Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Announcement…
Well, just one quick announcement. We will have our normal schedule of prayer throughout this week. However, next week, we will not be hosting live prayer starting next Monday and the whole week actually. So we’re off next week, but we will be re-streaming some of the “best of” morning prayer on our YouTube channel. So you can still join us online next Monday through Friday, but we will be off from live prayer. I would encourage you to continue to meet with the Father on a daily basis, even on a moment-by-moment basis as you go throughout your week. And then we’ll resume the 6th of July after next week being off.
John 16:12…
I wanted to share something with y’all this morning from the Gospel of John and read a couple of quick things. In John 16:12 from the Amplified Classic Bible says, “I have still many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them or to take them upon you or to grasp them now.” So in other words, the Lord is saying that there are many things that the Father had yet to speak to His disciples, but He couldn’t at that time, and He took them away with Him unuttered.
But it says in verse 13…
“But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future].” In other words, He is the Spirit of the future.
Verse 14…
“He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you. 15 Everything that the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He [the Spirit] will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.”
The Holy Spirit is the genius of Jesus…
I just want to highlight the ministry of the Holy Spirit just for a moment here today. The Holy Spirit, I like to point out, is co-equal with God the Father and God the Son. And He is the one that Jesus saw fit to pray that the Father would send to the earth realm to ever be with us. And He is our source. He is the genius of Jesus, in fact. And everything Jesus said He couldn’t tell His disciples when He was here on the earth and took away with Him when He ascended back to the right hand of the throne of His Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to reveal to us, to disclose to us, to speak to us, to even show us things to come or that which is in the future. All things are in the Father.
We have “all things” if we’re in Him…
And Jesus said, “All things that the Father hath are mine. And I will disclose and reveal and transmit all those things, everything you and I need, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.”
And so you can say we have all things if we’re in Him. I mean “all things.” I don’t care if you’re speaking of an emotional need that needs to be met, a physical one, a financial one, a spiritual one. You possess all things in Him. The heart and the storehouse of God is chock-full, overflowing, in fact, with anointing and power and provision and wisdom and strategy and whatever is requisite for us in our lives down here, and in the life to come, for that matter. And they are transmitted, they are disclosed, they are delivered into our lives when we acknowledge the presence and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Are you available to the Lord…
This morning, I was listening to this person sharing a story about how God used them to deliver a prophetic word to a woman out in public somewhere on some random day that this person wasn’t expecting. And the Lord came to him and said, “Will you go over to that woman and share this word with her?” After he had done that, he was glad he did. He kind of resisted at first, but then consecrated himself and said, “Okay, Lord, I’ll do whatever you want me to do.” And the Lord gave him a simple prophetic word to deliver to this woman. He shared it with her, and she began to weep quietly and just simply said, “Thank you.”
So he had clearly hit the mark with the help of the Holy Spirit. And he asked the Lord, “Why did you want me to do that?” And the Lord said to him, “Because you’re the only one that was available within 50 feet that was willing to do what I was asking you to do.”
The Holy Spirit is the difference maker, the game changer…
And so I just want to draw your attention to the fact that in and of ourselves, we can do nothing. We’re limited, we’re frail, prone to giving into the carnality of our flesh at times. We live in a fallen world around us. And so Jesus sent the Holy Spirit knowing that, that the Holy Spirit would be the difference-maker and game-changer. That the Holy Spirit, if we would listen to Him, give Him precedence and preeminence in our daily walk and attention, that He would be the one that would cause us to rise and thrive and succeed in the plan of God.
Personal experience with the “genius of Jesus”—the Holy Spirit…
And I can’t help but overlook in my life, just thinking of a few examples in my life where I sought the Lord over a period of days and even weeks, when I was a young person, about my next steps for my future. And then one day, I just felt this peaceful something just drop into my heart. And in a moment of time, I had an awareness of where I was to go to school, where I was to live, and what I was to do next. And I recognized that even as a 17- or 18-year-old kid, that was the Spirit of God. That was the genius of Jesus. And He’s done that for me and I’m sure He’s done that for you, and will continue to do that for you.
God has a plan for today and each and every day. But the plan is in His heart, and the Holy Spirit comes to reveal and disclose the Father’s heart. So recognize the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your life today. Recognize that whether it’s a small challenge or a big decision, that the Holy Spirit is there to reveal the genius of the Father’s plan and the genius of His provision for you.
Acknowledge Him.
Recognize Him.
Look to Him.
It doesn’t have to be just verbally out loud, it could be within your heart. You’re saying, “Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do in this situation? What prayer are you granting that I need to utter in the Spirit or in my understanding? What do I need to set a watch over my mouth regarding?”
Choose wisely what you say…
Sometimes the Holy Spirit will challenge us or set a watch over our lips so that we don’t say what we feel like we should say. But we really shouldn’t say. How many of you know you shouldn’t say everything you think? As Pastor Jim reminded us this weekend, death and life is in the power of the tongue. Those who choose to speak words of life or words of death will eat the result or the fruit of those words. So choose wisely what you say today.
Let the Holy Spirit be your guide in what you say…
Let the Holy Spirit be your divine guide and mentor in what you say, especially over situations that are challenging, over problems that seem to not shift or change. You don’t have to be moved by something that hasn’t changed yet, even if it’s been there for years. That doesn’t mean that it’s impossible or God is through with that situation.
