Author: Hal Hollister Ministry

“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:13-14

Today, I am going to deal with one of the most controversial statements ever made by Jesus. “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

The only caveat in this promise is you have to ask in the name of Jesus. The challenge is understanding how to interpret this into your prayer life.

The first important concept to grasp is Jesus wants to grant your requests. He wants you to come to Him for your every need. Jesus delights in answering your prayers because the Father will be glorified in the Son.

Secondly, your request has to be consistent with the Word of God. Jesus will never violate His Word.

You also have to pray by faith without doubt believing in the promises of God. Lift up your concerns to Jesus and then let go trusting He will determine how to best answer your prayer.

When you ask in the name of Jesus learn to be patient and wait for the perfect timing of the Lord.

Your prayers have to coincide with God’s plan for your life. He has a purpose for your life whether it is your vocation, ministry, or your family.

Jesus wants to protect you from evil and the temptations of the world. He is omniscient and knows every detail of your future. So if you bring a request to God that is denied it is out of His love and compassion for your well being.

Finally, I have to deal with the unanswered prayer for a young child who comes down with a life ending disease. There is no human response to this tragedy except to understand God is perfect and His ways are above our ability to understand.

Jesus promises to give you an abundant life and provide for your every need. And, He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. So pray with confidence and boldness trusting in Jesus to give you more than you ask or think!

The prayers of a righteous man availeth much!

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13

Most of humanity has rejected Jesus to live for self and seek worldly pleasures. Or, they have chosen to worship false gods.

They cannot grasp Jesus was with God from the beginning and all things were made through Jesus. Those things existing in this world which are not made of Jesus amount to nothing.

But those who come to Jesus are given the right to become children of God and live with Him forever. And the miracle of salvation is the Word will live in your flesh. As a believer, the life of Jesus resides in you in the essence of the Holy Spirit.

The simplicity of receiving Jesus is believing in His name. You cannot find salvation through being born into a blood line. There is nothing you can do through your own will power or the will power of another person to become saved.

Salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned or justified through works or religious rituals.

The gift of salvation is becoming born again of the Water and Spirit. You die to your old life and become a new creature in Christ Jesus.

The Cross allows you to be free from the power of addictions, recover and heal from divorce or other traumatic events in life, receive physical healing, and live a life pleasing to God. Your focus changes from a worldly perspective to finding your help in God for all your troubles.

The primary purpose of a believer is to touch those people around you with rivers of Living Water. This is the only proven method to draw people to Jesus. They see the life of Jesus in you and are attracted to the Light!

‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” John 1:33-34

God spoke to John the Baptist and told him to look for Jesus on whom the Spirit descended from Heaven and remained. This is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

John’s baptism was incomplete. He baptized with water but did not have the authority to change lives.

Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit who causes you to die to self and become a new creature in Christ Jesus. You choose to loose your life for the life of God.

As a believer, the Holy Spirit lives in you. This is the life of Jesus. You will be a powerless believer until you make a decision to invite the Holy Spirit to have authority over your life. The Spirit must increase and self must decrease if you want to experience the transfigured life and walk with Jesus.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not about speaking in tongues or receiving gifts from the Spirit. It is about making a genuine commitment to live for God and becoming empowered to be a witness for Christ Jesus. The gifts of the Spirit are dispersed by God in His perfect timing as He determines your calling.

The Holy Spirit brings the reality of Jesus into your life and teaches you the truths of God. The Spirit is your lifeline to God. He will guide your footsteps and protect you from the evils of the world.

Jesus takes away sin but the Spirit shows you how to avoid sin. Live in oneness with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. He is your only hope for Life and Truth!

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Genesis 3:11

Adam was hiding from God because he was naked. The act of being naked is not a sin unless you are around other people excluding your spouse. Then seeing nakedness leads to lust and sexual immorality.

Adam had no conception of any evil associated with being naked until He ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge concerning good and evil.

If you don’t know what is evil you cannot be accountable to God for wrong doing. However, you and I were born with an understanding about good and evil. You bear culpability with God for all your actions.

We were created in the image of God but we have a corrupted inner condition. We want to live for self and defy God.

