Ms. Annie led us singing He Is the Lord My Healer
Pastor Ray…
Hallelujah. I love that.
You know, Ms. Annie, I meant to say this yesterday but I will say it today. There is no place, no room like this room when it comes to the manifested presence of the Holy Spirit. And, Ms. Annie, you are so responsible for taking us to places we could not go without what you give to us by the Holy Spirit within you.
I am saying it. I know I really don’t say it enough but it just was so big in me yesterday. But then we ran out of time or something. I am so grateful and it’s because you’ve taken the time to take your place in the presence that we can be moved on by the presence, the way you lead us. The way it works for me is all my normal thoughts, they just tend to go away and we focus in. I am talking about in this place when we come together like this. And we focus more into Him because of the way you take us. Thank you. I appreciate it so much.
Ms. Annie…
It’s all of you together, the hunger of everyone. Jesus said if you seek Me, you’ll find Me and everybody who is here is here to seek Him.
I remember one day, Danny said something to me about a meeting. He asked me “What are you going to do?” I said, “I just know that because of the people that will be there, it doesn’t matter what I am going to do. It’s going to be like throwing a match on gasoline.” (ha, ha, ha).
The Truth though is when we all come together and we’re seeking Him, that’s what He wants, to be with us. But it’s so wonderful to be with all of you who want to be with Him. And when we all want to be with Him, He goes “Oh good! They want to be with Me!” (ha, ha, ha)
I was just reading this book that somebody gave me. It’s about a woman who, from even a tiny little girl, had only same sex desires. She had all these explanations for it and then how she turned away from God.
Then the Holy Spirit sovereignly visited her in the middle of all her mess and what she came to understand was the Holy Spirit was saying, “I don’t want you to love men or love women. I just want you to love Me totally more than anyone.”
And it was because He loved her and she realized that His love was such a jealous love that she was willing to give up every other love for Him – because He gave up every other love for us. It’s just this beautiful redemption story. She is now married to a man and all this stuff.
You know she was high on dope and she was living in sin and all of a sudden the Spirit of God just crashed in and said, “I want you, all the way, more than anything.” There was a supernatural voice of love that couldn’t be denied. I was so wrecked by that. I started thinking about people I know that need Jesus and praying that way. Lord, just crash in on all their selfishness and just manifest Your consuming love.
It’s about His presence. He longs to be with us. So it’s so easy when we all want Him. It’s so easy then for Him to just visit us. And it’s so wonderful to be with all of you. I am honored by your words.
Just reading that story, how could you doubt that God is real? That He would just crash in on someone who didn’t even want Him and thought He didn’t want her.
Pastor Ray…
Ms. Annie, I think you are supposed to pray that over America, just that kind of concept.
Ms. Annie prays for our nation…
Lord, we humble ourselves before You. We acknowledge that we as a nation have turned away from You and said, “We don’t want You.” And we have even persecuted Your people, persecuted the righteous and lifted up sin and ungodliness. But, Lord, Your love is so jealous. Your love is so consuming. Your love is so perusing that You even sent the only spotless, sinless One to pay the price for all of us whose righteousness was filthy rags, is filthy rags without You.
Lord, I put You in remembrance of the blood, the blood of Jesus and the price that was paid for the founding of our nation, that You would crash in with Your supernatural consuming “wooing” voice of love and draw America back to You as a people! Nothing is too hard for You, Father. Nothing is too difficult for You!
Just as You crashed in on that lost girl I read about, Lord, You want to crash in on every one of us! Give us ears to hear. Give us eyes to see. Give us hearts that will listen and obey. That our hearts would be broken by sin and be drawn into Your heart of love, Your consuming heart of love, Father.
Father, we plead the blood of Jesus over every straying sheep, over every lost lamb, over every rebellious hardened person. Draw them back to You! Throw obstacles in the pathway of rebellion! Throw obstacles in the pathway of sin and open the pathway of righteousness by the blood of Jesus, Lord.
We pray for our leaders. We pray for our education system. We pray for all the children who have been harmed by generations of rebelliousness that have robbed them. Oh, let righteousness rain down from above on this land, America. Let Your holy, holy Word be lifted up! Let Your holy name be lifted up! And let the names of sin and wickedness be cast to the ground in Jesus’ name. And those that take council together against You, divide them in their councils and let their plans come to nothing!
