Hal’s Blog

Last night God spoke to me about this story.

As a New Testament believer, you cannot please Jesus with offerings and sacrifices.

And, He is not motivated by your works or keeping laws. So the question becomes what does God want from you?

Cain and Abel both made offerings to God but only Abel’s was respected by God.

This made Cain angry and jealous over Abel’s relationship with God and he eventually killed his brother.

The spiritual significance is Abel gave God the very best with an open heart to please Him. He held nothing back from God.

Cain held back the very best for himself and made a mediocre offering to God. Cain was not fully committed God.

Jesus doesn’t care about an offering; He wants all of you. He wants your devotion to Him above all else.

The transaction with Jesus requires you give Him all of your life to do with as He pleases. You lose your independence and the right to yourself. Your desires and ambitions must die on the Cross with Jesus.

Your life belongs to God and your duty is to be obedient to the voice of God without compromise.

What is God asking of you today?

“Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4

This subject came to me in the middle of last night and relates to your plans and goals. 

At one time all the people of the earth were together and spoke one language. They traveled from the east to build a city and a tower reaching to the heavens.

They wanted to create a strong and secure nation and avoid being scattered over the face of the earth.

God came down from heaven and looked at what they were doing and was not pleased. He said these people are one nation and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing they propose to do will be withheld from them. 

God confused the language of the people and scattered them around the earth.

What caused this course of action by God? 

The people believed they could protect their nation by building a city with a tower reaching to God. They were attempting to do this with their own strength and human wisdom. They thought the tower would give them access to God and the ability to care for His needs.

The downfall of the people was believing they could control their own destiny and exert any influence over God. God doesn’t need a tower and He has no needs.

God knew this attitude left unchecked would lead to more actions of defiance against His sovereignty. 

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.

This nation of people violated an unchanging principle of God. As a believer you must follow the direction of God and live under His authority.

You must submit your works to God and seek His wisdom for your life. 

Without God you can do nothing! This

People everyday decide to live for Jesus. They hear the good news and accept Jesus by faith.

For many the decision becomes short lived and eventually fades away. This happens because they make an emotional decision. Emotions come and go and will always lead you astray from God.

The commitment to Jesus must come from the heart and be a sincere decision to turn over entitlement of your will to the Living Christ. This transaction gives ownership of your life to God and He can do with you as He pleases.

You agree to give up the right to yourself and all your desires and ambitions to follow Jesus. 

You must have a willingness to obey the voice of God at any cost. 

The transaction with God is not about doing works; it is living by faith trusting in the promises of God.

Abandonment to God is committing your works each day to Jesus and yielding your life to the authority of the Holy Spirit.

God knows you better than you know yourself. There is a way that seems right to a man but its end can lead to destruction. Do not rely on human instinct; trust the wisdom of God.

God is omniscient and knows every detail in your future. Inquire of the Lord in all your decision making. He is your safety net and the counsel of the Lord endures forever.

Jesus is not an intellectual concept and He is not motivated by your works.

The Living Christ is sealed inside all believers and wants to be your best friend and share His life with you. He is complete and lacks nothing. 

Look no further! Find your sufficiency in Jesus for your every need. He loves you.

“He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.” Psalm 33:10-11

Many times we get the idea that we know what is best for us and God is taking us in a wrong direction. 

We interpret the conditions of our life in relationship to God. So when life is falling apart God is failing us.

God does not think or act like you. 

If you are a serious follower of Christ the adversities of life usually have nothing or very little to do with sin. They are designed to sanctify you into the life of Jesus. This sanctification is not for you; it is to bring the glory of God to others. 

God has a purpose for your life and He will bring it into fruition in His perfect timing.

You are wasting your time to argue with God or second guess His plans. 

Listen to the voice of God and trust the promises He has made to you.

God wants you to be unflappable in dealing with the adversities of life. 

Pray for calmness and a steadfast faith while waiting on God to deliver you.

The propriety of God is perfect. You just can’t see His plans!

Walk by faith and give the feelings of anger, fear, and despair to Jesus.

He is a perfect God!