We understand good from evil but we want to satisfy self above pleasing God. This conflict is alive in all human beings regardless of your spiritual maturity.

Adam hid from God in an attempt to cover up his sin. It is impossible to hide from God. Your life is an open book to God. He knows every detail of your past, present, and future.

God is holy and will not become entangled in your sin. To alleviate your propensity for sin, God sent Jesus to the earth to offer all the gift of salvation. The blood of Jesus covers all your sin and restores you to God.

To be free from the bondage of sin, God fills all believers with the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Spirit is your only hope to avoid sin and lead a life pleasing to God.

If you are a believer, live in oneness with Jesus through the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and you will be free from the bondage of sin.

Come out of hiding and face up to God! Ask Jesus to be your role model for life. He will do for you what you can never do for yourself!

“And He will be the stability of your times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is his treasure.” Isaiah 33:6

The question is what will motivate someone to come to God? It will never be the fear of punishment. It is a promise that God can give you a better life than you can ever achieve on your own.

The treasure for the man or woman who fears the Lord is stability and a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.

Jesus is a loving and kind God. He wants to give you an abundant life and bless the desires of your heart. The fear of the Lord is not about punishment. It is about salvation and a new life. It is an invitation to participate in the goodness of God and to live with Jesus forever.

The fear of the Lord is an acknowledgement in the depth of your heart that Jesus must come first in your life above all things. It is a recognition of the greatness and glory of God and accepting your only hope in life rests in Him.

Jesus is compassionate and merciful. However, He does have the authority to bless and curse and your life is in His hands. This is why it is so important to be accountable to God for all your actions.

The fear of the Lord is honoring Jesus in both the good times and the difficulties of life. Many people stumble away from Jesus during the troubles of life. They fall into unbelief and rebel against God.

The Spirit filled believer may become angry, fearful, or bitter over the trials of life however he or she knows Jesus is the only viable option and regardless of feelings will walk by faith with the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is an openness in your heart to seek the will of Jesus and live a life pleasing to Him.

The fear of the Lord is accepting His Word without doubt or evidence. You walk by faith and are obedient to the calling of Jesus even though His direction may not make any sense to you.

The fear of the Lord is accepting the wisdom of God and rejecting the foolishness of the world.

To share in the treasures of the Lord, abandon yourself to Jesus and invite the Holy Spirit to have authority over your life. You will meet the Living God and you life will never be the same.

The fear of the Lord is life saving and eternal!

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:24-25

Greetings on Palm Sunday! Today we are commemorating Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. He comes as a triumphant King who will die to give you the gift of eternal life.

Jesus explains that He is like a grain of wheat which must fall into the ground and die. The act of dying will bring much new grain. The Cross was the only option for Jesus to draw people to Himself.

Like Jesus, you and I have to be willing to lose our life and reject the temptations of the world to inherit eternal life.

If you are serious about Jesus you will have to follow Him through the journey of death and resurrected life.

Jesus wants one thing from you. He wants you to be obedient to Him without any reservations or doubt.

This is very difficult because He will take you down a path which is the antithesis of the world and you will have to accept His ways by faith without any evidence or proof.

Jesus died to leave you with the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood. This is how you can live in the world but not be of the world.

The Spirit lives in you and He fill you with the life of Jesus, the Water creates new life, and the Blood forgives all your sins.

Rejoice and celebrate Palm Sunday. It is God’s gift to you!

“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” John 13:14-15

It was just before the Passover Festival and the disciples were assembled together with Jesus. It was also near the time of the betrayal and death of Jesus.

After the meal Jesus washed each one of the disciples feet. He set an example of what you and I are to do for each other.

As a believer, you are a servant to your master and under His authority. You are a messenger sent from God to proclaim the good news of Christ Jesus.

The symbolic event of washing feet to become clean relates to the work of the Cross. You cannot wash the feet of those around you but you can invite them to come to Jesus who offers forgiveness of sins and redemption to God.

You have been chosen by God to be a member of the “set apart” people of God. You are a light shining in darkness filled with the renown, praise, and glory of God.