A delay is not a denial.
It’s just an opportunity to grow stronger in your faith. It’s an opportunity to lean in further into the genius of Jesus and trust Him that He has another step for you and me today, to lean into His strength and His staying power and continue to pray, a prayer of worship, a prayer of consecration, a prayer of faith, knowing that the Father is faithful. And He will see to it that you are perfect and entire wanting nothing if you’ll stand your ground and not go alone, but go with the presence and go with the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul corrected the Galatians…
The Apostle Paul to the Galatian church some 2,000 years ago brought a correction to them. He said, essentially, “Have you begun in the Spirit? Are you now trying to finish in your own self-effort or your own ability? God forbid. Who’s bewitched you? Who’s deceived you?” Essentially, he was saying, “Get back to prioritizing following the leadership of the Holy Spirit in your life.” He’s got a word for you today.
Are you open to it?
Are you willing to be receptive of it?
Are you willing to consecrate your will?
The Lord is speaking to His people His word for them…
Lord, whatever it is, I decrease that you might increase. Whatever that word is, Lord, prepare me, strengthen me, position me, help me to be receptive to hear what you’re saying to me today regarding your assignment in prayer perhaps, regarding your assignment as a parent, your assignment as a business owner, as a leader, as a minister. Whatever the case is, the Lord is speaking profound and relevant and timely words right now over His people.
Experience of Lester Sumrall…
I’m going to read something to you. This is just a short little story about a gentleman by the name of Lester Sumrall, who has gone on to be with the Lord a number of years ago, who’s a great man of faith and miracles. And God used him in mighty ways. But this is a story that he recorded in his autobiography.
It says…
“Many people sought out Smith Wigglesworth, to be healed or discover his spiritual secrets. One of these was the American Pentecostal minister, Lester Sumrall. In the late 1930s, Sumrall had the opportunity when he spent two years in England just before the outbreak of World War II to spend some time with Wigglesworth. Wigglesworth invited Sumrall to his home in Bradford, England. But the visit was not quite as Sumrall expected. He wrote, ‘I thought I had come to talk, but he read to me a half an hour from the Bible.’
Sumrall wrote in “Pioneers of Faith…”
“Then Wigglesworth told him that it was time to pray, which lasted another half hour.” So he read to him half hour of the Word and then prayed together for half an hour. “He laid hands on me and prayed. ‘God bless him. God bless him.’ My body was becoming weary. I was glad when he got through. But then Wigglesworth read to Sumrall for a half hour more following this with another 30 minutes of prayer.
“Finally, Sumrall recalled, Wigglesworth got up from his knees and began to tell beautiful stories of how God had healed this one and this disease and that condition. I sat there weeping, absolutely overwhelmed. Sumrall returned to the old warrior’s home in Bradford about every 10 days for the next two years he remained in England.”
He said…
“I received life in that house. He wrote some 60 years later, ‘My faith began to mount up strong in the presence of this man. We became good friends.’ Sumrall, who had interacted with many Christian leaders by that time, described Wigglesworth as, ‘An extremely remarkable man, totally sold out to God.’” I love that. That caught my attention. “Totally sold out to God.”
You might say, “Well, what does that look like, Ken? What is being totally sold out to God? Does that mean praying every hour for half an hour or something? Does that mean attending church without fail every single week? What does that mean?”
What does being totally sold out to God look like?
Well, I think it means being totally sold out to God, being open and in relationship with the Holy Spirit, aware of Him, acknowledging Him on a daily, even moment-by-moment basis, and just being available to Him within 50 feet of any situation so that God could use us if He chooses to. That’s all it means, I think, being sold out to God.
Wigglesworth expression for the Spirit-led walk…
Wigglesworth had his own expression for the Spirit-led walk. He called it, “To be immersed in the life of God.” Well, the Holy Spirit comes to give us life. The Word as well, but also the Holy Spirit.
God the Holy Spirit is our all in all…
So I just want to encourage you today that regardless of whether or not anything has changed in your situation or what you’re praying about, look to Him. He holds the answers. He is our all in all. The Holy Spirit brings the all-in-allness of Jesus. He brings the fullness of Jesus. I’ll add to that, He brings the “moreness” of Jesus, the above and beyond what we can ask or think of Jesus. He brings it forward into our lives, into our hearts, and into our thinking, and into our everyday lives when we acknowledge Him, when we recognize Him, when we give Him the right of way.
Give the Holy Spirit the “right of way…”
Just like you yield to traffic where you need to yield to traffic. Some people don’t. But you’re supposed to yield in certain places it says, “Yield. Give the right of way to the traffic.” Well, we’re to give on a daily basis the right of way to the Holy Spirit. We’re to give Him the right of way. We’re to yield to Him. We’re to open our hearts to Him. God is not asking us to do a heavy lift on a given day. I mean, sometimes things feel like a heavy lift, but by and large, our heavy lift is to labor therefore to enter into the rest of God. Our heavy lift is to learn to yield to the leadership and the presence of the Holy Spirit, to just be aware of Him, to be cognizant of Him, to be open-hearted toward Him as we go through our day. And then there’ll be moments where He’ll say, “This is what I want you to do. This is the direction I want you to go.” And then it’ll turn out the right way.
