Pastor Ray shared…
I have some visitors who arrived last night from France, a younger couple, and they have a two-year-old. They have never been to the United States. The husband pretty much has only driven a straight stick and they rented an SUV and he is trying to use both of his feet which doesn’t work. But what I thought was interesting was their little girl. She only knows French but I just thought if a baby can learn French in a year, I should be able to learn it too (ha, ha, ha). She hardly knows any words in English, maybe “Thank you.” But after she was at our house for about 30 minutes, we could communicate without understanding each other’s tongue. It’s just interesting. It kind of encouraged me to get serious about learning French.
Ms. Annie shared…
I just heard something in my spirit when you shared that. We need to become like a little child and if we become as a little child, we will understand what the Father is saying.
Pastor Ray shared…
That’s a good word isn’t it? And just believe it and receive it like a child.
One thing they want to do, because they are coming from a nation that is less than one percent Christian… because every two or three weeks at their church in Nice, they have new visitors. But you know it’s a press to have increase and to have a vision for that. Pastor Marie and her sister, Buell, both studied at Rhema. They both spent time in the United States and have a vision for increase but the people that come to the Church have never really seen it. So Pastor Marie really, really wanted this young couple, for several years they both have been a big part of the ministry, to experience what we have.
Not that we are somebody, she wanted them to see what God will do, did do with a vision. Because we started out with less than a hundred people here and how we have grown. My mother-in law was at one of the first meetings where there were only 15 people. So the vision was cast and set out way back then and we have watched and experienced the increase.
Prayed…
Father, thank You so much for the leading of Your Spirit this morning first of all. We reverence Your presence. If we are just called to sit in Your presence, we are supernaturally blessed. Whatever it is that you want, that You want us to pray or say or sing or do, we welcome Your presence. We honor Your presence. Hallelujah.
The following excerpt was Experiencing Revival by Charles Finney:
A lot of harm has been done by those who say that this leading by the Spirit is a new revelation. Calling this leading a revelation has caused many people to be apprehensive of it. The strength of the term has frightened them so that they will not even stop to see what revelation means or if the Bible even teaches the principle.
The plain truth of the matter is that the Spirit leads a man to pray. If God leads a man to pray for an individual, the inference from the Bible is that God plans to save that individual. If we find, by comparing our state of mind with the Bible, that we are led by the Spirit to pray for an individual, we have solid evidence to believe that God is prepared to bless him. Devoted, praying Christians often see these things so clearly, and look so far ahead, that they confuse others. They sometimes almost seem to prophesy.
Undoubtedly, many people think they are being led by the Spirit when, in fact, they are leaning on their own understanding. But there is no doubt that a Christian may be enabled to clearly discern the signs of the times so as to understand, by providence, what to expect, and to pray for it in faith. Believers are often led to expect a revival and to pray for it in faith, when nobody else can see the least sign of it.
I have spent much time on this subject because I want it to be plain to you so that you will be careful not to grieve the Spirit. I want you to have high ideas of the Holy Spirit and to recognize that nothing good will be done without His influences. No praying or preaching will make any difference without Him. If Jesus Christ were to come down here and preach to sinners, not one would be converted without the Spirit. Be careful, then, not to grieve Him by slighting or neglecting His heavenly influences when He invites you to pray.
Prayer forms
We see from this subject the absurdity of using set prayers or prayer books. The very idea of using a form rejects the leading of the Spirit. Nothing is more calculated to destroy the spirit of prayer, and entirely darken and confuse the mind to what constitutes prayer, than prayer forms. Rote prayers are not only absurd in themselves, but they are the very device of the Devil to destroy the spirit and break the power of prayer.
Prayer does not consist of mere words. It does not matter what the words are if the heart is not led by the Spirit of God. If the desire is not kindled, the thoughts directed, and the whole current of feeling produced and led by the Spirit of God, it is not prayer. Set forms keep an individual from praying as he could.
The Fruit of Faithful Prayer
People often receive more than they pray for. Solomon prayed for wisdom, and God granted him riches and honor in addition. Similarly, a wife may pray for the conversion of her husband, and if she offers the prayer in faith, God may not only grant that blessing, but also convert her child and her whole family. (See Acts 16:31.) Blessings sometimes seem to “hang together,” so that if a Christian gains one, he gains them all.
I could name many individuals who decided to examine the Bible on this subject, and who, before they were through with it, were filled with the spirit of prayer. They found that God meant just what a plain, commonsense man would understand Him to mean. I advise you to try it. You have Bibles. Look them over; and whenever you find a promise you can use, plant it in your mind before you go on. You will not get through the Book without finding out that God’s promises mean just what they say.
