Ms. Annie led us singing Love Will Cover a Multitude of Sin
Pastor Ray led us in a confession of love:
Say this after me this morning:
Father, as Your Word calls me to do, I love You with all my heart, soul, and strength, and I love others as I love myself. Thank You that You are the giver of perfect love, and You love me no matter what. I receive Your love today and allow it to free me from all guilt, shame, and condemnation. As I receive Your love, I purpose in my heart today to show love to others and walk in it each and every day. I will not walk in unforgiveness. Instead, I choose to forgive immediately and take no further thought to any wrong done to me. I speak kindly to others, I am patient with them, I don’t get angry with others, and I look for ways to bless those around me, not criticize or condemn. I choose to be polite and thoughtful in everything I say and do, that it may be pleasing to You.
Thank You for giving me the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind!
Pastor Ray shared…
Yesterday, I read something from Brother Kenneth Hagin about love and judging ourselves lest we be judged. There is just one other thing I wanted to go over from his book. It’s an older book called Love the Way to Victory. In this part of the book, he is talking about the benefits of walking in love. When I read it this morning, I was reminded of when the building we are in was being put together, especially the sanctuary. Every week the people that were working on the building, they would come to a morning meeting. They would sit down around a table and talk about the electrical and what needs to happen and timelines, that kind of thing. So, we had a blueprint that was drawn up, not originally but it was redrawn on for the main lobby. A railing was put in place instead of a sheetrock wall which was much nicer. Pastor Mac and Lynne had left for about 2 or 3 weeks. So, he talked to another pastor and me and said, “You can use my name.” Okay well that’s good. It’s sort of like Jesus right? Just use the name and there’s power and authority in that name and that’s what it was. So, we’re in the meeting and just going by what was drawn up and what our Pastors wanted. And one of the men that was over the timeline and getting things done blew his cork, literally. He didn’t want to do it because it was going to cost them time and cost them more money. He jumped up on the chair and he just started going off. “Bam, bam! We are not going to do this! We are not going to do that! Blah! Blah! Blah!…” Then he sat down and said “There, I feel better.”
So, it was up to me and I said, “I have Pastor Mac and Lynne backing me up and we are going to do it. If you don’t do it, we’ll have somebody else do it, period.” And the thing is I had to still walk in love with this guy. Every week we would meet together. So walking in love is taking the high road. I didn’t jump up in my chair. I just let him go wild for a while. And all those words just whizzed by and they had no effect, because I knew I had the authority in the name of Pastor Mac Hammond, okay (ha, ha, ha). So it was finished and it was done.
The following excerpt was taken from Love: The Way to Victory by Kenneth E. Hagin:
The Benefits of Walking in Love
But, you see, the benefits of walking in love are so good, I want you to get in on them. The benefits include health and healing. The best time to get in on it is while you’re young, so you can enjoy the blessings and the benefits of walking in the God kind of love all the rest of your life.
I’m very careful about walking in love. Love is God’s way to prosper—spirit, soul, and body. Walking in the God kind of love is the way to prosper in every area of life. Love worketh what? Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. That means to anyone. And that should be especially true among Christians.
Walking in Love Is Profitable
Let’s look at a verse of Scripture that talks about the rewards of walking in love. Walking in love is walking in godliness, isn’t it? When you read this verse in First Timothy, substitute walking in the God kind of love instead of the word “godliness.”
1 TIMOTHY 4:8
8 … Bodily exercise profits a little: BUT GODLINESS [walking in love] IS PROFITABLE UNTO ALL THINGS, having PROMISE of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote this to Timothy. This isn’t just Paul speaking. This is not man’s idea. The Holy Ghost said this to Christians everywhere through the Apostle Paul. God is telling us that godliness causes us to profit.
We would do no injustice to this Scripture to read it this way: “Walking in love is profitable unto all things.” Why does the Bible say that bodily exercise only profits a little? Because it only has the promise of paying off in this life.
But the Bible says that godliness is profitable unto all things. When is godliness profitable? Is it only profitable when we get to Heaven? No, it’s profitable in this life and also in the next life.
Therefore, godliness or walking in love is profitable throughout our lives. But if we live for God now and walk in the God-kind of love, it will also be profitable to us when we get to Heaven.
Living for God means keeping God’s Word. If you’re going to live for God, you’ve got to keep His commandments. Well, under the New Covenant, what commandments are you supposed to keep? There is only one, and it is the law of love!
Therefore, walking in the God kind of love is profitable. Walking in love pays off. It pays off not only in this life, but also in the life to come.
Harboring Ill Will Damages You!
I’ve preached and practiced Mark 11:23 and 24 for more than fifty years. And I’ve acted on the spiritual truths Jesus quoted in these verses with amazing results.
