Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Happy Monday! Greetings and salutations. Welcome to morning prayer.
God is at work as He neither sleeps nor slumbers…
Even before we arose this morning, God was up and was at work. The Bible says He neither sleeps nor slumbers. And so my vision for this prayer time is to simply get into the spirit and see what He is doing and join Him in the work that He is already accomplishing. One thing we must know on any given day, God wants us to participate in what He is doing. He wants to engage with Him in the work that He’s bringing about in the earth and in our churches and in our nation. Things may have shifted and are shifting both nationally and internationally when it comes to leadership, but that is our cue that our work has just begun to engage with the Father and to pray.
Let’s turn our attention to Him…
And so let’s just do that right now this morning on this Monday. Let’s just open up by turning our attention to Him, getting in the spirit and connecting with our Heavenly Father begins by acknowledging Him and turning our attention toward Him and laying aside distractions and choosing to not be focused on externals and what happened yesterday and what was reported on the news today. And “Oh my gosh, what might happen today” or “What will God do?” No, let’s just turn our hearts toward Him and toward the fact that He is faithful and that His nature and His character is always the same. What He says is true. He is a God of the Book. He and His Word are one. And He’s promised to follow through on what He said He would do.
He will bring His Word to pass…
He has promised to watch over His Word, whether it’s a general promise or a specific word to your life that He spoke to you recently. He’s watching over that word today and He will bring it to pass. And we can choose to just go around the mountain of adversity and experience the “same old, same old” again today. Or we can choose to be intentional about what we think and what we speak. The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:8 that we’re to think on these specific things, on whatever’s lovely and of a good report and virtuous and so on and so forth.
I’m here to say that God is at work…
And so today I choose, and join with me, to believe it’s going to all work out the way God intends, even though you may have experienced a setback. Maybe there was a detour. Maybe something hasn’t come to pass fully yet, but I’m here to say God is at work. Let’s keep praying. Let’s keep pursuing Him. Let’s keep our confidence and our trust in Him. It’s not done yet. He’s not over with you and the plan that He intended to see come to pass… that dream that He dropped in your heart once upon a time, you will see it come to fullness. In fact, I declare over you and me today and Living Word today and America today that we will come to a flourishing finish! Because after all, my Bible still says that He’s the God that began a good work in us and that He will continue it and bring it to a flourishing finish, one Bible translation says.
Let’s adopt a new attitude of mind…
So let’s just agree and join together today that we are going to adopt a new attitude of mind. The Bible exactly says that: adopt daily a new or fresh attitude of mind. In other words…
Choose what you’re going to put in your mind.
Choose what you’re going to give your focus and your attention to.
Choose what you will say today; of course, fundamentally that would be “choose life.”
Choose to expect that God is at work.
Choose to expect that God is here with us today…
That He’s on the inside of you and is working together with you in your choice to choose life and your choice to expect and think thoughts of increase and think thoughts of promotion and think thoughts of healing and revival and awakening across a whole nation and the nations of the world.
As a speaking spirit, your words between prayer sessions matter…
As a pray-er, your thoughts matter; your words in between prayer sessions matter. And they matter. You’ve been created in the likeness and image of your Father, and He’s a speaking spirit. And so are you! Not quite on the level of faith that He is so that when you speak intentionality, it creates cosmos. But still you have the creative ability to speak and see it come to pass.
