Ms. Annie led us in worship
Pastor Ray…
One of these days, I am not going to say one word and just have Ms. Annie play for 60 minutes. I love it.
This morning I was thinking about the Cross. We don’t want to forget about all He did do when He said on the Cross “It is finished.”
(29) A vessel (jar) full of sour wine (vinegar) was placed there, so they put a sponge soaked in the sour wine on [a stalk, reed of] hyssop, and held it to [His] mouth. (30) When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished! And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. John 19:29–30 (AMPC)
When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30 (NIV)
But Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed out His last. Mark 15:37 (AMP)
According to the Bible scholars, this last loud cry may have been those very last words that John records “It is finished.”
He spoke it out loud. He declared it for all to hear. He uttered a loud cry to His Father and heaven for the whole world to know and for every evil force to have to flee. For Christ’s work on the Cross was complete, done, accomplished, paid in full.
Last words… You know if you just think about it, last words have power and often deep meaning and significance to us. Have you ever been with a loved one when they breathed their last breath? And what they said before they left? You cannot ever forget it.
Ms. Annie…
I actually saw the effect of someone breathing their last breath when my husband’s mother passed. She had had a stroke and she was in such anguish. The last time I saw her alive she couldn’t speak or see or hear and having a hard time breathing. Her whole physical body was in such anguish. And then I saw her about an hour after she breathed her last and she looked like she was a young girl. Her lips were open and she was just laying on her side with a half-smile: “Here I come, Jesus.”
There was that war going on between her body and her spirit and then when her spirit got released, there was such a transformation. It was supernatural to me. You could see where she had breathed her spirit out to Jesus and her whole body looked young and refreshed. Your spirit really does keep your physical body alive.
Pastor Ray…
My mother was never sick. She was in her late eighties and things just started to break down. She was in hospice and we were all there. She was a born again Catholic and went to church every day. When she came to visit us, I would have to find a Catholic church for her to go to. So, on her last final two days, the whole family was in the room with her. First of all, my sister had been a nun. Three friends of hers that were still nuns came in to visit and started worshiping the Lord. The anointing filled the room. It was just so awesome. And when they left, my mom said, “Why can’t I go? I see Jesus reaching out His arms to me. Why can’t I go now?” Whew… For my little Catholic mother to see that and say that…
But those were like a couple of her last words, that she wanted to go. She never had one touch of fear because she knew where she was going and she saw that picture.
Then my mother-in-law had been in a nursing home. She had a rough final time because in the facility their was a faulty door which she went through in her wheelchair and fell down a whole flight of stairs. She was in such pain and within three days she had left. But the first thing she said to the doctors was “Please pray for me.”
We visited her a lot but we weren’t there in the night when she actually left. But right before she left, she made me push her bed out away from the wall so I could come up alongside of her. She asked me to come down near to her and she put her arm around me. That was the last interaction with me. I’m not trying to be sad but last words have such meaning and they don’t leave.
I wanted to bring that up because when Jesus said that “It’s finished,” there is no doubt that He knew what His words needed to be at that time on the Cross. And He knew the power of those final words. It was not just that His final time had come and it was finished. It was so much more and He had great purpose in those words.
I like where it said that He shouted it out so everyone would hear.
The Spurgeon Study Bible explains “It is finished.”
There is only one Greek word for this utterance of our Lord. Although to translate it into English we have to have three words. An ocean of meaning is in a drop of language.
He became the final and ultimate sacrifice for us, for our sins. But in that verse the word “finished” is actually from the Greek word “tetelestai,” which is the same word that means “paid in full.”
It’s an accounting term. The debt was paid. That’s what it means. The uniqueness about the way it was written is that the tense of the word indicates both a point in time it was complete and that it would also continue to be complete or finished. And this is the essence of what Christ came to do. He came to “finish” God’s work of salvation in us. He came to “pay it in full,” the entire penalty, or debt, for our sins. He’s at work in our world still today in powerful ways.
He is our Waymaker. He’s making a way. There are so many things we cannot do and ways that we cannot make. I just want to go down a few scriptures.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
“Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” 1 Peter 1:18–19
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10
Blessed, isn’t it? So that we might prosper in every area: spirit, soul, and body. Thank You, Father.
We remind ourselves this morning concerning the cross at Calvary what was done when He said “It’s finished.” It’s all been done. Ha! It’s been won. The victory is ours. We don’t have to wait until we are in heaven but right here, right now, on this earth by and through that blood that was shed on the cross.
Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Father, that You sent Your Son. Oh, thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.
Ms. Annie led us singing It Was Finished on That Day
Pastor Ray…
Not just over as we look toward 2020. But when? Now. Now, in December 2019 there was an advance (ha, ha, ha), there was an abundant change, there was an increase, there was greater momentum! Some things are momentous! Whoa! Ha! Ha! Ho! Hooooo! At last! At last! Hey! Be loosed! Be loosed! Be loosed!
Every day, a step up, a stepping up on the 10th of December 2019! There was a step up, an advance, a step over, a step into some things that are literally new! An advance, an increase! Oh thank You, Father.
An abundance! An abundance! More and more of the lost coming to the light! Oh my! Mysteries being uncovered and revealed! The truth! Ha, ha, ha! The truth coming forth each day!
