BEWARE OF THE HALT POSITION: TD ARCHIVES 2001

NOTE: APOLOGIES FOR THE MISSING DFW LOF SUNDAY LIVESTREAM. Though we filmed what we viewed as a IMPORTANT TIMELY USA CHURCH MESSAGE, it was lost. So we’ll REFILM and LORD ALLOWING, repost it on WEDNESAY MAY 10 by 3 PM CT

In the meanwhile:

Here is a reprint of an extremely important leader article from 2001. I pray that it is encouraging.

In His Love, Dr. T

BE AWARE OF THE HALT POSITION

© 2001 Taveau D’Arcy All copyrights reserved under international law

I would like to offer a warning to every leader in these days. It is simply this:

BE AWARE OF THE HALT POSITION.

The HALT position is recognized in the 12 Step programs as the times in which a person is most likely to succumb to their weaknesses, bad habits and temptations and fall into sin. The acronym HALT stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired.

Let us examine Luke 4:1-4 (Amplified) as an example of the HALT position:

“Jesus, full of, and controlled by, the Holy Spirit, was led into the wilderness.

For forty days in the wilderness (desert) He was tempted

(Tried and tested exceedingly) by the devil.

And He ate nothing during those days, and when they were

Completed He was hungry.

Then the devil said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, order this

stone to be turned into a loaf of bread.’

And Jesus replied to him, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word and expression of God.”

Yes, even Jesus experienced the HALT position. And many times we as believers in Jesus Christ find ourselves into the wilderness of testing. As we study the passage in Luke 4: 1-4, we find that it wasn’t until the end of his 40 day fast, when Jesus was extremely weak, TIRED and HUNGRY that the devil showed up in order to test Him.
The Son of God had not eaten for 40 days (some of us fall into temptation within 40 minutes!). No, Jesus may have not experienced ANGER, except maybe righteous anger at His Tempter, but He most certainly would have probably felt very ALONE by Himself in the desert The Savior was most likely extremely TIRED from having had no food for 40 days, and hardly any access to shade or water. It was at Jesus’ weakest time, that the devil tried to trick Him out of His destiny.

The devil came with quick solutions and fast food. The devil came to guarantee Jesus a jumpstart to His ministry if He gave in….just this one time!

Satan knew who Jesus was. He would guarantee Jesus, that if He bowed down to the devil that Jesus’ fame would spread fast.

The masses would then accept Him and crown Him king. Jesus would never again have to face the rejection, the uncomfortable feelings of prophetic loneliness: the peculiar loneliness that only the Son of Man could have experienced because He knew that Who He Was, the Only the One like Himself in all the world.

One can only imagine how Jesus felt physically after living in the desert heat with only serpents for company! And undoubtedly the attacks on His spirit from satanic powers were major ones.

Jesus most likely experienced the weight of all of hell’s most oppressive and deceptive forces as they warred against His mind and spirit. The pressure to make Jesus give in to lying vanities was immense. He was being tested by the deceiving forces of the ages.

Because of Jesus’ weakened (HALT) condition, due to His time in the wilderness, Jesus probably found it hard to discern the voice of His Father. The devil’s fast food would make Him more alert and take away those hazy, light headed feelings. But thankfully, for all of mankind, Our Savior, Jesus, resisted the devil’s Get Rich Quick Schemes.

Perhaps you find yourself dwelling in a wilderness of testing. There may be people in your life whom you have befriended that let you down. Wave upon wave of difficult circumstances might be coming against you.

The times you experience are ones that require endurance and continual perseverance. Attacks may be coming from all sides: family, finances, ministry, etc. It is THEN that the devil may come to you, just like he came to Jesus. He comes to test you when you are in the HALT position.

King David was in the HALT position when he fell into sin with Bathsheba. He was LONELY and had grown HUNGRY when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Instead of going our to fight, King David hung around the castle eating his “bread of idleness” which in turn opened his appetites up to other kinds of lusts.

A believer in Christ may find him/herself in the HALT position financially or emotionally. That is why most people commit crimes.

Jesus stayed a long time in the wilderness where He had no food. Some of you have had conditions where you were denied emotional food, loving correction, comfort and love.

You may not know how to gain victory over the warfare in your mind, emotions or feelings. You might feel spiritually empty and be tempted to fall away from God.

Right now some of you are being tried exceedingly in a wilderness of LONELINESS or DEPRESSION.

Others of you have endured countless battles with illness or insecurity.

And there are some of you who have been forced to live in a particular battleground or wilderness for 40 years or 40 weeks. The enemy, satan, may have begun an attack upon your life during your childhood.

There may be patterns of wounding, shame or sorrow that leave you feeling fearful, powerless and hopeless. But, instead of feeling sorry for yourself, you must take Jesus at His WORD.

It is He that has come to bring you GOOD NEWS. “He redeems my life from destruction” and tells us that we are “over comers by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.’ And each one of us should remember the injunction, “Don’t be ignorant of satan’s devices.”

