Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Tuesday morning prayer.
Well, this morning, I thought I would share a couple of thoughts before we dive into prayer. I was just reflecting on how last winter I had put some new tires on my car. This might have been January and it was a bright sunny day. And I went out for a drive, and I was heading down the road and was about to get on the freeway when I hit a ginormous pothole in the road. And I felt just a “boom!” I mean, I hit that pothole with everything I had. Velocity and force and everything. I’m like, oh my gosh. What does this mean? Is my car gonna be the same after this pothole? And I could tell within just a few seconds that I must have blown a tire and sure enough, I did. So I thought quickly and got over into the lane and I took a left-hand turn and drove into a gas station. And sure enough, by the time I got to that parking spot at the gas station, my tire was completely flat.
I was going nowhere, and I was just reflecting on it. It was like 20 below zero and it was cold and windy. I actually used to work at a gas station growing up in high school and early college. So I replaced a lot of tires in my day. And anyway, I changed that tire out because I wasn’t going anywhere without that wheel, without the replacement for the flat.
If you don’t have wheels, you’re not going anywhere…
And I just was thinking of that briefly this morning and was reminded of the fact that wheels are significant. You know, you can have the nicest car money can buy, the most finely appointed interior, the most beautiful paint job. But if you don’t have wheels, you’re not going anywhere. It’s just gonna sit there stagnant, useless, except to look at.
Our relationship, communion, time with God are the wheels to God’s call for us…
And I was reminded that… our relationship, our communion, our time with God are the wheels to our journey… are the wheels to God’s call and purpose for our lives. In other words, when you relate to Him, when you engage in ongoing communion with the Father through the Holy Spirit, through His Word, through prayer, through time spent with Him, devoted to Him, you’re putting wheels on your life, so to speak. You’re putting wheels on the plan of God. You’re putting wheels on your next steps. And you’re able to move forward.
Time getting to know God puts the wheels on our journey…
So I just encourage you in that this morning. We talked a little bit yesterday about the importance of relationship and knowing God and how first and foremost we know Him through the Word, right? And that the more we know God, the greater our faith will be. In fact, I said that the more we know Him, the more you’ll find faith will no longer be a struggle. So we need to spend time getting to know God. That is so important and critical. It puts wheels on our journey.
Time with God makes you attractional…
I also put it this way. It makes you attractional. It draws things to you. It turns you into a virtual magnet and it draws things into your life. I mean Jesus, after all, said in Matthew 6:33. He exhorted us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. It doesn’t say you can’t seek other things or have other interests. It just says put Him and your relationship with Him first and by doing so, you’re creating a pathway for God to add things to you. You no longer have to seek those things. They’ll be added to you. You’ll draw things. You’ll bring things into your life by simply pressing down on the accelerator of your walk with God, pressing down on your pursuit to know Him. That’s what it’s all about.
And that’s where faith arises and is stimulated. Yes, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Amen. But as you press down on knowing Him, pursuing Him, never giving up on knowing Him. You’re also causing things to be brought into your life for your journey, whatever it is you need. Wisdom, direction, answers, provision, healing.
We open up the floodgates of living water through relationships with Him…
Jesus said out of your belly would flow rivers of living water, and we open up those rivers. We open up those floodgates through relationship, through time spent with Him. I’m convinced if we were to sit down… I mean we know this because we sense the Holy Spirit. But I’m convinced if we were to sit down in person with Jesus, He would probably have a similar conversation with us as he did with Martha. That there’s so many things we’re worried and consumed and distracted by. But the main thing, the thing that Mary focused on was waiting at the feet of Jesus. And that seemed to be the secret, not only of what Mary was doing at that moment when Jesus was having that conversation with Martha, but it seemed to be the secret that Jesus had in His life and ministry.
Jesus said, “Let’s go.”
He seemed to prioritize His time with His heavenly Father over everything else, to the point where there is an account in scripture where He actually stopped ministry in the height of activity and ministry that was going on. Thousands of people thronging Him. He turns to His disciples and says, “Let’s go.” And they got on a boat. And they went to the other side to recuperate and rest. And I’m sure Jesus spent time with His heavenly Father.
