Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
I like that phrase that “He’s turning…” He’s turning some things this morning. I was thinking about how I saw the sun rise in the east this morning as I drove into work. And I’m so grateful that the sun comes up every morning in the eastern horizon, that God brought the full circumference of the sun around the earth and brought it back up in the eastern sky in the morning so that we can have daylight. We can have warmth. And I thought to myself, “Wow, that’s what God is doing right now. He’s bringing things back around just as we sang He’s bringing some things back around.
There is so much hope…
And I just want to remind you this morning that there is hope. There’s so much hope. Hope is bursting forth from the spirit realm… hope is bursting forth from our innermost being today. Get in touch with it. Recognize just like the sun brings hope every morning for a bright and new and opportunistic day, there’s hope being born in the hearts of men and women of God in this hour. And I believe that’s us. God desires to bring forth and to bear hope in and through the church in this hour. There’s so much hope. He’s bringing things back around… He’s bringing back around that opportunity… He’s bringing back around a dream… He’s bringing back around a situation that you thought was too far gone to give it a thought… He’s going to bring it back around. He’s in the business of doing just that, right? He’s in the business of redemption and leveraging what the enemy meant for harm and evil and destruction, and repurposing it and reusing it.
In fact, using it as something that is for a greater comeback in our lives. And so I just encourage you in that this morning. Let your heart be enthralled with the hopefulness of heaven. Let your heart be imbibed. That means become saturated like a sponge. Become imbibed with hope.
Be imbibed with hopefulness…
I always think when I was a kid, I used to get so excited about certain things, I had so much hope and so much aspiration. And the Lord wants to do that in us this morning… just imbibe you with hopefulness, almost to the point of you’re giddy and excited and you can’t contain yourself. Because new things are bursting forth. We’re embarking on a new season and a new year for the ministry here at Living Word and for your life, I believe… for America… for the church.
We’re not done!
God is the most hope-filled, visionary entity or person in all the universe. And if He’s at the center of who you are, your existence, your life, then there is hope. There is vision. There is a way where the enemy is trying to convince you there isn’t a way. There is a strategy. There is a path. There is redemption. There is hope. God’s will is circular. He brings things back around. He’s always rerouting us back around to His highest intent, in His highest purpose. Glory to God. Thank you, Father.
Somebody say HOPE!
And that’s what He wants us to be filled with in this Christmas season. Hope! Somebody say, “HOPE.” There’s hope for the house of God. There’s hope for the one who feels lost and broken and discouraged and disenfranchised in some way. Maybe you’re on the verge of giving up in some aspect or some way. Well, the Lord is saying “NO!” The light of My hope is dawning. It’s a new day. There’s a new season. It may take a little time but make no mistake about it, the sun’s coming back around in the evening. And the day is about to dawn.
Dutch Sheets Devotional…
There’s a devotional by Dutch Sheets and he writes in one particular chapter… I thought this was appropriate and it kind of resonated with me. He says, “Angels are ministering fresh fire from God’s altar upon the church. The angel network was accompanying the Holy Spirit… the church to a new level of ministry.”
Just when you thought you had reached all the levels, there’s a whole other level. Like Seinfeld, right? “Just levels, Jerry, just levels.” That was Kramer. Sorry. I digressed there. But yeah, Kramer had that idea of building levels, you know, in his whole apartment. “Just all levels, Jerry.” Makes me smile.
He says, “It’s time for a new outpouring. It’s time for the church to receive fresh power from on high. It’s time for a fresh fire upon all believers. It’s time for a divine shift… To shift, to take the church to new levels.” All levels. God’s got new levels.
“It’s time for the apostles and believers to begin affecting their regions with the Gospel as angels under Holy Spirit supervision network with the church. They are moving now upon fresh, Holy Spirit wins, to assist the saints to do the same works Jesus did.”
That’s what’s going to get the job done at Living Word… in your home… in your business… in your ministry… in America… around the earth.
It’s going to take a new level of heavenly cooperation. A new level of strategy. It’s going to require Holy Spirit breathed ideas, creativity, messages, songs. The prophetic. Even in our administration and what we do daily.
He goes on to say, “They are flashing…” the angels that is… about lightning. We are entering into the greatest time in human history in which the remnant is about to see God activity as it has never been seen before. The days that we have been praying for, for years have already begun.”
And I think that’s one of the main points I felt like I needed to make this morning is that there is hope, number one, that there is movement… that’s the other word I heard in my spirit—movement. God wants to draw your attention, our attention as leaders, as pastors, as believers here at Living Word or in your ministry, that there is without a doubt movement in the strategies and the intentionalities in the plan of God. And He wants to draw our attention to it and say, “Look! See what I’m doing. See what I’m beginning. See what’s beginning to unfold. See what’s beginning to happen.”
