Morning Prayer Notes for Thursday, February 10, 2022

  1. “Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist

Good morning, everyone and welcome.

Today I wanted to start with a couple of things I wanted to read. And before we jump into prayer, I was just thinking earlier about Luke 18. Perhaps a familiar passage to many of us, but starting in verse one… It’s a good reminder to ground ourselves in what God says about prayer, about this journey of life and what He’s called us to do. I love the writings of Luke here that state in verse one… this is the Amplified Bible.

Luke 18:1–

“Also [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to [a]turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up).”

So, the context of this whole series of verses here is prayer. He goes on to say…

“He said, In a certain city there was a judge who neither reverenced and feared God nor respected or considered man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Protect and defend and give me justice against my adversary. 4 And for a time he would not; but later he said to himself, Though I have neither reverence or fear for God nor respect or consideration for man, 5 Yet because this widow continues to bother me…”

Or in other words, because of her requests… because of her persistence…

“I will defend and protect and avenge her, lest she give me intolerable annoyance and wear me out by her continual coming or at the last she come and rail on me or assault me or strangle me.”

I love the wording. I read it particularly from the Amplified just for that reason. In verse five it says…

“Then the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says! 7 And will not [our just] God defend and protect and avenge His elect (His chosen ones), who cry to Him day and night? Will He defer them and delay help on their behalf?”

Yeah, that’s right. Amen! Yes, He will give us victory. He will be faithful. As we said yesterday, God is going to be faithful to us. He’s going to be faithful to you in that situation and in America and in the Church and in your church, wherever you attend and wherever you’re part of community. Verse eight says…

“I tell you, He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily.”

And then, here’s kind of an important part here at the end. It says…

When Jesus returns, will He find faith on the earth?

“However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [persistence in] faith on the earth?”

The King James says, “Will he find faith on the earth?” And if you read it in context, you flip open a couple of commentaries, they’ll all point to the fact that the context of this whole series of passages is prayer. So it would be appropriate to read it “when He returns,” when Jesus comes back, in other words. When He splits the eastern sky, will He find persistence of faith being released through prayer? That’s essentially what He’s looking for.

The Word spoken thru our mouths is just as powerful when Jesus spoke it…

I like that because it just kind of hones us in and refreshes our hearts and our consciousness as to what our focus is to be. That this is first and foremost how God is working. It’s through the prayers of the saints… it’s through the prayers of the Church. And just as much as evil is allowed to enter into human experience because of choices, we have a choice that we can make every day to turn our hearts toward God, to turn our attention and our affection and our thoughts and our intentionality toward Him … to offer up our faith, to offer up our words of faith through prayer.

Once again, I can’t overstate it. It can’t be understated how profound and how powerful God’s Word, whether it’s the logos word off the pages of His book spoken through you or the Word of God in your spirit inspired and breathed upon by God the Holy Spirit… when it comes out of your mouth is just as powerful as if Jesus Himself were here speaking it.

Once again, the Word spoken to you was created to be spoken through you. And those words are designed and intended to push back the forces of darkness and set in motion what God intends for the Church, for you, for your family, for your nation, for the world.

“Processing the Plan of God Through Prayer”

Now I also want to read a little bit from Mark Brazee’s book entitled “Processing the Plan of God Through Prayer.” I think we have it at our bookstore. You can probably get it on Amazon. It’s one of those books where you just go back to time and time again, because there’s just some really good foundational bottom-line stuff that is just helpful to be reminded of. And I don’t know about you, but inspiration grows on the inside of me when I can just crack open a book… Obviously starting with the Bible, but as well other biblically based teachings and books. I could just sit down and read and just kind of meditate on what’s being said and the scriptures are being shared and it just lifts me, inspires me, motivates me and just makes you want to take the hill! I think that’s partly how God intended us to live to realize that each day is its own container. In other words, yesterday’s gone and tomorrow is in the future. But today’s today and you have an opportunity before you. Your day is a container that you’ve got to fill it. And what you fill it with through your thoughts, through your worship, through your prayers, through your study, through community… that will determine your experience and what God is able to do in you and through you today.

In his book, he says this when talking about a lifestyle of prayer. He says in this one passage, “Prayer touches every area of our lives. It’s like throwing a rock into a pond, the ripples go out and reach every shore, every aspect and part of your life.” I love that.

Pastor Ken, “Prayer changed my life.”

