Mary led group in worship…
Pastor Ray shared…
A friend of mine told me that she was speaking to the Holy Spirit and she heard Him say, “Extreme darkness on one side and extreme light on the other side.” What she took from that was stop looking at all the darkness and begin to look more to His extreme light and focus on that. Be filled with it.
I saw that in a different way in that we would allow His light to come through. First of all, the scripture that came to me was 2nd Corinthians 3:2–3. This is the King James. “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”
That’s who we are. We’re either bringing the light or not. I found a short article based on this scripture about being epistles. I want to read it to you. It’s by Harold Smith, born in 1910.
The World’s Bible
By J. Harold SmithThe Christian is the “World’s Bible,” and the only one it reads. Our lives are open to the world. Where one person read the bible, one hundred people read our lives. The men of the world can answer cold, heartless theology.”
I found the best time to great somebody is straight out of a time of prayer. Why? Because you’re filled to overflowing and His light will come out. Our lives are open to the world. This is what he says about it.
They can deny the logic of the truth, but there is no reply to a godly life, “a living epistle.” … An epistle means a letter and the idea of the apostle is that each Christian is in his new life a fresh revelation of the truth and the power of the Gospel—a letter sent into the world to testify for Christ.
The strongest argument for the truth of Christianity is the Spirit-filled life. The best way to bring men to a belief in miracles is to exhibit the miracle of regeneration and its power in our lives. The best proof of Christ’s resurrection is a Christian living the risen life.
Living the Christ-Life
The love that shines forth from the regenerate life is seen. This epistle is known and read of all men. It is a visible power, that is, visible in the results which it has produced in this sinful world.
The love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, has written all the bright pages of history in the past. Embodied in the life of the Christian, it cannot be hid. It was the loving Christ that constrained the apostle Paul to such a life of dedication, sacrifice, and suffering as the hostility of infidelity has never been able to answer.
What Kind of “Bible” Does the World Read in Us?
The “living epistle” requires no translation to be understood in every country and clime. A humble, holy, gentle, Christ-life preaches to the common ear the world over. The most eloquent and elaborate discourse on salvation, sanctification, separation and service is tame and ineffective in comparison with the eloquence of a humble and holy walk with God. What is any description of Christianity on paper as compared to the living epistle which all can read?
The light of an unselfish Christian life cannot be hid. It needs no billboard announcement. We learn from Acts 4:13 that long before Peter and John wrote their apostolic letters, the Jewish rulers “took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” They could not shut their eyes to the fact. They were the epistles of Christ which the scribes and the Pharisees were compelled to read. The enemies of the Gospel were in distress, for they had nothing by which they could answer to the apostles.
If we were as faithful as those apostles were, all who meet us in social, political or business relations would be compelled to see in us something of the trust and power of the Gospel. Not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.
What sort of a Bible do you dear friends see in me? Do you see a dirty Bible? Do you see a Bible full of errors and lies? Do you see a hypocritical Bible?
Do you see in my life, hear in my life, and behold with my life the truth of God’s holy Word? Am I living out as a living epistle what God has written and revealed to us in His body, the holy Bible?
Pastor Ray shared…
I’m sorry if I ever misrepresented the holiness of God in any way. We all fall short in some areas in some ways. No one is perfect. But where we know we’ve been missing it, what do we do about that? We repent! And we start anew.
Thank You, Father, for the blood of Jesus that makes us whole, cleansed, healed, renewed.
All of this reminded me of a prophecy from 1995, something I’ve read many times before. We were in our old building, and one day a week, we had an all-staff prayer meeting. Either Pastor Mac or Pastor Lynne would be there. They’d minister a word to us and then a lot of times we’d get in a corner and begin to pray. This one day on March 1995, everything changed. And it changed because there was this strong anointing in the room. When Pastor Lynne came in, she didn’t speak about anything else. She just got into the song that we were singing which was “Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us.” She began to prophesy. I want to read one part of it because it lines up with that scripture from Corinthians.
Staff Prayer 3/9/95
Lynne Hammond Prophecy
“Did I not tell you, has it not been written, and you have heard with your ears and know in your heart that you are written epistles to be read by men that even when they didn’t know and the wondering ones that never heard the Word preached or never seen it on written paper before? But they would see you and He would read Me and they would see the Living Christ loosed. And they made free.And did you not know and did you not read and did you not see when I spoke to Ephesus who stood on the highest pinnacle of knowledge of their day? And I gave them prayers to pray. And those prayers at that hour that they were prayed were registered in heaven. And those prayers spoke of the hope of your calling and of My inheritance in you. Did you not know who that as much as you have inherited the cross, as much as you have inherited redemption in all of its works, as much as you have inherited healing and salvation and prosperity, did you not know that now you have inherited places to walk in? Access to My courts? And all that I have belongs to you.
