Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Morning Prayer announcement…
I did want to say as a reminder that this will be the last week of 2023 that we’ll be hosting live Morning Prayer. We’ll be off next week and then the final week of 2023. And then we’ll reconvene the 2nd of January of 24. Can you believe it?
So we’ll probably post some links and some ways that you can join a restream of Morning Prayer during the next couple of weeks after this week, starting next Monday. So watch our social media platforms. Watch the Prayer Movement, Facebook group, and we’ll post some links where you can join and click and watch “a best of morning prayer.” If you want to continue doing that here the next couple of weeks.
Reflecting on the influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives…
Last night, I was reflecting a bit about the influence and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And I know I touch on and talk about the Holy Spirit often, but just in the last week or so, I have sensed an emphasis in my own heart regarding His role and the role the Lord wants the Spirit to play in our lives perhaps in the coming year. We talked about levels yesterday. There are levels that God intends for us. And what enables us, you could say, the ladder to God’s levels is the Holy Spirit.
And the truth is, we know least about Him. When you consider the whole Godhead: Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit. The church at large anyway, I think, knows the least about the Holy Spirit of all the three persons in the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit is not the crazy uncle of the Trinity…
I’ve often said that I think some Christians think He’s the crazy uncle of the family of God or something, the Trinity. But He’s not. He is the most beautiful person, and the one whom God chose to send as a down payment on our salvation and chose to send to the earth to be in the midst of the church and to be in the midst of our lives, to partner with us in carrying out God’s plan.
I think I emphasized this yesterday that make no mistake about it, we’re here on purpose in this moment of time. Regardless of the stage of life we find ourselves in, God has sent us here on purpose. There is a mission. There are executables, things that God wants to carry out through our lives. He wants to do in our lives, and in our hearts, and in our homes, and in our communities. And so we’re here to be His divine partner in the earth with the help of the Holy Spirit to do what He wants to do. Now and in the coming year.
A few notes I jotted down in reflection…
And kind of thinking about 2024, I jotted this down as I was reflecting this morning, and that is that when you consider the scriptures and what you know about God, it is so clear to me anyway, that He wants His Spirit to play the most integral and prominent role in our day-to-day lives. In other words, He wants to grant each of us individually a promotion of sorts as we approach 2024, as we step over the threshold of December 31 and step into a new year. Just know that is His will for your life. For my life. That’s what’s going to be the game changer, the difference maker. That’s what’s going to cause the shift that needs to occur. That’s going to ready you for some new assignments.
God’s assignments for us in prayer…
I’ve been praying about assignments recently, I’ve noticed. God’s assignments for us in prayer, in the spirit, in the natural as well. And clearly, it’s the Holy Spirit who is going to enable us to go to that next level, to step into as the church at large, a new season of fruitfulness and purpose and power. Jesus Himself demonstrated how life ought to be done as a redeemed son or daughter of the most high God. And that is of, and by, and through God the Holy Spirit. He was the Son of God, right? Yet He stepped down from His position at the right hand of the throne of God, took on the form of a human and was filled with the Spirit. And it was the infilling and the possession of the Holy Spirit in His earthly ministry that allowed and enabled and equipped Him to do the miracles and the signs and the wonders that He did. And He said this is the way to do it. Prioritize… make My Spirit the preeminent part of your life. And good things will happen.
Excerpts from book, “Fueling the Fire…”
And so let me read a couple of things. There’s an old book called “Fueling the Fire,” which I love to go to from time to time again. There’s a short devotional about the Holy Spirit by a gentleman by the name of Ray Pritchard. He said, “God doesn’t demand that we be able to explain the intricacies of pneumatology.” In other words, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. “…in order to enjoy His blessings. Aren’t you glad? However, some basic knowledge is essential for releasing His power in our lives. Such is the power of the Holy Spirit, that even the Son of God relied on Him to do His work, not because Jesus could not do it Himself, but because He meant to leave us a pattern for our own lives. If Christ depended upon the Holy Spirit, how much more should we? It is said that the great evangelist Billy Sunday, began every sermon by opening his Bible to Isaiah 61.”
Y’all know Isaiah 61, right?
It’s the prophetic word about Jesus and how He would declare one day that He was anointed with the Holy Spirit. In fact, I think I even have that right here. Isaiah 61 states this. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me.” We are anointed, right? “The New Testament says that you have an anointing of the holy one and you know all things.” In other words, He’s our teacher. He’s our guide. He’s our instructor. “Because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are abound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…
This is not only prophetic of Jesus, this is prophetic of us. This is a good prayer to pray on a daily basis. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. What a good word! The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Amen. I find that one of the most blessed things to do… I was doing it last night about midnight, just reflecting about how little we really appreciate whom we’re connected with, that being our Heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit. How honorable, how blessed, how majestic He is. We have certain handles or labels that we describe God as the Holy Spirit and that helps us a little bit. But we have no clue just truly how great He is.
The reason to go to church…
I think about the reason I go to church isn’t so that I can be seen or I put in my religious do or don’t or whatever. I go to church because I want to honor Him, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I lift up holy hands because He is worthy and He is majestic, and He is holy and He is mighty. And He’s the one whom I have the privilege to follow after and to pursue to know on a daily basis. That is a very holy thing. When we pray, it’s a holy thing as I said yesterday. When you open your mouth and begin to speak out in your heavenly prayer language, what a holy thing. I mean, in heaven even the atmosphere and the ambiance of the realm speaks of His glory and majesty and greatness.