But right along with Mark 11:23 and 24, I’ve also practiced verse 25 about forgiveness. All of my Christian life, I’ve always refused to harbor the least bit of animosity, ill will, or wrong feelings toward anyone.
If the least bit of ill will or animosity toward anyone tries to creep into my heart, I get after it! I won’t entertain it for a moment. I wouldn’t entertain that kind of wrong thinking any more than I would entertain the thought to steal from someone or to kill someone.
Wrong feelings toward others will do me damage.
I would be just as careful about allowing unforgiveness and animosity in my heart toward another person as I would about drinking poison or handling a rattlesnake. Unforgiveness and wrong feelings toward others are more deadly than any poison or rattlesnake bite!
I believe that’s one reason I’ve been able to walk in what I call divine health for many years. Now I’m not bragging on me. I’m bragging on Jesus and what the Word will do!
But that’s why you’ll never hear me criticize my brother or a fellow minister. No one has heard me criticize others in more than fifty years. I won’t do it!
Sometimes I’ll offer some constructive criticism. But, you see, destructive criticism is wrong. But constructive criticism is meant to help folks. And even if I do offer constructive criticism, I don’t call anyone’s name.
I’ll tell you one thing about walking in God’s best: If you want to walk in health, you are going to have to walk in love and keep your tongue!
Peter tells us how to practice what the Word says about walking in love.
1 PETER 3:8,9
8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, LOVE AS BRETHREN, be pitiful, be courteous: 9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, THAT YE SHOULD INHERIT A BLESSING.
Pastor Ray…
Do we want to be blessed? Do we want to walk in health and healing? Yes. Do we want to walk in love? Yes. Hallelujah. Walking in love is actually lifting up our nation and our president and our leaders and doing the things the Bible has called us to do. Right? That’s walking in love. Amen.
Ms. Annie shared…
This is like take two sentences and that will give me something to work on for about 5 more eons of time. Well, one of the thoughts that came to me was just how Jesus said the greatest commandments in the Law… The ruler asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment” He said back, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” These two commandments sum up all the law and prophets. But then when you were talking, I kept hearing how Jesus said to His disciples shortly before He went to the Cross. He said, “But I am giving you a new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.”
We die to ourselves. We don’t just love our neighbor as ourselves. We love our neighbor the way Jesus loved us. That’s way greater than the Law and the prophets. And that’s impossible to do without the blood of the Cross. So, He probably didn’t tell that until right before He made it possible.
No matter how impossible it looks to forgive, no matter how horrible the things people do, we are supposed to love them the way He loved us which is when we were in our sin, He didn’t judge or condemn us or speak words of death and cursing over us. You know like when you were reading that about not railing for railing but contrary wise blessing instead. It’s not just enough to zip your lip. You should bless that person.
I will just be honest. Right before we began, I told Pastor Ray that I had read the GPAN yesterday about Brother Hagin’s book about love. The Lord had just jerked the slack out of me (ha, ha, ha) right before I read it. I had heard a minister of the gospel supposedly talk for a half an hour and almost every single thing that was said was contrary to the Bible! He was straight up making things up. And you know what, that bugged me. So, when I was washing dishes, I said with these lips which are holy lips which are supposed to say what God says… Guess what I said when I was washing dishes? I said “That was grievous!” And the Lord went “Oh, you are going to be held accountable for every idle word you say. Now you just said that. Is that faith? Is that what I say about that?” No, contrary wise I am supposed to bless. I had to repent and then I had to pray for that person which is what Jesus did for me. And which is what He continually does for me at the Father’s right hand when I say and do things that are grievous. Right? Oh (tongues).
So, then when I read the GPAN, it was the same thing, that we are not to judge but we are supposed to bless. We are supposed to bless and that’s hard to do. That’s impossible to do without the blood of the Cross. But because of the blood of the Cross, it’s possible because He lives in us. And the other thing He showed me was if I woke up today and its Tuesday but He said it was Wednesday, guess what? It would be Wednesday. So right now the sun is so high in the sky. If He said “It’s night now and the sun is on the other side of the earth.” Guess what? It would be. Well, He lives in me and if I say “That’s grievous.” Guess what I just did? That’s cursing. Oh, I yield my tongue to You, Jesus, and I ask You to speak through my tongue Your words and Your blessing. Because He lives in us, we love each other the way He loved us. And we lay down our lives for one another and we don’t judge each other but contrary wise, we bless. When we see something that might grieve our hearts or we know that it probably grieves the Father’s heart, we speak words of blessing. We pray like Jesus prays for us.
