- “Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist”
Annie led group in worship…
Pastor Ken…
Good morning. Welcome everybody. Great to have you with us. Annie was singing about what an amazing promise, what an amazing understanding. The Bible says that He has us carved or tattooed. One translation says into the palm of His hand, that we’re ever before Him. But He’s always reminded of us. Just think about that this morning… He has your name in front of Him today, thinking about you. His thoughts toward you are greater than the sands on the seashore. What an awesome way to start out Tuesday morning, right? Oh, He’s such a good father.
I was thinking about the necessity of walking in the Spirit and the need for us in this day to learn those ancient ways, to hear the voice of the Spirit. As the Old Testament says “this is the way, walk in it.” How many of you know that the Holy Spirit will coach you? He’s a coach, really. I like what the New Testament says that He’s a standby, counselor, an advocate. I like to think of Him as a coach for our lives and what we should do or what we shouldn’t do. But, in addition, in our prayer journey, He’ll coach you actually. He’ll lead and prompt you as to what to pray for, because He knows what He’s already prepared. What’s already in His store houses. What His angel are at the ready to fulfill. So He’ll coach you to pray, to request, to intercede, to earnestly entreat Him and ask Him for something and that He sends His angels to deliver it.
So I think that’s an important aspect of prayer. Prayer is about getting in sync with heaven. It’s about getting in sync with the Holy Spirit and learning to let the Holy Spirit assist you and lead you and coach you in how to pray and what to pray for and how to ask for it.
Because God has already established a way for you. He’s already established and ordained a way for America or for your particular nation or country that you live in today. He has a path. He has a way. He has answers. In advance of us experiencing challenges or needing to make a decision. Once again, He doesn’t live in time or space. He lives in a whole other reality, a place where He knows all things at once.
And when we get to heaven, we will know all things. We’ll see even as He is seen. But now we see through a glass darkly. And so we’re just thankful. I’m thankful for the Holy Spirit, that He’s my coach this morning. And in particular to coach and to lead us how to live a life in the Spirit. Because if you can endeavor to live in the spirit, be led by the spirit, you will overcome the enemy every single time. You will defeat him in every situation and every instance that he tries to create messiness or issues in your life. It is the great key, walking in the spirit, to success. It is how we experience the plan of God.
And this morning, I wanted to just share something with you just as kind of a starting point for our prayer time here. There’s a really great book by Nancy Dufresne, called “His Presence Shall Be My Dwelling Place.” And, it’s kind of based on the scripture found in Psalm 23:6, which you may be familiar with. Translated the Amplified, Psalm 23:6 says “His presence shall be my dwelling place.” I like that. But in chapter one, I’ll read just a couple of pages here to you because I think it really fed me and spoke to me and refreshed some things in me. And I follow the principle of if it speaks to me and feeds me and refreshes me that it probably will you too.
So she says “There’s a place for the believer to live in this world where the world knows nothing about. A place the world doesn’t even seem to know exists. Nevertheless, it’s a place which God bids His children to occupy. A life lived in the Spirit is the only life that will accomplish living in its highest sense.
Paul wrote of the life of the spirit in Galatians 5:16 and 25. He said, “This I say then, walk in the spirit. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.” A minister was telling about experiences he had while working with a renown woman evangelist glued to every word I requested, tell me about working with her. He began by saying the most outstanding thing about her was that she never came out of the spirit. She lived in the spirit. And the effects of that were often seen.
One day I arrived early at the television studio where I was to shoot some television programs with her. I was talking to some cameramen who had already worked for a major secular network studio. And they were born again. While having a conversation with one of them, a wind suddenly blew through the studio where we were to do our shooting. Awind so strong that the studio curtains began to blow. “What was that?” I asked the cameraman. “That her,” they said. He said, speaking of the evangelist, “Every time she walks into the building, a wind blows through the studio. She will be making her way to the door, into the studio in about 45 seconds.” Sure enough, about 45 seconds later, she walked into the studio. In thinking about this incident, I was reminded of Ephesians 2:10.”
Now catch this. This is just so strong, so good.
“It says in the Amplified Bible in Ephesians 2:10, once again, “Taking paths which he prepared ahead of time that we should walk in them.”
Isn’t that good? Going into the holiday season, looking at 2022, perhaps you’re facing some challenges, just know God has some paths that He’s already prepared ahead of time for us to walk in. Some paths, some avenues, some breakthroughs, some blessings, some answers He’s already prepared even ahead of a particular season that you might be in. He’s prepared them ahead of time. He’s gone into our future. That’s why He can look at us and smile because He knows the end from the beginning and it all works out well for us. He’s already made a way. He is the way maker. Can I get an amen this morning? Just trying to get a smile out of you on this Tuesday morning.
