonderful people touched by the love of God and loving God. Holy Spirit is moving in the nations.

The church is the influencing factor of who we are to the world as the fruit of being a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. That influence is one of life and not one of judgment. The church is not a gathering place for refugees from the world. We have no doubt been rescued from our old lives in the flesh, but that rescue gave us access to God’s throne of grace. We are more than conquerors in Christ.

Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we embrace a religious structure apart from the world, we live as refugees from the world. If we embrace a culture that sees the cultures of the world around us as an enemy, we become victims and we take a posture that is anti-others. We are not victims; we are overcomers who live for the wellbeing of others through a revelation of God’s love.

If we embrace a religious way of life, we separate ourselves from the world. We may think that we are separating ourselves from the ways of the world but in reality, we are creating another worldly way in the form of some religion. We take on an us and them mentality. We see those in the world as an enemy, and we become victims in our own mind. The spirit of the world opposes the Spirit of Christ, but the people of the world are people that God loves.

Our separation is not a separation from the world. It is a separation unto God while fully engaging as a member of our world. We don’t look to the world for identity, testimony, or purpose. We look to God for these realities. When we find our identity, testimony, and purpose in God we will live in the same way that Jesus lived as a man. We will be life-giving to our world.

When we are life-giving to our world, we will do our part as citizens of the world. Religious systems inspire us to segregate from the world and despise the authority of the world, and they seek to become an authority unto themselves. They resist the lawfare of society and seek to impose their own rules and judgments that they feel supersede the standards outside of themselves. They see their own rules and judgments as something that places them above others.

We are to support and respect authority. We are not rebellious to the authorities of the world but only seek to support them within the boundaries of their appointed responsibilities. We choose to be people of New Covenant life and grace. The authority of God in our lives enables us to receive the authorities of the world in a way that empowers us to be life-giving members of our world. We don’t violate the principles, patterns, and values of our faith in Christ but use them to empower us to be life-giving citizens of our communities. We submit to appointed authorities with the character, nature, and way of God in our hearts and minds.

Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.

Because we are a dwelling place of God by His Spirit, we can receive wisdom from God as to how to be good citizens in the communities of our world. We don’t see our communities as the source life in our lives. We see God as the source of our life and thus we can be life-giving contributors to the places we live.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I have had a great week and weekend in Portugal. It is a blessing to be back to see this part of my spiritual family. God is revealing His presence in the body of Christ.

Our relationship with God is not a means by which we escape the world for some secluded territory apart from the world that we live in. Our relationship with God is the means by which we become a life-giving influence in and to the communities of the world around us. Jesus prayed for His disciples that God would not take them out of the world, but that He would keep them safe from the world. They were to be an influence of life to the world, not influenced by the spirit or ways of the world.

John 17:15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

The truth is not a set of laws by which we judge ourselves and others. Knowing the truth is to know God’s love and His overcoming testimony of life in all things. This doesn’t make us separate from the world, it separates us unto God. If the world rejects us for our union with God, that is on them, not us. We are not to reject the people of the world; we are to be salt and light in the world. Salt brings the preserving testimony of health and life, and light makes a way in the darkness by which men can see.

Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Salt is not meant to destroy the earth; it is meant to draw out the flavors of life, like good food to the taste buds of our mouths. Salt purifies, preserves, and enhances the diversity of flavors. To say there is one salt at the table is an idiom in some cultures that simply means that the diversity of food at the table becomes one feast by the grace of life at the table. We are to be the salt of God’s grace that enables others to come and find themselves as sons and daughters of God at the table of life.

Light is not meant to be an enclave for some, thus excluding others. It is not an enclosed territory that makes us culturally distinct from the foreign territory that surrounds us. It is a way by which all around us can find the way to true life. For this reason we shine before men. We don’t shine to be separate from the world. We shine to inspire others in the world to desire a transformed life that reveals the good works of God that come by an intimate relationship with God as our Father.

