Morning Prayer Summary for Thursday, September 20, 2018

Mary led group in worship…

Pastor Ray shared…

2nd Corinthians 3:16, “But whenever a person turns [in repentance] to the Lord, the veil is stripped off and taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). 18 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.” (Amp.)

There’s no end to that. We are being changed from one degree of glory to another to another to another. We don’t go back to the old ways and old days. We’re moving ahead and up. Erika had a word on Monday where the Holy Spirit told her we were moving up another rung! We’re moving up to another level. Even if it looks like we’re at the top of the ladder, we’re not. There’s more. More of the glory of God.

So this morning, I wrote down some things. There are a lot of words we use from the Bible, faith, for instance. We can get so used to saying that word—faith. In another prayer group yesterday, we were talking about how sometimes just using “trust” or “belief” instead of faith. We believe in faith, of course, we have faith. Sometimes the glory of God, I don’t know, is that like a puffy cloud? It can be. But here’s several descriptions of God’s glory as wealth. That’s one thing. Wealth! It’s in His glory. Commerce and power and wisdom. There’s wisdom in the glory of God. There’s promotion. Who wants to be promoted? There’s superiority. It’s not us. It’s Him. It’s His glory. It’s His presence within us. We’ll put it like that. There’s dignity in the glory. There’s authority in the glory. There’s nobility. Splendor. Valor. And there’s magnificence in His glory.

I think Mark Hankins is the one who said this. I wrote it out at one time. He said, “When the glory comes in, there’s stuff moving. Extraordinary privileges and advantages. That’s what happens in His glory. For me, when I look at that and we’re asking for more of His glory and we know that when we ask, He hears our prayer. And we’re praying according to His Word. He said there would be one degree of glory to another. Different degrees of glory. More of His presence. We can declare today, we have each one of these things. We have more wealth. We have more power. We have more wisdom, more promotion, more splendor, nobility, magnificence … in the glory. That’s what we’re asking for when we ask for more of His glory. When we ask I always believe we get it. When we’re asking according to His Word, you think He’s going to hold it from us? No!

I saw this, this morning. This popped out to me. Brother Hagin in 1989 said, “There’s yet to be manifest a glory that’s yet to be revealed. There’s a power that is yet to be in operation. Hallelujah! We’ve seen a little speck of it here and a little speck of it there.” Then he prayed in other tongues for a while. Then he said, “Satisfied to stay where you are, satisfied to stay where you are.” He said it like five times. Then he said, “Stir up yourself and be satisfied only with the dissatisfaction that has to be satisfied again and again.” Hmmm. Stir up yourself. Be satisfied only with the dissatisfaction that has to be satisfied again and again and again. Because there is more! There’s more of His glory to be had.

He said, “Move on with me,” saith the Lord of hosts, “there’s a work that must be done. There’s a ministry that must be accomplished before the coming of the son of Man. The time of the end is at hand, on the horizon of time. You see those things happening in the world. Wars, rumors of wars, pestilence, famines, earthquakes in diverse places, men’s hearts failing them for fear. For looking after the things that are coming to pass upon the earth. When you see these things begin to come to pass and certainly they have begun to come to pass…” (And this was in 1989.) “Lift up your head and rejoice.” We’re not to have our heads hanging down in depression or fear. When we see all these negative things begin to come to pass upon the earth, what do we do? We lift up our heads and rejoice for our redemption draweth night. There’s a work, there’s a ministry that must be accomplished. There’s an army that must arise and walk and walk and walk and walk on in the realm of the spirit. Minister, minister, minister with the manifestation of the spirit endowed with power from on high. With the full equipment to stand in the office unto which you are called, to speak as of the oracles of God, to speak and devils will tremble. To speak and nations will change.”

Do you believe it? We can speak it in this chapel and it’s going out over the earth. When we speak it in faith, nations will change. Including our nation. This nation is changing, just in case you didn’t know. The United States of America is changing. Minnesota is changing and it’s moving more and more toward God’s ways. Period! That’s the way it is.

“We have the power and authority so speak in cities. Whole cities will change.”

When we speak over Minneapolis and St. Paul, we speak over the State Capital, things change when we believe what we’re saying based on what the Word says. We’re moving from glory to glory to glory. Sometimes we might not see it, sometimes we don’t feel it, but in our hearts, we’ve got to know it.

“And the glory of God shall be in manifestation and your heart shall have much cause for rejoicing.”

There were other things that were in this word, but I just wanted to share that part that concerned the glory. We can’t be satisfied to stay where we are. We’re to move on with the Lord of hosts because there’s a work that must be done.

Erika shared…

I’ve been on a personal journey in knowing Him. In Ephesians 3:8, Paul says, “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” I like it in the Revival Bible commentaries. It says, “There are no extraordinary Christians anywhere, just ordinary Christians saved by an extraordinary Savior” That will keep you out of comparison. If you’re looking around, thinking, “I wish my life was just like theirs.” No. There are no extraordinary Christians but an extraordinary Savior who lives on the inside of you, empowering you, enabling you. Never ceasing to love you. The very source of everything you do. Amen?

He goes on to say in 3:19, which is the part that I really like. Back up in 16, he says for this reason because of what he’s been called to do, preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Charles Spurgeon says it this day: “Not a word have I to say against real spiritual revivals, but I warn you, excitable people, that principle is the main matter. Not passion. Give me a man who does not depend upon a preacher nor drink inspiration from a warm hearted friends in crowded meetings but has an inward, vital experience by which he knows the Lord Himself. And has had personal dealings with a personal savior. Such a man will follow the Lamb through every preacher. Though every preacher should die and every outward ministry should be struck dumb at once, the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit rises superior to all disadvantages like a spring which cannot be kept under to do what you may.

