Ms. Annie led us in singing Bless the Lord Oh My Soul
Pastor Ray…
Hallelujah, love to worship, love to lift Him up, love to be changed in His presence
How about you?
Scripture focus…
If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open. James 1:5–8 (MSG)
You know we will do this and that and then pray. No. When we pray, we are told to believe and just not have a second thought about it and know that He will bring it to pass.
Yesterday when we were here, Pastor Folu was talking about going about and doing good and letting the anointing, just let it come out, just believe God it is coming through. And I had this happen yesterday afternoon. Both Sandy and I go to the same hair salon. We have gone to the same lady for quite a few years and we have seen her life go by. She was a single mom and got married maybe 5 or 6 years ago. Sandy had been in there last week and she just casually asked “So, how is your husband’s job?” She said “good” and she didn’t say anything else.
So, when I picked Sandy up she said “I know something is wrong. I just know it.” So, I got there yesterday and the same deal. We have ministered the Word to her before. We are not shy to talk about God but try to change it from Christianese so she will understand. She has always been a really, really good example for us as a true Christian in the way she acts, the way she speaks, what she believes. She has not been raised up in church like we have but her daughter is a senior and she became friends with someone who was born again and then got into a church that teaches the Word. Then she went with her daughter on a missions trip this last year and she was changed. They both were.
I am sitting at the salon and there are a couple others near that are listening to our conversation. We were just talking about casual things. I asked about her husband being busy at his job. She didn’t say anything. Then she said “Well, we are getting divorced.” And then she started to cry. This is while the whole scene is going on with the people listening. She started to cry but not because she had something happen where she needed to separate but it was because she was concerned that other believers would judge her and say “She’s not a good Christian” or “She’s not even a Christian.” That’s what she started to cry about.
I said “Excuse me, just the fact that you were moved on right now and began to cry because you were concerned about other people judging you and looking at you and saying ‘well, she’s not even a Christian’ You know what that means to me? You are definitely a Christian.
I am saying this because we believing God for this. Wherever we go, be ready. There will be opportunities for the anointing to come through each one of us. It wasn’t operating that day because I am a pastor or whatever. I am just a person with the Holy Spirit working. It’s Him. And so we just have to let Him out. And then I was able to encourage her in her faith, in the future how things will be. The Spirit of God worked immediately and began to work on turning it and turning it and turning around for His good.
When I left I was like “Wow, Lord.” So, my point is to be ready. Get ready because He is working and He will work through us and as Pastor Folu said “This month is the best of the best time to minister Him.” Because people are thinking differently, if you just go out people are different and we can make a difference with Him.
Scripture focus…
(12) Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.
(16-18) So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced in Him…
(22-24) Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
(25) But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. James1:12, 16-17, 22-25 (MSG)
I like that, just out of the corner of the eye we get a little glimpse, we get something and we act on it.
That’s it, right? Not sit back, settle back.
The following excerpt was taken from Jerry Savelle Ministries December 2018 Partner Letter:
Did you know that joy and faith go hand in hand? It’s really not possible to have one without the other! If there’s no joy in it, then it’s not really faith. This month, I want to teach you how to keep your joy and live in total victory over every negative circumstance that you face in your life.
I’ve discovered that a person who is full of faith should also be full of joy! In fact, the apostle Paul wrote his partners in Philippi saying, “I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith” (Philippians 1:25).
Paul is a great example of how you and I should stay in joy regardless of what is happening around us. He refused to allow his circumstances to diminish his joy. He wrote the book of Philippians while arrested and in chains. That’s when he wrote, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” His circumstances couldn’t steal his joy!
The same should be true for you! Your joy should not be hindered by your circumstances.
God is about to do something good for you! Keep your joy and keep standing in faith!
You have what it takes to overcome the pressure, hardship, or circumstance you’re facing. 1st Corinthians 10:13 encourages us saying, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
That means that if you were not able to overcome it, God wouldn’t have allowed it! Even when you don’t understand it, God can take everything you go through and use it for your good.
Ms. Jeani…
When you said “overcome” I saw that it’s not a “just barely” thing at all. We are more than overcomers so He causes the wide open spaces in the massive manifestation of His goodness.
