Pastor Ken…
Good morning. Thank you for coming. Those of you that are joining us today, we’re so glad to have you with us.
Heartfelt worship moves God…
Just as Annie was leading us, I was reflecting and being reminded of the fact that it’s in the authenticity and simplicity of heartfelt worship that God moves, that His power is transmitted and that good things happen. And maybe I was thinking about that because last night I had a long night of things going on with my kids. But I endeavored to kind of press through my sleepiness and tiredness. At about 10:30 last night, I made a decision that I’m going to worship God, and spend some time praying and worshiping, just ministering unto the Lord. Just that simplicity and “organicness” of just worshiping Him… nothing’s spectacular. I didn’t have any accompaniment. It was just little old me in my bedroom. I pressed through my tiredness and just worshiped and magnified Him. And in that moment, I sensed His presence and power, growing and swelling within me, in my being, in my hands, and in my spirit.
And it’s just a good reminder that that is bottom-line Christianity, to use our lives in such a way that we glorify God, that we worship Him. And to be reminded that it’s in the simplicity and the authenticity of heartfelt worship that His power manifests, that He rejuvenates us, that healing and restoration and strength and wisdom flow. All of heaven has been made available to us through the work of Jesus. He has held nothing back from us. The Father held nothing back. He released it all. He put it all to your credit and my credit in a heavenly account.
God longs to manifest Himself to you…
And so, let that just stir in you this morning. You’re not alone and you’re not without a full supply. Maybe some things need to change. Some symptoms need to bow their knee to the name of Jesus, the healer. Perhaps the situation needs to be rerouted in a right direction. Perhaps we need to see some justice in our nation or in your family, or in some situation that may be the case. But God is still with us, for us, in us. Amen? And He longs to manifest and bring a greater and a fuller experience of His goodness.
God wants our lives to drip with His goodness…
In fact, when I was worshiping last night, that was the overwhelming sense I had is, “Lord, I’m just so thankful for your goodness.” I feel like my life is dripping with His goodness. Dripping like honey, right? Pouring honey onto a English muffin or something and just starts to drip with honey. God wants our lives to drip with His goodness. He’s positioning you right now. Maybe it doesn’t seem like that. Maybe it does. If it isn’t, if you’re not currently in that place, then just keep going with Him. Don’t back off. Keep leaning into Him. Keep laying down your life.
Keep laying down your life to Him…
What does that look like? It means laying down self, a little here, a little there. Our agenda, what we want to focus on, what we want to do in our lower nature. And taking up the opportunity to seek Him, to turn our attention to Him, to lift up holy hands and magnify Him. Because it’s in that atmosphere that you can create and you can decide to engage in that God shows up and you begin to experience His power. And you begin to sense His loveliness and the fragrance of His beauty and His glory and purpose. Transforming you from the inside out.
He wants us more and more to know Him, to be acquainted intimately with Him. That’s what this journey of life and faith is all about. Yeah, He wants to get some things into your hands, and yes, He’s got some purpose and some intentionality He wants to bring to and through you. But first and foremost, He wants you to know Him and He wants to engage with you in communion.
Phil. 3:7…
When I was worshiping last night, I was reminded of this classic passage. I’m going to read it from the Passion translation. It’s found in Philippians 3:7. So much of what we need to happen in our lives, what needs to be changed, what needs to be rerouted, what needs to be accomplished through you and through the Church for America and the world is all found in the simplicity of heartfelt connection with our Heavenly Father. And Paul the Apostle seemed to think so as well because he wrote these words… this is a paraphrase of what he said or wrote found in Philippians 3:7. It says, “Yet all of the accomplishments that I once took credit for, I’ve now forsaken them and I regard it all as nothing compared to the delight of experiencing Jesus Christ as my Lord. To truly know him meant letting go of everything from my past.”
It’s time to let go of some things…
Come on now! Some of you have to let go of some things… yourself, your agenda, your past, what somebody said, what happened, what didn’t happen, a frustrated expectation. Whatever the case is, it’s time to let go of some things so we can take hold of more of Him because it’s in knowing Him, it’s in hosting His presence that we find… In fact, the Bible says eternal life. Isn’t that what John 17:3 says? It says “This is…” In other words, this is eternal life. Eternal life is defined as knowing Him. Jesus said that. This is eternal life that you might know Me, know Him, the Father.
“All my boasting is like a pile of manure…”
But Paul goes on to say, “To truly know him meant letting go of everything from my past and throwing all my boasting on the garbage heap. It’s all like a pile of manure to me now.” How’s that for some clear language? “So that I may be enriched.” Oh, I like that word: enriched. “That I might be enriched.” In other words, there’s an enriching when we chalk up or consider all of our human efforts, all of our strivings and worrying and all the things we do even religiously. Paul is saying, I’m convinced if you had asked him, he would say all of his teaching series and even all the things he did to travel, he just kind of heaped it up onto a manure pile in comparison or juxtaposed to the priceless privilege, I think the Amplified Bible says, of knowing Him.
