- “Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist”
Pastor Ken…
Good morning this Wednesday! I wanted to pause for a moment and read a couple of things to get us started today. God has a plan for us that He wants to bring forth from us today. And I was thinking in particular about how oftentimes we face problems and issues in our lives. We struggle and battle with things, simply because we haven’t utilized our spiritual authority. I’m sure many of us have… some maybe haven’t… heard teaching about the authority of the believer. But I just want to emphasize that for a moment this morning. Just the necessity of taking hold of what has been placed in our hands as God’s sons and daughters. And that is nothing less than spiritual authority, or in other words, the right to rule in a given domain. And that domain starts with your life, your home, your situation, your circumstances, the atmosphere around you wherever you go. If somebody invites you to stand and believe with them, then you’ve got the ability to exercise authority with them in their situation. But first of all, in your own life, in your own situation.
Prayer is one way we exercise our authority in Christ…
And, of course, prayer is one way we exercise our authority. Our words are continually releasing life or they’re releasing death, depending on our choosing. And so I just wanted to read just for a few moments from a book. It’s a book by Mark Brazee entitled “Processing the Plan of God.” In chapter two, he writes that “Maria Woodworth-Etter was a woman minister who was mightily used of God. In her book, “The Acts of the Holy Spirit,” she recounts a vision where God took her to heaven. There she saw beautiful vials on a shelf. When she asked an angel who was standing nearby what was in the vials, the angels told her the vials were filled with the prayers of the saints. A special week of prayer had just taken place on earth and those prayers were contained in beautiful new vials, lining the shelves in heaven.”
What a great image, right? What a great reality.
Our prayers are precious to God…
Revelation 5:8 says, “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and 20 elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them, harps and golden vials, full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints.” That’s why I say reality. It is a reality. “Our prayers are precious to God. They’re coveted by Him.” As I said before, this is one of our high missions and great purposes in this lifetime, in this life’s journey is to be people who invite God into the earth. John Wesley in the 17th century said that it seems that God can do nothing for humankind in the earth unless someone invites Him or asks Him. And that is true. We get the great pleasure each and every day to invite God into this world. He’s a just God.
In Adam, we lost our authority but in Jesus, we got it back…
Sadly, in the experience of Adam and Eve, Adam gave over mankind’s authority at that time to Lucifer. And he came into the earth and began to operate and create disarray and disfunction and chaos and craziness in the earth in people’s lives. And the curse entered into the human experience. But that wasn’t God’s original intent. But Jesus came. He came to purchase and to buy back and to, once again, delegate to us spiritual authority. And while the enemy is still here and still operating, the Bible reveals he’s the god of this world. The god of the atmospheres around this earth, in the spirit dimension. Well, that’s true. Jesus delegated in… We’ll read it in a little bit here in Matthew 28:18 spiritual authorities. He announced all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go ye. You go! Go into all the earth and do My work, in other words. Overcome evil with good. Preach the Gospel. Make disciples.
No weapons formed against us shall prosper…
And one of the fundamental ways we do that is through the exercise of our authority. And while the enemy is here and he will be here through the balance of this dispensation, he may not be in me. He may not operate in my home. He may not operate in my circumstances. And where he does in believers’ lives, it’s either a result of ignorance or apathy. Where we haven’t exercised that authority, where we have not put him on the run and made the boundaries clear. “You’re not welcome here. You’re not welcome in my body. You’re not welcome in my family. You’re not welcome in my finances.”
He can rear his ugly head. A weapon can be formed against us, but the Bible promises that if we will take a strong stand of faith and walk with God in our daily lives, that weapon will not prosper no matter what it’s called by… no matter what name it has. Whether the name is COVID or cancer. Whether it’s bankruptcy or divorce. Whether it’s a trauma that you’ve experienced. Whatever it is. It could be a weapon formed but it shall not prosper.
God’s called us to be the glorious Church…
God has not called us to live a lowly, defeated church-mouse existence. He’s called us to be the glorious Church. He has called and assigned for you and for me, not just for a select few, but for each and every one of us to walk in victory. I think I ended the time yesterday saying God has given us a spirit of victory. And some days you just have to stir that victory up on the inside of you. But it’s in you; make no mistake about it. Don’t be fooled. Authority has been delegated to you and me. Victory has been assigned to you and me. Strength and joy and grace and ability… and the Bible even announces all things that pertain to our life and our godly journey have already been granted and reside in us. And it’s up to us to stir that up, to keep it in our consciousness, in our hearts, stirred to a place where we walk and lean into it and we speak it. Amen. Where we draw it up.