Pastor Ray…
That’s our word “right now.” That doesn’t mean we are not patient. Sometimes it has to do with timing. Sometimes it has to do with other people. Sometimes it has to do with what’s inside us. But He will turn situations completely around or upside down or whatever He needs to do. Remember we read today, first, if we don’t know what to do and we don’t know how to do it, who do we speak to? Our heavenly Father. We ask Him about it and know that He’ll take care of it. Just don’t have a second thought about it. Hallelujah,
Ms. Annie…
I am glad I can take everything to my Father and trust Him and rest in Him. He is working all things together for my good, who love Him and are called according to His purposes. We love Him and we are called according to His purpose and He is working all things to our good. So, He is working even that mess, that yucky looking mess. He’s going “I Am working, I Am working, I Am going to turn that into something good.” That’s a miracle (ha, ha, ha). He’s a God of miracles.
Ms. Annie led us singing I believe in You, You’re the God of miracles
♪ We believe in You, Lord, for our nation, for our families, for our churches, For the body of Christ, for our leaders, for our pastors – we believe in You Lord ♪
Ms. Jeani….
Father, Your Word says that we would do greater things and this is the time for greater things
This is the time for Your manifested goodness like never before on behalf of the Church, on behalf of the world
The fullness of the Church causing her to walk in overflow, touching people wherever they go
You are up to something that has never been done before!
Your Word confirms it when You say that we would do greater things
Those are things that have never been done before—for such a time as this!
For such a time as now! For such a time as today!
Today, we walk in the greater things
Today, America rises up, the city on a hill
Today, miracle upon miracle upon miracle – the greater things today
Is this Your desire? You said it!
We raise our expectation even now to see the way you see
To hear the way You hear, to see what You do when You do it
The things that have never been done before!
We rejoice knowing today it is Your plan for greater things!
You astonish us with Your goodness, Your goodness causes us to repent
That scripture is not just for the prodigal!
Your goodness causes us to change our worldview, causes us to change the way it looks when the enemy attacks!
It causes us to see that we are protected! It cause us to see that when we rise up, the enemy can no longer come in
It causes us to go forth and widen the pegs of our tents
Even now we declare over the Church, “You widen the pegs of your tent!”
You go out and you let the overflow flow unto others
He came as a babe, a helpless child and in the middle of massive attack He wasn’t even touched, not a hair on His head
That’s the Church, that’s the Church
Pastor Ray shared…
I keep seeing this. Several years ago, I went to the Louvre in Paris and I had one plan and that was to see the Mona Lisa. I went through the whole gallery. It is huge, huge. And when I got to the Mona Lisa, it was a disappointment because it was so small and it was covered in plastic and you could hardly get to it. Too many other people wanted to see it also.
And the Holy Spirit has been revealing to me that inside of us, we too are like a gallery. Picture after picture after picture after picture, some have been painted because of what the Word has said but other paintings are there because someone else allowed them to come through them and come into you and it put a picture in you and it was a disappointment. It was a disappointing picture, a disappointing time, a disappointing situation.
And Holy Spirit is reminding me today to take the frame, take the frame off those pictures that are pictures of defeat, pictures of lack, pictures of someone else’s problems and situations or whatever. We put no limits on it. Just take those frames off and put them on pictures in your heart that are painted by the scripture, by the power, by the presence of the Word within you, the power of the Holy Spirit and put a frame on each one of those. They are in full color, purple, green, yellow, orange, red – all the colors blended together. They’re master pieces! His Master pieces for us and they’ve been painted in us individually for us that we might go step by step by step, always ascending and moving from one degree of glory to another because of what we see, because of what He said, and the picture that it painted within each one of us. Hallelujah.
A gallery of overcoming power, a gallery of supernatural strength, a gallery where that joy is present bringing about such strength beyond what you could ever do, a gallery of prosperity for you. We frame those things today, we see those things, we receive them as pictures in us concerning our future, concerning the steps, the plans that God has called us to.
Thank You, thank you, thank You
Ms. Annie led us singing Decorate Yourself With Majesty
Pastor Ray…
For the image, for the pictures, for Your plans
The Devils set of paintings; we do not have room to put in our hearts
There is no room in the inn inside us for those plans of defeat, lack, doubt, lies, strife
But in our house, as the Word says in Joshua 24:15 – as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord
That’s the picture that we hang this morning deep down inside and we keep saying it and declaring it and believing it “We will continually contend to see the things that You put within us, not the Devil’s plans, but Your plans, Lord, and overcome in every area of our lives and do it for others!”
Thank You for it, Father, for Your precious Word, for the Word that causes us to always overcome
Thank You for the fullness of Your precious Holy Spirit within us operating through us and helping and bringing that anointing through us every single day to help others see what You have put within them too for their future and call it bright
Thank You for it in Jesus’ name – hallelujah
Thank you so much for coming this morning, appreciate it