When you have that and are founded in that, you have everything. Though a man fall and stumble, though a church crumble, you have the very source of everything.

That you may be able to grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and depth and length. Some of us are afraid of the depths. We’re afraid to get out too deep into the water. We want just enough to be respectable. We don’t want to be considered to be peculiar or extreme. But, listen, it is the extreme people who are useful, who stand out as the people of God. It is the lukewarm that are of no use. They are a hindrance. Jesus said it. He would that you would be cold or hot, not lukewarm. The people who try to avoid extremes are the people who are accursed to the kingdom of God. [This is Gypsy Smith speaking.] The people who are trying to avoid are accursed to the kingdom of God. We ought to go into the deep places. The riches of His grace are able, my brother and sister, to do all of this and more. God has been doing these things for some of us. We’ve been entering into a new experience. We have been climbing into a higher ground. We’ve been getting out of the darkness into the light. Our sighs have been changed to songs.

So, there is more. I want more! Then Bluetooth hooked into podcast click on the moment you get in the car. It’s running. What was being preached at that time was exactly the lines I’ve been moving along. Paul in Philippians talks about what things were gain to me are counted as loss. Paul had every kind of experience. He was brilliant beyond brilliant, raised under the tough Pharisees, had all the knowledge he needed and yet he had good and bad experiences. And he counted it as all loss. Whatever it was, was loss to him. That’s the way we need to be.

Yesterday was great! Fantastic! How about today?

He said he forgot all those things, that he would know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering that he may attain to the resurrection of the dead. He had one thing that he was going after. After all those years at the end of his ministry, one thing… And this is what it says in the commentary. “The apostle Paul says all that’s entailed in the glory, this one thing I do. Why are these words so haunting? It’s because anyone in serious pursuit of Christ knows the hindrances of a broken focus. Greatness in any arena but especially in pursuing a vibrant relationship with God of the universe demands a righteous kind of obsession.

A famous football player talked about that kind of obsession. When I’m alone working out, I expect every bit as much from myself as I do when coaches or teammates or workout partners are watching. No shortcuts. No cheating. No manipulating. No rationalizing. I know that nobody is watching. I know that no one would ever know. I want to know I have done everything I needed to do to prepare myself. Within the rules of the bounds of the game. I want to punish them, to make them regret wanting to take me on. I want them to learn why I earned a reputation to excel here. I can allow no shortcuts, not even in private. I expect to be the best. Do you yearn for personal revival? If so, Paul reminds us in Philippians that it only comes to those who with such a focused obsession God is never moved to respond to mildly interested. But when your heart cries out to Him, this one thing, the heart of God leaps in rapid response. Your focused obsession allow you to partner with Christ as you push the enemy and make him regret ever wanting to take you on.

That’s what we need in the Church. Amen?

Count Zinzendorf, way back when. He’s an old guy. “For his high and true character, powerful originality of his spirit, his simple faith, zeal, love of the Lord, I have learned to love in him a man who is more than anyone before him labored not at any point of view of any particular church, but for the church universal. Convinced that it is life which is the light of man, Count Zinzendorf set himself to bring faith out of the realm of obstructions. He saw to establish a spiritual union among Christians, not by inducing them to make concessions and compromise but by awakening in them a more lively faith and a more ardent love for the savior.

Shouldn’t our lives be like that? Not that we under compulsion “come on now… you’ve got to,” but to awaken in every individual, awaken their souls. I’ll finish reading this.

Few characters presents it so fully as Zinzendorf that unity and diversity constitutes perfection. That’s the church. He was a poet, a theologian, and a pastor, a missionary, legislator, influence among the great, living by preference amongst the little, endowed with warmth of feeling. The vivacity of imagination which leads men to undertake great enterprises and with prudence which permits men to accomplish them. He was also a statesman, talent for organization and the art of reading men and women. Consecrating all his faculties to one end, he had but one thought, one desire, one will… to spread and revive in men’s souls the knowledge of what Jesus Christ has done and suffered for the world. From his early childhood, he firmly resolved to devote himself entirely to the man who had given His life for him.

Prayed…

Lord, we thank You for those who have gone before us… that Your glory could be manifested in such a variety of ways… let one thing be our desire… let us focus and pursue knowing You… everything we need is found in You… let us not come short in any way in pursuing You… that we would know You intimately… as we do, our souls are awakened to the greatness of God… when we know You, when our souls are awakened unto Christ in us the hope of glory, change from one degree of glory to another will continue to pursue You… so much more to come unlocked, unwrapped, to come forth by Your Spirit… moving into the fullness of God… You are fashioning us… changing us so the world would say, “They’re different…” … You said to come to You because You make an open door through the blood of Jesus… we ask for grace and help in time of need… there is a time of need now in the world… wars and rumors of wars… sickness and disease… God in the midst through His people walking about doing good and healing all … walking about doing good and healing all oppressed… the glorious transformation of the Church… we’re looking for the manifestation of the gifts… Your plans and purposes… You’ve called us to walk in the highways of God… the great light of His glory… some uncovering… throwing off things that would keep the glory from shining… a deep work of Your spirit… that we would be Your living Word… we pray for those in authority… this is our nation… You created this nation… we lift it up… we plead the blood over this nation… no plot of the enemy will prosper against this nation and this President…

Comments are closed.

Post Navigation