Morning Prayer Notes for Wednesday, December 15, 2021

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Pastor Ken…

We just honor you, Father. We worship you and welcome you into our lives, into this gathering Lord, both online and in this place this morning. We welcome the King of Kings. We invite you to invade our hearts and our lives and our circumstances. And even as we approach the holidays, Lord, we pray that you would come and have your way, that truly you would be Emmanuel in our Christmas season, in this celebratory time of the greatest gift of all. We pray that your presence would manifest in a profound and special way in these remaining days of 2021.

Thank you for the Holy Spirit, who is moving about this place, moving about each heart ministering, depositing, channeling… the Spirit of God is pouring into your soul. He’s pouring into your life. Just open your heart and receive. Invite Him. Say, “Lord, I receive in Jesus’ name.” What I don’t even know that I need today, I receive it gracefully. I receive it with thanksgiving. I receive it by faith. Thank you, Father.

That’s a good reminder that we need to receive more than we need to give. When it comes to the Lord, He wants us to receive as a habit as a daily part of our lives, to just open our hearts and just receive. Thank you for your presence.

Word of knowledge…

I am sensing there are some people … what’s going on in their lives, I’m sensing the Holy Spirit is just settling you down. You need to be settled down in a good way. He’s just saying, “Settle down. All is going to be well.” He’s got you. He’s got whatever that is that’s got you all stirred up, frustrated, fearful, anxious. He wants to minister peace and hope and love and grace right now to your heart, to your circumstances. He’s still God. He’s still on His throne. He still knows the way forward. He still knows the future better than you know the past. And all is well. So just let His peace saturate and permeate you to the deepest part of who you are. Thank you, Father.

Pastor Ken…

Good morning, everybody. Great to have you with us.

I just want to read a little something as a kind of a point of reflection. You get who the leader is, right? Meaning, you’re going to get it all—the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes with me. Hopefully there’s less and less ugly and more and more good in my life. But I say that because I am a teacher. I have a teacher motive gift. I love to study. I love to perpetually learn. I taught my children from day one that when they graduated high school, that’s just the beginning. You don’t stop learning once you graduate high school or college. You should be a lifelong learner. There’s a reason why Solomon asked for wisdom. With wisdom, he got everything else.

I was thinking about that this morning and was prompted to look up Proverbs 4:7 in the Passion translation. I thought this was so good. It says this in Proverbs 4:7, “Wisdom is the most valuable commodity—so buy it! Revelation-knowledge is what you need—so invest in it! 8 Wisdom will exalt you when you exalt her truth. She will lead you to honor and favor when you live your life by her insights. 9 You will be adorned with beauty and grace, and wisdom’s glory will wrap itself around you, making you victorious in the race.” Isn’t that good?

Your financial race, your spiritual race, your relational race, your God-ordained race … wisdom. I think in the King James, it says “with all you’re getting, get understanding, get wisdom.” And I was thinking of that because there’s a book by Nancy DuFresne entitled “His Presence Shall Be My Dwelling Place.” I’ve been reading it, and when I first looked at it, I thought I knew what this book was going to be about. I’ve read a lot of books like that. But as I’ve been reading through it, I’ve just really been impressed with Nancy’s insights on some of the things she shares, the really bottom-line Christianity. And there’s a lot of wisdom in what she’s sharing. That’s why I shared that passage about wisdom. I was going to read two pages, but now it’s like four pages because it’s so good.

She starts out by saying, “It would be worthwhile to see why the children of Israel began to complain.” She’s talking about the passage of the children of Israel from Egypt to the promised land, through the desert, through the red sea and what they went through, which wasn’t always very pretty. They griped, they complained. They got derailed, sidetracked. A lot of craziness happened.

She says, “It would be worthwhile to see why the children of Israel began to complain. This passage shows us it was because the way, what the people had forgotten was that God was the one who chose “the way” or the route they were to travel. To become impatient, depressed or discouraged because of the way God leads is the same as grumbling against God because He is the one who directs the way we are to take. Have you ever noticed that God doesn’t send you on the way that is most convenient for you? Did you know that God is not interested in your convenience? Actually God uses inconvenience to prove your love, steadfastness, and faithfulness to Him and to forge endurance in you.”

