Mary led group in worship…
♪ Hallelujah, You are worthy… of our praise… be high and lifted up… Jesus, it’s You we glorify… it’s You we’re lifting high… Your name be glorified… Hallelujah… ♪
Pastor Ray shared…
I feel that when we lift Him up, He lifts us up. As we lift Him up and magnify Him, He turns it around and lifts us up as well. Yesterday, we talked about how the higher we get, the farther we can see. When we’re seated in heavenly places, we have an awesome view. We see things the way He sees them.
Group continued to worship…
Pastor Ray continued…
You know how you can tell if you’re moving out of your brain and moving more into your spirit? You don’t care what other people think about you. You’re not so moved by what you think they’re thinking.
Pastor Mark Harper used to say he believed there was a filter between us and God. So if we’re singing way off key, it didn’t matter to the Lord cuz He has a heavenly filter. So no matter what we sound like, He’s blessed by our singing. If your singing is from your heart, He’s not plugging His ears. He’s blessed. The Bible tells us to sing to Him.
Pastor Lynne used to tell us to “draw a line around yourself and stay in there and get to Him.” Get in the spirit, in other words. It helps. I don’t have to care what anyone thinks if I’m singing two keys off. It’s all about the heart.
I was talking to a friend who is into prayer and has been for years. He said he believes that the church as a whole is missing out if they’re not involved in corporate prayer. You can sing out unto Him, get in your heart and it doesn’t take a full band… I’m not putting that down. There’s a place for that, but he said you don’t need a band to get you there. I myself like to have a keyboard and a singer. But what’s music? It’s transportation. It helps us get out of our brains. God created music. It sounds like I’m going down a rabbit trail. But I like that he said the best place where you can get into your spirit is with other people because they’re doing the same, wanting to get into their hearts and lift Him up. Then other people can get something that will minister to you or you can hear something that someone else is praying and you have the same thing. That lifts you up and builds you up and you think, “I’m actually hearing the Holy Ghost.”.
This morning I wanted to read a couple of scriptures from 1st Corinthians. Right now there is so much hate in the world. People are spitting things out and they are the opposite of the Word. I saw on the news an interview with the President and they told some people to send in some questions for the President. They said if we have time, we’ll pull that list out and ask him. So they were in the Oval Office and pulled out the paper. One of the questions said, “I pray for you every day. Do you pray every day?” That was his question. President Trump is like, “Whoa.” So he looked at it and said, “Yes, I do pray every day. What’s that man’s name? I need to invite him into the White House.” He was moved by the fact that someone would say to him, “I’m praying for you every day.” Are we supposed to pray for him every day? Yes. All the leaders. We’re commanded to do it. Brother Hagin made it clear to us that the first thing we pray for is leaders before we even pray for our families.
1st Corinthians has a couple things about love. Light dispels darkness and there is a whole lot of darkness happening. There are people behind the scenes with plans to destroy the way the United States is moving. That’s the truth. Who is that? The Devil. But he’s defeated but it’s up to us to keep him defeated.
1st Corinthians 12:31, “But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all—love].” L-O-V-E
1st Corinthians 13:7, “Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].”
If you watched the speech, you saw people that would not respond to things they actually agreed with. They sat on their hands instead. One of our representatives from Minnesota was one of the worst. He was slouched down in his seat. It makes you want to… pray for him!
Verse 13, “And so faith, hope, love abide [faith—conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope—joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love—true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
We can’t please Him without faith. But what is the greatest? Love. Love of God and love of man. That’s how we need to pray for people that disagree with what the Word says.
Chapter 13, “Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest]; and earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual endowments (gifts), especially that you may prophesy (interpret the divine will and purpose in inspired preaching and teaching). For one who speaks in an [unknown] tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding].”
Should we pray out some mysteries? We know how critical it is to walk in love. And we know how easy it is to judge. We have a commandment to walk in love.
I’m reminded right now of something that I did a while ago. I was driving down the street and there were four lanes. I was in the right lane. I looked at my gas gauge and it was on “E.” There was a gas station on the other side, so I just whipped over and there happened to be a guy in car in the other lane. It ticked him off cuz I just shot over there. He followed me. Ugh! I wasn’t in a good part of the city. He was ready to chew me out. So I just rolled down my window and said, “I’m so sorry. I apologize to you.” Guess what happened? The balloon was popped. He was melted. He couldn’t even say a bad word. He was like, “Oh… okay.” Got in his car and left. That’s love.
Prayed…
Father, we thank You for the love You put within us and how much You love us.
That You would send Your Son, Jesus, to the cross for us
We choose to walk in Your love, to walk strong and straight, full of Your Spirit, praying in other tongues
We know we pray out mysteries when we pray in the Spirit
Thank You for baptizing us in the Holy Ghost
Thank You, Holy Spirit
Mysteries… hidden things
We lift up our nation to You
What needs to be done shall be done
Turn… turning… it will go well with us
Rearrange and change… turning it… turn it even more in Your way, Father
We tell situations that need to be moved, “Move!”
It’s almost like a change in a channel… tuning into the right frequency
Laboring together… the body together… taking our places and positions
Doors, opportunities… steps… finishing up things on the steps we’re on and moving up into the new
Finishing up the work on one step and stepping up into another which will be larger with more responsibility
All along the way, in Your love with our prayers
Groups sang in the spirit…
Continued praying…
Send strength and a supply of the spirit to the leaders in the body of Christ and their families
Open their eyes… greater understanding
Pastor Ray interjected…
It seemed to me like we were praying about men and women in positions of authority. I saw a wheel that had spokes that were loose. They weren’t functioning the way they were supposed to. Then it seemed like the pressure in the tire was low. It could not go at the speed that it was supposed to go. If your tire is half flat, you have a problem. When we call for the wind of the Holy Ghost, it’s about getting a new supply to get that tire running in the right way… to get the tires filled with the power of the Holy Spirit again. Sometimes we get too far into our flesh. We can’t do it in our own strength. When you turn your face to the wind of the Holy Spirit and let Him fill you, you will overflow with Him and your words. You will overflow with your steps and the places and positions that you’ll walk in. You’ll do things better than Superman. You’ll do things you could never do without Him.
