Jerre led in worship…
This little song came to me this morning. It’s a good confession.
♪ You make Your face to shine upon me… I’m walking in faith and You are pleased… It’s my delight to do Your will… And bring glory to Your name… (repeat) ♪
Erika prayed and shared…
That’s our desire, Father, is to do Your will. Our desire is that You would be pleased. We want to do Your plan and will, those things that are pleasing to You. Thank You for the privilege and honor to live now, to be called sons of God. Thank You that You’ve given us everything we need. Thank You that we can be running in the last leg of the race. Father, we love You and worship You. Get glory this day. Amen.
I awoke last night and began to pray and to speak and prophesy. One of the things that came out was “lift up the cry, lift up the cry, lift up the cry.” I’m like, “Okay… but what is the cry?” This morning I went to the scriptures and saw that you could cry a lot of things. Generally He leads me. I looked up “the cry” and that led me to Isaiah 40. I’m going to read this so you can follow it. As I read, take this as part of lifting up a cry. Isaiah 40:1–8:
“Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry to her that her time of service and her warfare are ended, that [her punishment is accepted and] her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received [punishment] from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice of one who cries: Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord [clear away the obstacles]; make straight and smooth in the desert a highway for our God! 4 Every valley shall be lifted and filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked and uneven shall be made straight and level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory (majesty and splendor) of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. 6 A voice says, Cry [prophesy]! And I said, What shall I cry? [The voice answered, Proclaim:] All flesh is as frail as grass, and all that makes it attractive [its kindness, its goodwill, its mercy from God, its glory and comeliness, however good] is transitory, like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely [all] the people are like grass. 8 The [a]grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Amp.).
Right there, we can take that and cry, “The Word of our God shall stand forever.” It doesn’t matter what is going on around you, it could look like circumstances are going to swallow you up, but we say “The Word of our God shall stand forever.” It may look like the enemy is gaining, like he’s prevailing, but all of that is going to fade and “The Word of our God stands forever.”
Verse 9 “O you who bring good tidings to Zion, get up to the high mountain. O you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God! 10 Behold, the Lord God will come with might, and His arm will rule for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. 11 He will feed His flock like a shepherd: He will gather the lambs in His arm, He will carry them in His bosom and will gently lead those that have their young. 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, marked off the heavens with a [nine-inch] span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? 13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him? 14 With whom did He take counsel, that instruction might be given Him? Who taught Him the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding? 15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are counted as small dust on the scales; behold, He takes up the isles like a very little thing. 16 And all Lebanon’s [forests] cannot supply sufficient fuel, nor all its wild beasts furnish victims enough to burn sacrifices [worthy of the Lord]. 17 All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are regarded by Him as less than nothing and emptiness (waste, futility, and worthlessness). 18 To whom then will you liken God? Or with what likeness will you compare Him? 19 The graven image! A workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it. 20 He who is so impoverished that he has no offering or oblation or rich gift to give [to his god is constrained to make a wooden offering, an idol; so he] chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to carve and set up an image that will not totter or deteriorate. 21 [You worshipers of idols, you are without excuse.] Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? [These things ought to convince you of God’s omnipotence and of the folly of bowing to idols.] Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is God Who sits above the circle (the horizon) of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; it is He Who stretches out the heavens like [gauze] curtains and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in, 23 Who brings dignitaries to nothing, Who makes the judges and rulers of the earth as chaos (emptiness, falsity, and futility). 24 Yes, these men are scarcely planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely does their stock take root in the earth, when [the Lord] blows upon them and they wither, and the whirlwind or tempest takes them away like stubble. 25 To whom then will you liken Me, that I should be equal to him? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see! Who has created these? He Who brings out their host by number and calls them all by name; through the greatness of His might and because He is strong in power, not one is missing or lacks anything. … 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding. 29 He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound]. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted; 31 But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.”
That is the Church of the living God! Not going down. Not going under. Not crushed under the heat of the day. Not crushed because of the tempter. The Church waiting on Him knowing that His Word stands forever, mounts up with increasing strength in these last days. I believe that’s the Word of the Lord to us today. To wait on Him and look to Him. Forget about that which seems to never go away. It’s going to burn and perish.
