Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Sister Jeannie…
Welcome to morning prayer.
Because of His mercy, we are not consumed…
Father, I thank you that all of your words bring life. Lamentations 3:22–23 says, “It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving kindness that we are not consumed. Because His tender compassions fail not. They’re new every morning; great and abundant is your stability and faithfulness.”
Father, we speak your words over today… over every believer… over every soon-to-be believer… over our city… our relationships… our state… our province… our village… our country… our world… our governments, and we declare “It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving kindness that you are not consumed. It’s because of His character. It’s because of His goodness, His brilliance that you are not consumed.”
But He doesn’t leave it there because that could infer survival. But that’s not what He’s saying. He’s saying His tender compassions fail not. So even as we lean into His compassion, there is no failure in His compassions. He ministers time redeemed to you. He ministers renewal to you out of His compassion and His mercy and His goodness.
Father, I thank you for ministering angels, ministering your compassion that fails not… it fails not! Your plan is moving forward rapidly, forcefully. Your blessings are forceful and unrelenting. Your compassion doesn’t even know failure.
His compassion covers every failure…
There’s not even recognition of failure. His compassion covers every failure and they’re new every morning. Brand new! Yes, I know we love thrift stores, but there’s nothing like new. Compassions that do not fail, that are brand new every morning… at the beginning of your day. Great and abundant is your stability and faithfulness.
He could have stopped at “great is My stability and faithfulness.” He could have stopped at “abundant is My stability and faithfulness.” But no! It’s not only abundant, it’s great! It’s not only great, it’s abundant! Abundant greatness and stability… abundant greatness and faithfulness. That is who our God is. And that is the God in you. And if you don’t have that God in you, start now.
“Jesus, be my Lord, be my Savior. Let’s go…” Holy Spirit, we thank you and honor you today. And we say, “let’s go.” Let yourself go, Holy Ghost! Let yourself go!
Looking to the whale to see God’s character…
Well, what Holy Spirit gave me to share today makes me giggle. This was a new one. And I am waiting to bring it up. Father, you open us up to hear what it is you would have us hear today. So even now, as I talk about what it is you’ve been talking to me about, people hear what you would have them here today.
I’m going to give you the outline and then we’re going to dig in. A few days ago, I started looking into whales, the mammal. And I started studying about their characteristics, out of curiosity. Curiosity is a good thing, by the way. And here are the things I found out about whales.
“What is she talking about?”
Stay with me. Whales show high levels of emotional and social intelligence. They have very large brains. Whales have always been typically a friendly species.
I thought this one was wild. This comes from a website of scientists. In the course of 62 years, there have been 115 cases recorded of humpback whales defending other species against killer whale attacks. It has been argued that humpbacks do this out of compassion and empathy for other creatures.
So as I’m reading this, I’m thinking, “Wow, isn’t that amazing that the largest mammal on the earth today is one of intelligence, compassion, and empathy?” And I thought because if you’re like the giant in the world, you could just be mean. No problem. “I’m just going to be mean.” But God didn’t design them that way. Compassion, empathy, high intelligence… There are even some studies that show they’ve been known to pick up on and have emotions.
God had a whale swallow Jonah…
So as I’m reading about this, I was even just kind of lying in bed reading, scrolling. And then Holy Spirit says, “Isn’t it interesting that God had a whale swallow Jonah?” Here we go… back to Lamentations. His tender compassions fail not, so even when a man who is demanding destruction on a people and refused to speak the Word of God to a people, He had a giant of compassion, intelligence, and empathy swallow him up until he got a revelation.
Think about that!
If you’re mad about something and you’re feeling confined… or let’s just say you’re just not willing to obey God in a certain area and you’re feeling confined, what if it’s His compassion that is confining you until you’re ready to obey? And what if while you’re being confined with His great compassion because He doesn’t want you to fail? That confinement of His compassion is ministering His character to you so that when you do obey, you obey out of intimacy and out of the revelation of the goodness of God. And what if it’s been designed that way from the beginning… even in a whale?
So on the way over here, my husband, Mike, loves to mess with me. This is how we flirt. We mess with each other. He goes, “Why are you sure it was a whale?” Yeah, yeah, I am. I’m sure it was a whale. Do you know how I’m sure it was a whale? Because they’re known to have compassion, and it says it was a big fish. It’s the biggest fish.
Okay, so let’s talk about Jonah. Let’s start with chapter two. So firstly, God tells Jonah, I want you to go to these people. And this is absolutely within the light of the eclipse, Ninevah, Ninevah, Ninevah, rapture. I mean, it’s all within the light of this whole thing, all within the light of repentance. He’s talking to the church regarding repentance.
Have you ever felt like Jonah did when God asked you to do something…
How often has God asked you to be obedient and it’s just too inconvenient for you? It’s just too uncomfortable for you. It makes no sense to you. And then you feel confined and you’re thinking, “God, why is my relationship so dry with you today? I just can’t seem to experience your goodness.” Well, we can have hope when we think about Jonah.
