Atmosphere

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Dr. Ray: Well, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, me, Dr. Ray Self, hence the name of the show. Get it? Anyway, I'm so glad that you're with me, that you're joining us today. Thank you for being a part of our 235th episode of Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. This show is made possible by, sponsored by, however you want to say it, by the International College of Ministry. The website is icmcollege.org, a college full of Spirit and truth, fully accredited online college offering degrees in ministry, theology, Christian counseling, and prophetic ministry. If you're called to the ministry, you know there's a call of God on your life, that phone's been ringing, and you're– from God, and you're ready to answer it, please go to icmcollege.org. We're enrolling now. Uh, you can get a free evaluation. You can sample some courses. The website is beautiful, and we would love to have you with us. But today I have a very special show about atmosphere. Get ready. Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. 

 

Okay. Well, thank you again for being with us as we get going. So, I have a very special guest in my elaborate, totally sophisticated studio today, and that is Dr. Marcia Knox. Thank you for being with us, Dr. Marcia. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Hello, and thank you for having me.

 

Dr. Ray: It's, It's been great. And uh, Dr. Marsha is a, is an, Dr. Marsha is an amazing woman of God. I'm very honored to have her. She's actually from Memphis, Tennessee. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes

 

You know, we're broadcasting from Florida. But Dr. Marsha is our Director of Operations for this entire ministry. And we are very excited that she is working with us. I know you have a background, a long background with the church, a long background as a Christian. You've been saved for many years. You have experienced a lot in the church. You've been a medical professional, correct?

 

Dr. Marcia: Correct. 

 

Dr. Ray: Uh, and also a hospital administrator or CEO.

 

Dr. Marcia: CEO for the hospital and for a couple of hospitals, actually, in that geographic location near Memphis, uh, and surrounding areas.

 

Dr. Ray: Wow. Wow. So, you have a professional background, but you also have a spiritual background with the Lord. You're a minister, too, right?

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes, I'm a licensed and ordained minister through the International College of Ministry.

 

Dr. Ray: And you know, Dr., Dr. Marcia to me is a fascinating person because she has, she's been a health care professional and worked at an executive level in the health care business, but your passion for the Lord, your integrity, the anointing that you walk in, uh, it's just amazing and we're just grateful for you.

 

Dr. Marcia: Absolutely. I give all praise to God and uh, certainly thankful for all that He has done in my life and uh, whether it's in the secular arena when I worked in corporate America, uh, taking care of patients in healthcare and uh, leading teams in health care, or whether it's related to ministry, and I have a ton of years, uh, in uh, ministry assisting min– ministry, uh, teams, um, helping with leadership, uh, activities within ministry. So, I've seen a lot.

 

Dr. Ray: You've seen a lot. You've experienced a lot. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Absolutely.

 

Dr. Ray: But the reason, I'm so glad you're with us, but you, you're visiting my wife and I, my beautiful wife Christy, you've been visiting us, and we're doing some work together. But today, we had an experience that we want to call, I want to talk about atmosphere. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: And we had a very amazing experience today with, with two churches. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: In one day, which was incredible, and it's something that's really worth talking about.

 

Dr. Marcia: Absolutely. I agree. We had the,  just wonderful opportunity to uh, visit with uh, two ministries today. The service was absolutely wonderful at each of the locations. Uh, the thing that Dr. uh, Ray is mentioning about atmosphere and um, having just a, a presence of the Lord,

it's amazing that when you are in different locations, you can sense the tangible anointing of the Lord in uh, various locations. And when we were in one of the locations and moving directly into the next location, you could just sense God's presence from the minute you walked through that door. And every individual in that ministry inhabited the presence of God. They had a spirit of gratitude as we even walked uh, toward that, that entrance.

 

Dr. Ray: Well, let me, let me kind of um, preface that a little bit because, because you, you're right on track here. So, we had the, the joy of, of experiencing two different churches. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: Okay. You know, in one day, and it made it kind of a long day. I don't think we got home till 4:00. Okay. But both churches were great. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes, absolutely.

 

Dr. Ray: And we go in and uh, and I'm very, very, very acquainted with these churches. We go in and uh, people are friendly. The first church people are friendly, and it's very nice and uh, you know, there's, there's the usual, there's the praise and worship… 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: …and then there's a, you know, a sermon, there's announcements, there's a sermon, we had communion, there's the offering, and it was just a very pleasant experience. And you know, if it, you know, nothing…nothing to complain about. Something to really enjoy, and it was a, a rich service. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: But then about an hour…let’s see, about an hour later, 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: We're in a second church.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: And we notice immediately there's an enormous shift in the atmosphere. The atmosphere changed.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: And so we were talking about that, and the atmosphere, as soon as we are in the building where this church is, the atmosphere was, there was an anointing.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: You– there was a tangible presence of God. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Absolutely. 