In reality, you need the Cross more than a non believer. You live in a world filled with evil and hate for Christ Jesus. And, you constantly have to be alert to the temptations of the world and your inner urges to please self. If you allow yourself to become tainted by the world, you lose your value in sharing the Living Water with others.

Jesus said you have to put the new wine into new wine skins. If you try to pour the wine into old wine skins the wine and the wine skins will both be ruined.

As a disciple of Jesus, you are a living sacrifice designed for good works. Live as a new creature in Christ Jesus with a willingness to be baptized into the death and resurrected life of Christ Jesus.

“What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:40-41

As believers, you and I have good intentions and desire to be obedient to Jesus. Unfortunately, we all stumble away from Jesus at times.

Jesus simply asked His three disciples to watch and pray in the Garden of Gethsemane for one hour while He prayed to His Father. They fell asleep and Jesus rebuked them by responding the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

The disciples failed Jesus at the most difficult time in His life. This happened because they were weak men and lacked the Spirit of God.

You and I do not have any excuses for falling away from Jesus. We are filled with the Holy Spirit who desires to guide us into the pathway of Jesus.

What happens is we lapse out of oneness with Jesus and allow the flesh to have control over our actions. We succumb to the temptation because we are not abiding in the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

The troubles of life come when you step out of the protection of the Holy Spirit and attempt to satisfy your inner urges. When this occurs you fall out of the safety net of God and you diminish the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is why it is so important to invite the Holy Spirit to have authority over all of your life and walk in oneness with Him.

He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world!

The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.” Numbers 22:32-33

This is the story of Balaam, a prophet of God, who was lured by Balak, the king of the Moabites, with a promise of wealth to speak a curse against Israel.

Balaam was very determined and headstrong to meet with Balak and he beat his donkey three times for refusing to travel to this meeting.

This is a very endearing story about the faithfulness of God to bless His people and His determination to destroy the evil intentions of the Moabites.

Balaam should never have allowed this situation to develop in the first place. He should have recognized the evil intentions of Balak and distanced himself from any encounter with him.

Balaam allowed his desire for wealth to interfere with the will of God. He was willing to yoke himself with the darkness of the Moabites to benefit himself.

The point of this story is you and I have to maintain pure motives pleasing to God and turn away from anyone tainted with darkness or evil intentions. It doesn’t make any difference how alluring or prosperous the offer, light does not mix with darkness.

If you enter into any form of a commitment with an ungodly person you will have face to the consequences of your decision and the judgment of God.

It is essential you inquire of the Lord before making these kind of decisions and abide in the will of God.

You do not have to experience the restraining donkey who has more sense than you in seeing the will of God.

As a footnote to this story, Balaam was killed for enticing Moabite women to seek sex with Israelite men. The Israelites who participated in this fornication were also killed.

Light cannot coexist with darkness!

“The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come. When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.” John 7:7-9

This scenario deals with a conversation between Jesus and His brothers. There was a Jewish festival in Judea and His brothers urged Him to go and openly display His works. Jesus told them His time (to die) has not yet come and He must move discreetly because the Jews wanted to kill Him.

Jesus told His brothers to go to the festival as they were not in danger and He would remain in Galilee.

His brothers did not believe Jesus was the Son of God and his mission was to be crucified for the sins of all humanity. If His brothers understood who Jesus was and His calling from God, there would have been no argument. They would have submitted to the wisdom of Jesus.

The significant part of this story is Jesus telling His brothers the world cannot hate you but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.

You and I live in a world that hates Jesus and wants to overthrow His influence and authority. Jesus brings light to the darkness of the world. He exposes the evil intentions of mankind and the hypocrisy of religion.

Jesus boldly states He is the way, the truth, and the life and no one can come to God except through Him. He defies religion and hates evil.

Jesus simply invites all to come to Him by faith. He forgives your sins, restores you to God, and implants the Holy Spirit to dwell within you.

You are a light for God and the world hates you. Like Jesus, Satan wants to destroy you. It is imperative to live in oneness with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. He will guide your footsteps and give you discretion in dealing with the ways of the world.

Remember, the world is not your friend. Your sanctuary is living with Jesus and abiding in the Holy Spirit.