Ms. Annie led us singing Even Unto Death
Pastor Ray…
Hallelujah. It seems like we’ve been maybe spending a little extra time in the Chapel these days lifting Him up, getting our eyes looking up. Jesus did that.
In John 17, He looked up heavenward and began to pray. In just a little bit, I will read what he prayed for us right here in 2019.
But He looked up and we look up, and we lift Him up. We magnify Him, give glory where all of the glory is due. Thank You for Your goodness, Your mercy, Lord. You are working on us, in us. You’re moving us from one degree of glory to another. We expect to take those steps, to move up, to look up continually but to be moved up, that there would be momentum in us and Your Word working through us, the power of Your precious Holy Spirit, the anointing within us, each one of us. For You have anointed us, equipped us, and You are transforming us all the time. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Father.
Ms. Annie led us singing Let the Weight of Your Glory Fall
Ms. Annie…
I was reading a story just earlier this week. It was about a Muslim man in a closed nation. I can’t remember how he was reaching out for truth. I have forgotten that part of the story. But he didn’t know anything about Jesus or the Word of God. And one night he heard a knock at his door. He went to the door and there was a man standing there. He described him as shinny all over. And the man said to Him, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” And he just kept going, and word for word, what he told the guy to write down was John 1. So the guy was so shinny and it was so supernatural that he just wrote down what he told him.
The next night a knock at his door. He goes to the door and there is the same guy, all shinny. He said again to him, “write down what I tell you.” What ended up happening is he had this whole complete copy of the book of John dictated to him word for word. But he didn’t know what it was or who the man was.
But, of course, this shinny man was Jesus. You know how you hear about the Dead Sea scrolls and after 2,000 years the Word was the same. To me this is how the Word of God probably came to be written down, incidents like this. Because in the beginning was the Word. But the same Jesus wants to appear to every one of the Muslims in the world. And now His glory is coming down and His shiny radiance is shining out.
Pastor Ray…
Also, just to go along with that. I read an article that in Iran, it’s the largest growing Christian Church. There are churches but they are not in buildings. In most of what you would call pastors, they are women. They are coming out of the Muslim beliefs and beginning to be saved by the droves. One way or another, it’s happening and there are no church buildings. It’s underground kind of.
I read it and Sandy and I were watching a guest speaker, Mike Hankins, from Rodney Howard Browne. He was saying the same thing. He had heard that in Iran the Christian church is growing.
There is so much going on that we don’t know about, in China too, yes.
Scripture focus…
In John 17, the beginning Jesus prays for Himself to be glorified.
(1) After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. (2) For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. (3) Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (4) I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. (5) And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. John 17:1–5 (NIV)
This is Jesus. So then for a couple paragraphs He is praying for His disciples. But then He prays for us today. That’s my favorite part.
(20) “My prayer is not for them alone (the disciples). I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, (21) that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (22) I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—(23) I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
(24) “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
(25) “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. (26) I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” John 17:20–26 (NIV)
Pastor Ray…
Hallelujah. Thank You, Father. For us to do… wow…. For us to do these things that would represent His glory in us and you know how that glory would come through us, we cannot be status quo minded. We cannot just go through life… (whistling). But we have to be alert. We have to be strong. We have to know He is in us. We have to have the revelation that He is working not just in us and transforming us but He is working through us. And the words then we know that we say we have to be, it has to be a revelation within us that the words that we speak by the Holy Spirit are anointed and they will bring about great change.
Thank You. Thank You, Father. I believe You are doing a new thing. You are doing a new thing in this chapel. You are doing a new thing in this gathering that we have every morning. You’re doing something new. And I believe that You are being glorified more and more and more and it’s not so much that we would just get together and all pray in tongues but that we do that, we do do that but that we also be aware and connect to heaven and be sure that we’re ministering by Your Spirit not by what man might say or what we might think that man would think or say.
Thank You, Father. Thank You, Lord. I saw this morning. I was looking at Mark Hankins’ book on the blood “The Blood Line of a Champion.” They put in the book a lot of blood songs. Most of them I had never heard but this one I am going to read.