When I was in college, I jumped into a corporate prayer group and started praying with some people. We were praying for Israel on a Friday night at seven o’clock in our old building across the road. And I was in my early twenties. Yeah, probably really early twenties. And, I had a hunger for God and I wanted to pray. I just sensed the Lord say to me, “Ken, get in this group and be consistent in it.” So just about every Friday night, I was there praying about Israel. I didn’t know much about Israel at the time. And it didn’t really impact my life, especially at that time going to university and being early 20 something. But I got in that group and I started to pray and I recall so clearly, probably 8 to12 months after I committed to that, how my life had changed. I was praying for something that was completely far distant from me that I didn’t even know that much about, but it brought supply and change. And it was me honoring God. When you honor God, God is going to honor you. There’s a principal there.

We each have an assignment to pray…

And so prayer touches every area of your life. No matter what you’re praying about, you’ll commit yourself to pray. God is going to do what you can’t do and what you’ve tried to do. He’s going to solve those issues. He’s going to provide that supply. He’s going to open doors. He’s going to do for you, what you can’t do for yourself, when we take up the mantle and assignment of prayer. Make no mistake about it! Each and every one of us have an assignment to pray. That’s what’s going to change things. That’s what’s going to shift the momentum of that negative situation. That’s what’s going to bring revival to the earth, which I believe it’s already here. Some have said that even the angels that deliver revival have already landed. They’re already on our shores and that it’s already occurring. We just need to continue to get behind it and fuel it through our prayers and through our intentionality. And of course, through our actions. We are per activists. We’re to pray and we’re to act. But he goes on to say…

Praying in the Holy Ghost makes you sensitive to the will of God…

“The ripples, go out and reach every shore. Developing our own prayer life is essential. The more we pray, particularly in the Holy Ghost or in other tongues as First Corinthians 14:2 says, the more sensitive we will become to the will and plan of God.” So if somebody is saying, “I don’t know what God’s saying to me,” or “I don’t know what my next step is or where to go.” Well, there you go right there. Spend some time and give yourself to praying in the Spirit.

Tongues is the doorway to the supernatural…

Brother Hagin used to say praying in tongues is our doorway to the supernatural. It flips the switch where you’re confused, you’re frustrated. As you begin to pray, you’re flipping a switch in your own soul. And you’re going to begin to see—illumination will come. The Holy Spirit is activated when you pray in the Spirit, and His ministries begin to flow to you and through you. And one of those ministries is the ministry of revelation. How be it when he the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth concerning his word, but also concerning your life.

Jesus longs to do business with His creation…

And he goes on to say, “And He will even show you things to come because He’s the spirit of prophecy. The more sensitive we will become to the will and plan of God. God longs to bring His will to pass in the earth and in us individually. He desires to have communion and fellowship and do business with His creation.” That’s us! “Developing our own prayer life makes prayer personal and causes things in our lives to be in order. Jesus said, ‘pray, lest you enter temptation,’ Mark 14:38. A prayer life will help our spirit grow stronger than our flesh and help keep us out of many temptations and problems we face. The more we walk in the spirit, the more we will be able to not to fulfill the lust of the flesh, Galatians 5:16. James said by the Holy Ghost is any among you afflicted? Or one translation says “going through a tough time facing adversity.’ Let him or let her pray. James 5:13. A strong prayer life will help keep us out of afflictions and show us how to deal with them and come out victoriously.” It’s a choice at victorious living.

How do we grow strong in the Lord?

And then he says, “How do we grow strong in the Lord?” We know God’s Word is the primary key. But our prayer life also has a lot to do with it. Jesus never said temptation wouldn’t come. He said, Pray, lest you enter into temptation. Prayer helps our spirit man be more developed than our flesh. And then our spirit can dominate us. Jude 20 says, “but you beloved building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.” Yourself is the real you. Who you are inside, your spirit man. The Bible says that you can build yourself up by praying in the Holy Ghost. It would amaze people how things that have kept them in bondage for years fall off simply by maintaining a consistent prayer life.

