Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everyone. Good to see you. Welcome to Wednesday morning prayer.
There is exponential power in numbers…
The last time I checked, my Bible says that there is exponential power in numbers… that if one can put a thousand to flight, then two can put 10,000 to flight when it concerns the enemy and what he’s doing to harass us. Whatever you’re facing or experiencing today, whatever symptoms are flaring up in your body, whatever emotions are being hijacked by the enemy, or a thought pattern or concern that you have, I encourage you to turn that over to God. And your thoughts, your attitudes, even your words are an exchange. Meaning if you choose to worry, then you exchange that for the opportunity to worship. If you choose to have a negative attitude, to gripe, complain, to play a movie of worst-case scenarios in your mind about what could and might happen negatively, then you exchange that for taking the time and the effort to think about the goodness of God and how He always and always will come through for you.
We need to first love God with our minds…
Psychologists tell us it takes just as much mental energy to think worst case scenarios. It takes just as much energy to worry and wonder and ring our hands in concern as it does to make the effort to think thoughts of faith, to think the Word, to think about, “Well, what if God does come through? What if His Word is faithful and true and I can take it to the bank and I can meditate on the possibilities and what God has said He will do and will be so in my life.” So as pray-ers, we need to first love God with our minds. The Bible commands us to love Him with not only our whole heart, not only with our words and our worship, but with our minds. And the greatest way you can love Him with your mind is to think thoughts about Him, to use your mind to magnify Him, to put yourself in the scene of what His Word says could be and really should be in your life concerning your physical health, concerning your family, concerning your finances, concerning your future, concerning whatever situation.
God can’t do that for you…
Pray-ers need to be… believers need to be a people, a company, a family that protects their mindset, that as the Word says, “adopt a fresh attitude of mind every day.” God can’t do that for you. You must order your inner life. You must choose this day whom you will serve. And that starts with what you choose to think. The thoughts you choose to accept and the thoughts and words you reject.
The best preparation is fullness…
And one of the things that just crossed my heart this morning is that I feel like God is impressing on me … maybe this resonates with you that in this moment of history, in this moment of time in the individual life of us as believers in the life of the church, the best preparation I feel like what the Spirit of God is saying… The best preparation for us now, the call to action now is “fullness.” The best preparation is to be a people holy—filled and flooded with God.
Be strong in the Lord…
Just as a point of reflection from scripture this morning, Ephesians 6:10 says, “Finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” Be strong in the Lord! Well how are you, first and foremost, strong in the Lord? Be strong in His Word. I know this is bottom-line stuff. But because this is bottom-line Christianity all the more so we need to give it more earnest heed as the scripture reads. We need to kind of stir up our hearts, and our consciousness. Things tend to settle out, especially spiritual things. Settle like sediment settles to the bottom. Oftentimes the things of God settle down at the bottom of our lives. And what captivates us are the distractions and the flashy things that are going on externally. But we need to stir these things up. And the Word is the first and foremost way you stay full. We can’t be partially full and receive God’s best.
Constantly practicing preparation…
And an effective prayer life presupposes that you’re living by faith, not you’re living in moments of faith, but you’re living a lifestyle of faith. That means that you practice the habit of study and meditation. You take time to as Colossians says, “let the Word of God dwell in your inner life richly.” Or as Joshua says, “Let this book of the law,” this word of God, “not depart out of your mouth.” That’s a reference not only to speaking the Word but meditating on the Word. “Let this book of the law not depart out of your mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then you will make your way prosperous and you will deal wisely.” And one translation says, “and you will have good success.” All by constantly practicing preparation. The preparation of being full of His Word.
Fullness meets manifestation…
Finally, my brethren, be strong. Be full of His Word. Also, fullness is important, and an effective prayer life presupposes fullness or living a life of faith because when you’re full, manifestation is right there. Fullness actually meets manifestation.
“Ooh, that’s good!” you say.
Well, I’m glad you think so. I thought it was good too, so I wrote it down.
Fullness matters because manifestation meets fullness. They’re connected. When you get full, then the manifestation, the answer, the result of your faith is right there. And one thing I’ve learned not only from the Word but by experience, when you endeavor to get really close to God…
Pastor Lynne said this years ago. I remember one time in a meeting, it was almost May, and we were about ready to go into summer and she said, “You know, summer will be a really good time to go all out for God to get as close to God as you can.” Summer is when everybody’s wanting to just disconnect. Right? Go to the lake cabin, go on vacation… and we should do those things. But take God with you. We don’t take a vacation from faith. We’re to live by faith. The just shall live by faith. And we’re going to bring the Bible into our conversation here this morning. We live by believing and not by seeing, the New Living Translation says. We live that way. That’s why I think so many pray-ers get discouraged and disconnected from their walk with God or give up on prayer is because they’re living out in moments of faith. In other words, they try to shift their lifestyle and their habits and their time in the Word if an emergency happens to pop up… “Oh my goodness! I got a negative report. I need to get in the Word. I need to speak the Word. I need to get full of the Word.”
Imbibed with heavenly DNA, a heavenly flow…
Well please do that, in that moment. If that’s what prompts you and precipitates that step, then do that. But as pray-ers, prayer pre-supposes effective prayer that we’re living a lifestyle filled with God’s Word. And that doesn’t necessarily mean memorizing a thousand scriptures in the next month. It might just be one word that you’re giving yourself to and you’re meditating and praying over and thinking about. I mean just a snippet of God’s Word, just one word from God is imbibed with heavenly DNA. Heavenly flow. That when you fellowship with that Word, it releases something of heaven in your life into a situation, into a nation. Some of the most effective prayers down through history were ones who took time to due diligence and searched the scriptures regarding what God had to say about that situation or that need before they even began to pray the prayer of faith or intercession or whatever the case was.
Let’s be skillful in the Word and full of His Word…
This is one of the ways we become skillful in prayer. We first are skillful in the Word and full of His Word. Ephesians 6 says, “Finally, once again, my brother, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.” That would be the power of His Spirit, a.k.a. His Holy Spirit.
It goes on to say, “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles,” or you could say the strategies or the deceptions or the lies of the devil. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in high places.”
Isn’t that interesting? He’s talking about in verse 10 the utmost importance of being full of the Word and full of the Spirit. Because being strong in the Lord and in the power of his might…. The power of His might is the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit, the flow of the Holy Spirit in your life. In other words, recognizing, yielding to praying in other tongues so that the fullness or the power of His might can be fully expressed in your heart and through your life.
Allow the power of His might to manifest in our physicality…
You know, there’s much we can do to cause the Holy Spirit to be active in our day-to-day journey. There’s a lot of things you can do. There’s just a few things really that work all the time, that cause the Holy Spirit to cause your hands to become hot. And you feel the anointing in your hands. You feel His presence all over you. His wisdom begins to flow. The Bible says there’s exceeding great power toward those who believe. When we pray in the Spirit, we are allowing the power of His might to manifest in our physicality. Firstly, in our spirits but then it overflows into our physicality, our bodies, our minds, our decision making, our relationships.
Let’s function at a “next level” in our lives…
God intends that we would live not just a natural life, but a supernatural one in the power of His might. And when you pray in the Spirit, you flip the switch of the supernatural and the operation of the Holy Spirit to begin to function at a next level in your life.
