Hal’s Blog

“Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.” Matthew 4:11

Jesus was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness. He fasted and worshipped God for forty days.

Satan came and tempted Him three times but Jesus rebuked him. 

There will be times in your journey with God when He will take you to a place and allow Satan to torment you and make your life miserable. The devil wants to wreck your marriage, finances, and health.

This is a battle of wills but the Christ follower will get the victory through unyielding faith, prayer and abiding in the Holy Spirit.

After the onslaught of Satan you will feel depleted and exhausted.

Then God will send angels to replenish you and fill you with Living Water. 

God has been speaking to me lately about a counterfeit spirit at work in this season. He preys on Christ followers and sounds like God but He is the Antichrist. 

He is a liar and deceiver and wants to mislead you and destroy your life. 

It is important to take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus and pray for the discernment of Spirits. 

“The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

In the middle of last night God spoke to me about His strength. I saw a forklift that lifts heavy objects which you or I are unable to lift. 

The strength of Christ is a supernatural power that comes from Heaven. 

It is the resurrected power of Christ and lives in you through the Holy Spirit.

The strength of Christ has no limits and is immutable (or unchanging).

The strength of Christ is made perfect in your weakness. 

The strength of Christ gives you the ability to overcome every challenge in your life.

The strength of Christ transcends human understanding and will give you a victory over your fears. 

The strength of Christ enables you to do things impossible for a human being.

The strength of Christ comes by faith in Jesus, the Son of God.

Ask and you shall receive!

The word from God today is contempt which is defined as a feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn. This attitude is pervasive in the Body of Christ. 

Contempt will destroy your ability to be a light for God. 

You and I do not have the ability to judge others. If you attempt to judge or have feelings of antipathy you will be severely dealt with by God. 

Jesus expressed mercy towards the adulteress and viewed her as a woman blameless in the eyes of God. 

Jesus helped her escape from death by stoning and told her to go and sin no more. 

If you want to be a vessel for God you have to be in touch with your despicable unworthiness and utter failure to meet the standards of God.

The moment you think you are like God the Holy Spirit will strike you down and make you look at your corrupt inner nature. And, the picture will be disgusting.

Walking with God is a life of repentance and understanding the boundaries of God are established by the mercy and compassion of Jesus not by laws. 

“Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” Matthew 6:10

The word from God today is propensity. 

The definition of propensity is an inclination or tendency to behave in a particular way.

As a Christ follower our intentions are to please God but we live in a struggle between yielding to the flesh or the Holy Spirit. And, we easily become handcuffed by religion. 

The solution to this dilemma is to face God each day with an open heart and a transparent mind.

Don’t start your day until you have met with Jesus, heard His voice and have confidence in His wisdom and direction for today. 

Invite the Holy Spirit to guide your pathway and to be an integral influence in your every decision and action. 

Pray vigilantly asking the Holy Spirit to show you how to pray and to understand His priorities for your life.

Sometimes God can seem tough and very harsh. Learn to accept the discipline of God. It is designed to perfect you in the ways of God.

Your session with Jesus should be intimate, convicting, and joyful. Your goal is to be filled with the Living Water to meet every challenge in your life today.

We all have burdens and they tend to interrupt our oneness with God. They create emotions of anger, fear and depression and suddenly we find ourself estranged from the Holy Spirit. 

Cast your burdens upon the shoulders of God and ask Him to give you the freedom to live above them. He desires to sustain you with strength, joy and peace.

Give praise to our awesome God today! He lives so you can live!

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:17

Gifts come from Jesus to those who ask by faith without doubting. 

Gifts come to those who operate with the motives of God.

Gifts comes to those who live under the blood of Jesus and seek purity in their life.

Gifts come in the perfect timing of God.

Gifts are designed to give glory to God.

Gifts come from our awesome God who never changes and operates without partiality. 

Gifts come to those who live without hypocrisy.

God rewards those with gifts who diligently seek Him out.

If you have made a serious commitment from the heart to live for Jesus you are separated unto the gospel. 

Your life now belongs to God. As a believer you live in the world but you are a foreigner on a journey with Jesus to an everlasting life. 

Separation means dying to self and walking by faith believing in the promises of God. 

Greatness with God is sacrificing your life for His purposes.

Your desires and goals have to take a back seat to the work of the gospel. 

It is inevitable you will encounter fiery trials confronting the darkness in the world. 

You are a combatant in a war between light and darkness. 

God will call you to stand in the gap and make intercession and prayers for those in bondage to sin.

The Christ follower is a powerful light dwelling in a corrupt world. And, God will not let you escape or overlook the evil. 

God wants you to confront evil through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Lamb of God was led to the slaughter by His Father. Expect the same sorrows and afflictions experienced by Jesus.

Separated unto the gospel is laboring for God through prayer, meditating on the Word of God, and worshipping Jesus in Spirit and Truth. It is living through the power of the Holy Spirit.

God isn’t seeking your sacrifices or offerings. He wants your unyielding devotion to Him.

