Pastor Ray shared…
Good morning! The title of this chapter is “Trial and Torture.” It seems like this last week, a lot of what we’ve been talking about and praying about… Yesterday, Annie started singing about the cloud of witnesses and that sort of thing. I read a chapter this morning that have a couple of things about a race. We are in a race… or a marathon. I’m going to read a few paragraphs from 2nd Corinthians 4. Then brother Rob will lead us in worship and whatever we’re to pray about this morning.
“Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we’re not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don’t maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don’t twist God’s Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God.” Verse 5, “Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we’re proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, “Light up the darkness!” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.
7-12 If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture …”
13-15 We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, “I believed it, so I said it,” we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!
16-18 So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.”
I like that. So we’re in a race. And we’re not quitting, right? We’re just going to keep right on marching. If you think about all the things they did go through, the point is—they went through! Because they were trusting in Him.
Yesterday, we didn’t read down the list but the whole faith chapter, all those people that went before us kept going and they didn’t have what we have. We have the power of the Holy Spirit actively working in us. We’ve been taught right. We know right. We know to keep moving. And so we will.
Okay, brother Rob, I hand it over to you.
Rob led group in worship…
Barb prayed…
There are doors that are opening… doors are opening… not just doors of opportunity but doors in the spirit… places yet unknown by man are opening… it’s time to step in… not to hold back but to step into the places that He has prepared for you… for Jesus said that He went away to prepare a place for you… there is a place in the spirit for you… and it’s time to step into that place… so that you can finish the race… in total grace… that’s complete cooperation with the Spirit of God… that’s where you reach your neighbor… that’s where you help your friend… it’s in that place that He prepared for you… that place of the spirit… that is assigned to you… yes, Father, cooperation… complete cooperation, Father, Your body in complete cooperation with Your Spirit… in the name of Jesus, no more casualties… it’s time for finishers… walking through… actually running through all the way to the end of your course… thank You, Father… we access those places today by Your Spirit… yes, our assignments have been predetermined by You… we just step into that place and we pick up those assignments… and we carry them out… by Your power and strength and by Your Spirit… it’s a supernatural strength, inspiration… I call this body “finishers” … I call you finishers in Jesus’ name… I call our pastors finishers… I call the children and the youth here finishers… I call our families finishers… thank You, Father… there’s a breaking now, Father… there’s a breaking… a breaking, that anointing that breaks off those hindrances… that anointing that breaks off those limitations… now, Father! … that breaking… yes and it causes a breakthrough to those things… it causes a breakthrough to the finish in Jesus’ name… yes, we’re breaking through in the race… in this point in the race, we are breaking through… like a locomotive, Father, we’re gaining strength and speed and energy… and momentum, Lord… the momentum of Your Spirit… yes, we step into that momentum of Your Spirit today… so that He can carry us to the end… it’s not by our own strength or power, but by Your Spirit… glory to God… yes, Father, so we’re calling forth those things now in Jesus’ name… that are necessary… impartations… divine inspirations… no more… no more down days… only days filled with grace… so much more… You made a way… yes, who can keep us… who can keep us from fulfilling our course? … no one! … no man, no principality, no power, no might, no dominion… for they are under our feet… yes, they’re the only ones having a down day because they’re down and they’re going to stay down… in Jesus’ name… we put you back in your place in the name of Jesus… it’s time for that massive, massive change… massive increase… massive influx… Father God… a massive turn… a notable change, Lord… in Your body, in Your church… a notable change… that she would be lifted up to her place… that she would be recognized for who she is in the earth… the church full of Your glory… a church full of Your power… full of Your grace… filled with passion… for You … signs and wonders… a church noted for the signs and wonders that occur on a daily basis… the supernatural intervention of God on a daily basis… so much so, Father, that it cannot be denied by the world… it cannot be dismissed… but it is recognized and honored as holy… glory to God… it’s not that we must attain to that place, it’s that we must walk in it… we just walk in it by Your grace… effortless, Father… just knowing that You have prepared all these things for us… such a habitation… ho, ho!… such a habitation… in total harmony with You… one heart, one voice… one with Your Spirit… and everything, Father, that the enemy meant for evil, You turn it today… for our good… I thank You that You are the God of the suddenly… so Father, we raise our expectations that things would not take long… but they would be sped up, Father… it doesn’t have to take a long time to change… by Your power, Your Spirit it can change now… those things that we have cast off into the future… we change our mindset today… we turn it today and we agree with You that You’re turning those things now for our good… yes, step up, step up in your faith… quit putting things off to the future… bring it into the now… today is the day of salvation… of increase… of complete and total restoration… that your family turns… that your finances turn… that your mind is changed… that you receive wisdom from on high… that you walk in the anointing of God in its fullness… we resist the devil of complacency in Jesus’ name… we cast him off and away… in the name of Jesus, you will not hold the body in complacency… you will not hold the body in a pattern but we are breaking out today… that anointing is breaking us out of that place… not the same… it’s not going to be the same… it’s time to get up, get up within yourself and declare to God that it will not be the same… it will never be the same… from this day forward, it is changed… it will not be the same… I will not allow it to be the same… change is here… breakthrough is here… His anointing has brought change to this place… even right now… thank You for this atmosphere filled with Your power and glory… here and now we receive… we reach up and take everything that we have been standing for… we receive it in its fullness… there is nothing that can stand… against His name… that baby that’s trying to be stolen… it will not be stolen… in Jesus’ name… we declare that that child will be born… will come to completion… and fullness… and live out its full days… Yes, Father… and those things that have been aborted in the spirit… I thank You that resurrection life comes to those things now… in Jesus’ name… you heed the Word of the Lord… you heed His voice… we command you to rise up… be raised from the dead in Jesus’ name… come forth! In Jesus’ name… come forth in the name of Jesus!… come out of that grave in Jesus’ name… we unwrap those gifts… we loose you in the name of Jesus… we loose you… we will not be robbed of those gifts… Father, we lift up our brothers and sisters in France… we weep for that nation [weeping]… we walk the borders now in Jesus’ name… we release Your anointing… that Your anointing goes from every side… to the very center… that there would be an explosion of Your glory in that place… I thank You, Father, that they will not have to struggle in that place… for You are coming in a mighty way… You are stepping in… your feet on the ground… your heavenly hosts coming down… and the hunger, the hunger, the hunger… will be filled in Jesus’ name… I see that whole country filled with Your light… and Your glory… only something You can do… yes, where the enemy thought, “There is no way… they’ll never turn this place” … ha, ha, ha… it shall be… ha, ha, ha… yes! Hallelujah!… pandemonium… from night to day… a complete and total turn in Jesus’ name… yes, Father, and all those ties… are broken in the name of Jesus Christ… those wrong ties… those ties… you’re not going to hold it there… we break you today in the name of Jesus Christ… signs in the heavens and in the earth below… thank You, Father… rest… refreshing for our brothers and sisters there… ha, ha! A re-firing… their gaze… that overcoming… radical, radical… radical demonstration, Lord… all through the earth… all the nations… radical displays… [singing in the spirit]