And it is up to US to keep our eyes open for the devil’s traps.

The Trap of Being Supersensitive: The Lord has shown me that when I am in a weakened or HALT position (under great pressure, long times of spiritual, mental, physical attack from many sides, getting no rest, over worked, taking on too many duties, or all of the above) that I may be susceptible to the following:

1) I find it harder to hear God and hence find it harder to make good, quality decisions. I advise putting off making important decisions when in the HALT position. It is so easy to get confused about what you perceive the Lord is ‘telling you’ during those times.

2) A person in the HALT position is more supersensitive and more likely to become hurt, wounded or offended by the negative attitudes and negative comments from others. The comments may not even be mean or meant to be critical.

However, due to the HALT position, our supersensitive weakened state leaves us open to the devil’s tricks to get us insulted or wounded. He hates unity and he hates people. Especially GOD’S PEOPLE.

Whenever a pastor, the leadership team or the entire church is living with a season of strenuous spiritual attack, they most likely will experience the HALT position.

This is the time church and ministry (and family!) splits occur. Persons in the HALT position are under strain. They have little or no emotional reserve. Persons who are HALT can easily become supersensitive. This leaves them open to being wounded or easily offended by the remarks or even attitudes of others.

I have listened to pastors preach about the importance of “being in unity” or “remaining as part of the local church body.” But they also complain and vent about “this person becoming offended” and leaving for no apparent reason. It is my opinion that “offenses will come” and therefore, this will be par for each church and ministry until Jesus returns.

However, I believe it not only wise but prudent that each pastor, ministry leader teach the saints in their ministry to BE AWARE OF THEIR OWN HEART AND MENTAL, EMOTIONAL CONDITION.

Leader, please train the saints you lead the value of taking their own emotional PULSE. Teach them to “not be ignorant of satan’s devices’ by continually being alert to satan’s attempts to destroy persons, families and CHURCHES through offense that comings when persons are in the HALT condition. You must first train them how to watch over THEIR OWN HEARTS, then, you must train them

Keep their eyes open for the hearts of OTHERS: team mates in ministry, coworkers, FAMILY MEMBERS.

We are all in various stages of becoming HALT. Some members of the human race live in far worse situations emotionally and financially than others. In society today, and most pointedly, in the CHURCH, there are many single parent and two parent homes that live in HALT conditions.

There are persons who live are emotionally deprived, from abused situations, who fight continual lack of sleep, who never ever stop working, whether on their job and then at home and then for the church.

VERY many in the church battle enormous financial or personal needs. They have family friction, stress on their job, not to mention personal issues, self doubt, worry about world conditions, finances.

The spirit life is submerged beneath the “tyranny of the URGENT” (Oswald Chambers). Instead of being able to filter things through their SPIRITS, they are so exhausted and emotionally and physically depleted; they have no reserves and react in the FLESH. They lose their temper. They are out of control. They make complaints and blame the pastor or the other members of the church.

It is very hard to a person who finds him/herself in the HALT position to have the quality and quantity of time that is needed to HEAR the Lord, much less to find real peace, to enjoy a Sabbath time with their family, and take time to accurately guard/keep watch over their own hearts.

There are many persons in the church who become injured or take things done/said by others in a personal way due to the HALT position. “There are many voices in the world” says I Corinthians, but persons living under HALT conditions find it hard to differentiate between voices of accusation that originate from our enemy, satan, or the voice in their own flesh, mind.

It is difficult for persons in the HALT position to resist being offended by even well intentioned actions or attitudes.

LEADER, TRAIN YOUR STAFF AND YOUR CHURCH!

God has taught me to train persons in our ministry to keep watch over THEMSELVES to notice when are HALT. I go over the HALT position training and teach them to be continually self aware, to take their own emotional, spiritual pulse. Help them understand that it is the DEVIL who wants to accuse, abuse and make them weary with overwork.

Each person does need to take ownership of the part that they play in the HALT position: not obeying God’s injunction to SABBATH REST, being a workaholic, never laughing, never playing, always serving others, never taking in enough spiritual food, not having a quality family life due to ministry, work demands.

Leader, train your people to stand away from themselves and to be objective. Teach them to disregard all feelings of self condemnation/self judgment and to forgive themselves.

Then have them discern what is going on inside their own heart and lives. Ask them to locate places in their own lives, minds, emotions, life and family situations that are in the HALT position.

Some may have lost their emotional reserves due to marital emotional difficulties. Maybe others from abused homes that have left them endangered due to the immense lack of love and they have a temptation to fulfill those needs through sex outside of marriage or in fantasy, the web.

Then instruct them to keep aware of those persons with whom they work, fellowship and within their families who give evidence of being HALT. They can watch our for THEMSELVES by keeping an eye on OTHERS.

Tell them that whenever they notice persons at work, within the ministry or in their families begin to bear the fruit of being in the HALT position, they need to be more patient, more watchful, and react to what they may do or say more carefully.