That’s something that’s been rolling around in my spirit for a time now. I sense God’s wanting to build a greater capacity in us to deal with stuff, to handle more of what He wants to do in us and through us… a capacity, perhaps, for what’s coming. He’s getting us ready. He knows what’s coming both good and maybe not so good that the church will have to face. And so He’s wanting to build capacity. That’s oftentimes why He takes us down that path that is less traveled and not always the easy way. Because we’re in that journey of difficulty, day-to-day frustrations that crop up is our opportunity to grow and to be forged in the fire, to be shaped and molded and transformed further into the image and the likeness of Jesus. Where we don’t just look from a distance like Jesus or sound a little like Jesus, but where we begin to bleed like Jesus bled… with passion and desire for what He’s passionate and desiring. Where our emotions begin to align like His emotions, our thoughts, our words, every aspect of our lives begin to reflect and take on the fragrance and the image of Him. That’s why He’s called the forerunner. He’s come to show us the way, to empower us and lead us in the way. The early Church was simply called “the way.” Because the people in the first century said, “Let’s follow in the way of this one Jesus, who was and is, and yet is to come again.

She goes on to say, “Many would go the way He leads if it were convenient but are they as eager to go when all they see are obstacles and inconveniences? Those who become spiritually stalwart thrive on challenges. Ease is the legs that holds up Hell’s rocking chair, lulling you right into disobedience. Quit looking for an easy way in life. Shortcuts take you nowhere. Inconvenience is used by God to forge iron into your spiritual backbone. Ease is the lazy person’s song. And too many Christians are singing it. Too many believers quit because they aren’t willing to do that which afflicts their own flesh. What are your options? Either you go God’s way or you go the Devil’s way.

“If you think God’s way is too hard, you must have forgotten what it was like dancing to the devil’s tune. Those Israelites who were complaining about their long journey, their God and their leader had forgotten about 400 years of harsh bondage in a very short time. They had forgotten what it was like to be treated as slaves. They had forgotten how their Egyptian taskmasters had persecuted and afflicted them.

“Complaining people are forgetful people. They have forgotten all the blessings God had bestowed on them. Forgetfulness is the weapon the devil uses to get you away from the way God is leading you. That’s why the Word of God repeatedly tells us to remember. If there was anyone who could have complained about the way it would have been Paul, but let’s see what he says about his inconveniences.

This is 2nd Corinthians 4. I’m going to read it from the Passion translation.

8 “Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option. 9 We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out. 10 We continually share in the death of Jesus in our own bodies so that the resurrection life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity. 11 We consider living to mean that we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that the life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity.”

In other words, when he’s referring to associating and experiencing the death of Jesus, it has to do with denying your flesh. Coming to morning prayer instead of sleeping another hour, for example. Being willing to go the inconvenient route that God is leading you rather than going your way, which seems easier and better.

“We consider living to mean that we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus to say so that the life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity. So then death is at work in us, but it releases life in you.”  

In other words, what I just said, I just described as far as the death of Jesus and denying our flesh and what we want that in that those little deaths that we die every day, we discover true life. Because there is a principle in the world that something must die before something can come to life. And when you deaden yourself, your ways, your sinful patterns, what you want, the ease that you want to pursue for His way, that it actually activates and brings to life the fullness of what God intends for you.

It goes on to say, “So no wonder we don’t give up. For even though our outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is being renewed every single day. We view our slight short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal weighty glory, far beyond all comparison, because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary. But the unseen realm is eternal.”

