Pastor Ken…
Good morning. It is so good to reverence God’s presence this morning.
Developing the habit of recognizing the Lord…
I’ve developed the habit of recognizing His presence. Like yesterday I was driving home from work and there was something I needed to do. And in a flash, I was reminded of what I needed to do before I went home. And it would’ve been a bummer if I would’ve forgot. I trained myself, “Holy Spirit, thank you for reminding me to do that.” “Lord, thank you for making that possible for me.” I recognize the handywork and the hand of God in my life. His presence to start with. But then what He does, He’s always working. So I pray that our eyes would be open today. There’s just something that will change your state and your soul and your outlook and the level of your courage and faith when you begin to just recognize that He’s there working with you. He’s working with us today. He’s not in a rush. He’s not in a hurry. He’s not ringing His hands and wondering, “Oh, what’s gonna happen with so and so.”
We serve a God who is high and lifted up…
He is a God who is high and lifted up. If we’re gonna bring the Bible into it and what it has to say and that He presently sits on a throne. That is the God that we serve. The one who is high and lifted up. And His praise goes throughout the earth and the universe. He is with us. His handywork can be seen on every level from a subatomic to a cosmic level. So without a doubt, His work can be seen in your life and in my life in small things and in big things. Let’s pray that we would recognize Him and see Him. And let prayer be not just something we do on our schedule from 8:30 to 9:30, Monday through Friday. But instead something that is a walking and talking and a continual conversation with our Heavenly Father day in and day out.
The pattern of Katherine Kuhlman…
I love the pattern that Katherine Kuhlman left behind. She refused to see prayer as something she did for an hour or two hours or whatever. She always was in conversation. When you’d walk into a room, you would think there were two people in there and you’d realize it was just Katherine and the Holy Spirit. And they were having a conversation. She was expressing adoration and love. Or perhaps like me the other day, just saying, “Lord, thank you for reminding me of that.” He likes that. The Holy Spirit actually watches to see if we recognize His hand and His voice and even things He does just to delight us, even just simply going for a walk like I did here recently up on the north shore and was just going through the woods for several miles actually. And I was like, “Wow, thank you, Father. This is just so good. This is ministering to me, the fragrance in the air and the bright sunshine and the sounds of the birds.” The vistas that I got to enjoy. That was ministry to me. And I just honored God in that. That was a work that He did for me, for us, just in creation. I mean, just think about what went into making and all that holds creation together to make it possible for us to enjoy what we enjoy, whether it’s recreating or something that we consume, because something that was grown in a garden or in a field.
Let’s stop and ponder the God we serve…
I’m getting out there maybe this morning, but if you just stop and ponder, “Wow, what a God we serve.” And He’s chosen us. He’s adopted us, made us His very own sons and daughters. And we get the privilege and the opportunity to engage with Him, to host His presence, to be used by Him in the work He continues to do on planet earth.
John G. Lake vision…
I was reminded of a vision that the great John G. Lake had many years ago. He shared how one day he was walking through a park and he saw a light in the distance. And as he got closer, he thought it was a person with bright clothing or something. And then as he got closer, he saw that it was actually an angel. I don’t know what tipped him off, but he knew it was an angel. And he had a visitation and a conversation because angels are messengers. And he began to speak with Lake and he shared a number of things.
The restraining effect of our prayer lives…
One particular, which I’ll just mention, cuz I’ve talked just briefly this week about the restraining power of our spiritual authority and the restraining effects of our prayer lives. How it restrains the enemy, how the enemy can’t just do anything he wants to do. The church is here to restrain. The Antichrist can’t even come into full effect as long as the church is in the earth because we are salt. We are light. We are the hinderer of lawlessness and on an individual or household level, you have the ability to restrain, to push back the forces of darkness, to keep the enemy and death in all its shapes and forms at bay. Because you too sit jointly with Jesus on a throne.
We are seated with Christ…
If we’re gonna bring the letters to the church that Paul penned, we understand that we are seated jointly with Jesus in a spiritual dimension. Presently we’re on the earth. We’re kind of a weird being. We live here, but we also occupy a place there in the spirit dimension. And have been blessed according to Ephesians 1:3 with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly arena in Christ. That’s why we have to firstly live from a spiritual perspective and we must firstly live out of the Word and out of relationship with our Heavenly Father, because it’s that place that we live and we’re to move and we’re to have our being it’s from that place. We’re propelled. It’s from that place we’re inspired to pray. It’s from that place, we’re able to rise above the tide that swells and ebbs and flows of evil and overcome and proclaim the Gospel in this generation.
An invitation to heaven to get involved…
And so this angel went on to talk to John G. Lake. In addition to the importance of exercising authority, as I said yesterday, when we exercise our authority, it’s an invitation to heaven to get involved. God wants to use you. He wants to use us. He’s the head, but we’re the body presently in the earth. So if He’s gonna do something, He’s gonna do it through you. He’s gonna do it through the church. He’s got the power. He’s got the wisdom, the knowhow. But He wants to channel it through us. So this might be a revelation. It might be an insult to your intelligence. But we’re not powerless. You’re not powerless. You have a say in matters on planet earth. You have a say in what is going on in your life. And that begins with occupying our place of authority that begins with prayer.
The angel stressed “teach the people to pray…”
And so this angel went on to emphasize one particular thing to John G. Lake in this message to him. The angel said, “Teach the people to pray… teach the people to pray… to pray much… teach the people to pray.” The angel said it three or four or five times. Much prayer. And again, prayer isn’t necessarily just what we do here for an hour or just praying in the spirit or in other tongues. Prayer is an ongoing two-way conversation.