And it’s not just so we can stand back and say, “Oh my, that’s cool.” No! Instead, what I sense… the second main point was He wants us to lean in and pray into what He’s doing. The initial movements of some things, some initial restoration, some initial breakthroughs and windfalls and answers to prayer and new seasons that He’s birthing through the church and through you and I, which occurs in prayer.
Prayer builds a road…
We must pray into some things now. As you look into 2024 and you begin to reflect and journal what you anticipate God wants to do and what your goals are, objectives are… pray into that. Let yourself be available in this season for the Lord to build a road, because that’s what prayer does. It literally builds a road like the great John the Baptist, who proclaimed “Let there be a highway built or constructed for our God. Let every high place be level. Let every crooked place be made straight. Let the low places be elevated and raised. Let there be a straight path for the Lord of heaven to come and for the gospel to speed on its way. Prayer prepares the way.”
I know we know that, but it’s a good reminder on a Tuesday morning. Prayer builds a road. Somebody once said a long time ago about confession, that confession builds a road over which faith hauls its mighty cargo. Well, what is confession? It is divine articulation. It’s articulating the Word of God, whether it be from His book or from your heart as He inspires you in prayer, in the spirit, and in your known language. As you speak out, as you declare out into 2024 into the coming days, maybe into the presentness of what you’re right now experiencing, your words in the spirit, of the spirit, by the spirit build a road over which the will of God will be able to travel in the coming days.
So don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t change in a day… in a week… in a month… or even a year. Make no mistake about it, God is building some new inroads into places… into your life… through your life… into dark places in this world. And our prayers are making that way. They’re building a road. So I just wanted to throw that out there as something to ponder here. But Dutch goes on to say…
“The days that we’ve been praying for, for years have already begun. Thus we must get into step with them. We are not waiting on God. He is waiting on us.”
Remember, watch for it today. Let’s set your reticular activating system to this today. Make no mistake about it, I prophesy to you today. He is showing you and each of us individually where there is movement… where there is transition… where things are beginning to change and shift. And the point of Him doing that is for us to lean into it with prayer and confession and faith decrees and simple heartfelt agreement.
So we’re not waiting on God, He is waiting on us. When the angel touched Isaiah’s lips, the question was “Who will go for us?” All God is listening for is this: “Here I am, God. I will go.” Like the 500 who were instructed to gather in the upper room, you have to choose to either participate in God’s kingdom extension on the earth or miss out on the greatest revival the world has ever seen.
And so know this, that each time you pray with God’s direction and power, good things happen and progress is made in the direction of God’s intention and plan.
And let me read a couple more quotes here. I may have shared these before, I don’t know, but I found them again. These are just so good.
One is simply this. “It does not matter how smart, well-intentioned, or competent we are. Because of our knowledge and skills and talent are simply not enough for the task of leading others spiritually. That role is too big for us to handle without continual prayer.”
E.M. Bounds wrote one time…
“Prayer should not be regarded as a duty which must be performed, but rather a privilege to be enjoyed. A rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.” I like that. It’s uncovering things. It’s revealing things. It’s pulling back the curtain on what God has already beforehand prepared and ordained for you and for me and for the church.
Elizabeth Elliot said…
“Prayer lays hold of God’s plan and becomes the link between His will and its accomplishment on earth. Amazing things happen and we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit’s prayer.”
I love this quote by Beth Moore…
“There are parts of our calling, works of the Holy Spirit and defeats of darkness that will come no other way than through furious, fervent, faith-filled unceasing prayer.” Amen!
And so I want us to do that this morning. I want us to just lean into the future. I call it praying forward. Lean into the future and deal with some situations. Lean into the future and allow the Spirit of God to build a bridge, to build a road from where we are to where He is calling us to be… to where He is endeavoring to kind of capture and captivate our curiosity with little hints. The Holy Spirit drops hints at times. That’s why you have to be so cognizant and aware and kind of check in with your spirit on a regular basis. Because He drops hints. Pastor Lynne used to call them cues. Little promptings for us to pray, for us to declare, for us to exercise authority even in the middle of our day. Because in doing so, we become that link between heaven and earth. So what’s in heaven can become reality in the earth for us… for ours… our own… and for those that God’s called us to influence.
And so, Father, we just thank you this morning for the beautifulness of your plan, for our lives, for the church. We thank you for the amazing plan that you have well in advance prepared in a meticulous fashion for this generation and time. We thank you, Lord, that we are appointed and called and birthed into this hour.