 

Dr. Ray: Nothing wrong with the other church. But something about the second church, and I think it's worth talking about.

 

Dr. Marcia: Absolutely. I agree. And, um, to your point, Dr. Ray, as we walked into the second service, there were individuals working in the ministry and helping out, and every individual inhabited that same level of gratitude as you walk through the door. They were very welcoming. Um, and they were prepared for, they were preparing for the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

 

Dr. Ray: That's good.

 

Dr. Marcia: They were preparing. There were uh, individuals that were uh, huddled, if you will, having uh, prayer and giving thanks to God before the service even started. As the uh, ministry, the musical team were getting their instruments in order and uh, various groups were preparing for the service, they were preparing their hearts for an experience with the Holy Spirit. 

 

Dr. Ray: And when you, what I noticed just as I guess maybe we would call it evidence or symptoms, when we walked in, the, there were, there were, people were smiling. There were a lot of hugs. There was a sense of, I sensed a lot of love. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: Tremendous amount of love. Like you really felt very welcome. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: And then you would see groups of people praying and the musicians preparing. But we, we commented and it's, and with my wife Christie is with us, and we, we all comment like you can feel the presence of the Lord here. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: Now the service hadn’t even started, and we're sensing the presence of the Lord. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: And I thought, this is something that the atmosphere had changed. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Definitely. 

 

Dr. Ray: From the first church. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: It had changed. And I'm thinking how did it? Why? How? This is good.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. Absolutely. 

 

Dr. Ray: This is worth talking about.

 

Dr. Marcia: It is. And you know, the, the people's hearts were prepared. They came in preparation and anticipation for what God was going to do in the place. And you could, you could easily tell everybody was there. They were ready. Um, as Dr. Ray said, the love that exuded from every individual that we encountered was just very refreshing and just beautiful. 

 

Dr. Ray: It, it was, it was a tangible. It wasn't just, okay, they're doing everything correct. You can say, well, they're being nice. Okay, a lot of churches are nice. They got a praise and worship team. You know, that's, a lot of churches do that. But this was different because there was a tangible presence of the Lord here. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: And a tangible feeling that you could just feel the presence of the Lord before it started. And so we were talking before the podcast, like what was different? What– they, it was obvious the Holy Spirit was very welcome and was already in the building, and what was making it different, and I think you made some good comments. You felt like the people were preparing. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: They had an expectation. They were praying.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: Uh, they were loving. They were smiling.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: It was almost like they were expecting the anointing.

 

Dr. Marcia: They came with a reasonable expectation for the anointing and for Holy Spirit to do what He was going to do. Um, and that seemed to be every individual from the pastor who uh, was you– leading the teams and uh, coordinating everything and then giving his message. Um, it was very clear that everybody was on one accord when it came to the why behind why we're here. We are here to usher in His presence and that's what we're, that's what we're created for. Uh, so it was just one of those things that you look at and say, what is that contrast? And I think we, we touched on it very clearly. It was every individual being prepared and having a posture of readiness and praise, and thanksgiving in their heart and gratitude. 

 

Dr. Ray: It, it was, it was very evident. It was interesting, wasn’t it? It was like everybody was, was standing around praying and speaking in tongues. People were setting up chairs. Uh, they were tuning their instruments. They were uh, tinkering with the sound system. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: Uh, they were setting up the coffee bar and uh, had really good coffee by the way. And they were setting up, they were doing practical things, but even as they were doing these normal things, there was an atmosphere of love. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: Of friendliness, of, and it's like they were expecting the anointing.

 

Dr. Marcia: They were expecting it.

 

Dr. Ray: And they were, and they were gladly serving. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: Because they knew the anointing was there. They knew the anointing was coming or the anointing was there. They were, they were gladly, they were doing– It wasn't all just everybody's on their face before God. People were just doing regular stuff like setting up chairs, but even the midst of all that, the presence of God was just unbelievable.

 

Dr. Marcia: They, they did what they were doing, whatever their various roles were, as unto the Lord I believe. And that's why, um…the Holy Spirit can dwell when the atmosphere is set and ready. 

 

Dr. Ray: Yeah.

 

Dr. Marcia: Holy Spirit can dwell. 

 

Dr. Ray: And so, that's a good point. You know, they were setting up chairs, they were preparing coffee, they were setting up the instruments, they were getting the sound system, they're, they're working on the uh, the media. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: But they had, they had to be working as unto the Lord. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Absolutely. Without a doubt.