Let the council of Truth be lifted up! Let the council of Your justice be lifted up!
Oh, true righteousness, true holiness – the righteousness that comes by the blood of Jesus, the holiness that comes by living under His blood. Let righteousness spring forth from the earth! Let justice flow like a mighty river!
Open the eyes, Lord, of those that are bound by darkness, by the god of this world who’s blinded their eyes! We take authority over the god of this world – you unbind their eyes now in the name of Jesus! We command you to stop your maneuvers against the people of United States. We pray that light would spring forth; truth would come forth in Jesus’ name.
Lord, that we would rend our hearts. We rend our hearts, Lord! We rend our hearts! Let Your truth and judgment come forth that there would be great searchings of heart.
Oh, let Your wind blow, Lord, the wind of Your Holy Spirit, blow, blow, blow through our land. Let the wind of the Holy Ghost blow away, blow away the chaff. Your winnowing fan is in Your hand! And You will thoroughly clear Your threshing floor! The chaff You will burn with unquenchable fire!
Pastor Ray…
Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Father. I don’t know if you need to sing that again Ms. Annie or if you should just pray it but the song that you were singing “He’s Our Healer.” He heals every disease or situation. You know it doesn’t have to be bodies necessarily. It could be situations, relationships, whatever needs to be made right. It’s by faith that that woman went through the crowd just to touch the hem of His garment. And she knew that she would be healed. And we know that we have been made whole and healed by the blood.
Ms. Annie, maybe just pray for not just the revelation of it but for restoration right now today – wholeness and health and whatever needs to be made right.
Each one of us individually, you know what it is. You know situations. Maybe it’s your body. Maybe it’s someone else’s body. Maybe it’s a relative – whatever.
Ms. Annie…
As you are saying that, I’m hearing from the first chapter of Isaiah where the prophet said from the head and down it’s all wounds. You know he was describing what you just described, this brokenness that the enemy and the curse has brought to people we love, people we know, to the nation we love, to the nation we know and to whatever situation. Oh, Lord, the blood of Jesus!
Oh, Lord, we reach out and we touch the hem of Your garment because You are the healing Jesus. You have provided an atonement. We reach out with our faith, with our prayers, with our love, with the cries of our hearts. We reach out and we touch the hem of Your garment for those we know who are broken, who are hurting, who are needing You! And for ourselves, Lord, that You would heal, put eye salve on our eyes that we may see!
And for America, we reach out and we touch the hem of Your garment for our Nation that is bleeding! They have spent but they haven’t been satisfied! You are the One Who satisfies! We take hold! We take hold! We take hold of the hem of Your garment, Lord, for America and virtue comes out of the Lamb of God, virtue comes out of Your broken body into the body of Christ in America and into America through the body of Christ!
We will not be denied! We know! We know if we can touch the hem of Your garment, Lord, we shall be made whole. Virtue flows from You into this United States of America, Your virtue, Your power!
You are the healing Jesus. If You, Lord, mark iniquities then who can stand? But with You there is forgiveness that You may be feared. We hope in You. We trust in You. We long for You. We pull on You. We receive wholeness, wholeness, wholeness! We take courage because we are every bit whole! We take courage, Lord, because You have turned Your face upon us with favor by the blood of Jesus. You turn to us. You look on us with favor. You say, “Take courage! Your faith has made you whole!”
We take courage! We take courage because we know who You are. You are good! We take courage!
We see America from coast to coast, from the north to the south, from the east to the west every wit whole, healed, and made whole by the blood of Jesus. Thank You for it, Father.
Pastor Ray…
Thank You, Father. Thank You, Lord. I am just reminded of a time and this was quite a while ago. We used to go downtown every Tuesday and pray. We had a place to go to that had been a business. Sandy and I and some different people that would come and we would pray on Hennepin Ave. It’s was just so interesting the different things that would come out because we were in that area, because we could see the people.
There was a time later, before we had corporate prayer in the chapel, we had it upstairs in a larger prayer room. We were praying in other tongues and I don’t know if we were praying about some things downtown. I don’t really recall that, but I had a vision while we were praying. I saw a street but it wasn’t Minneapolis. I couldn’t describe what city it was. It was almost like a village. It was more like a Victorian village with little shops, curvy street, and the lights were on. It was evening.
