Greetings GPAN subscribers! As you can see, we have a new format for the Morning Prayer postings. The “Global Prayer Alert Network” (GPAN) has undergone a rebranding. The Morning Prayer GPAN report now falls under the umbrella of The Prayer Movement. Though you see the heading “The Prayer Movement” at the top of the page, the actual Morning Prayer report will not change.
Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everyone. Welcome everyone that’s in the chapel. We have a bit of a snowstorm here. If you’re in another part of the world, we have blowing winds and lots of snow falling here in Minnesota. So it was a journey of faith just to be here if you’re in the chapel this morning. If you’re joining us online, it’s so good to have you.
This morning, I feel like there’s a number of different directions we could go in when it concerns prayer. If you have noticed, there’s a lot playing out on the world stage right now, as far as what’s going on in Eastern Europe and Russia and some other places. Some of that’s been on my heart and I’ve been praying about it myself personally; perhaps we’ll go there today.
I just wanted to pause for a moment and just intentionally turn our hearts toward God and pray and then we’ll go into a little bit of worship here.
How do we build a prayer life?
I want to read a verse in 2nd Chronicles 7:14. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face…” I like that” “seek my face.” We’re not just seeking His hand. It’s okay to seek His hand. The Lord in His earthly ministry never turned anybody away who sought out or asked for His hand of provision or healing or blessing in some way. Because after all, He’s a patient, kind, loving, heavenly Father. But each and every day, we have an invitation to engage with Him and to seek His face. Amen? To know Him personally. Somebody said yesterday, “How do you, Ken, build a prayer life?” Remember we read that prophetic word by brother Hagin from years ago and he emphasized over and over… and I may read more of it today. We’ll see. But he emphasized the importance of building your prayer life individually first. Letting that be the most important thing in your life.
It begins by learning to abide in Him…
And I’d have to say, when it comes to building your prayer life, it begins by learning to abide in Him. Learning to be one who is determined to know God like the apostle Paul, as it states in the Amplified Bible. Paul wrote, “It’s my determined purpose, my one aim… It is my primary goal to know Him.” Even Jesus summed up all things in a passage John 17:3, where He said, this is eternal life that you might know Him. And when it comes to building a life of prayer and a life of power and a life of effectiveness in the plan of God, it all starts by abiding in Him… by being passionate to turn your attention and your heart and your thoughts and your life toward Him each and every day.
And by humbling ourselves…
As it says here in 2nd Chronicles: “if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves.” That means submit your priorities and your wants and your flesh and your desires to His. And that is that we would seek His face, turn from our wicked ways, our natural ways. And then it says, “then we’ll hear from heaven and He will forgive their sins and heal their land.” I love that. It’s so interesting because in essence when we get a personal breakthrough and we learn to live from a place of abiding… abiding simply means to live, to remain, and to dwell. To remain in a relational state each and every day. When we get a personal breakthrough in our lives, in that we abide with Him, we receive breakthrough on a national level. We receive influence and we’re able to bring change on a national and even a worldwide level. When we do this individually, each and every day.
In John 15:7, it says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask what you will even, and it will be done unto you. So everything has been set up. Again, it’s not this religious mentality that sometimes we bring into our journey with Jesus and that we think we just need to be doing so many Christian works. No, it really boils down to one thing. Amen. And that is abiding in Him, living, remaining and dwelling in Him.
And so this morning, just let that kind of reverberate in your heart and know that when we respond to His invitation daily to an ongoing interaction in His presence… I jotted this down last night that when we do so our lives have been recalibrated and renewed when we come into His presence and we seek His face… As it says in 2nd Corinthians 7:14.
As you abide in Him, God begins to guide you with His eye…
In fact, you start to experience one other thing too, and that is as God begins to guide you with His eye… when you seek His face. The very countenance of our loving heavenly Father that wants to absorb our struggles and our pains and fear and anxiousness. We live in an age of anxiousness and fearfulness and worry and dread. But let me remind you this morning, it is the various glory and presence, the very assets of who He is that is there every day as He invites us and reminds us. And if we will respond to Him, when you enter that place of abiding, living, remaining, being with Him, it’s the presence of God that is set up to cause you to succeed… that is set up and made available to us to swallow up our mess ups, to absorb our hurt and our pain and our struggles and give us fresh perspective.
That’s why even during a time of collective or corporate prayer, we want to cultivate and practice God’s presence and look to Him because when His presence comes, everything changes. He absorbs what we’re not designed or meant to carry or to shoulder when His presence comes, when we practice the presence of God as a daily habit.
