Anne led group in worship…
Pastor Ray shared…
Thank You, Lord. There is no other name above Your name. There is no one like You.
I just had this sense right now that the more we lift Him up, the more we’re filled up. It’s not necessarily just that we say, “Holy Spirit, fill me up.” There’s more to it. When we exalt the King of all kings, the Lord of lords, the healer, the provider… Jesus! Be glorified and lifted and magnified this morning. We do glorify You. Thank You, Lord. You are our healer, our provider. You have provided for us. You have healed. Thank You for the blood that was shed on the cross at Calvary. Way back then working for us now. We exalt Your name. Jesus, be magnified and lifted. We understand that the more we lift You and magnify You, the more we’re filled up. And we could say “revived up, filled up, stirred up” to overflowing. Hallelujah!
Danny, a lot of years ago, maybe 20 years ago when you wrote that song, my younger son, Brian, a teenager… I had some meetings to do in Texas. Some of the meetings were for church. And the other meetings were for a men’s meeting somewhere in the boonies. That song was new and fresh in our hearts. We brought the music and then Brian started singing that in their services. The people were “melted.” Because we kept “There’s no one like You.” There’s an anointing on it then and there’s an anointing on it now. The Holy Spirit is so huge, big, great, all encompassing … there is so much more to Him than what we know.
You know, we’re to go from glory to glory to glory. Sandy and I were talking about this last night. We were kind of going back and we have a lot of years to go back on. We’re almost at 50 years married. We went back over some decisions that we made years back. We started thinking about it. “Was that the right decision we made then?” You can do that and wonder, “Did we miss it there or did we decide to do what God was calling us to do. We heard His voice and did it.” Until finally we decided, “You know what? We’re not going back.” There’s no reason to. It’s over! We decided “We’re moving on.” We’re moving up from one degree of glory to another. And He’s calling us forward, like “Forward march!”
The scripture that we can use for that is 2nd Corinthians 3:17–18. Especially 18.
Thank You, Lord. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh this morning. I know it’s for us. I know You’ve given it to us. And we believe that we are moving and no matter what things took place yesterday, we move ahead. We choose to step from glory to glory to glory and see ourselves moving in that way. Thank You, Father. Thank You for the blood of Jesus over all of us. We believe we’re covered in it. Our steps, our decisions are covered in the blood. We believe to not miss it. When we have missed it, we repent and move on.
Verse 17 says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).” The Amplified says, “there is emancipation from bondage.” Whatever the bondage was, we’re free from it.
Verse 18 says, “And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.”
This is our call. Let me go over a couple things. Just thinking about being changed within and revival. When Danny wrote that song, “No One Like You,” that was in the 90s when things were happening at Living Word, a move of the Spirit. Everything changed. Pastor Mac and Lynne went on vacation and came back and asked, “What happened to the church?” Everything was changed. Because the Spirit of the Lord was moving and there was a lot of freedom.
This morning I Googled, “What happens when there is revival?” and this is what came up. Seven things. Number one: God’s Word will be exalted. And authoritative over human experience. Whatever is happening in the natural we’re experiencing. His Word will be exalted when there is revival. Number two: there will be an intense conviction of sin leading to repentance. Number three: humility and brokenness will be evident, just humble before the Lord. Number four: there will be deliberate acts of reconciliation and restitution. We saw all of these things. In the 90s, we saw these things break out. Where there had been division between people, it was restored. All things were made new. Number five: there will be a growing interest in prayer. Why? Because of the Spirit of God, we’re drawn to Him. And the first thing we want to do is pray more. Number six: joy will be pure and overflowing. His joy in us strengthens us. Then, of course, number seven: evangelism will breakout. Souls will come in from everywhere.
Two things in speaking about revival. This is a short thing that Andrew Murray said. He said “If there is to be revival, a mighty divine revival, it will need wholeheartedness and prayer and faith.” Then I like this: “Let not one believer think himself too weak to help or imagine that he will not be missed (his supply) or he will not be used. The gift that is in him maybe so inspiring that for his friends or neighbors, he could be God’s chosen intercessor. And let us have this truth lodge deep in our hearts. Every revival comes as Pentecost came as the fruit of united continued prayer.” Every move of God, revival, all came as a result of people getting together and lifting their voices in one accord!
The other man of God is Smith Wigglesworth. He said, “I believe there is an avalanche of power from God to be apprehended if we will but catch the vision for revival.” I like the way he said it. There’s an avalanche of power from God to be “apprehended.” It’s already been given. He’s already given it to us, sent it forth. It’s up to us to apprehend it. He said, “We not only go from glory to glory but we go from fullness to overflowing.” We get full but we go to overflowing. How do we do that? One of the ways is like we did this morning. Danny and Anne began to worship and sing and we sang along, our hearts were lifted and were filled. It’s so critical. One of the most critical things in our lives is to “be being filled” with the Holy Spirit. Right? So we should be moving forward and not so much talking about things in the past.