 

Dr. Ray: So then the service starts, and I thought it was interesting. The praise and worship leader, this young lady, begins to singing in the spirit. She's not singing any song you would know. She's just singing a song from the Holy Spirit. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: It's like she's just worshiping with her voice and then the instruments kick in. It wasn't– You could tell it wasn't planned. It was like a spontaneous song of the Lord. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. Absolutely.

 

Dr. Ray: And the anointing was just building and building and building. And so I'm thinking, you know, it was an atmosphere. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Definitely, the atmosphere was, was different. When we walked into those, the church, the second one, I felt the weight of the anointing almost as if I couldn't stand at that point because it was so strong.

 

Dr. Ray: Yeah. 

 

Dr. Marcia: So every individual said it, and when the young lady started prophetically singing. She was just praising and ushering in Holy Spirit, the entire church was able to join in. And they joined in pretty quickly.

 

Dr. Ray: They did. 

 

Dr. Marcia: They did pretty seamlessly. Everybody joined in, and it was an amazing service. Uh, and I believe whenever we allow Holy Spirit to do what He does best and we step back from our agendas and spontaneously allow Holy Spirit to lead us, that is when we have the greatest experience that we ever have, will have with uh our praise and worship, uh, services actually.

 

Dr. Ray: So that's a very interesting point because I noticed that there was structure. There was a plan.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: They had everything planned out and, and everybody's, you know, there, there was a program, and there was structure, but they allowed the Holy Spirit to interrupt it.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: They welcomed the Holy Spirit. And even though, like, I know they had their songs mapped out. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: But they started singing in the spirit. And then of course when the, when the pastor gets up to speak uh, spontaneously, he calls me up out of the clear blue twice to do some ministry once over the kids and once o– over the church. Uh, I was just a guest. I was, I wasn't supposed to do anything. But, but the point was it's not about me, but it's about they were making room for the Holy Spirit.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: Even though they had a plan, they had structure. They had organization, but in the midst of their organization, there was room for the Holy Spirit to move. And they, they did that.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

 

Dr. Ray: Because see, we, I think we can structure the Holy Spirit out of a service. We're so structured with our program, “Okay, it's time for worship. It's time for the offering. It's time for, it's time for announcements. It's time for the children to go to children's church.” Well, that's great. But will you allow the Holy Spirit to interrupt that and maybe change that and tweak that? And they, they were, they were allowing interruptions… 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: …to come. They were allowing the Holy Spirit to interrupt the service on a regular basis. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Absolutely. It was just a, again, just an enormous amount of the presence of God. And so when you allow that room in your program, quote and unquote, um, it allows the Holy Spirit to flow freely. 

 

Dr. Ray: And then when the Holy Spirit's flowing freely, that's when things happen. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: That's when there's healing. There's salvation. There's deliverance. The captives are being set free. 

 

Dr. Marcia: It's not just a, a, a feeling. I mean, God's doing business. 

 

Dr. Marcia: That's right. 

 

Dr. Ray: And things were happening.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: There was a lot of uh, I notice of conviction and repentance in that church. The pastor preached a message, you know, about the church.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: And about us being the church and our family being in the church. And then there, there's the local church and the corporate church and the, and the church universal and about the, being the, the church, the model of the church in the book of Acts.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: And, there was a conviction that came upon the congregation about his sermon. And the entire church ends up at the, the whole church ends up at the altar. 

 

Dr. Marcia: It was beautiful. 

 

Dr. Ray: Now, I'm talking about 300 people at the altar. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: That’s awesome.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes, it was. 

 

Dr. Ray: Yeah.

 

Dr. Marcia: And they were all there repenting and just receiving what they needed from, from God at that point. So, it was just beautiful to see the entire church there at the front, at the altar. I don't know that I've ever seen that before. 

 

Dr. Ray: Yeah, it, it was a response.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: It was, it was a response. They, the message carried an anointing, and then there was a response to the message.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: Uh, it was just it was powerful to be a part of it to, to experience it. And it's, it's, again, it's more than a feeling, Dr. Marsha. 

 

Dr. Marsha: Yes, it is. God's doing something. Absolutely.

 

Dr. Ray: And I think I learned some lessons there. And I'm not criticizing the first church. It is a, is a nice church. I love that church. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes, I agree. 

 

Dr. Ray: I love that church at well, but I thought, you know, one thing we could all do better is let's be led by the Holy Spirit and let's let the Holy Spirit be a part of the service. 

 

Dr. Marcia: We can definitely do that. And in doing so, watch the atmosphere shift. There was a, a, a very distinct shifting in that atmosphere as we changed from one place to the next. 