Practicing the presence just means being thoughtful and mindful of Him…
I think a lot of people kind of shy away from prayer or can’t deal with it because they think they have to devote one hour, two hours, three hours, all day or whatever. No! Practicing the presence just means being thoughtful and mindful of Him. Using your thoughts, using your words, using your intentionality to express love toward Him.
Wigglesworth’s intentionality and a cultivation of connectedness…
Someone once asked the great Smith Wigglesworth who was known for raising people from the dead and many notable miracles, “How long do you pray? Certainly you must pray long stretches of time.” And he said, “No, actually I seldom if ever pray more than a half hour at a time.” But then he went on to say, “But I don’t go more than a half hour without praying.” In other words, there was an intentionality and a cultivation of connectedness. And I’m saying that because I need to hear that this morning. I need to keep that in myself because that’s how we practice the presence of God. And that’s how everything changes. That’s how we get our personal breakthrough. And as a result, according to the 2nd Chronicles 7:14, that’s how we’re able to bring influence and healing on a national and international level. When we as individual believers and followers of Jesus make the one thing, the main thing in our lives.
God will not be second fiddle…
But His presence, the very countenance of our heavenly Father absorbs pain, pressure, and struggle and gives us fresh perspective for everything we experience. So we must turn from the inferior to seek the face of God. He is after all, an all or nothing God. He will not be second fiddle. He does not want to be third or fourth place in your life. He deserves a place of honor. He deserves to be your very life. After all, He shed those precious drops of blood. He did all that He did because of us, because of you, because of me. And so He wants to be first place. He is the alpha the omega, the Bible says. I like to say He is the A to the Z and everything in between.
God doesn’t sleep nor slumber until He performs His Word in your life…
He’s God. He holds all the answers. He’s still on His throne. He still owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He’s still the one who’s watching over His Word in your life particularly… in your church… in your situation… in your children’s life… He’s still watching over it. And He is working 24/7. The Bible says He doesn’t sleep nor slumber until He performs His Word. Scripture reveals that His Word is incorruptible seed. And that it will be accomplished. It will come to life. It will be realized because God is watching over. God is at work. God is doing what He said He would do. He is faithful.
He doesn’t hold our past mistakes against us…
That’s why King David said, “I will bless you my God and king, each day now and forever.” So no matter where you’re at in life, this morning, no matter what’s going on in your soul, your emotions, your circumstances, and your heart… God welcomes us. He’s not down on us. He doesn’t hold our past mistakes against us. In fact, if you were to meet Him on the streets of gold in heaven and you brought up something from your past, you would find that the Lord doesn’t even know what you’re talking about.
Our slate has been wiped clean…
Our slate has been wiped clean. As I like to say, grace always grows to swallow up our mistakes, our mess ups, and gives us a fresh start every day. So no matter where you’re at in life or the condition of your heart, God welcomes us into His presence this morning. But remember this: you’ll not leave the same. We may come with baggage. We may come with issues. We may come with questions, but we will leave clean, confident, and restored. Because we simply prioritized His presence. We simply abided in Him.
Prayed…
And so, Father, we just thank you this morning for your presence. We thank you for the beautifulness of an abiding place that has been prepared for us.
Lord, we know that you said to your disciples before you left this earth, that you were going to prepare a place for us, that where you are, we would be also
I pray right now, Father, for supernatural breakthrough, a supernatural breaking off… of things that have hindered people
I pray for a supernatural release in your soul… I pray for a breaking off of those ties that have bound you. I pray for a breaking and a severing of every demonically perpetuated stronghold or curse that has plagued you.
I say in the name of Jesus, “1, 2, 3, be broken off of your life this moment.” I declare and we believe we receive a breaking off of those ties that have bound us, those unhealthy attachments, those addictions, those self-defeating, self-loathing, self- tripping up ways, thought patterns, actions, habits, whatever the case is…
Father, I plead the blood of Jesus over each and every person who is outstretched in their faith, who is alert and receptive and calling out for this today
I plead the blood of Jesus over them and I break every stronghold and every chain.
And I pray that you and unwrap them in their soul, that you would take off the grave clothes that they would come out of that tomb out of that place
I command you to be loosed. I command life… I command grace… I command supernatural empowerment and resurrection power to resuscitate and bring you up into a new place today…
And so Father, I pray over each and every one of us this morning for a furtherance right now… in the call and assignment of God on our lives.
I pray in Jesus’ name for burden removing, yoke destroying, liberating, healing anointing to flow right now wherever people are …
I pray for a supernatural dowsing and manifestation of grace and goodness in their hearts and lives to move them forward out of that place of inferior …out of that place of fear. And into a place, a big expansive place that you prepared for them to live for you.
Group entered into worship…
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