Morning Prayer Summary for Thursday, December 20, 2018

Mary led group in worship…

Pastor Ray shared…

We need His presence. We need to hunger for His presence. I wanted to share the results of our Christmas toy drive from last weekend. Last Saturday, there were eight locations in the city were people could come and get presents for their children. The goal here was to collect 10,000 toys. But we received over 11,000! I like that! Overflow! They’re probably still coming in.

Many people served these people that came. A total of 35 hundred children received gifts. They didn’t just receive gifts like socks. Pastor Falu was there with his team wearing their T-shirts that say, “How can I pray for you?” When people got their gifts and then waited for them to be wrapped, they were offered prayer while they waited. Not one person turned down prayer. They all wanted to be prayed for. Each child got two gifts. Some families had six children. One couple had two sets of twins and other children as well. Whoa!

The tables were set up for different age groups. The people behind the tables got into it, like it was their toy store. They’d be, “What do your children like?” They didn’t just stand there. They actually ministered to the parents when they came. There were over 1,000 families in the eight different locations that received. Not only did you get two gifts per child, but they also got two stocking stuffers. Some of the parents were like, “What!” It was more than enough.  We had big bags. Some parents ended up with two big bags and they needed help to get the bags out to the car. That’s awesome!

I wanted to share two things. I was reminded this morning about this prophecy that Pastor Lynne gave. We’re on a “presence of God” theme this morning. And a “hunger for God” theme as well. This prophecy was in the first book that she published in 1993.

Time for a Change
Lynne Hammond: 02/07/93

I said you’d be changed in My presence, saith the Lord. If you have not experienced change in your life, if your old ways are still prevailing, if your old man is still in evidence, you have not spent the time with Me that I desire. It isn’t a matter of self-control or disciplining your flesh with no help from Me, saith God. If you’ll spend time in My presence, you will be changed. Your pattern of life will be changed. Your old man will begin to pass away. Your new man will begin to rise in the image of My Son. Your life will begin to bear much fruit. The evidence of your walk with Me will change as a result of spending much time in My presence.

If you’re having trouble getting rid of an old habit, if you’re having trouble with your marriage, if your family relationships aren’t changing, you’re not spending the time with Me that would enable that change to come to pass. Your desire and the motivation of your heart to walk uprightly before Me is a product of becoming so close to Me that you do not want to bring hurt to Me.

In natural relationships, when you love someone you want to do the right things for them. You don’t want to hurt them. Well, as you spend time with Me, saith God, as you spend time in My presence, we’ll develop a relationship that is closer than any earthly relationship. It will shape the pattern of your living. You’ll want to conform your ways to My Word simply because it’s the desire of your heart. Your life will change; but it will be a product of your spending time with me.

Pastor Ray continued…

I also want to share another excerpt from Lynne’s book entitled, “Renewed in His Presence.” This is a prayer of consecration. I think it’s a good prayer for this time of year, ending one year and starting the new year, 2019.

Prayer of Consecration

I seek You, Lord Jesus. You are everything to me. You have all the answers I need to every problem I face. In you is everything I need to finish my course with joy.

Forgive me for playing games with You. Please deliver me from complacency, and make Yourself real to me. Help me become so established and rooted in You that I stand tall and persevere over every attack of the enemy.

Father, I also seek to know You in a greater way. I cannot live without Your presence. Cause me to so hunger for You, Your Word, and Your power that I am never satisfied. Make my heart soft and pliable. Cause me to yearn and long for You. Fill me again with Your Spirit. Be nearer to me and dearer to me than I’ve ever experienced before.

Father, only You can meet the very deepest desires of my total nature. So I ask You to quicken me with Your presence. Help me lay hold of more eternal life. I know, Father, that it’s a progression. I know that from this day forward, I will move upward until that day when I come and bow before Your throne.

Lord, I know that hungering after You is the only way I will have all of You. It’s the only way I will wake up and arise to be a part of that spiritual army You are calling forth in this day.

What an awesome call that is, Father. To think that You want to use me, that You want Your glory to shine through me. What an awesome responsibility! Please help me to always walk worthy of what You have called me to do.

So thank You, Father, for trusting me. Thank You for changing me into what You want me to be and for making me into the image of Your Son. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Erika shared…

I want to read from John G. Lake’s book, “Spiritual Hunger.”