Let’s break any negative cycles…
Your thoughts and what you ruminate on is a precursor or a preview of what is to come. So let’s break any negative cycles. Let’s break any self-defeating patterns in our inclinations and in our meditations. Let’s start off Monday expecting that our situations are turning around. We’re going to see breakthrough today, expecting that the prayer we prayed is still in process. In fact, that God sent the answer the moment you prayed it because He promised it. Maybe you haven’t seen it, but that’s okay. Things in this natural realm always take a little more time to show up because this realm is slow. But that realm moves at the pace of the speed of light. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
Testimony of woman who couldn’t sleep…
Somebody shared this with me the other day and I wrote it down. It’s a story of a woman who woke up. She couldn’t get to sleep. I think she fell asleep, but then woke up and then tried to go back to bed and just kept flopping around in the bed and she finally just got up to pray. It was in the middle of the night. And she didn’t feel very spiritual at that moment. She didn’t feel very inclined to pray, but she knew that’s what she needed to do. And so she began to pray. Yet her prayers felt very insufficient and like they’re cotton or feathers just kind of floating, meandering in the air, so to speak. And not doing a whole lot. But she continued to pray as she felt like her prayers were not doing a lot. And they didn’t seem like they were doing anything and that maybe they would or maybe they wouldn’t accomplish their purpose or reach their destination.
“Just stick with it—keep on praying…”
And then all of a sudden the Lord said to her, “Just stick with it. Keep on praying.” So she did and continued to pray and finished up her time of prayer, went back to bed. And when she did, she went into maybe some deep REM and had sleep and began to dream. And her dreams were about her prayers. And she saw that her prayers were kind of floating like cotton or feathers in the air. It didn’t seem like they were doing a whole lot. But as they rose, they reached a certain threshold. And when her prayers reached a certain threshold, then BOOM, all of a sudden, those prayers became like missiles and they shot to their destination and accomplished their purpose. As soon as they floated to the threshold, then once again, BOOM, they fulfilled their purpose. And she went on to say the Lord encouraged her by saying, “That’s why you just keep on praying because I’m doing something with every prayer that you’ve prayed.”
The Bible teaches us that in Hebrews 11 that without faith, we can’t please Him. But if we’ll be those who diligently seek Him, those who will continue to believe and continue to pray and continue to turn our attention toward Him each and every day, then we’re going to see the results. We’re going to see the fullness of what we prayed about. We’re seeing some signs in our nation that prayer has been effective from the body of Christ and from others. Praying for America and praying for the church and praying for our land. Things are turning.
We don’t live by what we see…
Things are churning in your situation. You may not see it. It may not feel like it. But aren’t you glad you don’t live by what you see? You live by what you believe. And you believe that if God has taught us and told us and admonished us to pray and not grow weary in doing that, then we’ll continue to do that until we see the fullness of His glory fill the earth, until you see the fullness of His glory fill your children’s lives and your spouse and your home and your city and your school and your workplace.
Be aware of His promptings…
God is rallying the church now to stir up, to take the initiative on our own. We don’t need God to show up in a puffy cloud or in a pillar of fire necessarily like He did long ago. We have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us. And if we sense an inclination of the spirit, then we must take hold of that. Not ignore that. Not say, “Not now. I’ve got to deal with this natural situation.” Even as we go throughout our day, be aware of the movements and the promptings of the Spirit and stir yourself up.
For example, that we would see signs and wonders and miracles in our own hometowns, in our own schools, in our own places of business and work, in our own churches. You know that God’s intent wasn’t to through Jesus, to go to the cross and give His life and go into the belly of the earth and take back the keys of death, hell, and the grave and rise again to be witnessed by 500 people and then assemblance again to the place of the right hand of the throne of God. He didn’t do all that so that we could just kind of coast, so that we can just get by and cope with what we’ve had for so long.
Coming to a flourishing finish…
No! He intends that we in this age and in this season of the church and in His plan would come to a flourishing finish. He intends that we would with His guidance and prompting, press down on the accelerator of what He wants to do in this hour and in this time.
He’s calling for our intentional release of faith…
He is coming back for a glorious church. He’s calling for our words and He’s calling for our intentional release of faith. Did He not say in Luke 18, that when He returns, “will He find faith in the earth?” And in the context of Luke 18, it implies faith being released through intentional prayers, intercessions, supplications, earnest entreaties, the making mention of something that crosses your heart as you drive down the road or you go about what you’re doing on any given day.
