Hal’s Blog

The hierarchy of God consists of three persons. They are God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

It is impossible to worship God directly. He wants nothing to do with you because you are contaminated with sin. You cannot draw near to God.

The presence of God creates a terrifying fear and a power unlike anything in the world. This is why God told the Israelites to stay away from His presence on Mount Sinai. The Israelites were so frightened by God they would only deal with Moses.

God refers all people to Jesus who is the Son of God. This is the only way you can come into the presence of God. The sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross offers forgiveness of all sin through the blood of Jesus. You become born again into a new person filled with the character of Jesus.

Think about the hierarchy of God this way. Jesus and God have lived in oneness from the beginning of creation. God has assigned Jesus power and dominion over the heavens and earth. There is no power greater than Jesus in the world we inhabit.

The journey with God begins with your decision to live for Jesus. There is no other way.

Now we come to the sticky part of dealing with God. As a new believer, you have to choose to either seek the Living Christ or enter through the religious channel. If you choose religion you will be bound by laws and works. Religion wants to control you and God wants to set you free.

Jesus is not a religious sect or a denomination built on laws. He spent most of His ministry confronting the falsehoods of religion.

In reality, Jesus hates religion and was executed by religious leaders.

So how do you find the Living Christ without being tarnished by religion?

Make a decision to live for Jesus above all else. This means you let go of your independence and goals. The priority of your life must be to vigilantly seek the will of God.

This will open the door to meet the Living Christ.

You will discover in dealing with the personality of Jesus that He is a very jealous God. His jealousy is like a consuming fire. Jesus wants all of you and does not want to share you with other gods or idols.

Jesus wants to have a personal and vibrant relationship with you. He wants to speak with you, fill you with His life, and teach you His values. He wants to be your best friend and live together in a symbiotic relationship.

Unfortunately, you can’t sit down and have coffee with the physical being of Jesus or interact directly with Him. This is because Jesus lives in Heaven.

The question is how do you come in contact with the reality of the Living Christ?

God has provided an excellent solution to this dilemma. If you are a believer, God has sealed you with the Holy Spirit who is the life of Christ. He is a living person embodied in the form of a Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is how you experience the reality of Jesus. The secret is to give Him authority over your life. Jesus will become alive in every moment of your life. The Spirit will fill you with the thoughts of God, give you supernatural wisdom and guide your decision making.

Jesus is omniscient and His wisdom will protect you from evil and wrong doing.

Jesus will literally become a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your pathway. He will bring the order of God into your life.

Jesus does not think or act like you. As a Christ follower you have to let go of human logic and walk by faith not by sight.

Jesus tests believers. He is looking for your obedience to His instructions regardless of the cost or the lack of any common sense.

Jesus can do for you what you can never do for yourself!

Jesus spoke the words above about asking Him for your desires. I have heard many interpretations over the years about this text and none really made much sense to me.

There are criteria developed by Jesus relating to asking. First, you must be abiding in Him. This means you are walking in oneness with Him in prayer, reading scripture, listening for His voice, and genuinely seeking His will for your life. And, you are living under the authority of the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, you must be a doer of the Word. This means the Words of scripture are engraved in your heart and you are attempting to live by them to the best of your ability.

You must be in touch with the reality of the Living Christ and hearing His personal promises and prophetic words. This happens to those who are abiding in Jesus and yielding to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Christ is sealed in all believers and He speaks to believers. You have the mind of Christ.

Thirdly, God creates different seasons for believers. There are times of abundance and times of deprivation. So you must understand where you stand with God. It does no good to ask for prosperity in times of deprivation. You will just keep hitting a brick wall. Job was restored in God’s perfect timing.

There is also a direct relationship between asking and waiting upon God. Many times God hears your prayers but He asks you to wait upon Him by faith.

There really is no delay from God in asking for wisdom, strength, joy, and protection as long as you are abiding in Him and covered by His blood.

God looks at your heart in responding to your prayers!

God has constituted things on the basis of redemption. By means of our asking, God gets processes into work whereby He creates the thing that is not in existence until we do ask. Oswald Chambers

There is only one gateway to the reality of the Living Christ. You must surrender yourself to Jesus without any conditions. You agree to give up the rights to yourself and give God permission to do with you as He pleases.

This is not a surrender to religion, keeping laws, or doing works for God.

You agree to give up your independence for Jesus. This is a decision of the will. God will not force Himself upon you.

The surrender to Jesus will merge your personality into oneness with Him.

Jesus wants your absolute loyalty to Him without compromise.

This decision will trigger the work of the Cross. You will be crucified with Christ. And, your life will belong to God.

The born again believer lives in a personal and embracing relationship with Jesus. He will be in all your thoughts, words and decision making.

The beauty of Jesus is that He forgives all your sins and covers you with His blood. You can stand blameless before God.

You will hear the voice of God consistently. Jesus fills you with His attributes of strength, wisdom, joy and protection. These precious qualities come from Heaven and cannot be found on earth.

Jesus reveals His truth to you and shows you how to operate with His values.

You will experience signs and wonders and live in the presence of powerful angels.