Salvation is about living moment by moment with God. It is not about seeking transfigured experiences or dealing with God about your future. 

We have to meet God today with humility and simplicity. The goal is to ask God to examine you with a laser focus and reveal where you need to change. 

The most important thing you can do is to be one with God dealing with all the details facing you today.

The burdens of life create a range of emotions and can easily distract you from the purposes of God. 

We have to learn to live with the burdens until God delivers us. This requires prayer and living in the Word.

Cast your burdens upon the Lord and He will sustain you with strength joy, and peace.

Yoke yourself to Jesus through the Holy Spirit. He is the life of Christ and the source of the Living Water. 

Commit your works each day to God and invite the Holy Spirit to have authority over your life. This will put you in touch with the voice of God and give you the ability to walk in the light of Jesus.

God isn’t looking for big things from you today. You will find Him in the simplicity of your life.

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Matthew 3:11

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is how you change from unworthy to blameless before Christ! It is a surgical work of God changing your heart and soul.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with spiritual gifts.

The handiwork of God is the process of regeneration from your natural condition at birth into a new creature in Christ Jesus.

This takes place through the work of the Water and the Spirit. The Water makes you clean in the eyes of Jesus and the Spirit baptizes you into the death and resurrected life of Christ.

Walking with Jesus is a lifelong process of conviction and repentance. You are on a spiritual journey to die to self and live for Christ.

God makes you look at your human nature and see how you can never come close to the standards of Jesus.

Jesus wants nothing from your natural condition at birth. He wants you to see your poverty and seek out the life of Christ.

This brutal examination is the beginning of new life with Christ. You come humbly to God seeking His blood and forgiveness.

The moment you think you are a righteous believer the Holy Spirit will sternly rebuke you with the fires of God.

There is only one way you can live in a symbiotic relationship with God. Walk with Jesus by faith under the authority of the Holy Spirit. 

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will set you free from the law of sin and death.

The righteousness of God is a gift from Jesus. You do not own it!

“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you” 1 John 2:27

As a new believer, God provides support through mature leaders, friends, and church activities.

The initial purpose of God is to strengthen your faith and help you understand fundamental spiritual truths. The end goal is to bring you into a oneness with Jesus without the need for the crutches. 

God will gradually take away the crutches because He desires a one on one relationship with you. And, He wants you to be totally dependent and confident in Him. 

At times, you will feel isolation from the Body of Christ as God wants you to face Him for your every need.

This is in no way to demean the purpose of a church. The church is designed to prepare and equip you to walk with God. 

The purpose of God is to send believers out into the world to be a powerful witness for Jesus and draw unbelievers into a relationship with Him. 

Each day we have to look into the face of Jesus. He convicts you of sin, points out all your frailties and short comings and teaches you His values. This intense examination by God is to prepare you to be a powerful light touching those living in darkness.

As a Christ follower you are sealed with the glory of God through the Holy Spirit. 

The glory of God saves lives. This powerful light penetrates the heart and soul. 

The glory of God comes to believers who have sacrificed their life for Jesus and have been crucified into His death. It is a move of the Spirit in the life of a believer.

God will manifest His glory through you to draw people to Jesus. Moses face was illuminated with the glory of God after coming down from Mount Sinai.

The glory of God is not for your personal pleasure or to be kept to yourself. 

The glory of God defines His character. 

God is driven by unconditional love to save souls. He is holy and without sin, He is all powerful and He is everlasting. 

The glory of God is a precursor of Heaven.

God gives believers glimpses of His glory to reaffirm and strengthen your faith in His promises.

The glory of God changes lives! 

God spoke to me recently about the importance of walking in oneness with Jesus. He reminded me this is how Jesus prays for you and me.

Jesus said very few understand this spiritual principle. They attempt to perform for me while I am asking them to live and move and have their being centered in My presence.

How do you walk in oneness with Jesus?

The starting point is to make a decision to live for Jesus above all else. This initiates becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus wants to develop a personal and embracing relationship with you. Your goal is to be centered in the Living Christ and be in touch with His presence. Jesus wants to speak to you and share His life with you.

Walk with Jesus by faith believing in His promises. Reach out to Him for your every need.

Approach Jesus with a repentant heart and ask Him to cover you with His blood.

Jesus told me last night we all make “incongruent” decisions which are not compatible with God. They restrict the flow of the Living Water into your heart and soul. Come to Jesus with your secret sins. He wants to set you free. 

Develop a vigilant and consistent prayer life.

Meditate on the Word of God to learn the values of Jesus and how to live them out in your life. 

Invite the Holy Spirit to have authority over all the intricacies in your life.

Commit your works each day to God and pray for a heart of wisdom. 

God wants your undivided loyalty to Him. He will test you to the ends of the earth to determine your allegiance to Him. When God speaks to you respond with obedience without questioning His motives.

Cease from striving and rest in God. Remember, it is not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of God.

Finally, Jesus wants you to have a submissive heart and a deep conviction to seek His will.