We are not meant to be a culture in the world that grows a population that is separate from the world. We are to be the family of God that inspires anyone and everyone in the world around us to receive a revelation that God is their Father and that they too are called to live as sons and daughters of God. Their disconnection from God has not disconnected God from them. Sin doesn’t stop God from seeing us all as His children, it simply blinds us from seeing Him as our loving Father. When men and women are blind to the love of God, they fail in living as His sons and daughters in our world. When we are the light, others are drawn to the light. Our light is a light that gives God’s life to others, others are drawn to the light that only comes from God. That light is not merely a copy of the kind of things that God would do. That light is the testimony of a burning relationship with God in our hearts. A relationship with love will inspire us to shine with the light of God’s love to our world.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am in route to Portugal after a great week in the UK with some very good friends. I am ready for the blessings of God in my continued journey. Life is a destiny, not a destination, and we must embrace the presence of God in every aspect of our lives. Relationship with God will impassion our relationships with one another. It is for love that we live.

The religions of the world are man’s attempt of doing what is good in their own hearts. Religion alone involves things that we do to express some cultural belief that we believe qualifies us to belong to something that is greater than ourselves. It is likely something that we feel makes us greater because we belong to it. When we are part of this group we can belong because we are a member. This kind of thinking creates an elitest mentality that separates us from others that is really based upon a strength spawned by our own insecurities and deceptions to the truth of life.

James 1:26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

The apostle James wrote that true religion is to care for orphans, to care for widows, and to not be defiled by the world. We often define these words of James to be; if we care for orphans, if we care for widows, and if we are different than the world we can belong. We don’t have to care for orphans to belong, but when we know we belong we will care for those who need an environment of belonging. We don’t have to care for widows to be loved, but when we know we are loved we will care for those who have no one to care for them. We don’t have to avoid acting like the world to be loved by God, but when we know we are loved by God we will dependent upon Him and we will no longer desire to depend on the ways of the world.

Religious ways are often ways that we place upon ourselves to justify who we are or to justify being loved in some way. We create rules and regulations that we place upon ourselves that cannot change us internally but only serve to condemn the character and nature of our own hearts. Because these things cannot change our internal ways, we tend to condemn others when we see them violating the rules. In honesty, we do this to appease the guilt of own hearts. We become judgmental of others because we are living in a judgment of ourselves in some way. God’s love for us is measured by His love for us and not our love for Him. Jesus died for us so that we could find our own death in Him and then find our true eternal life in Him. It is a gift of our Father’s love for us, not His response to our love for Him. Our love is a response to His love, and it comes by a revelation of His love for us. It is not a method of religion but a response to and of relationship.

Colossians 2:20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

An appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion is not the true wisdom of God. False humility is based upon a condemnation of ourselves and a rejection of God’s unconditional love for us. Religious rules and regulations can only discipline our flesh, and they cannot transform our hearts. Religion demands a structure, while relationship with God empowers an influence. Building a structure won’t build a temple of God’s presence but being a dwelling place of God will give a way of life that exhibits being a temple of God. We will shine like light into the darkness and not merely be a hidden place of light within walls that hide us from the darkness of the world.

Religion seeks to build a structure or system that seeks to destroy anyone or anything outside of that structure or system. Relationship with God empowers us to be a dwelling place of God by His Spirit that gives life to the world around us and inspires others to become a dwelling place of God’s presence within the boundaries of who they are.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today is a holiday in the US and I will be spending my day with family. We had a great time yesterday as a church family in a city park. It was good to eat, fellowship, and to get to know one another a bit more. Tomorrow I will be heading across the Atlantic for a few weeks in the UK, Portugal, and the Netherlands. I am looking forward to seeing all that God is going to do.

The expressions of God produce results. God speaks, and life happens! God doesn’t speak for information. He speaks to bring forth life. His speech is not merely His voice. His speech is every expression He makes. His presence, thoughts, words, expressions, and actions bear the fruit of life.