The Holy Spirit will heal your physical afflictions and protect you from evil.

The Holy Spirit will give you supernatural strength and the ability to meet all the challenges of life.

The Holy Spirit will perform inner healing from past hurts and make you whole. He will teach you to forgive others and give you freedom from past emotions.

You will be created in His workmanlike for good works.

Jesus knows you better than you know yourself and will create a perfect plan for your life.

Surrender to Jesus is the beginning of a new and robust life!

I have been studying this biblical precept for several months under the auspices of the Holy Spirit. The definition of dying to self is the process of becoming refined into the character of God.

This is a lengthy and never ending period of time. Jesus is crucifying your natural life. You cannot escape this transformation because it is divinely ordained by God.

If you are serious about God expect deeper refinement along with severe testing and trials.

In reviewing the writings of the great spiritual pioneers they all use scripture, personal testimonies, and analogies to describe this surgical work of God. But the result is the same. They all agree we have to deal with sorrow, loss and pain.

If you are a believer you have entered into this process of natural death. This will be accompanied by pain and suffering at times.

You cannot hurry the process along because it takes a lot of work to get the barnacles removed from your personality.

God sees everything about you. He knows all your vulnerabilities and weaknesses. He sees the depth of your natural life which is mostly hidden from you.

The refinement of the Cross touches every aspect of your thoughts, words and decision making.

God wants believers to walk in oneness with Him and live by faith and not by what they see with their eyes. This happens by giving the Holy Spirit authority over your life and learning to listen to the voice of God.

The Christ follower must learn how to operate like God without the influence of ego and pride. You must also learn how to reject worldly wisdom and actions which are engrained in society.

God wants your loyalty and obedience even though it may be very costly and painful.

It is impossible to live for Christ without experiencing the death of self and the purification of your inner self.

Dying to self gives you the fullness of the life of Christ!

Good Morning,

The Holy Spirit gave me the title for this narrative along with words describing His most important priority in gaining loyalty with Jesus. He told me a believer must accept the unabridged version of the words of Jesus without editing or rejecting any script. Many believers accept what they like about Jesus and reject the hard and more difficult precepts. This is also widely practiced by many religious leaders.

God understands the precepts in the Bible contain some very tough instructions. Jesus just wants believers to just be open to learn how to appropriate His truths into your life. This is a lifelong process and does not happen overnight.

The primary condition for securing the loyalty of Christ is to be willing to lay down your life for Christ. You must be willing to give up your freedom and desires to live for Christ above all else.

Jesus speaks and the believer obeys without delay or questioning His wisdom. He wants obedient and loyal believers regardless of the logic or cost to comply.

Abraham gave up everything and moved to a foreign land at the request of God. This is why he was blessed as the Father of many nations and was favored by God. Abraham was far from perfect but He was obedient to the voice of God.

Loyalty is believing in the promises of Jesus and walking by faith not by sight. Faith is believing your help comes from the Lord who created the Heavens and Earth. David lived by this principle and this is why he was anointed with the favor of God. And, David made many mistakes in his lifetime.

Loyalty comes by centering your life on Jesus through prayer, reading the Bible, and listening for His voice.

Loyalty to Jesus is achieved by submitting to the authority of the Holy Spirit and committing your works each day to Him.

Religion does not build loyalty to Jesus. It will lead you into keeping laws and doing works. Religion presents a superficial view of Christ and does not teach a believer how to live in the reality of our almighty God.

Loyalty is a process of dying to self and living for Christ. You enter into the baptism of the crucified and resurrected Christ. Your life no longer belongs to you. It belongs to Jesus who can do with you as He pleases.

Who is going to write the script for your life?

The Holy Spirit has recently been speaking to me about Satan and his tactics.

Satan was created by God. He is a very powerful spiritual being. At one time he was very loved by God. The Bible tells us Satan was God’s anointed guardian.

Satan wanted to be like God and have authority over all things. For this reason, God threw Satan and his multitude of followers out of Heaven.

Satan is alive and at work on the earth. He wants to destroy the presence of Christ and cause human beings to turn away from God. He is the enemy of all Christians and wants to steal, kill and destroy believers.

Satan has a command structure of many demons. Each demon is assigned an evil power like sexual lust, greed for money or power, alcohol and drug addictions, lies and deceit, and mental health dysfunctions. Any other evil you can think of there is a demon assigned to harass believers. They attempt to entice you to walk in darkness. And, many times they are successful in creating a stronghold over a human being.

There are religious demons who have been very successful in denigrating the scriptures and the purposes of a Christ follower.

Satan can put evil thoughts in your mind and knows your weaknesses. He attacks humans by trying to tempt you into pursuing an evil action. He attempts to convince you everyone does this and don’t worry about God. Remember, Satan is a liar.

Satan also works through the adversities in your life to disprove the love and protection of God. He plants the idea why would a loving God allow this to happen and discourages you from seeking God.

Satan is actively at work behind the scenes and overtly trying to deceive you with lies.

As a believer, you must turn away from every temptation and walk in oneness with God. Commit your works to God and give the Holy Spirit authority over your thoughts, words and actions.

