Morning Prayer Summary for Thursday, May 09, 2019

Annie led group in worship…

Pastor Ray…

Every morning you do things that are the same every day. You wake up and get ready for the day. I have been thinking about this the last couple days. To start my day, I come out into the kitchen and push the button for the coffee that you already got ready the night before. You get out the eggs. You get out the pan. You get out the bacon. You take your supplements. You read the Word. You do the same thing every morning.

I thought about it spiritually speaking how the things of the spirit, if we always did the same thing, believe me, a lot of us have been there where we’ve thought if we do this, He’ll do that. But that’s not the way it is. Faith doesn’t work without works and works don’t work without faith. But the Spirit of God is a creative Spirit. He is the same. The Word is the same. But every day is a new day in Him. And for us, we can’t because we did something yesterday or two weeks ago, just keep doing it over and over and over. Even though it was a good thing. Because it can get religious. So I was thinking about that. I wasn’t talking out loud. I was just thinking along that line. I heard Him say, “There is one thing that you can do and you cannot do it too much.” Really? What’s that? “Lift Me up in praise and worship Me.” You can never do it too much. In fact, we need to do it more. That means our eyes are off of things and situations and we start looking up at Him. I love the way that song cements it in our hearts. “He’s working, He’s a miracle worker. He’s a way maker.”

Prayed…

Thank You, Father, that by Your Spirit, You’re making a way for each one of us today. You’re a God of now. This is the time and the hour that You’re moving. You’re moving through the Church.

The Church is not being extinguished. The Church is on the increase. And there are more and  more new churches every day. Yes, there are some that fall by the wayside. But most of those either missed it or they got over in that “religious” way and thought, “Let’s do this every time we get together. We’ll do the same thing.” That is dead. The Church is alive. We are alive in the Church. We’re part of the body of Christ. And we have a part to play.

Thank You, Father, for the power of the Holy Spirit working for us right now.

Close your eyes right now. There is a family member. I don’t have anyone in mind. There is a family member that needs to see Him in you and know that He is true. And that family member needs to recognize and realize He’s a miracle worker. He’s making a way for that family member. So maybe we can have opportunity now to lift that person up. Just see him/her in your heart and your mind’s eye. See his/her face before you this morning. He’s a miracle worker. That he/she would see that in us and something would click and shift and he/she would know. Because everyone has a knowing deep down inside that there is more to life.

Situations changed. Be changed. Minds. Hearts. Connections. Relationships. We’re talking about members of our families. We are all members of the same family, the same body. When one part is in a position of need… Holy Spirit, move on their behalf this morning. Soften, soften the hearts. Healing. Be healed. Be restored. Miracles. Supernatural miracles. Signs and wonders. Things that would begin to get them to wonder, get them to begin to ask heaven. Ask heaven for change. Changes. Dramatic change where even maybe the doctor said “You will never change. You’re not coming out of that.” But you are coming out of it. Because we serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And the anointing is resident within us and what we say based on the Word, by the stripes of Jesus you were healed. That is true. And the truth will come to the top and the change will take place. And there will be a sudden shift. And that shift will come in the hearts of those family members. Thank You, Father. A turnaround. A different way of seeing things. That is a paradigm shift. Could never see it before, but seeing it now. Thank You, Lord.

Annie led group in worship…

Pastor Ray shared…

I want to go over something. I see it as a promise. It’s from an older book called “The Man Who Talks With the Flowers.” It’s an old book. It’s about the life story of George Washington Carver.

He discovered that the sweet potato and the peanut were crops which the soil brought forth in abundance in the south. He preached the gospel of rotating cotton crops with peanut and sweet potato crops. When the farmers followed his advice in large numbers, they discovered they were producing more peanuts and sweet potatoes than the market could absorb. So in solving one problem, they have more crops, he had created another. Here was a real problem to face. He didn’t tackle it by asking the government to give federal aid nor did he demand that it restrict planting. He tackled it in the chemical laboratory and licked it there. He discovered 300 new uses for the peanut and 150 new uses for the sweet potato and before he was through, he had rebuilt the agriculture of the South.

Pastor Ray interjected… That’s one man with God ideas and he changed the agriculture of the south.

Edison offered an immense salary for him to come and help him, but he declined. A few years later, he declined another offer from a firm for $100,000 so as to give himself wholeheartedly to the saving of the farmers of the South. Today he accepts no salary, and wears an old black suit he bought for about $2.00; but you will find that he always wears a flower in his button hole.

Pastor Ray interjected… Somewhere else in this book, it says he made his own tie. There was a time when he was called to testify in Washington DC. And when he showed up, the man that was waiting to pick him up—“the man from Alabama”—said, “Excuse me, I’m waiting for this really wise man from Alabama.” Carver turned out to be the “wise man from Alabama.” When they introduced him in Washington DC, I don’t know if it was the Senate or House, the Ways and Means committee. They actually laughed because he looked so poor and old. So they put him last. Each person that day had ten minutes to speak. He was last. And when he got up to speak, they would not let him stop. He spoke for an hour and a half. The old man with a two dollar black suit and the tie that he made himself and a flower in his lapel. The book goes on to say…

“One day someone asked the Oracle of Dephi who was the world’s wisest man,” I began. “It replied, ‘Socrates, because he knows that he knows nothing.’ Today the man who meets this definition best in all the world is Dr. George Washington Carver. He knows that he knows nothing. He doesn’t know who is parents were. He doesn’t know what his name was. He doesn’t even know the date he was born. And above all, he does not know where the knowledge he has given the world comes from—all he knows is that it comes from a power greater than himself. But there is one thing I can say definitely about Dr. George Washington Carver, and that is that no one ever sees him without a flower in his buttonhole and the love of God in his heart.”

