Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
It’s important that we remind ourselves that there are things that compete for our attention and compete for our worship. And oftentimes it’s the lesser things that seek to exalt themselves over the greater things. And I just was reminded of that last night that there’s so many distractions and things that compete for our attention and seek to be exalted in our thinking and where we focus our energies.
Yet the Bible reads in 2nd Corinthians 10:5–6 (Passion translation), “We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture like prisoners of war every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the anointed One. Since we are armed with such dynamic weaponry, we stand ready to punish every trace of rebellion as soon as you choose complete obedience.”
Exhortation…
I just encourage you right now this morning to lead captive any fearful thoughts, any secondary thoughts, any thoughts of quitting in any way, any thoughts of giving up, any thoughts that are contrary to what God has stated in His Word about you and what ought to be true for your life. The Bible admonishes us right in this passage that we’re to lead those things to truth, that we’re to take them captive, not let them run roughshod over our lives, but instead to exalt the higher things. Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on this earth.”
Prayed…
Father, we do that this morning. We speak to every negative perspective, every negative thought. We speak to any attitude that is rebellious in our souls. We say right now, “bow to the name of Jesus.” We say right now, “be submitted to the blood of Jesus.” For, Father, we humble ourselves under your hand this day, and we expect to receive fresh grace, fresh encouragement, fresh empowerment, to do what you’ve called us to set our hands to, in the mighty name of Jesus.
Hebrews 1:1 says…
“God who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the Fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things through whom also He made the worlds who being the brightness of His glory, Jesus that is, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power. When he had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance, obtained a more excellent name than they.”
God ripped the veil in the temple, allowing the Holy Spirit to flow…
I’m reminded this morning and glad today that God, through Jesus Christ, ripped the veil that was in the temple long ago, allowing the Holy Spirit to flow, to be free and to fill every one of us. As I was reflecting last night, I had a sense, once again, because of the great and mighty Holy Spirit, because He speaks to us by His Son through the Holy Spirit, I just had a sense that the great host of those who have gone before us, are not only cheering us on but shouting encouragement to the church in the earth…
To run our race of faith like never before
To ask in faith and to keep on asking
To believe for the impossible
To pray for the improbable
To expect the unexpected
To step out in complete dependency and faith in the Father of Spirits, believing for the greatest dimension of God’s power, purpose, and glory ever witnessed or experienced by humanity.
Now is the time…
Now is the time to take ground, to tell your Heavenly Father what’s on your heart, to tell Him you want to know Him intimately, personally and accurately. It is time to sow into your future through prayer, believing when you pray you receive.
For now is the time to expect breakthroughs.
Now is the time to expect answers.
Now is the time to expect the impossible, for the impossible to become reality in your heart, in your family, in your city, in your nation.
Now is the time to expect with great excitement and hope that God’s glory is being poured out on our generation.
Where we stand in history is beautiful…
We’ve been handed something beautiful right now where we stand in history, in the plan of God. And that God is clearly at work, not just in our nation, but in so many places around the world. In so many situations, it is clear God’s hand has been extended and He is bringing about changes.
He is redirecting.
He is transforming.
He is at work in a profound and supernatural way.
This is our cue…
So, once again, this is our cue. This is our time to step into the midst of what’s going on and be a part of it. Firstly through prayer.
I’m also reminded of the Gospel of John 1:12 and 13. It simply says, “But as many has received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. To those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
In other words, you are a child of the most high God. Endowed with spiritual authority, robed in His righteousness, granted the use of His name so that we can do far more than just pay our mortgage, far more than just take care of our house.
The great “wrapping up”
God has called us to be a part of the great wrapping up of the end of the age. He’s called us to stay awake and to remain awake, spiritually speaking… to be sensitive and responsive, even to the slightest prompting of His Spirit on the inside of us.
Challenge!
So I’m going to challenge you today.
What are you asking for?
What are you believing for?
Where is your attention?
Because God is directing it in a particular way right now. The church’s attention. And I believe it’s…
To participate in what He’s bringing forth
To participate in the great end-time harvest
To participate in what He’s doing right here in our own nation.
We’ve got to be in the midst of what He’s doing…
We can’t sit idly by. We cannot sit on the sidelines. We’ve got to be in the midst of what He’s doing now. So I challenge you this morning… I challenge us collectively… I challenge us individually to not let your life operate on cruise control. But to be intentional. To offer up your heart to Him. To tell Him what’s on your heart.
