Author: Hal Hollister Ministry

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Genesis 22:15-18

If you are a believer, you will be tested by God. The purpose of the testing is to determine your obedience to God regardless of the cost to you.

This scripture is an extreme example of the testing of God. Abraham had one son by the promise of God. And, he waited a very long time to have Isaac.

God spoke to Abraham and he was obedient because he knew the reality of God. He lived in oneness with God. Abraham was in a personal relationship with almighty God and knew the character of God–greatness, power, glory, victory, and majesty. There was really no decision to make even though this caused Abraham deep pain and sorrow.

Abraham complied with the instructions of God and did not withhold his son. The response from God was to reassure Abraham all the promises made to him would become reality. 

Abraham was rewarded for his faith and obedience to God.

God makes promises to the people of Christ. The promises are not free or handed out without commitment.

God fulfills His promises to those who walk by faith and are obedient to the requests of God regardless of how costly they are to you.

Here is the sticky point! You will not be obedient to God unless you know who He is and are willing to do whatever He asks of you. 

God speaks through the Holy Spirit living within believers. If you are not under the authority of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to honor the requests of God. They will fall on deaf ears. 

The promises of God do not come without sacrifice and pain. You have to be willing to give up what is most valuable to you if you want the blessings of God.

Walk by faith with Jesus submitting to the authority of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus speaks respond with obedience. This will bring the blessings of God!

“Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:11

You can attend church, read the Bible or other devotionals, and participate in all kinds of religious endeavors but this will never give you the ability to know the reality of God. 

To know God, you must make a decision to live for Him above all else. This will cause God to seal you with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the life of Christ. He will introduce you to the Living Christ and teach you the deep truths of God. He does this in several ways:

He illuminates scripture to give you the ability to understand the underlying truths of God and how to apply them in your life.

He teaches you how to walk by faith trusting in the promises of God.

He shows you how to discern the heart of God from religion. 

He convicts you of sin and keeps you on track with God.

He gives you the mind of Christ and speaks directly to you with wisdom and helps you navigate through all the twists and turns of life. 

He teaches you through all the moments of life about God. He causes you to examine your motives and live with the values of Christ. 

He allows you to see life through the perspective of Jesus. 

He changes your priorities.

He gives you glimpses of the transfigured Christ to strength your faith and to help you grasp the enormous power and glory of God.

He gives you the ability to live in oneness with Jesus.

Invite the Holy Spirit to have authority over your life and you will come to know the Living Christ and live in the reality of God. 

“As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.” Psalm 17:15

This is a complex question. You and I can never match up to the standards of God. And, God doesn’t want you to try and imitate Him.

So, how can you wake up in the morning in the likeness of God?

This doesn’t happen overnight. Walking with God is a journey and it takes time to understand His ways.

The method to live in the likeness of God comes through the Holy Spirit who is sealed inside all believers. This takes yourself out of the picture. God won’t touch you or live through your natural condition (at birth) because you’re tainted with sin. 

The Holy Spirit is the life of Christ. He is without sin. You can walk in oneness with Jesus by yielding to His Spirit.

If you want to engage Jesus you have to live in the blood of Christ. The blood will cover all your sins and restore you to God.

But this is not enough! If you want the life of Jesus you must walk by faith believing in all His promises without complaining or grumbling. Complaining demonstrates your lack of faith, makes God angry and will distance you from Jesus.

Walking with Jesus requires prayer, meditating on His Word, and listening for His voice. 

God wants your allegiance to Him above all else. When God speaks to you, He wants your compliance without questioning Him. Even when it makes no sense to you!

There is a conflict inside you which limits your ability to be in the likeness of God. This deals with living for self or God and this conflict will never go away. This can only be resolved by giving the Holy Spirit authority over your life. He will teach you the values of Christ, convict you of sin, and guide your pathway. You won’t be perfect but you can live a life pleasing to God.

You can awaken in the likeness of God by abiding in the Spirit of Christ. There is no other way. 

“Not My will but Yours be done.” Luke 22:42

The definition of fellowship is a friendly association, especially with people who share one’s interests. It implies a sense of companionship. In the context of God, fellowship refers to your relationship with Jesus.

Jesus wants to be your best friend, speak to you, and give you an abundant life but His ways are different. He does not think or act like you.