Christ Liveth in Me

“Christ liveth in me.” That is the revelation of this age. That is the discovery of the moment. That is the revolutionizing power of God in the earth, the factor that is changing the spirit of religion in the world and the character of the Christian faith. It is divine vitalization.

The world is awakening to the marvelous truth that Christ is not only in heaven, but that Christ is in you.

The world lived in darkness for thousands of years. There was just as much electricity in the world then as now. It is not that electricity has just come into being. It was always here. But men have discovered how to utilize it and bless themselves with it.

Christ’s indwelling in the human heart is the mystery of mysteries. Paul gave it to the Gentiles as the supreme mystery of all the revelation of God, and the finality of all wonder that he knew.

Christ has a purpose for you. Christ’s purpose in you is to reveal Himself to you, through you, in you. We repeat over and over that familiar phrase, “The Church which is His body,” but if we realized the truth of it and the power of it, this world would be a different place. When the Christian church realizes that they are the tangible, living, pulsating body—flesh and bones and blood and brain of Jesus Christ—and that God is manifesting through each one every minute, and is endeavoring to accomplish His will for the world through them, not through some other body, then Christian service and responsibility will be understood.

Jesus Christ operates through you. He does not operate independently of you; He operates through you. Man and God become united. That sit he divine secret of a real Christian life. It is the real union, the conscious union of man and God. There is no substitute for that relationship. You can manufacture ordinances and symbols until you become dazed with them all, but still you must find God.

There is only one reality. That reality is God. The soul of man must contact God, and unless the spirit of man is truly joined to God, there is no such thing as a real Christian manifestation. All the processes of preparation by which a soul is prepared by God for such manifestation are only preliminary processes. The final end is that man may reveal God, and that God may not only have a place of residence, but also a right of action in the body and spirit of man. Every Spirit-taught man in the world is aware of how gradually his own nature has become subjected to God and His will. …

God’s purpose in us is to bring all the conditions of our being into harmony with His will and His mind. God’s purpose is not to make us automatons. We see a ventriloquist operating a wooden dummy, and the dummy’s lips move; it looks as though it is talking. He is just moving in obedience to another power.

God has a higher purpose than making man an automaton. God’s highest is to bring out all the qualities of God in your own soul, to bring out the individuality that is in your life; not to submerge or destroy, but to change it, to energize it, to enlarge it until all your individuality and personality are of the nature and substance of God.

Erika continued…

Isn’t that good. Now I want to read from the Passion translation, Phil. 3:9:

9. My passion is to be consumed with him and not clinging to my own “righteousness” based in keeping the written Law. My “righteousness” will be his, based on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ—the very righteousness that comes from God. 10 And I continually long to know the wonders of Jesus more fully and to experience the overflowing power of his resurrection working in me. I will be one with him in his sufferings and I will be one with him in his death. 11 Only then will I be able to experience complete oneness with him in his resurrection from the realm of death.

12 I admit that I haven’t yet acquired the absolute fullness that I’m pursuing, but I run with passion into his abundance so that I may reach the purpose that Jesus Christ has called me to fulfill and wants me to discover. 13 I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. 14 I run straight for the divine invitation of reaching the heavenly goal and gaining the victory-prize through the anointing of Jesus. 15 So let all who are fully mature have this same passion, and if anyone is not yet gripped by these desires, God will reveal it to them. 16 And let us all advance together to reach this victory-prize, following one path with one passion.

Now I want to read from Colossians 1:26:

26 There is a divine mystery—a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now it’s being revealed, unfolded and manifested for every holy believer to experience. 27 Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it!

28–29 Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with a tireless intensity, with his power flowing through me, to present to every believer the revelation of being his perfect one in Jesus Christ.

Prayed…

Father, that is our desire and our prayer. That is what we’re looking for—the transformation, the transition, and the translation of Your precious body who are Your hands and Your feet … to be in union with You… in love with You, that that oneness is evident and manifest for all the world to see… that our love for one another draws people to You… that that revelation would continue to unfold to a greater degree and level… increase in the body of Christ… every part coming into increase… and the mission that is set before each one… to run the race with boldness … to live a clean and holy life… we draw closer to You… we wait upon You… go into the highways and byways… the operation of Your Spirit… You’ve given us everything we need to do Your will… our sufficiency is in You… Christ in us giving away Christ… hearts are being changed and transformed… You are coming in deed and in truth… we run with passion and joy… we will go where You bid us go… thank You for the five-fold ministry gifts… we plead the blood over them… a new day for them…

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