I saw someone coming way down the street. I could see a man with a broom way down there and we just kept praying along. And I recognized the man as Jesus and He had a broom and He was sweeping away debris. That was exactly what happened on the Cross at Calvary, every single situation, sickness, symptom, whatever—all gone because of the blood of the Lamb, that cleansing power of the blood. I hadn’t thought about that but it just came to me as a picture while Ms. Annie was praying. Sometimes, that’s what you do when you are worshiping. You paint a picture for me that makes it very easy for us to enter on in and use our faith, see what we need to see.
Pastor Ray…
The following is an excerpt from Hosting the Presence by Bill Johnson:
Living Beyond Reason
Following the anointing (the Holy Spirit) is very similar to Israel following the cloud of the Lord’s presence in the wilderness. The Israelites had no control over Him. He led, and the people followed. Wherever He went, supernatural activities took place. If they departed from the cloud, the miracles that sustained them would be gone. Can you imagine what would have happened if our fear-oriented theologians had been there? They would have created new doctrines explaining why the supernatural ministry that brought them out of Egypt was no longer necessary to bring them into the Promised Land. After all, now they had the tablets of stone. Then, as today, the real issue is the priority we place upon His presence. When that’s intact, the supernatural abounds, but without it we have to make up new doctrines for why we’re okay as we are.
In New Testament terms, being a people focused on His presence means that we are willing to live beyond reason. Not impulsively or foolishly, for these are poor imitations for real faith. The realm beyond reason is the world of obedience to God. Obedience is the expression of faith, and faith is our claim ticket to the God realm. Strangely, this focus on His presence causes us to become like wind, which is also the nature of the Holy Spirit (see John 3:8). His nature is powerful and righteous, but His ways cannot be controlled. He is unpredictable.
As church leaders, this hits us at our weakest point. For most churches, very little of what we do is dependent upon the Holy Spirit. If He were not to show up, most churches would never miss Him. Billy Graham is credited with saying, “Ninety-five percent of today’s church activities would continue if the Holy Spirit were removed from us. In the early Church, ninety-five percent of all her activities would have stopped if the Holy Spirit were removed.” I agree.
We plan our services, and call it diligence. We plan our year, and call it vision. I’ll never forget the Sunday that the Lord informed me that it wasn’t my service, and I couldn’t do as I pleased. (Planning is biblical. But our diligence and vision must never include usurping the authority of the Holy Spirit; the Lordship of Jesus is seen in our willingness to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. He wants His Church back!) But how can we follow Him if don’t recognize His presence?
The more pronounced His presence, the more unique the manifestations of our God encounters become. Although the manifestations we experience while encountering Him are important, it’s God Himself we long for.
Pastor Ray…
That’s where people can get off and have gotten off. We have all missed it! Thank God for the blood; that we keep moving.
I want to continually do that. That’s why this morning I brought up Ms. Annie’s supply and how that works in the Chapel. And it should be easy and it is easy to follow the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit when we are tuning into Him, using our faith to be being filled to overflowing; allowing the rivers of Living Waters to come to us. You know how that works. What we sow, we reap. That we would be like that woman. No matter what, she was going through that crowd and she was getting to Him.
Thank You, Father, for the power of the precious Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, right now this morning, we do believe to be being filled or refilled. Whatever terminology we might use, we want more. We are hungry and we are thirsting for more of Your presence manifested in us and through us. Not just, of course, for us to say “What a wonderful time. What a wonderful presence.” But that we’d use what we’ve been given and give it out; knowing that what we give out, we shall receive many times over and over and over and over. Hallelujah.
Ms. Annie led us singing He Is the Lord My Healer
Pastor Ray…
Hallelujah. Holy Spirit, where You are leading us, we want to go. What You want us to do, we say “yes.” Even before we know, we are saying yes to You. To be led, directed, we yield, and do like the Lord told that lady “I want all of You.”
So, we yield, give ourselves, bow before You, give reverence and honor to You this morning. Thank You that You are leading us and You’re leading us into the Truth.
We believe we have ears to hear, eyes to see, our know-ers are knowing, and we’re in the flow. We thank You for it in Jesus’ name, Amen.
