Author: Hal Hollister Ministry

It is not about having a depth of knowledge about the Bible or spending hours in prayer and meditating on the Bible. This is helpful to developing a strong relationship with Jesus but is not the end goal.

It is much more than sanctification. The transformation of your personality to be more like Jesus is not designed for you. It is to make you a powerful light drawing non believers to Christ.

The life of a Christ follower walking in oneness with God has no end or goal in sight.

Your life is characterized by dealing with calamities, sorrow, intercession, sleeplessness, and at times being barely able to walk.

Faith is the cornerstone to a life with Jesus!

Jesus is at work to teach you the principles of faith. Your faith has to be tested and found reliable by God. And, your faith has to be proven to meet the standards of God.

Abraham believed God and was obedient to His voice. He gave up his homeland, family and inheritance to obey God.

This is why Abraham became the Father of many nations.

As believers we have this idea we can be a great ambassador for Jesus utilizing our strengths and talents. Nothing can be further from the truth.

The reality is Jesus does not need you. You need Him. We are all impoverished souls void of the qualities of God.

The challenge of God is to get self out of the way so your motives will be pure and consistent with the values of Jesus.

Your ministry must be totally dependent on Jesus and led in demonstration of the Spirit and Power.

The authenticity of Jesus working through a believer saves souls and is life changing!

We think we have the ability to manage our life without seeking the wisdom of Jesus. Most of the time this attitude will bring misery and destruction.

This narrative deals with making decisions presuming they are in accord with God without inquiring of Him or having verification through the Bible.

You and I cannot think like God. The Holy Spirit examines our decision making to determine if our motives are correct and that we are not acting out of emotions.

We get in trouble making hasty decisions without checking in with God. Some decisions are very difficult to make and some seem like a no brainer.

We all get caught up in the rush of life and make decisions thinking they are good.

God is omniscient and sees your future. And, He knows you better than you know yourself.

As a believer, you have a safety check sealed inside you. The Holy Spirit will give you perfect wisdom and keep you out of trouble.

God sees the big picture!

The wisdom coming from Heaven is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

This is why you and I need to inquire of God in making decisions.

Begin each day with prayer and reading the Word. And, learn to take time to listen for the voice of God. You have the mind of Christ and He wants to fill you with His thoughts and bring the order of God into your life.

Lean not to your own understanding or buy into the ways of the world.

Walk under the authority of the Holy Spirit and build a strong consciousness with Him.

Jesus will never fail you if you walk in oneness with Him!

Satan is your invisible opponent hiding in the darkness! He is looking every day for a way to destroy you.

Satan cannot hear your thoughts but he can see your emotions, hear your words and look at your decision making. He is very skillful in finding your weaknesses.

Satan utilizes temptations and deception to lure a believer into darkness. He can also put thoughts in your mind that are opposed to God. As an example; “Does God really care if I take a short cut? Everyone else does.”

In the Body of Christ the spirit of religion is an agent of Satan. He torments believers with laws, works and religious pretenses. Remember, religion wants to control you and God wants to set you free.

Religion tells Christ followers the calamities in their lives are caused by lack of faith and failing to keep the precepts of God.

Satan will also attack you through unbelievers and individuals posing as Christians.

At times, we all make mistakes but the Holy Spirit is quick to convict and forgive us with the blood of Christ.

Satan is terrified of Jesus. The Christ follower must commit his works each day to the Lord and live under the authority of the Holy Spirit. Speak against temptations in the name of Jesus and when in doubt take questionable thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.

Satan will always flee from the name of Jesus.

At times God will bring trials into your life so don’t blame God.

There is no condemnation in Christ for those who yield to the Holy Spirit.

Condemnation comes from living through the flesh or trying to please God by keeping laws.

If you open the door to Satan and allow a temptation to become a desire then sin is conceived within you and will eventually be lived out. This can also easily lead to a stronghold and then you are in bondage to Satan.

Satan will also disguise Himself using religion to teach you false truths. He wants to discredit Jesus and remove His influence from the world.

Satan never stops prowling looking for an open door to attack or destroy you. This is why prayer and the study of the Word is so important.

God speaks to believers so you must take the time to listen to His instructions. You have the mind of Christ and the Holy Spirit desires to protect you from evil.

You might want to review the instructions in Ephesians about the helmet of salvation. The sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God is a very valuable tool in defeating Satan.

