Pastor Ray…
Holy Spirit, thank You so much this morning. We welcome and thank You for Your manifest presence. We need and yearn for more of it. It’s a necessity for us to do what You have called each one of us to do, keep on, to be a light.
Even when we don’t say anything, we can be a light. Thank You for it in Jesus’ name.
I want to open with this reading by Bill Johnson because I feel there are some principles the Church needs to be living in. And we have been going over this in declaring by faith that we are in the land of more than enough.
The following excerpt is from the Mind of God by Bill Johnson:
(Pastor Bill talks about the Queen of Sheba who traveled a long distance to receive of the wisdom of King Solomon.)
The Power of Beauty
She came hoping to be impressed and left acknowledging the half had not been told her. She also came to the conclusion that a servant in Solomon’s house is better off than a king elsewhere. The queen brought Solomon all of her hard questions. I wish there were a list of answers he gave. If nothing else, it would reveal the kinds of things that were on the minds of leaders in their day. I assume her questions had to do with creation, the purpose of life, how things ought to function in God’s design. I am sure there were questions in her heart that would never cross my mind. Yet Solomon answered each one with such ease and grace that she sat mystified.
Mystified at his answers? Yes. But also stunned by the life that surrounded him. It’s interesting to see what stood out to this queen, as things that revealed Solomon’s great creative genius, his wisdom.
3) So Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her. 4) And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, 5) the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. 6) Then she said to the king: “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. 7) However I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard. 8) Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! 9) Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness.” I Kings 10:3-9 (KJV)
This is an important passage regarding creativity and beauty. Notice the things that it mentions that caught the queen’s attention. Besides Solomon’s brilliant answers, she saw wisdom in his house, the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, and the entry way by which he went up to the house of the Lord.
If this list were not in the Bible, I doubt many of us would have chosen these things as elements that would speak to a queen about the nature and the beauty of God, and yet they did. The things we might consider profound didn’t even make the list. Solomon’s explanation of nature, the purpose of life, the location and wonder of the planets, and how the human body works, did not make it into the list that God considered important when he inspired the writing of scripture. Instead, we have a house, we have food, serving, clothing, a food taster, and stairs, that are all used to prove the wisdom of God.
When Sandy and I first started coming here, that’s the one thing that we noticed right away. There was a standard of excellence in our pastors. That was something we were always drawn to. I was for sure, because that was something I worked at, the way things look.
We just celebrated our 40th anniversary here. And all the way through these years, that is a standard of excellence that this church is known for.
I wasn’t always over prayer. Before that I was over how the building looked and some of the standards that we held to. We held a standard for every guest speaker too. We would go to the hotel prior to them arriving and change it around, change the light bulbs, change the rugs, put plants in, do whatever we could do to lift up that standard. And it made a difference in their times that they spent here. It does something.
Why is this so stunning? Because they are the mundane parts of life. If God had included on the list Solomon’s profound answers to life’s most challenging problems, most of us would just disqualify ourselves from the role. Apparently, there’s another way of transformation that only wisdom can see through the expression of beauty in the often-unexciting parts of everyday life.
Sometimes it’s in the stairway, the clothing, the food, that the world is looking for wisdom. This becomes a language of wisdom that the world is able to hear and measure. This is the big surprise, that the mundane touched by wisdom can become an evangelistic tool that people are drawn to, people of the world.
Imagine being a woodworker who applies yourself to a life of excellence in all you put your hands to do. Because of this, your reputation increases until one day someone who represents the King contacts you and asks you to build stairs from the King’s house to the house of God. Then you find out that this King has an eye for design. He shows you what he has in mind and it’s truly beautiful. You received the invitation to build under the King’s charge as a gift from God who has honored you in the sight of royalty because of your commitment to represent Him, the Lord, in the quality of your work.
So then imagine after the project is finished, you hear more good news. A queen from another country saw the stairs you built and became convinced of God’s love for people. Who would have thought that the stairs could prophesy of God’s love? This is beyond amazing.
I wonder what it would be like to have the job of figuring out where and how everyone should be seated at a meal with the king. This is your assignment. Excellence in you has given you an eye for details that others miss. Because it’s for the King, you put extra thought into the location of the guests, the design of the table and his place settings. How would you feel when you found out later that your choice of seating and table settings spoke to a queen about how wisdom is beautiful and is filled with an order that reveals the nature of God?