Gloria Copeland’s testimony about prayer…

I just read something on social media. Last night, somebody had posted something about a passage about Gloria Copeland and her journey through prayer and how she made a commitment years ago to pray. For her it was an hour a day in the spirit and how it profoundly impacted and changed her life and ministry. And she’s remained consistent to that to this day. And it may not be an hour for you, maybe 5 minutes, 10 minutes. Whatever the case is, you might do it in the morning. You might do it at night. I was just thinking as I was walking in here this morning, since I was a teenager I wanted to get up early all the time consistently and pray. But I’ll just be real with you this morning. I realize I’ve never been able to do that. So I pray at night. I’ll pray at night. I’m tired, but I will get up and I will walk and I will do my praying in the evening, even before bed at times. That just works for me. So find what works for you. But it’s this consistency in prayer, just endeavoring to build a habit and a rhythm in your life where you’re connecting with God through time of fellowship and intimacy with Him. He will transform the landscape. I mean, every shore, as Mark wrote in this book, it will transform every aspect of your life.

Prayer will bring a direct download from heaven…

I’m just telling you, my life has been shaped and made because of prayer. Because of the word, of course. We need both, but if there’s something about prayer, it breathes on the Word. It breathes life into that Word. It brings it to life, and it causes it to grow. There is a direct download from heaven. Make no mistake about it. A direct download from the throne no less into your life when you open your mouth, when you express your heart to God in your heavenly prayer language… Of course, at other times, when you wait silently before Him… when you get on your knees in your closet or wherever you are and just raise holy hands, it attracts the realm of the Spirit to you. It invites angels to come and minister to you.

“Whoa, Ken, that’s far out.”

There is a parallel universe of the spirit dimension…

Well, I’m just telling you, there is a spirit realm. There is a parallel universe of the spirit dimension, and it’s that realm we’re called to influence. And it’s that realm we’re called to draw from and actually live from as New Testament believers. Not from this realm that’s passing away and is corrupt and broken. But from that realm. As we talked earlier this week, from that place that He’s prepared. Remember we read yesterday in the book of John, Jesus said, “I’m going ahead of you to prepare a place.” Well, first He prepared a place in us for the Holy Spirit to come and abide. We are the temple of the most high God. But He also as well went to a place in the eternity to come to prepare a place for us. Oh my goodness. God is just far out. He’s amazing.

A prayer life will change us…

Mark goes on to say in another passage of this chapter, “A prayer life will change us. That’s why James said, ‘Is any among you afflicted, let him pray.’ Afflicted does not mean sick. James gave instructions in James 5:14 to those who are sick. Afflicted means to be suffering tests, trials, or tribulations, going through a tough time. James didn’t say is any among you afflicted, let him go to eight hours of counseling. Thank God for counseling if it’s according to the Bible. James didn’t say is any among you afflicted, let him call the prayer line and have someone else do his praying for him. No, but thank God for prayer lines.

But I have to say I’ve had many moments where I’m like, I see people that asked for prayer and I’m like, “Well, why don’t you take that up and pray. You probably have more time than I do to pray for yourself.” We need to get back to praying ourselves. And teaching people to pray for themselves, starting with our children and our grandchildren. Prayer is not an option. As Pastor Lynne has taught us, prayer is your life because it represents communion and relationship and your eternal purpose, which is to connect with your Creator. “A prayer life will change us,” he says. “No, James said for you to pray yourself.”

A great ministry will have a great corresponding prayer life…

“If you read in the history books about great men and women of God through the past 2,000 years, you can see that anyone who had a great ministry also had a corresponding prayer life. People can have a wonderful gift and it can carry them for a while, but no gift will last apart from communion with God. Jesus is our best example. Some may think Jesus didn’t have to have a prayer life because after all He was the Word and is the Word and always will be the Word. Jesus is the Son of God. But while He was on the earth, He ministered as a man anointed by God. Anytime Jesus prepared to minister and just kind of meditate and translate this, you may not be a minister or have a full-time ministry, but you have an assignment. You have a calling, you have a purpose, whether it’s in the marketplace or in the home or whatever the case is.

Anytime Jesus prepared to minister to the multitudes, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers or raise the dead, He first went somewhere to pray. So I’m saying, meditate and translate it to your situation. Anytime you go to work, are you taking time to pray, allowing heaven to intervene and to enter into your life’s experience and assignment and calling? It’s not to be relegated to the natural or to your limited ability. God wants to flow through us and intervene and work through our thoughts and our creativity and our problem solving and our relationships. There is a higher from heaven that wants to enter into the church and wants to enter into people’s lives. When you pray, when you honor Him, when you invite Him, when you yield to Him, when you make Him your priority and do this, it will take your business to the next level. It will cause problems to get swiftly and efficiently solved, even situations that are beyond your pay grade or your training or your number of degrees that you have. God’s Spirit and His wisdom can trump anything that you’re lacking. And take you to the next place and cause you to have favor. Ultimately, in my experience, and from what I read in the Bible, it’s His favor anyway that opens doors and changes things and promotes you and gets you to where you need to be. It’s not your degrees or even your hard work. Although that’s a biblical thing; we should be diligent. It’s our relationship. It’s the fact we’re marked by His presence and His favor weighs on our lives. And as we yield to Him and go with Him, His favor, His preferential treatment just begins to operate and make a way where we don’t see where we couldn’t even come up with a way or envision a way. He has a way. God has a way this morning, individually and collectively.