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

Finally, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph and spreads the fragrance of His knowledge everywhere.

As a Christ follower you can have a spiritual experience like Moses at the burning bush.

The highlights of your meeting will be similar to Moses interaction with God.

This took place after tending sheep for forty years. Moses had to be trained and disciplined for this important assignment from God.

Moses marveled at the sight of God.

Moses shook with fear and trembling and could not look at God.

Moses was ordered to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground.

God gave Moses an important assignment.

“I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.”

Moses was overwhelmed by the greatness and glory of God.

To meet God in a burning bush scenario you must be willing to do whatever He asks of you.

The believer must accept that God has power and dominion over the heavens and earth

He cannot be encumbered in sin.

He must be humble and contrite.

He must have faith in God and be obedient to His instructions.

The point of this discussion is to remind you God is alive and wants to have a warm and personal relationship with a believer. He chooses the timing to share the majesty and glory of His transfigured identity.

It is possible to meet with the Living Christ every day of your life and hear His voice.

God dictates the boundaries of your relationship. The most important goal is to seek Him out each day through prayer and His Word.

Submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit and He will be in the midst of all the moments of your life.

I always ask God each day for His priorities in my life. This keeps me on track with Him.

Seek the will of God and His radiant glory will appear in His perfect timing!

Through the power of God and the obedience of Moses 600,000 Israelites were delivered out of bondage from Egypt.

This is what determines the strength of your relationship with Jesus.

God’s purpose for your life is impossible for you to grasp and not even close to your expectations.

The fundamental purpose of God for a believer has nothing to do with works. And, it does not relate to a specific journey in life.

God wants you to turn over your life to Him without any reservations. Jesus wants you to be obedient to His voice regardless of whether His instructions are logical or seem radical.

The cost to let go will cause you to lose your life and independence. You will belong to God and He can do with you as He pleases.

You can never be valuable to God unless you are genuinely seeking His will above all else and have no desires except to please Him.

God examines the heart of all believers. He looks at your motives, actions and decision making. This process of becoming “Christ like” takes a long time and is painful. We are self driven people with big egos. When I first met Jesus I was astonished. He has no ego.

The process of surrender to Jesus will upset your life. You might be placed in the desert for several years, denied the luxuries of life, or feel isolated. God is at work with a perfect plan. He knows you better than you know yourself.

Abandoning yourself to Jesus will not make you a perfect disciple. This is not what God is aiming for. He wants your absolute devotion to Him.

Your unyielding faith will bring the righteousness of God.

The Christ follower must get to the point where his only goal is “Not my will but Yours be done”.

Jesus is perfect and has no ego. The natural man has a personality to live for self and a dark inner nature.

The human being created by God cannot see the totality of his personality. He can see glimpses of his creation but most is hidden from his eyes. There is a deep part of his inner creation that is unscrupulous and desires to pursue darkness.

As human beings we lack the ability to evaluate ourselves. God sees everything about your personality and knows you better than you know yourself.

It is impossible to live in oneness with Jesus until your genetic dispositions are aligned with God. This can only happen to the believer who is genuinely seeking the will of God and submitting to the Holy Spirit. You can never make yourself like Jesus but He can transform you into His character.

Personality is the characteristic of the spiritual man and individuality is the characteristic of the natural man. Source: Oswald Chambers

Your individuality is broken when you relinquish control of your life to Jesus. Jesus begins to refine you with His values and you learn to live in oneness with Him.

The change into a new creature is a long process and painful at times. If we could just understand God wants to give us all the things we desire in a way that will not bring evil or destruction upon us.

When you look at yourself thank God for the awesome person He is creating in His likeness!

Jesus hears your every thought and sees your every action. This is the reality of our omniscient God who shatters the ability of a person to hide hypocrisy.

With God your life is an open book. Nothing can be concealed.

You may think you can get away with what is done behind closed doors but you are gravely mistaken.

Hypocrisy is the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform.

As an example, you are pretending to be a Christian but failing to walk with the moral standards of Jesus.

Jesus spent much of His ministry confronting the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, over hypocrisy. They operated with false motives and disparaged the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus ridiculed the Pharisees who could discern a coming storm but were oblivious to the spiritual things of God.

The Christ follower is humble and understands like David “my goodness is nothing apart from You”.

God doesn’t expect a human being to be perfect but He does expect you to have an open heart to accept the conviction and correction of the Holy Spirit.