Pastor Ray interjected… That’s a good combination. A flower and the love of God. You’ve probably heard this before about him. He was invited to Minneapolis to speak at Macalester College. I take this as a prophecy. It’s short. The man that is relating the story drove Carver to the chapel at Macalester.

The next day I took him to the chapel in Macalester College. His address there was just as wonderful and carried us even further than the address before the larger group the night before. When he closed, they applauded till I began to wonder whether the next period classes would ever have a chance to meet. I finally raised my hand to still the enthusiastic boys and girls and said, “Dr. Carver has an encore. Great as he is as a speaker, he is still greater as a man of prayer. Twice I have had an opportunity to pray with him in his little laboratory and I consider those opportunities greater than any opportunity that I ever had to hear him speak. It is a rare privilege, one never to be forgotten, to share with this man of God in prayer; so I am going to ask Dr. Carver to put his blessing upon us in closing prayer.”

I never knew an audience to be so still as they were after hearing the dear old gentlemen talk with God. His speech had created an atmosphere of such rare and high spirituality that stepping into the silence that followed his prayer was like stepping up on a high mountain. Members of the faculty as well as of the student body have remarked many times since that the wonder of that perfect silence, and the depth and power in it was beyond any experience they ever had had in that chapel.

As we rode to the station, Dr. Carver said, “Last night as I rode to the auditorium, I was holding a little white flower in my hand all the way, and in the silence while we rode, I was talking to it and it was talking to me. It told me some wonderful things. And the flowers have never failed to tell me the truth. It told me that there is going to be a great spiritual awakening in the world, and it is going to come from people up here, from people connected with you and me, from plain, simple people who know—not merely believe—but actually know that God answers prayer.

“It is going to be a great revival of Christianity, not a revival of religion. We can have religion and still have wars. But this is to be a revival of true Christianity. It is going to rise from the laymen, from men who are going about their work and putting God into what they do, from men who believe in prayer, and who want to make God real to mankind.”

And because I know that George Washington Carver knows how to talk with flowers, and, because I know that flowers know how to talk with him, I k now that this prophecy is going to come true.

Pastor Ray continued…

Annie and I were talking about how we pray for our country and our President. But we remember what Billye said. “There is only one thing that will change America. And that is an awakening to God.” In our universities, in our schools, our hospitals, in the churches, in the body of Christ.

Prayed…

Lord, thank You… we lift this up to you… these were words spoken by the Spirit, like any other prophecy that we’re aware of, this word was spoken over this place, these cities, and we declare this morning these cities are beginning to rise up, wake up. We declare over our cities “wake up!” Get up. Stand up to attention. You know the word is right. You know inside you there is a voice… I’m talking about cities… our suburbs… this word was spoken in the soil of Macalester college… so we declare what was spoken there shall come to pass… it’s not over… the things that God wants to do here in these cities… we’re declaring this morning that Minnesota is moving in God’s way… we need more, Lord… our hearts cry for more of Your presence… supernatural move of Your Spirit… we have experienced touches, change… but, Lord, that was over 20 years ago… there’s got to be more… we know there is more… Lord, we bring it before You… this particular word, Lord, we bring it before You today…

Group prayed in the Spirit…

Annie led group singing in the Spirit…

Prayer for our Nation/America

Father, in the name of Jesus and according to your Word, we pray for those in authority in our nation. We lift up President Donald Trump, his family, his staff, and cabinet members. Let Your Word cling to them, and let them not depart from Your plan. Strengthen them with mighty power by Your Spirit to stand against wickedness, lies, and deception. Guide President Trump’s decisions; let Your light shine upon his path and show him the path of reversal for every evil way. Continually surround him with godly men and women who impart wise counsel to him. Cause the way of the wicked to be set to confusion and come to nothing. Deliver us from the traps and snares the enemy has laid for us, and let the wicked be caught in their own devises and be brought to shame. We take authority over the plots and plans of the enemy against this nation. Let prideful and lying lips be silenced in Jesus’ name.

Slanderers will not be established in America. We pray for our congress, our supreme court, our military leaders, and our intelligence agencies. Let the wisdom that is from above reign in this nation and be constantly speaking to our leaders. We exercise the authority You have given us to tread down all the power of the enemy. We cast down and demolish imaginations and arguments that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, and we bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We bind spirits of strife and division, civil wars and tumults, spirits of hostility, lawlessness and blasphemy, and fires from hell that have burned in our cities.

We speak grace and peace over America. We pray and believe for the voice of truth, salvation, revival, and restoration to be proclaimed and heard across our land. Grant unto your servants everywhere that with all boldness we may speak your Word. We pray for a mighty outpouring of your Spirit with signs, wonders, and miracles. We expect the wisdom of this world that is earthly, sensual, and devilish to depart and vanish until Your mighty work in America becomes a beacon of hope for all people everywhere. We expect the voice of rejoicing to be heard in our nation for your goodness, mercy, and prosperity in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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