Good morning, everybody. Hope everyone had an amazing Easter weekend.
We have Pastor Jim with us this morning, which is awesome. He’s got a lot on his heart to pray for. So today is going to be a bit of a prophetic intercession session. I hope everyone’s awake and ready to cry out for the glory and revival. So we’ll start with some worship.
Pastor Jim …
Thank you for the cross. We thank you for coming to earth as a man. We thank you for what you went through in the garden of Gethsemane, battling fear and anxiety for us. Literally sweating blood for us.
We thank you for the stripes just ripped through your body so we could be healed and whole.
We thank you, Lord, for being beaten until you are unrecognizable, so we could have peace of mind for trying to carry your cross for laying down on that cross for the nails that went through your hands and feet.
For being separated from the Father so we would never have to be separated from Him … for becoming every sin that we’ll ever commit,
We thank you for the resurrection which gives us the gift of righteousness.
We receive your grace today, in the name of Jesus Christ… empowerment, grace for long life, grace for healthy lives. Grace for our children, grace in every area of our lives, grace for this ministry. We receive it.
We access it by faith… that undeserved favor wherein we stand.
The Bible says because we believe on Jesus, we shall not be ashamed…
We’re the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, no weapon formed against us shall prosper. Why? It says, because our righteousness is of the Lord.
We thank you for your mercy that endures for us like a marathon runner. It just keeps going… it keeps running for us. It’s something that you have to receive. It’s something that you have to know. It’s part of your covenant that we are in this place today and everyone watching online.
We trust in that mercy… forever and ever. That it is part of our covenant. We thank you that our sins and iniquities you have mercy on our lawless deeds of unrighteousness. You remember no more. You said when our foot slips, your mercy holds us up. You crown us with a forcefield of loving kindness and tender mercies… all day, every day.
The Bible says you crown us with a forcefield of glory and with honor.
The Bible says so many times that when you pray, it says to pray unceasing. But woven in these scriptures we see thanksgiving. Whenever there’s prayer, be unceasing in prayer, pray persevering, thank God in everything no matter the circumstance. These scriptures just go on and on… Thanksgiving many times can shake things loose.
Colossians 2:6, “You therefore have received Jesus the Lord. So we walk in him, rooted and built up in him, established in faith.” Why? Because you’re abounding in it with thanksgiving. You’re abounding in your faith. You abound in your faith with thanksgiving. If you pray out of faith, you have to pray with thanksgiving.
Philippians 4:4. “Rejoice in the Lord always.” It’s talking about prayer. “In every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving.” With thanksgiving!
Colossians says, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.” That means be the umpire. Allow what enters your heart. Let the peace of God to allow. And it goes on to saying these scriptures, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it in the name of Jesus, giving thanks.” Peace. Thanks. Prayer.
Ephesians 5:18. It’s talking about singing to Him spiritual songs, making melody in your hearts, always giving thanks for all things.
I know there’s family situations in this room. It says give thanks for all things. Start to thank Him for the brothers, sisters, parents, the issues. Thank Him for what you can think of… thank Him for the good things in that person. This is how you pray for your enemies.
I just realized not long ago as the Lord showed me a picture of a man that I used to watch. I said this in the services a couple weeks ago. I would go preach in this place in Indonesia, and I would look out the hotel window and he always lived on this hill in the jungle. And he lived in a box. He had no shirt, no shoes. He had nothing. And I would see him every day, way up on this hill. And I just think sometimes we forget to thank Him for the basics. Much of the world does not have.
There are villages with wooden houses, little wooden shacks. And then there’s lower-scale villages with cardboard boxes. Everybody lives in cardboard boxes with tarps over them. They have no sewage. Things we don’t even think about. Their sewage systems are in their backyards and usually they’re trying to grow things in their backyards.
I know this is for people today that if you feel like you’re at a wall, just not moving in your relationship with God… I heard Patsy Cameneti tell a story once. I think it’s about Hudson Taylor. He was in China and had worked for months and months and months and months. Not a soul. He was a missionary. He’s asking the Lord, “What’s the deal? I’m doing your work.” And he had a dream of a scale. His prayers were on one side of the scale and his thanksgiving was on the other side. [thanksgiving was lacking] So he started to thank Him, thank Him, thank Him, and thank Him… And that’s when He started to see the results.
So we thank you, Lord. We thank you for the roof that we have over our heads.
We thank you for heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer… for those of us that have vehicles or any means of transportation that we might have, for more than one change of clothes…
We thank you that we live in a country that actually has sewer systems, that picks up our garbage.
We thank you we don’t have to wonder where we’re getting our next meal, like so much of this world.
We thank you for this ministry for Living Word Christian Center, for my parents…
We thank you for this beautiful building, for this beautiful chapel.
We thank you for this wonderful congregation that shows up week after week.
We thank you for every single volunteer.
We thank you for all the people that give to this ministry.
We thank you for every single person watching online today.
We thank you for the visibility and the influence that you’ve given Living Word. Sometimes we don’t even realize the influence and visibility that we have.
We thank you that our senior pastors, Mac and Lynne Hammond are young and strong and anointed and will be here for many years. We thank you for all of us that were born or somehow got to this amazing country that we take for granted every day.
If you have been to a lot of countries… I don’t mean to offend anyone. But you are a very ignorant person if you do not understand that this is an amazing country that you are blessed to live here. He chose you to be born here. You could have been born anywhere. You could have been born in the hills of Thailand, scraping out a life in a village.
Give us wisdom today. Lord, give us understanding way more than we have. Grant unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Lord, show us the mysteries and secrets into the deep and intimate knowledge. There’s an intimate knowledge that you can access and we look for that knowledge, Lord. We’re asking for that knowledge. Show us how to pray. Let nothing be left out today in this short time that you once spoken, that you want agreed upon in the name of Jesus Christ.
We lift up every single service at Living Word Brooklyn Park… Living Word Northwest in Rogers… Living Word Iglesias Espanol the Spanish Church… every single youth service… every single children’s service.
We are praying for the services at all the churches in this area, even the churches that I don’t mention… all the grace churches … Living Word North in Brainerd… the body of Christ in Minneapolis, St. Paul area.
We call down the latter rain in the prayer of agreement right now in the name of Jesus Christ.
We put a demand on it. We thank you that it is a promise. Bring it into these services…
We pray for the charis gifts… the free gifts. They don’t cost anything. The gifts of the Spirit, Lord… the word of wisdom… word of knowledge… discerning of spirits… tongues and interpretation… tongues… the gift of special faith… gifts of healings… gift to working of miracles… I say in all due respect, where are they? We speak them into existence with the only thing we have… the name of Jesus Christ… on the authority of the blood of Jesus Christ.
You said we shall receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon us. Show us where we’re missing it. Is it the experience of the love of Jesus? Show us if it’s just a matter of timing. Give us the wisdom and the understanding, the change of heart, the repentance. Give this country the fear of the Lord… a reverence for God. We call for mercy on America. Mercy to the body of Christ… mercy on this country … you said your mercy would endure.
