Opening prayer…
Father, thank You so much for Your presence. We welcome Your manifested presence with us today. Holy Spirit, we yield ourselves to You—to Your will and to Your ways today. Thank You, Father, that You sent Your Son, that we could see, and receive You. We’re so blessed beyond measure. Your Word encourages us and reveals to us that there is more in store all the way along in this way that we’re walking. We thank You for it in Jesus’ name.
Pastor Ray shared…
I wanted to just read a portion of Acts 28 about the events that happened after the shipwreck. They’re on the ship and all hell is breaking loose, literally. The boat is going down but Paul had the word of the Lord that not one would lose his life. He’s declaring these things while the boat is going down. When I was a teen, I still remember some of the negative things my earthly father spoke over me. He would say negative things because he didn’t know what to say. If he was ticked, he would let it rip. I have two sisters and a brother. It’s amazing how words can stick. Not everyone in my family has been able to shake off our father’s negative things he would say. In the natural, if you keep speaking negative over a situation, it will have an effect.
Once Paul arrived on the island and everybody was safe… I’ll read it in the Message Bible. Acts 28:1 “Once everyone was accounted for and we realized we had all made it…” Which is such a big deal; in that situation and the way that thing was going. “…we learned that we were on the island of Malta.” I read that there is still a church there that’s named after Paul and the shipwreck. “The natives went out of their way to be friendly to us. The day was rainy and cold and we were already soaked to the bone, but they built a huge bonfire and gathered us around it.”
3-6 “Paul pitched in and helped. He had gathered up a bundle of sticks, but when he put it on the fire, a venomous snake, roused from its torpor by the heat, struck his hand and held on.” That’s a bad picture. A poisonous snake; he didn’t just get bitten. That thing stuck on him. “Seeing the snake hanging from Paul’s hand like that, the natives jumped to the conclusion that he was a murderer getting his just deserts. Paul shook the snake off into the fire, none the worse for wear. They kept expecting him to drop dead, but when it was obvious he wasn’t going to, they jumped to the conclusion that he was a god!” These guys are wild. First it’s almost like he’s a devil and then when he doesn’t die, he’s a god.
7-9 “The head man in that part of the island was Publius. He took us into his home as his guests, drying us out and putting us up in fine style for the next three days. Publius’s father was sick at the time, down with a high fever and dysentery. Paul went to the old man’s room, and when he laid hands on him and prayed, the man was healed. Word of the healing got around fast, and soon everyone on the island who was sick came and got healed.”
I love that. Not just a few or a couple people, but all the sick came to Paul and they were all healed. At the end of this chapter, they hitched up a boat and finally got to Rome. That was his deal; he’s going to get to Rome no matter what. That’s one reason why he knew he wasn’t going down because he knew he was going to Rome. So after he got to Rome, he had a house to live in and people would come to him. It says he’d invite people for meetings to tell them about Jesus. I want to read the way the Message Bible describes these people that were in unbelief. First of all, he said some of the people that he spoke to were persuaded by what he said but others refused to believe a word of it. When the unbelievers got cantankerous and started bickering with each other, Paul interrupted and said, “I have just one more thing to say to you. The Holy Spirit sure knows what he was talking about when he addressed our ancestors through Isaiah the prophet.” He’s speaking words from the Old Testament from Isaiah and this is how it says it in the Message: “Go to this people and tell them this: “You’re going to listen with your ears, but you won’t hear a word; You’re going to stare with your eyes, but you won’t see a thing. These people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen; They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them.” 28 “You’ve had your chance. The non-Jewish outsiders are next on the list. And believe me, they’re going to receive it with open arms!” Paul lived there for a couple more years and he kept welcoming everyone there and preached to them about the Lord Jesus.
I don’t want to be a blockhead, do you? And I’ve been a blockhead in the past. Even in just being born again, I was a blockhead. I was a blockhead concerning being baptized in the Holy Ghost. I didn’t believe it until the Holy Spirit showed it to me though someone. Today we could be blockheads concerning what is going on in the earth, but we’re not going to be. We have the Holy Ghost and we’re baptized in the power of the Holy Spirit. This ministered to me. “Seeing the snake hanging from Paul’s hand like that, the natives jumped to the conclusion that he was a murderer, getting his just due. But Paul shook the snake off into the fire, and was none the worse for wear. It doesn’t say he jerked that thing off and believed what they said: “He’s a murderer and he’s going to die.” Did he believe that? No. It doesn’t even say anything more about it.
