Pastor Ray shared…
We are to “be being filled” with the Holy Ghost. Period. When we bow before Him and yield to Him, we are being filled. And there are other ways to pray in the Holy Ghost and stir ourselves up. I had a little revelation about that in a meeting I was in. There’s a point where sometimes maybe we go too far as far as trying to figure out what should be done, what can be done, what would help the church… all those things. A question was raised. This person was looking at some kind of form and it was trying to help people connect to each other. The question was raised, “What are the difficulties, the negatives of being a pastor.” I thought, “Wait… What are the negatives?” I can’t think like that. I don’t think like that. What are you talking about? It was a question on this form that was trying to get people more connected. A couple people tried to answer it. I kept thinking, “Be being filled with the Holy Ghost and fire” if you feel it’s difficult and it’s a negative situation to be a pastor. It’s an honor and privilege and a calling. What we did was we all got in a big circle and started praying in the Holy Ghost. To me, that is where the answers come from, heaven above, by praying in the Holy Ghost when we don’t know what it is we should do. So I’m saying, “be being filled.” If we’re not filled with Him, we’re probably filled with something else. Doubt. Questions. Anxiety. Fear.
This is what I found from E.M. Bounds from his book, “Fueling the Fire: Concerning the Spirit, Be Not Uninformed.”
[begin excerpt]
What the church needs today is not more machinery, not new organizations and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.
The Holy Spirit is the divinely appointed substitute for and representative of the personal and humanized Christ.
The Holy Spirit is not only our teacher, our inspirer and our revealer in prayer, but the power of our praying in measure and force is measured by the Spirit’s power working in us as the will and work of God according to God’s good pleasure.
The secret of prayerlessness is the absence of the work of the Holy Spirit in us. The secret of feeble praying everywhere is the lack of God’s Spirit in His mightiness.
As Jesus did not begin His work on earth till He was anointed by the Holy Spirit, so the same Holy Spirit is necessary to carry forward and make effective and atoning work of the Son of God.
We urge the seeking of the Holy Spirit. We need Him, and we need to stir ourselves up to seek Him. The measure we receive of Him will be gauged by the fervor of faith and prayer with which we seek Him. Our ability to work for God, and to pray to God and live for God, and affect others for God will be dependent on the measure of the Holy Spirit received by us, dwelling in us, and working through us. [end excerpt]
It’s not us. It’s Him. Brother Dave has a company and has people working for him. When you don’t have the answers and don’t know the way to go, what do you do? I want you to tell me what you do?
Dave responded…
I pray in the Holy Ghost. It’s simple but you can either react to your circumstances and live in defeat because you’re not capable of overcoming that which is before you. Or you can get God in on the situation and allow grace to make it easy. If it’s not easy for you, you’re not walking in grace. If it’s difficult and challenging and if you can’t overcome, then you don’t have God’s grace on it. When God’s grace is with you, I don’t care how insurmountable the mountain of difficulty is, it’s easy because He anointed you to overcome. And one or two words or a sentence can overcome and destroy the yoke before you. It doesn’t take a lot of effort with God’s effort. It’s not an effort on your part. It’s an effort on His part. He’s designed this system that we live in where we submit to Him where He is not absent. He’s always present. If He’s always present, whatever you face, it cannot exist.
So if you feel like it’s hard to overcome, you’re working it. And you’re standing up working and He’s sitting down waiting for you. He’s waiting for your call. He’s waiting for You to worship Him and get before Him and let the peace of God overcome you. Then you enter that situation and it’s a breeze.
Pastor Ray continued…
We’re not called to live in our past. We’re called to live now and into our future. We’re not going back. I was talking to someone this morning who said for them the only thing they could do to live the way God’s called them to live is to look at today, tomorrow, next week, and out into the future. Because once they’ve turned around and looked back at their past, they’d be taken down because they bring to their remembrance the things they don’t want to remember. And Jesus doesn’t remember them. Our past is under the blood. Yesterday is under the blood. We are continually cleansed by the blood.
Dave continued…
Earlier this week, I had an employee call me from my business. He was frustrated. “Oh my God!” I see this from time to time. A person who has learned the ebb and flow of God’s grace where you look for it all the time. My wife said yesterday, “I went to this restaurant and they gave me free food” or “they paid for my food.” That’s not uncommon. It happens all the time for her. At least once a week, I hear her say, “Oh this happened for me and that happened.” That’s normal in God’s grace. When you’re blessed and things are happening for you, you happen to get in a line with 50 people in front of you and all of a sudden, for some reason, they move you to the front of the line. That’s grace.
