Lynne Hammond’s message posted to Facebook…
Hi. It’s good to see you again. Glad to be with you today. I always talk from my heart and I have lots of things swirling about prayer right now. Lots of things to pray for right now, really important things. Actually, earth-shaking things. But something happened to me recently. I was ministering in a service… just ministering the Word. I had my scriptures and I’m ministering along the way and suddenly, it felt like somebody threw a rock in my heart, or something. It definitely got my attention. I’m not saying it was the voice of the Lord. It sounded more like my voice. I heard, “You’re dead. You’re sleep walking. You’re not awake.” Then I looked up and started to try to understand my atmosphere, about what was happening in the room. One of the ways God speaks to me is that I “feel” things. I could feel the atmosphere. I felt like the atmosphere I was in, in the service that people were in a stupor. They were saying, “I’m Christian” but they were not really being Christian. So that night when I went home, I remembered how Paul said that to the church at Ephesus. I read that scripture. I’ll read it to you from the Amplified. Speaking to Ephesus, he said to them, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light” (v.5). And then he says, “Look carefully then how you walk!” We’ll come back to that at a later point. But I read that and I began to think about Ephesus. Then I went to Revelation. Jesus was speaking to John in Chapters 2 and 3 and John is giving a report. He says in Revelation speaking to Ephesus. He begins by commending them. This was a really good church. This was the kind of church that you would want to belong to. You would want to invite people to your church. This was probably a 10 thousand member church. They were mature Christians. You can tell by the letter of Ephesians. It tells us who we are in Christ. It tells us our position in Christ. We know these were mature believers. It is one of the most strong and weighty books of all of the epistles. This is not written to babies. This is to people that are growing and understand the meat of the Word. We know of Ephesus, that they stood on the very highest pinnacle of knowledge of all of Paul’s churches. So Jesus starts talking to them in Rev. 2:2 and says, “I see your works.” In other words, He’s saying I’m looking at everything you’re doing. Jesus couldn’t say that to every church. He said “I see your works,” speaking to the whole congregation. Some churches He might have just said, talking to the pastor, “I see your work.” But Jesus is talking to all the members of the Ephesus church. He said, “I see your works and boy do you work. You have a great children’s ministry. You have a great youth ministry. Wow. You are just something else.” And He keeps talking to them this way. He was impressed with them. Then He said He saw their patience. So they must have been kind. They had all the characteristics of 1st Corinthians 13. They were patient and kind. Then He said, “I see your labor.” Then He said, “I see you didn’t faint.” So evidently somewhere in there they had a lot of opposition and they had an opportunity to faint. They didn’t do that. You can see that God is saying He’s really impressed with then. Then in verse 4, Jesus said, “Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee.” When you think about that, just where we are today as praying people, I think those would be the most awful, devastating words anybody could ever hear. I have something against you? What would that be? Please tell me what it is. I love this Person that bled and died for me and He has something against me? This is devastating news. So He went on to say to them, what He had against them was they had left this one thing. And it was called “First love.” Now it doesn’t mean that they left all love. But they left this first one. This really meant a lot to Him, that they had left their first love. And it didn’t matter then how many good and wonderful things they had done. How many works they had done. If they were missing this first thing, they lost their first love. We know that first love is Jesus. So what does He do? He tells them how to fix that. And He said I want you to turn around and repent. I want you to go another way. “Or,” He said, “there’s going to be consequences.” We don’t like to hear those kind of words. We all want to have a lot of grace and peace about that, but He did said there were consequences. If you go on reading, there are things that are necessary for you to live. One is that you have the things that you need. So what He’s saying to them, if you leave this first love, if you leave Jesus and even though you’re doing all these wonderful works, if you leave Jesus and He’s not your