 

Dr. Ray: And again, they were not disorganized. 

 

Dr. Marcia: No, not at all.

 

Dr. Ray: But they were letting the Holy Spirit be a part of their organization. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: Oh, that's good. I like– 

 

Dr. Marcia: –they allow, they allow Holy Spirit to guide them.

 

Dr. Ray: They did, in the midst of what they were doing. It was time for the sermon, but the Holy Spirit kind of redirected the sermon a little bit. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes

 

Dr. Ray: The Holy Spirit redirected, uh, changed the praise and worship song,

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: And then there's this altar call by the Holy Spirit. I don't think it was planned. I mean, there were plans, but the Holy Spirit was allowed to take over. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Absolutely.

 

Dr. Ray: And you know, there's a scripture that I want to share that's a very common scripture. I really think it applies to this. You know, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3: “Now the Lord is spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” And so being kind of a, coming out of a charismatic Pentecostal background, 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes,

 

Dr. Ray: Uh, that scripture was quoted a lot and, and sometimes people would get kind of wacky and weird. Well, Spirit of, where, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,” and people will just do whatever. But you see, when the Holy Spirit is, is operating in a church, it's not chaos, and it's not weird, and it's not confusing, and it's not out of order. 

 

Dr. Marcia: That’s right.

 

Dr. Ray: It's actually orderly. There was nothing that was not orderly…

 

Dr. Marcia: That's right. 

 

Dr. Ray: …in the service. In this scripture, by the way, it says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” When you translate that in the original Greek, it actually translates “Where the Spirit is Lord.” So, when you allow the Holy Spirit to be Lord of the church, there is liberty. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: And there's an anointing, and things happen. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. And that's exactly what we saw today. There was true liberty in the place today. And that service, allowing the Holy Spirit to just move and guide and direct those individuals' lives, I believe were changed. I believe it. We saw it.

 

Dr. Ray: We did.

 

Dr. Marcia: We saw it. 

 

Dr. Ray: We experienced– we saw people being affected. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: Yeah. Ch– lives. People convicted. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Absolutely.

 

Dr. Ray: You could tell there was a real…people were being touched and changed.

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes. 

 

Dr. Ray: People were coming in the church one way and leaving a better way. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Absolutely.

 

Dr. Ray: Yeah. It was just a…I don't know. We were talking before the show and thinking, you know what, this would be something good to talk about. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: And if you're a church leader or pastor, make room for the Holy Spirit. Create an atmosphere for Him. You can do it. Welcome Him. Create an atmosphere. Allow Him to interrupt a little bit. Allow Him time and place to, to do, be sensitive to what He is saying, what He wants to do. “Those that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God.” 

 

Dr. Marcia: Yes.

 

Dr. Ray: And when we do that, it's not, it's not craziness. It's order. And it is powerful. Very powerful. Changes. 

 

Dr. Marcia: Absolutely.

 

Dr. Ray: Dr. Marcia, I really appreciate you being with us. And uh, we really appreciate you as our, I'll just have to say, our new Director of Operations for this ministry, and you're going to be a huge part of everything that we do. You know, our ministries is Spirit Win Ministries Inc., and we have the podcast, International College of Ministry. We have an apostolic network called uh, Spirit Wind Apostolic Network. We have a lot going on. A travel ministry, missions, and you're going to be directing it all.

 

Dr. Marcia: Well, thank you for having me, Dr. Ray. I am so looking forward to uh, doing whatever's necessary to keep u the momentum going with um, this network. So, thanks again.

 

Dr. Ray: Well, thank you for everybody for listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. My special guest today has been Dr. Marcia Knox. We're very grateful for you being with us today. Uh, again, the show, our primary sponsor of the show, is the college, our college, International College of Ministry at icmcollege.org. Also, to get to the website for the podcast, where you can see every episode and you can subscribe, give reviews, uh, get updates, and also be sure and share this. Go to icmcollege.org/selftalk. That takes you to the website that has every episode we've ever done. I appreciate you being a part of Self Talk, uh, with Dr. Ray Self. Thank you so much, Dr. Marcia. Thank you again… 

 

Dr. Marcia: Thank you.

 

Dr. Ray: …for being with us. God bless you, everyone. And I pray right now that the Spirit of the Lord will be upon you. The anointing will flow with you and through you in all that you do. Let's welcome Him not only into our church but into our lives, into our everyday lives. In Jesus’ name. 

Dr. Marcia: In Jesus’ name. 

 

Dr. Ray: Amen,

 

Dr. Marcia: Amen.

 

Dr Ray: And amen.

 

Dr. Marcia: Amen.

 

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