Pastor Ken…
Welcome to Tuesday morning prayer here in the chapel at Living Word. Welcome to those of you who are joining us online from across America and around the world.
Hebrews 4:14–16
This morning I was reflecting on Hebrews chapter 4. I thought I read this passage from a couple of translations. It says, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession [confession]. 15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities [weakness]; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
The Devil is a liar…
Now let me just jump over to the Passion translation version of this. “So then we must cling in faith to all we know to be true, for we have a magnificent king priest, Jesus Christ, the son of God who rose into the heavenly realm for us. And now sympathizes with us in our frailty.” In other words, He understands our weakness. He understands what we go through. He’s right there with us in the midst of the challenges we face, in the midst of how we feel. He knows what it’s like to have the enemy… because He was tempted at all points, but was sinless. But He knows what it’s like to be bombarded in your mind with thoughts that the enemy is trying to hurl your way, telling you you’re not going to make it, or you’re not going to receive your healing or that happened in your past so that means your future is limited. Or you’re never going to get beyond a certain level of resource in your life. Or whatever he does. He has no new weapons. He’s just the same old, same old. He’s the perpetual broken record. The enemy of our souls. He is a liar. In fact, that is the definition of his name. He’s a slanderer. He’s a deceiver, a liar. The Bible says he is the father of lies. Amen.
We live from a place of victory… that’s our platform
And so Jesus understands that and He’s here today in our daily lives to strengthen us, to infuse us, to help us to raise up the shield of faith and extinguish every flaming dart and arrow of the enemy, no matter what kind of a thought or what kind of insinuation he tries to hurl our way to try to penetrate our soul or our psyche. We can extinguish every one because ultimately we serve the One who ever lives to cause us to triumph. We live in and from a state of victory. Let’s be mindful of that each and every day. It’s a good place to start when it comes to prayer. To remember that we live from a place of victory. That’s our platform. That’s our daily springboard. In Him we live and move and have our being. In His strength, in His victory, in His promises, in His goodness and grace and divine empowerment. We can live and move and have our being. We’re more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Stir yourself up in your identity with Him…
It’s just good to stir that up in our hearts today. That’s actually one of the most important spiritual habits to be a person who stirs yourself up or keeps yourself in a place of being conscious and cognizant of the reality of who you are. Never lose sight, never go too long without being mindful and refreshing yourself regarding your identity in Christ, who you are as a child of the most high God… who you are is a king and a priest … who you are cloaked or clothed in the merits of Jesus in His righteousness, in His holiness. So much so when the Father looks down into your life, He sees you and you are well pleasing to Him.
We must get rid of our Egypt mentality…
Glory to God. I mean, we still need to keep shedding and pushing off religious mentalities and low level thinking. We’ve got to push that off. We’ve got to renew and baptize ourselves daily in the reality of what has been done for us. And now who we are, that new creature in Christ Jesus. That’s all the enemy uses. He just tries to dog our way with negative thoughts and tries to remind us of our past, because he knows like the children of Israel of old, that’s one thing that can stop and block and hinder us from entering our promised land… an Egypt mentality… our old patterns of thought.
Don’t be pressed into this world’s mold…
Romans 12:2 says, “Be not pressed into this world’s mold.” I believe that’s the Amplified Bible, “But be transformed or changed from within by the entire renewal, refreshing, renovation of your mind.” You never get too mature in the Lord to stop needing to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. The Bible says daily adopt a new attitude of mind and as pray-ers that should be our first order of business, to adopt a fresh and a new attitude of mind, to adopt His attitude of mind. To adopt His way of seeing and speaking and His perspective. And that is a perspective that we ultimately win. That is a perspective that you are going to succeed. Your dreams will and are coming true. The dreams God’s put in your heart. You are receiving and manifesting heaven in and through your life. The promise of God is being transmitted and created in your circumstances and in your body and in your relationships and in your finances. After all the Bible rings true that His words are yes and amen. That He perpetually watches over watches over His Word to perform it. And to see it come into reality and come to pass.
