Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Heather…
Good morning, family of God. Welcome to morning prayer.
Pastor Heather shared about her trip to Israel…
I just returned from Israel on Friday, and I’ve never been there before. And it was just so beautiful to be in all the places that Jesus was and walk in the steps that He walked. I’m still processing. It was such an overwhelming experience to look up and see the hills where the Israelites fought, to see the hills where David wrote the Psalms, to see the cave where he hid from Saul, to sit in the garden of the Gethsemane and just think of Jesus sitting there and weeping tears of blood and praying out to God, to stand in an empty tomb, to see Golgotha, to see all these places that we read about and believe in our hearts. But to see it with my own eyes was very profound, very impactful. And just to sense His presence as we were in those places and to be baptized in the River Jordan and to think that that’s where He was baptized. And just walking down all these steps and being in all these places that we read day by day in our Bibles.
We are now the holy of holies…
And every place was so rich. You could stand in just one place and unpack so many things that happened because there’s so much history in Israel. There’s so much of the Gospel in Israel just from the children of Israel to David to the kings, to standing at the Western Wall and thinking, “I’m as close as I can be to the Holy of Holies,” where that used to be for the children of Israel. Which, of course, now we are the Holy of Holies, right? We are the temple where He lives.
The tomb is empty!
But also just to be there in the natural and to watch the people of Israel, to watch the Jewish people and their love for Him and their hunger for God. I don’t even know that I can put words to everything that I saw and experienced, but just to say that the tomb is empty! And what He did for us and sitting in those places and sitting on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and thinking of Him restoring Peter after he denied Him three times and being out on the sea of Galilee in a boat and just feeling His overwhelming peace and feeling like any minute Jesus could just walk on the water right up to our boat. It was amazing.
You can feel the tension in Israel…
So I’m sharing this because He still is the Prince of Peace. He still is the Lamb. And while I was in Israel, there is tension there. You feel tension. You see that tension is building and things are getting ready to unfold, right? And we know what’s coming. We know the Messiah is returning. We know that. But feeling that tension and you’re sitting there and then you hear like the Muslim call to prayer, very loud and ominous sounding. But you’re watching all these people and their different beliefs trying to find God. And it makes me so thankful that I have the Holy Spirit, that we were grafted in, that we can have the Holy Spirit living and moving inside of us, that Jesus paid that price so that we could experience His presence. We could experience His glory. We could be in the Holy of Holies, His presence, the Shekinah glory.
And as I stood at that wall, you see these devout Jews coming up and praying. And they’re putting their little slips of paper in there. And it’s precious. And I reverence that. I reverence that moment. But also, I thought, “Oh, but we have the Holy Spirit in us, and we can pray anywhere, any place, and He can hear us. We don’t have to go to a location.” Right?
But all of it made me just so thankful for His presence, so thankful to be able to have the opportunity to go and to see those places. I don’t want to say it made it more real, but it did in a way. It made it tangible to me. Because you read about it but then to be there and to touch the olive trees, and to touch the steps and the wall and the tomb and sit in the garden and to feel the water of the River Jordan. Just all those things and you think, “Wow!” It just made it so real and I’m so thankful.
We’re so close to His return…
So where am I going with all this? I’m just so thankful today. I am so thankful in the midst of that tension… This is what I’m trying to get to. That tension in Israel, the tension in Minneapolis, the tension in the United States, the tension in wherever… Just wherever you’re watching from today, there’s tension because heaven is getting closer and closer and closer. His return is getting closer and closer. And to stand and to look at the Eastern Gate of Israel, which is sealed right now. That’s going to be open for His return. To look at the Mount of Olives and think this is where He’s going to return. To see these places and to feel that we’re so close.
We’re so close.
But in all the tension, He’s very present. He doesn’t leave us. He doesn’t forsake us. And even though there were times of discomfort, His peace was there. His peace was so real and overwhelming. And so whatever it is you’re facing today, whatever tension is in your life, whatever obstacles, the Prince of Peace has walked through those obstacles for you already.
The Bible says to pray for the peace of Israel…
The Holy Spirit is the comforter. And He’ll give you wisdom. He’ll give you grace. I just felt led to share that. We’re going to pray some things today. One of those things is praying over the nation of Israel. It says to pray for the peace of Israel. And that’s so real to me now being there and seeing barbed-wire fences, seeing people with machine guns strapped to them and walking through, feeling these holy moments, but also these really tense moments all at the same time. It’s very surreal. So we’re going to pray for the peace of Israel. We’re going to pray for the peace of Minneapolis Minnesota, of the United States. We’re going to pray some things into existence today.
And kind of a joking moment…
We were at the place where Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and all of them have tombs. We were in there and there was a Jewish family. And they were celebrating a circumcision, so we got to see this very old way of celebrating. These very devout Jews and they’re dancing and they’re singing and people are coming up and congratulating the Father. And we’re watching this, right? And this very devout Jew comes up to my husband and said, “Where are you from?” And he said, “We’re from Minneapolis.” He said, “Ah.” He said, “Are you coming over here to have some peace?” And I thought, “Oh my.” So we were very well known over there. Because we’ve been on the news a lot lately.
In spite of the tension, there is so much hope…
But all that to say, it just made me realize the tension that they live in every day, but their devotion also to their Father God and the tension that we’re living in every day. But that you don’t lose hope. I felt so much hope in the people there. It was very unfamiliar to me.
But you could still feel the hope of the people, the hope that their Messiah is returning. And obviously, there’s many things that we differ in, but we come from that olive tree, right? We were grafted in. They are His chosen people. And so to see their hope still, to see they’re still dancing, they’re still singing, they’re still rejoicing, they’re still waiting for Messiah. And He will return. And to be standing in that place where He will return was so surreal and made it so impactful. Obviously, that’s the hope. Ye’re all waiting for His return. We’re believing. But there’s much work to be done in the meantime.
So with that being said, let’s pray…
We’ll start with praying for the peace of Israel, and then we’re going to move into Minneapolis and however else the Holy Spirit leads.
Thank you, Holy Spirit, that we can hear your voice.
We lift Israel up to you. You say, “Pray for the peace of Israel.” So we speak peace over the borders now.
We thank you for wisdom from the throne room of heaven. Wisdom. Insight. Intel.
The apple of your eye. Peace. Peace. Peace.
We thank you for wisdom and intel for their protection.
We bind terror. We bind it in the name of Jesus.
So we stand in the gap for our brothers and sisters in Israel.
We stand in the gap and we speak peace to that nation.
You silence the mouth of the enemy.
We know that there’s a war there. So now we speak to those principalities and powers, in the name of Jesus.
We claim the nation of Israel, the apple of His eye, and we say, “Peace be still.”
We thank you that the plans of the enemy are thwarted.
No weapon formed against them shall prosper… not while the church is here.
Not while you have the body of Christ here to pray and to protect.
