Pastor Ray…
It’s the National Day of Prayer, so we will be praying for our country. I wanted to just start out with just a couple of things from The National Day of Prayer… The scripture that they’re using for 2021 is 2nd Corinthians 3:17. “Now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is liberty.” The Amplified says “emancipation from bondage and freedom.” That’s the scripture they’re using today. So there’ll be using that scripture wherever there are prayer events happening in the United States today. And then before I read just a couple of things that was said on this little print out from The National Day of Prayer… Just to remind you that we’re having an event here in downtown Minneapolis, North Central, starting at six, and then a prayer walk over to First Baptist Church on Hennepin Avenue. The first thing is at six. The walk is maybe just a little bit over a mile. And then seven o’clock, an event outside of First Baptist or River City Church. That’s what it’s called now. So hallelujah!
We have some buses that are going that are all full. And so if you wanted to go, but you weren’t sure about where to go. The buses are leaving here at 5:15. You could just follow the buses downtown, and then it’d be really easy to find where to park by North Central.
I wanted to read two paragraphs. The theme that they set based on 2nd Corinthians, 3:17 “”Lord, pour out Your love, life, and liberty.” That’s the theme for this year’s National Day of Prayer. It says just a short little thing here.
“Before God even spoke, “Let there be…” He loved you and me. God is love. We are surrounded by the hurting, hopeless, and helpless who have never experienced the love of God and possibly of another person. God designed and defines love, real love; unconditional, authentic love that sent His Son to pay our sin-debt in full so that we could believe in Him and have everlasting, abundant LIFE.”
“In 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, Paul reminds the Jesus followers in Corinth, “You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” Just as it was 2000 years ago, the mission remains today. We, the believers and followers of Jesus are the messengers, the letters written with the Spirit on our hearts, and from the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. It is our prayer today and throughout 2021 that the Spirit of the Lord, pour out, pour through us across America, to fill our lives, families, churches, workplace, education, military, government, arts, entertainment and media, with Biblical, not cultural, not worldly, but Spirit-empowered, Spirit-filled LOVE, LIFE and LIBERTY as designed and defined by our Creator and Savior.”
Hallelujah. So we’re wherever we go, that’s what we are. We are written epistles. Wherever we go, as soon as you come in contact with someone, you can know if they’re are a believer. It’ll show up if you spend any time with them, you can know. There is a difference. And if there isn’t a difference, there’s a problem.
So if we just stay filled up and we are to “be being filled” with the Spirit, right? And if we’re filled to overflowing, He will overflow and we’ll speak words of edification. We’ll lift people up and we’ll not take them down because we’re not walking around with a frown. All right. So the joy of the Lord, that’s our strength. And it’s recognizable wherever we go. So Miss Annie, I have a few scriptures. I’ll read these in a minute… about God’s love and about liberty and something about life. Love, life and Liberty. So Miss Annie, you want to go ahead, please? Thank you.
We’re not going to quit. We’re not shutting prayer down. The church is coming up. Things are happening. God is moving and you know how that is. Sometimes we don’t necessarily … we know it by faith. We know in faith, by faith, He is moving. He has never changed. He wants more of us. So it’s up to us to yield. We yield to more… more of Him. Hallelujah! We believe along with all of the people that will pray today… Thank God that we have opportunity every day here in the chapel, when National Day of Prayer comes up, it’s something that we do. And we do keep covering and lifting up our country or all the countries, the world, the earth. So we want His glory.
We just thank you, Father, today as we lift you up. Thank you for the outpouring of your precious Holy Spirit. And like this little paragraph said, “pour out of your Spirit.” You said it’d be upon all flesh. Thank you, today. Because of the prayers that will be lifted up and that your name will be glorified and lifted and magnified, there will be a change. Something would change again in America and we’d move more in your perfect will and your perfect ways. Hallelujah. We use our faith for that today. Change… changes. The God kind of changes. All right, Miss Annie.
Annie led group in worship…
Pastor Ray…
We’ll keep on exalting. We’ll keep on magnifying who you are… your Word and your words… the truth of your Word which leads us and guides us. Holy Spirit, today let there be a change in the streets of our cities. Let the streets actually look different…let the neighborhoods be rearranged and changed by the power of your Holy Spirit. We welcome your presence. It is your presence we know and in the center of our cities today, we pray for a rearranging and a changing that the way it’s been, it will not be. The change change, change, changes will happen as your Word is lifted up and as declarations are made over our cities in America, be they big or be they small. We declare today one and all, be opened up… that the Spirit of the living God may flow through all churches. We pray over ministries. We pray over pastors. Changes, changes, changes, changes, changes… things being absolutely rearranged… turned around… some things stopped and other things started.