Walking with God is about change. As a new creature in Christ you are letting go of the past and praying for the transformation of your personality to be more Christ like.

It is impossible to hide from Me. I see everything?

The challenge is asking yourself “Am I willing to relinquish control of my life to God. Until you reach this point you are deluding yourself about walking with God.

Most Christians operate mostly out of their flesh and reject the power and authority of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said the starting point is you must be born of the Spirit and Water.

The Spirit baptizes you into the death and resurrection of Jesus and the Water transforms you from your natural life at birth into a new creature sealed with the Holy Spirit.

If you are a born again believer, the wind or Holy Spirit blows where it desires. You can discern the presence of the Spirit at work but cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. You are literally operating under the authority of the Holy Spirit and not through your flesh. You are living in uncharted waters on an unpredictable journey crafted by God.

God is opening doors and guiding your pathway. It is like getting on an elevator and resting while the Spirit delivers you to your destination.

God is a Spirit and we are instructed to worship Him in Spirit and Truth.

Walking by the Spirit requires vigliant prayer, reading the Bible, and listening for the voice of God.

The promise from God for the Christ follower is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ will set you free from the law of sin and death.

The flesh brings death and the Spirit offers freedom from the bondage of sin.

The beauty of walking with Jesus through the Holy Spirit is you can experience a personal and embracing relationship with the Living Christ every day of your life.

I became a Christian as a very young man. I imagined Jesus as a God located in heaven who could not really help me down here on the earth.

I needed help in my marriage, my work, and finding wisdom and peace to cope with all the challenges of life. I thought salvation was about life after death. Oh was I mistaken!

In my mid thirties I found the Living Christ and He changed everything about my life. The presence of Jesus became alive in all the moments of my life.

I personally met Jesus early one morning and I saw His greatness and glory. This was the most terrifying experience in my life. I can tell you unequivocally Jesus is the most powerful force in our universe.

You may not accept all my words about Jesus which I can fully understand. Jesus has to be experienced.

There is only one way to validate the truth about Jesus. You have to meet the Living Christ. I am going to introduce you to Jesus without any religion, fanfare or requirements to justify yourself with Him through laws or works.

Here is a big secret about Jesus! He hates religion. Jesus wants to set you free from the bondage of laws and regulations.

The instructions of Jesus are designed to keep you away from evil, provide protection and give you an abundant life.

Jesus desires to have a personal and embracing relationship with you. He wants to be your best friend.

Jesus desires to speak to you and fill you every day with His thoughts. This is awesome because Jesus is omniscient and sees everything in your future. He knows your every thought, where you will eat lunch today, who you will meet, and how you will spend your time and money.

Jesus wants to fill you with His strength, wisdom, joy and protection. This is not make believe. The attributes of Jesus come from heaven and cannot be found or duplicated through any other source.

Jesus desires to give you a quality of life you can never achieve on your own.

Ask and you shall receive Jesus! But ask by faith with an open heart and you will be overwhelmed by the presence and love of Jesus.

As a footnote to believers, last night the Holy Spirit came upon me like a lightning bolt and said there will be a change of leadership in the government of the United States this year. This is not something I have been spending a lot of effort in prayer. I have felt for a long time God has given up on our country. Expect the unexpected with God!

The word from the Holy Spirit today is vacarious which means experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person.

I struggled with this asking God for clarification. The Holy Spirit told me this is about identifying with Jesus through your mind and emotions.

This is how we all can find hope, joy, and victory regardless of our circumstances.

Vicarious living is bringing the reality of the Living Christ into your heart, mind and soul.

This is not make believe; it is God giving you glimpses of who He is and the wonderful plans He has for your future.

Today you might feel distress, anxiety or fear so come to Jesus in Spirit and Truth. He will give you a refresher of His goodness and remind you He is a powerful and loving God.

Jesus knows you better than you know yourself. He is making you into His character which takes time.

Vicarious living is walking by faith believing in the promises of God and not what you see with your eyes.

Vicarious believers stand on this promise; “My God will supply your every need according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.”

The vicarious people of God believe “I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength.”

The Christ follower is filled with vicarious faith because God keeps His word.

The vicarious mind set for today is “Nothing is impossible for Jesus!”

And this is not imagination! Jesus has power and dominion over all things.

Jesus is the glorious retreat from the ugly world we live in today!