So our fellowship with God is the wheels to the plan of God for our life. And there’s so much more available to us but it’s found at the place of knowing Him.
The enemy wages a war of attrition…
And I feel like too… I don’t know if this is for somebody in particular right now, or who will stream this days from now, but I just sensed this morning that there are some that are just experiencing maybe a disconnect from your … There’s discouragement, maybe more specifically a hopelessness. I mean after all the enemy wages a war of attrition, I call it, where he constantly is trying to little by little detract from us, take from us, discourage us, steal hope from us, steal joy from us. He’s trying to find ways to cause little leaks, so to speak. And so we, at times, can end up feeling hopeless and discouraged and without strength and inspiration. But that ought not be so because we serve a God who is the most creative and inspirational being in all the universe. He is the source and supply of all that we need this morning. And so I just want to encourage you if you’ve been struggling with hope about a situation, about yourself maybe, about a pattern in your life that you seem to be repeating that is not good, a self-defeating thought pattern or way or situation. There’s hope this morning.
Hebrews says we have hope as an anchor…
In fact, I was reminded of a few verses you all are probably familiar with this, but in Hebrews 6:19, it says the hope we have as an anchor. So in other words, we have a hope in Jesus. The hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil.
Well, that’s a lot. What does that exactly mean, Ken?
Well, let me just kind of share it from the Passion translation paraphrase. It says we have the certain hope, like a strong unbreakable anchor holding our souls to God himself. So no matter what comes in the days ahead, whatever seems to try to shake us, regardless if you fail at something today… I’m not prophesying that I’m just saying, hey, we’re human, right? We have moments. Whatever the case is, Paul is writing and saying there is an anchor that is connected to God Himself that holds you in place no matter what comes tomorrow or today.
It goes on to say our anchor of hope is fastened to the mercy seat in the heavenly realm, beyond the sacred threshold. I like that. It’s anchored to the mercy seat. That means that’s the place where mercy and grace and empowerment and fresh starts flow from. So as long as you’re breathing, as long as you’re alive, no matter how bad the situation looks or how you feel or what they say, you are anchored, you are moored securely in God… to God Himself… to the mercy seat, no less. The place of forgiveness, the place of supply, the place of empowerment and grace and fresh starts. There is hope today for us, if you’re alive and in Jesus, amen. And if you’re not in Jesus, you can get in Jesus, you can receive Him and His gift of salvation and the empowerment of His hope and that hope brings to our lives. Isn’t that good?
Prayed…
Father, we take authority over the enemy and we bind the spirit of confusion…
We bind a spirit of hopelessness and the spirit of discouragement today in Jesus’ name…
I take authority over every attack and onslaught of the enemy in this prayer movement …
We lock our faith today and we take authority over the attack of the enemy in the realm of emotions and people’s minds and in their lives and by hindering or slowing in some way the promise or the plan of God…
We take authority over the enemy and we push back darkness today…
Father, we pray for light and I pray that light would just stream now encouragement, inspiration, inner divine energy, and strength now…
Prayer about a rekindling on the inside of us…
Flow into people’s hearts today, where we’ve been apathetic, where we’ve been slothful or slow to respond to God, I pray today that there would be a kindling on the inside of us, that there would be a stirring up of the Spirit of God, even in those that maybe don’t consider themselves aggressive or fiery in some way in their personality.
I pray that the Holy Spirit would be stirred up so much so that they would find themselves outside themselves in the days ahead, taking authority over the enemy, putting him on the run, making a decision to take a strong stand of faith and refuse any longer to put up with the enemy and his devices and his strongholds in their lives.