So let’s be a people that stay in a place where we’re fully satisfied and assured, like it says of Moses. That what God had promised He is able also to perform. Where we’re fully satisfied, assured and in a place of confidence, in a place of a faith flow. In other words, flowing in faith. Not flowing in fear, but flowing in faith. The Word and the Spirit coming together in our lives will cause you to flow in faith. Your raw dependence is God’s raw material to produce His goodness in your daily journey, to produce His goodness in your circumstances, to produce His goodness in this world, to produce His goodness and His purposes in any given situation or in any given life. Our raw dependence is His raw material. So rejoice, if you feel weak this morning. Paul the apostle said that he was glad when he experienced weakness. Cause he knew in his own weakness and inability, the Father was going to show forth His strength and ability.
Hebrews 4 in the Passion…
Let me finish reading this out of the Passion translation. Hebrews 4. “So then we must cling in faith to all we know to be true. For we have a magnificent king priest, Jesus Christ, the son of God who rose into the heavenly realm for us and now sympathizes with us in our frailty. He understands humanity, for as a man our magnificent king priest was tempted in every way just as we are and conquered sin.”
Let’s come boldly to the throne of grace…
That’s a good word. We have conquered sin through Him. It goes on to say, “So now we draw near freely and boldly to where grace is enthroned.” Oh, I liked that! Let’s come boldly to the place where grace is enthroned to receive. Remember the throne of grace, the place where grace is enthroned is a place of receiving, a place of obtaining, a place of answers. That’s a good word this morning. I know that’s simple, but it’s so good. We get to come to a place of receiving, not a place of rejection, not a place of no, not a place of duty and drudgery and we have to, but a place of joy. The Father’s throne is a place we get to go to every day. We get to live pursuing. And in that place of His throne, a place where grace is enthroned is where we get to receive all that we need and all that our hearts cry for and all that our situation demands.
Smith Wigglesworth anecdote…
It goes on to say, “So now draw freely and boldly to where the graces and throne to receive mercy’s kiss and discover the grace we urgently need to strengthen us in our time of weakness.” Now there’s something else I wanted to share with you this morning as well. And this is something I’m just sensing in my heart this morning. I wrote it down before I came here, and that is, is that the Spirit of prayer is inviting us to work with Him, to move with Him and to flow with Him. And I was reminded of this little story by Smith Wigglesworth of the kind of encapsulates that in a narrative. And it says this. Again this is written in Nancy Dufresne’s book, “The Supernatural Prayer Life,” which I highly recommend. She recounts the story where Smith Wigglesworth told him an experience he had when he went to pray for a minister who had been bedfast with tuberculosis. He had gone to visit the man at his home, and he saw that his health had declined to the point that he looked like a mere skeleton. Wigglesworth told the man he would return to minister to him on the following day. As brother Wigglesworth slept that night, he was awakened with every symptom of tuberculosis fastened upon his body. Wigglesworth rolled out of bed and onto the floor and began praying. The symptoms seemed so real that he thought he was being attacked with tuberculosis himself. However, brother Wigglesworth did the right thing by praying until those symptoms lifted from him.
Cooperating with God to co-labor with Him…
In other words, he was being touched, if you will, like we just read in Hebrews or he was experiencing or identifying a situation in somebody else’s life. I just think that’s going to go off in somebody’s heart this morning, that some of the things that maybe you’ve experienced or you’ve even felt maybe just a sense of oppression or maybe a physical almost seemingly symptom, perhaps, that’s you being touched with an infirmity or a situation or a set of circumstances that God wants you to cooperate with Him and co-labor with Him in changing. Or firstly, assigning power.
Remember prayer assigns power to a situation for change. Prayer assigns and releases power toward another person. Now they still have to respond, but it assigns a release of power for that person to respond to God, to open up and receive that power to open up to God and make the right decision and go the right direction.
He goes on to say, “Brother Wigglesworth stated that he thought Satan was trying to put tuberculosis on him, but I’m convinced that he was sensing in his own body the symptoms of this dying man. He was experiencing what is stated in Hebrews 4:16. Jesus is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. As we enter into this prayer life, we will feel as he feels for them. This is a flow of compassion. Entering into the feelings of another. Through the Spirit of prayer, the Spirit of God was reaching out toward the throne of grace through brother Wigglesworth.