The following lyrics to Under the Blood by Ryan Barnett:
There are so many times I’m walking down life’s road
I don’t know where to turn, I don’t know where to go
But no matter where God takes me,
there is one thing I know
It’s by the blood of Jesus Christ
to Him I’m even known
I’m under the blood, under the blood of the Lamb
I am forgiven from every sin
Every sickness and every pain
is under the blood of the Lamb
I am blessed with all blessings and righteous in Christ
I am more than a conqueror by His sacrifice
I have freedom from anything Satan has planned
Under the blood, under the blood of the Lamb
Although there will be weapons formed by the enemy
I know it is the blood of Christ that truly protects me
No matter where I go I plead the blood before
So I have confidence to walk through every open door
Everywhere I turn I know Jesus will be
There is no one greater than the one who lives within me
And now that I’m in Christ, My eyes can finally see
That it’s only by His blood I have real victory
And one day God’s own Son went up to Calvary
He suffered, bled, and died to pay the price for me
Because of Jesus’ blood it is now I can be seen
A new creation in Christ
I am freed, blessed, and redeemed
Pastor Ray…
We can’t make too much of the blood. We can’t be too fanatical about the blood. We can’t plead the blood too much. The blood of Jesus is the way they overcame. We have it in the Word. They overcame by the precious holy blood.
They overcame by the blood. So, we overcome by the blood. And we can testify that we’ve overcome because of the precious holy, holy, holy, blood of the Lamb. We’re not taking it out of our Bibles. We are making more of it, making much about it. Thank You for it Lord.
Ms. Annie led is singing Thank You for the Blood of Jesus Christ
Pastor Ray…
It came up in my heart, if you have… it seems like maybe it’s someone in your family, a relative that absolutely needs help. It doesn’t have to be only physical healing. It can be mental. It can be whatever the need might be. We’ll not put any limits on it.
But you know who they are and it’s by the blood we’ve all overcome. So, whatever their name or names are, we this morning plead, use, declare the blood of Jesus right there over that one, and that one, and that one and those family members, relatives.
Maybe they don’t know. Maybe they’ve just been stubborn to yield to the light. Maybe they have not come in yet. But by the blood they are coming in in Jesus’ name, being set free from all of the debris, the lack, the questions, the doubt, the strife which brings every evil work.
We take the authority this morning. Just like the Bible says “they overcame.” So, we’ve overcome. Jesus went to the Cross so that we could overcome. And the blood of Jesus, we declare it over all these people that change would begin to come forth, bodies would be restored, relationships would be healed and whole, things would be make new, lack would have to go in Jesus’ name.
Thank You, for we’ve overcome by the precious holy blood. They have. We all have as members of the body.
The following lyrics to On the Basis of the Blood by David Ingles, 1991:
On the basis of the blood,
On the basis of the blood
I’m more than a conqueror
I’m a son of His love
There are no impossibilities
Just because I’m in the family
Reigning through life
On the basis of the blood
Christ came as a high priest
Of good things to come
He carried His own blood
He entered in once
Into heaven’s sanctuary
Secured our redemption
Gave of Himself an offering to God
It was accepted our seal of redemption
The blood of our Christ God’s holy Son
He bought for us a standing
Of eternal sonship
With all its rights and privileges
On the ground of His blood
Are before the Father
Now we have the legal right
To use Jesus name
We’re overcomers
Through our testimony
We now have all
That His blood guarantees
Pastor Ray…
(tongues) It is not going to be in the same old ways. (tongues) For the orders have been given and sent. The blood has been shed. To every day take another step over in the victory way. It’s not a mirage. No. It’s the command or commands from heaven that are written in the Word of life. So, it cannot be the way it was. It will be over and into the glory way. And the glory way, in that glorious way there is like David Ingles wrote “there is victory.”
So the victory has been won. The blood has been shed. Ha! And we’re stepping out and stepping into (ha, ha, ha) unusual, unusual times (ha, ha, ha) unusual days, unusual nights. And when those (knock, knock, knock) come on your door, say “Yes, Lord” to what He has said to you personally. And even some things that you personally put on a shelf for someday, that day has arrived. This is the day that the Lord hath made, rejoice and be glad in it and take it off the shelf! Begin to run when you were walking. Begin to walk when you were standing. And limitations will be removed as you step forth by faith in My perfect will and ways! Hallelujah, thank You, Lord!
Thank You for Your presence, Lord. Thank You for Your beautiful presence. Saturate us. I want to be saturated. I want to be overfilled, overflowing, saturated, saturated. Those rivers of living water flowing, flowing, and flowing, and flowing through.
Ms. Annie led us out singing Fill Me, Jesus Fill Me
Pastor Ray…
Your glory… Thank You for it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