We pray for the new, new days, new ways, new plans, and new decisions based on what you’ve said and your will and your plan for America. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father.
Jeannie shared…
I’m going to just read a little snippet here from Jesse’s book, “I never learned to doubt.” I love this book. When I read this book, it throws me around the room and makes me stand up and smile. And when you read it with your husband, it’s even better. So the header for this one is “Doubt is a blindfold: It keeps you from seeing what’s possible.” This is the National Day of Prayer. So as I read this, let it convict you and convince you of who God is in you, because that’s what Holy Spirit does.
“The Holy Spirit never points something out without the immediate solution coming right behind it and on top of it. Every time! There’s hope every time. Holy Spirit convicts you, because He’s convicting you of who you are in God. That’s what He’s doing. A lot of people call themselves a believer, but they don’t believe much of anything that Jesus said. If you listen to them long enough, you’ll be able to tell a ‘play it safe” or “zero expectation” mindset isn’t hard to spot. It’s marked by a habit of fixating on problems instead of what God said and a tendency to dismiss or water down whatever concept of faith Jesus taught. In other words, it holds onto a form of godliness, but denies the power of godliness. It’s a bunch of nice sounding words, but underneath those words is doubt in God’s power.”
I love what Jerry Savelle said. He said, “I pray to get results.” And sometimes… And I’ve done this too. I feel like sometimes in the church, we’ll say, “I’m just waiting on God,” when really our heart is broken and we’re just accepting delay. And pretty soon you don’t even expect it to happen anymore. And then prayer just becomes an itch that you scratch. That’s not what we’re doing here. And that is certainly not what we’re doing today. We expect to see the power of God when we pray. That’s what God is up to. That’s what co-laboring is about. We expect to see the goodness of God today in the land of the living. In fact, it’s already upon us. We’re already in it and everything that’s happening truly is a foreshadowing of the increase of His kingdom here in the Twin Cities, in your city, in your family … today, right now! You get what you consistently believe for. And you see what you consistently want to see. It’s always your choice how we view things.
Okay, here’s the deal. That’s good news. If we have a choice, then all we have to do is choose. That’s good news. It’s always your choice. It’s always our choice how we view things. I like to see through the eyes of faith in God, because I know that doubt is a blindfold. It doesn’t want you to see what is possible with God. So every time I see evil today, I choose to see it as it’s just being exposed to be dealt with. That’s all! Really… evil? You’re just being exposed to be dealt with. You’re about to be dealt with. That’s the only thing… I mean, think about when Jesus said this only comes out with prayer and fasting. Jesus had a lifestyle of prayer and fasting. He fasted doubt and He spent time with the Father. And so when the enemy kept showing up, He was already in that lifestyle and He said, “Oh, you’re showing up to be dealt with. I’m going to deal with you.”
Have you ever had those people you hang out with that when you’re believing and expecting the best, they kind of… “well, that’s not practical.” Don’t be practical! Act in wisdom! People have always tried to get me to lower my expectations. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Now don’t get crazy with this thing.” But I just believe that if getting crazy with this thing means having faith in the principles of God, call me crazy. When was it? It was forever ago when the people said nothing more can be invented. Was it after the radio or something? There’ve been a whole lot more inventions since then. And way more to come out of the church. I don’t want to be blindfolded by doubt. I know with God that all things are possible. Many of the people I ministered alongside in my early years.
Okay. This is for someone. I love this.
…who tried to get me to lower my expectations or called me crazy are long out of the ministry. Now they come and look at what God has done in my ministry, and don’t call me crazy anymore. They sit on my crazy every time they put their butts on my debt-free “owe no man anything but to love him” pew. It pays to believe. It pays for your city. It pays for your family. It pays for your country and it’s payday. They got the results of their faith. And I got the results of mine. You’re crazy! Okay. Let’s go.