I wanted to use that as an example if someone here has a word that’s negative over you; don’t dwell on it and let it have a place in you. Shake it off. Isn’t that right? Just shake it off. You don’t have to shake it off through your own strength. There are some things that we do. We don’t go by feelings. We go by faith. But when we’re going by faith, we have some feelings that we know we can connect to. If I feel 25, if I feel healed, it’s because I was healed. If I feel there’s a whole lot more in life, it’s because there is! And we’ve never been called to stop or quit or sit down and go to never, never land. We’re not called there. We’re called to abundance, to overflow, to do what God has called us to do and to keep on. If someone speaks some other way, we don’t receive it. If you have received that negative word, shake it off right now by the blood of the Lamb. Just shake out of it.
Dave shared…
I have a testimony about that very thing. We need to hear that because it doesn’t happen once in your life. It happens all the time. That’s how the enemy takes you away from the promise that God has given you. We make a choice on a daily basis whether to believe the truth or believe the lie. The lie comes on a regular basis. About 19 years ago, I got into a severe accident. I asked the Lord, “Why did I get in that accident?” I went down the list. I’m not out of Your will. I’m not in sin. I paid my tithe. I prayed… None of those things matter! Through Jesus, your mind can be filled with things that are good, just, praise worthy, if there be any virtue, He said to think on these things. He said “you” think on these things. You have a choice to think on positive things or think on negative things. In that accident, I’m asking the Lord why did I have this accident? I’m in the hospital and I’m thinking “why?” I’m all messed up. I went home and said, “Lord, I’m just confused about this. How could You let this happen to me? I thought You put your angels charge over me. If I’m that vulnerable then I could just go out any day and get killed.” If you let it, your mind can start running along that line of thinking and pretty soon, you’re in the grave. You’ll talk yourself into it. Most of the time that we have challenges, it’s cuz we talk ourselves into it. The Lord said to me, “You have a choice.” He showed me two examples in scripture. Paul said whether I stay in the body… for me to stay is fine but for me to go is okay too. He was caught between the two. But he was making a choice whether he was going to live or die. The other example was when Jesus said, “No man takes my life but I lay it down.” Did He not have a choice? He told Pilot, you don’t have the authority unless I give it to you. We all have the authority to live or die, to be joyful or to be down, to be well or to be sick, to be filled with joy or be sad, to be prosperous or to be impoverished. That’s our choice. Then He told me, “You didn’t have to worry about it cuz you weren’t going to die and I healed you when you were in the car!” Barb was there. I got out of the car and my leg was broken. I could not walk on it. By the time I got to the hospital, I was completely healed. I had a big gash on my head and there was blood everywhere. The person working on me in the ambulance said it was severe, but by the time I got to the hospital, the doctor said, “You don’t need stitches.” They saw two different things. I was healed. I said all that to say this. How come I didn’t focus on that and was so worried about the other thing? I couldn’t see that God was doing something in me already. All I could see is the negative. I made the choice to see that. I’m here to say we have a choice. When the Holy Spirit opens the door for you to see, take the door! Got it? Take His door. Don’t take the other door. Because the enemy will come and say, “That bill is coming due and the penalty is severe if you don’t pay it. You don’t have the money. The check hasn’t come…” He’ll go on and on and on to the point you’re on your knees crying. You need to listen to the Holy Ghost. We don’t need to freak out. We need to make decisions to pull us toward God’s plan. The Holy Spirit will always bring to you a way of escape. It’s all about making choices.
Pastor Ray shared…
Paul had a call and a plan and a vision and a place to go. So when that snake connected and grabbed onto his flesh, what did he do? He shook it off, because he knew that God had a bigger plan and he was not going to die because of a snake bite, but he was going to go all the way to where God had called him to go. Same thing today for each one of us as king’s kids. We have a plan, a call, and purpose to go all the way through in victory! Is there a fear that’s trying to attach itself to you concerning your personal future? Even questions? Fear about what He’s called you to do? Lift up your internal eyes to Him and let Him reveal to you the truth to you what He’s called you to and see it just like we say almost every day, we’re praying out the future and calling some things down that need to be down. Calling some things to be removed and cleared out of the way so that we can go through and do the thing that He’s called each one of us to do. Never ever quitting. Yield to Him and give it to Him right now. Concerning the future… the future is bright. We’ve seen it and read it in the Word and it turns out to be a great delight, whether we’re here on this earth or in our heavenly home, it works out right. No devil in hell can get us to go in another way, for we have been given by the power of the Holy Spirit the strength internal to go all the way through, to not quit. But move in the power of the Holy Spirit.
An invitation was given for people who might be experiencing a fear in their lives to come forward for prayer.