The future of the Church is bright! It’s being changed and we are being changed from glory to glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. How many here think we ought to lift up that cry today? How many believe we should have that vision burning in our hearts and minds?
Prayed…
Father, we refocus our eyes upon You
You know every detail of our lives—You have made all available to us
All things are possible to those who believe
We are believers who believe… the outcome is good for those who believe
There are good days ahead for the Church and this nation
We believe and trust in You in Your strength
We’re growing stronger in the Lord and the power of His might
Increase all around…
I see some things being blown away by the breath of God
The Word of God stands forever… we cry the Word of the Living God stands forever
There is a commanding and demanding of our rights and privileges
Multiple increase to the Church rising to the true height of His Word
We’re not at a dead end… we’re getting ready for the great escape!
Before we go, we’re going to finish our course and run the race… do all the will of God… each and every one
Adjustments and changes and rearrangements by Your Spirit
A little tweaking here and there…
Unexpected changes bursting forth on the scene
It’s unexpected but is it expected… we expect the unexpected to be on display
Operations and demonstrations of Your Spirit
There will be an increase in the gifts of the Spirit… yielding and speaking by the Spirit
Pastor Ray shared…
I just saw something at the beginning when you said we’re in the last leg of the race. I saw those that have gone on before us. As an example, I saw brother Hagin. He’s exited. But he and those that have gone on before us handed the baton to us to finish the race. We’re in the last leg of the race. It’s the race of the Church, the sons and daughters of God that are called to a place and a position of power and grace in this hour to declare things that must be so. And we declare to the low places, “Get up in Jesus’ name! We smooth that out with the blood, smooth it out in the name of Jesus.” We speak to the low places and tell them to “Come up.”
We’re in the last leg of the race! Bless God, the Church is in a race! There is a shaking out of the old. That’s finished. It’s done. But those that have gone on before us are cheering us on: “Come on, sister, Come on, brother. You can do it! You can make it. You can carry out the last leg of the race.” Then guess what? BANG! We’re out of here!
What if we’re running our race and there’s a blockage? What do we do about it? Ask Jesus to do something? No! He already did it. He did it on the cross at Calvary. Through the blood, His name, we speak to the blockage and tell it to “Get out of the way in Jesus’ name!” Why would we do that? So we can finish the last leg of the race!
Jerre shared…
We finish our race with joy! Ha! Ha!
Pastor Ray continued…
Jerre’s license plate says, “Got Joy.” People like Jerre with the gift of joy, very often hand off their anointing of joy to those that are running out of steam. Joy sometimes has to be given off under the anointing. [Pastor Ray hands it to Erika saying…] “The joy of the Lord is your strength, take it, in Jesus’ name.” Then guess what? She can pass that joy off to another sister or brother. [Erika passed the anointing of joy to Mary.] It will jump off onto others that are around, helping them to finish the blessed race. Overcoming in power. That is that same power that raised Jesus from the dead.
Mary is overcome with the spirit of joy… It spreads to the group…
Jerre led in praise…
♪ I’m going to run my race with joy… I’m going to run my race… the last leg of my race… I’m going to run my race with joy… ♪
Pastor Ray shared…
Names! I just saw a picture. It was a picture like you see in a comic book with bubbles over the heads of the characters. I saw that bubble over each of us. In the bubbles were names. More names than we could even think. They were lifted before Him.
Prayed…
We lift these names before You…
We call them in… they’re going to finish their races… stay in the positions in the race in the call they’ve been called to
Get up, get up… stay with it…
There is momentum for this hour… a call to stretch forth
Sons of God arise… rise up!
Pastor Ray continued…
We’re running the race. But we’re in the last leg. 1st Peter 2:4,5 “Come to Him [then, to that] Living Stone which men tried and threw away, but which is chosen [and] precious in God’s sight. 5 [Come] and, like living stones, be yourselves built [into] a spiritual house, for a holy (dedicated, consecrated) priesthood, to offer up [those] spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.”
The word sacrifice in Hebrew means “draw near to God.” That’s how we get through this last leg of the race… drawing near. When we draw near to Him, He said He would draw near to us. Worship is a way to get us through to Him.
