Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Friday prayer. Good to have you with us. My name is Ken and together with the esteemed John Blobaum, we’re going to go forward today in some prayer here today.
The power of a decision…
I was reflecting a little bit this morning and thinking about this one thought. That thought is… we could be individually one decision away from a completely different life. Don’t underestimate the power of a decision. Silently, quietly, a decision that you make that could turn things completely around in your life, in your family, in a situation. And we, even as a nation, as a remnant of pray-ers and believers.
Story from “Herald of His Coming”
And I guess to kind of reinforce that, there is a… I don’t read this very often, but I get it each month. It’s a newspaper called “Herald of His Coming,” which actually is free if you just Google “Herald of His Coming.” I think they support it through free will offerings. But the cover article of this month’s edition is entitled, “Help Turn the Course of Your Nation.”
Article, “Help Turn the Course of Your Nation”
How many of you know that you were not born accidentally in this particular era? We are appointed, and it was always in God’s mind and heart to send you and I to this generation, to be on the earth in this moment, even before His imminent return.
To do what?
To just coast?
Get by?
Do our own thing?
No!
To wake up to the fact that God has called us out of this generation to be representatives and those who labor in His kingdom of God operations in the midst of this time. And the name of the author is Henry Blackaby.
He says…
“God is calling His people to return to Him and be a highway of holiness.”
And this caught my attention because we were praying about holiness and consecration last Wednesday.
“He’s called us to be a highway of holiness over which He can come to the lost world. But before we can become a highway of holiness, we must understand the issues of sin. In order to understand sin, we must see our sin from God’s perspective. We must build our relationship with God in such a way that our lives can be a highway over which God reaches the rest of our nation in a great revival amongst God’s people and a sweeping spiritual awakening in the hearts and lives of those who do not know Him.
Did God remove His hedge of protection on this nation?
“There is an urgency that we must carry within us. This urgency has at least two major directions. If I understand the scriptures correctly, God will judge any nation that neglects His direction. It may very well be that we are under the judgment of God. If I were to attempt to find the beginning of what I believe is a national neglect, I would return to the early 1960s. It seems as though God removed the hedge of protection from around America in that decade. We began to see unrestrained things take place from the ‘60s to this present day. There seems to have been nothing to hold back the tide of injustice in our society A deep departure from God in the church has continued since that decade. It is as if the hedge of His protection has been broken down, and God is letting us experience the consequences of our own sin.”
And let me just interject this one other thought…
That while we’re grateful that we have some strong leaders who are open to and even facilitating a return back to God, right? Yesterday was the National Day of Prayer; the 17th, I believe, of May is the day President Trump has earmarked as the day he wants us to officially rededicate our nation back to God. That’s awesome! That’s good! And that is an answer to prayer without a doubt.
Our trust is not in our leaders…
However, let me just submit this to you. And that is, that our trust is not in our leaders nor our government or politicians. Because while we’re grateful that President Trump is kind and has a heart for the things of God, one election could change everything again. And we will be heading in the wrong direction unless the people of God, the house of God, those called by His name, in other words, unless we wake up to the reality that God is calling us to attention.
This author writes…
“Endorsed us to be highways through which He can invade earth and change things, not just for one election cycle, but change things from here on out so that the wrapping up of the age can be accomplished in our nation and around the world.”
Because make no mistake about it, God has chosen America to be a facilitator and a participator and an enabler of kingdom of God operations in other nations. So we’re grateful and we pray for our leaders first and foremost. But our trust is in Jesus. Our trust is in the Lord and the God of heaven.
This article goes on to say…
“There is an urgency in the scriptures when God says, ‘If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land,’ (2 Chronicles 7:14).”
That’s a good passage to be reminded of every day.
“That great passage indicates clearly that the redemption of America waits on the repentance of the people of God.”
“I want to pose this question to you…”
Remember I said today I feel like I want to pose the question. You and I could be one decision away from a completely different life or a completely different experience in a particular arena of our lives. Repentance is a decision to turn and go a different direction. And I would suggest that one of the most important decisions we can make is, “Lord, I will be all in for you. I will turn myself completely over to you and make myself available for what you want to do in me and through me.” Beginning with prayer and those assignments that He has for each of us to pray through.
Is this helping anybody this morning?
“The salvation of a nation has little to do with Washington or Hollywood. It has to do with the people of God. If God’s people do not sense that the problem is with them, then America does not stand a chance of revival or survival. And so understanding in an ever-increasing measure what God says in His Word, we carry with us a deep sense of urgency that we are closer to the judgment of God on our nation today than we were last year. Do you believe that when God’s people pray, that God hears, responds, and brings deep change?”