There is an interaction of the eternal realm with the natural realm. And it’s occurring more and more. And it’s for the purpose to get our attention and to rally the church once again, that we wouldn’t say, “Oh, isn’t that cool? I remember when God did this.” No! It’s so that we could respond, so that we could obey, so that we could cooperate by praying prayers, by making decrees.
Be aware of what is in your heart…
And so I just encourage you in that this morning. As you go about today, be very aware of what is going on in your heart. Be very aware of what He’s saying, how He’s encouraging you. What shows up on the radar screen of your heart? Because just maybe it’s something He wants you to lift up. Just maybe it’s something He wants you to decree over so that He could have His way in that situation or that particular one’s life. You have far more authority and far more grace that’s been bestowed on you to have an influence in the spiritual realm than you realize.
It’s easy to get lulled into the natural activities of life…
And perhaps I highlight these things so often because it’s so easy to get lulled into the natural activities of life, not recognizing that there are spiritual opportunities to exercise authority, to shift the trajectory of situations and lives and even nations that occur right in the midst of the mundaneness of a given day…
Just by yielding our voice to Him.
Just by speaking the Word over a situation.
Just by taking a strong stance on the Word and saying,
“Lord, I will not bend or bow or back off what your promise is to me, what your promise is for my land, what your promise is for Israel, what your promise is for my health and my finances, my home and my family and my children’s children. We are to stand up in this hour as chosen ones, marked with favor, crowned with His very presence to make a difference.
Don’t let your heart be troubled…
Let me read something to you that Pastor Lynne wrote in her book, “Whispers from the Secret Place.” I don’t know about you. I am so encouraged this morning. Is everything perfect? No. Has everything been worked out? No. But aren’t you glad you’re on the victory side? Aren’t you glad the Word promises that you’ve already obtained the victory through Him? That despite adversities, despite disparities, despite tumults and challenges and uncertainties, that Jesus comforts us on any given day, in any given moment or situation, that we can not let our hearts be troubled. We can take hope and be glad because He’s overcome adversities and turmoil to give us the victory. But oh, we must stand! And we must remain put in our place in God. And take advantage of moment by moment, day after day, the strength that He’s streaming our way. We’re not strong in ourselves. Today you won’t be strong or find the victory in your wisdom or your natural abilities. You’ll find it in Him. So be cognizant of His great grace. Be cognizant and aware and take hold of His strength. The Bible says we’re strong in the Lord and the power of Him. The Bible says let the weak say “I am strong.” Hallelujah.
Rejoice that God is on the scene in our lives…
There is a spiritual supply. It’s available to you today. Draw on His spiritual supply, draw on His infinite reservoirs made fully available and accessible for you and for me. And maybe things don’t markedly change from our natural perspective, but in the midst of it not being perfect naturally, we can stand and we can rejoice and we can celebrate the fact that God is on the scene in our lives and that we will see the fullness of what He intends because we will not back off. Instead, we will remain strong. Hallelujah.
He’s assigned angels to your life…
So just be aware of Him today. Be aware of His presence. Be aware of the fact that He’s assigned angels to your case, to your life, who go with you each and every day. With every stride you take, there are angelic hosts that march and move and work with you. And another reason why I punctuate the importance of what you say when you speak forth the Word of God, you are deploying and giving an assignment to the angelic hosts that are there to facilitate the Word of God in your life and in your church and in your home and in your situations.
I’m not talking about something that we should just dabble in or when we have time like a hobby, I think I’ll do some knitting or I think I’ll go skiing. But I’m talking about a life. This is our life. And it’s important for us to engage daily with Him, work with Him, stride with Him. Make decisions with Him. Pray not in your strength or in your intellectual knowledge or based on what you’ve read online earlier today. But pray and do what you do each day out of your belly.
What’s in your belly?