It even goes back to what I said to begin with, where you just more aware. It is a form of prayer just to be aware and present. Sometimes that’s the hardest thing in this day, right? With all the distractions, just aware that God is near, that He’s speaking, that He just did something for you. Maybe after the fact you recognized, “Oh, you prompted me to call that person. I see your work there. Thank you, Father.”
Katherine’s commitment…
Like Katherine Kuhlman, always just aware. And one thing I loved about Katherine is she made a commitment saying, I will not see prayer as something that I do for just an hour. I am always talking with Him and in conversation with Him. And she said that because if I see prayer as something I do just for an hour, then I will be tempted to think that God owes me something because I put in my time. In other words, it was a work I did. So thus I am worthy of an answer.
Grace of God paved the way for all of God’s goodness…
When the truth is the grace of God has paved the way for all of God’s goodness, answers, blessings, favor, unprecedented preferential treatment in every area of our lives. Grace has paid the price in full so that we can receive it. Period. Free. It’s not because we pray. It’s not “we’ll do this, He’ll do that.” I mean, I get that there’s some things we must do, but God has already made up His mind. He wants to bless you today. He’s already made up His mind. He wants all souls in America or in your nation saved today. Right?
1st Timothy 2:1
I referenced this that at least yesterday, 1st Timothy 2:1. “Therefore I exhort, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. For kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Colossians 2:14–15
There’s another verse I had in my mind this morning: Colossians 2:14–15. This is from the Message translation. It says “When you were stuck in your old sin dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive.” In fact, He’s alive means you became alive. Because according to the apostle Paul, in the mind of God, when Jesus was quickened or made alive and raised from the dead and actually ascended to the right hand of the throne of God, you were jointly raised out of the tomb of death in sin and failure and loss and regrets and fear and sickness and lack and division. Whatever you’ve been through, whatever you have been facing, according to the Gospel, God raised you up out of that. At the same time, He raised up Jesus. And not only raised you up out of the tomb and out of death and out of sin, but also caused you spiritually anyway to ascend jointly with Jesus to be seated, ever seated with Him.
Psalm 8:3–6
In fact, before I finish Colossians let me just jump over to another verse that I wanted to read. Psalm 8:3–6. It says “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels.” Actually more aptly translated, that means a little lower than God. Because that word in the Hebrews “Elohim”: a little lower than God. And you have crowned him with glory and honor. Think about that today. That’ll just take away some problems right there. That’ll kind of adjust your focus and bring change to your life because of the adjusted focus. You’re crowned with glory and honor. You’ve been created just a little lower than God.
“Well, I don’t know if I can believe that.”
I’m not asking you to believe what I say. I’m asking you to search it for yourself in the scriptures. Many of the great men and women that have gone before us who have graduated to heaven, many of them wrote in their writings that some of them had a better grasp. They had a stronger confidence and others were just starting to recognize this one thing. And I know brother Hagin for sure would say this, that it seems like we have more authority even than we realize. That God puts more say so if you will, influence in our hands than we’ve recognized, that we’re just barely coming into a recognition of how much has been invested in us and really how much we can accomplish and do and influence in this earthly arena.
Heaven takes its cues from earth…
It’s like I said, yesterday, heaven takes its cues from earth. I know that there are times when the enemy forces of evil seem to be arrayed against us. And they probably are in the spiritual dimension. We know that they’re very organized. We know that there are rank and file in the enemy’s forces. We know that the enemy is patient, and we know also that they will try to perpetuate an onslaught of attack on people and on the church at times. But we know this, that he is the one that always causes us to triumph.
Prayed…
Father, we pray for grace from on high.
We pray for grace to drench and to baptize the church in this hour to…
Lord, grant us grace… to see grace, to receive grace, to rise up and walk in what you have for us and what you have done for us.
We pray today, Father, for an unveiling and an unfolding of the mysteries, and even the secret things of God that you desire to translate and transmit to us.
We pray for a holy, God ordained shaking in the church now, to shake us from our lethargy, to shake us from our self-centeredness our distraction…
We pray for an entrance and an opening now in the hearts and lives …
Lord, most of all, we lift up our nation … We lift up Washington DC today and we pray for an open heaven over Washington DC to bring order out of chaos, to bring answers where there are none, to bring help and hope and the glory of God to our nation and our leaderships …
We pray for a supernatural turning of things in the right direction, a turning in the church, a turning in governments today, a turning, turning, turning… recalibrating, recalibrating, recalibrating the trajectory and turning… breakthrough… busting through … breaking through
We lift up the church of the Lord Jesus Christ… here in America or wherever we might live. We lift it up to you today. We pray for a heavenly cooperation… a coming together in the body… a healing and a restoration in all the parts and pieces and segments of the body.
We pray that there would be a coming together… uniting and a restoring and a mobilizing …
We call into play every part… every gift, every calling, every member… elevate, elevate, elevate … rise up… opening… it’s opening, it’s opening …
We lift up the church today, Father, we pray for a strengthening and a reinforcing and a fresh supply of God. We lose angels and ministering spirits to go on assignment today and to restrain and to intervene and to help and to deliver and to do what needs to be done in the church, wherever it might be that needs help today
I pray and ask you, Lord, that you would strengthen and reinforce, and once again, undergird those communities, those faith communities…. Help us to move up higher.
I hear that in my spirit “move up higher.” Help us individually, collectively to move up higher …
Come up higher… the Spirit of God is calling you up higher. There’s a higher place. Yes, yes… Just keep going. Keep stepping, take a step, press down on the accelerator and keep going. Don’t give up because there is an opening right ahead of you … an opening that’s going to display a new vista and a new place. And a new set of resources and new opportunities, new breakthroughs, just a whole new facet of God’s plan will open up to you. So keep going, keep walking, keep stepping, stay encouraged, stay strong and pray for your right there. Stepping into it now in Jesus’ name. Thank you, Father.