center, not your focus, not your everything… He goes on to say, I see the heights that you have fallen from. He calls the place of Jesus is our focus, Jesus is our center, He calls that place, He says if you leave that place, there is going to be consequences. You’re not going to have what you’re supposed to have, the necessary things. A long time ago, I thought about “first love” and what it acts like. First love is kind of crazy. I always needed 12 hours of sleep, but when I met Mac, just being with him all the time, I would give up lots of sleep. I would sleep 4 or 5 hours a night. That was all I needed. My hair was short at first. He liked long hair, so I grew my hair out. I always said I wouldn’t do that. I noticed that I started to develop strange interests, like I would go fishing. Actually, I love fishing now but at that time, I didn’t because I hated mosquitoes and I didn’t like to be cold, just the whole thing. But I did those things. Why? Because this was my love. My first love. Love is like fire. You can lose love. You can lose your fire unless you do something. You have to keep poking it. I remember Charles Finney said, “whenever I would start to lose the edge of my Christianity, I would get people to fast and pray for me. I would fast and pray until I got that fire.” Another word for fire would be passion. That word actually means “strong feelings.” I’m just wanting today to bring you to this. Jesus is our everything. I’ve noticed about myself and other people. Jesus loves that kind of love. He likes fervent love. He doesn’t want us to be Christians where our Christianity is a thin veneer. Do you know that you can be praying and you’re not really praying? You can be in a song service where you’re going through the motions, using your hands and feet, but your heart is cold and formal. So we’re talking today about a heart issue. And we’re talking to prayer people. Even with prayer assignments where we have so many prayer assignments, huge things now. We can’t do all of that and have all of the ministry side, the things that we have to do on a daily basis, and forsake and leave our first love. So what I’m saying today is flesh things will grab hold of you. Good things will grab hold of you. But those things are not Jesus. They’re not. He’s to be our focus. Right now, I don’t know what it is you’re praying about. I don’t know what your prayer assignment is. I want you to do Ephesians. I want you to watch and look carefully how you’re walking. I want you to examine yourself to see if there is a replacement of your love for Him. I noticed in Hebrews 9 where it talks about the holy of holies. That’s where the presence was. The people in the holy place could do all the ministry things. But the place where the presence was, they had to love that place the most. That’s where they got everything from. So as Christians today, if we’re going to actually do and be the body of Christ and stand up and do what God has called us to do, this first love, it’s got to be live. Just like we’re live today. This has got to be personal communion with Him and a love for Him. But I found even if you’re going through problems right now, if you just get your center and … do you remember that song we used to sing, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.” Just right now, turn your eyes to Jesus. He is the answer. For everything. It’s got to be all about Him. So right now, we’re kind of taking a spiritual inventory of ourselves. We’re saying, “Where am I walking? Is He still the center? Is it like it was the day that I got saved when I was so on fire and I couldn’t wait to tell everybody? I couldn’t wait to share Him because I have met this wonderful Savior. Right now I believe there’s a call…the Spirit of God is calling us to come close to Jesus again. It doesn’t matter how mature you are. It doesn’t matter how many prayer assignments you have. We have to put Jesus at the center. He is our first love. So right now, as I close, I want to pray for you right now. “Lord, our heart is to You. Always to You. Jesus, You are everything. You’re not a program. You’re not a thing. You’re not some pretty thing. It’s always been about You, about Jesus. So right now, we’re turning all of our focus onto You.” I don’t care if you’re a pastor or church leader, it’s just got to be all about Him. “So, Father, right now, minister to every heart that listens today. Cause us to purposefully take inventory of our lives and get back to that place of Jesus only. Where we see You only. Then You can give us direction. You can give us guidance. You can give us all the wisdom for You. We thank You, Father, that You are perfecting that which concerns us. In Jesus’ name. I love you all. Thank you so much. And God bless you today.