Prayed…
Lord, yes, we pray for deep change today in our nation.
Not temporary according to the present administration change, but we pray and we agree for deep, profound, and sweeping change in America, in the church.
Begin in the church, Lord. Begin in the house of God. Begin in each of our hearts and houses and lives.
Bring sweeping, permanent, profound change, Lord, that we would not return to our old ways, but that we would continue to follow the ancient paths as the scripture describes—the way of the Lord.
Once again, this article says…
“Are you helping your family and the people in your church to pray for the condition of their lives, families, church, and nation? Remember, God said, ‘For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him,’ (2 Chronicles 16:9). He also said, ‘The effective, fervent…” or you could say white hot or urgent or passionate also is another word you can use… “prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
The Amplified Classic says “makes much power available, dynamic in its working.” Prayer requests and it delegates the power of God to situations, to circumstances, to lives. It is not only spiritual, but very practical means through which we can turn the flow of God on. We can turn the flow of God in the direction of where it’s needed most when we pray. It produces much power today and any day you turn your attention toward Him. And you pray that prayer of faith, that prayer of consecration, that prayer of worship, that prayer of intercession in an unknown language, produces power, produces change, shifts the momentum that’s presently being experienced in a nation, in a church, in a life. It shifts it. It interrupts it.
Prayer is a great disruptor…
We are not here to go with the earth’s flow. The Bible describes Satan as the god of this world. He is overseeing much of the systems and the flow of this world in various arenas.
Well, guess what?
We’ve been sent not just to say, “Oh hum, oh my, I guess I’ll just hang out until Jesus returns and get by.”
No!
We’re to insert ourselves. So when I talk about you’re one decision away from a completely different life, from a breakthrough, from change, that means, “Lord, here I am, send me.” Pray that as your prayer and your decision.
“Yes and Amen…”
The Bible says all of God’s promises are “yes and amen.” Well, they don’t truly become a “yes and amen” fully for you and for me until we say, “Lord, I am yours. Send me.”
I was thinking of the song… I was singing it. Actually ChatGPT’d a few of the words. It’s an old song from 1865, written by Elvina M. Hall. And it’s the song “Jesus Paid It All.” It goes something like,
♫ Jesus paid it all.
All to Him I owe.
Sin has left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. ♫
So Jesus paid it all…
All to Him I owe. Everything. Everything! Do you see yourself as owing Him everything because of what He did for you and for me? That’s the sweet spot in following God, is when we say, “Lord, you paid it all. To you, I owe everything.” That’s where the switch gets flipped and all of His promises are “yes and amen” in your life. He gave His all. In turn, we must give Him our all. This is the great need right now for the church, for you and for me. And it’s not something we arrive at oftentimes at one moment; it’s something we have to continually practice, consecrating ourselves, giving ourselves to Him, seeing ourselves as willing, yielded vessels through which God can pour forth His purposes and His power in this day, in this season.
So he quotes James 5:16…
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man makes much power available.” Jesus also said, ‘And whatever you ask in My name, consistent with everything I have taught you, that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son,’ John 14:13. With these promises with which God’s people can change the course of a nation’s history, what has become of prayer in your own life…” in your marriage, in your family, in your church, or in your denomination? “If revival in America depended on your prayer life, would there be a revival? If you have to say, ‘Not my prayer life,’ then you must change your prayer life.
Your life is a product of the choices you made…
“To have a renewed prayer life requires a simple matter of personal choice. Your life is the product of choices you have made and your church is the product of choices it has made. Your prayer meeting is a reflection of the choices you have made as a church. Our nation is a reflection of the choices that have been made by the people of God concerning their relationship with God. That is one of the reasons why this kind of message has a sense of urgency about it. I believe there is a lot at stake. In fact, eternity is at stake for many in our nation. But in your church alone, there are enough of God’s people, if they were serious with God, to turn the course of our nation. There were 120 people in the upper room who were wholly yielded to the person of Jesus, according to Acts 1:15. God used them to turn the entire Roman Empire completely upside down.
“In 1904, God used a young man from Wales named Evan Roberts. God broke him and shook him through a specific time of prayer with others who had been praying across the land and 100,000 people came to faith in Jesus Christ.”
And that happened in a span of six months.
“The great revival of 1904 began with prayer. Thousands of people ended up on the missions field as a result. Roberts, at 26 years old, was focused on prayer and revival. And that revival set in motion a great missionary movement.
What could God do through your life?
Do you have a sense that America needs a mighty touch from God?
Do you believe God could work through your life as He has through with others?
Would you be willing to make the kind of choices required by God to be that kind of person?
Finally, he says…
“Your response to reading this message will be a reflection of the choices you have made concerning your Lord.”