Thank You, Lord, for Your love living in us
You make it possible for us, Lord, to love one another the way You love us
Thank You Jesus – You stretched Your arms out on the Cross for us, Lord
You had never done one thing that was wrong but You took all our wrongs
We thank You, Lord, we receive what You did
By the blood, by the blood You shed we can walk in love
Your perfect love that casts out fear
Hallelujah, thank You, Jesus
You know the connection between healing and walking in love, I have heard a lot of teaching from Brother Copeland about it. Where he explains, he gets kind of scientific about the laws of the Spirit. That we walk in divine health and we access everything that is in the atonement all through faith. That is how our spirit makes the connection, through faith. And what he said is “it’s impossible for faith to work in an atmosphere where there isn’t love.” It’s just like a disconnect. You can say all the right words. You can be doing everything but if you are missing it in the love of God, then your faith can’t operate because God is love and there won’t be the connection. It’s not like a punishment or something but it’s a law, a spiritual law that when we are missing it in the love of God, then our faith doesn’t connect with everything that is in God.
For all eternity we are growing in Him, in His love
We are growing in the love of God
As we gaze upon Jesus, we become more and more like Him and He is love
So, Lord, we just look to You, we look into Your beautiful loving wonderful self, Jesus
And we ask You to just keep changing us to be like You
Ms. Annie led us singing Fill Me Lord
Ms. Jeani shared…
So as we are talking about love, I am saying to Holy Spirit, “How can I possibly do this?” But God just doesn’t love, He is love and He is in us and we can love because He first loved us. But how do we do that? It starts with us firstly receiving that love. It’s not what we think love is. It’s who He is. The more we behold Him, the more we keep our eyes on Him then we become that love.
So, loving others the way we love ourselves… the foundation is receiving His love. The whole thing about forgiving others, we forgive ourselves as well. And you know Smith Wigglesworth, many times it didn’t look like he was loving people. So, even with the Lord, we go to God and we ask Him “How do we love?” And He shows us how to love.
If a lot of the world changers would have listened to what man said love looked like, they would not have loved as God said to love. But in His presence, keeping your eyes on Him, we love the world the way He loves them. And we do it freely out of receiving His love because He first loved us.
Continued praying…
So, Father, You show us how to love
You show us what it looks like
And with You there is a supernatural ease
To love others as we love ourselves
And we humble ourselves and receive Your love for us
The love that caused You to give
What was so priceless and mattered so much to You
You gave Your only Son
And we just receive that today
And out of that, we love
Thank You for being love, thank You for living in us
And thank You for showing us what it means, what it looks like to love
Ms. Annie led us singing The Precious Blood Christ
Scripture focus…
(1)First of all, then, I admonish and urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all men,
(2) For kings and all who are in positions of authority or high responsibility, that [outwardly] we may pass a quiet and undisturbed life [and inwardly] a peaceable one in all godliness and reverence and seriousness in every way.
(3) For such [praying] is good and right, and [it is] pleasing and acceptable to God our Savior,
(4) Who wishes all men to be saved and [increasingly] to perceive and recognize and discern and know precisely and correctly the [divine] Truth.
(8) I desire therefore that in every place men should pray, without anger or quarreling or resentment or doubt [in their minds], lifting up holy hands. I Timothy 2:1–4,8 (AMPC)
A Word of the Lord came forth:
In reading from Timothy, I never meant these verses of My Word to be read just to get them, first of all, out of the way. What I have called each of My children, when they begin to pray out of that love that is within every child of mine, to let that love come through and cover and reveal faith and bring up and forth faith, to see these prayers be answered in My ways. For My ways are higher than Your ways, sayeth the Lord. But as you look up, lift up, speak up, pray up, My Words will come right back to your door. The door of your heart, the door of your plans, the door of your future is brighter in and through Me and My love coming through you.
Continued praying…
Lord there is no way, we admit so many times to fail in this area, to walk in Your absolute love
We know it’s not us that can do it, it’s You through us
It’s Your love, it’s You working through each one of us
So we know the past is over – the blood covers it
We repent for missing it, but we know the past is over
We declare and purpose in our hearts today
In our prayers, in our steps, in the things that You have called us to walk in
Continually cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and walk through in victory
Hallelujah
Ms. Annie led us singing Oh The Blood of Jesus…
Continued praying…
Thank You, Lord, today we overcome because You overcame what was done on the Cross
Those stripes that You took, the blood that was shed
Thank You for the healing, wholeness, recoveries
We humble ourselves before You this morning
And take Your strength, we know You have put within us, Your anointing
We believe to walk in it, enabled by Your love to do what You have called us to do
We are not down about it, we are up about it
For Your joy is our strength and that strength takes us from day to day to day
Doing the things that you have called us to do individually
And thank You, Father, for the body that we are connected to
We give You all of the glory for this day
All the honor and praise and thanksgiving in Jesus’ name
Amen