You know, I declare right now you’ve got crazy friends. I want a few more crazy friends. I’m not better than them. And they aren’t better than me, but we believe differently. I came up with the saying in those early years when I’d end up in a discussion with somebody who was trying to debate and convince me to doubt. Those really great theological conversations that just drain you and make you wonder why did we start talking about this in the first place? We all know those. When they try to reason with me and get me to water down my faith, I’d remind them of what God already said in His Word. If they pushed and still tried to teach me to doubt, I just say, “Well, somebody is lying. And I pick you!” I still say that joke today because it works. So when doubt comes, somebody is lying and “I pick you.” You see, I don’t care how distinguished or how good an argument somebody is making. And you know what? You can be the church for a really long time and then end up being massively religious and not even know it. Let’s just cut it out. Let’s just be freedom hogs. Let’s be God hogs. Let’s take it all. There’s a scripture somewhere in Romans that says the earth is crying out for us to get started. It’s crying out for the sons and daughters of God to show up. And we’re showing up and we’re showing up and we’re creating results with our words. Kingdome come on earth as it is in heaven.
This is the last paragraph.
You see, I don’t care how distinguished or how good an arguments somebody is making if it’s in opposition to Jesus. If they are going against what Jesus said, well, they can keep their opinion. But I’m not taking it. I don’t want to learn their doubt. I don’t want to be blinded by their unbelief. I want the life God has told me I can have. I want to live in childlike faith. If someone doesn’t feel the same, that’s fine. We all choose what we want to do. We can agree to disagree and still enjoy each other’s company. But if they want to keep arguing, I can’t do that. I just shake the dust off my feet, so to speak, and keep on walking by faith. God can handle people and some I believe He will have to train in heaven.”
Somebody is lying when they say the Twin Cities is gone forever. Somebody’s lying when they say the Church is asleep in the Twin Cities. I’m ending up in a really good mood right now.
To me, there just is no good arguing with someone who simply does not want to believe. Gloria Copeland said something the other day. She said, we have to get aggressive at harvest time. We have to get aggressive about our harvest. Imagine if a farmer just looked at the field and said, “wow, praise God. So glad prayer created that result.” Guess what? Now it’s time for us to be aggressive about receiving those things that belong to us. And some say, I feel like we don’t realize that in our being aggressive about harvest time, isn’t God’s saying you’ve got to work for that harvest. What He does is He enlarges you on the inside… Like He enlarges you on the inside. The more you pray out and get that harvest because you’re going to need it to be enlarged on the inside to walk out that harvest. There’s a maturity that happens to us on the inside when we continue to stand and contend… a maturity to carry out that harvest… a maturity… because blessing wealth is a magnifier. It magnifies what’s already on the inside. So when those times when we stand and we refuse to give up, you’re being enlarged on the inside to continue to walk it out… to go from faith to faith, to go from glory to glory. And that is what is happening in your life right now. Don’t give up. You can’t. You have no other option. But to keep moving forward and that harvest is coming today. Thank you, hallelujah.
Pastor Ray…
No doubt about it. I have something about “streets.” The harvest mainly is souls, but there’s all kinds of harvest. And it’s not just limited to one thing. It’s the glory. Everything is in the glory of God… harvest time. Thank you, Lord. I just saw something while Jeannie was reading that. Brother Kenneth Hagan, we read the other day that he was talking about “if” being the biggest form of doubt. “If it ever happens.” Doubt has to leave. There’s no room for doubt in faith. Faith and doubt don’t go together.
I saw while sitting there, like, you know, a Google map of Minneapolis. I just Googled Minneapolis. I’m looking down on the city, looking down on the streets and you know how you do that. You just use your fingers and make it closer and closer. And I looked down on Hennepin Avenue. If you’re not from here, it’s kind of the middle of Minneapolis downtown. And so what I was reminded of was way back, I’m talking more than 20 years ago. Living Word rented a building, a storefront, on Hennepin Avenue and it had belonged to I think it was an architectural firm. There were two stories. And, every Tuesday, Sandy and I would join Pastor Lynne. There are like maybe six, seven other people. Jerry Sibinski would bring her guitar and we take a place in that building where we’re facing out to the center to Hennepin Avenue. It was big glass windows. And so we could see the people that were right outside going by. We could see them while we’re praying. And, the one thing always kept coming up in my heart. And at that time, there was a department store downtown. First it was Dayton’s, then it was Marshall Field’s, Macy’s. Now it’s going back to some other businesses and it’s called Dayton’s again. But anyway, at that time they had swinging doors. So they didn’t have a closed door. You just go through a swinging door. I would always see myself as we’re praying over in front of the doors. On one side was hell. And on the other side, there were people that were coming toward the doors. And I’d always get out in front and try to stop them through prayer. Just declare over the harvest, “not going to hell. You’re not going through those doors,” kind of like that.
