Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Brother John…
Thank you for joining us online and for the people here, the mighty warriors of God. Regardless if you feel you’re a mighty warrior, you still are.
Prayer…
Father, we thank you today that you are God and that you’ve made a covenant in promises for those who believe. And so, Lord, we purposefully set aside some time just to hear from you.
Even though I’m going to be talking and praying about some things, this is the time for each one of us to stop our minds and listen to the Holy Spirit. It’s amazing how much the Holy Spirit can teach us when somebody might be talking about something or even giving a message about something, or sometimes you’re just watching a show or movie, hearing a story that has nothing to do with godly things. But if we’re purposing our hearts to hear the Spirit, He will tell us things in the midst of those. And those are precious things that we can stop and pay attention to what He is saying, because it’s pretty obvious there’s so many things in this world right now that are wanting to distract us from not just our daily lives but so much to distract from what you’re trying to tell us. You’ve given us so much in your Word that we can meditate on and to remind ourselves and to use to encourage ourselves and to encourage others to be able to speak into situations that do not align with your plans and your purposes for each of us individually, for our families, our communities, whatever it may be. There’s so much value in here that sometimes it can be almost overwhelming and not knowing where to go. And so I thank you, Holy Spirit, for what an amazing role that you have in speaking to us in the midst of everything else that’s going on.
So today when I was wanting to have something at least we could start with to get our minds engaged in. Maybe what’s God said in His Word so that the Holy Spirit can minister to you… whatever it is that you’re thinking about or facing. And maybe you’re not facing anything. Maybe everything is going really well. And that’s okay, that’s awesome. But that doesn’t mean that there’s not more.
So Father, I thank you that as you speak to me and everyone listening here, watching online that God knows no time, something that, obviously, was said and written down hundreds and thousands of years ago, still has that power to transform the way we think, the way we view things, how we view our life, how we view the world, our experience, and most importantly, I believe, is how we see you and how you see us.
Father, you didn’t go through all of this, what you went through and given us all these examples and all this encouragement and all of this just so we can have some information that doesn’t change our lives. We are a part of this just as much as you are.
I was listening to something today…
on the way in and the speaker was talking about how and I believe a part of this is religion, but I’m going to start with this… He was saying how a lot of times we can get in the mindset of thinking, while you know it’s a hundred percent God and none of me. And that can sound really good. It might sound christiany or holy, however you want to say that. But we have a part in this as well, meaning God didn’t make us a robot for a reason. But He also said, “I’m going to make a covenant.” Now He made the covenant with Abraham back then. And back then a covenant was in general “everything I have, I give to you and everything that you have, you give to Me.” So it really is a coming together.
Now I also know…
…that we really got the better end of the deal in that one. And I know it’s not… God’s not surprised and was willing to do that because of His love for us. You don’t think that if you were to step back and looked at it maybe objectively that God’s thinking, “Wow, I really gave a whole lot.” However, He also knew all the things that we were going to be facing and in that He gave us His Word as well as His Spirit to be able to really see it can be… it can feel sometimes just as difficult to go through the things that we’re going through, the things that we’re thinking about. That is such a battle in itself. So in one sense, yes, He gave us all this stuff, but He gave us… And all these promises and everything. He gave them also that we could be equipped, so that He can really bring out who we truly are. It wasn’t just, “this is a nice gesture.” Or “I’m going to someone’s house for dinner, so I’ll bring in some flowers.” There’s so much more that He has for us. And I don’t think we completely realize it and understand it. And the thing is, I think that’s okay. As frustrating as it is, is we always want to know “what’s the answer” or what to do. It doesn’t always come necessarily in the way that we are hoping or the expediency of that.
I think everyone’s experienced that. But that doesn’t mean that His Word is only for certain occasions. Or if you’re feeling really spiritual, these really help you. Or if you’re completely in the dumps, this can help you. It’s for all time, for everyone, everywhere.
And I was watching, Flashpoint on Victory Channel…
And they’ve been to this church and they have events throughout the year in different areas. And they’re on air three times a week now. And a lot of what they do is they talk about the news and what’s going on and maybe kind of analyzing things that are going on in the culture, in the government, society, all these different areas. And they usually have someone and who spends a lot of time understanding just the things that are going on. But there’s also some people that come on there occasionally who don’t necessarily follow all of that stuff very deeply. They might understand some generic headlines, but they’re wanting to know, “God, what are you saying?”
And one of the things…
…they were talking about that really stuck with me is that despite everything that’s going on right now and how it looks like we’re just in the middle of a “what in the world just happened,” like we just, all of a sudden this massive evil bomb just exploded over our nation and over the world over the last couple years. It’s been going on since the beginning of time. However, it can be so easy to look at all these things that we’re seeing. And, of course, we can either be in the “you go God” and “what in the world, where are you?”
I guess you could say that of almost anything that you’re facing of wanting to know “what is going on.” And then there’s times where you’re standing strong on the Word. But one of the things the panelists were talking about is to encourage us. And he was even saying, “I’m really excited that we are living in this time. We are not living in this time as a mistake.” He said, “There is such a battle. But what is God doing?”
We see that in the Bible…
…time and time again where it looks as if the enemy is basically going to just take us out and there’s no recourse. We just have to sit back and take it. But all you have to do is read, I don’t know, a few psalms to realize that despite of what David was going through, he would always… and I can’t name them off the top of my head, but I know there’s been Psalms where he’ll go on for several minutes lamenting about how bad things are and these people want to take me out and they want to kill me. And then kind of using your imagination, you know, because we’re just reading words. I’d love to know how was he actually saying these things? I’m imagining a lot of times, he had anguish and despair and fear flooding him… to just give up and lay down. And at the very end he’d, in my words, he’d be like, “I’m going to squeak out a little, but you are God and I will not be shaken.”