We tend to interpret fellowship with Jesus as worshipping Him through praise and prayer with an objective to get His help to meet all our needs. This is a very superficial view of fellowship with Jesus.

Fellowship is much more than your private time with Jesus in the morning or before you go to sleep at night. 

Jesus wants you to look at fellowship with Him from a different point of view. 

Fellowship is identifying with the life of Jesus. You walk in the footsteps of Jesus realizing you have been baptized into the death and resurrected life of Jesus.

As a believer, you have been crucified with Christ and will enter into the sufferings of the Cross. This is unavoidable and is the significance of fellowship with Jesus. 

Jesus will brings adversities, pain, and suffering into your life to get you into fellowship with Him. He wants you to give up the right to yourself and your independent lifestyle.

Your dreams and aspirations have to take a backseat to the purposes of Jesus.

Jesus is unpredictable and at times controversial. He defies human logic and will take you on a roller coaster ride with no end in sight. 

Jesus wants you to be anchored into the reality of the Living Christ and reach the point where nothing matters in your life except living in oneness with your Creator. 

Fellowship with Jesus comes with a broken heart, living by faith believing in His promises, and submitting to His authority.

The goal of fellowship is to reach this destination with God; “Jesus can do with me as He pleases. My life belongs to Him.”

“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” John 4:39

The concept of walking by faith is spoken about in the Body of Christ but is given very little importance. Faith is mostly an intellectual concept and not a living discipline for all believers. Faith is set aside and religion is the priority. 

The leaders in the Body of Christ have failed God for these reasons:

They want believers to justify a relationship with God on works. 

They minimize the importance of the Holy Spirit. They really don’t want believers listening to God because this will threaten their importance. 

They tend to utilize an intellectual approach in understanding God.

They promote the importance of leaders and churches and forget the priority is to draw people to the Living Christ.

They have instituted a set of rules you must follow if you want to live with God. 

They whitewash the truths of God for selfish motives.

In the coming days, the judgments of God will prevail and all leaders in the Body of Christ will either come under the authority of the Holy Spirit or they will be removed from leadership. 

The attraction should be to know the Living Christ and how to walk with Him. All else is of little value.

“All things work for the good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes.” Romans 8:28

This promise of God has been misconstrued by many in the Body of Christ. Let’s take a closer look at what God wants from you and me. 

All things include both the good and bad things that have taken place in your life. God uses everything in your life to draw you to Him. So where sin has abounded in your life the love of God is greater. God works through your sins to demonstrate how weak and incapable you are of living a life pleasing to Him. 

How do you and I love God? The response is we walk with Jesus by faith believing in all His promises.

We live in oneness with Jesus anchored to the Holy Spirit who is sealed in every believer. You cannot love God through your emotions or experiences with Him. They are short lived and will betray you during difficult times.

We love Jesus through vigilant prayer, listening for His voice, and living in His Word. 

We love Jesus with an obedient heart to comply with His requests even when they make no sense. 

We love Jesus by reaching out to Him for our every need understanding He has power and dominion over the heavens and earth. 

Finally, you have to be living according to His purposes for your life. This is not so much about what you are actually doing in your life but your loyalty and obedience to Jesus. Your pathway in life will take many twists and turns but Jesus is most concerned about your faith and heart desire to live for Him. 

There is no perfect journey with Jesus. The challenge is dealing with the adversities of life by faith and loving God when He seems distant and not concerned about your needs. 

The journey with Jesus is living one day at a time with Him and giving the Holy Spirit authority over your life.

Jesus lives so you can live!

“All the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen.” 2 Corinthians 1:20

The idea of jurisdiction is the governing authority in your life. You either choose to live for self or God. The reality is believers live in a hybrid relationship between God and self. 

God is holy and will have nothing to do with your sin. He has examined humanity and determined that all have fallen short of the standards of God. 

The Israelites were delivered by God from slavery in Egypt and taken on a forty year journey. In the early months of this journey God took them to a location near Mount Sinai. The presence of God was on Mount Sinai. There was thunder and lightning and the terrifying fear of God. God would strike anyone dead who attempted to go near Mount Sinai.

This illustration is to help you understand the nature of God and how He feels about sin.

God has tried you and found you guilty of sin. Your punishment is estrangement from God and death. 

This verdict can only be changed by an appellate court. Jesus presides over this court and has the power to reverse this verdict and restore you to God. He is the final authority between you and God.