Down here, we just get so familiar and casual and flippant with things and religion and churchgoing and prayer sometimes I think. And even the Bible, that we’d stop at some point or we get dull in our perception to realize just how great and how amazing this opportunity is to follow and know Him and be in His presence. There are moments when we must take off our shoes because we’re on holy ground. Your heart was made acceptable to Him for Him to move in and live and dwell on the inside of you and me by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit.
So you are anointed to do…
You are anointed to be in this time and generation. You are anointed and equal to and you have a greater measure of the presence of God to overcome whatever is before you, whatever’s been assigned to you, whatever prayer must be prayed today, whatever thing you must confront today, God has anointed you to not be defeated and beaten down and just get by or just maintain the status quo. But the majestic-ness of Heaven has come to rest on you and me, upon the church He has chosen to reveal Himself through you.
We are the Lit-Up ones…
That’s why we could call ourselves the lit-up ones, because in the spirit realm from a spiritual perspective, you are bright and shining and reflecting the “goldness,” the glory of God. And we ought to live and think and make decisions and do what we do daily with an ever-growing perspective of not only the one whom we serve, but the one in whom is in us.
“Fueling the Fire” continued…
So this devotional goes on to say, “Such is the power of the Holy Spirit, that even the Son of God relied on Him to do His work. Not because Jesus could not do it Himself, but because He meant to leave us a pattern for our own lives. If Christ depended upon the Holy Spirit, how much more should we? It is said that the great evangelist Billy Sunday began every sermon opening his Bible to Isaiah 61 and placing his notes on this text. Thus did he remind himself that the power for life-changing ministry…” And I would add to that life change period… “comes from the Holy Spirit.” Amen. Glory to God.
He just has a way, the Spirit of God, whether you’re meditating on His Word or you’re spending time praying in the spirit, laying on the floor of your bedroom or whatever, the Spirit of God, if you will honor Him and you will reverence Him and you will give Him space and place in your day-to-day lives, there will be many times and moments where He will rush in, where He will overflow in you… I’ll put it that way. And do a work to transform, to deliver, to set free, to heal, to inspire, to show you the way, to take you to another level.
Thank God for the rushing in of the Holy Spirit…
What I mean by that is where you just get overcome by His presence. He just like manifests. He’s really in you, right? But He just manifests and shows up in your prayer closet, shows up in your day. And you may feel it on your skin and you might sense it in your motions as you begin to be overcome by His presence. But make no mistake about it, He comes to transform. He comes to free us. He comes to flush out all that the enemy means to pollute us with even just the day-to-day of life.
And I’m so grateful for that. And in fact, I prophesied that over you this morning, that as you prioritize Him, as you honor Him, as you give Him space and place just in today and are aware of His presence and spend time praying in your heavenly prayer language that He is going to show up and it’ll be an unexpected moment. And He’s going to remove some things. He’s going to deliver you of some things. He’s going to break off that which the enemy meant to limit you with. It’s going to be broken off in Jesus’ name. Your soul is going to be set free to a next level.
God desires for us to be free and liberated and filled with joy. He intends for you to rejoice with joy unspeakable and be perpetually filled with His glory. Can I get an amen this morning? Come on now. It’s just true. Glory to God. There is nothing but victory in the heart and mind and realm of God. There’s nothing but brightness and hope, as I said yesterday, and light and divine intentionality for Him to do something good. That’s why we can believe that we will see the goodness of God in this land of the living, this land of our lives, you could say.
“And so the power for life-changing ministry comes from the Holy Spirit. The power of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit are one and the same. God is the source of power over sickness, over demonic spirits, and over death. The Father gave the Son the power that He might work His mighty miracles. While we wait for the return of Christ, the only daily experience we have with God is our experience with His Spirit. But since the Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son to know the Holy Spirit is truly to know the Father and the Son. As much as anyone can know God, given the limitations of human flesh. Though sent by the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is not less than God, but is Himself fully God. There is one Holy Spirit. He is the one who baptizes us into the body of Christ. Everyone comes to Christ the same way. By faith. Everyone is forgiven the same way by the blood of the cross. Everyone comes into the body of Christ the same way, by the Holy Spirit. The world doesn’t understand theology, but everyone understands the testimony of a truly changed life. That happens not through religion, but through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Prayed…
And so, Father, we thank you this morning for your presence and the presence of your Spirit. We just acknowledge you, Holy Spirit, and we welcome you into our lives, into this gathering this morning. We welcome you afresh. We humble our hearts before you, and we repent where we have been casual, where we have taken our relationship with you for granted in different ways, where we have not fully recognized the majesty and the greatness of who you are as creator of heaven and earth, as our heavenly Father, as the one who laid down His life to the fullest extent. Lord, we repent this morning, and we just say we receive your grace and your forgiveness. And we just say, Lord, help us to reflect and to see who you truly are and want to be in our hearts, in our lives, and in and through our praying in Jesus’ name.
