Annie led group in worship…
Pastor Ray…
I just heard this in my spirit: “You’ve turned a corner.” I wasn’t thinking about any specific thing. It’s not a corner to turn around and go back. It’s a corner where you saw fit to take a turn and you’ve turned a corner out of the “old” and into the “new.” And this is how I heard it. “And many do not even know it yet.” But I heard it in my spirit while I was thinking about something else! “You’re turned a corner.” It’s not just about me. It’s “we.” We’ve turned a corner, and some of the things we thought we’d never be able to enter into, we’re already entering into it.
Father, whatever that was and is, we take it by faith that we’ve turned a new way. Not just a corner but we’ve turned in a new way. We’ve taken a step forward. We’ve let go, maybe.
I’m just listening to what I’m hearing. Maybe we’ve let go of something that we need to take hold of again. Maybe there were things that we set aside, but we should bring them up again. Maybe there were things that we hadn’t seen the results of yet so we let go, just a little. You know how you can do that? You just put your attention onto something else more. So let’s be sure and take it by faith. We’ve taken a step into some new things. It could be territories. It could be finances. It could be wholeness, health, wealth.
Thank You, Father, that we’re not alone. All limits. You know that saying, “All bets are off.” We’ll say it like this: “All limitations are off.” They’ve been removed and we’re free to walk in the way God has called us to walk. Thank You, Lord. You’re worthy. So we put our attention even more onto Him. Lifting Him.
Annie, would you sing a little more, please?
Annie led group in worship…
Pastor Ray…
A lot of times in prayer, we talk a lot about heart because prayer must be “heart felt.” Have you tried to pray for something and your heart wasn’t connected. I hate that. How do we live from our hearts? I want to make a couple points about that. In Ephesians 4:17 says, “So this I say and solemnly testify in [the name of] the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the heathen (the Gentiles) do in their perverseness [in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds.” Gentile here is talking about those that were not Jewish. Today we would say it’s people that are not born again, not believers. Their hearts are not turned over to the Lord. So we could say this verse is saying don’t be like a lost person who just lives from the brain, what they think. And not from their hearts. Proverbs 4:23 says in the Message, “Keep vigilant watch over your heart.” That’s easy to do, really. If I’m going to check out my heart, I just look back at high points where I really was in my heart and not so much in my brain. The Bible says that’s where life starts… in the heart. I love how the Message says it: “Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.”
We want to be directed by our hearts, but there are some issues concerning the heart. A lot of Christians don’t know God and they’re not getting the right results in their prayers. So if you think like a lost person, you’re going to get “lost-person results.” If you start thinking like a new creation in Christ, you’ll get spiritual results. Romans 8:6, “Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].”
Then Romans 12:1–2, “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.
2 Do not be conformed to this world (this age),
[fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs]
, but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]” (Amp.).
If you’re living out of your natural mind, what are you going to find? If you live out of your natural senses, what you see, what you know, what you hear, what you smell, what you feel, you limit what God can do. Right? Worry, fear, unbelief, anger… where do they come from? They come out of your heart. That’s in Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts (reasonings and disputings and designs) such as murder, adultery, sexual vice, theft, false witnessing, slander, and irreverent speech.” It comes up out of our hearts. So we’re saying get out of our minds, get into our heart. Well, there are some things that we have to watch over in our hearts. That’s my point today. It’s not just getting into our hearts, but our hearts become sensitive to whatever we focus our attention on.
Several years ago, I got so over the top with the Minnesota Vikings. I thought about them all the time. I watched everything. I listened to everything. I read every article. I just got obsessed. And Monday I would be upset if they lost. Talk about stupidity! I got so obsessed that I had to do something. So I decided, “That’s it. I’m going to cut that off.” I didn’t watch for the whole years. Guess what? They won every game! I’m talking about whatever we focus on we’re going to think about it all the time. I’m glad I missed that whole year. Because I could dwell more on what I should be dwelling on.
So if we’re neglecting the things of God and listening to doubt, negativity, unbelief, fear, anger, criticism, the world and all its negativity, then there is no way our hearts will be supersensitive to the things of God. That’s just the way it is.
How do we keep our hearts sensitive to the Lord? One big way is to glorify God. That’s where testimonies can help. Somebody else can have a testimony that is like a word of life to you and you hear it and lifted up internally. Your heart gets stirred up. It brings encouragement to us. So there are different ways we glorify Him. Basically, we’re putting more value on Him than anything else. He’s more valuable than all else. You hear people talk like they value their family more than they do the Lord. Their kids are more important to them than God is. That’s out of line. Our kids are super important to us. Our grandchildren are important to us. I’m not saying they’re not. But God has to be at the top. Let’s lift Him up and glorify Him now. I believe it lifts us up. When we’re up, we’ll declare things we didn’t even know we had in us.
Anne led group in worship…
Pastor Ray…
I want us to quote as a group a couple verses. Phil. 4:13, “I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.” (NIV) The New Living Translation says, “For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.” The New American Standard says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” King James, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Contemporary English, “Christ gives me the strength to face anything. Because I master all things by the Messiah who empowers me.”
Lord, we’ll not take any cares. When we come to a door… I heard Him say, “I’ve given you the keys.” It’s like a master key! We enter into the new but on the other side of the new, there’s more new. We enter into greater and on the other side of greater is greater. How do we get from one degree of great to another? Keep lifting our eyes heavenward. Keep our focus on the King of Kings, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Giving Him all the glory and the honor and the praise. Thank You, Lord. There is more.
It just came to me to lift up the Upper Midwest Faith Explosion meetings with brother Copeland and brother Savelle and brother Duplantis. Let’s lift those meetings up… in expectation that what He has in heaven will come forth here. Father, we lift up Jerry Savelle and plead the blood over him, over the call on his life. We pray for every part of him, prosperity. Thank You for divine assistance and help and revelation about what should be, will be delivered here Tuesday and Wednesday evening. Thank You in advance, Lord… what needs to come forth will come forth… beyond what we thought, what we knew… and bring revelation about the new… so we’ll abide in it… we’ll expect it and believe for it and receive increase… abundance, strength and wisdom to brother jerry. Now Kenneth and Gloria… Father, we lift them up and pray the blood of Jesus over them… we thank You for the right atmospheric conditions here that the expectation would build Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and into the weekend services. The expectation, the pull from heaven through these ministers would be great. And the receiving would be greater. And the change would be even grander. We believe upward from one degree of glory to another. Thank You for Jesse, for divine declarations and words of prophecy that will bring about change… we’re looking for change, Lord… we don’t want to stay the same… we pray all those that will serve through all the meetings… we pray over the musicians, the singers, the songs, the anointing that will be present… thank You for it, Lord…
Prayer for America…
Father, we have overcome through Your blood… we declare the blood of Jesus over America… Jesus is Lord over the United States of America… we believe for a “united” states of America… we pray that what was declared over this nation… we declare according to Your Word … the leaders, the ones we agree with and the ones we don’t agree with… we pray for all those in authority in our country… no matter the aisle they stand on… we pray over the President and cover him with the blood… the entire family, staff, the cabinet members… let them not depart from Your plan for America… we know the big plan is an awakening… revival… breaking out all over America… not just happening in the church but happening outside the church… in the streets… the bars… the theaters… all over the country… revival, an awakening to the things of God… strengthen these people with Your power… guide the President’s decisions and let Your light shine on his path… show him how to reverse every evil way… surround him with godly men and women who impart wise counsel to him… cause the way of wicked to be set to confusion… confusion over the enemy… deliver us from the snare of the enemy… let the wicked be caught in their own devices and be brought to shame…
