Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everyone. Great to have you with us. Good to see you guys on this Tuesday morning!
There’s never been a greater call to prayer…
This morning I’m reminded of a passage in Ephesians which you’re probably all familiar with regarding prayer. A couple of verses actually. We live in a time when there’s never been a greater… I’ll use the word “summons” to the church, to us as individual believers, to us as Living Word staff, as congregation members here or wherever you belong in a faith community, there’s never been a greater call to pray, a call to collaborate, I like to use that word, with God the Holy Spirit.
Oswald Chambers quote…
I believe it was Oswald Chambers who once said “Prayer does not fit us for the greater works. Prayer is the greater work.” I love that.
Martin Luther quote…
Martin Luther said, “Pray like it all depends on God. Then when you’re done, go work like it all depends on you.”
Prayer is how we navigate these unprecedented days…
There’s never been a time in the timeline of the church where God is extending an invitation for us to pray and co-labor with Him in prayer. That is how we make our way forward in this hour. That is how we navigate these unprecedented days. That’s how we as a church, Living Word that is… your church, your ministry, wherever you’re joined with us online, your household. That’s how you make your way forward. God intended for us to work with Him. Amen? To turn ourselves over to Him, to yield our very lives to Him, that He would inhabit us and that He would animate us, and that He would move us forward. Because we put first things first, as someone once said.
I jotted this down the other day…
And it’s simply this: “The deep places of prayer are experienced as you sit with the Father, letting Him talk as you earnestly listen to every word. He wants to share His heart with you, and within that, you discover your prayer assignments. You discover your assignment, period, really. Or what He has for you and what He wants you to ask.”
Waiting on the moving of the Spirit…
I’m always reminded of that, just the essence of our journey, of our relationship with God, which is just that—a relationship. Sitting alone with Jesus, sitting silently, quietly waiting on the moving of His Spirit, listening for His voice, receiving His impartation. And then from that place, we move… we flow… we pray… we worship… we make decisions… we do ministry… we do business. Right? God always intended for us to flow from that place, that place of intimacy, an intimate ongoing and growing relationship with Him.
Martin Luther quote…
Martin Luther also said, “I have so much to do that I shall have to spend the first three hours in prayer.” He realized that was his secret power. Clearly Paul thought the same thing because he was a great advocate, especially of praying in other tongues. He touted that. “I’m glad I pray in the spirit or in tongues more than you all.” He understood that there was an outflow from heaven to earth, that there was an accomplishment of Jesus’s mandate to pray to see heaven realized in the earth through us, through our yieldedness, through us turning ourselves over to Him, through our time of intimacy and prayer with Him.
Our effectiveness goes up much higher in every arena of life from that place. When that place is the main place, that place of intimacy with Him, that place of “Lord, what kind of relationship do you want me to have with you? What do you want me to know about you today?” We should never exhaust our curiosity and our desire to know Him. After all, Jesus said this is eternal life. To sum it all up. This is eternal life, He said, that you might know Him.
I love what somebody shared here recently…
They said, “I believe God is mobilizing the angels of awakening.” As we pray, as we take ownership of our world, will it be Living Word, your household, your city, your nation? We take ownership and say, “God, my assignment is to see heaven invade earth.”
On earth as it is in heaven…
Isn’t that what the assignment of Jesus was? Jesus was our bridge from heaven to earth. How did He tell us to pray? He said, “On earth as it is in heaven.” That is our model for prayer. And we pray, we push… Come on now! We press… we take risks.
John Wimber quote…
Isn’t that what John Wimber once said? He said that “Faith is spelled R I S K. We take risks. We contend until heaven invades earth.” And I think that’s why there’s such a mandate or a summons by God the Holy Spirit in this day for us individually, for us as a church, for the church overall to come to Him, to co-labor with Him, to find a new kind of relationship. He wants to reinvent our relationship. No matter how many decades we’ve been in the faith or following Him, He wants us to perpetually be reinvented in the newness of His Spirit.
He’s doing something new…
The Bible says adopt a fresh attitude of mind because He’s doing something new. And the new that He’s endeavoring to do is to get more of heaven into the earth, more of heaven in and through Living Word, more of heaven into your household, into your finances, into your decision making. Amen!
