Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Good morning! Good to see y’all. Welcome to morning prayer. If you didn’t know already, my name is Ken Olson. I’m one of the pastors here at Living Word. And I look forward to praying with you.
I have a number of things stirring in my heart regarding prayer here today, including our soon-to-be-held election here in the United States.
Sadly, millions of practicing Christians do not vote…
One of the things Chad Connolly shared that was just striking to me, I don’t remember the exact numbers, but he talked about how in a recent survey out of millions of evangelical “practicing Christians,” still a good percentage of them… I think it was like 30, 40 plus percent of them still said in a recent poll that they probably won’t vote. This is like millions of Christians. So that’s definitely something we should keep the accelerator pressed down on when it comes to prayer is that Christians would get out and vote.
It’s not enough just to pray—we must vote…
It’s not enough for us to just pray. We should pray. Our first response should be prayer, but also be activated by God the Holy Spirit to exercise your given right to vote. And to make a difference practically wherever God has assigned you and with whatever gifts that He has… even if it’s just your family.
To encourage them to vote.
To encourage them to pray.
To encourage them to not just sit idly by regarding our nation, but to make a difference.
To show up on God’s radar screen in this hour.
We’re not just be a spiritual wall flower, but instead let’s be a people who step into the situation at hand and intercede and let God use us even in practical ways.
We must resist distractions and take our seat of authority…
There was something I saw from a pastor who, I think, was from Eagle Mountain Church. He said, “We must take our seat of authority and resist distractions. Now is the time to rise above the distractions and step boldly into our authority we have in Christ. When we stand firm in faith and refuse to be swayed, God works through us to accomplish His will on the earth.”
It reminds me of a passage in Luke 10:19. I’ll start in verse17. “Then the 70 returned…” The 70 that Jesus sent out to do ministry in His name. “They returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.” Verse 18 says, “And He said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” This was Jesus’ eyewitness account. He Himself saw Lucifer cast out of heaven, out of his original state and into the earth. God tossed him out on his butt. Jesus wanted to make it very clear to us that He has no place of authority any longer in God’s kingdom. And so he was tossed into the earth realm.
Authority to trample on serpents…
“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” And then His next words are, “Behold I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions.” I always read that and I thought there ought to be a whole lot of crunching going on concerning the believer’s life. You should be making some crunching noises today as you go about your day. You don’t have to just sit and take it. Even if it’s a small thing, like a touch of depression or discouragement or offense or temptation. No. Those are signals, or cues, to us that it’s time to march. It’s time to trample on the enemy. It’s time to exercise, or deploy, our authority. Even if all you can do is to utter the name, Jesus—the name above every name.
Demons look for a means of expression…
It’s interesting to me that whether it be in scripture or down to this very day, demonic entities seek a body. Even when Jesus was going to cast some demonic entities out of an individual, they bargained with Jesus saying, “Hey, why don’t you cast us into that pig over there,” or that animal over there. They were looking for a body. And the truth be told, they are looking for means of expression because disembodied spirits can express themselves in the earth realm. I’m sure in ways that can harass and apply pressure from a spiritual dimension. But they want expression. They want a voice.
The privilege to be able to speak after the order of God…
Well, guess what? You don’t have to bargain with anybody. You have a voice. You have a belly button, which means you are a legitimate human, born into the earth realm. From the line of original humans, meaning that you have the right to salvation or the privilege to receive salvation. And upon receiving salvation, you have been gifted with certain privileges and positions and rights in Christ. And one of those is the privilege to be able to…
Speak after the order of God.
Speak and create.
Speak and deploy authority.
Speak and set in motion kingdom principles.
And nothing shall by any means hurt you…
But Jesus goes on to say, “Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power…” Somebody say “all.” Last time I checked, that still means all. All means all. “All the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
You’re on a divine assignment…
Ha ha! What a good word, right? So I just stir that up in you today as you begin a brand new week, regardless of what’s going on in your life, how great it looks, or how challenging it looks. You’ve been sent here on a divine assignment. We’ve been sent here, according to Jesus anyway, to occupy. It’s really clear in the Word that Jesus obtained some things. He defeated, He gave the enemy an eternal beat down. We don’t have to defeat the enemy. He’s already been defeated. We are already more than conquerors through Him who loved us. He is the one who always and ever lives to cause us to triumph. He has granted to us the privilege of being kings and priests.
David Barton quote…
I think it was David Barton who said “That means that we can operate as priests from a spiritual dimension and a spiritual realm through prayer, through the exercise of our authority, through representatives of heaven upon the earth in our generation.” But we can also operate as kings or leaders wherever God has assigned us as a leader—the leader of our household, a leader in our church in some way, a small group, a leader in the civic arena, locally, statewide, nationally, perhaps.
We had a number of candidates that were here last night, including the gentleman that’s running for US Senate here in the state of Minnesota. They’re operating as kings. God has anointed us to function from a spiritual leadership standpoint and also a civic or a national or state standpoint as leaders. That was His intent. That was His original design, not just to occupy some space in a prayer room at the back of the church somewhere.
You’ve been given authority to trample…
And so I want to challenge you this morning with that reminder that you’ve been given authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And we’re going to deploy some of that power today. The Bible says in Ephesians…
Don’t give the enemy a place.
Don’t give him a foothold.
Don’t give him entrance.
Run him out of your life.
Run him out of situation.
Run him out of your home.
Stand your ground.
Not on our watch, Mr. Devil…
That’s what we do when we come to morning prayer. We’re standing our ground. We are occupying. We’re saying “Not on our watch, Mr. Devil. No, not on our watch.” Any inspired, diabolical strategy from beneath that’s come upon our shores or is tempting our children or seeking to attack our nation or our city in some way… No. We’re going to stand and we’re going to show up on God’s radar screen once again and be counted in the kingdom of God in this time. Amen.
God will have His way…
Because make no mistake about it, things are turning. Make no mistake about it. God will have His way in our generation. He is having His way. It’s unfolding as we speak, and He’s continuing to partner with us as we pray to bring forth revival, to open the eyeballs, spiritually speaking, of people in various facets of our society, from entertainment to the political arena, from athletics to the business realm. People are becoming aware of God. Although there will be those that will reject Him and those who have no interest. But there are many who we would not think would be open to God, who are opening up to God even now and referencing Him and being drawn to Him. Because God is at work in our nation.
Let’s continue to pray. Let’s continue to use our body and our voice because there’s real authority and real directives, and real assignment, and real power and real anointing that is released when we pray.
Prayed…
And so, Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for the privilege to come before you. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you’re always here to meet us.
Quotes about prayer…
Let me leave you with a couple quotes on prayer from authors that I’ve read after. I thought these were inspirational.
Arthur W. Pink once said, “Prayer is not so much an act as it is an attitude… an attitude of dependency, dependency upon God.”
Brother Lawrence once said, “There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and more delightful than that of a continual conversation with God.”
Oswald Chambers once said, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work.”
Leonard Ravenhill once said, “A sinning man stops praying. A praying man stops sinning.”
Raven Hill also said, “If weak in prayer, we are weak in everything.”
Ian Bounds once said, “The story of every great Christian achievement is the history of answered prayer.”