Pray vigilantly seeking the will of God. Test every Spirit when in doubt by yielding to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

Put on the armor of God and rebuke Satan with the promises of God.

You might want to read The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. This classic book gives insight into the dark world of Satan.

There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God, and counterclaimed by Satan. C. S. Lewis

Every human being is tempted whether you are a believer or not. Temptation is rooted in your human nature.

If you think you are above temptation you are living a lie and will probably fall.

The temptations come from genetic dispositions and weaknesses in your personality.

There is nothing wrong with experiencing temptations. Jesus was tempted three times by Satan.

You can give into the temptation or yield the temptation to Christ.

If you give into the temptation you will face misery and destruction. This is taking a shortcut to the goodness of God.

If you yield the temptation to Christ, He promises not to let you be tempted beyond what you can endure. And, He will provide a way of escape so that you can overcome the temptation.

Paul, the writer of this scripture, cites the Israelites as an example of falling into temptations. They worshipped idols, practiced sexual immortality, and complained bitterly about God’s methods.

God responded by releasing poisonous snakes which killed several thousand of the Israelites.

If you give into temptations, you can expect the retribution of God.

You can avoid falling into temptations if you walk by unyielding faith believing in the promises of God. Submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit and pray for the will of God. When in doubt, inquire of the Lord for wisdom.

Walking with Jesus must be built upon absolute trust and obedience. This begins when you make a decision to live for Jesus above all else.

Your commitment to Jesus triggers the act of sanctification. You become a new creature in Christ Jesus and are born again.

Jesus sanctified Himself so that you can be sanctified by the truth. The believer must worship Jesus in Spirit and Truth. This includes prayer, reading the Bible, and listening for His voice.

Your relationship with Jesus cannot be defined by experiences or emotions. This will just create an up and down spiritual walk and you will never know the Living Christ.

The Holy Spirit is how a believer enters into the reality of Jesus. The Christ follower must live under the authority of the Holy Spirit and be in contact with Him at all times.

The attributes of Jesus are dispensed by the Holy Spirit and He teaches you how to live by the values of Jesus.

The life and ministry of a believer will be a demonstration of the Spirit and power at work inside you. This is what changes lives not religious or intellectual based teaching..

The believer must be living in steadfast faith believing in the promises of God. There is a big difference between someone who proclaims the Word and someone who is a doer of the Word. The evidence of the Living Christ is seen by all.

The Holy Spirit authenticates a believer’s ministry and creates the Living Water which is life changing.

The challenge is to commit your works each day to God and invite the Holy Spirit to transform you into a powerful witness for Jesus.

The Holy Spirit has burdened me lately with believers who don’t listen to God. This is a very dangerous habit and can bring destruction and misery into your life.

It would be nice to sit down a have a cup of coffee with Jesus. Unfortunately, this can’t happen because the person of Jesus lives in Heaven.

God did provide a way to enter into a conversation with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. And, Jesus confirmed how to draw near to God by worshiping Him in Spirit and Truth.

The Holy Spirit is sealed in all believers. He is the essence of Jesus. And, He desires to have a living relationship with you.

Prayer is not a one way dialogue where you unload your needs upon Jesus. Prayer is a rich, two way conversation and part of a symbiotic relationship with Jesus.

Prayer is asking God to convict you of sins and provide forgiveness through the blood of Jesus.

Prayer is committing your works to God each day and seeking His wisdom for your life.

Prayer is coming before God with a quiet mind and listening for His voice. God wants to have a dialogue with you to teach you His values, and guide your footsteps. He wants to protect you from evil with a powerful buttress of support.

Prayer is reaching out to God with all your needs.

Prayer is allowing the Holy Spirit to bring up those people or circumstances He wants you to pray about. And, He wants to show you how to pray powerful words coming directly from heaven. And, not just a lot of religious words.

You have the mind of Christ. It is impossible to walk with God unless you are yielding to the Holy Spirit and hearing His voice.

The Christ follower recognizes his utter lack of self sufficiency and the importance of hearing the voice of God.

God’s voice is not confined to prayer. Be open to hear Him at any time.

Jesus has life changing words for you!

This powerful Bible verse describes the essence of God. If you believe this truth how can you ever doubt God or fall into unbelief.

Faith is not an intellectual concept. It does not come by participating in religion. Faith is not created by doing works or keeping the laws of God.

Faith is total dependence upon God regardless of your circumstances. Faith is reaching out to God for your every need.

Faith stems from the depth of your personal relationship with Living Christ.

Faith is obeying the voice of God even when He makes no sense or the request is costly.

Faith is believing in what you cannot see and understanding God calls things that don’t exist as if they did.

Faith is believing and praising God when there is no evidence of His promises.

Faith is having confidence in Jesus while ship wreck at sea and holding onto a piece of debris floating in the water with no help in sight.

Faith is believing in the gift of salvation and walking in oneness with Jesus.

Faith fills you with the righteousness of God. There is no other way to live in the holiness of God.

Without faith you cannot please God.

Your lack of faith makes God angry. He punishes believers who live in fear or doubt and reject the promises of God.

Faith is believing in the miracles of Christ!