“That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” John 17:21

Good Morning,

The Holy Spirit spoke to me last night about the sacrosanct nature of Jesus.

Jesus never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

The counsel of the Lord endures forever and cannot be compromised.

Jesus lived in perfect oneness with His Father throughout His entire life and ministry.

Jesus prayed that you and I can live in oneness with Him.

This can only be accomplished by yielding to the Holy Spirit and maintaining a consciousness with Him through prayer.

The Holy Spirit is the life of Christ and is sealed inside all believers. He is your direct link to God.

The life of Jesus was characterized by finding a place to be alone with His Father in prayer. Jesus heard from His Father and was directed where to travel and how to conduct His ministry.

You can hear from God today. He has given you the mind of Christ. This simple prayer will help draw you into oneness with God. Commit your works to God and His thoughts will be established within you. 

Come to God with a sincere heart and He will be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your pathway. This promise of God can be yours for the asking.

Walk with God anchored to the Holy Spirit and draw upon His attributes of strength, wisdom, joy, and protection.

He lives so you can live!

“Cast your burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be shaken.” Psalm 55:22

We all have burdens; they are unavoidable. God allows burdens to come upon us. Some He will take away quickly; others we have to live with.

Burdens cause anxiety, fear, and many times we try to deal with them in unhealthy ways. And, they tend to deprive us of the fullness of God.

Here is a supernatural principle of God that will work for anyone. God desires for you to cast your burdens upon Him. He died to accept all of your burdens.

God can handle the crushing weight of your burdens and give you freedom to live with Him. He may not take away your burden but He will give you supernatural peace and joy.

These qualities come from heaven and are yours for the asking.

Walk by faith with God anchored to the Holy Spirit. Develop a consciousnesses with God at all times through the Holy Spirit.

Your safety net is in Jesus never in the world. The world will disappoint you but God will reward you with His goodness.

Finally, let me remind you of the character of God. He is power, greatness, glory, victory, and majesty. He has power and dominion over the heavens and earth and His name is exalted over all. 

He lives so you can live!

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace but now it is hidden from your eyes.” Luke 19:41-42

Jesus was making a triumphant entry into Jerusalem and looked over the people in the city. 

Jesus wept because they were blinded to the truths of God. They didn’t understand who Jesus was or what He was going to do for them. 

Jesus came to sacrifice His life so that you and I can have the gift of eternal life.

The question today is what is hidden from your eyes concerning Jesus? What is blocking you from experiencing the fullness of God?

This subject deals with both sin and the influence of religion in your life.

The definition of sin is recognizing you were born with a condition to live for self and defy God. And, the only way you can overcome this condition is through Jesus. In fact, you are unable to see the depth of your human personality or understand how much you need God.

Jesus very simply asks you to live with Him by faith and seek out His will for your life.

Jesus desires to become your best friend and have a warm and embracing relationship with you. 

Jesus lives in all believers through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit. He is your direct link to God. 

The Holy Spirit speaks to you and teaches you the values of Jesus. He convicts you of sin and causes you to examine your motives and decision making.

Jesus wants your dedication to Him above all else. This happens through prayer, reading the Word, listening to His voice and walking in oneness with Him anchored to the Holy Spirit.

We complicate Jesus by trying to appease Him through works and laws.

Jesus is asking for your total obedience to Him even when it makes no sense to you.

Jesus wants to give you a quality of life you can never achieve on your own and bless the desires of your heart. This will come by your unyielding faith in the promises of God.

Today you and I have to recognize we are living in the end times and the judgments of God are over the world. 

Walk in the light of Christ yielding to the Holy Spirit! He loves you!

“Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 

We all have needs. Some are related to money and others are emotional. And, we all have desires.

God has been speaking to me about this subject for a long time. Many nights I am awake for hours listening to God.

Last night God healed a woman living in the Midwest with a kidney failure.

God has the ability to meet your every need and bless the deepest desires of your heart.

Jesus tells us to seek Him first and He will meet all of our needs.

Unfortunately, we all know from experience this doesn’t happen with consistency and it seems like an up and down cycle with God. 