And so, Father, I pray that you would strengthen our innermost being today …
Strengthen pastors and leaders today and godly people…
I command the shackles of discouragement to be broken off of you…
Perennial discouragement and despair and trauma that has hooked itself to you in some way, I command those bondages to break off in Jesus’ name…
I command those strongholds to be loosed from you, from your mind like bands coming off your mind …
I command there to be severing in emotions where the enemy has had direct access to people’s emotions and their souls…
I command that stronghold to be broken in Jesus’ name…
I plead the blood of Jesus over you and I pray for a release of restoration, wisdom, supernatural freedom that would flow into you today…
I speak peace and wholeness and soundness and strength and consistency to not only your spiritual journey, but to your soul consistency…
We pray for an uncovering across the body of Christ today, an uncovering of our hearts, an uncovering of our emotions, an uncovering of those places in our soul that the enemy has bottlenecked, that the enemy has covered over with debris and the loss we’ve been through…
Prayer about debris removal…
We pray for a removal of all the debris that has clogged up our hearts and prevented the flow of God from flowing freely to us and through us with everything it contains…
We say “ha ha, devil, on your attempts. Ha ha ha ha ha.”
We’re still the church and we’re still on the earth. Ha ha ha ha. We are the ones who are more than conquerors… We are the ones that have overcome…
Break it up, breaking it up now … we break up every ploy, every deceptive strategy of the enemy. We break it up today in people’s lives, in families, in churches today in America today…
Prayer for announcement of hope and restoration…
We pray for the announcement of hope… of restoration … and proclamation of healing…
Lord, we pray for a turning up of the Gospel, the sound and the preaching and the broadcasting and the communication of words of hope today. Turn it up. We turn it up today…
Prayer about new spaces to occupy…
There’s some new places… new spaces we’re to occupy … come up, church, come up church. We call the church. We call one another up today…it’s time to come up and out… it’s time to explore some new places… it’s time to go with God into some new territories…
Pull back the curtain, Father, pull back the curtain in Jesus’ name… help us to see … help the church now to be assembled and aligned…
We pray that the church would be unified in a supernatural way…
We pray that over the church today, Lord, that there would come a holy, divinely granted anointing to the church, not just to the ministers and the pastors and the evangelists and the teachers, but throughout the body of Christ…
Father, a greater alignment, a greater agreement, a greater surrender and submission to God
We pray for an opening up of the way for the days that remain or the days ahead… an opening up… we pave the way with prayer today…
We pray that your will be done on earth. Done here at Living Word … done in your church today
A word came forth…
“The Lord’s gonna make it up to you.” I just heard that the Lord’s gonna make it up to some of you… to any of you that needs something made up. He’s gonna make it up. He’s gonna make it up to you. He is gonna make the enemy pay in Jesus’ name…
We pray for a divinely directed positionings now… that you would position people… that you would position whole church communities… set in a new place now … not to stay where we’ve been or to go backwards, but to move forward now … to move up now … into some new positions, into some new operations, into some new ways of cooperating with God.
Prayer about hearts being recalibrated…
“Our recalibrating.” That’s the word I hear. “Recalibrating.” Recalibrating our hearts, recalibrating our faith…
Lord, bring us as a people, bring us as a church to the new place, right up into that new entry point, right up into that new room and place that you prepared beforehand that we should enter into and participate in …bring each of us as individuals…
Prayer about stepping up…
Help us to sense the invitation of the Spirit to take another step… in Jesus’ name, step up to the door. Step up to the new place. Step into the new opportunity. Step out of your boat of comfort and onto the water of impossibilities… step up, step out, step up and step out. Now it’s time. God’s granting them. It’s the spirit of God saying you can do it now. So do it here. Do it there, do it in this way.
We declare that over churches today, we declare that over pastors and leaders, presidents and prime ministers today. We declare that today over pray-ers and over this prayer movement today…
God-granted steps… Yes, He’s already given them. He’s willing, but will you take a step? Oh, it’ll be joyful. There’ll be joy. There’ll be joy there in that step. There’ll be peace. There’ll be hope. There’ll be a full supply of what you need to take the step. Trust Me, the Spirit of God is saying, trust Me. I’m faithful. I’ll do it. Don’t be afraid to step out and come My way. I’m already where you need to be. I’ve already gone there. I’m here. The Spirit of God is saying now just move toward Me and you’ll see.
