- “Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist”
Pastor Ken…
Good morning!
I wanted to share this passage from Hebrews 12:1. It talks about the Great Cloud of Witnesses. This is from the Passion translation. “As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us.” I like that.
We’re in a race…
Psalm 1:39 reveals that God already has penned or put in place a book of destiny for each of us personally and individually, a journey of purpose and assignment for each of our lives. And so that hard work has already been done. But our deal is in this lifetime to continually offload everything that tries to get on us… every weight, every sin, every worry, everything the enemy tries to throw on us or get to cling to us, to slow us down, or to keep us from running that race. We’re in a race, we’re in a spiritual journey, we’re in a spiritual race.
Those in heaven are aware of our spiritual progress…
And I was reminded of an experience a great man of God had. Many years ago, he had a visitation, or a really an open vision, after his sister had passed away. And in the vision, he had gone to heaven and had an experience with his sister who had just passed away. He talked with her a little bit. What’s really cool is his brother, who wasn’t so spiritual, also had a vision and spoke to his sister as well! They both didn’t know beforehand, but afterwards, they compared notes and realized what God had done in both their lives.
And what I thought was interesting was that in talking with his sister, this great man of God, he began to understand that those that are in heaven don’t necessarily know what color car you’re driving or what you’re going to eat for lunch or what’s going on at the office in the natural, so to speak. But they are aware of what’s happening in those that are still on the earth, in their spiritual journey, in their spiritual lives, how they’re doing spiritually and what’s happening in their spiritual journey. And I think that’s interesting because that just draws such emphasis to the fact that our spiritual race is what is important. And there are many Christians who really only engage in the natural level of life, not realizing that the main deal is our spiritual engagement, our relationship with our heavenly Father… us responding out of our spirit to the steps God puts before us to the prayers He wants us to pray. As we talked about yesterday. to the authority He wants us to exercise to make a difference in the atmosphere around us and in our day-to-day lives. Those in heaven are cheering us on. Those that have gone before you are aware of how you’re doing spiritually, whether you’re walking with God or not, whether you’re engaging in the plan of God or not.
God has a plan for each of our lives…
But I want to emphasize this here too, that make no mistake about it, there is a specific plan for each of us… on any given day in every arena of our lives. But you have to discern and recognize it spiritually. You can’t just go through the motions of just going to work and just paying the bills. I know we have to do that and just doing natural things. God, each day, invites us to drop down from here and from this realm into here, into our hearts, into the spirit part of us and become a people more perceptive and a people who recognize that there are certain things that God is inviting us into each and every day.
2022 is to be a year of recovery…
You know, another really well-known minister was sharing how God spoke to him, that 2022 was to be a year of recovery… of recovering all. And that connected with me without a doubt. I feel like the pathway to recovering all, to restoration, to restitution, to experiencing healing, increase, to recovering whatever the enemy has stolen or whatever he’s done in our lives, that the pathway to that begins by recalibrating our hearts and our minds and our priorities to spiritual things.
Mary Queen of Scots quote…
I was also reminded of great quote by, I think it was, Mary Queen of Scots, back in the Middle Ages. She said that she feared the prayers of John Knox more than the armies of Britain and France. Here was a queen that wasn’t so godly who understood the import and the impact of one man’s spiritual engagement, one man’s devotion to spiritual things… one particular man’s prayers, she feared more than the armies of Europe at the time. Hallelujah!
Prayer for the spirit of wisdom and revelation…
In Ephesians1 is a prayer for us to be engaged spiritually and for us to be open and for our eyes to be tuned in and focused on spiritual things, focused on the plan of God and what He is saying. As I read this, I want you to receive it and just say, “Lord, I pray that for myself this morning.” We’re going to pray about a spirit of wisdom and revelation. But in Ephesians 1:15 it says, “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”
Do you know the hope of His calling?
The hope of His calling. That’s a good thing right there to focus on today. Do you know the hope of His calling? Yes, maybe you’ve got some years under your belt and you’ve done some things for God, but what is the hope or the directive of His calling in the days ahead. I believe He wants us to experience a year of recovery. What does He want you to recover? What souls, what natural things perhaps have been stolen? What opportunities did you miss out on? What physical things have happened that have affected you that you know He wants to bring healing and recovery in your physicality, in your relationships, in your soul, in your experience and level of life?
We have an inheritance in Christ…
“and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” You and I have an inheritance. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us, toward you, toward me… who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which he worked in Christ when He raised him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality…
I think it’s Colossians that says in the mind of God, when Christ was raised and seated at the right hand of God, we were raised and seated with Him. Did you catch that? That’s a spiritual revelation. That’s a revealing of God of spiritual things that He wants us to grasp. That He wants us to be inspired and informed on the inside and in our thinking more than we are informed and inspired by the circumstances swirling around us on any given day. He wants us to be inspired and informed regarding the redemptive work of our Lord regarding what Paul penned in the letters to the Church, which in many ways are an x-ray picture of what happened behind the scenes in the work of Jesus. And according to this writing inspired by the Holy Spirit, Christ was raised and therefore we were raised from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places.
Our identity is with Christ…
We’re seated with Him far above all principality, far above all might, far above all dominion and every name, every sickness… far above COVID or cancer or colds or flu, far above insufficiency or brokenness or dread or fear and anxiety or panic… far above! We are seated far above our natural circumstances and our emotional state and our situations rise up, come up out of the naturalness of this world and our past when we begin to see that our identity now is in Him, that our identity is with what is being revealed here, that our identity is with Christ. That we are raised up and seated in a place of victory, far above every work of the enemy. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet.