I got a call this week and a person that works for me was on vacation and this guy calls me and says, “There’s all these problems,” and everything was out of control in his mind. Been there, done that. I’ve lived like that and I don’t like living like that. I told him, “Calm down.” “Yeah but, you don’t understand. If we don’t do this, this schedule is not going to be met…” blah, blah, blah… I said, “Okay, I got it. I understand that. But here’s the deal. There are things that you can do and there are things that you can’t do. There’s no reason to worry for the things you can’t do. What you’re doing right now is, you have no control over certain things and you feel lost and that’s why you’re worried. We’re not going to do that.”
I got off the phone and had another person call me from the office and say to me, “This is going on over here. You need to do this,” or whatever. I said, “Okay.” I talked to him and said, “Listen, here’s the issue. There is no problem. The other stuff you’re talking about, there are no problems here. God’s going to take care of this situation. He’s going to solve this problem.” Well, fast forward a few days into the week, Wednesday I get a call and all the problems he was worried about didn’t even exist. They were all made up in his mind. It was because all the things he thought did not get ordered and all the things that weren’t in place, they were all ready to go. He just wasn’t aware of them. But yet he called me to get it done.
At that point I could have been sucked right into his issues. How many times have you gotten a call from a loved one about something, “Oh no, they said this is going to happen. I went to the doctor and they said I might have this thing. Will you stand in agreement with me?” They’re not really wanting you to stand in agreement with them. They want you to suck into that problem and get you to emphasize with them. You can do that. The problem is you’re ineffective in that situation to help that person because you’re sitting right in that place where they’re at.
You need to step back and look up. Look to where the answer comes from. Look at the healer. Look at the provider, the grace. Do what David did in the scripture when he said the Lord had given him the lion and the Lord had given him the bear and He would give him Goliath. He focused on the things that were just. He gave the Lord the benefit of the doubt. Instead of doubting, he gave Him place. David was saying, “You are Lord. I bow down to you. I concede my life to you.” When you get up from that place in your heart, your perspective changes. You’re not worried. A few days later, you find out you had no reason to worry. The thing you feared did not come upon you.
So this person called me up freaking out. They finally found all this stuff out. I said that’s the difference between a person who is just moved by their experience and a person who recognizes grace. The problem cannot exist except there is an answer for your problem. If you know that inside you, then you’re not going to wig out when the doctor says, “this test says this.” You’re going to say, “I’m not going to do that.” You’re not going to be moved because your heart is with Him. Your focus and your eyes are on Him. You can’t do this by yourself in your mind. Your mind cannot handle when the doctor gives you that report. You’re not equipped in your own natural person to handle that in your mind because that’s where the devil works. In your mind. That’s his playground. He likes to get you into that place and he’s been doing it for a lot longer than you have and he likes to trick you into thinking a certain way so he can captivate your gaze on him and not the Lord.
God’s trying to get your voice and eyes on Him. Then He’s got your heart. The devil knows that. I’ve had this happen to me before, where the doctor puts the report in front of me. Two major situations in my life, physically where I’ve had them show me on paper that “you are doomed.” And both times, here I am. Both times were lies. But it didn’t come “If I changed this and that. I got to do this and go here and do this.” God says, “You just sit down. You’re working this and you shouldn’t be working. When you’re working, I’m not working. So stop working it. You’re incapable of healing yourself.”
Somebody needs to hear this. You’re incapable of providing for yourself, so quit trying to keep providing for yourself. That’s why you can’t get over. It’s not your job. It’s His job. And your heart should be focused on trusting Him rather than trying to figure out a plan to get yourself out of a hole that you’re in.
You can ask my wife. Several years ago, we looked at a mountain of debt that seemed impossible to get out of. You know how we addressed that? We started laughing. Every time the bills came, she’d laugh at the bills. They’d come and we’d laugh about it. That’s not even logical. But that was God’s plan. God’s plan was for us to sit back and let Him take it over. Because when we had control of it, it went down. And when He had control of it, it went up. So which way do you want to go? Up? Or down? That’s real simple and basic. He doesn’t make it that difficult.
I’m sharing that for this reason. If we can gain this knowledge and practice this, your bills, your health, your circumstance, your situation, your joy, your ability to overcome will increase. I know. For me, letting go is the hardest thing because for some reason, we think we’re smarter than God. I’m being real with you. We need to grow up and recognize “I’m not the center of the world, Lord, I bow down to you. You are my Lord.”
Prayed…
Thank You, Father, for Your grace
You are more than enough… You exceed all our expectations and more
We thank You for Your grace that establishes us in our faith
We concede to Your Lordship, Your plan and purpose
We thank You for all sufficiency in all things
There is no need too big that You are incapable of meeting that need
We get in agreement with You
Signs and wonders follow those who believe
All day long, Your grace goes before me and opens the doors
Father, we thank You for the work of the Holy Spirit here this morning that stirs the hearts of men
Allowing us to enter into the place of grace, a place where the circumstances…
Grace is abounding to every generation
In this generation, easy, easy, easy
Lord, we look to You the author and finisher of our faith
The beginning and the end