“That’s really good, Pastor Ken.”
I’m glad you agree. It is good! You know, it’s that simple. Jesus said “on earth as it is in heaven.” And that’s why He took time apart from the busyness and the chaos of His earthly ministry to spend much time alone in quiet places, up in the mountains, behind a lonely rock in the desert, just simply being with and present with His Father. Because everything outflowed… all the miraculous that was recorded emanated or resulted from that place.
The main thing…
Somebody once said “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” This is the main thing! And God’s intent kind of overarchingly now is that we would see more of heaven in all its different facets and expressions in our lives and in our services, in our school, in our church, in our daily decisions, in the daily routine of our department.
To breathe in your spirit is to pray…
Maybe I’m super convicted about this because I feel like I need Him more than any other person on the planet. I need Him. Apart from Him I can do nothing that is fruitful and truly what God intends for me and through me. And the same is true for you. We need Him. We need Him more than our next breath. That’s why prayer has been described as breathing. To breathe in your spirit is to pray.
Ephesians 6:18…
And let me just add these scriptures. Ephesians 6:18 says, “Pray in the spirit at all times on every occasion. Stay alert and persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” I see coming down 94, there’s a business right just south of Rogers that has a neon advertising sign. They must be a Christian company because it often says “praying always.” I love driving by there and seeing that on the right hand side. “Praying always.”
We’ve not begun to scratch the surface of what is possible, what the power that God intends to bring through us as portals, if you will, of Him, of His kingdom because of prayer. Praying always. Radical in prayer.
Colossians 4:2 says…
“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about His mysterious plan concerning Christ.” Paul said, “This is why I am here in chains. Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.” There’s just something about praying in the spirit that brings a clarity of emphasis and focus as God sees it from God’s perspective in your decisions, in our preaching, in our praying.
The wisdom of Pastor Lynne…
I’ve learned more and more from Pastor Lynne that it’s God that grants the prayers as we yield ourselves to Him, devote ourselves to Him, begin to align and vibrate with the frequency of God. Pretty soon, more and more, it’s less us and more Him praying. Because our hearts beat with His heart. Our decisions are His decisions. Our vision is His vision. Amen?
First Peter 4:7…
“The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.” The Amplified Bible renders it this way: “But the end in culmination of all things has now come near. Keep sound minded and self-restrained and alert, therefore, for the practice of prayer.”
Challenge…
So I just challenge you this morning as we turn our hearts toward Him. We live in an all-eyes-on-Jesus hour. That’s why we’re here. All eyes on Jesus. He’s the head of the church, last time I checked. He’s the head of the church, right? So we want to turn our eyes to Him. And as we worship, as we pray, as we flow, as we gather online in this chapel, there’s a beautifulness of His presence already ebbing and flowing in here. And He wants to speak, He wants to move, He wants to empower, strengthen, clarify, bring hope, bring healing. He wants to reveal Himself during this time, individually and collectively.
Prayed…
And so we just say, Lord, let that be so in this time, this morning.
We pray that you would have your way, Lord. That your voice would be loud and clear.
We pray that your presence would be welcome even as we come together this morning.
We thank you that we’re not here coincidentally, we’re not here just passing time. We’re here on purpose. You sent us to this generation and this time. You sent us to this particular part of the world. Wherever we perhaps find ourselves today… in this case right now, in this chapel in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
We thank you, Lord, that we’re here on assignment, on mission for you.
And so, Lord, we just humble ourselves. The Bible says humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. And so we do so right now. We humble ourselves and we say, Lord, we can’t do another day without you. We can’t make another decision, conduct another meeting, do another duty in our home without you. We need you today.
So, Lord, we apologize and repent where we’ve gone it alone, where we’ve struck out on our own in many ways and just kind of gotten used to doing Christianity from memory and forgotten that you’ve called us to live from inspiration, perpetually from our hearts.
So, Lord, we just pray lead us back to that place, back to the place where truly this is called a house of prayer, through and through in every area.