These stories and stories like them are repeated countless times daily in communities built on wisdom. God’s design for life is wonderful, victorious, and prosperous for everyone. And in His design, everyone has a place to succeed and thrive. This is the beauty of wisdom. It’s felt in the heart, verified for the lives of those who reign in life, and evident in the beauty that surrounds whatever they touch. True beauty is powerful. It helped capture the heart of a queen from the south, one untrained in the ways of God until Solomon, until she met with wisdom. This is the power of beauty.
Not only was the queen of Sheba stunned by what she saw, scripture says there was no more spirit in her. That word for spirit is also the word breath. She was left breathless. It’s time for the world to become speechless again.
Pastor Ray…
Years ago, Brother Kenneth Hagan came to Living Word and he ministered for more than a week. We made part of our fellowship hall a place where he and the people who were working with him could come in before the meetings. We set up everything to perfection. We had the right furniture. There was one thing we didn’t have and that was a restroom. So, we cut a hole in the wall and went right on through into the children’s area and blocked it off from the children. We made a way, and it made a difference in ministry!
Because if your needs are met, your surroundings are good.
They always say, as an artist, if you surround yourself with the right atmosphere, your creativity will move up to another level. And God is a creative Father! He created the whole earth and it’s beautiful.
I was just kind of moved by that again to be sure…and this goes for prayer. We’re always pressing for the best. We’re always pressing for the highest. We never settle for, “Well, you know, it will be okay.”
We keep pressing ahead. And that’s our call in these days, especially now, to stay strong, stay up, keep believing for that high standard of God, and see it by faith come to pass—where we’re living in the land of more than enough. And the world will see it and the world will respond to it. And it will be a light for those that are living in darkness, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah.
We’re believing for the best. We’re aiming toward victory in every single area. Hallelujah.
Ms. Annie…
I think He’s beautiful in all His ways. When my husband and I go for a walk in the forest, I always think of how God could have made everything look ugly and chaotic. It’s kind of one of those things you take for granted. But instead, every single thing that He’s created is so beautiful. He made the trees this gorgeous color of green. He made the canyons and the rocks and the sky and even the sunset and the colors of the clouds. He made all of it beautiful, and it all declares His glory.
The more you see the curse coming into the earth, the more you see that being marred and made to look chaotic and ugly or dirty.
It’s only a normal thing that His beauty draws us to Him. Isn’t it?
The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament proclaims His handiwork. Day unto day pours forth speech and night unto night declares knowledge.
So, every day is pouring forth speech about Him. Hallelujah.
Ms. Annie led us singing Oh, Lord Your Beautiful
♪ Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, beautiful One,
He was marred beyond all description
He’s beautiful, He’s beautiful ♪
The following prophecy was given by M.B. Busch on September 10, 2014 and reposted today on Facebook:
A Holy Convocation (Spoken September 10, 2014) released to His faithful ones today.
This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. This is a word in season!
And My Spirit shall move mightily through you, says the Lord of Hosts.
For there will be a joining of forces, that will push through into the realm of the breakthrough.
And there will be a shredding of all doubt and unbelief over your future!
For there will be a move of My Spirit of cosmic proportions through you, My chosen ones. For I have planted you in fertile soil, that I would be glorified.
Push through for the breakthrough!
Weep and tarry for the breakthrough!
And you shall taste and see that I AM good, says the Lord of the Breakthrough.
Pastor Ray…
What do we do? Push through, keep on moving, and we keep pushing through for breakthroughs in every area.
You are, by the power of Your Spirit, breaking through on our behalf, when we declare breakthrough, believe to walk in supernatural breakthroughs from You.
Lord, we magnify Your name, glorify Your name, honor who You are, mighty, mighty, mighty Father! Hallelujah. Its’ not over! Hallelujah! Don’t give up but keep pressing on into greater breakthroughs.
You are the God of breakthroughs!
Ms. Annie led us singing in tongues…
♪ Open your mouth wide and I will fill it
I will fill it with My Words, My faith
I’ll fill it with My Words, every mountain you will take
For the Lord Your God, for the Lord Your God
So, open Your mouth wide, I will fill it and speak forth My Words of life ♪
Pastor Ray…
I sensed a shifting in the body of Christ. And then that moved to absolute paradigm shift where things that had been looked at one way, there would be a paradigm shift, turn and it would be seen a different way.
But there was a double paradigm. There was a shift, a paradigm shift and then after that paradigm shift there was another one. It was another paradigm that would never have been seen if the first shift hadn’t moved—the first shifting in the body of Christ, where the body really, truly stood up and there was a shift and saw things by the Spirit.
Church services will begin to be different than they ever were before. More and more, the presence of God will be required as an absolute necessity in services.