So in other words, Paul’s distilling this all down here for us this morning to what’s real, what’s right, and what’s all important for us. He says, “So that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embrace him as Lord in all his greatness. My passion is to be consumed with him and not cling to my own righteousness.” In other words, our own efforts to be good and not bad. Our own exertion of self-will, our own preconceived ideas of what we think about ourselves. You know, that’s an important truth right there in that most of us spend so much time thinking about how we’re doing. We’re always auditing ourselves, checking up on ourselves, feeling a certain way about ourselves because of what we’ve done or what we’ve not done. Well, one of the great revelations of the work of Jesus and grace is that it’s no longer about us, what we did, or what we are presently are doing. But it’s about Him. It’s about becoming a people wholly filled and flooded with God. Yes, and wholly captivated by what He did on our behalf. The perfect performance that He put in for us, a very imperfect people. But the more we’re captivated, the more we’re focused, the more we delight in His finished work on our behalf, the more it changes us on the inside. The more it produces the presence of God, I would add too. The more we’re enriched.
We’re enriched by the Word of God…
Scripture reads that we’re to be nourished on words of faith. And when you read after the words of those who wrote the New Testament and inspired under the Holy Spirit, you’re enriched, you’re added to, you’re transformed, you’re growing into a fuller measure of the stature of Jesus. But I like this. “So that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embrace him as Lord in all of his greatness. My passion is to be consumed with him and not cling to my own righteousness based in keeping the written law. My only righteousness will be his based on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, the very righteousness that comes from God. And I will continually long to know the wonders of Jesus and experience the overflowing power of His resurrection working in me.”
Just imagine that for a moment this morning, that His resurrection power is working in you. That would be a good thing to say over your life today. Not only that it’s going to be a really good day, but to say, “Lord, I thank you that your resurrection power is working in me today. It’s rearranging some things in me today. It’s transforming me today. Your resurrection power I declare is released and it is working in my situations and in my household and in my finances and in my mind and emotions and children and grandchildren today. I declare that!
The Lord wants to sanctify our mouths…
We talked about yesterday how the Lord, when we pray the Lord wants to sanctify our mouths. He wants to redeem and repurpose our lips, our voice. Not just one of us or two of us, but the church! Just think about that. If the church of the Lord Jesus Christ at Living Word in America would be intentional and purposeful and moved along by God the Holy Spirit in what we say. Something as simple as that, what would be accomplished?
In prayer, we run into His presence…
God always makes a way by His Word going forth first. And so Paul saying that I would experience the overflowing power of His resurrection working in me. “I will be one with Him in His sufferings and become like Him in His death only then will I be able to experience complete oneness with Him in His resurrection from the realm of death. I admit that I haven’t yet acquired the absolute fullness that I’m pursuing, but I run with passion into his abundance.” That’s what we do in prayer. We’re running into His abundance. We’re running into His presence, right?
“So that I may reach the purpose for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me to make me His own.” In other words, when we pray, whether it’s here collectively or individually in our homes or by ourselves, we’re being equipped… prepared… refreshed… refueled… propelled to do that which God took hold of us for. You can’t do the will of God on your own. There must be a heavenly back and forth. There must be a heavenly divine collaboration in prayer in our worship. Just in worship alone, just lifting up holy hands for 5, 10 minutes during your day or before you go to bed, or when you arise in the morning, creates an atmosphere for His holy resurrection power to be released and to go to work, creates an atmosphere for Him to speak.
Kenneth Hagin quote from “Greater Glory…”
Brother Kenneth Hagin’s book, “Greater Glory,” he writes, “We miss out on many of God’s blessings because we don’t take time to get in the attitude of worship. I believe there is a close relationship between ministering to the Lord and receiving from Him. Praising God creates an atmosphere for the Holy Spirit to work in. When we learn to lift our voices and praise to the Lord, His supernatural power will begin to manifest in our lives.”
Kenneth Hagin went on to write, “Years ago I heard of one of the assistant general superintendents of the Pentecostal church explain how he learned the importance of praise. When he was 17 years old, he went to a certain town in the Midwest to hold a youth revival. Well, the pastor was called away to preach a funeral at a church that he had formally pastored. He had to drive a while to get there so he couldn’t make it back overnight. During the night, one of the pastor’s parishioners called because a little child had a fever and had gone into convulsions. So the pastor’s wife awakened the young minister who was staying in the parsonage with the pastor’s family. And they went to pray for the child. The superintendent said several other people had also gone to pray for the child, but they looked to me because I was the only preacher present.
So I anointed the child with oil, laid hands on the child, and prayed, and rebuked the devil. I said I did everything I had seen other preachers do, but the child was no better. After a while, the pastor’s wife began to praise God. One by one, we all picked it up until we all were praising God. And the convulsions stopped. Later we were standing around talking when the child went back into another convulsion. We went through the same process again. I anointed the child with oil, laid hands on the child, prayed and rebuked the devil. Then the pastor’s wife began to praise God again. We all joined in. The convulsions stopped, never to return.
Praise creates the atmosphere the Holy Spirit moves in…
You see, the answer came while they were praising God because that’s the kind of atmosphere the Holy Ghost moves in. It was right to pray. Prayer is the first step, but if you want to stand on a high platform…” In other words, you can say if you want to go to the next level. “Just because you took the first step doesn’t mean you’re on the platform. You have to take other steps too. The example of Paul and Silas praying and singing praises to God at midnight is not in the Bible to fill up space. That example is there to inform us and to show us how to gain the victory.