Pastor Ray shared…
Someday we will know… the things that maybe we were asking the Father about, the other things that came along with it because we asked in faith or the prayers that were answered not just because of words that were spoken but because of the heart-felt prayer, which can be a groan, it can be a song, it can be a just a sound or it can be words spoken, given by direction of the Holy Spirit.
Ms. Annie led singing “Holy Spirit, Thou art Welcome in this Place”
Continued praying…
Thank You, Father, that it is in the manifestation of Your presence
The direction of Your precious Holy Spirit
Your voice, even the still small voice directing us
Precious Holy Spirit fall fresh, bring refreshing to the body – every member
Thank You, Father
Pastor Ray shared…
I had this come up in my heart as Annie was singing…the Uptown area in Minneapolis by Hennepin Avenue and Lake Street. If you go east or west on Lake Street and then west past Lake Calhoun and east going toward St. Paul or towards the river and then north on Hennepin toward the Basilica and then south, you can only go so far. This area is called Uptown. We bring it before you this morning.
I felt that You brought it up that we would lift it up, Uptown, upward, we lift up the area. We lift up the people in that area, all the way down there. If you follow Lake Street toward the River over past 35W you get out into another area. There are many Spanish people; there are all kinds of people along Lake Street, many different nationalities. We pray the blood of Jesus over them, we draw a line way out around there and call it up. We pray over the hearts, I feel like there are wandering ones that are looking right now, right now for help, wandering souls so to speak that need to hear the word of the Living God. Hallelujah
Continued praying…
They are broken. Many are broken, wounded and many are down but we lift them up
Sending a supply of the Spirit there now in Jesus’ name
Asking for laborers to go forth
Preparations for the hearts
Softening the soil of their heats for great illumination, great understanding
We move around the lakes: Lake Calhoun, Lake of the Ilse, Lake Harriot
Speaking over them in faith
Hearts, be open to receive!
Be free, be loosed
Every hindrance be broken away
Chains be broken off in Jesus’ name
For too long this area has resisted, a hard ground
Father, we are asking for the keys, the keys in the name of Jesus
Oh Lord, let righteousness come forth in Uptown
Let the word of truth, prayer, prophecy, and life be to uptown
Satan, get out! Satan, get out of Uptown in the name of Jesus
We resist you, we resist all lies, the Lord rebuke deception!
For too long deception has reigned in there!
In the name of Jesus, let it be removed!
Let it be removed! Let it be removed! Let it be removed in the name of Jesus!
Oh Lord, bring the city back to us, Oh Lord, begin the work of Your grace in Uptown
No longer called a hard ground but a ground tempered by the Lord
A ground for souls! We call them in in the name of Jesus!
Father, thank You for all the laborers positioned
Oh Father, we will not relent – Uptown belongs to the Lord!
For too long the enemy has said this place and this state is untouchable
That deception is BROKEN in the name of Jesus – we break that deception!
It is unable to stand in the name of Jesus!
Oh Lord, usher in signs, wonders, and miracles that will cause the people to turn to You
Send Your word—You sent Your word and You healed them!
Reap, reap, reap!
Pastor Folu prayed…
He is leading us to pray in this area. What I saw, saints, is that the Holy Spirit was going into those areas and it was like He was sweeping all the dirt, all the junk, all the things that have been there for years, for decades, for centuries. He was sweeping all the debris, all the mess, all the veils that had been in the eyes of the people and now the people, a lot of them, will be able to see for the first time. Now the people, a lot of them, for the first time will be able to be in a place where they can and will receive Jesus into their hearts because a supply of Jesus came into that place because God spoke through a man that yielded himself and led us to pray in that area. Hallelujah!
Saints, not too long ago this morning the Lord woke me up with a scripture. You all know this but I am just going to bring it up real quickly. It’s a scripture that we all know so well but this morning the Lord was showing me how pregnant that wonderful word is, how loaded it is. All morning long as I was driving into work, I was meditating on this word. This is how the Church of Jesus Christ started. This is what the Lord Jesus Himself said before He was raised up and went in the clouds. “But ye shall receive power (ability, sufficiency and might).”
Think about it saints, “power (ability, sufficiency and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends… “ witnesses. That is part of this power that has come upon us and you know as well as I do that these men and women of God that everywhere they went, they said “Here comes the people that have turned the world upside-down.” And saints, that is what the Holy Ghost is doing these days. He is raising up a generation of men and women that are filled with the power of God, men and women who have said no to the status quo, men and women that are not fearful of man but men and women that say Lord “Do it again! Do it again! Do it again!” And saint’s He is doing it again.