We can go to the throne of grace not just for ourselves, but for others and other situations out of compassion, out of the heart of God for that situation on behalf of that dying man. Wigglesworth was accessing God’s power making tremendous power available to the man. When Wigglesworth ministered to the man, the following day the dying man was completely healed and raised up by the power of God as he responded to the power that was made available to him.
A true spiritual activist…
And I just believe that this is happening. I know it’s happening right now. That not only are we praying for things that are outside of us, if you will, or people that we may never meet, but I believe that God is putting assignments on us in prayer to not only to approach the throne of grace, to pray, to release power and then, like I said before, to be a true spiritual activist where we pray and then we act. I mean, that’s really the model and the example that Jesus left, is that He would go to His place of prayer, oftentimes 3:30 in the morning, very early by Himself alone to pray and seek His heavenly Father. And then He would show up in the midst of His disciples. And it was almost like He had already “been there, done that” when He laid hands on the sick and they recovered. He wasn’t surprised because He had already been to the throne of grace. He’d already been to the place where God showed Him what His plan and purpose was.
We are a people of the throne of grace…
And as pray-ers, we’re not only to pray to spiritually bring about change and set the trajectory of history, but we are also to co-labor with Him in the laying on of hands, in the casting out of devils, in the influence of our daily lives, in our decision-making and in our leadership, and in all that we do every day. We above all people should have such power at our disposal that surely nothing is impossible. In fact, we would do the works of Jesus. And I believe in this generation, the greater works included because of prayer, because we are a people of the throne of grace.
After worship, Annie shared…
When she was praying, I heard Revelation 3 come up in my heart. Where the Lord said, “I know your works and what you are doing. You have but little strength, yet you have kept my word and you have not denied my name. Therefore I have set before you a door wide open! That no man can shut! Hallelujah.
Pastor Ken gave a word that came forth with joy…
The Door Is Open
The door is open. The door is open! What are you waiting for? The door is open. What do you see, the Spirit of God would say. What do you perceive? The door is open. It’s open! Simply come to Me, take that step, move out into that new place. See, I’ve prepared a big and wide and even an expansive new place for you… for you, and you, and you. There’s a place the Spirit of God would say, A big wide-open, beautiful space prepared just for you in the spirit and in the arena I’ve called you to.
For you see, I am a God of abundance. He would say, I am a God of provision. And My will is that you would increase, you and your children, even as I’ve said of old… you and your children more and more and more. For I am good, and My Word resounds that I’ve prepared a bright future for you with good intentions and blessed purposes to not hurt or harm you, to not trouble you, but to bless you and free you and cause you by My Spirit and by My words in your heart to succeed and overcome. And yes, even thrive and rise to new heights and new places in My purpose with joy in your heart and strength that in every step that you take.
I am leading you even in the midst of darkness and troubled days…
I am leading you even in the midst of darkness and days that are troubled. I am leading you forward into a fullness and a goodness you have not even begun to imagine or dream about. For My ways and My will is for you, that you would thrive… that you would walk in wholeness… that you would live unto Me in such a place that you could say for yourself individually and for your family, “Truly, these are days God has assigned for me to live in heaven on earth.”
So don’t be informed only by your intellect or what you see, feel, or think. Instead, let the Spirit that is within you take hold together with you in your consciousness and in your perspective and help you to see that I am the God who is still on the throne. I am Jehovah, the one who has gone before you through My Son to make a way where there doesn’t appear to be a way with the natural eye. There is a way! I have made a way. Make no mistake about it! I have made a way for you to be healed… I have made a way for you to prosper… I have made a way for you to be activated in this hour in fullness of power, to see the miraculous be transmitted through you to this generation and this time.
So know the door is open and know the table has been set. And the place has been provided for you. Don’t wait! Step in. Lean in. Trust Me. Let your dependence on me become raw material and let Me show you what I can do with it, what I can make of it, and how your life can be on the other side of that step of faith. In Jesus’ name.
Thank you, Father.
