Author: Hal Hollister Ministry

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

You and I cannot control God or exploit Him in any way. He is perfect and never changes. He has a mind of His own and judges all things by His Word.

God looks at each person individually and evaluates your personality, your strengths and weaknesses, and your heart condition towards Him. He knows you better than you know yourself.

You have to approach God as a lost and empoverished soul and without hope. There can be no self righteousness or pious attitude when you face the Living God.

Abandon yourself to God and make Him the centerpiece of your life. Come to Him with this heart attitude; “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Delight yourself in God with these words; “Not my will but yours be done.” Seek out God through praise, prayer, and living in His Word.

Come to God recognizing He has power and dominion over the heavens and earth and is your only hope for life. Praise Him for His greatness and glory.

You will gain the favor of God by trusting Him in every aspect of your life. Faith is believing God calls things that don’t exist is if they did. Faith is believing in the promises of God and never judging God by the circumstances of your life.

Faith is living for God and becoming compliant to His voice. Faith is living in oneness with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Faith is not about works or outcomes. It is about knowing the person of Jesus Christ.

Without faith it is impossible to please God!

 

“For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.” Hebrews 3:3

In reference to this biblical truth in Hebrews, the house refers to the entirety of your life including your family, possessions, accomplishments, and your testimony to God.

Everything you have in your life has been provided to you by the hand of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He has ownership of your house and you are just the manager with responsibility to be faithful and obedient to your Creator.

Jesus has power and dominion over all things in heaven and earth. You and I are just a passing vapor trail and have no hope for life without the gift of God.

Moses was a powerful light for God and spent more one on one time with God than any other human being in the world. Moses saw the transfigured glory of God and recognized he was just the housekeeper and not the builder. Moses walked with humility and reverence giving praise to God for all things.

You and I have to come before God with a repentant and contrite heart and ask God to convict us of our shortcomings in caring for His house. There is no room for boasting, ego, or pride in His house.

We are His workmanship and all the glory belongs to almighty God. Great is the Lord and worthy of your praise!

 

“Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” Matthew 13:11

The Spirit of God greeted me this morning with this verse from the Book of Matthew concerning the response from Jesus as to why He speaks in parables.

Jesus explains He speaks in parables because the people cannot see, hear, or understand the simple truths of God. So Jesus frames the truths in a fictional parable to help them understand His words.

Jesus also states that whoever has the gospel living in his heart will be given more and he will have an abundance. Conversely, he who does not have the gospel in his heart, what he has will be taken away.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You have to hear and accept the Word of God by faith.

Jesus said unbelievers are blinded to the Spirit of God and cannot receive or understand Him but those who are believers know God because He dwells with them and lives in them.

The Holy Spirit is the only way you can understand God because He takes what belongs to Jesus and shares it with you.

You will find God when you abandon yourself to Him and invite the Holy Spirit to have authority in every aspect of your life.

Walking with Jesus is to live with Him by faith. The concept of doing works, practicing religion, and focusing on sanctification will sidetrack you from the heart of God.

Get to know Jesus for who He is and abide with Him through the Spirit of God. He will astonish you with His greatness and glory. There is no one like Him!

“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

This incident in the Garden of Eden caused the perfect world of God to turn into a paradise of sin. God created man and woman without sin. In fact, they were oblivious to the difference between good and evil.

This perfect world changed in a split second and caused all humanity to be born with a seed of rebellion against the ways of God. You and I are self centered and want to please ourselves. We have the ability to delineate between good and evil but our inner being will always lead us astray. This conflict lives in each human being and will never go away.

You may know what is right but your inner being wants to please self. There is no hope for you unless you repent from sin and ask God to restore you to Himself. And this will not save you from relapsing again into sin.

You must live with God through the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus residing within you. The Spirit will convict you of sin and guide you into the path of God. This is your only hope to live in the righteousness of God.

He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Make the Holy Spirit your best friend and learn to “Be still and know that I am God.”

He lives so you can live!

But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. Matthew 5:37

This important spiritual truth authored by Jesus relates to making oaths, pledges, or swearing upon something in the cosmos.

Here are some examples:

“I swear I can make money in the name of Jesus.”

“I pledge an oath to lose weight with this new super fad diet.”

“I swear by some power in the cosmos or scientific scheme to accomplish my goals.”

“I promise to accept this self help philosophy, mystic axiom or holistic theory into my life.”

These kind of oaths or promises are false truths and will lead you into evil. They come from Satan and will distort your belief in God. In fact, Jesus does not want you swear or make an oath for anything using His name.

Jesus is your promise keeper. You cannot make promises to yourself, to a self help concept, or some diverse spiritual belief.

Once you say “yes” to a humanistic belief or a deviation of biblical truth, you have corrupted your inner being and have stranded yourself from the heart of God.

Jesus wants you to simply “yes Lord” or “no Lord” without any justification or need for further explanation or support.

Jesus is complete and lacks nothing. He is the fullness of the Godhead. Build your life upon the promises of God and do not allow half truths or conjectures about God to enter your mind or spirit.

Today, you will receive a flow of stimuli from text messages, email, social media, family and friends, people in your workplace, and through the broadcast media. Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ Jesus and let your response simply be “yes Lord” or “no Lord”.

 

“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness,
The power and the glory,
The victory and the majesty;
For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours;
Yours is the kingdom, O Lord,
And You are exalted as head over all.” 1 Chronicles 29:11

The definition of jurisdiction is “the official power to make legal decisions and judgments.” In our world, God has the ultimate jurisdiction over life and death. And, He has authority over all things!