You have to “prime the pump” in your heart…
When I was a kid, I remember we used to have a pump on our farm that you had to prime. I mean, you could plug it in and it would run. But nothing would come out of that pump or through the hose. If you’re pumping out something, water out of a pond or a pool or whatever. You’d have to actually pour some water into it and prime it so that it would begin to function and begin to flow. Well, I’m here to tell you that sometimes you got to prime the pump in your spirit. You got to prime the pump in your heart. Make no mistake about it, a reservoir of God, even in the midst of whatever you’re facing today, however you feel today, whatever was said yesterday, or happened to you yesterday or whatever circumstances haven’t changed in a week, a month, a year, a decade. It doesn’t matter. Your past is not predictive of your future. The Word of God is predictive and prophetic of your future. And it says that there is a supernatural supply of the Spirit of God within us. We read it last week that Jesus came to do what He did to release a river, to release a supernatural supply in us out of our belly. He prophesied once the Spirit comes upon us, a river of living water springing up to eternal life, springing up to the need that we face on any given day, springing up to whatever it is that we’re facing to supply us, to equip us, to cause us to triumph in all things.
God is waiting on us to proclaim and declare…
The Bible proclaims, you and I are more than a conqueror through Him who loved us. And the atmosphere around you, the circumstances that you face, the trouble that you’ve been troubled by is just waiting for you, a child of God, a priest, a prophet, an anointed one, just waiting for you to speak, for you to step in and say, “This is the way it’s going to go today. This situation in our nation, it’s going to go this way for that’s what we declare. And that’s what we say.”
God has a full repertoire of prayers that He is desiring to inspire us with, prayers that He already has stamped approved, answered, supplied. This is what I want to do in heaven. And He’s waiting for us to yield over to Him and to that reservoir in us of prayers and utterance, and of bold proclamation and declaration regarding the way it’s going to go for you and yours, for us in our nation and the Church. Do you know that? Prayer is not a matter of trying to convince or cajole God into doing something. It’s not a matter of trying to do good and not do bad and be the best Christian you can be. No. That’s already been settled through the amazing and marvelous and beautiful and awesome work of the cross.
We are raised up together with Christ…
The last time I checked the letter in Ephesians and Colossians says that God raised up Jesus and placed Him, once again, from the grave to the right hand of the throne of God. And it also says, according to the understanding and the writing of Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that in the mind of God, you were raised up together with Christ to be seated together with Him in heavenly places right now. When I talk about your identical position and possession, that’s what I’m referring to. You’re not some lowly church mouse, barely getting by. “I don’t know if I’m going to make it today.” And I get that. There are some days… wow! Emotions and feelings and what people say and what happens can be tough. But you have it within you as a pray-er, as a believer to lift yourself up, to stir yourself up in your most holy faith, giving praise, glory, attention, and proclamation to God and declaration to the realm of spirits that’s around you and start paving the way by your intent of faith.
You were created to be a speaking spirit…
You got to clear out the atmosphere, not just in morning prayer, but in your daily prayer in your time with God. Sometimes you just got to step away from the office or from whatever you’re dealing with and just get with God for a few moments and just open up your mouth. Remember I said you’ve been created as a “speaking spirit,” unlike any of the other creations of God on the earth, you are unique. You are appointed and called and anointed and created in the Providence and the beauty of God to speak and create as God speaks and creates.
That’s what this whole prayer thing is about! Not here to say “God, if you would just one more time, I need help in this situation.” No! In heaven, there is a stack on God’s desk, if you will, that is a mile high. And that stack of papers are prayer requests, ideas and concepts and beautiful things God wants to do for you and for me and for the Church throughout the earth, in this generation, in this time. And every one of them is stamped “approved.” I like to say we serve a God of yes. No for the Devil. But yes for His purposes and His plans.
So even before we approach Him in prayer, He’s already stamped “YES” to that, which is in your heart… to that which you need. And He’s coaching us. The Holy Spirit more and more I realize, He’s a coach. He’s on the sideline, so to speak. The Bible says He’s a standby. He just standing by saying, “Come on, Church, come on. Just say this! Just pray this. Just give Me praise. Just turn your heart toward Me. Just step over here. Just do that over there.”
Everything is rigged in our favor…
It’s already all rigged in your favor. The Gospel is a revelation that everything in this life is rigged in our favor so that we can succeed and go on and rise higher and run with God in our generation to see great and amazing things. Why else would the Bible say you are more than a conqueror through Him who loved you? That He always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus. Glory to God.
The apostle Paul went to great lengths to explain and lay out the fact that the enemy of our soul and every stupid work of darkness that he tries to perpetuate in people’s lives has been brought to nothingness. Paul uses the imagery that the work of Jesus in His death, burial, and ultimate resurrection and seating at the right hand of the throne of God, was an overpayment for sin and an overpayment and a full and overwhelming continually growing supply of resources and everything you need in the way of wisdom and finances and solutions and answers and grace and strength and whatever it is. It is there for you. For the taking. For the receiving.