“God’s tangible presence proceeded this evangelist into the studio, preparing the atmosphere for her to accomplish what He had commissioned. So the Spirit of God had already showed up. In this instance, 45 seconds ahead of this woman evangelist so much so that the curtains were blowing because of the presence of God and the aura of God that entered that room before she even got there.” Think about us today, wherever you’re going. God has already been there. He’s been there, done that. Bought the t-shirt. And He’s in your heart to tell you all about it, to say this is the way, walk in it. Or this isn’t the way to walk. Now it’s time to move. Now it’s time to go. Call so and so, step out of the boat, take a step of faith and do this. Pray for this. Ask for that. Knock on this door. He’s constantly coaching us and leading us. That’s why I can say that things have been set up for us to succeed. Things have been rigged in our favor. That is true. If you lean into Him and follow Him and let Him lead you and let His presence and let Him be your central focus.
There’s a principle that says that what you look at will get into your soul. I like to say what you focus on, you move towards. And as a pray-er, that’s an important principle. As a believer, that’s an important principle because there’s so much locked up into that. God gets in you when you focus on Him. I suppose that’s why Colossians 3:2 was given to us, that we’re to set our minds on things above, not on things that are on this earth. Or Joshua 1:8. “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth.” In other words, you should be perpetually meditating on it, letting it be your central focus, in your mind’s eye and in your heart. Because the Bible says, then this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but thou shall meditate. You shall meditate on it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous. And then you shall have good success.
One translation says, “And then you shall deal wisely, make profitable decisions when you are focused and captivated by Him, by His promises. You become filled with Him and His presence. But she goes on to write,
“God’s tangible presence proceeded this evangelist into the studio, preparing the atmosphere for her to accomplish what He had commissioned. God precedes His people in the direction He sends them. He not only has your name tattooed in His hand ever before Him thinking about you, but He’s gone ahead of you today, into the land, into the marketplace, into your family situation, into the circumstances, into perhaps even the enemy lurking trying to perpetuate evil in your life. But guess what? He can’t, because God has gone before you.
Wouldn’t you like to walk into a room and people say, “Wow, we knew you were coming. The flags were blowing!”
God precedes His people in the direction He sends them. The Holy Spirit is our guide. He arrives before us. No one could guide us without already having been there. The cameramen … “
See that’s why Jesus, even on earth, He was God, but He was operating as a man, as you and I operate. He wasn’t ever discouraged. It didn’t seem like He was ever flustered or nervous or bent out of shape about anything. Even with the great sea Galilee, winds blowing and waves tossing the boat they were in. He just seemed to be peaceful and calm because He had been with His Father. He knew that the Father had already been there and what the Father was already going to do. The cameraman told me about another miraculous incident. He said, “Once I traveled to do more television shows with her, and I became very ill in route. I arrived at the hotel to rest for a few hours before I had to leave for the television studio, but I was getting no better. I was still ill. Only a short time before I needed to leave for the studio, I was lying in bed and the phone rang. When I answered, this evangelist greeted me saying, “Hello, how are you today?” When she said that, the power of God shot through my body and every symptom of sickness left. This woman’s words were carriers of power. Why? Because she lived in the spirit. She lived in God’s presence. This is what Paul was speaking of when he wrote 1st Corinthians 2:4. He said, “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but with demonstration of the spirit and of power.” Paul wasn’t just referring to preaching being a demonstration of the spirit and power. He also said that his speech demonstrated the spirit and power. His conversations with others carried demonstrations in power. A demonstration certainly came through that woman evangelist’s speech. Sickness left. This was the result of a life lived in the spirit. A life mindful of God’s presence to live in the spirit is to live more conscious of God than anything else. And to follow the guidance of the Spirit within.
I jotted down… I’ve looked it up. A.W. Tozer once said that a low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils. A high view of God is the solution to 10,000 temporal problems. But she goes on to say,
The spirit realm is the realm that God lives in. Yet He invites us to live there also in continual fellowship with Him. The spirit realm, the realm of God, is more real than the seen realm that we live in because our earthly realm exists as a result of God’s realm. His realm proceeded this earthly realm, even though we were born into this realm, this world we live in, Jesus made a way for us to live in His realm. Through His blood, He gave us access to God’s presence and realm. He restored us to the place of fellowship Adam enjoyed before he sinned against God. You must choose which world you will live in. Every man or every woman’s life is an expression of the world he or she lives in.”
That’s a really good statement right there. In other words, what you experience and what you’re able to express through every faculty of your life, what you do, the decisions you make, your relationships, your words so on and so forth is really an expression or a result of the world you choose to live in. You may say, do I have a choice? I live in America. I live on earth right now. Well, that’s true. But you do have a choice as far as what inner world you live in, what you focus on. Somebody once said, as your soul goes, so goes your life. So there is this ability or choice that we have daily, even moment by moment, what we focus on, what we choose to give our attention to, what we cultivate within. That’s the world that we’re creating. That’s the world that we’re choosing to live in. And that’s the world that will then find expression through us and that we’ll experience.