Somebody used to say, “If Jesus is the head and we’re the body, then the lowest part of the body, the feet, that the enemy and every work of darkness is still under the feet of the body.” Maybe I’m the feet1 Well, guess what? The enemy is still under me if I’m the feet in the body. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Prayed…
Father, we pray that this morning … we take that passage or narrative penned by the great apostle Paul inspired under the influence of the Holy Spirit…. We take that for ourselves today, each and every one of us here. We pray fervently passionately and with a strong stance of faith for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you today… that there would come a shift in our hearts today. Not only those of us engaged here today, but the church at large, the church here at Living Word, the church across America, the church around the world today, we pray for a supernatural shifting out of a limited place where we’re focused on distractions and chaos and craziness and the reports of the news media and we step into a new season, a new time in the plan of God for this particular generation…where we step over into a place where we become aware of spiritual things like we’ve never been aware of them before.
Prayer about the good race…
That we would be cognizant that we’re in a journey, we’re in a race, we’re running a marathon of faith and it is a good race. It’s a good race of faith. And it’s one where even heaven itself is cheering us on with thunderous applause and cheers and encouraging words from that other realm, from those that perhaps we even know saying, “Keep going, Church. Keep going in your race. Don’t relent. Don’t draw back. Don’t grow weary in your well-doing in the work and the plan of God.”
Prayer for a shift in the Church…
Father, we pray for that shift today… in the church to start with … open our eyes, unstop our ears, soften our hearts in such a way that we would become a people more conscious and more aware of that realm than we are this realm… more conscious of our books of destiny and of the prompting and leadership of the Holy Spirit on any given day or a moment that our lives become aligned with that… aligned with the supernatural and aligned with the outpouring of the Spirit.
Lifting up people who have fallen away from God…
As I said in this year of recovery, this year of restoration, this year where we receive and we take back all the enemy has stolen and much, much more in the name of Jesus. And so we lift up people today that we know who have gone away from spiritual things. Who’ve fallen away from the house of God, from the plan of God… we pray for those who have yet to profess the name of Jesus … We see them in our hearts and we lift them up to you today, Father. We pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation for them. That the eyes of their understanding would be open. We pray for light. We pray for the penetration of truth for after all, Lord, your Word says that you desire light and truth in our inward most parts. And so we pray out a pathway for light and truth into the lives of those loved ones of those friends or work associates. Those we rub shoulders with every day that we pass on the roads that live across the street from us. Lord, we lift them to you …
Prayer for the breaking off of demonic lies and deceptions…
Open up, open up hearts, Father. We pray for a clarity… We pray for a breaking off of deception and lies and doctrines of the demonic that have operated in people’s hearts, even believers who have gone away or fallen away, we lift them up to you today, Father, throughout the Church and throughout our sphere of influence. And we pray for a breaking down and a breaking off of that darkness and that deception and those lies that they have given place to.
Speaking blood and light and truth to them…
We speak the blood over them today. And we declare light and truth and understanding and awakening to their souls in the mighty name of Jesus … open up, open up, open up …
Peg led group in worship…
Prayer continued…
We lift you up over the coming year of 22. We lift up Jesus over every church represented and joined with us online…
Prayer for America…
We declare mercy and grace over America. Today we declare mercy and grace over Israel. Today we declare mercy and grace over the nations today. We thank you for the good things that are breaking forth on the scene of America. Lord, we thank you for the shift that’s happening and coming even right now. We thank you for an open heaven and visitation from God to earth, to this generation, to our lives, to our families, to our churches, to our cities, to our neighborhoods. We call for that today. That you would show up and show forth and reveal yourself to this generation, Lord, like we’ve not seen up until now.
…that the Spirit of God would show up in the nighttime … show up in our bedrooms … show up in our dreams … show up in people’s worst case scenarios… show up in families and in children’s lives and in the public school that God would visit … and show up in our political offices of the land, whether it be local or regional or state or national
Lord, we pray for your coming to earth in this time. That we would not continue in this low place or in a rut spiritually…
But that there would come a raising up a standard in the economics and in the business community, in the entertainment industry … in the athletic arena in professional sports in college athletics. … in the meetings of city councils… in the boardroom of corporate organizations …
We call for visitation of other persuasions in the world … of Islam, in the world of Buddhism, Hinduism … in communist countries.
Behind certain walls of fascism and domination and control in certain nations… Father, we pray today that you would supernaturally move and go behind the enemies lines.
All I can see is like a pair of shooter… military pair of paratrooper who parachutes behind the enemy’s lines. We pray today for the spirit for new initiatives … for new works of God… for assignments and visitations and awakenings and revelations and a breaking off of strongholds
We pray for life and penetration in the darkness and dark places and walled off areas. Lord, where the enemy thought that he had it all locked up and had it all tied up and that nothing could change. Lord, we declare change. We declare awakening. We declare visitation to the far-flung regions of the world today.
We pray for God to come down into those places, into those hearts, into those lives, into those regions and nations today, Father, that there would come a supernatural explosion, a shaking that awakens and opens eyes and unstopped ears and causes hearts to be receptive and open to the Gospel.