Jesus said, “Out of your belly would flow rivers of living water.” What’s in your belly? Your spirit is in your belly. The supernatural, recreated in the image of God part of you is in your belly. Yes, use your head when you’re crossing the road and when you do simple math, or whatever. But even when you’re doing your studies. I learned long ago when I was in college the importance of praying in the spirit over my higher math problems, my college algebra or calculus. When my mind would seize up and I couldn’t see a way to solve the problem, I would take time, pause, sit back in my chair, and pray over that problem I needed to solve and come up with an answer for. And don’t you know that there just something about prayer that releases a river, that releases a “dynamicness” of the Spirit of God from His realm to your realm to help you in the here and now of what you’re doing.
Our walk with God is meant to be river and a supply…
I’m just telling you, Christianity, our walk with God is meant to meet us where we’re at in life. It’s meant to be a river and a supply in whatever you’re doing, to give you the ultimate inside help and information to be the ultimate game changer. I don’t know about you, but I’ve learned that when something has been delayed and I don’t see an answer or something remains the same that I know God wants to change, I let that sort of double dog dare me. I let that be a prompting that, “Okay. I’m going to dig in even more into the Word. I’m going to dig my heels into the promise of God and I will not be moved. I’m sorry, Mr. Devil. I’m onto you. I know you wage a war of attrition and you’re trying to get me to back off. You’re trying to lull the church into lukewarmness. You’re trying to get us to slowly acquiesce and loosen our grip on what God wants us to have.”
But no, when it hasn’t changed and when the situation hasn’t moved in the right direction yet, then all the more dig in. Rejoice. Celebrate. Proclaim all the more boldly what God has said and what God intends, because surely you will see it come to pass. Surely God will show up to do what you can’t do and will bring forth His glory in your life.
Excerpt from Pastor Lynne’s book entitled, “Whispers From the Secret Place”
So Pastor Lynne writes in her book, “Whispers From the Secret Place” in day 12 of her devotional entitled, “Praying Always Led by the Spirit.” And she quotes Ephesians 6:17 and 18, which says…
“And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance.” You could say “consistency.” “And supplication for all saints.”
She writes…
“My how important it is for us to follow the Holy Spirit when we pray. And how often we fail to do it. We do not mean to fail, of course, but when dark circumstances and dismal reports from the world around us clamor at our minds and tug at our emotions, it is easy to let those things rather than the Lord Himself direct our prayers. We do it without even realizing it. Yet what a costly mistake it is. Having made that mistake myself so many times, I am more eager than ever these days to avoid it. And I believe I can if I will only remember the simple admonition: Pray always in the Spirit.”
Did you catch that?
Pray always in the Spirit. That one precious phrase will help me keep my soul on track. It will remind me that my prayer life is far more powerful when I tune out the troubles around me and tune into the spirit within me when I take the time to get full of the Word, instead of being full of the world. When I shut my ears to the cries of the circumstances and open them [my ears, that is] to the still small voice of the Lord. Others may choose to devote their prayers to the obvious and urgent needs that blare at us from newspaper and television and the Internet. But we must never forget that God told us long ago not to let in those voices when we pray. He told me to be led by the Spirit. He’s the only one who really knows what’s going on in a given situation. No matter how factually accurate a news report may be about a condition in the nation or some other situation, nobody but the Spirit of God understands that situation fully. Only He knows exactly what must happen to change that situation.
Excerpt continues…
“Sometimes I wonder how productive our prayers would be if we took the time we spend talking about prayer, prayer projects, or reading newspaper articles or email reports and spend that time just singing, worshiping, and yielding to the spirit. I wonder what amazing answers to prayer we would see if we focused on hooking our hearts with our mouths to Him. Since John 16:13 says, He, the Holy Spirit, will guide you into all truth. How accurate our prayers would be. ‘Lord, help me always to remember that when I pray, graciously interrupt me when I start telling you how bad things are and what I think you should do about this or that. Remind me at those moments to ask for your perspective.”