That’s fundamentally what prayer is. It’s telling God what’s on your heart, sometimes things that you’re dealing with; but oftentimes there are things in your heart that He’s put there. He’s placed there. Prayers He’s put inside of you, desires that He’s woven into your nature. And He wants to hear you share those things with Him. He wants you to sit with Him and share your heart with Him.
The divine exchange…
There’s something truly supernatural that occurs when we enter into personal and intimate fellowship with the Father. There’s a divine exchange that goes forth, that is transacted, where what’s in your heart is released, hopefully, in faith. So that God can take that and create the reality of that in your life and in this world.
In addition, there’s a divine exchange for your weakness for His strength, your lack of understanding for His wisdom and His divine vision.
Also in Romans 8:18 it says…
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” He wants to reveal some glory in you and in me today. “…for the earnest expectation of creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope, because of the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs.”
It doesn’t take a lot to get in contact with your heart and sense that groaning, sense that we’re still under the curse or in a world where the curse is affecting things. We’ve been redeemed from the curse. But even the creation itself, even the animal kingdom and the plank kingdom groans because it was subjected to the curse at the fall of man as well.
Prayer is giving birth to things…
But God is wanting us to groan in prayer, to groan in birth pangs. That’s what prayer is. It is giving birth to things “…together until now not only that but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit.” That would be the Holy Spirit. “Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting for the adoption, the redemption even of our body. For we were saved in this hope. But hope that is not seen, is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he or she sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Likewise, the spirit also helps our weakness.”
Aren’t you glad about that this morning? Anybody have any weakness? Well, the Holy Spirit wants to help our weakness because we’ve received the first fruits of our salvation. That would be the Holy Spirit who has come alongside us to equip us and even assist us in prayer to plant seeds into our future. Just know that as you’re praying this morning here in this chapel, as you go into your day, into your week, God is prompting us to plant seeds into our future, to make a way where there isn’t a way.
God is inviting us into a partnership…
It’s okay if you don’t see a way forward today, if you don’t see an answer for that situation. Because guess what? God is inviting us into a partnership where we can make a way where we don’t see a way. That’s what prayer does. Prayer pushes back darkness…
Off of our loved ones
Off of our neighbors
Off of those who are stuck in darkness
Prayer is your opportunity…
So that they can receive the love and the grace and the mercy and the revelation of Jesus. Prayer is your opportunity. Prayer is your assignment on the earth to release the power of God into situations.
James 5:16 says in the Amplified Bible…
“The affectual fervent prayer of a righteous man (or a righteous woman) makes much power available.” The Amplified says, “dynamic in its working.” That means it transforms. It morphs the power of God to be the kind of power that’s necessary in any given situation. We’re dealing here with “supernatural technology,” you could say. Prayer is God’s supernatural technology. Sent and given to us to route the enemy every time, to defeat the enemy every time.
“Well, Ken, I’ve been praying for a couple years now.”
We’ll keep praying. We’re to persevere in the midst of battle. We’re to persevere in fighting the good fight of faith. We’re to stand up and let ourselves carry our heads high with the understanding that God’s Word hasn’t changed. That what He says is so, that we’re to be a people of the Book, and that when we pray, we should pray from an understanding of His Book, an understanding of His Word.
We need to hang out more in His Book…
For some of us, we need to hang out more in His Book. So that we have a robustness in our faith. So that when we pray, we believe we receive. Are you believing you receive when you pray? When it comes to the prayer of faith, for example. If not, then spend time in His Book until you understand what His will is. Until you have been pollinated with the spirit of faith, so that there are no “if, ands, or buts” in your spirit.
God is cheering us on…
For some of us, that’s why maybe we struggle because we have some of God’s Word and we have some degree of faith, but God is cheering us on to pressing in all the more. To let our faith be strengthened and reinforced and pollinated with the faith of God so that when we go to the place of prayer, when we go to a place of worship, there’s a spirit of victory about us. Not a spirit of defeat, not a spirit of ADHD or a spirit of trauma of some kind.
God intends that His people walk uprightly with their heads carried high, with a reflection of His glory in our faces, with a spirit of victory in our hearts. Praying from a place of certainty, from a place of determination and urgency, praying from a place of “I believe I receive” when I pray.