We need to say what God says…
The Bible says that His grace continually grows to swallow up our need, our mistakes, our missteps. But God needs a people who will be bold enough, intentional enough that we begin to say what God is saying. The Holy Spirit is trying to coach us to say what He is saying, to pray what He is praying, to go where He’s going. That’s really what this journey is all about. Discovering where God is already going, what He’s already said yes to, and then just kinda follow Him in that, saying that. God is not nervous about what the enemy is doing in the earth. The Bible says He laughs. He looks down at humanity and He laughs at the enemy and what he thinks he’s trying to do. Because God will have the final say and His way.
Our prayers do not fall to the earth void…
Let me finish reading. I barely started here. We were talking about the vials of prayers in heaven and it says “Our prayers are precious to God. The Bible says heaven is filled with the prayers of the saints. Our prayers are so tangible when they are uttered to God in faith, they go up to heaven and fill golden vials or bottles. A grandparent may offer a prayer for his or her grandchild before going to be with the Lord. Years later, that prayer is still contained in a vile. God is using every opportunity to answer it and bring His will to pass. So our prayers do not fall to earth void. They go up as incense.”
“Prayers are like incense that arise before God and are contained in golden vials where He begins working on them to bring them to pass. Prayer is not some kind of ritual. Prayer is not something we do simply because God said to do it. There’s so much more to prayer than that. When we can understand the purpose of why we are praying, it will help us pray much more effectively and with greater fervency. Our prayer life will affect what God is able to do on the earth. Why? Because prayer gives God a legal invitation to do what He wants to do. Some people can’t simply accept the fact that God is limited by our prayer life. And in order for Him to move, it takes someone asking Him.”
Listen to those prayer promptings in your heart…
Don’t overlook a prompting in your heart to pray for someone. If you think of someone or you see a situation on the news or something comes up in your spirit, don’t kind of gloss over that. Develop a spiritual sensitivity and awareness and just say, “God, what do you want me to do with that?” More often than not, He may want you just to simply lift that up. It doesn’t have to be an hour-long gutted out in your prayer language kind of prayer. Maybe it is. But the apostle Paul wrote that he simply made mention of people in his prayers. Just the mention of a person’s name. “Lord, I lift up that situation. I pray that you would have your way in that person’s heart or that particular set of circumstances. I pray for light and understanding to that person or restoration or healing or whatever.”
Oftentimes the shortest and simplest prayers are the most profound and powerful prayers. Again, don’t equate what we think of successful or what we think is effective in the natural. Don’t equate that with what God thinks is effective. Just whispering His name is a holy prayer.
Prayer is doing business with God…
“I’ve found our prayer is just not talking God into doing something. It is not twisting God’s arm. Prayer is not gathering enough people to pray. It is not praying loud enough or long enough. When I found out what prayer is and what prayer is for, I found the purpose for prayer. I realized prayer is doing business with God. Prayer is finding out what God wants to do, and then asking Him to do it.”
And I think I mentioned at the outset that many times we have problems and issues in our life, simply because we haven’t asked God. We haven’t invited Him into that situation. We have an exercised our authority.
We give God legal invitation…
He goes on to write, “We living here legally can do basically what we want, but when God wants to do something on the earth, He must do it by invitation. That is what we do in prayer. We give God legal invitation. When we asked for rain, according to His Word and He begins to pour out His Spirit and power in a particular part of the world, the Devil asks, “What are you doing here?” God says, I have an invitation. When God begins to move on a nation because the people have cried out for Him to move, the Devil says, “This is my place.” God says, “Not anymore. I’ve been invited. I have a legal invitation.”
When God wants to heal a missionary in the middle of Africa, He wakes someone up at four o’clock in the morning to pray. God reaches out and heals the missionary. And the Devil says, “You can’t do that.” God says, “Oh yes, I can. I have an invitation.”
Are you getting this now? Let’s be a people who are perpetually inviting God. Amen? Sending a request to God, inviting Him into every aspect of our world in our lives. He’s wanting to saturate this earth realm with invitations for Him to come and move into every situation, every trauma, every heart and life and family.
We are not to cower…
Let’s not cower. We said that on Monday. He does not want us to cower in fear. Oh, the news media can be influential and convincing and the technology that’s around us can make us think that the world system and the enemy is all powerful. But oh no, no, no, no, friend. God is still the most awesome, mighty, powerful Being in all the universe. And He’s our heavenly Father. He goes on to say,
“When we pray, we give God a legal right to move on the earth. Jesus told us in Matthew 16:19, “Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The King James translation may be a little unclear for some of us. And so he shares the R I E U translation. That translation of Matthew 16:19 puts it this way. “Whatever you forbid on earth heaven shall forbid. Whatever you allow on earth heaven shall allow.” Catch that, now. In other words, whatever we forbid here heaven goes to work to make sure it’s forbidden. If we allow something, heaven has no choice, but to allow it. So reflect for a moment. Think about, “What’s going on in my life. Have I allowed some things? Have I just kind of put up or learn to cope with a certain thing?”