Then they must PRAY for these persons: for more grace and strength for them NOT to become wounded or fall into temptation. Prayer helps their STAYING and STANDING POWER. (“Having done all STAND”)

Lovingly watching out for others who may be in the HALT position gives persons in the church a chance to be MERCIFUL: when persons are being tempted, stressed out, emotionally abused or deprived, they may not be able to be sweet or kind.

People who live in EXTREME TIMES live in a battle field either inside their own hearts or in the natural: in their homes or work places. These people may not be the most pleasant and sweet to live with or be in church with. The Bible states that,”Love COVERS a multitude of sins.”

(And also, in my opinion, also covers a multitude of bad attitudes, ignorant behaviors and critical, nasty, even prideful, deceptive behaviors.) We in the church must become educated on what UNCONDITIONAL LOVE really is.

We must be willing to watch out for, but also FORGIVE PERSONS UNCONDITIONALLY, even when they do not ask us to forgive them. We must go to the Father on their behalf and pray the prayer Jesus prayed as He hung on the cross, “Father, FORGIVE THEM, for they KNOW NOT WHAT THEY ARE DOING (DO). This means practicing PATIENCE, LONG SUFFERING: all the qualities of God’s ENDURING LOVE.

I personally believe that this LONG TERM view of God’s EXTREME and ENDURING LOVE is much of what He holds the Church responsible to display within His Church and in the world…… even in these End Times.

(NOTE: There is a balance in what was just written. There is a need to be watchful and circumspect around all persons in the HALT position.

3) Whenever your find yourself in the HALT position, TREAT YOURSELF GENTLY. PLACE LOWER EXPECTATIONS ON YOURSELF; QUIT TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH SO MUCH.

Don’t let your zeal destroy your health. Try to discipline your thoughts to look UP CONTINUALLY rather than beneath. This is hard due to stress, fear based mental warfare, spiritual attack.

The Lord has taught me about BEING A WARRIOR OF REST (see article on link: WORD FOR CHRIST’S BODY) and given me Psalm 121: 1, “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence comes my help” due to the fact that most demonic, stress, failure feelings make a person tired and take their eyes OFF the Lord.

The devil tempts us to magnify him in our negative situation. This swells our fear based thinking and shrinks, attempts to stamp out, our FAITH in God’s power.

I advise keeping your mind on things that God has done in the past, go to the Word, put on stress relief Christian praise/worship music. But then, during all during the day, remind yourself not to allow yourself to be too inward in your self focus, not so deep inside, worried and negative (down) focused. “LOOK UP”as the word states,” for your redemption draws nigh!”

And that can mean from your private situations, not just in the Soon Return of Our Lord!) Keep your minds on positive, happy things. Continue to BE GRATEFUL. Continually find even the tiniest reasons, things, circumstances that ARE GOING right, TO GIVE GOD THANKS.

I have found that the HALT position is to chiefly wear us out and make us threadbare in our emotions, bodies and spirits. The continual fight to move forward in the battle drains us, makes us worn out or leaves us needing to fall out.

God has brought new revelation and moves of His presence to the church for these times. We can’t get into the moves of the Holy Spirit as God’s way of assisting the Church in STRESS. I hope to be able to focus on this at a later time.

But this needs to be said, even in passing over the topic quickly: as the pressures increase, the ability to “fight to enter into His rest” is has also increased and so has the outpouring of our joyful, hopeful, peaceful and RELAXING HOLY SPIRIT.

Back to the topic: not getting worn DOWN from/during daily hand to hand spiritual combat, personality issues and all out spiritual, financial and physical attacks.

All these might cause a pastor, leader to become burned out or stay burdened. A leader with a burned out, broken spirit can go to the Lord before his/her time.

The church and church family, as well as the pastor’s, leader’s natural family, may be affected or even infected with soulishness, flesh, soul talk rather than SPIRIT LED, consciousness, talk and direction. Intense prolonged assault puts pastors’ homes and marriages in the HALT position.

It leads to divorce which means DEATH to God’s nuclear family and leaves ministerial disaster in its wake. Leadership experiencing the HALT position may bring about the DEATH to God’s work and the fulfillment of their highest calling.

Christian pastor, leader, choose to make time to have a Sabbath rest, take time off for FUN with your family, focus on things other than being in ministry.

Then, establish the daily practice of taking personal inventory to examine your own heart and take stock of how things are going: inside your own heart and personal realm of living and being.

Choose to make it your daily habit to go before the Lord in order to get rid of any burden, make the effort to make sure that every care has been cast, confess each doubt, worry, fear and deep anxiety.

This ensures that nothing blocks your ability to hear from the Holy Spirit. He wants to be able to speak to you of things not just of the daily burdens of the ministry, but of bright things Eternal and Full of Joy!

 

(C)2001 Taveau D’Arcy All copyrights reserved