So here’s Jonah. God says, “Okay, I want you to go and do this.” And he says, “No, because I know your character. I already know if I go and give them a warning, they’re going to heed the warning and I’m not going to get what I want. Your goodness is going to prevail.” So he runs the other way. But see God in His compassion and His unwillingness to give up on the assignment that He gave Jonah… even though Jonah was going to give up on the assignment, God wouldn’t.
Even though you might want to give up on an assignment, God’s not going to change His mind. So He causes a whale to swallow him. And it says here, “Then Jonah from the inside of the whale prayed to his God, from the fish’s belly and said, I cried out of my distress to the Lord.” Now isn’t that funny? But even when you’re crying out of your distress to God because you’re in disobedience, He still hears you. He does not break off relationship with you because you’re not obeying Him at the moment. “I cried out to my distress to the Lord and He heard me. Out of the belly of Sheol cried I, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas and the floods and surrounded me. All your waves and your billows passed over me.”
Okay? That was Jonah’s experience at the time. But think about that. He was in the belly of an animal who was already wired for compassion.
“Then I said, I have been cast out of your presence and your sight. Yet I will look again toward you, your holy temple.” Jonah is being quite dramatic, and I can relate to that. And don’t even act like you can’t either. Just don’t. God does not mind drama. Look at David! Just stay in the conversation with Him. “The waters encompassed me about even to the extinction of life.” He felt like he was going to die. This whole thing is so hilarious to me. Here’s Jonah giving an assignment, won’t do it. And he just can’t figure out why is this happening to me. Yet he’s in the belly of a whale wired for compassion and empathy.
“The abyss surrounded me. The seaweed was wrapped around my head.” Isn’t that funny? Around his head? Because he was in his head, just didn’t make sense to him. Why is this happening? I forgot that God told me to do something, and I ran the other way and maybe… maybe He’s been (?) compassion to me.
“I went down to the bottoms in the very roots of the mountains.” The topography of the ocean is like mountains and you know whales dive deep. So you have to wonder, he may have been experiencing that. “…very roots of the mountains, the earth with its bars closed behind me forever. Yet you have brought up my life from the pit and corruption. Oh Lord, my God.”
So do you see, Jonah now, just staying in the conversation with God even though he is totally… I mean, are you kidding me? He’s so wrong. He is so wrong. But he is staying in the conversation and now he’s starting to kind of come around and see, “Oh, wait a second. You brought me out of this.” Because he is in the confinement of compassion. Compassion that never fails.
Jonah remembered the Lord…
“When my soul fainted upon me crushing me, I earnestly and seriously remembered the Lord.” Confined in compassion and Holy Spirit ministers these things to him. “When my soul fainted upon me, crushing me, I earnestly and seriously remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you into your holy temple. Those who pay regard…” I love how Jonah now… okay, so here’s Jonah. Didn’t obey God, ran the other way. God said “Nope!” Time to be in compassion jail. Puts him in compassion jail. He keeps the conversation going. He’s pretty dramatic at the beginning. Then he starts to notice God’s goodness, and then he’s sure to point out those sinners. I love this. “Those who pay regard to false, useless, and worthless idols, forsake their own source of mercy and loving kindness.” Yet in God’s compassion, there’s massive revelation in that. We only receive mercy and loving kindness from God, even when you feel like you’re in the waiting room and they’re never going to call your name.
“But as for me, I will sacrifice to you.” You know he could have only done this with God’s compassion that doesn’t fail, because we know Jonah’s character. It’s massively flawed. But out of the compassion and empathy of God within confinement, God brings him to a place to acknowledge his character again. “But as for me, I will sacrifice to you. With the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation and deliverance belong to the Lord.” And the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.”
God’s like, “Well, I guess we’re back on track again. Let’s go.”
Good news! Good news. That assignment that God has for you, He’s not going to change His mind. And you might be afraid. You may have disobeyed, and you might be afraid because you know you disobeyed. But guess what? That big confinement jail you are in is a place of compassion and ministry. If you just stick with God and He brings you to the place of, “I see your goodness, I’m proclaiming your goodness. It only comes from you. Deliverance only comes from you.”
“Yes, but God, the courts. But God, the riots!” Nope! Father, deliverance comes from you. “But, God, you said America shall be saved.” “But, God, you said massive revival would come out of this area, where 35W and the Mississippi intersect.”
Stay in conversation with Him. Stay in the Word. And pretty soon the drama is no longer dramatic. And then God says, “Okay, you and I are partnering again. Let’s go! I’m putting you on dry land, ready to run.”
Prayed…
So, Father, we speak over every assignment that has been dropped, every assignment that you are ministering to people right now. There are assignments that you dropped, that you decided were too big, too inconvenient, too scary, can’t be from God. And in the midst of your compassion, you minister right now to us. That is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving kindness that you are not consumed.
Did you see that in Jonah? He was not consumed by the confinement. He was not consumed by the pressure. America, God’s plan will not be consumed by the pressure because His tender compassions fail not.
