Morning Prayer Summary for Wednesday, March 3, 2019

Pastor Kristin…

I don’t know if anyone was at the Saturday night service? Pastor Jim and I have been teaching on the armor of God and that prayer is the seventh piece of our armor. I love to pray and I felt that afterwards people might have thought I didn’t love to prayer. I even got an email from somebody trying to explain what “demanding” is. I do understand that part of prayer.  It’s just that I’ve been in environments where I have almost felt like people are praying out of fear and not out of their knowing and loving. I can seem almost like yelling at the Father to do something. And it hurts my heart.  That’s what I was trying to say. I know we have the right to make a demand on everything the Word promised, and we come before Him boldly and we have that right. But it’s just like when I look at our Papa God, I honor Him.  And I think that’s our heart in prayer, honor. It’s not telling Him what to do. It’s receiving everything that He promised to us. For anyone that was here, that’s my clarification.

But what I have been hearing so much from the Lord lately is His presence and honoring His presence and seeking His presence and living in His presence, hosting His presence, and bringing into the atmospheres where we go. There is nothing like His presence. And I know that that is why He even created us, so that He could be present in us and with us. I mean that was the purpose of us, to be with Him.

Often, I feel like I try to do things without Him. I don’t mean to but I just am going about my day and then I will have the thought “Oh, my goodness, I didn’t even acknowledged Him.” I am just doing it on my own. He’s just been stirring that in me more, just being aware of the breath in my lungs, being aware of Him, His power in me. It’s overwhelming sometimes to think that the God who created everything is inside me and He’s just saying “Acknowledge Me. Here I AM.”

I touched on how His presence increases your trust. It’s impossible for Him to not be faithful. It’s impossible. I don’t want it to be a measure of my faith. It is more just in my acknowledging Him because it’s nothing about me. And it’s not like something my faith can muster up. It’s just acknowledging Who is in me and what He wants to do and has done already. It’s not me mustering it up, like I said.

The presence is amazing. You know I think sometimes we get an image in our minds of what we think it looks like and we put it in a box and it’s really not a mystical thing. It’s not always a “whoo hoo” touching people and all of that. But I kind of thought for a while that the presence was the heavy glory and it is a lot of the times. But sometimes it’s just not. It’s very matter of fact. It’s more real than the ground you stand on. And I am not trying to dumb it down or make it seem not special. It’s so special. It’s so special. But Ms. Barb had sent me a video a few weeks ago. Michael Koulianos, who is Benny Hinn’s son in-law, is interviewing Bill Johnson on the presence of God.

We spent the next half hour listening to the Podcast interview.

Prayed…

We love Your heart to indwell us, to be with us because of Your great love. We’re not just pawns You want to use. You want to be with us. You like us. You love us. You love Your people. And the things that You can do through us when we are walking in Your presence, it’s unfathomable to us. But we are Your body. You are in us because we are Your body. So, we ask You, Father, just order our steps, take us where You want to go, speak through us as You want to speak. Thank You, Father. Thank You, Lord.

Father, that we would just carry Your presence into the places You take us. Thank You, Father, for the peace that enters, the joy that enters the room. Yes, Lord, thank You that we would come to church seeking the Your presence, seeking Your face.

Pastor Kristin shared…

You know, people have all different ways of accessing the presence, different relationships with the Lord, different ways of communicating with Him. He’s been leading me a lot in worship. I love to worship Him. It’s a quick way for me. But He’s been leading me to His Word a lot more and it’s just a hunger for the promises in His Word. And He has been talking about that presence, that experience when I am in His Word and meditating on those promises that the presence is something He gave us where He can manifest Himself to us. And it’s personal. It’s so, so personal.

And I think I used to read the Word more to check it off my list. To be true, I did. I thought I need to know the Word. I need to do this. And I did it more out of thinking I had too. It was my “should.” But His Word has become so much more alive to me lately where I can hardly get through a chapter because His presence is just right there. When you read it like He is just talking to you, it brings a whole new life to it.

His presence is in His Word. And I believe it is important to the Lord right now that we are valuing it and making it a priority, meditating on it. And not just like having a verse memorized but personalizing that verse. What does that promise mean to me? Like Psalm 23 when He talks about “You lead me besides still waters.” On a personal note, what does that look like? When you take that for yourself, it’s your Father, your Shepherd leading You besides still waters. You are walking with Him. He is peaceful. He is good. He knows that you need. When you read the Word like that, His presence can overwhelm you.

Continued praying…

Lord, I just pray that you stir up hunger for Your presence, hunger for Your Word, hunger for You, for face to face encounters with You. We hunger Lord and we know that that hunger is You, that is You putting in us and we are responding to that, Father. We know that You are faithful. It is impossible for You to not be faithful. It’s impossible for You to not fulfill us when we cry out for more. We thank You, Lord, that You are good all the time and dwell in in and with us. And we thank You, Lord, we are becoming more and more aware of it. That we would be filled to overflowing that we wouldn’t just be getting by but that hunger would be stirred, that we would honor Your presence with us. Yes, Lord. Yes, Father.

Brother DJ led us singing We Enter in the Holy of Holies

(We spent a few minutes quiet and still in His presence.)

Pastor Kristin…

I do believe the Father is speaking to us. I just feel like I have been in these moments a lot lately of just being still before Him, being quiet. And I just have to trust it. Sometimes we feel like we have to fill the space with words and need to do things. But sometimes we just need to look in His face. When we look in His face that when we reflect Him. We receive so much just by looking at Him and being in His presence, being still. I just know it’s never wasted time.

Continued praying…

Father God, You see every single heart. You see them. You know them. You hold them. And, Father, I know that if this is something that has maybe been hard for people to be still even though they know they want it, I just ask You, Lord, that You would fill us, each one, that You would heal what needs to be healed. You would open, open, open, open, open up our eyes and open up our hearts, Father. That we would receive all that You want to do in us and for us and through us. Yes, Lord, we know it’s not just about us. You love us but You’ve put us where we are for a reason. So, Father, we welcome You in. Yes, Lord. Yes, Father.

Yes, Lord, that there would be baptism, an immersing of Your presence Father, an immersing of You love. More and more and more thank You, Lord.

Ms. Heather shared…

I just keep hearing words saying “Come closer.” I am going to try to sing what I am hearing in my heart.

♪ Come closer, come closer

Come closer, come closer

In My presence let Me hold You

Come closer, come closer

Let Me hold your face, let me hold you close

You’re safe in My presence

Come closer, come closer

Come closer, come closer to Me

Come closer, come closer

Come closer, come closer to Me ♪

So we do that Father, we draw closer to You. We just open every room of our hearts to You, draw close to You, close to Your presence. Thank You that You draw us with Your love and we welcome and love You so much.

Pastor Kristin…

I just keep hearing Him say “You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The Mountains and the hills will break forth before you.” Amen.

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