And however the world lifts up people to do things their way… They have giftings but they are using it only for the world’s ways. It’s time for the Church to go so further up and out than the world would every know or go. So, we’d not measure our services just on how it looks but we’d measure our services on the manifested presence of God almighty. It’s part of the shifting.
For these days are not the way they ever were before. We must contend. We do. We call. We speak. We declare. We believe by faith we receive these things.
For us individually, let’s just receive by the Spirit a shifting, and then a real true paradigm to see things in another way, the way the Word shows us they are. And then even see it in a more greater way, a revelation concerning the days we are in.
These are critical days, hours, times to keep on contending for what God has called for the Church to be – an absolute, overwhelming light all over this earth. All throughout the nations of the earth – a shifting, an increased light from heaven that would bring others, be drawn to the light, darkness would have to go, leave and never come back.
And the fire of God will begin to burn like never before. People, men, women, and children will be drawn to that fire. For that fire will produce a great desire in others that didn’t even know there was a fire. They will be drawn to it and they’ll be changed from one degree to another to another. And they’ll come out of those dark way and move right over into the light from heaven above.
We’ll not lean on our own understanding, Lord. But we’ll keep on declaring Your will, Your ways, Your purposes, and keep our eyes looking, stretching out, calling for victories in every arena.
No, no, no. The Church will not be shut down. The Church will not shut up. The Church will not be still. We have been given the Words of life and we will continue to speak it forth.
Open! Open! Open! Thank You, Father.
The blood of the Lamb, we overcome through that precious holy blood. And what was done on that Cross, we have already won. Thank You, Father.
We plead that blood over the United States of America today. Hold it against any doubt, fear, lie, inaccuracy in Jesus’ name. We push back again today, holding that blood over every obstacle that tries and has tried to come against the Untied States of America. We plead the blood of Jesus over President Trump and Vice President Pence, and we set ourselves in agreement with those in the White House that are praying in Jesus’ name.
Hidden things, still more are yet to be uncovered. Hallelujah! Open up! Thank You, Lord.
Ms. Annie led us singing Hallelujah, Thine the Glory, Revive Us Again
I want to end this morning with a portion of this declaration:
We learn Your ways, Father God. We chose Your thoughts. We know they’re much higher than ours. For Your ways are higher than our ways. Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We chose Your wisdom and we chose Your words. For the so-called wisdom of this world is vanishing away and coming to nothing. But the Word of our God will stand forever.
We do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Nor, do we stand in the way of sinners. Nor do we sit in the seat of mockers. We delight ourselves in You, Lord. In Your Word, Father, and in Your laws, we do meditate day and night. For You, Father watch over the way of the godly, but the way of the wicked will vanish and come to nothing.
Righteous Father, the foolish things that You’ve chosen are wiser than the wisest wisdom of this world. And the weak things that You’ve chosen are stronger than the strongest things of this world. Your gentle two-edged tongue of truth will break a bone. You break the shields of the wicked, and You cause the wars they incite to cease. Your Word, Oh Lord, is settled forever, and ever, and ever, and ever in the heavens. There’s none who can deliver out of Your hand, Lord. For You will work and You will reverse it.
So, Lord, we decided and decree the things You’ve declared in Your Word. And those things, they’re the things that will be established for us. Your light will shine upon our pathway. We do not fret. We do not fret because of evil doers, Lord. And we are not envious of the workers of iniquity, but we trust in You, Lord, and do good. We dwell in the land and we feed on Your faithfulness. The wicked may have drawn their bows to slay those of upright conduct, but their swords shall enter their own hearts and their bows shall be broken. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but You, Lord, uphold the righteous. The transgressors shall be destroyed forever and if the future of the wicked, it shall be cut off. But our salvation comes from You, Lord. And You are our strength in times of trouble. And when there’s not trouble, You’re still our strength. Hallelujah!
Pastor Ray…
Father, You are our strength right now, in these times of trouble. You made a way where there was no way. You caused us to triumph even in these days. You said You would bring for a power in each of us that would bring about great breakthroughs in these last of the last days. We stand upon Your Word. We stand strong under the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are not just going to watch things go by but we will continue to speak, declare, worship, praise You. For You, Lord, are our king of all kings and all wisdom is in You. And we receive wisdom today, supernatural answers and solutions that we would fulfill our specific part that You’ve called each one of individually to fulfill. Thank You. Things are working out. Breakthroughs are happening. And every single day, things are getting better and better and better!
Today, it will be better than yesterday because it’s getting better!
Hallelujah! We thank You for it. We are holding fast to it. Words spoken in faith shall come to pass in Jesus’ name. Amen. Hallelujah.
Thank you for praying with us this morning.