This is because we have a misconceived idea of how God fulfills His promises.

Walking with God is a journey and it takes many years to fit into the symmetry of His plans.

If you ask Jesus today to cover you with His blood you can then pray with confidence for strength, wisdom, joy and protection. These attributes of God will be given to you immediately. 

However, when it comes to praying for your materialistic needs it is a completely different situation. 

There are different seasons of life with God. They all planned to mold you into the character of Christ. There will be times of abundance and times of lack. 

God wants you to live by faith trusting in His promises but He has a much deeper goal in mind. 

God wants all of you! He wants your total commitment to Him and your obedience to His voice. 

God also wants you to reach out to Him for your every need without complaining about your present circumstances. 

We tend to forget who God is the midst of the troubles of life. 

We become fixated on our troubles and lose sight of the character of God. 

The attributes of God are power, greatness, glory, victory, and majesty. He has power and dominion over the heavens and earth. And, God exalts Himself as the head over all.

God knows you better than you know yourself. He is also omniscient and sees every detail of your future. 

God knows exactly how you will respond when He answers your prayers or delivers you from adversities.

God has two purposes in mind regarding your prayers. He wants to bless you while bringing glory to His name.

The workmanship of Christ is designed to create spiritual maturity and unyielding faith in believers so that nothing in life can effect your relationship with God. 

Without faith it is impossible to please God!

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” John 6:26-27

This is a complicated subject because Jesus wants you to seek Him out with all your heart and He promises to provide for all your needs. 

The challenge is to examine your priorities in walking with Jesus.

The setting for this story begins the previous day.

Jesus preached to the crowd and then fed five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. 

The next day the apostles took a boat and crossed to the other side of the lake. The people were confused because there was only one boat and Jesus did not depart with the apostles.

Later that day Jesus walked on the water toward the boat and was picked up by His disciples.

Many of the people who witnessed the miracle of Jesus the previous day took boats across the lake looking for Jesus. They eventually found Jesus and asked him how He got to the other side of the lake? 

This provoked the response from Jesus in the text above. Jesus confronted the people over their motives. Jesus said you saw the miracle that I performed feeding five thousand people and your primary concern is looking for Me to give you food and the necessities of life.

Then the people asked Jesus “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus responded you must believe in the One God has sent to you. He has the seal of approval from God!

Jesus went on to say “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.”

This entire narrative deals with your priorities in a relationship with Jesus. The gift of God is eternal life. This comes to those who believe in Jesus.

The priority for a Christ follower is to seek out the will of God for your life above all else. The necessities of life will follow your decision to live for Jesus. This priority will never change. 

As a Christ follower you walk with Jesus by faith believing in His promises. Your goal is to know the Living Christ. This happens through prayer, meditating on the Word, listening for the voice of God, and yielding to the Holy Spirit.

The Living Water is the life of Jesus. He lives in you!

“Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.” Romans 4:4-5

The concept of bargaining is the idea you can do something for God and then He is obligated to bless you. Nothing can be further from the truth.

This concept died with Jesus on the Cross. 

The Old Testament was built on a series of laws given to Moses by God. This was a method of living prescribed by God. The Israelites were required to keep these laws in order to be blessed by God. 

Unfortunately, no could keep these laws. 

The laws were perfect but the Israelites were born with a corrupted inner nature (like you and me) and could never match up this standard of living.

The Israelites were God’s chosen people but they failed Him time and again. 

God was aware of this dilemma from the very beginning. He knew that no one could please Him through works or laws. 

God had a perfect plan to overcome this disfunction between Him and all humanity.

He sent Jesus, the son of God, to the earth to be a sacrifice for sin and to restore believers to God.

God knew this plan would work perfectly for all those who make a decision to live for Jesus by faith. 

The gift of salvation is based on faith and cannot be achieved by good works or keeping laws.

There is no obligation on the part of God to bless you because of anything you do for Him. 

Bargaining with God is a waste of time. You must submit to God and live under His authority through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus responds to all those who walk with Him by faith. And, He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him out.