The blood of Jesus is your hope for life. He offers you the gift of salvation and the life of Christ. 

Most importantly, Jesus wants you to live under His jurisdiction and allow Him to be the governing authority in your life. 

If you give Jesus permission, He promises to be your guardian and give you an abundant life filled with His strength, wisdom, joy, and protection. 

The reality of the Living Christ comes to those who walk by faith and live in oneness with Jesus anchored to the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus is a life changing God!

“Watch over me O God, for in You I put my trust.” Psalm 16:1

God spoke to me last night about how He wants to work in your life. Jesus wants to be your guardian. The definition of a guardian is someone who is a defender, protector, and a keeper.

Jesus can become your guardian today. Invite the Holy Spirit to have custodial authority in your life.

This decision will give you security that is impossible to find in the world.

The security of God comes from heaven and is eternal. If God is for you who can be against you.

Jesus lives so you can live!

“An enemy will overrun your land, pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses.” Amos 3:11

This was not a comfortable message to write but it came from the mouth of God.

God is angry with what He sees in the world. He has made a decision to punish us for our sins. We are living under the intense scrutiny of God.

The punishment will come in the form of judgements from God. The pandemic was the first with more to come.

We have to accept the retribution of our great God. No one can escape the judgments of God. 

This verse in Amos reflects the heart of God for today and is directed at the Body of Christ. We are His chosen people whom He has loved above all the people and we have failed Him.

God has spoken and will not revoke His plans to allow Satan to overrun your domain and destroy your possessions and security. 

There will be unrest and oppression for the people of Christ. This is because we do not know how to do right before the Lord.

The “set apart” people of God are to be a beacon of light reflecting the renown, praise, glory of God. We are to do good, turn away from evil, and seek peace and pursue it.

The Body of Christ is filled with hypocrisy. We have made our God religion. We play act but our behaviors do not align with the ways of God. 

We acknowledge the Holy Spirit but we reject His authority and choose to live for self.

There is very little difference today between a believer and non believer. 

The analogy from God last night was a believer walking on a tight rope with very little room for margin of error. If you slip up the result is falling into a morass and suffering misery and destruction.

How can you and I respond to the judgments of God?

Come to Jesus with an open heart confessing your sins and asking Him to reveal anything in your life not pleasing to Him.

Do not accept, be a part of, or condone the amoral attitudes of our society. 

Separate yourself from the influences of Satan dominating our world.

We live in the world but we are not of the world

Present your body as a living sacrifice to God. Pray the meditations of your heart, your thoughts and your words will be pleasing to Christ Jesus.

Seek out the will of God through prayer, the word of God, and listen for the voice of Jesus.

Walk with Jesus by faith anchored to the Holy Spirit.

I created a blog a couple days ago titled “The persona of Christ Jesus”. The purpose was to introduce followers to the Living Christ and attempt to define the attributes of our amazing God.

After completing the draft I said to God something is missing in this document. God spoke right back to me and said “evidence” or proof of My claims is missing. I got it!

The starting point is making a decision to live for Jesus above all else. God used the analogy of someone sitting in a car with spinning wheels and going nowhere.

The point of this illustration is that you cannot have the evidence of the Living Christ in your life without abandoning yourself to Him without any limitations.

The cornerstone to walking with God is living by faith trusting in the promises of Christ. This is a lifestyle characterized by patience, discipline, and vigilant prayer. Like David, you believe in the deepest part of your heart “My help comes from the Lord who created the heavens and earth”. Jesus is your sufficiency for life.

The Christ follower understands the importance of resting in God. He enters into this rest by faith living in the work of the Cross.

God has given me this image to explain how to rest in Him. You have an appointment for a meeting on the twentieth floor of a high rise building. You enter the lobby and touch the number twenty button next to the elevator. Then you rest and the elevator does the work to take you to your destination. This is how you walk with God without striving.

The resurrected power of Christ lives in the life of a believer in the efficacy of the Holy Spirit. This brings the reality of this promise of God into your life; “I can do all things through Christ Jesus who gives me the strength.”

Jesus died to give you everything required to live in this world. You are complete in Him and lack nothing.

The evidence of Jesus will come to all those who are willing to live for Him without compromise! You will see the transfigured Christ and your life will never be the same.