It has already started but please position yourself, position yourself, position yourself in these last days. God almighty will fill you with His power and you will not be afraid. You will not be afraid. Why? Because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Always remember that. The Greater One lives inside us. All the power, all the sufficiency, all the might is resident within us because the Holy Spirit is in there. So we say thank You, Father, for the supply that has gone to Uptown. Thank You that You used Pastor Ray to yield to that and we followed after.
And as we went after I just saw You cutting things down that had been there for years, religious spirits, dogmas, traditions. We just went in there and started cutting it off, uprooting, taking those things that the enemy had said “Ha, ha, this is forever sealed, this is forever planted” but we did a job in the realm of the Spirit and blessed be the name of the Lord. Hallelujah!
Pastor Ray prayed…
Thank You for the blood, Lord
Even the impossible situations that we think are impossible are not impossible
Things have already begun to change but I know that by the Spirit He is calling us to never be the same
Lifting up our voices in one accord
Being led and directed by Your Spirit
Calling those things that be not as though they absolutely are and seeing them take place
On Hennepin Ave toward the Basilica, we just take that direction to Loring Park and you know that will be full of people that are part of the so called “Pride Week.” This will be coming up and I believe in my heart, we agree that because of what took place in Orlando, some other things will begin to take place here in Minneapolis by the power of the Holy Ghost. So we pray over that park, the soil. We pray over that whole area in the name of Jesus and we prepare, under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, we prepare it for Your presence, for an open heaven over that place.
Then down Hennepin, wherever that parade would go, we pray and over the Basilica, calling for a revival to hit that building in the name of Jesus. We pray over those that are in positions of authority there in that church. We call for a supernatural awakening. Then all the way down Hennepin, wherever that parade goes, we prepare the soil right now that the laborers would go forth because You said the harvest is ripe. Father, that they would have utterance and that Your love would flow through each one.
Thank You, Father, for the ministry of Your precious Spirit
For change in the atmosphere that is necessary
Entering into days that different than ever before
Lifting up this time, this season—the blood of Jesus over
Ms. Heather prayed…
We thank You, Father, for Your love to pour over that area in that week
Your love would be so strong on these hearts that are longing for love but are looking in the wrong places
That they would see that they have a counterfeit love
But Your Love is pure joy, it’s unconditional
They don’t need to perform, it’s pure
Pour Your love into their hearts that they would sense true love
Drawing them to You – You are Love
Casting aside counterfeit
Their hearts are so hungry for love they would try to get it any way they can, Father
But You, You love them! You died for them!
Raise up people that will touch their hearts and stop the hate
That we would love them into Your kingdom, Father
That You would love them whole again, Father
Thank You for Your tangible presence
Assign people in places throughout that week to minister the love of Jesus to them
They are so hungry for authentic love, true love, and that they would know what they have is counterfeit
Thank You, Jesus
Pastor Paul prayed…
Father, we pray for those who grew up without parents and as a result have been looking for the kind of love that their parents did not give them. Lord, that they would come and find their solace and peace in Christ Jesus and they would find that You are a Father to the fatherless and You are a Father of mercies and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of spirits and the Father of our soul. That they would come into relationship based upon this revelation, that Jesus spoke more about His heavenly Father than about His earthly Father. So that they would come to know that You are the Bal Perazim, the Balm in Gilead that takes the wounds that they have endured as a result of a lack of parental relationship in the home between them and their fathers or them and their mothers.
I am asking, Father, that they will come to find You as the Father they desire. So reconcile their hearts like Your Word says. In the last days, You will turn the hearts of the sons to the Fathers and the Fathers hearts to the sons. Reconcile them and bring them into a place where they find You as the solution, as the answer to the missing parts of their lives in the name of Jesus.
Father, there is so much in scripture where You emphasized the Father’s love. We didn’t hear much about Your relationship between You and your earthly Father. There is about 4 places where it was mentioned in the book of John and Luke. Jesus emphasized that the Father’s relationship that He had with You was paramount and that’s what He used in His earthly ministry and that’s how He heard and that’s how He spoke and that is how He did. He did what He saw You do. He emphasized His relationship with You as the conduit through which He ministered to the lost. So, I am asking You to open the eyes of all these that we are praying for in the name of Jesus so that they will find You as the real Father, as the One who is beckoning them to come, as the One who has an outstretched arm saying I am for you in the name of Jesus. Thank You Father.
Annie led us out singing “I love You Lord”
Continued praying…
Father, thank You for the prayers You directed this morning
When You hear, You answer
Believing for those answers and changed hearts
Stopping the plans and purposes of the enemy
Opening the way for Your plan
Applying the blood over it all today
Touching the lost and bringing them in—we thank You for it in Jesus’ name