Our relationship with God is not merely for the fact of knowing that He is. It is not just for knowing who He is. It is for the sake of being loved by Him that we might become expressions of His love to our world. Being loved by God causes the substance of His love to flow as a life-giving river from our hearts to our world. Jesus said that those who drink of Him will become sources of living water to their world. That living water is expressed as the words of God in our mouths. This is not words for information, but every expression that flows from us to bring life to our world. We are a dwelling place of God by His Spirit to be expressions of His Spirit in natural and supernatural ways to our world.

Isaiah 51:16 And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

God’s hand upon our lives is the impartation of His blessing to us that we might be sources of His blessing to our world. God wants the influence of heaven to become the influence that establishes our place in the earth as a heavenly place of life. He wants our place in this earth to manifest our partnership with Him in and from heavenly places of life.

God is the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. He is the one who gives life, expresses life, and causes life to come in all things. As people, we were created in the likeness and the image of God. We are three-part in our being. We are spirit, soul, and body. Our spirit is meant to be one with the Spirit of God in all things, thus we become alive by the life that He gives. Our soul is the bridge between that which is spirit and that which is natural. It manifests with thoughts, reasoning, desire, emotions, and imagination. The human soul is how the human spirit can be manifested in the human life. The human life is the physical expression of authority. Authority is not a matter of control but one of life. Authority gives and does not take. Our authority is the substance of life that we carry for the sake of others in our world. It is the measure of life that we can give to our world in the reality of who we are. It is the testimony of the human spirit made real in practical endeavors through our physical lives in the world.

Our expression of life to our world is the fruit of our personal connection to God in our spirit. The human spirit is to be one with the Holy Spirit and thus it is to be abundantly alive and prosperous in all its substance. When our spirits are alive in God, our souls become impassioned from within. The thoughts, reasoning’s, emotions, imaginations, and desires of God become the attributes of all that we are in Him. A prosperous spirit produces a prosperous soul that inspires a prosperous life. This is how the Spirit of God influences the world in which we live.

The expressions of our lives are to be expressions of sons and daughters of God. It is only as manifested sons and daughters of God that we can bring the life-giving liberty of God to our world.

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

What is the glorious liberty of the children of God? I believe that true liberty is to become like our heavenly Father in His character, nature, way, power, and authority. He is the one who gives life, breath, and all things. As sons and daughters of God, the expressions of our lives give His life to our world. In this our presence, thoughts, words, expressions, and actions that bear the fruit of life even as our Father gives life. The source is Him but by Him in us we become givers of life to our world.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Bonnie and I just finished several days with gathering in Trail, Slocan Valley, Tarry, and Nelson, BC, Canada. It was a wonderfully blessed time of God’s presence and word in community settings of the family of God. Thank you to all the hungry people who came and participated in a time of blessing with Holy Spirit. God is in the Kootenay area of Canada. I look forward to coming here again.

As sons and daughters of God, we are expressions of our heavenly Father. Very often we think that our need in life is to receive life from God, but our true need is to be givers of life to our world as our heavenly Father is a giver of life to us. We are meant to be like our Father in our character, nature, way, power, and authority. We are earthly expressions of all that is of God in heaven. This is the testimony of His kingdom come and His will being done in our world.

The true thirst of our lives is to fulfill the purpose and destiny of being a child of God. We often confuse our thirst as a need for something that serves us in some way, but God knows better.

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

Jesus defined the need of the thirsty as one of giving life to others. The rivers of living water that flow from us can be understood as rivers of life-giving water. Each of us are uniquely created to give life to our world. Our true need is to receive the substance of life from God that enables us to fulfill this God-ordained purpose in our lives. This is the fruit of a partnership with Holy Spirit in and through our lives. The power is of the Spirit, but the expression is also fully us.