It’s not over! Ha, ha, ha! Ooooohhhh! Ha, ha, ha! Tuning in more clearly so that we can actually hear every day what we need to hear, so we can see what we need to see personally and then corporately.
So, Living Word Christian Center right here in Brooklyn Park, St. Paul, and Rogers—an abundance right here, right now, every day all the way to the end of December—up and over and beyond! A victorious time of abundance! Times of breaking through, times of new, times for the vision to unfold in an even greater way!
Oh an abundance, Lord. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. It’s above, it’s beyond, it’s over the top! Up, over, and beyond—greater, a furtherance, an equipping in souls, in resources, an abundance of every kind—spirit, soul, and body.
Steady, steady, so we’ll stay steady as we come each day, as we gather together each day in harmony and one accord calling the things that are not as though they were, are. When? Now. (ha, ha, ha). Steady, staying steady, staying with it, staying on it, staying confessing it, staying in belief, staying in faith, commanding, commanding what the Word says that we’ve already had! Shaking out of some old ways and some old days! Ha, ha, ha!
What? Depression, get out! Leave! Leave the body of Christ today in Jesus’ name. Ooooh the Joy of the Lord! It’s our strength! Oh, oh, oooooooh! We are dis-attached from any kind of touch of depression, fear, or lack.
No, we are not behind. No, we are not down under but we are above. We’re not the tail but we’re the head. What we say based on what the Word says, it comes to pass.
We’re so thankful Lord. Thank You, Lord, for what You did on the Cross. You made a way. You are making ways, clearing out, shutting some things down.
We declare “be still.” We put that in a nice way. “Be still, desist in your maneuvers even against the nation, our country, against our president, against our states. We are the United States of America, one nation under God indivisible for Jesus is Lord over America!
Ms. Annie led us singing He Is Lord, He Is Lord
Pastor Ray…
Yesterday we talked about Reinhard Bonkke, some different things about him. You know he went home to be with the Lord over the weekend. Over seventy million souls, probably more than that were won through his ministry. But Ms. Annie and I were talking afterwards about his message Unload.
Ms. Annie…
This message was so powerful because he was talking about the scripture where Jesus said “Strive to enter in by the narrow gate.” He was taking apart that word strive. Make a really firm effort. Don’t hold back, push, push, you have to push, strive, give it all you got to get through the narrow gate. Right after that Jesus said “Because narrow is the way, difficult is that little opening that goes into life, an there are few who find it.”
From there he went into talking about how maybe you feel like you have this basket. He was describing all the weight of sin, the darkness that is everywhere around us. On every side there is all kinds of horrible things we can see. And how fear and depression and sickness and sin, all the weight of it is in that basket. You are holding this basket and your trying to get through that door, that narrow door but your holding on to this basket and it’s so full of all the things that hold us back. And he said is what you need to do is unload. You unload that basket with all your stuff.
It was such a picture to me of when I struggled when the Holy Spirit was drawing me to Jesus and how I struggled. There were all these things that I had to let go of but I just needed someone to tell me “Hey, you know what just let it go.”
But really, when you are in the world, the Devil has you convinced that you really can’t let go. “If you let go of that….” Oh! No, you just need to let it drop! Unload. That’s what he was saying.
And then it was so beautiful how he described when you drop that load, you drop that basket. Now you just go straight through that opening and right on the other side of the opening is the cross and Jesus. And there is room at the cross for you.
I was telling Pastor Ray that every time I would hear Brother Bonnke speak, I would want to get saved. I am already saved but I would say “I want to get saved all over again!” Ha, ha, ha! Jesus was painted so beautiful that I just wanted to drop my basket and race through that door.
So, really the Word strive to enter through the narrow gate doesn’t mean you have to do all these works. It doesn’t mean you have to try harder to be good or anything like that. It’s strive to get through it by just dropping all your own stuff and running to Jesus.
Pastor Ray…
I love that picture. It’s like Ms. Annie said. When he would preach a message, he would basically preach what he was seeing. The spirit of seeing and knowing would operate.
Ms. Annie…
He went to Reese Howells Bible School when he was in England and they tried to teach him hermeneutics or whatever they teach you about methods. But when they had these assignments to preach a sermon he wasn’t able to do that . He just couldn’t operate that way. But he said the way he would preach and still how he preached the message I just told you. He said this is how he would get every message. He would be sitting on the platform in praise and worship and pulling on the Spirit of God for the sea of people that needed Jesus. And he said he would begin to see, he called it the shape of the Gospel. He would see a scripture like the one I just read and the Holy Spirit would put a shape on it. That’s how he described it. But it’s seeing and knowing. The Holy Spirit would cause him to see a picture in a scripture that would give revelation to the meaning of the cross and Jesus and the Gospel. And then he would just go to the platform and deliver what he saw under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and we all have seen like two million people in one service registering on a card “I now am a believer.” It’s beautiful how the Holy Spirit operates.
That’s why we need to have more of Him. We need more of You, Holy Spirit. We worship You. We love You. We praise You. We honor You. We thank You. We thank You that You have filled us with Your Holy Spirit and You have given us Your holy Word. Oh, Lord, show us the shape of Your Gospel to each person we run into today, an anointed shape that goes straight to their hearts and helps them and delivers them and heals them and sets them free in Jesus’ name. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Ray…
Hallelujah. Thank You for coming. Bless you day.