Excerpt from Andrew Wommack’s book, “Seven Steps to Victory…”
And so all those different things in considering those, wow… So I got this book, “Seven Steps to Victory” from Andrew Womack’s Ministry. And he has a whole bunch of teachings on this where he talks about the Seven Steps to Victory and the Lord showed him in Deuteronomy 2:24. And I believe this was in the King James version.
He’s talking about a battle that’s recorded in Numbers, but then Moses repeats the Lord’s instructions. He also reveals how we can be victorious too.
He says, “Rise up, take your journey and pass over the river. Behold, I have given into your hand. Scion, the Amorite king of Heshbon and his land, begin to possess it and contend with him in battle.” So that’s the scripture he was going off. And then he breaks that down into seven different areas that God showed him.
And the last couple days…
I was kind of looking at each of these phrases he reads and talks about them. And the last one, the seventh step is “contend in battle.” So he says here, “The English word contend means to struggle, to surmount, engage in a competition or campaign in order to win or achieve something. Contend means go to war. We have to take the battle to the enemy. We have to take all of the principles put forth in these instructions and use them to engage whatever is standing between us and victory.
James 2:20 says…
“Faith without works is dead.” All of the things we’ve discussed don’t mean a thing if we don’t put them into practice. And notice that this is done in order to win or achieve something. War is a terrible thing, but there are things that are worse than war, such as not fighting to win. If we are going to enter into a fight, we must fight to win. Failure should not be an option. Second place is first loser. The United States is engaged in wars without winning.”
And then he talks about he was in Vietnam, and he said, “We would fight to take a position and lose American and Vietnamese lives.” Then leave the next day and turn that position back over to the enemy. We weren’t in the war to win, and eventually South Vietnam failed to North Vietnam, making people feel like the sacrifices we made were not worth the cost.”
He also mentions the Korean War. And he said, “The object wasn’t to win, but just to keep things from getting worse.” Just in thinking about that, I know there were a lot of people especially believers for sure. Because that’s hopefully who we’re talking to no one would say, “Well we’re fighting for victory and we’re fighting for victory and that’s good.” But I think sometimes because of either our unbelief or we’re struggling with something, we sometimes succumb to, “Well I just don’t want to let this situation get any worse.”
But you can’t win if you’re just trying to not lose. And then he says here, “The Lord said through James, in James 4:7, submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. The word resist in that verse means to actively fight against. It is not a passive word. There are a number of times in my life where I’ve prayed for a breakthrough, but without giving it all I’ve got. I wasn’t totally submitted to my problem, but I wasn’t totally resisting it either. I was lukewarm.”
Then a little bit later in this chapter…
He says, “For us to contend, we have to get aggressive. Jesus said in Matthew 11:12, ‘and from the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.’ We are in a spiritual war.” And I think we all know that. “This isn’t something that is going to happen. Every one of us is in a spiritual battle right now. If you are in God’s kingdom, you have a huge target on your back. And by the way, there isn’t any armor for your back.” Think about that. And he references Ephesians 6:12 and he lists all the weapons of our warfare, they’re not carnal, they’re not manly things, but it’s in the heavenly realm.
And then he says…
“You must face the devil and go on the offensive and contend.” That’s how we contend. “We don’t have the luxury of sitting this one out. Those who think they can avoid conflict are just signing their own surrender to the enemy. There is no exemption from this battle. Like it or not, Satan is going about seeking whom he may devour and passiveness on our part makes us easy prey.”
I’m reminded of what I was thinking about five minutes ago when… people like to talk about, “Well, the enemy is defeated… he’s under our feet.” And I would say, “That’s true, but if you really stop and think about that, the battle is not over in the here and now in the sense of we don’t have anything to fight against. Yes, he’s defeated in the sense of his final big master plan is not going to happen. It’s almost believing that all these people shouting that they want to destroy Israel. Well that is never going to happen as hard as you try. It will never happen. It’s impossible. You can dream about it, but it’s never going to happen because God said ‘those are my chosen people. That’s my nation.’ He’s not going to just let them go.
So meaning…
We have the victory and we’re fighting from that. But that doesn’t mean that the battle is… we know at the end of the war, we are going to win. But we’re still in a battle. Absolutely. We stand our ground. And that’s not easy. And as I’m kind of just talking about this, I know Holy Spirit’s bringing things to your mind about either situations that you had gotten through or you’re in the middle of, or maybe you’re even regretting has to come, whatever that might be, or things might look looming and determining. But we can say “yes, the battle’s over,” but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to fight.
I mean, the nation of Israel had that very thing happen to them. And it’s in the Bible when God said, I’ve given you this land. But He knew that they had been slaves for 400 some years. They were in no position to physically fight anybody. Now He gave them strength to get through what they needed to. It talks about how their clothes never wore out. He fed them. He gave them all those things, but if He would’ve taken them straight in, they probably would’ve just been destroyed. But He said He gave this land here to their Forefathers, but they still had to go in and fight. Just because we have the victory at the end of all this age doesn’t mean there’s not going to be a battle. So let’s not let ourselves get lulled into complacency of “there’s nothing to face.” I mean, it’s pretty obvious we have something to probably face every single solitary day.
