Annie led group in worship…
Pastor Ray shared…
I’m reminded of something that was maybe three years ago. I came into the chapel in a prayer meeting. I was here and Pastor Lynne was over there. I came up this aisle. We were worshiping and I looked up and the whole ceiling up here was gone. It was open. I thought, “Is that for real?” Actually, it was a dream. I looked all the way up through and the angels were whirling around. I looked over here and everyone was all lit up. Then I had another dream. I came into the back of the chapel and the same thing was happening at a different time. But the presence of God was like if you closed your eyes and you get far enough into the spirit, there are no walls, no ceiling, no separation between us and Him.
God will use whatever He has to, to get our attention. He’ll do whatever He needs to do. A friend of mine, precious and mature lady in the Lord, said a couple years ago that her father died. Her brother died before her father. She was always concerned about “did my father get to heaven?” She said she thought he was a believer, but he was always anti-Jewish. He never talked to her about it because he knew she would not agree. She said, “I needed something so I asked the Lord if he was in heaven. Could You show me.” That night, she went to sleep and she said she had the most vivid dream that she had ever had. In the dream, her phone rang. She answered, “Hello?” It was her brother, Joseph. She said, “Joseph! Where are you?” He said, “I’m in heaven.” She said, “Is daddy there?” He said, “Oh sure. You want to talk to him?” Then it was gone. That meant so much to her.
I believe angels, our ministering spirits, are in this room now. When we enter in, I believe that when we enter through those doors there’s another door. A heavenly door that is opened in this place. How could that be? It’s because year after year after year, this has been a place where we meet in prayer, expecting Him to do something beyond the normal, supernatural.
I want to look at James 1 in the Message translation.
5-8 If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.
I like that. It got me to this place this morning. If you don’t know what to do, you ask Him.
I was in my office and I saw this older book from John Osteen. John Osteen started the church in Houston and his son, Joel, is the pastor of it now. It’s a smaller book entitled, “You Can Change Your Destiny.” If you don’t like where you are, you don’t have to stay in that place. We can change our destiny. He used 1st Chron. 4:9–10 about Jabez. You might remember there was a craze about Jabez and his prayer. It was a popular thing for a while in the church.
9 “And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. 10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.” (KJV)
Chapter 1: You Can Change Your Destiny by John Osteen
Have you convinced yourself that your destiny is to suffer pain and disease and defeat? Have you given up and resigned yourself to the position that nothing can be done about your situation?
YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR DESTINY!
Thousands of people, who once thought there was no hope, have come into the light of God’s Word and found that by daring to believe the promises of God they could revolutionize their lives.
Here in this scripture is the story of such a miracle. Jabez did what you can do. He changed his destiny. His very name tells of the condition of his life. Jabez means sorrow, pain, and trouble.
Names in the Bible have much meaning. They are meant to communicate a message in many instances. A person’s name in the Bible often conveyed the type of person they were or what they were to do for God.
The name, Jacob, meant “deceiver.” He became just that. It was a picture of his life. When God changed him, He also changed his name to fit his new life. His new name was Israel, meaning “a prince.”
Abram meant “high father,” but God changed his name to fit his destiny. He called him Abraham, which means “father of many nations.”
Moses’ name told of his life, meaning “drawn out.” Every time his name was called, it reminded Moses that his life had been preserved when Pharaoh’s daughter drew him out of the water as a baby.
Joshua meant “savior.” All the days of his life, Joshua was reminded by his name that he was a savior of his people. This is what he became as he led Israel into the promised land.
It was the same with Jabez. His mother bare him in sorrow. How? Was he crippled from birth? Was he afflicted with some weakness or disease from the beginning? Was he simply born in an atmosphere of sorrow, trouble, and heartache? Whatever the case, every time his name was called, it cried out to him, “Pain! Trouble! Sorrow!”
In my imagination, I picture this man convinced that this is always to be his destiny. He is confined and limited to weakness, sickness, and pain. He is convinced that this has to be his destiny for his very name spells it out.
Who can tell what went on in his mind? There must have been a constant struggle before he gave into the fact there was no hope. No doubt someone told him of the unlimited power of the God of Israel. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. (Rom. 10:17)
I think one day he must have heard a preacher telling of God’s power. I can almost hear him now as he preaches and tells how God delivered the children of Israel with signs and miracles.
I see Jabez listening to this prophet of God.
He tells of the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. He tells of God’s miracle manna. He tells of God’s miracle meat in the desert. He tells of God’s miracle water that came forth out of the rock. He tells of miracle shoes and clothes that did not wear out through forty years of wandering in the desert. He tells how God miraculously healed two million sick, weak, and downtrodden slaves as they came out of Egypt. “There was no one feeble person among their tribes.”
I hear this preacher cry out with Jeremiah, “Ah Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.”