We were created in the likeness and image of our heavenly Father. He gives life, breath, and all things. He defines our identify, testimony, and purpose in life.  Our identity is found in who we are. We are alive; therefore, we give life to our world. God is the source of life and that life is eternal life. It is greater and stronger than every force of death. It is life; therefore, it brings a testimony of life in us and through us to our world. This is the source of our purpose. Our purpose is for the kingdom of God and for His will to come in all things. This changes our world. We are to be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and have dominion in life. To subdue is to destroy death with life and to exercise dominion is to destroy every lie with truth. The lie is a matter of death, and the truth is always a matter of life. To subdue is not a conquering through control or some measure of death. To subdue is to bring life and thus death is destroyed. To have dominion is not a domination to some knowledge of control. It is to be a truth that gives life and thus death and the control of death is conquered in some way. God made us to have dominion over the works of His hands for this reality.

Psalms 8:4 What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? 5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.

God doesn’t do anything in the earth without human voice, because dominion in the earth was given as a purpose and responsibility of mankind. We are to be expressions of God’s word to our world. The word of God is not just the verbal expressions of God. It is by no means merely the written expressions of Scripture. The word of God is His touch, His voice, and His expressed atmosphere that brings life to all that is around Him. When God expresses who He is, who He is brings life to all that experiences Him.

Isaiah 51:16 And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

God’s words in our mouths bring God’s life to our world. His words come from His presence and His presence plants heaven in our world. This is the foundation of the life-giving community of God in the earth. The former strongholds of our enemies become the places of God’s purpose and will. They become the source of the direction of our world as Zion, a former stronghold of the Jebusites, that became a headquarters for the influence of God’s life to the world.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

I hope you had a great week. We had another great time together yesterday as a church family. God’s presence was in the house and Pastor Jonathan gave another great word concerning the process of finding our true identities. God is surely good.

God’s presence in our lives is not for the sake of right information to us. God’s presence in our lives sets the boundaries of our lives. Those boundaries are not measures of control. They are measures of inspiration from within our hearts. We must live in and from God’s presence and allow Him to saturate the substance of who we are as sons and daughters of God. His presence will give us His desires, His wisdom, His understanding, His counsel, His might, His knowledge, and His awesome purpose in life. This is the testimony of the sevenfold Holy Spirit working in us. This is the testimony of the kingdom of God working in our hearts and minds.

The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. These are internal realities that affect the external expressions of our lives. The kingdom of God within us empowers our external kingdoms to be kingdoms of our Lord and Christ, Jesus the Savior of our world.

The law was and is an external control, but Holy Spirit working in us is as internal inspiration. If we seek the knowledge of good and evil by some external measure, we can only apply a law that blinds us from finding the liberty of true love. The liberty that comes by a revelation of God’s love is the testimony of a new covenant. This is the testimony of a new and living way in Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

The testimony of Moses was the control of law. It was an external influence to mankind. The law cannot transform us; it can only restrain us. Only the Spirit of the Lord can transform our hearts from within. The Spirit of the Lord brings true liberty. Liberty is not a measure of freedom that we simply receive. It is a transformation that happens in us that empowers us to give life to others. We are changed to be sons and daughters of God who give life to our world even as our heavenly Father gives life, breath, and all things. We are able to live for the wellbeing of others by the Spirit of the Lord working in us. Liberty is not about what we can get but rather what we can give to others.

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

Sons and daughters of God live to give life to others in their world. Even as Holy Spirit is the helper in our lives, we become able to help others by the power Christ within us. We are being perfected from the inside out to bring life to others. The light of Christ is within us and is shining from the inside out to transform every area of darkness to light. This is the hope of glory – Christ within us!

2 Corinthians 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

The excellence of the power is of God and not of us. Christ in us gives us the desires, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and purpose (as in awe of God) by which we live for the wellbeing of others in all things. By this we do the works of our heavenly Father and we destroy the works of the devil in the kingdoms of our world.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

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

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

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

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

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

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