Mary led group in time of worship…
♪ Turn your eyes upon Jesus… look full in His wonderful face… and the things of earth will grow strangely dim… in the light of His glory and grace… ♪
Pastor Ray shared…
I remember this word Pastor Lynne gave some time in the 90s. It had to do with the presence of God. The question the Holy Spirit was asking, if your marriage needs help, spend time with Me. If your finances need help, spend time in My presence. If you need a job, spend time in My presence. If things are not changing, spend time in My presence. I notice He didn’t say “spend time in My presence and say this or say that…” He just said spend time in My presence. Over the years, over times past, were things absolutely needed, had to be changed… it was critical that they be changed. We’d be so open to spend the time we needed to spend in His presence. It could be in the Word. It could be what we’re doing right now. Out of the situation that needs to change, but I know He wants it to be that we love Him so much that we’ll just spend the time with Him. I’m hearing this right now. All the things, the prayers, the declarations, the things you have on your hearts, the things you’ve been thinking about, the decisions… spending time in His presence will bring about the answers or revelation needed by the Holy Spirit inside of you. We will know what to do and how to do it and when to do it. The words we speak then, they’ll be sharpened by His presence. Religion, religious words have to leave. There is no place for them in the Church.
Prayed…
Father, we love You. We magnify Your name. You’re good and Your mercies are new every morning. By Your Spirit, You lead and guide us like You said You would.
Shared…
I saw this when Mary was singing. That song where we sing about looking in His face, well, we base that on what He’s done, what He’s said, His Word that’s alive. We look at all that and look back to see what He’s done for us in the past. I saw it like we just keep looking at those things and keep moving. On the left and on the right, situations, things that we like to do, things we enjoy doing… it’s not His plan to take our joy away. It’s His plan to increase that joy within us that will bring about the strength to do what He’s called us to do. The way I saw it was the more we look at Him and His Word and what He’s done and is doing, less and less, we’ll be drawn to those things we were drawn to before.
It’ll help us not miss doors of opportunity. It will help us not miss out on the things that He’s set up for us. For He is setting it up out front. He’s not just setting it up for you and me personally. He’s setting it up for the Church. This church here is set up for increase! That keeps coming up in me. This church, Living Word, has been set up for increase. It’s not just financial increase. It’s every kind of purpose and plan that He’s called us to when we keep our eyes on Him and keep watching. Keep that picture in our hearts of His goodness and love and mercy.
I just heard the word “finish” in my heart. That we would finish the things that we’ve started. Finish the plans that we know God has called us to do. That we make a decision to go all the way with what He’s told us to do. Finish what He’s called us to do. I remember when the Holy Spirit was being poured out in Canada. People were coming from all over the earth to Canada, being changed. That move of God moved to Florida in Pensacola because some of the people that went to Canada took it with them. So the outpouring started in Pensacola, things were happening, people were lined up outside the church waiting to get in. I remember this minister and his wife decided to visit to see what was happening. They sat down in the sanctuary and were seated next to a couple ladies that were from the church. They were members of the church. They overheard the two ladies talking with each other. One said, “I cannot wait until we have our church back.” What they were saying was, we’re tired of this whole thing. We’ve had enough of this. We can’t even get a seat. We have to battle to just get a seat in the church. That was when this minister said, this revival, this move of God, is beginning to end. When God begins to move, we welcome it. We want it. We’re hungry for it. Our hearts are calling for it. We don’t want to be that church that Pastor Lynne was talking about. Dead. We don’t want to be so on fire and then watch the world sort of come in a little here and a little there. We each are responsible to keep ourselves in a place of revival. You are responsible to take the steps to stay in revival.
Mary led group in worship…
Pastor Ray shared…
I want to share this by Kenneth Copeland. He had been talking about being deft free and finances. A word came forth.
I will bless you beyond your means.
I will bless you beyond your income.
I’ll bless you beyond your salaries.
I will bless you beyond anything you’ve ever known before.
I will show you things to come.
I will show you things that you’ve never heard of before.
And you will take advantage of those things and be financially blessed in all of that.
But I tell you, I’ll bring financial blessing on you that you ain’t got any idea where it came from.
It has come to an explosive place. It’s ready. I’m ready, saith the Lord, if you’ll begin to confess it.
And if you will begin to walk in it and if you will make it a priority in your life then the glory will manifest in your midst and you will give Me praise and I will come and visit you and together we will have a grand time, saith the Lord. Hallelujah!
That’s His plan. His plan is for all of us to be blessed so we can be a blessing.