And so when I saw it, just sitting here… that business, that building was maybe a block and a half from where there’ll be at seven o’clock tonight, First Baptist. That’s where there will be worship, prayers, declarations over the cities right down there. It’s happening right there in the neighborhood. And I felt that there were actually prayers that were prayed over 20 years ago on that avenue that they’re called out for somebody, for someone to do what’s being done tonight. To get up, get out, go to the heart of the cities, no matter what took place and cast fear out and come when boldness and absolute belief that what will take place and what will be said shall come to pass.
And so I know this is a National Day of Prayer. But first of all, I’m just gonna say it like this: Minneapolis, get ready, get ready, get ready for the glory of God will be manifested in the heart of you. And many hearts will be turned. Many lives will be changed. And there’s something about sometimes things that were prayed way in the past, coming into fullness in these days that we’re living in. It’s like those wells that we dig out, where once something took place spiritually, we dig them up and dig them out again. And believe God to move. And so from Minneapolis St. Paul and all around our suburbs, we move out this morning. We move out over our state, Minnesota, you will continually move more in God’s will and God’s ways. We’re not bound by the past. We’re not bound by what people said in the past. We are connected to heaven through the Word of God. And by faith, we declare it this morning from Northern Minnesota to Southern Minnesota, East and West, all around the borders. And we speak over the prophecies that have already been declared up here in the northern part of the United States of America. God’s plan for revival will begin to come up, come out, and go south. And it’ll move south over all of the States and bring about an awakening in America. So we’re moving from Minnesota north. We move south. Let’s take the river. We go down the Mississippi River. Right beyond where it was declared where 35W crosses over the Mississippi. That’s where some things will begin to take place… declared and prophesied by George Washington Carver. We water these prayers. We get in faith about it. We stir ourselves up about it. And we go south. We see it, we see it. We see an awakening moving across the United States of America. We declare it. We’re not just saying, “well, please, Jesus, if you will.” Jesus has already accomplished it. It’s His plan and His will. So we declare what He’s declared. We believe what He believed… that the church would rise up and get up and get up. We say today from Isaiah to today, rise up.
Be awake in Jesus’ name. (Tongues) Souls and hearts coming to God out of the dark places and into the light. We declare it. We believe it. We receive it by faith. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord.
Pastor Folu…
Good morning, saints. When Pastor Ray was talking about what happened in Minneapolis years ago and the importance of what we’re doing tonight of going down there. The Spirit of God brought to my memory something that a bunch of us from Living Word did some years ago. We were in… at that time we had Living Word Duluth, and we were working with our church in Duluth at that time. And so there was this place that we went to and it was myself and two other people, my wife. And so we just started praying, you know, the importance of physically being in a spot. This is a big deal, what we’re doing tonight. And if you’re not able to go downtown, please pray. And so since we’re walking past this building and the spirit of prayer just came upon us and we just started praying, you know, like my sister Jeannie said, sometimes you just have to go for it. Right? And all the delicacies and all the people saying, “well, you really can’t be doing that here.” We didn’t plan to do what we did. We went past this building. And this building is notorious in Duluth for having all kinds of nonsense that they do in that building. I mean, smoking pot and all kinds of illicit activities goes on in this building. And as we walked past that building, we were on the street, mind you, and as we walked past that building, this thing just came up inside of us. And we just started praying. And since, you know, as we started lifting our prayer to heaven in our heavenly language, it just got really loud, really loud. I mean, we were not trying to get really loud like that. You know, we were just praying like now… and the angels just came and amplified that prayer. I mean, people are looking at us and I mean they were mad. They were honking and we were not trying to make a scene. We were just spraying about that building. But since, you know, this thing was on us for the next 20, 30 minutes. People were coming from three, four blocks looking at us, almost like, “are you guys crazy? Why are you guys doing this?”
But we’re not going to stop because it was still on us to keep praying. You know what happened? Six months later, my wife and I went on a trip in the Duluth area on our way back to the Twin Cities. We said, “Hey, let’s check that building out. Let’s see what’s going on.” When we came back to that building, it had been boarded up and closed. This is years ago, never to reopen. And so what we’re doing tonight is such a big deal. …talking about the importance of these last days and the power of God. You know, the Lord has been talking to me about that lately. What needs to be done, needs to be done with My power. Listen to this.