All over the Word and words declared by the Spirit, we’ve been told we have the revelation that things are working out and they will work out right. And increase is ours. Wholeness, health, healing, prosperity of every kind. We can’t lose! If we don’t quit, we win! This is what he had to say. “We can understand Jesus more fully only as we are filled and overflowing with the Spirit of God, our only safeguard, from dropping back into our natural minds.” That’s kind of what we were doing as we were in the natural thinking about decisions we made. “Our only safeguard from dropping back into our natural minds from which we can never get anything is to be filled and filled again with the Spirit of God and to be taken onto new visions and revelations. The reason why I, Smith Wigglesworth, emphasize the importance of the fullness of the Holy Spirit is that I want to get you beyond all human plans and thoughts and into the fullness of vision, into the full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
There is no one like You, Lord.
“Do you want rest? It’s in Him. Do you want to be saved from everything the devil is bringing up in these last days? Receive and continue in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and He will be always revealing to you that all you need for all times is in Christ Jesus.”
What’s the opposite of that? We don’t know what to do. Fear starts to come. Doubt enters in. Question marks about the future and how it will turn out. These are things that happen when we’re not filled by the Spirit.
“I desire to emphasize the importance of the Spirit’s ministry and of the manifestation of the Spirit that is given to each one for the profit of all. As you yield to the Spirit of the Lord, He has power when we yield to Him. He has power over our intellect, over our hearts, and over our voices. What we sing. We’ll choose life all the time. We’ll never choose death. When we’re filled. The Holy Spirit has power to unveil Christ and to project the vision of Him upon the canvas of your mind. Then He uses your tongue to glorify and magnify Him in a way that you could never do apart from the Spirit’s power. There is another side to this. God wants every assembly to be as free as possible. You must be prepared to allow a certain amount of extravagance in young and newly baptized souls. It is a pity that some people do get sobered up, for they’re not where they were in the early days. We have to look to God for wisdom so that we do not interfere with or dampen the spirit or quench the power of God when He’s manifested in our meetings. If you want to have an assembly that is full of life, you must have an assembly that is full of manifestation.
Anne led group worshiping the Lord…
♪ No one like You… Lord, there is no one like You…♪
Pastor Ray…
In my spirit, I keep hearing “there’s no way that the joy in things or the joy in relationships or the joy in finances, every need met, the joy that comes when we are in the right place, the right church, the right pastors… all of that, all these things are blessed from heaven. But there is no joy like the internal joy that the Holy Spirit brings into each one of us when we are so full that we overflow toward others. No joy. And that joy needs to be stirred and stirred and stirred. And that joy can be stirred in many different ways. As we step from one degree of glory to another. Begin to see yourself, your path, your future moving up from one degree to another to another and ever ascending move. See yourself moving up, not moving back. See yourself moving ahead, even though there’s been attacks, moving ahead in joy internally knowing that, that joy internal joy given by the Spirit of God will bring about strength to move through, step into greater victories than you’ve ever seen before. Oh yeah, there are new doors. Oh yes! There are new opportunities. Yes there is more. Yes, needs are met. Yes, prosperity is ours. Spirit. Soul. And body too. But the joy of the Lord according to Nehemiah that is our strength. We stir that up just be remembering, standing on the Word.
Let’s pray in tongues a little bit. You don’t have to listen to me. Let those words come out by the Spirit.
Prayed…
Impossibilities are not impossible! Wait and rest in Him. Rest in the Lord and the power of His might. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Don’t stop. But contend. By the Spirit inside and transformations that are continually happening, the changes that have been given by the Spirit… so we do move from where we’ve been to the new. We lift up the new this morning. It’s so new that we don’t know exactly how to pray about it. So we’ll pray in the spirit about “new.” It can be for you personally or your family or your finances or all those needs to be met above and beyond.
Praying in the spirit…
New areas, new ways, new words, new ideas, new steps… steady… real steady… stepping into the new…
Anne led group to sing in the spirit…
♪ The time is short says the Lamb… who will go and who shall I send… who will go and who shall I send… who will go and who shall I send… for the days are short, says the Lamb… I’ve placed my hand on you… it’s you I send… My hand is on you… it’s you I send… yes, it’s you… It’s you I send… (tongues) there are so many searching, searching, searching… they’re hungry and they are hurting… who will go and who shall I send… for the time is short, says the Lamb… it’s upon you… I’ve place My hand… I’ve touched your lips with my coal and it’s you that I send… I’ve touched your lips with My Word and it’s you that I send… it’s you that I send… right now… it is you… I send… it’s you I send… I’ve touched your lips with My coal… hallelujah to the Lamb… Thank You, Jesus… ♪