“Did you see what Paul called these tests and trials? A light affliction compared to the weight of the glory we receive when walking victoriously through tests. They are light. God forbid that we should join the ranks of the grumbling, who are unseeing, unperceiving, ungrateful, and forgetful of all God’s blessings. When we encounter obstacles that are in our way, we should do so cheerfully, gladly and joyfully. He is our victory in these tests. Paul tells us in verse 18, how not to be overcome by afflictions. It says, while not looking at all the things which are seen better, but at all the things which are not seen. Why did the Israelites grumble? They were looking at the wrong things. All they looked at were the tests instead of the glory God was leading them into.

“Why do you grumble? Why do people grumble? They’re looking at the wrong thing. You can’t live in God’s presence and grumble. When God begins to lead you into a deeper fellowship with Himself, He will show you things afflicting your soul that must be cast away before you can continue. It’s never convenient to deal with them. Yet, it’s the only way you’ll ever get to where He’s leading you. So be willing to change. Be willing to pay the price for we are changed from glory to glory. Each new level of glory requires a new level of change. Every new revelation requires a new level of commitment.”

She refers also to Numbers 21, where we see the story where the children of Israel were afflicted and facing challenges from those fiery serpents. And then God gave Moses the direction; Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it on a pole. And if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked to the serpent of bronze attentively, expectantly, which is a picture of Jesus receiving the curse on our behalf, right… attentively, unexpectantly with a steady and absorbing gaze, he or she lived. It all had to do with their focus. Let me just read a little bit more.

“It is important to note here that by looking at the pole with the serpent, which is the type of the curse being laid upon Jesus, the people were healed, the people were changed. What they looked at went into their souls and made a change in their bodies. When you gaze steadily upon Jesus becoming absorbed in Him, more of God will get into your soul and makes changes. The changes you’ve longed to see in your soul will only happen this way.”

In other words, what you look at, you move toward. I like to say “What you feed, lives and thrives. What you starve, dies and goes away.” It’s really that simple.

“Those bitten by the serpent had to look away from their dead brethren from themselves even and from their pain and symptoms and look steadily on the pole. You must look away from all else to gaze upon Jesus.”

I’m gonna stop there, but let’s just let that be our focus this holiday season. We often say that Christmas is the most wonderful time of year. What makes it the most wonderful time of year is when our attention is fixated and focused on Him.

Prayed…

And so, Father, we just thank you for the wisdom that is found in your Word. And we just pray this morning that you would just help us individually and collectively and as a nation to find our way back to God.

We pray that you would shift the attention and the focus of our hearts, of our communities, of our nation… to shift it upon you.

Help us to see the way forward… anoint our eyes to see …

We lift up leaders today… the leaders of our nations… We pray that you would open their eyes to see … operations… we pray for operations… to help people to see, to help our leaders to see, to help ministers, pastors, missionaries … teachers of the Word to see … to help believers and pray-ers to see… open up, open up…

We lift up our family members… those that we will be with over the holidays …

We lift up our church communities today.

We pray for sights, spiritual sight … new vision, Lord … open up, open up … release it, release it…

Just pray out of your prayer out of your heart this morning, church. Pray in your prayer language…

Broken up, broken up, broken up… we break that up today… we break up strongholds… we’re coming straight for those obstacles, those hindrances, those distractions… whether it’s natural or spiritual, I don’t know, but we’re coming for that work of the enemy, that weapon that’s been formed… to break it up … to bring it down … to bring it down every stronghold and every obstacle, every issue, every lie of the enemy… we break up those clouds of darkness… clouds of deception… the work of the enemy … that despondency… that devastation, distraction, depression, operation of the enemy.

Lord, you know what that one is… where that’s at … and so we come straight to them today with words of prayer, with words of command, and we declare “be cleared out clutter, be cleared out of the way in Jesus’ name”

for we’re plowing straight through a pathway for our God to come in this land, to come to America, to come to our nation, to come in a fresh way in the days ahead to our communities, to our churches.

Lord, we’ve got to have that with you want to give … that which you have prepared and keep in store for us, for this time. Lord, we call out for that today. We must have that refreshing, that healing wave, that miraculous move… that you have your hand on right now… we call it into our realm, into our hearts, into our lives…

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