This is Acts chapter four. “With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” And I love this, saints. When there’s great power, there’s great grace. And God’s grace was so powerful at work in them, all that were known at work in them. Let me just stop there. Let me just read that again. I want us to pray about that. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them. So let’s pray for a few minutes about what we’re about to do tonight.
So Father, we just thank you. We thank you for what the men and women of old did. We just read about it. Lord, this is our time. This is our day. And so, Lord, we just thank you for what has been… what you have earmarked to happen tonight. And, Lord, we just say according to your Word, with great power we add the disciples today. We add the men and the women that you have reserved that that are living in Minneapolis today. And, Lord, thank you that today, all the pastors that will be ministering… all the men and women that will be ministering that are doing one thing or the other, Lord, that with great power that they will continue to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord.
Let’s just see that. Let’s just pray for that part for a minute. (tongues) Whatever that looks like that there will not shrink back. They will not shrink back from standing and stepping into the name of Jesus. The Holy Ghost helped us many years ago, not to shrink back and not to let the people looking, stop us. The men and women that are leading tonight, they will testify to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. (tongues)
Every form of fear, we banish it now in the name of Jesus… with great power… that’s on you my brother, my sister… with great power you will declare and testify to the goodness of Jesus, to the resurrection power of Jesus… great power… God’s grace… well, thank you, Lord, for the grace of God, the grace of God working mightily and powerfully tonight in the name of Jesus. And then thank you for bringing the church of Jesus Christ all over Minnesota together… all over this great country… thank you for the unity that the church of old had… the church in the book of Acts, so many things. We operate powerfully in the grace of God in Jesus name. Hallelujah.
Jeannie shared…
You need to know your prayers have not been forgotten. The only time Jesus tells you to forget is the past, to let go of the past. But those prayers are eternal and they’re not forgotten. They’re being poured out on the earth today. They have to show up because God is watching over His Word to perform it. The only thing Jesus has ever forgotten are your sins. That’s it. He never forgets the prayers of the saints. And the prayers of the saints being poured out from days past. And because we’re getting so filled up, we pray from overflow now. Hallelujah.
Pastor Ray…
That same thing that Pastor Folu described in Duluth, Minnesota, that same thing… similarly, anyway… took place downtown Minneapolis in that building that Living Word rented. And, like I said, there were two levels. I wasn’t there that night, but there was a men’s group that was meeting in the upper level because the evangelists would always meet in the lower level and they’d go out in the streets. So we use it for many different operations. And so this one night, it was a men’s group and they were upstairs. They all got up against a wall… on the other side of it was a gay bar. And it was operating on Hennepin Avenue. They all got up along that wall and cursed it and called it out and called it down. Guess what? The next day, shut down. It was shut down. Never, ever to return again. In fact, they blew all those buildings out of there. And there’s other buildings there right now. Today, this is what I see. What they did… they put their hands on that wall that was right on the other side of where these things were happening. We today put our hands by faith on a wall that the Devil has tried to put up to block the plan of the Church, to stop the will and the purpose of God for America. And so we, by faith, we just take our hands. Here’s the wall it’s “Liar, liar.” Okay, you know what could follow that? So whatever … liar, liar, I’ll say it like this. Liar, this is the enemy over on the other side of the wall. “Liar, liar, be revealed in Jesus’ name. Be cast out. Go! Get away. Walls, come down. Walls of division, come down in Jesus’ name. The name that’s above every other name… walls, walls, dividing walls, lying walls, whatever the enemy had planned, “get out, be gone for the Church is rising up a new wall and it’s a wall of faith.” And by the blood of the Lamb today, we take that blood and we push back against all of the obstacles, whatever political person said… this is the way America will be. We say, God says America will be saved. Hallelujah. From shore to shore, north to the south in Jesus’ name… the last great awakening. When? Now! Where? How about here? How about where you are? How about your city? How about your state? The United States of America. One nation indivisible. Hallelujah. Victory. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah.
You get the glory and the honor for what is about to be. A shaking… things that needed to be shaken out and shaking away or shaking down is happening now. Now! We will not be shaken as we stand on the Word of God.
Let’s lift Him up.
Annie led group in worship…