I hear this man declare the promise of God, “Call unto me and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
When Jabez heard these things, hope began to rise up within him. He realized that with God, all things are possible.
When he saw God’s truth, he rebelled against the devil’s lie. When he saw God’s light, he rebelled against the darkness. When he saw God’s life, he rebelled against disease and death. When he saw God’s liberty, he rebelled against bondage. His faith caused him to cry out. He became angry at his so-called destiny. He rebelled. As he rose up in faith, he changed his destiny.
“And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! AND GOD GRANTED HIM THAT WHICH HE REQUESTED.”
Jabez wanted God to bless him, but he wanted more. He wanted to be loosed and freed. “Enlarge my coast! Deliver me from the confining walls of fear, disease, defeat, and pain. Enlarge my coast! Get me out of this wheelchair! Raise me up from this bed! Open these doors! Break down these iron gates. Enlarge my coast!
God granted to Jabez that which he requested.
Jabez said something very important in his prayer. He prayed that God would keep him from evil. He was saying, in effect, that he wanted to be healed and delivered in order to serve God. He did not want to use his freedom from fear, sickness, and trouble to serve the devil.
JABEZ CHANGED HIS DESTINY BY CALLING UPON GOD
You can change the whole course of your life by looking at the promises of God and daring to believe them. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32.
Pastor Ray continued…
Do you have a situation? Does your nation have a problem? Are there things in your families that somebody said to you 25, 30 years ago that are holding you down? Two years ago? Yesterday? All these things can be changed, for your destiny is hanging in the balance. Some decisions we have made over our past lives have put us in this place right now at this time. Some things we make decisions to do because someone else… it doesn’t have to be a family member. It can be anybody. Somebody lifted us up before heaven. And we were able to do something we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do on our own. We changed. We made a decision to not go there but go here. One little change in direction can change everything.
Prayed…
Lord, I pray for absolute clarity and instruction today and tomorrow and into the time that is to come, that we make the right decisions. We do what You’ve called us to do. I pray that our spiritual ears hear what you’re saying and we do what You tell us to do. We will not, we declare in Jesus’ name, listen to what the enemy has told us to do, to be, or to say. But we bow our hearts and everything before heaven today. Where we’ve made mistakes, we repent. We believe for the presence of the Spirit. You said You would guide and lead us and show us things to come. So we take hold of it with faith. We mix our faith with what we do. For we cannot just by faith overcome, but we have to do something too. It is faith and works mixed together. Thank You for Your presence. So many needs… many people haven’t heard the words of life …
Annie led group in worship…
♪ And I’m desperate for You… You are the air I breathe… Your holy presence living in me… ♪
Pastor Ray…
A nation is lost without the Lord. Our country will not be what our country was called to be without Him. Without an awakening or revivals that turn into an awakening all across our country. There’s not one state that is so great that it does not need an awakening to God. Our nation is lost without Him! His plans for this nation will not come to pass without Him. We believe for doors to open up into the schools where prayer was removed, that it would be brought back again. Because people will begin to be desperate again for more of His presence.
Erika…
“Thank You, Father, that You made a way to bring about change. We come on the basis of the blood today, believing You for the change in the church and in our nation. We can see a change in this nation. We fret not ourselves because of evil doers, neither are we envious against those who work unrighteousness, that which is not upright or in right standing with God. For those evil doers shall soon be cut down like grass and wither as the green herb. And Father, today, once again, we declare we trust and lean on and rely and are confident in You and do good. So shall we dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. For You are faithful. And truly, you shall be fed. We delight ourselves in You and You will give us the desires, the secret petitions, of our hearts. We commit our ways unto You. We roll each care upon the Lord. We trust in him and He shall bring it to pass. Not only for us individually but for this nation. And You will make your righteousness and right standing with God go forth as a light and your justice and bright as the shining sun of the noon day. We rest and are still in you. We wait and lean upon Him and we fret not because of Him who prospers in his way because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. We cease from anger and forsake wrath. We fret not ourselves for it only tends to evil doing. For evil doers shall be cut off but those who wait and hope and look for the Lord in the end shall inherit the earth. We thank You that You’ve declared and given us precept and example and you said in your Word in Job, I know that you can do all things and no thought and purpose of yours can be restrained or thwarted.
Father, you’ve made a way and means to declare and prophesy and call things that are not as though they were. And put Your word out there to do what You intend it to do. We do that concerning our nation. We declare it is one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We declare you formed this nation. Your arm is not shortened to finish it the way you’ve ordained it to be. You have ways and means beyond men’s scrutiny. We declare every state to be washed in the blood. We plead the blood over our President and all those around him. No weapon formed against them shall prosper. We loose angels to work on our behalf, concerning the administration of this nation. All across the land. There shall be some restructuring to go on there… repositioning… re-establishment…