Jesus refreshed Himself by going to the mountain to pray…

So he said, “Anytime Jesus prepared to minister to the multitudes, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, He first went somewhere to pray. Notice He didn’t take long naps to rest. Don’t misunderstand me. We have to give our bodies rest. Epaphroditus worked himself nigh unto death for the sake of the ministry, according to Philippians 2:30. But one thing I have noticed personally is that I don’t grow weary physically unless I push too long and hard and become drained spiritually. Jesus had multitudes pulling on Him, touching Him and drawing on His anointing. The way He refreshed Himself after these times was to go to the mountains to pray. He would go up into the mountains and pray all night. Then come back down and minister to the multitudes.

Phil and Fern Halverson

I can remember Phil and Fern Halvorson who were pioneers of this church and honestly, before Pastor Mac and Lynne were ever here, they were praying for a church. And they were praying out in the spirit, somebody by the name of Hammond to start this church. Years before Living Word became into existence. Phil and Fern were an amazing team. And I can remember Fern because they used to take some for Bible classes talk about how her and Phil would… she’s got a book and I should maybe share the link sometime to get that book. But it’s called the “Adventures of the Holy Spirit” where she just shares her and Phil’s adventures in the spirit as pray-ers. And I can remember her many times saying how her and Phil would stay up at night and praise Him all night long. And just some of the amazing things that would occur… not even sleep a wink and then just make a pot of coffee in the morning and they were refreshed and ready to go as ever.

Prayer puts back into us…

And she would say the Spirit of God would refresh you when you respond to His assignment and call. There’s just a higher that is able to refresh and invigorate us and put life back into us because that’s a prayer does. That’s what communion with the Father does. It puts back into us. It restores and replenishes what sin has taken out of us. What we ourselves take out of ourselves? Sometimes we wear ourselves out by our constant processing and thinking and trying to figure it out and doing it on our own. But God puts it back in us when we seek Him. Let me try to finish here.

“Notice what Luke 11:1 says ‘And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, prayer was a major part of Jesus’s earthly life.’ Jesus’s prayer life was so effective and left such an impression on these disciples that they asked Him in the same verse, ‘Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.’ The disciples watched Jesus pray and recognize he had something they didn’t, and they wanted it. Jesus had fellowship and communion with the Father. If Jesus needed that so do we.

Isn’t it interesting. The disciples never asked Jesus to teach them to prophesy or raise the dead. What was it about Jesus’s prayer life that made the disciples want Him to teach them to pray? Fruit. Or you could say results or answers. Apparently they watched Jesus pray things out. Then they watched Him walk those things out.

That’s kind of the cadence we’re supposed to be in, in this hour. And that’s what God originally intended for the Church. That we would pray things out and then walk things out. Pray things out. See those things in the spirit, and then just act those things out. True prayer activists pray and then act.

They watched Him pray out healings, then He walked out healings. You want to know why he was just so effective is because he prayed those things out and saw a lot of what He was going to do that following day in the spirit in his heart. The Father showed him. Remember, we just said in John, it says the Holy Spirit will show you things to come. And so He already knew He was going to prophesy. He already knew He was going to lay hands on. He already knew that He was going to turn water into wine.

They saw Him pray out miracles and then walk out miracles. They witnessed Him asking God to do things. Then He went out and God did them. Whoa! what a concept! What if the Church prayed and then went out and then God did what we prayed! So that He could put on a show. That’s what He wants to do, right. He loves to do that. Ephesians says He wants to put on a show throughout all eternity. He wants to showcase redemption. He wants to showcase us the prizes of redemption. He wants to show off and signs and wonders and miracles. He wants to show off His goodness and salvation and power and greatness. He wants to raise up a standard to such a degree that all the gods of this world bow and get swallowed up by the glory and the awesomeness and the greatness and the renown of our God. Hallelujah!

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