So whatever shackle or whatever prison would try and hold you and bind you. Whatever tomb of life would try to hold you like it tried to hold Lazarus in a death realm. It could be shaken off right now if you looked unto Me. Because you are a part of a very great move and soon you will realize that you are in such cooperation with Me. Soon you are going to realize that this is a plan much bigger than thee and this, saith the Lord, is not an organization but this is a living, moving organism of God and it has come in the person of Jesus.
For you know, I don’t have any hands, except your hands. I don’t have a voice except your voice. And I don’t have feet except your feet, that is why I said how beautiful they were, for you are My body in action.
Pastor Ray shared…
When I first came to Living Word, Pastor Lynne preached from the Amplified Bible. So I bought an Amplified Bible. It’s been through the ringer. It’s 35 years ago, maybe more, that I got this. The question in this article was, “What kind of Bible do you see in me?” Well, the outside of this Bible is beat up and falling apart. But the inside is good! It’s His Word. And it’s written in our hearts. It’s what is on the inside, not necessarily what is on the outside that is important. It’s not what we wear. It’s not our hair. It’s not makeup. It’s not that. It’s who we are inside.
I want us to sing a little bit more. Let’s stand up. I want us to see this in the way that it’s an infusion and it’s working even though we don’t know it. He is working in us. I want us to take this time to get a little more of that infusion of the Holy Spirit and see ourselves wherever we go, that we’re bright.
I had something happen to me a few years ago. I had an appointment at my house to meet a lady that was coming over. I came straight from a prayer group that had been praying for a few hours. She knocked on the door. This is a woman in the world. Not saved. When I opened the door, she went like this with her hand. She shielded her eyes with her hand. She said, “Whoa! You are bright!” I was like, “I am?” This was an unsaved person. The presence of God was shining toward her. It should be like that all the time. We are children of the light. He is light. He is love. So let’s drink Him in a little bit more.
Mary led group in worship…
Pastor Ray…
Thank You, Lord, for that resurrection power. It lifts us up. Condemnation is not from Him. It’s from the enemy. Whatever it was, even if you thought it was right. It’s not right. Condemnation of any kind is from the enemy. It’ll try to hold you down. It’ll try to get you down. It’ll try to hold you back from revealing the light of His resurrection power that is down inside you. Let it go! Tell it to go. Not every thought that we have is from the Lord. Measure it. Check it out with the Word. Many thoughts are thoughts of doubt, anxiety, questions about how things will turn out. Things that are opposite of what His Word tells us. The Word is true. Condemnation, go! Leave! No condemnation, in Jesus’ name.
I don’t know who that was for. It could even be for someone watching through the Internet today.
Group prayed in the Spirit…
Don’t quit… you’re on the road that God has called you on… don’t give up or step aside… don’t try to hide… let that resurrection power that’s deep inside come through… No! no. no, no, no, no! … turning, turning… it’s epic… change, it’s epic… proceed into that… that is it… go forth… full speed ahead… contend… all the way… that’s it… it’s a sure step… a step we must take… we watch over those… steady, steady… don’t hesitate… it’s part of who he is… it’s an undoing of some things and an opening to new things… higher and higher you will go… up and over… breaking out… it’s out of the shadows and into the full bright light…
We can be reminded of what was done for us in the past, but it’s not up to us to look always to the past… it’s up to us to proceed on the road that has called each of us… these individual plans will line up with other parts of the body… for we are individuals but we’ve been called together as members of the body of Christ…
No, we will not judge that… for different streams or paths that some in the body take, we’re not the judge… we don’t know their hearts… but let’s lift every member up… when we bring the light and let that dispel every touch of darkness that’s tried to enter in and have its way… religious spirits, we declare “Out! Gone!” … we are led and directed by the Living Spirit of God almighty… we want more of Him… hearts saturated… filled…
[travail…] Piercing out… piercing out… illumination… out, out, out… [travail…] the place, the place… it’s a standing up… up, stand up! stand up! ascend into that place… in Him…
Group ends on a note of joy…
