Greetings;
Today I am writing from Ede, Netherlands. I just finished a weekend of meetings with my good friends Andrew Shearman and David Fredirksz. The church family of the Netherlands is doing well and God was very good. Thank you to all who participated in this experience with God.
I am off now for Uganda, Africa for a week of training in prophetic ministry and an Easter conference. I know God will show up and reveal Himself as good!
God is building a living church that has power over the realm of the dead. Jesus told Peter that upon the rock of Christ and the revelation of the Spirit the church would be build and that church would be greater than the gates of Hades (Mt. 16:15-19). Hades is a word meaning “the realm of he dead”. The “realm of the dead” affects much of the earth. Hades is not just a place in the hereafter, but it is also a common place in the here and now. God is raising up a church that is a giver of life and light. We are anointed by God to bring life to death, healing to sickness, liberty to bondage, and all manner of light to every manner of death in this world (Acts 2:4, Acts 2:14-21).
As we approach this Easter weekend, let’s remember that the true story of the cross is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is when we reveal the power of Christ’s resurrection that we proclaim the power of the cross. Jesus died for our sins that we might participate with Him in His resurrection life! Life is more powerful than death! Life brings victory beyond the grave and takes every place of death in this world and turns it to a testimony of God’s glory.
Much of the church is living at the cross, but failing to live from the throne of grace (Heb. 4:14-16). When the children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land, they stopped at a 41st stop in the wilderness. It was the place of the Acacia or Shittim trees (Num. 25). The word Shittim means, “scourging”. I believe that place was symbolic of the cross. The wood of the cross was the place where Jesus took the scourging of our sin. Jesus took the scourging of mankind that we might receive the blessings of being one with God in His eternal life. It was at the place of the Shittim grove that the Israelites fell for the deceptive trap of Balaam. They began to enter into sexual relationships with the women of the foreign countries around them. It was then that they began to worship the Baal Peor. The word Peor means, “gap”. Peace is a place where there is not gap between God and us. When we separate from God we end up in a stronghold of the gap. These Israelites found themselves in a place of separating from who God really was. The story reveals that the priest Phinehas brought peace to the camp by executing the sin of the flesh with a spear through an Israelite man and a Midianite woman in the camp. His quick act to kill what was bringing judgment in the camp brought God’s testimony of peace (Midian means judgment). I believe that we do the same when we live at the cross, but fail to enter into a relationship with the resurrected King. When we stay at the cross we entertain relationships with the things that Jesus already judged for us. It is then that we experience a gap with God. We are to no longer judge one another according to the flesh. Jesus died once for all that we might find God’s life in His Holy Spirit. To live in the resurrection life of Christ is to live in the testimony of the power of the cross.
We have been commissioned to bring the kingdom of God to the nations of the world. That kingdom is a place of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). It is not a geographical location, but works in any and every geographical location upon the earth. It is place of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. It is a place of being able to say from our hearts, “God is our God!” (Passover – a right relationship with God in Christ). It is a place where the evidence of a heavenly God becomes clearly seen in our lives (Pentecost – a place of peace and no gap between the God of heaven and us upon the earth). It is a place where we find the fullness of joy in living with God in this world in which we live (Tabernacles – a place of knowing the joy of God’s presence in our lives). This is the kingdom of God and it is a living reality for us in this life (Isa. 51:16).
We live from God’s presence with the anointing of His life! We are the Body of Christ and our increasing glory is that of the testimony of Christ in this earth (Eph. 1:15-22). We are anointed to bring Christ’s light to the world for we are the spiritual habitation of Christ in this world (1Pet. 2:9-11). As the family of Christ’s life we have been commissioned to fill the earth with life! This Easter season, let’s embrace the resurrection power of Christ in our lives!
Blessings,
Ted Hanson
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