One thing I’ve learned through the years is that there is far more that’s up to us. Now, some churches won’t teach this. They’ll just tell you God is sovereign. And you just never know what He’s going to do. He’s just going to do what He wants to do. And there are certain aspects of God, He certainly is still sovereign in His nature, but He’s chosen to abide by the legalities and the laws He laid down that operate in this current dispensation. And currently the enemy is in the earth and he’s the god of this world for the balance of this dispensation. And when that time’s up, well then everything changes. But until then, He’s laid down and He’s taught us very clearly in the Word that we are not to ask. There’s no place in New Testament scripture where we’re told or taught to ask God the Holy Spirit or Jesus Himself to do anything about the Devil in our lives.
Instead, in four or five or six scriptures if we were to take the time and do a teaching on this, it reveals to us that we are to submit to God, resist the Devil and he will flee from us. Because of who is in us and who’s behind us and who’s backing us up. And that is heaven itself. And the very work of the cross.
We have power to tread on serpents and scorpions…
Luke 10:19 says that He’s given us power and authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. It’s in us. It’s been assigned to us. The responsibilities in our court to speak, to exert, to inject ourselves into what the enemy is doing and bring change. Fundamentally through the exercise of our authority and the invitation of God into those circumstances and situations. He says, “If we allow something, heaven has no choice, but to allow it. Why? Because through Jesus Christ, God has delegated authority to us and it is up to us to do something with it.”
I feel like some people are going, “Whoa, what did Ken just say about not asking God to do something about the devil?” Yeah. I mean, if we’re going to bring the Bible into this conversation, the work of the cross, the work of redemption is a completed work. Jesus said it is finished. Every I is dotted. Every T is crossed. Every sin has been forgiven, present and future, and for all time. Every work of the enemy has been beaten down. We may face challenges, and weapons may form against us, but Jesus coached us in the gospels, “Be of good cheer for I have overcome all of that.”
Jesus came to start a revolution…
Fear can come. Temptation could arise. The Devil can rear his ugly head and you can feel it even at times, but you don’t have to yield to it. You don’t have to open your mouth and say, “I guess it’s you Mr. Devil. I guess you might as well just come on in. Yeah, I’m feeling pretty bad today. I guess I’m coming down with … I guess this situation isn’t going to change because it hasn’t changed in a year.” Or the newsroom media’s reporting this so I guess that’s what I’m going to experience as well. No! We are called to be counter cultural people. Jesus came to start a revolution, not an economic revolution necessarily or political revolution, but a revolution in the way we function spiritually. It is no longer trying to check all the boxes through a list of religious do’s and don’ts. It’s a matter of stepping into a full and completeness in Jesus, clothed in His rightness. We are holy before God, just because Jesus is holy. You are beloved and beautiful and accepted and qualified and anointed and sent to this earth with everything you need in your toolbox, with every equipping, with every endowment to not just stay in the status quo, but to grow and to rise and to change the world in this time.
Prayed…
Father, we just thank you for this privilege to come right up into your presence.
Thank you for the divine privilege of being able to know you and become children of the most high God.
We just thank you for the precious blood of Jesus today.
And we just pray today, Father, that you would just blow through us today, through our hearts and our souls … that you would breathe on us a fresh breath directly from heaven… a breath of God upon us each and every one of us.
Lord, that we would be stirred in our souls to be a people who are motivated and moved upon by the Spirit, mobilized by the Spirit in this hour …
I hear “an unleashing of the flood gates” on the inside of us on the inside of us, on the inside of the church and on the inside of believers in pray-ers
Lord, I pray for a supernatural release that there would just be a … a swinging wide of a door on the inside of us that there would be an unleashing of God in us for this hour.
On unleashing of inspiration and fire and power and glory …
An unleashing of light and life and healing right now.
Open up, open up today… We pray for a hearts and lives and souls to be opened up today …
We pray for people’s hearts and minds to be opened up in the church …
Father, in our cities, in our nations, in our communities and families today.
We pray for light from heaven and for a key to unlock that there would come light into the souls of people and openness and awareness. A receptiveness to God… an awakening to God…
Pray in your heavenly prayer language right now… have an awareness that you’re opening up the spirit of God to flow. You’re opening up a light and life and hope and purpose of God. You’re opening it up. You’re letting it flow now.
I pray for people, Lord, who need a furtherance in their prayer language.
I pray that you would douse them and baptize them with holy fire, with holy utterance.
I pray for an opening of floodgates in people’s hearts and souls this morning.