God has no boundaries and He never changes! He has power and dominion over the heavens and the earth. He alone can rule with judgment and make decisions according to His Word. Your life is in the mercy of His hands.

You cannot escape God or place limits on His intervention in your life. God wants you to give Him complete jurisdiction over every aspect of your life. God wants you to give up the right to yourself and live for Him.

You cannot experience the transfigured life if you hold back from God. As a believer, you have the life of Jesus living inside you in the essence of the Holy Spirit. You have to choose to live through the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and reject your old self.

Sin quenches the power of the Holy Spirit!

Your old self is an enemy of God and wants to live for self and reject the things of God. The challenge is living in oneness with God and giving no power to your old self. You can do this by inviting the Holy Spirit to have jurisdiction over all of your life. The Spirit will convict you when you relapse into living for self and keep you on track with God.

The Holy Spirit will take what belongs to Jesus and declare it to you. He will supply you with wisdom, strength, and joy. You will see life through the eyes of Jesus.

The Living Water will be your sufficiency to meet every challenge in life. He will do for you what you can never do for yourself.

Jesus lives so you can live!

“For in Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28

Life brings all kind of challenges. You can lack money, experience a broken relationship, suffer a loss, encounter difficulties at your place of work, or become sick or injured.

Faith is living through the trials and tribulations of life with the person of Jesus Christ.

Faith is not reacting to a new challenge with fear, panic or a knee jerk reaction. It is a steadfast belief in Christ Jesus and waiting for His perfect timing.

You will suffer setbacks in life and God wants you to live with Him through praise, prayer, dwelling in the Word, and being one with God through the Holy Spirit.

Take every challenge before God and pray for wisdom and strength. Cast your burdens upon the Lord and pray for Him to comfort you and give you His peace through the turmoils of life.

Faith is a moment by moment walk with God. Faith is inviting God into every facet of your life. Faith is resting in God and understanding it is not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of God

Faith is inquiring of the Lord before you make decisions. It is realizing God knows you better than you know yourself and He wants to protect you and guide you into His perfect will.

Faith is wanting to please God and standing in awe and respect for His greatness and glory.

Faith is believing God calls things that don’t exist as if they did.

Faith is living by the precept “My help comes from the Lord who created the heavens and earth.”

Faith is the action of living out your life in Jesus Christ!

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4

In the ancient days, the people of the world all spoke the same language and they migrated east to settle in a new land. They decided to build a city with a tower reaching to the heavens.

They believed the tower would please God and give them security. They thought the concept of building the tower would make them a powerful and strong nation.

In actuality, the people were placing themselves above God. They were not respecting the sovereignty and greatness of God. They thought the tower would make it easy for God to come down and visit them. God has no weaknesses and He does not need any crutches.

These people were greatly mistaken concerning the nature of God and were punished with a spirit of confusion and dispersed around the world with different languages.

The point of this message is there is absolutely nothing you can do to exploit God. He has no interest in your works or sacrifices. God doesn’t need you. You need God!

You have to come to God with a humble and contrite heart and recognize He is a God of greatness, power, glory, victory, and majesty. He is the first and last God. There is no other God.

He is perfect and lacks nothing! God desires for you to trust Him for your every need and walk by faith in oneness with Him through the Holy Spirit.

Draw upon the greatness of your Creator and breathe in the resurrected life of Christ Jesus for your sufficiency to meet the challenges of life.

Make the Word of God your tower of strength. Praise God for His wholeness and powerful ability to overcome your weaknesses and restore you to Himself. He is a God of glory!

“To behold the beauty of the Lord” Psalm 27:4

The compelling reason to dwell in the house of the Lord is to experience the beauty of the Lord. He accepts you as a broken and impoverished person and transforms you into a new creature in Christ Jesus.

You become transfigured and live in the kingdom of God. There is a deep peace and joy living with God that transcends anything you can find on the earth.

God offers you a comforting Spirit and wants you to cast all your burdens upon Him. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He emptied Himself on the cross so you can have life and have it more abundantly.

The beauty of the Lord is that He knows you better than you know yourself and wants to provide you with protection and eternal security.

God wants to give you more than you ask or think and bless the desires of your heart. He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him and desires to fill your cup with His overwhelming goodness.

God will meet you today at your point of need. No problem is too big for Him!

The beauty of God is that it is not by your might or your power but by His Spirit. Today, position yourself with God and stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!

He loves you!

“He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.” John 3:31

You will never understand God because His thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not His ways.

God is a spiritual being and you are a human being. His passions and motives differ from yours. He is a God of salvation and there is no self seeking in God. You and I are driven by our desires to please ourselves.

He is a perfect God and is without sin. And, He will not be entangled in your sin. You have to come to the cross seeking forgiveness and redemption to live in closeness with God.

The overriding desire of God is for you to live for Him and through Him with all of your heart. He wants to be the centerpiece of your life and desires for you to submit all your thoughts, words, and actions under His authority and guiding light.

There is no one like God. He is a God of greatness and glory!

Thought for the day:

“Come to Me for who I am without understanding My ways. Seek Me out through praise, prayer, and live in My Word. Be still and listen for My voice. I will teach you about Myself and share My attributes with you. My compassions fail not and I am a loving God. I will do for you what you can never do for yourself. Great is the Lord and worthy to be praised.”